Minato was already awake, had taken a bath and was fully dressed before the sun rose. He was now seated comfortably with Nara Tekka, a map laid open between them on which they planned their next move or rather, their next series of moves as the Nara shinobi formulated incredibly brilliant strategies that anticipated much of their enemies possible actions. Their main goal was to navigate their way to the battlefield where Konoha's main army was engaging the Iwagakure shinobi and provide much needed support as Konoha had found themselves severely outnumbered. Tekka had already crafted a movement pattern that would allow their small team to elude any shinobi that would stand in their way with minimal effort. Nothing less should be expected from a Nara.
“That should do it.” Tekka commented as he rolled up the map and Minato responded with a nod.
“We move out now.” the blonde team leader ordered loud enough for every one in the camp to hear. “Pack up everything and leave no trace.”
The team scurried through the rocky terrain of Iwagakure on nimble feet, silent as wraiths as they made their way towards the front lines. Minato sped forward with Kushina following closely beside him at his left while Nara Tekka flanked him on the right. The Nara had planned the perfect formation for their movement: Inuzuka Hi proceeding at the forefront along with Kakashi in other for both to be able to alert the team of any danger percieved by their noses. They were followed by Obito and Rin as per Minato's request that they stayed at the front under his watchful eye so he could better ensure their safety and then followed by the Nara, Kushina and Minato. Tekka had also suggested that Minato stayed close to Kushina, the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki so that the valuable Konoha asset would be well protected and the Nara opted to remain close to Minato in order to help with formulating strategy if they were attacked. Following closely behind Minato, Tekka and Kushina, were the remaining two medics in their team, also moving in close proximity to the team leader to be better protected as enemies usually attacked medics first. Behind the medics were Kato and a shinobi of Hyuga descent. The Hyuga, who made use of the nearly all seeing Byakugan was awarded the duty of scouting and alerting his team of any threats and Kato's Sharingan which had to ability to see anything in great detail and track fast moving objects, was to alert them of any incoming attacks that his eye perceived and also dispel any troublesome genjutsu that they might unknowingly fall prey to. Lastly, an Akimichi shinobi was at the tail of their formation.
They surged forward for hours at a stretch, completely uninterrupted by hidden traps or any battles. They stopped to rest and regain their strength when only when they felt their pace reducing against their will due to fatigue. Kushina procured bottles of water for each of them, having previously sealed these items before they left Konoha. She had been thorough in her preparation of supplies, storing away water after having been informed of the absence of rivers or streams in these parts of Iwagakure. The medics also proffered energy supplements to prepare them for the journey ahead at the battle that awaited them at the front lines.
Everyone of them with the exception of Minato's students had fought at the front lines on one occasion or the other. Minato held the most experience which was strange considering his age but understandable when one took his standing in the shinobi world to heart. They had all returned from these intense battle experiences with a variety of tales to tell. Some gruesome, some interesting, some inspiring and some just downright funny but mostly, their stories were blood soaked and filled with horror. They all dreaded returning to that scene, the bloody stage where shinobi laid their lives on the line for their village against other shinobi, which was why a tense silence lingered over them throughout their entire journey. Everyone had turned their attention inwards as they prepared their hearts and minds for what laid ahead of them.
Their break was short and they quickly resumed the journey. Each individual carried himself or herself towards the intense battle that could very well be their last.
“We'll be there in about ten minutes.” Minato announced, his tone even, as he pressed forward in tandem with the entire team. At this point, the shinobi with more sensitive noses could perceive the thick, heavy and irritating smell of blood. Their hearts began to beat faster in their chests all of a sudden as every step they took brought them closer to the battlefield. Obito and Rin exchanged nervous looks in silence, both trying to find comfort in each other eyes, a wasted effort as the fear and tension they felt did not ease up.
They were all now close enough to hear the indistinct battle cries of the ninja who were engaged at the front lines. The unpleasant melody was mixed in with the periodic screech of metal as shinobi weapons seemed to clash endlessly and the unmistakable roar of various ninjutsu attacks. They could not yet see the battle that raged on since it was been fought on the other side of the steep mountain they were ascending. Their feet took them higher and higher up the mountain, each of them aware of the prospect of death that awaited them on the other side.
Minato drew air into his lungs and exhaled deeply, they were now seconds away from the fierce battle. His eyes shifted between Kakashi, Rin and Obito. Each of them, to him, were the future of Konoha and thus the most important lives on his twelve man team. Something would have to be done to ensure their safe return from the day's battle. It was already a hour past noon. The blonde team leader predicted that the battle would last for thirty more minutes to an hour, depending on how well Nara Tekka's plan worked out. The Nara had formulated a strategy that, if successful, would ensure complete victory with the least possible casualties. Minato sighed; hardly did such elaborate plans work out perfectly but he was willing to hope against hope, if, for anything, that the lives of his students would be ensured if all thing worked in their favour. He sucked in his teeth just as he and his team came to a halt at the mountain's peak, now able to see the raging battle clearly with their eyes.
The bloodshed was brutal. Corpses, marred by any number of ghastly wounds, laid motionless in pools of their own blood across the rocky terrain and yet they escaped everyone's notice. Every shinobi present simply continued to attack and defend against their enemies, completely indifferent to the lifeless bodies of friends, comrades and loved ones that were scattered at their feet. It was inhumane. The battlefield was a portrait of man reduced to his most basic and primal instinct; survival.
As Tekka has planned, they joined the fray from behind Iwagakure's side of the battlefield not Konoha's. This put them in perfect position to launch an ambush on the Iwa foes as the enemies literally had their backs turned to them. Each member of the team, with the exception of Minato, immediately obtained a scroll from their backpacks. Each scroll looked exactly the same and were simultaneously unrolled to reveal identical contents as well: Each scroll contained the jutsu formula for a sealing technique. They each lifted their scrolls above their heads, holding the edges of the paper with their two hands and having the side marked with a sealing formula pointed skywards. Minato formed a single hand seal and weapons began to fire from the surface of the scrolls in small white clouds of smoke. The projectiles fired off endlessly from the pieces of parchment upwards and rained down on Iwa's side of the battlefield. After nearly a minute of continuous lanching, the scrolls were emptied and ceased to release weapons. This was the first phase of their plan.
As the Iwa shinobi closely observed the nature of the showers of kunai that rained down aimlessly and unrelenting on them, they realised in horror just who had deigned to make a sudden appearance on the blood soaked battlefield. The powerful Konoha shinobi who haunted their nightmares ever since they heard of his entry into the Earth Country and had subsequently claimed victory against their leader Onoki in a fight. The shinobi who easily wiped out large battalions of ninja using nothing but irregularly shaped kunai combined with a speed that could be described as beyond inhumane. The harbinger of death who wielded a jutsu which emitted a bright yellow radiance that spelled doom for any of his foes. Yes, without a doubt, the Yellow Flash of Konoha had appeared on the scene.
“Arrgh!” sounded the cry of yet another Iwa shinobi as Minato delivered an instantaneous killing blow to his heart and vanished in a yellow flash. The blonde continued to transport himself to various points of the battlefield and easily dispatched any Iwa ninja who was unlucky enough to be in close proximity to where he appeared. Things seemed to be going rather well for Konoha as the Iwa opposition quickly dwindled in numbers. As Nara Tekka predicted, Iwagakure soon gave the signal for their troops to retreat.
Tekka had surmised that the sudden confusion sparked by the appearance of the Yellow Flash would lead to a strategic retreat on Iwa's side. An assumption that was just proven correct. To retreat, the Iwa shinobi would have to turn around and flee the battlefield, thus facing the direction where Minato's team stood as they launched the blonde's kunai into the battlefield earlier. It wasn't ideal for a team of eleven shinobi to have to face a retreating army comprising of thousands of Iwagakure warriors but Tekka and the team's last member Minato had a plan.
The earth shook as a result of the thunderous footsteps of the approaching army of Iwa nin and Obito's stomach clenched at this. The young Chuunin gulped in raw fear and willed himself to hold his battle stance, tightening his grip on the kunai in his hand. The rest of the team were rather unfazed by the incoming horde of enemies as the Akimichi amongst them quickly obtained a scroll and hurriedly unrolled it, positioning the parchment on the ground before him. He obtained a vial of blood and released its crimson contents onto the scroll before he slammed his palm on the parchment. “Kuchiyose no jutsu.” he intoned. A large cloud of smoke signalled the appearance of the red skinned massive toad Boss Gamabunta along with another behemoth toad with red skin as well who weilded a spherical shield and a black two pronged blunt spear. The Akimichi sank to his knees, having used a substantial portion of his chakra to complete the summoning.
Now the Iwagakure forces were faced with two disturbingly difficult problems: One was speedy Minato on one side of the battlefield. The blonde was quickly reducing their numbers through the use of his terrifying Flying Thunder God Technique, even as they tried desperately to flee the battle. The other was the sudden appearance of two behemoth amphibians, both jointly positoned as a veritable wall to hinder their retreat on the other side of the battlefield. They were now effectively boxed in.
Gamabunta unleashed a torrent of oil to the ground before him from his lips. The black sludge traced a straight line on the earth in front of the toad which ran from his right to his left. Kato quickly leapt atop the toad and exhaled fire from his mouth onto the oil, igniting it and setting it ablaze. The inferno was not directed at the approaching Iwagakure ninja but rather at the earth, creating a massive wall of fire, even larger than the summoned toads, to ensure that the Iwa ninja would be unable to leave the battlefield and so would have to remain and taste the full wrath of the Yellow Flash. This was the second phase of their plan.
The toads sat ominously, on one side of the blazing wall of fire that separated them from the Iwa ninja. Thick clouds of smoke already trailed skywards from the flames, inclined to the direction of the horde of Iwa ninja by prevailing winds, another factor the Nara strategist of Minato's team took into account. The flames would prevent any forward movement on the part of the enemy shinobi and the smoke, wafted in the direction of the Iwa ninja, would threaten suffocation to any one of them who dared approach the blaze. Both factors would make it completely impossible for them to escape. Also, they didn't have to worry about the fire dying out since the battlefield was near a mountain top meaning much wind to continually fuel the inferno and no possibility of rain to douse it since the climate of the Earth Country was mostly dry and scarcely was the land watered by rainfall especially at that time of the year.
Everything seemed to be proceeding as they had carefully planned. Nara Tekka welled up with pride and self contentment as the work of his calculations, estimations, forethought and genius played out before his eyes. While much of the plan depended on the Yellow Flash's efforts, he took great satisfaction in the fact that he was the one who had orchestrated such an organised use of the blonde's incredibly potent abilities. With that thought in mind, he prepare to implement the last phase of their plan.
“That should do it.” Tekka commented as he rolled up the map and Minato responded with a nod.
“We move out now.” the blonde team leader ordered loud enough for every one in the camp to hear. “Pack up everything and leave no trace.”
The team scurried through the rocky terrain of Iwagakure on nimble feet, silent as wraiths as they made their way towards the front lines. Minato sped forward with Kushina following closely beside him at his left while Nara Tekka flanked him on the right. The Nara had planned the perfect formation for their movement: Inuzuka Hi proceeding at the forefront along with Kakashi in other for both to be able to alert the team of any danger percieved by their noses. They were followed by Obito and Rin as per Minato's request that they stayed at the front under his watchful eye so he could better ensure their safety and then followed by the Nara, Kushina and Minato. Tekka had also suggested that Minato stayed close to Kushina, the Nine Tails Jinchuuriki so that the valuable Konoha asset would be well protected and the Nara opted to remain close to Minato in order to help with formulating strategy if they were attacked. Following closely behind Minato, Tekka and Kushina, were the remaining two medics in their team, also moving in close proximity to the team leader to be better protected as enemies usually attacked medics first. Behind the medics were Kato and a shinobi of Hyuga descent. The Hyuga, who made use of the nearly all seeing Byakugan was awarded the duty of scouting and alerting his team of any threats and Kato's Sharingan which had to ability to see anything in great detail and track fast moving objects, was to alert them of any incoming attacks that his eye perceived and also dispel any troublesome genjutsu that they might unknowingly fall prey to. Lastly, an Akimichi shinobi was at the tail of their formation.
They surged forward for hours at a stretch, completely uninterrupted by hidden traps or any battles. They stopped to rest and regain their strength when only when they felt their pace reducing against their will due to fatigue. Kushina procured bottles of water for each of them, having previously sealed these items before they left Konoha. She had been thorough in her preparation of supplies, storing away water after having been informed of the absence of rivers or streams in these parts of Iwagakure. The medics also proffered energy supplements to prepare them for the journey ahead at the battle that awaited them at the front lines.
Everyone of them with the exception of Minato's students had fought at the front lines on one occasion or the other. Minato held the most experience which was strange considering his age but understandable when one took his standing in the shinobi world to heart. They had all returned from these intense battle experiences with a variety of tales to tell. Some gruesome, some interesting, some inspiring and some just downright funny but mostly, their stories were blood soaked and filled with horror. They all dreaded returning to that scene, the bloody stage where shinobi laid their lives on the line for their village against other shinobi, which was why a tense silence lingered over them throughout their entire journey. Everyone had turned their attention inwards as they prepared their hearts and minds for what laid ahead of them.
Their break was short and they quickly resumed the journey. Each individual carried himself or herself towards the intense battle that could very well be their last.
“We'll be there in about ten minutes.” Minato announced, his tone even, as he pressed forward in tandem with the entire team. At this point, the shinobi with more sensitive noses could perceive the thick, heavy and irritating smell of blood. Their hearts began to beat faster in their chests all of a sudden as every step they took brought them closer to the battlefield. Obito and Rin exchanged nervous looks in silence, both trying to find comfort in each other eyes, a wasted effort as the fear and tension they felt did not ease up.
They were all now close enough to hear the indistinct battle cries of the ninja who were engaged at the front lines. The unpleasant melody was mixed in with the periodic screech of metal as shinobi weapons seemed to clash endlessly and the unmistakable roar of various ninjutsu attacks. They could not yet see the battle that raged on since it was been fought on the other side of the steep mountain they were ascending. Their feet took them higher and higher up the mountain, each of them aware of the prospect of death that awaited them on the other side.
Minato drew air into his lungs and exhaled deeply, they were now seconds away from the fierce battle. His eyes shifted between Kakashi, Rin and Obito. Each of them, to him, were the future of Konoha and thus the most important lives on his twelve man team. Something would have to be done to ensure their safe return from the day's battle. It was already a hour past noon. The blonde team leader predicted that the battle would last for thirty more minutes to an hour, depending on how well Nara Tekka's plan worked out. The Nara had formulated a strategy that, if successful, would ensure complete victory with the least possible casualties. Minato sighed; hardly did such elaborate plans work out perfectly but he was willing to hope against hope, if, for anything, that the lives of his students would be ensured if all thing worked in their favour. He sucked in his teeth just as he and his team came to a halt at the mountain's peak, now able to see the raging battle clearly with their eyes.
The bloodshed was brutal. Corpses, marred by any number of ghastly wounds, laid motionless in pools of their own blood across the rocky terrain and yet they escaped everyone's notice. Every shinobi present simply continued to attack and defend against their enemies, completely indifferent to the lifeless bodies of friends, comrades and loved ones that were scattered at their feet. It was inhumane. The battlefield was a portrait of man reduced to his most basic and primal instinct; survival.
As Tekka has planned, they joined the fray from behind Iwagakure's side of the battlefield not Konoha's. This put them in perfect position to launch an ambush on the Iwa foes as the enemies literally had their backs turned to them. Each member of the team, with the exception of Minato, immediately obtained a scroll from their backpacks. Each scroll looked exactly the same and were simultaneously unrolled to reveal identical contents as well: Each scroll contained the jutsu formula for a sealing technique. They each lifted their scrolls above their heads, holding the edges of the paper with their two hands and having the side marked with a sealing formula pointed skywards. Minato formed a single hand seal and weapons began to fire from the surface of the scrolls in small white clouds of smoke. The projectiles fired off endlessly from the pieces of parchment upwards and rained down on Iwa's side of the battlefield. After nearly a minute of continuous lanching, the scrolls were emptied and ceased to release weapons. This was the first phase of their plan.
As the Iwa shinobi closely observed the nature of the showers of kunai that rained down aimlessly and unrelenting on them, they realised in horror just who had deigned to make a sudden appearance on the blood soaked battlefield. The powerful Konoha shinobi who haunted their nightmares ever since they heard of his entry into the Earth Country and had subsequently claimed victory against their leader Onoki in a fight. The shinobi who easily wiped out large battalions of ninja using nothing but irregularly shaped kunai combined with a speed that could be described as beyond inhumane. The harbinger of death who wielded a jutsu which emitted a bright yellow radiance that spelled doom for any of his foes. Yes, without a doubt, the Yellow Flash of Konoha had appeared on the scene.
“Arrgh!” sounded the cry of yet another Iwa shinobi as Minato delivered an instantaneous killing blow to his heart and vanished in a yellow flash. The blonde continued to transport himself to various points of the battlefield and easily dispatched any Iwa ninja who was unlucky enough to be in close proximity to where he appeared. Things seemed to be going rather well for Konoha as the Iwa opposition quickly dwindled in numbers. As Nara Tekka predicted, Iwagakure soon gave the signal for their troops to retreat.
Tekka had surmised that the sudden confusion sparked by the appearance of the Yellow Flash would lead to a strategic retreat on Iwa's side. An assumption that was just proven correct. To retreat, the Iwa shinobi would have to turn around and flee the battlefield, thus facing the direction where Minato's team stood as they launched the blonde's kunai into the battlefield earlier. It wasn't ideal for a team of eleven shinobi to have to face a retreating army comprising of thousands of Iwagakure warriors but Tekka and the team's last member Minato had a plan.
The earth shook as a result of the thunderous footsteps of the approaching army of Iwa nin and Obito's stomach clenched at this. The young Chuunin gulped in raw fear and willed himself to hold his battle stance, tightening his grip on the kunai in his hand. The rest of the team were rather unfazed by the incoming horde of enemies as the Akimichi amongst them quickly obtained a scroll and hurriedly unrolled it, positioning the parchment on the ground before him. He obtained a vial of blood and released its crimson contents onto the scroll before he slammed his palm on the parchment. “Kuchiyose no jutsu.” he intoned. A large cloud of smoke signalled the appearance of the red skinned massive toad Boss Gamabunta along with another behemoth toad with red skin as well who weilded a spherical shield and a black two pronged blunt spear. The Akimichi sank to his knees, having used a substantial portion of his chakra to complete the summoning.
Now the Iwagakure forces were faced with two disturbingly difficult problems: One was speedy Minato on one side of the battlefield. The blonde was quickly reducing their numbers through the use of his terrifying Flying Thunder God Technique, even as they tried desperately to flee the battle. The other was the sudden appearance of two behemoth amphibians, both jointly positoned as a veritable wall to hinder their retreat on the other side of the battlefield. They were now effectively boxed in.
Gamabunta unleashed a torrent of oil to the ground before him from his lips. The black sludge traced a straight line on the earth in front of the toad which ran from his right to his left. Kato quickly leapt atop the toad and exhaled fire from his mouth onto the oil, igniting it and setting it ablaze. The inferno was not directed at the approaching Iwagakure ninja but rather at the earth, creating a massive wall of fire, even larger than the summoned toads, to ensure that the Iwa ninja would be unable to leave the battlefield and so would have to remain and taste the full wrath of the Yellow Flash. This was the second phase of their plan.
The toads sat ominously, on one side of the blazing wall of fire that separated them from the Iwa ninja. Thick clouds of smoke already trailed skywards from the flames, inclined to the direction of the horde of Iwa ninja by prevailing winds, another factor the Nara strategist of Minato's team took into account. The flames would prevent any forward movement on the part of the enemy shinobi and the smoke, wafted in the direction of the Iwa ninja, would threaten suffocation to any one of them who dared approach the blaze. Both factors would make it completely impossible for them to escape. Also, they didn't have to worry about the fire dying out since the battlefield was near a mountain top meaning much wind to continually fuel the inferno and no possibility of rain to douse it since the climate of the Earth Country was mostly dry and scarcely was the land watered by rainfall especially at that time of the year.
Everything seemed to be proceeding as they had carefully planned. Nara Tekka welled up with pride and self contentment as the work of his calculations, estimations, forethought and genius played out before his eyes. While much of the plan depended on the Yellow Flash's efforts, he took great satisfaction in the fact that he was the one who had orchestrated such an organised use of the blonde's incredibly potent abilities. With that thought in mind, he prepare to implement the last phase of their plan.
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