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???'s POV (Nearby Hiruzen)
"Please just surrender next time. It is always a bother to hunt spies down."
There was a grunt of effort and surprise as the Hokage's words left the tent. The group of four quickly began to scramble, each realizing their escape had become the number one priority. But even as their feet left the ground, an angry voice belted out a jutsu faster than two of the spies could react.
"Fire Style: Roaring Breath of the Dragon.'' Shisui uttered as a massive writhing dragon of flame burst from the tent's wall the spies had been next to. It incarcerated the tent nearly instantly and caused steam to rise off the snow. The two slower spies manage to dodge its initial arrival, however mid air as they were helpless when the dragon eyed them, and with almost a lazy indifference huffed out a jet of flames, coated both in what seemed to be a flowing river of flames. The spies could scarcely scream out, the flames smothering and incinerating them near instantly.
The other two landed a short distance away from the burning death of their allies. Neither being foolish enough to attempt to fight or save their allies they both raced for the forest, each using a body flicker to reach the edge of the forest near in mere seconds. The dragon, having noticed their fleeing, took a breath before unleashing another inferno which pursued them into the forest. Both scrambled desperately branch from branch to avoid the inferno. They quickly outpaced the flames and made good distance. Only suffering small cuts and burns from their desperate scramble.
They both somewhat were able to breathe easier, with them having covered a decent distance during the scramble and the flames covering their escape; they were likely out of the woods for now.
The group leader signaled for them to split up and reunite at the established meeting spot with the lead commander. It was clear their enemies had expected there to be spies even in the exams. And while they could not be traced to the overall group, their information was much too valuable for them to be unable to reach their leader.
Both prepared to split off, nervously looking to the distant flames. Surely, a shinobi that popular would pursue them further, if not Anbu, whose attention had been drawn from the powerful shinobis' jutsu. But they had made great distance, with a whole forest to search. Surely, whoever sought to find them would have to struggle. With so much ground to cover and the possibility of them using jutsu to escape, finding them was nearly impossible.
"It seems the old man had been correct to think the Leaf would allow such terrible things to happen," the leader said morosely. "With their previous sins during the last war, I'm almost certain this will lead to the slow and painful death of the peace we've enjoyed so far."
"So be it." The younger man spat back. "Those damn hippies nearly crippled us in the last war. Not to mention that damned blonde bastard that had cost us it. As far as I'm concerned this is good news. Maybe this will motivate that damn fence sitter to make a move."
"It is nothing short of awful news." The older man countered. "You did not see the wars of the past. You do not know of the great toll everyone pays during such. Nor the generations of pain and hatred it breeds." The leader stopped his lecture seemingly freezing in place. His younger subordinate flinched as he witnessed the forest fire in front of them stopped instantly, as if an unseen giant had simply blown it out. In fact the younger man could even feel a gust of wind push through the forest.
"The hell! Hey leader, what the hell was that, and what's wrong?!" the younger man asked. His leader seemingly stunned for an unknown reason. Then, suddenly, a powerful crack of wood and wind sounded again. The rookie watched in intrepid fear as several trees were split in two, following the two in a straight line carving its way through the forest. The young man's eyes widened in fear as even his leader fell in two. Wordlessly, as he fell, he mouthed for the young man to run.
"For the record, your leader was right. War is something no one should wish for. Doing so shows your lack of wisdom and sense. But worry not I won't allow you to start a war…" Shisui informed the man now standing on a branch above him.
"Ho- How the hell did you find us?! How the hell did you catch up so quickly, how did you kill my leader so easily?!" The man panicked.
"Unfortunately for you two mostly, I recognized the chakra signature of a body flicker, I am Shisui of the Body Flicker. Few could hope to outspeed or outdistance me using my own mastered technique. I simply raced through the forest at top speed slashing every hiding spot down as I did. Catching and finding the two of you was easy. Now I hate to break it you-"
"Fire Style: Flaming Spear!" The young man called, during Shisui's rant he had blinked, and the man recognized he could not hope to escape. Had reacted with what he believed to be the best course of action, to kill the strange man before him. It would surely buy him enough time to earn his freedom. He watched with glee as the bolt of focused flames impacted Shisui. Bursting as it did, the man stumbled back as the flames began to feast on his flesh. Soon the entire branch was covered in smoke and flames, the man watched with glee but flinched when he realized there was no body. Before he could even move he felt a painful thud hit his back. Spitting out blood and hunching over, the man looked at his attacker with shock and fear.
"That was rude," Shisui countered as he stood behind the man. With a merciless twist of the tanto he had sheathed within the spy, he withdrew his blade. The man, devoid of life or parting words, fell to the ground below. Shisui cracked his neck as he sighed and tapped on his earpiece.
"Hokage-sama, I have killed the spies on my end. Need I route back to aid Jiraiya, Asuma, and Kurenai?"
"No need," Hiruzen's tinny voice through the machine sounded off with audible ease. "They have reported total success as well."
"It's lucky you had set them up as secondary guards in case of something like this," Shisui responded jovially as he cleaned his blade with a cloth. "Though it would've been nice not to have to dirty my hands, it's worth it to make sure the Leaf stays safe."
"My thoughts exactly. Report back to me. We will begin moving soon. First, we will confuse our observant enemies, and then we will ensure we cannot be pinned to the disappearance of their spies," Hiruzen ordered.
"Aye." Shisui agreed as he raced back to his leader.
Below him lay the two corpses of the spies. Each still as their souls had left their bodies, however one of the bodies began to twitch. Before it fell apart into a human sized pile of loose stones and mud.
The leader climbed from the ground below slowly and cautiously. Once he was certain he was alone, he fully emerged and began to race away from the scene as silently as possible.
'I am sorry, young man,' the man thought as he ran for his life. 'With the famed Shisui Uchiha after us, our chances of escape were nearly nonexistent. I needed to sell my own demise and their success. Your death merely made such possible. So fret not, you served your home well. For while the others have fallen, I still live. Iwa is not so fragile after all, ' the man thought as he raced back to his waiting superior.
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Hiruzen's POV (Hokage Camp - Leaf Camp - Land of Iron)
There was a grim satisfaction Hiruzen felt as each of his men returned.
Having Jiraiya and Shisui with him hadn't merely been for theorizing. Being known to be close to him publicly, made their gathering an appealing lure to spies. With him being aware of such, detecting them had been child's play. It had been risky however, if the spies did escape it would surely complicate matters. But Hiruzen had prepared for such a case back when Ikam had exposed Naruto.
Hiruzen had asked Asuma and Kurenai had been asked to secretly trail him as hidden secondary guards. Something they were happy to do, likely loving the excuse to be together in private, even in the field. Which had served well to ensure no spies would escape. Luckily everything had gone as planned. While it pained Hiruzen to so easily have blood spilt, it was a necessity to protect their home. Besides, a mere eight or so bodies added to his long list would not damn him much, not when he had nearly hundreds or thousands.
Likely the masters of the spies would be aware something had happened to them. Spies were a risky venture, more often than not they were caught eventually. But while in cover their value could not be overstated. And with some extreme training and even culling, a man's or woman's origin of birth can be almost impossible to determine. This allows spies to be used without worrying about them being discovered and cracked. As such spies were often not saved or even acknowledged when captured. Better to not raise a fuss and admit to such a riling act, instead when a spy was caught, that was that. They would die or live as their enemies please, an often tragic fate indeed.
So, if they moved as if there was no issue, not acknowledging the spies despite the potential for an international incident, they could very well sell the idea that the rumor of the Leaf losing men was just that, a rumor.
All as he had planned, perhaps he need not use his blackmail yet again…