How he became the person he is
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 16:
Sakumo, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru, each headed north with six other groups of four men. They kept their distances and since they were experts, they were hard to spot at a glance. They headed northeast of Konoha, leading the way.
The plans were that everyone would follow Sakumo's group until they reached the border. There, they would spread across the border line and keep going northeast, to the country border line of Lightning Country. They didn't think that they would have to face any cloud ninja during the journey. The distance from Konoha to Kumo was that of a five days run. However, they planned on resting during the fourth day to recover from the fatigue of the run. By that time they were going to be close enough to the country border line, but not as close to be seen by cloud ninja. Once they infiltrated Kumogakure, they were going to reach Kumo in a day, and the attack was going to start right away.
Arashi was among the long-range shinobi, leading the large group of jounin. Tsunade and Tomoko led the medic-nin. The Sannin(and their jounin teams) were on the lead, the short-range shinobi followed them, then the medic-nin, the Anbu (who were mostly out of sight), and lastly the long-range shinobi.
Still, it was just half of the shinobi of Konoha that were going to actually infiltrate Kumogakure. A fourth of them were going to stay in the middle between the border lines of Fire Country and Lightning Country. The other fourth, including Kakashi and the older shinobi who didn't have the stamina to run for five days and fight, were staying in Konoha just in case the Kumo had decided to do the same things ans Konoha.
The weather was helping them, and conditions were very good to advance. Once the Sannin and their group arrived in the border line of Fire Country, they took a break. They were about three hours ahead of the long-range shinobi.
"Is it okay to let that brat of yours lead the group, Jiraiya?" Orochimaru asked while having lunch. "He hasn't been training hard enough these past weeks." He had mentioned the same thing before they carried out their plans, but Sandaime Hokage didn't change his decision.
"Are you saying that he isn't good enough, Orochimaru? Remember who we are talking about here. The genius boy, heh." Jiraiya looked around. "Where's Sakumo?"
"Tsk." Orochimaru didn't even bother to answer. He had seen Sakumo heading to where the medic-nin arrived fifteen minutes ago.
Once the leading group finished eating, they departed once again. They were going to have to set up camp and rest before the others arrived at the same place as them. And then they would leave before so that the others could catch up later. The place where all the groups were going to meet up was near the Lightning Country's border line. Until then they were going to advance in that manner.
In the past two days, Kakashi reported to the Hokage tower. Other chuunin were taking missions, but he was told to sort papers in the Hokage's office. He got to spend the two days with the Sandaime doing nothing special. Even if he was only six years old, he knew that those papers didn't need to be sorted. The genin weren't doing anything since their sensei left for the mission as well, but they weren't told to sort papers. They didn't have missions at all, and that was pretty much the only thing that convinced Kakashi to not complain about his "mission".
"Kakashi-kun, could you take this stack of papers to the first floor?" The Hokage pointed to a pile of papers to his right, and smiled.
"Hai, Hokage-sama." Kakashi stood up from his seat, where he was sorting old missions in the order they were reported.
He wasn't worried about the mission that the older shinobi went to. He believed that everything was going to turn out well, without many casualties. Hopefully, with any at all. He didn't know anything about what was going to happen in the next few days.
After two days, everyone was gathered near the country border line. Their final plan was to enter Lightning country through the eastern border, where they mostly had the plantations, and not many people lived. The more unnoticed they were, the better off they were going to be once in Kumo. They spent the day recovering from the cramps, and resting their fatigue. They hadn't even started with the main part of the mission.
The main goal of this mission was to enter Kumo and get the Raikage. Not to kill him or anything like that, but to make him surrender. When capturing a village, the most efficient ways are to defeat the village, or to capture the person who is in charge. The latter was the Leaf's plan.
The only reason that the two villages were fighting was because the Hidden Leaf Village was receiving far more missions than all the Hidden villages added up together. The Hidden Cloud Village didn't see it as fair, and they had had discussions. In one of those missions in which the Kumo's Anbu were escorting a Daimyo from the Lightning Country to the Fire Country, the whole group of thirty people had been killed. No one knew who had done it, and the blame was landed on the shinobi of Konoha, because it was within their country. After that, some of the teams that went on missions to Lightning Country were killed, and many were injured. To make things worse, Kumogakure declared war on Konoha. That was a totally different matter. They had declared war on Konoha. Just because of an assassination that wasn't even known by whom it was done. The Sandaime Hokage had tried to change the Raikage's decision, but no point was reached. If his mind wasn't going to be persuaded by words, it was time to do so by force.
Jiraiya, Sakumo, and Orochimaru's groupswere the ones who were going to enter the village first. The short-range shinobi were going to fight any Kumo shinobi they saw. The medic-nin were going to separate into each group of shinobi that were fighting. The ANBU were going to head to the Raikage's tower. Lastly, the long-range shinobi were going to be on the defense, waiting to help their commrades who needed it.
The leaders of the groups had a final meeting before they departed once again. They were in the middle of a forest - at night. Jiraiya wasn't the leader-type, and Orochimaru wasn't one of many words, so between the three of them, they decided that Sakumo would be doing the talking.
"Okay. Now, Jiraiya, take your teams to the south. Orochimaru, your team is the fastest one. Take the longest path. The west side. I'll take mine to the east." Sakumo pointed to different directions in the map. "Once there, start your attacks. It doesn't matter if your team arrives first or not. Arashi-kun, remember what our signals for help are." Arashi nodded. "The ANBU knows what to do?" The bear-masked shinobi answered with an "Aah." "Good. Tsunade, did you already divide up the medic-nins?"
"Yes. They will go to their respective teams once I go back."
"Kaito-san, Michiyo-san. Remember to tell your teams that our purpose is not to kill as many Kumo shinobi as we can."
"Hai." Both Kaito and Michiyo, the leaders of the short-range shinobi, answered.
"We need to take all of our shinobi back to Konoha safely. That's another goal of this mission. My goal. Please, take care everyone." Sakumo nodded once after giving a look to each one of them, and everyone was back with their teams. Jiraiya was standing up next to Sakumo, with his arms crossed.
"Nice speech, Sir-Commander." Jiraiya smirked.
"Shut up, you lazy bastard." Sakumo got up.
"See ya later. Safe and sound." Jiraiya gave him a two-finger salute and disappeared. Sakumo chuckled and headed towards his team.
Jiraiya appeared between the trees behind his student's team. He contemplated how Arashi gave the instructions, and how his eyes were reflecting his willingness to win this war. Jiraiya thought that that was good enough for him. He returned to his own team.
Jiraiya was surprised to see that Tomoko was placed with his team. He thought that she was going to be with Sakumo.
"How come you're here, Tomoko?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Tsunade was saying that you were the only one who worried her. Definitely not in that way." She added, as Jiraiya's lips dared to make a curve.
"Where's Tsunade, then?" He knew that Tomoko was the second Head medic-nin.
"She's with the ANBU. So, Commander, where are the instructions?" She smiled. Jiraiya let out a sigh, and half-seriously explained the plans.
Each leader explained to their teams what their procedure would be for the next two days or so. One day to arrive in Kumo, and one day for the beginning of the attack.
Sakumo's group arrived in the eastern gates. After taking care of every single shinobi on guard - which weren't that many - they separated into smaller groups and headed towards the center of the village.
Jiraiya's teams arrived in the southern side. Using their magnificiently mastered stealth, they slowly advanced towards the gates. Most of the jounin realized that they weren't the only shinobi in that forest as soon as they blinked once. They sensed the numerous shinobi waiting for them to make a false move.
Jiraiya stretched out his left arm downwards, and put his thumb down - leaving the other four fingers up. It was the command to attack. The closer teams who saw his signal gave the same signal to the other teams, and even before they reached all of Jiraiya's teams, he had already started.
The Sannin took out a bunch of kunai and threw them in two different directions. Before he heard the thumps of the injured bodies from the places he had thrown his kunai, Jiraiya had to dodge the dozens of shuriken that were on their way to his throat. That was it. Their first battle had started.
They were actually in a less preferable position. The Kumo shinobi had waited for them, knowing that they would come. They had set traps and positioned themselves in the higher places.
'Not liking this. Not at all. Fuck.' Jiraiya thought as he saved a fallen jounin by stopping the probably-poisoned-kunai with a shield of rocks.
Tomoko had been in the back with one of the other teams. The other medic-nins who had come with her had been healing all the jounin that had been attacked. She was looking around, just moving her eyes, to see if any other jounin needed her help.
Jiraiya seemed to be doing alright. Tomoko hoped that the others had arrived. The sooner this was over, the less people were going to die. She also hoped that Sakumo's group wasn't welcomed by Kumo-nin. Nor Orochimaru's.
A nin tried to attack her with a lightning jutsu, but even before the jutsu reached her, the nin was knocked. She wasn't the second best medic-nin for nothing. To make sure that the nin wouldn't wake up and bother them again, she paralyzed him temporarily. For about four days.
The battle lasted about thirty minutes. Some Kumo-nin had managed to run away to inform their village about the Leaf's attack.
Jiraiya decided to give his team a few minutes to recover from the battle. They still had a long way to go. What he didn't expect, though, was another bunch of Kumo-nin charging at them. About ten more Leaf-nin were killed all of a sudden.
Jiraiya summoned a little toad and sent him off to Arashi. They started their second round.
Orochimaru arrived in the least guarded side of Kumogakure. 'They probably didn't expect us to come this way.' He thought as he killed the few Kumo-nin guarding the gates.
"Disperse and head to the center of the village! Kill anyone who's on your way!" Orochimaru left right away, and his own team had no other choice but to follow him with difficulty.
The little toad reached Arashi a few minutes later, and Arashi was somehow shocked that his sensei needed back up so soon. The blonde jounin nodded lightly and told the teams five through ten to head to the southern gates.
A few minutes later, Jiraiya's teams were still struggling to remain alive.
"Jiraiya-sama!" A red-haired kunoichi arrived a few meters away from Jiraiya. "The reinforcements have arrived!"
"Oh, good! I'll be taking four teams with me. We've got to meet up with the others." Jiraiya dodged a bunch of kunai and used the Karyuu Endan, burning a few trees. "I'll leave you in charge. Once everything's done here just move forward." He moved around the forest to call those he thought were best to take with him, and ran pass the gates, inside the village.
Before Jiraiya had sent his summon to Arashi, Sakumo was moving west. He noticed some less-skilled Leaf ANBU members moving around. 'Really, they are supposed to be unseen.' He thought as he led his teams.
It was dark already, and not many people were in the streets. Sakumo wondered where all the Kumo shinobi were at. The idea that most of them were guarding the southern gates and killing his commrades didn't cross his mind right now. All his teams dispersed when he gave the signal.
On the way to the Raikage Tower (which honestly, they still had to look for), Sakumo was lucky enough to meet up with a few Kumo shinobi. But he wasn't lucky enough to get a single one of them tell him where the tower was. He had summoned one of his dogs so that it could help him with the situation.
"Kon, any signs of Jiraiya?" Sakumo asked. They continued moving to the west. He thought that maybe it was in the middle of the village.
"There's a fight going on in the south." He sniffed once again. "It's a big one." He turned to Sakumo and noticed his master's jaw tensing.
"What about Oro?" He stepped too hard on one of the roof tiles, leaving a crack.
"On the way to where we're going, I think. He's a little to the north. He's fast."
"Okay. Don't waste your energy here. I'll call you guys again. Thanks, Kon." Sakumo smiled to his summon before it disappeared with a bark. He gave another sign, and this time was to tell them to speed up even more.
Sakumo suddenly stopped when he saw some corpses lying in the streets. 'I don't even need to guess... Orochimaru...' He sighed. He couldn't see the tower, so he concluded that it must be in the north. He turned around and his eyes widened comically when he saw a snake opening its mouth as big as his own head.
"Wha...!"
"Shaa... Sakumo, your group is too slow." Orochimaru was leaning against the clock tower. The snake had returned to its master. If he was like any other person, he would have winked at his summon.
"What the heck do you think you're doing, Oro! This is war, not a game!" Sakumo yelled indignantly.
"Well, I thought that I would wait for you and the always-slow-Jiraiya to lead you guys to the tower. You see, I've already found the place." He grinned in that malevolent way that only he could.
"W-well. That's good. How did you find it? Where's your group?" Sakumo asked, trying to calm down, and noticing only his own teams.
"Well, my summons are more useful than those snivelers of yours. And my team... they should be on their way. If not, of course, they will be punished. If they don't follow my orders..."
"Oro, this is a war, not a training session. Got it? You, as a team leader, were supposed to lead them all the way here." Sakumo shook his head. "Anyway, punishment won't be tolerated. If anything like that happens, I'll report it to Hokage-sama. I'm sure you don't want to be grading papers in the academy once again." Sakumo tried his hardest to not laugh at his last comment.
After glaring at each other for the longest time, Sakumo summoned Kon once again. The summon automatically sniffed silently.
"Jiraiya's on the way. The others are still fighting."
Sakumo let out a sigh. "Finally. Can you sense anything to the west?" He gave a glare at Orochimaru.
"Yeah, there are people moving this way."
"I think we should start moving, Oro. Where's the tower?"
"To the north. I'll move first. You wait here for him. I'll leave one of my summons here."
Sakumo nodded sharply. He wanted to tell Orochimaru to order his summon to not try anything like what it had tried earlier. But, his pride as the White Fang of Konoha didn't let those words come out. He sighed once again. So far, things were alright. He gave a sign to his team to relax.
He wondered how Tomoko was doing. He grinned like an idiot at the prospect of receiving the beating plus the healing from her after the war. He surely had gotten some injuries already. He moved closer to the snake and stared at it.
"You don't bite, do you?" Sakumo smirked. The snake opened its mouth and showed its dangerous-looking teeth to the human sitting close to him, as though daring him to doubt that he could bite.
In the southern gates, the Konoha shinobi were being outnumbered. It looked like the Kumo shinobi appeared out of nowhere, constantly. It was a long time since all of Arashi's teams had joined the fight. Arashi had thought that the fight had gotten too far, and decided to join.
Tomoko was healing the red-haired kunoichi who had reported to Jiraiya earlier.
"Ku...!" She had a deep slash across her back. She had many other wounds, but that one was crucial.
"Almost done..." Tomoko was short on chakra as well. She had healed over a hundred times already.
"Tomoko-san, do you think we can...?"
"Yes, we will win." She believed that Sakumo and the others would succeed.
A Kumo nin had been glaring at them for a few minutes, and after gathering some chakra to perform a lightning jutsu, he shot it at them. Tomoko wasn't strong enough to make a shield for her and the kunoichi, so she made a shield for the kunoichi lying down. An illogical decision, since she was a medic-nin and she needed to heal many others, but it was her nindo. She was feeling endlessly sorry to her son, and wanted to apologize to Sakumo for being such an irresponsible mother and wife.
Her body shook a little after she received the attack, but rather than the physical pain, she was experiencing an incurable feeling of sadness, and tears came down her cheeks.
"P-please... don't let Sakumo hear about t-this until everything's done..." She knew Sakumo wouldn't be able to fight if he heard about her death.
After hearing the last words of her life savior, the kunoichi launched flawlessly towards the enemy shinobi and began to fight him.
By that time, Jiraiya had already reached the place where Sakumo was, and they were on their way to the Raikage Tower, with the help of Orochimaru's summon.
A/N:
Well, I hope that was worth the wait... if not... well... shippish smile It was mostly the war that made me struggle. It is very hard to write. And, Tomoko's dead... I think I foreshadowed that in the last chapter, right? Heh. Writing Orochimaru and Sakumo is fun. The next chapter will be updated... as soon as I'm done with it. Sorry! I'll make sure I don't take more than two months like this time...
Thanks, reviewers!