Kuhara running towards the forest did not go unnoticed by Kumo shinobi. Two ninjas followed Kuhara as he made his way through the forest.
Kuhara ran from the village in a blind dash through the forest. Kumo ninjas on the other hand, drunk on bloodlust did not even try to conceal their presence from their prey.
Soon a Kunai zipped past Kuhara, barely missing him before embedding in front of him, stopping him dead in his tracks.
"Ah, we have a tree hugger here. Given how pathetically you were fleeing, I would have not guessed." On Kumo nin, a large man with grey hair laughed along with his companion which suddenly became bloody coughs.
Looking down, he saw a katana going through his chest before falling off the tree branch, dead. His companion immediately fired multiple shurikens at the location only to hit nothing. Looking around, he tried to find the enemy. Hering something, he turned his head only to have senbons biting into his neck and he fell unconscious.
Itsuki's figure appeared and immediately caught the unconscious ninja before he could fall off and landed in front of Kuhara.
Kuhara on the other hand looked overwhelmed and was about to say something before Itsuki raised his hand and signaled him to not make any noise. Subdued, Kuhara complied.
Itsuki stood up and moved towards the corpse of Kumo ninja and removed the katana and put it back in the scabbard. It was the same katana leader of the Kumo elite team wielded.
He then stood near Kuhara and started making a series of hand signs before activating the jutsu.
'Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage'
The ground below turned into fluid and three of them were swallowed into the bowels of the earth.
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Border Outpost
"Run!"
"Monster"
"Stay in formation"
"Flank him fr...aaaaaaaaaaaa!"
Kakuzu walked almost leisurely through the wreckage, before dropping a now dead samurai. Bodies of dozens of samurai and shinobi alike were scattered around, along with some Anbu in the burning remains of the fort.
Half of the Anbu fled before he could kill them but no matter. His objective was complete and that's all he cared about. Kumo can handle the rest. Anbu rarely had any good cash cow, killing them free labor, not worth it.
He walked towards the last part standing of the small fort, sensing multiple presences behind the wall.
Forming a string of hand signs, he spats out a small fireball towards the wall.
'Fire Release: Intelligent Hard Work'
The small fireball crashes through the wall before turning into a gigantic inferno, burning all hidden presences to a crisp before they were even able to scream.
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"Darui-sama, first phase complete," Sensor-nin reported. Darui and sensor-nin stood near the snow-covered caps of one of the tallest mountains on Land of Fire- Hot spring borders.
"I can see that Genkei," Darui spoke, his voice betraying no emotion.
From his location, Darui watched dozens of orange light of fires over the fog setting in the valley, each burning remains of what minutes before were small villages. Low rumblings of explosions echoed now and then.
'Real proud are you, are you not. Just like your mother's homeland, is it not so same, so same. Burnt and black, blood and red. Same, so same. Mother should be proud.' Venomous mad ravings filled his head, angry and vengeful.
Darui was no longer able to bear the guilt, turning away from the scene and addressed the sensor.
"Genkei, inform me when teams are in position." and turned to ninja carrying a communication unit on his back. "Inform all units in range to move to the second phase. I want all the enemy units cleared by tomorrow."
Darui's voice was even and authoritative, not sowing a hint of his inner turmoil.
Ninja just shook his head in affirmative before picking up the microphone and speaking, "Bravo Delta, Command center speaking. Proceed to phase two. I repeat, proceed to phase two."
Just a little bit more and all this will be worthwhile.
'Say that to the dead.'
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
The bloody night passed and when the sunlight reached once happy little mountain villages, all left there were ashes and blotches of blood. Konoha Anbu suffered the same fate and by the daybreak, any person whose alliance was not with Kumo had lost the privilege to breathe.
That is, anyone other than Itsuki and Kuhara, who were underground, in a cavity shaped by Itsuki using earth chakra manipulation, about the size of a small room and enough to be able to accommodate three people and some, one of which is stripped and bound, a small chakra lamp between them.
Itsuki watched Kuhara sleeping, the last few hours were not kind to him, and turned his attention to the Kumo prisoner. His body was broken and bloodied, his limbs bound into the wall hardened with earth chakra and a seal across on his navel, preventing any molding of chakra.
Despite looking worse for wear, broken and battered Kumo nin had a disturbing grin on his face.
"Too soft kid, try hard enough or I might sleep." Kumo nin said with mirth in his voice and Itsuki resisted the urge to punch him, not that it will help him.
"Hehe, my mother tortured me better than you, and she was not even a shinobi. Better was your mothe...ahhhh" This time Itsuki did punch, square on his nose, even using a little chakra.
Kumo nin just spits but wisely decides to keep his trap shut, an eerie smile still present on his face like he knows something but he is not going to say it.
Itsuki on the other hand was frustrated. He has no idea about the situation but there has to be a reason why Kumo suddenly decided to invade. And being underground, he was cut off from sensing properly beyond a few miles, which were certainly not enough to know the whole situation.
Itsuki thought knowing the pain receptors and being a master in Human Psychology will make him a pro at torture and interrogation, but he stands corrected.
But not all is for naught. Making a rat hand seal, he watched on as Kumo nin's eyes glazed over.
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Raiden was one of the most capable chunins in the entire Kumo and up in line for Jonin promotion. Because of this when Anbu approached for an off record's mission straight from Raikage and council, he agreed without a second thought.
But suddenly waking up in a dark cell without any idea how he got there, limbs tied and chakra shackled, he could not help but feel fearful. None of that could be gleaned from his face though, which was a perfect mask of indifference.
The door to his cell opens and before he could get a look at the person entering, a bright flashlight switched on in front of his eyes, forcing him to close his eyes.
A gruff voice spoke, "State your name and designation."
Creeking open his eyes, Raiden mockingly replies, "Like hell I would!"
Just then a heavy punch to his face knocks the wind out of him, sending him flying into the cell wall. The figure interrogating him steps forward and to Raiden's horror, the flashlight illuminates the figure of Fourth Raikage.
"Looks like you don't know your situation here. You are already on thin ice due to treason, now you have the gall to deny your kage's orders."
Raiden's mind went blank and he dumbly asked, "Treason, what treason?"
"You along with other ninjas made an unprovoked attack in the land of fire, bringing both nations to the brink of war."
Pieces of memories started to come back to him, off the record's mission, moving out and hiding for days, attacking the mountain village, and then ... nothing.
"Give me one reason why I should not give you to Konoha in a bodybag." And Raiden shivered. He did not want to die.
With a parched throat, he tried to explain, "Raikage-sama, I am Riden Nakamura, a senior chunin of Kumo, id 1345232. Two weeks ago, I was given a mission by an Anbu, who said it was off the record's assault mission from the council." Raiden stopped there, fearing reprisal for saying more. Saying Council was responsible for nearly causing war was a heavy accusation.
But to his relief, Raikage looked thoughtful. Almost absentmindedly, he asked, "What was the mission?"
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Itsuki watched as the Kumo chunin, now identified as Raiden started spilling the details about the mission. His eyes still glazed, he continued speaking, "Complete mission parameters were kept a secret but my orders were threefold. The entire mission had multiple phases and each phase had different instructions. Phase one was to surround and eliminate all low-risk targets. Here we were ordered to exterminate all civilians present in 50 miles radius."
"The second phase was to form teams of three and eliminate all high-risk targets that managed to escape phase one. Both phases were to be completed overnight. Phase three was longer. Every earth nature user was given Jutsu 'Earth release-Great moving earth core' to memorize and because I had worked to master my earth nature for my Jonin promotion, I too was given one. We were not given any information as to what we have to do in phase three, just that we will be informed on the spot."
Itsuki searched the cloths laying on the side, and sure enough, there was a scroll on Great moving earth core.
'What would such a large scale combination jutsu be needed for?'
Before Itsuki could continue his interrogation, a large shock rippled through the ground. The shockwave was large enough to nearly break Itsuki's hold on genjutsu and startling Kuhara awake.
Unaware of the shock, Kumo nin continued, "Although no one explicitly said anything, the rumor was that we identified a large source of chakra metal at the land of fire border and we were going to steal it."
Another shockwave ripped, stronger but this time Itsuki was prepared. He maintained his hold over Kumo nin and let him continue.
"Who else was present in the operation?"
Kumo nin stopped for a movement, focusing on remembering the details. "Operation was lead by Darui, along with Sensor prodigy Genkei. I have no idea about the total number but my battalion alone consisted of forty ninjas, most of them Anbu or Jonin."
"How many battalions you think there were?"
"At least five if rumors are anything to go by."
Kuhara and Itsuki looked at each other. Being surrounded and outnumbered, their situation was not good, not to mention they have a sensor. The movement they were found, they will have nowhere to hide. As a sensor, Itsuki knew this better than anyone.
Suddenly a static-filled sound came from Kumo nin's clothes. Kuhara, jumpy and scared, hurled a kunai at it but Itsuki caught it mid-flight.
Ignoring the incredulous expression of Kuhara, Itsuki moved towards the clothes only to pick out a handheld radio communicator.
"Raiden come in. Raiden come in."
Itsuki turns towards the Kumo nin and asks, "What was the radio password?"
"Delta come in."
After some thought, Itsuki switched on the microphone and spoke in a perfect imitation of Raidens voice, "Delta come in. Reporting for duty."