Decisive Developments

A week had passed since the trade barrier around Kirigakure had been enforced blocking any movement between the island and the mainland. As a consequence, Kirigakure’s economy started to drastically decline leading many wealthy merchants to leave the island and relocate their businesses if possible.

Fortunately for them, a suitable replacement presented itself in the form of the Land of Whirlpools: Like the Land of Water, it was a group of islands with a Hidden Village granting it a relatively high level of safety. And coupled with the island’s port, it now rivaled, if not eclipsed, Kirigakure’s port’s commercial power.

In addition, the Land of the Whirlpools didn’t have any daimyo ruling the island as it was under the direct jurisdiction of Uzushiogakure due to its small population. In the past, this had led to the disadvantageous situation of almost being unable to adequately patrol the whole island due to the lack of necessary manpower.

Luckily, with the now deepened alliance between Uzushiogakure and Konohagakure, this problem would be reduced because Konoha would take over a part of the patrolling duty. As a result, Uzushiogakure could now relocate more troops to the island’s eastern side.

With the worsening situation in the Land of Water, many tried to flee the island but were hindered by Kirigakure’s Ninjas who stopped any ships from leaving the island’s contiguous zone. And as for those who didn’t comply? They were ruthlessly killed.

Kirigakure’s situation continued to worsen day by day and soon the time came for the Mizukage to decide whether to start negotiations or take more drastic measures.

OOO

An orphan’s POV

“Takashi! Wake up!”, called out a girl with a feeble voice while her shoulders trembled.

A boy lying on the ground tried to open his eyes but his eyelids failed him as they’d become too heavy. The girl panicked upon seeing his weakened state for she knew what awaited those who lacked the strength to open their eyes. She frantically searched for the remains of their last meal: A piece of cooked tree bark.

But the moment she took it out, she hesitated for a while and stopped her hand’s movement before opening his mouth and feeding small pieces of bark to him. A dozen minutes had passed before the meager amounts of nutrients provided by the bark were processed by the boy’s stomach.

Again trying to open his eyes, he succeeded this time and saw a painfully thin child with eyes comically large compared to the face they resided in. In fact, the girl's whole body seemed to consist of only a small skeleton covered in a thin sheet of skin.

“...H-Hina?...”, he asked after recognizing the pitiful thing in front of him as his sister.

“...B-Brother! Father a-and mother… T-They… aren’t breathing… W-What are we going to do now?”

The boy looked at the gray sky with his dull eyes and reminisced about happier days long past… When was the last time he had eaten something other than a tree’s bark?... How did real food taste again?

He then looked at his sister who was staring at him full of hope and childish naivety. But he could also occasionally see in her eyes flickering traces of doubt and despair. A small stream of tears flowed out from his eyes before moistening the dirty ground.

“... You have to be strong now… I won’t make it… Go and leave … Follow the road… It will lead you to Kirigakure… There you should be able to steal some food for yourself…Take care…”, he explained to her with his last remaining strength before his eyes stared into the void.

“B-Brother!”, the girl shouted with wet eyes while holding her brother’s now cold hand. She desperately checked his pulse in vain only to find no blood being pumped through his body. His life had ceased. He had died just like their parents.

Everyone she had loved was gone without hope of return and now she felt that she was the loneliest under the sky. When her tears slowly subsided, she finally stood up and walked to the corner where their empty kitchen was and where their parents’ lifeless bodies were laying.

She gulped down a ladle of water taken out of a large barrel made out of wood to lessen her thirst before scooping some of it inside a container that she had brought with her. As she was about to leave the house she turned her head around and saw the inside of her family’s house for one last time. While gripping the door's wood frame, she prayed for their souls before stepping out onto the road leading to Kirigakure.

OOO

Mr. Gin POV

‘Hmm… Well, what are my little students doing now?’, he asked himself while his eyes swept over the seemingly endlessly vast ocean in search of any ships or NInjas.

‘Probably patrolling the island. Most Jonin and veteran Chuunin have been mobilized to patrol the sea corridor between the Land of Water and the Land of Whirlpools leaving the task of defending Uzushiogakure to the Genin and newer Chuunin teams.’

“Let’s hope that everything calms down a bit… I really miss eating decent food while drinking good booze and not Soldier Pill. Even if it’s efficient at saturating hunger and replenishing Chakra, it tastes like paper lime dumped in mud.’

As he was reminiscing about his home’s delicious food, he sensed a three-man team approaching him from behind.

‘All three show Chuunin-levels of Chakra. Hopefully, they’re just the replacement sent by Central Command for this section.’, he analyzed while preparing to attack the oncoming Ninjas just in case.

“Hey, have you ever heard of the story of Takashi the limb climbing a mountain?”, one of the approaching Ninjas asked him.

“No, only of his son Tetsu with a giant foot.”, he answered with a relieved smile.

‘Luckily, they’re sent from Central Command.’, he thought after replying with the correct code word.

As the three Chuunins shortened the distance between them and him, he saw the symbol on their headbands: A spiral with a triangle on the bottom-left corner.

‘It seems they’re from Konoha.’

“Nice to meet you! You’re the Jonin called Gin, right?”, asked a pubescent boy with freckles.

“Right… And you should be the Chuunin team sent to replace me if I’m not mistaken.”, he answered.

“Exactly.”, the boy dryly replied.

“Well. Then, I’m going back now. And be careful of hiding Kiri-Ninjas in the water. They’re difficult to spot. Even Jonins have trouble escaping a well-prepared ambush coming from below.”, he advised them before seeing them seriously nod.

After checking the trio for the last time, he turned around and quickly left his post by running on the sea. While running, his mind was thinking about what dinner he was going to enjoy today, when he suddenly felt a cold shiver and instinctively jumped sideways.

SLASH

A pillar of water instantly shot up from below and hadn’t he jumped sideways, his legs would have turned into minced meat. Before he could counterattack, several Kunais were thrown at him from different angles.

‘5 attackers. Judging from the Kunais’ precisions, there should be 3 Jonins and 2 veteran Chuunins.’, he calmly analyzed while dodging the projectiles.

‘I have to escape immediately.’, he quickly concluded before using his mediocre water release to shroud the area in fog.

“Hahaha! Funny that a non-Kiri-Ninjas would use Kiri-tactics.”, he heard a woman’s voice viciously commenting from every direction as if the whole fog echoed what the woman had said.

“As expected of a Jonin! You’re resisting far more than those three Konoha brats!”, the woman hysterically screamed with joy.

“But alas. Your fog is imperfect, barely passable… Fortunately, we’re generous enough to educate you on the tactics of Kiri. The only price you have to pay is your life!”, she continued to talk.

ZOOOM ZOOOM ZOOOM ZOOOM ZOOOM ZOOOM

Several Kunais flew towards him and this time one hit him penetrating his right foot and making him lose his body balance. As he tried to regain his balance, he discovered that he couldn’t properly cast Chakra in his right foot anymore leading to him falling into the water.

“FLOWER OF LIGHTNING”, he shouted before several arcs of lightning shot upwards and bloomed by targeting the Ninjas surrounding him.

“Arghh!”, a Chuunin shouted in pain before dropping dead into the sea.

‘I guess this is the end for me.’, he painfully realized while sensing a water whip quickly approaching his body while he continued to fall into even deeper waters.

‘There isn’t even sunshine on the day I die.’, he lamented after observing the fog from below before seeing three Kiri-Ninjas diving after him with their Kunais in their hands ready after he had barely survived the water whip by nullifying it with his Ninjutsu.

‘Luckily, my cute little students have already graduated.’, he thought with relief before focussing all his chakra around him.

‘Time to go out with a bang.’

The Chakra around his body began to brighten and pulse before slowly condensing. It then rapidly expanded outwards thereby creating a huge shockwave.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

A gigantic explosion occurred, instantly swallowing all Kiri-Ninjas and destroying their bodies before forming a huge wave. As the explosion cleaned up the fog, Mr. Gin looked up one last time and saw the gentle sunshine beautifully dancing in the water before he peacefully closed his eyes with a faint smile.

OOO

“Sir! Reports from the frontline state that the areas Black 5, Black 7 and Black 8 have been breached!”, an intelligence officer reported to the chief commander sent by Konoha.

‘They’ve successfully broken through.’, he grimly acknowledged in his mind while looking at a map filled with countless notes and drawings depicting troop positions and places of vital strategic importance.

“Sir! We also have breaches in Black 9, Green 1, Green 2 and Green 4!”, a female intelligence officer reported with a panicked face.

‘F*ck! These bastards are too ruthless!’, he mentally cursed the Kiri-Ninjas before turning his head around and asking his assistant:

“What are the estimates on the enemy’s and our casualty rates?”

Upon hearing his question, his assistant immediately organized several incoming reports before analyzing them.

“Our enemy’s casualty rates should be around 50% to 60% in the initial wave, while we have luckily only suffered approximately a casualty rate of 20%. There are also reports claiming the use of Genin suicide squads deployed by Kirigakure, Sir!”, his assistant replied with trembling hands while holding a bundle of reports.

‘Dammnit! How long can they even support this breakthrough attempt with these casualty rates?!?!?’, he furiously thought before slamming his fist on the table thereby breaking it into two.

‘What is the Mizukage even thinking?!?!? Selling Kirigakure’s future for its present! This f*cking madman!’

“...”

“...Let all frontline troops orderly retreat to Uzushiogakure and prioritize defending the strait between the Land of Whirlpools and the mainland. Our enemies can’t keep their momentum forever, especially with casualty rates like that. Just let them bleed out while we wait for our reinforcements.”, he decisively ordered without blinking an eye.

Just as he was thinking that the waves of bad news had ceased, an ANBU Ninja appeared in front of his tent.

“Sir, a high-priority message from the Hokage has arrived!”, shouted the guard outside the tent.

“Let him in.”, he quickly replied while looking at the approaching ANBU member.

‘...Why do I have a bad feeling?’

“A message directly from the Hokage, commander!”, said the ANBU Ninja before handing him a small scroll before disappearing.

With the scroll in his hands, he hesitated for a while before opening it. As his eyes scanned the scroll’s content, his body began to slightly shake and countless sweat beads formed on his forehead. Finally, he put down the scroll on his broken table and sat on his chair before looking at the ground with a dark expression causing the atmosphere in the tent to immediately drop below freezing temperatures.

‘... I’m too old for this shit!’, he weakly complained in his mind.

Recalling the Hokage’s report, his mood continued to plummet: Kumogakure had begun to mobilize its troops along the border of the Land of Frost seemingly preparing for an invasion into the Land of Fire.

In addition, Iwagakure and Sunagakure started to secretly harass the western borders of Konohagakure while, on the surface, staying out of the conflict. As a result, no reinforcements could be sent to Uzushiogakure. On the contrary, half of his troops were ordered to leave this front and would be soon transferred to the nearest border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning.

‘Now we’re in a disadvantageous stalemate.’, he concluded after refocusing his attention on the conflict between Kirigakure. After closing his eyes and calming himself for a couple of seconds, he opened them again and began to respond to the changed circumstances of war.

“Organize for group Fire, Leaf and Will to be transferred to the border nearest to the Land of Lightning. Only group Shadow will continue to stay here. Also, let them take as many wounded and dead as possible back to the mainland.”

“We should also start fortifying the Land of Whirlpools, especially around Uzushiogakure. If the reports are true, then we’re going to be outnumbered at least 5:3 even with Kirigakure’s casualty rate of 50% to 60%.”

“Pass this report through the troops. The strategic situation has dramatically changed.”, he ordered after turning around and handing part of the Hokage’s report to his assistant whose puzzled face blanched immediately upon reading the scroll’s content.

“Y-Yes, sir!”, his assistant replied after barely recovering from his initial shock.

‘... Let’s pray that this conflict doesn’t escalate into the Second Ninja World War.’, he hoped while recalling his personal experiences during the First Ninja World War.

OOO

An endless flood of wounded was pouring into Uzushiogakure’s port while the medics tried their best to treat them. But as I looked at the sea, my heart ached because I saw ships fully packed with even more injured with my Chakra vision.

‘Oh god! When is this going to end?’, I mentally cried while touching the fresh bandages around my arms.

“Hey, you! Don’t stand around like an idiot! Come and help me!”, shouted a female Ninja while amputating the leg of an unconscious male Ninja.

My eyes quickly widened and I instantly turned my head around before rushing to her.

“I’ve already amputated his right leg and stopped his bleeding. He seems to have no other injuries, otherwise. Take him to the temporary resting place. It’s in training ground 5. Be fast and quickly come back. We need every help we can get!”, she screamed while running to her next patient whose right arm had been cut off.

“Right!”, I weakly replied before walking towards the lying man.

I then gently pulled him up and carried his body on my shoulders before making my way to the training ground. On my way, I saw other Genins and Chuunins performing the same task as me before seeing a familiar redhead.

“Hey, Haruto!”, I shouted while trying to quickly approach him.

Like me, he was also carrying an injured Ninja - Judging by the body shape, it should've been a young Chuunin. Upon hearing my voice, he turned his head around and a smile formed on his once gloomy face.

“Nice to see you still alive, Takumi!”, he joyfully responded.

“Of course, I’m still alive or who else would talk to someone like you?”, I joked while running with the Ninja on my shoulders.

“Haha! Good to see that you still cracking jokes in this situation! It seems you were only slightly injured after surviving the suicide attack by that Kiri-Genin. Miyuki and I thought you were gone forever.”, he replied with a depressed voice.

Hearing him mention the suicide attacker made an uncomfortable memory come up. I recall us fending off an attacking Ninja squad before resting for a while. Due to the battle’s aftermath, I didn’t see the young Genin hiding under the sea.

Before I focused on checking my surroundings, the not even 6 years old child tried to jump onto me while his backing was plastered with activated explosion tags. His sudden action overwhelmed me and I failed to react in time but Miyuki quickly casted a wall of wind and pushed the boy a dozen meters away before he exploded.

I had hurriedly used my arms to shield me from the incoming attack but my body was still pushed away and I passed out. According to the medic, who treated me, I had also suffered from some internal bleeding but luckily nothing a bit of medical Ninjutsu couldn’t solve.

“...Let’s not talk about that…”

“By the way, where’s Miyuki? I haven’t seen her in the emergency treatment center.”, I asked Haruto trying to move onto a different topic while continuing to run towards the training ground.

“If I remember correctly, she should be at the newly established treatment center helping the medics with healing the wounded. It’s about 10 km north of the port.”, Haruto answered after thinking for a bit.

‘It seems there are even more casualties if a second treatment center had to be opened.’, I thought with a dark face.

We continued to talk and exchange recent news before arriving at training ground 5 which had been completely transformed: Instead of the usual open area and the couple of projectile dummies, rows upon rows of tents were placed on the ground filling every bit of the training ground.

“Hey, you’re Takumi, right? I remember you profusely apologizing to me at my food stall.”, asked a grumpy-looking man.

Looking closer, I recognized the man talking to me as Mr. Chojiro who was wearing an Uzushiogakure headband and bandana coupled with the standard Ninja uniform filled with Kunais and Shurikens.

“Mr. Chojiro! Nice to see you! We’ve got two patients to deliver. Where should we put them?”, I greeted him.

“Just go to the big tent in the middle. They are the ones coordinating that.”, he replied.

“Thanks!”, I replied before quickly running towards the big tent that stood out amid the forest of smaller tents.

“And be careful. Young Ninjas like you easily die in wars like this!”, he advised me.

I turned my head around and wanted to thank him for his advice but he had already used the Body Flicker Technique and silently disappeared. Turning my head back, I saw Haruto already running ahead of me so I hurried up and followed him to the big tent.

As we got closer to the tent, I saw the Uzumaki Clan symbol on its walls indicating that it wasn’t standard Uzushiogakure equipment but that it had rather been directly provided by the Uzumaki Clan.

Outside of the tent's entrance, we saw a couple of Ninjas directing the flow of incoming wounded and after one of them saw us with our patients on the back, he signaled to us to head to the camp’s eastern side.

Finally arriving at our destination, a middle-aged man took over our duty and carried the Ninjas into a tent before coming back while wiping his forehead with his hand. He then looked at us and opened his mouth.

“Fine work, lads. Now quickly go back and come with some new patients.”

Hearing his words, Haruto and I nodded and swiftly began to run back. Our shuttling of patients would continue even after the sun had set and we were only allowed to rest after several hours after midnight had passed.

OOO

The Hokage’s POV

‘With Kirigakure’s recent offensive, the war situation has drastically worsened for Konohagakure and Uzushiogakure. In addition, the other main Hidden Villages aren’t sitting still and are just waiting for us to make a terrible mistake.’, analyzed Hiruzen in his office while smoking his favorite pipe.

‘At least we’re only actively fighting on one front right now which is worlds apart from the situation in the First Ninja World War.’

‘According to the reports, Kirigakure is bleeding for every inch they’re advancing. It’s only a matter of time before they’re too exhausted to continue. At this rate, Kirigakure might even collapse under the stress and become one of the smaller Hidden Villages.’

‘...Konoha’s priority should be to avoid a multi-front war at the moment… If I remember correctly, Sunagakure’s harvest has been meager at best for a couple of years now. What they need now is more food.’

‘Let’s make some concessions to Sunagakure regarding fertile land and food exports in exchange for a mutual defense pact against Iwagakure. That should be enough to de-escalate the situation in the west since Onoki wouldn’t start a disadvantageous war.’

‘That leaves Kumogakure, the most troublesome Hidden Village. Their village tends to value personal strength more than any other village so they’re often overly aggressive. I fear that they’re going to invade us sooner than later.’

While analyzing Konoha’s current strategic situation, the Hokage walked to a window and took a look outside. His eyes first glanced at the Hokage Monument depicting the faces of the founder of Konoha, the first Hokage Hashirama Senju, his brother and Hiruzen’s teacher, the second Hokage Tobirama Senju, and lastly himself, the third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi.

‘...Sometimes I ask myself whether my teacher’s choice was the right one. Was I really the right one to inherit the Hokage’s mantle?’, he contemplated before seeing his own students at the training ground practicing their Ninjutsus.

‘Can the first Hokage’s dream of letting children stay outside of battlefields be ever achieved? Or are they still doomed to fight in battle sooner or later?’, he asked himself while standing inside his dimly lit room.