In terms of the "general world situation," Kirigakure had indeed lost the will to contend with Konoha, because they simply couldn't compete.
But this didn't mean that Kirigakure wouldn't send ninjas to secretly infiltrate the Land of Fire.
And this infiltration couldn't be said to be Kirigakure overestimating themselves, or that Kirigakure was aggressive. This was because about a year ago, Kirigakure (not subjectively) did something stupid.
It was like this. At that time, the war between Kirigakure and Konoha was still in full swing. But the hard power of both sides was clear. Under the circumstance that they couldn't defeat Konoha on the front lines, Kirigakure came up with a terrible idea... They casually captured a Konoha ninja, then stuffed the Three-Tails into him. Next, they planned to control this jinchuriki to return to Konoha and release the Three-Tails, directly blowing up Konoha.
The idea was beautiful, but the jinchuriki was killed in the territory of the Land of Fire. Thus, the plan to destroy Konoha failed, and at the same time, the Three-Tails died and was lost.
In the current ninja world, it was difficult to define whether tailed beasts were positive assets or negative assets, but there was no doubt that they were assets that major powers and major ninja villages must possess.
So the Three-Tails had to be found. This matter was very important.
Although a dead tailed beast might revive anywhere in the world, because the Three-Tails died in the Land of Fire, the most likely place for it to revive was still the Land of Fire. And a dead tailed beast could revive in as little as one or two years, so during this period, Kirigakure had been secretly sending elite squads to the Land of Fire, in order to capture the revived Three-Tails at the first opportunity.
Here was Kirigakure's exceptionally elite squad, and there was Konoha's outing rookie team. See, what a coincidence?
Because of their ages, Habara could only recognize two of the four opponents. One was Juzo Biwa, because he was carrying a "big cleaver" on his back. The other one was the baby-faced Yagura. But even if he only recognized two, Habara made the judgment that he had to escape.
Even a ninja like Juzo Biwa could be ignored, but Yagura's strength was really extraordinary... The future Mizukage, although he looked only fourteen or fifteen years old, his actual age should be between thirty and fifty. For Habara and the others, his strength was off the charts.
In this situation, there was no need to seek the kind of retreat that maintained the squad formation like when Habara first went to the battlefield, because it was meaningless. At this time, they should scatter like birds and beasts, and see who was lucky enough to escape.
After Habara called out Yagura's identity, everyone in the Konoha squad was a little stunned. Everyone didn't understand why ninjas like them would encounter a Mizukage candidate. However, everyone knew that Habara couldn't lie about this kind of thing.
So Captain Hayasegawa, who had just been shouting about eliminating the enemy, immediately issued another order that was completely opposite to the previous one, "Teams one, two, and three, go all out to stop the enemy! Execute the order!"
After issuing the new order, this guy turned around and ran, without the slightest hesitation!
It had to be said that this was a correct order, because when everyone understood what kind of person the captain was, no one would obey his orders anymore. Whether they would be punished by Konoha afterwards was a matter for later. Now they had to consider whether they could survive. So at this time, everyone instead obeyed Habara's words, and they began to scatter and flee.
And judging only by the facts, Konoha had no reason to punish these ninjas, because the commander fled the battlefield first.
The four-man Kirigakure team watched the Konoha ninjas scatter and flee with great interest. In their view, this struggle was futile. With their strength, there was no way they would allow this group of Konoha ninjas to escape.
"Why did someone recognize Lord Yagura?"
"Isn't it normal for the enemy to recognize Lord Yagura?"
The two youngest people in the Kirigakure squad said one sentence each.
"Don't get too distracted. Don't forget our mission... Don't leave any survivors." It was still Yagura who was more stable, knowing that even those kinds of enemies had the possibility of leaking their intelligence.
Juzo Biwa grinned. "The combat power of Konoha genin often fluctuates unpredictably. We must be extra careful when dealing with them. However... We don't need to be careful with these ninjas, do we?"
Before he finished speaking, Juzo Biwa took off the Kubikiribocho hanging on his back and charged straight towards the fleeing Konoha ninjas. And the person he was chasing was Habara.
Obviously, this wasn't a random choice. Who told Habara to recognize Yagura's identity?
Juzo Biwa quickly ran across the surface of the water, his tall figure slightly lowered. He dragged the long sword beside him. In an instant, he arrived behind Habara, and then swung the big sword in a sweeping motion towards Habara.
The sound of rushing wind behind him made Habara turn his head sharply. He extended his left arm and actually met the blade of the big sword directly with his palm.
Panicking? Courting death?
However, at this time, Juzo Biwa felt as if the air in front of him had solidified. He hadn't hit the enemy at all, but instead seemed to have hit a piece of high-elasticity polymer rubber!
The momentum of the big sword suddenly stopped, and then it suddenly rebounded with almost twice the force. Juzo Biwa couldn't help but follow the rotation of his body. It wasn't until the big sword rotated half a circle and deeply embedded the back of the blade into a tree on the side.
At the same time, Habara quickly spun around. The mercury longsword in his right hand had already taken shape. He pressed down on the enemy's knee with his left hand, and his right sword tilted upward, the tip of the sword with its chilling aura already pointing at the opponent's neck.
Habara really wasn't afraid of enemies who simply played with swords!
However, just as he was about to accomplish the feat of instantly killing a jonin, another figure quickly appeared behind him.
The other party was incredibly fast, to the point that Habara had to change from attack to defense.
He raised his right arm horizontally, trying to block the opponent's attack. The iron covering on his right arm held up against another strange-looking big sword that was slashing over in a suspended manner.
However, even though Habara blocked the big sword, he still didn't block the opponent's attack.
A blue and full chakra aggregate quickly magnified in front of Habara's eyes, and then Habara was smashed away by a fierce hammer blow.
Hiramekarei Release!
The enemy who rushed in front of Habara again was the young Hozuki Mangetsu, and at this age he could already wield the twin swords, Hiramekarei. He was truly a genius who could skillfully use seven ninja swords.
At this time, Juzo Biwa naturally realized that the strength of the enemy just now was very unusual, so he loudly reminded his teammates: "Be careful, this guy's casting speed is incredibly fast!"
Wasn't it incredibly fast, because Habara didn't use seals at all.
"I see!"
After Habara was fiercely knocked away, his back slammed into a tree. Then, it was as if something on his back had been squeezed and burst, and a thick mist instantly burst out, spreading in the forest ahead.
The mist was white at first, and then instantly turned thick white.
In order to buy time for Daigo to escape, Habara had to use an exceptionally insidious technique, one that could even injure himself if he wasn't careful.
"What is this? Smokescreen?"
"No!"
"It's mercury, mercury vapor!"
"Get back!"
After realizing what was spreading in front of them, Juzo Biwa and Hozuki Mangetsu had to retreat back to the surface of the lake again.
Yagura had to agree with what Juzo Biwa had just said, the strength of Konoha ninjas did indeed fluctuate greatly.
"You three stay here and deal with this person. I'll go deal with the other Konoha ninjas!"
Things weren't as easy as imagined. If this continued, it was really possible that some Konoha ninjas would successfully escape, so Yagura also had to take action.