Chapter 10

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The sun began to rise on my guard shift as I stood amongst the poppy plants. The orange hue of daylight clashed with the blue-black of night, the stars twinkled as if they were saying their goodbyes until nightfall. A gust of cold wind blew through my body sending a slight chill down my spine, I hated the cold always had; I rather be hot than cold. I moved out of the fields towards the outer perimeter of the farm to do another check to make sure no one was lingering on the outskirts of my senses. The land of grass is how you would imagine a valley to look, nothing but short and tall grass for miles with the mountains to the north and the forest to the south. As I pushed myself through the tall grass I kept my senses on high alert as my movements were deliberate pausing every so often to feel for or hear any disturbances around me minus the birds singing their morning song or the small animals waking up and beginning to move around.

I made my to the back side of the farm when I felt some chakra signatures closing in from the west where the road leading up to the farm was located. I moved under the cover the tall grass offered and pulled my chakra in to extinguish my presence, I didn't know if this was friendly forces coming to relieve us of our duty here or the enemy coming to take this place back, and until I was sure which one I wasn't going to take unnecessary risks. The signatures closed in not at an urgent pace but still quickly. I got eyes on the road saw the group of 6 running towards the farm. I then pulled back into the grass and began to move to the farmhouse. I entered the house the screen door squealing in protest alerting every one of my arrival. The scene wasn't what I expected, everyone well besides Akako-obasan was up and on alert staring in the direction of the road from their respective sleeping spots.

" Taicho, we have guest," I said turning to her as she leaned on the kitchen counter.

" I'm aware," she responded. " You kids wait here."

She pushed herself off the counter and walked towards me, I moved out of her way so she could pass and the squealing was heard and the sound of wood slamming on wood as she exited. I leaned against the wall and folded my arms still keeping my chakra concealed as was my teammates we didn't want to startle the group should they be hostile, always keep the element of surprise tucked in your back pocket. It was an agonizing wait the tension was palpable our muscles tight ready to react at a moment's notice until Akako walked back in.

" Alright, we are good to grab your things and prepare to leave," she said as she pulled out a map of the area and laid it on the ground. We quickly huddled around the map to get an idea of our next objective. " We will be moving further south to this road," she pointed to the road on the map. " As you can see it leads directly to the many mines in the Land of Earth and they need the supplies and food that comes from here, so we have to take this back so movement can continue, clear? " she asked. We nodded knowing recon would be done upon arrival and went to finish our packing. Once that was complete we made our way out the back door and took off into the sea of grass to our next objective. Moving through the grass was difficult like moving through water there was slight resistance, and seeing where you was going was almost impossible thanks to how high it was.

" Man this sucks, how in the world can anyone live here?" Josai protested somewhere off to my right.

" Some could ask the same of us, after all, we do live in the mountains," Aoi responded.

" Suck it up kiddos, trust me you'll be sent to landscapes worse than this," Akako said. She was not lying either.

Eventually, we exited the tall grass to a landscape more liberating, however, what we saw wasn't a sea of nice pure green but of red and black stained green grass, and bodies lying lifeless on the ground. Kunai, swords and other ninja tools lying next to or around their slain owners. Body parts in every direction you couldn't tell what part belonged to who. The stench of death permeated the air, a few wild dogs along with the vultures were feeding on the corpses trying to get whatever nourishment they could from them. Fuuma puked beside me, I too wanted to but I kept the bile down with sheer willpower. I could see Aoi and Josai trying to do the same it was their first time and well my second of seeing death on this scale. I was quickly reminded and my friends were introduced to the ugly fact that was conflict and war. Akako-obasan kept a strong poker face and began to move slowly through the carnage.

" Are you scared? Or just in shock?" she asked us as she continued ahead of us. " No point in being afraid now it's too late for that."

She was right it was too late… Way too late. I forced my legs to move, one step, then two, three. The others followed slowly behind me treading lightly like you would a minefield walking over bodies and limbs. The flies were relentless descending upon us like we were the dead bodies causing us to swat at the air annoyingly. The smell was absolutely unbearable the scent of rotten eggs and feces, as well as a garlic-like scent, were all mixed together into one vile, stomach-turning concoction.

After what felt like an eternity we exited the bloody graveyard and continued our movement to our objective. We ran to close the distance quickly seeing as it was only 4 miles away from the first farm. Akako lifted two fingers closed and pointed to her right signaling Josai and me to break off for a recon formation. We did so with haste and I began keeping a pace count so we could work our way back to the center of the formation should we need to. We pushed out 250 meters and cut back to our original direction of travel, we tried to keep a low profile seeing as there was absolutely no cover to hide behind while we did this recon and being spotted during a recon was a screw up that we couldn't afford. Once we could see the road we laid down on our stomachs and began our observations.

"I got three shinobi on watch before the checkpoint," Josai said. I looked down to my right and saw another one enemy about 100 meters from the group of three.

" Make that four," I added and pointed in the direction of the shinobi in question. Josai nodded and we slowly crept backed until we were far enough back to stand and run back to the rest of the squad. We hustled and made it back to the others waiting on us and took a knee.

" Report what do you have?" Akako asked looking at Josai and myself.

" We have four shinobi on the southern portion of the road before the checkpoint," I said. " There was nothing else of significance to remember."

Akako then turned to the girls.

" We saw five on our recon all of whom were by the river that runs through the road about 50 meters away from the bridge, they looked like they were off duty seeing as they were participating in games of dice," Aoi said.

" So that makes nine huh?" Akako said. " Plus the two at the checkpoint so that's eleven," She rested her chin on her hand and closed her eyes. We waited for a bit before her eyes snapped open again and gray eyes were upon me. " Yuudai how many smoke bombs do you have?"

I reached into my back pouch and felt around until I felt the small orbs on my fingertips. One, two, three…

" I've got four," I said. A grin appeared on Akako's face.

" Good we're gonna need em', here's the plan…"

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Once in position, we waited for our cue to begin our ambush. I was placed with Fuuma near the river side and we were tasked with taking out the five shinobi there. I began to feel the butterflies in my gut from the anticipation building up, and my hands began to sweat a bit despite the cool breeze passing through occasionally I quickly wiped my hands on the ground next to me and took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves.

" Quit fidgeting over there, you're making me nervous," Fuuma whispered harshly. I looked at her with annoyance and she shot a glare right back with those fierce red eyes.

" Whatever," I muttered softly.

Suddenly a blinding light appeared to our right; the flash pillar jutsu. The light engulfed us keeping us hidden from the enemy. Fuuma moved first charging towards the road I was right behind her. I could see the silhouettes of our targets trying to move away from the light that was robbing them of their sight. Fuuma caught up to one of the stragglers and sliced his back from shoulder to hip, and he let out a scream of pain and she moved past him to continue her assault. The light was beginning to die out so I chucked the smoke bomb into the crowd of shinobi who were still blinded and moved to finish the first shinobi off. I pulled out my kunai and moved quickly to send this shinobi to the other side. I appeared behind him as he was still looking around for his attacker and with surgical precision cut the vital artery on the side of his neck. Blood shot out from the wound and he tried to scream but nothing came but a slight gurgling sound. I moved into the gray smoke to backup Fuuma, but then a strong wind rushed past me almost knocking me off balance the smoke also came flying past me.

A wind jutsu? Damnit.

The light died out behind me leaving me exposed. My brain began flying through scenarios and tactics, suddenly my ears picked up movement behind me and my body took action. I ducked dodging the first attack and twisted my body keeping it low and swept my leg out missing my target. I stopped myself quickly and pushed backward to create some distance needed to analyze the situation further. I felt Fuuma's chakra bouncing around telling me she was on defense as well. My attacker refused to give me more time as he came charging at me to continue the fight however, Fuuma had other plans crashing into him kunai sticking him in the ribcage. No words needed to be exchanged between us and I weaved my signs quickly to time this right.

" Lightning release: lightning bullet."

I aimed right behind Fuuma and shot at nothing a second later a kunoichi appeared behind her readying an attack and then she looked up… Too late. Another enemy down now it was 3 on 2 and that was way more manageable for us but still, no time to celebrate. Two shinobi surrounded me one on my left and one on my right swords raised high and I moved to my right slamming my elbow into the groin of my opponent drawing out a pained grunt and causing him to drop his weapon and I continued to push away from my second attacker. My ears caught the trailing steps behind me and moved my body out of the way of the sword trying to impale me. I turned pulled my kunai out of my leg holster and slashed at his throat and missed as he pulled back out of my reach so I dropped down and went for a leg sweep that he then jumped over.

Mistake on his part.

Fuuma came like a flash and smash her knee into his chin sending him into the river. I then turned my focus back behind me to look for my other attacker who was slowly recovering from my cheap shot earlier, and I could slightly feel the chakra of our last adversary off in the distance moving away from us.

" Fuuma…"

" I know I know I'll go get em'" she said and disappeared heading after our runaway. I returned my attention to the guy on the ground still, man I must have hit him real hard. I began to move towards him as I got closer he began to reach for his weapon. I swiftly reach him and stomped on his hand and used my other foot to slide his sword further away from him. He grabbed my ankle with his other hand and I slashed his forearm damaging the muscles and tendons that controlled his grip causing him to scream as he released me. I then straddled him pinning his arms with my knees and placing the kunai to his throat. He was wild-eyed like a trapped animal all kinds of emotions flashed through his eyes; anger, agony, fear, desperation, but one thing that was absolute was that his life was now in my hands.

" My friend," I started out " don't make this any more agonizing than it has to be let's be civil, tell me who's leading the revolt?" I asked. I didn't get a verbal response he just looked away. " Look, man, I'm trying to save you from the world of…"

Something wet hit my cheek and it began to roll slowly down my face. I wiped my cheek and looked at my hand and saw tiny bubbles in the slime like liquid.

The bastard spits on me…

I quickly grabbed his right arm one hand at his wrist the other at his elbow and began to twist it towards the ground. He began to jerk but he couldn't grab me seeing as I had his other arm still pinned now with my foot. In one fluid motion, I twisted his arm past it rotational limit and heard a sickening but satisfying 'pop'. He screamed and cried I could care less. I went for his other arm and started the exact same process.

" Wait! OK! I'll talk!" He pleaded.

" Oh, You'll talk alright, however," I said and then snapped his other arm in the same fashion. "You should have done that before you decided to spit in my face."

He was kicking and screaming now with two dislocated arms he was no longer a threat so I got up and went to wash my face in the river. I'll let Akako deal with him when she gets here. A little time passed before Fuuma returned and dropped the body she was carrying down and made her way to me.

" What you do to him?" she asked, " he looks like he's in a lot of pain."

" I popped both of his arms out of the shoulder socket he'll be alright."

" Do I even want to know why?" she asked as she took a seat next to me.

" That's for you to decide," I said not wanting to continue the conversation. Good thing Fuuma took the hint despite my composed features I was furious I'm sure murderous intent was flowing off me in waves. Before long the others came to us Josai and Aoi went to get a quick drink from the river while Akako dealt with our prisoner for information. I myself was leaning on Fuuma as she did the same backs to each other trying to rest a bit before we had to move again. The wind was beginning to get cooler now as the sun had passed high noon and was hanging a bit lower than when our battle began. Nature was beginning to lull me to sleep my body began to relax my senses began to dull and block out things my brain deemed useless information. Of course, the peace could only last for so long.

" Alright kids, let's get a move on we've still got work to do and a lot of daylight left," Akako called to us. I was the first to move allowing Fuuma to fall and land on the grass. She was snoring lightly so I shook her awake.

" Fuuma, get up we're heading out," I said.

" Ugh, why?" she groaned.

" Cause we are ninja and we have a mission to complete" I responded blandly. She then rolled over.

" Five more minutes." she said.

I sighed and picked her up like a sack of potatoes and made my way over to the others. I could understand Fuuma's plight, after all, we had pulled guard last night and collectively got maybe 3 and a half hours of sleep. Hell, I was really tired because I had last shift so I'd been up since 3 this morning. I was slowly siphoning off my chakra reserves to keep myself awake and alert. Once in the presence of Akako, she immediately rose an eyebrow at me silently demanding an explanation I then dropped my comrade very ungraciously to the ground drawing a slew of curses from her once she made contact with the earth.

" Damnit, Yuudai! That fucking hurt asshole!" She shouted.

"Should have woken up when I asked the first time," I retorted " Now pay attention taicho has something to put out to us."

Akako looked over all four of us to make sure she had our undivided attention.

" OK listen up we have a name and location of an HVT; his name is Taki and he's a lieutenant for the rebels his location is at our next objective however, he's not expected to be there long so we need to hurry," she said.

" What will be our approach to the situation taicho?" Josai asked

" What do you mean?"

" Are we gonna go in quiet? Or attack head-on or use a diversion?" he clarified.

Akako looked at the sky for a brief moment and then back to Josai.

" That will be determined upon arrival once we can see what we are working with, but I'm sure it won't be a head-on attack security will be tight on top of that," she looked off to the right of her. "Our terrain is about to change into a heavily forested area so we need to keep our senses sharp and watch for traps and ambushes, just because the enemy doesn't know that we are coming doesn't mean they are not prepared."

"Taicho, I am also concerned about the possibility that the informant could have given us false information," Aoi voiced.

Akako sighed at that.

" Yeah well there isn't much we can do about that problem if it is we will deal with it then," Akako said. " Anyone else have any other bitches, gripes, or complaints?" she asked.

" Sure, why are we going after this lieutenant instead of finishing up our objectives?" Fuuma asked.

" Simple, we are going to cut the head from the snake, think about it if we just do our objectives and this war continues we'll be right back here doing exactly what we are doing now. The rebels will fight to take these objectives back and especially the roads and trade routes to cut off supply and help from other nations, on top of that we have already been granted full autonomy to operate how we see fit, our objectives are mere suggestions should we find a better way to achieve our goals well there is nothing stopping us from taking that course of action. We are going to assassinate the rebel leader and end this."

That about sums it up right there and I for one welcomed the new plan, however…

" Taicho what about back-up?" I asked, " It will be quite difficult for just the five of us to take down an entire rebel army no offense but we just aren't skilled enough for that kind of thing."

Akako gave me her patented smirk.

" I'm way ahead of you Yuudai." she said.

I then felt new chakra signatures brush my senses coming from the road they were moving in fast. I tried to discern who they could be were they friends or foes? I keyed one one in particular and knew instantly whose signature it belonged to and began to chuckle.

" You didn't Taicho, them of all people?" I asked.

" Oh kami, not him," Fuuma moaned.

In an instant, five people appeared behind us. I turned fully to see five red cloaked shinobi the wind causing the cloaks to rustle and flap. The one in front removed his hood revealing a face I didn't recognize. His short brown spiked hair was waving in the wind, his face was scarred a bit with the most obvious being the cut that ran from the right side of his nose to his chin that was kind of covered by a five o'clock shadow. His eyes were low from a distance they looked shut completely however you could kinda make out the black eyes that looked like they had seen enough war and horrific things that any light or sparkle of youth was long gone and now what was left was a husk of their former luster.

" Glad you could be of assistance, Yoshi-kun." Akako greeted.

'Yoshi-kun' pulled out a cigarette and lit it. After taking a long drag he turned his attention to Akako.

" Damn woman, how many times have I told you my name is Sadayoshi, not Yoshi-kun," he others removed their hoods to reveal Jin, Keita, Mikoto, and Ryojin. " At least have some respect for me as a peer and not say that shit in front of my subordinates."

" Sorry, sorry it's just been so long since I've seen you, how have you been." She asked.

" We can save the small talk for later, right now we have a job to complete," he shot back.

Akako pouted a bit.

" Man you're no fun, alright fine let's go squad 2 we have a rat to catch," she said walking towards the forest. " Thanks again squad 13 for your assistance."

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A/N: Sorry for my really late update I was in the middle of family visiting me without warning so I had to play host and I couldn't lock myself away in my room to write also I had to car shop and other adult things but I'm back now and hope you all enjoy this new chapter. Like always feel free to review and talk to me I'm always happy to talk to my readers. Oh before I forget I had gotten a review that said I don't paint a picture well and well after rereading my other chapters they were correct so I'm going to try to be more descriptive and improve in that area it's gonna be a slow process but please bear with me I am a novice after all.