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The Leaf army continued to march forward, and soon they broke away from the wide, flattened trade route for the narrower, rougher road that led to their target. The village looked no different from any other settlement of its kind; perhaps that was the reason why it was chosen as ROOT's base of operations.
"I feel embarrassed about this, Lord Choza," Yamanaka Kawamochi said as she strapped herself into a pseudo-chair made from a flexible leather weave. It had a stiff base for sitting and a long back with two shoulder straps on the outside.
Akimichi Choza laughed as he easily lugged Kawamochi in the chair onto his back like a backpack. "No need to be. I'm long used to this from my time with Inoichi. I guarantee you will have a comfortable and safe time, Jōnin Kawamochi. That much I can boast."
She chuckled and then checked the straps; they were sturdy enough to keep her from falling out of the chair, but one tug from her would snap them like dry twigs, making escape easy. Satisfied, she closed her eyes to gather her chakra to fill her body. A few moments later, she weaved a continuous string of hand seals while releasing her chakra over the Leaf army.
Behind the darkness of her closed eyes, bluish dots began to light up against the black of her mind. She sensed the chakra of all around her and focused on those who shone brighter than the others, as they were most likely to be chūnin. Her peers were akin to beacons whose glow covered others, making her zone them out, which was a difficult task.
Yamanaka Hiden: Mind-Body Transmission Jutsu
"Attention, this is Yamanaka Kawamochi. Do not be surprised. You have been informed of this before. If you're hearing this, I've established a link with you. Note that not everyone can hear this."
Around the army, many people jumped in surprise at the sound of a voice in their heads. The chūnin had been informed of it, but experiencing it firsthand was astonishing enough to make them disregard any previous warning.
———
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"Did you hear that?" Momoe asked the chūnin of the team running beside her.
He nodded with a lightly spooked look.
"Hear what?" Nenro, running behind her, asked.
"Jōnin Kawamochi is sending her voice into our heads through her clan's hijutsu."
She had had a chance to attend a joint training session with the young chūnin of the Akimichi-Nara-Yamanaka clan triad—an excellent opportunity that allowed her to gain experience. She already had ample experience against the Akimichi from the hundreds of spars against Hideaki, her teammate.
The Nara's Shadow Imitation Technique was surprising at first, and while she couldn't break the shadow's bind, she was able to devise various strategies, some of which she even got to test. The Yamanaka's Mind-Body Switch Technique was a bizarre feeling because she couldn't resist it nor did she know what happened while her body was hijacked; the only consolation was that the jutsu took considerable time to set up and thus could be planned around, but the Yamanaka knew it and thus rarely operated without someone to buy time.
"Oh yeah, that's fun," Masaaki said. "The trick is to think of jokes in your head. If you make the Yamanaka laugh first, you win."
Momoe was surprised that he would have experienced it because only a few, and only those most attuned with the jutsu, could use it within a clan. She didn't think Masaaki, who was not a Yamanaka, nor even part of the other two triad clans—just a sponsored genin—would have been in a place to experience something like that. She glanced at Nenro; she already knew he had real potential.
It seemed that Masaaki could be someone of potential as well.
———
.
Takuma frowned when he heard the voice in his head. Yamanaka Kawamochi was to be the group's comms and, to some extent, the chief strategist for the battle, because even though Kakashi was in charge, he was tasked with going after Danzō. Given that she would be receiving the entirety of the information, it was easier for her to formulate the strategy and command the troops.
And as he was expecting, the moment he heard the voice, Grey materialised just ahead of him, running as though he was part of the group.
"What the fuck is this?" Grey said, his voice dripping with acid.
"A Yamanaka."
"This is so much more invasive than what that fucking quack does."
He ignored Grey's insistence on calling Inenpachi a quack despite the progress he had made with their research. More interestingly, how could what Jōnin Kawamochi was doing be more invasive than what Inenpachi did? The latter had access to his central hub and even interacted with Grey and the black wall.
"She's a jōnin. Her jutsu is probably stronger. Is she doing anything wrong other than causing mild discomfort?"
Grey didn't reply, which meant it wasn't harming him, and he was simply being his usual paranoid self. However, Takuma, too, wasn't a fan of having an untrustworthy Yamanaka in his head. The only mind walker he trusted in there was Inenpachi. Not even Amami was allowed in his noggin.
"I can block her out," said Grey.
"Ratel?" Tern asked as Takuma almost stumbled by skipping a step in his stride.
"Just a stone." He was silent for a moment before he spoke internally. "Are you sure?" Grey was always able to kick out Inenpachi, but this was a Yamanaka jōnin, one especially talented at her clan's hiden jutsu.
"I could, yes. Block her temporarily or expunge her entirely."
"Then block the next time she speaks."
And that moment came only a few seconds later as Jōnin Kawamochi issued another announcement, which was abruptly cut off mid-sentence, followed by a victorious snicker from Grey.
"I missed what she said," he told Tern.
"That we're about to get within Jōnin Utsuse's range and to be prepared."
"Do you think you can do it with a stronger, targeted attack? Like the Mind-Body Switch? If so, how difficult will that be?" Takuma asked internally. Frankly, it was a terrifying prospect.
"Of course!" Grey proclaimed as a matter of course with a proud chin. "Even you can do it. In fact, I'll teach you. You need to get better at protecting our minds!"
Takuma nearly fell face-first. "…What?"
———
.
Hyūga Utsuse gazed out at the village and its surroundings in silence before turning to Aburame Shibi, her partner for the day. They shared a silent nod before he ordered the people around them to step out to make space for her. Soon, there were a few metres of empty space around her.
She closed her eyes, and her Byakugan came to life as the veins near her temples bulged. Even though her eyes were closed, her vision continued to expand in all directions.
Soon it crossed over to the village, and the several hills around the village, and what was hidden became visible. She had seen civilian villages in the boonies, and some of the chakra signatures she was seeing were not those of civilians. Their suspicions were right, and it seemed that ROOT had stationed agents in the village among civilian hostages.
"Kawamochi…"
A voice immediately responded in her mind.
"Yes, Utsuse?"
"The village is being held hostage. Inform Sayuri and Kurenai that they'll be expecting resistance."
In the middle of the village square sat a masked man with a long staff perfectly upright beside him. One look at him with her eyes told Utsuse that he wasn't going to be an easy one. She recognised him from the briefings on the ROOT jōnin; ROOT might have been able to keep their chūnin or lower-level agents under wraps, but it was impossible to hide the jōnin. She relayed the information about the number of men in the village, and then moved on to the things ROOT was trying to hide by putting the villagers in front.
Her eyes honed in on a few adjacent hills in the village's backyard, and they were littered with tunnels in and underneath them, teeming with people scurrying around like ants in an ant colony. It was a very interesting watch and certainly more interesting than the Hidden Leaf Village's underground; she had got somewhat bored of watching the same Ring Tunnels from time to time. The rest of the secret tunnels were surprisingly empty, and ANBU kept all of their stuff hidden, so even if she knew where they were, there was never anything to watch.
And there she found something troubling she hadn't expected.
"Are you listening?" she asked.
"Yes. You have the highest priority," Kawamochi sensed, adding, "I've established a link. The jōnin will hear your voice. Please go ahead."
"I see six jōnin," Utsuse thought in her mind and then looked around to see if the chūnin heard her, but Kawamochi had smartly kept them hidden.
They knew that, including Shimura Danzō, ROOT had six jōnin-level combatants. There was always a possibility that ROOT might have gained an external jōnin since they had left the Hidden Leaf, but that was highly unlikely. And since ANBU claimed that one of them was in no condition to fight, much less reach the location, they were only expecting five of them.
"Are you sure?" Inuzuka Gaku's voice sounded in her head.
Before she could lash out at the mutt, Kakashi spoke out:
"Who's the sixth?"
"I can't tell. I've never seen him."
She tried to match the young face with the jōnin she knew from around the globe, but she couldn't find a match, which wasn't saying much because she didn't know the faces of all the jōnin. Although exceedingly rare, the number of jōnin roaming around was in the high three digits.
"Can we see him?" Kurenai asked.
There was a moment of silence from Kawamochi. "…I'll say this, so listen carefully. I can exchange verbal thoughts with ease over this many people, but if you start asking for memories, senses, or emotions, I'm going to be spent quickly. I'm trying to pace myself to last over a longer period, so we're going to keep this short and infrequent, reserved for the most unavoidable things… Show it to me, Utsuse."
A few moments later, all the jōnin saw the face of the mystery sixth jōnin. He had flowing black hair and dark eyes with an excited grin that seemed out of place in the current situation. He wore a conical straw hat and a sash around his forehead.
"He seems familiar," Weasel said.
"So he does to me," said Sayuri.
"A person of interest for the Police Force and ANBU?" Choza asked.
Everyone began to voice their opinions, throwing out names of jōnin they thought the man looked similar to.
"Doesn't he look like that one guy from the Sand?" Gaku said.
"No, it's not that guy. I saw him last year," Asuma replied.
Half a minute passed, but they weren't able to come to a consensus, and time was running out when Aburame Shibi interrupted:
"We should discuss if we're to make any adjustments due to this man's unexpected presence."
"Looks like an Uchiha," Gai said a beat too late.
"There's movement!" Utsuse said. "Danzō is on the move. The new guy is accompanying him. Maybe he's a bodyguard of sorts… Wait, except for the guy in the village, everyone's moving. It's as we expected; they've split up and are moving in different directions. We are close; we have to speed up."
A commotion broke out before Kawamochi allowed Kakashi's voice to drown everyone out.
"There are no changes. We're to proceed as planned. Everyone will proceed to their pre-designated targets. ANBU, Gai, and I will still pursue Danzō. Kawamochi, let everyone know."
"Roger."
———
.
There was an energy in the air that couldn't be found anywhere else but on a battlefield.
"We're splitting near the village," Itachi shouted the orders over the noise. "Aquilla, do you have a lock on the target?"
"Yes, sir," Aquilla said, "but I'm not as skilled as Jōnin Utsuse, so we must pick up the pace."
"I was about to say the same. We're moving too slow," said Gai and then picked up the pace, his troops following behind him.
Kakashi took out a kunai, sliced his thumb to draw blood, and then signed the hand seals for the Summoning Jutsu. He clapped his hands together for the jutsu formulae to appear in the air before a pack of ninken appeared and began running with the front of the pack.
"It's time?" said Pakkun, the small pug that led Kakashi's ninken.
"I'll be relying on you guys," Kakashi said, and the ninken pack sprinted ahead of everyone. They were to track down Danzō in case they slipped out of Aquilla's range.
As the orders were relayed, the Leaf army sped up. It was like a bull stampede; the ground shook as hundreds of shinobi charged forward. Some roared to prepare and hype themselves; others went quiet to pray.
Between all of that, Takuma clenched his fist, and his grip seemed weak. He touched his neck, and his body was burning hotter. Finally, his heart was beating fast enough to drown some of the noise around him.
He was nervous. He was scared. Yet, beneath all of that was a calm. Going after Kon and, by extension, ROOT was among the reasons he had joined ANBU. And now, all of his efforts—he looked at Tern and Aquilla—all of their efforts were coming to fruition as they made their final charge towards Danzō. Looking at the three jōnin leading his group, he couldn't imagine them failing. Even if there was another jōnin with Danzō, he couldn't see how that would be a detriment to this combination of three.
"Are you ready, Ratel?" Itachi asked him.
He didn't know how he could contribute to a battle among jōnin, but he was prepared to do whatever was asked of him.
"Yes, sir," Takuma replied. "Let's end this today."
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———
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