Chapter 3
The travel to the camp could be described with two words: tiring and boring. It was tiring because they were the only genins in the company so the chunin level travel speed tested their endurance quite a bit and it was boring because no one really spoke to each other during it. When Inoko asked their sensei why everyone was so grim he told them "It has been three years since the start of the Second Shinobi World War so this was likely their first and only break from the battlefield. They are all mentally preparing themselves to join the fray once more."
Their arrival to the camp was when they got the first glimpse of the reason of their superiors' anxiety. It was situated in a big meadow in a circular fashion with tents lining up in neat rows, however the important part wasn't its layout. Shinobi and kunoichi could be seen moving around each with quick purpose most of them sporting at least a small injury or two.
What truly hit Takeshi in the chest was the look on their faces. Beyond their serious expression one could see the dull and soulless look of broken men and women who went through hell. 'So this is war,' he thought 'I am fighting so I won't have to see the despair like this back home.'
The new arrivals set up their tents under 10 minutes and got to their new assignments with frightening efficiency. Within 20 minutes everyone already knew their new mission and started on it. Takeshi was sent to help maintain the traps while Inoko and Shota were to help with the injured at the medical tent. Kenta-sensei was called to the commanding tent which he didn't leave until late evening. This was how Team Three's life at the Chihaga outpost began.
It has been three months since they joined the war. Their sensei still trained them whenever he had the time from his frequent scouting missions but as it turned out he was one of the best at recon so these sessions were rarer than they would have liked. Still they tried to make the most of their limited time.
There was also a lull in the war, the calm before another big push. In the last six months instead of big battles, both sides turned to another tool: guerilla warfare. They tried to find the chink in the other's armor and even if it was as of yet unsuccessful, they kept looking for that small advantage to exploit.
All three of the genins started to get more serious missions, chief among them the courier jobs which consisted of relaying information between outposts, a job where their lack of combat power wasn't as crippling.
Currently Takeshi was jumping from branch to branch with three chunin. Their mission was to deliver intel to one of the camps. While they were a bit closer than usual to the "danger" zone (meaning the no man's land where most of the small skirmishes happened) it was easy for him to relax between the towering chunins, after all nothing really happened during these delivery missions. This relaxation led to a split second of laziness making him lag behind the others a jump but ironically that bout of laziness was what saved his life.
The chunins barely touched down when an explosion suddenly devoured the tree they landed on, making Takeshi freeze in his tracks on the branch he just landed. After a split second of looking at the plummeting bodies of his charred comrades, a voice broke him out of his shock.
"Dammit, we missed one" said a voice from a tree on the other side of the smokescreen.
"Relax it's just a kid, I will silence him while you three clean those tree huggers up" came the answer from another.
Takeshi didn't need any more motivation to run so he started a mad dash back where he came from. While glancing behind he could see an Iwa chunin jumping out of the smoke and following him. Suddenly his senses screamed at him making him miss the next branch. Not a millisecond later a hail of kunai flew through his previous spot. With a tumble he managed to safely land on the ground however by the time he stood up the chunin had already landed on the other side of the small clearing.
"Look kid I don't want to do this anymore than you do, so if you give up I will grant you a quick death" came the grim voice from the chunin.
During the short "speech" thoughts flashed through Takeshi's head at a frightening speed. 'He is stronger and faster than me so I can't outrun him. I need to delay somehow so I can get away. I can't beat him with skill, so I will have to outthink him' so with a deep breath he answered.
"Sorry oji-san but I can't give up. They said you are bad guys so I have to beat you up" he responded purposefully speaking childishly and letting out a cute pout, trying to get the Iwa shinobi to underestimate him as much as possible.
He barely finished speaking when the other ninja blurred towards him. 'Fast!' He thought as the first punch almost took off his head. The second and third swiftly followed making him use every bit of his speed and agility to dodge them. The forth attack was a kick which barely brushed against him, yet still sent his small frame flying a few meters.
'I can't keep this up' he thought while landing on his feet and trying to force air into his bruised lungs. 'I won't survive a straight up fight against this guy' so in the short time it took for the other ninja to regain his footing after the kick he started running up on the tree behind him. The Iwa chunin followed hot on his heels barely a few meters behind him. As soon as he reached a thick enough branch, he jumped off of it to the next tree.
A short chakra spike alerted him, making him turn around on the wide branch he landed and rising his hands in defense. Just in time too, as the enemy shinobi suddenly appeared front of him in a body flicker with his fist already cocked back and punching forward. Takeshi's quick guard saved his life as the punch only broke his left forearm instead of shattering his ribs while throwing him directly at the lower branch of another tree.
Not giving him any time to recover his enemy followed him barely a second later. 'It's now or never' he thought in desperation as he landed on the branch, however it appeared as if he had lost his balance and looked like he started to fall with his left foot barely connected to the side of the branch. Arriving at that moment and seeing an opportunity the Iwa nin reached out with a cold face to grab the neck of the genin however when he was about to reach the falling youngster a few things happened in quick succession.
Takeshi suddenly channeled chakra into his left foot, making it stick on the branch and using it to pull him out and down of his enemy's range with only his leg strength while throwing a kunai towards his face. The older man quickly grabbed the weakly thrown weapon however suddenly soft sizzling could be heard. 'Gothca!' Takeshi thought while letting go of the tree with his chakra as he activated the explosive tag on the handle of a kunai while plummeting to the ground. He barely managed to get out of the explosion radius when it exploded.
"AAAAAAARGGHHH!" a pained cry could be heard as a loud boom rocked the otherwise silent forest. A form tumbled out of the smoke making Takeshi widen his eyes as he landed on his feet. 'He is still alive after that?' One of the chunin's arms hang uselessly at his side while the other was covering half of his badly burned face.
"You little shit! When I get my a hands on you I will-" not waiting for the other shinobi to gather himself Takeshi ran up a tree and jumped away as fast as he could.
'He was disoriented so he shouldn't be able to start chasing me instantly but his teammates must have heard his cry. At best I have a 30 second head start,' he thought while jumping from tree to tree as fast as he could, cradling his injured arm 'We are near the patrol line so if I am lucky the jonin running the perimeter will come to check out the explosion' and with that he popped a soldier pill in his mouth and pushed on.
The next five minutes were perhaps the longest in his life, each second he could feel the four chakra signatures catching up to him, only the adrenalin in his veins allowing him to stay ahead but Takeshi knew he couldn't keep up this mad dash much longer. Just as he started to slow down he saw a small glint of light reflecting off of a hitai-ate. 'They must be the jonin patrol… at least I hope so or I'm a goner 'Takeshi thought heading towards them 'four-hostile-chunin' he signaled with his working right hand as he blurred by their hiding spots.
As the Iwa ninja arrived not even 5 seconds behind him all four were suddenly frozen on the tree Takeshi noticed the forehead protector.
"Kagemano no Jutsu: Success" came a quiet voice making him stop in relief and collapse gasping for air on the branch he just landed.
Less than a second later an Uchiha jonin blurred before him with an activated sharingan, making his stone cold expression even more terrifying.
"Report genin!" came the command.
Takeshi tried to answer as coherently as he could while gasping for air "Four man courier mission *pant* Chihaga to Gaeshi *pant* ambush *pant* only I survived *pant* all four *pant* enemy *pant* chased after me *pant*."
"Okay, rest now son you earned it" responded the older ninja with a nod but Takeshi barely heard it as his vision suddenly swam and he lost consciousness, the strain of the last half an hour finally catching up to his young body.
The first thing Takeshi felt when he woke up was the soft feeling of a bed. Next came the pain. It felt as if each time he took a breath someone was stabbing a kunai into his chest. Slowly he opened his eyes, the green ceiling of a medical tent greeting his eyes. The six year old tried to sit up but a stab of pain convinced him to lay back down, instead he tried to call for someone.
"Haaagh" he tried to say but his throat too parched to really form words.
"Oh you are awake!" a smiling iryo-nin entered his vision. She had shoulder length brown hair and wore the standard Konoha chunin uniform. "Let me get you some water, using a soldier pill this young makes you really thirsty.
Takeshi chugged down the cup of water she gave and tried speaking again "Thank you, how long was I out? And where am I?"
"A little more than a day," she answered "you are at Ugo base on the front lines, it was our patrol that found you"
"How bad is it? 'Cuz I feel like I tried to stop an angry Akimichi" Takeshi said with a grimace.
"You have a broken left arm, thankfully I healed it up somewhat because it was a clean break but you won't have full use of it for a week. You also have a lot of small bruises and cuts presumably from the explosions and one giant bruise on your torso with two broken ribs, altho' I managed to fix those because they were barely cracked "the doctor counted off his injuries "All in all you will have to stay in bed for about 3 days and recover fully in about a week."
"Heh, I guess that kick actually broke my ribs. Anyway when am I supposed to report?" the genin asked.
"Well we managed to mostly piece together what happened but the commander, Orochimaru-sama said to call him when you woke so I will call him here now if he is available" and with that she left the young shinobi alone.
While she was gone Takeshi tried to order his thoughts so he would be able to relay what happened when his superior came. He didn't have to wait for long because five minutes later a man in his twenties walked into the tent. He had long black hair, a deathly pale face with yellow eyes that bore into him like they could see into his soul. He was wearing a grey steel plated armor that looked like it went through a war or two.
"Ah Takeshi-kun, I am happy to finally meet you after hearing so much about you from Kenta-san." said the Sannin in a silky voice "I would like you to tell what happened during your mission because according to our intel Iwa was supposed to be relatively passive in that area."
"Yes, sir. Our mission was to deliver a status report from Chihaga outpost to the Gaeshi communication center. Roughly at the half of our journey I accidently lagged behind a jump and before I knew my teammates before me got blown up. The enemy was a four men team of chunins. After they realized I survived one of them, the guy with burns on his face told the other three to clean up then came after me. I managed to get away from him by stunning him with an explosive tag but soon they started chasing me. I ran from them for around five minutes, with them almost catching up by the time a patrol saved me" reported Takeshi in a quick straightforward fashion.
"Hm… Did you notice something during the attack? Perhaps something that stuck out that shouldn't happen during an ambush?" asked Orochimaru with a calculating look on his face.
Takeshi took a bit of time to go through what happened once more in his head while the jonin waited patiently.
"Actually there is something" he said after a minute "I don't know how to say it but the whole thing felt kinda sloppy? rushed? Like they just happened to be in the area and had to set up everything quickly. Yeah, that's what it felt like at least, also they didn't cut off escape paths, they were just hiding behind a tree clumped up so it was really poorly executed."
"I see," a proverbial light bulb could be seen above the sanin's head "so THAT'S why Iwa's movements have been so weird the last couple of weeks… Thank you Takeshi-kun and good luck during your recovery" and without saying anything he left in a Shunshin leaving a confused genin and iryo-nin behind.
"Well I don't know what happened but it looks like it helped Orochimaru-sama so I think I will just go back to sleep…" the boy said.
"But not before eating! You need the nutrients to recover so wait a sec while I bring you something. And don't you dare to go to sleep before I get back!"
"Hai, hai I wouldn't dream of it."
9 days later
Around 700 shinobi were assembled at the Chihaga camp Takeshi among them, but despite the number of humans in the clearing you could've heard a pin drop. Before the army of ninja their commander, the snake sannin stood on a rock using it as a makeshift podium while addressing them.
"A bit more than a week ago we acquired vital intel about Iwagakure's movements which as many of you already knew, made little sense. They have been trying to scout out our northern flank to prepare for a fast-push to then use that to get behind our lines and attack us at two fronts. Luckily, they messed up which let us notice and capture one of their scouting squads" he said with a drawl while letting out a small smirk "The purpose of this army here is to ambush their "surprise attack", then after eliminating the opposition turn it on them by filling in the hole in their defenses they left behind and use it as a staging ground for a pincer attack to tear them apart. If we do it fast enough we can break their whole army. Your division commanders will have your detailed instructions. This can be the battle that brings us the victory so steel you hearts, ready your kunai and may the Will of Fire guide you in battle!" with that he stepped down making everyone burst in action as they gathered around one of the four division commanders.
As Takeshi made his way towards his, a Nara jonin he felt could feel the anticipation in the air and see the hope in the eyes of the older ninjas that this maybe the turning point. While trying to get into position he suddenly noticed a familiar mop of blond hair making him smile.
"Inoko-chan!" he called out.
"Takeshi-kun! I thought you were injured and wouldn't be able to come" she said while elbowing the Sarutobi who had been talking animatedly to one of his older clansman.
"Ow, why did you do tha- Oh so you made it here gaki?!" was the instant reaction of the older boy.
"Who you are calling a brat, you brat! You are only like 3 years older than me so if I'm a brat then you are one too!" and in a bout of a childishness he shot out his tongue towards his team mate"
"Why you little-"
"Alright, tone it down. I know it's exciting and all but it's too troublesome to speak above all of you" came the lazy order from the Nara jonin in his 40s "My name is Nara Shinaru and I will be the one to give you your orders. I expect my words to be followed to the letter, there is a reason I say them. Now, our job will be both the easiest and the hardest. The plan is for the other three division to attack them form the front and the sides which means the first part of our mission is simply to shut the cage so to speak and cut off their escape path. This will be the easy part, the hard one is that our enemy has around 800 shinobi which we expect to cut in half before they reach us while retreating. That still means we will be at a severe numbers disadvantage but they will be in a disarray so that means we have pretty good odds to stop them.
Here he paused looking over them slowly, all traces of laziness gone from his posture "I hope you understand that victory rests on our shoulders. We need to hold them back until the other 3 divisions crash into their backline when they run into us. For this to be possible we will be using a modified barrier-net strategy. The Nara, a few ninjutsu specialist and all of the genjutsu users we could get will be the "net" disrupting and immobilizing the enemy with a few small squads defending them from strays and everyone else making up the barrier, the shield that stops them. Now I will tell you the squads each of you are assigned to: Kaminari S…"
Team Three got placed together with three chunin and two jonin as "stray cathers" with another squad of similar constitution other than the small difference that the other team only had 2 genins in it. The commander Nara Shinaru shortly joined them after everyone got their orders and decided to say a few words to them.
"You guys are made up mostly of recovering people because this will be probably the least combat intensive position so you should be able to handle it. Still if a few Iwa nin make it through I expect you to give your all, even your life for the protection of the backline, they are the key part of our defense" he said quickly, then went to say a quick word to every part of the formation.
As everyone waited to get the order to move out, Takeshi tried to calm his breathing and his panic. 'This is real, I am going into a battle. I don't want to die. I don't want to die! I don't want to die!' Suddenly a big hand was put on his shoulder in a comforting manner.
One of the squads' jonin squeezed it softly but surely "Stay calm kid, we will look out for you" he smiled kindly "you will do fine just don't panic. That goes for you too Yamanaka, Sarutobi! If you get into combat just try to stall until one of us can finish your opponent off."
"Yessir" the members of Team. The jonin's words actually helped Takeshi in calming down. The gut wrenching feeling slowly left his body and got replaced with quiet determination 'He is right I won't be alone in this' looking at his right he could see the other two sporting similar looks 'we will survive!'
After five more minutes Orochimaru's voice rang out "Move out!" and with that the army of Konoha nin leapt into the trees following their leaders. Despite the several hundreds of people moving at once, the forest was suddenly eerily silent as they ghosted trough the canopy more akin to shadows than actual humans. In their natural habitat the warriors of the Leaf were little more than mirages in the light of the setting sunrays that broke through the green roof of the forest. There would be no stopping them tonight for the deadly beast that was Konoha finally smelled the weakness of her prey and she wasn't letting it go.
Author note:
Hi Gomdzsabbar here! Love it? Hate it? As I have said before this story is a try at a realistic genius story type. This means I am trying to portray Takeshi realisticly, that is why he got destoyed by the 20 smoething year old chunin: he may be a genius but he is still a genin, even if a talented one. In the show powerlevels are kinda random but in my opinion an experienced chunin should beat a genin anytime. Anyway how was the fight scene? I worked quite a bit on it but as I have never written one I would appriciate any feedback you guys can give me!
The next Chapter will be out around New Year so see you guys then and hope you enjoyed it!
