Deep within an ordinary, and desolate stretch of forest in the Land of Fire, one can hear the faint rustle of leaves, and the occasional thud of sandals hitting wood. Four shadows danced across the canopy, as flickers of green, and black darted from branch to branch in a swift, rhythmic pace.
Then as if on cue, the four blurs came to a sudden halt, revealing three young adult figures in standard chunin flak jackets, with pockets, and hidden compartments to store their weapons. The last shape, although much smaller in stature, and looked quite out of place, was no less deadly, as the boy wore simple black shirts with matching shorts. This was Ashira Nara, the youngest Konoha shinobi currently participating in the war, and the wielder of the newly discovered Kekkei Genkai, the Eight Shadows.
=Ashira's POV=
The moment my feet touched the wooden branch, I cut off the chakra to end my body flicker at the sight of the closed fist of my squad leader, hanging in the air. It's been a little bit over five years since that faithful day, or three months since I joined the battlefield, and I've learned to follow orders first, ask questions later, but still…
That guy up there with his raised fist, who's barely in his twenties with spiky brown hair, and a serious no nonsense face is Raizen Sarutobi, the eldest, and currently the only son of Hiruzen Sarutobi. So you could understand my hesitation, when I heard I'm being put in the same squad as him.
Don't get me wrong though, The dude is nice despite the perpetual frown that always donned his face. Raizen is very friendly once you get to know him, and he never held his status over anybody in our large platoon. Heck, I even occasionally saw him helping the newbie genins out with their menial duties.
But with me being a cynical ass, I've always felt a bit iffy on him. Raizen probably knew about it though, and he gave me some space for it. Nice guy overall, It's just his dad that I hate with a burning passion.
Next to Raizen, is a handsome man with what I liked to call a duckbutt styled black hair. The man looked ordinary overall if not a bit handsome with his arrogant smile, but If you look closely, you could see the small Uchiha's emblem sewn onto his right sleeve.
Another important figure in the village, at least political wise. Kaito Uchiha is the son of Kagami Uchiha, and the current heir apparent to Konoha's most famous, and powerful clan.
Despite being expected to join the police force right after he made Chunin, Kaito defied both his clan's expectations, and his parents' orders, opting to sign up for the war instead with his best friend, and fellow genin squad mate, Raizen Sarutobi.
Kaito looked at Raizen with a heavy frown, his knuckle tapped the wooden tree trunk that he's leaning on five times with two sudden taps right after a pause in the first three taps.
The code for "Enemy?", and Raizen knew it as he nodded, and looked back toward me. "No need, we can talk, They are 800 meters away, but just to be sure, Ashira."
The Sarutobi is a better long range sensor—at least when I don't have my dogs out—than me with his range extended to being up to a kilometer in radius.
Mine on the other hand had stalled at the 200 meters mark from the original 100 feets, or roughly 30 meters. Father said that it's the common limitation for most Uzumaki who didn't inherit the Kagura's mind eye.
I still could push it more of course. To increase my sensing range through training, but with my limited time, I didn't bother with it. Seemed redundant since I got my Shikigami for long range sensing. Plus even with better sensing range, my chakra is still not enough for rapid teleportation that far away.
I nodded at him, before I formed the sign for the divine dog. The familiar shape of Salt, and Pepper rose from the liquid shadow onto the large tree branch as I requested my loyal companions for help.
The two nodded, as I felt a ping in return
'One mild danger, three little dangers, fifteen harmless. Attack?'
Shaking my head, I turned toward Raizen and said. "One Chunin, three genins, with fifteen civilians all 800 meters away. Besides that, there is nothing around us for three kilometers."
"Not an ambush then." Raizen sighed in relief before he turned toward the last of our group, a black bob cut hair man with distinctive ringed red eyes. Shinku Yūhi is the third and last member in our squad. He's also the genin squad mate of the other two, with their sensei being Torifu Akimichi. Which kinda made me the third wheel now that I think about it…
"Can you put the shinobies under a genjutsu?"
Shinku took a moment to think, before he nodded. "I should be able to if they're grouped up."
"Good, then we'll use the leaves amongst a field of rabbits strat."
____________________________
=Grunt B's POV=
Today was a good day for Baku, he woke up this morning with a damp, albeit used pussy wrapping around his dick.
The girl was alright to be honest… She had a plain face with short black hair, but it was her tits that did it for him. Her tits were the size of two large watermelons, and they were very comfortable to hold.
She was some merchant 's wife that they took after killing and robbing a medium convoy with around a dozen ronins guarding them.
Usually it would be unthinkable for ordinary bandits like them to attack armed soldiers, let alone ronins, or samurais. Those fuckers may not be ninjas, but they still know how to use chakra to strengthen their body. Chakra reinforcement he believed it was called
But the wars, although made things much more dangerous for most, also gave their own group of bandits a lot more opportunities.
Baku thought it a curse, at first, to have met those defected ninjas. They came two years ago, three kids, and one adult running from the Hidden Rain village, trying to avoid the war or something, Baku could not careless.
They took one look at his old boss, a one eyed giant of a man holding a hatchet, before one of the kids wearing a gas mask, the boy not even reaching his waist, threw one of those small metal needles that ninja like to use so much right between the giant man's forehead, making his eyes roll back before his entire body fell down to the ground.
The adult man then declared that they were his now, and their life, and death were his to decide. Baku thought that was it then, that he was going to be used as a human shield, dying just to block a jutsu or two.
If only he knew how wrong he was. The adult man, who called himself Lung—most likely a fake name—contrary to expectation, did not throw them away. No, instead Lung taught them how to fight, how to wield a weapon, how to set up traps, and ambush. He taught them to think.
From then on, their own ragtag group of bandits no longer just target lone merchants. No, they took to target small, to medium groups of merchant convoys. Sometimes those groups were even guarded by ninjas. Never one of the five major villages ninja though, especially not the leaf ninjas.
And after less than two years of work, each of them had made enough coins to actually put this bandit's life behind them. No one did though, including Baku. Why would they? When they have made so much coins, and fucked so many merchants' daughters and wives.
The woman beside him stirred open, her eyes lifeless as she looked meekly toward him, her hands shaking, as her body tried, and failed to pull away from his.
"Why the gloomy face? Surely I was a better fuck than that dead, fat pig, you called a husband no?"
He grinned, at how the lifeless woman's expression shifted to rage, her teeth gnarled as she reached out her trembling hand toward his neck.
"Do it, end my life now, and your daughter will die alongside you."
Baku grinned wider at the woman's surprised expression. He pulled her closer, her ample breast mushing against his muscular chest.
"If you obey, be a good little whore, and spread your legs when I tell you to. I'll convince the shinobi sama fucking your daughter to let her live." He whispered, his putrid breath assaulting the woman's nose. But the woman didn't flinch. No, the woman for the first time in days saw hope.
He smiled at that. It was all horseshit of course. The boy fucking her daughter right now is a sadistic fuck. He reckoned the girl wouldn't last more than a week with him, and ain't that a damn shame too, the girl was quite cute.
Baku, even though he was pretty high up in the hierarchy, could never demand anything of the shinobi boy.
No, he only said this because he enjoyed it. The feeling of giving someone hope, before taking it away while watching despairs marring their expression. It made him feel strong, and powerful.
Some might call him a monster for that, but he cared not. He'd rather be a well fed, and well fucked monster than an honest, but powerless man.
Baku fucked the two more times after that, as he enjoyed her now much more eager ministration as she tried her best to pleasure him. All good times had to come to an end though, before he was called out of his tent by Nori, his fellow bandit, due to a commotion.
Reaching the edge of their camps, Baku spotted his four bosses, standing with their arms crossed, overlooking a sea of white uh… white rabbits apparently.
From afar, Baku could see around a dozen of his men, chasing, and trying to catch a few rabbits for stews themself.
"Baku was it?" One of the boy shinobi, Shark he called himself, Baku believed?
"Yes Shark sama, how can this lowly Baku serve you today?" He said, as Baku bowed low with respect.
"You've lived on this land the longest, and you were an ex hunter correct?" Lung cut off the boy, as he looked into his eyes. Baku saw something in the cold man's killer gaze but he couldn't tell, paranoia perhaps? No that's not right, it's fear, Baku thought.
But that's ridiculous… Baku had seen the man cut down ten armed men with a single swing of his sword, he had seen the man spit out a water stream the size of a full grown cow, and ten times as long. He had seen that same water stream swallow half a hundred men, and destroy ten thick trees after.
Lung is a monster, and not the same kind of monster that Baku was. No, he's an emotionless weapon of mass destruction, and a true bona fide monster. So how could a man like that feel fear?
Baku disregarded the absurd notion before he answered, his head still bowed low. "Yes Lung sama, I was a hunter before my village was destroyed in the fighting between the leaf, and the sand five years ago."
Lung nodded at that before he turned toward the field of rabbit. "Then tell me this, Baku. Are white rabbits common here, this time of the year?"
Baku took a moment to think, before he answered. "No Lung sama, one or two, maybe. But this many of them? There must be at least a hundred here."
"I see." His boss mumbled, before Lung ordered out loud toward one of his men in the field to catch a rabbit.
Less than half a minute later, a lanky man with a crooked grin, missing his two front teeth came running. Ranu smiled a greasy smile as he lifted a white rabbit with a pair of mesmerizing ringed red eyes.
There's something about those eyes that Baku couldn't quite place. Perhaps it's how human those eyes look, or how unique those ringed red orbs are, but Baku felt like he was in a trance.
It made Baku feel like everything was meaningless in front of those red eyes. From the dead bodies of his comrades, to the melting white rabbits in the distance, to the blade being impaled through Lung's lun—Wait huh? Lung's dead?
Baku's eyes widened as he let out a scream, and fell on his ass.
"Hoh, you actually broke out of my genjutsu?" A cold emotionless voice echoed in his ears before he looked up to the sight of an ordinary leaf shinobi. No, not ordinary, at least not everything was ordinary.
Those ringed red eyes, the same one on that rabbit, stared back hauntingly at him. No, those eyes are anything but ordinary, those are the eyes of a demon.
Baku then felt a sharp pain on his neck, before he saw everything around him getting taller.
'Wait it's me who's getting shorter' Baku thought, before Darkness slowly filled his eyes, as he looked toward the sight of a small black haired child dancing and weaving around five of the bandits, before simply walking. The bandits that ran past the child all got their neck split open as blood spurted out in a fountain before collapsing like puppets having their strings cut.
'So there are greater monsters than Lung after all' Was Baki's last thought before death took him.
____________________________
=Ashira's POV=
'It's messy, it's just so messy.' I thought while holding the body of a brutalized young girl, and carrying her toward the gathering of the last group of survivors/victims of the bandit's lair.
I like fighting. I mean at some point, even I got to admit this. I'm a battle junkie. There's just something special, or euphoric about the feeling of chakra filling your veins, as you dance around kunais, and jutsus before clashing blades with your enemies.
I liked it even more when the enemy I'm going up against was powerful. They made me feel validated, like my potential was not being wasted. And that I'm visibly growing each time I overcome an obstacle.
I first felt this when I was fighting against Dai. I was scared, yes but after Kushina was safe away on Nue, I started to enjoy myself. That feeling of outwitting a powerful enemy, the rage from being looked down, and the satisfaction from seeing them fall, all that, and more made fighting so much fun.
So when I learned that I was going to war, part of me was happy. I was angry, yes. I was angry because I was forced to, I was angry because I had to see the clan, and my parents so powerless in the face of the Hokage. I was angry because Hiruzen had hurt those I loved. But a small part of me, the part that I hid from most of my loved ones—Except Hanabei, the dude read me like a book—was excited.
I wanted it, I wanted the challenge, I wanted the opponents, the opportunities to grow. I wanted to be respected like Hashirama, to be feared like Madara, and the war gave me all of that, and more on a silver platter. I just didn't realize how much more it has to give.
Sighing lightly, I heard a woman scream, as one of the survivors, upon seeing me, ran past Shinku toward my direction.
The woman in her thirties wailed once she stood in front of me. Her trembling hands reached out to the corpse of who's probably her daughter, snobs, and tears dropped down from her eyes, and nose.
"I'm sorry. She was already gone by the time I got to her." I softly whispered. My arms gently placed the corpse into the woman's bosom. She held onto it and sobbed quietly. "Where would you like me to bury her?"
I asked, which seemed to trigger something primal in her, something wrathful, as her face turned raw and red with emotions. "YOU!" She spitted, venoms in her voice. "You were too late! You ninjas are all the same, always too late, always come, destroy, kill, take, then leave like you're kings of the world"
I stayed silent, my gaze filled with deep sorrow as I took the woman's verbal abuse, her spit, and saliva occasionally hitting my skin. Though that might have been the wrong thing to do, because the woman reached back, and pulled out a broken kunai.
My brows raised a little, but I didn't react. Nothing this woman does can hurt me. At least that's what I thought until I saw the kunai heading toward the her own throat.
"What the hell are you doing?" I screamed, disregarding my bleeding palm that held onto the kunai.
I felt the woman's free hand slap my face as she yelled, her eyes filled with manic hysteria. "You won't let us live, you won't let us die either. What the fuck do you want from us DEMON!"
My anger wavered at that, but before I could answer her, I saw Shinku's blade impaling the woman's heart. Her eyes turned dulled, and lifeless.
"What the hell was that, Bastard?" I yelled, standing up, and grabbing Shinku's shirt collar.
"Ending her suffering." The red eyed man said stoically, as if stating the obvious, before his gaze hardened. "I've been in this war five years longer than you kid, I've seen hundreds of scenes like this already. You may think that it's better for her to live. But she's already broken. And believe me, a broken soul is something that not even Lady Tsunade could mend. Besides, she'll only be a burden to other people"
My hands shook at his words, as I pushed him away.
"What the hell is going on here?" Came Raizen's stern voice, as he sunshined right between us, intending on deescalating the situation.
"Nothing, we just had a bit of a disagreement." Said Shinku succinctly, his hands reached up to adjust his collars.
Nodding to agree with his statement, I bowed toward the red eyed man. "Sorry Shinku."
He waved dismissively, as he walked away. "Don't worry about it kid."
'Tch, acting cool and shit. At least accept my apology, you bastard.' I thought, as I turned toward my squad leader. "Our job is done right? Can I bury these two?"
Raizen nodded, as the man looked at me with a hint of pity. I hated that look. "Sure, then we can give the women some supplies, and send them on their way. The nearest village is only two days away."
I nodded before my shadow swallowed the corpses as I walked toward the hill in the distance.
____________________________
After burying the mother's and daughter pair. Our squad gathered in front of the dozen women, before Raizen spoke out. "You are all free now. You all should head to the North East. The nearest village is two days away on foot in that direction . We'll give you enough food, and water plus a map for your journey there."
A pale skin, sharp faced woman with plump red lips raised her hand meekly.
"Please." Gestured Raizen.
The woman nodded gratefully before she spoke up. "Can you escort us there? We are frail and vulnerable women, most of us. We'll be dead or worse if something happens on the way."
Raizen shook his head in regret before he spoke up. "We can't, I'm sorry. We have a convoy to get back to. We're only scouts, sent ahead to clear out bandits, and look for potential am—."
I interrupted the man as I spoke up. I'm sure he wouldn't mind. "Uh, actually you don't have to worry about that." Before flashing my handsign to summon my dogs.
Shadow liquid rose from the ground as the familiar shape of Salt and Pepper started forming. Only this time, it's not the old Salt and Pepper that formed, but a large horse sized pair of wolves, with a horn on each of their heads.
It was five years ago that I first ran into a problem with my shikigami. After that fight with Dai, I realized that if someone's skill, and raw stats far outweigh my own summons, I couldn't possibly send them to directly engage with the enemy, lest I risk their death.
So with me being the stubborn bastard that I am, I focused almost all my attention on finding ways to strengthen my babies to no avail. It was only later when Hanabei had to pull me out of the training ground, and forced me to relax that I kinda figured it out.
You see, strengthening my shikigami is like painting in a way. It just doesn't work if all you do is splash inks on the canvas, you have to have a clear picture of what you were trying to paint. So instead of just mindlessly sending more of my chakra toward the shikigami I'm summoning, I had to imagine the newly strengthened shikigami.
Like what aspects am I changing, what features am I adding? What abilities am I strengthening? And what I got in return were this big hunk of pure muscles and power standing right next to me, and so much more. The new divine dogs were not only stronger, and faster, they could also shadow liquify more of their bodies at the same time.
You see, before, Salt and Pepper could only liquify half of their total body's area. Now though, these boys could turn 2/3rd of their body into liquid shadows. The only bitch of it is that they need even more chakra to summon, but none to maintain their summons.
The other shikigamis besides getting larger, or and a more increased stats, could also have their techniques strengthened. Except Kermit though… I'm still lacking the image to strengthen his technique. I'll figure it out eventually I'm sure.
The women gasped, and yelped at the sudden appearance of my horse-sized wolves. Some even retreated a few steps in fright. I smiled wryly at the sight, before I petted my two adorable balls of fluffs, and muscles.
"Don't worry, these two are good boys." I reassured them, before turning to my shikigami, and baby-talked to them, as I rubbed their fur. "Aren't you? Aren't you good lil boys? Yes you are, yes you are my little wittle babies"
That seemed to do the trick, as they relaxed at the sight of my giant babies wagging their tail, while leaning into my touch. Some even advanced, and started petting my dogs.
"These babies can hold their own against even a Jonin so you all should be safe, especially when you're further into the land of fire. Plus most of the squads before us should have already cleared out all the bandits." I gently reassured them, and smiled my most charming smile. Too bad I'm only eleven and most women only see me as an adorable, albeit deadly child soldier.
"Thank you." I didn't know who said that, nor who started it. But before I could even say a word in reply. The entire group of survivors were bowing to me.
'Well At least I did something good today.' I thought, while scratching my head in slight embarrassment.
____________________________
Flying on the back of a pick-up truck sized Nue, I looked toward the mountains in the distance, and started pulling out my kits from my shadow.
"You gonna paint now?" Kaito's curious voice rang right next to me. His words were a bit muffled by the wind.
"Good chakra exercise. Plus it helps me relax." I yelled back, as I held my 8 by 10 inches sketchbook, before sending out chakra to my fingers.
The book which laid on the palm of my hands, and looked as if it was gonna be blown away by the wind, did not budge from my chakra sticking. Satisfied, I dipped my brush into the ink bottle that was also stuck to my inner thighs.
"Are you sure about sending your dogs to escort them?" Kaito asked, his tone a bit judgy.
Jeez, a lot of questions today huh? Also kinda rude… it's my power, plus my chakra is already two thirds of the way full from the last two hours of doing basically nothing but flying on Nue, even if it's still constantly being drained by the wolves being too far away. And it's not like I couldn't just unsummon them back when I needed them.
"It's fine. I'll unsummon them if something pops up." Can't tell that straight to his face though, so I just reassured him instead.
"Well you might want to do it now, cause something is definitely popping up." Raizen interrupted our conversation as he pointed toward the same direction as where our convoy was, drawing all our attention to the sight of flashing lights, and dirt, trees, and debris being blown up in the far distance.
"Kaito, can your sharingans see them from here?" Shinku spoke up for the first time in the past two hours.
"Can't man… I'm not like those white eyed bastards. The Sharingans do enhance our vision, but they do not give us hawk eyes." Kaito shook his head. His eyes turned red with three tomoes spinning inside them to check just in case.
"No need, it's Suna-nins. Hundreds of Suna-nins in fact." I said, as I closed my eyes, and focused on the images sent by Nue's hawk-like eyes.
"That many, what the hell are they doing this deep in our land?" Mumbled a disbelief Kaito.
"Something must have happened on the frontline." Said a troubled Shinku
"Impossible, I heard Sakumo sama is there." I shook my head, disregarding such an absurd notion as Sakumo losing or dying. The dude lives until right before the third war starts if I'm not mistaken.
"Only one way to find out." Raizen said, clapping his hand to snap us out of our speculations before he looked toward me. "And desummon your dogs Ashira."
"Already done it." I replied instantly. As much as I would like to be a good person, I was not risking my life for random women, even if those women were innocent victims of this messed up world.
AN: Not edited yet, will do that tmrw. Also alot of yall have mixed opinions on Hiruzen huh… well Let's just say that when a man is too obsessed with something, he could do many stupid things just to achieve his goal. Hiruzen, well at least my version of Hiruzen is like that (Seriously, I tagged Naruto AU for a reason…). He isn't inherently bad per se. He's just really wants to create a village that his sensei envisioned. Danzo knows this and is draining the man dry for it.