Kakashi leads the front of the platoon, leading the way towards the land of waterfalls as the head of the hidden Leaf's forces. So far he had not noticed anything out of the ordinary and had kept moving forwards at a steady rate.
"Sir!" Another Leaf shinobi suddenly yelled, catching his attention as he quickly stopped.
Kakashi turned around and instantly saw the smoke from the flare that Kimimaro had released.
"An enemy attack!" He said, quickly scanning the area.
Mugata, can you see anything?" Kakashi quickly asked, looking at a member of the Hyuga clan who was with him.
Mugata quickly activated his eyes and started scanning back to see what was going on.
"I can see several small units of enemy shinobi that have attacked our platoon's middle and rear units!" He yelled, causing Kakashi and the others to tense.
"Darn it... They must have known that by attacking the middle and centre ranks the front would notice quickly enough to help them.
"What should we do, Kakashi?" Another Leaf shinobi asked.
"We have no choice, we have to press forwards and trust that the others can hold their own. After all, Ganryu is at the rear, and I'm sure he can handle it." Kakashi said, knowing it would only make things worse if they circled back to help now, knowing it was better for half of their forces to arrive at the hidden Waterfall than none at all.
"But sir?" Another asked.
"That's an order. Make sure to alert all the squads who are not under attack to keep moving forwards." Kakashi then said to a member of the Yamanaka clan, who quickly nodded as he sat crossed-legged on the ground as he started to focus.
Meanwhile, Ganryu who had positioned himself at the rear of the platoon with his own squad had also noticed the smoke from the flare, instantly knowing what it meant.
"We are under attack, make yourselves ready men!" He yelled before he drew his sword.
"ARRGHHH!!!"
The battle cries of the enemy shinobi could be heard as they realised that their ambush had failed, trying to make the most of it as they attacked all at once.
Ganryu could see that these were a mix of cloud and grass shinobi, weighing up that their ranks were merely high chunin level at best.
"Kill the leader!" Two of them yelled, quickly dashing towards Ganryu as they both drew their weapons.
"Hmph... Fools." Ganryu simply said as he raised his sword, allowing a strip of blast bombs to move onto the blade, watching as the two of them quickly dashed in a zigzag line between each other trying to confuse him.
"Double water bullet jutsu!" Kōgetsu suddenly yelled, hitting both of the ninja dead centre of their chest, dropping them to the ground with ease.
Ganryu simply sighed as he lowered his sword.
"Are you alright, Ganryu?" Kōgetsu said as he landed on the ground, having used his aerial assault to take them both off guard.
"You idiot, of course, I'm alright," Ganryu said, simply pulling out a cigarette from his pocket as he placed his sword over his shoulder.
"The enemy forces have attacked the centre and rear of our platoon," Kōgetsu said, relaying the information.
"And what of the front?" Ganryu asked as he lit his cigarette.
"Our recon team has reported that the front squads have carried on moving, under the orders of Kakashi," Kōgetsu said.
Ganryu took a large puff from his cigarette before he spoke.
"Good, we will handle this attack ourselves, let the Leaf run along and leave this to us."
"Time to finish the rest of you!" Kimimaro yelled as he charged toward three more Stone shinobi, letting his bones reap out of his body, and giving him a menacing look.
"What the hell is this kid!" One of them shouted as he held his sword tight, clutching it towards his body in fear.
"I don't know, but he's dangerous up close, so let's keep him at a distance!" One of the others said, quickly taking action and not letting his emotion get the better of him.
"Earth style, earth bullet jutsu!" The man shouted, finishing his hand signs before the earth around him and the others started to dislodge itself and float into the air.
Kimimaro could see what was happening but carried on his assault regardless.
"Take this!" The Stone shinobi said as he unleashed his jutsu, letting the small chunks of rock and mud fly through the air with serious speed, creating enough force to rip apart the trees and other terrains it made contact with.
Kimimaro quickly realized he wouldn't be able to charge through head first without cover, and quickly dashed from side to side as he did his best to avoid the earth bullets.
"I've got him cornered now! One of you, finish him off quickly!" The Stone ninja shouted over to his allies, already locked in place as he continued his rain of rocks and mud.
"Right! Just keep him still for long enough!" The other said as he quickly formed the hand signs before slapping his hands together.
"Earth style, sandwich technique!" He yelled.
Kimimaro was busy dodging the projectiles and was struggling to press forward on the advance because of them, knowing he would have to do something about the user of the jutsu.
Suddenly the ground around him started to shake as two large pillars of mud and rock burst from the earth, flying right toward him from both sides as they intended to crush him between them.
"I've got you now!" The Stone shinobi shouted, watching as his jutsu was about to crush Kimimaro, certain of his victory.
Meanwhile, Haku and the others were busy dealing with the threats from the other enemy shinobi that had managed to survive against Haku's ice needles, leaving only four cloud shinobi left to face off against Haku, Koyuki, Kujira, and Rokuro.
"Looks like your ambush failed!" Koyuki yelled as she wasted no time in pressing on her counterattack, targeting the largest cloud shinobi she could see.
"You damn brats!" The man yelled as he blocked her attack with his own kunai, allowing the metal to clash against one another, flicking up sparks against each of their faces.
Miyuki could feel he was stronger than her and was pushed back, flipping through the air before she landed in a cat like pose.
"Darn brat!" The man yelled, knowing he was stronger than her as he was about to press on the counterattack.
"Die!" Koyuki suddenly said, slowly raising her hand to make a seal that ignited a paper bomb that she had placed onto his arm.
"When did she!" He yelled, trying to pull it off in alarm.
-Boom!!!-
The paper bomb exploded, kicking up a large amount of dust while killing the enemy shinobi at the same time.
"We can't let them do all the work, we have to attack as well!" Kujira said, having watched Koyuki, Kimimaro and Haku take the lead.
"R-Right!" Rokuro agreed before he set his sights on one of the remaining enemy shinobi.
However, Rokuro's words were more bark than bite, as the cloud shinobi charged forwards, drawing her sword as she prepared to cut him down with a single strike.
Rokuro's legs had already started shaking as he held his kunai in both hands, trying to find his will to fight.
"Look out!" Kujira shouted, quickly dashing in front of him with his arm raised to block the sword attack.
The cloud shinobi looked surprised that he had stopped her sword with his bear arm, not understanding how he had done it. However, she quickly pushed away with a swift kick to his chest, using the force to push clear from counter range.
"Get it together, Rokuro!" Kujira said, not looking back at him as he focused on his enemy.
"We can't beat them like this, we need to retreat!" The girl said after a moment, having taken in her surroundings and seeing that almost all of the others had been defeated or killed.
"I agree." The other surviving cloud ninja said, having watched his teammate be killed thanks to Koyukis paper bomb.
"These guys are no ordinary shinobi... We need to get this intel back to base." The male shinobi then said, seeing his opening to escape.
"Where do you think you are going!" A voice suddenly said, taking both him and the girl off guard.
"Who said that?" The male cloud ninja asked, even as he was falling through the air, landing on a tree branch.
"Did you really think you killed me?" The voice said, this time taking shape in the form of Chika.
"You! But we killed you!" He said, not understanding how she had survived their first surprise attack, having watched her go down himself.
"Idiot! Normal attacks don't work on me!" Chika said before allowing her body to burst into water around both of the remaining cloud shinobi, trapping them in a water prison jutsu.
"Nice!" Koyuki said, watching her handy work from the ground below.
"Alright, Chika!" Kujira also shouted, slapping his bicep proud of his squad mate.
Suddenly a powerful explosion caught all of their attention, diverting their eyes over to where Kimimaro was still fighting the other Stone shinobi.
"Is he still fighting them, I thought he would have dealt with them by now?" Koyuki asked, placing her hands on her hips.
Kimimaro watched as both the large pieces of rock came crashing towards him, threatening to squash him in the middle of them.
At the last second, Kimimaro jumped into the air, kicking his foot off of one of the earth walls coming towards him before pushing off of it, allowing him to jump high enough into the air that he avoided being crushed.
Both the pillars smashed into each other, kicking up a massive amount of debris and spraying chunks of rocks and mud all over the place, making it seem as if Kimimaro had indeed been trapped in the jutsu.
"Did you get him?" The other Stone shinobi asked, keeping his eyes peeled while trying to see through the dust cloud.
"I think so..." The jutsu caster said, also trying to keep an eye out for him just encase.
-Stab!-
A bone blade suddenly burst through the jutsu caster's chest, taking him completely off guard and horrifying the other shinobi.
"H-How..." The Stone shinobi asked as he coughed blood out of his mouth.
"It's simple really. I'm just better than you." Kimimaro said before he pulled his blade from the man's chest, allowing him to drop to the ground into a pool of blood.
"No! No! I'm out of here!" The other Stone shinobi yelled as he tried to scramble away, falling over before picking himself up and making a break for it.
"It would seem we have a runaway," Haku said as he appeared behind Kimimaro, watching the Stone shinobi try and get away.
"Shouldn't we stop him?" Koyuki then added, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I guess we could get some intel into the enemy's plans if we did." Haku then said as he flashed his senbon needles between his hands.
"Yeah, let's do that."
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That's the end of this chapter! Happy update day and hope you are all keeping well.
See you again soon!