Chapter 24: Battle
Hikari stopped fiddling with the repellent and put it back in its slot on Malaria's grenade belt. "It will indeed be suicidal if someone manages to reach you. Especially in an ambush." She said.
Rummaging through her own ninja pouch for a few moments, she pulled out yet another scroll. Placing it in Malaria's hand, she cautioned, "This is something my Hyuuga clan isn't supposed to have, but I do. Study it carefully, and if asked - you didn't get it from me! Leave the frontlines to me, the middleground to Yamana-san, and you take the support in the back."
Briefly stunned, Malaria took a closer look at Hikari and Yamana, only to discover they were already borderline Chunin-rank! No wonder they kept looking down on him, their chakra already reached such a level. Opening the scroll he found the Insect Clone Technique of the Aburame clan.
Eyeing Hikari strangely, Malaria rolled it up and put it in his ninja bag. 'I think I heard she used to team up with an Aburame clansman before. Perhaps she only borrowed it and forgot to return it. It's pretty darn useless for anyone outside the Aburame clan.' Malaria thought.
—
As they were arming themselves for battle and chatting on the way to the Hokage building, Suzuki Yamaha waved his hand for them to quiet down. As they arrived at the small square in front of the building, they found hundreds of Genin and Chunin lining up, preparing for a large-scale mission.
Not paying any heed other then to remain silent, they walked past the gathering and entered the Hokage building. Finding several Jonin inside, discussing matters related to their stations during the war - they walked up the stairs to the Hokage office.
Knocking on the door, Yamaha pushed it open after receiving a muffled 'Enter.' Before any greetings could be exchanged, Malaria stepped forth to say a few things. Not paying heed that Orochimaru and the elders Koharu and Homura that were present, he began;
"Tyrant of Konoha, the mighty Sarutobi Hiruzen - in his vilest of methods he sends children not even 7 years old to fight the battles he himself couldn't stop through discussion. What disastrous living conditions children like myself have to endure, just to have a place to eat and sleep!"
The silence was deafening. One could almost hear the bloodstream as it flushed through the popping vein on the Hokage's forehead. Koharu and Homura had black lines running down their foreheads, unable to respond. Orochimaru on the other hand had an imperceptible smirk on his lips.
As Sarutobi was about to open his mouth to condemn the words, Malaria interrupted him, "I petition that all children under the age of 12 must remain within the village in war-time! We can paint camouflage - dyeing the endlessly beige walls and making them hidden, prepare traps outside- and maintain village functions as the adults are out there fighting for us youngins!"
Sarutobi couldn't help but slam the table in anger, standing up from his desk. Malaria didn't stop though, "What sort of Will of Fire burns the stems and sprouts of the leaves!? All you get is smoke, there won't be any fires left to keep the village youths dancing in the shadows of the flames!"
The Hokage visibly withered a little from that statement. As if he didn't consider that fact before. What can a little devil like Malaria possibly know about his struggles? But what he says does make some sense… Snapping out of his thoughts, Hiruzen glared at Malaria.
"Stop mouthing off in regards to adult matters. Every straw pulled by the little ones can determine victory and defeat in these trying times. I had intended for your squad to remain within the Land of Fire's border, on the lookout for any infiltrations by foreign shinobi."
Glancing at Orochimaru, Hiruzen continues, "Instead, you will follow my top student Orochimaru to the battlefront around Kusagakure. There has been too much activity seen by Iwagakure in the area, and we can't have them taking parts of the Country of Grass."
[A/N: Kusagakure = Grass Village. Iwagakure = Stone Village.]
Hearing that he would've just had to stay within the border, but now has to infiltrate foreign territory - Malaria paled. Feeling the stinging gazes from Team Suzuki behind himself, he could only pretend he's alright with that arrangement.
"Your first mission will be to enter Kusagakure and meet up with our informers. We've always supplied the Grass with plenty of armaments and other supplies throughout the years, but the reports claim the Rock have become the ones to receive the shipments." Hiruzen glanced at Mitokado Homura.
Nodding his head, Homura stepped forward and explained that Kusagakure had been an ally of Konoha for the longest time. But right now the higherups and top Jonins of Kusa have been acting too close with the Iwagakure shinobi. It needs to be investigated if the Kusa can still be trusted.
Their mission was to act like ordinary Konoha shinobi out on a mission, a normal and simple ordeal with three child Genin- and a barely Jonin level in their squad. Just by being themselves, they will be treated as nothing special leading to easy infiltrations into Kusagakure.
Once they've obtained information, either a confirmation that Kusagakure is under the control of Iwagakure or not, they shall report to Orochimaru. Mr. Snake will be the commander of the frontline between Konoha and Iwa, and will make all the decisions how further actions will be taken.
Suzuki Yamaha confirmed that his team is up for the task. Infiltrating an 'ally' with their setup is not an issue at all. Especially since all three brats technically count as reconnaissance shinobi. Hyuuga with the Byakugan, Yamanaka with Mind Body Change Technique, and the ex. Aburame, Malaria with his insects.
Not to mention, Malaria also has that air-glider. Airborne shinobi are something extremely rare, with only the Tsuchikage from Iwa being the only confirmed user. After the task was accepted, they left and joined the other Genin and Chunin waiting to dispatch to the border.
After about another hour, the Hokage with elders and Orochimaru in tow came out of the building. After an 'encouraging' speech, Orochimaru led the entire shinobi army of about 600 men out of Konoha. It was finally time to depart - the war has begun.
—
As they walked through the forests of the Land of Fire, Malaria couldn't help but widen his eyes to all the precious herbs he never knew existed just oustide the gates of Konoha. For some reason, he felt that herbs and other plants were supposed to be rare from the show he saw in his previous life.
The prices in the poison shop also suggested that, but there's clearly materials all over the place! Every three steps you can spot a root, a mushroom, or special flower that's required to create parts of the pink-mix and repellent formulas.
Feeling tremendously cheated by this revelation, after half a days walk the troop finally stopped for some rest near a river. At this moment, Malaria and his companions were dumped right next to the beach. According to schedule, they'll arrive at the border to the Land of Grass in another three days.
"Where did the rest of our 'army'-troop go?" Malaria looked around and noticed about 200 of their initial members had disappeared to who knows where. Hikari opened a scroll with a detailed map of the Land of Fire and said;
"According to the current pace and what Orochimaru-sama led us to believe, we should reach the Land of Grass in three days, but I think those 200 members were sent as an advance force. They're probably already halfway there, since there's mostly Genin and a few Chunin remaining with us." Yamana nodded along with Hikari's assumption.
"Does that mean there has been signs of ambush along the road from Konoha towards the Land of Grass?" Yamana asked. Hikari nodded her head and checked her equipment, before looking for a spot to set up their cooking wares to prepare lunch.
'BOOM, BOOM - BooOOooM!'
Suddenly, several explosions started cascading in a crescendo further away. They could see the smoke and fires rising from the edge of the encampment. Someone really had ambushed their contingency with explosive tags in the middle of the Land of Fire!
"Damn. How much wealth did they just blow up just to make an entrance? I could've made some proper research progress with the value of those tags!" Malaria shook his head. The country with the most wealth truly could just cover the enemy in money until they died. It's reasonable the other countries target the Land of Fire together every war.
"You're impressed by just that?" Yamana looked at Malaria with disdain and said, "Such explosive tags cannot hurt anyone unless they're stuck to your face. Besides, the only village that has techniques that let explosive tags become truly dangerous is our very own Konoha. You should see Second Hokage's technique of multiplying one explosive tag to hundreds and thousands!"
Hikari couldn't help but chuckle, "Advanced techniques like that have high requirements. Besides, weapons like explosive tags are created to be utilized, not to be decorations." Malaria shrugged and stopped talking. He understood the use of the explosive tag, it's just that the monetary value of one could be used for more usefull things.
The issue was that he did not like that he couldn't afford to use weaponry that other people could use. "Let's go and assist the frontline, they've already engaged in combat. We need to find ourselves some prey, too." Yamana was eager to unsheathe her Chakra Sword and take a swing at whoever dares to attack the Konoha military in their own country.
'Hiuu.. Hiuu… Hiuuuu!'
Right then, Malaria's hairs stood on end as he heard a tiny noise, created by objects moving fast in the air. Malaria quickly stepped forward and tackled Hikari to the ground. He glanced back, only to see the ground where she stood covered in kunai and shurikens falling from the sky.
On a closer look, several of the kunai had explosive tags attached to them. "It's a explosive tag covered kunai rain!" Malaria shouted, and rolled away on the ground even further with Hikari in his arms - Being careful to not break any of his bottles in the process.
Yamana quickly drew her Chakra Sword and looked around warily. They were already next to the river, almost in the center of their entire troop. How could they be targeted so far inside their lines?
'BAM, BAM, BAM!'
The explosive tags on the kunai were exploding in tandem, spreading smoke and flames in their vicinity. Hikari's eyes were horrifyingly cold, activating her Byakugan in an instant. Had Malaria not tackled her, she would've been heavily wounded, if not dead.
"Which bastard just ambushed my friend and hated enemy!? Get the hell out here!" Yamana stared at the forest the thrown weaponry flew out of with her full attention. Holding her Chakra Sword, she was ready to deflect any further attacks.
"What a pity. The least impressive looking person in your team turns out to be a rare perceptive ninja." Two young men with the Iwagakure head protector walked out of the forest with massive swords in their hands. They were clearly using the Earth Release: Super Light-Weight Rock Technique to swing them around.
Malaria's pupils constricted, he felt he couldn't be more unlucky right now. Both of these two had bingo-book entries and Yamaha-sensei had warned them to stay away from them if spotted. They were way above the standard Chunin classification - they are definitely stronger than Yamana and Hikari.
There was also someone unknown still in the forest, probably the guy who was throwing the kunai and shuriken from before. This was indeed a disaster encounter!
One of the two rock-ninja looked at Malaria with interest, "My little friend over there, why don't you team up with us from Iwagakure? I've heard that the hypocritical Konoha have mistreated you a lot, which would never happen in our village for such a talented genius."
Apparently their information network was completely up to date. It's hard to miss when Malaria caused incident after incident, leading to the Uchiha clan and Akimichi to even become inlaws! It doesn't hurt to try and fish for talent in muddy waters.
Not like Iwagakure could ever trust a missing-nin, especially one from Konoha, but sowing discord is a perfectly acceptable method to use in wartime. Just for this battle, it would increase their odds to take down the geniuses from Hyuuga and Yamanaka in an instant.
"Malaria, don't you dare!" Yamana glared at Malaria and kept him behind herself.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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ThugB This is my first comedy work, and I hope you'll have plenty of laughs. I've heard rumors about a certain stone. A stone with power. One could call it:
The power stone!
And I have an instatiable craving for some of those. Please leave yours behind on the way out! Oh, and do leave a comment or review while you're at it, or I'll send a quintuple amount of mosquitoes to your area!
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