204 CH_6.33 (204)

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Anko dumped him and the kunoichi at the location away from the battle where the iryo-nin were treating the injured. She said a few words to them about being careful before dashing away back into the battlefield. Takuma watched her disappear into the pit. He glanced up at the sky. The sun was now clearly visible over the pit's walls, pouring down ample light into the hole, illuminating everything clearly.

The iryo-nin had their hands full, and after doing a quick visual check on him to judge that he could wait for a moment, they left him alone and went back to the more critically injured.

In the waiting time, Takuma unzipped his flak jacket, pulled off his shirt, and chainmail undershirt to bare his torso. He looked down. His chest was littered with red blotches, and his abdomen was covered in black-and-blue spots. His lungs burned; every breath hurt and his mouth was overflowing with the taste of blood and iron.

After a few minutes, a middle-aged iryo-nin with thinning hair arrived beside Takuma and began patching him up. When he saw Takuma had removed his clothes, he paused for a moment, seeing the scars, but then praised him for his foresight while checking his injuries.

"Good, very good," said the iryo-nin, touching and pressing Takuma's torso with his fingers and palm, causing Takuma to gasp sharply. "Okay, this isn't bad; we can work with this. You will be fine; don't worry," the iryo-nin spoke comforting words, thinking Takuma was panicking. But Takuma was already thinking of the near future.

The iryo-nin's hands began to glow green above Takuma's abdomen. A sharp, burning pain clutched Takuma's body before a hot comfort made him slack and relax. It was a sensation very similar to a high fever breaking. Takuma took out his water canteen and drank in small sips as the iryo-nin fixed the damage.

"I think my ribs are cracked," said Takuma.

The iryo-nin checked, nodded and moved one of his hands to Takuma's chest. There wasn't an instant relief like before, but he breathed a little easier with some of the pressure lifted.

He lay there looking at the sky, listening to the explosions, the clash of metal, the screams and shouts. The smell of smoke hung on his nose, and his skin prickled from the oversaturation of chakra in the environment from several dozen shinobi throwing jutsu around, pumping chakra into the environment.

After a few minutes, the iryo-nin removed his hands from Takuma to bandage some nicks and cuts. "This is good enough for now. Rest here for—Hey! What are you doing!?"

Takuma grunted as he got up and put his gear back on. "You said this is enough and I feel alright so I'm going back out. Don't worry, doc, I'll be here again if something happens" he said, putting on his chainmail undershirt with a little stiffness.

It was the best course of action he could think of.

The faster the battle ended, the lesser the casualties. There was also the fact that if people just retired after injuries, their side would weaken. They needed more bodies out there doing the work. He wasn't arrogant enough to think he alone could change the tide of battle. Only the jonin from either side had the actual power to do that—but if he could kill one more person or take two more out of the battle, injure three others—he would've done enough.

Takuma zipped his flak jacket. He looked behind at the iryo-nin, who didn't stop him. It was solely his decision to go back into the battle. He then looked at the kunoichi. She was still being treated and was swaddled in bandages more bloody than his.

She raised her hand and shot him a thumbs-up.

Takuma chuckled and gave her a nod before jumping down into the pit.

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Kameko couldn't catch her breath. Her legs were little more than deadweight, they felt like someone had injected lead into her muscles; her arms and shoulders were the same. She couldn't lower her sword because there was danger in every direction and her sword was the only thing between her and it. Kameko couldn't see her face, but she was sure it was matted and tangled with blood.

None of it was hers—she was pushed down to the ground, and ended up landing in the pool of blood surrounding a body. It was awful, gross, and she had vomited after the fact from the thought. She was sick of the rainy weather going on because of the humidity, but she wished it would rain now so she could wash herself. 

Too many people had died, both ally and enemy.

She saw two enemies cornering someone she'd seen around the camp. As tired as she was, she gripped her sword and forced her protesting body forward to help an ally.

"Hey, listen to this…"

Kameko turned around in a flash with her sword ready to cut her enemy down. She came to a sudden stop when she saw Takuma behind her, looking worse for wear. A gust of wind hit his face from her kenjutsu, but Takuma looked unbothered that she could've sliced his head off.

"C'mon, I need your help," he said quickly before turning away, expecting her to follow.

Kameko turned away from Takuma to look at the man she was about to help, only to find him dead on the ground with the two enemies absent. She stared at the dead body for a moment, her mind blank, without any thoughts. The man had been alive just a few moments ago, and she had just turned her attention away for not even half a minute, and he was dead…

"Kameko!"

She was snapped out of her stupor by Takuma's voice. Without giving it any thought, she turned away and followed him. She was too tired to think about anything else. Kameko glanced at Takuma, who was moving through the battlefield, but quickly shot toward any movement or sound near her. Her nerves were frayed from panic that a sharp blade was always only an inch away from stabbing her.

She took deep breaths to calm herself down. It wasn't good for her to be this prickly.

'Control… you're in control,' she repeated to herself.

Kameko brought herself down and found the composure to stop jumping at everything. She eased her grip so that the sword's handle didn't dig so painfully into her palm and even though the exhaustion slammed into her all at once, she felt much better.

She returned her attention to Takuma, wanting to ask what he wanted to do, and noticed him talking to a chunin from Toridasu's ranks. She listened to their conversation and was shocked at what she heard.

"I'm going to attack their iryo-nin at the medical station. I need some help," Takuma said to the chunin, shouting as the surroundings were too loud.

 "What?" She stepped forward and grabbed his shoulder and shook it violently. "What are you talking about?"

The chunin's face was thoughtful. He asked, "Do you know the location?"

Takuma nodded. "They've set up inside a mine—just near the entrance. It's a bit troublesome location-wise, but I think it's doable. What do you say?"

The chunin nodded. "Alright. What do you need?"

"Get two or three genin, and meet me there." Takuma pointed at a point on the pit wall that was cut into steps for easier access to the mines in the walls.

He turned to her and shouted, "Let's find Anko! We have to be quick!"

Kameko wasn't able to say anything as Takuma dashed away. She hurried after him, the gears in her mind turning at Takuma's plan. She couldn't believe Takuma developed a plan like that in the middle of a bloody battle. Not to mention, he had managed to convince—and some people would even say that he had ordered—a chunin to do his bidding. Were they experiencing the same battle?

"Anko!" Takuma yelled. His chakra-modulated voice pierced through the noise and reached their team leader, who was spewing a river of angry flames at a group of enemies, trying to burn them alive. She looked at them after her ninjutsu was over and reached their position with a single high jump.

 Anko smiled at Takuma. "You're already back. Very good," she gave him a nod of praise.

"We are going to attack the enemy's iryo-nin. Chunin Ito has agreed to join with a couple of genin of his choice. I think that combined, we can do enough damage to hinder if not outright take out their healing capabilities," said Takuma.

There was a moment of silence from Anko, where she stared at Takuma before her quick agreement came. "Let's get a move on then," she nodded.

Takuma led Kameko and Anko to the meeting location. They were there first. Takuma took out some of his kunai and quickly began looping explosion tags on the rings at the ends of the handles. He did it with surprising nimbleness and speed.

"Make more," he said to Kameko.

Kameko followed his lead and tied some tags to her kunai. By the time she was done, Chunin Ito had arrived with three genin; they were all under his command. As far as Kameko knew, Ito and Anko didn't have much interaction with each other—but she had seen them exchange nods on the streets, so she knew that they weren't adversarial to each other.

'Did he think about that when he chose him?' Kameko wondered as he looked at Takuma.

"It's your idea; you lead it," Anko said to Takuma. She gave Ito a look, saying that she didn't want any resistance from him.

Ito gave Takuma a nod. "We're fine with that," he said. 

Takuma didn't hesitate as he asked everyone to huddle. He wasted no time in revealing his plan to the gathered people.

"There are guards in front of the mine who need to be drawn away for this to work; the two chunin are going to do that. You two will start alone, and we will move in only when the guards are occupied. The point is to overwhelm them. When they see us appear, after a moment, they will try to hastily re-adjust—that will be the window for the rest of us to slip in.

"When we're inside, don't worry about anything else; just cause as much damage as possible." Takuma held up a kunai with an explosion tag. "Chuck them in before you attempt any ninjutsu. Don't try to ration your tags. If you want more, scavenge later."

Kameko felt a cold hand close around her heart at Takuma's suggestion of pulling tags from the bodies of not only their enemies… and their allies as well. She nodded stiffly when he looked at her.

As everyone got ready to move out, Takuma addressed the team one final time. He said, "If something unexpected happens. Remember: Improvise— Adapt—Overcome. Now, let's go!"

Kameko hadn't heard that one before, but it hit deep. She had no time to contemplate his words as they stealthily proceeded towards the target mine. They took the long route so as not to attract any additional attention from others. As they neared the mine, they arrived at the last bend that gave them cover. Takuma raised his fist, signaling everyone to stop. He then looked at Anko and Ito and motioned them to go in.

The two chunin first peered around the bend to study the situation before they charged and disappeared; the sounds of battle reached their ears a few moments later. Out of the assembled genin, Takuma peered ahead while everyone else waited for his command.

"Go!"

The moment he said those words, the ground of scuffed shinobi burst around the corner and dashed towards the mine with bloody weapons in their hands.

Kameko saw Anko and Ito fighting against three guards who had surrounded her and Ito. Kameko was overcome with worry momentarily before steeling her heart and focusing on her task.

As they approached the mine entrance, a couple of enemies stepped out. At the front of the group, Takuma weaved quick hand seals before spitting out a torrent of water that startled the enemy group. Kameko and the rest took advantage of the successful water ninjutsu and charged the enemy group.

In the chaos of battle, Kameko slipped into the mine. She noticed how Ito's genin weren't very keen on following after her out of fear of who was inside. What if there were injured chunin still capable of combat—they could also quickly be outnumbered by a number of genin so their hesitance was understandable. The fear of unknown was strong, and this was Team-9's mission, they didn't feel particularly 

Takuma, however, kicked one of the enemies down the wall before rushing inside after Kameko.

"The moment you see them, throw the kunai," he whispered to her.

"Understood," she whispered.

It only took a few seconds of running until they saw a makeshift camp. There were a few injured shinobi with iryo-nin working on them. The scent of disinfectant mixed in with the smell of blood and the cave's natural earthen dampness and lingered in the air. However, the camp wasn't as defenseless as Takuma's plan suggested. It seemed that the sound of fighting and rushed footsteps had alerted the camp, and they were ready.

Unfortunately for them, Kameko and Takuma weren't looking for close combat. They took out their explosive-tag-equipped-kunai and immediately threw them towards the camp. The able-bodied people and the iryo-nin tried to run further into the mine. The tags exploded faster than they could move and caught those who tried to run. Takuma moved further inside and threw a few kunai deeper into the mine, setting off more explosions.

Kameko followed his example and did the same. But then, as she was about to follow Takuma, she caught the mine's craggy roof sinking inwards, releasing a dusty shower. She gasped in realization and yanked on the back of Takuma's collar. And this time, she didn't stop until she had his attention.

"What?" he asked, utterly surprised.

"It's going to collapse! We have to leave!" Kameko urged, going as far as to drag him with her. He tried to ask the specifics, and she just pointed at the top at the cracks and crevices.

Takuma looked up at the ceiling, and, at that moment, a big chunk of rock fell just a few feet away from him. He didn't need to be told anymore and ran out with her. But as they ran out, Kameko noticed Takuma throwing tagged kunai into the wooden beams that were reinforcing the collapsing ceiling.

He was trying to make the mine collapse faster.

"Fuck you, Takuma!" she cursed and ran faster.

A string of explosions erupted behind them. Kameko could feel the heat and force behind her back as they exited the mine, which had collapsed behind them, completely blocking the entrance.

Kameko looked at Takuma in shock.

And then the madman had the gall to say something other than an apology.

"I think we can count them out," said Takuma.

There was a possibility that the innermost portion of the mine hadn't collapsed and there were survivors—but they had meters of rocks in their way to escape. They could get out, but they would either have to dig out by hand or risk using powerful ninjutsu that could trigger a collapse.

Whatever the case, she realized that Takuma was right.

The enemy's iryo-nin were not a problem anymore.

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