Naruto: Chronicles of a Fire Ninja-Chapter 352 - 348: First Strike

Three days passed normally with new recruits getting the hang of their new schedules, while older ones continued their older tasks. But on the night of the third day, something happened.

The night watch at the northern outpost was proceeding as usual when one of the sensors noticed a slight disturbance in their detection field. It wasn't unusual to detect movement—desert creatures often triggered minor alerts—but protocol demanded investigation of all anomalies.

"Squad Seven, investigate disturbance in sector four," the command center ordered. "Standard scout formation."

Chunin Takeshi led his team of three genin toward the disturbance. At nineteen, he was already known for his caution and reliability—perfect qualities for leading routine patrols.

With his squad, he left to check for the disturbance. Sadly, he was the unlucky one who was given new recruits in his squad while his older squad had gone to someone else. He could only sigh seeing the laid-back attitude of the new recruits because in three days they had gotten used to the procedure—one of the most common reasons for a ninja's death.

"Remember," he whispered to his genin squad, "maintain communication seals active at all times. Miko, take point with your sensing. Jun and Rei, flank positions." He tried to make them as serious as he could.

They moved silently through the desert night, their footsteps barely disturbing the sand. Miko, a young sensor-type ninja, suddenly stiffened.

"Takeshi-sensei," she whispered, her voice trembling, "there are multiple chakra signatures ahead of us. Many of them." But she was not the only one who had sensed the enemies.

Before Takeshi could order a retreat, dark figures emerged from the sand dunes. His heart stopped as he realized they were surrounded—at least ten shinobi, all wearing unmarked gear.

"Run!" Takeshi shouted, already forming hand signs. "Back to base, now!"

The genin turned to flee, but more enemies rose from the sand. Takeshi unleashed a water jutsu, creating a brief screen of steam as it hit the desert floor. 'Just need to buy time for the help to arrive,' he thought desperately.

But the next second he lost a major chunk of his confidence. The genin who ran toward the base were surrounded by the enemy ninja once again. Rei fell first, a kunai finding his throat before he could scream. Jun managed to deflect two shuriken but an earth spear caught him in the leg. Miko made it the farthest, her sensor abilities helping her dodge the initial assault.

Takeshi fought like a man possessed, his hands blurring through signs as he tried to cover his students' retreat. 'Just a little longer,' he thought. However, once again luck was not on his side as he saw Miko fall, a silent scream on her lips as lightning chakra stopped her heart. Time seemed to slow as Takeshi could now see his own death in front of him, but he didn't fall into despair like any new recruit would have. He was a person who had fought in the great ninja war; with calm mind, he analyzed his situation. Since death was almost certain, he left all hope of making it back alive and took out a bulk of explosive tags from his bag.

'I'm sorry, everyone,' he thought, channeling his remaining chakra into them.

"Retreat!" a shout came from behind, and the ninjas ran back seeing the number of explosive tags spreading around them. Using the time he got, Takeshi took out a seal from his pocket and passed chakra into it.

'At least they know about the enemy now,' were his last thoughts before an earth spear took him through the heart, but not before his fingers completed the seal activation.

...

Back at the outpost, alarms blared as Takeshi's distress signal reached them. And just after a few seconds, they heard the thunderous explosion happening near the position where the squad went to search for the anomalies.

Seeing the seriousness of the situation, the sensor team quickly called the Nara commander, Shinji, into the room as he immediately sprang into action.

"Sir, we lost contact with squad seven which went to check for anomaly at sector four, and they had sent a distress signal code red," the sensor ninja responsible for sensing and tracking operations of the outpost reported.

"More than 10 enemy ninja, and considering the blast, the squad must have been eliminated, resulting in Takeshi using his last resort," Shinji said.

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Without wasting a single second, he barked orders as the outpost erupted into activity. "Launch distress hawks and call for reinforcement from nearby outposts! All positions, prepare for combat! We are being attacked!"

Five messenger hawks took to the sky, carrying urgent requests for reinforcement. Three more specialized distress flares shot into the night sky, their chakra-infused light visible for miles.

"Commander!" A sensor shouted. "Multiple sensing distortions like before are being detected from all four directions! We're surrounded!"

Before Shinji could order the barrier activation, explosions rocked the outpost's perimeter. The seal master among the attackers had identified the barrier array's weak points, and the coordinated assault was devastating.

The enemy ninjas had targeted the outer array with many explosion tags, which were nothing but cover for the clay spiders Deidara had sent to the array weak points beforehand.

Deidara's tiny clay spiders detonated with terrifying force. The combined explosions with the explosion tags shattered nearly a third of the barrier array, leaving the outpost dangerously exposed.

"What are our losses?" Shinji asked as soon as the tremors of the explosion died down.

"Sir, we can't activate the outer barrier now, only the inner barrier is remaining and could only be activated for few minutes."

"I want the exact number, dammit!"

"12 minutes max," the only seal master of the outpost said.

"Then start partial barrier activation!" Shinji ordered. "It will buy us essential preparation time!"

The remaining arrays hummed to life, but Shinji could see they wouldn't last long. He quickly assessed their situation: they had forty defenders, fifteen of them genin, against what appeared to be a massive enemy force. With just the conservative guess, they must have more than 70 ninjas.

Soon the enemies left their hiding spots and started attacking the barriers.

"Status report!" he demanded.

"Based on the chakra signatures, we're facing at least 15-20 enemies on each side. Possibly more. Since some of them entered the range after a few seconds," a sensor reported grimly.

Shinji's mind raced through scenarios, each more desperate than the last. They were vastly outnumbered, with no hope of immediate reinforcement.

"Listen carefully," he announced, his voice carrying the weight of command. "We're going to launch one coordinated attack, then scatter in different directions. Small groups, random patterns. I am not going to give you hope that we will survive this attack, but all of us can't die here, and this method will guarantee that some of us will live and will be able to bring reinforcement. At last, I want to say... It was an honor to work with you guys."

All the ninjas who were in a state of anxiety finally calmed down, years of training calming their nerves.

"We are also proud to work with you, captain," one of the jonin replied who was also the head of the offense department of the outpost.

The outpost which was in disarray a moment ago suddenly became organized. Shinji quickly divided the ninja into random teams with different compositions and numbers, with the orders clear.

While this was happening, a ninja—or a clone to be exact—was in much greater deliberation.

Kaida's clone, standing with Yomi and Ryota, felt his remaining chakra dwindling. With only 20% left, he couldn't create another clone to warn his original self.

"Yomi, Ryota," he said quietly, "when the attack begins, head southwest. I'll cover your retreat."

"I am sorry for not taking your warning seriously, Kaida, and I want to say I am really—" Yomi started speaking.

"Wait, I don't want to hear it. Tell me all this when you meet the real me," the clone gave a reassuring smile and then turned to Ryota.

"Don't do anything stupid, run toward the southwest, and I will handle the rest."

"I know bro, I also value my life. After all, I have to surpass you soon," Ryota gave a cheeky smile, but the clone could feel the nervousness in his smile.