Flashback Intermission 2

Third Shinobi Warzone
“Koto”, Suna ANBU Squad-Leader

The foremost virtue is motion. Motion was life. Motion was energy. Motion was victory. The principle applied to all things, but most especially to warfare. To remain still was to surrender movement, initiative, action to the enemy.

Field Commander Ebizo understood this principle well, hence the nature of their deployments. So long as Konoha and Iwa maintained their aggressive pushes into Suna-aligned territories, Suna would need to maintain a roaming defense of the entire north-eastern quadrant. Positions needed to be held, attackers fended off, defenders repositioned, and the next attacks defeated.

Their numbers were not sufficient for a fully static defense, and neither was that the way of the ninja. That was the way of the samurai, of the footman, to hold and hide in fortresses. To wage war as a ninja was to be fluid, and to sublimate motion.

Constant motion required constant energy. The young were rarely able to maintain this pace for long.

A three meter giant of wood crashed down upon the battlefield, kicking up waves of ash with a creaking of steel and groaning of plates. Koto landed soon after, waving his hand at his subordinates. “Support the Weapon.” He commanded firmly through his veiled features.

‘Keizobo’, ‘Iju’, and ‘Masaki’ gave a handseal to show affirmation, then leapt forwards to take positions around the wooden giant as it advanced. Koto watched them go for a moment, then turned his gaze down to the sand-filled trench he had landed next to.

“Thirty-seven C. Lizard Squad, you are hereby relieved of this position. Return to HQ for further orders from Field Commander Ebizo.”

A head poked its way out of the sand, then two more. Heads wearing the headbands of Suna. The sand fell from around them, pouring into tunnels beneath their feet and revealing a trio of ninja giving affirmative salutes. “Thirty-seven J. ANBU, this position is in a precarious state. There’s at least a dozen enemy ninja waiting for us on the other side of the ashfield. Abandoning it would mean to allow them to penetrate into our defenses-“

“No.” He interrupted with a shake of his head. Distantly, a chorus of explosions rang out. “My group will eliminate the enemy.”

“Eliminate the enemy…” The team leader responded with a grimace and furrowed brows. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.” Koto grumbled, nodding briefly. This extended conversation was keeping him away from his team. Another series of explosions rang out, followed by the sounds of whistling needles and howling winds. “Return for recuperation and redeployment. That’s a direct order from the Field Commander.”

“Aye.” The team leader saluted with a frown. “Our remaining supplies are here, good luck.” He said, tossing a little scroll his way before signaling for his team to head out. They jumped out of the deep trench and away towards the south-west.

Koto leapt forwards, towards the ensuing clash.

It took a few moments to pass through the clouds of ash the wooden giant had left in the wake of its tremendous wind-fueled leaps. He emerged on the other and quickly spotted his team. The shattered remains of earth walls were erected at scattered locations, discarded metal fragments were scattered around, and a handful of bodies littered the ashfield.

There in the center, moving ponderously onwards with arms raised and salvos of random metal fragments launching at a steady pace, was the wooden giant. Its vaguely egg shaped body suspended on thick clawed limbs, and its face was a heavy demon mask. It grinned, twisting erratically to bombard hastily-erected defenses.

“What the hell is that?!”
“Keep harassing it, don’t let it pin you!”
“The Suna ANBU are here- we can’t get a steady shot- gah!”

Koto jumped again, hand flashing and a trio of kunai flying through the air, down behind an earthen wall. The pair of konoha ninja behind said cover were competent enough to notice and leap away.

Exposing themselves in front of the wooden giant was their last mistake. A four-stream salvo of random metal shrapnel came flying out. Before they had even landed they were forced to defend themselves again, kunais raised to block.

“Wind Release : Air Cutter.” Masaki calmly finished her hand seals, a wave of slicing wind catching both of the exposed and pinned Konoha ninja. The blade bifurcated them, sending their halves down to the ground.

A moment later, the halves burst into smoke to reveal chopped wooden logs. A substitution.

“Fire Release : Great Fireball!” A roar came from their flank, a ninja of Konoha with black hair exhaling a great wave of incinerating flame. They wouldn’t have time to counter normally, forcing them to dodge.

They wouldn’t need to. Koto lined up an attack, sheathing a kunai in violent wind chakras, and allowed the fireball to draw closer.

A soft voice called out from inside the wooden giant, barely audible over the violence of the battlefield. “Fire Eater Seal.”

A conical spiral of bright green chakra exploded out from the wooden giant’s eyes, catching the incoming fireball and drinking it, fire rapidly diminishing as it was sucked into a pair of glowing seals in the giant’s pupils.

“What the-!” The black-haired enemy didn’t have time to finish, as Koto’s hurled kunai punched through his neck and sailed into the distance. He staggered, falling limp with the severing of his spine, making a puff of ash with his fall.

The eyes of the wooden giant slid closed as the last of the fire was devoured within.

“It can negate our fire ninjutsu! Retrieve the bodies and retreat!” A strong voice called from the hazy distance.

The wooden giant turned to the noise, spinning on its pelvis. Its jaw clicked open, revealing a glimpse of a small figure inside, little hands flashing through seals. The Suna ANBU jumped up and back, away from the direction and defensively around the giant wooden puppet.

Koto made his own handseals.

“Wind Release : Great Breakthrough.” The small, soft voice forced out. A great column of wind poured out of the wooden giant’s open maw and rushed towards the enemy.

The eyes of the mask opened again. A torrent of flame spilled out, unleashed back at the enemy. The flame set the winds alight, and the strong, wide gust of wind was suddenly turned into a great beam of white flames.

Koto finished his handseals. “Wind Release : Sandstorm Wind Wall.”

The beam of fire suddenly strengthened again, and widened considerably. A wall of blazing fire that made his front bake and his back frigid. Like opening a furnace door, the horizon before them turned into hot, hateful sunfire.

The blaze roared loudly enough that the screams of dying enemies could scarcely be heard over it.

They held their positions for a few long, stiff moments after. Silent and tense as they awaited any indication that the enemy was still alive. The fire died down slowly, revealing a wide, long section of ashfield that was simply charred slag.

“Clear.” Masaki said from her side.

“Clear.” Keizobo repeated.

“Clear.” Iju finished.

Koto maintained his own watch for several tense seconds longer, before slowly nodding. “Clear. Fan out and retrieve everything.”

His team scattered. He turned to the wooden giant and nodded towards it. “Chunin, you are free to repair and rearm.”

The wooden giant fell back into a limp seated position, maw still open, and the little figure crawled out. Tan robes, wooden sandals, and a straw hat. His brown hair was sticky and limp with sweat, and his eyes were ringed with exhaustion.

Priority escort Chunin Ryoma. Up and coming puppeteer. Connections to MIA Sasori of the Red Sands. Pilot of the ‘Wood Dragoon’ mass-combat puppet.

Ryoma was young, and the youth had little in the way of stamina for war. Ryoma immediately staggered, legs shaky from disuse, then shook himself and retrieved a series of scrolls from his crumbled satchel. He began to mutter, strings of flickery green chakra extending from his fingertips and making various components of the wooden giant dissemble themselves. Seals and compartments were revealed, and he began to transfer scraps of metal from his bag-scrolls into the storage sections of his puppet.

An explosion in the distance caught his attention, he immediately swiveled, turning to the source.

“Keizobo!” Iju called out, worriedly.

Masaki moved forwards to investigate, disappearing into the cloud of ash. Koto held his position near the priority-escort, kunai raised defensively. Ryoma had flinched harshly, diving into cover behind the great frame of his wooden giant. Strings made it rise into a suddenly-ready position, the puppet coming to life ready to defend its master.

“…Man down.” Masaki called out, moving out from the smoke and carrying two corpses with her. A small fire shouldered behind her, and she placed the corpse near Koto’s feet.

Keizobo, legs blown off and only stumps near the hips remaining, coughed up at him. “S-shit…” He groaned. “Two-layered self destruction seal…”

Koto crouched near him, eyes scanning to inspect the damages. High levels of heat-based damage all across the torso and arms, legs gone below the hips, bleeding already slowed, face undamaged. “You’ll survive.”

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“But my career is over, isn’t it…?” Keizobo groaned out beneath a white veil. He leaned his head back, suppressing a writhe of pain. The stumps where his legs used to be rose up, holding an upwards position and staunching the bleeding further. “That bastard… ugh…”

Koto nodded sadly. Keizobo looked up at him, squinting through the pain he was in, before glaring and growling to the sky above. “Damnit… Losing at the very end huh? What a cheap trick.”

“You didn’t lose.” Koto declared, withdrawing a medical kit and crouching near the injured comrade. “They’re dead. You have achieved victory for Sunagakure on this day.” With that, he ripped away the slag that was Keizobo’s old pants. Keizobo clenched his jaw in agony as his wounds were freshly opened, but his training let him hold in the screams.