Chapter 37: The Angel’s War.

[Ding!]

[Weekly Sign-in available!]

[Signing in…]

[Obtained: Butterfly Net!]

Mikoto stared at it.

She threw it away.

The following week…

[Ding!]

[Weekly Sign-in available!]

[Signing in…]

[Obtained: Kusanagi Blade!]

Name: Mikoto Uchiha

Age: 14

Rank: Special Jonin

Affinity: Lightning Affinity, Fire Affinity, Yin Affinity, Water Affinity, Earth Affinity

Unique: Immense Chakra Reserves, Sharingan (Three Tomoe), Advanced Growth Rate

Skills: Fire Style Mastery, Water Style Mastery, Lightning Style Mastery, Yin Style Mastery, Earth Style Mastery, Shurikenjutsu, Elite Taijutsu (Ninja Art: Bare-Handed Blade Block), Superb Genjutsu, Ninjutsu (Body Flicker, Clone Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu, Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu, Amplified Summoning Jutsu, Shadow Clone Jutsu), Perfect Chakra Control (Chakra Enhanced Strength), Uchiha Style: Kenjutsu, Stealth, Survival Knowledge, Cooking, Medical Ninjutsu (Mystical Palm, Chakra Scalpel, Poison Extraction Jutsu, Regenerative Healing Jutsu, Body Pathway Derangement Jutsu), Fūinjutsu Mastery (Sealing Jutsu: Release), Pedagogy Mastery, Space-Time Ninjutsu Mastery, Seven Heavens Breathing Method, Musical Talent, Craftsmanship Aptitude, Needle Mastery

Equipment: Kunai, Shuriken, Senbon, Smoke Bomb, Explosive Tags, Poison Gas Bomb, Flash Bomb, Gas/Sleep Bomb, Food Pills x84, Wire Strings, Shark Skin, Kusanagi Blade, Bingo Book, Training Weights, Fūma Shuriken x74, Hero Water x10, Superior Frying Pan

The Kusanagi was different.

The blade was beautiful. A legendary sword that could extend and retract at will, respond to its wielder's commands from a distance, and cut through nearly anything. When Mikoto held it for the first time, the weight in her hand felt like it belonged to her. 

However, Shark Skin did not like it at all. It writhed on her back in anger from the appreciation she was showing to the legendary blade, nearly exposing itself underneath its bandages. Regardless of the bandages that hide Shark Skin’s body, if someone sees moving bandages, that will still bring about questions.

She quickly sealed it into a scroll on her belt. Shark Skin was her primary. The Kusanagi could be given to someone else, like the other weapons she got.

…

Inside the briefing room, Orochimaru stood at the head of the table. Behind him, three maps covered the wall, each one showing a different section of the Ame front. Markers in red and blue were present on the maps. The room was packed with jonin, special jonin, and experienced chunin.

“This is the largest offensive Konoha has assembled on the Rain front." Orochimaru said softly but loud enough for everyone to hear. "Three groups. Two thousand shinobi total. The goal is to push through Ame's central defenses and reach the outskirts of their village. If we succeed, Ame loses the ability to bother us any longer as we actually win this war."

Two thousand. Mikoto had never been part of an operation this size. This was the push that command had been building toward for months, the consolidation of every gain into a single thrust aimed at the heart of Rain Country.

"The western group is led by Jiraiya," Orochimaru continued. "Seven hundred shinobi. His goal is the river crossing at Kawa Point. The central group is a joint command between Tsunade and myself. Eight hundred. We push through the Sōgen Plain toward Ame's inner defenses. The eastern group..."

His gold eyes found Mikoto.

"The eastern group is under Uchiha Mikoto."

The room shifted. Heads turned.

"Five hundred shinobi," Orochimaru said. "Mostly genin and chunin, supported by six jonin and four special jonin. Your goal is the ridges east of the Sōgen Plain. Ame has fortified these ridges with layered positions that protect the side of their central defenses. If those positions hold, our central push is exposed to counterattack from the east. Your job is to make sure they don't hold."

Mikoto's throat was dry. She swallowed once. "Understood, sir."

"You will have freedom in how you carry out the assault. The jonin assigned to your group will serve as your advisors and squad leaders, but the decisions in the field are yours." He held her gaze. "After your disagreement with Tsunade, myself and others believed you are trustworthy enough to be given this opportunity. We are trusting you with five hundred lives, Mikoto. Some of them will die. Make sure it's worth what they pay."

"...I will, sir." Mikoto’s voice squeaked.

She has led and been led throughout this war, however, she’s never been made leader of a group this large before…

"Good." He turned back to the full room. "We move in forty-eight hours. Prepare your squads. Dismissed."

Forty-eight hours wasn't enough and was all they had.

Mikoto spent the first day with her jonin advisors. After all, she knew older shinobi had their gripes about being led by someone younger than them… Unless she saved their lives or they saw her defeat someone they couldn’t, rarely would they like being led by her. However, thankfully, the four men and two women she had for her jonin advisors were not difficult. They were more than happy to come together as a team despite her age. 

With their help, she organized her group into three parts. The first and largest, two hundred and fifty shinobi, would push up the main approach to the ridges from the south. Loud, visible, drawing the bulk of Ame's attention. The second group, one hundred and fifty, would loop east through the forest and hit the ridges from behind at the same time. The third group, one hundred, was her reserve, positioned to reinforce whichever side needed it or to exploit any gap that appeared.

Her genin squad stayed with her in the reserve.

Nawaki was not wearing his training weights, Mikoto ordered him to take it off. They were called training weights for a reason. He was not going to wearing those into battle. 

Two weeks of nonstop conditioning had brought him further than Mikoto expected. His taijutsu and ninjutsu was better than before the incident. His Seven Heavens breathing was at the Second Activation. He wasn't on Emi or Nonō's level. He was still a twelve-year-old genin. But he was a better version of that genin not long ago.

Emi had the fan on her back and a readiness visible on her face. While she preferred to be in the front, she understood Mikoto-sensei was still a bit on edge after what happened to the idiot. She'd also stopped arguing with Nawaki about who was better. The answer was obvious and arguing about obvious things with an idiot was beneath her.

Nonō carried a medical kit on her now along with the skills of someone who knew she could probably heal anything short of grievous injuries and fight alongside the people she was healing.

"Sensei," Nawaki said on the morning of the offensive. "This is the biggest thing we've ever been part of."

"It's the biggest thing anyone's been part of," Mikoto said. "Stay close. Follow orders. Watch each other."

"Some of us know how to follow orders." Emi glanced at Nawaki.

“I’m not running into any more traps, Emi. You don’t have to keep bringing it up.” Nawaki glanced back.

"Oh, it looks like you can learn. What a shock. Let’s see if your actions match up with your words." Emi scoffed.

"We will be careful sensei." Nonō said.

The offensive launched at dawn.

Two thousand Konoha shinobi moved into Ame territory simultaneously across a wide front. The western group hit the river crossing with everything Jiraiya had. The central group surged across the Sōgen Plain under Orochimaru and Tsunade's joint command. And Mikoto's eastern group struck the ridges.

The ridges were hell.

Ame had spent months fortifying them. Three parallel ridges running north-south, each one lined with earthen barriers, reinforced shelters, concealed platforms for jutsu, and overlapping lines of fire. The approaches were seeded with explosive tags. The gaps between ridges were flooded with standing water that Ame's water-style users could weaponize at will. The garrison numbered roughly six hundred shinobi, a mix of Ame regulars and what intelligence suggested were hardened fighters pulled from Hanzō's personal reserves.

Mikoto was outnumbered. Five hundred against six hundred, with the defenders holding fortified high ground. The odds were against her. The terrain was against her. The only things in her favor were the element of surprise from the eastern loop, and herself.

It would have to be enough.

Mikoto's southern group hit the first ridge at 0600. The fighting was terrible and savage.

Water jutsu turned the approach into a drowning corridor. Konoha genin scrambled for cover as senbon volleys rained from concealed positions above. Explosive tags detonated in chains along the trail, each one triggering the next, turning the ground into a series of craters that broke the advance.

The first jonin advisor reported back within twenty minutes. "Southern approach is heavily contested. We've gained forty meters and lost eight shinobi. The defensive walls at the ridge base are thicker than intelligence suggested."

Mikoto adjusted. She sent fifty shinobi from her reserve to reinforce the southern push and sent a runner to the eastern group urging them to hit the ridges sooner than planned. The attack from behind needed to land before the southern push stalled completely.

"Shadow clones," she said. Four clones formed beside her and spread across her group's area. Healing. Always healing. The clones moved to the wounded with green hands while the fighting surged around them.

Then she went forward herself.

"Squad, with me," she said.

She drew Shark Skin.

The southern approach was a corridor of mud and water and fire. Mikoto entered it running, the three-tomoe Sharingan reading every trap, every concealed position, every chakra signature hiding behind earth walls and water barriers. She found the first defensive wall and hit it with Chakra Enhanced Strength through the cleaver. The earth wall shattered. The defenders behind it scattered.

Her genin followed. Nawaki's water style created constant assistance for the advancing Konoha forces. Emi's fan sent harsh gusts that deflected the senbons, the wind scattering the needles before they reached their targets. Nonō moved between the wounded with Mikoto’s shadow clones, her hands glowing green.

Mikoto carved through the first ridge's defenses in forty minutes with her army, the jonin advisors directing their squads, the chunin leading their cells, the genin doing their jobs. But Mikoto was the tip of the spear now. Where she went, the line broke. Where Shark Skin swung, fortifications collapsed. Where her Sharingan looked, traps were dealt with and nullified.

The first ridge fell by midmorning.

She didn't pause. She pushed to the second ridge while the first was being secured behind her. The eastern group hit from behind on schedule and the Ame garrison found itself fighting on two sides.

The second ridge was harder. The hardened fighters were here. Jonin-level defenders who didn't break when the first wall fell, who regrouped and counterattacked and fought with the coordination of shinobi protecting their homeland. The fighting turned from an assault into a grind.

Mikoto’s strategy didn’t change. Her clones healed while she attacked.

She took a fortified shelter by punching through its roof with Chakra Enhanced Strength and dropping into the interior where four Ame chunin were coordinating a combined ninjutsu. Shark Skin cleared the room in three swings. She emerged through the front entrance covered in other people’s blood and pointed toward the next position.

She formed a water dragon that shredded a tree-line platform and the shinobi on it.

She caught an Ame jonin in a genjutsu through the rain, making him see his allies as enemies. He killed several of his own before a wind blade by Emi separated his neck from his shoulders.

Nono healed a genin whose arm had been severed at the elbow, sealing the wound in thirty seconds, stabilizing the blood loss, and temporarily escorting her to the rear with a vigilant eye.

The second ridge fell by early afternoon. Seven hours of fighting. Mikoto's group had taken over fifty casualties. Fourteen dead. The rest wounded at various levels. Ame had lost more.

The third ridge was the last. The Ame garrison had consolidated everything they had left into the final line. Three hundred defenders, the survivors of the first two ridges combined with the third ridge's original garrison. The fighting was going to be the worst yet.

Mikoto stood on the second ridge, looking south at the third. Rain fell on her face. Shark Skin rested on her back. Her genin stood behind her, all three alive, all three still able to fight.

"Report from the central group," a runner said, arriving breathless. "Orochimaru-sama and Tsunade-sama's forces have broken through the first belt of the Sōgen Plain. Heavy resistance. They're still pushing."

"And the western group?"

"Jiraiya-sama's forces are engaged at the river crossing. Contested. No breakthrough yet."

The central and western groups were still fighting. Mikoto's eastern group was ahead of schedule. If she could take the third ridge before the central push stalled, the Ame side would be exposed and their entire defense would start to collapse.

"We push now," She said. "All squads. Attack the third ridge from south and east at the same time. Reserve commits to the southern approach. Everything we have."

The jonin advisors relayed the orders. Her remaining forces, roughly three hundred and fifty shinobi after casualties and those left to hold the first two ridges, converged on the third.

Mikoto led from the front.

The third ridge was carnage. Ame's remaining forces fought with the desperation of people with nowhere to retreat to. Water jutsu flooded the approach corridors. Earth walls rose and fell and rose again. Explosive tags detonated repeatedly. Jonin-ranked shinobi held chokepoints that cost Konoha shinobi for every meter gained.

Mikoto fought with everything she had to reduce as many deaths on her side as possible. Utilizing high-ranked ninjutsu to create openings or destroy defensive walls before charging in with Shark Skin, stealing their chakra, falling back, and doing the same thing.

The third ridge broke at sunset.

The Ame garrison shattered. Defenders fled south toward their village. The ridges, three months of fortification, six hundred defenders, the eastern anchor of Ame's entire defense, were in Konoha's hands.

Mikoto's group had taken eighty-seven casualties across the day. Twenty-three dead. The rest wounded. She'd healed as many as she could. Her clones had healed more. It wasn't enough. It was never enough. But she could only do her best.

Thankfully, the ridges were theirs. And with it, the central group's eastern side was secure. Orochimaru and Tsunade's push through the Sōgen Plain could continue without fear of a counterattack from the east.

Mikoto sat on the third ridge as the sun went down. Her genin were around her. Nawaki was bleeding from a cut on his forehead that he'd gotten from a piece of shrapnel. Nonō was already healing it despite it seemed to be healing quite quickly on its own. Emi was sitting with the fan across her knees, staring south at the retreating Ame forces with a satisfied look on her face.

"We did it, sensei! " Nawaki said.

"We did…" Mikoto exhaled.

She was exhausted. And she wasn’t talking about because of her chakra reserves. Her mind and body was exhausted. The exhaustion of a fourteen-year-old who had commanded five hundred people through the worst day of their lives and lost twenty-three of them. She didn’t know if that was good or bad, but she’d preferred if she lost no one…

She closed her eyes. Just for a moment.

A sound made her open them.

“Ribbit.”

A small toad had landed on the rock beside her. It was the size of her fist, brightly colored, with intelligent eyes. A messenger toad. She tilted her head as it looked up at her.

It croaked once, spitting a scroll into her hand, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Mikoto flicked her hand from the disgusting toad saliva before she unrolled the scroll. Jiraiya's handwriting was messy, urgent, the letters pressed hard enough into the paper to nearly tear it.

Mikoto,

Pull your forces back to the second ridge immediately. Do not advance further south. Hanzō of the Salamander has entered the battlefield. He's moving east toward your position. Orochimaru, Tsunade, and I are engaging him on the plain but he's broken through our lines twice already. He knows what you've done to his eastern defenses.

Get your people out of his path. This is not a request.

Jiraiya

Mikoto read the message twice. Then she looked south, past the retreating Ame forces, past the darkening horizon, toward the Sōgen Plain where the central group was fighting.

Hanzō of the Salamander. The man who had never been defeated. The wall that every Konoha offensive hit. Coming this way.

Coming for her.

She stood.

"All squads," she said, her voice carrying across the ridge. "Fall back to the second ridge. Now. Defensive positions."

The group moved. Mikoto watched the southern horizon.

The rain fell harder.