Chapter-6: Slaughter of Tani (1)
(3rd POV)
Kumanoi clan was desperate.
They wanted to win.
This was their only chance to amass a great ton of glory and get in a better position.
The fervor for winning and glory was so much that they directly killed their clan leader and the inventor of the powder, Sakamoto Kumanoi was considered the de-facto leader of the clan.
Everyone started working under his orders, which was a lot of pressure to handle at once but he didn't have a choice.
Failure meant death-
No...
Something worse than death. Eternal slavery or slaughter of the clan.
He handled all the duties with he best of his abilities.
Recon missions.
Intel gathering.
Spy purging.
Everything was done but still his working was that of an amateur at best.
He lost 4 members of clan already.
The stress for the clan was increasing every minute.
The production of powder was fairly simple so it was being done rapidly in order to prepare for the oncoming war.
As Kumanoi clan was having a panic attack, Hyuga clan was...
Uh...
Teaching...?
They were relatively relaxed. They knew that Kumanoi clan to them was just a lapdog trying to bite it's owner back. They would come when they want to.
They were teaching the next clan leader, Junichiro Hyuga how to fight a war.
He was trained in art of battles and missions. In fact, he was handling a small portion of missions himself.
About 10% of it.
Right now he was in the war room with his father and generals, watching the intricate process of war.
Each and every man in the room was aware of war and it's circumstances.
To them, this wasn't a real battle at all.
They could just send a few jonins and be done with it.
They would deal with everything and give them the mission report and everyone stays happy.
But there was one problem.
The intel collected by the spies and recon team was...very absurd to them.
A powder that explodes when exposed to water?
The paranoia and fear of unknown was making them reluctant to give this matter into just a simple team's hands.
An amateur ninja could use the explosive powder in hundreds of ways and this was troublesome.
Because now everyone had more or less fire power of a jonin, even if they don't have the skills of one.
"Clan leader, I suggest we send in a few infantry troops and observe the outcomes of the powder first." One of the commanders said as he looked at the reports.
"Clan leader, it will be better to send the best ninjas and break their momentum with a chance to wipe them out entirely. We may capture a few men to even produce powder for ourselves." Said one of the commanders as well.
"The danger of this mission isn't low. Their power is similar to that of seals those Uzumaki sell. We know how much damage it can cause. I suggest that we should proceed with caution and wipe out the Kumanoi clan in one fell swoop." One of the commanders argued.
As the talks were going on and plan was being laid down, more and more information was flowing in.
...
(MC POV)
"I will be excusing myself for a bit." I said as I exited the war room and went towards the bathroom as I called in 1 and 2.
"Go and bring me 10 somewhat experienced ninjas. Choose people with good stealth skills and infiltration abilities. I want you to attack the frontline of Kumanoi clan, testing the water with their explosive powder and also try to infiltrate their ranks, trying to get the formula for the powder and capturing a few people who know how to make it, if you can. Prioritize infiltration and capturing the civilians who know how to make the powder. I want a report by today. Remember to escape as fast as you can or you may be caught in the war." I said as I threw them a scroll.
They bowed and left.
The scroll contained the official order seal. C-rank mission I ordered for immediate completion as well more details I wrote.
The main purpose was to somehow get Ichi and Ni inside their ranks and bring me the formula.
I am quite sure that other people from our clan may have sent someone similar but I believe that kidnapping civilians and threatening them might get me the formula.
While my methods may be crude, it doesn't matter.
Ichi and Ni were fully fledged jonins.
It wouldn't matter if I sacrifice a few lives. After all, I need to start somewhere.
I headed towards the war room again and started observing the situation more.
This will give me a good grip on how to generally fight wars.
Father was a great help during all of this.
He would diligently teach me what I wanted to know and my curious nature only complemented his desire to pass on his skills to the next clan leader.
...
(3rd POV)
Ichi and Ni quickly took the mission seal as well as the more details to the mission halls and recruited about 2 more jonins and 2 chunin and 4 genin level ninjas with the amount of money allocated to them.
They quickly left for the mission as they discussed various details on their way. The mission time limit was just today and the rewards were high.
None of the candidates wanted to miss such great rewards.
After running for around 40 minutes, they were finally there on border of Kumanoi clan, where the plains started and dense forest region ended.
The Jonins and genins immediately started fighting as chunins, Ichi and Ni infiltrated the ranks, blitzing through the enemy lines.
Genins didn't last that long and retreated while jonins proceeded to finish off the remaining ninjas, suffering a few wounds here and there.
The way Kumanoi clan was using the blue powder was similar to how explosive seals were used.
However, a few creative people were using it in many different way like making a makibishi grenades, shuriken launchers etc. but all the stuff was more or less a prototype.
No proper research went into the weapon technology and was not that harmful to ninjas.
Of course, this promoted carelessness and ninjas were promptly injured due to suicide bombing by the frontline members.
A good way to counter was to use water ninjutsu but it all ninjas had to be very careful while using as any trace of water would explode the powder.
As the mission assigned by Junichiro was going on, another trouble was brewing.
Black Zetsu.
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(A/N: Haaah...
The war chapters are always a bit hard to write. Too many variables. Too many things to work around.
Anyway.
It's warring states era.
We can't let it pass without a few wars.
We want all the smoke, after all.
Hyugas were pretty tame during warring states. Let's change that. More fights.
Lessgo.
Thanks for reading!)