CH_6.29 (200)

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As Anko and Daiki hung the guards, the lights in the corridor flickered on. They looked at each other and nodded. They dropped the dead guard at the guard room's threshold so he would be visible and headed inside the worker's sleeping hall opposite to the guard room.

The lights coming on was a signal to wake up the guards.

Stage-1 was planned to start half an hour before the worker's wake-up time. They could deceive the sensory-nin by replacing the guards—but it was impossible to replicate the chakra signature of a hundred or so workers; they could hope that the sensory-nin's chakra sense wasn't sensitive enough to detect civilian's paltry chakra, but they couldn't take the risk—which was why they designed for the infiltration to be executed at a specific time. So, if the sensory-nin could detect the workers moving around, they would think they were heading out to start their workday as usual.

"Wake up!" Anko shouted in the room.

The workers lacked urgency as they shuffled under their thin covers before sauntering out of their beds. But a few noticed how the voice ordering them differed from their usual guard. They looked to the head of the room and found two people dressed in Hidden Steam shinobi gear.

"H-Hey, you—!" one of the workers uttered in shock.

The entire room was surprised, shocked, and confused to see Anko and Daiki. They clamored out of their beds, their eager eyes shining in hope as they recognized their country's shinobi colors.

"Shut up!" Anko ordered sternly, setting the tone. "All of you are leaving, and we have no time. Drop your belongings. Form a line and stay silent. On it!" They had time before anyone would get suspicious, but they aimed to be quick so that they could place the explosives around the pit before the darkness of the night lifted.

Daiki stepped forth and listed some names, asking those people to step forth. The names were from the priority list. As Daiki did that, the genin from Ikeda's team called for Anko. The genin appeared in shock as he stared out the window in the guard room.

"What?" she asked.

"I-I just saw Chunin Hideki and his two genin dashing away." He stuttered in shock, "I-I'm not mistaken; I truly saw them."

"Pardon?"

Anko stilled in confusion as she stared out of the barred window. The night darkness prevented her from seeing at a distance. Her mind raced to find a reason why a chunin would abandon his post, and the answer hit her like crashing into a wall.

"Fucking, can't believe it…"

Hideki must have gotten a side mission he was asked to complete. Like Anko, Hideki was from Toridasu's ranks. She wasn't blind to the jonin's dislike of her, but nothing could be done to improve that situation, so she stuck to her work and her genin. But Hideki was one of Toridasu's favorites. Anko was sure the jonin had given Hideki secret orders because abandoning the given mission without reason was a one-way ticket to a ruined career.

"Relay the information to the others." Anko ordered the genin.

They had to remain focused on Stage-1. As Anko turned back to walk into the worker's sleeping hall, she was struck with the realization that Hideki had proceeded to Stage-2 of the Evacuation Unit's mission—he was setting up the explosives. Toridasu must've wanted the conditional mission executed regardless of the circumstances.

But in doing so, he had altered the planning for Stage-1.

To get the workers to a safe location, they had to get out of the pit. The climb out of the pit was a steep wall. A long-turning road went out of the pit, but it was at a distance from the dormitory, and it would take at least thirty minutes to exit the pit through it. They didn't have that kind of time—and thus, the only remaining option was the steep climb.

The plan was for each shinobi in the dormitory to take two workers on their back as they climbed. With a shinobi's strength, the weight of two people was nothing, and they could get the workers out quickly in a few trips without breaking much sweat.

However, the original thirteen-member team had been cut down to ten because of Hideki's deviation from the plan. The original four trips had increased to five trips. The risk and danger jumped significantly from the one-trip increase.

Anko shook her head and focused on the present as she entered the worker's sleeping hall.

"No belongings! Drop them!" she yelled, her irritation leaking through her voice.

When she informed Daiki, he immediately started pushing the workers to move quickly.

———

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Naoko was a Hidden Cloud shinobi posted at the Gojiro Gold Mines in the Land of Hot Waters—or was it Land of Frost, as the Hidden Frost had declared the gold mines as the property of the Land of Frost?

Whichever it was, it didn't matter to Naoko. She was the sole sensory-nin responsible for keeping a watch on the pit through her senses. Due to her being the only one, she was assigned to the night shift—from dusk till dawn, she was to keep the gold mines safe from the enemy.

However, working a twelve-hour shift was incredibly difficult as using her sense expended chakra, a limited resource. Naoko's specialty was her sensitivity; range, though, was her shortcoming; she couldn't even cover the entirety of the pit. As such, she deliberately dulled her sensitivity to stretch her senses to cover the pit—it was a delicate balance between sensitivity, range, and chakra consumption.

It was a tough and tiring job, but it had its perks. She got to see the sunrise every day, her sleep was deep and sound, her food was delivered to her, and she didn't have any other duties except for her long shift.

Her shift ended when the workers were transported to their respective stations, which was soon. Naoko got up from her thick cushion on the floor and breathed in the morning air. The air quality was terrible at the mines. As she looked at the sky—before it was red, the sky was blue. Her eyes went to the dormitory, which was covered in a deep shadow from the steep mass behind it.

She frowned as she sensed the guards moving erratically. Their movements didn't make sense, differing widely from the usual. Why did it seem like they were going up-and-down the steep climb behind the dormitory? Seeing that her shift was almost over and the situation was strange, Naoko burned the chakra and bumped up the sensitivity.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, the workers who were never not detectable to her due to her dulled sensitivity became detectable to her. She took a moment to do a second check and confirm that the workers were leaving her range of detection. Moreover, now that Naoko knew what to look for her, she could see the faint figures scaling the steep wall.

Naoko ran.

She ran and rang the emergency bell.

She picked up the radio receiver that was connected to the speakers. "Intruder alert! The workers are escaping from the dormitories! Enemy presence confirmed! Enemy presence confirmed!"

Naoko could feel the people moving around the pit, following the contingency and taking their predetermined posts. They didn't know the size of the enemy's forces— and every response was to be against the worst-case scenario.

She simply hoped it wouldn't come to that.

———

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Takuma looked down at his radio, and the constant beeping tones told him all he needed to know. The stealth was broken; the enemy was aware of their presence.

"Get ready for combat," he announced to the group.

Hideki and his two genin had left their post, which had led to an increase in the number of trips. Three more trips remained.

As the group came up with more workers, Takuma turned to the group. "Free the chunin from the evacuation duty. It's better if they're part of the fighting force." He turned to Iori. "Please take Anko's place."

From a combat perspective, their height was a tactical advantage; however, they had to gain time for the evacuation, which meant blocking the enemy before they reached the dormitory. And being the first team in the pit, the situation was dangerous and delicate.

He looked back at Kameko and Rikku. Both nodded.

"Let's go then."

Takuma walked towards the edge before breaking into a sprint. He leaped out from the edge, heading straight down into the pit. He was airborne for a couple of seconds before his feet hit the slanted ground, and he slid down the pit at full speed.

The sky was lightening by the minute, but the pit was still dark. He squinted his eyes and saw enemy shinobi dashing towards them. Right off the bat, he counted ten, and he was sure more would head his direction soon. Takuma looked up where the pit started—the rest of the forces would invade soon.

They had planned a three-pincer attack. The Evacuation Unit attacked from the 'front' while two other teams invaded from the sides. Surround the enemy, box them in a while forcing them to divide their focus on three different forces. It was a simple strategy.

As the bottom came closer, Takuma jumped again. He broke into a run towards the dormitory where the workers were standing in a crowd, clamoring, pushing each other, trying to be the next person to be carried out of the pit. When the workers saw him and others coming their way, the workers thought they would take them out of the pit.

"Please take me!"

"No, take me! I have money. Please take me first!"

They tried to appeal with money, and some simply begged while crying—but Takuma ignored them all and ran right past the dormitory without giving them a second look. His job was to buy time, draw the enemy out, and set up the situation for the pincer attack.

He stopped a good distance away from the dormitory and glanced back briefly to confirm that his peers were with him. Kameko and Rikku were just behind. The reason he had run ahead was to get himself established in a good position instead of having to adjust around others by coming late.

"We should start with some tags," Kameko said beside him.

"Agreed," he nodded.

He took out a few of his kunai with explosion tags tied to the tails. He narrowed his eyes at the incoming enemy.

"Try to place them ahead of the crowd," Takuma said to his teammates. "I will make sure those guys won't stop…"

He cocked his arm and whipped out his handful of kunai into the air. As the kunai exited his hand, the tags began burning almost immediately. The kunai arced in a shallower trajectory and landed just behind the group.

"Throw now."

He had taken Iori's advice and researched the catalog of explosive tags available with the quartermaster. All of his weapons were provided by the base, and he personally thought he had gotten the most of his allocated weapon allowance. The explosive tags he had just launched had a slight delay on their trigger; as such, even though it was triggered while throwing, and he put an arc on the throw, the tag wasn't going to explode during the flight.

The kunai struck the ground behind the enemy group.

*B-Boom!*

Three tags exploded within a gap of half a second. Takuma didn't need a lot of explosives. Just enough to put the thought in their mind.

If the explosion was behind them, and more were surely to come, they needed to keep running forward to avoid getting caught.

But that's where Kameko and Rikku, with their different targets, came in.

*Boom!* *Boom!*

Their kunai landed right in front of and in between the enemy group and immediately exploded, making very good contact.

"Boom," Takuma whispered as he watched a smoldering body flying through the air.

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