"Rei? Why does your face look a little pale…"
Mei Terumi looked at Rei Kaguya's faintly bloodless complexion in surprise and reached out, wanting to touch his forehead.
"Did you not sleep well earlier?"
"I was making some preparations for the battles after this. I just overdid it a little."
Rei Kaguya let Mei Terumi's small hand rest against his forehead. His eyes carried a trace of exhaustion.
"After all, the main reason we managed to take Mount Kannabe this time was because Konoha was caught completely off guard. If they drive us out, then the next time we come back, the enemies we'll face will probably be on the level of the Sannin."
"That's true…"
Mei Terumi withdrew her hand. Her gaze also carried a hint of worry.
"After you rested yesterday, I went to ask the people who had fought Konoha shinobi before. I wanted to know which troublesome Konoha shinobi had already arrived on the front line."
"And the conclusion?"
Rei Kaguya turned his face slightly and looked at Mei Terumi with questioning eyes.
"The conclusion is that aside from the Hyuga and Uchiha, who haven't sent anyone over for now, people from basically every other ninja clan have already been deployed into the fighting. Those who took part in the battles said they have already seen members of the Ino-Shika-Cho clans and Aburame clan insect users. The Inuzuka clan's ninja dogs and the Sarutobi clan's Fire Release have also been encountered."
"Oh. In that case, the one who saw through the trap yesterday was probably someone from the Nara clan…"
Rei Kaguya nodded, then asked Mei Terumi a question.
"Then, if an insect user from the Aburame clan controls a large number of secret insects and attacks the stronghold, can you deal with it, Mei Terumi?"
"I can. Against targets whose individual strength isn't high, my Boil Release and Lava Release are fairly convenient to use… Are you worried they'll split their forces, Rei?"
After being asked that, Mei Terumi also realized that Rei Kaguya most likely would not directly participate in the stronghold defense battle. Instead, he intended to go out and intercept the enemy.
So while answering, she also asked about that point.
Rei Kaguya nodded, admitting it, and handed a sealing scroll to Mei Terumi.
"This is?"
"A special clone I created. It should have about half of my main body's strength. If you run into a troublesome enemy you can't handle, use the Summoning Technique to summon it out and meet the enemy. I'll return as quickly as possible too."
"Understood."
Mei Terumi nodded, putting the scroll into the ninja tool pouch at her waist. Then she stepped forward, helping Rei Kaguya straighten his upper uniform as she seriously reminded him.
"Be careful, Rei… Single-ability ninjutsu may not threaten you, but once multiple kinds of ninjutsu are coordinated together, they can easily force you into an unfavorable position. If that happens, don't hesitate. Just retreat."
"As long as you are still here, no matter how many Mount Kannabes there are, we'll still have a chance to take them back. But if you fall into Konoha's hands, then even if we hold Mount Kannabe, in terms of losses, it will still be no different from a total defeat."
"Don't worry."
Rei Kaguya reached out and ruffled Mei Terumi's long, smooth red hair, then gave her a confident smile that put others at ease.
"I'm the man who will become Mizukage and change the entire shinobi world. Before I reach that peak, I won't stop."
"Assault squad, with me! It's time to teach Konoha's shinobi a proper lesson."
"Ohhhhh!"
More than a dozen figures loudly answered Rei Kaguya's order. Then, together with the superior they trusted, they vanished from the outer wall of Mount Kannabe's stronghold.
…
Roughly ten kilometers away from Mount Kannabe.
The red-haired Kushina Uzumaki was leading Shikaku Nara, Choza Akimichi, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shibi Aburame, and nearly two hundred Konoha shinobi. They stopped there, making their final preparations before launching the attack.
"Shikaku, have you made any progress on the intelligence analysis I forced on you earlier regarding this newly arrived Kirigakure unit?"
As Kushina Uzumaki checked the various ninja tools she was carrying, she asked Shikaku Nara beside her in a somewhat embarrassed tone.
"It really was a very unreasonable task."
Shikaku Nara sighed, directing a resentful look toward Shibi Aburame.
"If Shibi's insects had been discovered a little later, I probably could have analyzed a bit more."
"Never mind whether you could have gotten more or not, Shikaku. Just tell us the intelligence we already know."
Inoichi Yamanaka gazed in the direction of Mount Kannabe, his tone heavy.
"Before the battle begins, any additional understanding of the enemy is a good thing. Especially against an enemy like this, who has already displayed strength we can't understand…"
"Fine, fine, I know. Then I'll start with the conclusions that are basically confirmed."
Shikaku Nara lit a cigarette for himself and spoke in a deep voice.
"According to what Shibi's insects observed, there weren't many traces left behind inside the stronghold by ninjutsu clashes. This means the core combat force that took Mount Kannabe probably wasn't a shinobi who excels at large-scale ninjutsu, but rather a shinobi with extremely strong taijutsu, someone capable of quickly eliminating every enemy he gets close to."
"Second, the insects discovered corrosion marks on some of the buildings in the stronghold. But we all know that Kirigakure currently does not have a Jinchuriki who can control the Six-Tails. So I judge that those marks were probably left behind by Kirigakure's unique Kekkei Genkai, Boil Release."
"That's all I can analyze from the limited information. The rest will have to wait until the battle begins…"
"You're not going to talk about the shinobi who used the Hiding in Mist Technique?"
Shibi Aburame suddenly spoke, bringing up a detail Shikaku Nara had not mentioned.
In response, Shikaku Nara took a hard drag from his cigarette before slowly saying, "That is information I can't give a definite analysis on, so I temporarily set it aside… Shibi, do you have any thoughts?"
"Yes. That mist has a problem."
Shibi Aburame expressed his doubt concisely.
"The Hiding in Mist Technique is usually not used before engaging the enemy in close combat. But we discovered the mist when we were still more than one kilometer away from the target. Very abnormal."
"You mean that mist isn't simply being used to obstruct our vision. It has another function…"
Shikaku Nara closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Then his eyes suddenly opened.
"Reconnaissance sensing!? That mist is a special method those Kirigakure shinobi use to detect changes in the surroundings?"
"It's possible, but why?"
The plump Choza Akimichi raised his question.
"Using mist for wide-range sensing… Setting aside how much chakra that would consume, the Land of Fire doesn't have fog all the time, does it? Wouldn't doing that easily expose their presence?"
"Perhaps they had no choice…"
As a member of the Intelligence Division, Inoichi Yamanaka quickly thought of an answer that seemed able to explain the problem.
"Kirigakure has always had very few sensory shinobi. Could it be that their unit lacks shinobi of that type, so they were forced to choose this method?"
"That makes sense. But no matter how scarce sensory shinobi are, it makes no sense not to assign one to such a powerful unit capable of quickly taking Mount Kannabe… Unless there is something wrong with the commander of this unit, or Kirigakure's people don't want this unit to act independently?"
Shikaku Nara followed Inoichi Yamanaka's line of thought and continued thinking.
"After several battles, Mount Kannabe has already had almost all terrain factors that attackers can use cleared away. Aside from a frontal assault, there is basically no room for any clever schemes to work… The main force of that Kirigakure unit is a taijutsu-specialist shinobi…"
"I understand, Lady Kushina!"
Shikaku Nara suddenly struck his palm with his fist and said to Kushina Uzumaki, who had been quietly listening from the side:
"The shinobi leading Kirigakure's side is very likely that Rei Kaguya, the one who injured Lord Minato before! If it's him…"
"If it's me, what happens then?"
A cold, eerie voice, as if it had risen from the depths of the underworld, sounded from the earth beneath their feet.
Kushina Uzumaki's eyes sharpened. She immediately shouted:
"Move! The enemy is hiding underground—"
"Dance, Dance of the Seedling Fern!"
Countless enormous bone spikes burst out from beneath the ground without warning, indiscriminately attacking the Konoha shinobi who had stopped on the surface.
Although, thanks to Kushina Uzumaki's warning, most of them reacted in time and avoided the first wave of bone spikes by leaping high into the air, there were still more than forty weaker Konoha shinobi, or those standing too far from Kushina Uzumaki, who failed to react.
They became the sacrifices of Rei Kaguya's assault.
Their bodies were torn apart by the bone spikes created by Dance of the Seedling Fern, scattering into a rain of blood across the sky. It added a cruel, bloody decoration to the white-bone forest that had appeared in an instant.
The Battle of Mount Kannabe officially began with Rei Kaguya's unexpected ambush as its opening act.