Chapter 52: Trouble Comes Running

An hour later, the Konoha force sounded dead already, with only the bubbling of the rivers, the chirping birds, and whistling winds murmuring across the marshy plain. Kannin was confident in the position Shin and Kirai had chosen, it was highly defensible, had decent cover, and natural defenses in the two rivers. Kannin was less confident in his own position, though, given it was the furthest from those advantages. He was also worried that given their good position, Rasa would try something sneaky, like attack them from behind...

'The rivers are too cold and deep to allow for a serious assault from behind, but maybe I should try and gain some intel.' Kannin thought.

He turned to his company captains and asked if anyone had come from HQ with intel, which they hadn't. Kannin's expression soured at that. He began pacing around, a habit he had picked up ever since accepting command of his brigade, and thinking aloud,

"Suna has been too quiet. Every moment they waste, they allow us to further dig in and fortify." He frowned thinking of it, "What have our scouts reported in the last 20 minutes?"

"Nothing out of the usual" Kara said.

"Hmmm...." Kannin made up his mind, "I'll go out with Mikoto's company. Hitomi, take temporary command while I'm out."

Kannin shout out of the tent riding Kiyo and wielding Koseki at his side. The 100 or so shinobi raced over the mud and rocks, over the marshy ground and across a few streams until he came near to the same spot where he had talked to Rasa. The Sand camp was still there, hundreds and hundreds of little tan and white tents splayed out across the field. Kannin scoured the camp, and found that they were milling about like worker ants who hadn't just declared war an hour earlier.

For a moment, Kannin considered a surprise attack against the Sand; they seemed totally unaware of his presence and uncaring of the Konoha army to their south. Kannin could take his and Maneshi's brigade and alone deal a heavy blow to the enemy. But it was too easy. Even with characters like Naruto and Obito in the world, no shinobi was truly this stupid--they had to have something up their sleeve.

A moment later, Kannin's suspicions were confirmed when roughly 500 sand-nin, about the size of his own brigade, appeared around him as if from nothing around him.

"Why is it always me surrounded by enemies!?" Kannin groaned, "Can it ever be them for once?!"

They charged at him, jutsus flying, and Kannin, despite his confidence to be able to take them on, knew it was best to return to base. With their trap sprung on such a small force, their main tactic was exposed. If he could draw these Suna shinobi to the lines, he could finally engage this battle. And the sooner he won the battle, the sooner he went home.

The sand-nin's jutsus were largely countered by Kannin's crew's own, but the numbers disadvantage was too much. Kannin knocked them over with wind slashes and leapt away on Kiyo, who had some poor guy's arm dangling out of her mouth, and made haste for his camp. The enemy began pursuing him south. Racing against time, and with boulders, fireballs, and water jets all streaming past his face, he was determined to get back to base. But about 200 meters from the finish line, a boulder crashed into him and Kiyo, sending them both tumbling across the damp earth.

After getting his bearings, he quickly ordered Kiyo to return to base to request backup, while he and his company faced the oncoming horde.

-

In Rasa's HQ

"They did what?!"

"Our trap force tried to capture one of the shinobi you spoke to earlier" said a jonin to his left, "but he escaped. They're pursuing him as we speak"

"Those idiots," he said, shaking his head, "Our reinforcements are late and they decide to commit 1/4 of our force to a harebrained attack against just 100 shinobi?"

-

Back with Kannin

It wouldn't take long for his and Maneshi's brigades to back him up, so they only needed to last a couple of moments against his enemy. He was still a little dazed from his fall, but he managed to shake it off, and sheathe Koseki for his jutsu. Weaving a number of hand seals, he released one of his bread and butter combinations: raising the already high water table to submerge his enemy and electrifying them.

Most of the Suna shinobi were smart and got out before his combo landed, but those who didn't were treated to an incapacitating voltage through their flesh. With the expanse of the area, Kannin couldn't deliver a very potent blow, but it was enough to at least paralyze them all, if not kill the ones nearest by.

While he took care of a number of ninja with that move, there were still more than 400 left, and their jutsus began to pile up. Chakra blades, elemental jutsu, and, worst of them all, puppets. Kannin had always hated puppets; they were plain creepy. But now the sand nin had taken them, weaponized them, and, on top of it all, laced them with deadly poisons. Kannin had to focus on evading the puppets foremost, and was put on the back foot for the time being.

He summoned a few tornadoes to free up the area, but the sand-nin were unrelenting. Thankfully, they were so distracted by surrounding Kannin that they didn't realize until it was too late that they themselves were surrounded.

Kannin saw Maneshi among the Konoha-nin who had come to succor him, and nodded to them in thanks. When the Sand-nin saw their position, outnumbered nearly 2 to 1 with the combined might of Kannin and Maneshi's command, most of them surrendered on the spot.

The Suna-nin had their hands tied and were lead back to the army.