Chapter 12

Chapter 12

A fire burned all around Utakata as the smoke reached the skies. While everyone else was going through the loot they had gathered, Utakata sat alone, cleaning his blades and watching the burning houses. What was once a bustling town was now ashes and dust. There was no hope for this town since the Mist decided to get rid of it.

Utakata's conclusion that they would be attacking the Paradise Isles was correct. They have descended on the Isles unexpectedly. There was no resistance. Once they came, everything around them fell. The people tried to run but couldn't outrun the shinobi and were all massacred. Children, women, and even the elderly weren't spared.

Utakata continued to clean his tanto blades, but no matter how much he tried, he still could see the blood covering them. There was no escaping it. Even now, Utakata could hear the screams of agony and fear, the pleading to spare their lives. He still could see their lifeless eyes filled with fear and hatred even after the bodies were burned to ashes.

"Aren't you done?" Meizu asked, seeing Utakata still cleaning his shining blades. "There wasn't as much loot as I expected."

"Loot isn't our objective," Utakata replied. "It is to destroy everything in sight so that the Cloud shinobi couldn't use these Isles for a while."

It was done for the war effort, and these innocent people were just unlucky. Utakata sheathed his blades and stood up. There was no time to mop around. He was a weapon, and he had to be always sharp. The Cloud shinobi should have been able to see the fires and smoke. At any time, they might rush to see if there was anything to save.

It was the second part of the mission that Utakata hadn't foreseen. The Mist wanted the Cloud to react recklessly, so they could ambush them. Utakata should have predicted it, as they would be the bait for the Cloud to chase while a separate force would be waiting and sneaking from behind the Cloud. But even his captain didn't know all the details, so there was little chance that Utakata could have understood the plan without being told anything.

"We should be preparing to leave," Gozu informed Utakata.

Utakata looked up at the sky and saw dozens of similar pillars of smoke rising from all of the Paradise Isles. How many have died today? Utakata didn't even know how many he killed. He refused to think about it and buried everything deep inside him. It was the only way to cope with the reality and move on.

…

It would have been easier to escape the Cloud shinobi if the village cared for the peasants like them. Now they had to hide on a small island between the Land of the Water and the Land of Lightning. The Island was deserted, with cliffs and trees giving them cover. They had no choice but to hide here and wait for reinforcements.

The Cloud was furious beyond their expectation. The Paradise Isles were close to their lands, so letting someone burn them to the ground, didn't sit well with them. The Cloud shinobi will kill every Mist shinobi or die trying. But that kind of reaction is what the Mist wanted to see. Too bad it was Utakata and his unit that received the fury.

"They will come at any moment," Utakata said as he sensed strong chakra sources nearing them. "Be prepared and remember, we need only to survive, not to kill them."

Meizu and Gozu listened to Utakata's words, even if he was younger than them. They had become fast friends and could trust to watch each other's back. It was rare in the Mist, but being brothers Meizu and Gozu were used to working together, and accepting someone else in their circle wasn't too difficult.

"What the plan?" Gozu asked.

"Water release. Hiding in Water Jutsu," Utakata responded by turning into a puddle of water on the ground.

Gozu and Meizu looked at Utakata and did the same. Utakata wasn't a fool and chose a place that wouldn't be suspicious to have a big puddle of water. Now they only had to wait, hoping the Cloud shinobi would pass through them and not notice them. If lucky, they could escape much of the fighting if no sensor came through.

But luck wasn't there for them as shinobi passed them. Soon enough, a couple of shinobi stopped and looked at the water. Utakata could sense that they were mending their chakra and would use a jutsu soon. So, not letting them do so, Utakata jumped from the water and threw his blades at them. Even when Utakata killed the two shinobi fast, the others still noticed him and didn't give him a chance to escape.

He motioned for Meizu and Gozu to stay put for now. Seeing that Utakata was alone, the Cloud didn't bother with him and only left three shinobi to take care of the small boy and continue to chase the others. Utakata played defensively, dodging and blocking attacks while leading the three shinobi away from Meizu and Gozu.

Understanding what Utakata was doing, Meizu and Gozu waited for the three shinobi to turn their back on them. And just when Utakata was overwhelmed, the twins shot out of the water and quickly killed two shinobi before joining with Utakata and finishing the last off. They knew they had no time to rest and had to leave and prepare another trap to survive.

There were too many Cloud shinobi. It was hard for Utakata and the rest to defend themselves. Utakata could sense that his unit was losing as more and more chakra sources disappeared around him. It wouldn't take long before they started doubting if the Mist would send anyone to help them or if they were forsaken.

…

"How much longer do we have to wait?" Meizu asked as he punched to the death one of the last shinobi that came after them.

"As long as it takes," Utakata replied, trying to hold two shinobi bound by his steel wire while Gozu finished them. "Let's go, we can't stay in one place for long, or we will be discovered too soon."

"We need to rest," Gozu responded through his heavy breathing.

"We rest when we are dead," Utakata replied, but he, too, felt like he would fall at any time.

By now, Utakata couldn't sense half of his unit. Yet the Cloud shinobi didn't stop coming. So far, Utakata was lucky not to meet any powerful shinobi, but he knew his luck wouldn't last long. And at this point, even a genin squad might be able to kill them. They had to move and find another place to hide. That was the only way they could survive.

So far, hiding and ambushing smaller squads worked well enough, and Utakata couldn't think of any better tactic. But he was reaching his limit. He didn't have enough chakra to make a jutsu, and his stamina was running out. If not for his brutal training in the academy and constantly pushing himself to the limit, he would have passed out of exhaustion long ago.

"We can't go on like this," Meizu said after running a fair distance from their last battle and leaning on a tree.

"We will die if the reinforcements don't show up anytime soon," Gozu added.

Utakata had nothing to say. He knew that too, but he had to endure as much as possible. If it were to save them, Utakata would doubt the Mist cared enough for them to do it. But the Mist's strategy was to ambush the Cloud shinobi, so there was no way they would not arrive. The question was, what has taken them so long?

"We need to find the others and make the last stand," Utakata said. "Individually, we don't have enough strength to fight, but we can push further together, even if for a little more."

"And how do we find them?" Meizu asked.

"Follow me. I saw few signs of fighting not far away," Utakata hid his ability to sense others and made an excuse.

Utakata didn't take long to find a group of five shinobi from the Mist. He explained his tactic and asked if they knew where are the others. Making excuses that he heard something from a specific direction, Utakata quickly rounded up another twelve shinobi. Now twenty strong, together they found a cliffside to make their last stand. There were only a few more stranglers of the Mist that Utakata could sense, but he didn't bother with them as their chakra were dying out.

"We were lucky that the Cloud hasn't found us yet. Do you think they have given up on us?" One of the shinobi asked.

"Doubt it. We just were lucky that all," Another replied. "And the younglings seemed quite skilled to find us all."

"Enough chatting," Meizu said. "The enemy will come at any moment, we need to prepare traps to meet them."

"Aye, aye," Everyone replied, but Utakata could tell they had already given up on their lives.

What Meizu said was true, as Utakata could sense the Cloud shinobi nearing them. Utakata stood in front, holding steel wires in every finger. Utakata spread the wire so that, with one pull, he could tighten the wire. Ideally, he hoped to kill some, but he knew that he didn't have enough strength to pull the wire to cut someone. But he could still manage to hold them at bay, even if it was for a moment.

"There where you were hiding. It is the end of you, monsters," The Cloud shinobi appeared before them. There were forty of them, and more were coming. "You will pay for what you have done to these innocent people. They couldn't even fight back."

The leading figure rushed at Utakata as he was the closest. Everyone else followed suit. Waiting for the last moment, just before their weapons could reach him, Utakata pulled back with all his body. Steel wire emerged from the ground and around the trees. It cut only a few, but he managed to stop the half that went after Utakata first.

Utakata held more than a dozen shinobi in place for a good second before losing all his strength. But that was enough for a valley of shuriken and kunai to kill them, and before the bodies fell, those who still had chakra to spare let out their most powerful jutsu knocking the rest back. Yet even then, it wasn't enough to kill them, as more soon arrived, surrounding them.

"Kill them!" With two words, the Cloud Shinobi rushed again, and Utakata and the rest would have to face them head-on.

Utakata didn't have enough strength to do anything. He didn't think he could even block one attack, and the rest weren't any better. Even with traps before them, the Cloud shinobi rushed to kill the Mist shinobi. When all hope seemed to be lost, and they prepared to face their death, a rain of powerful water jutsu descended on the Cloud shinobi. As the Cloud surrounded them, the newly arrived shinobi from the Mist surrounded the Cloud shinobi.

It was a massacre. The Mist rounded up the Cloud shinobi and killed them brutally. No one escaped, seeing that they had won Utakata's unit or that what was left of it collapsed to the ground. Meizu and Gozu helped Utakata to sit up and rest against a tree. Utakata only now noticed that the steel wire had cut his fingers through the meat, almost reaching the bones.

Seeing my state, a few others quickly helped Utakata to bandage his hands and gave him water to sate his thirst. Utakata did not want to waste his little energy, so he didn't decline help from the others. The new arrivals quickly took all the merit of killing the Cloud shinobi by taking their headbands while Utakata's unit patched themselves up.