Island of Houki
Land of Water
Basara POV
A/N - Slightly darker chapter; reader discretion advised
Passing through the village felt like stepping into a horror film. An eerie silence hung in the air, not a single soul in sight. Even pushing my senses to their limit, I found no trace of life—nothing at all.
Those murderous bastards had left nothing alive...
Captain Juinichi had split the combined force into four teams, ordering a thorough scout of the village for any enemy traces. My team consisted of Sayuri-san, Riku, Yukimaru, Team Kakashi, and two from Shisui's squad—Ryotaro and Mayumi—who had introduced themselves earlier. The team composition was well-balanced, each group capable of handling an ambush or emergency on its own.
The Hyūga and I, the only ones capable of long-range sensing, had already informed the captain that the village had been entirely eliminated. Yet, Captain Juinichi still wanted a thorough investigation. His words were simple: "The blood has not yet dried."
He was right; this horrific massacre was recent—
Very recently...
There might be traces indicating the direction the Kiri shinobi had taken, though looking around at the devastated houses, half-swallowed by the island's perpetual mist, I wasn't sure how useful those traces would be. Then again, I wasn't a trained tracker or a hunter-nin.
Severed heads were stacked in a pile beside a wall. Faces of every age—children, adults, the elderly—were frozen in rictus expressions of pure agony. Some still had their eyes open. Thick, dark blood had pooled and begun to congeal beneath them.
"Fucking..."
The word ripped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
Rin covered her mouth with both hands, her voice trembling. "How could someone do something this evil...?"
Sayuri's expression was tight, lacking its usual warmth; even she looked pale. "This is what we're fighting against."
What we fight against... my thoughts twisted.
Riku's face had long since gone silent. Even Yukimaru padded against his partner, his ear flat on the ninken's head. The rest of the team was no different, including me. I had thought I had seen every horror this world had to offer, but it still managed to surprise me. I calmed my racing heart, breathing through my mouth.
Mayumi Uchiha's mature Sharingan flared to life as she snarled, "Those bastards..."
Ryotaro placed a steadying hand on her shoulder, murmuring quietly, eventually managing to calm her enough that she clenched her jaw and looked away.
"Shouldn't we... burn them? At least so they can find rest?" Rin asked the group. The girl looked the worst among us all; she had a broken look in her eyes as she took all this in.
Sayuri shook her head. "No. That isn't our job." She paused, then added, "Once things settle, the locals of this island will deal with it."
I could tell she didn't fully believe her own words. This village was going to be abandoned. By the time the war wound down, the locals would scarcely care, focused only on looking after themselves, and the town would be nothing but a graveyard.
Obito's fists were clenched at his sides. "We shouldn't be standing here. We should be out there, stopping them from doing this again."
Mayumi nodded sharply. "Obito's right."
Kakashi let out a quiet sigh and muttered something very close to "Uchihas..." before raising his voice to be heard.
"Focus on the mission, Obito. We have our orders, and you know we have to follow them."
Obito's head snapped toward him with anger. "Kakashi! We're wasting time here; there could be another village being massacred just like this!"
The tension between them spiked. Even the glue of their team, Rin, wasn't in the mood to stop them. Still, even if the Hatake prodigy tried to hide it, we could all tell he was affected just as much as everyone else.
I was in a foul mood myself. The smell, the sight, the sheer pointless cruelty of it all sat heavy in my chest. I stepped between them before it could escalate further.
"Enough," I said firmly, leaving no room for negotiation. "Let's get this over with quickly and head to the meeting point."
Our section yielded nothing. My sensing drew a complete blank, leaving us with no tracks to follow—only the lingering actions of their cruelty. We cut through the fog and reached the meeting point first, outside the south side of the village, well away from the stench. Looking around at the bleak surroundings, I decided it would be fine to take a break.
"Let's take a break," I called out. "Water and rations. We don't know when the next chance will come."
There was no official team lead among us, as we didn't have the luxury of time to assign such things, but to my quiet relief, the others agreed without argument. Ryotaro gave me a brief side-eye but said nothing, complying like everyone else. We settled onto a relatively dry stretch of ground. Riku stared at the ration bar in his hand and muttered, "I don't want to eat..."
Sayuri's voice came calmly as she took a few gulps of water from her canteen. "You must. We don't know if we'll get time later."
The others began to eat as well. We tried to push past the grimness of the situation with rations. I snorted in my mind as I ate the tasteless, calorie-dense food. Mayumi leaned against a lone tree and shot me a crooked grin.
"You know, Senju... you're not so bad. I thought you'd be all high and mighty... y'know... Prince of Konoha and all that."
I let the "prince" comment slide. "You Uchihas aren't that bad either."
Obito, halfway through his ration bar, suddenly perked up. He straightened, still sitting, and puffed out his chest.
"Yeah, Basara-san! We should spar sometime!"
His emotions really could flip-flop in an instant.I thought, amused by the boy's antics.
I smirked at him. "Sure."
His eyes narrowed. "Why are you smirking?"
Kakashi snorted quietly. "Because you can't beat him. That's why he's smirking."
"Take that back, you bastard!"
Kakashi rolled his visible eye. "Idiot."
The two of them locked into a familiar glare while the rest of us shared a chuckle. The tension in the air slowly eased, as much as it could in a place like this.
Then, familiar signatures entered the edge of my sensing range from the direction of the village. I called out to the others as calmly as I could.
"Friendlies moving to our position," I said.
Everyone was on their feet in an instant, preparing for the arrival of the other squads. I tracked their approach as Tsume's team, Juinichi's squad, and Shisui's group finally emerged through the thin fog.
Captain Juinichi singled me out the moment they neared.
"Report."
"Nothing from our end, Captain," I answered.
Their dark expressions quickly dragged the mood back down. The Jonin gave a short nod, then turned away to speak quietly with his men. Shisui stepped forward. "What now, Juinichi-san?"
The captain didn't waste time. "We keep the same team assignments." He pulled a map from a pouch and spread it on the damp ground. The entire assault group gathered around it as he continued.
"If Kiri is targeting the villages to draw our attention, we use that. We split up and move on the nearest settlements from here. They know Konoha has reinforcements now. They'll try to do maximum damage before leaving the island."
Leaving the island. That was an optimistic assessment. Kiri could just as easily send reinforcements of their own. Not to mention the Seven Swordsmen were still unaccounted for, and moving out unprepared like this was dangerous. I was sure the others thought the same but were unwilling to voice it.
Alas, one can't prepare for everything in war...
Tsume, however, thought differently. "It's dangerous to split up like that."
Juinichi looked at her without flinching. "We're losing too much time. We need to rout the enemy quickly, secure this island, and move on to the main islands." He gestured at the map. "Konoha shinobi are worth three of theirs. We move now."
I scowled a little at the bold plan but kept silent.
We had to do something...
He assigned each team a village. Ours was a fishing settlement further to the east. This time, official team leads were named. I was given command of ours. I sighed, not liking the situation at all, then nodded once to Tsume and turned to my group.
"Let's go. It'll take us at least half a day to reach the place, assuming we don't get lost."
Rin stepped forward. "Basara-san, I can navigate."
I glanced down at her and gave a short nod. "Alright."
I quickly laid out the plan. "We'll move in a loose diamond formation. Ryotaro-san and Mayumi-san, take the flanks. Hatake, Obito-san, and Rin-san on point. Riku and Sayuri-san behind them. I'll take the rear. Let's move."
Grim-faced, everyone fell into position without argument. We started east at a decent speed. Captain Juinichi wasn't entirely wrong—we did have to clear the enemy from the island. Just as I had predicted, it took us more than half a day to reach the village, with a couple of brief stops in between. We couldn't simply travel at full pace; every step required care to ensure we didn't walk straight into an enemy trap.
Eventually, we came across a wide, slow-moving river. We traveled along its surface until abandoned fishing boats and a small wooden pier came into view. Beyond them lay the village itself.
It was small, hardly large enough for a hundred
people, and it was empty, with no blood or bodies.
"Maybe they evacuated?" Riku asked quietly.
Yukimaru sniffed the air, his ears twitching.
"Got anything?" I asked.
"Nothing, Basara-san," Riku reported after a moment, glancing at his ninken.
Kakashi spoke up from the point. "They evacuated."
"That's good then," Rin said softly.
No one else added anything. A brief silence fell amongst us as I contemplated our next move.
Ryotaro turned to me. "What are your orders, Senju-san? Should we split up and search the village?"
I thought for a moment, scanning the quiet houses.
"No. We move as a team. The village is small enough. If we don't find anything, we set up a perimeter and rest for the night."
Just then, my head snapped toward a point just outside the village. Everyone tensed immediately.
Two small chakra signatures.
Animals, I thought at first. No... I don't think so.
"On me," I said.
We closed the distance in a blur, discovering two girls standing in a grassy field—one older, the other a mere child. The moment they saw our flak jackets, they panicked. The older girl yanked a kitchen knife from her tunic and brandished it, shoving the younger one behind her.
"Katsumo-chan, run!" she yelled, her voice tight with terror.
"Calm down," I said, keeping my hands visible and my tone even. "We're not here to hurt you."
The younger girl bolted anyway. Mayumi flashed forward, scooped her up gently, and brought the struggling child back. The older sister froze, the knife trembling in her hand as she saw her sister captured.
Without waiting, Sayuri-san stepped forward. She spoke in a soft, soothing melody that slowly drained the panic from the older girl. The rest of the team took a step back, letting her handle the diplomacy.
I couldn't stop staring. Kakashi noticed my intensity.
"What is it? You're staring."
I glanced at him, my voice dropping to a murmur. "They've both awakened chakra. Barely academy level, but it's there. More importantly... they carry both Wind and Water natures."
I flashed a subtle hand sign to the Uchiha duo, signaling them to fan out and secure the perimeter. The rest of the team instantly grew alert. Sayuri continued trying to get the girls to open up, but they remained silent, like rabbits caught between tigers.
Sighing, I knelt to their eye level, forcing a gentle smile.
"Hey. My name is Basara Senju. Where are your parents? We're not here to hurt you or them. We're here to help."
The girls exchanged a look. They didn't appear fully distraught, which told me their parents were fine.
"You lie," the older girl said bravely, meeting my eyes. Huh, she's got fire to her, I thought, though I noticed her eyes drop to my armor every now and then.
I shared a quick look with Sayuri-san.
"We really are here to help," I continued carefully. "There are bad people coming who want to hurt everyone here. That's why we came."
I felt a twinge of guilt at the manipulation, but it had to be done.
Just then, Ryotaro flared his chakra. My attention snapped toward the tree line. I signaled Sayuri-san to stay with the girls while the rest of us moved.I picked up the pace, my sensing flaring as a cold presence registered near the Uchiha pair. Breaking through the brush, we found Ryotaro and Mayumi standing rigidly alert opposite an old man leaning on a walking stick.
It wasn't the fact that the old man clearly possessed enough chakra for a Chunin that had me tensing. It wasn't even the fact that he looked entirely unfazed by two armed Uchiha.
It was the fact that his walking stick was made of solid Ice.