Chapter 46

Land of Rivers

Ryoma, Jonin of Sunagakure

Their forces were currently behind fortifications on top of a lone hill, a highly defensive and exposing position. Currently suffering no serious injuries and with nearly-full chakra reserves. There were allies around them and the VIP was behind yet another layer of fortification, which the enemy attack seemed incapable of penetrating directly at the moment.

The enemy was in an unknown position to the north-east using a high-damage long ranged weapon. The projectiles were faster than sound, making it only possible to detect via sight. Simultaneously, however, it was the middle of the night, and the darkness would hamper their ability to detect the attacks.

"Ninja- What the hell is going on?!" One of the samurai roared out, throwing open the gates with a heavy boom. He was one of the younger ones, with blond hair and eyes that naturally glared.

"We're under attack by someone with a bow." Ryoma explained, a single chakra string supporting a lone Bolter in the air above his head and peeking over the walls. The vision of the Bolter was almost useless here, it wasn't sharp enough for him to pick out anything in these conditions. "Please remain inside- don't let anyone near Lord Takeda if they've been out of your sight recently. We can handle this."

He made a note to invest in a telescope later.

"Y-you!" The samurai looked like he wanted to argue, before one of his fellows planted a hand on his shoulder and shook their heads. The blond samurai grit his teeth and spat out. "Solve this promptly- ninja!"

It sounded like he was restraining a slur there. Good on him.

Sho managed to pull himself together at about the same point that the gate to the central fort was slammed shut again. Around the shadowed edges of a moonlit courtyard, the ninja of Suna crouched with focus strained for any hint of their enemy.

It was a bit hard to tell over the sounds of panic coming from the crawling guards and the commotion starting to come from the surrounding village.

"How many enemies?" Nagare said, her massive jugs planted on either side and corks removed. Her long desert robes drug against the packed earth of the courtyard ground.

"At least one- I can't see any others but that doesn't mean anything." Ryoma said, letting the bolter remain obviously above his head.

"You have a camera in that thing?" Benki asked with a tense posture and a flickering gaze.

"Something like that." Ryoma answered shortly.

"I was only visible from that angle for a second, at most…" Sho said, thoughtfully, pulling a shard of wooden shrapnel out of his forearm. He swiftly went through a set of handseals, and sand swirled into the form of a clone next to him. The clone jumped up on the wall, then out as if to head towards the sniper.

It was promptly obliterated in a shower of sand and dust scattering over the courtyard.

Crack-boom. A flash of grey soared into the distance and landed on some unfortunate farmland with a rumble.

"Visual over wall was one point two seconds, time of sound after impact was…" Sho went quiet for a moment, then his voice got louder again. "They're fifty meters beyond the woodline, or about there."

Sho made another flash of handseals, this time making two sand clones, both of which jumped up and over the wall. One was obliterated before it could even land on the rooftops past the wall, but the second made it to the third jump down the hill before it too was destroyed.

Crack-boom-rumble. The wall shook and splinters flew out, showering him too lightly to do any damage even if he wasn't wearing armor. The force of the impact on the other side of the thick walls still making the interior-half creak and snap.

"Time between shots is three point one seconds." Tsubame observed, her own bow ready and her gaze sharply roaming around the courtyard. The various guards moved around on their hands and knees, gesturing and furtively glancing over the wall for brief moments at a time.

A section of wall exploded inwards as another arrow impacted it, a shower of bloody chunks and shattered bone fell upon the inner courtyard. A guard was caught staring for a bit too long, it seemed.

"Not unprecedented…" Sho muttered. "The enemy must have some way of spotting us at such a range- that's nearly a kilometer and a half out, through the treeline, and in the middle of the night."

"A Doujutsu user? Maybe a Hyuuga?" Sugimoto suggested with a tense frown. "Konoha is the closest great village…"

A doujutsu, or 'eye technique' was a blanket of any technique that generally corresponded to the eyes. Sometimes this was an inherent trait, sometimes it was something you had to activate, sometimes it was some alien-god blood in your system that granted you supreme powers over the plot.

The Hyuuga were a clan of fairly elite ninja over in Konoha who wielded the 'Byakugan', an eyeball that let them see chakra and through walls.

"Most Hyuuga don't have a kilometer of range." Ryoma pointed out with a frown. "And more- they haven't shot my puppet yet."

Indeed, the Bolter was still just floating in the middle of the air, now doing a little dance on nothing as it stared out into a treeline. Ryoma still couldn't see anything with it in clarity, but the fact that it hasn't been shot yet was indicative of something. He just wasn't sure what that something was yet.

"Hey- that's right!" Benki declared, slightly louder than he really should be. "If they wielded the fearsome Byakugan to this range- they would've seen and shot that puppet down already!"

"Unless they don't see it as a threat." Sho muttered. "Focus! Our enemy has a kilometer and a half of range on us. What are our options for returning fire?"

"At a kilometer? I have nothing." Ryoma shook his head.

"Not the Kyojutsu?" Sho asked, mask staring into Ryoma's own mask.

"This is the worst situation for the Great Dragoon." Ryoma declared firmly. "It's a big target and it's not that fast- and all its long range precision attacks are something that any half-competent ninja could avoid. The enemy would shoot it to destruction before it could accomplish anything."

"Noted. Anyone else?"

"I could return fire, if I knew where they were." Tsubame declared, raising her own large steel bow. "The time it would take to find them, aim, and fire is too long right now- they'd shoot me down before I could fire my own attack."

"None of my ninjutsu can reach that far." Nagare shook her head with a mild frown.

"If I was already in contact with them- maybe- but not in this situation." Sugimoto shook his head.

"Approach under cover then. Who can perform Hiding like a Mole Technique?" Sho asked quickly, to which all Jonin save Tsubame nodded. "We'll need to approach underground, or under similar cover."

"They'll get suspicious if we don't poke our heads out here every now and then." Ryoma muttered. "I have a number of smoke cloud creating options, should I attempt to draw fire on an aboveground approach?"

"Not the worst idea." Sho muttered. "Mess up once and-"

Another boom-crack of an arrow being fired and turning a section of wall into splinters and a shower of gore.

The gates to the keep were opened again, and a trio of samurai stomped out, pausing briefly at the gore and splinters that covered the yard. Very quickly they spotted the group of ninja crouched in the shadows and stomped over.

The front man was the old guy with a thick mustache. "Ninja! The enemy is out there! Why are you crouched and hiding here!?" He roared in an angry manner.

"The enemy is fifty meters beyond the treeline using a powerful bow and impact arrows." Sho explained, pulling up from his tactical crouch and nodding his head towards them. "We have a bow user of our own, but we need time to locate and return fire. The arrows move faster than sound, and therefore our ability to detect it is highly limited."

"So just run up to them and kill them- fools!" One of the samurai, who bore a passing resemblance to Captain Gentai, declared, waving his hand down at them. "You are ninja, are you not? Move under shadows!"

Another boom-crack of an arrow being fired followed an explosion of gore raining down, splattering over the grudging samurai wetly. A poor guard being obliterated before they even had time to parse what was happening.

"That is why." Ryoma said dryly. "One blow from that arrow would kill any of us."

"I see." The old man at the front said, somewhat more understanding now. He wiped the blood off his face and then reached down for his helmet, which was secured at his hip. "Very well- If you need time to return fire, I will provide it!" He declared, reaching for his blade. "Bow-woman, come, stand behind me on the walls!"

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"How are you going to defend her?" Tsubasa asked worriedly, staring at a particularly sizable chunk of gore on the ground.

"I trained with the Yun-Yun archers for four years." The old man rumbled, tying a length of cloth to the end of his helmet before tossing it high into the air. Then, he jumped powerfully, up towards the top of the wall.

The cloth dangling from the edge of his helmet fluttered widely, before assuming an incredibly human-like outline as it fluttered up, as if a man in the middle of a leap. It was punctured almost immediately after it rose above the line of sight.

Crack-boom.

The samurai landed on the edge of the wall a moment later, both hands on his sheathed katana.

Approximately three seconds later his arms blurred and a streak of yellow chakra formed a bright arc in the middle of the night air. The crack-boom of an arrow breaking the sound barrier followed shortly after, covering up the sound of arrow-halves spinning widely and clattering to the ground in the courtyard.

Crack-boom.

"Bow-user! They will certainly flee soon!" The old samurai yelled in a demanding fashion. He stomped forwards, making room for her to stand.

Tsubame jumped up, steel bow and long customized arrow in her puppet-hands. Ryoma recognized that arrow- and got ready to watch the spectacle. It was already drawn and ready to be aimed by the time she landed, and a swirl of pale blue winds exploded around the arrowshaft.

She held the posture for a moment, staring into the distance, motionless.

The samurai before her blurred. A yellow arc split the night. Crack-boom, the sound of the arrow followed.

She returned fire, loosing the specialized shiki-arrow down towards her hidden opponent. A drill of wide cutting winds that grew increasingly powerful as it flew through the air, expanding and screaming. It flashed like a bolt through the air, a tornado on its side.

"Wind Release : Eight Walls Annihilation." Tsubame declared softly.

It was one of her hardest-hitting options, something developed in the aftermath of losing her limbs and thus ability to utilize normal ninjutsu. Her gloves had shiki for 'Seal' and 'Release', which allowed her to use storage seals more or less as normal. But everything else? She needed specialized tools for other things, hence her studying up on shiki in her free time over the last few years. She had a handful of shiki-tools designed to make her life a little easier tucked away at all times now.

That arrow was one such shiki-tool. A design intended to twist through the air and release a large amount of cutting wind chakra as it did.

It took a half-second for it to hit the treeline, and the drill of slicing winds was already ten meters across.

Through the eyes of the Bolter, Ryoma watched as a wide line of woodland was turned into shredded foliage, all the way up to the distant hillside, where the sideways blade-tornado lost most of its strength and eventually dissipated.

The silence lingered for a few moments after that.

No more arrows fired. First for three seconds, then for nine, and then for fifteen. Ryoma slowly lowered his bolter out of the air, letting it fall into his open palm. He reached into his vest for the scroll to seal it away.

"We cannot assume that they're defeated yet." Sho declared, forming another sand clone and dropping into a seated position. "Form clones and search the area, they may have survived Jonin Tsubame's jutsu- or have allies in wait."

Nagare and Sugimoto dropped into seated positions after him.

Ryoma formed the appropriate handseals to form a sand clone of his own, cutting his thumb subtly and giving it to the sand clone with a little high-five before it leapt away. The Clone Ryoma, Cloma, jumped over the wall, then over the rooftops, and then over fields as he made his way to the treeline.

Cloma was flanked by three other clones- Nagare, Sugimoto, and Sho all leaping over cropland and over to the trench of ruined forest in the distance.

"Tsubame, was it?" The old man samurai asked, still poised to cut down another arrow. "...That's a good name."

"Thank you, Lord Samurai." Tsubame nodded her head slightly, voice flat and utterly unconcerned with the compliments of the samurai.

"Masahiro Sagata." The Samurai declared with a huff. "Speaking with such an aggrieved tone- you remind me of my granddaughter!"

"Thank you, Lord Masahiro." She replied, just as blank as before.

"Hey look at you Tsubame, you made a friend!" Ryoma teased with an amused tilt of his head. "I was getting worried for you, you know?"

"And you are reminding me of my grandson." Masahiro grumbled, slightly relaxing his posture but maintaining his sword-grip. "Leaving a woman to do this work- have you no shame? Why was only Miss Tsubame here capable of using a proper bow?"

"I have no formal education in using a bow." Ryoma replied in a flat tone.

"WHAT?!" The old man shouted in an outraged fashion, swiveling to glare down at him. "No education-!"

"That's- what the hell do they teach you ninja?!" The samurai who bore the vague resemblance to Gentai asked, face scrunched up in a baffled expression. His entire posture was slightly tilted back, as if the confusion was a powerful wind pushing him back.

"I've never been taught to use a sword either…" Ryoma mused, reaching up to rub the chin of his armor. Most of his attention was on the view of the sand clone, which just now reached the treeline and was starting to investigate the wide stretch of torn earth. "Nor a spear- most weapons really. Just kunai and shuriken from the academy."

"I knew ninja education was lacking a proper curriculum for chakra-warriors, but to hear it be said like this…" The third samurai, who was red-haired with a thin face, muttered in a half-disgusted, half-pitying manner.

"One of the nine ninja-corps of Sunagakure is the weapons corps, members of which are encouraged to seek out training in a wide variety of weaponry." Tsubame exposition'd at the samurai, bow still readied with a new arrow. "Jonin Ryoma is a member of the puppetry corps, however."

"None of my puppets use such weapons." Ryoma shrugged.

"That's not the point of learning them- it's good for a gentleman to learn in order to focus his spirit and sharpen his mind." The bushy-mustached samurai shook his head, riled up with the conversation. "A swordless hand is an intemperate one! You must learn to wield the blade to wield yourself!"

"Hey Ryoma-Sensei." Mao spoke up with furrowed brows, glancing between him and the other Jonin. Sho, Nagare, and Sugimoto all seated and silent. "How come you're not focused like…"

"Hm?" Ryoma tilted his head, then turned to glance at his fellow Jonin. "Oh- I am focused right now. You learn to multitask as a puppeteer."

"I see." Mao nodded, stepping back. "You better not do anything nefarious to Nagare-sensei while she's distracted then!"

Ryoma stared at her for a few long moments, silent, blank. He imagined his expression was perfectly readable even through his feature-obscuring helmet.

He turned away and towards the samurai again. "But yes, my formal training as a ninja was a number of years in the academy- the most training received was a number of supplemental courses with a tanto…"

"Well that's something at least." Masahiro grumbled, mustache twitching like a hairy caterpillar. "It's not sufficient on its own- you ninja need supplemental lessons!"

"So that's the strength of the ninja…" One of the guards muttered, poking his head over the edge of the wall and staring into the wide trench of ruined wilderness left in the wake of Tsubame's special arrow.

Tsubame finally lowered her bow and arrow, jumping down to stand next to him. She started to put them away. "Lord Ryoma, I will need your help in crafting a replacement-arrow." She said.

"Don't call me that, it's creepy and formal." Ryoma replied bluntly. Her eyes glinted with amusement.

"I apologize, Lord Ryoma." She bowed her head slightly, a tiny twitch of her lips as she spoke.

"There's something special there- I just know it!" Mao muttered to the side, fists raised and staring at them intently. "I bet they shower together!"

"You should probably calm down about that." Benki muttered to her with an unimpressed expression. "The Jonin probably don't appreciate talking about their potential sex lives."

This comedy-bit was going nowhere.

"...I wonder if I can go back to sleep yet?" Tsubasa muttered, letting out a massive yawn. "I don't think- ahhhhhh- I don't think I needed to be awake for this, in the end."

"You can't sleep through an attack- idiot." Benki shot a glare her way.

"I know I can't, it was too loud." Tsubasa shot back.

Ryoma felt like sighing.