Chapter 73.6- One Thousand Hands

XXXXXXXX- CEE

“Landmines” He heard someone shout for what felt like the ninety-ninth time today as another cluster of shinobi blew sky high. The Iwa strategy was a shockingly competent one. Landmines buried so deep that they activated seconds, or sometimes minutes after being tripped off. It was literally impossible to tell where the landmines where until they exploded. A different village would have taken the losses and turned about. They were Kumo, though. And one thing they were not lacking was numbers. They had the new recruits at the front of the line, leading the charge. There was no need for stealth or subtlety.

Iwa knew they were coming and would most definitely do their best to prevent them from arriving but that mattered little. Not when Kumo was Kumo. Iwa might have prided themselves on being the stones. The immovable objects. But Kumo was the unstoppable force, and Iwa was going to learn what that meant in a matter of hours. The Raikage himself, was the tip of the spear, walking at the very forefront of their charge. Already he had stepped on and triggered what had to be a dozen landmines, but had stepped away unscathed from each one.

He inspired their people to continue forwards. They knew with Ay-sama at the helm, there was naught awaiting them but victory.

“Contact” Another voice screamed. Cee paused, searching out with his chakra. He could feel them now. Dozens of hostiles. They rose from the ground in their midst like demons from hell. Their blades lashed out, and they reaped Kumo lives with every swing.

“Form up” He screamed even as he felt at two of the hostiles closest to him with his chakra. In a second, he had ensnared them with his genjutsu. In another second, they were dead.

He jumped forward, right into the fray even as he sensed his fellows doing the same all around him. He felt Killua’s electric chakra as it moved, arcs of storm release bending around Kumo shinobi to strike at the Iwa shinobi in their tens. For all Cee might have found the man bothersome and troublesome, he could admit that the bastard could fight. Yui’s cloth wrappers reached out to snatch hostiles and toss them into the air. Killua shot them down whenever she did, the two of them working together well.

Kinkaku and Ginkaku, berserkers that they were glorified themselves in the senseless violence, moving from target to target, jumping this way and that. He could already count two life-forces that had definitely been Kumo shinobi that the idiots had killed in their rampage. He was probably the only one who noticed and he would not be telling, he already knew. It galled at him to admit it, but for better or worse, they were worth more than the lives lost to their carelessness.

Sora’s shuriken flew through the air with eerie accuracy, moving from target to target, weaving around attempted blocks and following dodges. As a blur of light, the Raikage zigged and zagged through their midst, reaping enemy lives with the ease of breathing. Cee did his duty, ensnaring as many as he could in his illusions and leaving them open for others to kill.

In less than ten minutes, the entire attacking force was dead.

“Keep moving” Ay-sama ordered after they had taken stock of the situation.

“But the wounded…” he began, and as he started to speak, he realised it was a mistake.

“Anyone too wounded to move gets left behind. I want us at Iwa’s walls before sundown. Let the cowards meet me face to face.”

A/N: Ending the chapter with a look at how things are going at the Iwa front. Yes, Iwa are better at using landmines than Shori was, and Kumo are much worse at detecting them (they didn’t even try)