A/N: The Centipede is actually from Japanese mythology.
The Quest for the Sacred Scroll
Chapter One
"What are our numbers?" A soft voice asked. Reiko pretended not to listen in on the discussion as she filed the paperwork. Her boss, the Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, didn't happen to know that while his walls were thick, the door was thin enough to allow sound to trickle through.
"50 genin, 33 chunin, 12 jounin, and 5 ANBU. The hospitals are understaffed, but some of the civillians can be prepped with basic training to make up for it."
"And soldiers?"
"Around 5,000. But another 10,000 should be ready in 6 months."
"You can't do it any sooner than that?"
"It doesn't matter. They won't even know we're coming until their village is burning to the ground," a third voice said sadistically. Reiko recognized the voice as General Yamasaki, a ruthless, ambitious leader. She paused in her filing, intrigued now. It was normal to go over the stats of the millitary, for practical reasons such as the villages defense, but... this sounded like more than that. This sounded like they were preparing for war.
But against who?
And why in the world would they be preparing for war? Iwagakure had no enemies – no one could breach the villages defenses. And the Land of Earth was peaceful, engaged in a treaty with fuedal lords from all the other lands. So who in the world would they be launching an attack on, and why?
Reiko continued with the paperwork, straining her hearing so that she could listen in on the rest of the meeting.
"And with the Centipede Scroll, the rest of the villages will be ours as well." Reiko barely resisted letting a gasp of surprise slip through her lips.
All of the villages? They were going to try and take over all of the villages? Was that even possible?
And then her mind slipped back to what they said before. "The Centipede"... She had learned about it as a child, from her teacher Itsuka Sato. The Centipede was a monster that had been the size of a mountain, that consumed human flesh for sustenance, and had nearly wiped out all of the Land of Earth until the first Tsuchikage had sealed it away in a Sacred Scroll.
Oh my God, Reiko thought, fear radiating through her entire being. They're going to kill everyone.
"But we'll start with Konoha."
Her heart dropped to her feet, feeling the urge to get up and run straight to the village, to warn them. She had been a spy in Iwagakure for Konoha for years now, but this was the first time she had ever heard anything like this before.
But she couldn't leave right away. And she had six months before they would be ready for an attack. She swallowed hard, going back to her paperwork, and did her best to seem inconcspicuous.
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