Chapter 52- The Tales of Six Children

Aburame Shimiko and Tsubaki had been deployed to the Kiri frontlines for a while now. The first couple days were interesting at least, with the fear of the unknown sending jolts of fear at every shadow and rustle in the trees.

The trepidation the had soon faded away as they got used to the daily grind.

Kiri and Konoha had a somewhat special relationship among the five nations. They had technically been at war since their inceptions, and had never once signed a peace treaty with one another. The fault was mostly on Kirigakure's end. They have been suffering decades of political infighting and turmoil in the aftermath of the First Great Shinobi War, and they couldn't even field an ambassador to Konoha, much less agree to a peace treaty.

The two countries relied on an uneasy and unspoken rule to keep the peace. Konoha and the Land of Fire do not use the ocean, and Kiri and Water do not step on the continent, with the exception being a trading hub at the tip of a peninsula that was essentially neutral territory, though in name it belonged to the Land of Water.

If the two countries fought, it would be because Konoha ninja were on the ocean, or Kiri Ninja were on land, and since neither country liked to fight outside its own element, the rule actually held the peace somewhat well.

After the history and all the political ramifications were explained to Shimiko and Tsubaki, they didn't realize the implications until they got their assignments. Everyday, they simply walked up and down their sector of beachhead, staring out at a lifeless and foggy ocean for signs of Kiri Ninja. They were under direct orders to never even touch the seawater, and to not interact at all with any Kiri Shinobi, ignoring them unless they stepped onto dry land.

That was it though. They simply looked at the ocean day in and day out, and it was very boring work, especially since not a single Konoha nin on patrol had seen a Kiri Nin along the entire border, and not even a rumor of Kiri nin sprouted up in one of the Fire Coastal towns.

Kirigakure was being even more withdrawn and isolationist than usual. Good news for Konoha though, since it already found itself stretched too thin.

However, the boring and uneventful border between Fire and Water where the land meets the sea suddenly changed.

The Konoha sensors were the first ones to notice it. To most of them, it felt like an unseen wet rug laid over the land, muting everything. The life and energy of the land had been muted.

Some of the more skilled trackers of the Inuzuka clan that were assigned to the Kiri front were the next to notice something.

The breeze had changed, and now the wind, which normally smelled of the sweet rot of seaweed and salty scent of lightning, it now carried a hint of iron and blood.

Flotsam and debris were the first things to wash up. Shattered boards here and there, but more suspiciously shards of wood cut too cleanly to be anything produced by nature. Then came the first boat.

It washed up onto shore during the night, and when a patrolling Konoha shinobi encountered it in the morning, after a quick investigation, he raised the alarm, and a message was swiftly sent back to headquarters.

The boat was a common fishing vessel, enough to fit a couple of men and their nets, along with their catch. This boat was devoid of all fishing equipment though and simply held food, water, clothes, and blankets.

The most glaring feature though was at the bottom of the boat. Swirling around the bilge was several inches of blood.

It was soon identified as human blood, and there was enough of it to account for at least eight people. The event was quickly dispersed along the front lines, and the Konoha ninja were less surprised when they found the second boat.

The debris increased in prevalence along with the unmanned and blood filled boats. Soon their were multiple boats washing up on shore with tons of debris every day.

Shimiko and Tsubaki were the first to see a boat with people on it.

On a normal, foggy morning, the two kunoichi, young girls really, were patrolling their sector when they heard shouts from somewhere down the coast. They ran towards the noise, and taking care not to touch the water, as ordered by their superiors, they peered into the veil of fog that shrouded the ocean from view.

A small boat emerged from the fog, and more shouting rang out, distinctly feminine in character.

"Land! Land!

Paddle faster. We're almost there!"

As the boat came in close and closer, Shimiko and Tsubaki started to gather some finer details.

The ship was low in the water, obviously overladen, and a small fishing boat, meant to hold only a few men , their gear, and their catch, was actually full of women and children.

The women were at the oars, paddling with a possessed fever, and some of the older kids inside the boat were forming a bucket brigade to bail out any seawater that found its way into the boat.

As the boat neared the shore, the two kunoichi, somewhat on guard simply waited to see what would happen. In an overabundance of caution, Shimiko unsealed the emergency flare her captain had giver her to signal if enemies stepped foot on land.

The boat came closer and closer, and soon enough, one of the women on board shrieked and pointed at the two young kunoichi.

"Ninja! Ninja! We're dead!"

Everyone on the boat paused for a half second, and another voice broke the silence.

"They're wearing green! Its Konoha! Paddle Faster!"

And all the women at the oars started rowing with redoubled effort.

The boat, soon crossing into the region where the waves break found itself accelerating and being pushed ashore by the waves of the ocean. The boat got about ten yards from the high water mark when it finally hit sand. Some of the women jumped out and started trying to drag the boat ashore. One of them yelled at the two young kunoichi.

"HELP US, GODDAMNIT, WE NEED TO GET THE CHILDREN ON DRY LAND!"

Tsubaki, without thinking, took a half step forward before Shimiko yanked her back and hissed at her.

"Remember out orders! We can't touch water under any circumstances!"

Tusbaki whipped back to face Shimiko and hissed back.

"Konoha hasn't even seen Kiri-nin, it doesn't matter, and they're obviously not a threat."

Shimiko was about to rebut when a harsh and baritone voice creaked out from in front of them.

"Listen to your friend, kid."

Shimiko and Tsubaki turned to face the ocean and the boat once more, but between them and the boat was a man.

The man was rail thin, with a mask and wild yellow hair, and he was standing on top of the water only a few feet from shore on about 6 inches of water. Held in his right hand was a thin, straight sword, and the killing intent was falling off of him in waves.

What frightened the Shimiko and Tsubaki just as much as the killing intent was the man's mask.

It was bone white, with a dark triangle near the mouth, slits for eyes, and the mark of Kirigakure on its forehead.

Even academy students would recognize the mask of Kiri's infamous Hunter-Killer nin.

The masked ninja's killing intent then sharply increased, and Shimiko and Tsubaki were frozen to the spot in fear.

To the two young kunoichi, the colors of the world faded and the only sound they heard was the loud rush of blood through their ears as their hearts started beating faster than ever before.

As the flare slipped from Shimiko's hand, she and Tsubaki watched as the masked man slowly turned around and focused onto the women and children.

He disappeared in a blur of speed, and several of the women trying to drag the boat onto shore fell down. As they collapsed to their knees, the jarring contact loosened the perfectly smooth cut, and their heads rolled off their shoulders.

Shimiko and Tsubaki watched on, still frozen in fear and horror as the masked Kiri-nin methodically killed each and every person onboard the boat. The last two to die were a women and a baby. The woman had jumped from the boat and ran towards shore with the infant in her arms. As she neared the high water mark, she threw her child towards the two young Konoha kunoichi. While the infant was still in the air, the long straight sword sprouted from the woman's chest and continued to fly towards the child, piercing it as well before the pair were jerked back with an invisible wire.

The masked ninja stood at the prow of the boat, his sword clean and unstained with blood. He jerked the blade in a small twitch, and suddenly, all the lifeless bodies surrounding him flew together as if magnetically attracted to each other to form a ball of limbs. viscera, and gore.

The giant mound of flesh, which had mere moments ago been living and breathing people, stood proudly in the shallows of the ocean, half above the water. The boat was empty, except for the pool of blood left in it.

The masked ninja gazed at the two young girls, trembling at the shoreline, and even with the mask, the dismissive aura could be felt.

"Welcome to the world of ninja, children."

And he left as easily as he had come, leaving only the untouched boat and mound of bodies.

Shimiko and Tsubaki stood their for only a moment more before they moved.

Without conscious thought, forgetting all their training, the two young girls ran towards their basecamp, too choked up with sobs to breathe properly, and two rattled to properly use chakra to enhance their speed.

By the time they made it to their camp, they were nearly catatonic, and their superiors couldn't even get a word out of them. Their commanding jonin knocked them out with a chop to the back of their necks, and took part of his team to investigate what had happened.

As they backtracked the two girl's trails, a bad feeling started to form inside their guts.

They reached their destination, the place where the boat had washed ashore, next to the stitched together mound of human body parts, just as the sharks started arrive.

Yama had been confined to his tent since the night before the fighting had begun. He had tried to appeal to the Daimyo one last time so that his genin would not see direct contact, but worse than dismissing the motion, the Daimyo had actually threatened Yama further.

Using the genin lives as leverage, the Fire Daimyo had forced Yama to sign a document ordering the genin to follow the Diamyo order's directly, and he had also placed Yama under arrest as well, confining the man so that he would not interfere with the Daimyo's command over the scant Konoha Ninja he did have.

If Yama were to disagree or fail to comply in any way, the Daimyo would use the 12 Guardian Ninja to kill the genin for treason. Yama had no choice but to obey, so he grit his teeth and bore the humiliation, biding his time so that he would have a chance to save his genin later, maybe during the fog of war.

The day after Yama was arrested, quietly of course, the Konoha genin were sent into battle for the first time. Most of them were untested, new, young, and completely unprepared for what the fighting would entail.

They made all sorts of mistakes.

Looking into and enemy's eyes as you kill them.

Dying to an enemy you showed mercy.

Dying to an enemy because of hesitation.

An ally dying due to your mistake.

Dying to random chance because you didn't maintain situational awareness.

The Fire Daimyo erupted in a rage when he learned that only 40 genin out of 60 even survived the first battle of his fighting retreat towards Tianchi. Even worse was that another 10 were critically injured.

By day two, he had only half of his 'elite ninja forces' left, and he was not making the sort of dent in the Land of Lightning's army that he wished he was.

Iruka and Mizuki were part of the lucky few that survived the first day uninjured. Yama had drilled them particularly hard before they had deployed and some of the things he had taught them had saved their life more than a few times.

They had even made their first kills that day. They didn't have the luxury of thinking about it though, as for every soldier they killed, another stood up to take his place. The two lost count within hours.

The first day was brutal, and the duo were fighting all day, adrenaline being the only thing keeping them going.

That night, the adrenaline and stress still hadn't cleared from their system, and even though they tried to sleep, they could find no rest. When they closed their eyes, the sights and sounds of battle still flashed through their eyes and rang in their ears.

As the sun came up the next morning, they had not slept a wink, but they knew that it was once more into the fray. The Daimyo had been explicit that the ninja would be fighting each and everyday, and orders were absolute for a ninja.

The second day was just as brutal as the first, and Iruka and Mizuki once again survived unscathed through sheer luck. That night however, they were able to fall asleep through sheer exhaustion, but it may have been worse than the alternative.

Mizuki was the first to wake, and he woke up screaming. He was back in the meat grinder, and he was dying to a nonexistent wound delivered by someone he had killed coming back to life.

Iruka woke up with a jolt as well, and quickly seeing his friend screaming, tried to calm him down.

He grabbed Mizuki in a tight hug and spoke to him in as soothing of a voice as he could muster.

"You're okay. Its just a nightmare.

You're okay. Listen to me.

Its Iruka.

I got you Mizuki. I got you.

Its okay."

Iruka whispered the words desperately, as if he was trying trying to tell himself that it was okay too.

The two boys broke down in sobs and Mizuki soon returned the embrace, and the two kids held each other and cried.

Iruka broke the silence after a few minutes.

"I didn't have time to thank you today.

The guy with the spear. I didn't see him.

If you didn't get him with your shuriken. I would've died."

Mizuki eked out a few words.

"S'what we're trained to do. Battlebuddies got eachother's backs.

You got mine too. I didn't see that one arrow.

You pushed me outta the way.

We're a team, Iruka."

The tears starting to renew in both boys' eyes, Iruka was still able to reply with a few words.

"Battlebuddies. We got each other to the end.

Back to Back. You got mine. I got yours.

Back to Back. Back to back."

The two boys, cramped together in a single military style cot fell asleep like that, holding one another for security and comfort. It was the only solace they could find in this hell.

The nightmares still came, but when one boy awoke, and his friend was still there, it was enough to close their eyes again and get another fifteen minutes of sleep before the next nightmare came.

It became their crutch, as the fighting continued for a week, day in and day out. Iruka and Mizuki slept in the same bed each and every night. They grew together and became inseparable to a certain extent.

And that was what saved them. By the end of the first week of the fighting retreat towards Tianchi, the Fire Daimyo had sent 50 of the Konoha genin to their deaths. Iruka and Mizuki survived because they looked out for one another and covered for each other.

And all that fighting was all for nothing. The Land of Lightning Army had actually grown during this time frame, receiving reinforcements from the Great River as the bulk of the forces headed towards Tianchi.

The Daimyo had actually passed through Tianchi without staying to fight like planned. He simply left his injured there, took some supplies and continued on toward the capitol with his 25 thousand professional soldiers left out of an original 50 thousand, ten genin, 12 Guardian Ninja, and Yama.

While in Tianchi, the Daimyo had sent a hawk to Konoha, ordering them to protect the capitol. That was the last chance of the Land of Fire. There would be several hundred thousand militiamen and conscripts there, and it might be enough to defend. As for the hundred thousand or so conscripts that the Daimyo was leaving behind in Tianchi, hopefully they would buy enough time.

Yama was kept in the same carriage as the Daimyo on the way to the capitol; it was the best way to keep an eye on him, but the two didn't speak a single word to one another. Yama hated the man and was biding his time, waiting for his genin to be safe before taking revenge, and the Daimyo, well he wanted anything other than to reveal that 50 of Yama's subordinates had already died, and silence was the best policy.

Iruka and Mizuki were scouting the route for the trailing army, and they were actually having a pretty good day so far.

Mizuki had made a joke, and Iruka had even laughed. They were even talking to each other. They also finally got some good sleep last night.

Something had changed recently. After the fourth day of straight fighting, the boys had adapted.

It wasn't so hard to kill people anymore. The pain and hurt that had plagued them the first few days started to face away. It was getting easier.

In a way, it was actually becoming okay. It was a bit like shuriken practice or sparring, just a little more deadly.

The two boys, who now both had kill counts greater than some jonin, were in a good place.

Why, on the last day, they even had a contest over who killed more Lightning Soldiers. It was starting to become fun.

That's a good thing, right?

Hikaru and Domaru were still on the run.

They had actually been ambushed a second time. Kumo had tracked them down once more, except this time, they sent four jonin.

The only reason that Domaru and Hikaru had survived is that they weren't targets. Two of the Kumo jonin attacked Hyuga-taicho and Sarutobi, while the other two doubled teamed the Uchiha Chuunin.

Uchiha never stood a chance, and he knew it too.

The two jonin had mortally wounded him with their first attack, but Uchiha-san didn't die instantly.

Realizing his end was nigh, the pride of the Uchiha reared its head high, and he mobilized the entirety of his chakra.

His Sharingan burned, and he knew that he could do what he planned. As he made the hand seals for the Great Fireball Technique, he took a deep breath in and converted every single scrap of chakra he had into fire chakra.

As the two Kumo jonin came back in to finish him off, he smiled on the inside, and suddenly released control over his jutsu, immolating himself and one of his attackers in a giant blaze of fire that bought enough time for his comrades to escape.

When the four survivors stopped for the night, they sat around camp and had a quick debrief.

Hyuga-taicho was leading the discussion.

"We're being pursued by 3 enemy jonin.

There is no doubt that they are after our kekkei genkai. There's no other reason they would go after Uchiha-san like that otherwise.

Hikaru-san, you are the most likely target next.

The only reason they didn't go after you first is because of the seal.

They know the effects, but not the pattern, so you could be a dud to them while an Uchiha is a sure bet."

Domaru interrupted.

'What seal?"

But Hikaru shook his head, and no one answered.

Hyuga-taicho continued.

"If they find us again, the two of you will have to face a jonin alone."

The two young genin grimaced, and Sarutobi let a dry laugh out.

"Yeah, that's about how I feel too.

But the fact is is that we can't outrun them with you two, so we either sacrifice you two or we fight."

Hikaru looked thoughtful for few seconds, took a quick glance at Domaru before steeling his expression and speaking up.

"Hyuga-taicho, may we speak in private?"

"Okay."

And the two walked off to speak to one another while Domaru and Sarutobi focused on building camp.

It was another two days before the Kumo Jonin team found them. Two of them instantly engaged Hyuga-taicho and Sarutobi separately, with the last one taking on Hikaru and Domaru.

It was a brutal beatdown, and within minutes, both Domaru and Hikaru were seriously injured, both sporting broken bones and internal bleeding.

One of the other Kumo jonin yelled at the jonin facing off against Domaru and Hikaru.

"Kill the fat one already, we only need the Hyuga!"

The jonin yelled back.

"He's an Akimichi, we can get a ransom outta him maybe!"

"It doesn't fucking matter, kill him, we're running out of time!"

The two Kumo jonin were good, but they weren't good enough. They could stall Hyuga-taicho and Sarutobi, but one of them would eventually lose, and everything would fall apart after that.

The jonin that had already nearly crippled Domaru gazed at him again, drawing a kunai with lethal intent.

He flashed over and thrust out his kunai to end Domaru's life, but was shocked when his kunai was instead intercepted by HIkaru's chest.

The young Hyuga had focused chakra into his legs, ejected it through his tenketsu, and propelled himself over at jonin speed, all to stop the fatal blow from reaching his friend.

The Kumo jonin instantly cursed.

"Shit, I injured the Hyuga! I'm retreating with him!"

Kumo's goal this time around was to capture a Hyuga male and try to forcibly breed him. A dead Hyuga was only 2 eyes. A live one was a clan.

If they could get this young Hyuga back to base fast enough, get him some medical attention, it might be enough to save him.

When the other two heard their ally, they disengaged and retreated along with him, whisking away the mortally wounded Hyuga Hikaru.

Domaru still in shock, tried to get up and chase after them, but was stopped by his two teammates.

Sarutobi held the thrashing Akimichi down before knocking him out.

Sarutobi then turned to Hyuga-taicho and asked.

"Are you sure about this?"

Hyuga nodded gravely.

"It was his idea. I will make sure that Konoha learns of his valor and sacrifice.

He chose to sacrifice himself, and I will not dishonor his decision.

This will buy us enough time, and they know they can't take my eyes."

Hyuga-taicho then focused his chakra for a brief second before activating Hikaru's Caged Bird Seal, sealing the young boy's eyes, and his life.