Chapter 72: Chapter 71 : First Real Battle
While Renjiro cleared up the rear, Fujin, Hoka, and Mieko made a move on the injured ninjas.
Of the 15 ninjas from the first wave, only 6 were alive, with just 1 Chunin being in a state to fight. They were terrified by their wounds and were running towards the forest.
And of the 10 ninjas from the 2nd wave, only 2 had jumped high up in the air, and hence were on top of the ruined forest. The remaining 8 ninjas, though unharmed, were buried under a ruined forest.
Hoka activated his Byakugan and said, "Those 8 ninjas are trapped, they'll need some time to get out. Let's attack."
In an instant, all 3 flickered toward the retreating ninjas. Mieko flickered behind the Chunin who could still fight and tried stabbing him with a kunai. However, he turned around and defended himself in time.
He shouted aggressively, "I may be injured, but don't you brats look down on me!" However, his thoughts were the exact opposite, 'Just one opportunity! I'll regroup with others and be safe.'
Unfortunately for him, while shouting, he looked into Mieko's eyes. Mieko didn't miss the chance and cast Genjutsu on him.
Hoka engaged the blinded Chunin. That chunin had lost his sight, and his right leg was badly cut. However, even in that state, he still aggressively attacked Hoka with every weapon he had. This fightback was a testimony to his experience and desperation.
Hoka, however, stayed calm and took his stance. He said, "You are in range." And attacked, 'Eight Trigrams - Sixteen palms'.
All of Hoka's attacks hit on point, with the last one hitting his opponent's chest and stopping his heart. That chunin dropped dead.
Unlike Mieko and Hoka, Fujin went for the weakest ones first. He flickered behind the 2 blinded genins and killed them both with one strike of his sword. He quickly flickered to the remaining 2 genins one by one and killed them as well. Neither of the 4 could even block one attack from Fujin. Just one of those 4 managed to raise his kunai to block Fujin's sword, but his kunai got cut into two, just like his body.
Of the 2 Ninjas who were above the debris, 1 was Chunin, while the other was genin. They were still fearful of that sword slash that wrecked the forest as well as of the Rock Avalanche. So they didn't react when the three kids they were looking at flickered.
When they noticed, the Chunin quickly moved to aid his comrades. But even before he took a couple of steps, Fujin had killed 2 of them. That halted his steps. In the next few seconds, he saw Fujin kill 2 more and look straight at him.
He quickly retreated behind thinking, 'What a bunch of crazy kids! Are they even kids? Did Konoha send their feared Anbu under disguise?' He looked down at the debris and screamed internally, 'Where are the rest? Get out quickly!' The genin also retreated.
Fujin stayed back after killing his opponents. Around half a minute later, Hoka killed his opponent. And soon after, Mieko's opponent stabbed his own throat.
Fujin flickered next to Mieko right after she was free and said, "Let's do it." She nodded and made a few hand signs.
'Fire-Wind Dragon Jutsu'
Both Fujin and Mieko could see the chakra of the ninjas making their way to get out of the debris. A 50 meter huge dragon, mostly made of extremely hot air and having 4 claws and many teeth made of fire.
Seeing that dragon, those 2 began running even faster toward the 3rd wave.
The Dragon moved rapidly and got above the debris. It then dived down right where 6 ninjas were making their way up. They were just about to remove the last log blocking their way when the Dragon dived down right at them.
Fortunately for them, they had one novice sensor who screamed, "CAST DEFENSIVE WATER JUTSU ABOVE US! HURRY!"
Fortunately, the group had a Chunin whose nature affinity was Water. He quickly made hand signs, 'Water Shield Jutsu'.
A water barrier appeared above him. It curved like the surface of a sphere and had a thickness of 6 inches, and was growing thicker as he poured more chakra into it.
When the Dragon was 10 meters above the group, it opened its mouth and launched a Wind Explosion sphere, made of extremely hot air. It hit the barrier and exploded. The barrier protected the group from the winds, but it got dispersed.
In the next second, the Dragon slammed into them and exploded into flames, which moved rapidly due to assistance from the winds. The ninjas saw the Dragon coming toward them and tried to disperse. Unfortunately, the debris around them blocked any escape route.
They all took a direct hit. The fallen trees around them were also set on fire. The fire began spreading quickly. Not having any path, they jumped through the hole created by the Dragon.
Fujin saw that the attack hit successfully, but sighed thinking, 'It's a shame that Wind dragons don't have intelligence like Wind clones. This jutsu will become very formidable if that happens.'
All 6 ninjas managed to jump out of the debris and run away from the fire. The Water affinity Chunin made hand signs and created a water barrier around him, and dropped it on himself to douse the fire. He then spat water jets on the other 5 starting with the sensor.
He managed to douse all fire on them. Both he and the sensor had 1st-degree burns. While 2 had 2nd-degree burns. The last 2 had fainted and were in very bad shape. They would need immediate medical treatment.
Around that time, the remaining 2 ninjas who were buried under the debris managed to get out. All the ninjas from the 2nd wave finally managed to regroup. At the same time, the 3rd wave of bandits reached the edge of the forest, i.e., the debris.
Seeing that, Fujin, Hoka, and Mieko didn't advance and waited there. Renjiro had cleared up the hill by then and had slowed the avalanche with the mud river and made the rocks fall slowly on the ground. He flickered behind the team, while his clone kept an eye on the merchants.
The debris blocked the bandits. They couldn't travel any further. The ninjas however had a bad feeling. Wagarashi Tomio led the ninja to the top of the debris, where he regrouped with the remaining ninjas.
He was shocked, 'Only 8 are remaining from the 100 who attacked? And half of them are already injured. It hasn't even been a few minutes since the 1st wave should have reached them!'
His eyes then wandered towards the hill on the other side of the field, 'Even the 50 who should have attacked from the hill are nowhere to be seen! Where did that useless Norio go? Also, why does it look like there was a landslide there?'
He quickly asked a Chunin who was uninjured, "What happened here? Tell quickly! Also, where are Tamanaha Norio and the rest?" While asking, all his attention was on Senju Renjiro. With so few numbers, he wasn't at all confident about taking on him. The rest of the 9 ninjas who were with him were also on full alert.
That Chunin was the same one who retreated earlier. He was intimidated by Tomio but quickly began explaining to him.
Over at Team Renjiro, when the ninjas from the 3rd wave began regrouping with those from the 2nd wave, Fujin said, "Those from the 3rd wave will be very confused. We need to attack quickly. Any suggestions Sensei?"
While asking, he was thinking, 'If it was just defense, the best way will be to completely burn down this forest. The fire will act as a wall. Then Renjiro could go and hunt them.
But if we want to eliminate them entirely, then the fire will prove to be an obstruction for us, and killing them all will need a lot of effort.'
Renjiro nodded and said, "My clone will look after the merchants. So let's just attack them head-on. I'll take that Jounin head-on and finish him off. You guys stall the rest. I'll make another clone to watch over you guys."
On saying that, he made the clone hand seal, created another shadow clone, and said, "Let's go." All 5 of them flickered.
[A/N - Sigh, had to rewrite the whole battle. Initially wrote it by having the surviving Ninja being scared shit of Fujin, and had Fujin using 2 more similar slashes, along with Renjiro breaking their defenses, resulting in a near complete wipeout. While it seemed kinda epic, it didn't really make much sense that each and every one of those ninjas would be scared to that extent by such a simple technique. Even had the trio reacted a lot to Renjiro's combo jutsu from the last chapter. Something that would only be safe to do when enemies are paralyzed with fear... So rewrote the fight
This is what I had initially written in case anyone's interested -
The Rock avalanche and Mud river generated enough noise to attract the attention of the three genins. Having seen the Waterfall jutsu, Hoka and Fujin weren't surprised by the power. They were, however, surprised by the fact that just 2 Earth release jutsu can cause such a slaughter. Earth, after all, was known for its defense.
Mieko, on the other hand, was flabbergasted. She had heard about Renjiro's Waterfall jutsu from Hoka, but seeing herself was shocking.
On the side of the forest, 6 ninjas were alive on the open field, while 2 were alive and standing on top of the ruined forest. They first saw the sword slash and then the ones who could still see, saw the Rock avalanche killing more than half of their numbers.
Soon, 8 ninjas who were buried under the forest made their way out. They were shocked to see that the ambush from the hill seemed to have disappeared. Instead, they could see a Mud river and a few huge rocks floating in them.
The mud river killed the momentum of the Avalanche and the Rocks slowly slid down the hill through the river.
At that time, the 3rd wave of bandits emerged from the forest. However, they were blocked by 4 meters of ruined forest. The bandits couldn't move forward, but the ninja jumped over the ruined forest and grouped with the 10 ninjas, who had stopped over the ruined forest. From here, they could see all the blood and dead bandits and ninja on the plains.
Wagarashi Tomio, was shocked by this sight, 'What happened here?' He went towards the leader of the 2nd wave and asked him, "What happened? And where is Norio?" He was about to speak when he noticed one of the genins raise his sword, and swung it.
He was at the forefront of the 2nd wave, and he had noticed Fujin swing his sword earlier. He immediately shouted, "TAKE COVER!"
Wagarashi Tomio was surprised and looked at Fujin. He noticed a wave approaching them, and he noticed all ninjas from the 1st and 2nd wave scurry around.
Of the 6 alive ninjas from the first wave, only 1 was relatively uninjured. He quickly dug a hole and went underground.
The remaining 2 one-eyed ninjas ran backward in fear. While the 3 who were blinded had already lost consciousness.
The sword slash ended up killing the 3 blinded ninjas as well as the 2 ninjas who ran away.
The remaining 20 ninjas who were in the ruined forest gathered together. The leader of the 2nd wave shouted at Tomio, "Quickly use Earth wall jutsu! Make it as big and thick as you can!"
Tomio was displeased, 'Why is he shouting at me and commanding me?' However, he could sense the fear in his shout and quickly used Earth Wall jutsu. All the 20 ninjas took cover behind it.
While they were taking cover, Hoka used Byakugan and looked for the 2 ninjas who went underground. He quickly made hand signs, 'Stone spear jutsu' and ambushed them underground. Neither could react and were stabbed to death.
Renjiro focused on the 20 ninjas hiding behind the wall. He smirked and punched the ground in front of him. At the same time, Fujin swung his sword once again. The punch released Earth Release : Ground Shockwave jutsu. It traveled faster than Fujin's slash and hit the earth wall just a few seconds before Fujin's first slash reached it. It caused the erected Earth wall to collapse!
The ninjas, who finally had a sense of security, were dumbfounded.
2 Ninjas from the 2nd wave immediately began creating hand signs to go underground.
The others from the 2nd wave quickly tried climbing on the fallen trees behind them and jumping high up. Unfortunately 2, in panic, stepped on very weak branches and lost their footing. The ones from the 3rd wave didn't understand the urgency and were slow to react. Only Tomio, sensing their panic, jumped back and quickly created a Rock shield as he didn't have enough time to create an Earth Wall. 3 ninjas from the 3rd wave hid behind Tomio.
Fujin's slash reached them. It first hit the ninja who was trying to go underground but couldn't complete his hand signs. Then it hit 3 ninjas from the 3rd wave who didn't take it seriously. 1 ninja was cut into 2. While the other 2 were hit by the accompanying winds which left deep cuts all over them.
The winds then hit the two who had lost their footing, causing them to bleed all over. And next, it hit the remaining 4 ninjas from the 3rd wave, leaving them with similar, but slightly less severe injuries.
Right when the ones who had jumped high up were about to fall, the 2nd slash arrived. This ended up killing or maiming everyone other than the 4 who were hiding behind multiple Rock shields built by Wagarashi Tomio and the one who was hiding underground.
Seeing the result, Fujin said, "I don't think that the remaining 5 will die from this attack."
Mieko replied, "That's good. I want to fight" and flickered towards them. Hoka followed her.
Renjiro said, "Fujin, look after the merchants." And he flickered behind those 2.
A/N - Stopped it here... I initially didn't have Renjiro create a clone in the previous chapter, that's why no mention was there in this initial draft...]
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