Chapter 3: First step to survival

At 19 years old, when I was eating next to my comrades, I realized I spent more than half of my life surrounded by blood, death and more. "Yasu, pass me the fish, would you?" I nodded, passing him the dead, fried fish we caught not too long ago. Surrounded by my 9 members, I briefly thought back of my life… my old one.

I never got to know how I really was. I just knew I was reborn, I knew my morals, and I somehow knew the future. Because of my adult brain, I could comprehend things faster and because of that, I became the trump card of my clan. "Gee- Omo! Stop, you're fat enough as it is!" Complained another member of my squad. I sighed softly, my thoughts now drifted away and I looked my squad members.

Eight of them were older than me and one is two years younger than me. The only reason why one is younger is because he's a medical nin and he's useful. "What the- fat, look at yourself!" Responded Daru. Omo and Daru were constantly bickering, making their potential love for each other so obvious that the whole squad was seriously organizing a marriage for them behind their backs.

I also realized that everyone in my clan had short names. And we didn't really use suffixes. As long as you were close or are directly related to the leader, no suffixes needed. Even if you're the leader of the squad. "Um- leader, do you want some fish? You haven't taken one yet," the 17 years old boy, Juno. Except him, he was shy and so gave the appropriate titles. Even if I told him I really didn't want him to do that.

"No thanks, I'm fine. Eat." I needed my squad at its maximum, I wouldn't allow them to fail because they didn't eat. "You too Yasu! Eat, my god. You're still a child," there was Daru again. I shot him a look to which he just waved off. "You're too serious. Don't think we don't know about how you glared at everyone when you were born," yeah, everyone knew each other a bit too much. I blame the gossips on Mimi. I groaned softly. We were in the middle of a blood battlefield, but it could have been worse.

x

We had been scouting the area, having heard of rumors about strong foes lurking around. A week later, I sensed one of the big four. Possibly the biggest of them all: Uchiha Madara.

We knew some forces were pushing on our territory, and we know it would be the Uchiha. But we didn't know it would be Madara himself that would be taking care of it. Last time we heard, he was somewhere completely different, fighting the Senju.

This is when I knew, this is when the Kireha would have been massacred.

This is where, I made the true difference.

I could sense his chakra miles away. His dark chakra, bloody red. Easily consumed by darkness, but there is a small light. But it's not big enough to help me in battle. I immediately told my squad to stop. "Uchiha Madara and a team of 30, definitely coming our direction to destroy Kireha." I closed my eyes in focus, trying to interpret my data as accurately as possible. The moment I was waiting for. I could feel the atmosphere darken.

I stood up and looked back at my team. "Omo, you are the fastest here. Call in for backup, half of the units at least. If we cannot hold the Uchihas back, we can do one of two things. Fight or evacuate. And we cannot hide, obviously." Their sharingan was terrifying indeed. "So basically Omo, this is plan Y. Tell it to leader-sama."

"Understood." And with that, he was gone. I faced Rane and Toko and passed them 10 seals each. "We sacrificed 13 soldiers for these, activate when deemed worthy or for the signal. Disperse." They both ran opposite direction, preparing the seals. Our tactics unit were killed when we stole seals scrolls from the Uzumaki. Only two came back alive and now one remains alive. Hopefully, the barrier is sufficient to hold the Uchihas back.

The only reason I can think as to why the Uchihas want to fight us now is because our plan failed. We tried to sneak into their base to steal their weapons. It worked, but some of the chakra remained and now this is what brought us. Thankfully, we now had more weapons and knew the plans of the Uchiha. I felt a small smirk crawl up my lips, if anything, we were the real ninjas here.

"At their pace, they should arrive in one hour or more. The first backup should be back in 50 minutes, the second in 1 and half hours and third in 2 hours." I inform the group as I touched the ground. I didn't really need to touch the ground, but Tobirama's stance from the manga made it a habit. Tobirama… I sighed, I shook my head. This is not a fictional world, this is real.

"Polish your blades comrades, it may be the last time you do so." I mumbled, sitting down.

x

Once the backup arrived 48 minutes after I sent Omo, I sent two of them to help the ones with the seals. I stood up. "Daru, Fo, you are to stay with me, we are going to battle now." I stood up and looked at my squad. 50 people, 10 would stay behind so 40 with me.

I don't have a choice but to face Madara by myself. They have back-up for sure, I can sense it. I patted my pouch and then crossed my arms.

"Avoid their eyes at full cost." A few scoffed at me. I didn't know how to make good speeches, everyone knew that.

"Look comrades, we know full well this is not an easy battle. In fact, it will be the hardest one you fill fight in, no doubt. You may die," I looked over all of them. "But stop being selfish assholes and think of Kireha. You're not doing this for you, you're doing this for who you have at Kireha. I'm fighting for Shouta, and then for me at the end. You're doing this for the generations to come, when war has ended and some sort of peace has been established. We are doing this for the future, to conquer the present and to learn from the past. Please, lend everyone your forces and let us fight once more."

The atmosphere cleared up a bit.

"Look at that, Yasu is getting better at speeches," one of them called out.

I stayed quiet and closed my eyes, but couldn't hold back the twitch of a smirk. If it helps the mood, I won't say anything.

x

We ran in the battle field. I could see the glow of red… and Madara in the middle. I breathed in the foul air. This will not be a pleasant fight. The moment we both say each other, we disappeared… and clashed blades. I smirked as I came face to face with him. I could tell his smirk disappeared when I had my eyes closed. "Finally a pleasure to meet you, Uchiha," I said, mockingly elegant. He didn't respond and jumped away while clashing his gunbai with my tanto[1]. The good thing with my sensing is that, I can see from inside your body what sort of technique you'll be preparing. Like here… preparing a grand fireball jutsu, huh?

I immediately coated my tanto's with chakra and ran towards him. Suddenly the fireball came hurling towards me, to which I sped to the right, went behind Madara and went to slice. To which he blocked with his dunbai. "Blind Seeker," he spat. So he has heard of my nickname. "Bloody murderer," I smiled back. I suddenly realized how similar "Madara" and "murderer" sounded.

Within 5 minutes of exchanging hits, I came out with a bloody cheek, cut sides and a bleeding knee. He just has some bruise on his forehead. That was his fault for being an idiot. I sensed Madara's men closing in the forest. The gate, now.

Forming the handseals quickly, I slammed my hands on the ground creating a huge spike of chakra that everyone within the radius, probably also my clan, felt. A second later, the barriers came up. Madara glanced at it. He looked back down at me, "You think you will slow us down?!" he snarled. I looked up and grinned. "What do you think I'm doing, pal?"

Both of our sides were decreasing. And fast. Backups came and the barrier was weakening. I also felt the chakra of Madara's men decreasing and I couldn't ignore all the bodies surrounding us. The field has been stained with the awful red color. I panted slowly and I slid back, going to my knee. Madara was more elegant and just leaned on his gunbai. I'm glad all my training paid off. Even though I am still weaker than Madara. If it weren't for the seals I made before to heal me, I would have been dead a long time ago.

I thought lots of times about retreating. But they were too close. I can sense Shouta lying in hospital, right now, within the clan boundaries. If we retreat, they would follow and kill us all.

Fuck, where are the Senju when you need them?!

"You lose," I hear Madara say. I huffed, pulling myself on my feet. Madara, what a terrifying person. "Not yet, not yet…" I say, getting in stance. I was about to bolt towards him, but suddenly Madara halted and looked at the sky. An eagle. I stayed still, waiting for movement. Suddenly growled and I could feel him glare at me, "You wrench." And with that… the Uchiha's… they retreated.

They all retreated.

Madara retreated.

.

..

I called everyone back 15 minutes after they all left. I stayed with 10 shinobi as an in case with the barriers still up.

We won the battle.

x

Unfortunately, it was just one battle. And I knew a lot more would come, and that fields will be stained with red again.

[1] a tanto. It's like a katana, but smaller and you can use one hand. Example, Kakashi had one from Naruto Gaiden and I'm pretty sure Sasuke has some in shippuden and Boruto.

And that is it for chapter 3!

I was going to do another big time skip for next chapter, but I thought that would be too much so I'm gonna write a little something.

So, Yasu finally met Madara, hm? Won't be the last time, especially since she's pissed him off. In case you're confused, let me clear some stuff up: this is the moment that changed the canon Naruto. In the canon Naruto, the Kireha clan should have been killed off by Madara right then. But because of Yasu, he's been held back and thus the Uchiha did not manage to massacre the clan. Hence, the Kireha clan is alive! yay

20 - April - 2018

Tsuki