149-News Travels Fast, But We Work Faster
Under the cover of night, the peaceful silence of Sakai Town, one of the many towns in the Land of Wind, was shattered by a frantic shout.
"Intruders!" The voice rang out, urgent and filled with alarm.
The town's sensors, alerted by the tampered seals on the town's walls, had immediately detected the presence of unauthorized individuals.
Panic rippled through the town as guards scrambled to their positions, their feet shuffling rapidly across the ground, the sound echoing in the night air.
The sensors, only two in number, swiftly confirmed the intrusion. Their confirmation added a layer of urgency to the already chaotic scene as guards donned their armour and gathered their weapons to protect their town.
Even the town's leader, Rie Hōki, the matriarch of the Hōki clan, was not spared from the disturbance.
Rie Hōki, a formidable woman in her late forties with sharp features and an air of authority, was in her office, meticulously going through documents.
Her concentration was abruptly broken when her younger sister and aide, Nori, burst into the room.
"Sister, we're under attack!" Nori's voice was breathless, her eyes wide with panic.
The Hōki family was a matrilineal shinobi clan, renowned for their medical-nin prowess and skills in information gathering. They were one of the founding families of Sunagakure, entrusted with the governance of several towns in the Land of Wind, including their headquarters, Sakai Town.
Unique to the Hōki clan was their all-female bloodline, a result of the biological inability of the women to give birth to male children, even when intermarried with other clans.
The urgency in Nori's voice snapped Rie into action. She rose from her desk, her mind racing.
As the leader of the Hōki clan, it was her duty to protect her people. The clan's reputation as elite information gatherers of Sunagakure was at stake, and any failure would bring shame upon their entire lineage.
Quickly, Rie summoned a beast, a massive scorpion with a stinger dripping with poison. The beast's exoskeleton glistened under the moonlight, casting an ominous shadow.
Rie mounted the scorpion and charged towards the site of the disturbance, her heart pounding in her chest.
By the time she reached the location, the assailants were already disappearing. She caught a fleeting glimpse of their masked and cloaked figures just before they vanished into the night.
The only distinguishing features she could remember were that two of the three figures were blonde, while the other had brown hair.
"Where did they go?" Rie muttered, frustration creeping into her voice. She turned to her sister.
"Nori!"
Nori, understanding her sister's unspoken command, immediately activated her chakra field, her eyes closing in concentration.
She expanded her senses, searching for any trace of the intruders. Seconds ticked by in tense silence but to no avail. Nori opened her eyes,
"I-I can't sense them," she stuttered, her voice barely above a whisper.
Rie's fists clenched in anger. "How could they just disappear?" she shouted.
The frustration in her tone was palpable. As information gatherers of Sunagakure, the Hōki clan prided themselves on their ability to detect and prevent such situations. This failure was not just a breach of security but a direct blow to their honour and reputation.
As Rie looked around at the assembled clan members, who had joined her in confronting the assailants, she sought any explanation for what had just transpired. The faces of her clan members mirrored her confusion and frustration.
Surveying the scene, Rie's eyes widened in horror as she finally saw the extent of the damage to the town.
Rei's heart became heavy with a mix of relief and despair. Relief, because none of her clan members or the citizens of Sakai had perished in the attack.
Despair, because the infrastructure of her beloved town lay in shambles. The hospital, the school, the granaries, and the water tanks—essential facilities that kept the town running smoothly—were now buried under large mounds of earth.
She took a deep breath, steadying herself. The weight of her responsibilities as the clan leader pressed down on her shoulders. She needed to stay strong for her people, to lead them through this crisis.
After several minutes of gathering her thoughts, Rei finally managed to summon the strength to walk back to her office, one of the few non-residential buildings still standing in Sakai.
Inside the dimly lit office, Rei retrieved a scroll and quickly penned a message detailing the attack and the dire situation in Sakai. Once the message was complete, she made a series of hand signs. With a poof of smoke, a small scorpion, no larger than the palm of her hand, appeared before her.
"You know what to do," she instructed. The scorpion coiled its stinger around the scroll, securing it tightly. With another puff of smoke, it vanished.
"I hope he gets this message early," Rei muttered.
She knew that time was of the essence. With the message sent, she steeled herself for the daunting task ahead, remedying the situation in Sakai and restoring some semblance of normalcy to her town.
Hundreds of meters away from Sakai, in the vast, windswept desert, a kunai lay lodged in the sand, almost completely covered by the shifting grains.
Suddenly, three figures appeared out of thin air above it. One of the masked figures, a male, pulled back their mask and said.
"They almost got us this time," he remarked.
Another figure, a female, removed her mask and nodded in agreement, "Yes, and I used a majority of my chakra this time,"
The third figure, also a male, took off his mask and looked at his companions, "Don't worry, we only have one more place to visit before we head to the capital," he reassured them.
These three masked figures were Minato, Sama, and Hiro. Sakai had been the fifth village they had targeted in the last three days. Their mission was clear: to cripple the daily activities of strategic locations in the Land of Wind. While they did their best to minimize casualties, the destruction they left in their wake was substantial.
As Yano and Renjiro began their work within the capital, Minato and his team took a different approach, systematically targeting key points as they made their way north towards the capital city.
Minato understood the delicate balance of their mission, the Land of Wind's deep-rooted animosity towards Iwagakure and the Land of Earth as a whole meant they needed only a slight push to provoke a larger conflict.
By choosing isolated towns in the south, they aimed to contain the news until it was too late for an effective response.
Minato's strategy was clear, by the time they reached the capital, both Sunagakure and the Daimyo would be acutely aware of the chaos unfolding.
Attacking a city controlled by Sunagakure's information gatherers ensured that the Kazekage would be alerted swiftly. As they moved from town to town, Minato thought, 'Yes, news travels fast, but we work faster.'
Hiro, still bent over to compose himself, struggled with the effects of Minato's teleportation technique. Despite having been teleported numerous times over the past three days, the technique still made him dizzy, a condition exacerbated by his depleted chakra reserves.
The continuous use of the Earth-Style: Earth Burial jutsu to sink and bury buildings had taken a toll on him. Teaching the technique to Minato and Sama had been necessary to share the burden.
Sama, always focused on the mission, turned to Minato and asked, "So when are we going to the next destination?"
'Wait she asking about the next part and I am here trying to catch my breath?' Hiro wondered.
Hiro, though annoyed by her impatience, kept his thoughts to himself. He was determined to prove his worth and refused to let the intensity of their work discourage him.
"We will be—" Minato began, but then he abruptly stopped. His expression shifted from calm to alarmed as he sensed something off. Without another word, he vanished, leaving Hiro and Sama in a state of confusion.
Hiro, not turning to Sama, asked, "Sama, do you think Minato disappeared because Yano-sama and Renjiro are in danger?"