"This is… my mission?"
"Yes, Lord Rei Kaguya."
The chunin who came to deliver the message nodded and placed a marked map and a mission scroll on Rei's desk. At the same time, he spoke respectfully.
"Lord Fuguki Suikazan and Lord Juzo Biwa plan to take advantage of the gap created by our side's new batch of fresh forces arriving while Konoha's reinforcements have yet to reach the front. They intend to launch a surprise attack on several Konoha strongholds that have resisted our attacks for a long time, laying more advantages for the battles afterward."
"Taking advantage of the enemy's rotation window to use more people against fewer, huh? It's a direct but effective tactic…"
Rei opened his mission scroll and compared the information written inside with the map sent along with it.
After reading through the mission details, he nodded and spoke lightly.
"You want me to storm this stronghold? Understood. Go report back to the two lords of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. I will take that stronghold."
"Understood."
After watching the chunin, whose hand was still wrapped in thick bandages, leave, Mei, who had originally intended to go as well, stopped in her tracks.
She turned back to Rei's side and looked at the mission scroll and map on the desk, her willow-like brows furrowing.
"Four unwounded jonin, more than twenty chunin, and nearly a hundred genin. The surrounding terrain is also very flat and open, so there's basically no room for a surprise attack… They're arranging such a high-intensity mission for you right away?"
"Who told me to be the monster rumored to have defeated Minato Namikaze and earned Lord Third's exceptional promotion?" Rei was rather open-minded about this. "They probably want to use this mission to test my quality and see whether I'm worthy of this reputation and treatment…"
"Are you not unhappy about being doubted, Rei?" Mei asked with genuine concern, putting herself in his position.
"What kind of question is that? Would you get angry because someone said you were an ugly, flat-chested woman with no hips and thick, short legs, Mei?"
Mei snorted and pushed out her beautifully curved, well-developed chest even more forcefully.
Rei shook his head in amusement. Resting his cheek on one hand, he spoke slowly.
"Exactly. In the end, that's all it amounts to… That said, since they've given me a fairly decent stage, I suppose I do want to make a somewhat grand entrance."
"Work with me tomorrow, Mei… I can give you half the credit for cutting down enemy jonin in formation. How about it?"
"I can help you, but forget about giving me credit that belongs to you."
Mei raised her delicate, beautiful chin with an arrogant expression.
"I will take all the achievements I need to be promoted to jonin myself. Don't underestimate me, someone who possesses two Kekkei Genkai at the same time, Rei."
"I'll look forward to it."
…
The next day.
After several days of relative quiet, the Kirigakure shinobi once again launched an attack on Konoha's now-stabilized defensive line.
And Rei, as a jonin already capable of leading a team by himself, brought his own squad, along with Mei Terumi, whom he had borrowed through friendship, to the foot of Kannabeyama Stronghold, which had already repelled Kirigakure's attacks several times.
"Whew. They really cleared away everything nearby that could be used to hide one's body… And there aren't any larger rivers passing nearby either. In that case, the only surprise attack method that can be used is Earth Release, isn't it?"
Rei surveyed the forest around Kannabeyama Stronghold, which had already been cut down until it was bare, and shook his head regretfully.
"What a pity. We Kirigakure don't have many shinobi skilled in Earth Release… And if I remember correctly, in the intelligence we gathered, two of the four Konoha jonin stationed here are especially proficient in Earth Release, right?"
Several Kirigakure chunin who had participated in previous attacks on Kannabeyama Stronghold nodded with ugly expressions.
From the looks on their faces, it was not hard to see how many companions had been sacrificed to gather intelligence on those Konoha jonin.
"Lord Rei, what is our attack plan? Will you, who can ignore most physical attacks, draw the fire of Konoha's shinobi while all of us press forward and begin a frontal assault?"
An impatient chunin stepped forward and asked Rei, who was sensing today's wind direction and estimating the distance between their assembly area and Kannabeyama Stronghold.
"No. There is no such plan… Mm, more specifically, in today's operation to take Kannabeyama Stronghold, none of you need to act."
After obtaining the data he needed, Rei made a hand gesture toward Mei, indicating that she could begin.
Then he stomped his foot hard. Alone, like a sharp arrow, he rushed toward Kannabeyama Stronghold.
"Hey! Everyone, follow—"
"Step back, unless you want to be melted."
Mei stepped forward and stopped the shinobi who wanted to follow Rei and charge ahead.
At the same time, Rei, who had already approached Kannabeyama Stronghold at high speed, looked at the two Konoha jonin rushing out from the stronghold to intercept him and grinned.
"You didn't choose to remain on defense. Instead, you took the initiative to attack me? Honestly… I'm being looked down on."
"Water Release: Hiding in Mist Technique."
Pale mist was exhaled from Rei's mouth.
In the blink of an eye, the entire Kannabeyama was completely submerged in the vast fog Rei had created. Visibility vanished.
As Kirigakure's signature ninjutsu, almost every Kirigakure shinobi present had learned the D-rank support ninjutsu Hiding in Mist Technique.
But precisely because they had all learned and used it before, they were even more shocked that Rei could create such a wide range of mist in an instant.
One had to know that even the Byakugan of the Hyuga clan, when actively activated, could only capture things within a radius of about one kilometer.
The mist created by Rei covered an area of at least five kilometers in radius.
What an astonishing amount of chakra…
Even if you told me now that you were actually the perfect Jinchuriki of the Six-Tails, I would probably believe it to some extent.
Sigh. Being born in the same village and the same era as a human-shaped Tailed Beast like you really makes a person unable to help feeling despair.
Good thing I'm a woman. Otherwise, I would really spend my whole life being pressed down beneath you, unable to turn over.
Mei shook her head. According to the plan she had discussed with Rei beforehand, she formed hand seals and used her Kekkei Genkai toward Kannabeyama Stronghold.
"Boil Release: Skilled Mist Technique!"
"Waaah… my eyes, my… ghh…"
Within the thick mist, waves of heart-wrenching screams of agony could be heard faintly from the direction of Kannabeyama Stronghold.
With the help of the mist Rei had created in advance, Mei did not consume too much chakra before spreading the acid mist formed by Skilled Mist Technique into Kannabeyama Stronghold several hundred meters away.
Although out of consideration for Rei's health, Mei had not raised the corrosive power of Skilled Mist Technique to its maximum, for the unprepared Konoha shinobi, it was already a terrifying killing move capable of instantly robbing them of most of their ability to resist.
Thinking of the Konoha shinobi entrenched inside Kannabeyama Stronghold having to endure a mist where they could not see their own hands, while every corner inside and outside their bodies was constantly being burned by acid, and then having to fight someone like Rei Kaguya in close combat—a monster whose strength was top class even among the Kaguya clan, who specialized in taijutsu…
Even the Kirigakure shinobi who had previously lost many companions here could not help silently mourning for their enemies.
They only hoped that when the corpse research team came to recover the enemy bodies, they would not curse too harshly.