Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_204

Anko dumped Takuma and the kunoichi at the location away from the battle where the iryo-nin were treating the injured. She said a few words to him about being careful before dashing away back into the battlefield. Takuma watched her disappear into the pit of danger. He glanced up at the sky. The sun was now clearly visible over the pit walls, pouring down ample light into a hole in the earth, illuminating everything clearly.

The iryo-nin had their hands full, and after doing a quick visual check on him to judge that he could wait for a moment, they left him alone and went back to more critically injured.

In the waiting time, Takuma unzipped his flak jacket, pulled off his shirt, and chainmail undershirt to bare his torso. He looked down. His chest was littered with red blotches, and his abdomen was covered in black-and-blue spots. The man did a number on him. His lungs burned; every breath hurt. His mouth was overflowing with the taste of blood and iron.

After a few minutes, a middle-aged iryo-nin with thinning hair arrived beside Takuma and began patching up on him up. When he saw Takuma had removed his clothes, he paused for a moment, seeing the scars, but then praised Takuma while he made himself busy.

“Good, very good,” said the iryo-nin, touching and pressing Takuma’s torso with his fingers and palm, causing Takuma to hiss. “Okay, this is not bad; we can work with this. You will be fine; don’t worry,” the iryo-nin spoke comforting words, thinking Takuma was panicking.

The iryo-nin’s hands began to glow green above Takuma’s abdomen. A sharp, burning pain clutched Takuma’s body before a hot comfort made him slack and relax. It was a feeling very similar to a high fever. Takuma took out his water canteen and drank in small sips as the iryo-nin fixed the damage.

“I think my ribs are cracked,” said Takuma.

The iryo-nin wordlessly nodded and moved one of his hands to Takuma’s chest. There wasn’t instant relief, but he did feel a pressure removed.

He lay there looking at the sky, listening to the explosions, the clash of metal, the screams and shouts. The smell of smoke lingered on his nose, and his skin prickled from the oversaturation of chakra in the environment from several dozen shinobi pumping chakra into the surroundings.

After a few minutes, the iryo-nin removed his from Takuma and bandaged some knicks and cuts. “This is good enough for now. Rest here for—Hey! What are you doing!?”

Takuma got up and started to put his gear back on. “You said this is enough; I feel this is good enough. I’m going back out,” he said, putting on his chainmail undershirt.

The faster the battle ended, the lesser the causalities. There was also the fact that if people just retired after injuries, their side would weaken. They needed more bodies out there doing the work. He wasn’t arrogant enough to think he alone could change the tide of battle. Only the jonin from either side had the actual power to do that—but if he could kill one more, take two more out of the battle, injure three others—he would’ve done enough.

Takuma zipped his flak jacket. He looked behind at the iryo-nin, who didn’t stop him. It was solely his decision to go back into the battle. He then looked at the kunoichi. She was lying down, still getting treated; her bandages were more blood than his. She raised he hand and shot him a thumbs-up. Takuma laughed and shot her a nod before jumping down into the pit.

———

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Kameko couldn’t catch her breath. Her legs felt as though someone had injected lead into her muscles. Her arms and shoulders were the same, but she couldn’t lower her sword because danger was everywhere. She looked down at her hands, they were bathed in red. Kameko couldn’t see her face, but she was sure it was spattered with blood as well. She knew her hair and back were drenched in blood—she was pushed down to the ground, and she ended up landing in the pool of blood beside a body.

Too many people had died, both ally and enemy.

She saw two enemies cornering someone she had around the camp. She was tired, but she gripped her sword and got ready to move forward to assist.

“Hey, Kameko. Listen…”

Kameko turned to her back in a flash with her sword ready to cut her enemy down. She came to a sudden still when she saw Takuma behind her, looking worse for wear.

“C’mon, I need your help,” he said quickly before turning away, expecting her to follow.

Kameko turned away from Takuma to look at the man she was about to help, only to find him dead on the ground with the two enemies absent. She stared at the dead body for a moment, her mind blank, without any thoughts. The man had been alive just a few moments ago, and she had just turned her attention away for not even half a minute, and he was dead…

“Kameko!”

She was snapped out of her stupor by Takuma’s voice. Without giving it any thought, she turned away and followed him. She was too tired to think about anything else. Kameko turned her eyes to Takuma, who was moving through the battlefield, his destination unknown. Her eyes shot toward any movement or sound near her; there was too much adrenaline coursing through her body.

She took deep breaths to calm herself down. It wasn’t good for her to be this prickly.

‘Control… you’re in control,’ she repeated to herself.

Kameko brought herself down and found the composure to return to her. She eased her grip slightly until it was comfortable, and even though she felt her exhaustion rise, she felt better.

She turned her attention to Takuma, wanting to ask what he wanted to do, and noticed him talking to a chunin from Toridasu’s ranks. She listened to their conversation and was shocked to hear the contents.

“I’m going to attack their iryo-nin at the medical station. I need some help,” Takuma said to the chunin, shouting as the surroundings were too loud.

“What?” Kameko was shocked. She stepped forward and grabbed his shoulder. “What are you talking about?”

The chunin had a thoughtful expression. He asked, “Do you know the location?”

Takuma nodded. “They have set up inside a mine—just near the entrance. It’s a bit troublesome location-wise, but I think it’s doable. What do you say?”

The chunin nodded. “What do you need?”

“Get two or three genin, and meet me there.” Takuma pointed at a point on the pit wall that was cut into steps for easier access to the mines in the walls.

He turned to her and shouted, “Let’s go get Anko! We have to be quick!”

Kameko wasn’t able to say anything as Takuma dashed away. She hurried after him, the gears in her mind turning at Takuma’s plan. She couldn’t believe Takuma was developing a plan on his own in the middle of a bloody battle. Not to mention, he had managed to convince a chunin—and some people would even say that he had ordered the chunin to do his bidding.

“Anko!” Takuma yelled. His chakra-modulated voice pierced through the noise and reached their team leader, who was pouring a burst of fire on a group of enemies. She looked at them after her ninjutsu was over and reached with a single high jump.

“You’re already back. Very good,” Anko said with a nod of praise.

“We are going to attack the enemy’s iryo-nin. Chunin Ito has agreed to join with a couple of genin of his choice. I think with us, we can do enough damage if not outright take out their healing capabilities,” said Takuma.

There was a moment of silence from Anko, where she stared at Takuma before her quick agreement came. “Let’s get a move on then,” she nodded.

With Takuma in the lead, Takuma led Kameko and Anko to the meeting location. They were there first. Takuma took out some of his kunai and quickly began tying explosion tags on the rings.

“Make more,” he said to Kameko.

Kameko followed his lead and tied some tags to her kunai. By the time she was done, Chunin Ito arrived with three genin; they were all from Chunin Ito’s genin. As far as Kameko knew, Ito and Anko didn’t have much interaction with each other—but she had seen them exchange nods on the streets, so she knew that they weren’t adversarial to each other.

‘Did he think about that when he chose him?’ Kameko wondered as he looked at Takuma.

“It’s your idea; you lead it,” Anko said to Takuma. She gave Ito a look, saying that she didn’t want any resistance from him.

Ito gave Takuma a nod. “We’re fine with that,” he said.

Takuma didn’t hesitate as he asked everyone to huddle. He wasted no time to rapid-fire his plan to the gathered people.

“There are guards in front of the mine. They need to be drawn away; the two chunin are going to do that. You two will start alone, and we will move in only when the guards are occupied. The point is to overwhelm them. When they see us appear after a moment, they will try to hastily re-adjust—that will be the window for some of us to slip in.

“When inside, don’t care about anything else; just cause as much damage as possible.” Takuma held up a kunai with an explosion tag. “Chuck them in before you attempt any ninjutsu. Don’t try to ration your tags. If you want more, scavenge later.”

Kameko felt a cold in her heart at Takuma’s suggestion of pulling tags from the bodies of their enemy… and their allies. But she stiffy nodded when he looked at her.

As everyone got ready to move out, Takuma addressed the team one final time. He said, “If something unexpected happens. Remember: Improvise— Adjust—Overcome. Now, let’s go!”

Kameko hadn’t heard that one before, but it hit deep. She had no time to contemplate his words as they stealthily proceeded towards the target mine. They took the long route so as not to attract any additional attention from others. As they neared the mine, they arrived at the last bend that gave them cover. Takuma raised his fist, signaling everyone to stop. He then looked at Anko and Ito and motioned them to go in.

The two chunin first peered around the bend to study the situation before they charged forth and disappeared around the bend, and the sounds of battle reached their ears a few moments later. Out of the genin, Takuma peered ahead, and everyone else waited for his command.

“Go!”

The moment he said those words, the five genin stepped out and dashed towards the mine.

Kameko saw Anko and Ito fighting against three guards who had surrounded the two. Kameko worried about Anko momentarily before steeling her heart and focusing on her task. As they approached the mine entrance, a couple of enemies stepped out.

At the front of the group, Takuma weaved quick hand seals before spitting out a torrent of water that startled the enemy group. Kameko and others took advantage of the successful water ninjutsu and charged the enemy group.

In the chaos of everything, Kameko slipped into the mine. She noticed how Ito’s genin weren’t very keen about going into the cave. It was obvious as they didn’t know who was inside. What if there was an injured chunin or two inside, who might still be capable of combat—they could also quickly be outnumbered by the enemy inside.

Takuma, however, kicked one of the enemies down the wall before rushing inside after Kameko.

“The moment you see them, throw the kunai,” he whispered to her.

“Understood,” she whispered.

It only took a few seconds of running until they saw a makeshift camp. There were a few injured shinobi with iryo-nin working on them. The scent of disinfectant mixed in with the smell of blood and dampness lingered in the air. However, the moment the duo saw the camp, they saw them. It seemed that the sound of fighting and rushed footsteps had alerted the camp, and they were ready.

Unfortunately, Kameko and Takuma weren’t looking for close combat. They took out their kunai and immediately threw them towards the camp.

The able-bodied people and the iryo-nin tried to run further into the mine. The tags exploded faster and caught even those who tried to run. Takuma moved further inside and threw a few kunai deeper into the mine, setting off more explosions.

Kameko followed his example and did the same. But then, as she was about to follow Takuma further deep, her eyes caught the sight of the roof of the mine sinking with cracks turning crevices.

She gasped in realization and immediately grabbed the back of his collar and pulled him back.

“What?” Takuma asked, utterly surprised.

“It’s going to collapse! We have to leave!” Kameko urged, going as far as to pull him.

Takuma looked up at the ceiling, and, at that moment, a big chunk of rock fell just a few feet away from him. He didn’t need to be told anymore and ran out with her.

But as they ran out, Kameko noticed Takuma throwing tagged kunai into the wooden beams that were reinforcing the roof of the mines.

He was trying to make the mine collapse faster.

“Fuck!” she cursed and ran faster.

A string of explosions went off behind the duo. Kameko could feel the heat and the force behind her back as they exited the mine, which had collapsed behind them, completely blocking the entrance.

Kameko looked at Takuma in shock.

“I think we can count them out,” said Takuma.

There was a possibility that the innermost portion of the mine hadn’t collapsed and there were survivors—but they had meters of rocks in their way to escape. They could get out, but they would either have to dig out by hand or risk using powerful ninjutsu that could trigger a collapse.

Whatever it was, Takuma was right.

The iryo-nin of the enemy were not a problem anymore.

———

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A/N: That was a long write. I will see you guys in 2024! Happy New Year!!!