The Wanderers
Chapter 75 – Scouting the Enemy
A/N: A review from Vandar93 pointed out that I might have made Sasuke a wee bit powerful in the last chapter with his spiritual energy technique. I'd love to just use the excuse that 'he's a genius' and be done with that, but I'm not that lazy. When we next see the Uchiha, I'll put in a better explanation of his new abilities. Sorry about that.
A/N2: I also have a question of you readers. Would it have been easier to read/look through if I'd split the story into sections and put each section as its own story? I'm just looking at trends of readers and recognising that the ridiculous word count is really intimidating.
A/N3: Sorry about the sloppy editing in the last chapter. That's just embarrassing, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, there would be INFILTRATION in the shinobi world. Seriously, they are ninjas. Where is the stealth?
***Previously-On***
After sending Naruto and Hinata off to get Sunagakure and the Kazekage's allegiance, Neji becomes suspicious over the Quiraji pulling out of the area completely. To that end he dispatched Sasuke and Fiore to investigate the intelligence he received about why they might have retreated. To that end, the couple flew to a place in the north-eastern part of the Land of Fire and demolished a Quiraji weapons facility that was hidden underground before moving on to their primary target. They arrived just in time to turn the battle in the Kirigakure shinobi's favour and proposed that they accompany them back to the Otogakure stronghold to formulate their attack plan. The Mizukage was hesitant to throw her people back into the fire, but agreed that it was for their mutual benefit and agreed to their alliance.
***End Summary***
Though they sat as close as possible to each other, to spread their body heat as much as they could, the Otogakure shinobi could not get warm at all.
It wasn't as if it was a cold night. The air was heavy and humid, but they felt no warmth come to them.
Just another terrifying night in the Land of Fire.
Zaku picked at the holes in the middle of his palms absentmindedly, a habit he'd developed to try and calm down his nerves. They'd been away from the Fire Temple for only a few days, but every moment seemed to drag itself out when you expected enemies to pop up at every corner with the express intent on gutting you and leaving you to die on the ground.
And the Quiraji hadn't been shy about it either. Earlier in the morning they had run straight into a pair of soldiers that had been taking a leak into a nearby river. Sensing an opportunity, he ordered his squad to take them down as quickly as possible, but when two of his shinobi came near them the Quiraji soldiers disappeared into thin air and the two shinobi triggered a line of explosives that made them vanish in a bright burst of light.
They'd never stood a chance.
"How long are we meant to wait here?" asked the tracker of his group impatiently. The Otogakure Chuunin was one of the Chiza clan's best trackers, but he had a mean temper and was one of the loudest shinobi Zaku had ever met.
How he made a good infiltrator was beyond him, but the man delivered at every turn so the Otogakure shinobi couldn't complain.
"Until the other group arrives," came a female voice from the other side of the group. She glared at their tracker through her scarred expression, "if you don't bring the whole Quiraji army down on our heads first, Ruka."
Zaku went to tell them to calm down, but he saw there was no need as Ruka turned away from her and she concentrated her efforts back on rubbing some heat into her bare arms. Momo always seemed to be a lot older than her thirteen years suggested and initially he'd questioned why the young girl had achieved Jounin status, but after she'd saved his life a half-dozen times in the previous days battles he stopped questioning and accepted her place in their team. She often claimed that she felt like an old lady in a little girl's body, but Zaku could tell her demeanour was just the way for her to put on a strong face to deal with all the things they'd been faced with over the past few years. Besides, her taijutsu skills put them all to shame and she had one of the highest counts of Quiraji soldiers out of the whole village.
The last surviving member of his team was a silent woman who scared the hell out of him. She was tall and lanky, while wearing a long cloak and a golden pendant that had been seared into her flesh below her neck. It was an upside-down triangle within a circle that Zaku had been told was the symbol of a long-dead cult of killing and death. She had bronze eyes and a furious expression all the time, though Zaku put that down to the fact that she'd intentionally ripped out her own tongue in reverence to her deity. There was no record of her ever having a name; the Otogakure shinobi just called her Satsu.
They made a strange group, as Zaku never pegged himself as a leader before his trip down to Sunagakure, but for what they were assigned to do they were the perfect group. Neji hadn't made a wrong turn yet when it came to mission assignment so he clearly thought Zaku was the best type for the job, but the air-user would still have preferred assignment to somewhere nice and quiet. Maybe somewhere with a beach.
"How far away are they?" he asked to Ruka quietly. He did his best to keep his voice down, but he knew that the large man would warn them before any Quiraji came anywhere near them. He was frustrating, but not stupid.
The Chiza shinobi concentrated for a moment with a hand to his temple before letting out a long breath, "A few minutes, no more. They aren't being pursued."
"Good, good," said Zaku with a nod of his head. He hated that they'd lost Wataru and Ken just in getting to their current position, but he knew that with the mission they were going on came burdened with the knowledge that not all of them might come back.
Even with their overwhelming strength as shinobi, far beyond what they may have achieved if they hadn't been at war for so long, the Quiraji had proven to be highly effective killers in a variety of ways.
There was no sound as a second group of Otogakure appeared from over a nearby rock formation, their feet stopping on the rocky ground as Zaku and the others stood up to greet them. The tall squad leader grinned when he saw who was leading the squad they'd come to escort.
Kin had always had an evil look in her eyes, regardless of whether she was in prison or in the bath, but now Zaku didn't even care that the last time they'd spoken she'd threatened to castrate him and eat his genitalia in a salad.
She just had a different way of showing affection. That's what he told himself.
Beside her stood three Otogakure shinobi that Zaku had been given an extensive report on, these were the scouts that his group had been assigned to protect.
Naru was the complete opposite of Kin, a beautiful blonde haired middle-aged shinobi that very rarely fought in the battles. Her abilities were best suited as an analyst; she had an almost precognitive ability to understand an enemy's plan and structures with the tiniest of clues. She was always a welcome presence, though Zaku would have preferred it if the man at her side hadn't accompanied her.
Ryuuhei was a coward and a craven, a tall thin man that embodied everything that an Otogakure shinobi shouldn't be. Zaku recognised that he was a very perceptive man and often saw things that others didn't, but there was a reason he had been a Genin for over twenty years, even as a mercenary in the Land of Rice Fields before joining Otogakure. He was also Naru's husband, and for the life of him Zaku couldn't understand what she saw in him.
He'd half-expected Dosu to come with Kin for their mission when they left the Fire Temple, but instead the last member of Kin's group was the current incarnation of the head of the Shiin clan. She was a young woman with a plain expression and a dead look in her eyes that made her pale skin almost look like she was a corpse. He didn't have that much information on her, as their clan had mysteries that only the Otokage was privileged enough to know. She always spoke slowly and deliberately, a trait that just made her even creepier.
The eight of them made an odd combination of abilities, but for the mission they were about to embark on, he wished they could afford to have more people. They were stretched far too thin in the area and Zaku could guess with absolute certainty that there were other groups just like theirs embarking on the same mission.
The Otokage was nothing if not thorough.
Kin gave him a short nod and motioned for her group to stand down and join the others. "You ready for this?"
Zaku chuckled weakly and handed her a power bar, "Just like old times, huh."
The long haired kunoichi gave him a suspicious look as she bit into the bar of sawdust-tasting food, "I don't know what times you're talking about. This is some crazy shit right here."
"Still regretting that you never got to sleep with me?"
Kin snorted and shouldered past him to take a seat on a clear patch of ground, "There's a better chance of me banging Dosu than you."
"Even though he's…"
"Yep."
Zaku shook his head in false disbelief. "No accounting for taste these days..."
Zaku had hoped that they'd be able to reach their target without any significant Quiraji contact. As they drew closer, he began to realise that was a pipe-dream of epic proportions.
They encountered a number of small Quiraji groups of soldiers that gave them little trouble; though Ryuuhei made the observation that many of them were injured and far below their normal fighting ability. His wife figured the Quiraji had little interest in soldiers that couldn't fight anymore and were throwing them at them to slow them down, but Zaku didn't want to entertain that theory.
It implied that the Quiraji already knew their goal, and that meant their lives were already forfeit. They all knew they'd have to put their lives on the line, but that didn't mean he wanted them to sacrifice themselves without proper cause.
Despite the significant time restraints that had been put on their scouting mission by the Otokage, the going was much slower than any of them would have liked. Moving through enemy territory without using chakra to avoid rousing suspicion was like struggling through thick mud, but they made no complaints as they continued to press forward towards their goal.
After a full day of moving less than half the distance they needed to go, Zaku and Kin made the decision to speed up their movement; trusting that they would be able to outrun any potential pursuers as they had done in the past. So long as they kept away from the main Quiraji outposts there were plenty of routes they hadn't covered and the Land of Fire was covered in dense forests that hid their movements expertly.
Halfway through their second day, the group emerged from the tops of a large forest and landed on the group, each of them stopping at the same time and staring at what was in front of them. Neither Zaku nor Kin had to tell them not to progress any further; they had all noticed it at the same time.
The area in front of them looked similar enough to the one they'd just come from, but there was a heavy aura on the air that had such a wrongness to it that their instincts were keeping them statue-like.
After a few seconds of staring, Zaku shook himself out of it and turned to the group they'd been escorting, "What the hell is this?"
The rest of the Otogakure shinobi snapped out of it and reverted back to their normal states, with several stepping closer to the 'wrong' area to examine it.
"It feels like I'd be crushed into tiny bits if I went in there," said Momo with a slight shiver. She stepped back towards the forest as if retreating, though she suspected they'd have to go in at some stage.
"You wouldn't," said Ryuuhei with a concerned tone. "But you'd definitely die."
"What makes you say that?" asked Ruka with a suspicious look on his face. He jabbed a thumb at the area, "It's not like the air is any different, or that its some kind of Quiraji booby-trap. It just feels a bit weird, that's all."
"Like falling," said Kin, causing the others to nod in agreement. She turned to her analyst, "What are you thinking, Naru?"
The middle-aged kunoichi held up a hand to ask for silence as she thought. A thousand scenarios ran through her head before one clicked into place and she put down her hand. She took in a deep breath before stepping forward into the area.
Her Otogakure companions called out for her to stop, but when they saw that she wasn't being injured it was clear that she wasn't in any immediate danger. However several of them did notice that she started to turn pale within seconds of entering the area and was quick about retreating back to their side. When she turned to the group to give her analysis, she looked like she'd run for four days straight without rest; her eyes were sunken and her cheeks had a blue colour like she'd been deprived of oxygen for short periods of time.
"What the hell did you do that for?" demanded Ruka furiously. "You could have alerted the Quiraji to our presence! You could have sprung their trap for all we know!"
"Calm down, Ruka," said Zaku quickly. "She wouldn't have done it if she thought that might be the case." He turned to Naru with his best 'leader' face on, "It's some kind of field, isn't it?"
The blonde kunoichi nodded tiredly as colour slowly started to come back into her cheeks, "It's a chakra-nullifying field."
"That isn't something we haven't encountered in the past," observed Shiin with no hint of emotion in her voice. "The Quiraji have been using that technology for over a year."
"No, this is something different," said Momo with a shake of her young head. She pointed to Naru dramatically, "I've was in one of those fields for over an hour during the siege of Eren Castle and I never turned out like that."
"She's right," said Naru weakly. "It's a chakra-nullifying field of ridiculous strength. I think more than a few minutes and I would have passed out."
Zaku turned to Kin with a concerned look on his face, seeing the expression on her face was enough to confirm his suspicion. "You know what's right through there, don't you?"
The black haired kunoichi nodded grimly, "Though it's a good ten kilometres further in. We'd have to assume that's what it's covering. It's the best tactical position in the country. The irony isn't lost on our enemy either it would seem."
"That's a massive area to cover though. There's no way we'd get anywhere near it."
"Efficient though. Particularly if its source is in the target area. There'd be no way a force of shinobi would be able to invade the area." Kin sighed and ran a hand through her black hair, "This throws the mission out the window."
"Not necessarily," said Ruka from the side. He motioned to the forest they'd come from earlier. "We have company."
Zaku gritted his teeth and stepped forward with his hands outstretched, "We need more information, clearly." He fuelled large amounts of chakra from his chest through his arms as several figures came into view.
There were times for subtlety and stealth. Now wasn't one of them.
Air began accumulating in the tunnels in his arms as his technique activated, "Zankuuha!"
When he'd participated in the Chuunin Exams before the world turned upside-down, Zaku had a reasonable level of control over his unique technique, but that didn't even compare to what he was able to do now.
There was a loud blasting sound from his arms, but it paled in comparison to the damage that had actually been inflicted. With a single motion of his hands, the forest was cut cleanly through like a giant scythe had been through it. The tops of the trees collapsed down to the ground and the sound was almost deafening to the Otogakure shinobi.
A wicked grin came over Zaku's face, reminding him of a time when he'd been a more wicked person before reality had come crashing into him. Within the decapitated forest were the bisected bodies of the Quiraji scouts that had come to attack them. There was nothing that could have prepared them for his attack; even with their apparent immunity to chakra they weren't able to stop simple physics.
"Bit over-the-top, isn't it?" said Kin with a smirk. "You could have just boiled them in their skins."
Zaku ignored her comment and turned to his group, "You know what to do, people."
The three of them nodded and moved towards the dying Quiraji soldiers quickly. Both Momo and Ruka leaned down beside a few survivors and started to interrogate them, while Satsu pulled out a wicked curved blade and wiped a finger across the throat of one of the dead Quiraji scouts.
Zaku tried not to wince at what she did next and failed miserably, even though he'd seen it done a number of times when he'd worked with her before.
That didn't make it any less disturbing.
After a minute both Ruka and Momo stood up and walked back to their leader, shaking their heads. The Quiraji scouts hadn't lasted long, though being cut in half wasn't exactly good for one's health.
Satsu moved to those scouts they'd interrogated, continuing her rituals in complete silence as she always did.
"Did they give you anything?" asked Kin with a raised eyebrow. Beside her Naru and Ryuuhei put their minds together to work out further information about the chakra-nullifying field.
Ruka shook his head and raised his head towards the sky, turning his perception to making sure they didn't get ambushed by a secondary Quiraji force. The enemy had made a considerable account for themselves with that kind of attack, but thankfully it seemed to be their lucky day.
Momo pushed past her large companion, "The girl didn't seem to know anything, but she was terrified that we'd come this far into their territory. I got the impression we weren't meant to get this close to the field. " She showed Zaku a small circular device that she'd picked up from the Quiraji scout. "I think this is some kind of communication device."
Zaku took it out of her hand and examined it curiously, but before he could look at it closely Shiin shot forward and snatched it out of his hands. In a quick flick she tossed it back into the forest as hard as she could.
Before he could voice a protest, Zaku and the others watched in horror as a small area around the device collapsed in on itself and disappeared into a void. In a split-second it was gone. It also took a large section of the forest with it, vanishing inside the void as if it the section had never existed in the first place.
"Wha…" started Kin with a terrified look on her face.
"Void mine," said Shiin with a slightly aggravated tone. "Extremely rare, but very powerful. I thought we'd destroyed them all."
"Evidently you missed one," said Momo angrily. She hated the fact that she'd almost gotten them all killed, though she was grateful to the Shiin clan leader for saving them. "Ignoring that, I think there is more here than just this field."
Zaku took her opinion into account as he tried to figure out the next step they had to take. He often figured himself as a warrior before a thinker, but it was when he realised that he could make decisions quickly that he remembered why he'd been given the job.
"The Otokage needs to know about this," said Ryuuhei nervously. "We should go back."
Kin shot the cowardly shinobi a judgmental glare before turning to her fellow leader, "what are you thinking? Should we go back?"
Zaku scratched at the metal on the side of his face, "He wouldn't be satisfied with just this. We have to find out how far this field goes and whether there are any breach points."
"If they are willing to put this much effort into a field this size, this must be their main base," observed Naru, stating the obvious to everyone there. "It's the only explanation."
Zaku turned and called Satsu back from her ritual, thankful that the blood-drenched kunoichi hadn't been struck by the void mine Shiin had saved them from. The tall woman wiped her mouth and bared her teeth at them in a non-threatening manner, the blood having made it look like she was wearing lipstick.
There was no trace of the Quiraji bodies he'd killed earlier.
"We'll skirt around the edges of the field, maybe we'll find an opening. If they think they can stop us from getting closer to Konoha, they're underestimating how far we're willing to go. Move out."
What is that? signalled Zaku through his hands silently.
Both Naru and Ryuuhei signalled for silence as they observed the area in front of them carefully. They'd skirted the edge of the field for half a day without any Quiraji activity before coming across a suspicious looking area that looked like it'd been built up recently. When they approached to get a closer look, they saw a huge machine that none of them recognised in front of a large barracks.
And nearly a hundred Quiraji soldiers standing guard over it.
The field extends around the machine, observed Kin, pulling apart a small bush to try and get a better look at it. They look like they've been here a while.
We can take them, signalled Ruka, but his idea was immediately shot down by the rest of the group. Not only did the chakra-nullifying field extend around the area they would be attacking, but they could see almost a score of red-armoured warriors with long swords at their sides and a small group of familiar-looking assassins wearing white garbs and sharpening their short blades along their arms.
It was an impressive display of power for a seemingly innocuous position, further confirming that it was something they had to pay attention to.
Clearly the machine is helping power the field, said Naru with a concerning look on her face. But even something that size wouldn't be able to power a field that big.
Her husband tapped her on the shoulder and signalled to her quickly, causing her to let out a silent ah and turn to their two leaders. Ryuuhei says, and I agree, there has to be more machines than just this one. If Konoha is at the centre of the field, then these machines are like the barriers that keep it their territory. If we were able to destroy the machines, a strike against the Quiraji main base would be possible.
Zaku nodded slowly as he absorbed the information, while Kin was more suspicious about it. She'd been suspicious ever since the last ambush had been such a pathetic attempt on them.
This screams 'trap' to me, said Momo before anyone else could say it. Clearly they want us to get this information and lead our people here.
That isn't for us to decide, signalled Shiin from the other side of the group. This is exactly what our mission states for us to do. The Otokage will know what to do.
Let's hope so, said Zaku, though mainly for himself. He signalled for Ryuuhei to write down everything he could see including the position of the machine before pulling the groups out of earshot of the Quiraji soldiers.
Once they were in the clear, they came to an agreement that they had to check whether there were more machines or not and where they were. It would mean their mission would take even longer than they were originally meant to be out for, but they all agreed that the information was worth the risk.
None of them spoke of the anxiety they all felt about continuing to move so close to Quiraji forces. At any moment they could come under attack; Zaku hoped that his group was prove up to the task of protecting Kin's information gatherers.
Ryuuhei finished the coding of the information and handed the note to Zaku with a nod of his head.
The Otogakure Jounin took it and placed it carefully into his pocket before turning to the shinobi's wife, "You don't think there are any more machines?"
Naru shook her head with her hands crossed over her chest, "Each of them were spread out the same distance apart. We're close to where we originally encountered the field, so I find it highly unlikely that there are anymore."
"What if there were more inside the field?" asked Momo with a serious expression on her small face. She placed a hand in front of her body with her fingers clenched upwards like she was holding something, "If there were five nodes powering the field, then it would make sense to have one in the middle just in case the others fail."
"They wouldn't do that dear, if they want the field to fail," said Naru grimly. "Even though they've got almost a thousand soldiers and warriors spread over the five nodes, there were other ways they could have protected the machines. They want us to come and attack them."
"This is all well and good, but if we don't move soon we're going to be in for a really bad time," said Ruka from in front of their position. He'd been quiet for the past three days as they've moved from one node to the next, but he hadn't been able to shake the fact that they were being followed.
His sensory abilities were closer to instincts than something like an Inuzuka's nose or the Otokage's eyes, but they weren't perfect either. He'd developed a sixth sense for feeling when Quiraji pursuers were nearby but he hadn't been sure of anything until they have moved away from the fifth node to decide what to do next.
"Are any of them nearby?" asked Zaku quickly, wary of the fact that they were a good day's travel from Otogakure territory and the relative safety of their allies.
Ruka glanced around the area for a moment before shaking his head, "Not that I can sense, but I'd rather not stay in one area for too long. Even if you guys are right and they did want us to get this information, I seriously doubt they'd just let us go."
"He's right," said Kin with a snarl. "They want to send us back on their terms, probably after some torturing for information."
"All we need to do is move as stealthy as possible and the Quiraji won't even know we were here," said Zaku with a confident tone.
The group began discussing their plans to return back to safe territory and hopefully get out of the rain, while Ruka moved to a higher position to see if he could get a better glimpse at the area in front of them. He couldn't sense anything, but he found that erring on the side of caution was its own wisdom.
That thinking was what got him killed.
Down at the rest of the group, Zaku glanced upwards at their side to shout out for him to come back so they could get moving. It was then that he watched helplessly as a White Assassin appeared behind the large man and, with an almost casual flick of its hands, removed his head from his shoulders. The Chiza scout's headless body stood still like a statue while his head rolled down towards his still-living companions.
The Otogakure leader roared out in fury and angled one of his hands towards the attacker, blasting it with a fine blast of air that broke through its armour at the back, killing it just as quickly as it had killed Ruka. He felt a pang of satisfaction at the kill, but kept it to himself as he realised how bad things were about to turn.
With his attack the rest of the group were immediately on alert, but so was the army of Quiraji that had been waiting patiently in the pouring rain for them to come to their position. Within moments dozens of soldiers were leaping towards them with swords and spears aimed at their throats, while White Assassins began appearing out of thin air and trying to kill them in single strokes.
It was only because of Zaku's attack that they were somewhat prepared to receive the attack, moving into a tight circle so that the White Assassins weren't able to get a flanking attack on any one individual.
As they fought back the initial attack and took a quick account of their situation, the Otogakure scouting and attacking groups began their counter attack.
Being the leaders of the two respective groups, Zaku and Kin were no strangers to working in tandem with each other and weaved their respective techniques to clearing a section of Quiraji soldiers that were preparing bows and arrows to rain down on them. Since they were both ranged attackers they left the other soldiers to their companions, trusting in them to protect them while they continued to destroy any Quiraji ranged attackers.
As a thirteen year old, Momo was used to opponents underestimating her. When the Quiraji looked like they were going to ignore her, she took personal offence to that and leapt out at the nearest soldier she could find. The young woman seemed surprised to see the little girl come at her, but was far more surprised when she ducked under her spear thrust and placed an open palm on the middle of her chest.
That was when a hole blasted out of her back and she collapsed to the ground, dead.
Momo confirmed the kill grimly before cart wheeling away from a pair of sword slashes and pushed herself back towards her attackers to collect them with her small feet in the heads. While it appeared that her attacks had no power behind them, the moment her feet made contact with her opponents they recoiled down into the ground like they'd been struck by a sledgehammer.
She was sure the Otokage would have criticised her form, but she'd never been able to please her teacher.
Shaking herself out of the thought she turned to find her next foe as her robed companion pulled out her own weapon and appeared to float towards her foes like a wraith. Satsu was staying close to both Ryuuhei and Naru since they weren't as capable of close-quarter combat as they were, but with a single scythe in hand it was clear that the cultist had no problems protecting the scouting couple.
Seeing they were covered, Shiin ran her hands rapidly through several complex handseals before activating a set of seals on her body and felt chakra pumping through her body similar to opening the chakra gates.
A large cluster of Quiraji soldiers thought to attack her as she prepared her attack, but to Shiin they looked like they were moving in slow motion. With chakra fuelling her every movement, the clan leader shot forward with a pair of kunai in her hands and stabbed and slashed her through a straight line of soldiers out to the other side of the cluster. She turned on a heel and repeated the motion five times until over twenty soldiers lay dead in a pile at her feet, their blood pooling over her sandalled feet.
The entire attack had taken less than two seconds.
Shiin breathed outwards and turned to see another group falling into line quickly to attack her just as the previous group had, clearly undeterred by her impossibly fast attack. The secret technique took a heavy toll on both her body and her chakra; any technique that manipulated time just for the user came with risks after all. However seeing the sheer amount of soldiers that were facing the seven of them she didn't see a choice in the matter.
The pale woman calmed herself down and began reactivating the seals on her body once again. It was a risk to do the secret technique of her clan more than once in a battle, but she hoped that her companions would be able to contribute in their own fashion and look after her if she fell.
"How the hell did we miss this many enemies?!" complained Ryuuhei as he held a kunai tightly in his hand defensively. Sweat poured off his head in a constant stream while he watched his wife calmly throw shuriken towards any Quiraji she could.
"That doesn't matter anymore," she said with an oddly remorseful tone in her voice that he hadn't heard in a long time. "Let's just focus on surviving, okay?"
Ryuuhei nodded with a gulp and turned to see a Quiraji soldier coming at him with an oversized sword aimed at cleaving him in two. Despite his status as a Genin, Ryuuhei was still a somewhat capable shinobi and was able to parry the blow with his kunai, though it shook him to his core to do so. The Quiraji soldier overcommitted himself and stumbled forwards, giving the craven shinobi enough time to gather his courage and drag his kunai towards the soldier's open defence and press it into the soft part of its neck.
With its neck gushing blood the Quiraji soldier fell to the ground screaming, while Ryuuhei turned to tell his wife of his victory. He was sure she'd be proud of him.
There was nothing he could do as he watched his wife being cut down by a Red Warrior effortlessly. The specialist warrior had slipped through the Quiraji ranks to target her specifically and the intelligent kunoichi had never stood a chance. Its long katana dragged along her midsection and out the other side, leaving the blonde kunoichi standing silently before it flipped around and slit her throat in a single motion.
Ryuuhei didn't even see Naru's body hit the ground as his vision turned dark red and he charged the Red Warrior with a roar of grief-stricken fury on his lips. The Quiraji specialist brought up its blade in time to deflect his initial attack, but Ryuuhei was much quicker than the Red Warrior had anticipated and its katana was quickly bashed out of its hands despite cutting the Otogakure shinobi up several times in the process.
Ryuuhei paid no attention to his wounds as he tackled the armoured warrior to the ground and stabbed it furiously in the eye with his kunai, slamming the small weapon down again and again until he was doing little except filling the Quiraji warrior's helmet with blood.
Eventually he remembered what had happened and crawled over to his wife's body, even as Satsu covered him from any Quiraji attackers that tried to finish the job on him. He gathered up her blonde hair in his arms and screamed out even though he knew that she was long gone.
On another side of the battlefield, Shiin kept her observations about what had just happened to herself and concentrated on where to attack next. There were Quiraji soldiers everywhere and the sound of water on armour was making her head hurt, but it was the knowledge that they were starting to get pushed back that was weighing on her more.
Looking past the nearest group of soldiers she noticed a Black Robe standing back from the fighting, seemingly doing little except watching the battle unfold. A vein popped in her head at the hubris being shown by the Quiraji specialist and she decided that would be her next target.
Activating only a few remaining seals, she sped up time for herself long enough to break past the Quiraji soldiers between the two of them and aimed her kunai at the Black Robe's face.
However just as she came into range of the enemy, her chakra failed her and she slowed back down to regular speed, allowing the Black Robe to pull up a hand and clench her throat as if she were a fledgling child throwing a tantrum. She tried to slash at its withered wrist with her kunai, but she found she no longer had any strength to lift her arms, or to resist at all.
Nearby as they fought back-to-back, Zaku and Kin could only watch as the Black Robe drained her of life in seconds, turning the pale shinobi into a withered husk in seconds. Shiin had been low on stamina before she'd come into contact with the Black Robe so there wasn't much to absorb, but the effect was the same nonetheless.
Seemingly unsatisfied with its meal, the Quiraji specialist discarded her body to the side and turned its attention towards the two Otogakure group leaders with a wicked look in its dead eyes.
"We can't win this battle," said Kin desperately, fighting off a sword with one of her stronger needles. She countered the attack and ended the soldier's life, but two more took his place before she could recover.
Zaku nodded in agreement and clapped his hands together loudly. Both Kin and Satsu knew what that meant and ducked to the ground, while Ryuuhei still hadn't risen from the ground with his wife's body in his arms. With air blasting through both of his arms, Zaku activated a technique he'd developed years ago in fighting multiple opponents at once. It would only work once unless he wanted to break the bones in his arms in the process, but the circumstances dictated drastic measures.
"Enjin Zankuuha!"
A ring of air blasted out all around him, knocking all of the Quiraji soldiers off their feet temporarily. It wasn't strong enough to take any of them out, but the quick-acting shinobi were able to gather together at Naru's body and tighten their defences.
"We have to leave, right now," said Momo as she landed acrobatically. "They're learning our abilities and getting harder to beat."
"We're leaving right now," said Zaku, reaching down to grab Ryuuhei by the shoulder. "Come on now."
The Genin glared up at the Otogakure leader so threateningly Zaku thought he was going to attack him next. Ryuuhei pushed away his hand and rose from the ground, his bloodied kunai glued to his hand as his other reached for a scroll in his projectile pocket.
"I'm not leaving," he said stubbornly, pulling open the scroll and tearing section of it off to attach to his body. "Get out of here while you still can."
"We're not just going to leave you!" protested Momo, but her voice failed near the end when she saw the serious expression in the normally-cowardly shinobi's face.
The Quiraji soldiers around them had recovered quickly from their attack and were already starting to regroup, but Zaku saw an opening that he'd be able to push through with his wind blasts if they left within the next two seconds.
He hated the choice he had to make, but he could see that Ryuuhei had already made the decision for them. With regret plastered across his face, he ordered the other three survivors to follow his lead as he cut a path to an open area and they moved to flee the battlefield.
Large groups of enemy soldiers moved to intercept them and were beaten back by the combination of Satsu and Momo's taijutsu. It was clear that the shinobi group were going to be able to get away, but the Quiraji didn't seem to mind so much when they still had a single target to focus their fury on. The Quiraji army converged on Ryuuhei rapidly while sections peeled off to pursue the fleeing group.
With his fallen wife's body at his feet, Ryuuhei looked angrier than any of them had ever seen before. His pale skin was pulled tightly across his face in a furious glare and his hands were running through handseals quicker than a Genin ought to be able to muster. He'd given them the order to leave them there and after throwing off his jacket it was clear to them what he planned to do. The four surviving Otogakure shinobi fled as fast as they could; holding back their emotions while holding a new respect for their normally-cowardly companion.
The Quiraji soldiers swarmed around him with their weapons falling towards him just as his final handseal activated. Blood poured from his mouth as he could feel his life fleeing his body, yet Ryuuhei mustered the strength to smirk at the Red Warrior that slowly walked towards him to claim its prize.
He waited until the Quiraji specialist was right in front of him and he knew that his companions were out of range before spitting right into the Red Warrior's face.
"See you in hell, you sons of bitches."
oOoOoOo
Less than a minute after leaving the battle the four fleeing Otogakure shinobi heard a thunderous explosion in the background that signalled the end of their companions. They didn't have time to grieve nor pay their respects to their fallen friends; as it was clear from the footsteps they heard behind them.
The Quiraji army was right behind them. And was keeping pace with them.
The four of them sped through the grasslands and forests as fast they could, trying their best not to think about the half of their group they'd left behind. They hadn't been a particularly close group; half of them had only worked together with this mission, but that didn't change the fact that all four of them hated the fact that there wasn't anything they were able to do except run away.
As shinobi they were fast, but they didn't need Ruka's sensory abilities to know that the Quiraji force that had survived Ryuuhei's last stand were right behind them. If they had even one minute more between the two of them they would have been able to lay down some traps and slow down their progress.
But their mission took precedence and each of them knew it.
"Do you know where you're going?!" yelled out Kin behind Zaku over the pouring rain.
Zaku turned his head back to look at her while dodging out of the way of a large tree, "It is this general direction! Why, should I stop and ask for directions?"
The long haired kunoichi swore several profanities at him and focused on conserving her strength while moving as fast as she could. In her time as the head of infiltration she hadn't experienced a mission going so wrong, but after what has been happening over the past few years she wasn't surprised.
"I think we're losing them," came Momo's voice behind the two of them. Her hair buns had soaked through and were drooping over her forehead protector and her hands were still covered in blood despite the rain. She looked nothing like the chid that she was.
Zaku nodded as he tried to reorientate himself with the surrounding environment. He wasn't lost; but he wished Ruka was with them to direct them. They'd passed through several forests that he didn't recognise, but there was the ruins of a civilian village up ahead that he vaguely recalled as being a half-day's travel from Otogakure expanded territory.
We're not out of the woods yet.
He directed them towards the village, hoping that they'd be able to hide their presence long enough to recover their strength and make the final leg of their journey. They'd done their best to hide their trail and not use chakra, but they weren't going to be able to keep up this pace for much longer.
It was a gamble, but he didn't see how they had a choice.
"I'm so tired I could fart," said Momo with a sigh.
Her three companions all gave her a questioning stare as they entered the village exterior. Even the silent Satsu was able to judge her adequately, to which the thirteen year old just stuck her tongue out and didn't bother qualifying her statement.
The village looked like it had been abandoned for years with rubble strewn over the area. The four of them slowed down as the fatigue started to creep up on them; having been on constant alert for close to a week had worn them down.
Kin frowned and placed a hand on one of the half-destroyed building walls. She turned to Zaku, "I don't think we should stop here. Something feels wrong."
"I don't think you should be so pessimi…" Zaku's sentence ran off when he walked around the side of one of the buildings and his eyes widened in terror. He turned to warn the others, only to see their pursuers running towards them with weapons raised.
Without realising it, they'd run straight into a hidden Quiraji stronghold. In a small cluster of buildings at the centre of the ruined village were fifty soldiers that had weapons in hand the moment they arrived and were already moving towards them.
The four of them reacted immediately, with Zaku already blasting waves of air at their pursuers while the other three moved to attack the new group that had just encountered them. Momo and Satsu leapt straight into the fray despite their fatigue and began taking out soldiers left and right with their close combat abilities while Kin did her best to take out some of the ranged attackers with her pinpoint needle attacks.
However all four of them were low on stamina and with the numbers the Quiraji were throwing at them it was clear that they were going to be overwhelmed and taken down.
The only course of action they could take was to continue retreating.
Zaku called out the order and began blasting precise soundwaves at any Quiraji soldiers that came close to him; the enemies had no protection against such an attack despite its chakra-heavy nature. He moved quickly to a destroyed part of the village that hadn't been swarmed yet and watched as both Kin and Satsu broke out and joined his side.
However from the soldiers swarming around her, it was clear that their companion wasn't going to be so lucky.
Momo tried her best to fight her way out of the ambush, her small fists reaping a terrible toll on the Quiraji attackers as she broke through armour and bone at once. However the sheer weight of numbers was enough to break her stance and she was knocked unconscious by a back-handed strike from a Red Warrior's sword hilt.
At the other side of the battle, Zaku called out for her and tried to push past some of the attackers with his air blasts, but they closed ranks tightly as one of the Black Robes pursuing them absorbed the chakra of the attack to diffuse the power. The Quiraji seemed less interested in killing her than the other shinobi from their group, as two Quiraji soldiers picked her up by her arms and began to carry her away.
"We can't let them take her!" yelled out Kin, throwing a pair of needles towards the soldiers carrying her away, but the Red Warrior that had knocked her out smacked the projectiles away with its sword. It stood between her and her captured companion as if daring her to try and rescue her.
Zaku swore loudly and leapt back to defend himself from a pair of brave Quiraji soldiers. He turned to the last conscious member of his group, "Can you get her?"
The robe-wearing kunoichi stared at him through dead eyes before nodding very slowly and almost absentmindedly slashing the throat of a soldier trying to blindside her. She turned her gaze to her smaller companion being taken away unconscious and deliberately drew a short knife from within her robe.
Almost eerily wraith-like, Satsu rose up from the ground with her robe fluttered in the windy rain. The two leaders' hearts rose at the thought that she'd be able to save Momo, until they both realised at the same time that it wasn't her goal. Even with the strength they possessed, there wasn't going to be any way for them to break through to save her before the Quiraji soldiers took Momo to a White Assassin near the back that would teleport her away.
They couldn't afford to have the Quiraji capture even one of them at this stage. They all knew far too much damaging information, especially now. Besides, that was a fate worse than death; they all knew what happened to shinobi that were caught by the Quiraji.
Zaku and Kin tried not to look as they kept defending themselves from the seemingly endless waves of Quiraji that kept appearing. However they owed it to Momo to as the short knife sailed through the air and sunk into her heart, killing her instantly. The small girl's body fell limp in her kidnappers' arms, but the Otogakure shinobi had no time to grieve her loss.
"At this rate we're going to get overwhelmed!" he yelled over to Kin, though he wasn't sure the dark haired woman heard him as she unleashed a flurry of attacks on the closest soldier to her. "We have to keep retreating!"
"I'm well aware of that!" shouted Kin back. She took a moment between attacks to get a quick account of their situation.
Having been denied their prize, the Quiraji soldiers surged back towards them. There were far too many of them to take out in a pitched battle, but if the previous flight was anything to go by the Quiraji would be able to catch them without much effort. They needed time to put some distance between them and get back to Otogakure territory.
She watched Zaku blast away a small group of soldiers that had moved away from the Black Robe's area of protection before leaping back to her side.
"If I lay down a smokescreen, you should be get away if you go now," he said quickly, running his hands through a set of handseals.
"I'm not leaving you to die, you stupid man!" said Kin stubbornly, resisting the urge to smack him over the head for even suggesting it. After what they'd seen, she wasn't sure she'd be able to make it on her own; not that she'd ever admit that to him.
"I'm not going to give you a choice," said Zaku, putting his arms up to pump smoke into the enemy ranks in front of them.
However before he could, he was stopped by a hand on his wrist. He glanced to the side to see Satsu walk in front of the two of them and draw her small scythes from her robe. Both Zaku and Kin went to move to assist her, but to their surprise she reached up and pulled back her hood for the first time since they'd met her. She had long silver hair similar to the Otokage's wife and pale skin; something she had hidden from them before.
Satsu turned her head slowly and stared at Zaku for a moment before shaking her head slightly and turning back to the Quiraji soldiers moving to attack them. An explosion of chakra came from out of her as five giant scythes appeared at her side, seemingly floating in the air on chakra alone even though it looked like they were being wielded by the reapers themselves.
Zaku understood immediately what she meant and turned to grab Kin by the shoulder. Normally the needle-wielder would give him grief for the touch, but after seeing Satsu and her weapons start to carve a bloody path through the Quiraji ranks she knew what they had to do.
The human side of her didn't want to leave, but her shinobi pride demanded that they complete their mission no matter the cost.
Both of them swore at what they were forced to do and fled the battlefield in the opposite direction, moving towards the general area where the Fire Temple lay. They heard several Quiraji soldiers come after them but they didn't look back, trusting in Satsu to take care of them. The cultist easily cut down the pursuers with her floating scythes while fighting off several groups of soldiers at once. She parried and countered at every chance she got, even as she saw a Red Warrior and Black Robe approaching her angrily.
They all made such lovely sacrifices.
Neither of them spoke about the shinobi they'd just lost; it was still too close for them and their pursuers were relentless. Satsu had held back the horde of Quiraji for longer than either of them had thought possible; Zaku could just imagine the cultist slaughtering the soldiers relentlessly one after the other. He just hoped her god rewarded her for her services when she joined him.
After an hour of endless running the two Otogakure shinobi checked to make sure they weren't being pursued and stopped at small cave to rest from the relentless rain. It felt like the Land of Fire itself was intentionally trying to slow down their progress and assist their pursuers.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Zaku to the roof of the cave with a sigh. "If Satsu fell, they'll be right behind us. Neji has to get this information."
Kin clapped him on the shoulder in a rare moment of companionship before shattering the image when she said, "One day you're growing meet that special man and he'll give you that pair of stones you've always asked for."
Zaku was used to her banter and he could see right through her, "You're scared too, aren't you? It's okay, we'll be okay."
The dark haired kunoichi smirked, but there was no humour in her face. She motioned to the note he'd kept secure in his kunai pocket, "Is the information secure?"
He nodded and pulled it out of the pocket, "We should make a copy and both carry one. Just in case…"
Kin gritted her teeth and snatched it out of his hand, "I refuse to listen to that kind of talk. We'll both make it out of here." She quickly copied down the information about the field around Konoha and the five nodes they'd found and handed it back to him. "What kind of talk is that anyway?"
Her Otogakure companion listened for a moment before clenching his fists and turning to the opening of the cave, "Practical talk. Can you sense that?"
"Of course I can. Why do you think I've been on edge so much?"
Zaku looked back at her for a moment before coming to a silent decision and stepping out into the rain. "You should go, Kin." He didn't wait for her response as Quiraji soldiers began accumulating in large numbers across from the cave opening. It wasn't just normal soldiers either; there were over a dozen Red Warriors and a pair of Black Robes at the head of the pursuing force.
Kin snarled and stepped out to fight at his side, but Zaku turned and shot her the most serious look he had ever given her. It was then she realised that she'd underestimated her old friend.
"Go," was the last thing he said to her before turning and blasting out a gigantic wave of air into the Quiraji force that had thought had cornered them. His face was set in a grim visage as he mixed in razor-sharp wind blasts with the pure air power.
Behind him, Kin took one final glance at his back before swearing loudly and leaping over the cave ridge they'd hidden in towards the Fire Temple area. She wasn't the regretful type, but at that moment she hated Zaku for making her leave. He had to know there was no way he was coming out of there.
As she moved away from the battlefield, the rain seemed uninterested in following her, preferring to pour down on her guardian as he fought to keep the enemy off her trail.
Without looking back despite her misgivings, Kin fled as fast as her legs were able to carry her. As an Otogakure shinobi she had exceptional hearing over a massive area, though it paled in comparison to Dosu's.
For several minutes she heard Zaku give a very respectable account for himself before sheer numbers overwhelmed him and he was silenced.
She wished she hadn't heard the last thing he said. The bastard never did know when to let things go.
She had been less than three hours from the borders of Otogakure territory and at her speed she should have been able to get there in half that time. But when running for your life it felt like time was slowing to a crawl and Kin wasn't able to shake the feeling that the Quiraji were right behind her.
Unfortunately for her, the Quiraji were right on her tail.
Leaping down a large chasm, Kin stopped for a moment to try and get some oxygen into her muscles, feeling her heart beating six times faster than she felt like it should. Kin had dealt with near-death situations all her life; she'd almost been killed a half dozen times in Suna and only four of those were her fault.
This felt different though. Deep down, she knew she wasn't going to make it.
Her shinobi instincts told her to duck to the rocky ground and she made it a policy to obey her instincts at all costs. It saved her life as a White Assassin appeared behind her and slashed across where her body had been.
She spun around at the sound and threw two clusters of needles at her enemy, but they merely bounced off its white armour and only served to anger the Quiraji attacker further.
"Don't get too excited," said the Otogakure kunoichi with a cocky grin on her face. She jumped up on her feet, her fear temporarily suspended under the fact that her enemy currently had a face in front of her.
She jumped to the side of the follow-up strike and placed her hands on the assassin's ears. Unlike the Red Warriors he wasn't wearing a helmet, though it wouldn't have mattered either way.
Tiny soundwaves echoed through the White Assassin's head, ruptured the blood vessels in his brain, killing him instantly. Kin's teeth shook as she could feel the soundwaves moving through her body as well; she didn't have any real control over the technique.
Cutting off the chakra flow, Kin took a moment to regard her fallen foe before she remembered where she was and why he'd attacked her. She glanced up at the chasm and sighed in exasperation at the soldiers moving down towards her.
"It never ends…" she muttered as she turned around and started to run once again. Her muscles screamed out in protest, but Kin ignored them and pressed forward as fast as she could.
From memory, there was a large forest a few minutes away that she might be able to lose her pursuers and then she hoped she'd run into an Otogakure patrol to help her. She'd been sending out sound pulses at specific intervals to hope someone like Dosu could pick up her distress signals, but it had only served to drain her chakra to the point that she was circling the drain.
She was able to outrun the normal Quiraji soldiers who she'd expected would give up at some point, but just before she was able to get into woods she was blindsided by a pair of summoned hounds driving their scythed claws into her sides. She had no idea that the huntress had joined the pursuit of her, but now wasn't the time to concentrate on the little things.
The sudden pain forced her to bite down her teeth to try and move through the pain, but that caused her to bit through a part of her lip and bleed down the front of her outfit. Kin kept the scream that she wanted to let go to herself and kicked at the hounds, hoping that she'd hit them hard enough to stop them as she leapt into the woods.
Kin held a hand to her mouth as she shot through the woods as fast as her exhausted legs could carry her. She knew that her pursuers were right behind her, but the Fire Temple was surely just up ahead.
Her senses spiked at a sound behind her and she leapt to the side just in time to dodge a hail of arrows that would have pierced straight through her. She spun around with her free hand full of needles, but before she could counter-attack a White Assassin appeared out of thin air and cleaved its short blade across her.
She fell back at the attack just enough that it didn't cut her in half, but her attacking hand wasn't so lucky. The anti-shinobi blade slashed through her arm just above her wrist, going through her bone like it wasn't even there. She screamed out in pain through her remaining hand, which caused blood to spray onto the ground from her mouth through her broken teeth.
The White Assassin didn't even give her a chance to recover as it pulled back its other blade to slash her throat while stepping over her severed hand. Kin's eyes widened in fear as she saw her death coming, but she could hear the thundering voice in her head that told her she couldn't afford to die just yet.
She had to get the information to the Otokage, even if it cost her all her limbs, her throat or her life.
As the assassin's blade came towards her, she pulled up her bloody stump and batted it away to give her enough time to scramble backwards and to her feet.
The Quiraji assassin seemed almost amused by her rebellion against inevitability, but it continued to move towards her relentlessly.
The Fire Temple area should be just over that ridge, thought Kin as she shoved her remaining hand into her pocket and retrieved the note that contained the vital information. She knew she was staining the note with her blood, but so long as it got to one of her companions that was all that mattered.
In the corner of her eye she could see a group of Otogakure shinobi moving rapidly towards the assassin, their hands running through handseals to attack it.
She knew there was no way they'd get to it in time to save her life. She also knew that the Quiraji assassin would take her body with it with its teleportation ability, as it knew she had information vital to the war.
With her hand still in her pocket, she shoved a long needle through the note and prepared herself for the last thing she was going to do as a proud shinobi of Otogakure.
With conviction in her eyes, Kin dove forward and pulled back her hand as if to shove the needle into the assassin's eye. To preserve its life the assassin ducked underneath her blow and drove its blades into her stomach.
Kin grinned as blood continued to fall from her mouth. With her feint successful, she used the last bit of her strength to throw the needle towards the Otogakure shinobi coming towards her. With her strength expended, Kin was finally able to succumb to her injuries and rest.
oOoOoOo
Nakano called out in pain as he felt the needle sink into his shoulder. He swore loudly and went to pull it out, until he saw how deep it had gone into the muscle.
"How the hell?" he exclaimed loudly as he and his group continued to move towards the Quiraji assassin attacking their comrade. At such a distance they couldn't see how was being attacked, but they'd know the clothing anywhere and that was enough for them.
Juyo fired off a blast of noise at the assassin from a long distance away to try and distract it, but before it could hit its target the white-covered assassin disappeared into thin air, taking its prey with it.
"Damnit!" exclaimed the tracker of their group, turning her sharp eyes back to Nakano. "You alerted him to our presence with your girly screaming!"
Nakano gave her his best are-you-kidding-me look and gestured to the needle in his shoulder, "Do you not SEE THIS?"
The leader of their group stepped towards him and stared at it with amusement in her eyes. "Don't give him too much grief, Tano. It would have gotten away regardless."
Before Nakano could thank their leader for her consideration, the blonde shinobi reached forward and wrenched out the needle. Nakano cried out in pain again, but was ignored when the Otogakure shinobi saw the note that was attached to the needle. It was soaked in blood and clearly written in code, but it wasn't that that caused her eyes to widen in shock.
"We have to get this to the Otokage," she said quickly, shoving the note into her pocket.
The shinobi in her group knew better than to protest or question, though Nakano swore that he'd get back at someone for his wounded shoulder. The Otogakure patrol made for the Fire Temple at their top speed, passing through the other shinobi without saying a word.
At the top of the note, in perfect unsophisticated Japanese was a single line that any Otogakure shinobi would have recognised at something of great importance.
"Tanon wa chinmoku o yaburu."
A single note breaks the silence.
Stretching out the map of the Land of Fire he'd appropriated several months ago, Neji looked over the area with a long breath. He nodded to Kazuha and watched as his young assistant leaned forward and began lightly shading in a large circle around the area that had once marked Konoha. He'd suspected that was where the Quiraji main base was, as it was the best defensible position in the entire country and justified their almost ritualistic destruction of the shinobi village in the first place.
After Kazuha was done, Neji pulled up the bloody note that he'd only just received and pointed to the five sections that it indicated. With that, Kazuha made small circles to indicate the areas and then bowed as he left the room. He'd worked with the Otokage long enough to recognise when the shinobi required time to himself.
Neji bit at his lip as he stared down at the marked map. He still hadn't heard from any of his plans to acquire further allies and looking at the map and the plan that was starting to form in his head required more shinobi than he had at his disposal.
If we didn't have to protect our civilians we could do an all-out assault…but even then we don't have the power to take on the Quiraji leaders…
Setting up those chakra-nullifying sections was the perfect way to force him to split up his force during the attack. If he was in charge of the enemy, he'd make it so that the enemy would have to destroy all of them at once to take down the field and they'd be guarded by some of his best troops.
There was no reason to expect the Quiraji to do anything less than that, if not more.
It was vital information he'd obtained from his scouts, but he hated the fact that more people had died in the process of acquiring the information. He'd gotten to know Zaku and Kin fairly well over the past years and had appreciated the trials they had gone through to get to where they were. A part of him wondered if he'd erred in sending out the groups of scouts as he had, but Neji was forced to remind himself that this was war.
People were going to die.
Author's Note:
I'm sorry if parts of this story are getting a bit too graphic. If so, please tell me and I'll tone it down. This chapter was intentionally a lot darker than many of the others, but this is a pretty dark time in this story. I really wanted to convey the desperation necessary for the shinobi to fight this war, something I feel the main story is lacking. Admittedly some of it is for shock value, but if it's being detrimental to the story then there are other ways to go about it. Please, let me know.
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.