Chương 21: A Difficult Choice Part-2

Team Sakumo continue to chase the enemy Ninja sensed earlier by the sensor Jounin. Seeing that they were going nowhere, Sakumo applied some wind Chakra to his feet and flickered in the direction of the escaping enemy. His speed increased drastically as Sakumo spotted the back of the ninja.

The ninja sensed the arrival of Sakumo as he turned around and spotted Sakumo. The enemy ninja panicked and raised his speed up a notch. Sakumo also increased his speed to his limit and closed the gap between the two.

Sakumo throws Shurikens towards the enemy ninja which lodges itself into the ninja's back. With a puff of smoke, the enemy ninja is replaced by a log of wood. Sakumo takes out his White Chakra Blade as he gets ready to engage the enemy.

'Water Release: Water Bullet'

A bullet of water is launched towards Sakumo. Sakumo infuses Chakra into his Chakra Blade and slashes the Jutsu. He is able to locate the location of the enemy from the previous attack as he immediately makes hand signs.

'Earth Style: Avalanche'

Sakumo slams his hand on the ground, a tremor runs through the earth as the earth near the enemy ninja shook and he loses balance and gets trapped in the jutsu. Sakumo approaches the enemy ninja as he gets ready to prepare for any surprise attack. A kunai is hurled in the direction of Sakumo as Sakumo blocks it with his Chakra blade and made some more hand signs.

'Earth Style: Mud prison'

A cage made up of mud encloses the area and traps the enemy ninja. In the meantime, the rest of the members of Team Sakumo also arrives at the location. All of them surround the prison as Sakumo moves toward the prison to interrogate the enemy.

All of them were surprised when the enemy turns out to be a member of the Border Patrol Squad. They have found their spy, Sakumo prepared to interrogate the spy but the spy pulls out a scroll from his flak jacket. The scroll was full of paper bombs. The spy makes a hand sign and infuses his chakra in the scroll. The scroll and chakra bombs are ignited as a blinding light engulfs them.

'Earth Style: Mud wall'

Boom

A devasting explosion occurs which blows the nearby area and makes a crater at the location of the spy. The spy self-detonated together with the clue to the enemies.

"It seems like he was the one who set up the explosive trap in the cave. He followed us to ensure our death in the explosion."

One of the Jounin speculated the possibility of spy's action. Sakumo agreed with the jounin as he spoke,

"Let's head back to the camp. We have lost our lead, we have to scout nearby area again for another lead."

All of them returned to the camp and Sakumo informed the Patrol Squad Captain about the spy. The captain was surprised to hear about the spy. He immediately summoned the rest of his people and began to inspect them. Leaving Captain to his work, Sakumo took out the map and placed it on the table. He marked the area of the cave with a cross and began to inspect the map for any other details.

The border of Land of Hot Water and Land of Fire had nothing unusual to them except a range of mountains with barren rocks. He marked the mountain range in a circle and began to inspect the area. There wasn't much distance between the mountain range and the cave. Sakumo contemplated for a while but was unable to figure out anything. He closed the map and sighed, he has to continue the search in the afternoon.

During the afternoon, the team gathered again. Sakumo address the team,

"Let us check the forest around the mountain range. We will split into a team of three."

Sakumo divided the teams in three, each team consisting of 3 members. He decides to move alone to scout the mountain area.

The three-team disperses as they decide a spot to meet after two hours. Sakumo runs towards the mountain range as he began to search the surrounding for any trails of enemies. After around an hour of search, he senses some disturbance in Chakra near one of the farthest mountain range.

Sakumo approaches the mountain range and stops a few meters away from the position of Chakra distribution. He inspects the surrounding but there wasn't any abnormality. He decides to return to this place with his team as he dashed toward the meeting spot.

After two hours, Team Sakumo gathered near the mountain found suspicious by Sakumo. The sensor Jounin comes out forward and he makes some hand signs and places his hand on the ground,

'Sensing Hexagon Seal'

He senses the Chakra for a while before a frown appears on his face. Sakumo asks him,

"What's the matter? Found something."

The sensor Jounins nods to Sakuma as he explains,

"There seems to a wide-scale Sensing Barrier surrounding this area. I can also sense a genjutsu barrier and some silencing seals place near the barrier. I am not sure but I also sensed a very powerful Chakra inside the barrier. Also…"

The Sensor-Jounins gulps his saliva as he continued,

"…it seems like the person with the powerful Chakra sensed our presence."

"What are we waiting for? Hurry and enter the barrier to scout the area. The enemy is already aware of our presence and we shouldn't give them a chance to prepare. "

The experienced Jounin rebuked others as they hurriedly trespassed in the barrier. They were startled the moment they entered the area. Team Sakumo was caught in a genjutsu as they entered the barrier, being aware of the situation beforehand, they dispelled the genjutsu as they marched forward.

The team was surprised to see various mining carts lined up with Chakra ore and various workers busy mining the area.

'Lightning Style: Lightning Bullet Bomb'

They were greeted by a big ball of blue lightning heading their way. All of them jumped back and dodged the jutsu. The lightning jutsu hit the ground and created a small crater as small sparks of lightning flickered in the area.

All of the Konoha ninjas wield their Kunai as they get ready for the Combat. The dust from the previous attack was settled as they saw a man facing them.

The man had a long bicolor hair color of green and white with matching eyebrows. He had a purple mark in the shape of a diamond down the right side of his face. The man wore the standard attire of the Kumogakure shinobi including a flak jacket, over a long-sleeved V-neck outfit with bandages underneath, and carried a fairly long sword strapped to his back.

Sakumo immediately recognized the man as the 'Blue B of the Eight-Tails'. He immediately went on high alert as he informed his team of the situation. More and more of the Kumo Ninjas surrounded them as another man appeared alongside Blue B.

The man had dark skin and a muscular build, blond hair which were combed back and a small goatee on his chin. His face had pronounced cheekbones and tear troughs under his eyes and a prominent crease across his forehead. He has pointed canines and his top lips have a darker hue than the bottom one.

This man is A, the son of Third Raikage A, and another powerful jounin near the level of a Kage.

"Fool! Ya Fool! I am Killer B of Kumo who is Very Cool! Ya!"

An adolescent boy with dark skin, muscular build, and long white hairs styled in a combed back manner and tied by his forehead protector arrived beside A. He wore oval-shaped glasses and one strap over another flak jacket of Kumogakure with a white scarf tied around his neck.

"Brother Ya! These Konoha fools will fall before my cool! Fool! Ya Fool!"

Killer B, the adoptive brother and tag team partner of A. Sakumo had a grim expression on his face. The difficulty of the mission had increased by a notch.

"Our mission had changed from gathering information to retrieving the stolen Chakra ore from the Kumo Shinobi." The experienced Jounin muttered to his teammates.

"We won't be able to complete the mission. We need to retreat." Sakumo immediately announced to his teammates.

"The mission is more important than our lives. We can't afford to allow Kumo to carry such large amounts of Chakra ores back to their village." Another jounin chimed in and all of the other members agreed with him on this matter.

"We will hold them back Sakumo, you retrieve the scroll and run back to the village. With your capabilities, it won't be easy for them to chase and retrieve the scroll from you. We will sacrifice ourselves for this mission." the experienced Jounin advised Sakumo.

"No, this won't do. I am your team leader listen to me. Retreat to the village, while I hold them back. Your lives are more important." Without waiting for their reply, Sakumo engaged the three of Kumo Shinobis.

The rest of Team Sakumo members looked helplessly at Sakumo and retreated. Sakumo iss their leader and thus is their superior. Disobeying his orders will lead to insubordination. They weren't happy over their leader's decision. It would be a great loss for the village to lose such large amounts of Chakra ores.