War (2)

(Year 54)

It has already been a year since the war began.

The nations are still competing with each other, trying to gain an advantage through any means necessary; whether it was targeting high profile targets, or booby trap important locations.

Higeki and Minato turned 13, and they lived up to their reputations as geniuses.

They could already beat all of the genin and chunin in the village, with some exceptions, and some tokubetsu jonin could lose to them if they let their guards down.

'Why are they not chunins yet?'

The question lingered on everyone's mind.

Their teachers refused promotions offered by the Hokage under the excuse of wanting them to do it fairly through the Chunin Exam.

Well, not exactly refused.

The reality was, Orochimaru didn't want to lose his apprentice yet and wanted to observe his mutation closely, while Ironiki wasn't Minato's official teacher, so he couldn't decide things like a promotion.

Anyways, the war has shown no signs of ending so far.

Kumogakure and Sunagakure aren't relenting in their assault on Konoha, even when Konoha inflicted massive losses on them.

Iwagakure joined the war a year later after it started, and they sided with Kumo and Suna.

The Iwa front commander as decided before was Ironiki, and Orochimaru also had to come to help him out.

Ironiki left Minato behind to study fuinjutsu and explore the Flying Raijin, while Orochimaru decided to bring Higeki to the battlefield.

As expected, there was a clash of opinions between parent and teacher.

(Flashback)

"You won't be bringing him to the battlefield."

Ironiki was calm, unlike his usual exuberant self.

"He's not ready to see all the deaths that occur in a war, he's only 13."

'That was a weak statement.', thought Orochimaru

Higeki has already seen bloodshed and killed people before, so what difference would it make?

War was, after all, a battle on a larger scale.

"Still, he's not ready.", Ironiki insisted, fearing for his son's life because of the dangers on the battlefield.

"You can lose your in a moment if you're not careful. Higeki isn't very observant, so he would easily be distracted by something."

Ironiki and Orochimaru continued arguing over whether to bring Higeki to the battlefield or not and eventually, the decision came to Higeki.

"I want to go to the battlefield."

Higeki wanted to see what a battle was like.

He thought that he would be able to handle large amounts of deaths because he had already killed people before.

Ironiki disapproved of his decision but said nothing as it was Higeki's choice in the end.

...

"I'm the battlefield commander. You can't fight against my decisions, or it would be treason."

Higeki wanted to participate in missions, more specifically the demolishing ones.

Of course, Ironiki wouldn't let him, and this time, even Orochimaru disapproved of his decision.

It was nighttime when Higeki was sleeping, and when disaster struck.

"ATTACK! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

Iwagakure and Kumogakure launched a cooperated attack on the Konoha.

Ironiki and Orochimaru were defending against the leaders of the attack, 'A the Unruly' (Fourth Raikage), and an elite jonin, 'Kagi the Demolisher'.

A specialized in nintaijutsu and his signature technique was the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, so Orochimaru handled him as wind release had the advantage when it came to lightning release.

Ironiki handled Kagi, who specialized in large-scale ninjutsu attacks and used explosion release.

The four leaders were fighting with each other, while Konoha ninja was being slaughtered under the combined force of two nations.

"AUGH!!"

Higeki saw his fellow ninjas being slaughtered left and right, wherever he turned.

Higeki was wrong.

War was not just a large-scale battle.

It was hell.

Higeki has never seen a slaughter of his scale before, and it was making him sick.

A ninja from Kumo sneaked up on him and tried to decapitate him.

The attack went through Higeki's head as he reformed, and he immediately froze the ninja who tried to decapitate him.

Other ninjas took notice of his ice release and focused their attacks on him.

'I'm sorry...'

[Ice Age]

Higeki froze everyone in the camp en masse, and the stronger ones were able to break out.

Higeki gave a mental command to crush the ice statues and kill the frozen ninjas.

[Crush]

With that sentence, Higeki sentenced the ninjas in the camp to death, many of whom were his comrades.

'I'm sorry...'

The jonin from Kumo and Iwa now focused their attacks on him, but the remaining Konoha jonin defended their new asset.

"GET OUT OF HERE!"

A ninja from Iwa tried to stab him in the heart, but the kunai went through him instead.

Higeki created an ice saber and killed the ninja, but now, even more, targeted him due to his unique ice release.

Everything was a blur to him as he repeatedly swung his sword.

...

The attack on the Konoha front inflicted massive losses on the camp, with over 70% of its ninja dead, and the remaining injured.

Konoha immediately sent reinforcements when they received the bad news.

In the midst of all of this, someone managed to take Higeki's picture and issued a bounty on him due to his unique ice release.

Name: Higeki

Village: Konohagakure

Kekkei Genkai: Ice Release

Stats

Ninjutsu: Unknown

Taijutsu: Unknown

Genjutsu: Unknown

Bukijutsu: Presumably chunin

Fuinjutsu: Unknown

Note: Attacks went through him or broke him down into ice, but he reformed right after

Bounty: 5 million ryo from Iwagakure, 8 million ryo from Kumogakure, 15 million ryo from Kirigakure.

Higeki was recalled to Konoha immediately, but it was already too late.

Kirigakure now had a reason to join a war; a member of their Yuki clan was 'kidnapped' by Konoha ninjas.

Konoha needed to appease Kirigakure and not give them a reason to join the war, or else they would be at a disadvantage fighting against 3 nations at once.

Konoha sent Kiri 1 S-Rank, 10 A-rank, and 30 B-Rank water-styled jutsus created by the Nidaime.

That was enough to appease Kirigakure for now, but there was an internal conflict within Konoha.

The major clans wanted Higeki to marry into their family, which would lead their children to possess ice release, while some wanted Higeki to establish a clan within Konoha made of ice release users.

The political shields known as Orochimaru and Hiruzen deflected most of the attempts, but they were under heavy pressure by all of the clans.

Ironiki started getting into politics as well to provide a shield for Higeki.

"Higeki-kun, you need to get stronger fast. Hiruzen-sensei and I won't be able to hold their clans back for long, so you need to be strong enough to deflect their attempts at getting you."

Higeki started training like a maniac.

Every day, he would train like there was no tomorrow.

He barely took breaks, and most of his time consisted of training.

Higeki even accepted a promotion to chunin to gain whatever privileges he could.

...

(Year 55)

The war was over.

Konoha has won the war.

Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure have been deflected by the respective commanders, but at heavy costs.

The commander for the Kumo front; Danzo, lost his eye and right arm, and he now has to walk with a cane.

The commander for the Iwa front, Ironiki, lost most of his troops in an ambush led by the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki.

The commander for the Suna front, Sakumo, lost his troops to poison and used up 40% of Konoha's medical supplies to treat the poisoned.

It was a pyrrhic victory for Konoha.

There were few gains for Konoha, but high losses.

One of the only positive things about this war was that Konoha inflicted more loss on the other nations.

Jiraiya also returned to Konoha after staying in Ame for 3 years and took Minato as his apprentice.

Orochimaru returned from the Iwa front and started delving more into forbidden jutsus after Senju Nawaki and Dan Kato's deaths.

Senju Tsunade has developed a fear of blood and retired from active combat and medicine.

Everyone lost something in this war, and Higeki was no exception.

Higeki lost his former teacher, Katsute in the war.

They kept in contact even after he had graduated from the Academy, and he recently learned that Katsute died in the war.

Now, it was time for the funeral.

...

The civilians and ninjas of Konoha attended the funeral with one common thing in mind; mourning their losses.

Even Orochimaru, who hated public events, attended the funeral along with Jiraiya.

Tsunade didn't attend the funeral due to her trauma.

The atmosphere was solemn, and the sky was crying on that day.

...

Everyone changed after the war.

Minato got more serious and wanted to prevent wars, so he trained and became a chunin.

Ironiki lost some of his exuberant personality and became more serious.

Orochimaru now focused on the discovery of immortality after realizing the fragility of human lives.

Jiraiya focused on teaching Minato and writing his book; the Tales of a Gutsy Ninja.

Higeki's personality had a massive change after constantly being pressured by the clans who wanted him.

He stopped caring about everything else, except for getting stronger.

He wanted strength to prevent wars and to do whatever he wanted.

He wanted strength to fight back against the clans.

But first, he needs to take missions for money.

...

"Hokage-sama, can I take a mission?"

The Hokage rose an eyebrow at his request, remembering that he doesn't like to take missions and instead focus on training.

Higeki noticed his confusion, so explained, "I need money. Dad spent his money on drinks with Jiraiya-sama."

"Ah, I see. What type of mission do you want?"

"Something that makes the most money."

"There's an escort mission that's listed at A-Rank because of the pay. I was saving it for someone like Orochimaru who needed money for his research, but I guess you can take it too."

"What do I need to do?"

"Escort Yumikara Egao to the Land of Fire's capital."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"May I ask what the reward is?"

"18 million ryo."

Easy mission? Check.

High reward? Check.

That was all Higeki needed to know, and he took the mission without any hesitation.