Chapter 49- As the wind picks up

Uchiha Izaru had gathered the ninja strategists as soon as he had heard that Kumo had destroyed his ancestor's statue at the Valley of the End. Try as they might, none could dissuade him from his decision to attack, so the best minds in the field, hailing from clan and civilian family alike, nameless nobodies, shoulder to shoulder with Naras and Aburames, scraped their brains for every gambit and trick they could think of.

The Konoha force had barely over 200 Chuunin and Jonin that were able to called upon for the upcoming assault, the most liberal estimate of Kumo's forces was a bare minimum of 1000.

Izaru could not be turned from his suicidal attack though. So the strategists had to come together and think of any plan that would have a snowball's chance in hell of working. Their only other option was to declare the man insane and revoke his commanding position, but a fatal flaw stemming from an event weeks prior suddenly revealed itself.

Since the Uchiha had been reorganized into the Shinobi forces after the dissolution of the Military Police, the largest single faction in the Konoha Military was the Uchiha Clan. In the 200 remaining shinobi on the Kumo front, over 20 were Uchiha, and their tempers were flaring as wildly as Izaru's was.

Any attempt to pull Izaru from his position, the first front commander in clan history, would lead to an instant mutiny among the Uchiha. The remainder of Konoha forces had no other choice than to follow them into the gates of Hell.

The only solace was that both sides had to play politics. Izaru had to pretend that he wanted to protect the First Hokage's Statue, he couldn't reveal that he was ordering an assault over the insult to Madara, that would get him removed from his position or even court-martialed upon his return, he could at least make an argument for preserving Konoha's honor this way.

The strategists played along too. Their plans would allow Izaru to extract his pound of flesh from Kumo for their insult and slight against his family, but the plan would still allow for Konoha to escape with forces somewhat intact.

Neither side, Uchiha or not, was happy with the plan. The Uchiha wanted to be more aggressive, and the rest of the army wanted to cancel the assault and retreat to Konoha.

A light and fast assault left both sides upset, which made it a true compromise.

An hour before sunrise, Konoha shinobi, in teams of 10 or more would independently launch counterattacks on enemy positions before immediately retreating after a single attack; they couldn't afford to get caught in any extended engagements. Izaru wanted to press the attack of course, but the strategists were able to force him to accept that they were unable to "protect" the Valley of the End indefinitely; they would have to retreat eventually.

Hyuga Hikaru and Akimichi Domaru found themselves among one of the assault teams, wearing the bloodied and damaged chuunin flak vests of their fallen comrades. No one said anything about it though. Any armor, used or not, was better than none. Most Konoha Shinobi were more concerned with surviving the coming attack than to tear into the young ninja for disrespect against the fallen. There was a time and place for such niceties and dignities, but not here, engaged in a losing war with massive casualties and hopeless prospects.

Besides, the dead had no such need for armor, and Izaru, in a decision that almost fragmented the Konoha forces instantly, had given a battlefield promotion to all genin that had survived the past several day's hostilities. Domaru and Hikaru had earned the right to wear those vests, and they had earned the right to accompany the rest of the chuunin and jonin forces in their foolish assault on a waited and fortified Kumo position.

Domaru and Hikaru's assault group was 12 shinobi, 2 of which were jonin, and the rest chuunin. Of the two jonin, one of them was the team commander and also a Hyuga from the Main Family, as shown by his uncovered and unmarked forehead.

The two boys had been together at the Kumo Front since the beginning, initially assigned to a border outpost. The night of the initial assault, Hikaru had been practicing his Byakugan late into the night when he spotted the enemies approaching. Thanks to his early detection and warning, he and Domaru were ordered off the battlefield and missed any action. Their superiors at the outpost though had to face the Kumo forces, and most of them did not return.

The duo's luck would not hold though. After the fighting retreat was ordered, Hikaru and Domaru found themselves in shinobi combat more than a few times. They would end up surviving through what felt like pure luck each and every time.

At their first battle, they encountered an entire 4 man chuunin squad of Kumo shinobi, but the boys were quickly reinforced by a nearby Konoha Jonin who had stumbled upon them. Domaru and Hikaru had kept one of the chuunin occupied while the jonin killed the other three, and then came in to clean up the last one.

At their second battle, they made their first kills. They were retreating with a group of 6 chuunin when they were ambushed by a Kumo force of 10. Domaru and Hikaru were immediately ordered to the backlines from which they were to throw kunai and shuriken in support.

Domaru ended up making a fatal mistake, he drew too much attention to himself, and he became too much of a threat. Since he was related to the main line of the Akimichi, and his grandfather was an esteemed elder of the family, he had been sent out into the field with better than supplies than most genin, to include explosive tags of a yield usually reserved for demolition experts or jonin.

The first several barrages of kunai and shuriken he threw were to lull the enemy into a false sense of security, they were weak and inaccurate throws at best, downright sabotage at worst, which was to be expected of a frightened and inexperienced genin in their first fight with enemy ninja.

As Domaru's comrades cursed him for his ineptitude and the Kumo shinobi smiled grimly at the turn of fate, Domaru threw a brace of his kunai which had explosive tags wrapped around their handles underneath the cotton bandaged grip. As the kunai left his hands with much greater speed and accuracy than the volley previously, one embedded itself in the shoulder of a distracted Kumo Shinobi while the other was dodged by a hair's breath and ended up lodged into the trunk of a tree right next to another Kumo ninja.

Domaru then focused his chakra with a quick handseal and whispered the activation word to himself under his breath.

The Kumo Shinobi with the kunai in his shoulder disappeared in the resulting explosion, even his remains never to be seen again, while the other kunai exploded and launched the Kumo ninja who had dodged it over a dozen yards, whereupon he hit a tree and slumped to the ground, obviously dead or unconscious.

The sides were evened after this move by Domaru, 8 vs 8, and recognizing the threat of a even a genin with explosive tags, two of the kumo shinobi peeled away from the fight with the Konoha chuunin.

The two Kumo Ninja charged at Domaru while their remaining 6 comrades covered them from the Konoha chuunin.

The first one drew a sword and charged directly at Domaru with such speed that Domaru could only perceive him as a blur. The other started a flanking maneuver on Domaru, but his attention was drawn elsewhere after Hikaru threw several shuriken at him and moved to intercept.

Domaru, seeing that his enemy was much faster than him, threw a smoke bomb onto the ground and started taking evasive maneuvers. After a quick kawarimi, Domaru was up in a tree outside of the range of the smoke, trying to conceal his presence, but the Kumo shinobi with the sword ran out of the smoke in a straight line pointed directly at Domaru's position. Domaru would not be able to get away that easily. The Kumo Shinobi was tracking him somehow.

Domaru jumped down onto the ground where he threw another smoke bomb to cover his position. The Kumo ninja was unfazed though and ran in.

Moments later, the lethal and welt squelch of a blade sinking deep into flesh was heard.

Hikaru, who had just drawn the attention of another Kumo Chuunin, settled into his Gentle Fist Stance as the other ninja ran towards him. The Kumo ninja led with several shuriken, some of them simply grazing Hikaru, but the ones aimed at vital areas being deflected by smooth and practiced strikes and blocks of the Hyuga Family Martial Art.

The Kumo Ninja paused for a brief moment, and in an attempt to unnerve the young genin, spoke to him.

"You think we don't recognize you Hyuga bastards? You think we never came up with a counter to your style?

Want to see it up close?"

And without waiting for an answer, the Kumo ninja again launched himself at Hikaru after drawing a kunai and holding it reverse grip in one of his hands. As he advanced on Hikaru, Hikaru didn't move, and simply waited for the enemy to enter the range of his divination.

As soon the Kumo-nin entered the range though, Hikaru propelled himself forward with a burst of chakra from his feet and intercepted the man with an open palm blow aimed at his heart. The Kumo-nin reacted faster than expected, as he had predicted the young Hyuga's attack, almost all Hyuga would aim their first few blows at vital areas, it served to conserve chakra and potentially take enemies by surprise, but to the Kumo forces that had been analyzing the style in the Third Shinobi war, it had suddenly become a huge flaw.

The Kumo ninja parried the blow with his open hand before slashing at the inside of Hikaru's elbow with his kunai. Hikaru saw the attack and withdrew his arm as fast as possible, and the slash missed any arteries, but the cut it left was still deep enough to hit tendon and made that arm almost useless.

Hikaru, knowing he was injured, knew that he had to take reengage and redouble his attacks if he had hope of winning the fight, so he threw another palm blow with his other arm, but the Kumo ninja predicted that too, and caught Hikaru's good arm with his free hand.

As the Kumo-nin reared back with the Kunai and prepared to kill Hikaru with a stab in the throat, HIkaru suddenly lurched forwards and headbutted the enemy, their hitai-ates clashing together with a piercing note that cut through the battlefield.

The Kumo ninja fell to the ground like a puppet with his strings cut as his eyes stared vacantly. As he fell, his hitai-ate, along with Hikaru's, both fell to the ground in pieces, the metal having been shattered.

Hikaru had been practicing every day and night since Yama had opened the door to all the new possibilities of the "chakra control" exercise he had shown the young boy. Hikaru, utilizing his advanced chakra control, had launched a Gentle Fist attack from the tenketsu in his forehead, scrambling the enemy ninja's brain, instantly killing the man.

Hikaru, knowing the man was deader than dead, focused his attention to the smoke cloud where Domaru was engaged with another Kumo-nin.

Hikaru saw through the smoke with ease and watched as the Kumo shinobi pulled his blade out of Domaru's body. The Kumo ninja had felt to blade penetrate all the way through the boy based on the resistance.

Hikaru almost wanted to smile though. The Kumo ninja who thought he had stabbed Domaru through the chest had done no such thing. Under the cover of the smoke, Domaru activated the partial body expansion jutsu of his clan, and both his arms had swollen to preposterous size. One of them took the sword blow for him, and the other was raised above Domaru's head, the tips of his fingers poking out of the smoke cloud.

As soon as the Kumo ninja sheathed his sword, Domaru's other arm whipped downwards, and with a sickening crunch, Domaru's tight fist slammed on the top of the enemy ninja's head so hard that it retracted into his chest cavity before the ninja's legs shattered under the might of the blow.

Hikaru ran into the cloud to regroup with Domaru, and the two helped each other bandage their arms quickly, and about 30 seconds later, the two ran out of the cover of the smoke to engage the remaining Kumo Chuunin who were locked in 6 separate 1v1 fights with the Konoha Chuunin.

Domaru and Hikaru would help their comrades kill another 2 Kumo ninja before the remaining four disengaged and retreated, and the 6 Konoha Chuunin who lived through the ambush by superior numbers would all recommend the two for battlefield promotion.

In fact, the 6 chuunin the genin had fought alongside had all but stormed the medical tent when they heard the two genin were being denied healing jutsu on grounds of them being genin. The jonin in charge of the medic tent interceded however, and after cooling the tempers that often flared in warzones, the two genin both received the proper treatment for the wounds on their arms.

The days following that event, the two genin stayed with the same chuunin squad and slowly got more and more involved in combat and direct confrontation. Hikaru and Domaru were starting to earn the trust and respect of their fellow ninja. They were starting to build a reputation, which led them to their current assignment, as part of one of the teams that would directly attack the Valley of the End.