"Danzo's Desperate Escape."

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After escaping the ambush, Danzo and his three-man team hid out in a remote cave. Danzo had taken hits from four different jutsu cast by the Takigakure ninja and was now extremely weak. He needed to rest. Aki's hand had been pierced by a kunai, so he needed time to recover too.

While Akimichi Torikaze was bandaging Aki's wound, Danzo stared at him and asked,"Why didn't you stay and protect the two merchants? You came to help us instead, but you should know—those guys dying in the Land of Waterfalls would be a huge problem. If that happens, I doubt any merchant would want to work with us as spies for Konoha ever again."

Torikaze replied while finishing up the bandages,"They would've been in more danger if they stayed with me. They told me they had their own escape route, and they left the money behind, saying they'd reclaim it once they got back to Konoha. I thought about it and agreed. They're not ninjas. No one except the intermediary knows them, so separating from us actually makes them safer. Plus, Takigakure's shinobi only care about the money—they're focused entirely on us. The merchants should be fine."

Danzo nodded, then turned to Uchiha Kagami and said,"I didn't expect we'd be exposed like this. Kagami, how'd they figure out your identity?"

Kagami replied,"I got ambushed. They used genjutsu on me, and I had no choice but to activate my Sharingan to reflect the jutsu and kill them. One of the Chūnin still managed to escape, though."

Danzo didn't say much after that—just leaned back and rested quietly.

After Torikaze finished treating Aki's wound, he said,"Aki needs at least four hours of rest. Danzo, you'll need about three hours yourself. Looks like we're stuck here for a while."

Danzo nodded."Then we'll rest for five hours. Once we've recovered, we'll figure out how to escape the Land of Waterfalls. I doubt they'll deploy their entire force just to search for us."

Aki stared at the scar on his hand and muttered,"Now that we've been exposed... will Takigakure retaliate against Konoha?"

Danzo chuckled."You're giving Takigakure too much credit—and underestimating Konoha. As long as none of us are captured alive, they won't dare speak openly about this. If word gets out that Konoha shinobi died on a secret mission in their territory, they'll have to face serious consequences from us."

Aki looked confused, so Kagami explained,"The Land of Waterfalls is tiny. It's not even a tenth the size of the Land of Fire, and they barely have any resources. Their ninja operate out of small village groups. Takigakure was only founded recently because one well-known ninja gained the backing of their feudal lord. He managed to unite most of the country's ninja under one banner. But based on what we've found, they've got fewer than a thousand shinobi total. Maybe around a hundred jōnin, three hundred chūnin, and the rest are all genin. You've seen their strength—you're a chūnin yourself and you managed to wipe out multiple squads led by other chūnin in a short amount of time."

Danzo picked up the explanation:"They don't have any real training systems, no elite shinobi, and no strong nation backing them up. They're not even in the same league as Konoha. They're just a small country. Honestly, if their terrain wasn't so complicated and they didn't lack valuable resources, we would've taken them out long ago. You know what kind of strength Konoha really has? We've got almost four thousand numbered jōnin, not counting the elders and clan heads. Our chūnin number at least eight thousand, and the number of genin is basically uncountable. Then there's the patrol squads stationed all over the world. Just the ninjas we've got stationed outside the village outnumber Takigakure's entire force several times over."

"Now do you get it? No matter what we do here, if we die and they make it public, Konoha will hit them hard. But that's only if we die. If we make it out alive, then they'll have no choice but to swallow their anger. With tensions high between Iwagakure and Takigakure, they won't risk provoking Konoha right now. We're neutral at the moment. If they pick a fight, they risk turning Konoha into an enemy—and that would screw up whatever plans they've got next."

Aki nodded slowly, thinking to himself:Konoha in this world is just like the America of my previous life—pretending to be neutral, playing world cop, and calling itself the planet's guardian. Any country that refuses to follow its lead is branded as evil or terrorists that need to be 'cleansed by the moonlight.' What a joke...

Takigakure – Office of the Taki Kage

"You lost track of the Konoha ninjas?" the Taki Kage asked from his seat.

A Takigakure ninja knelt down on one knee and answered,"Sir, we ambushed them from the front and chased from behind, but only two of our men made it back. Word is there were four Konoha ninjas in total, and two were injured. So I believe they're still somewhere within our borders, hiding and recovering."

The Taki Kage looked at him and said calmly,"I don't want them leaving the Land of Waterfalls. Got it? Also, I want the rumor spread that Konoha ninja stole 20 million ryo from us while escaping."

The ninja was stunned."Sir, isn't that kind of embarrassing? Wouldn't it be better to keep it quiet?"

The Taki Kage shook his head."I have my reasons. Spread it far and wide—especially on the black market. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" The ninja stood, bowed, and quickly left.

As the Taki Kage watched him go, he thought to himself:Nothing in the Land of Waterfalls is easy to take. If we can't have that 20 million... then neither can Konoha. There are plenty of greedy people in this world.

The face of a certain man came to his mind, and he muttered,Hope you take them out for me… Kakuzu.

Back in the mountain cave

Akimichi Torikaze checked Aki's hand and said,"Your wound's healed up pretty well. As long as you don't go all out, you should be fine."

Danzo stood up and added,"We've been here for nearly five hours. It'll take us four days to reach the Fire Country border. Let's move out."

Everyone packed up and left the cave.

At a bar in the black market

A man in a white hood sat at the counter and asked the bartender,"Twenty million? Konoha stole that from Takigakure? How?"

He slipped the bartender a thousand-ryo note.

The bartender grinned and said,"Rumor is Konoha ninja disguised themselves as merchants and sold a batch of soldier pills to Takigakure at triple the price. But when Takigakure tried to rob them afterward, they realized those 'merchants' were actually Konoha shinobi. Now Takigakure is hunting them like crazy. They haven't left the country yet, and wanted posters with their faces are popping up everywhere—drawn from the memory of a ninja who escaped. Totally legit, sir."

The man's eyes flashed green, scaring the bartender, who backed away and quickly ran off.

The hooded man didn't even glance at him again. Instead, he smirked and thought,"Hmph. Idiots. Getting played like that… Twenty million, huh? Looks like it's mine now."

He stood up and walked out of the bar.

As he passed a bulletin board in the black market, he spotted the wanted posters of the four Konoha ninjas. He tore them down and left without another word.

Elsewhere, near a forest clearing.

"Danzo, once we're past this forest, we'll reach the last town before we're out of the Land of Waterfalls," Kagami said, looking over the map. "In two more days, we should reach the rendezvous point with our reinforcements."

Danzo scanned the area."We've run into nearly thirty Takigakure ninjas over the past two days. We're running low on food and water. Torikaze and I will head to the town and buy supplies. Kagami, go somewhere far off and fire the Konoha rescue flare—I've got a bad feeling. Better to call in our backup and meet up inside the country. Aki, stay here and keep watch. If you spot any Takigakure ninja, fall back immediately. Use the summit signals to guide us back together, got it?"

Aki and Kagami nodded.

Danzo and Torikaze headed toward the town. Kagami disappeared into the forest to send up the signal flare.

Aki climbed up a tree and used Transformation Jutsu to disguise himself as a tree trunk. He figured he could catch some rest while hidden. After all the fighting and running over the past two days, he was completely exhausted. He might be a shinobi, but he was still just a seven-year-old kid. His stamina wasn't endless—so the second he shut his eyes, he was out cold.

"....."