A Sudden Attack

- Two Chapters Today -

[Year 52, Suna/Iwa Border]

Souei, along with his two teammates, woke up quite suddenly by the sound of yelling and a warning bell. The three of them immediately reacted as they all got out of their futons.

"What's going on?!" Rukia exclaimed as she quickly grabbed all her weapons.

"That's the emergency bell. Which means we're either getting attacked, or our commander was just assassinated." Rasa chimed in as he clasped his two medium sized gourds to his waist that carried his Gold Dust.

"Considering sensei is our commander, it's probably the former." Souei finished. Still clad in their pajamas, Team 11 rushed out of their tent. The view that met them was of Shinobi running around the camp, all tense and preparing for an attack.

The trio immediately went to the command tent at the center of the camp. Inside, they could see Ishito hashing out orders towards a few Genin. Mukade, his signature centipede puppet curling around him as usual. He then turned to their direction at the sound of them entering.

"Good you're here. Follow me."

The three immediately heeded his words as they followed their sensei towards the main entrance of the camp.

"Sensei, what's going on?" Souei asked Ishito as they ran.

"We have an emergency. Our sentries spotted Iwa troops coming from the West. They'll be here in a few minutes."

Ishito's voice only slightly shocked them, as it was something they were expecting.

"The main army won't be here until tomorrow so right now, we're on our own. Fortunately, they'll be coming in through the forests. So the traps you two prepared yesterday should come in handy."

"What about their numbers, sensei?"

"They couldn't get an accurate number. Just prepare for an overwhelming force."

"Got it."

Souei, Rukia, and Rasa immediately gained determined looks as they all sped towards the gates. There, they could see the remaining forces already set up a defense line facing the forests that surround their camp.

"Report." Ishito took command as Jun, the Jonin from yesterday, immediately stepped up to him and saluted Ishito.

"Ishito-sama, all the civilians have been moved to the center of the camp. I have 10 Chunin covering the perimeter just in case."

"Very well." Ishito nodded. "Prepare yourself."

"Yes sir!" Jun saluted again before he went back to his position.

"Rukia, we'll be relying on your sensory technique."

"Yes sensei!"

Souei and Rasa took their position to the right and left of their sensei as they waited for the inevitable to come. Not 5 minutes later, they received their first attack.

"Incoming!"

Rukia's warning got everyone tense. Suddenly, beyond the tree line, a torrential rain of steel came flying towards them. A massive wave of shuriken and kunai could be seen raining in the sand shinobi's direction.

Souei took the initiative as he dashed forwards, appearing mid air in the path of the shurikens with his arms crossed. Hundreds of strings were then ejected from his hands as each connected to an individual shuriken. With a simple wave of his arms, the rain of steel were all redirected back towards the forests where they came from.

Screams of pain could be heard as the Iwa-Nin were subjected to their own attack. Souei took this chance to fall back to the line of defense. It was then their enemies made their appearance as they rushed out of the forest in an endless wave. Some were bleeding from a few cuts and even still had some kunai and shuriken stabbed to their bodies.

"Around 200 of them, sensei."

The man just nodded as everyone else tensed in preparation.

That was when Rasa took a step forward before he raised both arms, palms facing outwards. Suddenly, the pockets of gold dust he buried the day before came bursting out of the ground. With a wave of his arms, the gold dust scattered as they caught the unaware Iwa-Nin off guard.

'They're slipping, now's our chance.'

"Go now! Get them when they're distracted!" Ishito roared as he led the charge. Mukade, his puppet centipede, moved in tandem with its master as it rushed itself towards a group of Iwa Shinobi.

The rest of the Suna forces followed his lead as they charged towards their enemies. They were outnumbered 3 to 1. But thanks to Souei and Rasa's intervention, the 200 strong Iwa army was quickly reduced to half of that.

Disoriented from the sequence of attacks, the Iwa army found themselves incapable of holding out against Suna's momentum. But the one person clearly making a difference was Ishito himself.

"What the hell is he?!"

"Someone stop him!!"

Cries of Iwa shinobi rang forth throughout the battlefield. They could do nothing as Ishito moved quicker than most of them could see. His path was riddled with the corpses of men garbed in Iwa uniform.

Mukade danced around the attacks of a few enemy Jonin before it breathed out a thick poison cloud. The people caught in it immediately started coughing before their eyes turned red and fell to the ground, dead.

Ishito himself ran through quick hand signs before cupping his thumb and index finger to his mouth.

'Fire Style: Dragon Flame Release!'

Several dragon-head shaped fireballs shot out of his mouth consuming a whole squadron of Iwa shinobi, all instantly turning into ash.

An Iwa Jonin immediately tried to take advantage of the opening, as he completed his own set of seals.

"Earth Style: Mud Dragon Jutsu!"

An earth dragon came forth as it flew towards Ishito's location. Ishito however, just glanced at the incoming attack as he flexed his finger.

'Carapace Shield.'

Mukade, who had an Iwa Chunin stabbed through its front teeth, suddenly split into segments and flew towards Ishito's direction. The segments quickly formed a shield as it guarded its master against the earth dragon, the attack dissipating with Mukade not even suffering a scratch. Ishito then launched Mukade forward, its stingers piercing the Iwa Jonin right through the chest.

At the other side of the field, Souei was battling a group of Iwa Chunin. He moved quickly as he sidestepped an attack before swiping his finger towards his attackers direction. The Iwa-Nin simply stood there, horrified as a red line spread right shoulder to his knee, his body divided into two.

Souei continued his assault as a spray of bullet strings took out the rest of the attackers. Having his instincts flare at him, Souei ducked as a blade passed through where his head had been moments ago. He then quickly connected strings to the swordsman's body before spinning him around and throwing him towards a tree.

The man flew through the air as he hit the tree with an impressive smack, his back no doubt broken in pieces.

With that done, Souei took the chance to survey the battlefield. Right now, things weren't looking too good. The Iwa army managed to shake off their confusion and are now coming at them with a full assault.

Already he could see casualties among their side, and considering their numbers, just one dead Suna ninja means a big chunk of their strength was taken away. The original 30 that was defending was now only 18 strong.

The only reason they weren't overwhelmed right now is due to Ishito Sensei spearheading their defense, along with Rasa who specializes in army subjugation. But if they plan on preventing their camp from being razed, then something has to be done to flip the odds.

Souei considered Parasite. But he's not good enough yet to take full control of Chunin and Jonin level ninja. Not to mention ones who are in the middle of a high stakes battle.

Souei soon nodded as he came to a decision. Ducking a stray fireball and sending a White Lance to the side, he took to the air, strings came to life as he used it to maneuver above the heads of all the shinobi present.

He then raised both arms, and balls of string were soon created on his palms. Souei pumped fire chakra towards them as the white orbs turned bright orange.

Souei smirked. 'This is gonna do some damage.'

"Fire Thread Release: Incendiary String Grenades!"

He threw large amounts of grenades towards the enemy positions. The moment they landed, each one ignited with the force of a dynamite. Sending red-hot strings flying in all directions.

"Argh!"

"Urk!"

Souei's single attack reaped chaos upon the enemy's number. Screams of pain and agony could be heard as the Iwa Shinobi found themselves skewered by Souei's power.

His allies followed his lead and unleashed attacks of their own. Rukia, who was surrounded by Iwa ninja from all sides, manipulated the flow of air from the insides of her enemies. Extracting the oxygen from the lungs via the nostrils and mouth, causing everyone around her to suffocate within seconds.

'My miniscule chakra level doesn't allow me to create big and powerful moves. But my time with Master Chiyo told me that techniques that require fine control and a delicate hand are oftentimes even more dangerous. I can't be like the famous wind users in the Wind Brigade of Suna. But with this, I'll become my own Kunoichi, with my own style of fighting!'

Rukia thought as her eyes shone in defiance towards the opponents.

Rasa did the same as 2 large golden hammers formed in the air blocking out the sky as they fell on the Iwa forces. As he was doing this, Rasa didn't notice when a fist covered entirely in rock slammed itself to his cheek. He flew through the air before he flipped himself up and landed back on his feet. Across from him, stood a tall and brawny man. He had dark eyes, and short dark-grey-coloured hair and a bulbous nose. He wore standard Iwagakure Uniform with a left sleeve and a right lapel, along with a bandana style forehead protector.

"Who are you?" Rasa said with narrowed eyes as he wiped his bloodied lips.

"My name is Kitsuchi. I have heard of you, Rasa, possessor of the famed Magnet Release of Suna." The man, Kitsuchi, introduced himself.

Rasa raised an eyebrow at that. "Kitsuchi? As in the son of the Tsuchikage, Kitsuchi the 'Earthquake'?"

"So you've heard of me, eh? As the son of a Kage, I want to see the skill of the apprentice of another. After all, the Kazekage was your master, was he not?"

Kitsuchi couldn't say anything more as he was forced to dodge a wave of golden sand that burrowed to his position.

Rasa didn't let off as he continued to chase Kitsuchi with his gold. 'He's pretty nimble for his size.'

Kitsuchi quickly ran through his own hand signs before slamming his palms to the ground. Spikes of pure earth formed beneath Rasa's feet that would've skewered him had he not taken to the air.

'Golden Burial!'

Large volumes of gold dust came out of Rasa's gourds. Folding his hand like a prayer, the gold dust converged on Kitsuchi's location, burying him in under tons of golden sand.

Rasa took the chance to land back on the ground as he waited. Just seconds later, the ground cracked as an explosion took place beneath the earth. Kitsuchi slowly climbed back out of his golden coffin, his body riddled with injuries with a stream of blood flowing from his head to his chin.

'Huft huft…'

He panted in pain and exhaustion as the day's fatigue finally took place. He looked around at the destruction around him as he grimaced at the now failed attack.

"Kitsuchi-sama!"

Just then, a group of shinobi flickered to his side, all wearing Iwa forehead protectors. They were all injured in various parts of their body. Clothes torn and bloodied.

Seeing this, Rasa tensed in preparation of facing a group of opponents. His worries were soon abided when Ishito and Souei arrived next to him. All three faced the cluster of remaining Iwa Shinobi.

"Kitsuchi-sama! We need to retreat, the battle is lost!"

The burly man just growled at that. They arrived here with over 200 men, expecting a clean sweep with their numbers. Who the hell would have expected the 'Centipede' to be the one overseeing this base?!

"Fine then, we're leaving."

The Iwa Shinobi immediately started gathering their injured and left the clearing.

"As if we'll let yo-"

Souei was about to prevent them from retreating when he was interrupted by Ishito's voice.

"Just let them go Souei."

"But sensei-"

"Don't let your hatred for the enemy blind you from what's more important. We have our people to tend to." Ishito's voice was as hard as steel.

Souei just widened his eyes at that, as he looked back to see the injured and broken forms of their own forces.

"R-right."

Souei ran back to help Rukia tend to the injured as Ishito and Rasa stayed to make sure every last alive Iwa-Nin left the area.

He immediately went to the first injured he could see. Of the 40 defenders, 10 were left back at base. The other 30 were the ones who participated in the defense. Of the 30, only 11 were left standing. The rest were either dead or wounded, with Rukia leading the medical team to make sure the more critically injured were hauled back to the medical tent for a proper treatment.

That of course left him to tend to ones with the relatively milder injuries, but not less threatening. Using his newly learned technique into play, Souei used strings to quickly stitch his injuries as best he could. There was nothing he could do about the burns and bruises, but at least this way he could prevent the wounds from being life threatening.

Seeing as his type of healing was plausible for on-the-spot treatment and no way permanent, he deemed to name this technique 'Emergency Operation'.

After finishing with the first, he immediately went to help the others.

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Doth my eyes deceive me?! Is this a new chapter?!

Sorry for the late chapter, I've gotten into Dungeons and Dragons recently and I fell into its rabbit hole. Now I'm preparing my first campaign as a DM and it took a little of time to prepare. To compensate, I'll do two chapters today.

Anyways, this serves as the prerequisite and the first conflict that kick starts the Second World War. There's gonna be a lot of fighting in this arc so better get prepared.