Chapter 3:
"Team 3 departing for border watch at W1, requesting sign out" Shodo's overly formal appeal was met with a grin from the gate guard.
"Request approved, good luck out there." The Chunin gave them a friendly wave as they left the walls of the village and entered into a warzone.
The three genin adopted a standard pace leaping through canopy, fast to cover significant ground, but slow enough they could still hold a conversation, speaking of the serious matters they had previously put off. They travelled this way until the sun began to dip below the horizon, when they happened upon a small clearing appropriate to camp for the night. Once camp was prepared, they continued the discussions on combat abilities and team formations. The next two days continued this way without event until on the evening of the third the profile of a watchtower rose above the endless sea of green.
Team 3 cautiously approached the edge of the clearing that held the lookout and a number of small buildings. As they exited from the tree line, a man wearing the standard leaf flak jacket seemed to melt out of the long shadows cast by the setting sun. The blue and white markings on his shoulders indicated his position as the Jonin in command of the outpost, while his physical features and hairstyle reminiscent of a pineapple communicated that he was a member of the Nara clan.
"Team 3, right? You guys are early, the message to expect you only arrived yesterday." The man's voice was serious and held a hint of suspicion.
"We thought it would be a good idea to arrive early sir," came Takanome's slightly nervous reply, did he think them imposters?
"Taking initiative eh? I like you three already. The name's Shikazu Nara, and I'll be your commanding officer for the next 3 months. The fact that you're here in the first place indicates that you know what you're doing, so let's skip the boring stuff and get you guys settled in," he motioned that they should follow him and set off towards the main compound.
"I assume the journey wasn't too bad?" Shikazu spoke slowly, as if every word was carefully considered, even if his informal tone made it seem otherwise.
"No incidents to report sir!" Heiko's response was anything but measured, especially since it was accompanied by a mock salute. The Jonin winced slightly, but a small grin followed it.
"So, you're not one of the quiet Haiiros eh?"
"Nope! Yang aligned and proud."
"Good, Yins are much more troublesome in my personal experience. Too much like looking in a mirror."
As the group entered the compound, a dozen or so ninja began to trickle out of the various buildings, eager to check out the new arrivals. Shikazu pointed out in turn what each of the structures were for.
"Sleeping quarters, mess hall, command centre, watchtower and that…" he directed their attention to a squat concrete block with a single entrance and no windows.
"… is our supply dump. Or at least the entrance. It may or may not also be a bunker built to withstand an attack from a tailed beast."
"Hold up, did you just say tailed beast?" Heiko's response was definitely a reasonable one.
"Well technically it was designed that way, but I doubt the thing would actually work,"
"Do you get very many tailed beasts up here?"
"Of course not, but every decade or so the Seven-Tails ends up on a rampage and Iwa does have two Jinchuriki. Now on a more important note, I need to actually take you inside the bunker, you'll meet everyone at dinner in a bit. There's only 14 of us here excluding you guys, so we're pretty close knit." Shikazu took the large pack containing the extra supplies off of Heiko and set off towards the bunker.
A trip through a heavy steel door and down a ladder later, the group arrived in a standard supply room, with the walls lined with stacks of weapons, ammo and other materials. Heiko leaned against a stack of steel crates, not bothering to cover the enormous yawn covering her face.
Shikazu dropped the pack in the corner and turned to give Heiko a terrifying grin.
"I would move if I were you Miss Heiko, you're leaning against 200 kilos of paper bombs,"
The heiress immediately jumped away from the wall, a glare and an open mouth indicating a truly scathing retort was about to be directed at the Jonin.
Unfortunately, she never got the chance.
A thunderous boom shook the room, the entire edifice vibrating and cracking as the earth itself groaned in protest. A moment later a miasma of pure hate filled the air, and the undeniable fact that he was going to die was all that passed through Takanome's mind. He couldn't take it, he had to stop it, end it, now now now!
The arrow was halfway to his chest before his hand unclenched without his instruction.
Shikazu's voice washed over him, accompanied by the ethereal grip of his shadow. The chakra construct had ensnared not only Takanome, but Heiko and Shodo as well. The two of them were in similar states of distress, both with kunai only inches from their throats.
"Genin Hyuga, I need above ground status,"
"Yes sir," he managed to stammer out, years of conditioning triumphing over primal fear. He activated his Byakugan, and instantly wished he hadn't.
It was utter carnage.
It was as if a god had taken a sword to W1. A path of utter desolation ran through the middle of the outpost, right up to where it had blasted the watchtower into a pile of rubble. Takanome could see a pair of chakra signatures weakly shinning inside the debris, slowly fading away.
The rest of the buildings weren't in much better shape, walls and roofs collapsed, fire spreading everywhere, interspaced with the glow of more chakra signatures, some of them scrambling about as the bodies they were emanating from began to regroup.
But what was the point of regrouping in the face of that…
At the edge of the clearing stood a creature wreathed in an aura of chakra so bright it was like a miniature sun. What looked like steam curled off its body, stirred up by the five swishing tails filling the space behind it.
Then the chakra seemed to recede into the creature's body, as it rose from all fours into the form of the towering man in ceramic armour, a kasa perched atop his head, just above a Hidden Stone headband.
As the transformation completed, the man was joined by five squads of ninja, including another giant of a man clad in the standard Iwa uniform, almost as tall as what Takanome could only assume was the Five Tails Jinchuriki. The second man gave a few sharp orders that Takanome couldn't quite make out, before he and the Jinchuriki made for the bunker door.
As Takanome hurriedly reported what he had seen, Shikazu allowed himself a single, tremendously loud expletive, before regaining his composure. He dashed over to the desk near the wall and quickly inscribed a message onto one of the open scrolls.
"I need you three to take these and go out the back entrance." He handed Shodo the scroll and a strange looking three-pronged kunai he had retrieved from inside his jacket.
"Throw the kunai into the ground and help should arrive. Above all else you need to get this scroll to the Hokage and out of enemy hands. The back entrance is behind that bookcase. It will take you about 2 minutes to reach the exit, when you do, get clear of the outpost before throwing the kunai." Shikazu's orders were punctuated with the sound of the door to the bunker buckling.
"Go!" the Jonin's yell shocked Team 3 out of their stupor. As they slipped through the tiny gap behind the bookshelf, they emerged into a small tunnel only wide enough for a single person to crawl through. Takanome took point and Heiko the rear, protecting Shodo. The shorter girl was quietly whimpering as they crawled through the pitch black.
Suddenly the tunnel shook with the sound of something heavy hitting the floor of the bunker, followed by an identical vibration a moment later. Takanome's curiosity overrode his good sense and he risked a peak into the room they had just left.
Shikazu had trapped the two Stone ninja in his shadow, made stronger by the electric lights of the basement. However, it was obvious that it was requiring extreme effort to keep the two giants contained, even if he was doing nothing but keeping them still. But that didn't stop them from speaking.
"Give it up Nara, you can barely hold the two of us still, never mind hurt us. Surrender now and we will spare the children," the shorter man snarled, Takanome struggling to read his lips due to the scowl that marred his face. His partner was far more serene, but his body was coiled like a predator, ready to strike at the smallest opportunity. Shikazu offered no reply and the standoff continued. Takanome shifted his vision away, focusing now on the tunnel ahead
Team 3 exited from the tunnel into a small clearing, the trapdoor hidden beneath a bush. As Shodo pulled the strange kunai from her belt, Takanome risked one last glance at the bunker. He would later thank the gods above that he had.
Shikazu had used his shadow to smash open one the bunker's lights, the exposed wires slowly falling towards a pile of now open steel crates. A smile was the Nara's last expression, contrasted against the horror of his opponents.
"GET DOWN!" Takanome yelled and his teammates wasted no time in doing so, diving into the leaf cover of the forest floor. An instant later an explosion even larger than the first shook the area, the shockwave sending the genin flying despite their best efforts, half their bodies being burnt by the blast of heat.
They slowly rose to their feet in awe of the enormous cloud of smoke that rose from where the outpost once stood. They were so transfixed; they almost didn't notice the trio of kunai rushing towards them. Takanome saw them coming from the corner of his eye, barely deflecting them with a barrage of precision gentle fist strikes. Their assailant was not far behind, a Stone Chunin who had evidently been sent to guard the perimeter.
The burst of adrenaline pushed Shodo out of her shock, showing why she had been chosen as team leader.
"Formation 6, Version 1!" she yelled, and the team exploded into action. Heiko leaped forward, fists glowing with concentrated yang chakra, to engage their aggressor in a taijutsu clash. The man tried to block her punches, but her fists burned his arms wherever he did. The pain he felt distracted him from the seal that she had planted on his chest with the first attack.
Simultaneously Shodo attached another seal to Takanome's nocked arrow, the 10 second timer already active. He let the pristine arrow fly, directly towards his opponent's head.
The Stone ninja responded by slamming his foot to the ground, causing a wave of rolling earth knocking Heiko back, accompanied by the cry of "Earth style: Mud Wave". This gave him just enough space to pluck the arrow from the air right before impact. He threw the projectile backwards, keeping his eyes trained on his adversaries.
"Nice try kids, but you're going to have to do better than that to beat…" the man was cut short by a horrible squelch, as an arrow suddenly sprouted from his chest, the seal on its head growing bright blue.
"Damn you…" was the only thing he could say before he collapsed, a pool of blood beginning to surround him, the shaft of the arrow emerging from his back.
Team 3 didn't have a moment to relax however, as a roar of anger filled the clearing. The Jinchuriki was charging towards them, a transparent crimson shroud of chakra covering his body. The titan was making a beeline towards them, smashing trees aside as if they were toothpicks.
Shodo threw the kunai into the ground and it had barely left her hand before a flash of yellow filled the space in front of Team 3. A young man in a Leaf flak jacket landed in front of them. A single glance around was all he needed to assess the situation, diving into Team 3.
As soon as Minato's arms made contact with the children, the whole group vanished, leaving Han to grasp at nothing but empty space.
"Damn it!" he yelled, a frustrated stomp fracturing the ground beneath his boot.
"Did they get away?" Kitsuchi entered the clearing a moment later, the last shards of the rock armour he had used to protect himself falling to the ground.
"Yeah, Namikaze saved them. They killed Narin too." The two Stone nin dropped their heads in shame, the body of their dead comrade their only company.
"We can't continue the attack if the info has been leaked, we need to return home and inform my father."
"I agree."
A pause.
"Didn't Narin have a son?"
"Yeah, just a baby actually. I think his name is Deidara."