Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and any reference to any other thing owned by someone else.
Claimer: The OCs are mine. If any are sue-ish, well…they're still my sues.
Warning #1: Characters may sometimes be OOC. You have been warned.
Reminder: Rosuto Juushu = Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto
Lost
Chapter 25
The revelation of what lay beneath the soil caused the Rosuto troops to move quadruple time, they had to get out of there before things got worse. The thing that the mages found was a creature that lived underground and had been infected, but the poison had been neutralized somehow leaving the creature as non-carrier, but instead had been mutated into something else. The poison had melded with whatever the creature was which ended with the thing becoming a giant acidic slime monster.
"Yori, its Tem again, we've got a slimer on our hands!" Tem said, after getting connected back to relative.
"Seriously? You guys have all the fun.." Yori said.
"Sorry to interrupt what was to be your rant, but we need a way to be rid of it," Tem said.
"Sorry, sorry, give me the low down on the situation, has it broken through the ground, come up, and such?"
"Gon, check with the roc riders, has is broken the surface?" Tem told Gon another of his clansmen.
"Roc riders report that the ground beneath the village was actually part of the monster, its rising from its sleep fast," Gon reported after speaking with the head roc rider.
"Yori, its broken through, or it was possibly asleep the whole time, possibly avoiding the infected or something," Tem informed.
"Have the mages hit it with the elements, I need to know what each element's effect is on it," Yori said.
After ordering the mages to unleash some elemental spells on the monster, Tem had made sure that the roc riders and the foot soldiers made sure to observe any and all effects that were produced. Some of the roc riders decided that they would scout around the area, in case something had been missed, possibly the slime monster was hiding the existence of something else.
The first elemental wave sent forth by the mages were whatever earth spell they could think of. The rocks, and mud that were formed and hit the monster were instantly vaporized by the monster's skin, the outer layer of acid that it was made of was just to corosive for the magically created earthen objects.
"Rocs! I want you guys to try something!" Tem said over the radio, "Pick up some boulders and drop 'em on the thing, I wanna know if possibly it was the magic."
It was possibly that the element of earth itself was not at fault, but that the magic that created them was what made them disintegrate the way that they did. After filling their talons with some boulders, the rocs dropped their load on the monster, the rocks were not vaporized instantly, rather it took a few minutes for them to be absorbed by the monster. The monster itself not really paying them much attention, both times. But the soldiers noticed that when the magically created rocks and mud hit, the monster looked like it grew more aware of its surroundings.
"Yori, magic earth results in instant vaporization, while regular rocks take a while for it to digest them," Tem reported.
"What of its energy levels, or its reaction to the things thrown at it?" Yori asked.
"Magic made it more aware, while regular stuff didn't even faze it," Tem said.
"Next element please," Yori said.
"Mages, soak it," Tem ordered the mages, "Roc riders find some water to drench it with, once the mages are done."
The mages powered up their water elemental spells and had torrents of magical water make their way toward the monster. The visible effect of such attacks resulted in the monster growing a little bit bigger, but once all the water had been absorbed by the creature, it grew significantly in size. Some of the soldiers believed that it had absorbed the magically enhanced water, and since it was made of some form of liquid, it had absorbed the magic as well.
After an hour or two, the rocs were finally able to drop their load after having to fly to the coast to gather some water. The water was also absorbed by the monster, but it did not grow as fast, or as much as when the magically cinjured and enhanced water hit it.
"Well?" Yori asked.
"It being liquid assimilated the water, it grew in size both times, but the magic somehow made it grow faster and larger," Tem reported the findings.
"Set it on fire," Yori said, "Magic only."
"Gotcha," Tem said, then ordered the troops what to do via the radios, "Mages fire bomb the thing, rocs just observe."
The mages fired up as much power as they could, fire being the most volatile and hard to control of all the elements, as not only was it impulsive in nature, but should it not be treated right it would incinerate the caster. Such a task that the mages had set their fire magiks on was something that they had never thought that they would have encountered. Once the fire was let loose, when the fires were shot toward the monster, the result was not as they had expected. Instead of being absorbed or consuming the thing in flames, burning it to a crisp, forever to never crawl on the ground for the rest of eternity, instead of the expected results, the monster had been turned to glass, as if it had been made of glass.
"Yori, it turned to glass," Tem reported.
"I expected as much," Yori said, "If you have any shinobi with you, I would have you cut it with wind, as I don't think that magical winds would be sucha good idea."
"So what would you have us do?" Tem asked.
"I would have you drop boulders on the thing and see if it shatters," Yori said.
After the troops were informed of what would be done, the roc rideres immediately got to work. The boulders that they dropped on it, were not vaporized instead they shattered part of the thing. The only thing that was observed aside from the shattering effect that the rocks had on the glassified shell, was that the whole thing had not been turned into glass, inside the glass shell was still acidic slime.
"The shell shattered, but the inards are still slime," Tem reported.
"Fire bomb it, then shatter it with regular rocks," Yori said, "Oh, and have some of the mages try and drain the thing of its life force, if it has one."
The orders were relayed to those that were to be part of the operation. Turning it to glass, and shattering it, while trying to drain it of its lifeforce, worked for awhile, but soon some of the soldiers noticed that the thing started to produce an enraged aura, for some reason. The thing knew what was happening to it. It appeared that it had not been totally awake from the start, but rather it was groggy, it was still in its waking stages which was why it had allowed itself to be hit by the numerous attacks. But now that it was finally fully awake, it was getting angry, and like another green and hulking thing, one would not want to be near it when it was angry.
Some of the soldiers infomed the Noufu clansmen of their observations, but it was a bit too late.
"Riders, cease your attacks!" a Noufu member called out throug the radio, "Evasive manuevers! Don't get hit!"
"But its not doing any..." the particular roc rider was unable to finish his statement as he was vaporized by the swing of one of the monsters many arms, or more like acidic tentacles.
"Mages roast the thing as fast as you can!" Tem shouted over the radio, "Stop those arms!"
The mages quickly did as they were told, not wanting the blood of their comrades to be on their hands should they not be able to halt the attacks of the monster. But the thing was quite fast when it was angry, it weaved its tentacles around like there was no such a thing as air resistance, many of the roc riders were vaporized when hit, some fell from the sky as the roc that they were on lost a wing, or a talon, or some other body part. Body parts were not littering the ground as the monster did not slice of parts, it disintegrated them. Part by part, person by person, roc by roc, the Rosuto forces were froced to try and keep up with the thing.
"Tem, status report!" Yori demanded hearing the screams of the injured and of the dying, as well as the orders being shouted by the soldiers and mages.
"The thing's gone nuts, we can't crash it as fast as it takes our fliers out, its only a matter of time before it decides to come for the rest of us," Tem said.
"Well I guess you can freeze then cut it up with wind now, but you'll be dealing with smaller version of it if you do," Yori said.
"Anything's better than the present situation," Tem said, then relayed some new orders.
The mages were tasked with glassifying the acidid slime monster, while other mages cut the thing up, creating smaller version of the thing. The rocs were ordered to fall back to base camp, those that were still able to fly though, those that weren't were ordered to avoid getting hit by the monster.
By the time that most of the rocs had returned to base camp, the monster had been cut down to size, but in its place were hundred of smaller versions of the original, all with the potential to reach the same size of the original, if they could absorb some materials. But some of the soldiers noticed that the monsters did not absorb the land that they moved on, as it the soil that they were on was immune to their absorption effect.
"Yori, new situation, there are hundreds of the thing now, and they all look to be closing in on base camp fast, some soldiers have also noticed that they can't seem to absorb the ground that they are moving on at present, the boulders were from the sides of the the crater that the village was found in," Tem said.
"I have an idea, but you need all the mages to expend all their mana to do it," Yori said.
"Why now, and not before?" Tem asked.
"It was huge before, now with all the tiny pieces I think I can make it so that the thing is unable to harm any more," Yori said.
"Well, what is it then?" Tem asked a little but impatient but that was acceptable what with his present predicament.
"Have the mages turn the soil beneath the slimers into dust, sand trap the things, have 'em fall into a tube, once they're all in, I want you to have the rocs drop all the napalm that you got into the whole to glassify them all, all lots of other burnable things to keep the fires going, drop boulders in after the flames have taken over, got it?" Yori said.
"Got it!" Tem said.
After all orders were relayed the operation continued, and finally the slimer threat had been ended before it could go beyond the borders of the crater that the village was in.
"Good work troops, this means we can meet up with everyone else," Tem said via radio to all the troops.
They left the place after burying all their dead, and doing all the other things that they had to do before heading out. But before they were able to leave the place someone from the back of the group reported in a sighting. The mages and the remaining roc riders had missed something, it wasn't another slimer thankfully, but it was something.
"Report," Tem said via radio, he was the only officer left after the ordeal after all.
"I saw something move underground, like one a SandFish, not as big, but it moved a few meters away from the flank," the soldier reported, "There it is again! Its fast approaching!"
"Sit tight soldier!" Tem said in response, "Mages see what that thing is!"
After some scanning, the mages found what or who it was that was closing in on the group.
"Prepare yourselves! We're under attack!" Tem said over the radio, which got all the troops to be more alert, the thing that the soldier in the rear of the group saw that whatever the underground thing was had changed direction.
"Sir! There's over a thousand of them, coming in from all directions! That one at the rear was a decoy," one of the mages closest to Tem said.
"Who are they, and where are they?" Tem said.
"They've got us surrounded sir, over a thousand of them, possibly remnants of the defenders from the north," the mage reported, "All shinobi, we could be dealing with a lot of sound attacks here."
"After this message, I want radio silence, total silence, mages silence shields if you please on the whole, group, everyone discreetly form groups, prepare to defend yourselves," Tem said, then shut off his radio, and tucked away his portable mirror communication device.
Just as soon as Tem had shut off his equipment, the attack began, oto-nin were popping out of the woodwork, grasped in their hands were a number of different weapons, varying in shape and size, and sharpness. From hammers and staves, to kunai and katana, there were just so many of them. Their rage could be felt by all the Rosuto forces. These attackers were what was left of the triple wall defenders up in the northern border of Rice Field, whose comrades had lost their lives in battle, in the defense of their homeland. These guys were just lucky enough to come across the dwindled numbers of group three.
Having been feeling the effects of fighting for too long, and working overtime for an extended number of hours, days, and the like, the Rosuto troops were ill prepared for the ferocity of the attacking oto-nins. Half of the remaining ground forces were killed within minutes of the start of the attack.
By the time that Tem noticed this he gethered some of the warriors closest to him, those that were still able to fight.
"They've already wiped out half of us, we need to eradicate them, fast, ideas?" Tem asked, the mage that was with them was doing all in his power to buy the group some time.
"Any of you from Tenshi?" Tem asked, he being from Sekihin.
"All of us are, why?" one of them asked.
"Good, attack with everything you've got, leave not a single oto-nin alive," Tem said.
"Seriously? We get to go all out?" one of the soldiers asked, they had been holding back, their power, the power that flowed in their veins, since after using it, they didn't think that they could control themselves.
"Yes, just make sure that no friendlies are harmed, once all the Oto-nins have been silenced, I want you lot to simply regroup and await orders, find an Ichida if you can, understood?" Tem asked.
"Hai," the soldiers said.
"Drop the barriers mage, and slaughter, do as your ancestors in Tetsu did in the past!" Tem shouted as he drew a pair of kama, and entered the battle killing Oto-nin after oto-nin, one another the Oto-nins began to see that they were outmatched.
Tradition, training, and the like had caused a regional Kekkai Genkai to form in the blood of the children of the former separate nations of Rosuto no Kuni. All the warriors kept some traits of those that used to rule the lands that make up Rosuto no Kuni. Like the Tenshi, who were the beautiful people, but had a love for battle like no other, their blood allowed them to become berserkers, they became stronger, while at the same time gained an advanced healing factor.
The Tetsu mage unleashed far more destructive spells than any of the group had ever seen in their lifetimes, it truly had blossomed into war if a normally peaceful mage could turn into a cold hearted and bloodthirsty killer. The Oto-nin and their jutsu stood no chance, against the blood of those that had fought in war for a thousand years, resting for a thousand more, but finally being unleashed on the world once again.
"Doton: Doryuudan!" multiple oto-nin called out as they slammed their palms on the ground which caused the soil to turn to mud, and turn into earth dragons, the bodies of lung dragons formed, and from their mouths numerous mud balls were shot out at high speed heading straight for a number of Rosuto troops.
Thinking that that was that, the oto-nins were unable to see the mudballs and the dragons were cut to ribbons by the whip weielding scions of the former Sakura no Kuni. The whips were coated with wind element chakra, and not only sliced through the projectiles and the dragons, but the wind blades went on to detach the heads of the shinobi from their bodies.
Dancing through the sea of shinobi the warriors of Rosuto moved with the grace of death gods, weaving in and out of harms way, dealing death blows left, right, and center, none of them caring at all about what happened to their bodies in the process for they all knew that by how they were fighting they would survive, and that was all that mattered.
After roughly five hundred of the oto-nin had perished in what they thought would be an easy battle one of the few chuunin in the group radio'd for some reinforcements, apparently the one thousand weren't the only ones in the area. Two thousand more arrived to deal some death on the invaders. It may have been such a small group of them left, even the aerial troops had suffered some loses, but not as bad as the ground forces.
The Rosuto forces were down to two hundred something troops all in all, from more than five thousand, that was all that remained. While the oto-nins just kept on coming, the final two hundred unleashed all their pent up thirst for blood, and no matter how many reinforcements arrived to aid the oto-nins, it did not matter. The Rosuto warriors cut through them like hot knives through butter.
The shinobi had stopped using their ninjutsu and genjutsu after a few hours of losing a hundred of their number against the Rosuto warriors, taijutsu was their only hope of surviving the awakened dragons that they had unleashed upon themselves.
Noufu Tem had lost his kama after the seven hundreth kill, he was busy dispatching his foes simply with his hands that acted as blades themselves, slicing through the bodies of the damned oto-nins, occassionally he would use some smoke bombs, mini firebombs, exploding tags, and the like. He and his Tenshi friends moved as a single unit, as a single entity, as if all their consciousnesses were one, all of their movements were in tandem. The enemies just kept coming, but Tem and his group just kept slaughtering.
Normally Tem would find himself directing the actions of the rest of the group, rarely ever having to join the fray himself, but like most of the Rosuto citizens he had some training in self defense. Training that for most of the rest of the world would be considered as formal training. Theirs was a people with a long history of fighting, and although they were a peaceful people in the last thousand years, that did not mean that they would deny their heritages to continue, if only with minimal influence to their lives.
Tem who had been using twin kama, had resorted to his hands and his feet to do the damage dealing for him, using his knowledge of human psychology and physiology to his advantage. The Noufu clan was the Human Resouce and Development department, they were the clan incharge of dealing with everything that had to do with that department, a number of these things included psychology, physiology, and sociology. They knew how the mind ticked, the mind worked, how the body worked, and all that as it was part of what they needed to know to better understand and deal with people. Tem used his extensive knowledge to take down his foes. Though he was unable to verbally deal with them, based on what he was seeing he used it to his advantage. Due to his knowledge of how the body worked he could more or less predict how his enemies would move, what action they would take seconds before their bodies were to take action. By using some subtle sign language he was able to communicate with his Tenshi companions, the mage not really needing to be told what to do as he blasted the Oto-nins with destructive spell after destructive spell.
The battle lasted for a number of days, the warriors of the battle knew not how many foes they had fought, or how long they were fighting without rest, food, or water, all they were sure of was that they had been fighting, non-stop for days, and finally their fighting constatly was over.
In truth they had somehow battled, and survived a literal slaughter of more than ten thousand Oto-nins. Otogakure may have been scattered all over the country, but that did not mean that there were few of them, they were in fact one of the few hidden villages with such a high shinobi count, since Orochimaru had many technologies at his disposal, one of them was a cloning facilitiy which he used to acquire such a vast army. Ten thousand genin, which chuunin abilities, was only one third of what he had originally had, but due to the efforts of the invading army, the number of genin and chuunin had drastically declined, Orochimaru would have to mass clone a few thousand or more shinobi to serve his purposes, the first being immortality and the second being world domination.
From the hundred of Rosuto warriors that were members of group three, only fifty remained, it was reminiscent of the time that Juushu spent adventuring before his formal training had begun under that pizza and popcorn loving sensei of his.
Among those that had survived the battle were Tem, his five Tenshi companions, and that one Tetsu mage. Out of all the survivors they were the ones that had dealt the most damage to the enemy forces, they were the ones that had taken the most number of lives, sent the most number of souls to the Crossworld. The afterlife was ten thousand souls fuller than before the battle took place thanks to that small group.
"I..g-guess..we..can..rest..now.." Tem said between breaths, the fatigue and stress of the fight finally catching up to him, he grew more tired as the seconds ticked by, but he had strength enough to make sure that all fifty of them were together for whatever was to come.
"H-hai, t-taichou," one of the survivors said, saluted, then promptly fainted from extreme exhaustion.
Group four had found themselves just outside one of the most well protected bases out of all the information that the initial scouts had gathered about all nine bases within Rice Field. This fourth one being one of the most well protected, it was one of two cloning facilities, and it was swarming with guards. There were simply too many of them, even with a force of three thousand, the Rosuto forces didn't think that they could take on and win against a force that could multiply itself within minutes after losing just one combatant. The Rosuto forces estimated that for every one Oto-nin or Rice Field soldier killed, another hundred would take its place. That was simply how fast, and how many machines the facility had at its disposal. The power plant that gave the base its power was also well protected and within the base itself, which gave the Rosuto forces another disadvantage as they would be unable to stalk their prey in the dark as they had wished. They could do only so much.
Being in desperate need of intelligence, and some advice on how to proceed, the communications officer, a Noufu clansman, contacted the Southern Konoha Invasion front.
"Noufu Ida, calling Southern front, Kira-oji-sama do you copy?" Ida said through the communication mirror.
"Noufu Kira here, I hear you loud and clear, what's the problem Ida-kun," Kira responded after a few minutes.
"We're at Base Four, its completely surrounded in security personel, its also got enough equipment and supplies to survuve against an attack from us, even should we unleash our heritages," Ida informed.
"Blow it up," Kira simply said.
"What do you mean blow it up?" Ida asked.
"Bring the whole facility to the ground," Kira said.
"How?" Ida asked.
"You've got mages, have them drop the who facility into a chasm in the ground, send them to the magma rivers of hell," Kira simply said, "Then snipe any that tries to escape."
"Understood," Ida said, then cut transmission.
Ida then relayed the instructions to the officers of the group. The task was split between the many roc riders in the group, they would act as aerial bombers of firery death. The mages were tasked with thinking up and using a single unified spell that would bring the whole facility falling into the burning pits of hell, or in other words down into the ground where the mantle met with the crust. The regular soldiers were all told to either prepare to rush the enemy, or to ready their bows and arrows in preparation for some sniper action against the Rice Field troops. Not a single one of their enemy was to survive.
But unknown to the preparing Rosuto force, their prey had found a way to spy on them, after realizing that they were surrounded on all sides by an army of Rosuto warriors, the Rice Field intelligence agency had found a way to use the vibrations in the earth to spy on Group four. After they figured out the plan of action that the Rosuto force was to take, the defenders launched a pre-emptive strike against the Rosuto force.
Unprepared for the surprise attack, one thousand Rosuto warriors lost their life during the first wave that was sent against them. That is exactly one third of the force that Group four originally had, or started out with. They had for some reason underestimated the abilities of their enemy, and had paid such a high price for such mediocre thinking. The Rosuto force did not need to wait for the second wave to take out another thousand, or a third wave to take out the entire group. The officers ordered the all remaining forces to continue as planned.
The mages made the ground shake, which caused the foundations and all the things that were keeping the base standing to tople and fall, they were also able to cause the ground below the entire facility to become brittle, which then cracked under the combined weight of the defenders and their base of operation and cloning facility. The Oto-nins that knew some Doton jutsu were able to defend and protect some parts of the base, which allowed their forces to launch some attacks on the attacking forces of Rosuto no Kuni.
The minor attacks were met with much resistance. The defenders had successully lost their cloning facility, what they were able to salvage, would help them survive, as they found out that the mages had expended far too much magic to try and sink the base a second time. The invaders did not attempt to storm the base, knowing that it would be suicide for them to do so. It was no a battle of attrition. Unluckily for the Rosuto forces, the defenders had called in some reinforcements from another base, one that had yet to meet with any of the other groups of Rosuto warriors. Group four was trapped between the base that they could not storm or totally destroy in one move, and the incoming reinforcements of the defenders that were sure to batter at them until they were all crushed.
Orochimaru really knew what he was doing when he prepared himself for war aginst the one country that he hated more than anything. His shinobi forces were more than enough to take out the entirety of Konoha, it was like Iwa, but on a much smaller scale, but just as deadly. The man really knew what it would take to take the world by storm, too bad he had to deal with a super power in the world, Rosuto no Kuni. A nation that knew not what defeat meant, simply victory, but the path was still a very dangerous and long one. Orochimaru had made sure of that.
While Group four was busily defending while at the same time attacking, Group five was making their way to the meeting place, they had had one of the easiest times demoloshing the base that they were assigned to, it was a prison facility, which had one kind of prisoner in it: the unstable kind. The soldiers had no trouble sealing the violent tendencies of the master of the place, the one that had the most power or control over all the other unstable experiments, some of which were disposed off due to their being too much of a danger to both themselves and to anyone else around them. The rest of the unstable prisoners, as well as the first of their kind, were allowed to join the Rosuto army, in short they were conscripted into the business, they were also promised more a way to more control their powers, power that were granted in part to them by Orochimaru through experimentation.
While group five was nearing the halfway point of their journey to the meeting place, they somehow intercepted a distress call from the fourth base, the base and cloning facility was requesting aid from the other bases due to their being under seige as well as having lost their most valuable facility. The officers of Group five decided that it would be a great way to test the resolve and loyalty of their new recruits, as well as their duty to help out their comrades whom they were sure were the ones behind the seige, fellow Rosuto forces that were trapped between the fourth base and the incoming reinforcements of the Rice Field defenders.
While heading in the direction of base number four, Group five encountered the reinforcements that the defenders requested from the other bases. There were quite a lot of them, but Group five was able to use surprise to their advantage and ambushed the Rice Field reinforcements. They blitzed the defenders, rushing in and out of the group of soldiers and shinobi, taking as many as they could, while making sure that no one of the invasion's side lost their life. The ambushes that the group orchestrated were able to take out sizeable amouts of defenders at a time, it was enough that the force that would reach the fourth base would be inefficient in completing their original objective which was to reinforce the defense of the base, as well as aid in wiping out the invaders that had formed a ring around the base.
Once the base was in viewing distance, group five made their presence known to their compariots by contacting them through radio instead of through mirrors. It was a slightly happy Noufu member that greeted them, and informed them of where they should position themselves, as well as where to send the mages to for a final strike against the defenders. The mages having gained back their power after the days upon days of surviving through the conflict.
Once the mages were all in position, the officers incharge of the demolition operation gave the signal, and in one giant ball of hellfire, the base and all the defenders within were wiped out off of the face of the world, not even the ones that had prepard some reinforced underground bunkers had survived the blast, it was simply to hot, and the hit arrived simply too fast. The mages fueled their fire with rage, rage and revenge filled thoughts brought about by remembering their comrades that had died in previous sorties and battles. The mages knew that emotions could help strengthen their magics, therefore had used their anger and sorrow to their advantage.
With the total destruction of the fourth base within the boundaries and lands of the Land of Rice Fields, Groups four and five were able to make their way to the meeting place where all the groups would meet up. Along the way they intercepted some late arrivals that had planned on reinforcing the fourth base, but were as luck would have it far too late to do anything of consequence, even their pathetic deaths were meaningless.
While groups four and five were doing their best in destroying the bases assigned to them, Group six had made its way to an underground base that was mostly empty save for some rebel factions within the country, factions that opposed the rule of the hebi sennin, they had wiped out the former occupyers of the base, and had established it as one of their bases of operations. When a diplomatic unit was sent out to speak with them about a potential alliance between Rosuto and their forces, the displomatic group was pleased to have died in the defense of the Rosuto Royal Family's honor and name. The rebel faction did not see any benefit in joining up with the invaders, and went so far as to insult Juushu's family with a lot of words. Once the words were delivered the diplomatic unit consisting of five men and one woman, had simply attacked them. The rebel factions were able to subdue and execute them, but the woman, who was a Noufu member, was able to get the word out to the rest of the group that the rebels were more selfish than Orochimaru himself, they believed that they could win against all odds, and had made it a point as to state that the rest of Rice Field would not stand for having to put up with another foreign set of rulers.
Apparently they did not think about the consequences of their actions, since that statement meant that most of the rest of the civilian populace would have to be wiped out to secure the safety of all the rest of the people as well as the safety of the Rosuto forces.
With the message received Group six relayed the information that had been gathered to the commanding group of the Rice Field invasion. The response that they were given was to route out all of the rebel factions, and decimate them. Following the initial mission specifics, the response from command was still the same, gather valuables from the bases, and then eliminate everything else. They had found a den of rebels, and now they were tasked with clean up, best remove all the filth while it was still early than to wait for the shit to hit the fan when the invasion force was too far to be of much use.
"We are to split up into thirteen more groups, as that is the number of factions that were present in the former base of the country's operations," one of Group six's officers stated, "Each group will be incharge of eradicating one rebel factions, completely and totally wiped out, not a single member is to escape alive, men, women, and even the children, are not to be allowed to go on living."
"We are to send them to the Crossworlds as fast as possible," a mage officer stated.
"The orders have been passed on to the officers assigned to each group, so pack up, and move out!" the main officer of the whole group announced.
The first rebel faction that had been found had set up their base in a mountain, not on a mountain top, but inside a mountin in the country, their base of operations were found in caves inside a mountain, near the sixth base of operations, the one where they had all met in. At the very foot of the mountain was a small village, one where the Rosuto forces were sure that their families stayed in, and where members of the faction could easily sometimes be seen in.
They let loose the wolves of war once nightfall covered the land, specifically the village and the mountain. The direwolves made quick work of all the rebels in and around the village, while the soldiers themselves entered the many caves and wiped out all the rebels inside and on the mountain. By morning the mountain and the village below it were crying tears of blood. There was just so much of it, all life in the place had been snuffed out, even the animals had lost their lives, all were added to the multiple Crossworlds.
The other factions had shared a similar fate, their bases of operations, as well as their families were wiped out completely, it really was their fault for not thinking ahead, for not thinking of the future. The only rebels in the country remaining were those staying in the Sixth Base, the one that the rest of Group Six were still surrounding. When word had reached the remaining rebel faction forces, they were incensed at the slaughter of the innocent, or those that they had deemed innocent. How could anyone condone the slaughter of children as the Rosuto forces had done. They no longer cared, they continued their rebellious activities, by sneaking out after dark around the invader's encampments. They thought that they had outsmarted the invading force.
But in truth they were the ones being tricked into believing that their cause was a good one, and the way they went about doing things was the way things must go. They believed in their superiority due to the fact that they were still surviving even though many of their number had already fallen. They were overconfident, they knew not that they were the coup d' grace, the climax of the purge. They seemed to show no care for their noncombatant family and friends, therefore the Rosuto forces devised a way to have the rebellious civilians meet up with their rebel familly members meet up for one final time.
The Rosuto forces had their mage corps completely hide their presence from the rebels, which made it possibly for them to come out of their hiding place unprepared for an ambush. There were a few chakra users in the group, which had informed the rest that the only people in the field above the base, outside of the entrance of the base were infact their family members. These so called innocents had been brainwashed into believing that they had to meet up with their loved ones, thinking that they simply had to. They were made to believe that there was a threat that was going to wipe out all the rebels in one fell swoop leaving them alive, to mourn their loss, and be forced to live a life of shame thinking that they had done nothing to aid in the liberation of their country from the rule of a tyrant, and from invaders from an unknown land.
When the rebels left the safety of their underground base to meet with their family members, the Rosuto forces, some of them anyway, under the power of illusions snuck their way into the base, and positioned themselves in such a way that once the signal was given they would be able to cut the rebel factions to pieces from the inside moving out. Not all the rebels had gone out, only those that still had loved ones still left alive, these were the ones that would die within the caves that they had turned into their central base of operations.
It had been made a point that the rebel leaders' families were left unharmed, and word had been spread that they had been able to escape due to the aid of their fellow rebels. The truth of the matter was that they had been caputred and been brainwashed into believing such lies. Once all the rebel leaders, and everyone else that still had family had left the safety of their underground base, the Rosuto forces still invisible to the naked eye surrounded the rebels, there were few enough that one invader could take care of five rebels.
The officer incharge of the operation revealed himself to the rebels, appearing as if he had no weapons on his person, which was true as he did not carry even a knife to defend himself with.
"Thank you for coming to this reunion," the officer stated to the shock of the rebels that had no idea that he was there, as well as to the surprise and bewilderment of the ex-Oto-nins of the group.
"What are you doing here invader scum!?" one of the rebels shouted out.
"I'm here to send all of you to hell," the officer said.
"What can one man do against us?" one of the rebel leaders shouted.
"Plenty," the officer said, "Now say your farewells, lest you regret not doing so in the future."
Instead of listening to the officer some of the rebels took out their weapons and prepared to attack the visible officer. But once one of the rebels moved, chaos somewhat occurred, the family member of the rebel family began dying one by one, for every step that the rebels had made towards the officer, whom they assumed was doing the killing using some invisible jutsu, the killing grew in intensity. By the time that the first rebel had reached the officer, lives began waning every second, and the field was stained crimson at the number of people that were being killed. By the time that a rebel had dared to thrust his sword into the officer, that rebel was dead, speared through the chest by an invisible lancer beside the officer.
"That's that," the officer of Group six announced after the last rebel had been killed in the operation, "Time to join up with the other groups at the meeting point."
"Hai!" his subordinated responded, and they began to move out already having packed up all of their things.
When Group six started to make their move on the rebel factions, Group seven started to make their way to the meeting point, as the base that they had been assigned to had gone under self destruction after the first soldier had stepped foot inside the facility. Apparently the forces that had been camped within the seventh base were the reinforcements for the fourth base, and had left their base of operations with all their defenses and securities up and running to their full capacity recognizing the fact that it was possible that they would not be getting back to their beloved base of operations.
Groups eight and nine had not found any resistance from the bases that were assigned to them, and allowed them to go to the meeting place ahead of schedule. It also allowed them to infiltrate the village-city, to spy on the place, and find any and all that would need to be saved in case the place was pro-Orochimaru. The priorities had changed, instead of leaving it alone incase it was neutral, it was deemed as a threat due to the reports about the rebel factions. They must have been getting funding and support from somewhere, and it sure as hell wasn't the capital of the Land of Rice Fields.
The infiltrators were able to find out that the noble families of the village-city were the ones that had encounraged the formation of the rebel factions, finding that they could each be a more suitable leader as compared to their present leader which was Orochimaru. These nobles were similar to the Hyuuga and the Uchiha of Konoha, both of whom wished to rule instead of the leaders that they had sworn to serve under.
When all the groups had converged at the meeting place, there were only half of the original number that had started out to take out the nine bases of operations within the country. But due to the recruits that were picked up along the way, the Rosuto force was enough to take out an entire poorly defended hidden village. Sure it had shinobi, but the Rosuto forces had been able to deal with those before, sure it had the numbers on their side, but the Rosuto force had mages to even the odds.
Some of the invaders were made to wear disguises to allow them to infiltrate the village en-masse. Once inside they would make their way around the place positioning themselves around the inner side of the massive wall that defended the village. When they were all in they would each radio in that they were in position and wait for the signal to commence the actual operation.
Some of the other soldiers were made to travel through the sewers, without the aid of their daimyou, they were unable to pin point the locations of the people that were deemed salvageable, but they would be doing something else instead. They had somehow procured the schematics of the hidden village, as well as a list of addresses of the people that would be saved from the massacre that would occurr overnight. The ones travelling through the sewers would be laying all the transport seals beneath the areas that held these people, those others that were sucked in by the technique would just be considered as lucky, and the Shokon members in the shadows over where Mikio was would deal with any unwated people that accidentally were transported.
Other soldiers were deployed and ordered to make their way a few meters away from outside of the hidden village, their task was to jump right into the hidden village, and kill as many people as they possibly could in the shortest amount of time, not literally jump in, as the wall would come tumbling down by the time they made their move. The rest of the soldiers were ordered to wait some meters beyond the gates into the vilage.
The mages were told to keep watch over the village, literally over, they rode on the rocs and kept literal watch over the village. They would also provide aerial support for the ground forces, and would be the ones in charge of causing fire to rain down from the heavens, which would then cause the hidden village to run gold with fire.
The shinobi recruits as well as the experimented people that were recruited were also given a task, one that would make great use of their speed. They were tasked with getting out all the information, knowledge, and whatnot that the hidden village held, with it was anything that would be of value to Orochimaru that they could find. They were also tasked with rescuing any and all Rosuto forces that were trapped within the flames. A risky business, but somebody had to do it.
The Rosuto forces hadn't expected one of their Commanders to be present for the operation. But Tokage Yoshiko had made it a point to be where she needed to be, with her troops. It was quite a boost of morale when she arrived on a horse of all things, clad in full body armor, the kind that allowed her to move as gracefully as any kunoichi. She had been hardened by battles during her youth, but at the same time, she knew how to play her part well, during war.
She insisted on being the one to signal for the start of the destruction of the last remaining threat to the invasion force, Orochimaru not being quite that much of a threat, as he had been wearing himself out in the south, on the border between Rice Field and Fire. Somehow the Rosuto officers had managed to convince the nobles of the hidden village to meet with one of their officers in private, and speak about possibly a possible truce, something that they were sure the current leader of Rice Field would not have thought of, not that the man ever really thought of the good of the people, his people.
Yoshiko had been escorted into a private meeting room where all the heads of the noble families of Rice Field, all the heads of the nobility of the country, and not just of the hidden village. Negotiations began in earnest, all of the heads trying their damnedest to milk the negotiations for all it was worth. They were protected from the outside by several seals, held by their ANBU defenders within the room, they were also defended by a sound barrier that allowed no sound to get in or out of the room. Therefore these heads of clans were unaware that as soon as the doors to the room were locked, the inading force began their operation. The closing of the doors by none other than Yoshiko herself was the signal to begin the attack, and promised massacre of Otogakure no Sato, the Hidden Village in the Sound.
As the walls of the hidden village came tumbling down, the transportation seals were activated, and the shinobi and regular soldiers began tumbling into the village, the shinobi running in and out with as much information and materials and supplies as they could seal and thus carry, while the soldiers went about killing any and all that were not one of them.
There were a number of archers mounted on the rocs above the hidden village that had taken a liking to sniping the citizens from such a great height, they were aided by the mages with them. The mages allowing them to have the sight of a bird of prey, and they also helped by having the winds not become obstacles of the arrows flight path wise.
Men, women, and children, shinobi, and regular soldiers alike, all of them were no match for the Rosuto forces that stormed through what was left of the gates. The people that had decided to use the underground escape routes were also no match for the soldiers and some shinobi that had decided to wait in the escape tunnels underneath the hidden village in case the people would do as they did, which was to escape the attack. But unfortunately they would be allowed to escape, just not with their lives intact, their bodies, lifeless bodies that is, would be allowed to escape due to the flushing of the sewers and the undergrond tunnels that had been planned to be done in order to make sure that no one really escaped with their lives.
When the invading soldiers could no longer take the strain of attacking constantly, the officers gave the order to withdraw, which also coincided with Yoshiko's decision to leave the hidden village, the room which help the negotiation for the truce treaty having been painted crimson with the blood of the other participants and their guards. She left the hidden village via teleportation seal, and ended up back in the camp that her mother was still resting in.
Once she arrived there, she had one of the communications people, contact the officer incharge of the running of the actual operation, informing him of her safe escape, and that they could proceed with fire bombing the hidden village, and turning it into a black spot on the world's surface.
It was a week after the hidden village had been decimated that the Rosuto Rice Field Invasion force had finally reached the border between Rice Field and Fire. Tsukiko was back to full health, as was her daughter, and the only remaining problem was Orochimaru, and his remaining jounin and up forces. But they decided to allow him to battle with the Fire defenders for a bit longer, to allow the invaders some much needed rest. Such actions gave Orochimaru the impression that the Rosuto commanders thought of his performance as acceptable, and that he would be able to temporarily ally his self with them, which would also allow him to gain some of their secrets.
"He thinks that just because we are not attacking him as well that he has gained our respect," Tsukiko said.
"Well, at least it makes him think that we will not be attacking him any time soon," Yoshiko said.
"But we will have to speak with him sometime," Tsukiko said.
"Will we be killing him then?" Yoshiko asked.
"Certainly," Tsukiko answered, "He has committed enough crimes to warrant such a death, a death by our hands."
"That and Otou-sama really does dislike him," Yoshiko said, then asked, "But what of the Uchiha?"
"I kill the hebi sennin, while you take care of that insect," Tsukiko said, not a bit of her liked the Uchiha all that much, "I want him to be but a stain on the ground."
"If you say so, Okaa-sama."