3 Chapter 3

Chapter 3

OHASHI HATAKE

War. It had been a rather foreign concept to him long ago. Yet now, he had been involved in one for about half a decade. The very acts that would have made him nauseous, were now the source of his livelihood.

Ohashi shook his head as he shelved all those useless thoughts, for his time on the battlefield had taught him one thing. Any small distraction at any time could be your downfall. Though despite his efforts, he couldn't stop thinking about his father. Ohashi had not gotten to know the man intimately. The misunderstanding and his subsequent marriage with Fumiko-san made it queasy for him to return. Plus, as a genin, he enjoyed the feeling of being an adult, and Sakumo had been very generous to him with money and other resources, so he did kind of like the man.

Yet the man was a mess at this time, and while Ohashi would have loved to be in the village to keep an eye on the man, he could not. Now, he could only pray that the man would be wise enough to listen to his words and not take any rash action.

He raised his hand as he landed softly on the ground. His team landed similarly behind him, and he closed his eyes as he put his hand on the ground. The sensing technique of the Nidaime Hokage was something he had asked Lady Tsunade about, and she had indulged him, and after five years, he had brought it up to an acceptable level.

"Ok, they haven't sensed us," he began speaking in a muffled tone as he brought out his map. The ten shinobi that he had been given were all a bit tense, probably at being commanded by someone who wasn't even a teen yet. Though they kept their mouth shut, for Commander Fugaku's orders had been quite clear.

Though, he suspected his own reputation also played a part in that. For he wasn't exactly an unknown entity.

"All right, I will need you all to run the perimeter along the North- East and don't. Your objective is to stop any kind of communication between this platoon and the one further inland," all ten of them nodded, and Ohashi realized that he did not know the name of even one of them. However, he couldn't care about that. And one of them raised his hand in question, and he nodded, prompting him to speak.

"So, you plan to engage the whole platoon yourself!" asked the Uchiha jounin, and Ohashi recognized him as one of Fugaku's aides.

"Technically, no. I will simply try to contain them for some time so Fugaku-san can ambush them. Right now, they would have already begun their attack. So, I must engage this platoon, distracting them so they can both not provide backup and become vulnerable to an attack," he explained and he could see that they were feeling a bit queasy.

In the end, he did not mind. He would have to let his skill talk.

So, he closed his eyes as he began to cycle through a series of hand seals. He felt his team vanish from behind as they probably went to take their positions. And soon, he felt a substantial drain on his chakra reserves, and he began to exhale.

The Nidaime Hokage was said to have such a mastery over Suiton that he could use massive Suiton techniques even in the desert. Sadly, Ohashi wasn't at that level. Yet. But what came out of his mouth was Mist. Clouds and clouds of thick mist began to spread across the area.

A trick that he had realized early on was that water generated by using his chakra was much more versatile. It behaved as an extension of your body. It was extremely draining, and if not for his massive reserves, using it like this wouldn't even be an option. But it was! And it was all that mattered.

And just as the whole area had mist covering it, he stopped. And the drain on his reserves stopped. He closed his eyes, and felt his presence fade into the very air. Ohashi then stepped into this mist, and his senses were enhanced. He felt connected to each and every drop of moisture. He felt like the master of an orchestra.

A rather bloody orchestra.

"NINPO: SHIMMERING MIST!"

And he vanished. The mist had already taken their opponent by surprise, and their various efforts to get rid of it had failed, for they had failed to notice how chakra had been manipulated to tie it down to the very ground.

And soon enough, chaos descended on the Kumogakure army.

"AGHHHH!"

"AGHHHH!"

There were screams. There were shouts.

"He is right behind you!"

"What are you doing attacking me!"

"I hit him! Yet my attack simply passed through!"

"That hair! Is it the White Fang!"

"It's more than one shinobi! It's an ambush!"

And right in the middle of that chaos was a single shinobi. A single silvery shimmer.

This would be the first showing.

Konoha's Shimmering Mist.

0000

OROCHIMARU

Orochimaru wasn't fond of war. War was messy and time taking. Time that could be spent on much more useful ventures. Yet it was also an opportunity. War brought with itself a plethora of opportunities for growth, rare specimen, and little foresight.

He walked through the tunnels under Konoha to meet his sensei's paranoid friend. People thought of him and Shimura as allies, yet they couldn't have been more wrong. Orochimaru was sure they would both take the first chance they could to gut the other one. They were not friends, just two people with similar moralities.

He stopped at the large intersection. Shimura stood there facing the giant sealing stone placed in the center. Orochimaru had not missed how Shimura's mindless dolls seemed to be getting ready for deployment.

"Sakumo Hatake died yesterday. The man took his own life," began Shimura, and Orochimaru scoffed. He had heard about that as well. Jiraiya had been shocked by the man's demise, filled with rage and pain. He had left the village shortly after the funeral.

"And that calls for a meeting?" Orochimaru asked, and Konoha's Warhawk turned to face him.

"Kumo has gotten its hands on this intel." Orochimaru scoffed at that, as he saw right through that. The man had leaked the information himself.

Yet for what.

"They have pushed up their plans to attack the northern front. Uchiha Fugaku is in command over that border," finished the bandaged paranoid man, and Orochimaru shook his head at the level of man's treachery and ruthlessness.

"The man will have to make a request for reinforcements. I plan to propose your name for leading this," and his eyes narrowed as he looked at Danzo.

"You do know I do not like being disturbed! So, why would I take on such a demanding mission!" he spoke up. Shimura simply tapped his cane, and two body bags appeared before him.

"This should be payment enough! Though I believe you would be interested in knowing that Princess Tsuande is set to return to the village any day now."

And Orochimaru was surprised by the news. Tsunade was coming back. He was in no mood to see her, for Tsuande Senju was way more preceptive and stubborn than the idiot. Though unlikely, he did not want to have her sticking her nose in his business. After the death of Nawaki, their relationship had never been the same.

He glanced at the two body bags with the symbol of a certain clan on them and licked his lips. Yes, this was payment enough. He gave Shimura a small nod. And the man threw him a scroll which he caught.

"These shinobi will be placed on the reinforcing force as well. Take care of them discreetly!" Orochimaru scanned through the list and recognized the names. These were shinobi that had been on Sakumo's team.

Shimura was purging the loose ends though he did not mind.

"You can deal with them as you wish!" added Shimura, and his lips turned up at the prospect of gaining so much material.

Ohh! He was going to have so much fun!

0000

UCHIHA FUGAKU

"I need everyone ready for this. We are already late for the ambush," Fugaku ordered through gritted teeth as they approached the second platoon. The plan had gone awry. Despite having the element of surprise, he had underestimated the resilience of the Kumo forces.

He frowned as they rushed through the forest, his mind going through the worst-case scenarios. His eyes blazed red as he scanned the sky above the location of their target, looking for any sign of an emergency flare. Yet there was not even a hint of smoke. That meant either things weren't dire enough or they were beyond dire.

"Medics! I want you to be ready! Rest of you, get ready for the attack!" he ordered, not pausing to stop for a second. However, his eyes widened as he came to a halt and saw the huge cloud of mist covering their target platoon.

"Hyuga Hitori! Tell me what's going on," he commanded the Hyuga captain, who jumped to his side and activated his Byakugan. And Fugaku noticed the color fade from Hyuga's face as he spoke up after gulping.

"It's….. It's a massacre," Fugaku's heart hardened as he heard those words, and he regretted not having given the kid more backup.

"The kid is slaughtering them. But he won't last a minute at this rate! He is heavily injured, and his chakra reserves are gone!" reported the Hyuga.

Fugaku's eyes widened as he heard that, and a small smile appeared on his face as the man pumped chakra into his eyes.

"Send out the flare! And begin the attack!" he shouted as he rushed into the mist along with his platoon, his Sharingan not missing the scattered corpses.

"AGHHH!" "Where did these guys come from?"

"They have gotten reinforcements!"

And Fugaku dodged the desperate attacks from the Kumo shinobi, slitting their throats as he continued to rush towards the silvery shimmer he had sighted earlier. Now that he was near him, he could see the injuries on the kid and was concerned to see his body battered with cuts and cruises. His whole body was bathed in blood, much of it his own.

Ohashi was still surrounded by three Kumo shinobi who were at least chunin, and he saw the kid struggling to dodge their attacks. Fugaku pushed chakra into his legs and shunshined right in front of the kid, intercepting the attack.

"What the? Where did yo…." but he did not let the Kumon finish, as their enemies made the fatal mistake of looking an Uchiha in the eye. And then, before they could react, his kunai had slashed through their necks.

He glanced back at his wife's ex-student. Ohashi had now fallen to the ground and was heaving.

"Hitori, take him to medic!" he ordered the Hyuga, who came and carried away the kid. By then, a number of shinobi had now surrounded him. They had taken quite some losses in their first assault, yet that had been expected, so they held a numerical disadvantage going into this.

A disadvantage that had been corrected by the kid single-handedly. And Fugaku couldn't let a kid outdo him. So, he pushed chakra into his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was sure the pattern in his Sharingan wasn't the regular one but rather a unique one.

"Fujin!" he whispered as blood dripped down his eye, and Fugaku felt his senses expand, and the very air around them call came under his command.

He saw the eyes of the Kumon nin widen as they tried failed to breathe, and watched as Kumon in all in his surroundings began to collapse, each clutching their throats, struggling to breathe. Yet he stood there as Konoha nin slayed the suffocating Kumo rapidly before moving to take care of the rest. Fugaku closed his eye, cutting off the chakra to them as he wiped away the blood from his face.

"Take care of it all. We retreat back in three minutes!" he commanded before rushing forward again through the now-clearing mist to join the ongoing battle.

By then, the Kumo forces had lost all hope and barely held on. The battle would be concluded in less than two minutes, and they would retreat back into the Konoha territory, a territory that they had riddled with traps.

This battle would be Kumo's first major defeat since the start of the war and would allow Konoha to focus a bit more on the threat from Iwa in the Amegakure. Konoha had also sustained significant damages, yet they had not lost any territory and had thwarted Kumo's plans for a quick invasion along the Northern border.

But the greatest loss for Konoha wouldn't take place on the battlefield. No, it occurred in the village as they laid the infamous White Fang to rest in his grave. Laid to rest a man whose very name kept Konoha's enemy at bay.

0000

As always, you can read ahead and support me on Patre 0n. Your support helps me out a lot and makes it possible for me to write. So, if possible, have a look and consider dropping a dime. I shall be extremely thankful.

www.Patre 0n.com/Drkest

Thanks for reading!