The Wanderers
Chapter 70 – Invading Enemy Lines
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, I'd know how the bad guy was going to get beaten. I'm sorry Kishimoto, but that's just sad.
***Previously-On***
Kakashi and Konan, on the request of Shikamaru, complete their mission on finding his lost teammate Chouji. They discover him living peacefully in a small village with mostly children and elderly as the main thing keeping the village together. Along with his lovely young wife Misa. The two of them struggle over whether they should ask Chouji to come with them or not, but before they can the village is attacked by a passing group of Quiraji scouts. The Quiraji burn down one of their main fields and kill most of the elderly in the village, forcing Chouji to admit that the best way for him to protect his people is to make the two shinobi leave and not return. With heavy hearts Kakashi and Konan leave with the intention of telling the others that the Akimichi heir is dead. Kakashi resolves to find his blonde student for their next move, knowing that in all likelihood he could use his help in the times to come.
***End Summary***
"Nine targets spread out over fifty metres. Armed to the teeth, but look like they've been there a while. I doubt they'd put up a reasonable fight."
Sakon cracked his knuckles loudly, "Easy pickings. Send word to the boss man that we're ready to go at any moment."
The scout nodded to the Otogakure leader and leapt away at top speed, while the four shinobi in the group waited for word to attack. They'd been the fifth group to give their confirmation, yet he couldn't shake the nervous feeling in his gut.
He was glad he was only a messenger for this battle.
Kicking off the ground quickly he moved away from the line of shinobi waiting under the cover of darkness and leapt over the large rock facing that concealed the reason behind their presence in the area.
In small camps expanding a kilometre long, huddled the entirety of Otogakure. From children to a small number of elderly, every citizen of their village was present and accounted for.
It had been madness to move them from their homes, but the Otokage had barely needed to mention the imminent threat and they followed him faithfully. In the short amount of time since they'd abandoned Otogakure to its fate, the villagers had traversed quickly to their current location.
When the sun had set it had been quite a beautiful spectacle, but as night had fallen a lull of quiet had come over the Otogakure non-combatants. They relied on the shinobi to protect them, but they also knew that the reason they had been brought along was because there was nowhere safe for them to hide.
Where they were going? That was a different story altogether.
Finally he found the commander that he took his orders from. He took the information with a dismissive tone before telling him to check the supplies on one of the caravans. Thousands of civilians had been accompanied by two score caravans that contained the necessary supplies that couldn't be carried by hand. Families carried whatever they needed and shinobi carried what they needed for battle.
It was a logistical nightmare, but they made it work by a collection of miracles that none of them quite understood completely. Everyone was just happy they hadn't been in battle yet.
That was just about to change.
"How long?" asked an impatient Tayuya with her interrogators standing around her on their section of the line. Normally her subordinates wouldn't be on the front lines, but with the push they had to participate.
"You should be patient, Tayuya," reminded Jiroubo with his group nearby. "He'll give the order once he had all the intel he can get."
The pink haired kunoichi swore loudly and motioned to the non-combatants with a wave, "We can't exactly hide this mass for very long."
At another part of the Otogakure shinobi ranks, Jin tapped his fingers on his arm impatiently. He had the best view of the enemy force they were about to engage. His group of two hundred Otogakure shinobi were ready to pounce at a moment's notice, even though they were a fair distance away.
Their target area was covered with Quiraji soldiers, staring into the night, unable to see the mass of shinobi that were about to attack them. Their plan was deceptively simple, the only reason they hadn't noticed their presence was because they weren't concentrating properly on what was in front of them.
The plan was already in motion.
Two Otogakure shinobi appeared out of thin air and ran through the ranks towards the small encampment that held the Otokage and his advisors. They passed through the heightened security without a problem before stopping and catching their breath.
The Otokage finished buttoning up his robe with his single hand and stared at the newcomers through his white eyes. He hadn't been able to monitor them with his Byakugan due to the nature of their plan, but their presence indicated that they'd been successful.
"How many?"
Kin took a deep breath before looking up at her leader. He'd always had an intimidating stare, but now that he had his war-face on he was downright terrifying. "Three hundred. They are holding position and trying to work out how so many broke through the line."
At her side, Sakon scoffed and moved his grey bang out of his face. "Ripe for the picking, boss. They have no idea we are coming."
"Good." Neji made several gestures to his advisors and they disappeared to their positions before looking back at the two shinobi. "Kin, take the Genin and attach yourselves to the reserves. Unless you see the signal, you are to stay with the non-combatants and protect them at all costs."
The dark haired kunoichi scowled for a moment before acknowledging the order and disappearing.
Sakon chuckled and cracked his neck loudly, "She won't forgive you for that."
"I don't need her to forgive me. I need her to obey." Neji stretched his arm for a moment before starting towards the shinobi ranks spread out in front of them.
"You're joining the attack?" asked Sakon with a hint of surprise in his voice.
Neji's assistant handed him the last part of his outfit and the Otokage placed the black and white hat on top of his head, tightening it before placing his single hand into a handseal. "I'm the Otokage, this is as much my battle as it is yours. If I don't fight at their side, how can I expect them to fight at mine?"
The twin stared at his leader as he walked in front of him before a small smirk came across his face.
Well said, he thought to himself. From within his body, his brother echoed the sentiment. They flexed their hands impatiently in anticipation and ran up to stand by his side.
Neji's doujutsu activated and his field of vision expanded so far that he was able to see every single citizen in his displaced village. He took a moment to watch his wife, Yuko, with their children, reassuring some of the other non-combatants that everything was going to be okay.
But his gaze quickly turned to the Quiraji soldiers that held the line between the Land of Rice Fields and the Land of Fire. They were the barrier that they had to get through to further their goal in destroying the Quiraji war effort on the continent. His eyes darkened as his mind made the final switch to full fighting mode.
He raised his arm up into the air, seeing in his black and white vision the shinobi that were doing the same thing down the line.
His army of almost a thousand shinobi was ready to invade the Land of Fire at his command. Their numbers had swelled since the Kage Summit, with every clan that wasn't associated with a shinobi village flocking to their cause, including a large number of defectors from other villages.
In a single motion, Neji dropped his arm.
The Otogakure army leapt out of their hidden positions and attacked the entrenched Quiraji soldiers.
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Unlike traditional warfare between shinobi, where it would be a massive exchange of ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu, the battle between the Otogakure shinobi and the Quiraji border soldiers took very little time at all. An army of almost a thousand shinobi slammed into a wide border that was made up of less than two hundred well-armed soldiers.
But the shinobi weren't taking any chances. They hit the Quiraji with everything they had.
Mixtures of thrown weapons, sound waves and elemental ninjutsu struck at the Quiraji soldiers in a massive single volley. It was an over-the-top statement that they were here and they meant business.
It did the job spectacularly.
Unprepared as they were for the attack, the small number of border soldiers quickly folded under the sheer weight of numbers of the Otogakure force attacking as a single entity. Dozens fell without even realising they were under attack, while the few that were quick enough to muster up their defences were rapidly overwhelmed and taken down.
Jin's cluster of shinobi struck at the soldiers from the side while another group did the same on the other side of the line, forcing the soldiers into a makeshift bottleneck that made it that much easier to destroy them. The section they had chosen to invade from was between two reasonably-sized mountain ranges; they hoped that the word that the border had been breached so horribly would not be passed down for a short while.
Even so, Neji used his Byakugan to survey the area for any potential scouts that could break away from the slaughter and bring word to their Quiraji commanders that they were under attack. His fastest shinobi stood at his side as they attacked with the front ranks and killed Quiraji soldiers left, right and centre. Even with only one arm, no soldier was able to stand against the Otokage and the shinobi guarding him.
"Two on the left mountain, blonde, both female," he said with an indication with his hand.
A pair of Otogakure shinobi nodded and disappeared at top speed while Neji turned his concentration to the rear of the Quiraji soldiers; he had full confidence that they would take out the two he'd seen.
Sakon slammed a young Quiraji soldier into the ground and buried him into the ground with a flurry of heavy punches before standing back up and watching his leader go to work. Neji's movements were fluid and deadly, his fingers crackling with lightning energy that circumvented the Quiraji immunity to chakra-based techniques. It was fairly difficult to ignore a jolt of lightning through your body, even if the chakra aspect of it was dissipated.
As Neji left unconscious bodies in his wake, Otogakure Chuunin and Jounin followed behind him and killed the soldiers where they lay. It had been obvious from the very start that they weren't to show the Quiraji any mercy.
Though under his direct orders, Tayuya and her interrogators captured a small number of Quiraji soldiers for interrogation. Since they'd stopped using converted shinobi and their specialist troops, they'd had some success in extracting information from the more basic Quiraji soldiers. And where they were going, they needed every advantage they could get.
After barely ten minutes of fighting, the battle was over.
Using his Byakugan to ensure that no scouts had escaped the small scale invasion, Neji called for a count of their standing force. He already knew the information, but he wanted his shinobi to hear it from their commanding officers.
In the beginning of their invasion into the Land of Fire, not a single Otogakure shinobi had fallen.
But now was not a time to rest. Every moment they spent idly at the border was precarious as it was, so Neji sent orders for their non-combatants to move up into the newly conquered position. They were protected by their Genin and a number of powerful Jounin hidden among their ranks, but the large number of civilians all knew how to protect themselves from attack. They had been preparing for this for as long as the shinobi had.
But just to be sure, he was going to send a full quarter of his force to protect them. If they came under attack, he had confidence they would be okay.
In the meantime, he would lead all of the other shinobi in an attack on the small Quiraji army they had lured to a nearby location with strategically placed chakra signals. Unlike the border he didn't expect to take these enemies by surprise, but he wanted to blood his shinobi in the fires of war properly before they got much further into enemy territory.
He also wanted to send a message to the Quiraji leader. The Land of Fire would not be safe for them much longer. This message would be sent in blood and corpses.
His shinobi stripped the soldiers of anything useful and raided their small storage containers for whatever supplies they could find. They were carrying their food for the most part, though Neji had ensured that they had months-worth of supplies contained within a collection of scrolls.
They were prepared for any possibility that could arise.
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They'd used chakra signals to lure a reasonable number of Quiraji soldiers to a single location, ripe for a good scrap. As any good army they hadn't deployed themselves in such a manner that they were vulnerable to ambush. They'd gathered in a relatively open area and had posted enough scouts that the Otogakure shinobi weren't going to get any closer without being detected.
Neji stood at the head of an army with everyone ready to do their part. The battle at the border had barely whetted their appetite and here the enemy was ready for them.
He didn't even need to give the order to charge.
Massive chunks of stone preceded the shinobi charge and slammed into the Quiraji soldiers, who were unable to defend against Jiroubo's long range attacks. The attack put them on edge and they held their positions to receive the shinobi charge. Their army comprised of mostly regular soldiers, but there were a pair of Black Robes and a group of five Red Warriors that were directing them in battle.
When the Otogakure shinobi activated a large number of ninjutsu towards the Quiraji army, the pair of Black Robes shifted to the front and placed up their hands to absorb the techniques. They were only able to maintain their defence at the front of the army, but the Quiraji soldiers had fought against enough shinobi to be able to dodge the fireballs and boulders being thrown at them.
With Neji at their vanguard, the Otogakure shinobi moved into close range and engaged the Quiraji in a bloody close-quarter battle with weapons and taijutsu. Despite knowing that chakra-based attacks had no initial effect on the soldiers, such as Neji's Jyuuken attacks, the shinobi were able to enhance their own bodies beyond normal soldiers speed and strength.
Each shinobi was more than a match for their Quiraji foes and weight of numbers put the pressure on the enemy early as the two lines clashed.
However these were not the bored guards they had taken out earlier. These Quiraji had come ready to do battle with shinobi and were well versed in fighting their hated enemy. For every soldier that died under the high speed/strength of the shinobi, the Quiraji fought back even harder and made the shinobi work for their victory.
The presence of the Red Warriors hadn't been part of Neji's plan, but nevertheless he took his best fighters and confronted the five Red Warriors that had pushed through the Quiraji lines to participate in the battle. In trained synchronisation they drew swords from their sides and confronted the Otogakure shinobi in front of them.
Neji stepped forward and flicked his wrist to grip a kunai from his sleeve. While he almost always fought bare-handed, he recognised that the blades they wielded would cut through his chakra-based techniques that he used for defence.
A Red Warrior stepped forward upon recognising him as the leader of the group, brandishing his sword brazenly and enticing Neji to attack him first. The Otokage wasn't in the mood to disappoint him.
In a single motion that his companions barely caught with their eyes, Neji feigned a slash at the Red Warrior's wrist before switching position and driving it into the single weak point at the Quiraji fighter's neck. He wrenched out his kunai before it could get in too deep as the Red Warrior gave a half-hearted counter sweep to his side, but Neji leapt backwards and watched as his enemy fell to the ground, dead.
Through his Byakugan he glanced down at his weapon for a moment, impressed at how efficient the poison was. It had taken a substantial amount of physical strength to push through the Red Warrior's physical barrier, but clearly even the shallowest wound was enough to put one down.
With his Byakugan active Neji saw everything happening around him in slow motion. To his left he watched as one of his Jounin was cut in two by a Red Warrior's blade, only to be crushed underneath a massive boulder thrown on top of him by Jiroubo. Even a Quiraji soldier's tremendous resilience was no match for simple physics.
He felt a swell of pride as he watched his shinobi overcoming the Quiraji army through weight of numbers and techniques. A pair of Chuunin engaged a large group of soldiers with only their butterfly swords in hand, yet they worked in such perfect unison that no soldiers could touch them.
It saddened him to see some of his shinobi falling under enemy weapons and abilities; he knew everyone in his village and had trained many of them personally at one point or another. However Neji was a Kage, he had to concentrate on keeping the rest of his people safe.
He turned to see Kin impale one of the Black Robes with a pair of giant needles that penetrated its spiritual barrier with relative ease, while the other was taken out by a triple punch from Sakon and Ukon. With the two of them down, the Otogakure shinobi were able to take down the Quiraji army with ninjutsu techniques with relative ease.
Once the battle was done, over three hundred Quiraji soldiers had been killed, with only a score of shinobi giving their lives for their cause. By all rights it was a flawless victory, but Neji knew his people well enough to know that there would be no celebrations.
As his shinobi ensured that there weren't any soldiers that had escaped, Neji knelt down beside the body of a female Chuunin. She'd only just been given a promotion to Chuunin before they'd abandoned the village by Neji himself, but he couldn't remember her name. He breathed out a long sigh and closed her eyes slowly.
He waved over a medic and told him to take care of the body. While they were going to burn the enemy bodies, the same couldn't be said for their own. They took care of their own.
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"Wake him up," ordered Neji in his most commanding tone.
An Otogakure Jounin tossed a bucket of freezing cold water onto the prisoner's face, causing him to wake up gasping before realising that he had been captured during the battle. He'd been beaten the appropriate amount but Neji had explicitly told his shinobi to leave him alive.
That could not be said for his Quiraji companions. The stink of their corpses had already begun to spread, but the Otokage hadn't ordered their destruction just yet.
"What…where am I?" stammered the prisoner, only to be silenced by a fist slamming into the side of his head. He cried out in pain, but a pair of Otogakure hands held his face up so that he had no time to rest.
"Do you see what we have done here?" Neji motioned to the corpses that had been piled up around them. He'd been particularly careful to not make any of their own casualties obvious to the prisoner; everything had been precisely constructed for the greatest effect.
The prisoner spat a globule of blood onto the ground in front of him before his eyes widened at the gory scene around him. "Butchers…" he muttered under his breath, but that only got him another punch to the head.
Neji motioned for them to hold his face steady and looked down at prisoner, "This is only the beginning." He pointed a finger at the Quiraji soldier, "You will go back to your leaders and tell them what you saw today. Tell them that there is nowhere that is safe for them to hide."
"We have come to reclaim our homeland," said Jin at his leader's side.
"We will never stop hunting you," said Tayuya with a malicious grin on her face.
"We never die," said Jiroubo with his arms crossed over his massive chest.
The Otokage stepped forward and clenched his single fist slowly, "Now get out of our sight and know that your days are numbered."
The shinobi holding the prisoner released their grip and watched him slowly get to his feet. He was the youngest and weakest of the Quiraji soldiers they had faced; they'd found him hiding in a corner away from his companions.
A perfect coward. Exactly what he needed.
The Quiraji soldier looked over the shinobi for only a moment before running away from them as fast as his legs could carry him.
Waiting until the soldier was out of earshot, the Otogakure shinobi visibly relaxed. Despite the short battle it had taken a toll on their stamina and they'd put on an impressive front for the prisoner.
Neji turned to his subordinates before his white eyes rested on Jiroubo, "We never die?"
The large shinobi shrugged, "Seemed like the thing to say at the time."
"I'm not disputing that. I just wasn't expecting it, that's all." Neji sighed and ran his hand through his long hair. "Bring everyone up here and get a clean-up crew working. I don't want any children seeing what it cost us to take this place."
His subordinates nodded their understanding and went about their work, while Neji called over his chief scientist. The red haired kunoichi hadn't participated in the battle precisely because he had plans for her, but that didn't stop her from scowling at being called upon in such a manner.
"Is the chip in place?" he asked shortly. He found the best way to deal with Karin was to be authoritative, otherwise she would run rampant.
Karin rolled her eyes and pushed her glasses up her nose, "Of course. I implanted it personally."
"And there is no way they'll be able to find it?"
The scientist gave him a look he could have hung her for, "I placed it directly on his brainstem and designed it to feed off the electrical signals in his head. If they can detect it, they deserve to get it."
"That isn't reassuring," said Neji with a shake of his head.
Looking over the battlefield for a few moments, Neji calculated how long they could stay in the area before the soldier they'd released got to his leaders. Whether the tracker gave them the location of their leaders or not was ultimately irrelevant, though it would certainly advance their plans if it did.
Reactivating his Byakugan to survey the area faster than his scouts could, Neji ignore the small pain in his head that had been pestering him lately.
Now wasn't the time to get a migraine.
Moving an entire village worth of people was painstakingly slow, even when the majority were shinobi that were constantly on watch for enemy soldiers. The civilians didn't complain about the situation as much as Neji had expected; he had immense respect for their faith in his overarching plan.
The Otogakure people moved over the grasslands of the Land of Fire ponderously, with a group of shinobi trailing behind to cover their tracks. It seemed an impossible task, but they made as little impact on the ground as possible.
Neji's heart was torn as they moved through the Land of Fire, something he kept to only himself and his wife. He recognised many of the landmarks and abandoned villages they passed through, but he was constantly on edge for enemy ambushes and traps. He'd expected some kind of retaliation attack from Quiraji forces after provoking them with the prisoner, but nothing had come.
As the sun set on their first day in enemy territory, Neji moved his people over a wide river by means of a temporary bridge while they all admired the remarkable scenery. On either side of the river stood two giant statues that stood opposite to each other astride a deep waterfall that was oddly quiet as water crashed down into the river beneath.
When asked, Neji explained the significance of the two statues to the world of shinobi. The statue of Uchiha Madara stood as an imposing figure that had started to show the weathering that the war in the Land of Fire had taken on it, while the statue of the Fire Hokage still stood stalwartly defiant with barely a scratch on it.
Neji had never had much of a connection between the two legendary figures and himself, but now that he was a Kage he could respect the decisions the First Hokage had to make. The sacrifices he made for his people.
Once they were all over the river, Neji ordered the bridge retracted and broken down so they could carry it with them, taking a final glance at the Valley of the End before running back to the front of his shinobi army. He was still awaiting word on the single shinobi that had been sent to specific areas near the border, with a number of chakra signal generators to throw off the Quiraji scouts.
They knew that trick would eventually stop working, but until the Quiraji soldiers that survived the destruction of Otogakure reported that they had used such methods, he intended to exploit it as much as possible. The longer they went without incident the better.
Though glancing up at the darkening sky, Neji could have sworn he could see a single bird flying off into the distance. It disappeared into a cluster of clouds that brought a scowl to the Otokage's face.
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Huddled underneath the cover with the rain slamming into the ground around them, Neji pulled out a map and indicated to it with his hand. "We'll let them rest for two more hours. Then we have to move."
"In this rain? It won't be easy," pointed out Jin. "We're better off waiting for it to stop or even wait until daylight."
Neji shook his head, that wasn't an option. He motioned for his assistant to bring the light closer to the map. "We're exposed in this position. While we are in the Land of Fire we have to assume they know about our location at all times."
Jin let out a long breath that turned into a sigh, "You've taken us into a dangerous place, boss."
"We all knew the risks," said the Chiza clan head. "None of us like it, but it's what we had to do."
"Enough," said Neji in a commanding tone. He appreciated Touru's support, but they had to focus on the issue at hand. "We are here now and we can't return to the village, so it's all moot. Our goal once we start moving is to get to this temple here." He pointed to a small marking on the map between them.
"That's some difficult terrain," said Arashi, the clan head of the Fuuma. He pointed to a section of the map between their current location and their goal. "But if we use these mountains for cover, get some scouts on top to stop ambushes; we can probably get through without attracting enemy attention."
Neji nodded in agreement, that was how he'd planned it. "I want Jiroubo going with five scouts from the Chiza clan. He'll check the stone for traps while they secure the area."
Touru nodded in understanding; he knew his clansmen were the best for the job. He gave Neji a small bow of respect and left the covered area to organise the scouting party, he trusted the Otokage to work out the rest of the plan without his presence.
"What do we know about this area we are moving to?" asked Jin.
Neji jabbed at the area with his finger, "This is our primary goal. If we can secure this place, we can hold there for some time while we consolidate our efforts."
"We'll be staying in one location? That's suicide!" protested Arashi louder than he expected. "We'll be surrounded on all sides, with no way of getting supplies in or out and no way of protecting our non-combatants."
Neji stared at the Fuuma clan head for several moments; he wasn't wrong about the situation. "This is the way we have to do it. You can see this is good defensible terrain, we'll be able to break the enemy against our anvil."
"Like we could've at home?" shot back Arashi.
The Otokage sighed; arguing wasn't going to get them anywhere. "Get your clan ready, Arashi. This isn't a democracy."
The grey-eyed clan head glared at him but still nodded respectfully and left the covered area.
"He's just worried for his clan," said Jin. "You ask for a lot of faith without giving much in return."
"I'm the Otokage," said Neji with conviction. "They have to obey my orders. Otherwise, they will die."
Jin shrugged in response, "I know that. So do they. But you ask a lot on faith."
Looking back at the map, Neji considered his point carefully. Despite being the leader of the village for longer than he was a Genin, he was still learning how to be a proper leader. Something his cousin always pointed out was a problem with his approach, was that he wasn't good with people.
But luckily he wasn't alone in his position of power.
"Can you please tell my wife I need to speak to her at her nearest convenience?"
Jin smirked and stood up to crack his neck loudly before leaving without giving the leader a show of respect like the others. It wasn't to be disrespectful, it was more of an inside joke between the two of them.
Neji made a mental note that his subordinate was up to fifty-nine executable offences. He was still considering what the payback was going to be.
But for now, he had to focus on their current problem. They'd come to a very dangerous place.
After a few minutes he saw his silver haired wife walk into the covered area. He always found it fascinating that regardless of how long she'd spend walking in the rain, it never seemed to stick.
Without saying a word she slipped her hands around his waist and leaned her head onto his shoulder.
"I need your advice about what we're doing," said Neji softly.
Yuko smiled slowly and started massaging his sides with her fingers gently. "Not until you get some sleep. You've been up for two days straight, Neji."
"I have to get this plan sorted out before we move out…" started Neji, before his sentence ran off as her fingers moved up to the sides of his head and worked at the stress lines that generally appeared when he was concentrating for long periods of time.
Eventually Neji caved to his wife's demand and was able to get a reasonable thirty minutes of sleep. He loved that she stayed at his side the whole time, even though he knew she was probably needed with their children more.
The rain outside continued to be unrelenting around them, with their entire village huddled together for warmth under temporary covers. The sentries that had been placed were cold and miserable, but overly thankful that there was no sign of any Quiraji soldiers.
It had been hard going, but nobody had made any vocal complaints about their situation. They all knew the score and the stakes of what they were doing here.
His assistant appeared at his side and silently handed him a hot cup of tea. Neji smiled at the young shinobi and took it with a word of thanks. It wasn't particularly good, but the Otokage didn't keep him around for his tea-making abilities. He, along with his twin sister, had unique abilities that Neji had come to value since they joined his village.
"Tell the commanders the details of our plan, Kazuha," he instructed while sipping his tea. "I want the entire village packed up and ready to move in an hour."
The young man nodded and placed his hands together into a handseal to spread the word. His technique was similar to the Yamanaka clan's secret techniques at a rudimentary level. After giving the command to his assistant, Neji could be confident that the leaders of his shinobi would know the details immediately.
After a few seconds he could already see some of the shinobi moving out of their shelters and getting the non-combatants ready to move. Everyone was armed except for children younger than five, knowing that they might be called to fight at a moment's notice. He hoped to get them to a more secure location to give them at least a single day of proper rest. The location he'd chosen for their next destination was significant for a number of reasons, but he prayed he wasn't leading them to their deaths.
"It is done," said his assistant at his side, several beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.
"Good. Get some rest and send your sister to me."
The young man nodded in thanks and disappeared into a nearby shelter. A minute later a young woman approached the Otokage and flashed him a smile that was wholly inappropriate for her position.
"What is your will?"
Neji rolled his eyes and indicated for her to stand up, "What is the word from the scouts?"
She flicked through a quick set of handseals and a cluster of seals appeared in the air in front of her. Using her hands she moved through them like they were a book before landing on the one she was looking for. "Everyone reports it is all quiet. No enemy activity whatsoever."
The Otokage sighed in frustration; it didn't make sense. They'd been in the Land of Fire for a week now, moving at a slower pace than he would have liked, but being under the threat of enemy attack constantly made it impossible to not be cautious.
Perhaps he was overestimating the presence the Quiraji had in the Land of Fire.
From the last time he had gotten intelligence from outside sources he knew that there had been a reasonably-sized army that had been destroyed near Kirigakure and a large force that was keeping Sunagakure out of his campaign. They knew that they protected their border rather furiously, but the Land of Fire had a large border that the terrain made difficult to defend even under the best conditions.
Nevertheless, Neji refused to take things easy. Their enemy was powerful enough to destroy a significant number of their race with relative ease and he lived in fear that one of the Four would be a part of an attack on his people. His confidence on defeating one of the Quiraji leaders was quite low, unless one of his backup plans came to fruition.
"Was there anything you need?" asked his female assistant. "A foot rub? Throw down?"
Neji glared down at her with his most disapproving look. While she had her uses, he wondered how anyone put up with her. There had been rumours of an unsavoury nature about her and her twin brother that he had no interest in, but upon remembering what they had been through he understood why she was the way she was.
Admittedly, the temptation to unleash Yuko on her was getting more and more intriguing.
"I want an updated report on our standing forces and supplies before we leave."
She groaned loudly and began scrolling through her visible seals, "Are you serious? That's sooo much work…"
"Now, Kazumi."
The young woman rolled her eyes and pouted, but began the arduous task he had given her nevertheless. While she went about that, Neji used his Byakugan to ensure that there was nothing they were missing. The rain was still falling, though when he looked straight up through the clouds he saw that in a few hours it would ease up in the area.
He had no intention of being here within an hour.
From what the scouts told him, the temple was exactly how Neji remembered it. Despite heavy Quiraji resistance in the area, both the architecture and outlying areas appeared untouched. If anything it looked like they'd gone out of their way not to destroy the buildings.
"There are perhaps two score Quiraji in the temple," said one of the scouts. "They look like they've been there a while."
"Any indications they have a communication line to the main Quiraji base?" asked the Otokage. While he was always prepared for their enemy to attack them at a moment's notice, the less they knew about their movements the better. He trusted the three groups of shinobi that had been sent out to lay false trails with chakra signals for the Quiraji army to chase.
It troubled him that they had no intelligence on the movements of the larger enemy armies though. He was tempted to send a squad to Suna to get an update on their situation, but their numbers were stretched as they were. While they had suffered very few casualties so far, Neji knew that his shinobi were human and prone to mistakes if over-worked.
The temple solved a number of their more immediate problems and Neji was anxious to take it and get set up. Even if only for a short period of time.
Initially he had placed himself in the vanguard of the attack, but his commanders had pointed out that he was too important to be used for such a small scale battle. Jin pointed out that he'd be best used right after the battle to ensure the temple was free of traps with his Byakugan. Eventually Neji had relented and gathered three groups of Otogakure shinobi to him.
Unlike other battles, this was one he wanted completed with stealth. They needed the temple intact and unscarred, while ensuring that the enemy didn't discover their location for a reasonable period of time.
Kin had significant experience in infiltration and Neji had given her a squad of their fastest shinobi. Her goal was to infiltrate the temple and take out the Quiraji soldiers that were sleeping within the buildings. It was a difficult task, but the long haired Jounin assured him there would be no problems.
The largest group of thirty shinobi attacking the temple was lead by two shinobi, Rinji the bat-user who had once been a prisoner, and the crystal-user Guren. They had a good working partnership that they had proven on the front lines in the past. While Neji had complete faith in them as shinobi of Otogakure, he recognised that they were also quite volatile and Guren's ambition for power was something he had been forced to keep in check.
Nevertheless, their abilities were perfect for fighting Quiraji soldiers and Neji had full intent of exploiting that.
A young Fuuma kunoichi called Sasame had been given a single mission that was vital to taking the temple. The temple had a number of hawks that they knew had been captured by the Quiraji when they had purged the monks from the temple, and they could not allow the enemy to send a message that their position had been compromised. She would lead a small group of her clan members that would follow the previous group in and take out the communications tower before it could be used.
With their civilians waiting a fair distance away, Neji waited for dark before sending the three groups on their mission. He waited close by with a larger force of Otogakure shinobi, just in case the mission went awry and they had to leap forward to join the battle. He wasn't able to monitor with his Byakugan due to the nature of their enemy, but the Otokage had faith in his subordinate's ability to get the job done.
He still couldn't get the butterflies out of his stomach. It felt just like when he'd learnt his father had been sacrificed by the clan for his uncle's sake. Only this time, it was his own people he was throwing into the fire.
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An hour later he got the signal from within the temple that the enemy had been cleared out. He activated his Byakugan with the hope that there were no chakra sensors in the area and looked over the effects of the battle.
The Quiraji soldiers had been slaughtered in their sleep by Kin's group, their throats slashed far away from their weapons. The soldiers that had been patrolling the temple outskirts had been picked apart by a combination of bats and crystal projectiles, with many of the Otogakure shinobi not even needing to participate in the battle at all.
For a moment he scowled, noticing that Sasame's group had defied his order to destroy the communications facility, but his mood shifted when he saw what she had done instead. One of the Fuuma clan had similar spider-like abilities to Kidomaru and had covered the hawks with webs so they weren't able to take flight. As he judged by the body in the tower one of the Quiraji had tried to send a message, but thankfully the Fuuma shinobi hadn't killed him.
If their luck held up, he might have information they could use to further their campaign.
Nevertheless, the Fire Temple of the Land of Fire was now under his command.
The Fire Temple was surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges that made it an excellent defensive position. Neji was suspicious of why the Quiraji hadn't used it as a proper staging point, but when he examined several of the maps they had discovered detailing the geography of the area, he realised why there had only been a skeleton guard.
They'd already pacified the region and driven out all the civilians so they didn't get in the way of their plans. The area no longer had value for them.
He wasted no time in using his Byakugan to sweep the temple for traps and extra troops, though he didn't expect to find anything. He was thankful that the large crypts that he'd seen once as a young boy were still intact, though he would have to have Jiroubo and the other Earth users expand them so they could hide their non-combatants underground. He would have his shinobi dig a number of holes to hide in around the area and lay traps for any approaching enemies.
The Fire Temple had originally been large enough to accommodate a few hundred warriors reasonably, but Neji's force numbered far larger than that. He would have a defence force set up in the location to protect their civilians but many of his shinobi would not stay in this location. Now that they had a staging point, he'd turn his people on the offensive and kill every Quiraji they came across.
For now though, there were a thousand different things that had to be done to secure the area. With a small smirk he found an extravagant bedroom that would be most satisfactory.
There was a lot of work to be done.
"Friendlies coming in!"
Neji pushed open the command tent flap and watched as two of his shinobi ran towards him. He breathed out a small sigh of relief; he'd been expecting them for quite a while.
The two Otogakure shinobi saluted him quickly; clearly out of breath. Neji gave them a moment to steady themselves as he looked over a report he'd been given earlier. Getting intelligence into the Land of Fire had proved an impossibility, but Sakon and Ukon's network was still in place. Even though many of their targets had been taken out during the war.
"You're late," he said over the report.
Dosu and Zaku both shared a look before all three of them shared a chuckle.
"Always the hard ass, hey boss?" said Zaku with a grin.
"I have to maintain an image," replied Neji. He handed the report to his assistant before waving the two shinobi into the command tent. "I want your full report immediately."
"Not even time for a breather, eh?"
"Grow a spine, Zaku," said Dosu with a hint of amusement in his voice. He closed the flap behind them and straightened out his back. He cracked his neck loudly and placed his hands on his hips. "A hot shower wouldn't go astray though."
"Afterwards," said Neji. "How did it go?"
Dosu gave him a quick overview of the events at Kumogakure, followed by their retreat and leading the Quiraji army to their home. Neji told him to stop right there and explain what happened to Rene.
"We did as you asked," said Zaku after a moment of hesitation. "I think she's the reason the army found home in the first place. After a few days they'd lost our trail and we didn't want to give away the mission."
Neji took in the information with a short nod, "You did well. The reason I sent the two of you was because I knew you could get the job done."
And you knew we wouldn't have done that to Kin, thought Dosu to himself.
"Were you able to determine whether the plan worked?" asked Neji, changing the subject.
Dosu nodded grimly, "It was just as you predicted. They broke themselves upon our walls. Zaku and I both agree they lost almost 90 per cent of their soldiers. We're surprised you didn't see the pillar of flame when the village was fired."
"We had other things to concentrate on," said Neji. "What about Kidomaru and Tenten?" He knew what their answer was going to be, but he had to hear it from them.
Both Dosu and Zaku shook their heads. Neither of them had particularly cared for either of the Otogakure shinobi, but they could appreciate the sacrifice they made for the war.
Neji let out a long breath and turned his back on the two shinobi. He knew the moment Tenten had informed him that she was staying behind with her partner that he wasn't going to see his old teammate again.
He put his grief aside for the time being and concentrated on the problems within his control. He regretted that their home had to be destroyed to make such a dent in their enemy's force. It was a terrible thought, but he regretted the loss of Kidomaru more than the village itself. The arachnid-like shinobi had a knack for pulling brilliant plans out of his ass to solve problems.
The Otokage turned back to his shinobi and glanced at Zaku. "Get yourself rested and then join back with your squad, Zaku. When you are ready, I'll need you to assist Sakon's group in taking out a Quiraji outpost."
Zaku grinned widely, "That sounds perfect. It killed me not to be able to participate in the defence of home." He nodded to their leader and left the command tent.
The two Otogakure shinobi watched him leave for a moment before Neji looked down at the shorter man. "You have concerns," he said with a knowing tone.
Dosu cocked his head slightly before breathing through his teeth. "You have an eerie way of doing that, Neji."
"Not as eerie as being a human lie-detector," replied the Otokage shortly.
His single eyed stared at the Hyuuga leader, "Which you seem to be quite good at avoiding."
Neji dismissed his concern and leaned on the small table set up in the command tent. "You have concerns about what happened with Rene? Speak your mind, Dosu."
The Otogakure shinobi clutched his hands together and stepped around to lean on a nearby chair, "She was one of our own. There must have been other ways of luring the Quiraji army to our village than leaving her behind."
"How did it happen? Rene was not the type to go down quietly."
Dosu glanced away for only a split second, but Neji's white eyes caught the regret in his single eye. He wasn't an expressive shinobi by nature, but to someone like Neji he might as well have been telling him out right.
"When we were fleeing from the Quiraji army, we found an open area. We'd let the scouts catch up to us and ambush us, but there wasn't any issues taking them out. When…after the scouts were taken care of…we broke her legs and left her there."
"Good. We can assume that the Quiraji killed her once they extracted the information they needed."
Dosu stared straight into his leader's white eyes, "I don't appreciate the easy way you throw away our people's lives. That's what Kabuto did."
Neji's expression didn't change at the accusation. With slow deliberation he reached into his jacket and produced a small photo. "This was taken after the battle at the Kage Summit."
Staring at the photo, Dosu's expression changed only slightly under his bandages. He recognised the woman in the picture, but she wore the single-strap white flak jacket belonging to the Hidden Cloud.
"We've never had issues with infiltrators in the past…"
"And we didn't here either," said Neji. "Once she'd outlived her usefulness, I allowed her to do one final service to our people."
Dosu breathed out heavily, "That's cold, even for you. Clever, but cold."
"I recall you willing to sacrifice your friend, Zaku, at a moment's notice in Suna."
"That was different," said Dosu quickly. "We…were different."
Neji went to make an observation, but was interrupted at the sound of the bell being rung around the camp. It was the signal that meant that they had come under full assault by the enemy.
"This discussion will have to wait for another time," said Neji with a sigh.
"Shall I join the defence, sir?"
The Otokage shook his head quickly, "Don't be ridiculous. You'd be more of a hindrance than a help." He placed his hand into his jacket, "Get to the infirmary and report to Goro. If you don't get that infection checked out then you could be out when I need you most."
Dosu rolled his eye and opened up the command tent flap, "I'm not even surprised by this stuff anymore. How long have you known about Goro?"
Neji didn't dignify that with a response. He simply followed his subordinate out and moved to join the defence himself.
He couldn't let his subordinates fight this battle on their own. Even though he was their leader, he was also a proud shinobi of Otogakure.
Author's Note:
Apologies for taking so long with this. I didn't have time to write this chapter over the past little while, been trying to get published with some short stories that I've been writing.
Next chapter will be a Bonus Chapter, as usual. This one's…well it's a Bonus Chapter so it's going to be strange. Fun, but strange. And I promise much, much better than the previous one.
Please review and tell me what you think. I try to take each review into account, and believe me I read them all. Tell me what can be improved, what you liked, what you didn't, everything. I'm a writer so I'm always open to criticism.