Chapter 71

Downtime between Phase One and Phase Two of Operation: Grass Cutter was only a few days. Mostly, it was spent going over the intel and equipment looted from the Base and healing our wounded, though neither exactly applied to me. Instead, I was back to what I'd been doing previously, making sure everyone had everything they needed and sorting out disputes. Fortunately, nobody was spoiling for a fight this time. I suppose having just sacked an enemy base meant that itch had been thoroughly scratched. I only had to settle one dispute over a game of Cho-Han between Kibagami and some guy from Forest Company, which turned out to be nothing and was settled with an apology.

In my spare time, I was carving more Six-Point Amulets. My ultimate goal was to get one for each of the members of my platoon's command squad, plus all my friends currently fighting. With Saisu and I already having some, and Lee having gone back to the rear to recover from self-inflicted wounds he'd gotten from overusing the Eight Gates, that meant I had seven to make. I managed to get five done in my spare time, one for Kibagami, Shiori, Fang, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Ino. Sakura and Tenten-nee would have to wait until the next stretch of downtime for theirs because we were moving out before I got a chance to carve theirs.

As it turned out, our force would be headed to a rally point near our next target, an Oto Fortress hidden inside the Makkura Forest that the planners had labeled Target Four. Gai-Sensei and Kakashi's Forces would be hitting two other targets. All of these were near the border with Hot Springs Country, and all of these strikes had the potential to balloon this into a wider war. After all, there were suspected Shimogakure bases in the section of Hot Springs Country just across the border, and Shimo was allied to Kumo and Iwa. We'd have to be very careful not to cross the border.

For the time being, however, I made it to our rallying point in the Midori Valley along with the rest of Lance Company as we settled in to wait for the other Companies to arrive. I managed to carve Tenten-nee and Sakura their amulets and kept the platoon from making too much trouble, but eventually, everyone was gathered and Lord Jiraiya called us all together for a briefing. When he laid out what intelligence had found, I was a bit stunned, though I probably shouldn't have been.

Orochimaru was a mad scientist, after all. . .

XXXX

"All right, everyone gather round and listen up!" Called out Jiraiya.

Everyone stopped their conversations as the Legendary Toad Sage called the briefing to order. That included me, as I'd been having a conversation with Kibagami about the relative merits of our differing Kenjutsu Styles. However, when the commander of your force spoke, you listened. Especially if said commander was one of the Legendary Sannin.

"Intelligence from the last base we hit says that we'd gotten the nature of this base wrong. It's not just a border post, it's one of Orochimaru's supplemental labs." Began Jiraiya.

Murmurs began to spread through the crowd. That wasn't great. Orochimaru's experiments were well known for being unpredictable and deadly. Plus, as a supplemental lab, this likely was where he'd been working on something unstable enough to not keep near where he slept.

"Yeah, I know. My snake of an Ex-Teammate has a reputation and we all know about it. I'm sure you all grasp the implications behind it being a supplemental lab too, so I'll spare you all the preamble and just come out with it. Orochimaru was working on crossbreeding captive Yokai with Shinobi in there. Specifically, he was crossbreeding Tanuki and Shinobi to attempt to get minions with new, transformation-style, Kekkei Genkai. According to reports we stole from the last base we hit, he'd succeeded." Continued Jiraiya.

"What kind of abilities?" Questioned Hagane-sensei.

"Does it matter? It's just more bullshit that asshole's been up to!" Spat Mitarashi Anko.

"It does matter. If we're expecting to face that sort of thing when we go in." Reminded Yoshino Nara.

"If you'll let Lord Jiraiya finish, I'm sure he'll tell us." Cautioned Senju Hotaru.

"Indeed. The Kekkei Genkai is the sort of thing you'd expect from Tanuki Blood. The users can turn their bodies into living stone statues, making them deadly Taijutsu Combatants. Not only that, but he somehow managed to distill the essence of that Kekkei Genkai into a substance he calls Samsara, which can be injected into a Shinobi to give them the Kekkei Genkai temporarily, though there's also reports that Samsara use has the same issues as Taki's Hero Water does. Expect to face Taijutsu Experts with that Kekkei Genkai." Cut in Jiraiya.

"What about any Tanuki or Crossbreeds still in the Fortress?" Queried Hagane-Sensei.

"There shouldn't be any." Answered Jiraiya.

"Of course not. Why keep 'raw materials' around after they've served their purpose? My asshole of an ex-sensei was never a sentimental kind of guy." Growled Mitarashi Anko, furious.

"You think he had them liquidated?" Asked Senju Hotaru.

"That's sort of a cold way of saying had them all killed, Senju-San." Frowned Yoshino Nara.

"He did according to the documents we retrieved from the last fort we hit. It's unfortunate and barbaric, but it's the nature of the beast when dealing with Orochimaru. Reports were that the base's lab was being prepped to move a new experiment in, one dealing with using spiritual energy on a captured Demon Country Samurai, though the details are hazy and seem classified even to base commanders going by how much was redacted. That should still be in the opening phase of the experiment, though, so a secondary objective should be to free the captive Samurai. Tsunade-hime apparently thinks it'll promote better relations with Demon Country if we can do that, so keep an eye out." Informed Jiraiya.

"Aside from that, are there any other objectives to this operation?" Questioned Hagane-Sensei.

"Just don't cross the border. The last thing we need right now is an incident that'll draw Shimo into the War." Intoned Jiraiya.

"If Shimo gets drawn in, you can bet your ass that Iwa and Kumo will get drawn in too." Offered Mitarashi Anko.

"Yes, Onoki has been looking for an opportunity to avenge losses suffered at the hands of the Yondaime during the Third Great Shinobi War. I don't doubt that now that Iwa has recovered from the war, he'll take the opportunity presented by an incident to strike." Mused Senju Hotaru.

"Kumo too. A doesn't need an excuse to try and pull one over on us. Just look at what he tried with the Hyuga Affair. He just needs assurances that he won't be fighting alone." Scoffed Yoshino Nara.

"And an alliance-wide war will give him those, so I'll repeat myself. Do not cross the border into Hot Springs." Cautioned Jiraiya.

A chorus of affirmative noises and nodding heads were Jiraiya's response to that particular command. Everyone knew the stakes here, especially with Suna being currently unreliable after the whole sneak attack at the Chunin Exams thing. Unreliable was probably not the best word for Suna's current status, though.

See, last we'd heard, the negotiations with them had all but stated that while they understood they'd been duped by Orochimaru, any resumption of the alliance would be contingent on Konoha making concessions to avoid a situation like the one that had led to Rasa agreeing to Orochimaru's proposal, to begin with. Since Lady Tsunade refused to make concessions after being attacked like we had been, the negotiations had stalled. Until they went forward, Suna could be seen as a neutral party in any war with Kumo, Iwa, and Shimo.

"Right, so. The defenses of this fort are less extensive than the one we just attacked. At least their active defenses are. Passive defenses are another thing. Intel points to this place being laid out like a maze, with seals to confuse the senses with Genjutsu inscribed in the corridors. Because of that, I'm issuing every platoon a charcoal marking stick. You're all to make hash marks on the walls as you go so you know what areas you've been in before. Each platoon gets a different color so we can coordinate more easily." Ordered Jiraiya.

As he said that, members of the Quartermaster's Office went around to the various Platoon Leaders to hand out sticks of colored charcoal. Saisu was handed a stick that was red by Tenten-nee who nodded at me as she moved past the platoon.

"As far as active defenses go, expect trap seals in a perimeter around the base on trees and the like, as well as resistance from the Garrison. Intelligence estimates that the Garrison of this place is only around three hundred Shinobi. That's a bit over half of what the last place had, so it should be less of a slog. Don't underestimate the enemy, though. They do have that Samsara, after all." Intoned Jiraiya.

"It's a Taijutsu-based one, though. How bad could it be? Just hit the bastards from range with Ninjutsu, right?" Frowned Mitarashi Anko.

"You wouldn't say that to someone like Maito Gai, would you Mitarashi-san?" Queried Senju Hotaru.

"I doubt they'll have anyone with that level of ability." Pointed out Yoshino Nara.

"Still, in tight quarters like a Maze? How much range do you think you'll have? Besides, Taijutsu can be plenty powerful on its own if you're good at it." Insisted Hagane-Sensei.

"Exactly. There's a reason that we teach it to everyone. Now, if you've all gotten your questions out of the way, we'll be moving out. Lance Company and Toad Company will be taking the lead here. Dango and Forest will follow with Shade in reserve. Understood?" Asked Jiraiya.

"Yes, sir!" Came a chorused acknowledgment.

"Good. We move out in ten, collect your platoons." Commanded Jiraiya.

And with that, Phase Two had begun. Ten minutes later, we found ourselves moving out on the way toward the Makkura Forest near where the Midori Valley ended and the plains of Zassō began. The Forest marked the last bit of rugged terrain before the border with Hot Springs Country began at the Zassō Plains. If you exited out the forest from the other side, you'd effectively crossed the border into Hot Springs Country.

Hopefully, that wouldn't happen. You never knew, though. After all, the Makkura Forest was essentially a large, overgrown, patch of tangled jungle. You could get all kinds of lost in there if you weren't careful. It sort of reminded me a bit of the Forest of Death back in Konoha. The trees were tall enough that the canopy blotted out the sun, but there were fewer giant spiders and other sorts of nasty creatures in here. All told, though, it was the sort of place where one could try and punch into the Land of a Thousand Dreams to capture Tanuki for experiments. You'd be a lot more likely to get an Omukade or something, though.

My gaze drifted over to Naruto as we entered the Makkura Forest. The last time we'd been in a place like this, he'd lost control over the Kyubi sealed within him thanks to Orochimaru effectively forcing the issue. It had resulted in a bunch of Yokai pouring forth, dreams of predation and primal savagery made manifest in the Human World. I doubted Orochimaru was here at a supplemental lab, but if my suspicions were correct about what he was doing with the Demon Country Samurai, he might not need to be here to kill Naruto for a Demonic presence to be brought out and break through the veil between worlds.

An Oni could potentially do that all on its own, after all. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, here's the briefing for the next phase of Operation: Grass Cutter. The Fortress is actually not there to guard the border as much as it is to guard the lab. Expect a lot of opponents to be able to enhance their Taijutsu by turning into living statues, while the Demon Country Samurai Experiment is a thing of its own.

As you can probably guess by the stuff that happened in Demon Country in the past, Orochimaru is trying to use Spiritual Energy and Fuuinjutsu to first, awaken the Oni Blood inside the Samurai and then to control the resulting powered-up Half-Oni Samurai. The details of the experiment are redacted in the captured documentation because even Orochimaru isn't crazy enough to spread the knowledge of the True History around to underlings that may or may not be unstable enough to attempt to unseal the Obsidian Empress.

At any rate, the next chapter will be the assault.

Stay tuned. . .