CH_7.38 (256)

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Halfway between Camp Banana and the Spring City of Yu, there was a temporary base with more than a couple hundred shinobi where Camp Banana's troops had stopped on their journey to recapture Yu.

It had been a day since the troops at Camp Banana had left. They had only received information from the precursor team that had infiltrated the city a week ago but the quality and quantity of intelligence was impressive and made up for how long it had taken to be delivered.

Inside a tent built in the middle of the base, Jonin Shirakumo of the Hidden Leaf stood in front of a large, circular table where a map of Yu and the surrounding area was spread out and pinned down.

"The walls of the city were constructed with specialised Earth nature ninjutsu, making them incredibly durable." He traced a wooden pointer on the thick dark walls highlighted on the map. "The plan was to create two openings in the wall and breach the city with a two-pronged approach. However, it seems that won't be possible anymore," he said looking at the three Hidden Steam shinobi around the table.

Camp Banana didn't have enough manpower to take back the city. According to the reports, there were five jonin in Yu, while they only had two. The Hidden Steam had allotted their own shinobi to supplement their numbers, bringing them up to a matching five jonin along with an appropriate number of chunin and genin.

The Hidden Steam were heavily invested in liberating Yu because the three jonin they were sending wasn't a number to scoff at for a small village like the Hidden Steam. It made sense from an economical standpoint. There were three cities including Yu that were captured by the enemy and all of those cities fell in an area that produced a considerable amount of food for the country, and those captured cities allowed the enemy to have a chokehold on that region.

"Obviously not," one of the Hidden Steam jonin replied. "Those walls have protected the city for decades and it would take millions to fix them if you blew two massive holes into them.."

"You don't have to. I'm more than happy to do it on my own," said Jonin Toridasu of the Hidden Leaf. He was the only one sitting down, fanning himself leisurely.

Before the Hidden Steam jonin could say anything in response—or Toridasu could make things worse with a quip—Shirakumo snapped the chain of conversation. "We understand, which is why we're going to breach the city through the front gates—destroying the gates instead. Jonin Toridasu will lead and create that opening."

"That much is fine," said the Hidden Steam jonin while giving Toridasu a partially hidden displeased look.

"With pleasure," said Toridasu with a simple smile to the Hidden Steam jonin.

The only reason there wasn't a bigger commotion was because of Toridasu's age. He was the most senior among them, and while age didn't connote ability and competency, an old man still being around in a young man's game meant that he had survived more than everyone else, and was something to be respected.

Shirakumo moved the conversation along swiftly,

"We're going to push forth into the city aggressively. Our main priority is to drive the enemy out. I can't stress this enough but we have to be fast and heavy-handed. There's no telling what the enemy might do when they realise that they're not going to win—they might burn the city down just so that there's nothing to recover—we want to put so much pressure that they have no time to do anything besides run away."

He continued, "Our next focus will be to occupy and save key strategic points inside the city." There were points in the city map that were highlighted. "The major streets, the city centre, the grain stockpiles, the electric plant, the water treatment system. We want to occupy all of these essentials to ensure that after everything is over, the city is able to function normally."

They had been planning the recapture before they had received the information from the team inside Yu. Each chunin team was given specific assignments that had gone through modifications after receiving the updated information so the level of preparation was on another level to the Gojiro Gold Mines operation.

"Please convey the information to your men. We cannot afford to make mistakes," said Shirakumo after a forty minute long discussion where he communicated everything with the Hidden Steam side.

When the Hidden Steam side left the tent, he dismissed the chunin, leaving himself alone with Toridasu.

"Why can't you be professional for once?" he asked. "There was no need to rile him up."

"You can learn a lot from how a man responds with annoyances and challenges to his authority," said Toridasu, smiling.

"So you do admit that you were being annoying?" Shirakumo wanted to sigh deeply, but he had been working with Toridasu long enough to get used to his behaviour. "You recognise the tension between our two parties, so why were you fanning the flames?"

From the day they had met, Camp Banana's Hidden Leaf troops and the Hidden Steam had been at odds with each other; there was a muted strain between the two parties that hadn't been resolved.

The Hidden Leaf considered the Hidden Steam shinobi to inferior because of the saying that the Great Five villages produced shinobi at a level higher than the others—while the Hidden Steam side thought that the Hidden Leaf shinobi weren't as invested and serious about liberating and saving the citizens of Yu and were only doing it because they were being paid.

A few fights disguised as spars had broken out in the time they had been together and despite his best attempts, Shirakumo hadn't been able to resolve the tension. Toridasu had been of no help and while the Hidden Steam jonin tried to smoothen things out, they didn't seem to be as supportive as he had expected them to be.

"You're giving this too much importance. When the time comes, all of them will fall into line," said Toridasu as he stood up. There was a deep intelligence behind his eyes as he studied the map. "All trivial matters crumble under the face of danger. Until then, this will serve as motivation. I can't make everyone on our side care about a foreign city and its people—so it's better to attack their egos and have them work hard to show that they're the best in the world. There's not enough time to have the Hidden Steam shinobi change their views and fix their inferiority complex—

"There you go again," Shirakumo sighed.

"—so it's better to light a fire under them to prove that they're not second rate." Toridasu looked up at Shirakumo and smiled, "And once they fight together, face a common enemy together, shed blood together—all of this animosity will be replaced by mutual respect. So let the tension brew, stir the pot I say."

Shirakumo would never have motivated his troops that way but he couldn't also stop Toridasu .

"Do you think Mitarashi's team caused some real damage since they handed in the report?" asked Toridasu as he stepped around Shirakumo to the other side of the table to get a better look of the map. "Or do you think they went into hiding?"

The report was mostly intelligence about the enemy, but the precursor team had briefly included information about their intelligence source and knew that the enemy forces were looking for the shinobi the team had kidnapped. While they had made some waves in the city, the enemy forces were more or less intact.

"Given that they're under suspicion, I believe they won't have much choice than to stay hidden and safe, but knowing Chunin Mitarashi, I believe she'd try something," Shirakumo garnered a guess. "If they kill their hostages and the surveillance team, they'd have done some damage. Genin Takuma himself is not under surveillance and I believe he's capable of taking out a few genin without putting himself in danger."

"As long as they can get rid of another chunin or two, I'll say they did a great job."

———

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Back in Yu, Ebi had ordered everyone to adjust their plans and strategies to make up for the missing jonin. He had officially sounded an emergency alert and communicated to all the other jonin to prepare for an attack on the city.

All the shinobi had started working hard to shed the haze of drugs and alcohol, burn the weight they had put on during their leisure time, and work themselves back into top shape. Of course, it was too late to start, but at least they were alert now, and that was all Ebi could ask for.

"We are going to strengthen the walls on the southern side in anticipation of the attack," Ebi addressed the other jonin in the war room, "leaving the northern side minimally occupied... My team has worked on a revised set of strategic locations and all teams are going to adjust accordingly. We are going to front load the density toward the south."

As Ebi was explaining the adjustments, one of the Hidden Cloud jonin interrupted quite rudely,

"I've been meaning to ask, but why are you in charge?"

Ebi leaned against the table with his hand and hung his head for a moment before looking at the Hidden Cloud jonin with almost unbridled anger.

"I'm in charge because your sorry ass was having the time of your life while my men were getting kidnapped and killed. I'm in charge because I'm the reason why we're still exporting produce out of the city. If I wasn't in charge, this city would've been ruined long ago!" Ebi yelled with a vein popping on his forehead. "So shut the fuck up and do as you're told!"

"Or what? What are you going to do?" The Hidden Cloud jonin bit back, ready to start a fight, but was immediately pulled aside by the other Hidden Cloud jonin who noticed the tension in the room and how the Frost and Cloud shinobi were looking at each other.

"Alright. We'll follow your lead. Please continue," said the other Hidden Cloud jonin, understanding the severity of the situation if a fight broke out.

Ebi glared at the Hidden Cloud side for an extended moment before taking a deep breath to calm himself.

"...As I was saying, I want to front load the troops in the city near the southern walls because in the very likely case that the enemy gets past the walls, I want to trap them between those manning the wall and the troops on the ground. That way, they won't penetrate too deeply into the city."

There was a knock on the door that made everyone turn in. A sweating, nerve struck Hidden Frost genin stepped into the room under the gaze of four jonin and stood there in an uncomfortable rigid attention.

"What is it?" asked Ebi, doing his best to keep his voice welcoming enough.

He was familiar with the genin and knew he wouldn't disturb an important meeting without reason.

"S-Sir, we received a report from our advanced scouts." The genin gulped, "There's an... an army advancing in our direction."

While Ebi was taken aback, the other jonin looked reassured as they now knew they wouldn't be taken by surprise and could start preparing for a defence. Ebi, who was deeply involved, knew something was wrong. Just two days ago, Kon had told him that he probably had a week until the city was attacked—which was already too limited.

But Ebi had read previous reports from the advanced scouts so he knew their rough positions.

"How long... How long until they're here?" he asked.

The genin bowed his head as though what he was about to say was his fault. "A little under a day, sir."

The reassurance the jonin had felt immediately shattered as they realised that they had no time before they were going to defend against an attack.

Less than a day remained until the main forces arrived at Yu.

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