The Zero Tails Jinchuriki #34

Disclaimer - I don’t own anything. As the corporations say these days, you will own nothing & be happy. I don't, and have never claimed to, own Naruto or any of its characters. With that out of the way, let’s goooo!

Land of Fire

–Kenta Senju–

He sighed, looking at the remnants of the Fuinjutsu on the man’s tongue, which destroyed not just his tongue, but also his brain, which was mostly mush now. If a Yamanaka was seasoned enough, they could get information out of someone who had only recently died.

Evidently, whoever implanted this seal on Masato here knew that, so they went to extra lengths to destroy that part of the brain as well.

He then walked up to the first floor, ordering the guard to preserve the corpse, who nodded and scrambled to follow the protocol for such an event, by treating that corpse as an enemy. He did not know if Masato was a spy for other villages or just someone with a grudge against the Uchiha Clan, and access to advanced Fuinjutsu.

No, this was different. Masato was not just some run of the mill Chunin, Genin or a member of the Reserve Corps. He was given the responsibility of guarding a key section of the border. More than that, all Jounins were constantly screened by the village to make sure that the top most combat forces of the village were not compromised in any possible way.

The ANBU spied on themselves and on the regular shinobi of the village. The top of the shinobi, screened their juniors, i.e., Chunin and Genin. These Chunin and Genin spied on the Reserve forces and all the other administrative positions.

Above them all, was the Hokage who made sure that he could trust his forces.

For a Jounin like Masato to slip the gaps? It seemed very unlikely. More than likely, he had help from someone because Masato himself did not seem like the kind of person who had the means to arrange everything.

Then there was the chakra signature. That same, cold, unfeeling chakra signature was present in Masato, as did those people back in the village.

All in all, it was giving him a very bad feeling, something he planned to resolve when he went back to the village. This was bigger than just a single Jounin, or an isolated case of targeting Uchiha shinobi.

Someone was out there, targeting Konoha forces and he needed to know who. After all, for his plan to work, he needed the world to breathe peacefully, and he couldn’t do that if there was someone out there who could sabotage an entire border like this without the Hokage knowing about it.

“Sir!” He turned to the side, to see an Uchiha walking up to him, “We have two Uchiha members in critical condition. One of them has swelling alarmingly close to the eye. We need to move them now, sir.”

Thinking it over in his mind, he took out a scroll, pressed the medallion on it, giving it chakra which created a chakra imprint on the scroll that is very hard to replicate, wrote his orders on it before thrusting it towards the Uchiha who was looking at him with desperation written all over his face.

“Take this. Take half of your clan members, and make haste to the village. This has authorisation for you to request any Konoha medic you can find on your way to stabilise your clan members. Make sure you don't stop anywhere. Only the Hokage’s orders can stop you right now. Go, now!”

The shinobi looked at him gratefully, before nodding and rushing back to the medical room, barking orders left and right, as people scrambled all around him.

It was obvious, since to the Uchiha, anything related to their eyes was just as important as their lives. Their Doujutsu was their identity in most cases.

Quite an unhealthy mindset but something that has allowed them to survive this far, so who was he to criticise them?

Within minutes, the injured were carefully loaded up and a small squad was off, leaving him with 4 shinobi to guard the border. Well, it was good that he did not plan on having them do anything tonight.

There were already reports of Kumo activity near the caves, and judging by their previous patterns, an attack was imminent tonight. He would be ready for that. He failed to capture Orochimaru, despite inflicting fatal wounds on that man, so he was looking forward to some wins tonight.

To think that even destroying the Snake Sannin’s heart wouldn’t stop him. It surely rattled him enough to flee but not enough to do any damage. Hell, he could confidently say that Orochimaru will make a full recovery, which was good when it came from a medic about their patient but not as good when talking about an enemy.

___xx___

He was sitting on a tree branch, legs dangling as he waited for the Kumo shinobi to arrive at the spot. This was the least used point of entry because of the sheer difficulty of traversing the tough terrain in front of him. It was also the entry point furthest from any toher point of entry, making it the least guarded.

Sure, Patrolling was done here as well but the frequency was very low. More than enough time for enemy forces to travel through or set up traps in this place. In total, he sensed about 7 shinobi, with the weakest among them being a Chunin.

Two Jounin, one of whom was much stronger than the other, with a heavy lightning chakra nature, which meant the fight ahead wouldn’t be too one-sided.

___xx___

–Toru Akebane–

He peeked over rocks, his eyes not telling him much because of the darkness but he could tell by the presence of trees that they were near their goal.

Thank Kami for that! He always hated travelling through the narrow caves, and the narrower paths that felt like they would collapse if someone sneezed at them wrong. 

If he hadn’t been ordered personally by the Raikage, he wouldn’t have even come. He preferred coming through the eastern entrance, straightforward. That way, the Tree Huggers wouldn’t be able to make an excuse as he snuffed their sorry lives out with a single hit.

His fists clenched as lightning crackled around his arm, as he thought of the tree Huggers he was going to meet today.

“Ayame! Report!” he barked orders at Ayame, the sensory specialist of his squad, who immediately stopped and closed her eyes with a single hand seal in front of her, which faintly glowed white.

She was a special case, the result of some special Kekkei Genkai breeding program, allowing her to enhance her sensory range akin to that of a Sage by using lightning as a medium.

She could hold her own in most fights but her real talents lie in her sensory prowess, and also her ability to pass that on to the next generation, which is why he had express orders from the Raikage to make sure she came back alive to the village, even if it cost him his life.

“No shinobi presence as far as I can sense,” Ayame said after a moment, her brows furrowed as the glow around her hands increased, as Ayame increased her sensory range.

“Ha! That makes stuff easy for us then! The Tree Huggers won’t know what hit them!” Hoshirō Kaminari, the last member of his three person squad, blurted out happily, not knowing the actual implications of her findings.

“No, you idiot!” He slapped the fool upside the head, “It means something is wrong. The Tree Huggers patrol everything. We expected a window to slip through, not a wide open door.” He said as the glow around Ayame’s hand subsided, as she looked at him and shook her head.

“So, what? You think this is a trap? Who cares~ We can just-”

“You will do nothing. Keep quiet,” He snapped at Hoshiro, the rest of the Chunin saddled with them keeping quiet as well. 

“This is different from before, Captain. We might be walking into a trap. I can’t sense any Fuinjutsu, not even a paper bomb in my range.”

“So what? Who could defeat us? The Tree Huggers have lost their precious Yondaime, this is the perfect chance to just blitz through. Who is going to stop us? Tsunade is back in their village, according to reports and Jiraiya is on the other side of the Land of Fire. You know it as well as I do. The Tree Huggers only have these two, aside from their Hokage, who could actually stop us.”

Ayame silently looked at him, asking for advice, as he remained deep in thought. Despite what his bulky appearance made people believe, he did not become a captain with just his power.

He had to consider all the factors here. The Tree Huggers were tough, everyone knew that and if pushed too far, they would just take down as many as they could if it meant their precious comrades could flee and live.

That weakness was precisely used by all the other squads that came before him, taunting and targeting the patrol squads to the point of exhaustion by performing dozens of smaller attacks during the day rather than a single large battle, exhausting them further.

Mentally and Physically.

All of that would mean jack shit if they were dealing with a shinobi of Jiriaya’s calibre. The reports were confirmed, though, likely spread by the Tree Huggers themselves as they desperately hoped to look strong in front of the world, despite losing arguably the biggest deterrent they had.

To outspeed both Raikage-sama and Killer B all by himself? He shuddered at the thought of even being on the same battlefield as the Yellow Flash.

But now?

Maybe Hoshiro was right. Konoha certainly did not have anyone who could fight all three of them at once.

Even so, they had to proceed carefully. He knew just as well as anyone how simple traps and mistakes can lead to the death of even the strongest shinobi.

“We proceed.” Ayame nodded at his decision, taking defensive positions at the rear, long range lightning jutsu being her specialty, as he and Hoshiro remained at the front, ready to blast through any Tree Hugger that tried to attack.

“That’s more like it, Captain! Trap or not, here we come!” Hoshiro, moronically said, as the Chunin looked at him weirdly.

He shook his head and sighed. He just had to be the one to train Hoshiro, and Hoshiro had to be the most talented High speed lightning release specialist in the village.

“Let’s just… go.”