The Kumo ninjas were horrified at the sight of hundreds of Explosive tags coming at them. Many Kumo ninjas began running away. A few escaped underground.

Darui, C, Samui and another Jounin had grim faces. They immediately made hand signs and cast a Lightning net in front of them. A few Explosive tags hit the Lightning net and were disabled. However, soon the explosive tags began exploding just before touching the lightning net. The lightning net was damaged by the explosion. The Kumo jounins increased the amount of chakra they poured into the Lightning net to repair it and make it hold on.

However, the number of Explosive tags was too high. The Lightning net was soon ripped apart. The Kumo ninjas immediately escaped into the ground. As soon as they did, the explosions covered the entire place!

A loud sound could be heard for miles around the spot where the explosion occurred. Trees, branches and stones were sent flying by the explosion. A smokescreen of dust, soil and smoke spread for hundreds of meters. A massive Fire lit up and spread through the forest at a rapid speed. The smoke raised due to the forest fire could be seen from all the nearby villages.

After a couple of minutes of the explosion, a head popped out of the ground. It was Darui. Soon, C, Samui and the other Jounin appeared out of the ground. All their faces had been covered in dust. Soon, 8 more Kumo ninjas also crawled out of the ground or ran back towards where Darui was.

C couldn't help but mutter, "What a crazy guy. Who carries so many explosive tags with them?"

The other Kumo ninjas were cursing Fujin too.

Darui looked at C and said, "Sense the position of others."

C nodded and began sensing. He led the other Kumo ninjas to where the missing Kumo ninjas were and began treating them one by one.

Meanwhile, Darui and Samui began checking what happened to Fujin. Samui said, "I should have warned you. Another one of them killed himself the same way."

Darui said, "It's not your fault. There was barely any time. Besides, considering the number of Explosive tags he had, we can say that he always planned to die in this way."

They arrived at the spot where Fujin and Tamotsu were before the explosion went off. They didn't find anything interesting at first. However, soon a shock appeared on their face.

Samui said, "There is nothing here."

Darui nodded, "Yeah, even though the explosions were powerful, at least their blood and bones should have remained here."

Samui said, "This means that he escaped. No, they escaped!"

Anger formed on Samui's face. Kumo had taken a lot of casualties in this confrontation. By comparison, Konoha only lost 3 ninjas.

Soon, a man arrived at their location along with 7 ninjas. He was Hari. He had watched the fight between Fujin and Darui but had to escape in a hurry when he saw the explosive tags. Hari asked, "Who was that lunatic brat?"

Darui replied, "He never told his name."

Hari asked, "Is he dead?"

Darui said, "Most likely not. He was standing here before the explosives went off but there are no signs of blood or remains. He probably escaped just before the explosions went off."

Hari frowned. He analyzed for a minute before saying, "When we saw those Explosive tags, it attracted all our attention. He must have flickered right before the tags exploded. And he carried the other Konoha ninja with him."

Samui said, "We need to hunt him. I'll form a squad and go after him."

However, Hari shook his head and said, "No, it's already been around 5 minutes since the explosive tags exploded. He should have escaped a long distance."

Samui countered, "His chakra was depleted and he is carrying an injured ninja with him."

Hari replied, "It's fine. Though I didn't expect us to have such a heavy loss, the goal of this mission is to see what action Konoha takes after knowing that we took a mine that should have been under their control. I planned to leak the information later, but this is fine too. That youngster will report what happened here to the Hokage and do that task for me. For now, assist C in saving and healing all the injured ninjas."

Darui and Samui nodded and began helping C. After a few hours, they healed all the injured ninjas and tallied their losses. In all, 14 ninjas died during the fighting, 3 were critically injured and wouldn't be able to continue being a ninja and 13 were lightly injured. All the dead and critically injured ninjas were of the Chunin rank.

Hari sighed on knowing the losses as he realized, 'My plan was to cause losses to Konoha and see their reaction to it. However, on the first step of my plan, we faced a setback. Now there will be voices of opposition in Kumogakure on starting a war with Konoha.

After all, just a small clash caused us so many losses. Everyone will be worried about how many losses we will suffer when we face the full might of Konoha. Still, Lord Raikage should be able to push forward for war if he wishes to.'

Far away from the Kumo ninjas who were healing their wounds, Fujin was running across the Land of Hot Springs. In his hand, he was holding Tamotsu. The wound on his left thigh was cauterized and bandaged while the other wounds were just bandaged so that blood won't fall from his wounds.

A few hours ago -

When Fujin was surrounded by 400 Explosive tags, he exhaled a gentle wind that guided all the explosive tags towards the Kumo ninjas. At the same time, he created a Wind clone to control the explosive tags and grabbed Tamotsu by the back of his neck and used Wind Instantaneous Body jutsu to flicker a long distance away. He repeated the jutsu a few times to end up miles away from the spot of the explosion.

He turned around to see the massive smoke rising into the skies from that spot as he thought, 'I have one spiked shield and one normal shield in my forearm bracers. In addition, I have put both my swords in there as well. But I couldn't come up with any good ideas on what to store in the remaining 4 seals. Luckily I filled them up with Explosive tags just in case I needed them.

I still have 200 more tags. If they chase after me, I'll use them to scare those Kumo ninjas off. But first...'

He took out a bottle and put a few soldier pills in his mouth. He made a hand sign and a shadow clone appeared next to him. He picked up Tamotsu and all 3 began escaping again. As they were running, the shadow clone burned the wound on his left leg so that the bleeding would stop. He also applied some bandages to his smaller wounds.

Fujin ran, flickered, and used Wind and Earth Instantaneous Body jutsus for over an hour before taking a break. He was very exhausted. His clone bandaged Tamotsu properly and dispelled itself.

Fujin looked at the unconscious Tamotsu as he thought, 'I had initially thought of escaping by myself. Carrying him is a big burden. But, the last time Kumo did a foul play, Hiruzen sacrificed Hizashi to avoid a war. If Kumo cried foul again and Hiruzen decided to compromise once more, I would have been the one to be sacrificed if I returned alone.'

A frown appeared on Fujin's face. During the escape, this thought troubled him a lot. He analyzed, 'The thought of going rogue has appeared in my mind several times in the last hour. But, though I am strong, without Konoha's resources and library, my future path will be highly restricted if I go rogue.

Not to mention, I might be hunted by both Konoha and Kumo. And if by chance I survive and get stronger, Akatsuki might show up asking me to join them. Sigh, what a mess.'

His eyes wandered towards Tamotsu, 'He has lost his left leg. So his career as a ninja is pretty much over. If Hiruzen decides to sacrifice someone, sacrificing him would make much more sense than sacrificing a promising youngster. The only issue with this line of thought is that Tamotsu is from the Sarutobi clan. If Hiruzen has a soft spot for his clan and isn't willing to sacrifice them, my head will be on the chopping block.'

Fujin sat in meditation as he decided on his next actions. After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and decided, 'I will go back to Konoha. Despite losing the Uchiha clan, Konoha's strength should be stronger than 4-5 years ago. So it's unlikely that Hiruzen will take the same step. Even if he decides to compromise, he will first offer the chakra metal mine to Kumogakure. And that should be more precious than the head of any ninja. Also, I doubt Kumogakure would want the head of a young ninja over a chakra metal mine.

However, if Hiruzen does decide to put up the same question in front of me as Hizashi, I'll act sad but determined and ask for some time and escape from Konoha during that time. Though it will be very risky, the alternative isn't risk-free either.'

Having rested, Fujin stood up and looked at the sky while thinking, 'Hiruzen, you better not disappoint me this time.'

He picked up Tamotsu and began his journey once more. He had figured that the Kumo ninjas weren't chasing him or were too slow. So he moved at a consistent speed to ensure that his body doesn't get tired once again. He moved for hours and finally sighed in relief as he stepped into the Land of Fire.