Chapter 14: Conflict of Interest
Susumu passed by the collapsed tent of their squad captain, Shingo. It was crumpled and folded in on itself with slashes along the sides.
After quickly glancing inside the tent and determining that neither Shingo nor his corpse were inside, he continued forward into the encampment.
The clashing of steel, pained wales of the injured, splintering of rock, and bursting of flame were all that could be heard around him. Where he could once listen to his own rhythmic breathing in the calm forest ambience, now such a thing was no longer possible.
As Susumu ran, an agonized groan broke through the symphony of hard-fought battle, and he turned towards its source.
It came from a small supply tent were much of their military arsenal resided — extra ninja tools, bombs of various utility, and equipment for traps. It was one of the single most important locations of their encampment to say the least. So important, in fact, that they had even designated a person to its continual protection in the case of an emergency.
"Takumi," Susumu muttered, having recognized the voice.
He didn't waste any time and broke through the flap of the tent to assess the genin's condition.
"C'mon kid, come and give daddy a hug," a man wearing an Iwa uniform said.
Takumi stood with a hand clutching his left shoulder, which was bleeding profusely. A steady stream of blood traveled down his arm and leaked onto the floor in a small pool. His breathing was haggard, and his guard remained lowered.
Takumi was terrified. He was originally excited about the prospect of fighting valiantly in battle, but when he saw his chunin comrade get gutted in front of him, he immediately abandoned such a ridiculous notion and retreated. After all, he was assigned to guard this arsenal in the event of an attack, so nobody could blame him, right?
Takumi thought he could hide inside for the duration of the battle, but his hopes were dashed when the Iwa shinobi before him had entered and slashed him with a short sword. His left shoulder wailed in pain, and he'd lost all feeling down the rest of his arm. He was fairly sure most of the nerves had been cleanly severed — a fact which he was uncertain whether to be grateful for or not.
But just when Takumi thought he'd die a gruesome death like his chunin comrade before him, the Iwa shinobi stopped dead in his tracks.
Takumi was befuddled by the man's sudden cessation of his advance. However, when he noticed the kunai sticking out of the front of the man's throat, he understood what had happened. He'd been saved!
When the kunai was pulled out of the Iwa shinobi's neck, he dropped to the ground like a listless doll.
"Are you alright?" Susumu asked the wounded Takumi.
"Y-Yeah. Thanks." Takumi stared at the lifeless, blank eyes of the Iwa shinobi on the ground and swallowed.
Susumu nodded and said, "You don't need to guard this place anymore. At this point… it doesn't matter."
"What's happening out there?" Takumi asked with dilated eyes. He didn't want to go outside and face the horrors of combat. Now, he just wanted to go home.
"Nothing good. As far as I can tell, most of everyone has been killed. Maybe even the captain himself. It might just be the two of us who remain alive."
Takumi took a step back in fear. He glanced at the tent entrance with some trepidation, "S-So what do we do?"
Susumu ignored the blatant fright on Takumi's face. It was normal for many recruits — especially kids — to react that way in their first battle.
"What else? We go out there and fight. If we're lucky, Shingo-taichou may still be alive, and then we might have a genuine chance of surviving this mess."
"And if he's not?" Takumi asked, but he did not want to hear the answer.
"Then we do the best we can, whatever outcome that may lead to," Susumu said before turning away to leave.
As Susumu stepped out of the tent, he froze. 'My other shadow clone has also died… I hope the same cannot be said for Katsu.'
"S-Susumu?" Takumi said worriedly from behind.
"It's nothing, let's go."
~~~~~
Shingo raised his ninjatō in front of him, all ten fingers tightly grasped around it's wrapped handle.
He was at his wit's end. His chakra was all but gone, and his body was on the verge of collapse. He'd seen many of his men die already, and he suspected that only a scant few remained, wherever they may be.
He'd managed to kill two of the Iwa chunin, but the other two and their jonin leader were proving to be a problem. He knew it wouldn't be long before more arrived to gang up on him, but there was not much he could do anymore. He could only pray that the gods would smile upon him this day, and perhaps then he'll live to see the sunrise.
One of Iwa chunin tried to position himself behind Shingo, but Shingo wasn't having it. He immediately cut the man off and slashed at him with his sword. The last thing he could allow to happen was let himself be surrounded, then he would surely be doomed.
Shingo's sword slid across the Iwa shinobi's midsection in one horizontal motion, slicing open a fresh wound and adding a new stain to the blade.
"Aghh!" the man squealed in pain and jumped back. It was a nonlethal wound, but it hurt like hell all the same.
The Iwa jonin punched the ground, and the dirt under Shingo's feet shifted. He could feel it began to slide and flow like a river. He jumped into the air, seeking more solid footing elsewhere.
As Shingo was in the air, a barrage of rocks came his way from one of the Iwa chunin. He cut down as many of the rock projectiles as he could, but his stamina was nearing its limit. His tired arms refused to keep up with the pace of the attack, and his guard collapsed as a result.
Shingo fell to the ground with small holes littering his arms and legs. He protected his vitals the best he could, but it came at the cost of both his mobility and offensive ability. He was effectively a cripple with little use in all four of his limbs.
"Finally down for the count?" the Iwa jonin asked with a smirk.
"It would seem so," Shingo said exasperated. He sat on one knee, trying to keep himself from downright passing out as best he could.
The Iwa jonin gave a toothy grin and approached Shingo with a kunai in hand. However, he froze in place when he saw something behind the kneeling Shingo.
"There are still some survivors?" the jonin mumbled to himself in surprise.
"Shingo-taichou!" Susumu shouted from the distance.
Shingo turned his head back to glance at Susumu.
"Ah… at least one of my men managed to survive thus far. Oh and the kid too." Shingo smiled briefly, but he knew that their lives were only temporary. Alas, he would give them the best chance at continued survival as he could.
Shingo looked back at the Iwa jonin, who was still watching the two Konoha shinobi in the distance.
The jonin looked back at Shingo. "We'll deal with them in a moment, but you're end comes first."
"I agree," Shingo said simply, puzzling the three Iwa shinobi.
"It's good that you've accep-" began the jonin, but a threatening sizzle and momentary flash of light out from under Shingo's flak jacket withheld his tongue.
Watching the blinding white light with confusion, the jonin's brain finally managed to decipher what was happening before his eyes.
"Get aw-!"
That was the last thing to leave the Iwa jonin's mouth as his entire body was engulfed in the flames of a ground-shaking explosion, which lifted the world from twilight for a brief moment. His two chunin comrades were not spared as they too were consumed by the blast, being reduced to nothing but bits of char scattered across a shallow crater.
In the distance, Susumu and Takumi covered their eyes with their arms, shielding themselves from the dust kicked up by Shingo's self-detonation.
'He lined the inside of his jacket with paper bombs… What a crazy bastard,' Susumu thought, 'Rest in peace, Captain.'
Takumi stood wide eyed at what had just taken place before him — that is until Susumu shook him out of his reverie.
"We need to move," Susumu said, "The Captain sacrificed himself to give us a chance to escape, so we're not going to waste it."
Takumi nodded dumbly and followed Susumu into the smoke. The explosion both blew open a hole in the encirclement and provided a smokescreen. Susumu would be a fool if he were to waste this opportunity, ultimately invalidating Shingo's efforts.
The two scrambled through the smoke towards the edge of the encampment. Susumu held the lead while Takumi stuck right behind him.
Outside the confines of the smoke, the two could hear the startled shouting of Iwa shinobi. By now, the sounds of battle had ceased. It seemed that all of the other Konoha shinobi had perished, excluding them. They both understood this fact but were too consumed with fleeing to acknowledge it.
"You're not leaving," a muffled voice said as the smoke was dispersed with a burst of wind.
Before Susumu had the chance to react, something appeared in front of him at a pace far too unbelievable. He wanted to do something to defend himself, but his world had already turned black.
Takumi watched with disbelief as Susumu was slammed in the face by a forearm and thrown onto his back in a single, almost unperceivable instant.
"You're not going anywhere, kid," a man behind a white leopard mask said.
Takumi stared at the mysterious man as his heart was drowned in dread. He'd finally reached the end of the line.
~~~~~
The Root shinobi in the fox mask held the man in place by his shadow — a Nara clan specialty.
"W-What is this?" the white masked man asked in a panic.
The man in the white mask struggled with all of his might to set himself free. It felt as though invisible chains had constrained him and bound him in place like a statue. For someone who prided himself on his speed, being stuck in place like this was incredibly frustrating.
He held the Konoha genin by the throat. He'd intended to kill the kid but found himself unable to do so, and was ultimately forced to drop him against his will. The kid quickly crawled away in fear.
Then there was a whistle and the rushing of footsteps.
"Kill him," the fox said from behind.
The man in the white mask fought to turn his head to see who had spoken, but he was unable to do so. The best he could manage was to fruitlessly dance his eyes around in their sockets.
He could feel that he was surrounded, and if the sudden silence was anything to go by, his fellow Iwa shinobi were killed in one fell swoop. It was a widespread assassination.
"Anbu?" The man wondered aloud. They were the only Konoha military force he knew capable of doing such a thing, but why would they be so far out near the Land of Fire's border?
The fox said nothing in return and waited patiently for his comrades to arrive, and soon they did, surrounding the kekkei genkai user.
The fox nodded to the other members of Root, who in turn, targeted the man in the white mask with an unavoidable hail of kunai and shuriken.
"Dammit!" the man yelled out in frustration.
He hurriedly triggered the effect of his kekkei genkai, flooding his body with hyper-charged chakra. As he did so, his body began to twitch. After a short moment, he was able to shift his limbs a little and even turn his head.
However, as ironic as it was, he was not fast enough. The rain of projectiles reached him in a wave of razor-sharp hell, but he pushed on nonetheless. His body was quickly pierced, shredded, and mutilated by the cumulative attack.
But his determination would not fail him, and so he carried on. And in a moment of maddening will, the man in the white mask finally managed to break from the binds that constrained him, taking off into the distance before anyone could blink.
"After him!" The fox shouted at the others, who immediately ran off in the direction the man had fled.
However, the fox did not move from his place. He knew there was no catching the man — for matching a swift release user in a game of speed was a laughable endeavor.
"Danzo-sama will not be pleased…" he mumbled to himself.
~~~~~
The man in the white mask, bloodied beyond belief, collapsed beside a tree. He had sufficiently distanced himself from his pursuers and had even taken random diversions for good measure.
But his body was failing him. He had lost too much blood. The amount of wounds that decorated his limbs and torso were innumerable, and he would lose consciousness soon. He only hoped that he would be located by Iwagakure first before anyone else.
And Iwagakure would look for him; He was simply too valuable of an asset to be abandoned.
"Well, what do we have here?" a voice said from nearby.
'Damn…' the man in the white mask thought before ultimately slipping into a state of mental incognizance, much to his dismay.
"I have kept an eye on you for awhile, waiting for the perfect moment to take you for myself. I thought I'd have to attack you in your sleep, but it seems those Root have done all the hard work for me," the voice continued.
"Now I just need a suitable subject… and I think I saw one fighting elsewhere. Perfect."
The voice, which came from a man in a dark hood, created a shadow clone. The clone picked up the injured swift release user and took off into the cover of night while the real version headed in a particular direction.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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RumRumRum The next chapter will be a "make or break" chapter for a lot of people. You might hate it, or even love it. Just know that it will be what I had intended to do from chapter 1, and not just something I decided to do on a whim. See ya then.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
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