Naruto: The Wind Calamity

Illumi thought, \'We don\'t need to worry about the upper hand. Even if his group is caught off guard, there is sufficient backup. However, this is rather surprising. To think that they would ambush us instead of hiding."

"General, should we reinforce them?" Illumi shook his head to answer his subordinate\'s question and instead asked, "Can you see who\'s attacking them?"

Most sensors stayed quiet, but a senior Yamanaka ninja replied, "It is Tsuchiro. I had sensed his chakra signature during the Third Great War."

Illumi thought for a bit before saying, "Just 300 ninjas won\'t be able to stop Hoka\'s division. And, if we go there, the remaining rebels might be able to sneak away. We\'ll continue moving down the valley, but we\'ll slow down a bit. That way, we\'ll attack first while Hoka\'s division can follow up by attacking their rear and trapping them betw…"

Illumi stopped mid-way and something unexpected happened. Some distance away from him, 500 ninjas appeared and rushed towards him! This army was led by none other than Kagero, the leader of the Kusagakure rebels! Following him were his two students, Shizuma and Ganku! The three of them went straight for Kurama Illumi!

"We failed to detect both the forces?" A SealMaster exclaimed in shock. Despite several SealMasters inspecting the valley, not a single one noticed the two spots where the rebels hid. Instead, we calculated the incorrect location.

A Nara Jounin said, "Not just that, the location they hid in is perfect for ambushing as well. They outplayed us."

Renjiro nodded and asked, "Where did you mess up?"

The SealMaster thought for a bit before answering, "It was how they planned their bases in this valley. Every seal here is carefully hidden. Just finding the seals hiding the base at the bottom of this valley took a long time. In fact, if the Nara Jounins didn\'t insist, we wouldn\'t have looked deeper into this valley either. It was only due to them that we managed to locate that base. We did try searching more bases, but we couldn\'t spot any since these were even better hidden."

Renjiro asked, "Could you guys have done anything different?"

The Nara Jounin looked at Renjiro suspiciously and thought, \'Hmm, why does it feel like he is educating us instead of being worried about the battle?\'

The SealMaster answered unsurely, "Perhaps if we had searched longer, we could have discovered them, but it would have taken a couple of days, if not more. In addition, I can\'t guarantee that we would have found it. Perhaps, we could have fallen into the trap too and lost our lives.

The only way we could have avoided this trap is if a Grandmaster took a look. Perhaps if the Commander had…"

Renjiro cut him off and said, "Our enemy is quite weak. If the Commander did everything, we wouldn\'t need an army."

The SealMaster obediently replied, "I understand."

The Nara Jounin asked, "Should we help out General Hoka\'s division? Even though they will win, they are under a lot of pressure right now. Soon, the casualties will start mounting."

Renjiro shook his head and answered, "Of course, there will be casualties in war. A war that doesn\'t have any casualties isn\'t a war, it\'s a massacre. This time, our enemy is weak, trapped and helpless, yet we are struggling so much. Do you think we\'ll have such favorable conditions when battling against other major villages?"

Renjiro glanced towards Hoka\'s division and continued, "An army will only be born when it survives several tribulations of blood and death. Let them handle it. You\'ll see what I mean soon."

The Nara Jounin as well as the SealMaster frowned and wondered, \'But, didn\'t Commander say that he didn\'t want to see anyone dying?\'

The two didn\'t say it out loud. After all, neither was as close to Fujin as Renjiro. Even though they didn\'t say anything, Renjiro could easily figure out their thoughts. He thought, \'In a way, Fujin is inexperienced and ignorant about wars too.

Even though he has a lot of mission experience and has undoubtedly done a lot of morally gray tasks in the missions he didn\'t talk about, war is a different matter altogether. He\'ll have to have the heart to sacrifice some ninjas to win the larger war, a position he was rarely put under due to how remarkably strong he has become. And, he\'ll have to accept such losses too.

The same is true for Hoka. He\'s even behind Fujin in this regard. And, this is a good opportunity for him to gain experience because he\'s leading from the front. The next time, he\'ll be far more careful against such ambushes.

The army will benefit too. This will teach them how gruesome wars are and how one mistake or one moment of carelessness could be catastrophic for their comrades. If I help them now, then it\'ll have the opposite impact. If we baby them today, they\'ll pay the price when they don\'t have the same luxury in the future.\'

"Have you recovered?"

On a rock in the middle of a dense, dark forest, two men sat wearing black cloaks having red clouds. They were none other than the fearsome Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame. Ironically, neither of their cloaks inspired fear. ℞

Itachi\'s right sleeve was missing and burn marks were visible on the edge of the cloak where the sleeve should have been. On the other hand, most of Kisame\'s cloak was destroyed and his upper body was visible.

Kisame answered, "Yes, the injuries have been dealt with. It\'s a shame that I couldn\'t find anyone with a large amount of chakra. Otherwise, I could have healed quicker by absorbing their chakra through the Samehada."

Just like in the original story, Itachi and Kisame entered Konoha four days ago. Since Fujin was in the Land of Grass, no one intervened and they ended up clashing with Kakashi\'s group in the same manner. Kakashi, unfortunately, couldn\'t change his fate and fell prey to Itachi\'s Tsukuyomi. He fell unconscious and had to be rescued by Guy before the Akatsuki members retreated. However, there was one major difference. Unlike the original story, they had to pay the price for taking on Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Ninja!

Both Itachi and Kisame got a taste of Sakumo\'s Yin chakra-infused Lightning. Itachi noticed the signs with his Sharingan and almost dodged the attack while Kisame was fooled by Kakashi\'s Shadow Clone and ended up taking the whole brunt of the attack.

Of course, Kakashi was nowhere near Sakumo\'s level, which is why neither was mortally wounded and he was quickly defeated by Itachi\'s counterattack. However, the pain stayed behind. After they retreated from Konoha, they had to wait for four days to heal up completely. While they could have moved on earlier, neither dared to move around with any handicaps. After all, their next opponent was in an entirely different league as compared to Kakashi!

Itachi\'s sudden appearance got the attention of the big shots in Konoha. Every Clan Leader paid careful attention to it and raised their clan\'s guard. After all, they didn\'t know the truth. From their perspective, Itachi had massacred the mighty Uchiha clan by himself. Even though Shikaku had some guesses, he didn\'t want to take unneeded risks either. Fujin and Jiraiya were informed about the same. Needless to say, the ones who were alarmed the most were Danzo and the other elders. They received Itachi\'s hidden message without the need for a single word, forcing them to drop any ideas they had about the Uchiha kids immediately.

"Kagero… This is a brave choice. I didn\'t expect you\'d come out and battle instead of hiding." Kurama Illumi said as he stood face-to-face with Kagero and his students. The 500 ninjas under Kagero\'s command began battling with Illumi\'s 1000-ninja strong division while their leaders faced off.

Kagero chuckled and asked, "Where can one hide from Konoha ninjas? Surely you didn\'t expect me to wait for my death, did you, Illumi? That said, this is rather unexpected. Illumi, you have come a long way. I didn\'t think you had the talent to reach the Elite Jounin rank in Konoha. It should have been a matter of pride for you. Unfortunately, it\'ll be the cause of your death. Anyway…"

Kagero rapidly weaved hand signs while saying, "Enough talk!"

Illumi became serious and withdrew while weaving hand signs as well. He glanced at the three opponents and thought, \'His two students are as strong as the Veteran Jounins in Konoha. If they had been in Kusagakure, they would have been promoted to Elite Jounin rank. Renjiro also said that Kagero is as strong as he is. Winning against him will be very difficult. However…\'

A sly smile appeared on Illumi\'s face. He didn\'t need to win. He just needed to stall Kagero. As for Kagero\'s students, Illumi wasn\'t worried. Reaching the level of Konoha\'s Veteran Jounin might be extraordinary in a minor village, but it wasn\'t so in Konoha. Illumi had 9 Veteran Jounins under his command, three of whom were standing right next to him. As such, Shizuma and Ganku\'s task wasn\'t to gang up on Illumi along with their Sensei, instead, it was to avoid Konoha from ganging up on their Sensei.

\'Water Release: Vapor Gale jutsu!\'

\'Phantom Mist jutsu\'

[A/N: Latest Chapter : Konoha\'s Premium Transportation System!]

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