บท 87: 077 - All Quiet on the Western Front
Amegakure
Kakashi stared at where his former student stood moments ago, his expression ugly beneath his half-mask.
The Village Hidden in the Rain lay in shambles, a ghostly silhouette of its former self. The rain, which never ceased in this land, cleared: A terrible omen if Kakashi had ever seen one. Buildings that once reached towards the heavens now sat as heaps of rubble, their skeletal frames jutting out like the broken bones of a fallen titan. The streets were eerily silent, save for the occasional groan of a structure finally succumbing to its wounds.
Amidst the wreckage, the aftermath of the titanic clash was evident. Scorch marks marred the earth where Itachi had sought to immolate his kin, and deep gouges stretching for miles in the ground bore testament to the ferocity of Sasuke's replies.
Beneath the notice of the gods, civilians and lesser shinobis—weaklings alike—moved through the ruins, their faces etched with grief and shock. Many searched for loved ones and salvaged what little they could from the debris. Others—children—clung to their parents, eyes wide with fear and confusion, their innocence forever marred by the violence they had witnessed.
Many more monsters of Sasuke's ilk would surely be born today; the cycle of hatred now inevitable.
In the centre of the destruction, where the battle had reached its zenith, the ground was scorched and blackened, a lifeless expanse where even the prior rain could not cleanse the scars or douse the flames. Here, rocks still glowed red-hot and the air thrummed with the lingering echoes of the combatants' fury.
A great grief overtook Hatake. Like Midas' cursed touch, every village his former student set his gaze on seemed destined to suffer a great tragedy. He could not explain the reasoning behind the thought, but Kakashi felt he, inevitably, had some fault in this.
"Kakashi!" Tobirama-sama intoned, his voice heavy. "Pay attention! We are retreating!"
"...Understood, Lord Second," Kakashi managed in the end.
***
"Shouldn't we stop them?" Konan asked as she appeared by Nagato's side in a swirl of paper strips.
Pain allowed his malevolent gaze to track the retreating Konoha-nin as they fled the battlefield. "The village cannot withstand another full-blown battle of this magnitude," he replied. "Let them go. We'll deal with them later."
"Understood."
"Tobi?"
Konan shook her head. "He fled the battlefield the moment Sasuke slipped past Konoha's blockade," she said. "I doubt we'll be seeing him again anytime soon. Should we instruct the others to kill him if the opportunity presents itself?"
"No," Nagato replied. "I doubt any other than the two of us would prove capable in that regard. Besides, we still need him to revive Madara. Just warn them to be wary. More pertinent is the revelation that we might have to speed up our other tasks. I do not know why Sasuke Uchiha is targeting the tailed beasts, but we cannot afford to lose any more to him."
***
Faint, flickering torchlight cast long, trembling shadows that danced upon the walls, revealing glimpses of twisted, arcane implements whose purposes were best left unpondered. The air was thick with the stench of blood and antiseptic, a rancid perfume that spoke of suffering and twisted mercy.
In the centre of this macabre stage, suspended by chains as thick as a man's wrist, hung Itachi Uchiha, his lithe form now a broken marionette held together by a web of queer devices. Tubes and wires snaked into his flesh, keeping him teetering on the edge of death and consciousness. The elder Uchiha's body was a canvas of ruin that seemed liable to fall apart at any moment.
Sasuke stood in the centre of this chamber, his form etched in stark, shadowy lines. His eyes, the colour of twilight, were the only parts of his person that could be discerned in totality. Arms folded behind his back, the younger Uchiha took on a scholarly mien that seemed entirely out of place
Orochimaru observed in silence as the pair simply stared at each other through lidded eyes. Why Sasuke barged into his lab with demands to keep his brother alive for a few more days eluded him, but the snake sannin would admit to finding the proceedings exceedingly curious.
"...What do you want?" Itachi rasped, his voice choppy and barely audible. Sasuke ignored his brother, his unblinking eyes fixated on the seams holding the dying shinobi together.
"Are you certain his body would survive the procedure?" The younger Uchiha asked Orochimaru. "I would be exceedingly displeased if the weasel's body failed before his suffering was complete."
"It saddens me that you would assume my work would be that shoddy, Sasuke."
Red eyes swivelled to focus on the snake sannin. "Stop acting coy," Sasuke retorted blandly. "It's starting to get annoying."
Turning his attention back to Itachi, Sasuke reached out with chakra coated to pluck out his brother's eyes. Itachi remained silent as it happened, seemingly unwilling to suffer himself the indignity of making a fuzz.
The stolen eyes were then replaced with a mundane pair. The tomoe in Sasuke's gaze spun as he forced his will on his brother; the elder Uchiha resisted for a moment, but it was pointless; Without a Sharingan of his own, he was even more powerless before his more talented kin.
Hence, the snake sannin was treated to the sight of an enthralled Itachi.
The pair stood unmoving for a moment as Sasuke dug through Itachi's memory. When he finally relinquished control of Itachi's mind, Sasuke's expression was one of mild irritation.
"What's the matter?" Orochimaru ventured.
"I missed one," Sasuke replied his expression smoothening out. "Instruct the servants to find the one known as Tobi. None shall claim I am unfair; the kinslayer would be meted out punishment too as well."
***
"We failed."
The chamber fell sombre at Lord First's declaration. All present had hoped that their collective effort would have been able to bring Sasuke Uchiha to heel, but apparently, they had yet again underestimated the missing-nin.
A kunai glinted as it twirled into the air before landing back into Lord Second's palm. "There's no need for this excess gloom," Tobirama spat. "Failing to kill the pest was well within our considerations. Besides, it wasn't a complete loss. We've been able to more accurately gauge the true extent of his strength and verified that the Rain Dome Technique can be reliably used on the battlefield."
"He still got out in the end though," Jiraiya grumbled beneath his breath.
"Unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected," Mito-sama countered in support of Tobirama's argument. "No jutsu is invincible; now that we've been made aware of this weakness, we can take steps to mitigate it."
All present nodded in agreement before Hashirama spoke again. "Might Guy."
"Lord First?" Guy replied, snapping to attention at the former Hokage's behest.
"Report."
"Our assault on Whirlpool Island was a minor success, sir. We lost half of the shinobi deployed for the mission, and an additional third sustained significant injuries, myself included. The island is once again under our control, and we captured an important member of Sasuke Uchiha's cohort. However, upon later investigation, we discovered that the island did not hold enough resources to sustain the forces deployed there for longer than two weeks. In hindsight, a simple blockade would have been more effective in nullifying the strategic importance of the island."
"Hindsight is a queer thing, isn't it," Lord First mused self-depreciatingly. "Either way, excellent work."
"Thank you, sir. However, I have more disturbing news to share. The rest of High Command has been debriefed already and asserts you would be informed promptly, but I feel it's pertinent that I must be the one to inform you now that the opportunity has presented itself."
The chamber once again took a sombre cadence.
"Please, proceed."
"Shortly, after departing the island we encountered a pair of our shinobi under pursuit as they fled from the Land of Waves. Upon rescuing them, we were informed that they were members of the sleeper cell units implanted on the island to keep an eye on the operations there. Earlier, they had been approached by a small detachment of twenty-four shinobi led by Asuma Sarutobi claiming to be a special detachment deployed to execute operations on the island.
"A few hours ago, this detachment was annihilated to the last man by forces affiliated to the Person of Interest, Jinrui Tanaka, and seemingly the entire sleeper cell network was subsequently dismantled. Only those two we rescued seemed to have survived."
"...So, we are essentially blind in that region?"
"Yes, sir," a masked ANBU replied in Might Guy's steed. "Attempts have already been made to restore operational coverage on the island, but all have been rebuffed ruthlessly. The Land of Waves is under lockdown and we have no idea what Jinrui Tanaka is up to. As for the detachment of Shinobi that went AWOL, following a preliminary investigation, we've confirmed the existence of a separate chain of command within our systems. The Shinobis involved refer to themselves as the Brotherhood. Disciplinary action has yet to be taken as per the absence of the sitting Hokage."
"...Any more depressing news we should be aware of?" Jiraiya spoke into the resultant silence.
"None," Guy replied. "But I have a proposal to make."
"Please, proceed," Hashirama said.
"I propose liberating more buffer zones around our borders from the enemies' control," he said. "We cannot continue to wait for the enemy to act; not with how things seem to be spiralling so far out of expectations. Taking the initiative now might be the only way Konoha survives the coming war."
Many in attendance concurred, yet disagreements formed on where would be the best choice to apply their limited manpower.
The northern fronts, where Oto and Iwa sat, roiled uneasily; tests and incursions on the borders increased daily with alarming intensity.
The Whirlpool islands have been forcibly pacified, yet many more islands exist in the region that could be converted for use as a staging ground for an invasion from the eastern seas. More worrying is the island that hosted the Land of Waves, a country now under the iron grasp of a known associate of Sasuke Uchiha.
Yet, ominously, as the younger Uchiha had promised, all remained quiet on the Western front.
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