It was a foggy morning. The blizzard of last night had subsided, and all seemed quiet. The soldiers were beginning to emerge into the snowy plain surrounding the village. They were preparing to set off again, after eating breakfast of course. Quintus and other higher officials were provided their rooms by the village elder, rank comes with its benefits, and they were preparing at their own pace.

Quintus had gotten up early, the previous night being a sleepless one. He couldn't pinpoint a reason for that, perhaps anxiety? But overall, he didn't look as active as usual and seemed tired. He quickly drank a cup of Japanese tea that had been served to him, he found the taste 'odd' as compared to the usual tea they had back home. But it did the job of arousing his sleepy consciousness, to some extent. It was impossible to take a bath in this cold, so Quintus just washed his face with water so cold it had pieces of ice in it and adjusted his hairline. He took a modest meal, that was prepared by the village's cooks for his today. The food wasn't much but filling, rice, vegetables, some meat, and wine. But the 'silverware' was weird, with two small pieces of stick for him to use, he preferred to use a fork and spoon instead.

After getting into his formal clothes, Quintus, along with Janus and some other very high officials, met the elder of the village for the last time. The soldiers were just about ready for their march again, and Janus had sent a scouting party on horseback to fetch the ten sick soldiers safely back, and they had returned with nine alive and one dead due to the cold. Quintus greeted the village elder and spoke,

"We are grateful for your village's hospitality, sir. I hope it wasn't much inconvenience?" Hikaru weakly laughed and replied,

"It wasn't at all, after that big payment." Quintus also laughed and got on top of his horse,

"Very well then, dear village elder. We march off once more, it was a pleasure talking with you." The elder gave a nod, and Quintus rode away towards the army with his officers.

"Couldn't we just take over the village for the night with our men? What was the need for such a hefty payment?" The Primus Pilus questioned his commander when they were some distance away from the elder, Quintus looked at Janus and replied,

"Yes, we could've done that very easily, but having a good name with the local population is better, or else we'll find it difficult to obtain food supplies and shelter for our men. Thirty pounds of silver is a large amount for these villagers who'd never left their remote settlement, but it's easy to obtain through taxing, tribute, and take. Besides, I've also read that this region used to be a part of the Land of Frost, but was lost to the Land of Lightning in some previous war. So the population here already despises Kumogakure like us."

The Primus Pilus gave a nod of satisfaction, and then quickly rode to his designated place in the marching column.

The soldiers were now prepared for the journey ahead and were organized to march in columns of three lines for each cohort. Today's weather was clear and favorable, and the grassy flatland encompassing the border regions between the Lands of Lightning and Frost was completely white and covered with snow as far as one could see until land met the sea on the coast. Quintus placed himself at the helm of the army, marching foremost ahead of the soldiers with the camp prefect, who was responsible for taking care of logistics and supplies, beside him. As well as the aquilifer, who carried the golden eagle standard of the legion, and also managed its finances. Janus was at the rear as usual, with his retinue of mounted soldiers. In this formation, the army marched off with a slow but steady pace over the thick snow-covered plains, and the villagers silently watched the world's greatest battle machine roll off into the distance from their windows.


At the Turtle Island, several hours later

The turtle island was currently floating near the coast in the south, as it always did. The coast was rocky and rough as usual, it had a valley-like terrain because of a large gap between two cliffs near the coast. Currently, the giant turtle is present roughly 500 meters away from this coast.

It was midday, and the light rays of the sun illuminated the area during these winter times. A cold breeze was blowing, which produced whistle-like sounds as they passed and hit the cliffs and rocks. There was some snow on the clifftops, but not as much as back inland. A long column of Roman soldiers came marching down the slopes of the hills. This terrain was easy to traverse, so the legionaries marched in a tight formation, each cohort marching separately.

The aquilifer marched at the front, carrying the golden eagle standard of the legion. Beside him fluttered the banner of the V Alaudae, the banner consisting of Legio V written on the top, the symbol of an elephant in the middle, and 'Alaudae' at the bottom. The legion was quite old, established almost 2000 years ago, and was famed to be the legion led by Scipio Africanus against the Carthaginians, and had thus received the elephant as its symbol. Now, this legion was here to snatch the turtle island from Kumogakure.

The soldiers stopped at the coast, and across the waters sat the turtle island in front of their eyes. But to reach there they must build boats, but that will take time, so for now they set up camp. Their tents were large, as each one was purposed to house all the eight men of a Conterburnium, but the centurions and other higher officials had the privilege to have their tent. In no time the Romans set up a camp on the spot, while the thirty engineers in the legion were called to start working on the boats. A quarter of the legion was sent into the surrounding woods to collect wood from the Pine trees.

The Romans were encamped in a valley-like terrain, with mountains and hills on all sides, and only a rough dirt path leading down into the plain. There were two sea cliffs on either side of the valley, which formed an opening-like route into the sea. The cliffs' summits were plain, and a rough path led to the top.

The engineers were at work, creating rough plans for the boats to be built, when suddenly Quintus came, briskly walking towards them,

"What're you all doing?" Quintus asked, the chief engineer greeted him formally and replied,

"Well sir, as you can see, we are building the boats to reach the island."

"Who said we're gonna go there?" The engineers seemed confused, Quintus smiled and continued, pointing toward the two cliffs,

"You see those cliffs, they are plain on the top. I will send the wood and raw material, but you must assemble two trebuchets each on those two cliffs. I believe the artillery batteries would be able to fling the boulders there, right?"

The engineers seemed confused at first but obeyed and started to make their way up the cliff. While several dozen legionaries were sent to assist them. As the engineers cut the wood and hammered the keels, Quintus stood on the seashore, gazing towards the turtle island. He was lost in thought when Janus approached him from behind,

"I heard you've ordered the engineers to assemble siege engines on the cliffs." Quintus slightly turned his head towards his subordinate, and replied with arms crossed,

"Yes. It is not necessary that we must rush the island while taking hundreds of casualties. We'll just force them to attack us with barrages of artillery fire and trebuchet shots."

"But how long will this take?" Janus questioned, Quintus replied while gazing forward,

"Probably two days, at most." Janus was surprised,

"But, that seems too much. We are only giving the barbarians more time to mount a counter-attack." Quintus finally turned to Janus, and replied,

"The ninjas will be forced to assault us, if we just bombard them with artillery pieces. If they don't, the island will be nothing more than rubble. So they must fight on our terms or die a disgraceful death." Saying this, the general made his way to his tent,

"But-" Janus was quickly interrupted by Quintus, who spoke with a stern voice,

"There's a reason I'm your superior, Janus. So trust me, and do what is ordered. I assure you, we won't take more than fifty casualties at most." Quintus left the beach and into his tent. Janus didn't speak again and merely gazed at the engineers and soldiers working on the clifftop.


On the Turtle Island

The Kumo shinobi on the island watched intently, what was going on on the seashore for the last two days. There was a lot of activity, and the shinobi knew that this was no friendly force. Killer Bee was also present there, currently in his twenties. He was still training to control the eight tails sealed inside of him. He was still skilled enough and granted he was the brother of the Raikage, he came to be recognized as one of the leaders of the shinobi on the turtle island.

The shinobi were meeting in the island's central building on how to address the issue of these attackers. There were roughly one hundred and twenty ninjas present on the island, very small numbers but also one of the most skilled in Kumogakure. The central building was wide, with many rooms on the ground floor, there was also a basement used as a storeroom, and a tower-like structure projecting upwards and accessible with stairs from the inside. The building was made of brown mud bricks, and pine wood, and looked old. In the interior, a central hall could be accessed from the entrance, while there were rooms on the left and right, mainly serving as the residence of the most skilled shinobi present.

The central hall was choked with people, all wearing the Kumogakure headband and talking amongst themselves. Inside the hall, there was also a raised platform on which stood Killer Bee and some other, intimidating shinobi. One of them, with tanned skin, grey hair, lean, and an average height came forward. He had covered his head with a piece of cloth, on which was sewn the Kumogakure headband, and there were also some scars on the left side of his face, his left eye was covered with an eyepatch, and he had a goatee. He gathered everyone's attention, and announced straight to the point,

"As all of you know, there is an enemy force at our gates. They are encamped on the seashore but seem to be doing nothing. What are your suggested solutions for this?" Killer Bee replied,

"Why don't we attack them first? We are small in numbers, but quality beats quantity. If we can take them by surprise, their entire force will be annihilated." Another high-ranking ninja chuckled and replied,

"It's not as simple as that, Lord Killer Bee. We can't just rush at them and expect them to be shocked out of their wits. I believe we should escape without any precious casualties, by commanding Genbu (the giant turtle) to sail away." The grey-haired shinobi scoffed and replied,

"We are no cowards, we don't need to run away from these civilians who can't even use chakra. I am in favor of Lord Killer Bee's idea, only if it gets a more refined strategy."

The shinobi argued thus, and voices began to be raised in the hall as the previously peaceful debate broke out into something similar to an argument. Suddenly, a loud crashing noise came from the outside. The turtle also gave a cry of agony. The shinobi in the assembly hall rushed outside, only to see volleys of burning stone flying towards the turtle island. The stones hit the many buildings and structures on the turtle's back and even its exoskeleton. In the distance, on the sea cliffs, could be seen about six large machines flinging these stones at the island.


Author's notes

So, I plan to make the Romans absolute masters of siege weaponry, and also give them some gunpowder. Meanwhile, the inhabitants shinobi continent will be strangers to these weapons. This is to equalize the power balance between the shinobi and the Romans. Other 'balance changes' you can say, are that the Romans will have far more manpower as compared to the ninja.

Another thing is that the abilities of the Sharingan and genjutsu won't work on the Romans, as they don't have chakra, and these techniques manipulate the chakra in the victim's body to cause such 'hallucinations', the gentle fist of the Hyuga also won't work for the same reasons.

Do leave a review if you've read this far, and suggestions are always welcome.