"Hey, have you heard? One of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist has defected!"
"Seriously? Tsk tsk… the Hidden Mist Village is practically falling apart now. Whatever reputation they had is probably gone."
"The Seven Ninja Swordsmen?"
Early in the morning, Akashō was listlessly eating breakfast when he suddenly overheard a conversation between some Hidden Leaf ninja nearby. His interest was immediately piqued by this so-called "Seven Ninja Swordsmen."
It sounded like the name of some kind of group?
"Are these Seven Ninja Swordsmen famous?"
Akashō asked Kakashi beside him.
"Yeah… very famous."
"Strong?"
"Ridiculously strong."
Akashō looked at Kakashi with interest. He knew that before coming to the Lightning-Fire battlefield, Kakashi had already been promoted to jonin. Assuming it wasn't through connections, his strength should indeed be at that level. While not top-tier, he was definitely no weakling—and even he described them as "ridiculously strong"…
"Could it be that all of them are Kage-level?"
"What are you thinking? If they were all Kage-level, the strongest of the Five Great Ninja Villages would've changed long ago."
Kakashi rolled his eyes and explained, "The Seven Ninja Swordsmen are a group from the Hidden Mist Village, and one of its two major pillars aside from the Mizukage. They're powerful and well-known, each wielding one of seven unique ninja swords."
"With their swords, even the weakest among them is at elite jonin level, and the strongest reaches Kage level. Of course, there's only one at that level."
Akashō nodded thoughtfully. So they weren't all Kage-level after all—what a pity.
Still, with the weakest being elite jonin and the strongest at Kage level, that was quite a high-quality "harvest." He'd have to find a way to deal with them eventually.
"So are they on the Wind-Water battlefield right now?"
Akashō continued, gathering information for future plans.
Kakashi glanced at him. "The Wind-Water battlefield ended a long time ago."
"What!?"
Akashō's eyes widened. "When did that happen? How come I didn't know?"
"You're not even a ninja—how would you know?"
Kakashi took a bite of food and mumbled,
"Months ago, the Hidden Sand Village was forced to recall their commander Chiyo because Jiraiya-sama supported the Wind-Fire battlefield."
"Without Chiyo holding things together, the leaderless Sand forces couldn't withstand the Hidden Mist. They didn't last long before surrendering."
"Surrender? You can surrender in a war?"
Logically, if you win, shouldn't you wipe them out and march straight into the Hidden Sand Village to take it over?
"Of course. Wars are fought for profit. As long as the other side pays enough compensation, that's enough. What, did you expect the Hidden Mist to wipe out the Hidden Sand Village completely?"
"Putting aside whether they could even do it, if they did, the other villages would gang up on them afterward."
Akashō narrowed his eyes. So there were unspoken rules behind wars like this.
But that wasn't good news for him. Just because he'd been stuck in the Hidden Leaf camp for a few months, he'd already lost the chance to "harvest" an entire battlefield.
He needed to think of something quickly, or he might end up being suppressed by that bastard Namikaze Minato for the rest of his life.
"So where are the Seven Ninja Swordsmen now? Which battlefield?"
"Hmm…"
Kakashi started counting on his fingers. "Two of them should still be in the Hidden Mist Village, and one has defected…"
Akashō waited for him to continue, but after half a minute, nothing more came.
"And then? That's it??"
Weren't they called the Seven Ninja Swordsmen? Why were there only three people?
Was this some kind of "Four Heavenly Kings" situation?
"Yeah, that's it."
Kakashi glanced at the confused Akashō and explained,
"Why do you think the Hidden Mist didn't continue fighting after defeating the Hidden Sand Village?"
Akashō blinked. True, that didn't fit the logic of major villages seeking profit. After winning, they should've been even more eager to attack other villages.
"The reason is that their previous greatest pillar—the Seven Ninja Swordsmen—has already fallen apart."
"Fallen apart?"
Akashō recalled what the other ninja had said about defection.
"Did they turn on each other?"
"No."
Kakashi explained, "Earlier, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen attacked a Hidden Leaf force heading to the Lightning-Fire battlefield. Four of them were killed, and only three escaped. Now that one of those has defected, only two remain."
Akashō froze.
"Ah… so they attacked Minato's unit. No wonder. Running into someone like Minato… well, getting reduced to just three is just bad luck for them…"
"Reduced to three?"
Kakashi gave Akashō a puzzled look, not understanding the phrase, but didn't ask further. He simply shook his head.
"It wasn't Minato-sensei who did it."
"Not Minato?"
Akashō froze again. The leader of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen was at least Kage-level, and with the rest combined, their overall strength shouldn't have been weak.
If it wasn't Namikaze Minato, then who could it have been? When the Lightning-Fire battlefield began, Akashō had been causing trouble on the Earth-Fire battlefield, so it couldn't have been Orochimaru. Could it have been another of the Sannin? Or even the Third Hokage himself?
It couldn't possibly be Jiraiya, that idiot… right?
Or was there some hidden Kage-level powerhouse lurking on the Lightning-Fire battlefield?
"Yo, Kakashi!"
Just as Akashō was about to keep asking, a loud voice rang out. A boy in a green bodysuit walked over—on his hands.
He raised one hand, gave a thumbs-up, and flashed a wide grin, his teeth gleaming as if they were shining.
"My destined rival! Haven't seen you in months—let's have a match later!"