The rain was their ally.
It muffled sound, especially from the Tanigakure Sentry they had captured.
It washed away scent of blood, and painted the world in a monotone grey that hid movement.
The nine Amegakure shinobi flowed towards the southern gate of Outpost Theta like a spider. Ryugo was the head, and the others were the limbs.
The gate was not a grand structure.
It was just a reinforced gap in the limestone, flanked by two rough watchtowers that were little more than platforms on stilts. Under the dripping ledges of the cave mouth, six Tanigakure genins huddled. Two were on the towers, scanning the gloom with tired eyes and what seemed to be binoculars. Four more stood near a small, smokeless glow-stone lantern, their postures slumped, their chakra signatures dull.
They were bored.
One of them had gone missing, and they had still not remarked anything.
Sloppy.
Messy.
It was difficult to believe that a settlement could be so easy to infiltrate after the tensions rose. They had probably heard of the Nagare Lake Parley, or even if they did not, they must have read the reports of patrols going missing. They should have used every inch of their concentration to surveil their surroundings to have a chance at surviving.
If they could successfully ask for reinforcements from the Gorge Watch - The Tanigakure Border Outpost - they would have had a chance at survival. A single jonin could deter Ryugo's operation.
Ryugo held up a closed fist. The group froze, invisible in the reeds.
His Raikōgan traced the paths of the sentries' gazes, the weak points in their formation. He leaned close to Goto, his hands communicating in the General Corps Sign Language, a trick he had to learn upon becoming vice commander of the Nagare Border Fort.
"This is your moment to shine, Goto. The two in the towers. Clean, fast, and loud enough to draw the eyes of the ones below. And more importantly, loud enough to be an alarm. Make it a spectacle they can't look away from"
Goto's eyes gleamed behind his senbon-laden umbrella. He nodded once, a hunter's focus settling over him. He gestured to Sora and Ren, who fanned out slightly, kunai ready to intercept any who might bolt.
Goto took a deep, silent breath. He didn't just raise his umbrella. He unfolded it with a series of precise, practiced twists, the metal ribs expanding further than their usual span, revealing a second, inner layer of darker alloy. The sound was soft and metallic.
He planted his feet, his chakra surging in a complex, circulating pattern that ran from his core, down his arm, and into the very framework of the weapon.
"Haribako Hidden Art", he breathed, "Senbon Rendan: Silent Scream" (B)
It was not a volley. It was a symphony of lethal geometry. A B-rank jutsu that he had learned and practiced in joint training. In Ryugo's eyes, Goto's progress had been overwhelmingly fast. To the point that Batto had promoted him to chunin rank.
[Goto Haribako – Lv. 25 Chunin]
From the outer edge of the umbrella, a ring of twelve heavy-gauge senbon shot out, not in a spread, but in six perfectly synchronized pairs. Each pair spiraled around each other in a corkscrew path, humming with a high-frequency chakra vibration that sliced the very air.
Simultaneously, from the inner layer, two dozen lighter, needle-fine senbon erupted in a dense cloud. They didn't fly straight. They expanded as a single wave of steel that filled the space between the ground and the watchtowers.
The genin on the towers had time for a single, widening look of confusion upon hearing the metallic click of metal.
The spiraling heavy pairs reached them first. They drilled them upon impact.
*thunk-thunk*
One pair took the left sentry in the chest and throat, the spiraling force punching through his flak jacket and pinning him to the wooden post behind him.
*thunk-thunk*
The other pairs hit the right sentry as he turned, one shearing through his raised forearm, the other burying itself in his eye socket. He toppled soundlessly from the platform.
The expanding cloud of fine needles then descended on the four genins below like metallic hail. They screamed, throwing up arms, stumbling back. Needles peppered their limbs, shoulders, faces. They weren't immediately fatal, but they were agonizing, blinding, and utterly disorienting.
As a Haribako, Goto had made sure to coat his senbon in poison. The quantity was small, but potent nonetheless.
"Show-off!" Yumi's voice cut through the sizzle of rain on bloodied metal.
She had been busy. While all eyes were on Goto's deadly art, she had been quietly exhaling, a thin, almost invisible mist of iridescent spores pouring from her lips and drifting on the damp air towards the cave mouth.
"My turn! Don't fall behind, umbrella-boy!"
She clicked her fingers.
"Hakkō Art: Dreamcatcher Mycelium." (C)
Where her spores had settled, on the wet ground, on the genins' rain-slicked clothes, in their open, screaming mouths, fungal life exploded. It wasn't the corrosive slime or choking clouds of her usual arsenal. This was a rapid-growth, binding mold.
Weakened by poison.
Binded by mold.
The four remaining genins, in a split second, had their fate decided.
Ameruyi, Ryugo, Ren and Tetsu moved forward.
Ameruyi and Ryugo used the first form of the amegakure swordsmanship.
"Amegakure Kenjutsu Style - First form (Rain Draw)" (C)
"Amegakure Kenjutsu Style - First form (Rain Draw)" (B)
Ameruyi stepped back after this one strike beheading her opponent, wiping a speck of fungal residue from her sleeve with a look of profound distaste.
"You are still as disgusting as always, Yumi Hakkō"
Yumi beamed, patting her gourd. "But effective, Takeda! Admit it!"
Tetsu used a single kunai thrust into his target. A genin of level 12, who could not defend, poisoned and binded.
As for Ren, he used the second form of the Amegakure Kenjutsu Style.
"Second Form - Rain Wheel" (C)
The entire engagement at the gate had taken less than ten seconds. Six genin, eliminated.
A blatant success so far.
[You have killed a Lv. 18 Genin. You have gained +9 Reputation with Amegakure. -18 Reputation with Tanigakure. You have gained 36 EXP]