The group made their way to the Land of Hot Water, only taking a break when they passed through the borders. They only took a short break then before continuing on their journey. The speed at which they traveled allowed the group to arrive in the Land of Hot Water's capital the same night that they had left Kumo. But after reaching the town, they did not immediately go visit their target. Instead, they rented out a room across the street from their target. When they got to their room, Darui opened the window and began looking around as if he was a young tourist.

"C," Darui called out while looking at a pair of women running down the street, trying to get back to their inn since it was so dark outside

C put his hands together in the ram hand seal position while he closed his eyes. An invisible and undetectable pulse was emitted from him that scattered in all directions for about 200 meters.

"53 shinobi in this area. 3 of them are Jonin. 4 of the 53 are chunin I remember sensing on different missions that were from Kiri. Guessing by those with them, they have broken off into groups of 5 to find the target. We have about 20 Hunter-Nin in the area and there is a chance of more of them that are not with the people I recognize," C carefully analyzed the various shinobi in the area

Darui nodded before closing the window and laying down on the floor next to it. He set his back beneath his head to pretend like he was ready to sleep for anyone that may have been using sensing techniques to spy on him. The others began to take spots around the room acting as if they were getting ready for sleep as well.

"Then that means there is a chance that there are up to 40 or even 50 shinobi here unless we got lucky and found all the enemies in one area. This mission is even more dangerous than I thought."

Darui began thinking over the possible ways that they could extract the target as well as possible traps that could be laid out for them. This mission didn't seem like it would end without any blood being spilled, but he wanted to ensure that as little blood was spilled on their side.

"Everyone, we will be going with this plan as well as these contingency plans so listen up. We cannot afford to recount them during the mission in case the enemy can learn what we plan to do ahead of time."

Darui then began going over the several formations and plans he had come up with to ensure that the mission was a success He explained each part in detail and told the members how to act in case any of the scenarios he had come up with in his head turned out to be true. By the time he was done, it had already been an hour and the others were filled exhausted from all the new information and the travel wearing them down. Darui saw this and dismissed them all, allowing everyone to fall asleep.

The following day, the group woke up feeling refreshed and ready to move.

"Split into two groups. Me and C will get the target from his room. Yugito, Mabui, and Samui are to go by the gate and wait for us. Be sure that no one tries to impede us as we leave. Mabui is in charge."

The 5 left the inn's building and immediately sprinted off to their destinations. C and Darui raced up the stairs before using the secret signal to let the defector know that it was them.

Darui knocked on the door 3 times in rapid succession, paused for 3 seconds, knocked again once, paused for another 2 seconds, and then knocked two more times. He then waited for a few seconds before hearing the lock on the door being undone. The door was soon opened by a middle-aged man who had let his facial hair grow out wildly as if the stress from defecting from his village was affecting his mental health.

"Let's go, Torio. There might be enemies all around us. The rest of the team will meet us at the gates before we rush back to Kumo."

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"Got it," the man replied. He grabbed the pack he had before following Darui and C down the stairs and out of the building. They then began rushing toward the gates of the villages to meet up with the rest of the team. As they were moving down the streets, several shinobi started following them.

"C. Numbers?" Darui asked without slowing down or turning back

"You were right. We have 42 pursuing us. 2 directly behind us while the rest seem to be trying to encircle. They are keeping their distance though. Probably wanna ambush us when we get far away enough from the town so the local shinobi don't interfere."

"Then depending on their confidence level, we should hsv to deal with them anytime between 10 minutes and an hour from the village," the young team captain analyzed.

When they got to the gates, the trioe did not stop but the three girls were not surprised. As soon as they passed, they were on their tail. The team was not traveling as fast as they could because they had to match Torio's speed in order to not mess up possible formation or abandon him.

The group got in the star formation with the defector in the center will C taking point with Mabui and Samui following behind him on both sides, leaving Yugito and Darui to hold the rear. This was the standard shinobi formation for guarding a target with 5 members. Its point was to be able to affectively break off members of the group systematically to engage hostile forces while still providing a defensive formation that covered all the important angles.

The group was able to stay in this formation perfectly for about 45 minutes before C told them that the net was closing all around them while the pair at the rear were rapidly increasing their speed.

"Full stop!" Darui decided as soon as C reported the change. The group stopped in the middle of a small clearing without hesitation, only the defector kept moving for another step or two before turning around and rushing to the center of the formation.

"They see the speed we were maintaining and have set their ambush location for the spot we will be at 3 minutes from now. They have been using Torio's speed to plan the ambush ahead of time. We stop here, we are able to move around it. Samui, right, Mabui left. C keep the lead, Yugito, stay in the rear. I'll hold back the two pursuers so they are not able to follow the new trail. Go!"

The group got into the new formation and took off to the southeast before they planned to take one of the other paths back to Kumo. Darui was going to have to track them himself since they could not leave any markers but he still had a better chance fo finding them based on the paths they discussed before.

Darui unsheathed his bo staff before facing where the pursuers were coming from. And they had arrived in less than a minute.

"Just my luck. They sent 40 hunter-nin and the Heartless Pair together. Just what type of info does this guy have?"

Two shinobi appeared before Darui. Although he did not recognize the pair themselves, he did recognize the swords in their hands. Two of the seven swords belonging to the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

Nubari was a sword in the shape of a needle with a long thin wire that resembled thread attached to it. The other was Shibuki, a sword that had a scroll full of explosive tags incorporated into it, lined up behind the blade. And those two swords belonged the the most feared members of the 7 Swordsmen, Kushimaru Kuriarare and Jinpachi Munashi also known as the Hearltess Pair. The duo had committed countless crimes, whether it was towards enemy shinobi, civilians, or even allied shinobi.

Kushimaru was very thin and tall in stature, giving him a gangly appearance. He had long, shaggy, straw-blond hair and his face was concealed by a white, porcelain Anbu mask, with a green-coloured triangle on its lower half, slits for eye-holes and Kirigakure's symbol etched into the top. His attire consisted of a sleeveless black shirt, matching pants, complete with a waist-guard, and Kirigakure's striped wrist and leg-guards. He also wore bandages around his neck.

Jinpachi had long, brown hair, a long beard which he wore in strands adorned with beads and his lips were also noticeably dark in colour. The top of his head was wrapped in bandages, and he had an eye-patch covering his left eye, sprouting from under his Kirigakure forehead protector. He wore an extremely loose, long-sleeved pin-striped shirt and black pants, accentuated by the presence of striped leg-warmers matching his shirt as well as matching bandages around his neck.

"Hehehehe, we didn't get who were going after but we got the student of the 3rd Raikage. Means the others are the other brats under him. Should be enough to rattle that bastard," Kushimaru taunted

"You assholes sure are confident. You didn't even try to use Silent Killing to finish me off fast," Darui taunted, trying to probe for more information

"That's cause for someone who still smells like his mom's milk would be wasting my time to try and sneak up on you. If you were A Jr. like we were expecting, he would have been worthy of it. But not someone li..."

"Shut up, you dumbass! You always talk way too fucking much. Let's just deal with this brat," Jinpachi interrupted

"What you think, he's going to tell someone? Deadmen tell no tales," Kushimaru responded

"Hate to agree with one of you, but I will definitely re getting back to the village to report everything that happened during this mission and bring Torio back to Kumogakure," Darui interrupted their argument. Although he wanted to get more information, it seemed like he couldn't get anything out of either of them anymore.

The two men stopped arguing with each other before looking down on Darui from a treebranch. Neither of them said another word before stepping off the branch and appearing in front of Darui with the swords blades before them. Darui held his staff in front of him, clashing with pair as sparks flew threw the air.

"Don't get cocky, brat!" Jinpachi yelled

"I'll make sure to kill you slowly. I want to enjoy what I'm going to do to you."