Ganryu found himself still waiting at the gates of the village hidden in the leaves, having finished not one but two smokes now, not being able to help but wonder what was taking so long.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." A voice suddenly said, as its owner appeared from behind the gate.
"Kakashi..." Ganryu said, recognizing who he was.
"You arrived here faster than we expected. So, it took us a little time to gather our forces." The silver-haired man said.
"Whatever just let me know when you are ready to move," Ganryu said, kicking himself up from the gate he had been leaning on with his foot.
"I can see that you have been waiting a while," Kakashi said, seeing that Ganryu had a short fuse already.
"Like I said, whatever." He said again, this time walking away as he was speaking.
"He sure is impatient," Kakashi said as he rubbed the back of his head, watching as he walked away.
"Time to move out then." He then said, not having to look behind him to know that his unit was ready.
Haku and the others had been waiting for a while for Ganryu to come back, wondering what was taking so long.
"Alright you sorry lot, get ready to move!" Ganryu's voice suddenly boomed, catching everyone's attention.
Everyone did as they were told, grabbing their belongings and preparing to move as they watched the Hidden Leaf's forces follow behind their commander.
"Alright, we will be making our way towards the land of waterfalls from here out. But, I need everyone to be on high alert, as the possibility of an enemy attack is extremely high." Ganryu said.
"I think it best if we have our forces divided into units and travel in a staggered formation. That way we will be less presentable to a large-scale attack or ambush." Kakashi suddenly spoke up, giving his input as the leader of the Leaf's forces.
"I agree," Ganryu said, turning to face Kakashi as he pulled a cigarette out of his pocket.
"Kogetsu, I'll leave it to you." He then said, lighting his fag and taking a large breath of smoke.
"Of course sir..." Kogetsu said, knowing that he simply could not be bothered to do it himself.
"Ok everyone, please form six-man teams, once done we will be heading out keeping a distance of 50 meters apart from each squad as we move in a staggered formation," Kogetsu said, giving the order.
Everyone nodded and started moving as they formed their own squads, Haku, Kimimaro, and Koyuki joined squads with Kujira and his squad as they prepared to move out.
Kakashi and Kogetsu could see that everyone was ready and soon gave the order to start moving, with Kakashi leading the first squad and Kogetsu not far behind.
Ganryū had chosen to remain closer to the back so he could keep an eye on the rear guard units, knowing that if they faced an attack from there, they would have the leadership to help keep them in formation.
"Let's move out!" Kakashi said, giving the order now that everyone was ready.
"Make sure your guard is up, there could be enemies anywhere," Kimimaro said, getting a nod from the others who had also put their guard up.
After all, the war had spread into all lands between the major nations, and units of enemy shinobi had been spread out across them, having orders to either gain intel or sabotage anything they could as a means of guerilla warfare.
It was also at least a full day's journey to the land of waterfalls with so many men, meaning they would have to be extra careful.
"How are you feeling now, Kujira? Have all of your wounds healed?" Haku asked after a while, making small talk with his classmate.
"That Zabuza guy really did a number on me... But I'm fine now, and raring to go!" Kujira said after a moment, flexing his bicep as the group jumped through the trees, making their way through the land of fire, following the other squads.
"Anyway what about you guys, rumour was that you were all doing some intense training while I was in the hospital." Kujira then asked, having heard the news from Chika.
"Yeah... You could say that." Haku said, not really saying anything else about it before he turned his attention back to his front.
Rokuro and Chika regularly visited the hospital to visit their teammate, Kujira. And even though Haku and the others had been receiving special training on Fuyōna's orders. He had also made sure to have the others do training of their own with their own sensei, making sure that he kept the next generation of the village hidden in the mist on top form.
"So how far is it until we reach the land of waterfalls?" Rokuro asked, being able to see the squad in front of them in the distance of the trees.
"It should only take a day at the rate we are moving, maybe even less," Haku said, having studied the maps of the land during his tracker ninja training.
"Pay attention to our surroundings rather than asking how long this will take." Kimimaro suddenly said.
"Don't forget, we are at war and the enemy could be anywhere." He then added, causing Rokuro to go quiet knowing he was right.
The others all agreed and paid their attention back to the journey, knowing that this wasn't just another stroll through the woods.
"Hey... Um, can anyone else see the squad that should be in front of us?" Rokuro suddenly asked, causing the others to stop, each landing on a different branch as their strained their eyes to try and see into the distance.
"Were we going too slow or something?" Chika then asked.
Kimimaro quickly stood up and pulled out a flare, and he shot it into the air.
"What the hell?" Rokuro asked.
"We are under attack!" Kimimaro then yelled, knowing that hopefully, his flare signal would alert the other squads to the danger.
"Look out!" Haku suddenly shouted as he threw a senbon needle, deflecting a kunai that was about to hit Rokuro in the back of the head.
"Attack!"
A sudden roar and battle cry could be heard coming from the darkness of the forest as enemy shinobi from the land of stone and cloud jumped out, each of them ready to attack.
"Shit, how did they manage to surround us so easily!" Kimimaro yelled, counting fifteen of them, already knowing that they were chunin level at the minimum.
A storm of kunai was launched towards the group from all angles, not giving them any time to react thanks to their ambush tactics.
"Ice style, ice dome!" Haku said as he quickly formed a large ice dome around everyone apart from Chika, who was standing a little too far away for him to reach.
The kunai simply bounced off of the ice dome, with its defences proving to be too great for mere kunai. However, Chika was hit from all angles, getting shredded by the metal projectiles before she dropped out of the tree towards the ground.
"Chika!" Kujira yelled, not understanding why she would be hurt by the kunai.
"Its alright, Kujira. She's fine." Haku said, already knowing her plan before he made a few more hand signs.
"Time to counterattack!" He then said as he clasp his hands together, finishing his jutsu.
"Ice style, one thousand needles of death." He said, allowing the ice dome to suddenly burst and scatter a thousand tiny needles of ice towards the enemy shinobi, taking them off guard.
"Look out!" One of them yelled as they did their best to either dodge or deflect the ice needles, with only those who had skill in combat being able to do so, while the others were ripped to shreds.
"Ice style!" One of them yelled, knowing that the ice was the jutsu of the famous Mizukage.
"Now!" Kimimaro yelled as he quickly disappeared from where he had been standing, alone with Haku and Koyuki. Each of them quickly pushed on the counterattack while the enemy was still trying to recover.
"Man, they are fast!" Rokuro said, not even having been able to react to the ambush.
"Take this!" Kimimaro yelled, having dashed over to five stone shinobi who had been able to deflect the ice needles.
"Don't let this brat get away!"
"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere!" Kimimaro shouted, allowing his bones to suddenly protrude from his skin, catching the shinobi off guard.
"What the hell is this freak!" One of them said before Kimimaro slit his throat with one of his bone blades, making light work of him.
"Why you!" Another of them shouted, lifting his sword before swinging it down with all of his strength.
However, Kimimaro was too fast and simply stepped to the side without altering his direction of movement, allowing him to dodge the attack as he made it look easy.
"Aghrr!" The man yelled as Kimimaro plunged his bone blade down through his shoulder, feeling it Peirce his heart, not stopping his advance as he left the bone blade in his body and carried on his assault towards the others.
"Time to finish the rest of you!"
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Alright, that is it for this chapter, first one of the year!
I know it has been a good while now since an update, and I do hope you all had a great new year!
Hopfully starting to speed up the flow of chapters now, so be ready for more soon!
As always have a great day!