"Yukimura-sama! Yukimura-sama!" a long-black haired man ran rashly toward Yukimura's room. It was still an early in the morning, and he even hadn't opened his eyes yet. He closed the blanket and covered his ears. Usually, Saizo always complained about many things from the important one to the very small matter. Feeling tired and still sleepy, Yukimura decided that this must be a very small one, so he ignored it and tried to get back to his dreamland.

"Yukimura-sama! Wake up!" after Saizo rolled the door open, he knelt down and uncovered the blanket. Yukimura's still covering his ears and his eyes were still shut completely.

"Yukimura-sama! This is very important! Yukimura-sama, please wake up!"

"What, Saizo?" giving up, he opened his eyes then yawning a big yawn. He wiped the tears away from his still sleepy orbs. "This better be really important."

"It is, Yukimura-sama! Look!" Saizo handed him a folded paper.

"What is this, Saizo?" curious, he took it and observed it closely.

"This morning Sasuke hasn't appeared everywhere when it was the time for breakfast. And that wasn't Sasuke's habit to be late. So Kosuke checked on his room and she found this."

"Sasuke…?" rashly Yukimura unfolded the paper and his eyes widened.

Meanwhile, at the forest near the Kudoyama Mountain a figure was jumping from one tree to another. From far sight it looked like a monkey, but if you looked at it again carefully, it was a man. He jumped swiftly, like he hadn't had any fear of getting fallen. Of course, as his name implied, jumping was his own specialty.

"Stupid Yukimura… Clever and tricky general my ass." Sarutobi Sasuke mumbled while he was jumping forward. He was still angry with Yukimura's decision to send all of the jyuyushi to Tokugawa's castle. How could he, Sanada Saemon-no-suke Yukimura, an infamous general of trick and strategy, ignoring the basic of sneaking mission because of the stupid thought? Sasuke knew the best that Yukimura loved them all, especially him, so he didn't want to sacrifice any of them. But moving together on the sneaking mission, two or three persons were still standard. But ten?! Hell no. Sasuke also loved them all. The jyuyushi were a family to him. But though it was heavy, it was better one of them dead than all of them. Sasuke tighten his fist and gritted his teeth. "To get a great victory, we can not avoid victims." Can't he remember his own words? He had said it a long time ago and Sasuke kept it on his belief. Yes, a victim. A victim wouldn't be a trouble at all if we had reached the peak of the authority, would it? Sacrifice was needed on every aspect. Can't he just understand that simple thing? Sasuke kept his pace up so that he wouldn't catch the dusk before he reached his destination alone; Tokugawa's Castle.

As he had been predicted, he arrived there at the late of the night. A perfect timing for this mission. Most of the time, the troops and armies were unsteady around this time. They must be tired and sleep-less. Tokugawa castle was a huge one. It separated into 5 main buildings. Barracks, Weaponry, Security, Prisons, and then Tokugawa's own residence. The barracks and the weaponry were located at the left flank while the security and the prisons at the right. The Tokugawa residence was at the centre, and that was Sasuke's landing zone. The castle itself was surrounded by massive walls. Sasuke knelt down on one of the branch near the castle. He observed the field for one last time.

On the entrance, he could see four troops are guarding. But it's not matter anyway; he'd use the roof entrance. He closed his eyes and then concentrating his inner sense to detect the presence of the Iga ninjas. There are twenty-five scattered around the right flank, and eighteen at the left. At the residence's roof, he detected twenty ninjas were concealing themselves. At the outer roof near the entrance there were only six of them. Then around fifty ninjas were guarding the rear that he didn't give a damn because they wouldn't see anything from there. Sasuke sighed for the last time then he wore the scarf, covering his mouth and nose. Sasuke wore a mission suit that time, a black upper and lower. He wore long black pants, not shorts like he used to wear. He put off six kunais and wore it on his palm. "Let's rock." Then he leapt and merged into the darkness.

"Urk—"

"Akh—"

Six roof entrance guardians were downed easily with his kunais. All pierced right through their necks so that they could never warn the other with their voices. Then he preferred to use the ground entrance. The residence's roof was almost full with twenty ninjas, and there was no way Sasuke could kill them all without being noticed. He climbed down the wall using his rope and then starting to blend with the surroundings. He arrived right at the back of the entrance door and sensed nobody noticed him yet. Then he walked slowly blending with walls, avoid contact as much as he could. He also avoided many traps like kunais traps, hanging traps, and so on. While he's doing this, he could count about thirty troops had passed him and they were always saying random things, nobody was talking about the strategy or so. From this point, Sasuke could summarize that Ieyasu hadn't told his troops and armies about the plan. Or maybe he hadn't prepared that yet? Sasuke shook his head. There's no way a fox like him hadn't made up with something. He continued his walk and then he arrived at the outside of the residence.

The residence itself had a large main gate, guarded by four huge men and five ninjas that were patrolling around the walls, according from his sense. Three ninjas taking the clockwise direction, and the two took the contrary direction. Passing through the walls was almost impossible, as the twenty ninjas were scattered everywhere around the roof. A sudden figure that appeared on the top of the walls would be attracting them for sure. So he chose the ground entrance. He put off four kunais and then unsheathed his shibi'en.

When he felt that the ninjas were at the position that they couldn't sense or hear the sound of the falling body, he threw the kunais right at the huge men necks and killed them immediately. Then he walked slowly following the clockwise direction to meet the two ninjas. After he got the clear view of their position and their unsteadiness, he leapt toward them and then two heads were severed from their necks. He stood up again and then half running he tried to catch up with the other three. When he saw them, they were almost at the location of the huge men corpses were laying. He sped up, put off three shurikens, and then threw them right to their necks to decapitate their sounding ability first. The three actually sensed it then turned back. They blocked it and then unsheathed their swords.

"Who's—Ah…"

In the speed of lightning, Sasuke chopped their heads off from their unguarded back. After that, without wasting anytime he ran to the main entrance and then opened it a bit, to let his small body slipped through the gate. Before his eyes, stood the large Tokugawa residence and it was so big that he actually must hold his head up to see the height. Around the residence he could sense ten ninjas were patrolling but that wasn't bothering a Sarutobi Sasuke, the master of evasion. Then he silenced a bit, concentrating his sensing ability to detect any traps that might be used and also Ieyasu's position.

"Ah-ha, there you are, sly fox." He found Ieyasu was at the center of his own room, talking with someone that familiar to Sasuke. "Wasn't that… wasn't that… Tora…?" He actually recognized the other person. He was Benitora, a.k.a Tokugawa Hidetada. That would be good sign, because there was a high probability that they were talking about the plan. Moreover, there were only two occupants on that room so the conversation must be a secret one. He smiled and then started mobilizing.

He used his shurikens, kunais, and shibi'en very effectively to decapitate the ten ninjas that surrounding the residence without making any sounds and noticed. After wiping the blood stains on his eyes, he crawled silently and then masking his presence. He was getting closer to the room and then knelt silently at the ground. He silenced and focusing his concentration to hear the conversation.

"… that won't be work, father!"

"Why?"

"We could not win against him like that. I mean, Yukimura is genius and clever, and has such a strong-will. He won't give up just because his wife is pleading at him."

"No matter how genius and clever you are, you can not deny someone that you love, or ever, at least, when she's pleading at you."

"How do you know it? How can you be so sure?"

"Experience, Hidetada. Experience."

"I have fought alongside with him once, and I know he won't fall for that easily. You should consider other options, in case your plan is failed."

"I already have one, my son."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"I can't tell you now; you'll see it when the time comes. By the way tell that woman to prepare herself pleading Yukimura to surrender to me. If she refuses or anything just put her life to an end."

"As you wish, father…"

Then Sasuke felt Hidetada's presence was fading, he must be leaving the room. Sasuke punched the ground, feeling irritated of the plan. "I always knew that Yukimura shouldn't marry her!" he hissed silently then dropped his head and also his guard down. "What a bastard woman! Bitch! Whore! Slut!" he gritted his teeth with anger and tightened his fist on the ground. Honestly, Sasuke wasn't angry with the plan, but with that woman actually. He was jealous because Yukimura had another love beside him. When Yukimura was married, he wasn't attending the ceremony. His heart was too broken to see that. Because of that matter, he never liked the woman or the son. He hated both of them. He despised them, he cursed them. And now that woman wanted to betray Yukimura. Even though maybe it wasn't her will, Sasuke didn't care. He kept on thinking that the woman was even lower than Ieyasu. It was obvious that he hated her to her very soul.

"Hey! What is this?!"

Sasuke startled and then stopped immediately from his train of thought. At the main gate, he saw five troops were surrounding the corpses of the huge men. And then they rashly rang the emergency bell.

"Alert! Alert! Intruder! Armed and dangerous!" the men were shouting around the residence and then to entire castle. This situation obviously was unfavorable for Sasuke. His presence was already acknowledged. Knowing that he was in danger, immediately he stood up and started to run toward the main gate.

"I take it you've already heard my plan, Sanada ninja." A sound from his left side actually surprised him. And as he turned his head to that direction, a kunai was already stabbed on his left torso. Sasuke yelped a bit feeling a pain was starting to emerge from that fresh wound. It was deep but thank God it wasn't severe. Then he focused his sight once again to the attacker. His eyes widened when he saw Ieyasu was grinning and then ready to unsheathe his sword. But that wasn't the worst yet. Ieyasu whistled and in a flash the twenty Iga ninjas from the roof were coming down, ready to eat their wounded prey.

"Bastard! Damn woman!" on this situation Sasuke was somehow still threw his anger toward Yukimura's wife. He pulled the kunai from his torso and then threw it on the ground. Fresh blood was start seeping from the wound but he didn't care anymore. He unsheathed Shibi'en trying to block the flying shurikens and kunais toward him. From the main gate another thirty troops were starting to enter the residence and hunt down the intruder. Sasuke thought fast and then he leapt to the roof, which now was completely unguarded since Ieyasu commanded all of ninjas to get down previously. He ran across the residence and leapt to the main gate. The ninjas were trying to follow him but their speed was nowhere near the flying monkey. He kept on leaping toward the outer gate but another ten ninjas were getting on his way. He dodged all of their attacks and somehow got passed through them, hence, the master of evasion. Then he finally reached the entrance gate. He leapt and then landed safely on the other side of the wall—at least that was what he thought.

When his left foot ready to land on the ground, he wasn't feeling a soil there. It was a cold steel. But the biggest surprise wasn't coming yet; the steel in a flash was closing itself, stabbing Sasuke's foot with its big and keen trellis and a severe wound was already occurred. It stabbed deeply at his calf, blood bursting and the excruciating pain started to emerge. His eyes widened and then he screamed loudly. It was very hurt actually, even if you were a high-class trained ninja like Sasuke. He crawled with his remaining strength to take a seat and put his back on the wall. He observed what was stabbing his leg, and then he found that it was a bear trap. There's no way you could free yourself from the trap without someone's help. And if someone's actually helped him, he couldn't move his foot yet, let alone leaping. It was too severe and his flesh and nerves were still suffering from the wound. He tried to remove it, but it was merely futile, the trap was stabbed deeply to his flesh. He gave up and then he realized that he was just screaming out loud. The troops and ninjas must be had heard his voice and went to his direction.

He stared at his wounded foot with fear and his body was starting to tremble…