Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter. Next four chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXXXX- MINATO NAMIKAZE
"Is Shori-nii even all that sure that he wants this place? Has he ever been here?" Kushina groused from her position by his side. It had been raining since they had set foot in the Land of Rain's borders. The borders were heavily contested between the warring factions— now two rather than three— so they had kept their stealth suits on and avoided using chakra to travel. If they wanted to have the greatest impact in the Siege of Ame, then they could not have the defenders be forewarned of their approach.
A clever enough commander could be informed of Kushina's presence and begin to anticipate just what it was they were going to do. It had never been done in warfare in the history of the shinobi nations but the threat had been made more than a few times. Often enough that it was somewhere in the back of people's minds at all times even as a vague possibility.
"He's been here a few times. We were here to watch Uzume-san fight Hanzo, remember?" he asked.
"Oh that. Well, if he's been here then he should know that all it does here is rain. Why do we even want it?" she asked, looking around with assessing eyes and being clearly disappointed.
"The Land of Rain has a unique geographical disadvantage. For most people, it would have been enough to force them to move away, but surrounded on all sides by warring clans, the people of this land had no choice but to make do. They've managed to build the strongest industrial base of any of the nations. Even a bigger one than the great nations. Steel here is produced in amounts that put even the Land of Earth to shame. And then there is their technology. Adding the Land of Rain to our village makes us stronger not weaker. And then there are the things we can help them with. Barriers to ward off the rain in certain industrial areas to help their production rates, food other than the rice they already cultivate to stop their food security problem, and perhaps most importantly, the stability of a Great Nation on their side, keeping things in order. It's something Sensei has thought about thoroughly, Kushina," he said, and she just huffed and stormed forwards.
"You couldn't just let her complain in peace?" Mikoto asked, shaking her head at him before speeding up to catch up to their red haired teammate. From behind, he could see just how much water was being soaked into Kushina's long red hair. That explained the irritation somewhat then.
"Hold on, guys," he began jogging to catch up to them now.
----
Ame was a beautiful city in its own way. At least it appeared so from this distance. Even in the middle of a war, the city's industrial areas were sending so much smoke into the sky that it was difficult to see the higher levels of the city's many high rise buildings. And there were indeed many of them. Monoliths of steel reaching up to the sky in a way that just did not make sense. How were they ventilated? Wouldn't they just turn to massive ovens on a hot day? He chuckled to himself at that. These people never had hot days.
It was architecture informed by the environment here. The steel just let the water wash off. There was probably some fuinjutsu being used to prevent corrosion or any of the other possible negative effects. Ame did have seal masters of its own. Nothing compared to the Uzumaki of course, but one did not need to be an Uzumaki to be competent and competence was all that was needed here.
The city was massive as well. About a third the size of Konoha, yes, but still larger than most minor villages he had seen. The sieging army was arrayed on the ground in front of the city's massive walls and gates. The gates were several inches of pure steel with seals lining its surface. On the walls were several parapets with grim-eyed shinobi waiting underneath for the army to charge. But the sieging army remained where it was, spread out over the land like locusts on a field.
"So how do we play this?" Mikoto asked from his side.
"We go speak to Yaga tomorrow. We should be close enough now that even if they find out we're here by then, there's nothing they can do to prepare for what is coming," he said.
"Not like they could have prepared much either way," Kushina said before her eyes got that vacant look that said she was talking to Gyuki-san now. He left that alone for the time being.
"We camp for tonight. Their patrols are unlikely to come this far. If they do, Mikoto please handle it. I'll set the perimeter," he said, and took out his kunai. There were four of them, each one with a special handle made to have seals written around it. The blades were tri-pronged to make them stick to surfaces better than regular kunai. Using them to set up his barriers worked much better than having to waste chakra sending out clones to place seals. It did mean that he had to spend several hours etching the seals himself but he had hope that the printing press the Uzumaki R&D division was working on would be able to make that consideration a thing of the past.
He sent chakra to his limbs, enjoying the warmth they brought to him and twisting this way and that, sending the kunai flying in all four directions at specific targets. Each one buried in a rock in one of the cardinal directions.
He weaved a long line of seals before ending on the snake seal. The barrier fluttered to life, red chakra threads extending from each kunai to the two that were closest to it on either side to form a square around them. And then one thread went from each kunai to the midpoint above them. The threads shimmered before disappearing.
"Cloaked?" Mikoto asked.
He nodded.
She formed a one handed tiger seal and Minato exhaled in relief as her warmth rose to the point where his clothes began to dry. He scooched over closer to her and Kushina left the tents she was setting up to come over to them and enjoy the warmth as well. They must have made a sight to any outside observers. None could see them, but if they could, it would be difficult to explain.
Minato remained still for a few minutes before breathing out and rising to go and finish setting up the tents. Kushina had angled her hair towards Mikoto and was now running her hands through it to make it dry faster or something of the sort. Best to let her enjoy the break and warmth, he thought. She was going to have a long day tomorrow.
When the tents were ready, they sat for dinner in silence. Not a cold oppressing one, but the warm silence that existed between those who knew each other so well that words were not necessary. Tomorrow they would go to war.
Technically, not their first war. Sensei had taken them with him to confront the Iwa invasion force in the last war, but their jobs had just been aiming kunai and shuriken at anyone that tried to climb the massive whale they sat atop. And even that they didn't do much for. Sensei had kept them insulated from virtually all of it. Now he was sending them as the first to go into this new one. He thought they were ready now. And that made Minato confident.
"Whatever happens tomorrow, I love you guys," Kushina's voice spoke out, breaking the silence and shattering the stillness that had existed between them all.
"Nothing will happen other than what we have planned. Ame won't even know what hit them," he said with confidence he did not truly feel. Two S-ranks in the form of the Warlords within the city, and then an unknown third power strong enough to force those S-ranks to work together.
"And even if it does, we always have this," Mikoto said, taking out one of Sensei's flying raijin kunai. Kushina chuckled.
"We don't use that unless we are literally about to die, guys," he said. It was a safety net, not a crutch. Using it for any reason would disappoint Sensei because he truly felt they were ready for this. Minato would not be the one to see him proven wrong. He would not.
"We know, we know," Kushina chuckled. The kunai had lightened her mood some. The reminder that even if he wasn't here, Sensei was still with them. And with the strongest shinobi in the world on their side, who could stand against them.
That reminder was enough to warm them even more than Mikoto's fire release emanation. They shared a hearty lunch of instant ramen within the one space folded tents that Kushina had been able to nick from the R&D team. They could be famously stingy with some of the best stuff they came up with, but Kushina was as much an Uzumaki as they were and knew just how to divert their attention enough to let them move a few things here and there for their own uses. He had little doubt that Renji-san was taking note of everything they took and reporting same to Sensei, but they hadn't ever been confronted about it so all was good.
Sensei wasn't the type to mind them helping themselves to a few things here and there, after all. It wasn't like they were taking them for their own purposes. They would still be used for the benefit of the village in the end. Something like this was of course harder to justify with that argument but Minato had a few points he could call upon if the need ever arose.
The tent was bigger on the inside than the outer footprint would suggest, allowing all three of them to fit in comfortably. That meant Mikoto's warmth was given the chance to not just heat them up but to seep in and fight the cold that had taken hold of their bones. They cooked up some instant ramen from Kushina's bountiful supply and shared it sat around a heated pot that needed only Mikoto's chakra to function.
It was a good night. The second Minato put his head on the pillow, he was gone. The sleep was better than anything he had ever had in enemy territory before. The combination of the cloaking barrier, the tent, and Mikoto's warmth had come together to ensure that the night was something else.
He woke refreshed and with eyes bright and eager. He could see the same look shared on each of his teammates' faces. This was it. It would be the birth of their legend. He had already taken a blow to his plans with that very public loss to Orochimaru, but something like this would go a long way to ensuring that his legend only grew, moving forwards.
He would be part of the team that brought another village into the fold. The team of three that brought a war to an end.
He left the tent on Mikoto's heels. Kushina brought up the rear and began packing up. It was morning but the sky still wept nonstop. This was a land where the sun never smiled upon it. The only difference between day and night was that the sky just happened to be a bit brighter because what was behind the clouds was the sun rather than the moon as it was during nighttime.
He went out and retrieved his kunai, lamenting the fact that he hadn't been able to perfect his retrieval seal yet. Once he had that down, setting up and removing barriers would be even easier. If only Sensei would give him the Second Hokage's version of the Flying Raijin to study. Something told him the secret lay in that direction.
----
"Hold it there," a voice that had way more confidence than it should brought their movements to a halt. Of course, they had sensed this man's approach long ago and could have hidden, but they were close enough to the camp now that it made more sense for them to be brought to the command tent rather than for them to keep hiding. Any message that made it to the enemy regarding their presence would arrive much too late for them to do anything about it.
"Uh-who are you?" the man asked, looking at them and their visible lack of Rain shinobi gear or headbands. Minato just pointed his thumb at the symbol on his forehead.
"Leaf nin?" the man asked, shocked, and then suddenly became apprehensive, getting on guard.
"Leaf shinobi wear animal masks. You can't fool me, impersonators," the man yelled, looking like he was torn between charging at them or leaving to go and report what he must have felt was surely an oddly non-obtrusive attack on their camp.
"You don't want to do this," Mikoto said, walking forward. Her voice had a melodic tint to it now that it lacked in regular conversation. She smiled and the man just remained still, only moving to turn his head in her direction. If Minato had something like the sharingan right now, he reckoned he would see tiny threads of chakra leaving his teammate to latch on to the man that she approached.
When she reached him, she just began whispering in his ears and then he put down his guard before turning and beginning to walk into the camp.
"Aren't you guys coming along?" Mikoto turned to them, asking and waving as she followed the man down his path. Kushina shrugged in his direction and they had no choice but to follow at her heels.
He led them straight to the command tent. Some other Ame nin made to approach, but they were all warded away by the presence of one of their own as well as the fact that the three of them wore Konoha headbands. The command tent was the largest in the sea of tents that formed the sieging force's camp. They were about six or seven kilometres from the city. Far enough that even long range jutsu would have no chance of hitting without warning, but close enough that they could easily sally out and perform their own attacks on the city's walls.
Not like that had been happening all that much, but they were well poised for it the second they decided to do it, and Minato and his team were here to inform them that it was no longer a choice for them to make. The will of the Hokage was clear.
The tent's opening flap parted with a push from their co-opted escort. The three of them followed in his wake. Whatever question the man at the head of the table was about to ask froze on his lips as he caught sight of them. Minato felt a probing at his chakra, and returned the pre-arranged signal, confirming his identity to the head of the Anbu contingent.
"Bright red hair and enough chakra that it feels like I'm standing next to the ocean. You would be none other than Kushina Uzumaki. So you must be Minato Namikaze and Mikoto Uchiha then," he said, nodding to all three of them in turn.
"Indeed. Yaga-san. We have been sent by the Hokage—"
"Your sensei," he cut in.
"Yes, our sensei. We have been sent to break the deadlock. He is not pleased with the progress of things in Ame. You asked for reinforcements to make it possible for you to attempt a head on attack on the city itself. That is what we are here for," Minato completed his sentence, taking the interruption in stride.
"I asked for at least a hundred jounin or several hundred chunin. Not for three. However powerful you might be, you are still three jounin. Three jounin who have never even seen war before," he said. He was careful not to let too much of his frustration show, but Minato could practically smell the discontent from here. He probably saw it as an insult. Ignoring his requests for reinforcement was one thing. Yaga could sell it to his subordinates that Konoha was just unable to spare anything, or more likely never even tell them of the request in the first place. This situation prevented him from being able to neatly do either.
Konoha can spare shinobi, but chooses to give us as few as possible, is what the general sentiment would be like after this. Thankfully, there was little reason for Minato to care about such pesky things. By the time the news of their arrival would have spread, they would already be deep into their attack on the city. And hopefully, by the end of the day they would have taken it.
"Well, we are what Konoha deems sufficient for this mission, and I agree. Now, will you listen to the plan? The Hokage would not have placed the three of us in a situation that he did not have utmost confidence in our ability to resolve. You do not need to trust us. Just trust in the Hokage who then trusts in us," Minato said.
"Do I have any choice here?" he asked, looking between the three of them, and then towards Toad, the Anbu Captain in charge of this squad. At least he was turning out to be as smart as his file made him out to be. He recognised just how fucked he was. Either he listened and did what they said, or Konoha would pull out, and then he would be even worse off.
"No. No you do not. Now the plan is to..."
A/N: And there the chapter sits. Next chapter with the Kiri crew and then after that a few things here and there. Discount on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) for those interested. Next chapter comes on here on Sunday night. Next four chapters up on patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)(same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.