Chapter 45-Reception

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Yama slammed his fist onto the desk of his commanding officer, some no name Nara who was in charge of the Main Base aimed at combating Iwagakure's influence in Takigakure and Kusagakure.

  "I'm telling you Nara, I need to check on my genin over near Kumogakure, I got a bad feeling about this whole thing."

The Nara sat there, looking at the old genin in disinterest. For the past three days, the old codger had been bothering him at every given opportunity to travel across Fire Country for some inane reason like a bad gut feeling.

Nara Kamayotsu was not particularly impressed with the old man's instability and sat there, stroking his chin with the Nara-branded look of boredom and apathy across his face.

  "Well, if you can articulate a good reason to do that, you can go ahead, but until then, I need you here supervising your genin.

  They are not ready, and Iwa is the most dangerous front for them. Its only logical for you to stay here and continue training them.

  Besides, We have no reason to suspect Kumo of hostilities, so why should I lose the manpower to escort you across Fire Country?"

Yama was exasperated.

  "I don't need an escort, I can get there myself."

Kamayotsu quirked an eyebrow.

  "Yeah, and I suppose you want me to let you, need I remind you a genin and your assistant, also a genin, to cross the entire country by themselves during a war time footing.

  The fact of the matter is that your position as Operations Genin Commander is too high. I dont understand why they even let you out of the village proper.

  You have too much knowledge of troop distributions and supply lines.

  You're an intelligence asset at least as valuable as one of my sub commanders, and I will not let you gallivant around the country on a bad feeling by yourself.

  The only reason I am even entertaining your idea is that you aren't exactly under my chain of command, and I simply outrank you as a jonin myself.

  I don't want you going back to Shikaku-sama and dragging my name through the mud. It'll be way too much of a fucking pain to deal with that.

  So either articulate yourself, or get out of my tent."

Yama continued to frown and growled out a few more words.

  "I told you, I need to check on the genin out there."

Kamayotsu sighed.

  "Yeah but why? Our camp is under personal information blackout. Are you privy to some information that I am not, in direct conflict with standing orders of frontline deployment positions?

  What information do you have that I do not that makes the genin near Kumo a greater concern than those here?

  Just explain your reasoning and I'll let you go with a chuunin escort, it's all I can spare, but I need something to write into a report for HQ."

Yama started yelling.  

  "And I keep telling you, I've got a bad feeling about it.

  Just trust me. I'm old right? You don't get this old without trusting your instincts.

  Something bad is going on there and I feel it.

  Just let me go, no escort."

Nara Kamayotsu sighed.

  "You want me to trust your instincts?"

Yama nodded emphatically with his blue eyes shining crystal clear.

  "Yes."

  "So what about my own instincts, because what they're telling me right now is to deny your request.

  Go back to training your genin around here, and in the forts and outposts."

  "I'm not gonna do that." was Yama's reply.

Kamayotsu's face slightly changed, and a look of steel started to creep across his face, turning his visage to one very uncharacteristic for a Nara.

  "That wasn't a request, Genin Yama. It was an order.

  If you countermand me one more time, I'll have you written up for insubordination.

  Either give me actionable intelligence, or get out. I've humored you enough."

Yama stormed out without another word, and Shijin, who was waiting outside, quickly fell in line beside him as Yama stormed through the camp.

Yama quickly found himself outside the perimeter, a little beyond the scouts and watchful eyes of camp, and he started pacing back in forth as he controlled his emotions.

Shijin said nothing, but simply watched on in silence.

Yama started venting out his frustrations without prompting.

  "That Nara bastard is stonewalling me again. I can't tell him about the negative emotion sensing, but I can't just ignore it either.

  There is some shifty stuff going on in Kumo right now, and I got find out what's happening.

  This is our only chance to stop the war before it grows, Shijin.

  We gotta do this."

Shijin was unmoved.

  "Do what, Yama?

  We already talked about this.

  We cannot leave without orders, lest we be marked as deserters.

  We're fighting a bigger battle here.

  Our goal is Kaguya, quite frankly, that doesn't have anything to do with this war.

  The only two people that can seal her away are our only two priorities, Sasuke and Naruto.

  If we are marked as deserters, the only plan we have goes up in smoke.

  What do we do then?"

Yama shook his head in frustration.

  "We'll think of something when we get there.

  But we can't just let this continue, we need to act now.

  Don't you understand, Shijin, war is coming?

  Just like the fourth war except it'll be among ourselves.

  Our allies will be killing each other for no good reason when a much bigger threat is on the horizon."

  "Yama, they are not our allies yet. We are nominally still enemies, standing upon the shaky ground of a newly minted peace, bought with the blood of the fallen.

  You can't continue letting the past, or the future, or whatever you want to call it influence your decisions.

  What happened then isn't what's happening now. That's by design. Things are different.

  If we repeat everything, it all ends the same.

  You are trying to throw away all our efforts and our main goals to stop something that may not even be able to be stopped.

  Humans fight and kill each other, that is the only historical constant.

  Our only goal is Kaguya. Stop letting yourself be affected."

Yama laughed and ran his fingers through his hair. His grin pulled a little too hard at the edges, and the smile didn't reach his eyes at all.

  "Stop being affected? STOP BEING AFFECTED!?"

  Are you serious Shijin? Are you really serious?

  Do you not understand what I've been through?

  Do you not get it?"

Shijin put his hands up.

  "Yama, I get it, our allies matter to you.

  They matter to me too. That's why we have to focus on Kaguya, because Kaguya will kill them if we fail."

Yama stared directly into Shijin's eyes, and starting in a deathly quiet and serious tone that slowly grew into a roar, he responded.

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  "You think I don't know that?

  You think I don't care about Kaguya? You think I lost sight of the big picture?

  Well if I'm missing the forest, you're missing the fucking trees!

  If we let them die here, then it doesn't matter if Kaguya is stopped, because they'll already be dead!"

Shijin shook his head.

  "It'll matter to those still alive.

  You're compromised on this.

  Remember what Ginou kept telling you. You can't let your emotions keep getting the better of you.

  You need to control them, reign them in with logic and calculations, not sail with the shifting winds of fervor and..."

Yama interrupted.

  "Ginou is wrong. I'm fine. I'm not being led by my emotions.

  I'm not compromised.

  You want the real situation? You want to know what's really going on?

  I know every single person that doesn't die in the next 17 years.

  I lived the last moments of everyone that it still around 17 years from now.

  I shared their minds. I lived as they did. They were me, and I was them.

  When they die in this upcoming war, I die with them

  That is the only truth of what is going on. Not what Ginou has to think about me taking on his burden of negative emotion.

  And it sure as hell isn't about me not wanting to defeat Kaguya.

  If we don't save them now, it doesn't matter what Kaguya does, they'll be dead. We need to save them now."

Shijin was silent for a few moments before quietly whispering.

  "We can't save everyone, Yama."

Yama whipped his head around at stared Shijin down, his eyes alive and crackling with lightning.

  "We can't not try.

  You don't fucking get it. Ginou doesn't fucking get it.

  No one fucking gets it. The cycle of hatred stops here or it never does.

As Yama tried to storm off by himself. Shijin reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder, stopping him.

  "This is what Ginou was talking about. This isn't you, This isn't who you are.

  You're letting your emotions control you."

Yama roughly brushed Shijin's hand off.

  "Stop fucking saying that. I'm the only sane one here.

  Now just leave me alone for a few minutes."

As Yama walked off, Shijin let him go.

  "Please don't do anything rash."

Yama didn't respond.

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Yama for the next 6 days made his case before Nara Kamayotsu, the uncaring base commander with the unenviable task of being the primary force of combating Iwagakure should the need arise. The sister base close to him would help, but they were more focused on handling the minor villages in the area than combating other shinobi on parity. On paper, the two bases were equal and had the same number of troops, but Kamayotsu's base had far greater numbers of veterans, battle hardened, and recovered in the past year of relative peace. He also had a greater than average number of medics and heavy assault shinobi under his command. His sister base focused more on infiltration types and espionage. They could wage war if need be, but there focus was elsewhere.

Each day, Yama made his case, and it seemed that he was calming down over the course of the week. Each request was a little less vehement, and just yesterday, Yama had simply came into the commander's tent and asked the following question.

  "Have you reconsidered?"

When Kamayotsu answered in the negative, Yama simply walked out without another word. Kamayotsu wanted to be happy about it, but it didn't sit well with him for some reason.

Yama had seemed resigned, but not in a good way. Nara Kamayotsu was starting to suspect that Yama was about to do something incredibly foolish, so when a high priority message reached him from Konoha, he was almost relieved at the message inside.

The message detailed the findings of various Konoha Spies near the Kumo Border.

The village had still been unsuccessful in penetrating the border, but Kamayotsu supposed that if they were successful, they probably wouldn't tell him anyway since there was no reason for him to be privy to it as the Iwa facing commander.

The message first gave him information about the destruction of Shimogakure and Yugakure, along with civil unrest in the Land of Rice Fields.

As he read it, Nara Kamatsuo sighed. This was the perfect excuse to send Yama away. The old man was soon to becoming more trouble than he was worth, and dropping the grenade on his comrade over near Kumo couldn't be that bad, could it?

Turns out the gut instinct of the elder genin was right, things were weird over near Kumogakure.

The next few lines had Kamayotsu a little unhappy though. He was ordered to send 10% of his garrison to the Kumogakure front in response to the unrest. The area was destabilizing and it was better to have ninja in proximity before things got bad than it was to send them in as damage control.

The problem was that the Iwa base and its subordinate forts and outposts barely had enough people as is. If he gave up ten percent of his garrison, holes in the border patrols would start to appear. It was an issue that was okay in peacetime, but the times certainly didn't feel like peacetime right now.

Nothing he could do though, orders are orders. He signaled to one of his aides and started to give out orders. He specified directly that Yama and Shijin were also to be contacted and informed that they will move fronts along with the reinforcements.

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Across the camp, Yama was in his tent, packing his bags, when Shijin walked in and questioned him.

  "What are you doing?"

  "I've given them a week. That's all I can do.

  I'm deserting my post to go to Kumo. I'll become a missing nin after I stop the war.

  I've given it some thought. You will have to take a more involved position with Naruto.

  I'll be on the outside. I think my efforts into dissolving Akatsuki and preventing the ten tail's reformation might be a good place to go after Kaguya.

  We'll dual path it. You help me and Sasuke. You play defense.

  I go after Akatsuki and Zetsu. I play offence."

Shijin didn't outwardly react.

  "And you didn't feel like discussing this with me?"

  "I have to do something. Don't worry this plan will work out."

  "But I don't have a choice in the matter."

Yama smiled softly and looked Shijin in the eyes.

  "I'm sorry, but I have to get to Kumo.

  This is the only way. You can't stop me."

Shijin's mind was racing through possibilities and eventualities. It would be hard to maintain a position in the village after his "wartime partner" dissappeared during service.

He best start laying the ground work. Maybe Shijin should be the one to report Yama to his superior officer for abandoning his post.

While Yama was packing and Shijin was planning, a genin came into their tent and made a quick report.

  "Base Commander Kamayotsu requests your presences in his tent as soon as convenient.

Yama and Shijin shared a quick look of confusion before the pair started making their way to the base commander as ordered.

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When the duo entered the commander's tent, they had to fight through a flurry of people coming and going in haste. It was as much of a mad house as it has ever been.

Nara Kamayotsu beckoned Yama and Shijin over and addressed the duo.

  "I'm a big enough man to admit when I'm wrong.

  Things are going south near Kumo, and you called it Yama.

  I've been ordered to send part of my garrison to the Kumo base as reinforcements.

  You two will join them. Then genin over there need more help than the ones here, evidently.

  That being said, I am also leaving it up to you to select the genin that will be going towards Kumo. I advise that you select only those most able to survive combat.

  We already have the cream of the crop here, and we can afford to lose our most combat capable genin.

  If anything truly breaks out with Kumo, some of the more advanced genin should be out there, rather than here."

Shijin didn't reply, but instead looked at Yama, who was standing there, opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

The Nara commander was shortly besieged by his subordinates who were working on his orders to supply, choose, and send off reinforcements per Konoha HQ.

Yama and Shijin quietly slipped off to their own tent, where they stood in silence for a few moments.

Shijin broke the silence.

  "Lucky us huh. Still want to be an academy instructor?"

Yama grinned and scratched the back of his head.

  "Yeah, better this way, more options."

  "But you still would've gone through with what you were saying earlier."

  "Undoubtedly."

  "I see."

A few more moments passed before Yama spoke again.

  "You should pack your bags, too."

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For the next week, Yama and Shijin were escorted the supply train that followed the trail of the reinforcements sent from the Iwa front to Kumo.

It was boring. They simply walked at the same pace as the wagons, and every once in a while, scared off a couple bandits, though they usually left the task to the genin of the other divisions.

The Operations Genin, and by extension, Yama and Shijin were doing all they could to prepare themselves for life at the Kumo front.

The group didn't know what they were getting into, but rumors had it that Shimogakure and Yugakure were invaded by Kumo and the Land of Rice Fields was in Civil War.

When they finally reached their destination about three days after the Chuunin and Jonin reinforcements did, Yama and Shijin were immediately called into the Kumo Front Commander's tent.

Akimichi Doto greeted the pair and gestured for them to sit down. The man was immense, physically intimidating, but still had a warm and affable aura. The man was a veteran of the Third Great Shinobi war, and he had served with distinction on Team Minato prior to the now Hokage getting his genin team.

As soon as Yama and Shijin were in their seats, Doto opened his eyes a little further than usual, and Yama saw the flinty stare in Doto's pupils, which were normally hidden in closely scrunched eyes.

Doto cut to the chase immediately.

  "In the past week, during your transit from Iwa Front, here to Kumo Front, as you were escorting supplies, there have been several developments here.

  First off, we are already in open hostilities with Kumogakure over border skirmishes. The problem is that Kumogakure obviously does not share a border with us, but we are instead skirmishing over the Yugakure border.

  We have confirmed preliminary reports that Yugakure has been destroyed in its entirety, and we no longer have any allies in the region.

  Furthermore, we expect a formal declaration of war from Kumo and the Land of Lightning within a few days, as the border circumstances have already advanced to over a dozen casualties on both sides.

  More bad news is that we have confirmed the fall of Shimogakure. This may not seem like huge deal, as Konoha does not have strong diplomatic ties with that village, but the issue is that the Land of Snow has been used to garrison and transport soldiers."

Yama frowned and tilted his head.

  "Soldiers?"

Doto nodded.

  "Yeah, I was surprised to hear about it too. I don't know what Kumo is thinking but it looks like they are going to use non-chakra enhanced people against Konoha and the Land of Fire.

  We don't have great estimates on the size but we expect more than 100 thousand large.

  Lastly, we confirmed the civil unrest in the Land of Rice Fields. It seems like Kumogakure destroyed all trade and food infrastructure.

  Luckily, the Land of Fire is self sufficient for food, but things are not looking good for Iwa, Ishi, or Sunagakure."

Yama was silent, but Shijin chimed in to ask a question.

  "Why are you telling us?"

Doto sighed and looked down for a quick moment before bringing his head back up.

  "Two fold.

  One, we need to split the genin forces in half.

  The first group will stay in their assigned posts and continue in their duties, but they will be seeing combat undoubtedly.

  They need to be prepared for what is to come."

  "What's the second?"

  "The Fire Daimyo has requested a cohort of ninja to join his soldiers in meeting the Land of Lightning Daimyo in battle. His reserves are only at 50 thousand, so he had requested Konoha's assistance using some old document from the founding of the village that's never been invoked before.

  The village ban on genin seeing combat only applies to shinobi combat. The second half of the genin will be expected to act in concert with the Fire Army and combat the Lightning Soldiers.

  One of you is to take command of that group while the other supervises the genin here. Choose between yourselves."

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At the same time as that discussion was going on, several other nations were receiving much of the same news from their own spy networks.

Onoki sat at his desk and read the report before him.

  Kumo starting a war with Konoha? Fire vs Lightning?

  However the best news is that reinforcements have been pulled from our area of influence and moved towards Kumo.

Onoki quickly called his intelligence chief into the room to ask him a few questions.

  "How is Konoha's presence in Kusa proper?"

  "Limited after their recent withdrawal. Due to their reduction in manpower, their men are focused on maintaining the border rather than projecting influence into the minor village and surrounding countryside."

Onoki thought for a few moments.

  "Well, we have a lot of 'good friends' near Kusa right? We should pay them a visit, its been a while since they've seen our faces, hasn't it?

  I'll leave you and the Black Ops commander to iron out the details, but we must strike while the iron is hot. Konoha left their people out to dry, we must accept the invitation. It'd be rude otherwise."

  "Yessir, Tsuchikage-sama."

Today was a bad day to be a Konoha sympathizer in Kusagakure. The coming weeks would be worse.

Iwa had to leave in shame and defeat, and Konoha had just left the door open for some petty revenge and a retrieval of at least some of Iwa's dignity.

Like Onoki said, it'd be rude to not take them up on the offer?

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In the Land of Wind, the Kazekage and Wind Daimyo sat together in a meeting room in Sunagakure.

The Daimyo sat there stroking his beard, and the Third Kazekage sat patiently, waiting for the man to speak.

Eventually the Daimyo did.

  "I must say, the fact that you entered the war without my permission the last time around really did sit cross with me.

  However, some information has recently crossed my ears that I must bring to your attention.

  I have heard that the Land of Rice Fields is no longer exporting foodstuffs, is that correct?"

The Third Kazekage answered politely, but his tone was anything but servile.

  "Yes Daimyo-sama, our intelligence reports have also confirmed that information."

  "So how are we going to get food?"

  "It is not my position to presume that, my lord. It would be yours."

  "Well, maybe you are ignorant of the politics of the situation, but the Land of Rivers still has us under embargo since your invasion of them, which brought us into the Third War.

  Takigakure will sell us nothing, and Ishi can't even feed themselves, much less trade.

  Iwa, don't even mention.

  So what are we to do, now that your actions have led us to a looming famine?"

  "I dare not presume."

  "Oh you're no fun. You already know what I'm going to say, don't you?"

  "I dare not presume."

  "Very well, play that game.

  Prepare for another invasion of the Land of Rivers. We need to secure the food supplies and agricultural lands.

  Konoha and Fire have much bigger problems to deal with near Lightning than to help their ally in the Southwest.

  I'll field troops myself, I expect you to bring at least 50% of your force to bear for this. The rest can remain on watch against Iwa.

  Hopefully with you and me on the same page, this campaign will go a little better than your first hare-brained attempt at an invasion."

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In Kirigakure, things were not going well.

It all started to go downhill when Karatachi Yagura broke free of his genjutsu.

Once he realized the full extent of the actions he had been forced to undertake and the damage he had wrought upon Kirigakure, he committed suicide to atone.

However, he did not expect that a predator was waiting, lurking, and preparing for such a power vacuum to manifest itself.

The Man in the Mask did not fail to grasp the opportunity.

Hell would be brought upon Kiri. Obito would ensure it. They needed to pay.