Sessho! We're back!" I called out as the three of us walked into the room and I closed the door behind me, preparing myself as I heard the thundering footsteps before grinning as a large white-furred wolf-dog jumped into my arms with a happy bark that shook the room.
"Hehehe~ Okay, buddy! Okay, we're sorry we left you." I spoke through giggles as the large wolf-dog licked at my face and it was only through chakra that I was able to keep him standing and slowly push him down.
Admittedly, that didn't mean much when he came up to my chest on all fours with his wagging tail slapping against my arm, which I ignored as we walked over to where the giggling duo laughed at my pain while I sat down.
"Hehe~ So, you said you wanted to take over Ame, right?"
"Not take it over, Yahiko. Liberate the villages closer to the borders while showing Hanzo that he has allies willing to help protect the country." I corrected Yahiko, who gained a look of understanding in his eyes before turning to Konan as she spoke up.
"But…that would mean having to go against actual shinobi and perhaps killing them if needed. Wouldn't that put a target on our backs?"
"We're orphan children unaffiliated with any village that can use chakra. The moment we try anything, we're getting a target on our backs, so why not try our best to make ourselves irreplaceable to Ame?"
"I see. Then, so we should start with the villages furthest away from Ame." Yahiko spoke up and I nodded as I turned to Sessho sitting besides us.
"Sessho, bring the map. No, you can't bite it." I said as his eyes lit up with joy before rolling my eyes as he huffed while trotting towards my room to pick up the map Sensei had bought for me for my tenth birthday.
He did ask why I wanted the map, but after I told him of how I wanted to be able to move around Ame with the others and without us getting involved in a fight, he was all too eager to buy the highly detailed one for us.
"Thanks, buddy. Don't worry, I'll take you out for a walk later." I said and he looked happy as he gave a rumbling bark before walking away, Yahiko snickering and Konan hiding her giggles as I shook my head before unrolling the large map on the table in front of us.
"Firstly, I'd suggest we start near the north-western part of the country since our little shack is closer to that area than the others. Also, these will have mostly shinobi from Iwagakure, who are also fighting a two against one war against Konoha and Suna if Sensei is to believed. They are also low on resources and I've seen shinobi taking the produce and resources of anyone they came across."
"So, if we attack these resources, will that force them back to their village?" Yahiko asked with a frown and I smirked and nodded before pointing to the south-west
"Yes, and doing so would make it so that Konoha will help finish off this war by pushing Suna back to their village, meaning we won't have to worry about fighting them."
"I see. Then, what do we need to do?" Konan asked as she and Yahiko looked at me and I smirked as I took out a scroll from my back.
"First, we need to set a trap."
"Hey, kid. What you got there?" I blinked as I heard at a rugged voice calling to me, turning and looking at the burly Iwa shinobi who spoke while pointing a finger at myself.
"M-Me?" I asked and the man garbed in their traditional uniform rolled his eyes while the four others with him snickered mockingly at my 'confusion'.
"See any other kids around here?"
"N-No, sir."
"Good. Now, what do you have there?" He asked and I looked hesitantly down at the small bucket with a plastic lid in my grasp before shrugging as I looked back up at him.
"J-Just some bread and meat."
"Oh, good. I'll be taking that."
"Uh, I-I can't, mister." I said with an apologetic smile before freezing as a kunai was taken out and held to my neck.
"Kid, my friends here wanted to kill you and mutilate your corpse, but since I'm a nice guy, I told them that we'll only take your food as compensation. Now, which one do you want?" He asked before smiling happily as I shakily handed over the container, with him opening it for a brief moment before giving me an impressed look as he patted me on the head with a smile and a nod.
"Good kid. Let's go, boys."
"Aw~ We can't even play with him?" One of the shinobi at the back asked with an eye missing and his top lip torn in half and this time, I actually shuddered as I saw the lustful gaze in his eyes right before he groaned in disappointment as the shinobi looked at me before shaking his head.
"Nah, the kid followed our order and I'm a man of my word. Now, let's keep going."
"Fine~ I guess I'll see you later, little one~" The one at the back called before they walked away, to which I slowly nodded and continued walking for a few dozen meters before my fearful look was replaced by a frown as I lifted my fist.
"So, did you get it to them?" Yahiko asked as he stood up from his muddy cover, Konan dispelling the invisibility genjutsu around her before they both grinned as I smirked and nodded.
"Yep, they have the food. Now, all that's needed is to follow them and then, it's all out battles."
'This is war, Nagato. Don't waste any time playing around.' I thought to myself with deep breaths as the three of us were buried halfway down the side of a cliff, looking down at the camp below us where the men had taken the food they had taken from me before sealing it underground in a storage area in the middle of the camp.
"Remember the plan, right?"
"Konan goes for their maps that might have the locations of the other camps, I go to their weapon storage to steal anything we may need and you take out anyone that isn't killed by the explosion."
"Got it. Then, let's begin." I said as I opened the entrance of our cliffside bunker before dropping out and skating along the cliffside, Konan and Yahiko following out after me right as I made a half Tiger seal and activated the numerous explosive tags I had hidden inside the container with a genjutsu while also leaping to the edge of the camp furthest away from Konan and Yahiko.
The next moments, panicked screams and wails of agony echoed in the sky as the tags exploded with a beautiful explosion, sending panic rippling throughout the camp as I flipped around midair while weaving through five familiar hand signs right before I pointed my hands down towards the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu!" I exclaimed as a large cloud of smoke erupted outside of the camp, obscuring me from view as I landed on a dark brown surface that rippled right before I grinned as I found myself being raised high up into the air and nearly level to our makeshift bunker in the mountain-side.
The camp went from panicking to downright erratic as they ran around, but I smirked as I lifted a thumb before flipping it upside down.
"Go." A simple command, simple yet powerful, rippled through the air and the snake let out a loud hiss before diving skull first into the ground, covering my body with chakra to protect myself right as it crashed into the ground and began bulldozing through the camp.
"Make sure to stay away from the middle section!" I shouted as it rolled and spun across the ground, sure that it heard my command as it made sure to stay away from the middle section while tossing and turning around the camp and crushing anything and everything in its path.
However, it appears that some of them had realized that I was not Orochimaru as I saw some of them trying to throw shuriken and kunai at me, to which I frowned as I weaved through hand signs right as I saw a few of them weaving signs as well.
"Earth Style: Stone Pistol Jutsu!" They all took a deep breath before spitting out a barrage of stone bullets that all quickly grew to the size of a small boulder, but I smirked as I turned towards the bullet storm while taking a deep breath.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The air in front of me roared as I breathed out a hurricane that made the sky rumble, their boulders slowing down the closer they got to me before I sent them back flying at a rapid pace.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets!" However, I was not done as I took another deep breath before spitting out a rapid barrage of compressed air bullets, which pierced right through the boulders and unleashed a storm of sharp air bullets and jagged stone bullets raining down upon all of them.
"You!" I turned with a frown as I heard a shout coming from far besides me, my frown turning into a smirk as the man with the half-lip from before ran towards me with a glare, parts of his uniform being torn off from the snake's rampage.
I didn't waste time talking as I pulled out a kunai while he charged towards me, taking a deep breath and feeling my emotional side fading back as the shinobi leapt at me while throwing a pair of shuriken at me.
Easily parrying the two shuriken to the side, I slid under the spinning roundhouse while slicing at his right inner thigh, the shinobi screaming as I sliced open his thigh and blood spewed out of the wound.
However, I forced myself to keep moving as I spun around and stabbed the shinobi in the back, ripping out the kunai to the side before stabbing it into his throat and slicing downwards.
Was the brutality necessary? Considering the guy wanted to 'play' with me, it was indeed.
Pulling my kunai out and kicking his corpse off of the side of the snake, I knew that would just be the beginning as I saw numerous shinobi leaping towards the snake's back, some of them not making it as they were smacked away but most of them did as they quickly ran towards me.
"Dispel." I spoke out loud while making a cross hand sign, the snake disappearing in a large puff of smoke and a shockwave that sent us all flying up right before I created a clone that threw me back towards the camp while rising up along with the other shinobi.
Quickly spinning around and skating down the mountainside with a smirk, I looked up just in time as the clone activated the tags he took from my pouch, lighting up the sky with a beautiful bright orange explosion just as the numerous shinobi tried to attack him.
"Nagato! A bit of help!" I looked down and frowned as I saw Konan and Yahiko being cornered off by a dozen or so shinobi below me, quickly pulling out another kunai before placing my hands behind me and launching myself forward with a burst of chakra.
The only thing my first targets saw were a glint of cold steel right before I sliced through their throat, the third target spinning around to face me only for her eyes to widen as she caught a kunai to the chest and one to the side of the head.
However, the others had recovered and four of them charged at me while the other five rushed towards the other two, which made me curse as I readied myself right as the first one swung at me with a fist covered in earth.
Quickly leaping back to avoid the hammer slam, I leapt and spun through the air right as two others leapt over his back and spat out two pebbles that grew to the size of boulders, both crashing into the ground right in front of me before my eyes widened as I felt myself hitting something behind me.
Glancing backwards, I stared at the brick wall before looking to the front just in time to see the two boulders being ripped away by another larger wall appearing in front of me, quickly creating a clone besides me that threw me into the air right as the second wall was pushed at a blistering pace into the first along with a crap ton of explosive tags.
The following explosion eclipsed the one my clone made as the shockwave sent me flipping through the air, but I quickly reoriented myself as I landed just in time to see all four spitting out a barrage of boulders at me.
'You can't hesitate! Take their lives and worry about it later!' I shouted at myself as I weaved through signs, taking a deep breath before the sparking screech of electricity could be heard as I spat out four piercing bolts of lightning.
"Lightning Style: False Darkness!" The four lightning bolts sliced through the boulders and through the skulls of three of the four shinobi, the kunoichi of the four barely dodging it but not without injury as the bolt sliced her right arm clean off.
The two kunai in my grasp were aimed and thrown at her right as I leapt over the four boulders that flew past under me, the kunoichi's pain ending abruptly as one stabbed in her eye and the other into her throat.
"Water Style: Severing Wave!" However, I did not go near her as I kneaded chakra in my stomach before spitting out a compressed torrent of water, swinging my head around and making sure to slice her into ribbons before slicing her head off for the final attack.
Cutting off my jutsu, my legs fuelled with chakra as I rushed over to where Yahiko and the others were fighting, Yahiko pulling a katana he most likely took from the storage out of the head of a shinobi while Konan was standing with her hands on her knees and dry-heaving off to the side as most of the shinobi around them had paper blades sticking out from inside their body.
'Oof, paper cuts from the inside are not fun.' I had proposed the idea to her of covering her paper in oil since that's what she did later in the original universe to let her use her paper jutsu even in stormy weather, but what I didn't expect was for her to learn the toad oil jutsu which are especially water-resistant and very flammable.
That combined with her need to be very efficient leads to some jutsu that even I don't want to be a victim of, especially after she decided to learn the human anatomy from the notes Tsunade left me.
"You two okay?" I asked as I slowed down, Yahiko simply nodding and wiping off the katana despite his shaking hands while I placed a glowing green hand on Konan's back to help ease the pain.
'I guess it's a good thing our first kills were this quick.' Even I could still feel the fear and adrenaline pumping through my body, but as the leader, I had to force myself to work through it and be strong for them.
Emotions can come later.
"Good. Hah, here are most of their weapon supplies." He said as he held out a rather large scroll to me before I smiled and shook my head.
"Keep it. Konan, do you have the notes?"
"Sealed in my scroll." She answered and I nodded before creating a pair of clones while picking Konan up in a piggyback.
"Use the tags we have left and make sure no bodies can be found whole, understood?" I said as I handed the few explosive tags I had left, Yahiko doing the same as the clones took them before saluting and began piling the bodies in the centre of the camp.
"Come on. Let's get home and figure out which camps we're going to hit next."
"Oh, is that so?" My eyes widened and I quickly reached out to Yahiko before leaping away right as the ground below us opened, my clones jumping back with us.
Swiftly throwing Konan at Yahiko, I gave him a pointed stare and he caught the message as he sheathed the katana in his grasp before the two of them ran away right as I looked back to see both of my clones being destroyed by a rock hammer.
"Huh, and here I thought you were just a normal kid. Should have known there was something off about you." The large Iwa shinobi that took my supplies spoke with a frown as he pushed himself out of the hole he made in the ground, to which I frowned as I took out my last kunai right as the shinobi spun the handle of his rock hammer.
The next second, I rushed forward and skated across the wet ground right as he slammed his hammer into the ground, a shockwave of sharp rocks rippling across the ground in all directions right as I leapt up and away from them.
"Fire Style: Toad Flame Bombs!" Moulding the chakra in my stomach, I took a deep breath before spitting out a barrage of small flaming oil bombs, the Iwa shinobi rushing forward and around them right as I landed and met his charge with my own.
He spun and swung the hammer at my chest, but I slid under it while aiming for his legs only for the shinobi to leap over it while throwing his hammer towards me.
A quick leap to my feet and into the air sent me flipping over the hammer before I rushed towards him right as I landed, the shinobi landing and lifting a knee to block my kick.
Pushing my leg to the side, he swung a heavy fist at my chest, but I pushed it down while using it as a support to land a harsh heel kick to his neck.
Unfortunately, he tanked the blow before slamming his own heel kick into my chest and it was only through Sensei's training that I took it with a grunt while letting myself be thrown back, rolling over the ground before I fuelled chakra to my hands and pulled a large amount of water from it.
"Water Style: Water Whip!" Swinging the water above my hand, I feinted at his legs before swinging my arm back around and wrapping the water whip around his upper body to pin his arms to his chest right before I spun with a strained growl and slammed him skull first into the ground.
However, it was but a rock clone as the real one leapt out from the ground behind me, my eyes widening as I twisted my body just enough for the rock spear in his grasp to cut deep into my side instead of it impaling me through the chest.
"Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!" Unfortunately for him, he came too close to me as I placed a hand on his shoulder before unleashing a deadly stream of electricity directly into his body, leaping onto his back and holding him in a choke hold right as I continued fuelling more and more of the electricity through his body.
Some of the stray electricity numbed my body, but I kept my grasp until I was sure he was charred on the inside, going for a few more seconds even after I saw his eyes pop out with a gory spray of blood before finally dismissing the jutsu and tossing his body to the side.
'Hah, that…could have gone…very badly.' I thought with deep breaths as I placed a hand on my side, a sigh of relief escaping my lips as I laid there while slowly healing my wounds.
It was a few minutes later that I stood up, thankful for the fact that I was an Uzumaki and a student of Sensei's training as only half of my chakra was used in that entire battle sequence and most of my shallow wounds had already healed by now.
'Now, time to find Yahiko and Konan so we can get some rest before our next outing.'
A/N: Their first actual life or death battle and as you can see, Nagato have the skills needed to survive, but he doesn't have the situational awareness to survive a full-on battle against an army.
That will come with experience, which will come in time.
Also, like I said, against genin and Chunin, they'd win, but if there was like a jounin commander, they would have had a lot of trouble taking him out.
Another also, the element of surprise can turn a battle around very quickly so I thought Nagato summoning the snake as a bluff to make them think Orochimaru was there and then having it rampage through the camp was a good idea.
However, let me know what you guys thought of it.
Like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories & even some that haven't been released out to this site yet. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
Anyway, as always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one...
Ba-Bye~!