"You can smell the blood from here," said a chunin with us, her face grim.
"Calm down, the second part of the plan hasn't even started yet," I retorted to the woman who was barely managing to instill fear.
We were on a flank surrounding the enemy camp. There were seven of us: a jonin, three chunin, and three genin. Not far away was another group, and so on.
This plan seemed promising, but plans always work at first, and then everything falls apart.
At that moment, an explosion was heard in the enemy camp. The battle had begun.
"The enemy is approaching at full speed," said the chunin, who possessed some sensory abilities.
I quickly created a few explosive clones to use the Earth Concealment Jutsu like moles.
An explosion snapped me out of my thoughts. The traps we had set for the enemy had been triggered.
At that moment, multiple rocks flew in our direction, scattering us.
I saw several Iwa ninjas heading our way, and I cursed. Either all the ninjas from the camp were coming towards us, or there were far more enemies than expected.
In the middle of their formation, my explosive clone emerged from the ground and exploded, separating and badly injuring several Iwa ninjas.
I know, spread out a little further from all of them, only for an enemy ninja of Chūnin rank to appear, if my vision of his vest wasn't deceiving me.
I saw him perform the hand seals at high speed; I quickly imitated him, but not the same jutsu.
"Earth Release: Rock Gun Jutsu," he said, firing several pieces of earth at high speed from his mouth.
"Water Release: Water Bullet Jutsu," I said, intercepting his attack with my water jutsu, creating a stalemate.
This did not last long, as an explosive clone emerged from the ground next to him, which immediately exploded, severely damaging his right side.
Without wasting any time, I threw several shuriken at his position. It seemed I had hit him until he transformed into a log, proving he had successfully performed the substitution.
Sensing danger, I turned to dodge a sword attack with a kunai. I saw that the explosion had indeed damaged his body, rendering one arm unusable, so he couldn't use elemental jutsu.
I needed to immobilize him, so I used a water jutsu.
"Water Release: Wave Crash Jutsu," I said, generating a large amount of water that enveloped him but only left him wet, which was all I needed. So before all the water could dissipate, I drew the Thunder God Sword and electrocuted all the water and, by default, the enemy ninja.
I could hear his cry of pain and realized he was electrocuted, so without wasting a second, I drew a kunai with three explosive tags and threw it at him.
The enemy ninja, paralyzed, couldn't perform any jutsu, so he could only take the attack, dying instantly from the multiple explosions.
It's worth mentioning that this fight lasted less than 40 seconds; it all happened very quickly, and if it hadn't, Iwanin probably would have killed me.
Ignoring the fact that I had just killed someone—since if I don't see it, it doesn't exist—I used the Earth Concealment Technique like a mole.
As I moved, I sensed the battlefield around me; I quickly peeked out to see what was happening. I saw two of my comrades fighting a jōnin, and one of them was seriously injured.
I saw several partially burned bodies. Most likely from the explosive clones; I saw that they were just ordinary genin, which explains why they were so easily taken in by the jutsu without being able to do much.
I created a shadow clone to help heal the injured comrade and continued searching for Kosuke and Minato.
I managed to find Kosuke, who had several wounds on his body; there was a genin and a chunin lying dead on the ground, and he was currently fighting a jonin.
I could hear more fighting in the distance, but I couldn't pay much attention to it, as I saw the jonin about to bury a kunai in Kosuke's neck.
Without thinking, I emerged from behind Kosuke, grabbed him by the collar, and forced him to bend backward, Matrix-style, causing the enemy's attack to miss.
Then, I launched myself completely out of the ground to deliver a powerful blow to the jonin, something he hadn't seen coming, but he managed to react in time, covering himself with his arms to cushion the impact.
Because I was in a bad position to strike, the damage I did wasn't much, but I managed to knock him back, sending him slamming against the wall.
"Well done, brat. You caught me off guard, but it won't happen again," he said as he stood up with a smile that was both threatening and furious.
I was tending to Kosuke's wounds; I could see he was extremely tired. I also noticed that his Sharingan had gone from one tomoe to two. Something that wouldn't help right now.
At that moment, multiple shuriken flew toward our enemy. He simply jumped out of the way, dodging the attack.
I looked to see who the attacker was and saw Minato with several wounds on his body.
"It can't be; you defeated Taro!" exclaimed the Earthrealm ninja, sounding surprised and extremely angry at the same time.
There was no time for nonsense. I quickly created two explosive clones and threw them at the enemy.
The enemy destroyed one of them, causing it to explode, only to see him at a safe distance, but with his clothes a little more singed.
Minato, using the Body Flicker Technique—something I was annoyed he managed to learn before me—appeared in front of the enemy, locked in close combat.
Leaping at incredible speed, I reached the other side to help Minato, but the opponent performed three hand seals and landed.
"Earth Release: Earth and Stone Spikes," he said, and multiple earth spears erupted from the ground, injuring both Minato and me.
He tried to attack again but had to dodge a fireball coming his way.
At that moment, the other explosive clone appeared behind him, exploding and launching him forward.
While this was happening, I threw the Thunder God Sword to Minato, which he caught, and immediately performed the hand seals to vanish and reappear in front of the jonin Iwa.
In the blink of an eye, Minato had already sliced the enemy's torso, but that wasn't enough to defeat him.
From behind, I launched the Water Bullet Jutsu, which sent him crashing into a tree.
Minato, using his sword, unleashed an electrified blast, momentarily paralyzing the jonin, only for Kosuke to appear and hurl a massive fireball, incinerating him instantly.
When we saw the enemy jonin's charred body, we relaxed. The moment we realized we could no longer hear the sounds of battle, we collapsed to the ground to catch our breath.
At that moment, I remembered everything that had happened, and suddenly, I felt everything in my stomach rise up my throat to my mouth, and I began to vomit the next instant.
Seeing me do this, Minato followed suit, and then Kosuke did the same.
After that, silence followed.
"This sword is very useful," Minato remarked, still holding the God Sword Treuno.
"Well, I don't plan on giving it to you, so don't get used to it," I said, trying to sound arrogant, but exhaustion and the bile in my mouth wouldn't allow it.
...
In the end, of the seven of us, five survived, with the jonin in charge of the group and a chunin dying.
The rest of us fared fairly well, except for the woman, who lost an eye, but those are minor details.
Another thing I discovered is that the jonin we fought had killed ours, and he was already somewhat exhausted and wounded when he came to fight us; hence, it was easier than it should have been to defeat him.
And that Minato managed to defeat a special jonin single-handedly. All I know is that he did it with three kunai, two explosive tags, and a lot of determination. I expected nothing less from the future Fourth Hokage.
After a moment to lick our wounds, we all regrouped at a prearranged location.
I had won this battle; we had rescued the hostages, with several casualties, but the important thing was that crucial information from Konoha hadn't leaked to Iwa. The dead were buried in a secondary lake, however unethical it might be, but for a ninja, ethics should be fragile.
Some enemies escaped, but that was expected; all that remained was to wait for the consequences.
They didn't ask for all the bodies to be brought into a mass grave. We removed everything that might be important, like ninja tools or scrolls, and threw them into the pit, where we cremated them to prevent any kind of epidemic or anything like that.
...
In the end, we spent another month at the border. Jiraiya was barely with us; since he was from the Hokage's office, he was the most trusted man the monkey had, so he was constantly on missions, moving from one place to another.
To maintain communication during this time, he gave Minato the toad summoning contract. Kosuke and I declined the offer; I had Katsuyu, while Kosuke had one that was part of his family.
During this time, I was assigned to be a medical ninja, since they were short of them, while Minato and Kosuke moved between border posts with other ninja, passing supplies and information.
We haven't fought in a battle like the one on the first day since; all of those have taken place in the Land of Rain.
And there's a reason for that.
It turns out that when these clashes began, they took place within the Land of Rain, but on its borders, something Hanzo disliked. Therefore, he declared war on all the surrounding lands, including the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind, and the Land of Earth.
In response, the three great nations used the Land of Rain as their battleground.
Basically, Hanzo was furious and did something foolish, causing the war to spill from the borders of his homeland into his own territory.
This event can be considered the beginning of the Second Great Ninja War, and all of this happened in just one month.
...
While I was taking a break from tending to every jerk—I don't know where they get hurt; maybe they do it on purpose.
"Hey, kid, you look really tired," I heard a familiar voice say.
I turned around to look at a woman I know very well.
"That's right, woman, these guys keep getting hurt; I even have to treat them when they scrape a finger," I told my mother.
We have that kind of relationship, where when she calls me kid, I call her woman, and vice versa.
Looking to her side, I noticed Uncle Snake; next to him was his genin group, including Nakawi.
"What's up, Uncle Snake, Nawaki, and the rest?" I said to the four of them.
"Your tongue is as sharp as ever," Uncle Snake complimented me; I just smiled at him.
While I was talking to Nawaki about how the past few days had been and about Grandma Mito's funeral, my mother informed me that we would be sent back to the village, at least to rest for a while, but I had to wait for my comrades, who were currently on a mission.
I spent time with Tsunade reviewing some things and discussing the situation in the medical area, while Uncle Snake and I brainstormed research ideas—just random thoughts, nothing that would revolutionize the world. After all, in my past life I was a biologist and a researcher with a doctorate, so I still have my scientific instincts attached to me.
After two days, my comrades finally arrived; they were happy that we could finally leave, but there was another problem. We couldn't leave without our jonin-sensei, or at least not alone. So we had to wait for a platoon to return to the Hidden Leaf Village. Luckily, a group was going to do just that the next day. So we didn't have to wait long to return home.
--------------------------------------------------------
I feel sick, and I have a test tomorrow, plus I have to take my brother to the doctor tomorrow, and only I can do it, so I'll rest tomorrow and won't write anything. So most likely the next chapter will be on Sunday, not Saturday.