12 Rocky Front (1)

What's the best way to celebrate eight years of age in a world where peace is more of a synonym to temporary armistices?

Why, if it isn't war itself! Now, I'm sure many would be shocked to hear this kind of reaction when I was finally enlisted in the Shinobi Corps. Differently from what I had expected, the Academy lasted way less than I had imagined. I blamed the fact the education system was just not up to sustain classes of new recruits from beyond a couple of years.

I was among the lucky kids that were already facing graduation at the end of the first year and… I passed. I was 'surprised' that the test had been that simple to ace, but I was equally surprised when I realized that the only ones passing beyond me were Hiruzen, a couple of Uchiha kids and some Senjus.

I would've expected some others to pass, but I was shaken to learn the level of understanding the classmates had for the test just was inadequate. I blamed the early state of education itself for this kind of awkward graduation. Yoshiko was actually mad for a few days when she learned that the Hokage had seen fit to set the age of enlistment to seven, making her bid to join the corps early on crumble before her eyes.

Don't worry, Shiko-chan. You will certainly see the flames of war by the time it's your turn to join the mad party.

I believe it's time for a little history in warfare, mostly one about the kind of stand off I had been thrown into with other children my age. While a formal declaration had yet to be issued, Iwagakure decided to start some harassment operations aimed to undermine Konoha's stability.

With merchants being bribed to shift their destinations away from our village and a sudden increase of bandits leading to new worries about the farms beyond the village's wall, the only proper answer to this was a mobilization meant to repel any suspicious attempt to destabilize home.

Mother was pissed, so was Madara in a minor part. My sensei wasn't that frustrated that I had to go to war when things were going to escalate, but he was genuinely worried that by delaying the inevitable for too long Hashirama was leaving us vulnerable to a major assault.

I shared that concern, but I was at ease considering that Mito had just mentioned that some special defenses were planned to be set up to counter any sneaky attack. Seals were scary things and, after what happened the first time I tried using those. After a full week of declining continuing with these lessons, I eventually tried again out of curiosity.

I didn't get any nightmare with those, but I did suffer some drain on my chakra reserves as I was swiftly put to go through numerous seals at once. I was far from being able to use those in battles since I wasn't fast enough to draw anything under duress, and I had yet to get the proper kanji to get the Thunder God Jutsu down to use at my leisure. Small steps, I thought at the time, and I had other things to worry about.

Mostly about new techniques, this time based around my Wind Affinity. Once I had Vacuum Sphere and Vacuum Great Sphere, I decided to test my hands in getting Great Breakthrough. These were three techniques that were meant to help immensely during a battle, with the first two being Single Unit-degree abilities, while the third was an AoE attack if aimed properly. I had basic knowledge of how to make Storage Seals and I had heightened my resistance to Illusions. Yep, I was ready to go and fight this war like a 'big boy'.

The first day was pretty calm. I knew I wasn't going to see action early on. Not just because of my young age that would make many commandants uneasy of sending me to dangerous missions, but because I was a new recruit. And what do new recruits do on their first day at work? They understand the basics and… get teased a fairly lot.

"Hehe~ Dan-kun, you shouldn't run alone. You might trip and get hurt," One of the kunoichis in the patrol group commented, the others soon followed by giggling like frigging school girls while I really was trying to do my job properly.

Holding a great bag filled with medical tools and ointments, I was the assistant to the Medic of the team. The man was somewhat sympathetic, but didn't say much beyond grunting yes or no. I pondered about the chances of this guy being an Uchiha, but I decided he was just the silent guy of the group.

Thank Kami-chama I'm not stuck with a conversationalist.

I really needed these early days' quiet to settle in my soul as I braced for Murphy's efforts of pulling an Obi-wan on my General Grievous. I just knew simple patrols around with nothing more to fear than getting sneak-cuddled by one of those perverts were quickly going to end when Iwa began making bolder moves.

Two days later, I felt the need of patting my own head for being a smart cookie. Sadly, that very amusing attempt was curbed the very moment I grimaced over how things came crashing down.

Walking in the woods near to Konoha's borders wasn't a novelty for someone like me, but with my unit getting pinned down as a squad of Iwa ninjas decided to finally attack someone I knew I had to be a touch more serious than usual.

Big rocks were being hurled at us, swiftly taking the attention of the team's heavy hitters as they tried to return stone with fire and wind. The reply seemed to be particularly effective as two bastards went down for being away from any cover.

The advantage evened out when the medic was struck with a kunai right onto his forehead. I blinked, surprised to see the guy dying in front of me and… I started to move. I would've expected panic to explode at this sight and for me to freeze up at the gore. But then I realized that despite how horrifying the scene unfolding before me, that I had some preparations before that day.

Was I unfazed by it? I was shaken, just not enough to stop and ponder over death itself, only to become an easy target to our enemies.

Instead I swiftly moved to retrieve the second pouch filled with medical equipment and started checking on the others' conditions. One of the kunoichis had been wounded, with two kunais having embedded onto her right leg. While she tried to say that I had to leave that task to my 'boss', she seemed to go silent when I flatly said that he was dead and that she needed to let me do my job.

Patching her leg was easier than I expected. After retrieving the weapons out of her flesh, I swiftly applied some water to clean the injuries and then some bandages imbued with the proper medical ointment. She merely nodded thankfully, for the first time since I've been annoyed by these women being more than happy to offer a sympathetic smile before moving on the next injured ninja.

One of the heavy hitters was struck with one of the boulders. The painful crunchy noise coming from his left arm getting struck by the big projectile and bent in an unpleasant manner drew my attention to him as I bolted to his position.

"D-Dammit, they got some good aim."

I nodded silently, swiftly cutting the sleeve and revealing the full extent of the damage as the man descended to sit down so I could treat him. One thing was fixing a cut, another was trying to mend an issue like the one I had in front of me.

The limb was growing purple, and I needed to act quickly and with precision if the guy didn't want to go home early this year without an arm. I've been reading the medical textbook given to me by the now-dead medic, but two days hardly had me prepared to go beyond fixing wounds. I was going through uncharted territory and I needed to pull a brilliant miracle lest this man actually died.

As I started to move to start the procedure, I found myself stopped as the man reached for my arm, forcing me to look at his face.

"C-Can you fix it?"

…

Can I- Can I lie to him? Would it work? I could already see he was growing disillusioned at the chances of this being the case and… I had to try my best on this.

…

"I will," I replied with a confident tone, my hands already trying to remember how to make use of Medical Chakra. It wasn't just something that was properly explained, and I had to go blind about it if I wanted to actually get something done.

Jesus Christ, why has nobody thought about expanding the knowledge of medical arts now that we are at peace?!

This was something I had to bring up to the Hokage the very moment I had the chance to speak with him. I really didn't want to be embarrassed like this next time. Because yes… it was just embarrassment…

The chakra forming in my hands, initially blue as normally is, slowly turned green as I focused my control over it and molded it the way I wanted it to be. The process was theoretically simple since I knew what I wanted out of that procedure.

First I needed to numb his limb. My chakra swiftly started to grasp over his own, lessening the sensibility of the nerves just enough to dull the pain. Next was bringing the limb to its correct position, and the snap that ensued got a quick jolt out of me as it worked swiftly enough to not even get a flinch out of the patient. Finally, using my chakra to bolster his healing factor and solve the swollen part.

…

…

The moment I was done and the man's arm looked as normal as it should be, I let go and… fell on my butt. My breathing was heavy and my reserves were definitely drained from that experience. The skirmish lasted a little longer, but the healed Heavy Hitter couldn't do anything since his arm was sore and the chakra in it had yet to flow correctly in it.

Still, the battle concluded in our favor, with most of the attacking force killed and two-three fools retreating away at the unpleasant odds that were stacked against them. We waited and… we allowed the quiet to settle down once more. Once we were all certain that they were gone, we started to check to see the extent of the losses. Other than the medic, one of the girls had died. It wasn't something I could've prevented, especially with the cause of death being a kunai through her left eye and into her brain.

Storage Scrolls were made to recover the bodies, and we were about to make our return back to the headquarters when we saw a massive fireball explode towards the sky. An alarm from another patrol group, the attack wasn't just against us.

The squad advanced speedily, and at first I was bracing for the next fight as I knew our enemy wasn't playing around with their chances of winning this border war. But just as we were close to aid the other patrol group, I heard something rustle nearby. Turning instinctively towards the noise, I saw three individuals wearing Iwa Shinobi uniforms darting away as their leader held a struggling child over his shoulder. I gave a brief look over the kid's clothes and saw a familiar white-red fan.

Uchiha- wait, is that Kagami?!

Fuck, I forgot how villages used to try and kidnap kids from other clans during fights back in the first two wars.

Gritting my teeth I paused and bolted to pursue the trio of jerks trying to go through with that kidnapping. I think I heard some of my team shout at me as I rushed away from the formation, but none gave chase as I aimed my attention to the Iwa ninjas.

Dear Kami-chama, why do I have to be an insufferable rogue for the sake of my friends?

Adrenaline is a monstrous thing when one is really pumping large quantities of it in their body. I was completely tired, but still running and working to the best as my mind was geared on the simple task of stopping the three kidnappers to go through with their attempt.

I was slowly closing up to them from behind, my hands already fishing two shurikens from my pouches as I prepared to take down the guards first. I threw the weapons once I knew I was close enough and my range was clear of any possible obstacles.

The Shinobi on the left died with the blade of the projectile stabbing deep on the back of his head, while the second tool of death ended up slamming on the trunk of wood beside my next target, alerting the burly man of my presence.

"Another brat?" He asked surprised, his wide eyes turning to see his fallen comrade. "You- You killed-"

"Shut up," I muttered quietly, as I assaulted him, kunai in my hands as I plunged it deep in his stomach, turning and… pushing him off the tree branch. Surprise and pain paralyzed the man as he fell to his doom while I resumed the chase.

The last bastard had gained some distance with that delay, and I was pushing my legs to the limit in an effort to catch up to him. I was growing desperate as I knew I was going too deep into Iwa's territory and I needed to neutralize this threat before fellow border guards took notice of my presence.

But it wasn't me that brought an end to that pursuit. I was surprised when I saw the guy's body going tense and then limp, tripping down to the ground in a shaken form as I took the opportunity to recover the fellow young ninja.

Back on the ground, I pushed the big man off the terrified kid. I stared down and…

"You're not Kagami," I mentioned distractedly as his eyes turned to glance at me in pure terror and shock. "But you got some pretty eyes for certain."

The sharingan returned my glance with two Tomoe already. That had to have been a massive fright to get the kid to develop this far on the whole hate eyes thingy. I offered a hand, and the boy pulled himself up slowly as we both stared at each other.

"T-Thank you."

Oh, a respectful Uchiha. What are the odds?

"You're welcome and… we should probably leave."

A nod, we were both moving back towards Konoha's border as quickly as our legs allowed us to. The tree branches were creaking under our weight, and I was surprised when the kid decided to stick close to me during our return as I had expected him to get some distance between us the very moment we started our retreat.

Ignoring this curious detail, I was hopeful for things to be fine once we were back to our allies. I mean, that was the plan before the trees we were using to move through the forest were taken down by a massive boulder rolling them to the ground.

We both jumped away in time before we could've gotten dragged to an unfunny death and I paused for a moment as I found a stable branch where to stop and look at the one behind that sneaky attack.

"Shimura Danzou, I shall be your opponent."

For fuck's sake, I'm not really in the mood for this.

I looked down, I stared at the prick that formally demanded this fight and… I frowned when I recognized his ugly mug from somewhere else. I stared lengthily and I had to nod at my certainty on this matter.

Yep, that's Onoki.

He looked to be a young teen. About fourteen-fifteen by the looks of it.

"You know… it's kind of rude yelling things like that without an introduction," I dryly pointed out. "Also, running low on energies. There is a war around us."

"My name is Onoki, and despite the fact I would've preferred to fight you at your full power, I have to go through with my duties," The guy mentioned. "Prepare yourself!"

Oh, I sure was prepared for him. I took just a moment to remember if he already could mold elemental chakra to create Lava Release and Dust Release. Both were big no-no to fight in any circumstances. Considering the odds of that being possible, I knew that he still had to get to that point.

Limiting his might to his incredible mastery of Earth Release. Proof of that became apparent when I saw a terrifying piece of rock being thrown at us. The size of that thing was enough to erase the upper bit of the two trees we were standing on and… yet that wasn't really bad news since I had the perfect counter to this. Only issue? I was going to collapse once I made use of that since I was running out of juice.

Sighing, I glanced at my peer with a serious look. "I've a distraction in mind, but you need to get us out of there at once. My body is going to be unable to move once I'm done with the counter."

There was a silent surprise coming from the guy and… he nodded. Really stunned, wasn't he? Either that or he was natural with the Uchiha's silent gestures. Once I got that confirmation, I swiftly moved with my hand seals to get ready to stop the stone at once.

The Vacuum Great Sphere was a large sphere of compressed air. I was shooting the equivalent of an Airsoft cannon-sized gun through my mouth. The result of the B-rank jutsu clashing onto the boulder was instantaneous as the big rock cracked and was turned into fine dust, effectively obscuring the sight of my 'opponent' while the unknown Uchiha moved in to get me out of there.

Sharingan still active, the kid bolted at an impressive skill the very moment my body tensed up and was about to fall backward. Being this close to him, I started noticing a couple of odd details I hadn't seen before now. A small ponytail, his frame was way slender than what Kagami had going and… his heavy breathing had a lighter pitch compared to boys.

…

Nah, I was being too silly about this. I knew well enough that some kids could just be androgynous when it came to gender-based details, Haku being the primary example of that kind of issue. And even if I had some suspicions, I knew that we couldn't just stop to have a pleasant conversation about why I was having doubts about some things regarding my 'rescue/savior'. So I merely watched behind us to see if the young Onoki was giving pursuit or not.

Much to my relief, I could see him no longer and I knew we were closing in to the border to actually be bothered by any other Iwa soldier. The only issues becoming the clumsy actions of my 'hero' since I ended up slamming my head on a trunk a few times. Not hard enough to give me a concussion or anything grave, but it still hurt nonetheless.

Eventually we arrived back inside the border and… the first thing we noticed was a large common grave filled with numerous corpses that were once Iwa troops. Some of the guards paused to greet us and… we were soon taken to the closest commander in the area.

Ten minutes later, I had some trouble staring up at Madara and his unflinching eyes as they tried to assert annoyance over my current conditions. I was sitting on the chair, a pack of ice resting on my forehead as I tried to get my fever down while dealing with the few bruises I got from the retreat.

The other kid, the one I had rescued and that rescued me in return? He wasn't faring any better as he tried to genuinely stand up to his clan leader's stare and-

"What is your name, child?"

The kid sighed, and finally she spoke. "Reira, s-sir."

Oh, so I was correct to assume I was dealing with a tomboy. Just not one of the tough kinds from what I could tell from the previous experience.

"I assume Shimura-san detached from his unit to try and free you from your captors," The man elaborated calmly. "I've heard of an Uchiha being kidnapped-"

"I wish to apologize for having caused trouble, Madara-sama."

He sighed. "Are you saying that you normally can deal with three ninjas of considerable level at once?"

…

"If you wish to apologize for something, it has to be something you know you could've done to prevent this event," Madara continued with a serious tone, his stare back at me much to my eternal grimace. "Differently from you, Shimura-san should extend a formal apology to his superior since he had broken the lines without saying anything."

"Yeah, apologies- I was feeling a little dizzy and… I thought Reira-san was actually Kagami for a moment."

"And how does that reason explain that foolish decision of yours?"

I blinked, looking up at him and staring silently for a while.

"If Mito-san was kidnapped before your eyes and the Hokage wasn't around to save her, but you could, would you go ahead with it?"

His mouth opened, but he paused to show a confused look at the logic I was trying to pull out of that example.

"I would."

I sighed. "Why?"

…

"Because it's a duty and… the Hokage wouldn't be merciful if I failed to comply with it."

"Well, if Kagami or any of my friends was taken away against their will and I was the only one capable of quickly moving in, and I didn't, then I would be merciless when it comes to condemning myself for being a horrible person."

…

A sigh left the man's lips and he turned to the girl with a tired look. "I shall address your case tonight with your parents. Your superior has reported you have done flawless work in the field and this shall be rewarded accordingly to your merit."

Surprise adorned Reira's face as she stood up from her chair and started to make her way to the door. She gave me a silent look and… nodded my way. Why did I feel like she was expecting him to chew me up?

"Student of mine, I want a serious explanation of what happened in this rescue mission," He quickly said, eyes narrowing on me. "All details."

…

"Killed two of the captors. Reira was the one that killed the one that was holding her and- her parents will be happy to learn she got two Tomoe today."

"At eight? Not a proud accomplishment if it is tied to such a bloody situation. War might be one thing, but kidnapping can be quite troublesome to remember as a day of growth," Madara explained. "Still, I can say it isn't everything."

"I found out that I have a one-sided rival in Iwagakure. I wonder if it's like having an admirer, but the guy just wants to only fight with me."

"I suppose you dealt with him."

"Low on reserves, I could only offer distraction for a run back to base," I replied quietly. "Reira is fairly strong. She managed to not drop me during our escape."

...

"As much as it frustrates me, I have to… praise your conduct for today. While you did incur in a case of insubordination, your superior was lenient enough to spare any report to have you removed from the corps," He said, gaining a flinch out of me at that avoided outcome. "Still, I've decided that you will issue a formal apology to him for having been a stupid and reckless brat. Your mother will be also told of this."

"You-You can't do this-"

"I'm your leader, Shimura-san," He calmly addressed his lips, having some trouble in not letting out a giddy smile at my current suffering. "It's only correct for your worried parent to be told of your antics."

That was going to be a pain in the butt to handle.

"Is there anything else I have to do?"

"Did you do anything worthy of punishment?"

I shrugged. "I laid out what happened as it did, dad. Nothing to add after that."

"I understand. Still, I hope you… wait," He paused and then he stood up from his chair. "What did you say?"

Frowning, I tilted my head in confusion. "What?"

"What you just said. Repeat that."

"I… I laid out what happened as it did?"

"A little after that."

I opened my mouth as my brain tried to bring up what words I had used in that sentence and… Oh. Oh no.

"I-I'm drained. Spare me some mercy, sensei."

"Your mind seems as sharp as it usually is," He rebuked, glancing at me with an odd look. "Please, repeat that very word."

…

"Dad?"

…

…

"Again."

"No, I believe I will not."

He narrowed his eyes at me and I returned the stern stare with one of mine. I wasn't going to call him that. I was tired, and my brain just wasn't paying enough attention to the conversation to know what's best for my survival.

"...I suppose you will require some rest. After what happened today, I've already sent a message to the Hokage to have the current guard replaced with more fresh troops. The ones that saw battle today shall all return to Konoha for a full week for medical controls."

"And after that we go to war?"

For the first time ever, I saw Madara genuinely unhappy with how things had turned into. I just wasn't sure why he didn't like the fact we were at war once again.

Still, he regarded my question with a curt answer.

"Yes."

And I knew that now the real difficult part of my new life had begun.