( The Hunters )
"Now what the hell is he doing?" The Leader asks in mild anger. He doesn't like not knowing. Not one bit.
"Uh... taking his shirt off?" The Second supplies in confusion.
"Holy shit." The three of them say in unison.
They're seeing his scars. Not a single space on him is spared, he's covered in them.
"What's on his back?" The First is the first one to regain his composure. "Are those WHAT THE FUCK!"
Four black things rip themselves out of the targets back. Each one has a stark white mask and they all resemble hulking humanoid figures. Each monster stands well above the average human height and they look like the stuff of nightmares.
"What the fuck are those?!" The Second shouts.
"Quiet you two!" The Leader reprimands his team. "Don't alert him to our presence!"
"But what the fuck are those?!" The Second whisper shouts again.
"I don't know." The Leader admits. "But this is good. We know that he has them now and we can plan around it. This is why we wait and watch. It's so we know about these things."
"Right but are you sure we can take those things on?" The First asks. "It just went from us having the numbers advantage to him having it."
"We don't know what they are or what they're capable of yet." The Leader says to his team. "For all we know they could be incredibly weak. There has to be some weakness to them, some downside."
"Uh... I don't think they're weak." The Second points out to the clearing.
All four of the monsters that came out of someone's back are all doing the exact same thing. They're going around the clearing and throwing the boulders into one large pile. Each one is hefting up a boulder and tossing it across the clearing to join the rest. No longer is the clearing littered with boulders, now they're in one large mound.
"Okay. So each one of them is incredibly strong." The Leader admits. "But that's probably their only strength. They seem pretty slow, we can work around that. Just don't get hit."
"They're doing something now." The First calls out in warning.
Three of the monsters are joining together. They're becoming one mass of whatever the hell they're made of. But they aren't in the shape of a human anymore, they don't even resemble a human at all. Nor do they look like an animal. They look like a tripod, three strong black legs that dig into the ground for extra stability. On the top of each leg is one stark white mask, as if it's looking outwards in every possible angle.
Then something about it changes, it shifts again. Out of the top point of the tripod comes a long arm. No, an arm is the wrong word. It's a long spindly tentacle that splits four ways on the end. It's made to grab things.
"What the fuck is that?" The Leader whisper shouts to his team but he doesn't expect an answer. He's already forgotten why they are even here, he's captivated by the freak show going on before him.
His other teammates are the same way, they are rendered speechless.
Then the black monstrosity reaches its tentacle out and grabs a boulder off of the top of the heaping mound. Then it rears back and prepares to throw.
"It's... a catapult?" The Leader squeaks out in fear. "He made that thing into a catapult?"
But the Leader is only half right. Alvarcus and the other monster are standing on either side of the monstrosity, Alvarcus is holding the last sign for a jutsu and the other monster is breathing a coating of wind around the boulder. Then Alvarcus releases his jutsu and a white hot fire roars to life around the boulder. It's a flaming catapult.
The monstrosity heaves and the boulder sails high through the air never to be seen again.
"The base." The Second whispers in sudden realization. "The Kusa base is in that direction."
The monstrosity grabs another boulder that's quickly coated in wind and fire. It throws this one too. And the next. And the next. Over and over and over again. Boulders are flying through the air at an astonishing rate of one every second. It takes less than a minute for the stock of boulders to be used. All fifty of them.
All fifty were thrown at the base.
...
At the Base
"Got any... sixes?" One of the Kusa shinobi asks one of the other three players. They're all playing a game of cards while they have the chance.
"Nope!"
"Gah! You suc-"
BOOM
A heavy thud shakes the entire building and each shinobi leaps to their feet.
"That came from the Town Hall! What the fuck was tha-" This shinobi can't finish his sentence. In fact there's no one around left to hear him anyways. They've all just been crushed and incinerated by a flaming boulder that ripped through the entire building to squash them in the basement.
Only one shinobi in the room survived the unexpected impact. He doesn't waste time mourning the loss of his friends, not when the fucker who launched this jutsu is outside. He quickly jumps through the flaming hole in the wall to confront the soon to be dead man then freezes.
His arms fall slack to his sides as he's staring at the sky.
It's full of flaming boulders that are raining down on the outpost.
"So this is how I die." He says as he falls to his knees. He's one of many shinobi to share those words.
With Alvarcus
"There. That should do it." I say as the last boulder disappears into the sky.
~Yes, fifty may have been overkill.~
"I was told to send a message." I gaze at the rising pillar of black smoke on the horizon. "Consider it sent."
...
( the Hunters )
"We're leaving." The Leader orders. "Right fucking now!"
"That's fucking insane!" The Second says as everyone turns to run. "A base! An entire base just like that! Gone!"
"What if he did that to a village?" The First says in fear. "Could... could anyone stop that? Are we sure he's A-rank?"
"Fuck if I know! Now shut up and run!" The Leader demands as they flee from the monster. They're not talking about the black monsters but the monster who commands them.
...
( Konoha's Team )
"Kakashi." Anko says with a very serious tone as she's staring at the skyline.
"I see it too." Kakashi confirms. "There's smoke. Lots of smoke."
"Do we have a base over there?" Anko snarls out. "Otogakure is over in that direction, just further. It's on our border."
"No. We don't." Kakashi says. "But Kusa did."
"Does." Shikamaru cuts in. "Kusa does. We don't know if it's gone."
"Team Leader, what are your orders?" Kakashi asks Shikamaru. "This isn't part of our mission. It's nothing that we have to go investigate. We can walk right past it and no one will fault us."
"We're going to check it out." Shikamaru says with confidence. "They're our allies, the least we can do is make sure they're okay."
Kakashi smiles down at the chunin. That's the exact answer he wanted to hear.
"Kakashi you're on point." Shikamaru orders, he's still the leader. Kakashi hasn't taken over yet. "Naruto and Anko you two are next, Naruto on the left flank and Anko on the right. Ino and I will be coming up behind you both. We're running in a pentagon, Naruto and Anko will be further out on the sides than Ino and me."
"Why that set up?" Kakashi asks.
"You're the best one here, you'll be able to deal with any surprise threats quickly. Anko then Naruto are the next most skilled in a straight up fight, they'll deal with whoever gets past you or you leave for us. Then there's Ino and I in the back, we're supporters. We'll help whoever needs it but we can't help you if we're fighting our own battles."
"Solid reasoning." Kakashi praises the Nara.
"So we're expecting a fight?" Naruto asks eagerly. "It's been awhile since I was in a real fight."
"Yes." Shikamaru says. His lazy drawl is nowhere to be found. "We're going in with the mindset that we're going to be attacked, everyone be on high alert. Ino how's your sensing coming along?"
"It's getting there." She admits. "My range isn't that good, maybe twenty meters at my best. I only just started to work on it."
"Better than nothing. Keep a lookout for anything and everything." Shikamaru orders. "I don't like surprises."
"You got it!" Ino confidently responds.
"Let's move." Shikamaru orders and the five shinobi take to the trees.
...
if you want to read ahead of the public release you can join my p atreon :
p atreon.com/CarriePoppins