The sight of Jonin Kigōsei being blown to smithereens in broad daylight on that hillside utterly shattered the morale of the remaining Ame-nin. They couldn't maintain their formation any longer and began a frantic, disorganized retreat.
Heh, Tetsumaru thought. If you'd stayed, you might have been trouble. But running? Running is just suicide.
With two Jonin killed and over two hundred Ame-nin decimated—only seventy managed to limp back—the loss was a catastrophe. For a small village like Amegakure, which only had about forty Jonin even after lowering their standards, this was an unbearable blow.
Stung by the consequences of his own oversight, the "Immovable" Salamander Hanzo finally took the field personally to hunt down the bug-user.
This was a world apart from his encounter with the Raikage in the Land of Vegetables. Back then, Tetsumaru had bolted immediately, leaving only a Shadow Clone to test the waters. This time, he was being hunted by the most powerful Kage-level ninja of the era. With a simple wave of his hand, Hanzo could poison thousands of insects at once. The "Half-God" possessed a unique toxicity—rumored to be a result of his transplanted poison gland—that was significantly more virulent than even the Salamander's own venom.
Hanzo's Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, speed, and experience were peerless. On several occasions, the pursuit nearly caught up to Tetsumaru's true body. He experienced firsthand the sheer, crushing power of a Kage and the thrill of dancing on the razor's edge between life and death.
Hanzo slaughtered countless swarms, but he never laid eyes on the caster. The mysterious ninja remained hidden, shielded by endless clouds of insects and a frustrating rotation of Shadow and Insect Clones.
Even Hanzo began to doubt: was he chasing one man or an entire legion? If it were one man, the chakra reserves required to sustain such a swarm were staggering, yet the individual's combat power seemed disproportionately low for such a powerhouse.
Regardless, Hanzo was determined to finish it. This "Bug Demon" had killed two Jonin and over a hundred Ame-nin, including the outpost guards. The threat level had undergone a qualitative shift.
Tetsumaru had evolved from a nuisance into a lethal killing machine. If left unchecked, Amegakure's six thousand ninjas and forty-one Jonin would be wiped out within a couple of months at this rate of attrition.
Detecting a fresh trail of the Leaf ninja's retreat, Hanzo and his subordinates surged forward.
The swarm surged again, its scale still enough to leave the Konoha ninjas in awe. However, everyone noticed that the cloud was no longer the endless, horizon-spanning tide it had been the day before. The losses had clearly been severe.
Orochimaru emerged from his hiding spot. After a brief wait, a tall silhouette appeared before him.
"Lord Orochimaru, Hanzo will be here in ten minutes. My mission is complete."
Orochimaru looked at him. "How many Jonin did you kill?"
"Hmm? Two."
"Excellent. I will file for two additional A-rank mission credits and one S-rank credit for you. You are cleared to withdraw." Orochimaru's expression then shifted to one of cold irritation. "And next time, come see me in person."
With a flick of his wrist, his right hand transformed into a giant snake, slamming into "Tetsumaru" and causing him to burst into a cloud of Kikaichu. It was another Insect Clone. No wonder Orochimaru was annoyed; it was a blatant lack of respect for his superior.
Ah... my bad. I've spent so many days meeting people through clones that it's become a reflex.
Reflecting on his breach of etiquette, Tetsumaru—who hadn't even shown his face—bolted away into the forest. That was just the kind of guy he was.
"Hmph. Finally caught your tail. I wonder if that bastard is hiding inside this swarm?" Hanzo arrived at the edge of the woods, ignoring the insects that turned to attack him.
"Whatever. I'll just kill them all."
Hanzo waved his arm, spreading toxins on the wind. Massive swathes of the swarm died instantly, dropping to the ground with barely a twitch. The insects behind them charged forward without fear, climbing over the remains only to be poisoned by the residual toxins on the carapaces, adding their own bodies to the toxic carpet.
This was the type of ninjutsu Tetsumaru feared most: a lingering, contagious toxicity that transformed the battlefield into a dead zone for his swarm. It was a mathematical absolute.
Aside from Hanzo, Tetsumaru knew of only a few others who could create such "No-Go Zones." The Iwa Jinchuriki, Rōshi, and his lakes of lava had left a deep impression. Jiraiya's Toad Flame Bomb was another, creating high-temperature, long-lasting fire zones that were a hard counter to chitin.
Against any other ninja, battle was just a math problem: Does the enemy's kill rate exceed the swarm's population multiplied by its advance speed?
It was similar to the Battle of the Somme in World War I—a grim calculation of French infantry versus German Maxim machine guns. Even if the enemy's lethality was slightly higher, Tetsumaru would still win. A ninja is human, not a machine; they have a limit to their output. Eventually, they get tired.
The only way Tetsumaru lost was if a single attack could clear a gap so massive that it took the swarm more than ten seconds to fill it.
"Hmm?" Hanzo suddenly sensed something. He stopped and bit his finger. "Summoning Jutsu!"
"Tch. Spotted. Let's do this." Tsunade dropped her camouflage, biting her finger as she wove her own seals.
"Summoning Jutsu!" "Summoning Jutsu!" "Summoning Jutsu!"
Ibuse, Katsuyu, Manda, and Gamabunta—four mountain-sized summoned beasts—loomed over the battlefield. Two of them were the natural predators of insects.
Watching from a very safe distance, Tetsumaru let out a sigh of disappointment. He was going to miss the "Live Broadcast" of the Sannin versus the "Half-God" again.
Why not move closer?
Well, the Konoha ninjas were already retreating for a reason. This was a battle between giants. When ten-ton monsters start jumping around, you don't stay to watch—you leave before you get stepped on and turned into a red smear.
Hanzo looked at the three formidable enemies and felt a pang of regret. He shouldn't have let them live back then. If he could go back to that day...
He still wouldn't have killed them.
Nonsense. You don't just kill these three. Especially Tsunade. If he touched a hair on that girl's head, he would earn the absolute, undying enmity of the Hidden Leaf, the Hokage, and the Fire Country Daimyo.
Nawaki was different. Nawaki's status was special, but he had naturally inherited the risks of the political struggle. If he died in the "game of thrones," Konoha would grieve, but certain factions would be secretly pleased. The Daimyo would be sad, but aristocrats viewed such things as "divine will"—Nawaki simply wasn't destined for the throne.
But if Tsunade were killed? The Daimyo, the Hokage, and the village would respond with nothing but cold, unbridled fury. Konoha would abandon all other fronts and pour twenty thousand ninjas into the Land of Rain. Amegakure would be erased from the map.
Hanzo wasn't the God of Shinobi or a "Ghost of the Uchiha." He couldn't trample ten thousand ninjas single-handedly. If he were that strong, the Rain wouldn't need to fight a war at all. He'd be like Madara Uchiha, standing at Iwa's front gate shouting insults while the Tsuchikage pretended he was deaf.
Even the four Great Kage, no matter how much they blustered, had to sit down at the Five Kage Summit in the Land of Iron. When the Leaf's Hokage spoke, they listened. They signed the agreements he drafted without changing a single word.
"The three of you are no match for me. Do you really wish to taste defeat again?"
"We are indeed still no match for you alone," Orochimaru replied respectfully, though his tone held a hidden edge. "But we are more than capable of holding you here."
"Holding me here? To what end?"
Jiraiya laughed. "To attack Amegakure directly, of course! We've grown a lot, Respirator-old-man!"
Hanzo flared with rage. "Bastards! How dare you!"
Orochimaru gave a cold, dry chuckle. "War is about the strong preying on the weak. It's about the many crushing the few. Konoha is the strongest village in the world—why shouldn't we act like it?"
"You foolish old—" Jiraiya started, but Tsunade cut him off.
"Too much talk! Let's go!" Tsunade leaped from Katsuyu's head, lashing out at Hanzo with a vertical axe-kick—the Heavenly Foot of Pain.
Hanzo vanished instantly. Ibuse lunged forward to snap at Manda. Gamabunta drew his short sword and dived for Ibuse's left leg, aiming for a de-limbing strike.
Honestly, if the Salamander kills Manda, that would be even better, Gamabunta thought. He'd love to take the snake's head himself, but since they were currently on the same side, he'd have to settle for hoping the enemy did it for him.
As the four Kage-level masters engaged, the four giant beasts turned the landscape into a chaotic brawl.
When the city gate catches fire, the fish in the moat suffer. Before any of the combatants took real damage, Tetsumaru's remaining observation bugs were wiped out by the shockwaves. As Ibuse and Gamabunta traded high-level ninjutsu, purple toxins saturated the area. Tetsumaru's last "eye" died, and his vision went black.
The battle between Hanzo and the Sannin lasted until the following morning. It ended as it always did: a total victory for Hanzo and a crushing defeat for the Sannin. Once again, their lives were spared.
However, on the other front, Konoha had launched a three-pronged raid on Amegakure. They were on the verge of breaching the village when Iwa reinforcements arrived, stalling the advance. Realizing that attacking a reinforced Iwa position without preparation was suicide, the Leaf commander signaled a strategic withdrawal.
It was a refreshing victory. The gloom of the previous months was cleared. The campaign had cost the Rain eleven hundred ninjas—effectively one-sixth of their total military strength.
Nearly two hundred of those kills were credited to Tetsumaru's swarm. The title of the "Swarm Demon" began to whisper through the ranks of the Ame-nin.
Three months later, the two difficult members of Tetsumaru's squad applied for a transfer. He approved it instantly.
Orochimaru immediately handed him a new assignment: travel to the Land of Grass and escort a certain individual back to the camp. Tetsumaru took Yukimura Saburo with him; an obedient subordinate was much easier to protect.
The mission was seamless. They brought a Grass ninja back to the camp without a single fight.
Inside the command center, the Grass messenger handed over a set of encrypted scrolls. Shimura Danzo, acting as the High Commander, took the scrolls. As he read, his face underwent several shifts in color before he handed them to Orochimaru with a grim expression.
Orochimaru glanced at the scrolls, gave a dry heh, and tossed them to the Intelligence Chief.
As the contents made their way around the room, everyone—except Orochimaru—looked horrified. Orochimaru watched their expressions with a mocking, cold smirk.
Eventually, the guards led the Grass messenger out to rest, and a heated debate erupted.
"We have to act! Intel this critical... ten million Ryo is a bargain!"
"I agree." "Agreed." "Motion seconded."
Suddenly, a raspy, quiet voice cut through the noise. "I object."
The room went silent. It was Orochimaru. His prestige was high enough that no one could ignore him.
But it wasn't high enough.
"My Lord! We have to believe it! If this is true, Konoha is in danger!"
"Danger? How much strength does the Land of Lightning have left to threaten us?" Orochimaru waved his hand dismissively. The Third Raikage was a cautious old turtle; would he really launch an unprovoked invasion of Konoha? Unless he was willing to be the meat-shield for the other Great Nations, it made no sense.
The arguments swirled around Orochimaru for a while, but he simply refused to budge. Say whatever you want, I'm not signing off on this.
SLAM!
Danzo pounded the table, silencing the room. "Notify the village immediately! Let the Hokage decide!"
Tch. Orochimaru spat quietly, giving Danzo a look of pure contempt. Cunning waste.
After the meeting, Orochimaru noticed Tetsumaru standing guard nearby. He called him over and asked him to walk with him.
Outside the tent, they watched a messenger squad sprint toward the village. Both men shared a cold, knowing smirk.
"You heard it all," Orochimaru said, looking at Tetsumaru. He knew this paranoid ninja would have gone to extreme lengths to gather intel on his surroundings.
The command tent might be heavily guarded, but a temporary structure with incomplete seals was essentially transparent to the Domain Field Barrier.
Tetsumaru didn't deny it. He nodded.
"What do you think?"
"I don't 'think' much of it. Shinobi can create miracles, sure, but you have to look at who is telling the story." Tetsumaru paused. "Grass ninjas. They don't have the status or the skill to get their hands on military secrets from the Hidden Cloud."
Orochimaru's mood brightened. Finally, an intelligent person. Dealing with stubborn fools all day was exhausting.
A few days later, the Hokage ordered the purchase of the Grass intel. The details were alarming: the Cloud had supposedly massed an army and was preparing to strike the Land of Fire through the Land of Fields.
Konoha mobilized immediately. Six thousand troops were gathered, and almost every elite Jonin in the village was sent out, leaving only Genin and the Hokage himself to guard the home front.
When the army reached the border, they actually found Cloud ninjas. Elite Cloud ninjas.
The Grass intel was real. The Cloud had indeed sent a massive force into the Land of Fields, and they slammed head-first into the Konoha army. A massive battle erupted instantly.
Tetsumaru and Orochimaru shared a moment of awkward silence when they next met. They had judged the intel as fake, and reality had slapped them in the face.
Yet, both remained deeply suspicious. It still didn't make sense.
As it turned out, they were both right. The Grass Village had simultaneously sold fake intel to the Cloud, claiming that Konoha was worried about their mobilization and was planning a "preventative strike" to gauge the Cloud's true strength.
To pull off a double-cross of that magnitude against two Great Nations was nothing short of a miracle.
But a scheme is just a scheme. The Grass Village's "triumph" didn't last long.
During the battle, the Cloud's Two-Tails Jinchuriki was killed by Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang of the Leaf. This catastrophic loss made the Land of Lightning nervous, and they signaled for a ceasefire. The peace-loving Hiruzen Sarutobi agreed instantly.
The moment the two sides sat down to talk, the Grass Village's deception was exposed. The Leaf and the Cloud immediately joined forces and, without a word, leveled the Hidden Grass Village to the ground.
This was the first time the Grass Village was erased from the map.