“My team and I will escort you to the coast,” Genma repeated. “Your mission here is over. Tsuto is no longer in need of your protection.”

“You'll understand if I don't take your word for it,” the Mist leader said. “Even if Tsuto is dead—which, if he is, nice job killing one of your own—he still owes us travel expenses. It's not cheap to reach the mainland, you know.”

“Tsuto is dead, and the Tsuto estate no longer has the funds to pay for your services,” Genma said. “But as the Hokage’s representative, I’ll front you the fare back to Water Country.”

The leader’s eyes narrowed, and she glanced back to her orange-haired colleague. “Moto, doesn't that sound like the Leaf nin stole our fee?”

“Sounds like,” he grunted. Steel points that hadn’t been there a moment before glinted between his fingers.

“Nakeda, what do you think of thieves who won't even show their faces?” the captain asked.

The masked woman looked Genma up and down, eyes glittering. “That it doesn't surprise me from a Leaf. If they came to our land, I wouldn't just stand and talk about it.” Her katana tip lifted into the scorpion pose.

The captain smiled, showing a mouth full of Kirigakure’s trademark file-pointed teeth. “Agreed. Pay us everything, ANBU-san. And we'll think about leaving.” She took a step forward, a curve-edged kunai in each hand.

Genma didn’t need to give any orders—Ryouma materialized at his right elbow, looming out of the dark with as much sinister presence as Iebara was projecting from the back of the Mist squad. At his left, he felt Kakashi’s icy-fierce chakra, killing intent rising like the crest of dawn.

“I’ll let you rethink that,” Genma said, pitching his voice low. “Turn around, Kirigakure. You do not want to pick a fight with ANBU. The Hokage’s vengeance won’t end at Fire Country’s borders.”

The skies opened up as if to underscore his threat, sheeting down in torrents. Lightning flickered, and the Mist captain hesitated, meeting Genma’s eyes through his mask. She reholstered one of her kunai, and raised her hand to draw her team into a conference.

“You make a good point. Allow me to discuss this with my squad, ANBU-san.”

They huddled together, and for a heartbeat, Genma caught a breath. This woman was smart. Mist didn’t want a war with Konoha, no matter how badly they might want Tsuto’s hoard. He could hear muffled argument over the din of the storm, but it seemed cooler heads were prevailing.

Kakashi didn’t say anything, but his attention was riveted on Iebara. He must have recognized the Bingo Book target when Genma did.

Ryouma shifted his weight slightly, leaning a little closer to Genma. “Are we seriously going to talk our way out of a fight?”

”Yes,” Genma hissed. Out of this fight? Definitely.

Ryouma twitched a surprised glance at Genma, then his masked head tipped back as he studied the Mist ninja. “Recognize someone?” he asked.

Genma nodded once, sharply, and held a hand up for quiet. He couldn’t hear what the Kiri ninja were saying and he doubted they had heard Ryouma, but caution was a shinobi’s best weapon.

The rain continued to bucket down, scouring rivulets of white through the sticky blood coating Ryouma’s and Kakashi’s armor. Kakashi’s hair dripped red-stained water as the rain sluiced away the gore, leaving silver in its wake.

Iebara’s head came up, tattooed stare fixing on Kakashi for a blazing moment. Then he was a blur. The Mist captain shouted a curse.

All three ANBU reacted, but none quickly enough. Iebara materialized between Genma and Ryouma, slashing both men’s shoulders open as he rushed past them to his real target. Genma spun, falling, reaching for a handful of senbon, but his arm wouldn’t move. A bright ribbon of blood streamed away from his cut shoulder, arrowing through the falling rain like a living thing. A second blood-snake joined it, sourced from Ryouma’s lacerated shoulder. They laced around Kakashi’s unarmoured throat, tightening like a garotte.