Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_202

A strange permeating silence covered the pit; even with an ongoing invasion from one side and a defensive effort from the other, the silence stuck. However, that strange silence made the sounds of steel clashing steel, explosions, words and shouts, footsteps in the mud, and everything else more audible.

As Takuma ran towards Kameko and Rikku to assist them, he took in the greater landscape to ensure he was aware of the battlefield. Only a few moments ago, the enemy forces were rushing towards them to kill—but now, as he watched the movements of Hidden Leaf shinobi and the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Frost shinobi, both dressed in the latter’s colors, he saw them moving away.

He wondered why.

The sound of his heart in his ears was distracting. He stopped in his tracks, which made it worse, but he observed with haste intent. The second large wave of the enemy that was about to be on his and the Evacuation Unit’s heads, which would have caused real-life threatening pressure on them, was backing away.

Why?

He looked around for clues, but the sun was still not high enough to peer through the sunken pit.

But then it hit in an instant. The enemy wasn’t running away, they were making space, clearing away. And his mind arrived at the reason why he thought they were doing it. There was only one reason why a force would suddenly move away when they were on the cusp of putting on real pressure.

They didn’t want their people to get caught in something.

“A fucking AOE attack,” Takuma muttered.

The enemy was going to bomb them.

Which was when he saw the fiery light of fire in the distance.

Takuma stopped caring what it was and sprinted as hard as he could towards while weaving hand seals.

“Everyone, to me! Attack incoming! Quickly!”

By the time he reached them, there was a rain of fire descending towards them from the sky.

Kameko, Rikku, and Anko all moved, but they did it after spending a moment staring at the rain of fire. That wasn’t quick enough, so Takuma followed his instinct. The eight tentacles combined into three, and the thicker appendages shot toward his teammates and leader. They wrapped around the three and forcibly pulled them towards him.

“What the fuck?” Anko yelled at Takuma—but she released the Summoning Jutsuat the same time, showing that she understood the situation. Her snake disappeared into a puff of smoke.

Takuma slammed his palms onto the ground, pouring excessive amounts of chakra into the ground, letting the chakra seep into the ground. The muddy soil made for poor structural material, so he put in more chakra, he wanted to make it stronger so he poured in more, and the situation brought up a past fright which made him put in even more chakra.

Earth-Style: Earthen Dome Jutsu

The last time he had been in a similar situation was also against the Hidden Frost mission, and an enemy chunin had released a Lightning Release jutsu that covered an entire area. That single jutsu had ripped away his defensive jutsu, and he barely came out of the attack, avoiding getting hit. And he could instinctually feel that the Fire Release jutsu was much more dangerous than what he had faced all those years ago.

The mud rose around Takuma and the other three, quickly building a dome around them. The mud solidified, hardening into a solid structure with chakra flowing through the soil to increase its defensive power.

The moment the dome came true, Takuma felt something slam into it. A cloud of fire made direct contact with the dome, and then it exploded.

“Brace yourself in case it tears through,” Takuma said through gritted teeth.

Outside the doom, the clouds of fire hit a large area in front of the dormitory where the majority of the Evacuation Unit was standing. The clouds of fire exploded when they met the ground, creating puddles of flames all across the area.

Almost immediately, the intense fire burned through the dome. Intense heat burst into the already sauna-like inside, causing everyone to gasp. Takuma huffed as he shoved the tentacle mass against the gap. The water began turning into steam, creating a hissing noise, but that was enough to close the gap.

“It’s crumbling,” Takuma warned them.

Before the dome crumbled, Takuma retracted the tentacles before bursting so everyone was doused in water.

“Jump!” Rikku yelled.

When the dome crumbled, everyone jumped high up in the air before the fire could stick to them. While in the air, Takuma weaved hand seals as quickly as he could, almost making a mistake while doing so.

Water Release: Wild Water Wave

He aimed below and moved his neck to spread the water around, which extinguished enough area for the team to land safely.

“Good work,” Anko patted him on the shoulder.

The danger and chaos weren’t over yet as while the Hidden Leaf struggled from the large-scale jutsu, the enemy forces that had backed away began charging towards them with an even larger number.

Just as the situation seemed bleak, a chain of nearly a dozen explosions went off on the opposite end of the pit. They were big, ear-piercingly loud, and the chain even sent a brief and faint tremor through the ground. Everyone stopped for a moment and turned to look at the explosions.

“That’s… Stage-2,” said Kameko.

Chunin Hideki and his two genin, who had broken off the Evacuation Team to forcefully complete Stage-2, which was to plant explosions around the pit, had finally come into play. If that was all, it wouldn’t have been a big change on the battlefield; however, Stage-2 was simply the opening play for the real deal.

Sharp horns pierced through the air as the remainder of the Camp Banana forces split into two and appeared on the two sides of the pit before jumping down, raiding the pit with full force. Battle cries filled the pit as shinobi ran down the slopes with weapons drawn.

Both sides of the conflict now had their complete forces in play.

———

.

As the Camp Banana forces came down the sides, Anko turned to Kameko. “Go find Iori and Daiki. Bring them to the front.”

Kameko nodded and sprinted toward the dormitory, making her way around the large fire puddles.

“Both of you follow me,” Anko said to Rikku and Takuma. “Pick your fights sensibly, remember to protect each other’s backs… and our troops pose just as much danger to you as the enemy, so don’t overlook them.”

Takuma and Rikku nodded, and they dashed forward towards the enemy. As planned, the Camp Banana forces pressed the enemy from three directions. As the Evacuation Unit was the weakest side, the enemy moved in their direction to cover more space.

As he ran, Takuma weaved hand seals for Water Style: Eight Tentacles, and the water from the environment and surroundings gathered behind his back.

Takuma called out to Rikku and pointed ahead.

“The group right there,” he yelled as more explosions from ninjutsu recked the field, “I’m going to disrupt them; you start picking off those who stumble.”

“Understood,” Rikku nodded.

Takuma pushed the chakra into his legs and feet and took himself into the sky. He traveled long, skipped the frontlines, and landed right in the middle of the enemy forces. Immediately, there were eyes on him, and he was surrounded by more hostiles than he had ever faced. Several of them stopped and surrounded Takuma.

‘They’re killers, not trained assassins,’ he thought. The thought made him chuckle, but it was true—shinobi could be killers, but not all were trained to be in the art of killing. Even Takuma wasn’t trained to kill—he simply had capable tools of killing.

However, he had practical experience.

He ran towards the nearest enemy, a brawny woman. She had a polearm that she immediately stabbed toward him with a battle cry. Takuma side-stepped, and a tentacle shot forward, wrapping itself around her polearm. The tentacle pulled on the polearm, but the woman was more than powerful enough to resist the pull.

As the woman resisted the pull, Takuma threw an augmented kunai. The woman gasped and ducked her shoulder at the last moment, but it still left a gash, spurting blood. Takuma rushed in at that moment. The tentacle around the polearm slipped off and latched onto the woman’s leg and pulled.

She wobbled, but it created an opening.

Takuma kicked her on her unstable leg, destroying her balance. The tentacles grabbed her arms for partial restraint, and then he grabbed her and threw her into the nearby enemies. Some rushed to dodge her, while others stepped in to catch her in haste. As they did, Takuma chucked a burning explosive tag towards them.

They couldn’t use explosive tags because of their allies, but Takuma had no problems doing so. The tag exploded in the brawny girl’s lap while others scrambled away while it hit them in their backs.

He weaved hand seals for Water Release: Wild Water Wave and assaulted another line of enemies with a strong barrage of water. It hit like bricks and forcefully drowned them in a wall of water.

His senses sizzled. From the corner of his eyes, he saw crackles of lightning. Takuma immediately shed the water tentacles off his back and leaped to the side. Water conducted lightning, and he would be fucked if a Lightning jutsu hit him while he had water tentacles around him.

Nenro had once hit him solidly with a Lightning jutsu, and the water tentacles had made it much worse. His nerves burnt for half a day. He didn’t want a repeat of it.

Rikku burst into the circle like a wild bull with her arms swinging. She hit a fat stout with heavy armor in the chest. It looked like he wasn’t used to wearing heavy armor and tripped on his feet.  Rikku caved in the man’s throat with a punch, finishing him instantly.

She then jumped from another man like a beast. Someone pulled her off, with another one moving in to stab her. Rikku kicked him once, and it sent the man flying through the field before smashing the back of her head into the nose of the man holding her. The hold loosened, and she reversed the situation, then pummeled him into the ground, blood splattering from his bashed in skull.

The people who were moving toward her stopped in the face of her overwhelming strength and turned cautious.

Takuma, while weaving hand seals, landed on the ground with his back to Rikku.

Genjutsu: Mist Servant Jutsu

He didn’t have the lead preparation time to spread the genjutsu to everyone in his vicinity, but it was enough that it latched enough people.

The targeted folk started seeing multiples of Takuma dressed in black appearing from the ground like a zombie horde. With only a few trapped, it was only a while before the unaffected broke the genjutsu—but it was enough time for someone to go overboard.

Takuma weaved hand seals and dipped into the ground using Earth Style: Hiding In the Rock Jutsu

One of the enemies released a jolt of lightning towards a group of genjutsu apparitions of Takuma but instead hit her own allies. The jolt jumped two times to ultimately hit three people who weren’t expecting to get hit by their own ally.

It was as Anko had said—the people on the same side were just as dangerous as the enemy.

Takuma emerged from the underground just a little away from his circle of genjutsu and immediately headed inside to take advantage of the chaos he caused, but he immediately stopped and jumped back. All of his danger sensors barked like a guard dog seeing a trespasser. A short blade made of pure lightning stabbed the spot he would’ve been if he hadn’t jumped back. The lightning blade crackled and burnt the spot it hit, turning it black with embers.

His eyes darted around to find the source, but it was difficult to find the attacker in the chaos of the battlefield. He pulled up his guard and switched to defense—someone had very deliberately targeted him.

“I’m right here if you’re looking for me.”

The voice whispered from behind him. It was so close that Takuma could all but feel the breath on his ear.

Takuma turned back and swung with an augmented fist without looking. The man with the fakest, thin-lipped slit smile that didn’t reach his eyes, caught in Takuma’s augmented punch like it was nothing. Takuma pulled his arm back and launched another augmented punch from his other arm. But before it could make contact, Takuma felt like a cannonball hit him. The enemy had hit him before his punch could reach. He felt the taste of iron in his mouth, and pain shorted the thoughts out of his mind.

He couldn’t even react when a second attack, a palm strike, hit him in his chest. He felt his ribcage bend as though bones weren’t supposed to be rigid. A fracture or two were the least of his problems.

This wasn’t someone he was supposed to fight.

This wasn’t someone he could fight.

Takuma fell to the ground and coughed out blood-stained vomit. He legitimately couldn’t breathe for a good long moment as his lungs refused to expand to suck in the air. With the sharp pain, and lack of air, he felt like a fish flapping out of water.

The dark-skinned, light-haired enemy, wearing just a tank top, pulled up Takuma by his hair.

“You must be one of those geniuses,” said the man with a plastic-sounding merry tone. “So young and so deadly—caught my attention right away. How about you play with some real-grown-ups?”

“…R-Release m-me,” Takuma said.

“Pardon, but can you say that again?”

The man pulled Takuma close and faced his ear towards Takuma’s face. It was a mistake as Takuma immediately bit the guy’s ear as hard as he could.

Surprised, the man punched Takuma once again, making him cough up more blood and bile juice.

The man let Takuma go in surprise and kicked him harshly in anger, which sent Takuma flying.

“You fucker,” he cursed, the fake voice gone for a moment before it returned. “No worries, capital punishment will teach you not to do that.”

The man stepped forward. He heard a crinkle and looked down at his abdomen to see four explosive tags stuck to his tank top and cargo pants.

“Fuck—”

Boom!