[ Sevudia, Eastern Continent | Near an enemy outpost ]
[ 11th Imperial Brigade | Operation Bright Fire ]
[ A collab between @RoranHawkins , @Autumn Song , @RedFox and @Lesli ]
[ Operation Bright Fire involves various squads descending from the hidden encampment of the 11th Imperial Brigade, to take out a suspicious enemy outpost. A small unit involved is underneath the leadership of Aiko, who provides leadership to a squad of genin. However, what seems to be a simple mission turns out to become much more difficult with each passing minute. ]
[ Part 3]
[ Previous Post ]
Loud explosions rang through the night. The flashes of the violent occurrence rocked the world briefly. Dust and small pieces of debris were flung high into the air before screams of wounded pierced through. As the dust settled slowly, it became clear that half of the patrol was wounded - to the point that a few were laying in a puddle of their blood.
The motion of the wounded were odd but it was clear that they couldn't fight back in their current state - except clearly begging for aid or an end to their agonizing pain.
The ringing that caused the headache also seemed to be gone - effectively ridding Mamoru of his mysterious and sudden headache.
A sudden snap of a branch would perhaps Hylli and Mamoru as a red cloaked figure moved from the flank. Armed with a set of hooked blades, the Red Cloak made an attempt to slash Hylli at her right - a trace of blue chakra tracing his weapons.
Watching the explosions shred the patrol apart, Hylli released a sigh out of relief. Still crouched, she leaned slightly forwards. Hopefully, they could now regroup properly and discuss what to do next.
Turning her head, Hylli heard the snap of a branch. Her eyes widened as she quickly turned her body towards the sound. Spotting a red cloaked figure coming at her, Hylli drew a knife in each hand and attempted to parry.
Pain shot through her arm as she felt the edge of the enemy's blade graze her skin. It was a hot sensation that was most unpleasant. Jumping backwards, Hylli eyed the new opponent. The distinct red cloak and straw hat seemed so out of place. Noticing the blades cloaked in chakra, Hylli took a defensive stance.
"I am fucked," She thought to herself, trying to come up with a plan to get away from this foe.
As suddenly as it appeared, the headache was gone. He allowed himself a second to catch his breath and stood up, his head still ringing a bit - but at least he could think now. His ears were filled with several explosions. He pushed the thought about Tenko being caught in them and looked over the area this skirmish was taking place in. He thought he saw torches gathering above the area where his explosive tag wrapped kunai were. He wanted to explode them but had too little information about their surroundings, and he really didn't want to blow up his teammates.
Noticing that Hideko was still nowhere to be seen, something else caught his attention. Hylli was engaged in close quarters combat with one of the Red Cloaks. Gritting his teeth as he stood up, he leaped from a nearby branch, maneuvering himself behind the back of the Red Cloaks and hopefully into Hylli's field of vision. Unsheathing Oak, he leaped from the branch, blade above his head - hoping Hylli saw him, and that the Cloaks would be in the correct position.
A large explosion occurred just when she entered the fray as if to say 'tadaa! She was
here. Still, it was painfully loud, and the moment she heard the screaming of men, clearly in pain, she winced. That could be
her. Paying no mind to her thoughts, or so she hoped, she sped along the battlefield towards the pit she had dug initially. After retracing her steps, she found it! She looked around and saw a figure she knew.
Hylli! She thought, and went towards her. She was about to call out her name, when she noticed the Red Cloak she was fighting against.
Oh shit… She thought, and began making handseals to perform an Earth release Rock Armour on both of her hands. Hopefully he couldn't see her nor hear her, for she, as always, mentioned the name of her technique out loud before doing it. Once complete, she charged in with all the fury that a reckless teenager that was also afraid of death could muster.
The Red Cloaked enemy seemed to tilt his head, his body language betraying even in the dark that the figure was about to start his assault. The blue chakra surrounding the blades started to hiss audibly. Suddenly the Red Cloak started to spin as crescents of chakra soared towards the approaching Mamoru and Hideko.
Finishing his spin, the figure would end the motion with a downwards slash - unleashing another but bigger crescent of chakra towards Hylli.
Mentally cursing as the Red Cloaks literally spun into action, Mamoru braced for the coming attack. He poured his chakra into his blade and a thin coat surrounded the blade, the best he could do in such a short span of time. By the time he launched his arc of chakra, the one launched by the Red Cloak was travelling toward him. The two arcs collided and the one Mamoru launched was easily overwhelmed by the opposing one. He managed to grit his teeth before the impact. His armour protected his torso, legs and arms from most of the damage, but it still made him feel a dull sensation of pain.
Her rock armour was only complete on one of her fists when the first attack came in. Her previous sensei had been right after all. In the real world most attacks came in long before she had a response ready. Well, unfortunately for her she didn't have time to think about what she was doing. She tried blocking it with her newfound rock-armoured hand, and then went on the counter attack with what remained of that jutsu.
"Just. Die?"" She said in a confusing mix of desperation and wishful thinking.
For a split second it seemed that the tables had turned; the Red Cloak was outnumbered and Hylli gained an inkling of hope that they could prevail without any sort of loss. But their opponent's reaction already drove them all into the defense.
Even seeing the attack coming, Hylli took a second before she made the evasive maneuver - taking a dodge roll to the side.
Swiftly moving to her feet, she tried to conjure a plan on how they could perhaps deal with their current threat.
Not hesitating, the Red Cloak brought his weapons up again as a quick glance seemed sufficient for him that his attack had forced the three genin back into a defense. Softly, a chuckle could be detected as the figure spoke in the unknown language - utterly alien for the three genin.
Once more did the Red Cloak proceed to spin, unleashing another wave of chakra at the genin. However, instead of halting its spinning, the hooked blades would link together as the Red Cloak lashed out again. Instead of just an arc of chakra being send flying towards the genin, they now had to duck or move away as the extended hookblade would attempt to slice through them - the mixed sound of soaring steel and hissing chakra producing a terrible song.
Now it was her turn to strike, or so she hoped. The Red Cloak seemed to move at a pace that was too fast for a normal human. She would've found that incredible if she had the time to think about it. He swung his swords together in one motion and was suddenly doing the same motion again, but with double the reach. She didn't have enough time to dodge, as she just was too close. Nor did the thought of dodging ever appear in her mind. She acted purely on instinct, whether that be good or bad. Charging forwards, she brought her hand up for the second time that day in an attempt to block the energy-waves made by both swords. For the second time she managed to do just that. Only this time, there was a catch. For a second the situation was clear to her. Then the pain began. Overpowering waves of pain forced her to her knees, and Hideko, for the first time in her life, thought she was going to die.
Frustrated, Hylli wanted to go on the offensive. Tightening the grip on her knives, she had trouble to hold herself back as she observed her opponent. Once more, the Red Cloak swirled and threw sharp arcs of chakra at them.
Only this time, Hylli would lower herself to avoid getting hit. Yet as she rose up, the Hyuzu pushed herself forwards. Shifting the knife in her right hand, her aim was to prevent the Red Cloak from continuing into another spin.
"Oh fuck," went through Hylli's mind. She was already too late to halt herself as the scene in front of her unfolded. Hideko catching the enemy's and with her motion downwards brought the blades of the opponent down. It was uncertain how badly Hideko was wounded by her attempt or how deep the blade of the enemy had bitten into her ally.
Pressing on, Hylli simply aimed to slam the point of her knife into the man's neck - wanting to use her weight and motion to drive the man backwards, hopefully digging her weapon deeper.
"Mamoru!," Hylli yelled as she started to also swing her second hand in a jab, hoping that if her attacks didn't mortally wound their foe that Mamoru could perhaps attack from the back.
The feeling of sand being flung at his face at high left him with a rather unpleasant feeling. Quickly regaining his bearing, he noticed that he had another threat to solve. A hookblade attempting to slice him in two was now aimed at him. Mamoru instinctively swung down with Oak and managed to deflect the blade. The silver lining in this was that the Red Cloak was pinned in place. Thanks to Hylli's and Hideko's efforts, and partially his way of attacking, he was still motionless - and now partially exposed. As he was landing, he brought Oak in a single handed swing, aimed to slice at the Red Cloak from his legs through his back.
Blood flowed violently from the deep gash caused by Mamoru's weapon. A loud grunt escaped the Red Cloak, whose facial features betrayed his frustration and fear of dying - his eyes widening as the sudden pain from Mamoru's attack caused him to weaken. As a result, Hylli's jabs weren't being held back, the steel knife effortlessly slicing through the clothing and flesh. Despite still attempting to throw a defence against the stab in the neck, the pain proved too much for the Red Cloak.
As soon as the genin were done with their attacks, the Red Cloak sank to his knees. His lips parted but a wheeze only escaped before he fell forward, gurgling sounds escaping him before he became silent and motionless.
Adrenaline pulsed through her veins, and as she saw the Red Coal going down, she
felt that through their newfound
connection. She tried seeing clearly, but there was something in her eye, and then when she instinctively tried to wipe that away she gasped for breath, as her hand was still wounded and attached. She wiped away the tears with her left hand and now she could see. The handguard of the second sword has penetrated her hand almost entirely! Heck, it was
through her hand! She tried moving her hand, and another wave of pain hit her. Hideko decided that it was best to not move her struck hand, and use her left hand to support the right. Finally, she looked up at Hylli and Mamoru, tears still on her cheeks, as if she realised that they were also here for the first time.
"My hand is cut." She said bleakly.
Mamoru stood over the downed Red Cloak, his hands visibly shaking. His mind was tearing itself apart at the parting wheeze of their now deceased enemy. He gave a brief look to Hylli, then turned to Hideko. Tears present on her face, Mamoru was shocked again. Nodding back at Hylli, he turned back to Hideko. He wanted to say something, something comforting, something calming - he was at a complete loss of words.
Another one! Another Red Cloak! His mind was screaming this out loud he raised his hand, suppressing the shaking in his hands. He tried to give her at least a brief, reassuring smile. His face burned up with pain, momentarily forgot about his own injury.
"Hideko. - you. Sorry. " That's all he managed to get out of himself. His mind screamed at him again and taking a deep breath, he forced himself to speak again.
"There's another one. Another Red Cloak. He won't be far."
Staring at the dying Red Cloak, Hylli wasn't sure what she felt. Accomplished? Content? Confused? Glancing at the bloodied knives and gloves Hylli then realised that was the first taste of real combat. Her attention then went back to the current situation. Turning to Hideko and her wounds, Hylli would quickly kneel next to the wounded girl.
"Just keep your hands like that, for now," Hylli instructed Hideko, her own voice a bit shaken,
"don't move your hands. We will fix you and it will be fine in no time," Hylli further stated, though she doubted if that would happen. Then Mamoru stated that there was another Red Cloak, which made Hylli throw a glance at the Senju.
"Stay on the lookout. I will try to address Hideko's wound. Perhaps we got lucky and they ran. Else we can try to dress this wound and try to fall back." Hylli said as she grabbed the bandage from a pouch.
"Okay, we will do this careful and slow, okay?" Hylli spoke further to Hideko.
"Just focus on me, Hideko. You did great, without you, I would have been split in fucking two. Just focus on me, yeah?"
A sound would likely cause the hairs of the genin to raise near instantly. A low rumbling sound resonated closely with such intensity that it seemed as if the Gods themselves decided to send something terrible forth to end the genin's suffering.
From the darkness, a large shadow started to move forwards. A pair of eyes, yellow in iris, seemed to observe the genin. The coat of smooth orange and black stripes made it clear what the beast was. However, the prowling tiger was much more massive than any ordinary one. Its upper lip moved, revealing a glimpse of sharp teeth - all meant for ripping flesh asunder.
If any of the genin had the guts or suicidal intent to face the larger creature, the second growl would keep them in place. The seconds that passed by seemed to come to a halt as the beast moved closer - despite the heavy weight and large size, it made barely any sound with its motions.
Out of nowhere, an arrow soared past the genin - narrowingly missing the cheek of Mamoru. The strangest event then seemed to take place as the arrow would seemingly hit an invisible wall. A soft grunt could be detected before the feline charged forwards, ignoring the genin, assaulting a Red Cloak that slowly would become visible. Cries of agony and pain would mix together with the large feline mauling the revealed opponent.
As the carnage would take place, a person would step out of the foliage. Pale blue eyes observed the three genin which seemed to be apathy. Only to glance back at the tiger ripping pieces of the screaming man. Raising a hand, the unknown figure seemed to signal something. Causing more figures to silently come forward out of the foliage. Despite their gear looking heavy and ornate, the figures approached the genin without producing much sounds.
One of the figures would briefly raise their gloved hands as they approached the genin closer. A whisper escaped the cloth that covered the lower part of their face.
"We are friends, no worries."
The voice spoke Taika but it had a distinct accent to it. The armoured figure then knelt next to Hideko as their eyes seemed to turn red, a distinct pattern visible.
"Just hold still, we will get you in order." The whisper now made it clear that it was a feminine voice as the woman started to apply a treatment with such confidence that betrayed experience and knowledge.
Other figures that had arrived would briefly scan the battleground between the three genin and the Rongese patrol. The figure that had appeared first would start an exchange with another, their whispers too soft for the genin to hear. But as soon as that exchange was done, one of the figures would whistle softly.
The one that was treating Hideko would briefly glance at Hylli and Mamoru before back at Hideko.
"You guys are coming with us. No worries, we will escort you back to camp. Just stay with us and things will be fine." The woman explained as she focused most of her attention on Hideko.
As none of the genin seemed to struggle against the group's guidance, they would be led through the darkness. It was unsure how far they had to walk before they came to a clearing. More figures in the same gear seemed to wait with a good number of horses. The genin would be guided towards the clearing and the other party. There a few of them would mount the horses as others helped the genin to sit with them on the animals.
Though now on horseback and surrounded, the woman of before spoke again with a friendly tone to the genin.
"We will be going at a slow pace. Don't worry, you three will be fine and enjoy a campfire soon."
Just as the woman finished her sentence, a soft whistle rang and the small company moved through the night - back to camp.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ride back to camp had gone rather fast. The familiar sounds of the war camp, the sight of the soldiers and shinobi that belonged to the 11th Imperial Brigade filled their sight again. None barred the way of the unknown riders and genin as they continued to head to the medic tents.
There the genin would be inspected and treated by a team of various medics. The treatment would go by painless and without any incident following. As the medics left, the canvas was held open by a figure.
"Ah, you guys," the woman of before with the distinct red eyes gazed upon the genin. This time her features were visible with the dim light, showing that she couldn't be older than thirty years old. Slowly the odd pupils in her eyes swirled and seemed to phase back to normal.
"Ï brought you guys some food as to answer possible questions," the armoured woman said as she placed down a tray with bread and what seemed to be a mix of cheese and salted, cold meat.
Taking a step back, the woman gestured to the plate as she then took a seat upon a stool.
"Not very often do we see genin taking down a Red Cloak." The woman said, the compliment likely just to spark more of an exchange between her and the genin.
How are we alive?
The young Senju kept asking this question in his mind over and over again. He still felt a slight tremble in his fingers as he thought back about the pair of yellow eyes.
And that roar, he thought with a shiver running down his spine. He was, without any doubt on his mind, certain that if it weren't for them to be allied units, he would have been dead by now. Or mutilated, captured, perhaps further tortured for Intel on their positions. He forced the thought out of his mind as he was treated, the pain he experienced from the moment the blade struck his face finally being soothed and his mind eased. He was not sure whether he will have a memorabilia from this mission or not, but decided not to ask. As they were approached by another armored figure who brought them something to eat, Mamoru realised that he was almost literally starving, but waited - he found it inappropriate to eat in such a situation. And he was too shy to be the first to grab a bite. As their host sat down and gave them a remark about taking down a Red Cloak, he uneasily squirmed and looked at his teammates. They were all visibly exhausted, but visibly more comfortable - at least heb thought so.
"We - we did it together. I - I'm not sure whether either of us could do it alone. I know I probably couldn't. Hylli and Hideko were - they were amazing. I - I." He looked at his comrades and nodded his head.
"I couldn't ask for finer company on this mission. Thank you." The last two words were barely audible and he gave a brief smile to their armored host, than looked at the ground.
Hylli remained silent. Grateful for the rescue, she couldn't help but to look at her hands. The sensation of blood of another person was unreal. And now that she was out of fighting for her life and the adrenaline rush was over, her mind came to the realisation of what they had done.
The arrival of the woman who had been friendly to them when they were out in the dark snapped Hylli briefly of her ponderings.Mamoru was the first to respond. It was all fine to Hylli. Half his words didn't register. The ponderings of before came back to haunt Hylli's mind for another brief moment.
"Yeah, thanks, you guys saved us." Hylli managed to bring out, an apologetic smile flowing on her lips.
"Thanks," she said as she viewed the food. But her stomach already resisted by the sight of it.
It'd taken a while for Hideko to stop panicking, and unfortunately, it had only gotten worse from there. The moment they 'released' the hooked sword from her hand was another point she'd rather forget, but once it was over, and properly bandaged, it was somehow better. She accompanied the group on the long trek back, and was, perhaps due to her bandage slipping, or just her consciousness slipping, not that much
there. Being wounded was quite funny, she had decided in hindsight, if it wasn't for the pain. Oh, man, the pain was not worth it.
But there was the camp and she was led towards a medic's tent. She formerly had decided that the medic's tents were scary, but now, she saw their uses. Not everyone died in the hospital. Only some of them did, which made her feel a bit better about seeing a medical nin work on her wounded hand.
Oh boy that feels weird! But, now that her mind was almost functioning correctly, so did the confusion she'd felt back from when she was reapproaching the fight appear. She turned into herself for a moment while the medical nin wrapped up his tools, telling her to be careful next time.
When the medics left, they were left alone for a second, before that lady who had rescued them joined them, preventing her from offering her apologies to the team. Nevertheless, the lady with the red eyes had food with her, and suddenly she realised that she was dying for a snack. Or two. She thanked the Gods above and below, and dove into the food. Especially the cheese, uncommon in her hometown, was met with great surprise to the genin. Now if she'd also hidden some fruit juice, then her craving for food a meal would be over as soon as it started.
"Oh." She remarked as she was gobbling the food. She swallowed first, and then took a moment to take a breath.
"Yeah. Definitely. We would be gone without you." Hideko said, until a question appeared in her mind.
"Oh, actually. Who are you?"