The trip to the village took less than an hour, and that was moving slowly so we wouldn't be detected. It wasn't very far into the Land of Lightning, nor was it very large. It was a small farming settlement. There were rice fields surrounding the few buildings where all of the activity was.

I frowned beneath my mask when I saw the frenzy of activity in the village from where we watched behind a grove of trees.

There were civilians and shinobi alike rushing between the buildings, carrying crates.

'They know of Konoha's attack. Transporting crates with weapons and food to other posts.' Owl reported. She must have been reading their lips with her byakugan.

'Supplies cannot reach other posts. Attack.' Fox commanded.

'Recommend we scout first.' I sent immediately following his order.

Fox turned to glare at me from behind his mask. 'No time.'

'Civilian presence.' I sent.

'Aiding Kumo's defense. Eliminate. On me.' He flickered forward. The rest of us had little choice but to follow him. Once he was revealed, the rest of the nin would know we were here and we would lose the element of surprise. We had to attack together or not at all.

I didn't know what Fox's deal was, but I was beginning to severely dislike the man. Moving in on an unknown village in enemy territory during wartime with no reconnaissance was beyond stupid. Factor in the discovery that we knew they were hiding weapons here, and the risk magnified threefold. That wasn't even mentioning the casual order to 'eliminate' the civilians. Wasn't Konoha supposed to be better than that? I was not going to kill non-combatants.

'Watch for traps and ambush. Prioritize nin.' I sent exclusively to Owl. I needed to know she was being vigilant in order to banish my doubts about us being trapped during this attack.

'Hai.' she sent back in confirmation.

I felt a chakra flare go up, then another, then a dozen as the Kumo nin realized they were under attack. The Kumo nin began shouting out orders and jutsu as they saw us coming.

Sickle and Senbon were the first teams to enter the village, tearing their way through the nin on site with ease. They were likely genin or fresh chunin. We needed to finish up here before the actual reinforcements arrived.

Fist and Kunai followed behind the first two teams. Using some voice samples I made out through the shouting, I targeted every civilian I could see or feel with my shadows with Telepathy, using the Kumo nin's voices to order them to flee with all haste. The nin were already preparing for our arrival. They knew we were coming. I would not let myself be partial to the slaughter of civilians, especially when their deaths would accomplish nothing.

'Stay together. Do not hunt stragglers. On me.' Eagle sent to our team. She led the way to a large barn and kicked the door open. Inside, four nin were hurriedly storing crates into seals. Three of them moved to engage us when we appeared with the fourth turning to flee.

I stepped into the shadow cast by the barn's roof and immediately trapped all four of them in my shadows. Immobilized, the nin couldn't resist as my team finished them off.

'Capture or destroy supplies?' Tiger sent.

'Capture.' Eagle ordered.

Bear and Ox retrieved the seals the nin were trying to escape with and we darted out of the barn.

Teams Kunai, Senbon and Sickle had not been idle. Buildings were burning and most of the Kumo nin were dead. I scowled under my mask as I saw the bodies beneath Sickle. Clearly, I hadn't done enough. I could feel most of the civilians fleeing the village, but Sickle had taken out five of them before they could run. I didn't have the best read on my companions due to the masks we were all wearing, but none of them but me seemed overly bothered with the death. This world was screwed up.

'Two nin escaped. Fled north.' Fox sent us.

I forced away my feelings about the civilians. Now wasn't the time. I was deep behind enemy lines and needed to flee.

'Reinforcements incoming. Meeting up with escaped nin. Nine-hundred meters north and closing. Recommend we move south and regroup with allies.' Misaki sent everyone with Telepathy. Nine-hundred? I didn't know her range had increased that far.

'Number of reinforcements?' Fox sent.

'Four. Potentially more following outside my range.'

'Engage and eliminate reinforcements.' Fox ordered, flickering away with his team.

I looked at Eagle but, once more, couldn't decipher her expression behind her mask.

'Tiger, Owl, Badger, on point. Ox, Bear, support. Proceed with caution.' Eagle ordered. We flickered after Team Sickle.

Team Sickle were the first to reach the enemy. Each of the four Kumo nin was wearing an ANBU mask and Kumogakure ANBU gear. These weren't the genin and chunin we'd faced thus far.

Still, they were hopelessly outnumbered.

They engaged Team Sickle at close range, dueling with blades for a bit and tossing kunai before they realized there were more of us. Immediately, they turned and fled.

'Pursue and eliminate.' Fox commanded.

'They're leading us deeper into their territory. We have not scouted territory. Recommend falling back to regroup with Konoha forces.' I sent to everyone. We were already deeper into the Land of Lightning than our reinforcements since we went after the village rather than the posts we had planned to attack. Moving deeper into enemy territory would only succeed in further distancing us from our allies and surrounding us in enemy nin.

'Will turn back after one kilometer. Eliminate before then.' Fox sent. He and his team had already flickered after the Kumo ANBU.

'Tiger, badger, on point. Stay together.' Eagle sent our team.

I grit my teeth as we took off after Team Sickle. Team Senbon and Team Kunai stuck close to us with Sickle a short distance in the lead. I was really starting to not like Fox. It seemed like the man was determined to get himself, his team, all of us killed.

'One kilometer reached. Fox, let them go and turn back now.' Falcon sent through Telepathy once we reached the kilometer mark.

'Gaining ground. Continue pursuit.' Fox sent back.

'They're luring you in, you fucking idiot! Turn back before they pull us into an ambush!' I sent to Fox exclusively. ANBU regulations for use of Telepathy in the field were very strict. You were supposed to send as brief a message as you could while still being detailed. My most recent message was well outside of ANBU regulations, but I needed to stress how stupid Fox was being. That, and I realized I hadn't quite managed to put off being pissed at him until later.

There was a beat of silence.

'All teams break off pursuit. Retreat to border and regroup.' Fox sent. He did not sound pleased, but I would rather he be pissed off then get me and my team killed.

We all stopped. Fist, Kunai and Senbon waited a moment for Sickle to regroup with us before we all moved back together.

'Fall back now!' Owl shouted to all Konoha ANBU with Telepathy. 'Target: Whisker closing!'

I felt my blood run cold.

Another nifty thing about ANBU was all the different codes we were forced to memorize. These codes could be used for anything from verifying we weren't henge'd enemies to, as Owl just demonstrated, informing allies about a priority target. Any time Konoha printed a new Bingo Book, Eagle would get our team together and go over each page in painstaking detail with us so we would know what to expect. Target: Whisker was one of the individuals covered in depth due to our war with Kumo. Whisker was one of five targets that we were not to engage unless absolutely necessary. Our job, if we spotted Whisker, was to flee with all haste and report their location immediately so Konoha could send teams specialized in Whisker's weaknesses.

'Full retreat! Back to the village!' Eagle ordered.

Senbon, Kunai and Fist all flickered away, no longer waiting for Sickle to catch up. We needed to regroup with allies if any of us wanted a chance of getting out of this alive.

'Cheetah, Tiger, go ahead. Call for reinforcements.' Falcon ordered.

Tiger sent a questioning glance at Eagle. She nodded sharply. The next moment, Tiger and Cheetah took off at their top speed, leaving the rest of us behind. I didn't know the members of Team Senbon very well, but Tiger and Cheetah were the fastest members of Fist and Kunai respectively. It made sense to send them ahead, especially considering Tiger wouldn't be terribly useful against Whisker if we were drawn into a fight. He was a taijutsu specialist with little else in his arsenal. Whisker would shred him in taijutsu.

'Whisker closing on us.' Fox sent, sounding panicked.

I sent a message to only Eagle. 'If Whisker takes them down, we're next. We need to regroup and stall for reinforcements.'

Eagle looked at me as we ran. 'Suggestions?'

'Make it to the village. Bear and Ox trap everything. Do not engage at close range.'

She was silent for a moment. The village was back in sight now. Moving at our current speed, we had precious few seconds before we would blow right past it.

'Hold in village. Ox, Bear, trap area. Owl, watch for reinforcements.' Eagle ordered.

'Engage her in the open?' Falcon asked, sounding disbelieving. Given you could make Telepathy sound however you wanted, that disbelief was intentional.

'That or she runs us down. Do not engage her in melee unless you have no other option.' Eagle ordered.

The moment we entered the village, Bear and Ox got to work, popping dozens of storage seals they carried with them and throwing traps and tags everywhere. Teams Kunai and Senbon fell in behind the defenses, taking up positions on the roofs of the buildings to watch for the enemy.

'Six Kumo ANBU and four Kumo jonin following behind Whisker.' Owl reported.

'Senbon, engage ANBU and keep them from supporting Whisker when they appear.' Eagle ordered.

'We'll take them.' Raven, Senbon's captain, sent back.

Team Sickle exploded out of the treeline, dashing towards us like a demon was on their heels. Owl guided them through Bear and Ox's traps with Telepathy, and we all settled in to wait.

'Whisker slowing. Regrouped with ANBU and jonin. Emerging from treeline now.' Owl reported.

Eleven figures emerged from the treeline. In addition to the four ANBU we'd been chasing, there were four jonin, a dark-skinned woman with silver hair, a grinning man with red eyes and two men wearing identical hoodies pulled low to hide their features. None of us were really looking at them outside of making sure they didn't attack though. Our attention was on the seventh figure.

She was a tall, lithe woman with blonde hair tied back to fall past her waist. She wore a black jumpsuit under a tan jacket. Her eyes flicked between us, then took in the bodies strewn about the village floor. Her lips pulled into a furious frown when she saw the dead civilians.

"Surrender!" the woman called.

A really stupid idea came to me. Our task right now was to stall while Tiger and Cheetah ran to get reinforcements. My idea was a good way to stall, but it wouldn't be very good for my health.

I stood up from where I was crouched on the roof, noting the woman's eyes flick to me instinctively at the motion. "You wish to surrender to me? Very well, I accept!" I called.

'Badger! Wha–'

'I have a plan.' I sent, cutting off Eagle's message. 'I can stall her for a brief time. Keep the ANBU and jonin away from us.' I sent, my fake voice sounding far more confident than I felt.

During my forced leave, I'd toyed with some new ways to use my jutsu while I wasn't at the hospital. I hadn't made any great breakthroughs into new jutsu, but I did figure out a neat trick using my existing ones. It was only situationally useful, but if I could piss off Whisker, I might be able to get it to work on her. I had no illusions that I'd be able to kill her or anything, but, if it worked, I could probably hold out long enough to make it until help arrived. That largely depended on how fast Tiger and Cheetah moved and how far away our reinforcements were. Either way, I had to take the gamble. Doing nothing would end up with all of us dying anyway.

The blonde woman leading the Kumo group seemed perplexed, tilting her head at me as if she couldn't believe what she'd just seen.

Capitalizing on her silence, I said, "In accordance with international treaties, you and your men will all receive–"

"Are you serious?" The woman cut me off. She looked like she'd just taken a bite of a particularly tart cranberry.

"He's stalling." The woman behind her said, glaring at me. "Let's take them."

The blonde woman narrowed her eyes. "The talkative one's mine."

My plan worked! She was focused on me!

…Oh fuck. My plan worked. She was focused on me.

I cast a genjutsu over myself, hiding the motion of my arms weaving through hand signs.

"Suiton: Water Clone." I said quietly, spitting water down into my jacket. Using the shadows under my jacket, I created a shadow tube that funneled the water down through my shirt and pants to the ground beneath me. As my shadow rose up to cement into my shadow armor, three additional shadowy forms rose at my side as my water clones all rose around me, each garbed in their own shadow armor.

It took us under an hour to get to this village moving slowly so as not to draw attention. Tiger and Cheetah were the fastest nin in Kunai and Fist. Moving at their top speed, they could likely make it back to that guard post in ten minutes or so. Given that Konoha had taken the post and was moving into the Land of Lightning, it was safe to assume that Tiger and Cheetah would encounter friendly nin before even reaching the post, likely in as little as four minutes. Add an additional minute as the nin they return with likely wouldn't be as fast as they were. That would make nine minutes for a round trip. It had been one-and-a-half minutes since Tiger and Cheetah began running. Based on this rough estimate, that meant I had to stall for seven-and-a-half-minutes: 450 seconds.

I had to survive for 450 seconds fighting Yugito Nii.