26 Dodged my Kunai, Have a Tree

"BOOOOM"

Itsuki and Kuhara immediately halted upon hearing the dull sound of an explosion over the silence of the dark forest.

"What was that?" Kuhara turned, "That came from the directions of Fort."

Itsuki did not say anything, opting to silently increase his sensing range. Sensing in the direction of the fort, sensed all half the Anbu's rushing towards the fort, the chakra's in the fort were active and moving about. But what raised all the hairs on Itsuki's back was an abnormal and huge chakra signature slowly approaching the Fort.

"Let's move to the observation post. We could be under attack, so keep a lookout." Itsuki said to Kuhara. He wanted to be nowhere near the owner of that abnormal chakra signature.

Kuhara nodded and both started to move again. Itsuki started to expand his perception, increasing his sensing range. Ten miles, twenty miles, thirty miles, forty miles, sixty miles, Itsuki had to stop himself from increasing in beyond. He could feel every single chakra signature in his sensing radius and what he sensed left him breathless.

They were surrounded, surrounded by a vastly large number and far more capable. A part of the presumed enemy force was maintaining the perimeter while the rest were systematically moving inwards.

And a team of three was making their way towards him, and Itsuki did not require sensing their emotions to know they don't have good intentions.

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A team of Kumo's elite Jonin was moving towards two chakra signatures appearing to be around genin levels.

"You will soon be out of Radio coverage. The chakra signatures are moving east, about eight miles, two o'clock from your direction." A voice revibrated over the radio comms, alerting the team leader.

Soon the radio goes silent. The team leader, a gruff-looking man in his late twenties, signaled the rest of his team.

'Two Enemies. Low Threat. Ten minutes.'

The rest of his team nodded, getting ready for confrontation.

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Itsuki sensed chakra signatures approaching, soon they will be over them. Looking over to Kuhara, he formed a plan in his mind.

"Hey Kuhara, if we are under attack, the enemy will be expecting us at the observation post. We should head south, towards the village."

Kuhara, who was tense since the explosion, thought for a movement before agreed with the idea. "Yeah, we should do that."

"You head south, towards the village while I erase the trail. I will join you in an hour in the village."

Kuhara hesitated but nodded, before going off towards the village. Itsuki sensed if someone was moving towards intercept Kuhara but breathed in relief sensing the team moving at their original path.

'Were they moving based on intel or something?'

Watching as Kuhara vanishes in thick fog and inky darkness, Itsuki immediately turns his face towards the direction of Kumo's team.

With a deep breath, he takes in the cold autumn air. Cutting off his abundant chakra to the Yin and Yang seals on his palms, he lets it flood his chakra pathways like a raging river before bringing it under excellent control.

Under his control, chakra selectively spreads in his muscles and bones, settling in like a second set of muscles atop his skeletal system.

The diamond-shaped seal under his forehead protector turned purple, supplying his body with chakra and piling it in the chakra in muscles, strengthening them to a ridiculous degree.

And with a quick application of chakra in his lower leg muscles, Itsuki vanished from his location.

leader of Kumo team's ears twitched upon hearing something and he yelled, "Incoming!"

Just then a blur came shooting towards them, narrowly missing one ninja before nimbly settling on the standing vertically on the tree. Upon getting a good look at the figure, Kumo ninjas saw a short figure wearing a standard Konoha genin outfit but his face was covered by an Anbu mask with a fox pattern.

Itsuki's brows furrowed beneath the mask upon observing three ninjas. The three-man formation was almost exclusive to elite ninja teams and sensing their chakra signatures, they were at least Jonins.

'Three jonin working in a team, just great.'

On the other hand, Kumo team leader did not wait to evaluate the enemy. Swiftly drawing his katana from his back, he jumped at the enemy.

Itsuki watched the approaching ninja and threw a slew of senbons at his two teammates, preventing them from making any move. Just as the leader slashed at Itsuki, his figure vanished in a whirl of leaves.

'Genjutsu' leader exclaimed before turning, simultaneously pulsing his chakra to remove any illusion. Turns out to be a good decision because just as the illusion shattered, he immediately had to dodge multiple kunai landing at his previous location.

Suddenly all the surroundings went silent, all signs of the assailant vanished. Kumo ninjas gathered in a circular formation, having the back of each other, peering into the fog of the night.

"Send a chakra flare for backup." The leader said, getting an affirmative from one of his teammates. The leader did not want to take any chances. From his observations, the enemy was far faster than him and very well versed in genjutsu. But flaring chakra to alert the sensors can take few seconds, seconds for which that ninja is immobile.

Bringing his katana in front of him, he got ready to defend his teammate rapidly forming hand signs. Just then he sensed movement on the periphery of his vision.

Turning his body, he charged his with chakra flow just then something large and heavily collided with his body, blowing his body to smithereens, instantly killing him and his team.

Leaders last thoughts were of bewilderment, he did not hear not sense the fluctuation of air such a large object should have made.

Itsuki's figure near the wreckage, and seeing the condition of corpses, he could barely hold his bile. The entire team was mauled by a large, near ten meters tall pine tree.

Itsuki had to admit his first real combat did not go as well as he planned. He wanted to take down at least one enemy ninja in a sneak attack at the start but was dodged. He was then able to corner the entire team but when the leader said to call for backup, he panicked. And threw a tree at them.

In the hindsight, it was extremely stupid. A tree flying towards them could be seen and heard from a mile. It was through sheer luck that Kumo ninjas just removed a single genjutsu among the three he weaved together. He was able to manipulate the genjutsu at the last minute to form into auditory genjutsu, preventing them from hearing the sound of an approaching tree while the other genjutsu forming an exact replica of their surroundings, dulling their other senses.

Knowing that a sensor is overseeing the entire area, he could not use any large ninjutsu or allow the enemy to use any, this would have only alerted the sensor.

'It is fortunate that genjutsu and superhuman strength jutsu barely use any chakra despite their devastating effects.' Itsuki thought before forming a tiger seal and sensing the location of Kuhara.

'Good, he just reached the village.' Itsuki was just about to move when he sensed a large number of shinobi swiftly approaching the village from the other side.

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Kuhara had just reached the village located in a small clearing amidst the pine trees. He jumped and hid in the shadow of a small house, opting to wait for Itsuki to come.

'Hurry up Itsuki.' He was getting anxious. The more he thought of the explosion, the more he believed it came from the outpost. Something was definitely wrong.

"BOOOOM!!"

An explosion rocked the village, making Kuhara jump to his feet. Jumping at the roof, Kuhara watched as the other side of the village several houses were burning. Panicked villagers were coming out of their houses, some watching the fire, others running towards the wells to put out the fire.

And then the screams started.

Dozens of ninja descended on the village like ravaging locusts, killing every villager in the path with precision and skill of well-oiled killing machines they were, not sparing anyone.

Kuhara wanted to run, oh he wanted to run. But the overwhelming terror and the killing intent in the air made him forget how to mold chakra. Pathetically crawling, he fell from the roof, the soft earth cushioning his impact.

Picking himself up, he tried to run towards the forest but at the back of the mind, he knew it was a futile effort. He was a mere freshly minted reserve genin, he stood no chance.