Chapter 74

I clashed with the Rogue Wushi, Kwai Han at high velocity, both of us launching ourselves at each other even as Kibagami and Yotsuki Shingo moved away to the side, slashing, parrying, and riposting with their Katana as they did so. My own choice of weapon at the moment was the Sea Country-style Tinbe-Rochin, as Kwai Han's Earth Country-style Dao flashed out for my head, I brought my Kappa Shell Tinbe up to block, thrusting with the short, Rochin Blade at the same time. The Dao rebounded off the supernaturally toughened Tinbe Shield and my Rochin Blade forced Kwai Han back.

That didn't seem to perturb Kwai Han, however, as he danced backward to dodge my thrust just in time to pivot and slash out again. Once again, I parried with my Tinbe, shunting off the Dao to the side in a circular movement and cutting for Kwai Han's neck with my Rochin Blade. Unfortunately, he simply ducked and used the momentum of my parry to come back at me with his Dao again even harder. Once more I parried and riposted, and once more he dodged before using the momentum of my parry to redouble his efforts to cleave me in half.

As we went back and forth in the interplay of parry and riposte, I was being pushed back across the cavern by strikes that carved into the reinforced concrete of the walls and cleaved apart Samsara-Enhanced Enemies and Konoha-Nin alike whenever they missed. Kwai Han's offense was relentless and each parry only seemed to add fuel to the onslaught. He was like some sort of Buzzsaw if you somehow managed to use Chakra Flow to infuse the Buzzsaw.

Analyzing the technique as I frantically tried to make space, I realized that while the component parts were at least someone familiar, the combination of them along with the tweaks in form made them even more dangerous. Someone had taken the Principles of the Niulongquan (Twisting Dragon Fist) applied them to a Dao Technique, and added a Cumulative Chakra Flow Technique that redoubled the momentum gained from each exchange.

I had to change the dynamic or I'd lose the fight and my head along with it. Fortunately, I had been practicing the Taiyoken (Solar Flare) so that I could do it one-handed with a single hand seal. I tossed the blade of my Rochin at Kwai Han, which he naturally cut out of the air easily, but that moment was all I needed to form the single hand seal I'd gotten the Taiyoken down to. There was a flash of Raiton Chakra and suddenly, Kwai Han had been blinded, his assault stalled, allowing me to go on the offensive.

Pumping Chakra into my legs in minute ripples, bracing my shield in front of me, and infusing the Kappa Shell Tinbe Shield with Kōton Chakra, I performed the only Sea Country Tinbe-Rochin Technique I knew how to do with just the Tinbe Shield, the Ishigani Isogu (Stone Crab Rush). It was, effectively, an overpowered shield bash using a specific Chakra Flow Technique to aid your movement and Elemental Chakra Flow to enhance the impact of your shield. Of course, I had the Kōton Chakra to upgrade this technique whereas most people only had Doton Chakra. My version, the Kōgani Isogu (Steel Crab Rush) packed more of a punch. The standard Stone Crab version was useful for breaking down wooden city gates or wooden palisades. The Steel Crab could go through proper stone walls.

Accordingly, as I charged Kwai Han, I felt assured of victory. Unfortunately, Kwai Han must have sensed I was coming somehow because he threw himself to the side moments before impact. My Kōton Chakra-infused Tinbe Shield only clipped in in a grazing blow. It was still enough that I felt his ribs creak from the attack. They had to be bruised at least, Jonin-level toughness or not. He'd be moving a lot slower than he otherwise would be now.

As Kwai Han skipped along the floor to land against one of the reinforced concrete walls in a heap, I dove for my Rochin Blade, Snatching it up and resealing it. I immediately began going through the Hand Seals for the Shiyoken (Four Witches) taking the opportunity presented to use the Yang jutsu to grow an extra pair of arms from my shoulder blades. Then I began unsealing weapons.

As he pushed himself up off the floor, Kwai Han looked over at me and saw that I now had four arms, each had a different weapon held in its hand. The Blade of Inoshisi-No-Kami, My Tinbe and Rochin, and my Tetsubo. Four Weapons to his one. He scowled as he saw that, and made his way back across the battlefield, moving a bit more stiffly and slowly as if favoring hurt ribs.

"If that is how you want to play it, fine. Add dozens of more arms, you will not be able to stand against the Iron Tide!" Spat Kwai Han.

"Was that what that was earlier?" I questioned.

"That was a lesser technique, the Dǐngfēng Tiě Làng (Cresting Iron Wave) Technique." Huffed Kwai Han.

"Whatever it was, I handled that all right. I'm sure the next one will be just the same." I scoffed, projecting confidence I didn't entirely feel.

"You handled the Cresting Wave, yes, now let's see how you handle the Tsunami!" Roared Kwai Han.

As he said that, he revealed his trump card. He pulled a sealing tag out of a hip pouch before wrapping it around the hilt of his Dao, then, with a twist of chakra and a heave, tossed his Dao at me. Mid-flight, the Dao became a flashing arc of Raiton Chakra, humming like an actual buzzsaw instead of a metaphorical one. That wasn't the impressive part, however. No, that came when the seal was activated, suddenly, instead of one deadly electric buzzsaw, I was facing seven as the seal seemed to be a limited, Fuuinjutsu-based, version of the Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Kunai Shadow Clone Technique).

"How do you like that? The Diànhú Tiě Hǎixiào (Tsunami of Arcing Iron) Technique is the ultimate technique of the Tiě Bō Dao (Iron Wave Dao) Style! It's felled Jonin and Samurai Commanders Alike!" Snarled Kwai Han.

I didn't answer, too busy dodging. Fortunately, my speed when enhanced like this was sufficient to keep me ahead of the seven flashing blades. Unfortunately, Kwai Han seemed to be using Chakra Strings to control the various blades similar to how a Suna Puppeteer would control their puppet, if not as finely detailed a process. Also unfortunately, I was burning through Chakra at an increased rate with all my enhancement techniques up and running. Something would have to give soon and either I'd beat this technique and slay Kwai Han, or he'd run me out of Chakra and I'd be gutted.

"Run all you want! The Tsunami rages on! Who's the fool now?" Demanded Kwai Han.

Taking stock of my Chakra reserves, I realized I had a few techniques I could try that might be powerful enough to end this, but only one that wouldn't immediately run out a whole chunk of my Chakra Reserves. I'd need to save Kakashi's Chidori (Thousand Birds) for some other time. Instead, at the moment, I focused on using the Ura Renge (Reverse Lotus) to speed blitz Kwai Han.

As I practically disappeared from sight due to how fast I was going, I managed to get far enough away from the whirling buzzsaw blades to launch my counterattack. I began with knee and elbow strikes coming in at super speed from odd angles. Interestingly, somehow, Kwai Han was able to figure out where I would attack from first and turn and face the first strike. He was still unable to properly defend himself against the attack, however. He was able to get his arms in the way of the knee strike, but that was it. Somehow, though, the blow didn't break his arms.

That scene repeated itself over and over again as blow after blow piled onto him. He was always somehow able to anticipate even the oddly-angled blows of the Ura Renge, though not to properly defend against them. However, he seemed possessed of a supernatural toughness, almost like his skin was armored somehow and his bones reinforced in a way beyond how a mere chakra flow technique could do it. I had no choice, I would have to run myself out of Chakra to win this.

My last blow was a punch to the face, and as I punched out, I rippled my Chakra into my fist in the way that you did to perform the Raigo: Susanoo no Ken (Welcoming Approach: Fist of Susanoo). My last punch just barely managed to slip pashed his half-raised block, his arms too battered by multiple Ura Renga blows to react in time. Kwai Han's face widened as he understood that, and his last act was to whistle as my fist streaked for his face. As the Fist of Susanoo reduced the front of his head to a bloody mess, I found out exactly what that whistle was meant to do.

The Spiritual Energy Enhancement of his Dao was some sort of returning enhancement. As I killed Kwai Han, his original, non-clone, Dao attempted to return to his hand through me. There was a tearing noise as my armor gave way to the Chakra-infused, Spiritually-Enhanced, Dao. As that happened, a jagged gash got cut into my side, that would have definitely bisected me had I not been so enhanced by my various buffs. The blade continued past me after cutting into me, slamming into the Lamellar Breastplate of Kwai Han and rebounding off it to sink hilt deep into the concrete floor even as Kwai Han fell back to the ground and lay very still, broken face having him both bleed to death and choke to death on his own blood.

Almost immediately I was forced to pop a Soldier pill to avoid overdrawing my chakra reserves and entering stage one Chakra Exhaustion. At the same time, I had to avoid my enhancements shutting off so that I could finish healing myself with the Basic Chiyu no Jutsu (Healing Technique) without bleeding out. By the time I was done, I had maybe a twelfth of my Chakra Reserves remaining, forcing me to shut down my various enhancements.

Looking down at the armor, blade, and helmet that Kwai Han had on him, I decided that those were mine by right of conquest, along with anything else I could grab off him. I dragged the corpse into a slight alcove in the walls and stripped his corpse easily enough and sealed his equipment away in a sealing scroll. Unfortunately, by the time I'd done this, my presence in the alcove had been noticed by one of the Samsara-clad enemies.

A younger, male, Oto-Nin rushed me, leaping for me in a lunging punch. I managed, just barely, to capture his arm in a grapple and slam the enemy into the reinforced concrete wall, cracking it from the combination of the force of the slam and the stone body of the Oto-Nin. That seemed to have dazed the man and it allowed me to plunge a Kunai into his eye, killing him. Looking around the Cavern, I spotted several fights were still ongoing.

Nodding to myself, I plunged back into the fray, looking to help my Platoon. . .

XXXX

Kibagami Genjuro growled at the effort it was taking to put down the Rogue Yotsuki. Yotsuki Shingo was turning out to be a stubborn combatant, as most Kumo-Nin tended to be. The issue with fighting a stubborn enemy was that they would keep coming at you no matter how badly outclassed they were, and Yotsuki Shingo wasn't that badly outclassed by him, not that Kibagami would ever mention that fact to anyone.

By now, both he and Yotsuki Shingo were sporting cuts and gashes across their bodies. Kibagami's penchant for not wearing armor into battle hurt him here more than anything else. The Kumo-Ryu was a formidable style and Kibagami had almost gotten cut in half by the Kumo-Ryū: Mikazukigiri (Cloud Style: Crescent Moon Beheading) as Yotsuki had managed to pull out such a powerful technique even from point-blank range. As it was, Kibagami had lost his graying, but still fairly crimson, ponytail and a chunk of his right ear to go with it.

Now, he and Yotsuki Shingo were huffing and puffing, bleeding from dozens of little cuts across their bodies and still doing their level best to kill each other. With a grunt, Yotsuki Shingo focused on something behind the area they were dueling in. Whatever he'd seen must have been bad for him, because it put a sour look on his face.

"Kwai Han must've lost to the Akimichi Kid. He's nowhere to be found while the Akimichi is moving on some of the Poor Bastards who've hopped themselves up on Samsara." Frowned Yotsuki Shingo.

"You should pay more attention to your own fight." Scoffed Kibagami.

"Oh, I am. Believe me, I haven't had this good of a scrap in a few years. The problem is, it looks like no matter which of us kills the other, I don't really see a way that Oto wins this little skirmish." Shrugged Yotsuki Shingo.

"So what are you proposing? Don't tell me you want to surrender now?" Queried Kibagami.

"Surrender? That's a good one. Nah, I was thinking we settle this in the next exchange. Technique against technique, see whose really better. If I kill you, at least then I'll know I was the better swordsman before your friends jump me. If you kill me, then you get what you wanted out of this in the first place. How about it?" Offered Yotsuki Shingo.

"It does have a certain ring to it." Mused Kibagami.

"Beats trying to break out, anyway." Shrugged Yotsuki Shingo.

"All right, we'll do it that way." Agreed Kibagami.

"Great! I'm gonna warn you though, I'm coming at you with everything I've got. You better do the same. No more of this death of a thousand cuts shit, that's in the past." Cautioned Yotsuki Shingo.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Nodded Kibagami.

"Right! Here I go! Take this, Kumo-Ryū: Yorutsukihiri (Cloud Style: Night Moon Beheading)!" Roared Yotsuki Shingo.

As he did so, the blade of his Katana vanished and Kibagami found himself suddenly unable to focus on the movement of his opponent's hands. A Kenjutsu Technique that incorporated Genjutsu similar to Konoha's own Konoha-Ryū: Mikazuki no Mai (Leaf-Style: Dance of the Crescent Moon). Both relied on the same principle, that by the time the opponent was able to dispel the Genjutsu, it would already be too late, and the blade would already be striking for your throat.

Kibagami, however, was an old hand at Kenjutsu duels and Shinobi Kenjutsu Styles. He knew that the counter for such subtle Kenjutsu techniques was usually overwhelming force of one sort or another. While the Samurai of Iron preferred speed through their consistent practice of Iaido, Kibagami had always been more partial to sheer power. As he lashed out with his blade, there was a crimson flash as burning chakra erupted from his blade, leaving trails in the air as he cut upward. This was the essence of the ultimate technique of the Ko'in Ittou-Ryuu (Ancient Yin One Blade Style), one he had modified and truly made his own over his many years of service to Konoha, the Shinku no Oni Zangeki (Crimson Ogre Slash).

His upward cut not only carved into Yotsuki Shingo as he closed but burned him on trails of crimson Katon Flames while also knocking him in the air for his second cut to send a wave of crimson flames to burn him in mid-air. A final, leaping, downward slash ended Yotsuki Shingo's life. Three cuts of the blade to end almost any fight, that was the essence of the Crimson Ogre Slash. As Yotsuki Shingo's body fell out of the air, his head fell in a different direction, rolling to a stop at Kibagami's feet.

With a nod, Kibagami sealed up Yotsuki Shingo's severed head and Katana in a sealing scroll then turned to look at the fighting going on in the rest of the cavern. Their platoon had suffered heavy casualties, nineteen of their number had been slain or wounded in the fighting, almost a quarter of the Platoon's fighting strength, but they had killed two Enemy Jonin, albeit Weak Ones, and were about to wipe out the remaining batch of Enemy Chunin whose power was being enhanced by the Samsara. That should be a good thing. As he joined the fray, however, Kibagami couldn't help but feel like something was off with the situation.

They would all find out what that was in short order. . .

XXXX

Naruto and Shikamaru had managed to collect enough of their platoons to constitute a whole reinforced platoon of just over a hundred Shinobi out of the survivors. Together, the ad-hoc Super Awesome Platoon of Badass Ninja, as Naruto would insist on mentally referring to it even if Shika had demanded they not call it that, had managed to clear a large swathe of the base and take out a bunch of the Oto-Nin who'd been all cracked out on that Weird Rock Juice stuff.

Now, they were trying to contact Ero-Sennin, one of the Company Commanders, or even just anyone who knew what the Hell was going on so they'd know what to do next. Unfortunately, all the concrete in the walls was making their radios not work super well. Shika'd explained it, but Naruto was never that good with school stuff, not like Shika had been, so he didn't really get it.

Still, he didn't need to get it to know that it meant they weren't gonna be contacting Ero-Sennin or anyone in charge over the radio, which meant trying to scout out a way back to where Ero-Sennin and the Command Staff were supposed to be in-person. Fortunately, they had two of those colored charcoal sticks now and had combined and expanded both platoons' mental maps. Unfortunately, it seemed like doing that'd worn down both their charcoal stick to a little nub.

"By my calculations, we should be only a few corridors over from where Dango Company was supposed to insert. If we can make contact with them, then we should be able to make contact with the Command Staff." Mused Shika, stuck in his thinking pose.

"How do you figure that, Shika?" Asked Naruto.

"Dango Company is led by Mitarashi Anko, you remember from the Second Exam of the Chunin Exams, right?" Pressed Shikamaru.

"Yeah, Crazy Snake Lady. She hates Orochimaru-teme for fucking off and leaving her high and dry, so what?" Demanded Naruto.

"Don't you remember what we were told about her in briefings?" Questioned Shikamaru.

"Shika, if you wanna say something, just spit it out and quit dancing around the issue, Dattebayo!" Snapped Naruto.

"She's part of Torture and Interrogation. That's one of the special divisions in the Konoha Shinobi Forces like the ANBU or the Barrier Corps that gets taught a number of special jutsu for various situations." Reminded Shika.

"Oh! I remember that one, Denshin no Jutsu (Telegraph Technique)! Man, I never thought one of Iruka's boring lectures would come in handy in the field." Chuckled Naruto.

"Exactly, which means all we need to do is take those corridors and we should be linked up with Dango Company, whose commander can use the Denshin no Jutsu to get a hold of Jiraiya." Nodded Shikamaru.

"Good thing it's so close. These Charcoal Sticks are damn near used up, Dattebayo." Pointed out Naruto.

"Come on, we should head out." Ordered Shikamaru.

A few minutes later, Naruto, Shikamaru, and the Super Awesome Platoon of Badass Ninja made their way through the last of the tunnels. They'd just barely avoided going down a cunningly disguised tunnel path that would've sent them down a path away from where they wanted to go, thanks largely to Shika's sense of direction being a lot better than most of theirs. Eventually, however, they linked up with a Platoon under a guy named Hijiri Shimon, one of Crazy Snake Lady's friends from Intelligence, though thankfully, the guy seemed all right and not completely bonkers.

Hijiri passed the message up the chain of command, from him to Crazy Snake Lady, then from Crazy Snake Lady to Ero-Sennin. It took about two minutes for Ero-Sennin to actually show up. The guy was probably too busy trying to find an excuse to avoid whatever paperwork that big-ass wars generated. Honestly, Naruto had no clue how a guy this badass could be that lazy. Then again, he'd thought the same thing about how Ero-Sennin was with women too, so who knew?

"Naruto! You made it out of that death maze, I knew you would! And you brought the Nara Kid and a reinforced platoon with you!" Grinned Ero-Sennin ruffling Naruto's hair.

"Cut it out, Dattebayo! I'm not a kid! Anyway, Shika helped a lot. I dunno if we would've gotten out without him." Demanded Naruto.

"You're still a kid until I say you're not, Gaki. And if that's true, then I think you've both earned a nice commendation today. Do you have any idea how many platoons got chewed up by the traps in this place already? A lot. I count a hundred and ten Shinobi, not counting you and Shikamaru here. That's sixty-eight percent of your two platoons. You wanna guess how many formations have dipped to half-strength? Most of them. Some are even worse." Informed Ero-Sennin.

"Why? I thought this was supposed to be an easier fight. This is a lot more troublesome than we'd thought." Queried Shikamaru.

"We thought the lack of forces here would have meant that the enemy would have surrendered more easily as compared to last time. Unfortunately, it turns out that the opposite's true. Most of the enemy forces we've encountered have fought to the death. Add in the constant traps, the maze-like layout, and the ambush by hidden tunnel and we've taken a beating." Explained Ero-Sennin.

"How bad is it?" Asked Naruto.

"You don't wanna know." Refused Ero-Sennin.

"I really do." Insisted Naruto.

"So do I. Troublesome as it is, I think I need to hear it." Added Shikamaru.

"Out of the thousand-strong force we started this battle with, we're estimating around three-hundred-fifty casualties, killed and wounded." Intoned Ero-Sennin.

"Thirty-five percent of our attack force. That's a Third Great Shinobi War rate of casualties." Breathed Shika.

"Yeah, my Snake of an Ex-Teammate really pulled out all the stops to defend his active labs. Otogakure Proper is likely to be just as bad, if not worse." Shrugged Ero-Sennin.

"It's not anyone we know, is it?" Questioned Naruto.

"We won't have a proper tally until after everything's over with. These are just estimates." Pointed out Jiraiya.

"We might have to wind up actually mobilizing if this keeps happening." Frowned Shikamaru

"Well, there's good news too. It seems like the majority of the enemy's remaining reserves are on the move, heading away from the front." Offered Ero-Sennin.

"You think whoever's left that hasn't taken the Samsara is getting ready to run?" Queried Naruto.

"It seems that way." Confirmed Ero-Sennin.

"Good, we can finish this up without any other casualties. Troublesome as it would be, we might want to put pressure on the enemy and try and turn their withdrawal into a rout." Advised Shikamaru.

"It's crossed my mind." Admitted Ero-Sennin.

Naruto was only half paying attention to their conversation, however, as he got the sense that something was wrong down below their feet. He didn't mean that in the sort of way that most folks did, but on some kinda deep metaphysical level, something was wrong here. It was a sensation that was exactly how it'd felt when Gaara had been stuck in that Tailed Beast Egg-thing back at the Chunin Exams, only less widespread.

"Hang on, do you guys feel that?" Asked Naruto.

"Feel what?" Returned Shikamaru.

Then, the walls of reality burst at the seams as a tear opened up in the fabric of reality disgorging a bevy of monstrous, beaked, armored, winged, sword-wielding, Karasutengu. These Lesser Tengu were not the noble kind which often had the features of hawks or eagles, but the savage, cruel, vindictive kind with the features of Crows. The kind that would rape, pillage, and butcher their way through human villages whenever they were set loose in the Human Realm.

"What's happening?" Demanded Shikamaru.

"Someone must have done something with Orochimaru's experiment! Naruto, Shikamaru, can you hold out here against the Karasutengu? I need to head below!" Barked out Ero-Sennin.

"We got this, Ero-Sennin, do what you gotta do Dattebayo!" Affirmed Naruto.

"Kill the Humans, steal their treasures!" Called out one of the Karasutengu.

Then Ero-Sennin blitzed his way forward, past the gathering Karasutengu and deeper into the maze. As he did so, he clotheslined one of the nearby Karasutengu so hard its head literally came off its body. Naruto'd heard that the Raikage liked doing stuff like that in battle, but this was a hell of a time to see someone he knew try and mimic it! Unfortunately, the Karasutengu's shock didn't last.

"Vengeance for our lost brother, every Human must pay!" Called out one of the Karasutengu.

"Come on then!" Challenged Naruto, daring the Karasutengu to attack.

Then the Karasutengu obliged him and there was no more time for talk. . .

XXXX

Fuuma Yukimura had done what he could for Contingency: Jigoku to be a success but there were just some things you couldn't plan for. He'd known, for instance, that the tearing of rifts in the fabric of reality was a thing that the presence of certain powerful demons could force to occur if they manifested violently enough. Such tears inevitably led to the Land of One Thousand Dreams, given its cosmological proximity to the Human Realm. Sometimes, those tears led instead to the Summon Path, but that was comparatively rare. It should be generally impossible for the tears to lead to Jigoku or the Pure Land, sealed as the afterlife was from the Human Realm.

Unfortunately, while you could plan around summons, who generally acted more or less like people, even the most humanoid denizens of the Land of a Thousand Dreams tended to think in ways that humans would find alien at times. It was a chaotic place of primal fears, natural energy, and basic archetypes. In many ways, the land of a Thousand Dreams was what the Summon Path could have been, had not the Summon Clans decided to embark on their long association with humanity.

All this philosophy was to say that the Land of a Thousand Dreams was chaotic at the best of times and so too were the appearance of the tears that led there. You could not plan around random chance, no matter how hard you tried to stack the Hanafuda deck, at least in terms of battlefields.

Case in point, he'd been leading the forces he was taking with him to evacuate, Jonin, Tokubetsu Jonin, Chunin, and Genin, all of whom had yet to take the Samsara, when a tear in the fabric of reality opened in the mouth of a side-corridor and disgorged a pair of Omukade, the massive, Centipede-like, Yokai had immediately laid into his withdrawing forces and the battle that had ensued claimed the lives of roughly a fourth of his withdrawal force, as the noise and scent of blood had drawn in other Yokai.

That hadn't been the only combat his force had been forced to fight, mind you. Another tear near the hidden exit they'd taken to leave had slain even more of his men. They'd perished at the blade of a Greater Karasutengu and had forced Yoritomo, one of his few true remaining Jonin, to sacrifice himself to buy them the time they needed to leave by engaging the Greater Karasutengu in a duel. Even if Yoritomo won, he would likely wind up captured by Konoha once the base finally was purged of all the otherworldly forces and remaining Oto-Nin.

Now, as he finally exited the tunnels of Fort Cobra, running west for Otogakure Proper, Fuuma Yukimura could finally admit to himself that even using Contingency: Jigoku had been a double-edged sword. He'd started the fight with Six Jonin worthy of the rank, Fifty Tokubetsu Jonin, one hundred Chunin, and one-hundred-fifty Genin. He was escaping with only himself, two other Jonin, five Tokubetsu Jonin, and fifteen Chunin. Roughly seven percent of the forces that had been stationed at Fort Cobra. The Yokai had been bad news.

And as he ran, he knew that what they had turned Doji into was even worse. The Crimson skin, bulging musculature swelling with unholy power, horns that could pierce steel, fanged, tusked, maw that could easily rend flesh and grind bone, and those eyes. Burning with so much hatred like two embers of the fires of Jigoku had been set into the man's skull. No, man was the wrong word for what Doji was now.

No, in his desire to maul the Konoha Forces, Fuuma Yukimura had unleashed a True Oni on them. The first one to walk in the Human World in a very long time. The very sight of it had chilled Yukimura down to his bones, even though he had known, intellectually, that the Fuuinjutsu seal he had applied would keep him safe from its wrath. Not the Konoha Shinobi, though. Just before gathering his withdrawal force, as he'd watched the Oni that had been Doji head down the tunnel out of the lab, howling like the hounds of Jogoku, he had felt something he had thought long since stamped out. Compassion for his enemies.

Those Poor Konoha Bastards wouldn't even know what hit them. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the second part of the Battle for Fort Cobra or Phase Two of Operation: Grasscutter if you're on the Konoha Wartime Planning Staff. Kibagami dominated his opponent, Naruto and Shikamaru finally linked back up with command, and Choji won his fight with a Jonin, but had to take a soldier pill in order to heal up and regain chakra at the end. Now he's at a twelfth of his reserves while all Hell is literally about to break loose on his platoon.

Elsewhere, the normal tears in the fabric of reality that occur when violent, unregulated, demonic manifestations happen are occurring and disgorging various Yokai who are attacking both sides of the battle. Even the Oto Commander, Fuuma Yukimura got hit with that side effect of Contingency: Jigoku.

At any rate, the next chapter will involve Pandaemonium in the Oto Base as people try to fight back the sudden surge of Yokai while Platoon Saisu attempts to hold out against the Oni Doji long enough for Jiraiya to arrive.

Stay tuned. . .