I looked around with my eyebrow raised as I sat across the table from Ko and Chiaki. "This is impressive." I said, meaning every word. We were in the largest restaurant I'd ever seen in Konoha. Behind serving counters there were visible fires roaring with meats cooking above them; a dozen red-haired chefs ran around the kitchen, preparing everyone's meals. This place was called 'The Flank'. It was one of the Akimichi's many restaurants sprinkled around the village, and Ko's personal favorite. He was treating us to a meal as thanks for hauling him out of our first mission on our backs.
"No other place like it in the village." Ko said distractedly, craning his neck to look behind him at the kitchens.
Chiaki smacked his shoulder, frowning at him. "Oi! The food will be here soon enough. You can afford to focus on something else for a few minutes."
"Have you been here before?" Misaki asked Chiaki.
She smirked. "Once or twice. I'm more of a noodle girl. This place mainly serves meat."
"It looks like it's exclusively meat." Touji said as his eyes scanned over the menu.
"And?" Sogo said, eyebrow raised. "Meat's good."
"Meat is good." I agreed.
"They have soup as well." Misaki commented, flipping through her own menu.
"Beef soup." Touji said. "They really like thei–"
'Team Fist, mobilize. Convene at HQ.'
Touji stopped talking. Everyone's faces grew impassive. We'd all received the same message through Telepathy.
Ko stood up and dropped some money on the table. "Sorry, guys. If I knew you didn't like meat I'd have suggested somewhere else. I know this great salad place just down the street."
Our waitress came by as we all started leaving, a concerned frown on her face. "Ko? Is something wrong?"
Ko chuckled, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "Sorry, Saika. We'll be leaving a little earlier than anticipated."
Saika's eyes whipped between us, nervous and worried. "Stay safe." she said quietly, or tried to anyway. It was clear she was a civilian from the Akimichi Clan. She was able to figure out that something was going on and was trying to be supportive. I appreciated that, but had we been anywhere else, those two words might have killed my entire team. Luckily, this restaurant was regularly filled with Konoha nin, and today was no different. I noticed a few nin perk up and watch us out of the corner of their eyes, but none of them drew further attention to us. So much for ANBU secrecy.
When we were out of the restaurant, we ducked into a safehouse to unseal our gear and quickly change. Within a minute, we were moving towards ANBU HQ. When we arrived, there were several other teams already assembled, all standing at attention facing the front of the room where three figures stood.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, wearing his Hokage robes, stood in the middle, flanked by Danzo Shimura and an older woman I didn't recognize.
'Fall in.' Eagle sent us through Telepathy, and we all fell in with the other ANBU teams. More and more teams slowly filled into the HQ until the room was full of what I assumed to be at least half of the total ANBU currently in Konoha.
"ANBU," The Hokage began, his expression grave. "The Land of Lightning has declared war on the Land of Fire." There wasn't so much as a peep from the assembled ANBU as we all absorbed the news.
I really wanted to ask some questions right now but speaking out of turn wasn't something I was able to do as a lowly tool. Why did Kumo declare war? Was it just Kumo or were we looking at another shinobi world war? I didn't remember this from the anime, so… Actually, wasn't there something about the Hyuga killing Kumo's diplomat at the end of a war because he tried to kidnap Hinata? Was this that war? I thought that was after the Third Shinobi World War, not a random skirmish. Did my actions cause this? Misaki and I did kill a lot of Kumo genin at our chunin exams. Did that have something to do with this?
I didn't have any of the answers, and all I would receive right now would be orders.
"The official announcement will be made to the village in one hour." Hiruzen continued. "Jonin and chunin from the regular forces will be mobilized after the announcement. You will be given your missions immediately. Team captains, come forward."
Eagle flickered forward with the rest of the ANBU captains. One by one, the captains were given a mission scroll. Once each team had their missions, they flickered out of the room. When Eagle returned to us, she immediately cast Telepathy.
'Border patrol. We will be relieved by a chunin team in two days. On me.' The mission scroll burst into flames as she destroyed it and my team followed her out of ANBU HQ. We made directly for the outskirts of the village, not stopping as we went over the wall and into the trees beyond.
'Are we expecting an enemy presence?' Bear asked with Telepathy.
'We aren't expecting any, but be prepared for an assault.'
We fell silent as we ran away from Konoha in formation, heading north-east towards the Land of Fire's border with Hot Water, the most direct path Kumo nin could take to infiltrate the Land of Fire.
The journey was uneventful, as was our first day of patrol. The second day, we made contact with the enemy.
'Hold.' Owl sent us all with Telepathy. 'Three nin crouched in bushes five-hundred meters north. Appear to be scouts.'
'Kumo?' Eagle sent.
'Kumo headbands.' Owl returned.
'Owl, watch for reinforcements and traps. We approach and subdue alive. Badger, on point.' Eagle ordered. She must have wanted to take them for information on troop movements and mustering points – anything they knew could help Konoha.
I stepped into my shadow and zipped ahead of my team, towards the enemy nin. When I was within one-hundred meters of them, I felt them with my shadows. They were crouched low to the ground with trees surrounding them, unknowingly connecting themselves to my shadows.
'Able to trap.'
'Standby.' Eagle returned. I felt through my shadows as my team began to spread out. 'Trap them.'
I emerged from my shadow, catching all three hidden nin with Shadow Possession as I did. I stood up and spread my arms out at my sides, forcing the enemy nin to copy me.
The Kumo nin all let out shocked yells that turned to calls for help and screams of an ambush when I trapped them. They were all thrashing against my control. Judging by the chakra and strength they brought to bear against my control, I guessed they were all chunin.
The panicked yelling of the Kumo nin cut out as my team fell upon them. Owl threw a senbon into each of their shoulders, paralyzing them and leaving them at the mercy of my control. At the same time, Bear and Ox moved in to bind their arms with ninja wire and place seals over their eyes, ears and mouth to prevent them from fighting, seeing, hearing and speaking.
'Position compromised. Return to Konoha. Full speed.' Eagle sent us all through Telepathy.
We ran full tilt back the way we came. I used Shadow Possession to force our three captives to keep pace with us, running for them. Paralyzed, bound and sealed as they were, there was nothing they could do to resist. While Eagle could have rifled through their minds here and now, our team was exposed and far from support until Konoha's regular forces could be mustered, so it was better to get back to friendly territory.
We didn't encounter any other Kumo nin on the way back. We briefly met with another ANBU team to inform them of our captives and that we'd left our patrol. That ANBU team distributed the news while we traveled back to Konoha.
Due to the ease we captured the chunin, I was beginning to think that maybe they'd been left out as bait so we would capture them and leave our section of the border unmanned, but it was too late to turn back now, and we'd coordinated with our allies to shore up the weakness in our border left by our departure.
When we made it back to Konoha, we turned our captives over to T&I and were ordered to rest, a fact I was grateful for. I had a lot of chakra and some of the best control I'd ever seen, but running for hours on end with three people controlled by my shadows was taxing. I could have kept going if I needed to, but I was glad to have the break.
"Masks off." Chiaki commanded, clipping her Eagle mask to her belt as we all sat around the table in our ANBU locker room. She'd just got back from a meeting of all the ANBU captains currently in Konoha. Most of the teams we'd been dispatched with were still out of the village, but Konoha kept a minimum number of ANBU in the village at all times in case of an attack, so there were still quite a few teams within the walls.
"What's the word, Chiaki?" Ko asked, popping open a bag of nuts and loudly crunching away at them.
"Kumo built up their forces around our border before formally declaring war. We're being hit from two sides, – Grass and Hot Water. We don't know if Grass and Hot Water are cooperating with Kumo yet, or if they didn't know that Kumo had infiltrated their borders." Chiaki reported, pulling out a map and placing it down on the center of the table. She pointed around the map as she spoke. "Konoha's regular forces will head north to stall the enemy at the border with Hot Water. We and several other ANBU teams will move into Kusa, eliminating any Kumo presence we find and securing our western flank. Once the west is clear, we'll move north to help push Kumo out of our borders and out of Hot Water."
"Why start in the west?" Sogo asked, gripping his chin.
"Reinforcements." I said, looking down at the map. Kumo was far closer to Hot Water than it was to Grass. It would be easier for them to reinforce their troops at our northern border than loop them around to our west.
Chiaki looked at me appraisingly before nodding. "What Shinto said. Once we clear them out of Kusa, it will be too difficult for them to reestablish a foothold while still holding their position in Hot Water, allowing us to focus on pushing north towards Kumo."
"What is our current estimate of their forces?" I asked, still staring down at the map.
"We don't have a solid figure yet. The boys and girls over in T&I are still working on the captives we brought back. After the last war, I can't imagine they have the numbers to contend with us though."
"They might think we're still undermanned because of the Kyuubi." Ko said.
I shook my head. "I don't think their goal here is to win ground. This is a resource war. More accurately, it's a war to tie up our resources so we can't direct them towards anything else. They don't like how well we're doing in peacetime, so they're attacking us to stall our progress and give themselves time to catch up. The war shouldn't last more than a year or two, I think. It might even be over in as little as six months depending on how fast we can push them back." Tying up opposing nations in war to keep them from progressing was a common tactic in medieval times back home. There were wars every other year where rivals would prod and poke at each other just to remind them that they were there.
Chiaki shrugged. "Interesting hypothesis, Shinto, but that doesn't change our orders." She rolled the map back up and sealed it away. "All of you get some rest. We're heading out at 04:00 tomorrow."
We all broke away from the table, heading to the bunks in the sleeping quarters and getting some rest before we were sent back out to fight.
It looked like my schedule would be a lot more full in the near future.