"Fall back!" The urgency in the voice left no room for doubt, and those two squads ran back as soon as they could, but alas they were not fast enough.
Yasushi had created an earth wall behind the team when he reached there, closing them up in a room, after which all five of them just exchanged glances at each other. Yasushi couldn't explain what he was feeling in words at all.
The team he had completed countless missions with, the team he had shared joy, pain, sadness, and whatnot was present with him at his last moments, and none of those present had a shred of doubt about giving their life for their village. A feeling of patriotism which couldn't be cultivated by leaders at all; it usually comes from deep inside of a truly honest person.
Only god knows how much pain he was feeling giving his agreement to them for a suicidal move, but that pain was shrouded by the proud feeling he was having in his chest.
All of the members present there had something similar going in their mind, though some of them still had a little bit of sadness in their heart about leaving their loved ones.
But when the moment of action arrived, all those feelings gave way to resolve. They all released a final sigh before activating all of the explosion tags they had on them.
With five Jonin present there, the number was just shy of a thousand, and the result was anything but devastating. The walls which had been acting as a defense till now suddenly became the shell of a very large grenade; various earth pieces travelled at speeds which could hardly be reacted to even with the reflexes of a jonin.
If not for the earlier shout of the Hyuga ninja, the seven jonin running toward the wall would have resembled a sponge by now. Even when they were given warning a couple of seconds prior, they still couldn't totally evade the attack.
The four in front of the formation suffered the most - two had their legs crushed while others took the stones to their chest, most likely broken rib cages with punctured ribs, if not hearts.
But their problems didn't end with the stones; the main attack, which was the explosion, followed just after the stone barrage, throwing the Konoha ninja further away from the distance they had created after the warning.
Unluckily, the Sarutobi jonin who was already wounded couldn't even do anything to defend himself, gaining many more injuries from the stones coming toward him faster than bullets than he already had. But they still didn't kill him - he was still holding on to his life, hoping that his team would soon come to his rescue after the dust settled. But alas, he was in a closed space; the moment the explosion happened, the fire engulfed the room.
Ironically, the Sarutobi clan jonin died due to an intense fire that engulfed him completely.
"Shit!" came the shout from the elite jonin of Konoha who was now in charge of the team in absence of Shisui and Renjiro. Yuuto Yamanaka shouted as soon as he gained any semblance of clarity, giving orders to retreat and regroup.
Till now all of the Konoha ninja had reached the location and began helping with the evacuation. Luckily the whole outpost didn't collapse, otherwise it would have become the burial ground for all of them.
After 5 minutes, all of the wounded had been brought out to a guard room where two medical ninja from Konoha were handling them.
Four jonin were in especially dire shape, while the remaining three were shielded by the four wounded ones and were not in immediate medical need. And lastly, a jonin lost his life in this whole scenario.
'Shit, we have been warned about these suicide attacks, but I didn't think they would do it this early. I thought it would be their last choice in the basement, not just 2 minutes after the attack. Were these fuckers waiting for a moment to die?' Yuuto could only massage his temples at this, but he didn't have time to cry over his bad luck.
Without waiting any more time, he ordered, "Leave one Anbu and two medical ninja in the care of the wounded, rest of us will continue the mission, though a Hyuga ninja will be in front. He will not fight himself; send at least three times the number of enemy you find in front of us." Yuuto said, then turned to the team.
"Dispatch the enemy as fast as you can. If you think the enemy has comparable strength to you, ask for reinforcement. I don't want any single casualty anymore." The orders were firm, leaving no room for doubts.
Everyone present there nodded at the orders and the team continued their mission, sadly there was not much to do anymore aside from some unsavory parts of killing some hiding fellows who were either cooks or medical ninja.
As the Hyuga jonin went past the medical room, his eyes caught the image of two people hiding in the room. From their chakra signature, they were not even chunin level, so this task was easy for him alone, which is why he didn't ask for any reinforcement and was about to go inside the room when Shisui arrived there as well.
He alone had handled the basement and every ninja who was unfortunate enough to try and run, including the last elite jonin of the outpost.
"Sir, there are two Iwa ninja hiding here. I was about to dispatch them," the Hyuga said, seeing Shisui coming toward him.
"No need, I am taking them back to the village. They are not ninja, just some kids," Shisui said.
The Hyuga, who was also present during the suicide attack of Yasushi, was not happy seeing that. His expression darkened a little, and with a little more firmness in his voice he said,
"These were not our orders, Sir. I remember correctly that our orders were to have no captives, to eliminate every person present in the outpost." The sense of respect Shisui heard in the tone of the jonin this time was abysmally low compared to before.
sigh
A sigh left from Shisui's mouth as his head went down.
"I think you are also forgetting something, soldier. In the battlefield, the order from the commander is absolute..." Shisui said, then looked up, his eyes glowing red with a beautiful feature of Mangekyo rotating in them.
"So here my words are the orders. Are you trying to deny my orders, soldier?" Shisui asked. This time the Hyuga nearly knelt from the pressure he was feeling from the teenage boy in front of him.
The implication behind Shisui's question was clear: 'Are you committing treason?' If the Hyuga dared to say something remotely close to yes, Shisui would have every right to end his career and life at that moment, and he knew Shisui had more than enough strength to do it.
Controlling the shiver about to emerge from inside, the Hyuga ninja bowed his head.
"I am sorry for overstepping my bounds, sir," he said.