[Chapter Size: 2100 Words.]
Third Person POV
Land of Rain, Year 38.
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"I feel something is wrong..." Lumen murmured behind his mask, standing alongside other teams. They were gathered in a location in the Land of Rain, on high alert, not just with the Phantom Division but also other groups, forming a force of about 400 Konoha shinobi.
They were all on a mission to stop another large group that would attack the central camps from the south. But Lumen had the impression something was wrong because, although intelligence had infiltrated the enemy camps and scouts reported a large group moving from the south, they were doing the obvious, something the Sand Village usually doesn't do. It was almost as if they were expecting to meet the Konoha ninjas here.
"Are you still murmuring that?" Zelda looked at Lumen.
"Hey, kid... you've already had a discussion with our leader's leader... he doesn't even want you in the meeting... you should just accept it... we are subordinate ninjas." Mirage commented, yet with some pity for Lumen.
Lumen had voiced his thoughts when they gathered to discuss the mission, but the leader, who ranked above Alpha here, a man from the Sarutobi clan with the pride of being a cousin to the Hokage, had not listened to Lumen and had expelled him from the meeting when Lumen kept insisting.
"You're too cautious, kid. Don't worry, we'll handle them, and we'll return home smoothly," Blade commented, believing that Lumen was being precipitous.
"Forget this talk, just follow the orders," Alpha told Lumen at that moment.
Lumen nodded to his leader, yet he still felt suspicious but had to follow his superiors' orders, and they wanted him to accomplish this mission.
Everything seemed calm as the ninjas awaited any movement from the enemy. Then, after a while, a ninja in white robes and a mask appeared in front of Alpha. He began talking to each team leader until he reached Alpha, of the Phantom Division. The ninja informed them and left to talk to other leaders while Alpha returned to his companions. "The enemy is approaching."
Everyone nodded. "You heard. Let's get ready," Horny spoke cheerfully, and everyone started to get into position, awaiting orders.
Lumen readied on one side with his companions as Ghost looked at him. "Hey, kid, aren't you going to use your sword yet?" He asked Lumen. It had been a few months since they began training together, and although Lumen had left Ghost's camp, he still continued training and taking tips from him. Yet, Lumen never used the Kenjutsu style on missions, always keeping those strange kunais he had customized himself.
These kunais had quickly gained great fame in recent months, as wherever one was found, it meant a member of the Phantom Division had acted on the spot, and almost always it was when a base or group in the area was destroyed. Lumen had become known to the enemy indirectly, but no one knew the real identity behind that mask, so only rumors of a member of short stature acting with the group were discussed by Sand Village intelligence.
Everything seemed calm while they still waited for the enemy, until he identified movement in the distance with his Byakugan behind the mask before anyone else. "They're coming. There are at least 400 members."
There were at least 60 ANBU team ninjas and another attack group from the camps. This was a direct battle, something Lumen had never participated in, as his missions were only ambush, infiltration, and extermination of small groups, never a direct battle.
"Prepare to launch the attack," the man responsible for all 400 Konoha ninjas spoke, as everyone readied, even the Phantom Division was under his orders.
"Launch the attack," he ordered quickly. All, hundreds of ninjas, rushed to attack the enemy group. As they charged into the confrontation, hundreds of kunais began to fly towards them. While the ninjas began to defend themselves, others were hit, but still, almost all managed to advance.
At that moment, the two sides clashed, and a battle began with Konoha easily pushing back the enemies. "This?!" Lumen realized something was wrong as he quickly advanced and slashed a ninja's throat with his kunai. As the man fell to the ground, the ninja transformed into a non-human form.
"Hey, this is a puppet!" someone exclaimed on the battlefield as another Sand ninja turned into a puppet.
"Why are they sending puppets?" Alpha asked Vortex. "How many real ninjas do we have here?" He inquired as the ninja behind the mask released his Byakugan once more onto the battlefield.
"A quarter of them are ninjas controlling all 300 puppets!" He said, stunned.
"Damn, why are they doing this? Sending men controlling puppets is suicide," the leader murmured.
The battle continued as Konoha quickly began to gain ground and advanced to the enemy's rear, where the puppet controllers were located. They began to release two of the puppets they were controlling to fight better, as they used a lot of chakra to maintain them and their goal was just to appear to have numbers and draw the enemy in.
They got into a fight a while later but were quickly massacred by the 400 Konoha ninjas. The battle lasted at least 15 minutes, while Konoha lost 40 ninjas precisely because they had to face the puppets.
"Damn, what's this now?" The squad leaders were quickly called by the operation leader.
"What's the situation?" they asked, while keeping some enemy ninjas alive to extract information from them.
Before the leader could say anything, frustrated, a mocking voice came from the enemies held captive there, "Ah, you really fell for our trap..." The ninja began to laugh, looking at the leaders who frowned.
"What do you mean by that?" the operation leader asked.
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"Very simple. While you focused your forces here, we're launching an attack on your camps to the south. By the time you get there, the place will be completely destroyed," he started laughing. There was no way for the Konoha ninjas to reach there at this distance, so there was no problem in speaking out, and he wanted to see his enemies frustrated before dying.
"Damn, this is bad, sir. They lured us here by placing puppets among the group. If he's telling the truth, they might have launched an attack while our major forces from the south are here..." a ninja murmured.
"This is bad. We should head back now," he said. When he looked at the enemy ninja, he was already choking on poison installed in his teeth. "It seems they were just cannon fodder to deceive us, coming here even knowing they would die," the ninja said.
"I knew something was wrong..." Lumen murmured from a distance, hearing the entire conversation with haki. "Now we must focus on the south. If we head there now, we'll be too late," he murmured, looking at his team while Alpha was still talking with the operation leader.
"What's up, kid?" Echo asked, observing Lumen's thoughtful behavior while the rest of the Phantom Division discussed among themselves.
"I believe I can take us to the southern camp, where the attack is likely occurring," Lumen spoke up, surprising everyone.
"Are you sure? A while ago you struggled to teleport more than two people from one side to the other," Mirage asked.
"That's true, but that was over a year ago. Now I have much finer chakra control and my chakra pool is much larger than before," Lumen said before turning to everyone on the team. "I can teleport 12 people."
"Well, if you can send us, we should talk to Alpha," Whisper said. Alpha came to inform about the situation, and his team began to discuss Lumen's plan. The operation leader looked at Lumen and nodded, approving the plan.
"Alright, we can do this," Alpha spoke and asked an ANBU ninja passing by to approach. "Find this scroll for the leader, informing about our situation while we head to the south. Let's go," he said in the end.
Alpha wasn't very fond of that leader; he had already delayed them too much, so he took it upon himself to act with his team to avoid wasting more time explaining how they would get there.
Everyone touched each other's shoulders, linking Lumen from both sides, creating a chain. Lumen clapped his hands together and closed his eyes, focusing. In the next moment, all 12 people vanished, reappearing in a forest near the southern camp, where Lumen had marked with one of his signs as he passed from camp to camp along the border.
Quickly, the sound of explosions began to come from a distance. "Seems like I was right," Lumen murmured.
"Let's go, we can't waste time," Alpha said, and they dashed forward, advancing as they saw hundreds of ninjas fighting each other, with hundreds of bodies already on the ground.
Lumen saw many puppets and even poisonous gas being released into the air from somewhere in the camp as the Sand ninjas wore masks, with the Konoha ninjas suffering from the yellow gas.
"This gas... we must stop it! It's being sent from the back of the camp!" Alpha analyzed the situation, hurrying to help the camp.
"There's a type of giant scorpion made like the puppets, there are two of them there, Alpha," Lumen sensed through haki and warned.
"So that's how they're causing this chaos... Can you handle this, Lumen?!" He asked as Lumen nodded.
"Leave it to me," Lumen informed.
Lumen saw how reinforced that place was and the ninjas who had already seen it tried to advance through the flanks, but the place was heavily fortified, with at least 50 ninjas protecting all sides around those two scorpions releasing the gas.
Lumen wasted no time and threw his kunai into the air. The next moment, as the ninjas controlling the shell released the poison, they saw the kunai falling to the ground and embedding itself.
"Wait, that kunai..." they murmured, recognizing the strange design of the kunai and the next moment, the hooded ninja appeared. He picked up the kunai and lunged at the nearest ninja, cutting him down before he could react.
"Enemy attack!" they shouted while controlling the shell.
Lumen began to eliminate them one by one, clearing the path as several other enemy ninjas reappeared to help maintain the attack. Lumen had to back off slightly, seeing more than 30 ninjas standing in front of him; he had to change his approach, "I'll be almost out of chakra after sending one of these, but I have no choice..." He murmured, looking at the enemies between him and the scorpion shells. He raised his hand and began to form a chakra ball, infusing it with wind chakra; the rasengan began to generate a shrill sound creating propellers around it, as the wind quickly began to spread.
"What is that?!" The ninjas murmured, seeing that jutsu grow without hand seals in Lumen's hand, made of pure chakra, as they had never heard of anyone with that capability in the war.
"Quick, we must protect ourselves, this looks dangerous!" The enemies exclaimed and began to summon new puppets. Lumen managed to complete the Rasenshuriken for the first time since he came to the war, he held it circulating with his hand raised above his head with the propellers spinning faster than ever creating a wind that even made the trees around bend.
"What is that thing?" The enemy ninjas grew increasingly concerned, as the wind was very powerful and the shrill sound was not at all comfortable. Even the poison was being released more forcefully.
But Lumen didn't waste any more time. He simply moved his hand above his head and launched the Rasenshuriken, heading in a line of enemies and creating a line of destruction where it passed.
"He can launch that!!??" They murmured, but it was already too late. Even as they placed the puppets in front, it struck the first one and then exploded, expanding, decimating the puppets and spreading over tens of meters, catching the ninjas and the giant scorpions, creating an explosion that affected the entire camp in that area, while everyone looked on at the huge explosion next to the camp.
All the enemy and Konoha ninjas tried to protect themselves, placing their hands in front, wondering what was happening there.
"Was that Lumen?" Vortex murmured, stunned, looking with his Byakugan.
"Wait, the kid did that? How could he? What kind of jutsu is that?" Zelda was shocked by it.
The explosion continued until it finally began to calm down, creating a huge crater.
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