43

The sunsets above the cold mountains of the Land of Earth.

At the orders of Ghost, Two members of the assassination squad were assigned to infiltrate Iwagakure.

The sun had barely risen as the 2 are able to sneak past the earthy walls of Iwa. As the city began to awaken, Arikurin and Puppy-Masked Anbu disguised themselves as civilians in order to gain intel.

As they walked through the village, they noticed a stone building with a cone-shaped roof that bears the kanji for Tsuchi. The 2 looked at each other—nodding in unison as they quickly vanished and looked for a way into the building.

Hyuga Arikurin, a member of the assassination squad placed a Sound-Based Genjutsu on the Guards and they were able to enter the building without any resistance.

Arikurin used his Byakugan as the Puppy-Masked Anbu besides him did a quick scan of the building...

"There is minimal security here sir" The Puppy-Masked Anbu reported to Arikurin, "The plan is going as expected"

Arikurin rendered his movements completely silent by cloaking himself in chakra and eliminating any risk of detecting him by sensory-type ninjas or via sound. This is his preferred method for intel gathering known as Silent Hummingbird Technique.

Arikurin covertly cased the building and found the office of Onoki. He noticed Onoki touch a blank section of his desk, which caused a large shelf to rise up and revealed a hidden compartment with several scrolls and other important items tucked away inside.

'Gotcha', Arikurin thinks to himself. Later that night, the 2 Anbu searched the large shelf for any valuable intel. After a while, they found something of use—a scroll that contained intel about Iwagakure's Explosion Corps and their Kinjutsu training program.

"Let's go!" Arikurin orders as he quickly analyzed the document.

The two dashed through hard rocky terrain with the scroll in their possession toward their designated location and assumed their mission to be a success. Unbeknownst to them, however, they were being tracked since the very start...!

...

Having split off from her team in order to cover a wider area, Hanabi Hotaru of the Explosion Corps leaped over a rocky chasm, landing safely on the other side. There was no time for her to waste; the security of her village, the Hidden Stone, was at risk. By now, she was likely miles away from her nearest teammate, but she was confident in her abilities as a kunoichi.

Selected for her ability to shoot signal flares using ninjutsu, Hanabi was considered an important member of the tracking unit. Despite being so far from any of her comrades, she could alert them of her situation, or tell them to group up with her; all it would take would be for her to launch a certain color-coded flare high into the sky. If her comrades saw it, they'd know what to do.

...

"Captain," The Puppy-Masked Anbu said abruptly, "What should we do? There seems to be just one approaching us"

Arikurin shut his eyes and took a moment to calculate the situation, "Nothing", Arikurin replied. He sensed the bloodlust of his subordinate as they leaped over a rocky chasm.

"If they get any closer, you can engage" The two continued to head toward their location. A few minutes after they crossed the edge of that chasm—Arikurin sensed the enemy wasn't too far behind.

But he wasn't in a hurry to turn around, he chose to keep his eyes focused on completing the mission, "Fine. Take care of them" Arikurin orders, "Yes sir" Replied the Anbu

Unlike his superior, the Puppy-Masked Anbu was entirely too overconfident about his abilities. As such, he believed no one could beat him, and had a strong desire to prove this.

Unaware of the enemy's strengths, he attacked the purser head-on. He utilized Lightning Release and sped up the signals that are sent from the brain to the muscles to order to increase his striking speed, power, and reflexes.

The technique also gave him cutting capabilities from barehanded attacks. He landed a direct punch on his pursuer and believed he had already won, "Too easy", The Puppy-Masked Anbu said as he chuckled.

"Wait. What?" The Puppy-Masked Anbu said as he attempted to remove his arm. "An earth-style clone?!?" The clone slowly reformed around his arm. Neutralizing his Lightning-styled Jutsu, the Puppy-Masked Anbu was stuck and trapped. BOOM!

Hanabi Hotaru kills the Anbu

He exploded from the explosive tags placed within the Mud Clone. Arikurin kept moving forward as he brought a communication tag out, "Leader, the traitor is out, I will be delivering the goods within 10 minutes"

"Alright", A voice came out of the sealing tag.

The puppy-masked Anbu was one of the two rookies of the Assassination squad that came at the same time as Uchiha Shisui, but unlike Shisui, this guy had ambitions, he was too eager to succeed, and that was the reason Hokage and Danzo managed to approach him at the same time.

He agreed to become the eye of both Hokage and Danzo.!! Only to get exposed on the first day he joined, as he meet his end like this.

...

'That's one down', Hanabi thought to herself confidently; she had been expecting a counterattack, but then again, Konoha shinobi tended to be egotistical and quite full of themselves.

"That's what happens when you underestimate your opponent's abilities... and overestimate yours," she muttered as a tiny smirk found its way onto her face. Hopefully, the other ANBU would be just as stupid as the last.

"Oi big guy", Arikurin looked up to see Hanabi jumping down the stone ridge right in front of him, "I think you have something that doesn't belong to you", Hanabi commented. Gracefully throwing a broken piece of the puppy's mask sending it bumping and rolling in Arikurin's direction.

Patting her Yukata down, Hanabi swept away the dust and dirt that had accumulated while pursuing Arikurin, "You two did a good job covering your tracks", She said as she smiled, "But I guess you just got a bit unlucky", Forming the seal of confrontation with both hands, the young kunoichi raised her right arm and pointed two fingers high into the air

"It's unfortunate for you", she started, as a red, flare-like projectile emerged from her fingertips and soared into the air, "I'm no pushover"

"..."

She had sent the signal flare to her team, informing them of her position and alerting them that she had engaged the enemy. Her friends would be at her location within five minutes; the clock was ticking for Arikurin.

Stretching out her arms in Arikurin's direction, Hanabi formed the dragon hand seal, "Explosion Release: Majestic Firework Technique!" she exclaimed out loud, as a colorful, glowing ball erupted from her hands and was sent flying at high velocity in Arikurin's direction.

Hanabi's Jutsu lit up the night.

Arikurin stood his ground and opted to face the attack head-on, "Rotation", he stated calmly as he emitted chakra from all of his body's tenketsu points.

He spun rapidly, cratering the terrain around him to repel the attack. Hyyuga Arikurin took the full force of the explosion and was propelled backward at great velocity to his surprise.

Before he finally landed back on his feet, the strike knocked him back by a few hundred meters. Arikurin knew his protective shield could hold for as long as he'd continue to spin but the impact from massive explosions was too incredible for him to remain spinning. He would not be able to take too many of those.

There was no doubt in his mind that this opponent was very talented when it came to long-ranged/projectile-type fights.

"This will get me nowhere", Arikurin muttered as the pink embers and surrounding smoke began to clear. The area around them was in ruins after Hanabi's jutsu.

When everything cleared, Arikurin had used Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique to go underground. He needed to shorten the distance between them from long-range to a more medium-range.

Arikurin used his Byakugan to find Hanabi from underground and let out a massive burst of sound, "Sound Release: Vacuum Air Palm!", he exclaimed and directed it toward Hanabi from under the ground.

...

Watching as her firework exploded into a brilliant array of pink and yellow lights, Hanabi thought that she saw a blue dome of sorts, if only for a moment.

As the pleasant smell of gunpowder rose into the air, she observed that her opponent had completely disappeared. Smiling to herself, she assumed she had totally vaporized him, although a moment of fear and panic struck her when she realized she might've destroyed the important documents he had been carrying.

The smoke in the surrounding area effectively covered the hole Arikurin had made from his mole technique, Hanabi failed to see it and didn't suspect a counterattack from the Konoha shinobi. Suddenly, the earth and stone beneath her feet erupted, as a blast of sound-based air forced its way out of the ground.

Feeling the tremor occur for just a moment under her, Hanabi had little time to react, so the blast sent her flying into the air with chunks of rocks and other earth debris.

Disoriented from the blast, Hanabi struggled to regain her sense of space but quickly snapped back after realizing she needed to stay alert.

Recovering with a midair flip, her beautiful yukata twirled around her slender form, and as she focused her eyes on the location of the blast, she could see her opponent crouched at the bottom of the hole in the ground.

Preparing a counterattack of her own, she once again formed the dragon hand seal, "Explosion Release: Majestic Firework Technique!" she cried out, as she bombarded Arikurin's location with a series of four massive fireworks before landing gracefully on her feet.

...

"That Jutsu looks very taxing", Arikurin smirked. His fingers blurred and settled on Ox, "Extreme Vacuum Air Palm!", A high-pressured mixture of chakra, sound waves, and airwaves was released from all tenketsu points in the palms of both hands into the area ahead of him carving up the ground and caused even more destruction and debris to fill the battlefield.

The frequency of the sound waves triggered the fireworks and caused them to explode prematurely. The sky lit up with massive amounts of lights and explosions. The smoke fell down and covered the entire area.

By the time the firework had exploded, Two shadow clones that remained underground long ago, grabbed Hanabi by her ankles and attempted to drag her into the earth, to leave only her torso above the surface.

"Hm. Interesting" Arikurin exclaimed as he threw two shurikens toward her. He controlled those with his chakra and bent its trajectory.

This forced them to collide, creating a high-pitched "Ting" as he simultaneously threw the third shuriken. "Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"

...

~~Unknown Location, forest~~

"Is something wrong?!", Asked Anbu who came from inside the makeshift hut.

Ghost, who was leaning on the walls of the hut sighed, "Orochimaru sensei is heading here", He said tiredly.

"Orochimaru? How is it possible...!!", Anbu asked feeling quite surprised, "How did he know our location. Was the traitor working for him as well..?"

Ghost shook his head, "No, take care of the package when it gets here, I will go and deal with Orochimaru sensei personally"

The Anbu nodded, "Be safe Leader. It might be a trap"

Ghost nods and blurred in thin air...