Chapter 46- The Split

Tomorrow was day zero. Yama and Shijin sat in the relative peace of their tent as the camp outside exploded with commotion.

Not 2 hours previous had the actual declaration of war come across the Land of Hot Springs border. A Kumo emissary, unarmed, and carrying a white flag, has strolled up to the border bold as brass, proudly displaying his hitai-ate from the Village Hidden in the Clouds on his forehead.

At the main bridge from Fire into Hot Springs, which crossed the Great River that formed their border a few miles away from the Capitol of the Land of Hot Springs, the emissary met Konoha Shinobi at the halfway point.

As if he was reading off a list of orders to a restaurant, the Kumo shinobi unfurled a scroll and rattled off his lines before handing it over to the Konoha Shinobi confronting him.

"It is with great displeasure that the situation has come to this, but the Land of Lightning and its retainer, Kumogakure, can no longer sit still and witness the atrocities committed against its neighbors.

The Land of Frost and Shimogakure, as well as the Land of Hot Springs and Yugakure, are neutral parties, open to trade and diplomacy from the Land of Lightning and Fire alike, as well as their respective Ninja Villages.

It is with moral indignation and righteous rage that we discovered what befell these countries and villages.

Sabotaged from within, they fell, suffering numerous civilian casualties, to include the total and complete destruction of Yugakure.

During our investigations, we found that insider actors, sleeper agents if you will, were instrumental in the downfalls of these long time friends and allies.

Our village has, at the behest of the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning, stabilized the regions for Humanitarian Purposes and conducted an impartial investigation into the attacks.

We have found evidence beyond all doubt that intelligence assets under the influence on Yamanaka clan genjutsu were present at the scenes of the crimes.

Furthermore, during our investigations, Konoha has assumed a wartime footing and deployed its troops to our borders, where those shinobi have acted in aggression towards our own people. resulting in death and great bodily harm.

We, the Land of Lightning in concert with Kumogakure, decry these action with utmost and complete sincerity.

There can be no peace among nations when the so-called 'Greatest' of the Five Nations acts without regards to its neighbors and allies, and flagrantly violates the treaties that have not yet had a chance for the ink to dry upon them.

We condemn in the strongest of terms the Land of Fire and Konohagakure.

However, the Daimyo has listened to the pleas of his people, and his magnanimous heart for peace and love of life has convinced him to stay his hand, momentarily, so that peace may continue.

This is however, contingent upon the cooperation of the Land of Fire and Konohagakure.

The evildoers of the Yamanaka clan, and the superior officers which oversaw or ordered their actions, must stand trial in our courts, and must be handed over to a Kumogakure representative at this very bridge before sunrise tomorrow.

If these conditions are not met, we have no choice but to wage a righteous crusade for justice and peace.

If the Land of Fire and Konohagakure are to needlessly choose war to protect their selfish interests and hide their crimes, we invoke the Shinobi-Soldier Agression Agreement from the Founding of the Five Covenant.

We explicitly request that the conflict, should it ensure, as to preserve life and dignity, upholding tradition, Shinobi and/or Samurai are not to interfere with non-chakra enhanced battles.

We request, and the Covenant requires, upon penalty of declaring war on all other Nations, that the ensuing conflict be insulated to between Kumogakure and Konohagakure as well as between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning."

The Konoha ninja the received the verbal message were seething internally, but reluctant to start an international dispute right here and now as well as violate the rules of good faith parley, they stayed their hands and accepted the message peacefully.

As the Kumo messenger sauntered off, not even bothering to look back, as if to dare the Konoha-nin to do something, the Konoha team leader ground his teeth in anger and frustration.

He had sworn to retire following the Third War, his wife had made him all but promise following the birth of their third child, but before his papers could get approved, he was ordered out once again.

He knew at that very moment, there another war was starting. Still though, he was a shinobi, and his current duty was to bring the message from Kumo and Lightning to the Kumo Base Commander, Akimichi Doto, as fast as possible.

When Akimichi Doto received the message a mere 15 minutes after it had been read aloud at the border, he slammed his fist onto the table, and cursed loudly at the shamelessness of his enemies.

It was such a simple and common ruse for Shinobi Politics.

Cry out in pain as you strike your enemies.

Always accuse your enemies of what you yourself are guilty.

The worst part was that it was effective. It muddied the waters enough that whoever won would be able to skew history in their favor, no matter who started it. It only matter who won.

Doto remembered when he first made chuunin and his father had sent him into the Clan Library for 3 months simply to study history and humble himself before the new rank of chuunin got to his head.

When the ordeal finally ended, his father had a quick five minutes discussion with him over what he learned.

Doto tried to recite everything he could, and at his young age, he proudly shared his clan's history and that of Konoha's.

His father had nodded the entire time Doto was monologing, and when Doto finished, his father asked him only two questions.

"Are we saints?"

Doto took a few seconds to understand the question, but he answered thusly.

"The greatest clan teaching is 'Remember, thou are just a man'.

We say this so that we may never fall into the trap of thinking ourselves superior like the Hyuga or Uchiha are prone to do.

We may strive for greatness, and it is good that we do so, but we are naught but men, and we are fallible.

We are by no means saints."

His father nodded in approval.

"Then ask yourself this, and I don't want to hear your answer.

Isn't it lucky that in our Clan's long and illustrious history, and in Konoha's short and tumultuous one, we were always on the side of justice?"

Doto's flashback ended as soon as it came, and he called in his second-in-command.

He handed the Kumo missive over with a stony gaze, and watched as his second's face slowly hardened.

The man looked up from the message.

"I find it my duty to ask this question so that it may be truthfully documented that we spoke of this and agreed.

Shall we follow the demands of Kumo and Lightning?"

Doto sighed. It was a mere formality at this point, but his orders were to prevent war from starting anew at almost any cost.

Were he to take any action contrary to that, such as preparing for war, the necessity of such actions would have to be discussed between him and his second and unanimously agreed upon.

Doto spoke.

"The time it takes for the message to reach Konoha and receive a reply is longer than the deadline of tomorrow morning.

I, the regional commander, am ultimately responsible for any actions taken in my area of operations.

I am not aware of any sleeper agents or Yamanaka that have created them.

We would have to hand over scapegoats if we were to comply with their demands.

If we were to hand over myself and a Yamanaka to buy peace, it would be a death sentence, and can only be voluntary.

In my professional opinion, the unreasonable timeframe of Kumogakure's demands means that they are insincere about peace.

Thus our deaths would be meaningless. If war is inevitable, my presence here as commander is invaluable.

Thus, my duty is to refuse to be a scapegoat, and to prepare for war."

"I agree."

"Very well. Summon all officers, and get those genin commanders in here ASAP, I want the genin we're sending to the Daimyo gone within an hour of dinner. No escorts.

And do you know what the hell this Covenant of Five bullshit is? We're not in a position to deny him, and if they truly aren't allowed there, we could be technically declaring war on Suna, Kiri, and Iwa as well."

"Never heard of it, sounds like some old agreement from Hashirama's time. They were more concerned with stuff like that back then.

That being said, if a peace treaty from a year ago can't stop a war, can a document outside of living memory credibly start one?

We have a couple ex-librarians and historians in the administrative and logistics division, I'll ask around and see what I can do, but I agree with you on the Daimyo front.

We aren't in a position to say no, and the so called 'Declaration of War' is a technicality. If the other villages don't want war, it won't move them.

If they do want war, there's nothing we could do to stop them, they'd fabricate an excuse either way."

"Very good, Beat to Quarters."

Yama and Shijin were back at their tent, an unasked question hanging in the air.

They were recently summoned to the Command Tent, and ordered to make haste in their separation of genin.

One of them would lead the 60 genin that would remain near Kumo, while they other would lead the 60 genin sent to reinforce the Daimyo's soldiers.

The question was who would take who, and there were arguments for either proposition.

Yama opened.

"You would be best from a political maneuvering standpoint. Maybe you should go with the Daimyo, he could potentially be a very important friend later on."

"Yes, but you have that uncanny ability to win people over. No saying either way."

Yama sighed and changed points.

"It may be too dangerous for you to remain on the Shinobi Front since you haven't recovered your chakra. It'll be safer with the Daimyo."

"Maybe for me, yes. but it currently seems as if the genin sent to the Daimyo will be seeing actual combat. Not Shinobi of course, but still.

The Genin here at the front will be avoiding combat at all costs along with myself. I would only enter combat if the Base itself fell.

Besides, I am only out of chakra, my taijutsu skill alone would enable me to fend off a chuunin for a few rounds of blows. I won't die instantly to anyone below elite jonin, and they won't got out of their way to assassinate a genin."

Yama conceded the point. He had been working on his chakra control little by little, and though it was still very rough, he was infinitely more capable than Shijin was at the moment.

"That's the decision then, sin't it? We've got 60 genin each in our battalions.

You'll have the Kumo Front Battalion.

I'll command the Daimyo Support Battalion.

I'll pick the 60 most combat capable genin, you take the rest."

Shijin nodded, and then pulled out the records of all the genin available to them, and the duo went through the records, separating out the genin into two piles.

When they were finished, Shijin couldn't help but bring up the only sticking point.

He pointed to two specific records.

"You can't take them. They're not qualified. I have stronger and more experienced people in my battalion than them.

You're making an emotional decision."

"They have potential. It's safer to take them than someone who stagnated at high genin.

They're young, but they have room to grow."

"Are you even listening to yourself right now, Yama?

You may have forgotten your history from your academy days, but the entire point of Konoha is to keep children away from combat."

"It's the best decision to save lives."

"Well then why won't you take Domaru and Hikaru as well then?

They're your students, too. Also Jonin track, and they even have higher evaluations right now.

There is no way you're being objective here."

"This is the best, just trust me."

"I know I can't change your mind, but you really have to reconsider."

"Iruka and Mizuki will be safest with me, Shijin. I owe it to Iruka at least.

If I divide my attention between those two as well as Domaru and Hikaru, I won't be able to protect them. I can only take one team."

"Then why not take Hikaru and Domaru and leave Iruka and Mizuki?"

"They're too confident in their abilities. They'll get themselves into danger."

"Do you really believe that?"

Yama nodded his head with and stared into Shijin's eyes with his own blue ones.

Shijin knew a losing battle when he saw one, and he knew there was nothing he could do to convince Yama at this point.

Shijin had made the decision long ago that he would support Yama. There was no way to complete a mission with two team leaders; someone had to lead, and other had to follow.

It was the handicap of anyone that would ally themselves with Yama. If Yama wasn't in command, there would come a point where he would disagree and nothing you could say could get him to fall in line.

Thus, Yama had to lead thanks to that pigheadedness and doggone determination bordering on disdain of authority.

45 minutes after dinner was served, Yama led his 60 genin, who were still somewhat confused about what was happening, away from camp and towards the rendezvous with the Fire Daimyo and his army near the Capitol city.

The fifty thousand strong army was going to split into 5 divisions, and each head towards strategic and defensible points. 12 genin would accompany each division and act as scouts or special forces.

In open combat, they would be expected to assassinate battlefield commanders as possible. After decades without the practice, 'Headhunting' was making a revival since its inception in the Era of Warring Clans.

Akimichi Doto had one of his strategists work on a simple battlefield doctrine for Yama before he had left, and Yama was reading as much as he could while still navigating with his genin towards the meeting point.

The strategies were simple and easy to execute, they would need to be since the genin would be acting mainly on improvisation in unfamiliar environments without training.

The use of Genin Battle Buddies was kept, and recommended missions for the genin involved things like supply train sabotage, explosive trap setting, and lieutenant level Headhunting.

Going after anyone higher than that would necessitate to large of an assault. Only the battlefield level lieutenants were exposed enough to be safely assaulted by genin.

If the genin improved over time, they could start to take on higher positions and even infiltrate forward operating bases.

However, deep infiltration of main camps and command structures was strictly forbidden. Too much of a risk entailed, and Yama had to agree, a genin was worth a few dozen soldiers, but they would find themselves hard pressed to escape a proper encirclement.

The genin would not make up a formidable fighting force, and the bulk of the fighting would be performed by the soldiers themselves.

What the ninjas were good for was applying pressure at specific points. Surgically precise strikes at key nodes.

A team of several genin could sneak into an area, and dismantle it under the fog of war, and it would be those actions that would turn the tides in order to win the battles.

Yama was glad to see some of the strategies he saw in the folder handed over to him.

It all but explicitly forbid genin from taking assault or frontline positions. It was well thought out and kept his genin in the role that suited them best from both and effectivity standpoint and a survival one.

After all, a ninja that survives to perform several missions is almost always more valuable than one that dies in the line of duty.

Shijin was scrambling trying to pick up the remnants of the genin Operations Division.

Since Yama had taken half of the genin, even though the other 4 fronts had sent reinforcements, Shijin still had fewer genin on site than was expected.

He would have to decide where and how to deploy genin for maximum survival. It was between two options.

One, concentrate genin in larger groups in more important structures like fortifications and the bases.

Two, disperse them between outposts and forts.

Two schools of thought, safety in numbers, or not putting all your eggs in one basket.

If he concentrated the genin, they would die in larger numbers when the defenses fell, as they were unlikely to be taken prisoner. However, bases and forts were less likely to fall than outposts.

If he dispersed the genin however, they would be more exposed to combat.

It could go either way, and Shijin made his decision after some quick mental math.

If he dispersed the 60 genin he had left, 2 each to 25 outposts, and 2 each to five fortifications, there would be none left at the base.

However, if they were dispersed, the ratio of genin to jonin or tokubetsu jonin would be lower than here at the main base.

The genin had the best chance to live if they were with more skilled ninja.

So Shijin decided to disburse them, rather than recall them.

Many genin were already out n the field at the outposts and forts, but he still had 20 at the base which was the normal complement, and around the same time as Yama left to meet the Daimyo with his team, Shijin ordered the genin out of the base and into the field. The genin would be on site before 2 in the morning in most cases, and they would have a chance to sleep for a few hours before hostilities opened at sunrise.

Meanwhile, in the Kumo command tent across the river from Fire Country, the Kumo General sat at his desk and received reports from various subordinates as they came in.

The most recent one was the one he had been waiting for.

"All Shinobi are in position, Sir.

Our sensors are detecting a flurry of activity from Konoha, and we expect that they are reacting to our message and preparing for war, as planned."

The Kumo Commander nodded his head without saying anything.

He sat there silently for a few more moments before speaking to no one in particular, just musing to himself seemingly.

"Konoha seems to be in a bit of a tizzy, don't they?

It would be really hard for them to respond to a drastic action right now, wouldn't it?

We've already sent the declaration of war, haven't we?

Honestly, we're just wasting the night right now. What better way to bring in the first new moon of the year?

Shinobi are most alive when we do what we're best at it.

The deep dark night invites us, doesn't it?"

His second-in command was starting to sweat nervously. He knew where his commander was going.

The commander was a brilliant tactician, but not particularly engaged with long term strategy.

So his second cautioned him.

"Sir, the Raikage has ordered us to wait until sunrise. The Daimyo has made very explicit directions that he expects to be followed.

The political fallout would be immense if we were..."

"Stop right there.

Tell me, and be honest, when we win this war, will it matter if we waited a couple hours or not?

Besides, with a decisive enough first strike, there won't even be someone left to tell on us for going our of turn.

Do you disagree?"

His second said nothing, so the commander continued.

"That's what I thought.

Order the men to assault between midnight and 0030 per on-site tactical discretion and enemy awareness.

Enemy personnel are priority number two.

Priority One is to assault in order to provoke a temporary Konoha retreat from outposts and potentially fortifications, then to destroy abandoned structures before retreating ourselves back across the border.

Konoha thinks they have the defensive advantage, and I wish to shatter that illusion. Keep to skirmishes after the initial assaults. Retreat from any battle that features and S Rank foe or more than 10 Konoha shinobi.

Furthermore, these specific orders have been sealed until now, but we're instituting a rotating assault.

Eastern flank positions are to pull back in succession and shift to the western flank, This means that we'll be rotating the flank positions about once an hour.

The Eastern Flank divisions have about 18 hours to rest and shift positions, which will be more than enough to have them fresh at the western flank.

The western flank will focus more frequent assaults as we try to pull Konoha's troop distribution along with us.

We are shifting the main battle front 20 miles a day westwards. By the end of the week, we're to be at the border of the Land of Hot Springs and Land of Rice Fields.

Dismissed."

"Yessir."

Kumo's second-in-command was at a loss over what to feel.

The Raikage would have his ass for breaking strategy, but his commander always delivered results, that's why his head was still attached at the shoulders.

After all, he had made it this far on his commander's coattails, might as well keep betting on the winning horse?