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Chapter 18
No Mercy
(One Day Later: Land of Lightning)
Naruto gave a satisfied nod to himself as he stared at the pitch black night sky above him. The weather had turned extremely cold with the temperature dropping several degrees and visibility being greatly reduced. It was a testament to the unpredictable nature of these hills.
It reduced their operational efficiency but the same applied to the enemy as well.
He looked at his squad and saw them finishing their final preparations. Kisame and Mei were carrying as many small arms they could considering they would be joining him in their diversion while the rest of the team infiltrated the enemy castle in hopes of killing the Lightning Daimyo, his entire family and his top aides who had also taken refuge in this safe zone.
It would be a crippling blow to the Land of Lightning which could possibly also spark a civil war with other royals starting fighting among each other to become the next Daimyo. That would be the end of their nation as their enemies would pounce on that opportunity and destroy them completely.
Thanks to Kushina, he now knew exactly where his target was located and a less risky route they could use to infiltrate the location. It was only because of his former Spartan comrade that he felt quite confident in their chance of victory.
The White Castle.
The Lightning Daimyo, his top aides and the man's family had taken up residence in the castle made of precious stones and marbles. It was because of the Daimyo's wife insistence to be near the hot springs inside the castle in this brutish weather. The Daimyo was sympathetic to his family's condition as he had dragged them to this location for their safety and wanted to make them comfortable.
If only that man had cared about the misery he had brought across the world.
He looked at Zabuza, Haku, Ameyuri, Jinpachi and Mangetsu who would be the Infiltrating team. They were trying to carry only their most essential gear to comply with their objective of making a swift strike and an even more faster exfiltration.
The Commander walked towards the Mizukage's son, an action that was noticed by the younger boy who straightened up and gave him a confident smile. Naruto saw gratitude and growing loyalty for himself in those eyes ever since Mangetsu learned what the Commander had done to save his life.
The same admiring gaze reminding him of another boy he had known once.
He beckoned the Hozuki heir to follow him as they both stepped outside the cave which had became the base of operations of their squad.
"How is your shoulder?" asked Naruto,
"Much better. I am fit for duty, Commander" came the confident reply, earning a nod from the lone Namikaze.
"Lead your team well. They will be counting on you" advised Naruto, earning a hesitant look from the younger ninja.
"I still think you should choose someone else" whispered Mangetsu, which made Naruto smile a little.
"Have faith in yourself. You know what's at stake and you value the life of your comrades. Trust your instincts" reassured Naruto as he gently patted the boy's shoulder.
"How do you decide what is the right choice, Commander?" asked Mangetsu curiously, for as long as he could remember this man standing before him had made choices that always achieved victory.
"Every ninja makes a gamble with each mission. You make choices hoping them to be the right ones, but in truth nobody can foretell the outcome, not you or your team. Your true mettle is tested when your decision turns out to be the wrong one, what you do then decides whether you win or lose, live or die, are remembered as victors or the defeated" explained Naruto with a fleeting smile, as he imparted the wisdom taught to him by his own trainers in the Spartan program when he had asked a similar question years ago on being nominated to be the leader.
"I'll try my best then" promised Mangetsu with a thankful nod,
"Trust yourself and your comrades. If shit hits the fan, never lose hope and continue fighting in order to find a way out because anything else is sentencing yourself and your team to death. And finally, I have your back" promised Naruto without hesitation,
Mangetsu smiled and gave a firm salute in return for the wisdom.
When Naruto turned back towards the cave, he saw the rest of the squad was also ready and had been listening to their conversation. In each of their eyes, he saw the resolve of a determined ninja.
He stabbed one of his three pronged kunai at the entrance of that cave and passed each member of his team one of those special weapons as well.
"If you're in danger, just drop the kunai and I'll be there" he instructed,
The team nodded resolutely as he steeled himself. He wished he could be there to personally end the Daimyo's life but knew his talents would be required to keep the Kinkaku and other forces engaged away from the Infiltration team. Kushina would be diverting all the forces inside the White Castle to allow Mangetsu's team to reach their target within record time and minimum resistance. She had orders from Naruto to bug out before the Kiri team carried out their mission as they would try to kill her if she got in their way. He remembered her cocky smile at that remark challenging them to try if they were that bold.
"The Land of Lightning is a dangerous nation whose ambition grows each day" he stated with conviction,
His team listened to him attentively and he knew his words would play a key part in their own resolve to see this mission through.
"Their corrupt and power hungry leaders want to have everything. They would not rest until Kirigakure is brought to its knees and subject to their dominance" said Naruto falsely,
In truth, the Lightning Daimyo was more interested to conquer the Land of Fire and the Land of Whirlpools according to Kushina. The man had little to no interest in the less developed and resource deprived Land of Water. But these shinobi didn't need to know that.
"We are here to stop that from happening!" he declared, earning stern and merciless nods from everyone in their group.
His eyes turned red and he could feel the simmering thirst for revenge flaring alive inside his heart.
For his Father.
For his Mother.
For his Brother.
For his Friends and Comrades.
For all that he lost.
He turned towards the cave's exit as all the anger and bloodlust hidden deep inside of him called for justice.
"Today, we take the fight to their land, their people, their blood"
Mei silently watched the forward most enemy base. Her fist clenched in anger as she saw few Kumogakure shinobi were indulging themselves to drinks around a man-made fire with others harassing a young teenage girl who looked terrified as hell. There were other sentries that stood guard across the base and she could see a makeshift headquarters where most of the officers and troops were resting.
She flinched when one of the Jounin tore the young girl's shirt off earning an anguished cry from the child.
"Bastards!" she cursed,
Kisame remained silent and as unaffected as ever which made her glance at the last member of their squad whose eyes showed he had seen it all and worse.
"Wait till you see it all...what a man can do to another" whispered Naruto,
Mei shivered on hearing those dark words said with a grim conviction of a warrior who had probably seen many gruesome events in his life.
"How many are there?" asked Kisame, speaking for the first time.
"240 to 250. It's a forward base" answered Naruto, as he used his sensory powers to make the assessment.
"Enough for everyone then" grinned Kisame with a shark like look on his face,
Mei remained silent on that comment and instead saw Naruto get up from his perch on the tree only to expertly grab his now feared three pronged kunai in each hand. His red eyes became even more brighter and his bloodlust started to rise.
It was as if she was seeing him enter a sort of new battle mode.
Unknown to her, Naruto's body was undergoing rapid changes. He could feel huge adrenaline pumping through his veins, his eyesight became extremely clear even in the dark night, he could feel all his muscles getting more stronger alongwith his hearing becoming deadly accurate, all thanks to the chemicals and genetic enhancements inside of him.
It had been years since he had fully activated his gifts from the Spartan program.
It was all he had left when the bastards had taken everything else from him.
"Kill them all and make as much noise as you can. That should attract the attention of the other forces and draw them here which will make the Infiltration Team's task a tad bit easier" instructed the Commander,
"Finally, some much needed action" agreed Kisame without fear,
Naruto looked at Mei and was quite surprised to see her giving him a firm nod. Her resolve to do her duty was unwavering, something for which his respect for her increased.
With nothing more left to be said, the lone Namikaze jumped down to the ground with his squadmates landing right beside him with a barely audible sound.
"Let's go"
His focus narrowed down greatly as he kicked his legs into action. Without waiting for his comrades, he unleashed his top most running speed of 50 kilometers per hour and surged through the forest like a flash of lightning shrouded in darkness. His red eyes having already zeroed down on his first set of targets with ease.
"Water Style: Water Bullets"
The heads of the two sentry guards exploded as the sudden attack came out of the dark forest and hit them straight across the temple and thereby punching clean through their brain. Even as the bodies started to fall back to the ground, Naruto had already jumped high in the air and far above the makeshift earthen wall across the enemy base.
He instinctively dived towards the enemy group stacked near the fire and his twin kunai were soon buried into the throats of the first two Jounin. Ignoring the painful looks of the dying men, he mercilessly twisted the weapons out of their slashed open throats and went ahead to stab them again into the heads of the remaining two drunk and surprised Jounin beside the fire.
The bodies of the sentry guards hit the ground at the exact same time as those around the fire faced the same fate.
He then heard two distinct sets of screams.
Turning back, he saw the civilian girl who was previously being molested and abused was screaming in horror watching the fate of her tormentor.
Mei had joined the battle and her first act had been to drown the child abuser Jounin in a rain of molten lava that the Kiri kunoichi had spewed from her mouth.
The Terumi clan heir did not look affected in the slightest even as her attack made the enemy ninja melt before her very eyes. Her stern gaze then turned towards the civilian girl whom she signaled to run away, an order which was instantly obeyed.
Other forces across the base had been alerted by those screams and they were soon coming out of the temporary earth like building. Naruto twisted his kunai backwards and was about to intercept them when someone took action even before him.
"Chirokyu"
A faint reddish colored gas was unleashed in a dangerous tidal wave that swept through the entire enemy base. At first, Naruto thought it to be smoke deployed as a diversion but was quite shocked when he saw all of the enemy troops getting caught in the gas storm.
Their screams rankled his own nerves as the men and women discovered this gas attack to be poisonous in nature as at first it was their skin that melted away, followed by their bones turning hollow, their eyes popping out of their faces until they all finally dissolved into a disgusting pool of rotten flesh and vaporizing blood.
Kisame had barely managed to reach the battlefield when he came to witness the carnage that had been inflicted upon the enemy so swiftly by the Jinchuuriki.
It was over.
"Damn..." was all the Hoshigaki warrior could whisper,
Mei never flinched even as she watched the destruction she had unleashed, it was only the beginning of a gruesome and dangerous fight. One which she had to see through till the end, for the sake of her nation.
A cold chill passed through her entire body suddenly even as she shivered in silence. Her alert gaze caught sight of the dark clouds again shrouding the moon rendering the lands in darkness. The air turned painfully cold as a foul aura started to taint the nature around them.
"Foul...chakra...those...bastards!"
There were only a few moments in her life when Mei had truly heard the voice of the beast sealed inside of her. She froze in her tracks as she heard his faint whisper that echoed inside her mind.
It was outraged!
"Something's coming" whispered Kisame, as he stepped beside Mei and raised his sword in anticipation.
They both saw Naruto quickly gesturing them towards his position and quickly followed the order. As the three of them took up position behind one of the last standing tents inside the now ruined base, they saw the serious look in their leader's eyes.
"Mei, on my command unleash your full power" instructed Naruto,
"Are you sure?" she asked hesitantly, earning a grave nod in return.
"You must, if any of us are to survive" warned Naruto gravely, as he turned towards Kisame.
"They are coming"
Kisame grimaced on hearing that warning even if his senses had already warned him of the approaching danger moments earlier. Judging from the way how alert and cautious the Commander looked, something bad was coming their way.
"Don't try to fight them on your own or with brute force, you will die" warned Naruto frankly,
It was something in the Commander's gaze that didn't allow Kisame to dismiss that warning lightly and instead give a firm nod of acceptance.
"Manji Formation!"
Instantly, the three of them took up their respective position with Naruto facing the front and Mei alongside Kisame watching their flanks and rear. At Naruto's nod, Kisame performed a set of hand seals quickly.
"Hidden Mist Jutsu"
Mei nervously gulped as a thick cloud of mist enveloped the entire area rendering nearly any normal shinobi blind. However, both her and Kisame were taught to fight even in such mists while Naruto was an ex-Anbu Blackops fighter.
"Masks on. Follow my lead and don't break the formation. Swords up front, lace them with chakra!"
Kisame followed the orders without question as he covered his face with his Anbu mask even as Mei followed suit. Both fighters raised their swords and surged their chakra through their weapons giving them a more sharper edge to cut through flesh and armor.
They saw Naruto picking up a sword from one of the dead enemy ninjas nearby. With his own existing blade, he now held two swords in his hands. His familiar ash form of chakra emerged from his body and effortlessly started to spread across the mist so subtly that one couldn't even see it with their naked eyes.
The same dangerous power also traveled across the length of the twin swords in Naruto's hands and soon enough ignited fire across the metallic blades. Even from their distance, Mei could feel the scorching heat of those burning blades and how desperate they were to cut and burn through the flesh of its enemies.
She blinked when something moved across the mist on her flank, her gaze searching for that presence desperately even as sinister growls and cannibalistic roars echoed across the entire area.
"Did you guys see-"
A silent scream never managed to escape her lips as the ground beneath her feet burst open to unleash a hideous creature that roared.
Before she knew it, Mei felt a bone crushing fist colliding with her jaw that rankled each and every fiber in her body horribly as she was sent sailing upwards in the sky.
Kisame snarled and twisted backwards to combat the enemy and shivered as he felt another shadow flicker behind him instantly. All he saw was the gaze of a monster before he too found himself kicked dozens of feet away.
Naruto grimaced as his comrades were slammed away and the two enemies that did it now roared at him.
They were just as he remembered.
Before him stood two humanoid monsters with chakra as foul as a tailed beast and the killing intent of one as well. Their mad and malice full hollow gaze a stark proof of the humanity they had forsaken for the sake of this tainted power. The only ones to ever pose a moral threat to his life.
And the ones who played a hand in his brother's death.
A cold gust of wind blew once more for a fleeting moment followed by two anguished screams as a flash happened across the mist.
The foul chakra started to fade as the corrupted twin enemies glanced back in the direction of the shadow that flew by them just a brief flicker before.
Their eyes widened in shock when they saw a pair of familiar and haunting red eyes staring at them hatefully from behind that masked face.
"Spartan..."
They fell to the dirt with that last whisper as the wound across their chest spread fire across their entire hideous form turning them into charred meat in a flash.
Naruto felt his fists shaking with uncontrollable bloodlust as the mist in the area was forcefully dissipated by powerful winds. The skies were shrouded completely by dark clouds rendering the earth into eternal darkness.
In that nothingness, he saw five dozen pair of red eyes emerging from the forest all around the ruined enemy base. The creatures were humanoid in form and their entire body was covered in malicious and foul chakra. Their menacing number of tails swirling behind their respective backs a stark proof of each of their individual power. Their demonic eyes having lost all humanity and their gaping maws hungry to devour their prey to its bone.
Mei coughed up blood even as she tried to pick herself back up on her feet after that brutal and sudden attack on her. Even now, her head was spinning and her vision was blurry. Her jaw felt as if someone had set it on fire.
Thankfully, Kisame appeared beside her and helped her in the process while nursing his own wounds.
Together, they both stared at the approaching enemies from the forest around the ruined base.
"Mei, is that Biju chakra?" asked Kisame grimly, his own hesitation and fear easy for her to see.
She looked at the incoming monsters and judging from how outraged the beast inside of her was, Kisame's observation was true.
"Now I understand why the Kinkaku are feared across the entire world as the most dangerous special ops unit. Their skill as ninjas was already threatening, to imagine them having the power of the Biju inside of them" whispered Mei worriedly,
"Kumo only has two tailed beasts. How are they all having that power within them?" asked Kisame hesitantly, unsure of the fact that the answer he would receive could be something he would like.
"Most likely, their village must have experimented on them and made them worthy enough to be compatible with this power. Jinchuuriki are weapons of mass destruction but they are limited to the number of tailed beasts a village possesses. Kumogakure circled around that limit by creating an entire force of ninjas capable of wielding Biju chakra, making them all half-Jinchuuriki in their own right. While they do not possess all the chakra a Jinchuuriki has, they have enough inside of them to make them each a mortal danger to us all" explained Mei,
As if their luck wasn't already bad enough, she and Kisame suddenly heard hundreds of angry roars echoing all around the forest. Moments later, she saw large amounts of Kumogakure ninja ranging from Jounin, Anbu, chunin and royal guards of the Daimyo bursting inside the ruined base one after another even as the Kinkaku unit remained behind in the shadows.
Both of them were surprised when Naruto appeared beside them in a flash and looked at them seriously.
"Leave the Kinkaku to me. Watch my back by handling the others"
Mei was about to oppose that suicidal decision but was stopped when Kisame placed a restraining hand upon her shoulder. Both men were looking into each other's eyes as an untold message was passed with Naruto then turning towards the army that stood in his way towards the Kinkaku.
"He'll create an opening and we'll follow. Understood?" asked Kisame with a calm expression,
"Very well" she agreed reluctantly,
Naruto narrowed his gaze when he felt Kisame unleash his entire killing intent making dozens of enemies take several step backwards in fear. Their morale was further crushed when foul red colored chakra started covering Mei's entire body until two large tails reared their menacing visage from her back. Her green eyes turned a shade more darker giving her a demon like appearance in the darkness, her hair flowed freely in the air and her features became more cannibalistic.
He looked back at the front and straight in the direction of the Kinkaku force waiting in the shadows.
He was pleased to see them emerging from the rear and march towards the front after Mei's reveal.
But they were stopped in their tracks when the ground beneath their feet started shaking alarmingly. The air became more heavier and foul making it difficult to breathe and every warrior felt a crushing bloodlust invade all around them.
"Now"
Mei watched Naruto disappear in a flash before he suddenly appeared high in the air above the first ranks of the enemy forces. She remembered him spreading his dark chakra across the entire area even before the fight began...
"Ash Release: Particle Annihilation"
Bone chilling screaming erupted among the frontline enemy units as a raging inferno was suddenly produced all around them courtesy of the hidden and twisted chakra igniting itself on its master's behest. Even as five dozen men and women burned to death spreading chaos and fear among the enemy ranks, the carnage was far from over.
Naruto quickly performed the tiger, dog and rat seals without hesitation.
"Zanshou Bunshin (Afterimage Clones)"
He landed back on the ground now surrounded by a dozen look alikes of him and together they stormed through the disarrayed enemy ranks.
Adrenaline pumped through his veins at an alarming rate as time itself seemed to have slowed down. The first opponent barely noticed him before his head was knocked off from his body. His clones charged in alongside him creating chaos among the enemy ranks, using that to his advantage he decided to unleash the ability he was feared for.
The Captain of the Daimyo's royal guards saw this enemy appearing at multiple locations striking down so many of his men one after another. All his troops ever saw was a last yellow flash before they met their end, the few suicidal enough tried to take this demon down by blowing themselves up in their dying moments but the enemy had already disappeared by that time leaving behind an after image clone that harmlessly absorbed the suicidal attacks while its master moved to a different target.
Naruto ducked in order to avoid a horizontal slash of a sword from decapitating him even as another twin set of enemies tried to sweep his legs out. They howled in pain when their legs crashed against his own only to feel their own bones get crushed against his genetically enhanced ones. The last thing they saw was the red eyed masked demon plunging his flaming swords into their skulls.
In less than a minute, the Captain of the Daimyo's royal guards saw more than half of his men be killed with the rest falling back creating the risk of a full scale retreat.
Realizing the impending debacle, the captain used a quick shunshin and appeared right between the dangerous enemy who was about to murder another one of his men.
Steel clashed against steel as their swords met in fiery clash.
Fire raged against lightning as the two opposing elemental chakra powering each of those weapons raged for dominance.
"What are you?" he asked furiously, for this man was no ordinary shinobi.
His eyes widened when the dreaded ash like energy again erupted from the blonde demon's body and rained down directly over him and those fighters nearby.
"Death" answered the monster,
Once again another group of men including the Daimyo's royal guards leader screamed as the ash like chakra shrouding them ignited setting them all on fire.
Even as the tortured enemy soldiers collapsed to the ground writhing in agony and their impending death, Naruto marched forward.
His eyes fixed upon a group of monsters that stared back at him with equal hatred in their own eyes.
He stepped before them finally covered in the blood of their fellow countrymen and his flaming swords etching for more carnage.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw more and more shinobi forces converging towards their location from all around the forest but also witnessed Mei alongwith Kisame move together in order to intercept them.
He smiled a little on seeing that as it was a stark proof of their trust in him to deal with the Kinkaku and their obedience to follow his orders to the core.
"The Last Spartan"
Cold red eyes of his glared murderously at that familiar voice as the tall and muscular blonde man walked forward to join the battle. He was wearing a standard Kumogakure flak jacket that was black on the edges and wore it over a purple, high collared sleeveless uniform. A purple colored headband of his village protected his forehead and similar colored wristbands could be seen upon his hands. His right arm had the word "Gold" etched into his skin permanently.
He carried with him one of the most powerful weapons of their world, one said to have been used by the Sage of Six Paths himself.
The Bashosen.
"Kinkaku" whispered Naruto with barely constrained hatred,
The leader of Kumogakure's most elite blackops unit grinned at him savagely even as he wickedly glanced at the carnage Naruto had left in his path.
"We thought you committed suicide after your village announced that story after your pathetic defeat at our hands all those years ago" mocked Kinkaku, even as he lifted his prized war fan above his shoulder.
"I will not die until I kill every last one of you" promised Naruto without hesitation,
Kinkaku laughed as he patted one of his special ops soldiers beside him while pointing at Naruto.
"Now that's a real monster! They don't make more like us anymore" commented Kinkaku proudly,
"Then you won't mind if I make you all disappear" answered Naruto with a cold smirk of his own,
"Try to make this interesting before you die" mocked Kinkaku, as dark red chakra enveloped his entire body with nine tails springing from his back.
Naruto twisted his swords till he was holding them completely backwards even as his ash like chakra hovered all around him. Those cold red eyes of his saw Kinkaku and his entire force unleash their full power as they charged at him.
He remembered that fateful night and the cold corpses of his friends, his comrades, his men...and his brother.
The ground shook as he charged forth at the approaching enemies without any fear in his heart.
The fateful battle had finally arrived.
(The White Castle)
Mangetsu and his team silently ran within the shadows of the royal castle in order to conceal their movements. Their task became a tad bit easier with majority of the forces from this castle and the ones nearby had rushed off to the stop the diversionary attack created by Naruto's team.
Still a sizeable enemy force remained behind and it was upto him to deal with them.
He held up a fist and made his team take an abrupt halt as a group of royal guards rushed outside of the corridor in front of them. Mangetsu barely had a moment to think before he realized they were about to take a turn straight in the direction of his team destroying the stealth they had carefully maintained for so long.
He gave the signal.
A dozen water bullets were released by him which soon pierced the legs of the enemy group making them grunt in pain as they started falling to the ground but were soon engulfed in lightning strikes being unleashed by Ameyuri.
Jinpachi unleashed his sword which was attached to a ninja wire and instantly pierced the throats of the struggling soldiers rendering them incapable of creating any further noise. He then went a step forward and pulled them all back towards Mangetsu's group where Zabuza quickly sealed the now dead corpses into a scroll before effortlessly placing it on his hip with a savage grin.
Mangetsu looked at his team and saw Ameyuri had already erased the bloodstains on the carpet with her water style while Jinpachi had sealed away the now useless weapons of the dead enemies leaving no trace behind of any conflict.
He nodded at his comrades respectfully and earned the same gesture in return.
Even as they continued their game of hide and seek with occasional contact with surprised enemies, Mangetsu could not help but wonder they were all working much better as a team thanks to the trust they now had in each other.
A trust which one man had built in each of them through his own leadership.
He never wanted to disappoint those eyes again.
It was why he didn't hesitate in eliminating the Anbu detail posted outside their target's chamber, neither did he flinch when his comrades smashed the door open only to see the Daimyo's wife trying to shield her five children.
He heard Zabuza growl as he raised his sword making the woman beg for mercy and the children scream in terror.
He saw no mercy in Jinpachi or Ameyuri's eyes.
It was part of the mission.
But something inside of Mangetsu hesitated as he looked into those eyes of the terrified children and the broken mother. He could only imagine their horror at being surrounded by unknown enemies, their guards dead, and the Daimyo nowhere nearby to protect them.
"I'll do it"
He raised a single hand seal and in an instant the royal children fell unconscious. Before their mother could scream in horror, she grunted in pain and saw Mangetsu had appeared before her and stabbed his sword clean through her heart.
He touched her chest as his chakra invaded her body taking control over her entire nervous system thereby preventing her from dying instantly.
"Where is your husband?" asked Mangetsu seriously, but the woman glared at him defiantly even as she groaned in agony.
Her resolve however broke instantly when Ameyuri threatened to throw a kunai at the woman's youngest child, a girl of eight.
"His...guards...must...have...taken...him...outside...of...this...castle...via...the...tunnel...in...the...basement...that's..all...I...know" she whispered in a broken voice, knowing she may have just condemned her husband and leader to the same fate as hers.
She looked into Mangetsu's merciless eyes and with the last of her strength, she whispered.
"Please...spare...my...children"
Mangetsu lost his grip over her chest on hearing those words.
She fell backwards towards her grandbed with those last words, her corpse turning the once white sheets red with her blood.
Mangetsu saw all the sleeping children getting soaked in their mother's life blood and knew he would never be able to forget this night. But the mission was far from over.
"The children" prompted Zabuza in a cold voice, making Mangetsu clench his fists.
"We can do it if it's difficult for you" offered Ameyuri diplomatically,
"Better hurry up. Reinforcements are coming!" warned Jinpachi, who was now watching the door and the entire corridor.
The hozuki heir closed his eyes as he removed five needles from the pouch at his hip and quickly stabbed each child with it, starting with the oldest teenager to the youngest girl of eight. He saw each of them moan in their sleep before being silenced forever as the poison silently spread across their bodies and gave them a quick death.
He looked at the six corpses in front of him for a very long moment as he tried to accept what he had just done.
"Kami..."
He looked back to see Haku arriving at the doorstep only to witness the results of his action. Her eyes met his own and she didn't miss the pain and guilt burning inside of him. He had murdered people before, men and women...
But never children.
"The Daimyo's advisers?" asked Zabuza seriously, drawing Haku's attention back towards the task they had asked her to finish.
"It's done" answered the Yuki clan kunoichi with a grim nod,
"The Daimyo?" asked Jinpachi hopefully, only to receive a negative answer from Haku.
"It's strange he left his family behind to save his own life but then again he's a politician, those cowards!" muttered Ameyuri with a frown,
"We find him and end this once and for all"
The entire squad looked at Mangetsu as he gave that order and even the older members among them saw his firm resolve to see that objective through.
Haku had known him since they were children and she didn't miss that something inside of him had changed tonight. As he walked past her, she placed a comforting hand over his shoulder making him look in her eyes.
"Someday this war will end and it will be worth it" she tried to comfort him, only to receive a bittersweet smile from him.
"No. This war will only bring out the worst in us all"
Haku was truly saddened on hearing him say that as his words sent a cold shiver across her heart. She narrowed her eyes when a squad of ninjas reached the corridor entrance but Mangetsu was already upon them.
The seven cloud ninjas unleashed their blades all across Mangetsu's body to slice him to pieces and were left speechless when he dissolved into a puddle of water.
Before they could blink, the Mizukage's son appeared behind them and severed their heads mercilessly.
As the bodies hit the floor with sickening crunches, Mangetsu turned backwards to see his entire squad staring at him with varying emotions in their eyes.
But the one feeling that was common among all those looks made this entire ordeal somewhat easier to bear.
Respect.
"Let's go, we have a job to do"
(The White Castle: Basement)
Kushina cursed her luck as she was forced to sprint across a narrow and barely lit secret tunnel under the White Castle. Around her were the members of the elite squad that were tasked with protecting the supreme ruler of these lands.
"Captain, the Daimyo will not show us any mercy if we leave his wife and children behind" argued Kushina, only to receive a grim glare in return from the leader of this squad.
"Whole squads have gone dark inside the Castle, Karin. There is a different unit tasked with protecting our feudal lord's family, our sole responsibility is ensuring that he stays alive no matter the cost. The Castle is breached and our safest bet is to take him to our nearest stronghold and make our next plan from there. Staying here only increases the risk of him being assassinated considering we have no idea about the enemy's strength, exact location, tactics or weapons" explained the Captain seriously,
"Karin" as was Kushina's code name nodded reluctantly. What the man had said was absolutely true and their squad was only doing its job but that did not bode well for her plan to get the Daimyo killed.
Her own escape plan was blasted to dust and now she had no option but to follow orders else she could risk exposing her own cover and getting killed herself.
Where the hell are you, Minato?
She glanced at the unconscious feudal lord currently being carried by one of the highly skilled Anbu and could not help but wonder how easy it would be to take his life in an instant. Maybe if she timed it right, she could assassinate her squad and make her escape.
Her hand inched towards the sword at her back only for her to freeze when their Squad Captain raised a fist making everyone halt instantly.
She narrowed her gaze to see the reason behind this obstruction and found a faint shadow visible in the far off end of the barely lit tunnel.
A hidden smile emerged on her lips as she saw he had red eyes.
When he started charging towards the Daimyo's detail, Kushina unleashed her sword as her comrades followed suit. Their Captain gave a final warning which was ignored by the intruder making the Anbu squad prepare for a battle.
Kushina readied herself to strike the nearest Anbu from behind as her ally continued charging towards the Daimyo's detail.
Just when he was a few hundred meters away, she raised her weapon to strike her Anbu comrades...
Only to clearly see that those red eyes were not the ones she had remembered her entire life.
Author's Notes: End of chapter.
Hope you guys liked it.
Sorry for the delay in update, life's been hard these past few weeks and I have not been able to get any time for writing due to my busy work schedule (Nearly 14-16 hours per day till Saturday, and some stuff on Sunday as well). Hopefully, it will reduce soon so I can focus back on my writing fully and share more faster updates.
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Until Next Time,
Blackwolf501
