Rocky Front (2)

A week of preparation could hardly get me in the mindset for a full-fledged war. Especially when this conflict was going to be decades long.

I couldn't exactly remember how long the First War was, mostly because the timeline was crazy in canon, and I knew in this case this was going to be longer than that. Both First and Second Hokages were going to die in it, and I was going to be a combatant on the Leaf's side from the very beginning.

Maybe I was being overly paranoid since we now had Madara and I knew Hashirama wasn't going to waste so much of his life force through his sage form in normal skirmishes. If I knew something about how things were going to be, I just needed to keep an eye out for Onoki and his master. Maybe also any ancestors to Deidara if they are as crazy as that guy.

After having to deal with some serious lecturing from my 'new' mother and the chiding from Mito herself about endangering myself so early on the war, I took the week to get my hands on more scrolls on offensive techniques, and a proper medicine book and start making sense of what was known about current ninjutsus. The answer to that question I had while treating the wounded proved to be pretty disappointing since the role of Medic Nin seemed to have been established around the formation of the Village. And since that meant I couldn't rely on much beyond my own knowledge that there were some good healing skills that needed to be invented, I felt prompted to take some initiative in making some advances about it on my own.

Prolonged conflicts tend to be rather cruel to soldiers that couldn't afford having top notch medics to prevent illnesses to spread all over the line. And since it was mostly confirmed that the First Shinobi War was supposed to be a recall to the Great War… well, shit. I had to make good contingencies to prevent any major outbreaks from ever happening no matter the part of the front I was operating it.

So imagine my surprise when Madara himself saw it fit with assigning me in the most unlikely of teams for the sake of spiting me and… leaving me with a challenge while I fought a goddamn conflict as a regular soldier.

While I could forgive him for putting Reira since I had the chance of meeting her before returning to the front as she wanted to 'apologize for putting me in danger with her recklessness' and she ended up being an individual I could speak as if she was Hiruzen or a more active Kagami, I saw it as a shot at my sanity when he decided to put in command of a certain arrogant prick.

Man, I sure wasn't missing the times at the Academy where Hirotada would try to harass me in an effort to 'prove himself the better shinobi', only to be scolded by the teacher and belittled by his fellow classmates.

So now that he was being in the frontlines, I expected him to be a little more serious on the problem that was Iwa and less on trying to outmatch me at every turn. It was a good hope to have, one that sadly didn't get the chance to even fly off the ground that it was shredded by the cruel wind that is reality.

"We should be perching closer to the road," Hirotada lamented as I tried my best to not make him disappear in an accident.

While Madara saw it hilarious to pair me with the self-centered prick, he was still serious enough to put our small team on a really simple task. We needed to keep an eye for any attempts from Iwa to try and get some ninjas to sabotage the main force advance towards the principal battlefields on the border. Since Konoha had a larger army than our enemies, the only way they could get victories out of this conflict was to delay the bigger chunks of our military and kill off the small groups they were capable of finding around.

To slow down the mass mobilization, their best method was to ambush, make quick skirmishes to distract and stop the main advance, and put down explosives to tear apart some bits of our current force. It was a full force guerrilla tactic that really worried me since… well, America lost against Vietnam. And I really didn't want to see the rocks roll without anyone moving them anytime soon.

I was too young to start having some serious PTSD to be concerned about.

"We're close enough," I calmly answered.

"Hn."

Yep, Kami-chama, this is the shit you have to put me for the next decade or so. Why art thou so cruel to thine servant?

I gave a glance to Reira, the girl sparing me a quick understanding look before we returned to gaze over the main road that could've been used to rush an attack to the main force's left flank. This was a plot of land that couldn't have been defended well in case we were attacked from any assaults coming from that road. So someone had to keep an eye open about it, disable any attempts to pass through, and sound the alarm the moment the attack couldn't be disabled through our own capacities.

We were glorified scouts, but I didn't find it a terrible role to start this ugly war. It was only for the best I was put in a position where I hadn't to worry about getting killed by a stray kunai that I failed to notice because I was too distracted by the battle happening around me.

"Movements. It's a carriage."

Hirotada muttered, Byakugan in full display on his face and trained on the approaching vehicle. It would seem like our enemies were coming in just in time. Tensing up, I activated the seals I had placed on the road, deploying spikes that were meant to destroy any wooden tire rushing and trampling on those.

"Be ready," I muttered to the Uchiha, Reira starting to prepare her hand signs as I followed her pattern. The plan was to stop the carriage, burn the 'content' of said 'merchant', and then kill the merchant himself if he managed to survive the cash.

So when the vehicle arrived at the half-hidden spikes, we weren't much surprised when the tires shattered and forced the driver to be forcefully ejected forward to painfully roll on the ground. The girl released a fireball, while I fueled the size of the dangerous jutsu by a fair lot with a wind bullet. The air also increased its power and the speed of detonation, causing the entire cargo section of the carriage to explode in a glorious inferno. Limbs, heads, much blood- those were all ejected as remains of the previously alive Iwa ninjas.

The driver's head had cracked open as the panicking shinobi failed to make the proper signs for the Replacement or Body Flicker Jutsus. We approached the result of that vicious combo and tried to find if there were any survivors needing some quick death. I doubted someone managed to live beyond that attack without reporting any damages to their bodies. Still, our search was a calm one, with Hirotada surprisingly keeping quiet during the task. He looked serious, focused and… less of a pain in the butt, and more of a reliable individual.

Why the heck couldn't he be like that all the time!?

The lack of major reaction at the gore proved that this wasn't his first rodeo and, from what I could remember, the guy had passed the test to see the spark of the conflict we were currently handling. Surely he had the chance to either see death before, or even claim a life himself in some circumstances I was mostly unaware about.

Still, during our search I noticed something off about the blood. It wasn't red, but rather… a soft shade of brown. It was mud. These weren't real people, I realized with dread coating my entire being. But before I had the chance to explain this to my teammates, we all tensed up as we felt sudden pressure forcing us to prepare for a sudden attack.

"That was an interesting way to dispose of the decoy."

I started looking around for the origin of the voice, surprised that someone had thought so far in advance and had waited for us to come out. Gritting my teeth, I almost whispered our sensor to get his shiny eyes working, but the guy was already scanning around and… looking particularly clueless despite the perfect vision he got of our surroundings.

It was only moments later that I noticed that something was creating a shadow on us. And there was no cloud in the sky on this sunny day. So I looked up and I saw something really interesting and cool that I really wanted to learn.

"A flying mummy?" I commented flatly, receiving a scowl by the dangerous bastard hovering us. I tried to keep my nerves steeled as I recognized the guy and… the situation had just gone south by a fair lot. I was looking at the future Second Tsuchikage.

"I guess I should have expected a degree of immaturity from children," Mu lamented with a sigh. "Still, I'm very intrigued by what I've seen. Truly a fine beginning of this test."

"W-Who are you!" Hirotada half-screamed and the man hummed.

"I shall be your opponent," He calmly replied. "But this fight… it shan't be one considering our differences in potential."

"Danzou, do you know… him?"

I nodded at Reira's question. "That guy- I believe Sensei said was the Tsuchikage's bodyguard when the Kages met."

"I see that you have kept track of all important information. A shinobi's main strength is knowledge," The No-Person Ninja praised. "Still, knowledge is worthless without experience and power to make it powerful."

I sighed, narrowing my eyes at the man as I tried to come up with a way to distract him so we could leave in peace. One thing I really didn't want to do today, was dying to someone that was much stronger than me. Madara was deep in the first line, helping with the current clashes, so I couldn't exactly hope he would come by and save our butts.

But just as I prepared to delay as much as possible to lower his guard, a pain in the butt himself had to speak up, feeling 'ignored' by the deadly bastard one step away from killing us.

"My name is Hirotada Hyuuga, and I shall be your opponent."

Regrets, I had many. But none were coming close to the murderous state of mind I was slowly slipping in so I could put an end to this infuriating predicament. Even Reira, which had been a saint considering how much of a thorn the brat had been to the two of us, was slowly getting livid at the stupid boast.

"So you believe you can just deflect my attacks? Are you so certain of it, boy?" Mu was gloating. It was blatant, and yet the boy had to be a moron and reply with a stupid 'yes'. It would take me little to reach out for his neck, and twirl around until he stopped painting a target on our team's back.

"Okay," The mummy-like ninja shrugged before forming a big cube-like structure through his Dust Release. I groaned, but I didn't linger for too long as I gave a simple and easy to understand order. There was no audio distraction, there was no reason to not follow it.

"Move out of the way!"

It was an easy command. Perhaps a little more complicated than 'stand by' or 'sit', but still easier than some elaborated plan that could have gotten morons confused. And yet, despite how simple the sentence was, how legitimate my order was, Hirotada stood his ground and… he prepared to give his best to at least block the attack.

The logic behind the Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven is to create a thin self-sustaining barrier of chakra that was meant to deflect pretty much low-to-medium grade techniques. Maybe with some extra training, it could hold against a full-powered Rasengan, but right now the boy's jutsu was quite… weak. It was a solid one, but far from being able to deflect Dust Release.

So I expected him to bail the moment the cube impacted on the small shield. It was common logic, like an iron glove moving to bitch slap a tiny beyblade, yet I was once again baffled when he tried to pull one of those 'I believe in myself' moment, only to fail to realize that he was a prick, and he kind of didn't have any of an anime protagonist's plot armor.

But you know what sucks the most? I was the chief in command of the foolish moron. Thus, by definition, I was still ordained to move in and help him out of that awkward position. So I bolted, ignoring common sense and taking a gamble in sweeping him out of the way by diving down below the shield as Hirotada began to focus on just an area to try and stop the attack.

Good news, I safely recovered the idiot. Bad news, my left leg wasn't lucky as the Dust Cube slammed down and bent that limb in a funny twist. It didn't break, but the crack and the early pain got me to recoil a moment at the unpleasant turn of events.

Ah, the things I have to do to save my suicidal teammate…

"Y-Your leg. Y-You- why?"

I didn't reply since I only had foul words building up in an effort to reply to that. Thankfully my loyal Reira was there to provide me some assistance, crouching down to check on me and providing me some distraction from Hirotada.

"R-Reira, can you help me up?"

Mu was quietly observing the scene, his stare dully aimed right at me as I was supported in my efforts to stand up. My leg was fucked up, and I knew I would need to get it fixed as soon as we were away from this battle.

"Your companion failed."

"Eh, it happens to the best of us," I happily rebuked. "By the way, what's the story of the bandages? Are you a clumsy man, Mu-san?"

"Some say I can be… quite deadly to everyone, even to myself."

"That sucks. I mean it. How about we have a talk and-"

"Do you want to fight dying, boy?"

…

"I prefer living and fighting. By the way, how is Onoki-kun?"

He sighed. "Annoying and impatient. I blame you for making him so insufferable."

"Apologies. I was down with my reserves and he was trying to be particularly vicious with our 'fair fight'."

"Ah, fairness. Boy, do you know what's the difference between a Samurai and a Shinobi?"

… "One compensates for a lack of something with a bigger blade?"

The man almost choked at the innuendo, but he shook his head.

"A Samurai fights by fairness and honor," Mu still replied. "A Shinobi is a killer that fights by tricks, ruthlessly exploiting his opponent's flaws and using those against them."

"O-Oh… well, that's a nice lesson. Sensei, can we continue tomorrow? I think my leg will get an infection if I get to stick around for long."

"Your comedy is indeed endearing. Sadly, I'm on a tight schedule myself. So… either survive and die this one."

Of course he would

"R-Reira. I know this is a lot to ask. But don't bail on me," I requested, the girl giving me a wide-eyed stare and… then offering me a determined nod.

"Yes."

I smiled at her confidence, and I really felt blessed that two of the five good Uchihas were close friends of mine right now. Still, I narrowed my eyes as another cube formed and… I opened my right palm as I started to channel Chakra.

Dust Release was awfully similar to how a Rasengan worked. While this unique combo of natural affinities required a careful balance of Earth, Fire, and Wind Natures, the insane concentration needed to muster a proper form required a massive effort from the user.

But what really made them different was that the Rasengan had a minor advantage over these multidimensional shapes of doom. It was small and it packed all its power in a reduced spot.

Why was this important? The greater the surface, the least exerted the strength shall be in the form of pressure. Smaller surfaces with big power easily overwhelmed larger surfaces with big power behind them. The confrontation was vicious, with my arm trembling as I managed to slam the Full Rasengan onto the cube.

The cube tried to slap at me, but I was literally holding a meat grinder against it. The result was… similar to what I had hoped for. The Rasengan had some trouble early on due to the fact I was standing still and the projectile was moving towards me and acquiring strength through velocity.

Sadly for Physics, I still held the mythical ball of energy that until fueled with my chakra wasn't going to lose to anything. So I pushed, and so did Reira as we both were onto keeping our footing stable. I grinned as the structure collapsed, busting like a bubble before our eyes.

I allowed the Rasengan to dissolve, my hand burning a little bit and so were my reserves in the effort of not letting us die by dust-made tetris. Mu stared, surprise piling up with frustration at the fact I regaled him with a quick birdie for the fact he put us in a deadly situation.

Instead of saying anything, he just floated away in complete silence and quiet anger… and we all stared at his retreat.

Shouldn't he be more interested in killing us? What the heck was that?

Really odd for the guy to be this dismissive of a threat. Especially one that could handle his masterpiece so easily.

…

Still...

...Fuck, I really want to learn the Flying technique really bad...

"That was odd."

I nodded in agreement as I sat down with Reira by the nearest bonfire. The main army had managed to get through the unpleasant section that required our active duty, thus leaving us without a task and with the chance to rest for a little while. I was tired, the application of green chakra had lessened the swelling and allowed me to readjust the limb, while the use of warm water to clean up the wounded bits on its surface. I was still sore and I wasn't expected to walk anytime soon.

Hirotada was brooding in the distance, his eyes glaring the poor ground below his sandals as he tried to decide wherever he should be pissed in me saving his ass while heroically getting my leg horribly mutilated beyond salvation… until I, the glorious Shinobi that I am, discovered the secret of Hot Water, or if he should accept a change of heart and be a good guy.

I knew how things tended to work here, so I knew he would lean onto the latter than the former. It fits the narrative better since he got crap for being a huge prick. He, of course, wasn't going to change for the best overnight, and I expected him to pull a tough guy, maybe trying to make compromises to allow a form of rivalry to survive through this.

…

And I fucking hate that part of my life. Sure, I love predicting anything serious before it happens, but one thing is to be aware of threats, another is to know I will still have to accommodate somehow the fact this guy was going to stick. If he doesn't somehow die. And that would still be sad.

I really need to evaluate gardening again. I need something that can nullify my prediction capability. Maybe I could buy a plot from the farmers under my payroll and try my hand at that. Again. Hopefully with less fire this time around.

"Danzou-kun!"

Familiar voice owned by… familiar brunet. Hiruzen.

"Hiruzen-kun! Good to see you," I replied with a greeting of my own. "How was your mission? Did you bust an Iwa nin or two?"

"I got one. I helped Koharu-chan get another while Homura-kun got two with Sensei."

I waved at the two shy and nervous teammates that made the original Team Tobirama with Hiruzen as the second-in-command. I turned

"Did you break your leg?" Tobirama inquired with a seriously concerned tone.

I frowned at that sudden question, caught off-guard by that precise assumption and… then I noticed that I hadn't changed my torn pants with new ones. To treat the injury I had to use a kunai to cut through the cloth and give myself sight over the damage without pressuring the wound too much.

"No?" I replied unconvincing. "I just… wanted to… show my leg?"

I turned to Reira in an effort to gain support on this. The girl gave me a supportive nod and tried to come up with a non-awkward response.

"His leg is… nice."

I loved the positive reinforcement, but I believe that comment wasn't going to sell my point properly with these intelligent beings. Those were far more capable than Hirotada, so I worried myself… rightfully so.

"You broke your leg," Hiruzen affirmed with a frustrated tone and I shrugged.

"I mean, maybe I just tapped it a little bit while sitting down-"

"It was broken," The Senju confirmed as he crouched down and started to poke around the knee area, getting my leg to twitch and my face to let out a flinch at the sudden touching over the sore spot. "Did you fix it yourself?"

I stared at him with a serious look and… I nodded.

"Yes."

"That looks like precise work. I'm impressed you picked up medical arts," The man pointed out and I sighed.

"Being the vice-medic of my old team during the pre-war patrols, I picked up a thing or two while reading the books I had about medicine."

"It's still… quite well treated. Are you sure this is all from reading books?"

I hummed. "I guess I also worked on a method to treat this kind of injury. But it's fine."

"How did you get this hurt?" Hiruzen jumped in with a more serious interest about the previously damaged limb. "Did you fight someone strong or-"

"Just trampling on cubic forms. I believe I will keep quiet until my commander-in-chief is back from duty."

"Madara?" Tobirama inquired darkly, sighing and getting gloomy at the mention of the Uchiha clan leader. "He… he will be back in an hour or so. The main battle at the border was won. We will advance tomorrow morning."

Yay-

"And Madara will probably have to employ you once again as our scouts, this time on the main front," The man added. "Our main scout force was depleted quite recently and we need to fill up the ranks somehow."

FUCK!

That meant extra danger… but also not having to handle people like Mu or Onoki for a while. Which was still a win in my book but… I wasn't really sure if I wanted the Trench Warfare experience burned in my memory. I will probably have to get Reira and Kagami to not use their Sharingans during the simpler fights, just for the sake of not having them develop PTSD out of normal warfare.

Despite my best hopes of spending a jolly day here at the front, my team was quickly dispatched to aid the arrival of supplies to the new forward base established by the border. One step at the time, we were coming closer to Iwa. And while this gruesome conflict with the Rocks was going to take a while to sort out, I was really hopeful that it wasn't going to be as long as in canon. Not with how much manpower we had, and especially not with both Hashirama, Tobirama, and Madara cooperating against a common enemy.

At least I can now start planning out how to keep training while in this warzone. Let's see if I can get the Rasenshuriken project working without exploding some ally in the process…