Chapter 70:
The forests of Konoha were balmy in the summer. Humid.
Sanosuke had never been out in this kind of weather this deep into the forest — definitely not for this long.
He glanced around the camp. No fires lit. Too much risk of the enemy spotting the smoke. Couldn't try it, not this far out of the safe zone.
They were all down to bone meal dry rations and what water they could get safely.
He hated this. The tension, the restless nights, the constant need to be on the look out, jumping at shadows and rustling leaves. No one to talk to most of the time. No one could talk most of the time.
This was a two week assignment and he felt like it had been going on for two months.
He wrung his hands together, a nervous tick he seemed to have picked up in just the last few days.
Chuunin didn't wring their hands like this, did they?
"Oi, kid."
A fast kick to his boot jerked him out of his thoughts, the thump of hardened leather clomping together going off like an explosive tag to his distracted mind as he all but leapt out of his skin.
Sanosuke looked up finding Jounin-captain Hidetada standing over him.
Scrambling as quickly as he could to his feet he stammered a hasty; "Sir!"
"Easy there, kid." The Jounin captain held up his hands, and Sanosuke could hear the smirk on his face beneath the mask. "It's not an inspection. You holding up ok?"
"I-..." His throat felt dry and the urge to wring his hands together was almost too strong to resist. "I'm fine sir."
Hidetada's head tilted, looking him up and down. "How old are ya, kid?"
The indignation, at this point, was almost a reflex. "Old enough!"
A chuckle was his answer, almost a scoff.
"Not nearly." His captain shot back. "But I suppose that's wartime for ya."
A single hand raised up, planting itself on his shoulder.
"Look." He said. "We just got one more mission out here, all right? We succeed, send word back home for them to send the next rotation. So in this fight, you stay with me, okay, kid."
"I'm not a kid!" Sanosuke answered back.
"Consider it an order. If you're not a kid you can follow orders, right?"
He opened his mouth and snapped it shut, realizing instantly he'd walked into something of a trap.
The captain smirked, squeezing his shoulder once before moving off to some of the others.
(X)(X)(X)
The mission was meant to be a simple one. Scout the enemy position, report back movements, numbers, potential openings and weaknesses in their position in preparation for the actual attack.
A scout mission that stumbled onto an enemy scouting party turned from a look-see into a skirmish.
A chakra beacon after that — who could tell from which side — turned the skirmish between two teams into a small battle as dozens of nearby groups from Iwa and Konoha converged, escalating the fight rapidly, bringing a fight that had numbered less than ten people, to well over sixty Shinobi.
It was the largest battle that Sanosuke had ever seen.
And his side was winning.
His breath was ragged in his ears, he could feel a burning at the top of his forehead along his hairline. A kunai had almost scalped him.
He wanted to say it was skill that made him stop. Some kind of sixth sense.
Honestly, he'd just stopped to catch his breath.
The blood stung his eye, made him blink and wipe at it constantly.
He could hear Hidetada's voice as the captain barked out orders, coordinating the thirty or so combatants that now had a dozen survivors on the retreat.
He could hear the wounded left behind as they gurgled on their own blood. As they groaned in pain and struggled in their last few moments.
The men around Sanosuke worked quickly. The survivors weren't survivors for very long. Throats were slit, skulls cracked, as the hastily assembled battle group followed out their orders reassessed their battlestrength and moved to pursue their wounded enemy before they could escape.
His hand rose to wipe at the blood still pouring down into his eye.
He realized then that hand was covered in red.
When… when did that happen?
It… was it all his?
It couldn't be.
Who's was it?
"Asui and Hagoro's teams have no injured, tell them I want them moving fast, try to get ahead of the enemy. Cut them off before they can get back to the main outpost."
"Yes, sir."
"Kid."
He wiped his hands over his clothes, the dark green of his vest becoming darker, and still, they were stained red, the skin of his palms smeared with it.
"Kid!"
He pressed his hands against his knees, wiping them on the black and felt his eyes sting.
"Hey, Kid!"
He jerked where he stood startling in place as his body went ramrod stiff, eyes and head snapping up to see captain Hidetada looking at him.
"You okay, kid?"
Sanosuke blinked, not understanding for a moment that he was being addressed, and, once he did, he found his brain incapable of fully wrapping itself around the question.
"Sir?"
The captain walked up to him, snapping his fingers right in front of Sanosuke's face. "You all there, boy?"
"I-Yes sir, I-"
There was a sound. The sharp, deafeningly loud crack of a snapping twig and all of them, even him, turned on pure reflex, fully expecting danger.
It was a girl.
A straggler, barely clinging to consciousness, disoriented, weakly pawing at the dirt, trying to drag herself to safety. One arm was limp, he could see the hilt of a kunai sticking out of her shoulder.
He wasn't sure if she'd ever use that arm again.
Then he remembered. She was never going to leave here in the first place.
He heard the captain breathe, watched his shoulders relax as he realized the threat was non-existent.
"No stragglers." Sanosuke heard the man call and watched as another chuunin from another team drew a kunai from his pouch, marching forward with an aggrieved sigh. As if he were about to put down a troublesome dog. Not a person who couldn't have been much older than him now that he looked at her.
Something inside Sanosuke's stomach twisted.
He didn't know what possessed him to move, but before he knew it he was taking a step forward.
He wasn't sure for what.
What he would say?
Would he even say anything at all?
The woman gasped and croaked and writhed on the ground, futilely trying to crawl away.
She wasn't even moving in the right direction.
Then, whatever he was going to do, whatever he was going to say was rendered irrelevant.
The chuunin raised his hand, kunai knife in his grip, and brought it straight down.
And the girl was gone.
He never saw it.
Not a blur of motion. Not a hint of movement.
He didn't even hear a sound.
But instantly, he felt it, the way every single one of the Shinobi around him tensed, how the atmosphere of the already dark Konoha forests shifted and turned into something far more oppressive, far more suffocating than it had been before.
He had to look to the others, see where they were looking, follow their gaze to find his answer. Found him.
His heart jumped in his chest, his throat tightened up. He couldn't breathe.
Kneeling on the ground, bleeding woman cradled in one of his arms…
Blond hair, three whisker marks…
No.
No, it couldn't be him.
Not… not out here, it…
It didn't make sense!
This was a border outpost! Nothing!
This- WHY IS HE HERE!?
"You're gonna be alright. Help's here, it's gonna be okay..."
His voice, his words, something meant to reassure… was a stark contrast to everything Sanosuke was feeling rush through his mind and body with every uttered syllable.
"So much for catching them off guard."
Another voice drew his attention, there was a silver haired woman standing to their left, on the branch of a tree, a custom Fuuma shuriken spinning lazily in her grip, smirking with clear condescension down towards them.
"Sorry we're late for the party"
Another voice, another woman, dark-skinned with midnight black hair stood at ground level smiling at them with a grin that said she knew something they didn't.
Sanosuke turned his eyes back to… to him, watched as he set the girl down, standing to his full height, dressed in a red coat similar to those of the Kage, a dangerous gleam in blue eyes that looked sharp enough to cut glass.
His knuckles cracked like snapping bones as he bared his grit teeth."Your fight's with us now Iwa nin."
Captain Hidetada, stood straight and tense, fingers gripping the hilt of his blade tight, and Sanosuke tried not to acknowledge the tremble he could see run through the man as he took a step back.
Someone suddenly moved, too fast for Sanosuke to see, but he felt the chakra beacon go off, calling for help.
"Calling friends?" The dark skinned woman chuckled.
Someone, a Chuunin, answered her. "We've got you three outnumbered ten to one leaf!"
"I got friends too." Her smile curved her mouth into something wicked… cruel. And Sanosuke had a moment to recognize movement in the air behind her. "Mine are bigger."
The movement turned to a shimmer and the young Chuunin's unease became a genuine horror as he saw a massive reptile seemingly bloom into existence, twice the size of a horse, hissing and snarling. Blood red eyes looking at them with a savage, predatory hunger.
"SIC 'EM BOYS!"
The ground at their feet exploded, spiders, larger than men, clawed out of the soft dirt, pouncing onto their prey, pulling them into the ground with barely enough time to scream. Just as the monstrous lizard summon jumped into the thick of them, screeching with a reptilian hiss
It all descended into pandemonium.
Their allies rushed in from above as the woman with the fuuma shuriken met the new arrivals with a laugh and a howling wind swirling around her hand tearing at the forest canopy above
On the ground the summon clawed, bit and bludgeoned its way through anything in front of it. Men screamed, limbs went flying still gripping their weapons and bodies were crushed underfoot as the beast tore into anything that drew too close to its mouth, uncaring to the rain of jutsu and weapons falling onto it.
Suddenly, they weren't winning this fight anymore.
Sanosuke stood in place, frozen, eyes wide, brain trying desperately to catch up to how quickly the situation had fallen apart around them.
He could hear the blood rushing through his ears, feel it pounding at his temples, his fingertips tingled, his mouth was dry, all the while his heart pounded under his ribs like it was trying to burst free from his chest.
Then… Uzumaki started walking forward.
He saw Tohryu, one of his squadmates, attack him first, rushing forward, sword in hand, thrusting straight towards his heart.
A twitch of his fingers and Sanosuke saw Tohryu's hand, sword and all, suddenly fly off his extended limb. A gout of bright red bursting from his wrist as the Chuunin screamed clutching at the stump. He probably didn't even notice the elbow that struck him across the temple, silencing him completely.
A dome of earth encased the Konoha nin, pure slate grey stone imprisoning him for a moment before a lance made from the dome itself shot out rushing up towards the trees and skewering what Sanosuke could only assume was the caster, the earth wall crumbling as the man dropped from the trees above like a dead fish.
Two more men moved to attack, both fell to the ignored lizard summon, its long, thin, razor sharp tail whipping out - beheading one and nearly bisecting another. The beast was covered in scrapes and wounds, weapons sticking out of its thick, tough scales. The fresh blood that coated the beast made it glimmer like rubies.
A rain of kunai descended from the treeline and Uzumaki unfurled a scroll from his jacket, releasing a deluge of rushing water.
Sanosuke could almost feel the surge of chakra taking hold of the mass, twisting and controlling it.
The water swirled around him like a maelstrom; catching blades in the rapid currents before he sent it towards his attackers, catching them in the rush and killing them with their own weapons still trapped within.
Then, captain Hidetada was in front of him, weapon drawn, facing their enemy.
"RUN, KID!"
He struggled to even register the order, feet rooted to the ground.
Hidetada lunged forward, slashing with his short sword only for his wrist to be caught, twisted. The older man grunted, struggling against the Uzumaki, punching with his free hand only for that to be caught too, the fingers of his clenched fist being swiftly pried open and pulled the wrong way, until his arm and wrist were held straight.
With a seemingly impossible amount of flexibility for someone of his size, the Konoha nin twisted where he stood, little more than an arms distance from the captain and kicked him with a flawless back kick, foot rising to perform a standing split and crack against the captain's jawline, sending him straight to the ground.
With a casual toss, the sword was thrown away. The Konoha ninja standing over the captain, making it look as though he'd barely exerted any effort at all.
A kunai sliced Sanosuke's cheek, the searing burn of pain as his flesh was gouged open brought him back to reality as he gulped down a startled breath of air, reeling as his hand rose up clutching at his bleeding face.
"I SAID RUN!" The captain shouted scrabbling away from the monstrous leaf nin.
He felt those eyes on him, and Sanosuke looked up from his captain to find the piercing blue looking at him.
The man raised a hand, and the boy from Iwa was certain he was about to die.
With a flick of two fingers, Sanosuke felt something hit him. It felt like a sledgehammer smashing into his sternum, even with adrenaline and accelerated perception, he never even caught a glimpse of it.
He flew back, feet abandoning the ground entirely before he smacked hard into a tree some distance away.
His mind clicked back into place, panicked breaths filling his lungs.
He didn't need to be told a third time.
He turned his back and ran. Heart in his throat, he ran until his lungs threatened to collapse, the muscles of his legs tore and his bones became leaden rods.
He didn't dare stop running long after he couldn't feel his presence pressing down on him like a shroud of dread.
When they found him two days and a night later he was nearly dead from sheer exhaustion.
It would be even longer before he received confirmation of what he already suspected.
He would be the only one to return from the battle.
He killed them all- The boy would think.
The Storm King had killed them all.
(X)(X)(X)
In the twilight of the setting sun, weapons drenched in blood, as the exhaustive search for survivors and injured was tallied up, Ryoko fingered one of the blades of her custom fuuma shuriken eyeing the assembled collection of fresh prisoners.
The Iwa nin were a damn sad sight compared to a scant few hours ago, that was certain.
They shivered and trembled, huddled together like a tenebrous pack of dying mongrels.
"Don't have enough food to keep 'em, I say we kill 'em all." She leered.
Buraddo-Me, Kyofu's present summon, circled like he was contemplating his next meal, the massive beast releasing a hiss from somewhere in his throat that seemed to vibrate the air, its long, slender tail lazily whipping behind it.
She smirked at the cluster of Iwa nin feeling particularly cruel. "He likes his meals cooked before he eats 'em."
The youngest looked at her with palpable horror.
"Stop using my summon as a prop to scare them!" Kyofu droned behind her.
"He doesn't mind." She argued back irritated that the aura of intimidation she'd been utilizing was now diminished.
She looked back to Kyofu, she'd returned to her conversation with the Chuunin scout commander, utterly ignoring her.
She didn't need to hear them to know what they were talking about.
Troop strength, their defenses' integrity, patrol route and times, reports on enemy movements and numbers for the last few days - Kyofu always had had an eye and an ear for numbers and logistics. Came with being a summoner. Lots of things to keep track of with the animal clans. Rituals, rites, rivalries, families.
Ryoko was more of a 'people' person.
Judging by the state of the leaf Shinobi here she could tell they were… green. Very green. Competent enough in a textbook sort of way. They knew their job but anything outside of their comfort zone, like a battle on this scale, they didn't know how to improvise for effectively.
She'd never been involved in a war herself, battles certainly, but not war, and definitely not right at the front lines like a giant warning sign. She, too, was out of her comfort zone if she were perfectly honest with herself. Only difference between her and these greenhorns out here was Orochimaru-sensei.
He'd never forgive them, or himself, if they were so stupid as to let themselves be killed out on the field.
It'd be embarrassing.
"That's enough Ryoko, we're not killing them."
She straightened, looking to Naruto. "Then how are we feeding them? You left too damn many alive."
"We'll deal with it."
His voice was terse, irritated. He always was when she said things like that.
"Can still kill them." She prodded, knowing the answer.
"That's Orochimaru talking."
"And he'd be right!" She let out a sound, somewhere between a groan and a scoff, crossing her arms as she propped herself against a nearby tree. Still watching the subjugated enemy ninja.
Naruto glared at her from where he knelt beside the girl he'd gotten to in time to rescue. Ryoko recognized her. Distantly, anyway. Ten-Nen or something. One of Maito-san's students. No wonder he'd been so pissed when he jumped in.
Her blond teammate looked to a medic, speaking with him. The man, at least a decade older than Naruto, looked like he would bow at every other word as he gave off a diagnosis, the soft green glow of healing chakra washing over the still unconscious woman.
Naruto allowed a smile for the guy to slip through - he usually did. She was proud of herself for recognizing his smiles for what they were.
This one was his trying- to-put-people-at-ease smile. Either because they were nervous, or scared. Sometimes both. It was natural for him, really. Like he'd been doing it for a while. She wondered when he'd gotten so damn good at it.
With a few more words, he let the medic continue his work, finally standing and beginning to march towards the prisoners.
Their reactions were mixed. Hatred, fear and even a bit of awe.
Some watched his every move with wide, unblinking, eyes, while others didn't even dare look up at him, fixing their gaze on the ground.
Naruto paused, standing before them. He glanced back towards her and she shrugged, twirling her custom fuuma shuriken in a silent affirmation that the offer to kill 'em all was still on the table.
He ignored the implication, turning to look back at the captured combatants.
"I'd rather not hurt any of you." he started, kneeling in front of the group. "If possible I'd-"
And like that the calm was broken.
Someone, someone very stupid and soon to be very, very dead, lunged from the group, bloody kunai in hand. Where he'd stashed the weapon she didn't know, and she didn't care! Her arm cocked back, ready to throw the wind shrouded shuriken.
She'd cut them all to ribbons in a single swing and half the forest behind 'em… but she was too late.
The blade glinted in the light that broke through the canopies and she would swear to her dying day that her stupid, too damn nice teammate should have gotten cut, possibly killed.
But then, one moment his hand was resting at his knee, in the next it was grasping the man's fist, clenching it shut so he couldn't use his fingers to throw the blade.
The Iwa chuunin struggled, either trying to shove himself the extra few inches or trying to pull back, she couldn't tell.
Naruto's grip was true stone, utterly immovable.
Then he redirected and shoved the man's kunai into his own chest while it was still clenched in his fist.
The man tensed, eyes wide and bloodshot. Red bubbled up from his lips as he seemed to gargle, struggling to suck down a breath.
He fell over, dead, Naruto's hands still pressed to his chest.
The atmosphere in the camp was tense, dozens of eyes, watching, the remaining prisoners petrified, certain they were all going to be killed.
But she knew better.
Damn, kind hearted idiot.
"Like I said…" He began as if there had been no interruption. She wasn't sure if she should admire him, or hate him. "I'd rather not hurt any of you."
He opened his eyes, glaring at the men before him.
"But I made someone important to me a promise… and I ain't about to break it."