Prologue

Seven shinobi ran through the crowded streets of Hidden Mist, not together but coming from every direction towards the center of the village. Civilians cleared out of their way as they passed all of them knowing better than to get into the way of any of these men right now. They were The Seven Swordsman of the Mist, essentially Hidden Mist's special forces and right now they were on the most important mission they'd had in years. They didn't know any more than the civilians did about what was happening, but that was more than enough. Less than five minutes ago an explosion had sounded from the mansion in the center of the village. The Mizukage was under attack.

A young man with dark brown hair tied back in a tail that hung halfway down his back and a metallic black mask covering his face was the first of the seven to arrive. From what he'd seen on his way through the village there had been a battle going on on the roof. With no hesitation he drew the two katana from his back and ran straight up the wall. The sight that greeted him at the top was not a pleasant one.

He couldn't stop his eyes from widening in shock at the scene before him. The Mizukage lay face down in a pool of what was clearly his own blood. Standing a few feet away from the body was a man dressed entirely in black. His shirt had no sleeves but appeared that it once had, as if they had born torn off. In fact all of his clothing looked ragged. In his right hand he held a large scythe with blood still dripping from it's tip.

"Don't move! There's no way for you to get out of here, just surrender quietly and maybe I won't kill you!" The swordsman shouted at the man who had apparently just killed the Mizukage in a fair fight, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

The man turned his head to face the Mist shinobi just long enough for the fact that the lower half of his face was hidden by a cloth mask to be revealed. And more importantly, long enough for the swordsman to get a look at the symbol on his forehead protector. Then he suddenly dissolved into a cloud of sand.

An extra second's hesitation and he would've been as dead as his Kage was. He felt it coming and spun around to block the scythe with one of his swords at the last possible second. The katana was thrown from his hand and skidded across the roof as the swordsman jumped backwards to put some distance between himself and his attacker. His eyes quickly settled on the forehead protector again. "We're your allies, what the hell is the meaning of this?!" He demanded.

"I'm here to deliver a message from my village," The assassin stated calmly. "the alliance is over."

He raised his scythe and started forward to deliver the final blow but stopped suddenly as two more members of The Seven Swordsmen appeared on the roof in front of him. One wielding a massive double bladed sword and the other holding a katana made purely from electricity. The first of the new arrivals glanced over his shoulder at the masked man. "Are you alright, Seigen?"

"I've been better, but I'll live." He responded as he lined up beside the two of them.

The scythe wielder turned quickly as if to escape only to find the remaining four Swordsmen standing behind him, blocking his retreat. The seven of them formed a circle around him, closing him in completely. "It's over. No matter how good you are you can't fight all seven of us at once."

Seigen could tell that the man smiled behind his mask as he turned to face him. Then without any warning he felt a sharp pain in his stomach and coughed up blood while taking a surprised step backwards. Looking down he saw that five swords had pierced straight through him. As the enemy dissolved into sand again he collapsed onto his knees. A cloud of sand blew past him through the hole he'd opened in the circle by falling and suddenly the pain began to fade away.

"Is he alright?" He heard one of the Swordsmen ask as another quickly approached him.

"He's fine! It looks like he was hit by some pretty powerful Genjutsu, but he'll recover. Everyone after that bastard!" The man who had come to him shouted to the rest of the group.

The assassin was already gone though. The Seven Swordsmen would spend the rest of the evening and all of the night searching the village for him, but they would fail. In the morning two announcements would be made. The first would be that the Mizukage had been killed. The second would be that Hidden Sand had declared war.

At nearly the same time a group of Hidden Cloud Jounin stood around the body of the Raikage. Their response had been slower than that of Hidden Mist and they hadn't even gotten a look at the assassin. Like Mist however they would have a large force searching the village and the surrounding areas all night only to return empty handed.

Kyoshin Yamada, the current Tsuchikage of Hidden Stone, thrust his hand out toward the man who had just appeared in his office. Five shuriken made of pure chakra shot forward as if he had thrown them, every one of them striking the would-be assassin in the chest. Yamada had known better than to believe that it would be the end though. To have made it past his personal guards this man had to above Jounin level in skill.

As he had expected the man blew apart as the weapons hit him, revealing it to have only been a clone. What he had not expected was for the clone to seperate into a swarm of flying insects. The Kage performed seals at a speed that would have been impossible for most shinobi and blew a stream of flame from his mouth, incinerating the bugs. "Aburame..." He muttered.

To the Kyoshin Clan that prided itself on it's ability to create weapons from their chakra, the chakra devouring insects of the Aburame Clan were the worst possible enemy. Yamada quickly moved out into the hallway to find the three guards who had been stationed that evening dead on the ground. He casually moved his head to the side to avoid the kunai that had been thrown from the other end of the hallway.

"Who are you and why are you in Hidden Stone? I hope for the sake of Hidden Leaf that you're not acting on the orders of your village." The Tsuchikage said in a perfectly calm voice that didn't fit the situation at all.

"My name is Aburame Koden. It is your village that should be afraid, not mine. I am here on the orders of the Hokage to end the alliance between our villages by taking your head, Kyoshin Yamada." The man who identified himself as Koden spoke in a tone just as calm as the Tsuchikage's.

"I see...," The man responded with slight anger beginning to appear on his face, "then let's get straight to business, shall we?"

As he finished speaking he used the same technique he'd used against the clone, throwing shuriken of chakra at what he believed was the real enemy this time. Instead of five like he'd fired before this time the count was much closer to fifty, enough to fill the hallway to the point of making it nearly impossible for anyone to dodge them all. Koden threw his arms out as well and insects poured out of his sleeves, forming a wall from their own bodies just in time to protect their master from harm.

The assassin burst through the wall of bugs drawing a wakizashi from his waist as he charged his target. As Koden swung the blade, Yamada formed a katana from his chakra and defended himself just in time. The Tsuchikage shoved forward with all his strength and being the more powerful of the two, Koden was knocked onto his back. He reacted quickly and allowed another small swarm of insects to leave his body and land on the chakra sword. It took less them less than a second to completely devour the weapon.

Yamada dove backwards, just barely avoiding another kunai thrown by the Aburame as he got back onto his feet. "You're fast, Aburame. But Leaf was stupid to send you to fight a Kage on your own. It's a shame that someone with your potential has to die here."

With that he formed another sword, much longer than the first, and pierced Koden straight through the heart. While he should have died instantly the assassin simply smirked. "I don't know if you've noticed or not, but you haven't landed a solid blow on me since we started fighting in this hallway."

Even as he spoke his body began crumbling into insects and the blade vanished as the chakra that composed it was devoured in an instant. "That...was only a clone!?" Yamada demanded in both fury and surprise.

Kyoshin Yamada never found out whether or not his enemy intended to attempt another attack, because at that moment five Elite Jounin burst into the hallway and surrounded him in a protective circle. "Are you injured, Tsuchikage-sama?" The leader of the group asked immediately.

"No. He didn't get me." He paused for a moment before continuing. "It was a member of the Aburame Clan. Hidden Leaf has declared war on us. Send one of your men to gather another group of Elite Jounin to find that bastard. I want him alive for questioning. And do not send word to any of allies yet. We don't know how many of them have turned against us."

"Yes, sir! Arata, you know what to do." The leader said to one of his subordinates who simply bowed and ran back out the way they had come in.

"There's been no war since the battles against Akatsuki eleven years ago...just what is Leaf thinking attacking us now?" The Tsuchikage muttered as he walked back towards his office, followed closely by his new bodyguards.