8 Chapter 7
Normal Speech'
'Thoughts'
'Bijuu/Summons/Gamer'
'Bijuu/Summons/Thoughts'
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, The Gamer, or any series for that matter. If I did the last thing I would do is write fanfiction for your amusement. I am also way too lazy to come up with new creative and funny disclaimers to post on every chapter, so I'll be copying this one and pasting it on every chapter. I've got better things to do with my time, like reading fanfiction, write fanfiction, eat, do work, work out, read fanfiction...you get the idea.
(P.S. Did you guys know I like fanfiction?)
Chapter 7
A few days passed since that encounter with the two Iwa squads and we had been patrolling more carefully than before around the border of Kusa and Iwa due to our casualties. Due to that, we had made sure to keep our encounters with the enemy to a minimum and also allowed Kusa to take over patrolling a wider area of their border than before.
Currently, all of us were inside the first-floor living room of the complex that Kusagakure had lent us and were coming together to listen to the report of the information Wolf had extracted from our captives. Apparently, it was very unusual for Iwa to send members of their explosion corps out in the sense that it usually meant that Iwa was planning something by bringing them out in the front lines.
"Everyone is here it seems." Boar stated, his arms crossed, his muscles bulging from his clothes, and his figure towering. I would never say this out loud, but he actually looked pretty cool with that pose, it really worked for him.
Boar nodded after doing a quick sweep of the room before gesturing to Wolf who took the stand. She looked at all of us before explaining, "The enemy sensor's mental defenses were tougher than anticipated, however, it appeared as if she regarded, with special fondness, our other captive. In the end, I was able to get the information I wanted."
As she paused to allow everyone to digest the information, however, my mind was elsewhere… "Who knew she was a Yamanaka…"
Wolf then pulled out a map and spread it on the large Living room table causing the rest of us to lean forward in order to get a glimpse at what she was presenting, "Right here…" she said, pointing to an area on the map, "Is where a lake spans in between the mountainous regions of the border between Kusa and Iwa. It is a wide body of water and while not necessarily an issue for shinobi, it might be a problem for transporting supplies."
I looked at the area of the map and couldn't help but comment with furrowed brows, "…the lake is located on the Eastern part of Kusa's border, the area where we are guarding." One of the reasons Kusa was comfortable allowing us, a small group of Leaf shinobi, to guard this area of their country was not only because we were an elite group of shinobi, but mainly because in the north there were a group of mountains that acted as a natural border between Iwa and Kusa.
Of course, it couldn't keep Iwa out, but it was a pain to traverse through and large groups of shinobi would find it hard to travel across those mountains together. The most important thing, however, was that this small mountain range actually expanded northward through Iwa and was located in the 200 km eastern area that we Konoha shinobi were tasked to guard.
Wolf nodded her head at my comment and continued, "This is actually why we met with members of the explosion corps." The woman pointed to an area in the middle of the mountain Ranges, that was close to the lake, "Around here is a dormant volcano that hasn't been active in over a century. Currently, there seems to be no sign of it activating in the next half-century or so, but that might change quite soon."
Everyone perked up at that, Shark, the man who had his arm blown off and was used as a test sub- patient by me, spoke up in consternation, "What exactly do you mean Captain? If the volcano isn't expected to be active for another 50 years, then why would it suddenly activate?"
"You might have to thank Iwa for that." Wolf stated, causing everyone to listen even more intently to what she was about to say, "From what I gathered, the Tsuchikage had been sending small groups of shinobi, containing members of their Explosion Corps, to the site of the inactive volcano." She breathed a heavy sight before continuing, "Apparently, they plan to use a unique technique that would allow them to implant their chakra's explosive nature into inanimate substances, in order to transform the cavern floor of the volcano into a giant bomb."
I could see the forms of everyone around me tensing at that information as Boar asked forbiddingly, "You can't mean…"
Wolf nodded her head, "Right. The Tsuchikage had the genius idea to startle the volcano awake and cause it to erupt prematurely by setting off a mass explosion with the chakra of explosion corps members."
"This…!" Shark stated in shock gripping the area of his arm that was missing and he wasn't the only one who was startled by the revelation as even Turtle tensed up, "I'm not sure if I can outrun the pyroclastic flow…not in that terrain."
Viper, the other man who I had helped heal aside from Shark, asked, "What exactly do they plan to gain from this? And how long do we have?" The man was very lean, however, I could tell from his body that he had amazing flexibility and agility. It wouldn't surprise me if his reaction speeds were high as well.
"We have about a week or so as it takes a while for enough chakra to be transmitted into the volcano floor for their plan to be feasible. As for what they hope to gain from this…" She put on a thoughtful look, "Her memories did not explicitly state what the end goal was, but I can harbor a guess."
She looked at the map again before explaining, "If the volcano erupts, it is close enough to the lake that the magma will flow into it and instantly cool and harden creating a solid enough foundation with which Iwa could use to move their troops. This will also allow for a relatively stable passageway that they can use to transport supplies to the front lines, effectively creating another Kannabi Bridge."
"But that is a double edged sword." Dove spoke up. She pointed to the area on the other side of the volcano on the map, "if it erupts, magma will flow both ways and it will take longer to cool on Iwa's side, where there is no nearby body of water than it would on Kusa's side. Long enough that Kusa would be able to react to the sudden sound and start positioning more of its defenses to that area."
"But it will thin out their forces." Boar suddenly spoke up. "Kusa is a small country and doesn't have nearly as many shinobi as Iwa does. Spreading their forces will leave them more vulnerable to infiltration and attack on their now more open ends. Not only that, it will still take some time before our reinforcements arrive and if this insane plan succeeds, then Iwa might be able to create a strong enough foothold here that it might not matter when our reinforcements finally do."
Everyone took a pause at that information. The current issue was that the war had really just started and so Konoha hadn't finished preparing all of its forces. They had to make sure that they had enough forces to protect their borders near Kumo, the land of Lightning, and Kiri, the land of Water. Suna, in the land of Wind, were our allies so we didn't have to worry about them. Afterward, Konoha had to decide how many shinobi they were willing to delegate to Kusa to defend against Iwa's invasion and how many they needed to stay at the home country.
In essence, it would take a while.
Boar sighed before continuing, "Regardless, we have to relay this information to Kusa. What we need to do is stop this plan before it goes to its last stages. I believe that if we can accomplish this, Iwa might be demoralized enough that they'll halt their advance, hopefully, long enough for our support arrives."
However, I could see that not everyone here was too optimistic about the odds. If Iwa has been planning this for some time now, then there was a good chance that they had plenty of contingency plans in place just in case things went south.
"We shouldn't stress ourselves over it now." Dove started, gathering everyone's attention, "We have enough time to reconvene with the Kusa-nin and plan out a course of action. In the meantime, I would suggest we all just continue to stay vigilant and watch the borders more carefully."
"That's a sound enough plan given for our situation." Wolf stated. "At the very least we should be glad that we received this information. It would have been a lot worse if we had been caught unprepared and if it wasn't for the captive that Squirrel apprehended in his fight, the sensor might not have broken in time."
"HAHA, good shit kid!" Shark said as he slapped my back in approval.
"…Ow."
Shark snickered, while the other squad members looked at me in approval and even though I couldn't tell with her mask on, I felt that Dove was proud of me.
"Alright, Dove, Wolf And I will talk to the Kusa leaders about this information. In the meantime you all sit back and recover your energy, you might need it." And with that Boar vanished.
The rest of the shinobi present went in to do their own thing before Dove began patting my head, "You did good Squirrel for your first night out and I couldn't be happier about how you did. Keep it up." She too then vanished leaving only Wolf as the last team leader here.
I walked up to her, as she was packing the map she used, causing her to look at me, "What's up kid?"
I looked at her for a while and asked her a question that had been on my mind, "…What happened to the two captives we brought?"
"I disposed of them." The woman said simply.
I blinked, "…oh."
"Remember Yoru that we are soldiers at war." She said, looking straight at me. "We never show our enemies mercy." And with that, the woman disappeared in a swirl of leaves leaving me with Shark who sighed in relief, "…God, she's scary and hot at the same time. Why does that weirdly arouse me?"
I left Shark to discover parts of himself that he never knew existed and contemplated her words before shaking my head.
"A soldier huh...?"
"What the hell is that old fool Onoki thinking?!" A man yelled, his voice echoing throughout the meeting room. A couple more days had passed since the talk I had with my prisoner. Boar, Wolf, and Dove had come together to discuss the next plan of action with the native Kusa shinobi and they agreed to have an emergency meeting with us on the topic.
As a result, and because there weren't many of us Konoha shinobi here, all of us were in the meeting room where the leaders were planning their strategy. The man yelling was one of the heads of Kusa's assault division and needless to say, he was not happy.
I'll refer to him as important guy 1 since I really didn't care about his name.
Important guy 1 continued, "Is this is true, then it'll affect him just as much as it will affect us! This is insanity!"
"Not quite." Important guy 2 from Kusa spoke. I think he was one of the generals and was considered a good strategist by many, at least that's what Dove told me. "It's true that on the surface we might face the same amount of damage, however, Iwa is larger and has that much more resources that they can pool from. As opposed to them, we would have a much more difficult time with the aftermath simply due to our limited size."
"Then what do you suppose we do?" Some other random guy spoke up. I don't think he was that important though.
Important guy 2 looked at Boar and asked, "How long exactly do we have?"
"5 days." Wolf was the one to reply. "And that is if everything goes well on their end which we can't be sure of."
Important guy 2 nodded, "We'll treat this as the worst-case scenario and act as if we have even less time than that. Truthfully, the only option we have is to take a few elite shinobi and halt the threat while simultaneously keeping the majority of our forces on our borders in order to prevent Iwa from taking advantage of any gap we may leave." The man sighed before asking, "Any information about how many forces they have stationed there?"
Wolf toon barely a moment to reply, "My captive's memories did not state any specific number but based on the amount of time they have been there, the size of the volcano, and the amount of expected force that would be needed, I would wager that the Tsuchikage had sent a decent number. Probably around 15 squads with 3-4 members each and around 1-2 of each member being from the explosion corps."
"If we expect the worse then that's around 60 enemy shinobi with 30 of them being in the explosion corps." The man rubbed his chin in thought, before nodding to himself after a while, "The most efficient yet riskiest plan would be to send in a small number of elites who are skilled in infiltration and demolition. We can have them kill off as many of the enemy shinobi as they can, drawing the majority of the enemy's attention towards them. If we can draw them away from the volcano enough, another group can swoop in from behind, through the mountain ranges, and block off their path of retreat. Well, that's the gist of it at least, simple and crude, but if Onoki truly wants to go through with this plan, then it will be effective."
I could hear murmurs of agreement going around the before one person spoke up, "Then who will go? And how many?"
"My squad will have to go." Dove suddenly spoke up, drawing attention towards her, "We have two sensors and a uniquely fast shinobi on my team. I can easily pinpoint the enemies position and with my sensing capabilities, I should be able to detect them before any of their sensors detect me."
Important guy 1 nodded, "That will be very useful to have, so I'll have 4, 3-Man assault squads assist you in that endeavor. I'll pick the ones who are very skilled in infiltration and we can plan out our course of action more in depth when I get them."
Dove nodded, "That sounds excellent." She then looked to Important guy 2 and asked, "Do you have anything to add General?"
The man out on a thoughtful expression for a moment before shaking his head, "Most of what I have to say will be said when the other groups arrive. I do believe, however, that this should be the maximum amount of individuals that we should use as a diversion. The rest of our forces will be flanking the enemy, but other than that, I've got nothing else for now."
Dove nodded and the room soon delved into debates and plans about the incoming mission. I listened to the plans and easily committed them to memory with Eidetic Memory.
After a while, Important Guy 2 spoke up as Important Guy 1 came back into the setting. "Now that all the necessary parties are here, let's move on with our next course of action."
"Remember the plan?" Dove asked as we silently moved across the rocky terrain. It was currently night time and we were traveling towards the sight of the active volcano: Me, Dove, and Turtle.
I nodded my head at Dove's question, "You'll create and dispel a clone as a signal to the other clones that you left in the care of the Kusa squads. We'll attack and try to draw as much of the aggression as possible. My job is to create as many clones as I can and have them create traps and stall as we escape."
Dove nodded, "Then let's begin. Turtle!"
"On it!" He yelled as he created two clones and ran forward with them at incredible speeds. If it wasn't for the fact that the terrain wasn't flat and that we were in a pretty dense and rocky forest, I knew that Turtle would have easily broken the sound barrier.
Dove made a hand seal and caused a clone to appear before it dispelled. "Let's go!"
We dashed forward, forgoing stealth as we made our way towards the currently dormant volcanic area. Turtle's job had been to use his clones to scout and trigger booby traps that may be around the camp while he himself created as much disorder as fast as he could with his swift release. A simple diversion that we could only use because Turtle was confident in his speed and so were we.
In but a few seconds, we came across the area where the enemy Shinobi were expected to be.
"Fuck enemy attack! Get in your formations!"
"Protect the Explosion Corps and secure your positions!"
"Earth walls! Create earth walls dammit!"
Orders and directions were screamed about as the enemy shinobi reacted to our attack at the base of the volcanic area.
Dove gave me a look before she splintered off and did what she could to attract the enemy attention while I looked ahead impassively. We had already planned the escape routes we would use, so there we didn't worry about us being separated when it came time to escape
In front of me, I noted a squad of 3 staying in a circular formation with their backs against each other and their gaze focused in three different directions as they looked about nervously. With my enhanced auditory senses, I could hear what they were saying as I approached them. I flipped through a few hand seals and got a weapon from my inventory while stalking them silently.
"Dammit! Why did the enemy target this location?! How did they even know about it?!"
"Two demolition squads a few days ago." His partner replied gripping his kunai tightly, "They left to help assist one of our scouts in repelling the enemy, but they never returned. They must have been captured and tortured for information."
"Those traitors!" The first one spat in rage
"Keep your eyes peeled." The third and last member of the group said. "3 of them were fast enough to outrun and disable our traps and we have no idea how many others- DUCK!"
But they were too slow.
I had already thrown out a Fuma Shuriken as I was in the sky and watched as it flew towards them. As they made to move out of the way, I twitched two fingers on both of my hands and separated the giant throwing star with the wire I had attached to it. The long blades of the projectile separated into 4 at my movements, with the strings attached to the blades and allowing me to maneuver them.
I channeled my Lightning Strike into both my hands and with another jerk of my fingers, 2 Lightning enhanced metal blades impaled one of the enemies through the chest, instantly killing him. The remaining two projectiles impaled my last two targets in the legs, the electricity traveling through their body causing them to spasm.
"SHIT! ENEMY THIS WAY! WE NEED REINFORCEMENTS!"
One of the injured shinobi screamed drawing attention to my area. However, before they could come to his aid, they were distracted by an explosion that rocketed the other end of their camp and I gazed at the green fireworks quietly.
"Seems like Kusa finished in time…that's my cue to leave."
And with that, I threw 5 kunai with both my hands, each projectile containing special explosion tags that spewed green flames. The explosions weren't stronger by any means, but they were our signal to retreat after we had gotten enough of their attention. My attack caused more damage to the surroundings and caused enough of a distraction that I was able to create distance between me and my incoming enemies.
"One of them is getting away! Follow him!"
"Shit! But we have to guard this site! We can't just abandon it!"
"But if we don't they may come back when we are least prepared! After them!"
I could hear the arguments and screams of frustration behind me as I made my escape which meant that I had successfully drawn their aggression. With a pulse of my Chakra Sonar, I sensed the chakras of both Dove and Turtle around a 750-meter radius from me which set my mind at ease.
"They escaped successfully as well…time for phase 2."
With a flip of a hand seal, 10 clones came into existence beside me. They all nodded at me and went on their way to stall and trap the enemy shinobi however they could. I had created a good enough distance from them mainly due to the fact that they could hardly see me in the low visibility and they had been quite distracted from the fireworks happening all around.
To be honest, phase 2 was not as complicated as it sounded. It pretty much entailed that all the assault teams had to keep themselves alive long enough for the reinforcements to arrive at the flank. I could spam clones with my large chakra reserves, Turtle could outrun most elite ninja, and Dove was a magnificent sensor who could hide whenever she sensed an enemy coming all the way from 20 kilometers. I had no idea how the other teams planned on keeping themselves alive for the time being, but it really wasn't my issue.
My mind was brought back as memories of a clone came back to me. Before I could even look through them, my attention was brought back to my rear as an enormous explosion rocketed out far behind me. Another set of memories appeared in my mind as chakra returned to me from my clones. They had set off large amounts of explosive tags before they died, most likely taking out the enemies that had been following me.
I encouraged myself to move faster as the sounds of explosions increased and more of my clones died. At the speed I was traveling, my enemies and I were already well away from their camp at the base of the volcano. The other strike team would have a little bit more time now to traverse the mountains and attack from behind.
I was broken out of my thoughts, however, when I noticed that after most of the chakra signatures following me had died from the traps my clones had managed to set up in time, a lot of them were starting to retreat. As I was about to contemplate this further, my brows knitted tightly as my last clone died, "this might be a bit…problematic."
An extremely powerful chakra signature was making its way towards me quickly having pulverized my clone, but Dove and Turtle were also currently preoccupied with escaping, so they would be unable to help. If they tried, they would also bring along the groups chasing them as well which would make this situation that much more dangerous. We had to escape while leaving a trail so that our enemies could follow us and leave their base which would allow our other group to flank them. If we didn't leave clues for them to follow us and they simply gave up chasing, our flanking group would have to face a now more guarded Iwa base/camp.
The chakra signature seemed to be around Jonin and was closing in on me quickly. I hastily summoned a clone who knew exactly what I needed him to do, so it made its way further ahead of me, while I started to slow down. Based on my opponent's speed, he/she would be able to catch up with me eventually based on the fact that he/she was shrugging off the multiple explosive traps my clones had set up.
I eventually stopped running since this seemed to be the only enemy left that was chasing me. The rest had retreated, probably figuring that this was a large diversion, however at this point, it didn't matter. When the green explosions had gone off at the base of the Iwa camp, it was also meant to alert our other forces to begin their movements. Additionally, we had already forced them a good distance away from their base so they most likely wouldn't make it in time.
I turned around and waited for my enemy to approach, but not before creating four shadow clones and having them henge into kunai.
"It seems you've given up escaping kid." The man said as he arrived in front of me, cracking the earth as he roughly landed from the trees to the ground. He had short black hair, onyx eyes, with a densely packed build.
He stared into my eyes while I stared into his until he snickered. "ANBU huh…? Kusa doesn't have the skill nor resources needed to train up and maintain such a division and Konoha is the only country who has something to gain from helping this small country." He cracked his neck while staring at me, "But to think that a kid like you would have the skill necessary to be part of that group…you must be talented" he said, staring at me seriously.
Seeing as it was pointless and it would inhibit my water techniques, I took off my ANBU Mask and placed it in my inventory, though I made sure to use a henge to disguise my real face. "I'd like to consider myself adequate." Was my reply as I carefully observed him.
Name: [Rock Shinobi]
Race: Human
Level: Lvl 52
HP: 37500/37500
CP: 12664/19000
STR: 300
VIT: 375
DEX: 225
INT: 200
WIS: 200
ENGY: 380
The man looked at me intently before smirking and cracking his knuckles, "We'll see kid."
I looked at the man intently as I quickly came up with numerous scenarios in my mind. This man was faster, stronger, and had more health than I did. The only thing I could match him in was Intelligence and I outclassed him in ENGY and CP. I briefly contemplated using my stat points, but if a time came when someone even stronger than me came along and I had no stat points to boost myself, then what would I do?
I didn't want to use them as a crutch beside, I wanted to test my tactical skills and analysis. I tightly gripped my kunai and watched as he slowly made his way towards me before he suddenly blurred.
My eyes widened and I hastily crossed my arms to guard against the incoming attack, however, I was a little too slow. His attack smashed against my arms and catapulted me back into the forest. My body crashed into multiple trees causing me to grit my teeth as I hastily tried to rebalance my body. I skidded to a stop, my feet dragging lines across the rocky ground.
-1895
[Yorudan]
HP: 16300/18195
I shook my arms to get rid of the numbing sensation while watching the man appear from the trees my body had destroyed.
Immediately, I threw my projectiles towards him while simultaneously trying to place him in a genjutsu. The man let them bounce off his body, however, I twitched my fingers. The black metal wire that connected my fingers to the kunai responded to my movements and caused the projectiles to change course mid-air as they wrapped around my enemy.
"Interesting." The man stated blandly before he flexed against his bindings. I grit my teeth and focused my strength in restraining him while simultaneously flipping through handseals.
"Lightning Strike."
I intoned in my mind as Lightning flowed from my hands, through the metal wire, and into the body of the Iwa shinobi. He screamed in agony and flailed, however, my victory was short lived as the man turned into mud.
"When did he…?!" I thought eyes widening.
Before I could contemplate any further, my Detect Danger warned me of an incoming attack from below. I flipped through a few hand seals, but before I could even move to jump, a pair of hands wrapped around my ankles and pulled me into the earth as if it were made of fine sand.
"This is…!"
"Earth Style: Hiding Like a Mole Technique." My opponent, Rei, stated as he popped up from the earth before looking down at me, his arm poised to strike.
I looked up to him apathetically and suddenly spit 5 balls of chakra enhanced water bullets at my adversary as he was in close range. The man's brows knitted as he crosses his arms and jumped back away from me towards the direction his mud clone had been.
"Which is where I need him…"
The moment that thought went through my head, the man's foot landed on the ground and in that instant 3 of my henge'd kunai transformed back into me and wrapped around the man's body: both his legs and his torso.
It was important to note that the ninja wire in both my hands was still attached to my 'kunai', aka my henge'd clones, so before the man could react, I channeled my Lightning Strike through the metal wire and into the body of the Iwa shinobi.
"Fuck!" He swore, as the Lightning coursed through his veins and he tensed his muscles to mitigate the pain.
-3720
-3720
HP: 30060/37500
The man suddenly stopped tensing and chuckled lightly, "I admit you got me there, however…" with a grunt he pulled himself up and slammed his back against the ground. My clones screamed and then dispelled from the impact causing smoke to rise up and obscure my vision momentarily.
"Shit…" I thought as shards of rock flew at me from the momentary smoke causing me to retreat back. I quickly brought out my kunai and rapidly deflected the earthen projectiles as I backpedaled deeper into the forest. With cold sweat dripping down my face, I pulsated my chakra with Chakra Sonar.
Immediately, I jumped up into the air just as a pair of arms jutted out from the ground. "The same trick…?" I thought, however, the only reply I received was a spike of earth jutting from the ground and hurtling towards me swiftly.
It would have impaled me through the stomach, had I not used substitution to replace myself with a log that was promptly shredded by the attack. In the same instant, I threw a kunai with an explosive tag attached into the hole where the arms had come out from. With my hands clasped together and my fingers interlocking, I mentally thought "Explode."
A shower of dust and debris appeared as the ground below blew up into chunks so I hastily covered my eyes, while pulsing my chakra, in order to protect my vision. When the dust literally settled, I already knew that my attack had failed as both my Detect Danger and Chakra Sonar skills warned me of an enemy behind. I promptly jumped off the tree I was on just as a pair of arms came out of the foliage to ensnare me.
"Good reaction speeds, amazing tactical and situational awareness, and creative use of skills…you're one frightening kid." The voice of my opponent sounded as he made his body fully visible. This time I made sure I was dealing with the real deal by continuously pulsing my chakra which ensured me that I was.
I looked back at him impassively, "…Thank you." However, I was inwardly watching his every action and committing them to memory. As I was about to make my next move, the clone I had sent ahead of me earlier popped and transmitted its memories to me that it had completed its job.
All of this took merely a moment to occur and so it was almost immediately after I had thanked him that I retreated backward. The man followed suit and was hot on my tail, so I clapped my hands together.
"Explode."
Instantly, the trees behind me exploded into chunks of splinters causing the man to scream out in anger at the attack. I knew that it wouldn't hold him for long, but it would allow me to pull the distance between us as I got closer to the clearing my clone had set up. It was also that same clone that lined these trees ahead of me with explosive tags.
I jumped from tree to tree, occasionally blowing one up along the way to slow down my enemy, before I arrived at the area my clone had set up at. No sooner did the Iwa nin arrive, his clothes tattered and a frown on his face.
I narrowed my eyes.
I noticed that he was slightly out of breath, his diaphragm rising and lowering more than it had a moment ago before I had tried to blow him up. I quickly observed him and found out why.
Name: [Rock Shinobi]
Race: Human
Level: Lvl 52
HP: 30098/37500
CP: 6186/19000
"His CP…" It was a lot lower than it should have been from the techniques he had been using. They couldn't have been any more than C-Rank ninjutsu so there was no reason he should have lost around half of his chakra. Furthermore, when I had first observed him, his CP was already only ⅔ full.
This meant that he must have done something that cost him a lot of his energy, probably the same thing that kept him from being harmed by all my traps and explosions.
"Could it be…Rock Skin consumes chakra equivalent to the damage taken?" I thought before settling in a stance and staring him down. My opponent regarded me cautiously and narrowed his eyes before suddenly dashing towards me rapidly, however this time I was more prepared. When fighting opponents in hand to hand combat, Perfect Movement doubled my movement speed and increased my attack/evasion speed by 50% and that wasn't even mentioning the additional bonus I got in movement speed and reflexes from Cat's Grace which increased them by 50%. In other words, I was just slightly faster than him in a straight up fight.
I ducked under a kicked aimed for my head and back flipped away from his extended leg right before it stomped the ground where I had stood. I near instantaneously went through handseals and bulged my cheeks before spitting out highly chakra dense water bullets. The man 'tsked' And jumped away from my projectiles instead of tanking them like he usually did.
I hastily ran forward in order attack before he regained his footing, however before I could attack him, he flipped through handseals and stomped his foot on the ground causing a large wall of solid earth to obstruct my path. I gripped my fists and swung them at the wall causing spiderweb cracks to spread out on the structure before it collapsed into heaps of rock.
I immediately knew he wasn't behind the wall from my Chakra Sonar, so I swiftly turned around, however, the enemy Jonin had already popped up behind me from the earth and was reaching towards me with his outstretched arm.
My danger sense suddenly wailed at me to not allow myself to get touched by his hands and I moved to retreat, however, my eyes widened when the back of his arm released an explosion, accelerating his attack tremendously and catching me off guard. His punch impacted my ribs, cracking a few in the process, however, that was not all.
Explosion Release: Exploding Palm!
His fist exploded on impact and launched me back, my body breaking through multiple trees in the process. My body was wracked with severe pain as I felt almost all my ribs break and I had a feeling there was a hole in my stomach right now.
-13255
[Yorudan]
HP: 3685/18195
I coughed out blood and pieces of my entrails as I thought about my current predicament, after all, who knew he was a member of the explosion corps? The duration between the first time he had damaged me and now had been no more than 2 minutes during which I had recovered 640 HP, but now I just lost over ¾ of my remaining life. I could recover, but all I needed was time, "Which I don't really have much of…but…"
I watched as the man slowly made his way towards me as he looked at my downed form grimly.
During the entire time we had been combating, I had been carefully manipulating my chakra into his system in order for him to see a slightly different picture than what he was seeing at this moment. I looked up to him apathetically and coughed a few more times.
The man took a look at my face before shaking his head with a snicker, "Still acting so tough. Well, it's your funeral!" He yelled as he brought down an Explosion Release covered fist down on my body, however before his attack could connect, I spat at him.
I could see the man suddenly tense at my saliva before forcing himself to change his course of action and jump back. My single ball of spit flew past him, however, three red lines appeared on his cheek, and blood immediately started to gush from the wounds. The man widened his eyes and touched his face to feel the dripping blood before his body suddenly shook unsteadily. He immediately dropped to a knee as cold sweat dripped from his face.
"W-What…?!" He asked in surprise before his eyes widened and he shakily formed a hand seal before stating with bated breaths, "Genjutsu…Release!"
I wasn't surprised that he had figured it out so quickly, but I doubted he shared the same sentiment as the visual illusion I had put him in disappeared. Instead of seeing me on the brink of death, he now saw my glowing green hand over the gaping hole in my stomach that was rapidly closing, the Mystical Palm Technique increasing my already rapid regeneration rate.
"Y-You…?!" He glared at me in unwillingness and disbelief before gritting his teeth, veins popping from his head, "How?!"
"Genjutsu and planning." I stated simply before looking past him. He followed my gaze and noted the senbon which had caused the gashes on his face. I had used a Genjutsu on him to make him see 'spit' when in reality I had attacked him with senbon coated with the highly potent Giant Komodo Dragon Venom. He would probably be experiencing a rapid decrease in blood pressure, accelerated blood loss, and he might possibly be sent into shock...oh and he would feel a lot of pain as well.
The senbon had been courtesy of my teacher, so I had placed them in my inventory for safe keeping but not before coating them with the extracted venom of the Giant Komodo dragon I had killed from before, using Kotoe's help to extract it. In this situation, I decided to access my inventory through the inside of my mouth and with my poison resistance, they didn't cause me as much damage or pain as they did him.
They were, however, uncomfortable.
My mouth was a bit numb.
The man looked at me with barely suppressed rage as he shakily stood up before walking towards me, "I'm…going to…kill you!"
"Doubtful." Was my reply as I continued to heal my stomach, a slight grimace on my face. I took out a kunai lazily tossed it at his direction, causing it to soar past his head.
He looked at me with a sneer, "You missed."
"No. I didn't."
The man's body suddenly tensed before he tried to shift his positioning, but he simply couldn't, the poison affecting his ability to move. My kunai impacted a tree behind the man, cutting a string of black wire, and at that moment, large amounts of ninja wire wrapped around him, each inch of it densely packed with explosive tags. The wires extended into the tree lines around us and the tags were painted a dark green color that made them blend in with the tree leaves. The dark night sky further hid them from any discernible view unless someone had been right in front of them.
The man looked on in horror as he struggled fervently against his bindings.
I went through one-handed handseals as I wrapped my free hand around a wire and stared at him blandly. Before we had faced off, I had a clone set-up and booby trap this particular area. All I had to do was lead the Iwagakure shinobi here and get him weak enough that he would be unable to react against the trap. Leading him here was easy, but making him weaker took a lot of effort since I had to get him to lower your guard.
Still, I was able to do it.
The man looked at me as if I was inhuman before gnashing his teeth, "How…!?"
My stoic face remained unchanging as I looked up into the night sky. Based on the position of the moon and the angle of its light, I didn't really have the time to play around here, "As much as I would enjoy sitting down and monologuing my entire plan to you in detail, I have a time schedule to uphold."
The man looked at me, his expression livid. "Damn you! You better pray I don't come out of this alive!" The man stated in indignation."
I gave him a blank look, "Don't worry, you won't." And with that I proceeded to ignore his following ramblings and activated my Lightning Strike Technique causing lightning to flow through the wire and into the Iwa shinobi, simultaneously I detonated the explosive tags.
Immediately, I substituted myself a far distance away and watched with a raised brow as a huge explosion sounded out, spreading a light shockwave that even I, who was 400 meters away, felt.
"Jeez…how many explosive tags did my clone use? Well, I did get them from Minato and Kushina…"
An interesting thing I had found out was that my clones had access to my inventory so whatever I stored there was readily available to them. I had been given A LOT of explosive tags from Kushina and Minato which were much more potent than normal.
I pulsed out my chakra in order to locate my teacher and Turtle, however, they were probably outside my detection range as I couldn't sense them. It made sense considering I had been more focused on fighting than escaping, so I made my way back to our meet-up point.
I hopped across the foliage and eventually came across a cave that my team members had set up as a safe point. I pulsed my chakra as I approached and noted that there were 2 chakra signatures inside, both of them familiar. With a light sigh of relief, I made my way inside, catching the attention of the two individuals already there.
"Yo, Yoru." Turtle said with a tired wave, his mask to the floor against him. I noticed that he was very out of breath and looking at his stats, I realized that his stamina and chakra levels were very low. I nodded in greeting and turned to the other occupant in the room, but my body froze.
"You…"
"I'm alright Yoru." Kotoe said with a grimace as she nursed her wrapped up leg, the blood leaking from the bandages. "…Though I suppose having your help would be nice."
I didn't need to be told twice, so I hastily came to her aid. I quickly unraveled her bandages and ignored the burnt skin as my hands glowed green over her. "…What happened to both of you?" I asked while keeping my chakra control in check for my Mystic Palm Technique.
Turtle looked at me, and stated pantingly, "Explosion release…legs…ran faster…" the man's eyes rolled to the back of his head and I had to wonder if he was going to be ok.
My teacher snickered and I turned back to her, seeing her roll her eyes, "I've pretty much deciphered what he's been trying to say. I believe he faced an opponent with Explosion release who used it to accelerate and propel themselves much faster than any normal shinobi could usually move. Probably through releasing explosions from their legs in miniature but powerful bursts to up their speed. He/she probably exhausted Turtle with a long-winded game of cat and Mouse and he burned up his chakra and stamina with continued use of his swift release."
"…you got all that from 5 words?" I was wondering if I should be impressed.
She merely smirked in reply before looking at me, "And what about you? Aside from the hole in your shirt, you don't look so bad. Good on you kid."
I looked down on my shirt and realized that Rei's Explosion release punch must have blown a hole in my shirt when it blew open my stomach…which made sense. "…No, my opponent also had Explosion release and blew my stomach open."
Kotoe suddenly froze up and looked at me seriously, "Are we going to have to have a talk about this?"
"…I blew him up with over a thousand Explosion tags."
"I suppose not then."
With that, we lapsed into silence as I continued doing my best to heal her wounds. I noted that Turtle had lapsed into sleep due to his low CP and Stamina levels but he was otherwise fine.
I then looked at Kotoe and observed her status as I continued to heal her.
Name: Kotoe
Race: Human
Level: Lvl 72
HP: 38636/65000
CP: 10747/46080
STR: 675
VIT: 650
DEX: 625
INT: 665
WIS: 630
ENGY: 640
I nodded my head seeing that she was otherwise alright aside from her burns. I continued to heal her noting that she had closed her eyes, so I pulsed my chakra and made sure to keep myself alert.
"I wonder if the other group has already flanked them…"
The plan that Kusa and we had come up with was pretty simple. It involved a few teams sneak attacking the camp to draw the enemy shinobi out; another, much larger, group of teams flanking Iwa's position, as they chased the first team, in order to block off any path of retreat for them; and a final third team that would come up from the front effectively sandwiching the Iwa shinobi in between.
We had the elements of surprise and knowledge on our side, so there was a greater chance that the plan would work. With that thought, I made a clone and had it go outside to watch for any signals or enemies while I continued to heal up my teacher.
I thought through the battle that I had with that Kusa ninja and it made me realize something. It wasn't that 'stats weren't everything' Because that was false. If I faced someone like Madara or actually any Kage Level shinobi or even high-level Jonins, I would get smacked around like a doll. The enemy I had faced was only around the level of a tokubetsu Jonin, but he had had a lot more chakra than usual. No, what I found important was that how I used my skills and knowledge would decide my victory and defeat.
I couldn't say that the man was as smart as me even though we had the same Intelligence stat because Intelligence denoted much more than just knowledge, he was a seasoned shinobi who must have fought and killed much more than I had. Just the fact that I was able to plan ahead of him gave me the edge I needed to win in addition to the fact that he had slightly let his guard down at the end. I needed to learn from his mistakes and make sure that I did not make the same ones in the future. You didn't have to go through angst-ridden drama filled failure in order to learn a lesson and grow. As human beings, we were capable of learning and internalizing information simply from observation.
I was broken from my muse when I heard the loud sound of a signal flare and no sooner did my clone pop, sending me the information that it had seen a blue signal flare light up the sky.
"Thank goodness it is over…" I thought when I received the images. The blue signal flare was the signal that we had successfully captured and/or defeated the opposition and had secured their base of operations. With this, I could safely traverse back to our rooms, so I made a few clones and had them carry Kotoe and Turtle while making one more clone to scout ahead.
There were no more disruptions along the way, so it barely took any time for my clones and me to make it back inside Kusa's village gates. I had my clones place Turtle on the couch while I took my teacher back to my room. Since shinobi were extremely cautious and suspicious, Turtle and Kotoe had told me that they had locked and booby-trapped their rooms, so I could only do this for them for now.
After I entered my room I placed Kotoe on the bed and laid down in the bed, but before I dozed off, I checked my progress for today.
Post-Battle Progress Report
Congratulations, [Mystic Palm Technique] has leveled up by 3!
Congratulations, [Illusion Mastery] has leveled up by 2!
Congratulations, [Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu] has leveled up by 1!
Congratulations, you have gained 72,700 EXP!
You have leveled up by 1!
I suppose that the traps my clones had set up as I was escaping had managed to defeat a few of the enemy ninjas. Regardless, I was exhausted, so after giving the progress report a once over, I closed my eyes and went to sleep.
If any of you haven't read Amorphis760's The Root of Darkness, then I highly HIGHLY recommend that you check it out. It's one of my favorite gamer stories on the site with more realistic depictions of shinobi life in Naruto without feeling too alien to the actual source material. I love its characters and especially the MC who is morally grey (my favorite kind of MC)
Next important thing, (Since I keep forgetting to write this) I want to let you guys know (if you somehow haven't figured it out already) that my story is heavily inspired by Amorphis760's The Root of Darkness.
That being said, the missions and overall experiences that shape my MC will be different than the ones Amorphis had his MC go through, except for one mission that is similar but also different (that's later down the line). I try not to copy all his plot points and if I do I put my own spin on it and have different events occur.
Anyway, how did you guys like the fight and the chapter? I tried to incorporate some sound strategy into the battles and not just 'I punched' 'He dodged' 'I countered his attack' etc. I readily admit that I am not the best when it comes to creating creative and very deep plans, but I tried my best. Anyway, till next time.
(P.S. A personal pet peeve of mine is when I read a story where the MC only learns a lesson [a minor one mind you, like not hesitating to kill someone] only after someone important to them either gets hurt or dies. That really grates me)
