In wars between the Hidden Villages, most shinobi would rather trigger an explosive tag on themselves than allow capture.
Being captured means facing brutal torture.
Every village has its own Interrogation Corps, and their shinobi redefine the word "sadist."
ANBU operate in the shadows, carrying out dark missions, but the Interrogation Corps is the shadows.
Konoha has the Yamanaka Clan to extract intel directly from corpses, which, compared to the others, is practically merciful.
Other villages rarely have such techniques; their "interrogation" is pure muscle and cruelty.
They squeeze every last drop of blood, chakra, and spirit out of their prisoners, either extracting intel from their minds… or extracting their minds entirely.
Compared to being captured, suicide is the far cleaner option.
The four captured Sand ninja had already been handed over to Orochimaru.
There was no way to do a real prisoner exchange now.
Yet ANBU Root ordered the Fox Squad to rescue a captured Shimura-clan chūninja during the exchange.
A real headache.
Yoru visited the front-line Interrogation Division first, obtaining details on the four Sand prisoners, their height, build, hair color… everything.
The interrogators didn't know where the captives had been taken, only that ANBU had picked them up.
Yoru mentally ran the plan a few more times. It looked doable.
He summoned the squad's three teams.
"Half a month into the Konoha–Sand War, the first prisoner exchange is about to happen.
ANBU already shipped the real Sand prisoners to the Land of Earth, so we have nothing to trade.
Flower Deer, pick four people whose builds match the Sand-ninja. No Transformation Jutsu. Use makeup and disguise to look like mangled captives tortured by our Interrogation Division.
Transformation might get exposed by Sand sensor types. Too risky.
Purple Cat, you'll lead a four-man unit posing as a regular Konoha team handling the exchange.
Both sides send a small escort squad each time, to show good faith and avoid another full-scale battle.
White Ram, you'll take the remaining members with me. We disguise as Rain-ninja and ambush the Sand escort and Purple Cat's squad, then 'rescue' the Shimura ninja.
Konoha has to save face.
We can't produce prisoners, and we definitely can't openly kill the Sand escort team during an exchange. Konoha can't be seen doing that.
But the Hidden Rain Village, playing both sides and sabotaging peace to make the war bloodier?
That's perfectly reasonable."
Disguising as shinobi from other villages during covert ops, every village does this shady crap.
The three team leaders understood and left to prepare.
Flower Deer's prep was the most important, he needed four people who could convincingly pass as half-dead torture victims.
No Transformation Jutsu. Couldn't afford Sand noticing anything off.
When they departed, Flower Deer shaved his head entirely. His scalp was covered in fifteen crisscrossing cuts.
Some still bleeding. Some freshly treated by medical-ninja, leaving pink scars.
Yoru asked, "Does it hurt?"
"No. Not compared to Leaf Monkey, he snapped his own arm and twisted it backward at the joint. That hurts."
Yoru winced.
Civilian-born shinobi lacked talent, but they made up for it with grit and stupidity-level determination.
Yoru said, "Once this mission is over, I'll request one ninjutsu scroll for each of you."
"Thank you, Squad Captain!"
Purple Cat led a team posing as regular Konoha shinobi, forehead protectors on, each carrying one 'Sand' prisoner toward the rendezvous point to the south.
Beside a river in northern Land of Rivers.
From a distance, Purple Cat saw the Sand squad across the gorge.
Five Sand-ninja, each standing atop a Konoha prisoner. Those captives looked no better, covered in wounds, barely alive. Their injuries were swollen and dark purple, the poison still lingering. Sand interrogators loved nerve toxins.
Once Purple Cat reached the opposite side of the gorge, they set down their "captives."
The Sand team leader said, "Konoha. Let's exchange."
But Purple Cat replied:
"Not so fast. The guy under your foot, his wounds are festering. Everything around the cut is black and purple.
Trying to play tricks? Want them to die from poison halfway back?"
The Sand leader snorted:
"We're Sand. Poison is our specialty. Of course we coat torture tools with it. What, you want me to detoxify them now?"
"Of course," Purple Cat insisted. "We need them alive."
"That's impossible," the Sand leader said.
"If I detox them now, you'll run home and use their blood to make an antidote. Don't be stupid. Either you run fast enough, or your med-ninja work fast enough. I'm here to exchange, not to provide charity."
Stalling for time, Purple Cat pulled out a syringe:
"In that case, you better run fast too, or hope your medical-ninja are better."
He injected the captive beneath him.
"You—!"
The Sand-ninja took the bait and shifted their focus, not noticing the prisoners were fakes.
Leaf Monkey, who took the injection, quickly turned purple-red in the face, no way to tell he wasn't a real Sand prisoner now.
Purple Cat had bought Yoru the time he needed.
From the raging river below the gorge, four figures burst upward.
They wore Rain-style gas masks and immediately threw poison gas bombs. Purple giant-salamander toxin blanketed both sides of the gorge.
ANBU had harvested the toxin from captured salamanders for this exact purpose.
Within the thick poison fog, Yoru charged straight toward the Shimura prisoner.
Hidden by the mist, he secretly formed a hand seal.
The Self-Cursing Seal snapped into place, freezing the Sand team leader.
Yoru's blade pierced from the back of the skull clean through the forehead.
No one would know he had used a sealing jutsu.
The nearest Sand-ninja was kicked hard, sent flying out of the poison cloud, but not fatally injured.
The Sand-ninja saw "Konoha" fighting "Rain" fiercely on the opposite side, and immediately fled in terror.
Yoru deliberately let him live to report that Rain had attacked the exchange.
Konoha wanted everything, while taking responsibility for nothing, leaving Yoru's squad to clean up the mess.
Exchange the prisoner, hide the fact Konoha experimented on captives, and avoid being blamed for sabotaging the exchange.
When the fight ended, four Sand corpses lay on the ground.
Two Sand-ninja were so fanatical that, before dying, they killed the Konoha prisoners under their feet.
There was no stopping that.
Three captives survived, including the Shimura clan chūnin, their primary objective.
Mission over-complete.
Yoru said, "Move! Before the Shimura-ninja's poison spreads, get him to the front-line med camp!"
They removed their Rain disguises. Yoru put on his Root mask again and sprinted toward the base.
They carried the three prisoners and Leaf Monkey, whose arm was snapped and twisted the wrong way.
Yoru looked at him on Kurokuma's shoulder and said,
"Leaf Monkey… you really go too far."
To complete the mission, he had truly brutalized himself.