13 BETRAYED
Today is the day we are going to travel to the North-Western borders of Konoha, where we are going to spend 2 weeks of time with my father. Currently we are all waiting outside the North gates of Konoha for a formal permission from Hokage to allow us kids to move towards the borders. As mentioned by father, we were allowed to bring as many potential kids as possible, but many of the kids backed down because of their parents pressure, stating it will be dangerous and risky at the borders. So at the moment we only have a small party compared to what we expected. There are only 6 kids including me, Itachi and Shisui. The other 3 kids are 2 boys and female. They are Riku Uchiha, Kaito Uchiha and Kanna Uchiha.
Riku Uchiha is 8 years old. As all the Uchiha, he also have raven black hair. He is dressed in black shirts, pants and ninja sandals. He wore a brown flak jacket. It is fastened by clasp over the shoulder alongside a zipper. It has 2 pockets on the upper chest and 2 sets of scroll pouches diagonally set on the lower stomach. It also has 2 pouches on the lower back and a sword strapped over the right shoulder. He is also covered in knee pads and gauntlets. He also has a traditional ninja pouch strapped to his right thigh. Even though he is 8, because of training with us daily for the last 2 years, he is easily a mid level Chunin. He is good at Kenjutsu, Taijutsu, Ninja wire and basic Uchiha fire techniques.
Kaito Uchiha is also 8 years old. He is dressed in grey shirts ,pants and ninja sandals. He wore a grey jacket. It has extra shoulder padding, neck padding, mesh armour around the collarbone, three scroll pouches on the chest and was fastened by metal clasps on the right side alongside a purple sash around the waist. He is also at mid level chunin. He is good at taijutsu,shurikenjutsu and all basic Uchiha fire techniques.
Kanna Uchiha is 9 years old. The only other girl beside me among kids. She is dressed in blue sleeveless shirt,pants and ninja sandals. She wore a brown flak jacket. It has throat guard that surrounds the entire neck, shin guards, extend slightly downward to protect the lower stomach and are attached by straps over the collarbone and hips. It also has strong mesh armour to protect the shoulders. She is a high chunin level easily. She is skilled in Ninjutsu, shurikenjutsu, genjutsu and Traps. She is also a fan girl of Shisui.
Shishu is 10 at the moment, he is dressed in standard Uchiha attire which includes high collared, dark coloured outfit along with a tanto strapped to the right side of the back of his shoulder. His ninja pouch is tied to his waist. He is a entry level Jonin. He is skilled in kenjustsu, shurikenjutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu and tracking.
Itachi is 4 years and 10 months old. But he looks like a 8 years old.He is dressed in standard Uchiha dark colour shirt,pants and ninja sandals. He wore a black ancient Uchiha armor, which i made for him. It covers completely the front and back part of the torso upto neck, shoulders , thighs, shin guards and gauntlets. Twin ninjato strapped to his back. There are 2 ninja pouches strapped to both sides of his waist. Because of my cultivation technique, his chakra reserves are huge. He is also a entry level Jonin. He is skilled in Kenjutsu, Genjutsu, Shurikenjutsu and ninjutsu.
Lastly me. Ichika Uchiha. I am also 4 years and 10 months just like Itachi. But i look like 8 year old too. I let my waist back length hair freely. I am dressed in blue long sleeved shirt,pants and gloves.on top it a closed knit chainmail covering the upper part of the body completely. on its top it is covered in crimson armor forming protective guards along chest, waist, shoulders, thigh,Knee and shin guards. This is the armor forged by my Dwarf masters for me. I also placed a lot of restriction seals on the armor, so as to not let the others suffer from the aura it is adiating. I also picked up the 2 quivers and strapped them diagonally across my back. The quivers have a special dimension in them so i filled them out completely with all the arrows i made. One quiver is for special arrows i made using seals. Other is for normal arrows. Black Katana at my left waist. Iam holding the Bow in my left hand. There is a single Ninja pouch with extra large space of 20000 cu.m specially prepared by me strapped to my right thigh. It is filled to the brim with all the minor tools like senbon needles, special tags, kunai, shurikens, darts and ninja nails, medical salves, medicine rich bandages and few extra dresses during the journey. With the way, i am armed i can easily fight a battle of my own. Iam this teams sensor, medical nin and long range fighter. When mom, Itachi and Shisui saw me in the battle gear, they were shocked. I also swear something about Granny Naori whispering about "mini Madara " before she headed to Hokage tower for permission.
The escort consists of mom, 4 Elite Uchiha bodyguards of Jonin level and finally Granny Naori, whose reason was it's too boring at home.They are all dressed in a complete Standard Jonin gear. After 20 minutes of waiting Granny Naori arrived with mom at the North gates.
" Alright kids. Before we head out, we must choose a Team leader. Any Konoha team consisting of 3 or more members must have a Team leader. Without one, we can't move forward, so choose one among yourselves kids. I am too old to waste anymore of my brain cells and Mikoto with her temper never lead a team before. The Elite bodyguards are only good at fighting and carrying orders." - Granny Naori
After few minutes , Kanna proposed Shisui as a leader, as expected of a fan girl. Shisui declined saying he doesn't have full confidence in leading the team yet. Another round of discussions and eliminations later they all proposed Itachi.
" I am glad, you all choose me, but i have to decline as there is someone better than me here, who has a calm head. If you all agree with me, then i propose my sister Ichika as leader" - Itachi
Everyone except Mom,Shisui,Granny Naori were surprised to learn the genius Uchiha young master stated there is someone better than him. They all started to look at me strangely all of a sudden. Mom, Shisui, Granny Naori agreed with Itachi for me to be the team leader and the others also have to accept that. With that i became the team leader of this small party.
" Alright, as team leader i only have few rules for you to follow. If any of you don't obey those, then there will be standard Konoha punishments for insubordination. The rules are simple. If i say run, you will run. If i say stop, you will stop. Any orders i issue, you will follow it to the last detail and i don't want to hear "no" from any of you. Are we clear? " - Ichika
"Yes CAPTAIN" - Everyone.
"Alright, we all will move in rhombus formation. The elite bodyguards will cover the corners on the side. While we all will move in files of 2. Riku and Mikoto will be front, followed by Itachi and Kaito, Me and Granny Naori and finally the rear Shisui and kanna. Any doubts?" - Ichika.
"No . Captain" - Everyone
"Since this is the first time we are forming a team and heading through dangerous areas, we will move at low chunin speeds at the beginning and vary the speed based on our circumstances."- Ichika.
With that said, i received the permission copy from Granny Naori hands, wrote all of our names and signed the copy with my status of team leader and handed the copy to the gate guards and set out.
It was a safe journey for the first 4 days and we moved at a steady pace during mornings. At night i formed earth domes to surround us while cooking or sleeping. While there will be 4 people forming night watch for a break of 2 hours. We only slept for 6 hours daily at night and moved after a quick breakfast and straightening ourselves.
It was on our 5th day when we came across a large group of bandits. They are attacking a large merchant caravan and the mercenaries hired by the merchants are defending them. They are km distance from us. So while closing the distance, i notified my team about the merchants situation, the number of bandits and split the team into 2 teams of 5 members to attack the bandits from the sides. While me and Granny will attack from a range. The 2 teams covered the distance completely and started killing the bandits. At first the mercenaries were confused, but after seeing us killing the bandits, they went into defensive formation. Seeing as how the numbers are reducing quickly, the bandit leader decided to retreat by attacking the only place that is vulnerable. Us. As soon as they started to charge towards us, Granny Naori used her chakra strings to spread them to 100m and severed the heads of those rushing towards us, while i killed the bandit leader with a lightning fast arrow shot directly to his forehead before he can realize. The rest of the bandits went into panic, but were cleared by us all very quickly. After getting sincere thanks from the merchant and mercenaries leader we took short 15 minutes to rest and set out.
We were less than one day away from reaching our destination, that's when things went from bad to worse at the borders. Sunagakure backstabbed us. They are originally allies with Iwagakure. They only played the part of allying with us, so that we can reduce the numbers at the borders and instill false sense of security. Bulk of our forces are at north and eastern borders. It will take minimum of a week for the reinforcements to reach the north western borders to combat the combined forces of iwagakure and sunagakure. When my father received the news, he was really angry and after some discussions with other Jonin leaders, decided to blow the Kannabi Bridge and Tenchi Bridge. My father will lead a team to Tenchi Bridge while Team Minato will move towards Kannabi Bridge. Even more worse is, the enemies seemed to have predicted this move.
Normally as Iwagakure is connected to Konoha through Kusagakure's Kannabi bridge, we expected there will be more resistance from Iwagakure forces at Kannabi Bridge. But the forces stationed by Iwagakure are only a diversion there. Both Sunagakure and Iwagakure decided to concentrate their combined strength at the same place, Tenchi Bridge. Even the forces are directly under the leadership of Tsuchikage and Kazekage. Their numbers are at 500000 soldiers strong while Father has only 28000 soldiers.
I need to hurry there, but before that i need to relay the news to my team. It took me 5 minutes to explain the situation at the borders and what we are going to face at the borders once we move forward. So i gave them the option of coming with me or not to their own. When mom learnt the news, she was scared and started to rush , but we have to hold her in place and calm her down. Most of them took some time, but agreed to come with me. The moment they made their decision, i went to a large clearing and bit my thumb, went through the hand seals and shouted
" SUMMONING JUTSU : THUNDER BIRD"
With large puff of smoke, there stood in front of me a fully armored mighty bird. It is easily 200 meters in length and wingspan of 500 meters. With lightning sparks all over its body. The moment it appeared, it bowed toward me and stretched its wing down as a foothold for me to mount it.
When all the team members saw Thunder bird, they were shocked. It was only after i shouted at them, that they came to their senses. Soon they also were on top of it. When i gave the signal to the bird, with a loud ear numbing screech and with a flap of it's wings it took to the air. With it's speed, we only need 30 minutes to reach the borders.
