Chapter 46: Life During Wartime

Kannin wasn't old enough to really understand what it was like to live during the last war. He spent most of that time either in school or with his mom. Now, however, he was fighting the war, which meant sleeping in uncomfortable sleeping bags, waking up at ungodly hours to fight in the newest skirmish, and eating terrible food (oh how we lamenting feeding the foxes all of Kushina's sandwiches).

Long story short, war wasn't fun for Kannin--and for all the jokes he could make about the food or the bugs, those didn't truly bother him. What really shook him was the death, the way he could be talking with an old friend from the academy in one moment, and the next he would see their body torn apart, left lifeless, sport for the birds and dogs. Kannin knew death was part of the deal, but the sheer enormity of it all weighed heavily on him. It weighed on his friends too; he could see on their faces, the way their jokes didn't have the same life in them.

They managed to go a week before Jiraiya made it with their reinforcements. When he arrived, the Toad Sage saw weary and ragged Konoha-nin, in less than half the number he was told left the village. He saw their commander, Harakaze Shin first; she informed him quickly on the nature of the battle, where the enemy was and their approximate number.

The situation looked bad. They were outnumbered almost 2 to 1 even with the reinforcements, and Konoha's position was nearly surrounded, with only Kannabi bridge acting as a safe point for their supply lines. Jiraiya took a quick look at their situation and immediately decided on a tactical retreat."

"What!? Excuse me, Sannin, but we cant just retreat like that."

Jiraiya, whose face was normally so jolly, was now quite serious, "We simply cannot maintain this position, Shin. You've done a fantastic job thus far, but we have to retreat."

Shin stopped in frustration, but saw the Sannin's point, "Fine. I'll order the retreat." She turned to her team, "Kannin, go to the front, and inform them that we'll be retreating with cover from our reinforcements. Warai, gather our remaining sensors and escort the repositioning. Tetsu, you stay in hq and help the reinforcements find their way." They all nodded and flickered out to their duties.

Jiraiya noticed them as they were being ordered. He was particularly interested in Tetsu, given his vague resemblance to Hiruzen, and Kannin, who, aside from the gigantic fox by his side, looked very familiar to Jiraiya for reasons he couldn't place.

"Is that your team, Shin?" he said with interest, "They're quite young for the battle line."

"Yep, that's my Team 4," she answered, "I know they look young, but there's a reason they survived this far."

"What are their names?"

"The Uchiha is Warai, Kannin had the sword and fox by his side, and Tetsu was the last one"

Jiraiya pondered for a moment, "Warai's an Uchiha, Tetsu's a Sarutobi, what about Kannin?"

"Uzumaki"

"Really?!" he asked with more of his characteristic childishness.

"Yes. Now can we get back to business?"

They went back to strategizing. Jiraiya's plan was to draw Iwa across Kannabi bridge and then blow it up, stranding them in the Land of Grass without reinforcements and their supply line. Shin agreed with the plan, but was skeptical of their ability to sneak past the paranoid Tsuchikage's forces to blow the bridge.

"Time will tell, Shin. Who knows, maybe the world will learn to fear the Toad Sage once more."

-

After receiving his orders, Kannin summoned two dozen foxes and ordered them to deliver news of the retreat while he got lunch. He didn't say anything while he was at hq out respect, but he really was in awe of Jiraiya. He never had the best impression of the Toad Sage from the manga, but the man exuded strength and power, and behind his typical silliness, he could tell Jiraiya had quite the intellect.

When the frontliners began coming through the woodwork, Iwa pressed its advantage, and Kannin went up to fend them off. With Kiyo with him, he made pretty quick work of his opponents, especially once his reinforcements backed him up. In the end, Konoha forces managed a textbook withdrawal with minimal casualties in the process

It wasn't long before Jiraiya established a new headquarters and set up patrols. Konoha had dug in, and their position was much more favorable this time. It also didn't take long for Onoki to send his forces after them.

When Jiraiya received news of the pursuit, a wide grin came on his face as he signaled for 'Operation Explosion' to commence. Everyone in the war room facepalmed at he dumb name, but they agreed. This mission was personally assigned to Team 4 to complete; the objective was simple, blow up Kannabi Bridge. If they could do that, they would basically win this engagement. However, it was much easier said than done.

Shin led Team 4 around the flank of the main body of Iwagakure's forces to try and get around them. This was made rather easy due to Warai's now fairly remarkable ability with Shiringan Genjutsu. Any rock-nin that stumbled on them lurking in the shadows would fall prey to her Sharingan, keeping them from reporting back to their base camp.

The area Jiraiya picked out was a forest much denser than the one across bridge. It had many trickling streams running through, with a canopy so dense, even on a clear sky it seemed like night below. The bridge, however, was in an open field, where they would have little cover against the eyes of the Iwa-nin. It also seemed like it was near where the Tsuchikage put his base camp, so the traffic was quite heavy as well.

They would have to either sneak through or fight through a mass of Iwa-nin, the likes of which Kannin hadn't seen since the day he first saw the army. It didn't look good, but Shin was determined to see the mission through.