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Blood waters (Chapter 19)
🕑 Added 2023-08-22 13:28:59 +0000 UTCChapter 19
Hold the line, they said. Utakata looked at the fifteen shinobi coming to them. Of course, the Cloud shinobi wouldn’t let them be. They rushed at Utakata and six Mist shinobi next to him. Utakata mended his chakra as much as possible. Then Utakata performed a sequence of hand seals as the enemy neared. A swirling vortex of water beneath his feet was generated and directed toward his targets.
The Cloud shinobi, instead of dodging it, used their lightning jutsu to pierce it. The water splashed everywhere as they neared them. The shinobi beside him quickly used their jutsu to stop them, but nothing worked. Four Cloud shinobi jumped toward Utakata as if seeing an opening, going for his head. Utakata smiled viciously at the sight and extended his hands, holding two tanto blades.
Just as the four shinobi extended their blades to cut Utakata down, Utakata pulled his arms back in a fast and strong motion. The four shinobi froze in mid-air, not able to move. Feeling the wires start to cut into his hands, Utakata used all his strength to pull back. The wires holding the shinobi in place cut into their skin and meat. Blood splattered on Utakata as four lifeless bodies dropped to the ground.
As the six Mist shinobi stopped the rest of the cloud shinobi, Utakata quickly went to help them to kill them all. After a year of fighting on this battlefield, Utakata has learned how to work with other Mist shinobi to kill their enemies more efficiently. Utakata would get the first eager Cloud shinobi with a trap, while his comrades would stop the rest before Utakata flanked them and got them from behind.
There were never survivors to tell the others of the tactic for it to fail. And like always, the cloud shinobi were soon under their feet, dead or dying. Utakata wasn’t particularly happy with it, as he knew only five of the fifteen shinobi were chunin level. The rest were at the genin level. He couldn’t be too proud of this, as if not for his sensing abilities, he would never be able to find weaker shinobi groups.
So far, it worked well. Whenever he was given a team to take a specific point, Utakata would use his sensing ability to find and ambush Cloud shinobi. But he couldn't choose his targets when he was defensive. So, he met teams of strong shinobi from time to time. While he survived using his tailed beast chakra to enchant his strength, most of his team couldn’t.
That is why most of the Mist shinobi feared or hated him. However, it was better if they feared him because then they would listen to him at least. But when a team was given to him who hated him, they would do everything to ignore him. It was frustrating how stupid they could get, but Utakata could do nothing about it and let them die as they wished it so much.
Once Utakata and his new team gathered the headbands of the Cloud shinobi and looted their bodies, they again took their positions to defend this position. Nobody can pass his line, was the orders given to them, so they will stay here until they are called back. It could be for a few days or a few weeks. Utakata buried his wires beneath the muddy ground, waiting for the next assault. He didn’t sense anyone coming, but the day was still early.
…
It was hard to wash dried-out blood from the hair. At least there was no water shortage as there was for everything else. After cleaning himself, Utakata tied his hair into a ponytail so it wouldn’t get into his eyes. After checking his clothes, Utakata sighed as he didn’t have any clothing that wasn’t worn out or ripped in places.
Supplies were running low as they will continue to. After all, they were in a foreign country. Supply lines were probably constantly attacked and didn’t manage to push through the cloud defenses. So, even though they still held their position, it was only getting worse each day. Weapons, food, medicine, and even clothing were running low. The best way to supply themselves was by looting the enemy corpses.
“This is hell,” Utakata muttered to himself as he looked at the pale reflection in the water.
There was no way to break through the cloud defenses. They have tried it for a year and failed it for a year. And unless the village tells them to retreat, they must stay here. But for how long will they be able to handle it? No reinforcements were coming. It was only a matter of time before the Cloud used their strongest to destroy them. Then the Mist will use him to try and stop them.
It was ridiculous. Utakata, not long ago, only learned how to use two tails stably. Mei Terumi was way stronger than him, not speaking of other commanders. But he could tell from how others looked at him that he wasn’t even considered human. To them, he was just a weapon to be used. He needed to get stronger but couldn’t increase his strength or chakra limits, no matter how much he tried. His body was still young and had limits, limits he had already reached.
Utakata found a nice place to eat dinner as he thought of the future. Without harming his body, the best thing he could do was learn a new jutsu he could use in battle. But there wasn’t anyone who would teach him, and he had already exhausted his money buying overpriced jutsu scrolls and other weapons from smugglers. As Utakata tried to think of a way to climb over the wall before him, he heard a commotion as people started talking suddenly.
“It can’t be. How could the Leaf defeat all the Seven Swordsmen?” Some asked in disbelief. “It has to be wrong. The enemy is lying to us to try to damper our morale.”
“The news came from headquarters,” Another one said. “It was confirmed that four of the Seven Swordsmen were killed while the rest had to retreat to the village.”
“Then the war with the Leaf is over. We have lost.”
Utakata could feel despair engulfing everyone. With one front lost, the Cloud will try to destroy them soon. They are probably more worried about the Leaf than the Mist, so they will now use everything to eliminate them before concentrating on the Leaf. Surviving the battlefield was hard, but it will soon be even worse.
“Utakata,”
Utakata turned to the person who called his name. He was one of the confidants of Mei. Utakata nodded and followed him to Mei’s command tent. There were other commanders inside, but he recognized only one man named Ao. He was an exceptional existence even in the village, as he was the only one in the world with a byakugan apart from the Hyuga clan. Of course, Utakata shouldn’t know it, so he didn’t give him more attention than needed.
“Good, you are here,” Mei said as she looked at Utakata. “As most of you have probably realized by now, our hold on this position is fragile, and the Cloud's relentless advance is inevitable.”
“And what is your plan, girl?” An old and grizzled commander asked.
“You will use me, won’t you?” Utakata asked as Mei looked at him instead of answering. He now knew why he was there.
“We need a distraction,” Mei Terumi didn’t even look apologetic. “If we want to hold out position, we need to push the Cloud shinobi out of their defensive positions.”
“Where do you want me?” Utakata asked, accepting his fate.
“In the middle of all of it,” Mei Terumi replied. “We will strike with the dawn. So, rest up as much as you can.”
As Utakata thought, in the end, it didn’t matter how well he performed. He was still a weapon for them to use. It was their last resort so Utakata couldn’t refuse. His time was better spent preparing for it than trying to talk them out of it. He could see that they didn’t think they could win, so they won’t hold anything back.
…
Anxiety, fear, despair, and many other emotions clouded Utakata’s mind as he prepared. Yet, like always, Utakata pushed all his feelings deep inside them and locked them up. He was a weapon. Weapons don’t feel. They kill until they break. Yagura’s words still echoed inside Utakata. Yagura probably knew Utakata’s fate from the moment they met.
“Heh, and I thought I wouldn’t let them use me as they wished,” Utakata chuckled at the absurdity of his naïve thinking. “If only there were a place to run away to.”
Wishful thinking. He should eradicate it immediately. The only way to live through this battlefield is to survive long enough for the Mist to push the Cloud back or for the Mist to be defeated. Utakata knew very well that nobody would be coming to save him. But it was what he should have expected. Nothing has changed ever since he joined the academy.
“Are you ready?” Mei Terumi waited for Utakata as the sun started to rise. Utakata didn’t reply and only glanced at Mei with empty eyes. “We need you to charge through them. They will surround you once you breach their defenses and try eliminating you. We will use their distraction to flank them. Even if we win, nobody will come to help you. You are on your own.”
“I always was on my own,” Utakata replied as he turned away from her to look at the distance where he was to go.
The air around him was still momentarily before chakra covered his body. Utakata pushed as much as he could of the six tails chakra out. A red cloak of chakra covered him, then a tail extended from him, then another, and finally the third. Utakata felt his bones creak under pressure, but he endured it, and, using all his strength, he leaped forward.
The ground cracked, and dust lifted with Utakata leaping immense distances. He wanted every shinobi from the Mist and the Cloud to see him. The three tails couldn’t be sustained in battle, but using them to run faster for a bit was fine. It didn’t take long for Utakata to reach the cliffs, the defensive line for the Cloud shinobi.
As soon as he sensed the shinobi before him, Utakata looked for the weakest link. He found a place where the chakra sources were the weakest and rushed towards that place. The Cloud shinobi tried to stop him, but Utakata ignored them. The shinobi were too weak and too slow to catch him. Their jutsu couldn’t hinder him while he was in three tailed chakra cloak.
As Utakata passed them, he didn’t turn to look back but continued on his path. He continued to move until he felt chakra ahead of him blocking his way. Behind him, dozens of shinobi were rushing to catch him, and more came from the sides. It was where he had to stop, but it wasn’t the end of him just yet. One tail from his chakra cloak disappeared as the shinobi neared him.
But there was one that got Utakata’s attention. Looking before him, he could feel a familiar chakra. A powerful and dangerous chakra. Utakata ignored all the other shinobi surrounding him and looked only in one direction, where a young girl, only three or four years older than him, was coming. Utakata immediately recognizes a fellow Jinchuriki.
“I have expected someone bigger daring to rush at us like this,” The girl said, looking at Utakata. “But you are nothing but a boy. I don’t think you came to challenge me as a fellow Jinchuriki. No, you were a distraction to give your invading bastards a chance at victory. But I will tell you now that you have sacrificed your life for nothing, boy.”
“Heh,” Utakata chuckled at his awful luck. Seeing as the girl never appeared on the battlefield before, it meant that she had arrived here not long ago or was stationed back just to interfere with another Jinchuriki. It was just Utakata’s bad luck to face her now. “Even so, that would only mean I have nothing to lose. And you should know, girl, that a person with nothing to lose is the most dangerous.”
