We were on border duty again. With the more experienced ANBU teams and Konoha's regular forces all sent north, it was up to the relatively few ANBU teams left to protect our western border. We didn't know how many nin Kumo had mustered in Kusa yet, and we were hoping to take some of them alive so we could figure out how many of them there were.
'Still clear.' Owl sent us all with Telepathy.
'Proceed north. Tiger, Badger, on point.' Eagle ordered.
Tiger and I slipped to the front of the group and led the way along the Land of Fire's border at a modest pace. We wanted to cover as much ground as we could, but we also didn't want to miss anything.
We'd been traveling for less than an hour when, simultaneously, we all whipped our heads towards the south. We all felt the massive chakra flare that was sent up. The flare pulsed out a Konoha ANBU code. The sender had made contact with the enemy; they were calling for help.
'Tiger, Badger, on point. Owl, keep watch for an ambush.' Eagle ordered. We all ran towards the flare as fast as we could.
As one, we exploded into an open field. We were clearly in the right place. Fire, water, dirt and lightning danced across the field. Craters decorated the ground. Deadly sharp metal in the form of kunai and shuriken zipped through the air. Five Konoha ANBU were desperately trying to hold their formation while being assaulted by three times their number. The enemy were using lightning and earth jutsu to try to split them up, but they had succeeded in staying together. It had cost them. Jaguar was leaking blood from a gash that tore through his ANBU jacket. Wolf had a hand coated in green energy pressed tight against the side of her neck to hold back a river's worth of blood. The Konoha nin had injured among them. If we'd arrived here any later, we might have been too late.
'Tiger, Owl, Badger, engage enemy. Bear, Ox, lay traps and protections.' Eagle sent us all with Telepathy as we emerged onto the battlefield.
Tiger's limbs grew large as we closed in on the unprotected back of a Kumo nin that was striking towards Wolf with a katana. Tiger slammed his fist down into the Kumo nin's back, forcing him into the ground. I heard a loud snap come from the Kumo nin's back, but I had other things to worry about.
My shadow armor slithered up my body as the Kumo nin around us realized Konoha reinforcements had arrived and began to throw projectiles at us. Shadow tendrils grew out of my armor at my sides, deflecting as many projectiles as I could, creating a wall of darkness between Falcon's ANBU team and the Kumo nin. Every time there was a break in the projectiles, I popped a storage seal and threw back my own volley, using False Barrage to try to take down as many opponents as possible.
My genjutsu worked for my first two volleys, cumulatively taking down four nin who had chosen to block my kunai and senbon rather than dodge as their allies had. When they went to deflect my projectiles, their kunai passed through fake images, allowing the real, obscured projectiles to take them down.
Tiger and Owl made use of the chaos I created to charge into the Kumo nin's formation, protecting each other's backs as they waded into enemy lines. Tiger slammed and rolled into the nin around him, using his enhanced mass to cause debilitating injuries and create as much destruction as possible. In contrast to Tiger's wanton destruction, Owl struck like a scalpel, weaving around Tiger to lash out with open-handed strikes that compromised her opponent's ability to use ninjutsu. Two nin fell to her well-timed chidori as she used openings created by Tiger's thrashing to single out two of the Kumo nin.
Two members of Falcon's team – Crane and Scorpion – followed Owl and Tiger into the Kumo nin, capitalizing on the opening they provided to gain ground and cover their backs.
"Raiton: False Darkness!" a Kumo nin who'd weaved around my allies called, looking past me at Wolf and Jaguar who were both struggling to stand.
Two thin tendrils of shadow shot out my back to capture Wolf and Jaguar. I forced them to leap away as a lightning jutsu tore through the air into the center of the rough perimeter Bear and Ox had created with their traps and seals.
Wolf and Jaguar fell to the ground as I released my control of them. They were out of the jutsu's kill zone, and I needed to deal with the enemy.
The Kumo nin saw me focused on him and turned to run. I used Transport Via Shadows to skirt underneath him through the shadows cast by the grass and emerge in front of him. His eyes widened when I suddenly appeared in his path and he lashed out towards me with a kunai. The kunai was stopped dead in its tracks by my shadow armor, and the Kumo nin found himself trapped.
'Do not eliminate!' Eagle's voice screamed through Telepathy as I went to finish the Kumo nin. 'Bear, Ox, secure prisoner. Badger, Wolf and Jaguar need medical attention.'
Bear and Ox appeared right next to me. Bear began winding ninja wire around the trapped Kumo nin while Ox slapped suppression seals all over his body.
Content that the two of them had the prisoner taken care of, I released him from shadow possession and flickered back to where Wolf and Jaguar still lay on the ground. They still hadn't risen from where I'd dropped them after forcing them to dodge the lightning jutsu. Looking them over, it was clear that Wolf was in the most danger. Her carotid artery had been cut. She'd be dead in less than a minute. In contrast, Jaguar had a few minutes before the gash in his stomach caused him to bleed out.
I knelt over Wolf and jammed my hands onto her throat, applying as much pressure as I safely could while saturating her with the Mystic Palm Technique.
"Enemy is withdrawing." Falcon said, kneeling next to Eagle as she watched me work. "How long until they can be moved?"
"Three minutes for Wolf. Cauterize Jaguar's gash closed and he can be moved. I'll work on him once we are safely away." I answered. It wasn't exactly ideal not to treat Jaguar here, but he would live. The Kumo nin knew where we were and would likely return soon with reinforcements. We needed to leave as soon as possible.
The rest of my team flickered in around me with the remainder of Falcon's team following a moment later after they sealed the bodies of the Kumo nin that fell.
"Set the prisoner down." Eagle ordered, looking at the immobilized bundle Tiger was carrying over his shoulder. Tiger dropped the captured Kumo nin and Eagle placed a hand on his forehead.
"Carry me if I'm away too long." Eagle ordered. Her muscles went slack as she dove into the Kumo nin's head, likely trying to learn everything he knew about Kumo's troops in the area.
Everyone sat in tense silence, eyes peeled on our surroundings as I worked on keeping Wolf alive and Eagle rifled through the captured nin's head for information. Falcon bent down over Jaguar and his hand lit up with a fire transformation. He scored Jaguar's wound closed, causing Jaguar to cry out in pain before passing out again.
Eagle finished before I did, coming back to her body and staggering for a moment.
"What did you learn?" Falcon asked.
Eagle responded with Telepathy. 'I have the location of their forward operating base, but it is likely to move soon. We do not have the numbers to take the post. We need to regroup with command and send teams to eliminate it.'
Falcon nodded. "Badger, how long until Wolf can be moved?"
"One minute."
"Can she be carried if you keep healing her?" Eagle asked.
I nodded.
"Tiger, carry Wolf and Badger." Eagle ordered. "We move out now."
I felt Tiger's arms scoop Wolf and I up and soon we were moving at speed back towards the staging area ANBU had set up near the Land of Fire's border with Kusa. It was a little awkward to heal while being carried on top of your patient, but I made it work. I finished my work after a little over a minute then hopped out of Tiger's arms to run on my own. Wolf would live. She needed to get back to a dedicated medical facility, but she was stable enough to make the trip now.
After a tense trip, our two ANBU teams emerged from the trees right in front of the border post ANBU had taken over for the operation to clear Kusa of Kumo nin. Eagle and Falcon ran off as soon as we arrived to strategize and share information with the leaders of the post while Tiger and I took Wolf and Jaguar to the on-site medical facilities.
There wasn't anything else for me to do while waiting for orders from Eagle, so I helped the med-nin with their more serious cases. Surprisingly, Wolf wasn't the most in risk of dying. Her carotid artery was cut, but an ANBU in a Bull mask had been hit with some kind of acid that melted his flesh into his internal organs. It was not a pretty sight.
"Badger," Eagle called from the door.
I wiped my hands on a rag and nodded in parting to the other med nin as I rejoined my captain.
"Mission?" I said.
"We hold for now." Eagle said. "There is a Kusa delegation on the way. We need to meet with them before we coordinate a full-scale strike within their borders. We sent out scouting teams to monitor the positions I pulled from the captive's mind, but they didn't have the numbers to take the posts."
"Understood." I said following her back outside where my team was gathered up on the wall. It seemed we would be on watch until the situation changed.
