Finally, after the long wait, the sun set in the Land of Lightning, and night came. But there was no usual moonlight in the surroundings—the sky was covered with the ever-present storm clouds of the Land of Lightning.
With occasional bursts of lightning providing brief illumination from time to time, in the darkness of the clouds, many shadows were moving toward an outpost which could easily qualify as a fortress at first glance.
With more than 200 trained killers inside, it was probably one of the safest places in the world—not as much as a major village, but probably better than some minor villages. And the shadows had a clear goal of completely erasing that place from the map of the world.
As they crossed the final mountain and sparse vegetation in the area, they finally reached the clearing—a 2 Kotoamatsukami wide area around the outpost, which didn't have a single tree or small protrusion in the ground, almost like it was done by ninja rather than natural occurrence. Considering how easily Shisui's team had created a mountain much wider and larger than any natural one in the Land of Earth, this was totally a possible scenario, and doing this must have cost less than the array surrounding the outpost.
Aside from the array surrounding the outpost, there were also circles around it with densely packed arrays to stop anyone from passing through the ground. If the enemy used a Hiding in the Mole technique or something similar, then all of the preparation of leveling the ground around the outpost would be pointless.
But even Kumogakure with their over-the-top budgets couldn't cover all of the clearing in arrays. Not only would it be hellishly expensive, but even its maintenance would probably cost more than what a small ninja village would earn in a month.
Not the type of cost they would bear, so they had created something more economical—many concentric circles of arrays all around the base, hidden with concealment arrays. If someone actually tried something like that, the outpost would be notified about it in an instant.
Though Jiraiya didn't even have to come up with any counter for this. He just pointed out the location of the arrays, and the jonin dived into the ground.
Moving with uncanny speed while coming out of the ground for brief seconds to pass the arrays before diving back in—if Kaida were here, he would have likened it to a deadly game of 'Red Light, Green Light.' Only this time, instead of a doll calling out movements, the enemy's detection array meant instant death for most if not all of the teammates.
But nothing like that happened, and they reached their designated locations eventually, each sending a small signal to Jiraiya after reaching their position. Since they all had to move while making sure they didn't get noticed by the sentries in the watchtowers around the outpost, Jiraiya had taken the role of the center point of the initial attack.
After everyone reached their positions, Jiraiya gave them a minute to mentally prepare themselves before passing his chakra into a tag.
All thirty ninja felt a vibration in their left pocket—a signal to start the attack. Like a switch had been flipped, fifteen jonin began making one hand sign after another.
The practice taking its effect, and the effect was just... perfect. They all released a collective fireball toward the resonance point of the array—the point which stores the energy to propel the array, also the part which is least protected to allow the chakra to enter the array and not get repelled by it.
As if the appearance of the fifteen fireballs was a signal, Jiraiya also slammed his hand on the ground. Suddenly, POOF—a big smoke cloud formed around the outpost, almost two-thirds the size of the outpost itself.
When the smoke dissipated, a rough figure of a large frog became apparent, holding a smoke pipe in its mouth and a short sword—by its standards—in its arms. The frog looked toward the outpost.
"Welcome, my friend," Jiraiya said, standing atop the frog.
"Looks like the playground is ready," Gamabunta said, already taking his hand to his mouth.
"As ready as it's going to be," Jiraiya said, making hand seals on his own.
Soon their conversation was cut short when fifteen fireballs reached their target areas, destroying the complete formation of the first array. But it was not time for celebration—the second the first array was destroyed, all of its energy for scanning, suppression, and surveillance was directed toward the second array, the true defensive array of the outpost. Once activated, the resulting barrier would be enough to hold off an attack from a squad of S-rank ninja for a few minutes—a highly impressive feat for an array used for such a small outpost.
But that would have been the case if the barrier was actually able to form in the first place. The second batch of fifteen jonin had also begun their hand seal sequence just after the first, with a delay of exactly one second. As soon as the first array went down and the energy went to the second array, the fifteen ninja released their attack.
All of the attacks were targeted at the pathways carrying chakra toward the array, with the goal of not giving the second array a chance to form any proper barrier.
By the time they released their attack, the barrier had started to form. Just as it was resembling an open pot, fifteen fireballs landed on the pathways, cutting off the energy for the barrier.
Now it was time for Jiraiya to shine. With both Gamabunta and him ready with their attack, the half-formed barrier—which was now blinking on its own like a semi-faded drawing in the air—had little chance of defending against the attack which was now coming toward it in full force.