Chapter Nine: Pursuit
The next week was a lesson in absolute hell. In all probability, the only reason I am still alive to tell my tale is the combination of having very good friends, and the fact that the Rain's main shinobi force was hours away when we started running.
Hiromi was taught in the healing arts by Uchiha Sakura, Kentaro's mother. Any less, and the bone shard that nearly severed my spinal cord might have succeeded in doing so. As it stood, my legs were both barely on this side of being completely numb, which made running the treetops a complete impossibility. Even on land, we were limited to a jogging pace, and only managed that much because I was being half-carried by my friends. The trip that had taken a day and a half one-way would take literally ten times as long going back, and pursuit would only be four hours behind, maximum.
However, we were not without our own advantages.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Gamakichi!"
The summoning technique taught to me father by the legendary and late Jiraya of the Three was my last ditch, and I did not have the kind of reserves needed to pull out something that could be ridden or that could truly help fight. However, given the pace we would be forced to move at, even one of the Frogs would make a very good messenger. I handed him a sealed tube containing two things, both to go straight to my father. The first, a message detailing our current situation and findings, and requesting help. The second, a uniquely shaped kunai, with two short blades jutting forward beside the main blade and a kanji-inscribed grip. Dad gave it to me on my graduation to Chuunin, saying that it had been his father's before him. It was too heavy to throw, normally, though the design was good for melee once you got used to it. Unusual as it was, Dad would know that the message was genuine. That, and sending it with one of his regular summons should lend credence.
The problem was that this was just about all I could do for the group, and my exhaustion slowed us more than before. However, it meant that aid would probably come within the next four to five days. All we had to worry about until then was evading pursuit, and we had to make sure to continue heading for home.
"Shien-kun, it's getting dark. You have to stop pushing yourself. We can cold-camp here, and start back up tomorrow."
"I wish we could afford to. Thing is, the pursuit…"
"Doesn't matter right now, man. You're about to kill yourself and save them the trouble, just from exhaustion. Hiromi and I do NOT want to have to explain to your dad why you died on this mission, so don't, ok?"
"Shien… didn't dad teach you about the Byakugan's main weakness?"
"What do you mean, Hiromi?"
"Our eyes have a blind spot, going back and upwards right from where you took that kunai. I'm guessing Hiashi-sama cut you off before you got to that?"
"Yeah, he did."
"We can kill him later, then. For now, look around. Kentaro and I have already finished setting up camp, and you don't seem to have noticed anything. Go to sleep officially, then. You're already most of the way there."
What can I say? I complied.
The bad part about going to sleep in this situation is not so much the loss of time. It is the loss of a personal momentum. When Kentaro woke me up, I wanted nothing more than to drop right back off. Alas, it was not to be.
"Good, you're up. Listen, they're drawing close. Take a soldier pill, we're not likely to get any rest for a while, and we can't afford to take the time to cook anything."
I sighed, reached into my supply pouch, and pulled one of the Akimichi Clan's newest versions of their famous medicine. The legend about a single soldier pill being able to keep a man going for three days and nights without food or rest is just that, a legend, but the stuff works wonders. It revitalized me, though it couldn't restore full feeling to my legs. As the fog began to clear from my head, I started putting our tactics back together. First, running was not an option, not while I couldn't move at full speed. Second, diplomacy was also out, completely. Hiding and fighting were also bad options, though not quite as bad as the first two. Our goal was to either make it back to Fire Country, or, with luck, to survive until a rescue party arrived.
The pursuit consisted of an unknown number of Chuunin and Jounin Rain-nins, presumably fifty or more. Further complicating matters was the fact that this was their home country, and the rain would create an ambience beneficial to their home Jutsu and detrimental to our own. I knew a couple of water techniques, but not nearly enough to matter. Finally, at least one enemy party was close enough to have my friends worried.
"How close are they?"
"Fifteen minutes, tops. Hiromi caught a glimpse of them during a scan, and locked on. They're coming roughly in this direction, but they'll miss us with any luck"
"Can't depend on that. Let's get moving. I might not be able to move fast, but it's a heck of a lot better than not moving at all. We'll bear slightly more east than the quickest route, it might send them searching in the wrong direction. We leave the tents here, and set traps in them. It should help, even if it only takes one of them out of the fight. Even if it just makes them more cautious, it'll slow them."
We got moving again, little though I liked it. And again, after hiding from a nearby party. And again, after throwing an explosive tag straight into the middle of a herd of local beasts, sending them stampeding straight towards the nearest group of Rain shinobi. And again, when a group of local civilians almost stumbled right into our hiding place. And again. And again. I lost count of how many close calls we escaped, though I know that I used up more miracles than I had any right to.
It took only even longer than I'd anticipated to get to the Fire Country border. However, we did make it. This didn't mean that the Rain-nins gave up their pursuit, but we made it. We weren't going to be making it much further without a fight, so all we could do was find a good place and hope. This was our home, and we would have one more much-needed edge by setting up here.
We chose the place carefully, a clearing in the densest forest around. Under the steel-gray skies of early dawn, we set every trap and alert we could. Two hours later, it meant nothing at all. As it turns out, the entire force Kentaro had seen was in pursuit, and no number of traps could stop fifty trained Chuunin and Jounin.
I was recovering feeling in my legs now, and the hour we'd had to wait for the assault definitely helped with the fatigue. We could see quite clearly in the morning mists, and the trees were much denser than our opponents were used to. All of it would not have mattered had it not been for the blaze of red streaking in from the southeast, the fury incarnate that left nothing but a large pile of very dead shinobi in its wake.
The crimson glow of pure power unrestrained, nine tails flying behind. A legend, a nightmare, and my father was in the middle of it all.
Interlude Nine: On the Use of "Teamspeak"
The term "teamspeak" refers to the common phenomena of a group of shinobi developing a code language for its own use. The language might be based on a mathematical code, team roles, or anything else, down to and including obscure facts known in common. It might even consist of nonverbal cues, taking the form of a sign language. Such a thing is very useful for several reasons, though it is not taught in the Academy.
First and most obviously, such code is nigh unintelligible to anyone not within the group. In some cases, the messages might sound like normal conversation, disguising the fact that the messages were sent at all. The only warning an enemy might have that the shinobi team is aware and ready for them is their sudden springing into action against him.
Second, this code is sometimes faster than normal speech. A single sentence, even a single word or gesture in the right place might tell just as much information as five minutes of conversation otherwise. The action this allows is critical in time-sensitive situations, allowing precious seconds of breathing space and thought.
Lastly, the very use of this kind of language brings the teams closer together. Universal among the teamspeak jargons is the fact that they all involve getting to know your allies as well as you know yourself, and this is never a bad thing. This allows fewer miscommunications to occur, and greater tactical precision leads to a greater percent of fights won.
Many wonder why teamspeak is not taught in the Academy, while multiple codes are. The reasons for this are many and varied, but all boil down to one critical fact. Language taught from outside the team is inevitably ineffective as a means of communication within the team itself, its members reverting to their own language for ease and comfort. In addition, there is a security benefit to allowing teams to evoke their own teamspeak. That is, traitors cannot carry any effective codes to whatever enemy they defect.