In Naruto: Reborn with Talent

"Why do I have to do this?" Anko petulantly mumbled to herself while pulling out a knife from the neck of her recent victim, some no-name Otogakure ninja who was unluckily patrolling the area around their 'hidden' camp. "I just demanded to see my cute underlings fighting. Why did Lady Tsunade have to pull her 'old scary hag' persona and shout at me until I agreed to do this." She childishly pouted.

"Never took you for the self-pitying type." Kakashi quietly said with a fake cheer in his tone as he landed on the tree branch next to hers. "Wouldn't you get the full experience once your shadow clone in the arena poofs? I have no idea why are you so melodramatic. Is it already that time of the month?"

"Fuck you, Hatake." Anko hissed, mindful of keeping her tone low as her cheeks slightly reddened. Her unamused look, however, told Kakashi enough. He knew he was in deep shit once they returned from this mission.

But...

"I wouldn't be against." Kakashi victoriously eye-smiled at her.

Since they were sneaking towards the enemy camp, Anko couldn't beat him up or scream at him. He had to milk the situation for all it was worth, consequences be damned, no.

He at least had enough presence of mind to jump away from her, not waiting for her reply. Taunting Anko was already ridiculously dangerous for his continued good health. There was no need to overdo it.

Anko watched with her narrowed eyes Kakashi's retreating back... before she smirked. The bastard was indeed deserving of his rank. He had balls of steel. Even after so many beatings from her, he was still not cowed and from time to time showed it.

'Well, I guess working with him wouldn't be interesting otherwise.' She thought and suppressed her urge to shake her head. 'I'll ignore it for now.'

Her group still had to destroy two hidden camps to finish off all of her assigned seven. She wondered how would Orochimaru's expression look when he realized there would be no reinforcements coming from outside of Konoha.

The only thing he can depend on once Lady Tsunade's and Shikaku's plan succeeds will be the Oto ninjas who sneaked inside of Konoha in the guise of civilians but... there was a plan for that too.

Sometimes Anko wondered if the real snake of the Sannin team was not Lady Tsunade. She definitely did not use her cunningness a lot but when she started...

Anko sheepishly smiled, remembering the simple yet efficient battle strategy that was explained to the ANBU units and a few loyal jonins who participated in this secret Otonin extermination mission.

'I gotta finish this soon if I want to be back in Konoha for the final clash with Orochimaru. No way in hell I am letting anyone else than me kill him!'

And with that, she jumped after Kakashi, her eyes gleaming with ruthless determination.

That day the forests around Konoha were stained in blood but their peacefulness remained intact.

...

"These trackers and assassins from the Uzushio village are quite the scary bunch. I wonder how Lady Pakura managed to get them to help us with this." Sasori quietly grumbled as he walked next to Shun Riku on the helm of a unit of two hundred Suna puppeteers who were currently trekking through the mountains.

Two hundred was a small number for an army but a massive amount of effort, planning, and resources were used in order for them to stay unnoticed. That was only possible because every single of these two hundred puppeteers was a jonin level ninja.

There was also a division of tessenjutsu users comprised of the best wind users of Suna numbering hundred and fifty in total coming from a different direction and a hundred best ANBU taking yet another route towards their target.

'If this goes awry we will be so fucked.' Sasori mentally groaned.

They were deep in the enemy territory with numbers not reaching even five hundred. Direct confrontation was definitely not on the table but if everything went as planned, their victory was assured.

He thought getting to their target unnoticed would be the hard part but...

"Does it even matter?" Shun Riku smirked, "We can barely notice their presence and even then it is because we know they are here, killing every nearby patrol. They are doing a scarily good job considering the terrain. And here I thought it is Kirigakure that focuses on this kind of thing. It is good they are only escorting our force and helping us stay unnoticed. Letting them fight our battles too much would be a blow to our pride as Suna ninjas."

"Hmph, you just want to try your new remotely controlled puppets." Sasori clicked his tongue at her before inaudibly mumbling, "Just my luck to be working under this battle maniac and Suna fanatic."

It was really pissing him off a person like this, a person with no sense for art was the best puppeteer of Suna. But he had to grudgingly admit her abilities and reluctantly give her the due respect.

He might not like being number two but... the bitch was too good with her puppets. He could only bear it for now.

He decided to clear his head of unnecessary matters. Just one more mountain and they will completely reach their destination and their target, the Iwagakure, will become visible.

But really... what was Tsuchikage thinking, taking a sizeable force from his village to aid Orochimaru's invasion of Konoha?

He was practically begging to be invaded in return!

...

All twenty-one Kirigakure's Swordsmen were gathered in a house in the residential area of Kumogakure.

Each of them infiltrated the village in their own way, making a game out of it to see who could get inside faster and with the least fuss.

When people saw someone like Zabuza, they would never think he would be great at this and honestly, most of Kiri Swordsmen were the same, each having his or her own weird quirk that would make them noticeable in the crowd but...

It was entirely too easy to forget Kirigakure prided itself on its assassins. Every member of the Kirgakure's Swordsmen mastered the art of assassination. Infiltrating Kumogakure did prove a bit challenging but in the end, every one of them pulled it off.

Unlike Pakura, Ringo did things her way in her village. While Pakura tried to create an army of ninjas that could work together as one cohesive unit, Ringo still kept the old idea of 'special' units going strong and supported the Kirigakur's Swordsman, using a position among them as a reward and recognition for the best of the best from Kirigakure.

For each of them, she crafted a special sword. Well, except those who wielded one of the original seven swords like Raiga Kurosuki who fought with the other swordsmen and proved himself the strongest of them despite being a newcomer.

Hence, he earned the position of leader.

"So? Will you finally tell us our mission? I doubt we had to get inside of Kumo just to have a dick-measuring contest among ourselves." Zabuza asked and looked at Raiga, voicing out the thoughts of every single member of the group.

They were not told about their mission beforehand. The ideology of their village might have changed drastically but Kirigakure still viewed its ninjas as tools. They just stopped recklessly sacrificing them for every small gain since Ringo became the Mizukage.

That meant, the Kirigakure Swordsmen knew the mission in front of them was completely manageable for their skill level. Ringo never gave them a mission they could not fulfill. But that didn't mean they were informed of details they did not need to know.

In this case, they were kept in dark in order to prevent information leakage, and honestly, they were fine with that. It was just a part of their job.

Raiga chuckled, "Impatient as ever, Zabuza. This mission will be to your liking though. We are to simply cause chaos and sabotage the important facilities of Kumo."

The room abruptly descended into deafening silence.

"Are you for real?" Zabuza spoke first. "Just the twenty-one of us?" He was quite a in disbelief. This sounded too much like a suicide mission.

Still... from what he was seeing on the expression of his companions, they felt exactly like him. Utterly excited about this kind of challenge.

He didn't doubt his face sported the exact same grin as theirs.

"Yes." Raiga confirmed while approaching the table in the middle of the room and taking out a map from a storage scroll. "Raikage is in Konoha alongside quite a few of his strongest ninjas." He smirked and started pointing to places on the map, "Our hunter ninja division, ninjutsu heavy hitters, and mist genjutsu specialists are already encamped around Kumo. Don't ask me how. Uzushio seal masters are apparently very crafty. That's all I know about it. Anyway, we are just a distraction before the main attack. So? Are you happy with this mission?"

He was obviously speaking to everyone gathered in the room, not just Zabuza, but from their expressions it was self-evident.

'Heh. Bunch of muscleheads. Of course, they are happy.' Raiga inwardly snorted. 'This mission is dangerous but... We wouldn't have it any other way.'

After all, the Kiri Swordsmen loved the thrill of their profession.. No one remained sane after reaching their level of power.