Satsuki Uchiha was tasked with escorting a Mitsugo engineering team as they had taken to calling themselves. They were very good when it came to building defences and the like and they were very valuable in the grand scheme of things.

What this meant for the Uchiha and for Konoha as a whole was that they were to be protected at all costs since it meant that they were often the key ingredient that would allow for either an attack to succeed or for one to fail.

For both sides of the battlefield.

She had seen them use their jutsu to create massive walls of rock like the way the Hokage was able to create walls out of his trees. Unlike the Hokage however these walls were lined with rocks so sharp that unless you were putting a very thick layer of chakra on your feet, they would slice right through. In fact watching leaves fall down from trees into the chasms that they made, the way that the falling little pieces were sliced into tiny little pieces on the way down was an education, a very terrifying on at that.

She and every other shinobi on all sides of the conflict had made it their personal mission to not attack into the trenches as they were called. To do so was insane, the slightest bit of mental quivering and they would be doing something like falling, their concentration not enough for them to generate the chakra needed to prevent their feet from being sliced to ribbons. Then it was a matter of just falling and dying.

She had seen it happen enough times that she had a very very healthy respect for what the Mitsugo engineers were able to do, she hadn't thought some Earth Jutsu would be so useful, but it was holding the line for them and there were many less shinobi dying than there would otherwise.

Without them on the front, well, she knew what a battle would be like. One where they were just flashing at each other, striking, killing, chance and death ruling the day. Their numbers being depleted over time, their ability to resist dwindling as they flagged, their strength falling as they grew steadily more exhausted.

But on the front line, they were able to get sleep. The defences constructed by the Mitsugo being enough that they were able to rest soundly.

The Mitsugo weren't just good for the defence however, they were very good when it came to matters of offence as well, using their version of the wood release jutsu to create what was essentially a giant slingshot to hurl rocks across the chasms, the impact of one being enough to turn even the most seasoned of shinobi into a fine paste.

That was not all of course, it ever was when it came to the Mitsugo. They were able to use their earth release to create large gangplanks and the like that they were able to allow for the Konoha ninja to strike out from, leaping over the now much reduced gap and striking forward as if it had never been there at all.

Naturally just because one side was able to do it, didn't mean that the other could not. It was happening and it was very irritating for Satsuki , she was putting out little brush fires on a constant basis as they tried to deal with the Suna strike teams. Sure they put across their own strike teams, but they weren't meant to be playing fair, they were Uchiha and playing fair had been thrown out of their playbooks several decades ago.

She grinned at that thought even as she made an effort to speed up a little. The Mitsugo were angling off again and that probably meant that either someone was dead, or someone was going to be dead. Their leader had thrown a hand signal out that meant there was going to be at least 5 hostile ninjas ahead.

Joy.

Pushing herself up, Satsuki made sure that she was at the front of the group, they couldn't allow for the Mitsugo to be injured or killed, they were too valuable to the war effort and if they were indeed injured it was her fault and it would need to be dealt with.

They only had 20 of them, 20 Mitsugo with which to hold all of Konoha, the loss of just one would be devastating. Konoha wasn't like the other villages where it had like 2 borders at most to defend against but their entire border except for the Land of Rice and the Land of Grass were hostile in this war. 20 shinobi to cover what was essentially the center of the continent while the others could reinforce their lines with easy. Luckily they had the numbers to act as a stopgap where the Mitsugo couldn't shore up the walls in time.

Feet pounding, Satsuki rotated her Sharingan and grimaced at the information it was relaying.

Disturbed leaves - Broken branches - earth disrupted - small sandal prints

They had sent children across. She hated it when they did that, they didn't even need to, it was not as if they had a shortage of numbers, the Mitsugo had certainly fed them enough to make more babies.

Even the Uchiha were doing it and she was expecting a baby brother any time now… which meant her parents… ewww. There were things that one didn't need to think about. This was one of those.

Still, the possibility was there that the children were the bait to pull them into a trap by the more experienced shinobi that would be attacking them in the rear.

Which was going to be a right pain to deal with that would be for sure. She motioned to the rest of her team and the Hyuga nodded, his own Byakugan activating and ensuring that they weren't going to be ambushed, not today. It would be the height of foolishness if that had managed to happen to them, they were meant to be better than that.

It was why they had been chosen to guard the Mitsugo as they made their way forward after all.

There

Satsuki spotted the footprints, fresh ones. They were close to their prey.

Someone had probably sent off a flare that set the Mitsugo running, one of the number staying behind to spot anything going on and relaying it to their brothers on the front line.

It was going to be a fight, that was for sure.

She grinned, huzzah.

Eyes flashing she spotted it. There.

Flashing her hand signals, Satsuki leapt up and backward, the Jutsu for fire breath already in forming in her hands, the shuriken that she had pelted at the Suna ninja that had been trying to lie in ambush distracting him from finishing his own Jutsu.

Eyes flashing she tried to catch his own eyes with hers, a genjutsu illusion waiting to put him under. As for the rest of her team, they were moving in to engage up close leaving her as the trump.

If the enemy tried to send out a Jutsu of their own, she would be there ready to send a counter flying at them.

The Hyuga dashed up, his own Byakugan whirling existing (he wasn't a Uchiha with their infinitely cooler eyes) as he plucked the kunai that had been sent out with his fingertips, flinging them back as he closed into melee range.

If they wanted a fight he was going to oblige.

At the same time, he was sending his own senses out, this was too easy. The real ambush would be waiting for them ahead likely.

The other ninja were moving in a concave formation, allowing the Hyuga to take center stage as they prepared to strike at the exposed flanks and rears.

Standard tactics.

The Mitsugo on the other hand had… created an earth wall behind them?

Satsuki was concerned for the second it took for the wall to explode outward, sending shrapnel and fragments out far and wide into their rear.

Wow.

What she wouldn't give for an ability like that. They would be able to find the hidden ones so much easier that was for sure.

Shaking her head slightly, Satsuki finally found it. The proper ambush.

Or at least it was. They had survived but their formation was in tatters after they had defended from the attack, all of them exposed to her view.

A brief chortle and she sent fireballs her way, checking her team and seeing they had killed half the Suna nin but that was clearly nowhere near enough, not with 8 more behind them.

Satsuki resolved herself to fight to the death. The Mitsugo would be able to help, but they weren't that good when it came to being outnumbered and this strike was clearly an attempt to strike at them.

Hit them where it hurt or whatever it is people wanted to call it.

Satsuki frowned, hands flashing. The Suna were up to something.

They weren't trying to attack… capture.

They wanted to capture the Mitsugo, claim that they had been killed or something and start their own bloodline.

Well, that wasn't going to happen. Not while she was here.

Body flickering to that particularly ugly rock behind the Suna nin, Satsuki dashed forward, Kunai in hand.

Body clone left behind, have it flash hand seals for a grand fireball, keep the attention.

Suna nin have no idea what is happening aaaand.

Now.

Kunai sinks deep into one's neck, all the way up into the brain. Next one is thrown, the little shard of metal going into a temple.

Two down.

That should even the odds just a little.

The other 6 weren't stupid, they knew that something had happened and spun to meet her, their own kunai flashing out as they dashed at her.

Too bad. Body Swapping with her clone, she grinned at what happened next. The last of the seals was finished, and the clone self-detonated as all of its remaining chakra was used up to generate a truly massive explosion.

The Suna nin that had dashed inward were either killed outright, or severely injured enough that without medical attention they were going to be dead soon regardless.

Satsuki grinned, that had certainly been something that she should totally add to the village handbook, or at the very least the Uchiha handbook. They had bought it hook line and sinker.

Still, she couldn't afford to be too careless, they were still there and she didn't want to give her life away because she thought that the enemy had been dealt with. That was a particularly rookie mistake that she would not be forgiven for if she did it.

She grinned a little as the smoke cleared to reveal what was 6 bodies, that was 2 un-acccounted for, two of them that probably wanted her dead.

That is assuming that those 6 were actually the real deal and not just fakes.

Something to consider then.

Satsuki flashed her Sharingan as she tried to identify exactly where it was that something might be coming. Ugh, she hated the cleanup after a fight.

Only for rocks to slam into the bodies from the sky. 3 flashed into dust, 3 more just were crushed.

Ok then. That works too.

Satsuki flashed a grin at the Mitsugo behind her who smiled back.

Maybe they weren't so useless after all.

Waving back at them, Satsuki made the effort to maybe not try and scare them, if they had the ability to work as support for her, well, she wanted them eager to help.

The fight was finally over and they finally managed to destroy the enemy. Then they had needed to finish the original mission to find the bloody breach in the trenchline and repair that before getting back to base.

Satsuki was not happy. Not happy at all.

One fight was over, and at this rate there was going to be more because nothing was ever easy, not for the Uchiha. Noooo, it was all work work work for the Uchiha, wasn't it.

She sighed and as they kept dashing forward, Satsuki considered that maybe she should try and find an easier mission that didn't have her escorting some of the most valuable VIPs in the kamidamned country.

They had 20 of them to protect a landmass the size of the Land of Fire and that was just asking for trouble if one or two of them died.

Conversely, that made them perfect assassination targets.

Perhaps guarding Area 51, that would be a good mission right?

She thought of the Suna nin and thought they were idiots for not knowing the Mitsugo could communicate with each other and… oh wait.

Maybe they were there for her and the Hyuga?

Woops.

Oh well, they were dead or gone anyway.