Chapter 30.5- One thousand Hands

He said, and that was that on the subject even if both Danzo and I were visibly far from satisfied while Orochimaru looked to be amused with the whole thing. If I didn’t know that the snake Sannin was a psychopath, I might have actually been worried about the man’s comprehension skills.

“Now that I am up to speed, I must do the same to you all. We are officially at war now. A day after you left, I received word of a gathered military presence from the Hidden Cloud moving into the Land of Frost. Similarly, Iwa has moved into the land of rain. This war, it seems, will once again be fought using the lesser nations as battlefields” he said, and to his credit he did seem genuinely sad at that fact even if I knew he would set fire to the Land of Rain a million times before he saw even a single homestead in Hi no Kuni lost to war.

“I have already begun mobilizing our own forces to counter this as while accelerated, we had seen this coming and planned for it. What we did not plan adequately for, however, was Suna” He said, making Danzo freeze and both Sakumo and Orochimaru snap to attention. So all three of them had been involved in the war planning. It made sense, I guess, but did have me feeling just a little bit left out. I guess that was what happened when you spent more time with your summons than you did with your fellow shinobi at home.

“Our alliance?” Orochimaru asked, practically hissing the last word and making me want to scoot away from him a slight bit in case he decided to just full on transform to one of his summons. I hate snakes.

“Gone. While we had assumed that my predecessor’s talks with them and our continued attempts to maintain the relationship would suffice, it seems they have been offered something by this Kumo-Iwa contingent that we could not quite match” he said.

“They have moved in force into the Land of Rivers. They are making good progress and if not stopped, we will have an army in our nation in a matter of days. They are the most pressing threat and that is why you, Shorirama will deal with them”

“What?” I paused as I realised I’d spoken aloud.

“Everyone else here has fixed roles to be taken in the war to come but you are easily reassigned. You will lead a platoon of 25 shinobi- equal amounts Jounin and Chunin with a single mission. Delay Suna for long enough that our proper army has the time to mobilize and reinforce you. You must bleed their offensive and ensure that they do not make it to our borders. Consider this carte blanche. Do whatever it takes. Levy the full force of that brain of yours and see to it that this is done” He said.

“Yes, Hokage-sama. When do I have to leave?” I asked.

“I will be taking volunteers for the mission beginning today. You will be leaving by dawn tomorrow. Shorirama, I will not lie to you. This mission will be the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done. You will be expected to put a hold on thousands. Failure will not be tolerated, but I do trust in you to carry this out.” I nodded at the words while already beginning to feel a feeling of weariness.

“Orochimaru, go see yourself to the hospital. You, Jiriaya, and Tsunade will be sent to the Land of Rain to match the Iwa advance. Sakumo, you will lead the army meeting Lightning at the land of Frost. Danzo, you will remain here. Our intelligence has been made a mockery of. You will be charged with rebuilding it from the ground up.” He said.

“All except for Danzo. Dismissed” Hiruzen said, and I wasted no time in standing and leaving. Orochimaru was on his way to the hospital in a flicker of displaced air and Sakumo and I were forced to endure the awkward walk down the tower with neither of us speaking to the other. Since I hadn’t just body flickered at the beginning, doing so now would have seemed rude but the walk was really grating on my nerves.

To pass the time, I turned my mind to Suna. The land of Rivers was a good staging ground, I felt. Especially for someone like me with a water release affinity. Of course, that was the only silver lining to be found. War had come early, and I struggled to refer to myself as prepared. Sage mode. I had wanted sage mode by the time the war came. Now I was going to be facing Suna and all their poisons without sage durability. This would be fun.