"Raikage-sama!" A ninja barged into A's office with a shout and kneeled on one knee as the man was valiantly battling a budget report, interrupting his efforts to deal it a critical blow. It caused his pen to veer off its course and make a jagged line across the paper, ruining it.
A's face went blank for a second. Then, his temper erupted, and his face went red as he shot to his feet, pushing his chair back with a loud screech as he slammed his hands onto his table. Giving the ninja one of his trademark death glares, he shouted, "What!? The village better be burning, or I will use you for a bench press exercise!"
The ninja recoiled, but experience prevailed, and he quickly pushed the spike of fear to the side as he saluted and gave his report, "The Zone Sixty Nine was breached, sir! All prisoners are missing!"
Hearing that, A's eyes widened in fury mixed with bewilderment. "Missing like... they are no longer there?" He tensely asked in a dumbfounded voice.
The ninja ducked his head, "Yes, sir. Missing like they are no longer there." He blankly replied.
The initial surprise quickly dissipated, and A's face darkened. With a blunt, "Dismissed," he flickered out of the room, leaving only a few sparks of lightning in his wake and one kneeling ninja.
An arc of lightning streamed above Kumogakure, weaving in between the mountain peaks in a zig-zag pattern at speeds that even many chunin had a hard time noticing. As it reached its destination, it rushed toward the ground, followed by the sound of intense electrical chirping, but before it could land, it transformed into the Raikage, letting him land in front of a sizeable group of ninjas who were gathered around the entrance to the mountain peak that held the Zone Sixty Nine and several other important facilities.
"Somebody give me a proper report!" A shouted as he started walking toward the entrance like an angry bull, his fists clenched.
The surrounding ninjas suddenly quieted down as they noticed his presence, before they returned to their jobs with even bigger urgency now that the boss could see them. A lanky man with an alarmed expression, however, got in A's way, spreading his arms to the sides and barring him entry. A growled as he towered over the man.
Fortunately for the brave soul, he gulped down his fear and spoke fast enough that A didn't have the time to act on his sudden urge to punch him into a blood splatter due to his bad mood, "A-sama! You can't go inside! It's contaminated by a strong poison!"
A blinked and looked around, noticing several medical ninja tents raised on the side, furrowing his eyebrows. With a gruff huff, he gave the man something between a grateful and dismissive look before he abruptly turned on his heel and walked toward the tents.
The lanky chunin let out a relieved sigh as he hurried up to follow him, intending to fulfill his earlier order as he started rambling the important information about what had happened here.
"Approximately thirty minutes ago, patrols around the area noticed that something was wrong. They reported it and went to investigate. When they failed to report back, an alarm was raised, and proper authorities were notified. Twenty minutes ago, an ANBU team went in, and we lost contact with them. Two more teams followed, until the last one finally managed to get back."
The Raikage entered the tent, only to recoil as he noticed several medical ninja in protective suits trying to keep a thrashing man restrained to the bed. The man's face was graying pale, and blood was leaking out of his eyes as if he was crying it while he was screaming himself hoarse in intense pain. Black dots marred the skin of his face. His lips were pitch black, and a foam was leaking from the corner of his mouth as he was trying to lash out with his nails or bite at the men restraining him.
"That... happened to them." The lanky ninja behind the Raikage gravely said. "Please, don't approach them. The first group that did so got scratched or bitten, and, well, we learned that's how the poison afflicting them can spread." He quietly added in a pained tone as he looked at a particular bed where a young woman with features similar to his was rasping in her dying throes, her fingers still twitching as if she wanted to keep lashing out, but she had no more strength.
If Ren were here, he would probably deeply regret sharing zombie stories with Hinata.
A turned his head and looked across the beds full of feral, greyish-pale ninja crying blood with black marks all over them. "The fuck?" He muttered under his nose, secretly horrified. His head snapped toward the lanky man, and his eyes narrowed. "Is it contagious?" He urgently barked out.
Relief flooded him when the lanky ninja, fortunately, shook his head and spoke, "Only through scratches and bites as far as we know. The poison is not spreading outside of the facilities, but going in is still hazardous. I would recommend cleansing the scene with fire ninjutsu first."
"But that's going to destroy most clues and the research materials in adjacent facilities." A reluctantly thought out loud, not liking the situation at all. Closing his eyes for a second, he resolutely nodded, "Do whatever it takes to stop it! We can't take the chance in case it starts spreading."
Sighing, A decided to change the topic and leave this matter in the hands of his medical ninjas, who knew about the containment of poison more than he did. "What are the current casualties?"
The lanky ninja motioned with a nod toward another man to the side who was listening to them, and he quickly exited the tent and went to relay the orders to use the fire ninjutsu.
Then the lanky ninja turned toward the Raikage, "We lost thirty-six Jonin, ninety-two chunin, and seventeen genin alongside forty-seven civilian researchers." He reported, and A gritted his teeth.
Those were sizable losses. Especially since the facilities sharing the mountain peak with Zone Sixty Nine were valuable research laboratories, all of which were now contaminated, and their personnel were dead.
Losing his ninjas was nothing new to A. He could accept it if their death served a purpose. But this? He lost nearly two hundred of his subordinates for nothing! How could he just accept that!?
"Do we at least have a clue or a description of the coward who caused this? Which village is responsible?" A ominously asked, hoping for a target to vent his rising anger.
"... I am sorry, sir." The lanky ninja bowed his head, "All possible witnesses died long before we even discovered that something was wrong, and nobody outside noticed anything suspicious."
A's expression twisted. "You want to tell me somebody waltzed into my village, spread poison in important military facilities, and somehow walked out with almost five hundred prisoners, and NOBODY NOTICED ANYTHING SUSPICIOUS!? HOW!?" A couldn't take it anymore. His temper erupted, and he shouted.
The lanky ninja noticed several tired medics giving him pleading looks. They already struggled restraining the infected, and Raikage's shouting was just aggravating their patients!
The lanky ninja wryly grimaced, "Raikage-sama..." He helplessly started, but A turned toward him and grabbed him by his shirt, lifting him into the air with a glare.
"Don't 'Raikage-sama' me! Go and order the village to be closed down, for fucks sake! Nobody gets in or out! The culprit couldn't just disappear with five hundred people! They must be somewhere in Kumo! It's not as if they could tele...po...rt." A trailed off with a sudden look of realization and put the poor lanky man back on his feet.
An image of a man wearing a black cloak with red clouds made of paper glued to it and sporting a disgustingly orange ANBU mask went through his head as he remembered that he did see him teleport.
But before he could think about it more, another ninja hurriedly entered the tent and kneeled down, "Reporting, Raikage-sama! We have an emergency. Several dozen of our ninjas of all ranks suddenly started to commit suicide in their houses, on the streets, at the gate, in their workplace... everywhere! We discovered traces of genjutsu in them! The final number of victims is not clear as of yet."
A took a step back and had to tense his muscles to prevent himself from swaying on his feet as he realized what that meant. His entire village was compromised. They will have to do a village-wide sweep and check everybody for subtle delayed genjutsu, wasting at least a week of time and a lot of money to pay for it.
This was yet another disaster!
A's fist clenched so tightly that his muscles and veins bulged out, and through his gritted teeth, he quietly growled, "A-ka-tsu-ki! You will pay for this!"
He was almost certain that the freak with red clouds had something to do with this! Teleportation was the only way to get five hundred people out of the village without anybody noticing, and it was a very rare skill. He could count the number of people capable of it on two hands with fingers to spare, and that was if he included the dead ones.
He knew only one person who could teleport. And coincidentally, that bastard had a bone to pick with him!
Just then, a booming explosion resounded outside the tent, deafening the entire village. The Raikage stumbled, and before he could regain his clarity, another explosion boomed through the village. And then another. And another.
Three more followed until it was over, and by the end of it, A's throat went dry in worry as he shouted, "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON NOW!?"
He didn't yet know that all the major armories in his village had just been suicide bombed by his own genjutsu'd ninjas.
Chaos swept through Kumogakure with its ninjas running around like headless chickens. Kumo, the currently militarily strongest of the five hidden villages, had suffered quite a setback in its war preparations.