Disclaimer: MacDutton does not own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Land of Frost, Six years after the start of the Fourth Shinobi World War
A figure slowly prowled through the moonlit ruins of a small village, surveying the carnage. Moving silently, the figure stopped now and again to examine one of the dozens of bodies littering the area, their blood dying the ground.
Suddenly, one of the prone shapes shifted and the prowling figure was upon it, one clawed paw reaching for its throat, tearing through the carotid artery and severing the jugular vein for good measure.
"That was the last one, I see no more chakra signatures." The voice came quietly into her ear via the radio transmitter. "Return to camp. Fukuro, out."
Looking around, the figure quietly replied, "Tora acknowledging. Out." With this, the figure melted into the shadows.
Appearing at the edge of the forward camp, the figure stepped into the ring of protective traps, expertly manoeuvring through the single safe path. Once past this cordon, the figure nodded to where the guards were before stepping into the cave complex that had been home to the figure for almost three months. Stepping into the light, it became glaringly obvious the figure was female.
She was wearing black pants, tied with dark orange wraps below the knee, a black vest with no back and a deep V down the front, revealing impressive cleavage. Concealing her face was a porcelain tiger mask with markings on the left hand side. The most interesting features however, were the paws where her feet should be, as well as her left arm, which appeared to be that of a tiger. Completing the intimidating appearance was a long ponytail of bright orange hair, tinged with scarlet at the tips.
Looking to the other occupants of the carefully constructed bunker, she nodded, the most formal acknowledgement of a superior rank that was permissible in a warzone. "All contacts have been neutralised," she reported, the mask muffling her voice slightly.
"Good work Tora, we'll get a cleanup team sent in, see if we can salvage anything." At this point, the base commander was interrupted by the arrival of two more masked women. "Good, you're here. Reports?"
"Initial contacts and first wave reinforcements neutralised. Chakra capacities would suggest low to high Chuunin level, interspersed with small numbers of Genin level." The report from the Owl masked woman was carefully formal, devoid of emotion and excess words. The commander looked to the final masked woman, who had the appearance of a Crow.
"Went as planned, minimal snags." The report was delivered with the typical minimum of effort they had all come to expect of Karasu.
"Fuck you're a lazy bitch." Tora's reprimand was met with a blank stare. "Wow. Even a comeback is too much effort. That right there, that's dedication."
The commander coughed to get their attention. "If you're done, orders came through. You're to return to Konoha to be reassigned. Get some sleep and set out tomorrow. Dismissed."
"It's been a pleasure working with you sir," Tora told him sweetly, earning herself a long suffering look.
"I hate you three."
With that, the three women left for the side room they had claimed as their own. Sitting down in a triangle, they all removed their masks. Time had changed the once innocent looking girls into kunoichi.
"Damn we've been here a long time. Is there any water?" Torahime asked her friends and teammates.
After passing the orange haired beauty the bucket of water, Keiko spoke up while Torahime began to clean the blood from her hair. "So we're being recalled. Do you think this means we will be taken off rotation for a time to rest? Or will it be a specialised mission?"
"Mission probably. We had a fortnight off before we came here, and it's been fairly quiet for the last month," Shikaga told her. "We're too valuable to be allowed time off. I'd guess they're going to use us to start some troublesome offensive somewhere."
"Well doesn't that just sound fun," Torahime put in with a scowl. Touching her wrists, she activated the seals that held her meteor hammer, unsealing it and placing it on the floor next to her. She also removed the two chain whips from around her waist, placing them next to the meteor. Loosening the wraps around her legs and waist, she lay back. "We should try to get some sleep. It's going to be a long couple of days back to Konoha." Following her lead, Keiko and Shikaga set out their weapons within easy reach, Keiko unsealing her bow and arrows. They drifted off into a light sleep, years in the field having ingrained the need to be ready at all times.
Northern Hi no Kuni, 2 days later
"Hold. 25°, 400m." The instruction and bearing came from Keiko who was periodically scanning for threats. "Appear to be Taki- and Kusa-nin, 8 bodies, appear to be two Chuunin and five Genin led by a Jonin."
"Acknowledged. Moving to intercept, Karasu, get ahead and lay traps. Fukuro, you're on watch and snipe. First target is Jonin. Tora, out."
"Acknowledged. Out." The twin replies rang back into Torahime's earpiece.
Moving quickly, Torahime got ahead of the enemies' path and melted quietly into the shadows, waiting for her moment to strike. She carefully loosened the twin chain whips that were here trademark, settling into a coiled position, the chained weapons laid carefully behind her.
As the enemy formation approached, led by a Chuunin, the Jonin lagging slightly behind, she relaxed further, allowing her body to coil up tighter before springing. Rocketing forward, her leap powered only by her muscles to avoid alerting the Jonin with a chakra spike, she whipped her arms forward, firing the weighted chains she held towards the Jonin, the right one entering his abdomen and punching through his kidney, the left stabbing him in the neck. An instant later, a chakra charged arrow drilled through his left shoulder, ploughing down and through his heart. As his body began to fall, the chains were withdrawn before licking out to penetrate the throat and sternum of the lead Chuunin, while another arrow appeared to explode through the neck of the Chuunin guarding the rear.
Both victims were killed almost instantly by the massive traumas as the masked, shadowy figure wielding the chains flickered away out of sight. Terrified, the five Genin were looking around, waiting to see if they'd die too. One threw a handful of kunai at a bush that rustled, his fear overtaking him.
"Come out! Show yourselves, we're not scared of you!" one of them screamed.
"That cold sweat and rapid heartbeat would say different," the soft words were whispered into his ear, causing him to whirl round and stab at the empty air behind him. The young ninja were getting extremely scared now. They'd only been moving to a new staging post, why'd this have to happen to them?
"SHOW YOURSELF YOU COWARDS!"
"That would be particularly stupid for a ninja to do, don't you think? Honestly, what do they teach you kids these days?" The derisive female voice echoed around them, heightening their fear. At this point, they were virtually foaming at the mouth in terror. "A word of advice. You should pay more attention to where you're standing."
Looking down, they all realised they were stood on top of multiple explosive tags and… a sealing scroll. A light puff of smoke revealed a small pile of explosives. An instant later, a tagged kunai hit one of the sealing tags causing it to explode, the chain reaction killing all the remaining Genin.
Dropping from the trees nearby, Torahime and Shikaga checked that all the combatants were dead before stripping their hitai-ate from them as proof of kills. After this quick job, they checked the Jonin and Chuunin corpses for any intelligence that could prove useful, things like orders or maps. All they found was a small scroll with a simplified map marked with a cross and some coordinates. Stripping the bodies of any useful equipment they quickly moved on, Keiko returning to the formation once they were clear, sealing her bow as she went.
"Karasu, anything from that map?" Torahime murmured into her mouthpiece.
"Not much, I'd guess it's a staging post since the marked point appears to be some bluffs a day's travel South. Large rock formations in this area often have cave systems, making them good hiding places," the young woman replied precisely.
"Then we'll have to speed up and report this quicker. Timescale is now 36 hours, we'll run through the night. Tora, out."
Konoha, Hokage's Office
"Welcome back." The Hokage addressed the gathered ANBU, looking at the masked figures populating his office. "You've all been out on missions for a while, so you're probably expecting an R&R rotation. Sorry to disappoint you," he said looking shamefaced, "but you're too important right now."
Moving to his map table, Minato unrolled a large map of the Elemental Nations. Pointing to the map he told his audience, "This war is bleeding us dry. We simply can't keep going like this." He looked around, grimacing. "We're losing our forces to injury and death faster than we can bring them up. The stalemate needs to be broken." Minato indicated three places on the map, "Iwagakure no Sato and Kumogakure no Sato. The two major players left opposing us. Kiri has ceased to be a notable entity in the war, since they've let themselves dissolve into a civil war. We'll be dealing with them later, but right now we have bigger problems." He returned to his seat, letting his head fall into his hands, speaking quietly.
"You are my Black Guard. You are the best ANBU has to offer at what you do." He looked up, his eyes burning. "And now you are going to prove it. I will be taking teams 2 and 3 to Iwa, along with three Jonin heavy combat units and another three ANBU squads. We will be rendezvousing with a contingent from Suna at the border. Together, we will break them." He turned to the tiger masked kunoichi who was sat lazily on one of his tables. "Tora, your team will be leading the attack on Kumo. Distribution of troops is at your discretion." He turned back to address the room as a whole. "We move out at dusk tomorrow. Gather your forces, prepare yourselves. I won't be accepting a long drawn out offensive. This will be over in two weeks, one way or another. Go."
The gathered ANBU vanished from the room, all but three, the leaders of ANBU teams 1, 2 and 3. Minato stared at them. "What are you still doing here?" he asked.
"Hokage-sama, please specify the force you will require." Itachi blandly asked for instructions.
"Heavy."
"Hai, Hokage-sama." The man said quietly before vanishing.
Minato looked to the two who remained, the silver haired Inu and the orange haired Tora. The two ANBU captains glanced at each other before Tora gestured for Inu to speak first. Obliging, the silver haired ninja lazily drawled, "Sensei, I wanted to point out that if you take those forces with you, there aren't enough high level shinobi to take on Kumo." The dog masked ANBU looked hard at the older man, wondering what his plan really was. Obviously he realised that his distribution of forces was folly. Didn't he?
Minato looked at his old student with a blank stare for a few seconds before he started laughing. Finally he choked out, "Seriously? You think I've cracked don't you?"
"This isn't exactly helping that assumption sensei."
"Ahah, yeah, sorry. It's just that you're forgetting something very important. Something people have come to fear almost as much as death itself."
"And that would be?"
"Uzu." The single word uttered by the other ANBU in the room caused Kakashi to shiver in fear. How the hell could he have forgotten them?
"You're sending Uzu-nin there? They'll burn the village to the ground. They'll destroy the country!" He shouted at his sensei.
"Yes." The Hokage's eyes were cold. "I'm counting on it. Tora, care to give me a rundown of your planned force?"
"Sure. At first guess, I'll be taking ten units of Uzumaki, five each of Uzuki and Namikaze. I'd give you a guess on Kazama, but you know that they'll pretty much all want to go. Do you want a couple of cells from my clan? I'm sure they'd love a chance at Iwa too." She almost purred the last sentence.
"Would you spare me two Jinchuuriki? The extra firepower would be rather helpful."
By this point Kakashi was almost faint with terror. The idea of Uzu going to war again was almost inconceivable. It was tantamount to crimes against humanity. His one ray of light was that he wouldn't be going with them. Then he realised. The Hokage was bringing two Jinchuuriki with them. At this point he simply started whimpering in fear.
The two Uzu-nin in the room simply looked at him as he whispered, "T-t-t-two?"
"I think you broke him. Well done," Torahime grinned, pulling her mask off and earning herself a look of disapproval. She was, after all, still on duty.
"Go start your preparations. And I expect success if you're taking that many. Just try to keep them from destroying everything between here and Rai no Kuni. I just don't have the time to deal with another Uzu rampage inside our borders."
"Will do Minnie-chan!" she cried happily before jumping out of the window.
Minato simply rested his head in his hands. "Kakashi," he said, causing his student to look up from his whimpering and rocking. "I think we need a drink."
A/N: Okay, so it's been a while, but I finally found a little inspiration. So here's another offering of inane blather. If you notice any issues, inconsistencies, spelling, grammar or syntax errors, drop me a line.
Otherwise, any and all feedback on the story itself is greatly appreciated.