"What's wrong? Are you going back on your word?"
Seeing the other side speak again, the Kumogakure ninja reacted as if facing a great enemy.
After all, the other party were bandits—going back on their word was perfectly normal.
But what Nohara Rin said next directly shattered their worldview.
"Of course not. I'm a bandit with principles."
"I'm just asking whether you want your wounds treated. Special discount price."
"Don't worry, my medical ninjutsu is also very outstanding."
Watching the green glow slowly rise from Nohara Rin's hand, they froze one after another on the spot.
What the hell was going on? Beat people up and then charge them for treatment too? Wasn't this going too far?
Did they even still have money?! Was there any left?! It had all been robbed already, okay?!
Very quickly, Nohara Rin thought of this as well and suddenly burst out laughing.
"Sorry, I forgot—you've already been robbed of all your money."
"Alright, scram."
Giving up the thought of making another profit, Nohara Rin watched them leave. But when she saw the direction they were heading, she spoke again.
"You're going the wrong way."
"What?"
"I said you're going the wrong way. You don't need to go back to the village—go wherever you want. Just don't go back to Kumogakure."
The Kumogakure ninja froze in place.
They never imagined that being robbed wasn't enough—now they weren't even allowed to go home?
Looking at Nohara Rin's smiling face, each of them felt a bone-deep chill. She genuinely had no intention of letting them return.
Forced to submit under Nohara Rin's overwhelming pressure, they could only run toward the outside of the village.
...
"Good grief, Chizan, this disciple of yours is even more ruthless than you."
"Beating people, robbing them, charging for treatment—and now she won't even let them return to their village."
Chōmei watched the entire process and couldn't help but sigh.
Not just him—even Gekko Chizan was somewhat surprised at this moment. Nohara Rin's series of actions were executed perfectly.
Truly perfectly—blocking the Kumogakure ninja, robbing them, and driving them away in one smooth sequence.
"Not bad. Next, Kumogakure is probably going to suffer for quite a while."
With Nohara Rin handling things so thoroughly, the other directions needed no mention.
Kakashi and Obito used sheer violence, directly knocking out all six opponents, tying them up, and throwing them out of their stationed area.
As for Shisui, he did even better—Sharingan Genjutsu left no gaps.
The six people didn't even know what had happened before Shisui wiped them out in one sweep.
Under the control of Genjutsu, those six also walked outward.
...
The most miserable ones were the ninja who went to the seaside.
At this moment, they were resting in a coastal village, gathering information from the villagers.
"What? A gigantic sea snake?"
"How could something like that exist? Are you sure you didn't see wrong?"
The villagers, who hadn't gone out to sea for several days, nodded repeatedly.
"It's real. I personally saw the gigantic sea snake emerge from the sea and swallow a huge fish."
"In the past few days, several fishing boats have already been attacked."
"No one dares to go out to sea anymore."
After gathering the intel, the six arrived at the shore. Looking at the calm sea surface, they fell into deep thought.
All six ninja wore grave expressions. This situation was extremely important to them.
If there really were sea snakes of that size along the coast, they simply couldn't handle it with their strength.
"Boom!"
At that moment, the sea surface suddenly rippled. A massive snake head burst out of the water, staring fixedly at the shore.
"A sea snake! It spotted us!"
"No—it's coming over!"
Before the six ninja could react, the sea snake dove back into the sea, then surged toward the shore amid raging waves.
Obviously, the sea snake intended to kill them.
"Damn it! Form up and take it down!"
"Are you sure?"
"What else can we do?! With a sea snake that big, fishing can't continue unless we kill it!"
These two squads were fairly strong—all were chūnin, and all six could use Lightning Release ninjutsu.
"Roar!"
As the sea snake appeared on the shore, the six launched their attacks in succession.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Ball!"
"Lightning Release: Lightning Strike!"
The Lightning Ball and Lightning Strike landed squarely on the sea snake's head.
Golden lightning exploded across its head.
"Roar!"
In pain, the sea snake went berserk, its enormous body rampaging along the shore.
At this point, the six attacks no longer had any effect on it. In its frenzied state, its sense of pain had completely vanished.
When the coast finally returned to calm, only two members of the six-man squad remained.
As for the giant sea snake, it had disappeared, retreating back into the sea.
The remaining two were covered in wounds. By the time they returned to the village, both were on the brink of death.
The medical team immediately began treating them—after all, they were the only squad to return.
Fourth Raikage and Dodai personally went to see them.
"What happened? Two entire squads and only you two came back?"
"What exactly did you encounter?"
Hearing Dodai's question, the severely injured ninja seemed to recall something. Their eyes filled with terror.
"Sea snakes—enormous sea snakes."
"The coastal waters are full of them, not just one."
"We originally thought there was only one. The six of us were about to take it down, but who knew several more giant sea snakes would suddenly rush out of the sea."
"Our formation collapsed instantly. The other four were all eaten by the sea snakes."
"Only the two of us survived."
Sea snakes? Giant sea snakes? How was that possible?
Dodai's eyes were full of confusion, while Fourth Raikage's face was icy cold.
"Damn it! Why would creatures from the ocean come to the shore?"
"And snakes at that—could it be those Konoha bastards?!"
When it came to giant snakes, the first people Fourth Raikage thought of were Orochimaru and Gekko Chizan—after all, those two were practically the embodiment of snakes.
Hearing the Raikage's words, Dodai pondered for a moment and shook his head.
"Probably not. Sea snakes are snakes, but by nature they are marine creatures."
"Orochimaru's and Gekko Chizan's snakes are land-based species. These are two completely different types."
"I suspect it's some pirate tribe from the sea, harassing the Land of Lightning's territory—possibly even the work of Kirigakure."
"Raikage-sama, you've also seen the files on Kirigakure's Third Mizukage. That man pushed Water Release to its extreme, and his summoned beast was something like a sea snake—an electric eel."
What a strategist, Dodai! That entire analysis sounded absolutely flawless.
He just casually tossed the correct answer straight aside.
Fourth Raikage nodded after hearing this. After so many years of war, Kumogakure had conducted separate investigations on the various Kage.
And Kirigakure's summoned beasts were generally sea-related creatures—Dodai's analysis wasn't wrong.
"Hmph! Then I'll go personally. They're just a bunch of giant sea snakes."
"I'll slaughter them all!"