Under the shroud of night and the muffling roar of the storm, the reconnaissance squad cautiously adjusted their entry point three times. Finally, they successfully bypassed the Hidden Rain's border patrols and slipped into enemy territory.
Luck had been thin early on; their first two attempted crossing points showed clear signs of recent ninja activity. Even though they were now officially inside the Land of Rain, it didn't mean the mission was a success. In fact, the most grueling phase had just begun.
Previously, no matter how dangerous it got, they were still within the Land of Fire. They held the home-field advantage both environmentally and psychologically. Now, they were deep behind enemy lines. Aside from their own teammates, everything around them was hostile.
Worse yet was the enemy density. The number of ninjas patrolling here was incomparable to the border. One wrong move by Hagoromo, and this small four-man cell would be snuffed out without a trace.
As they began their infiltration, Hagoromo resumed his position at the lead. He relied heavily on his sensory range to navigate, acting as a human radar to steer them away from unnecessary encounters.
If the mission were merely "insertion," Hagoromo might have considered using a summon to fly over. For a beast of the Yatagarasu's size, carrying four ninjas was a trivial task. However, their orders included reconnaissance.
They needed to map the enemy's deployment along the route. If the Hidden Leaf ever decided to launch a full-scale invasion of the Rain, this intel would be priceless. They needed to identify sentry posts and, more importantly, discover the hidden scouting nests the enemy had placed at key tactical junctions.
High-altitude flight was useless for this. Even in clear weather, the dense forests of the Land of Rain provided perfect canopy cover for ground troops. In this storm and darkness, a bird's-eye view wouldn't reveal a single detail. Furthermore, the Yatagarasu was a massive target; if they flew too low, they'd be spotted instantly, burning the mission before it started.
So, they chose the most stable, albeit most dangerous, path: the ground.
Along the way, they encountered several four-man Rain squads. Thanks to Hagoromo's early warnings, they avoided them by a hair's breadth each time. From the frequency and distribution of these patrols, Hagoromo began to deduce their patterns—calculating the patrol radius and timing of each unit. With that data, their "ghosting" became much more reliable.
Somewhere deep in the Land of Rain, under the cover of night.
The four members of Squad Hagoromo were crouched in a tight circle. They weren't huddling for warmth; they were recording critical intelligence.
Hagoromo pulled a waterproof map from his vest. The specialized paper was impervious to the relentless rain. Asuma and Aoba helped him unfurl and hold it steady. Despite moving through near-total darkness, Hagoromo's memory and spatial reasoning allowed him to pinpoint their location with an error margin of less than 200 meters.
He needed to mark the patrol zones of the Rain squads they had just bypassed. They couldn't use a standard light; in this environment, a flare or even a candle was a death sentence.
Hagoromo pulled out a specialized "fluorescent pen"—his own term for it. In reality, the only thing fluorescent about it was the tip, which emitted a light no brighter than a single firefly. From twenty meters away, it was invisible. Hagoromo had to press his face nearly against the map to see what he was marking. It was an eye-straining ordeal.
Once the markers were set, Asuma and Aoba carefully refolded the map and handed it back to Hagoromo. Such vital mission items were always kept by the captain.
The entire process was done in silence, without a single spoken word. Even if a squad of ninjas had walked past them ten meters away, they wouldn't have noticed the Leaf shinobi unless they possessed specialized sensory abilities.
Their final objective was a forward base fifty kilometers from the border. According to Leaf intelligence, that base housed a garrison of nearly a thousand ninjas. Their primary task was to confirm if those numbers were fluctuating.
The Land of Rain is small. Fifty kilometers might not sound like much, but for an infiltration, that was deep into the enemy's core control zone. The danger was astronomical.
Because they were in unfamiliar territory, Hagoromo kept the pace slow and deliberate. To minimize risk, he decided they would only move at night and remain hidden during the day. As dawn approached, they would find a secure spot to rotate through rest shifts, staying alert and conserving energy.
Food and water were strictly limited to the rations they carried. In enemy territory, you don't forage, and you don't trust the local springs.
Three days and four nights later, they finally closed in on their target.
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