21 Ambush

Main Road Ambush Point (Two Days Later) (Kamui's Point of View)

The two shinobi were currently following the caravan in secret. Once they left the settlement and successfully hid their positions from the caravan, they cancelled the transformation. From here, their actions would need to be attributed to Konoha to obtain credit for the mission.

They had been following the caravan for a little over half a day now and the sun was starting to set. The visibility was getting lower, which prompted the caravan to set up camp for the night.

"You think they'll show up tonight? We're near one of the known ambush points." Kamui asked with poorly-veiled impatience.

"I don't know, but that's the life of a ninja. We deal in unknowns and unending amounts of patience." Yugao said, her expression blank as her gaze fixed on the caravan. She was used to waiting from being in the Anbu for the majority of her career.

"I guess your rig—" Kamui started, but was interrupted by a sight she wasn't expecting.

A cloud of dust started to slowly roll in. "This area isn't known for dust storms, is it? Kamui asked.

"No, it's not. Do you see anything with your sharingan?" Yugao asked, deciding to take advantage of the cheat eyes next to her.

Activating her eyes, Kamui looked at the dust. "It's definitely not normal, there's chakra layered in there." Kamui commented as both of them were treated to an interesting sight.

The soldiers protecting the caravan began shouting their calls signs for an incoming bandit raid. You could see them assume their positions as if a great enemy was charging at them. From the two kunoichis' angle, nothing was happening; there were no bandits.

Suddenly, two large barrels of iron shot out from the tree line. Before the Kamui or Yugao could do anything though, the barrels exploded into a shower of oil and shrapnel. Within moments, the caravan and its members were littered with holes. Half of them were dead before they knew what happened, a quarter were screaming in pain, and the rest were assuming defensive positions while covered in the fallen oil.

There was only one caravan member who wasn't injured and he began running away without being hindered. It was clear that whoever this was, wanted a witness to the fake scene.

Once he ran away, two figures came out of the clearing. One was a fair-skinned woman with black hair and light brown eyes. She wears a dark brown sleeveless leather coat and black shinobi pants. The other is a tanned man with a hulking build of 7 feet and a wide body. He was wearing a larger version of the outfit the woman was wearing.

Looking at the two approaching figures, Kamui reached out in front of her and began communicating with the leaf village's standard sign language.

'Well, it looks like this mission just shot up in rank.' Kamui communicated, her eyes still trained on the now-revealed ninjas.

Yugao's eyes were stern as she looked at the two ninjas in the distance. She didn't recognize the female until she saw the male. Then, it clicked; she knew who they were.

Yugao communicated her findings, 'That's Kagari, the steel giant, and Suzune, the seismic cannon. With those two identified, it's likely that Tonoe of the illusion dust is in the area.' She commented.

Confused, Kamui asked, 'Who are they and how do you know who they are?' They just saw these people. There's no way Yugao could just know their identities off the top of her head, right?

Yugao's mouth shifted into a sly smirk. 'When you become a chunin, you'll be expected to memorize every great nation's bingo book. They're released irregularly, but you're required to learn every new entry. It's a requirement that's tested before one can be promoted to jonin. That said, I mainly recognized Kagari and put the rest together. There aren't many 7-foot ninjas in our slice of the world. All three of the names I just listed are defected members of Iwa's (The stone village's) explosion corps.'

Kamui's eyes widened. What were Iwa shinobi doing here? Could they be trying to weaken the land of fire?

'How strong are they?' Kamui asked, getting to the point. Sitting here using sign language was getting annoying; she really just wanted to take them down and move on.

'They're not the strongest in the corps, but they are experienced jonin. They've held that rank for about half a decade now. I'll take on Kagari. You create a shadow clone and observe my match with him. His steel release may come in handy later on. Your real body will need to locate Tonoe. First things first though. Do you have a means of instant killing one of them with a surprise attack?' Yugao asked.

She had a feeling that killing this small number wouldn't be too much of a problem for her student. Something about her gave off that sort of vibe. If it was any of the other genin, she would have structured the operation with herself performing the sneak attack, but from her impressions, Kamui would be fine.

'How much collateral damage can we afford.' Kamui asked.

Both of them shuttered as they saw Suzune's hand coat with lightning and light the oil. Screams could be heard from their position as the remaining caravan members slowly met their end.

Kamui's eyes shifted out of their sharingan form and into reptilian slits. Her amethyst irises glowed a brighter amethyst, while her slit pupils' glowed in a lighter shade of the same color.

It took everything she had not to go out there and save those people right now, but she knew it was too late. While the screams cried for salvation, the damage had already been done. The best she could do was put them out of their misery with her opening move.

Feeling the subtle shift in her student's demeanor, Yugao replied, 'That's no longer a concern.' Unlike her student, Yugao had little trouble keeping her composure. This was not new to her; it was just another day on the job.

'Right, I'll launch my move immediately. I'll hunt Tonoe after that.' Yugao nodded, giving her acknowledgement to the plan.

Kamui raised her hand. Quickly, she began moulding a compressed ball of scorch release. While doing this, her gauntlets glowed allowing her additional control. With that, she also applied a containment barrier around herself; this was her passing her intent directly into chakra, which was mentally taxing to do in a way that kept their presence concealed. In this case, all it did was block the temperature and chakra shifts occurring inside the barrier from being detected outside of it; it was designed almost exclusively for her scorch release jutsu. Applying it while using a scorch release move, while containing any indications that would reveal their presence required heightened mental faculties, which was why she temporarily traded her sharingan's heightened visual prowess for an increase in her inner dragon's heightened elemental control, which was represented through her eyes in a similar manner to a Jinchuriki (a tailed-beast's container).

The downside to using her dragon's eyes is the loss of most of her sharingans' visual prowess. Though her elemental powers are represented through her sharingans' tomoe, they don't reside there. The sharingan itself at this stage still acts as a base sharingan, with one key difference. Like the bracelets on her arms, it acts as a medium to focus her powers, hence her ability to teleport to places she can see.

As much as she wanted to see what her student was doing, Yugao kept her eyes on the enemy to make sure they didn't see them coming in advance. She did make a mental note to ask her student about those bracelets though. It would help to know what tools she was working with and what she relied on them for.

Once Kamui's compressed scorch release was done, her eyes shifted back to the sharingan. With the heightened faculties exchanged for her sharingan, the barrier could no longer be maintained at the same time as what she was about to do, so it began dissolving. That wasn't an issue though. Finishing her preparations, she motioned to Yugao that it was time. Seeing this, Yugao got into position.

(Suzune's Point of View)

Watching the burning embers of the caravan they just raided, Suzune sighed.

'Is it really worth it? All these deaths for what? Revenge on an enemy that wronged us more than a decade and a half ago?' she thought. Then, flashbacks of the news of her father's death being brought to her attention as a little girl, how the Iwa shinobi described the monster that killed him, how her family had to live in poverty without the income he brought in, how her mother eventually committed suicide to be with him in the pure land, and even how they learned that monster was living it up in Konoha with a large family.

With those thoughts, her mind focused on the anger, on the hatred she cultivated for that man. How dare he live in happiness, while her world burns around her? How dare he receive the sunshine of providence, while her family was cast into the darkest depths of despair? That's why she joined her brothers in defection. She didn't blame the Tsuchikage; it was his job to defend the village and fighting a war against the current Konoha was a lost cause as long as that man was alive. They recognized that.

Their mission wasn't even to kill the Namikaze, but to weaken his position and cause him as much suffering as possible. All of this was to weaken his credibility. All of this killing was to slowly cleanse the world of his tainted influence.

"Suzune, Watch out!" Kagari was in front of her in an instant. The next moment, all she saw was a blinding flash of light and an extreme heat that began melting her skin. She could feel the blood in her veins boil at the remnant heat. Whatever he was just hit with would have taken her out if it hit her. Then the realization hit.

"Kagari!" Looking at him, he was in pretty bad shape. His whole body was coated in a layer of super reinforced steel, but that didn't save him. There was no blood, just liquid metal dripping off his form.

"Suz…une" he weakly called out.

"Kagari, are you okay!?" She called out, while moving to stand next to him as a white blur sped past them, clearly searching for Tonoe in the area.

'How did they know he was back there? Luckily Sima's back there too. Between the two of them, they should be able to escape at least. I have to get Kagari out of here.' She thought frantically.

Suddenly, her instincts demanded she look up. Complying, they saw another ball of liquid fire roaring in their direction. This one was slower than the one before; they could dodge it. Doing so, they both dodged in different directions. That seemed to be the intent though as two figures landed in front of them, one for each of them. One was a purple-haired woman in a Konoha jonin uniform. The other was a young girl with silvery-white hair and had a more unique set of cloths.

'Wait? Silvery-white hair? Konoha? It's them!?' She roared in her mind. Her facial expression twisted into a furious countenance as her memories of despair rushed through her mind.

"It's you! The Yellow Flash's daughter! The only Konoha female with that distinct appearance." She roared. This is what they've been waiting for. A chance to make that man suffer.

The white-haired girl looked at her with incomprehension and asked. "What's your problem? I don't believe I've racked up that big of a reputation for myself yet."

Before Suzune could respond though, the purple-haired ninja, who had already started attacking the mortally injured Kagari, answered her inquiry, "She mentioned the yellow flash. She's probably someone with a grudge against him; that makes you the perfect target."

"That's right! I'm going to kill you and take pleasure in seeing the despair on his face! We'll make him feel what he made our whole village suffer through!" She roared viciously. All those lives she's taken to get to this point would be worth it if she can just kill this girl today.

"Wait. Wasn't that a war started by your village along with the sand trying to expand their territory? Hell, if the leaf wanted, they could have raided your village with yellow flash alone. With the state your village was in, he would have had no trouble. The leaf was on the defensive the whole time." The girl said as she began to generate and pelt Suzune with a flurry of ice senbon.

"How dare you!? You tree huggers are always looking down on us. You walk all over our pride, our families, and our village with such callousness! You don't even ask yourself why the stone village and sand villages would want to expand. Have you ever considered that not everyone has a country rich with vegetation and natural resources!?" Suzune shot back, while placing her hands on the ground, creating an earth wall big enough to protect against the senbon. In her fury, Suzune didn't even consider how crazy this girl's skillset was.

"So, we're just going to ignore the families your side tore apart in their pursuit of these resources? We're just going to ignore what you and your team just did here? These people had families. They had little versions of yourself running around waiting for their parents' return and you have the nerve to talk about my father!?" The white-haired girl asked with a visibly increasing level of fury.

"As long as I can kill you, all of it will be worth it. If I can just snuff out your life, these peoples' sacrifices won't be in vain!" Suzune had lost it. This was all she could do. She had come too far in search of her revenge. Times like this made her wish she could be like Sima. His conviction was unflinching. He could burn down entire country sides without a change of expression if it meant killing the yellow flash.

Trying to kill the girl, Suzune put her hand in front of her and began shooting glowing yellow orbs that arced with yellow electricity. Each one caused a large explosion to bloom into existence. This was where she got her nickname, the seismic cannon. The ability to shoot explosive charges remotely like this was her namesake. It was also how she killed most of her victims. It helped avoid the gore it caused on impact.

The white-haired girl silently dodged the death charges with quick movements and occasional teleports. Thirty seconds later, she shook her head.

The girl somberly asked, "Was it worth it? Would seeing the despair on his face for my death satisfy you? Was it worth becoming a monster?"

"You wouldn't understand. It doesn't matter now. Your death is all I have left; it's why I'm still alive." She said in the steadiest voice she's used all conversation.

To the side, she could see Kagari dead on the floor with the purple-haired kunoichi standing over him. Clearly, his wounds from saving her made his ability to resist feeble at best.

"Kamui, what you see before you is a fanatic. Iwa is known for their indoctrination of their ninja through heavily modified history. They use propaganda to spread false facts and justify their actions by exaggerating legitimate actions of war. Konoha was similar back in the days of frequent war. It really only stopped when the fourth became Hokage because we're in a good position that doesn't require it. After all, Konoha always wins these wars from a practical standpoint. No matter how brutal the war, we've always won and satisfied the peoples' bloodlust. The exception being the third's concessions after the third war. We won, but he conceded in the name of peace keeping.

"Iwa is different. They lost the war and needed to control their populace's anger. The worst part is that their loss was orchestrated mostly by one shinobi. All their hopes and dreams of expansion were crushed in an instant by one man who butchered their people. To divert the populace's anger, the village pointed the blame at the fourth. She is the result. A bitter Kunoichi that gave her life to ideals that weren't her own. You can see it in her eyes. She knows this is wrong, but like she said, it's all she has left. You will encounter a lot of these types throughout your career as a shinobi." The purple-haired woman explained.

The white-haired girl remained silent, her eyes showing pity for her.

"What do you know!? What would you know about losing everything to war!? Don't you dare pity me!" She roared with a now hoarse voice; tears pooled at her eyes.

Yugao impassively answered, "In a confrontation with your village, I lost my father. As a result, I devoted myself fully to the anbu in order to serve my village and get more missions to hunt monsters like you. It was only through a conversation with lord fourth that I realized that the situation wasn't so black and white. Both sides had blood on their hands. Once I learned that, I decided to simply serve my village. I put aside my personal prejudice against your village and dedicated myself to serving Konoha as my primary purpose. In the future, that will extend to my family, but hate will never again drive me; I would rather put down my sword than let that happen." she explained, her unfazed expression indicating that she's seen people like Suzune far too many times to be surprised.

Suzune paused, tears streamed down he face at Yugao's words. The white-haired girl remained silent in contemplation, though her eyes started rotating hypnotically; it almost felt like they could see into her soul.

"Enough talk. This will end here for me… one way or the other." Suzune managed to get out, the previous explosive rage, simmered down into a cold fury.

"Sensei, I would like to take her alone. I want to feel the weight of her hatred; it'll be a good learning experience." The girl requested.

"Alright, but I'll be watching." The purple-haired one casually responded.

'This is my chance. If I can kill her fast enough, the purple one can't interfere.' She thought as she stood opposite of her target.