The three of them traveled in silence for hours, each lost in their own train of thought as they jumped from tree to tree, their arms extended backwards as they moved along. They had acquired their different headbands for the mission, just as the Hokage had instructed.

Eito was unsure if whether the Hokage was taking too gentle a stance towards this whole situation. From his point of view, the safest venue of action, regardless of whether or not the other countries were making moves, was to capture Chizu for the Leaf without asking any questions. That way, they were both prepared for war if it indeed was imminent, and they were prepared to hand her over if all of this was a ruse.

If any of the other countries disagreed with that, it was their problem. Konoha had every right to strengthen itself against a war that it had not triggered.

He had been one of the shinobi assigned to investigate the shinobi of the leaf. Save for the few who had recently passed away from diseases, or on missions against pillagers and the like, everyone was accounted for.

That fact alone made it impossible for the Leaf to have been responsible for any of the attacks on the other countries.

"Guys," Kikori's calm voice called out to them. "I've been thinking about our shinobi count. Everyone's accounted for, so it's clear that Konohagakure is not responsible for what's been happening, but do you get the feeling the same can be said of the other countries?"

"Someone's responsible for this," Eito responded.

"But does it have to be someone from the countries? Maybe it's somebody else. Maybe it's the people from the Bijuu Shrine."

She drew their attentions without a struggle. The two men turned their heads slowly, landing their eyes on the kunoichi while they waited for her elaboration. Eito in particular started to see where she was going with it before she began.

"Think about it. All of the people who protect the Bijuu Shrine are descendents of the five countries. It would make sense that they have access to shinobi that specialize to each of the elemental releases."

"True," Eito responded.

"I understand that it can just as easily be one or two of the other countries, or even three, working together, but this other theory is just as likely, isn't it?"

"I would say it is," Izo interjected, finally immersing himself into the conversation.

"But why would the people at the Bijuu Shrine want this?" Izo inquired.

"That's the big question, and it applies to whoever is actually responsible for everything that's been going on. Why would anyone want war on such an extravagant scale?"

The three of them looked ahead again, each keeping in mind those last words that had been spoken.

"I get the feeling that very soon, we'll know who is responsible, too," Kokori finalized. "And I also believe that this chase for Chizu Uzumaki will either be the final push that sends the countries into a state of war, or it'll be what sheds the kind of light on things that'll convince everyone to relax."

Eito and Izo didn't know why, but as Kokori finished speaking, they each got the very same feeling that she was having. Now, it felt like there was much, much more weight settled atop their shoulders.

Their actions were going to decide what would happen.

"Sounds like we've got some responsibility here then," Izo said, expelling the contents of his diaphragm.

Then, as suddenly as that, his head turned to his left. His eyes went intense and focused. A very familiar sensation flooded him over. It sort of felt like an ethereal hand had reached out and swept across their vicinity. The moment that hand passed right through them, it faded away, leaving such a subtle signature that a lesser shinobi wouldn't be able to read it had ever even been there.

"We've been sensed," he declared, his voice hard. They all stopped immediately, the branches under their feet swaying up and down in response to their weight.

Eito and Kokori each turned their heads to him. They hadn't felt a thing, as it usually went. Eito didn't need to ask his subordinate how many there were before he began elaborating on their situation all on his own.

"I'm sensing seven of them. They've stopped. Looks like they're waiting to see what they're going to do."

Eito nodded his head.

Then suddenly, Izo's head tilted up. The same hand from before extended in their direction, sifting through the objects surrounding them. Before it reached them, his hands lifted, performing a series of seals that looked like nothing more than a blur before their existence subsequently melded with their surroundings. Each of their chakras seemed to become one with everything around them.

To the sensory shinobi that was attempting to find them again, there was nothing more than trees and grass where those three shinobi used to be.

"They're gone," Sekuna commented.

Around her, six Kirigakure shinobi stood, waiting on an elaboration from the one kunoichi in Kirigakure with the power of the Byakugan, which she had inherited from the shinobi called Ao, who took part in the last shinobi world war.

"They must be there somewhere, but they're not showing up."

Sekuna was a beautiful black haired shinobi in her early thirties, with the Byakugan implanted into her right eye. Her entire body was covered in a mesh bodysuit and over that, she wore a short-skirted blue kimono with an open flak jacket over it. Her thighs were covered in leather straps with pouches attached to them, where she carried her shuriken, kunai, and any other number of weaponry she may have used.

At first glance, there was something very imposing about her, but the very same could be said of the shinobi all around her.

What stood out the most about them, however, was something that Izo was unable to immediately see. Each of these seven shinobi, by seemingly by some form of nigh impossible coincidence, were not wearing the headbands of their respective villages. They, too, had come equipped with the headbands that the shinobi from the five country alliance once used so many years ago.

There was silence between all seven of them for a few minutes while she waited for something to happen. Six of them each seemed to look at Sekuna with a sort of patience that came when a subordinate was looking to a leader for instruction.

"Did they sense us?" Eito asked.

Izo kept his eyes down, focusing on what was going on. Then, he shook his head.

"The first time, yes. The second time, I doubt it."

"Good," Eito commented, bringing both his hands together to form the telltale cross seal of the shadow clone jutsu. Kokori turned to watch him, "What are you going to do?"

"Find out who we're dealing with," Eito answered.

When the shadow clone appeared, there wasn't even a poof noise. No smoke, either. The air in front of him distorted and an individual that resembled neither of them appeared, wearing clothes that were much, much more regular than what a shinobi would wear.

What Izo noticed most about this shadow clone was the distinct difference in the chakra flowing through his body when opposed to the chakra he sensed in Eito himself. These were the nuances that made this particular son of the Hatake family the inheritor of the Sharingan. He was so good with chakra manipulation that he could fabricate systems of them at random, and in other instances, he could use the power of the Sharingan to view another person's chakra and imbue it into a shadow clone that looked just like them, creating a clone that not even the Byakugan could distinguish from the person it was meant to imitate.

The most worrisome facet of that was that he could do it at a moment's notice. Even during battle. Izo was glad that Eito was from his village.

"Someone's coming," Sekuna finally commented. She found herself puzzled by the fact that the chakra that was headed in her direction didn't resemble any of the chakras that she had perceived minutes before.

"Three of us will wait here," she declared. "Kenji, Sora, Amaru, and Shosei will disperse and prepare for an assault. Okina, Bunshi, you stay here with me."

Four shadows did just as she ordered, flashing away into the forestry around her while Okina and Bunshi took their places beside her. Okina bore an uncanny resemblance to Sekuna, and even dressed the same way. Her hair was shorter and there was something about her facial features that made it clear that she may have been a decade, or close to it, younger.

Bunshi was a mountainous man with a thick, heavy body, who looked to be the oldest member of the group. His blue hair was spiked upward into a single point that his headband kept in place, his upper body was entirely bare, and his pants were simple, with no pockets in them to be seen.

He was peculiar in the sense that it appeared that he didn't bother carrying around kunai or shuriken, and was also peculiar in the sense that he carried an enormous weapon upon his back. It was one of the weapons used by the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist; the Helmet Splitter.

"Let's move," Eito ordered, moving away from the area while his clone approached its intended target.

"They're standing still. Looks like they're waiting for it," Izo assured.

"Good."

Sekuna was standing in wait when the figure finally stepped into her boundaries. He emerged from the forestry with a purpose, which made it clear that he was part of the three shinobi she sensed minutes ago.

He stopped twenty feet in front of them, glancing in their direction with a stoic expression until he found that their headbands were different. They were just like the ones the Konohagakure shinobi were wearing.

"Alliance headbands. That's a reassuring thing to see."

Sekuna's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean?"

"We're wearing those headbands as well."

"Bullshit," Bunshi cut in. "He's lying. If we let him leave, he'll probably tell his comrades to wear these headbands, too, so they can trick us."

The clone's eyes focused, coming to a regrettable understanding that the shinobi who were going to be in the area were going to be more on edge than he anticipated. Sekuna turned to glance at her subordinate once, and looked ahead again, "You must forgive Bunshi, even if he makes an abundant amount of sense. Why aren't you wearing a headband?"

"Because I'm a clone. I was sent here to assess, and I was crafted to avoid giving away details on where my commanding shinobi are from."

Bunshi watched on with as much scrutiny as before.

"We're here to secure Chizu Uzumaki, and assure her a safe return to the Bijuu Shrine."

"Bah! The Bijuu Shrine is responsible for everything that's going on!"

After Bunshi snapped, Sekuna turned to him again, "Bunshi." With just that gentle utterance, the mountainous shinobi seemed to relax. Once he went silent, she began, "It's true. It's very likely that the people from the Bijuu Shrine are responsible for everything that's been going on. We've no intention of bringing Chizu Uzumaki back to them."

"Then where will you take her? To your village?"

"Afraid so."

"We can't allow that."

Sekuna's hands raised, setting atop her hips, "Then it looks like your team and my team are on a collision course."

"At this rate, everyone's going to be on a collision course."

"Then let it be so. I'm certain that my village isn't responsible for these attacks. Every one of our shinobi and kunoichi is accounted for, so we haven't had any defectors. The only village I can trust is my own."

Kokori's words crossed his mind just then. It was starting to shape out the exact same way she predicted.

"None of our shinobi are missing, either. They're all accounted for."

"Sorry, but you can't expect us to believe you. It's just not how it works."

"If you don't plan on attempting to preserve the peace between the countries, why are you wearing those headbands? It makes no sense."

"This is our way of maintaining the peace. We'll secure Chizu Uzumaki in our village and refrain from using her as a weapon. If the rest of the countries cannot accept that, then we'll view it as an act of war."

Silence ensued between the four of them. Sekuna, just as Eito's shadow clone, was regretful of how black and white this conversation was. Deep inside, the two wished some modicum of trust could be reached, but with how everything had come along, the two teams felt there was no room for mistakes born of flawed trust.

Then, something rumbled.

Each of them stopped and started looking around. Specifically, they all looked towards the ground, and the rumbling increased. Sekuna lifted her hand, performing a seal. The following moment, the area surrounding her right eye became vascular.

Upon activating the Byakugan, she was able to see a sea of chakra beneath the ground, growing and expanding to encapsulate the entire area.

"Doton!"

No longer had she alerted her shinobi of the fact that there was about to be an earth release technique that pillars made of rock started rising from the ground. Some of them tilted diagonally, looking to smack some of their targets into other pillars, crushing them.

Everyone scattered, including the shadow clone, and Sekuna turned her eyes to see into the distance as she evaded the pillars. She was able to uncover her four other shinobi therein, all seemingly avoiding the pillars.

The rumbling lasted a total of ten seconds before the pillars went unmoving. Then, everything was deathly silent.

Most of everyone was standing on the tree branches, avoiding the ground, except for one person. A pile of water between those pillars raised until it formed a man; the water shinobi who went by the name of Kenji. He had avoided being impaled by using a water jutsu.

"Is everyone alright?"

Sekuna's words echoed through the distance when suddenly, those pillars exploded. They didn't burst into flames and force, no, but their splintering ushered in another stage of the large scale assault. Spikes erupted from each and every one of them, and Kenji, who had been within their confines that very moment, was swarmed by them.

"Uahhhhh!"

They heard him scream before the sound of earth spikes piercing through armor and flesh was heard. Blood splattered to the ground as the spikes all around him became his tomb.

"Kenji!" Shosei yelled.

Shosei was close friends with the man who had just died. They had grown up together as shinobi, and that much was easily noticeable in the despair that was suddenly present on her countenance.

"Kenji!" she yelled again.

"Where the fuck is the caster?"

Bunshi turned to his leader, Sekuna, who was busy looking in every direction. Beneath her, there was a brilliant pool of chakra that, at first, was simple. She realized that there was more to it than met the eye.

"The enemy is underground! They're hiding their exact location with that big splotch of chakra!" In the same breath, she turned to one of her shinobi and yelled out orders, "Shosei, flush them out!"

The kunoichi gritted her teeth, her hand lifting to brush tears out of her eyes while she descended to the ground. At the same time, her fingers rushed, forming seals until the moment her feet touched down.

Suiton, Earth Softening.

Her palms struck the Terra, and the jutsu began.

Water flooded the ground, sifting through the grains of dirt at an alarming rate, undoing the Earth beneath them and turning it to mud. Even the spikes dissolved, and she watched as Kenji sunk into her jutsu.

I'll make them pay.

For the time being, she managed to stay afloat by focusing chakra at the soles of her shoes.

The shinobi didn't have to wait long before the enemy showed their faces. Four figures burst out of the mud, covered in the substance. High up into the air they went. Sekuna turned her eyes upwards, watching as the droplets of mud lifted along with them.

Sora, the youngest member of the group, was the first to go on the offensive. His hands began forming seals.

Jokiton, Boiling Spray.

He drew in a deep breath that stretched out his chest and opened his mouth, releasing the powerful steam jutsu that was made possible with the water and fire releases. It wasn't a stream of water that erupted from his mouth. It was a vast legion of small droplets, hot enough to cause severe burns, spraying in the direction of the airborne shinobi. To them, it would be as if were raining droplets of fire.

The Doton shinobi didn't fail to move as well. Each began forming hand seals, but one wasn't on time. As the spray washed him over, it burned away his armor and reached his skin. Goblets of flesh peeled off his person mid air as the others brought their defensive jutsu to fruition.

One's skin turned to stone, and the others used the earth in the mud that was clinging to them to form barriers. Upon landing on the ground, steam was emanating from their respective defenses.

It was then that Bunshi moved, steam rolling through earthen barrier closest to him with the Helmet Splitter. He was an absolute flash, and it didn't help the doton practitioner that the weapon he carried was said to be able to shatter any defense.

On the other side, Bunshi found the satisfying sensation of cutting his adversary in half. Each of the halves hit the floor, sinking into Shosei's mud as Bunshi turned to face the rest.

Sekuna's voice shattered the battle.

"Hold your actions!"

Everyone stopped, but were surprised. Even the Doton shinobi appeared dumbfounded, but relieved at the same time. Once everyone was quiet and unmoving, she began, "Who are you?"

Eito's clone answered, "They're not from any village, from what I gather. They must be part of the shinobi group that's been trying to send everything into disarray."

"Who the hell asked you?" Bunshi answered.

"It would be wisest if you destroyed them before they capitalize on this time you're giving them."

Sekuna was hesitant, but the moment that the one with the hardened skin began forming seals again, she knew the clone was right.

"Finish them!"

The shinobi with the stone skin, whose name was Jinsu, appeared to be the leader of the doton practitioners. He was wearing a flak jacket with no shirt underneath it, and his head was shaven bald. He had an intense, vile gleam in his eyes.

Before he could finish his seals, he heard the sound of water rushing, as if along a river. He turned his head to see and found himself face to face with a water stream. It was originating from Amaru's mouth, a pale skinned shinobi with a scar on his forehead, and long black hair.

Jinsu gritted his teeth and let the water wash him over. He stood against it like a rock, the water splitting to either of his sides. Everyone was surprised to see that he was still standing in the same area.

Meanwhile, Eito's clone remained on the sidelines, gathering as much information on the fight.

Gotcha, Amaru thought.

His fingers burst into movement.

Suiton, Flash Stream.

Upon completing the jutsu, his body disappeared, drawn into the water that he had fired in the direction of his enemy. He appeared in front of Jinsu in the blink of an eye, emerging from the water that was still lightly streaming around him.

The clone's eyes widened.

That's fast.

From Amaru's sleeve, a blade emerged, and he extended it out towards Jinsu. A moment before reaching, electrical circuitry began dancing atop the blade.

Shit, Jinsu cursed.

His hand grasped Amaru's wrist, avoiding the lightning and stopping it before it reached him. Amaru's eyes narrowed.

Almost had him.

Jinsu began falling back, the armor letting him escape the way a butterfly abandons its cocoon. His hands erupted into a sequence of seals as the stone armor drew Amaru into its grasp, entrapping him in a tomb of stone that angled the raiton imbued blade away from it, much to his surprise.

Doton, Earthen Maiden.

The armor splintered, encapsulating Amaru in a plethora of spikes, the same way that Kenji had been caught. All his comrades heard was a scream, and all they saw was his head dislodging from the rest of its body. His sword dropped to the floor.

Sekuna's eyes narrowed, This guy's dangerous.

Just then, Jinsu's only remaining comrade performed a series of seals that resulted in a quartet of pillars rising from the muddy floor that Shosei had created. When they reached their apex high in the sky, each of them splintered, firing earthen daggers at each of the Kirigakure shinobi.

At that point, the Byakungan user had had enough. Her knees bent and she fired herself forth, speeding through the field as her hands hastily conjured together the seals that would give her jutsu its identity.

Juryoton, Singularity.

The technique was made manifest just as she crossed the space beside each of the Doton practitioners. It resulted in a field of attraction, with her at the center of it, that discriminated the objects in its surroundings. In this case, it drew in the earthen splinters that were threatening her shinobi, and did so at frightening speeds, forcing them to rip the two Doton practitioners to shreds on their way towards her and protecting her subordinates in the process.

Jinsu exploded into a pile of rocks and the last shinobi was torn to pieces by his jutsu. Those spikes stopped following after Sekuna once she deactivated the jutsu. From there, it took a long few seconds for it to settle that the fight was over. They had lost two comrades already.

The shadow clone watched on intently, astounded with how powerful these shinobi were. He figured that since they specialized in water jutsu, they were more than likely from Kirigakure.

Standing there atop the branch, Sekuna turned her eyes to him specifically.

"Whoever they are, it looks like they're after Chizu Uzumaki now as well. If it were really the people from the Bijuu Shrine, why would they allow one of their Jinchuuriki to step out of their boundaries, knowing they'll have to retrieve her from the other countries if they do? Not to mention it, Chizu Uzumaki bears Kurama within her, the strongest of them all."

"It doesn't matter," Sekuna answered. "We're bringing Chizu to our village and that's going to put as at odds with you. Furthermore, you've seen too much."

He heard movement behind him. Before anything could be done, a kunai was inserted into his spine, and the shadow clone disappeared. Okina emerged from behind him, glancing down at her sister with her eyes narrowed.

The five Kirigakure shinobi convened around Sekuna now that the fight was over.

Upon receiving that noteworthy stream of information, Eito came to a stop. Kokori and Izo did, too, and glanced at him, knowing that he had likely just received important information from his shadow clone.

Without waiting long, he explained to them every facet of the fight that he had seen.

Kokori was the first to speak, "Joryuton and Jokiton, huh. And the Byakugan? Sounds like we've got a lot of trouble ahead of us."

"At this rate, if we can't get Kirigakure to cooperate, we're going to have to make bringing Chizu home the first priority. If we don't, they will," Eito answered. "But for now, we worry about locating Chizu and keeping a low profile. We don't want to get involved in a fight. We're counting on you, Izo."

"Yes sir," the blonde responded. "I'll keep us out of trouble, damn sure."