Ringo released a sigh of relief as she laid the body of the last chunin in the first defense line soundlessly on the ground. She could feel how rusty she became at this during the years of war and the half-year she spent in the Uzu Islands with Rei. Normally, she would not even feel weary but now... now she was actually a bit annoyed because her instincts were a bit delayed. She almost alerted the enemy to her presence on three separate occasions, which was unforgivable in her opinion.

'The more I train with Mei, the louder in my approach I become. Sigh, that girl is really a very bad influence on me, isn't she?' Ringo bitterly smiled, walking up the wall until she crouched upside down on the ceiling, sneaking deeper into the cave. ​​

'Rei said the Rin-woman managed to run away but I see no way she could do such a thing with all these ninjas around. The Mizukage must be bonkers if he really wants to unleash Sanbi in Konoha. Sure, some tree-huggers would die but Konoha would gain Sanbi which in turn would surely be an unimaginable loss in the opinion of the Council. What is the old coot thinking he is doing?'

Ringo mulled over the actions of the Third Mizukage as she silently walked on the ceiling, high above the heads of Kiri jonin. It was quite easy to avoid any and all sentries when she knew the protocols and how Kiri trained their jonins and ANBU to counter this exact way of infiltration. Hence, it didn't take long for Ringo to be behind the second line of defense, the one manned by jonins. She turned around and started looking for lone targets.

Ringo knew she would be unable to terminate every jonin and ANBU but the success of her mission depended on the number of Kiri ninjas she would be able to dispatch without anyone noticing. She only needed to thin the proverbial herd in order to create an opening for herself.

After three minutes of searching, Ringo scored. She found two jonin going at it like rabbits in a remote area of the cave. Needless to say, the man and woman could only look at each other in shock as her sword ran them both through.

'I am really good at connecting people's hearts, am I not?' Ringo smirked but it didn't last long before she noticed the man pissed himself as he died... right into the woman and Ringo grimaced. 'I didn't need to see that to lead a happy life.'

Ringo hopped onto the ceiling again and searched some more through the jonin area.

Her next target was two men playing cards in a room sculpted into stone. Obviously, these were the highest-ranked jonins since they were here only to observe and command. Not like it helped them when Ringo appeared crouching on the table and before they could even widen their eyes, each of her two swords removed one head. Thankfully she didn't need to worry about the sound of falling bodies since they were in a quite remote area of the cave system.

"These chakra hiding and self-soundproof seals of Rei are plain cheating." Ringo pouted a bit before gathering all valuables, weapons, and exploding tags from the corpses. Not like they would actually need them anymore.

Ringo proceeded with her mission. Creating a lighting clone to kill via quick shock, wrapping her fist in lighting chakra and ramming it from the back through the chest of one ninja, using her swords for quick kills, or simply throwing a shuriken or kunai at a vital place fast enough for her victim to be unable to react... She managed to kill twelve Kiri jonin out of thirty-six. She counted...

Honestly, not everything was that smooth. Many of them noticed something off but thankfully her instincts and experience were good enough for her to dispatch them before they alerted others.

But...

"Now the hardest part, huh?" Ringo frowned.

She knew ANBU were specially trained for this. She also knew she could not keep the fact that some jonin disappeared hidden for long. Moreover, she had no idea what kind of tracking Jutsu bullcrap would the ANBU have. For all she knew, they might already be alerted to her presence and preparing despite the jonin being utterly oblivious. After all, only very skilled trackers can ever make it into Hunter Squads of Kiri ANBU, and that most of the time means some special type of Jutsu for such things.

Ringo moved towards the ANBU area, this time not on the ceiling because she knew the ANBU would be too careful for her to let her sneak on the ceiling. While the jonins were occasionally looking up, the ANBU would have hidden sentries posted even on the ceiling and the walls. In fact, it was a standard procedure.

'This might be a bit of pain in the ass...' Ringo mentally grumbled as she spotted no less than four ANBU guarding every single of the three entrances to the third and final defense line in the cave.

Two stood right in the middle of the corridor while one was above them on the ceiling, hiding in the shadows... but it was the last ones who worried Ringo. They were hardest to find for the sole reason of being members of the Hozuki clan which meant they hid in a puddle of water near the wall slightly behind the two ANBU guards standing in the corridor.

'If I want to get through I will have to either soundlessly kill the guy on the ceiling in a way that won't alert anybody... bah, that's impossible!' Ringo whined.

This set-up was incredibly well thought out. The guy on the ceiling watched the entire corridor from above, and that meant he had his eyes always planted on the two 'obvious' guards below him. The guy in the puddle however served more as an ambusher for any idiot who made it this far and was incompetent enough to not spot an unnatural puddle on the ground.

No laughing! It actually happened more often than not in the shinobi world!

The real problem was the puddle guy had a clear line of sight on the guy on the ceiling at any given moment. Meaning no matter who Ringo attacked, the other three would be alerted the second she showed up.

After ten minutes of observation and consideration, Ringo decided to go for the middle path.

The guys on the left one looked a tad bit too familiar with each other... not due to how they acted but due to how deceptively relaxed they were in each other's presence. ANBU never took their guard down, not even towards other ANBU but the guys there trusted the others which meant they had a fair share of missions together under their belt which in turn meant their teamwork was better which... would be bothersome and could cost Ringo precious seconds.

The ANBU guarding the right path, on the other hand, were certainly not familiar with each other. Their senses were so high-strung one almost noticed Ringo with the corner of his eye before she stepped back into the shadows. She had to be still for an entire minute for the guy to finally decide it was just his imagination. The fact there were over thirty jonin and even more chunin ahead surely had a value in him deciding not to check more closely. Sneaking on these guys would be a plain bother.

That left Ringo only with the middle path which was still troublesome but clearly, the puddle guy was not familiar with his teammates and was alert, the guy on the ceiling had hots for the female standing guard in the corridor and his gaze lingered on her from time to time while the woman and the man standing next to her in the middle of the corridor were clearly former teammates since they were relaxed to each other. These guys had their guard up too but their teamwork would not be as good as the guards on the left nor were they as alert as the ANBU on the right path.

Ringo narrowed her eyes and joined her hands into a hand seal as a plan formed in her mind. Clearly, she would not avoid the fight and the fact the missing jonin would be noticed sooner or later made the decision for her. She could only confront them.

"Let's do this... Kage Bunshin No Jutsu." She whispered.