Chapter 33 - Sacrificing

Yudai has received a letter of help from Ebizo, one day after the Iwa invasion force's retreat.

He couldn't believe Ebizo lost to Iwa reinforcement.

He thought the Iwa invasion force would be stopped by Ebizo force, but what actually happening was that the Iwa invasion force retreated, to finish off Ebizo's remaining force.

"How the fuċk in the world did this happen? How could Ebizo lose so easily??

He had around 2500 shinobi under his command and now he bȧrėly has 1000 shinobi!!

Is Iwa reinforcements that strong??" He angrily asked to shinobi who delivered the letter.

Suna messenger lowered his head and explained to Yudai what happened during Iwa reinforcement's night raid on Ebizo's force.

"Nani the fuċk? Hundreds of Iwa shinobi suicide bombed themselves in the middle of Suna's force?! Those Iwa bastards sure are crazy as hell.

Shit anyway now is not the time to sit and watch!!"

He quickly ordered to speed up the movement of all of his forces to rescue Ebizo's force. He couldn't just sit and do nothing.

Although Ebizo may have failed this time, but he still was one of the best jounin in Suna and Suna can't afford to abandon around 1000 shinobi easily.

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Our force has successfully retreated safely from Yudai's Suna force and kept marching to a pincer attack on Ebizo's force with Ishika-san's reinforcement.

Yudai's force chased us slowly and our small division was currently stalling them as much as they could.

After 2 days of marching, we have arrived at Ebizo's force's rear side.

Now, We have to inform Ishika-san that we have already surrounded Ebizo force's behind and ready for pincer attacks, but we don't have any way to inform him.

We were supposed to send back Explosion bird to inform him, however since Gari killed it off, we are very troubled.

Senko quickly opened the meeting to solve this trouble as soon as we can.

"Guys, as everyone has realized, we have no method to inform Ishika-san that we arrived at Ebizo's rear. Any ideas ?" Senko asked everyone.

"What happened to Explosion bird that delivered Ishika's instructions to us?" A random member of the meeting asked me.

"Well, it died right after delivering a letter to me. It seems it has received enemies' random attacks during the journey." I lied to them.

"Can we just attack Ebizo's force on our own accord. Then Ishika-san would know that we are here." Another brainless idiot in the meeting suggested.

"No, although Ebizo's force is weakened, they still have around 1000 shinobi with them.

Currently, Ebizo deployed most of his shinobi in front side to defend from Ishika-san's reinforcement.

If we attack them rear side on our accord, they may suffer a bit but that won't completely destroy Ebizo's force.

Then it will be way harder to destroy Ebizo's force even if we have twice as many shinobi as them. We don't have time, everyone.

Yudai probably received Ebizo's retreat by now and presumably rush here as soon as they could. We have at most 2 or 3 days to eliminate Ebizo's force before Yudai's massive force arrives

That's why we need to do a pincer attack on Ebizo's force with Ishika-san's reinforcements at the same time to thoroughly crush them." Senko explained step by step to members.

Everyone was quiet after hearing Senko's explanation.

I personally didn't realize the situation was that bad.

Seeing everyone was quiet, Senko started to talk again.

"We have to send messengers to inform Ishika-san. Currently, there are two ways to reach him from here.

One: go and infiltrate through Ebizo force's camp straight and reach Ishika-san. Very dangerous, but it is the quickest route.

Two: go round away to avoid Ebizo's force and reach Ishika-san. But it will take at least 3 days. It will be a disaster if Yudai's force arrives before our messenger even reach Ishika-san.

Obviously, I am for option one. Option 2 takes way too long time for us. Raise your hands if you are for option one." Senko asked everyone to vote.

Everyone knew, Senko was clearly indicating us to choose option one here. Therefore including me, everyone chose option 1.

I don't even understand why he even said about option 2.

"It seems everyone is having the same mind as me. Good.

Now we need to choose who to send as a messenger. We must not let Ebizo knew we are behind him.

So we will send only one elite shinobi to a lower chance of getting caught by Ebizo's force.

The question is, who do we send?" Senko asked while thinking about the candidate.

I suddenly got a bad feeling about this, and somehow everyone's eyes were on me.

'Oh fuċk you all, not me again?'

Senko realized that everyone's eyes were on me.

"Ahem, I guess we have to rely on Genji again, right guys?" Senko asked everyone.

Everyone once again agreed to Senko while me alone was shaking head.

'Do you ȧssholes really planning to send a helpless child to such a dangerous and important mission? Just how shameless are you idiots?'

After round of arguing or rather threatening me, I was forced to take the job.

But they also agreed my request to send another explosion corps shinobi to send as a messenger in case.

They wanted Gari or one of my squad members to go with me, but I aggressively disagreed with it.

As for why they sending explosion corps shinobi as a messenger is simple.

It's because they can explode themselves up easily if they get caught and also Ishika-san was head of the explosion corps. He would probably confirm if they are Suna spies replaces or not easily.

'I am definitely gonna remember this when I return, you ȧssholes.

Also, Gari, if you didn't kill that stupid bird, we won't have this problem in the first place. Better prepare to get punched by me'

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At night, me and other explosion corps member departed.

Although, our destination was the same, both us are going separate way,

Before, we depart, I approached to other guy and patted his back, while greeting.

"Hello, it seems you are the unlucky one, just like me.

let's do our best to complete this mission together."

But this guy glared at me for a second, and just ignored me.

He didn't even greet and just departed his way.

'I guess he was also forced to do this, like me. Thus having a bad mood.

But still, blatant ignoring me is kinda leave a bad taste.

Well, no matter, since I am SURE I will never see him again...' While thinking, I also departed.

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I used Earth Style: Earth travel jutsu to pass through Suna base guards. They never expecting to get attacked from behind, hence guards were pretty lax.

I have successfully passed through the guard's post easily. I was sure other explosion corps guy also passed easily.

Maybe I am well known in Yudai's Suna force, but in Ebizo's Suna force, I didn't even have to use transformation jutsu.

I just put on Suna shinobi outfit and walked through casually as I could. But I still didn't feel safe.

Sometimes, I used earth travel jutsu to avoid patrols while other times, I transformed to one of the patrols to advance through.

Finally, I reached the Suna force's front side guard gate without getting any suspicion.

But unlike the rear side, there were tons of shinobi guarding the front side.

Even just by looking, there was no way I could pass them through.

If I use earth travel jutsu, I am sure sensors will sense me and hunt me down.

If I transformed to Suna shinobi, they will surely ask me something like code and check for my identity.

There was no way I could pass them through with my current ability. Heck, I bet even Kento or Ishika can pass them through without leaving any trace.

But I already predicted this outcome and have prepared the plan.

In order to pass this guard post, I need to create a diversion.

How to create diversion? I just have to make a big explosion somewhere far away from me, at least in Suna camp and lead guards' attention to there.

I couldn't put explosion tags to buildings in Sun camp as they are heavily guarded.

I couldn't stick explosion tags to passing Suna shinobi either as they were literally hundreds of shinobi were constantly watching each other.

But I have put an explosion tag to moving victim.

Yes, I have attached an explosion tag to my other explosion corps member who is on the same mission as me when I greeted him.

Basically, I am using him as a sacrifice bait to complete this mission.

I knew it would be impossible to get pass through Ebizo's force camp alone. I needed someone to act as bait.

This is the reason why I requested another shinobi apart from Gari and my squad members. I can't bear to kill off my friends, I am not that cruel.

As for my alibi, no one will know that I exploded him as Senko and others would think he got caught by Suna and self-exploded.

I breathed deeply and performed a hand sign to blow off the explosion tag in him.

BOOOMMMM!!!!!

The explosion was loud and big. I used especially a powerful explosion tag as I wanted to make Suna force think he was one of Iwa suicide division members, sent by Ishika to confuse them.

'I know this is dark and against shinobi rule, but hey, I gotta survive.

I felt a bit bad and wanted to look after your family after your sacrifice, but you never gave me a chance and your name.

So don't blame me for killing you. If you want to blame, then blame Senko and others as they picked you.'

As I expected, front side Suna base guards are focused on a huge explosion and ran to the site quickly.

Soon there was no one in guard's post as they all left to the explosion site.

I quickly used earth travel jutsu to pass through the front side post and went straight to Ishika's basecamp.

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I have successfully reached Ishika's base camp in the early morning.

They quickly restricted me to check if I am real or spy.

After checking I am real, Ishika personally came to greet me.

When I was in the 5th explosion corps division, Ishika personally taught me while other kids got taught by random teachers.

I could say he was my personal Jounin sensei for 2 years.

Ishika smiled at me and asked.

"How come you didn't send explosion corps messenger-bird?

But since you arrived, that means our invasion force has reached Ebizo force's rear side, right?"

"Yes, we have stationed at Ebizo Suna force's behind and waiting for Ishika-san's instructions. Our messenger bird died by Suna's random attacks thus I was sent as a messenger."

"Alright, you must be tired to sneak through Suna force's camp. Have a rest now." Ishika dismissed me.