Chương 51: Chapter 34

Sunagakure Ryoma, Jonin"I wonder why the village decided to accept this one." Sato mused, rubbing his chin on the second day of their travel. The desert had started to shift into arid, rocky plains by this point, and the occasional cloud stifled the merciless sun above for brief periods.

"Claw is normally Iwa territory, right? Seems kinda risky to be making a move like this, we just got out the last war. This is mostly just a tourist-trap kind of village, right?"

"You are free to wonder." Captain Arada replied carelessly, hopping over a rock formation and sliding down a hill. The rest of them followed immediately after, kicking up lines of dust behind them. The captain's tone indicated that he had some insight that the rest of them were no privy too. Well, insight that Sato and Tsubame were not privy to. Ryoma was almost certain about who the client was and why they were doing this.

After all, the destruction of key sites under Iwa influence in Claw were outlined in his wartime drafts, even if the precise specifics were not.

"Well… If you're trying to puzzle something like that out- it's best to start with figuring out how Suna will or will not benefit from any given mission." Ryoma replied with a hint.

"Regardless of who the client is, Suna is equally affected by any given mission completion. One of the Kazekage's duties is filtering out missions that would be ultimately harmful to Suna's strategic interests, something normally delegated to someone in administration." He crouched slightly, cycled his chakra, and kicked off in time with a flexing of the mk3's legs. One of the main advantages of wearing puppetarmor that was so form-fitting was that his effective physicality was bolstered by his chakra-strings.

The strength, speed, and movement of a puppet was based around effective operation via what was essentially wire-guided telekinesis, not his own physicality. X plus Y. So long as his timing was consistent, his overall physical performance would be directly enhanced by his skill with chakra-strings, and things that could cripple one variable would not usually cripple the other variable- meaning that his overall survivability was also increased. In short- puppetarmor worked like power armor.

He soared fifty feet into the air, well over the outcrop that should've diverted his path, landing on the other side with a heavy stomp that kicked up a wall of dust. He emerged from it at a running pace, immediately in-line with the rest of his team once more. A leap that barely took any effort on his part, one he could do essentially all day without any strain.

"Stop showing off!" Sato complained. Ryoma's helmet concealed his crooked grin.

"Most missions accepted have no real strategic benefit to Sunagakure save that someone is paying us to do them." Ryoma continued without acknowledging his cool little jump.

"If a mission this big was approved, then someone in administration decided that its completion will be a net-benefit to Suna. So if you want to figure out why it was accepted, you need to view it from that angle."

"Angle of completion, huh?" Sato muttered, brows furrowed as he hopped over a creek.

"... If we're attacking Iwa like this… Doesn't that mean we're ready to go on the attack against them? We still have Pakura of the Scorch Release, after all…"

"If we're going on the attack, why would we destroy the bridges before a massed invasion?" Ryoma pointed out with a raised finger.

"All that does is slow our own advance into Iwa, and losing the initiative in an invasion would only ramp up the costs involved."

"Ah- then it's a defensive measure!" Sato proclaimed, punching his palm.

"We're worried about Iwa making moves against us soon- so we're pre-empting them by destroying the quickest routes for them to resupply in friendly locations."

"That would also align with the destruction of the village- Naito is aligned with Iwa interests from what intelligence indicates…" Tsubame mused, twirling over a shrub and slide-hopping back into a normal pace.

"Destroying it and the bridges would limit Iwa's ability to resupply near the border, forcing their supply lines to travel several more days in both directions and discouraging aggressive action against Suna until the bridges and settlement can be rebuilt." They managed to figure out the ramifications, but not the reason.

There's no intelligence that he was aware of that indicated Iwa was planning to make aggressive moves against Suna, but if they were discouraged from attacking, then Suna would not have to worry about any of its fellow Great Ninja Villages interfering with its upcoming actions. Konoha was allied to them, and Iwa would be on the defense with nearest resupply pushed back by nearly a week. So long as Suna made no further action against either- they were free to do whatever they wished.

Ryoma decided against explaining this, it probably wasn't appropriate and the opsec risk if they got captured and interrogated wasn't really worth it.

"Mhm- something like that, for certain." He agreed with a mild tone.

"Might be prudent to start discussing our actual plans for destruction here- how and in what order?"

"My fan is sufficient to destroy each location's center, but the sprawling nature of the village will leave survivors." Captain Arada stated bluntly, turning his head slightly to glance at him.

"For this reason, you will employ the Kyojutsu to assist in the extermination of the survivors. Allowing any witnesses to flee will compromise the secrecy of the mission." A familiar feeling crept up in his chest. Cold and empty.

"Are you certain, Team Leader? That would compromise the potential secrecy of the Kyojutsu itself should unforeseen factors interfere and prevent total eradication of the objective."

"I am certain." Captain Arada confirmed sternly.

"If unforeseen factors interfere to such an extent, then the Kyojutsu would likely need to be employed regardless to ensure extraction. More importantly, the Kyojutsu will speed the destruction of the objective, allowing the team to extract earlier. It is more wise to employ it than not in this instance." So that's how it was then. Ryoma knew Captain Arada well enough by brief meetings and reputation- when he declared a direct order, he did not rescind it. He inclined his head shallowly.

"I see. And the destruction of the other two locations? We will need to travel several days to reach both."

"We will move quickly."

"... If I may offer a suggestion, Team Leader. A somewhat niche application of the Summoning Technique would allow me to summon myself to a location, provided I have a sand clone present." He nodded slightly.

"I cannot effectively control the clone at such a distance, but I can send a mental command to it to perform the summon jutsu, which it will perform as soon as the command reaches it many seconds later. I can destroy the furthest bridge and then summon myself to Naito Village, if you can carry my insensate sand clone the distance and keep it alive until it is time to attack."

"Wait- you can do that with the Summoning Jutsu?!" Sato asked with an amazed expression.

"That would cut off days of travel here!"

"For one person, with a high delay, at a predetermined time or signal, requiring a large amount of preparation to actually utilize." Ryoma added with a shake of his head. Flying Thunder God, it most certainly wasn't.

"It's a useful facilitator-technique, but niche as I said."

"I would be unable to protect you after you summon yourself- not until I link up with the rest of the team once more." Tsubame declared sternly, glaring into the side of his head.

"I do not like this plan."

"I'll be with Captain Arada and Sato after I summon myself." Ryoma countered with a shake of his head.

"You can escort me to the furthest bridge and then exfiltrate after its destruction, if anything it's you who will be in the most danger here, moving through Claw Country alone." She narrowed her eyes at him, a sharp glare attempting to cut through his solid metal helmet. Naturally, as she didn't have a doujutsu, her sharp glare was ineffective against his armor.

"Are you certain you are capable of this, Jonin Ryoma?" Captain Arada asked with a firm stare. Ryoma's reply was interrupted as Arada leapt high into the air, unfolding the immense iron fan on his back and flipping over to stay on top of it. The reason for the sudden acrobatics was obvious- with the wide crack in the earth that groaned before them. Smoothly, Ryoma reached out with strings and grabbed both Sato and Tsubame, tossing them hard through the air in a parabolic arc.

"Throwing you." He stated bluntly.

"Wha- AAAHHHHHHH!!!" Sato exclaimed as he tumbled through the air, spinning as he was tossed. Tsubame let out a slightly more dignified sound as she rightened herself "Whuh!" Teammates tossed, Ryoma bent his legs, tensed his thighs, and flexed his feet. A massive, low-angle leap sent him forwards over the gap fast enough to make the wind hiss outside of his helmet. He flipped once through the air, controlling his angles with the strings on his armor, and landing feet-first on the other side.

Another massive plume of dust came to life where he impacted, significantly obscuring his vision. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"Catching you." He called out again. A net of strings extended from his fingers and latched onto his teammates as they fell, correcting their posture and momentum as he started stomping forwards again, out of the cloud of dust. After a few seconds of letting them get accustomed to their new facing, he dropped them to run on their own. They were openly glaring at him, brushing themselves off as they dashed alongside him.

He couldn't 'lift' himself with his chakra strings and thus fly in defiance of gravity, but he could still control himself in the air to a degree with them, namely in angle and positioning. It was somewhat difficult to explain what separated the two types of movement, and he hadn't figured out all the exact specifics of it quite yet. Everytime he thinks he does, he runs straight into another edge-case interaction that he hadn't anticipated prior.

The inventor of Puppetry, Monzaemon, could allegedly fly himself around with puppetry strings no problem, but there was no way of verifying if that was actually true. The Captain dropped out of the sky in front of them, landing smoothly and resuming his earlier running pace.

"I'm confident I can do this- I use the technique semi-regularly for mission extractions." Ryoma replied now that the obstacle had been overcome.

"Hmh. Very well then. You and Jonin Tsubame will travel to Ginseng Bridge and ensure its destruction by no earlier than Friday twenty-three thirty, and no later than twenty four hundred. At twenty four hundred exactly, command your clone to summon yourself to Naito and be prepared to reinforce my attack. After Naito is destroyed, we will proceed to Pao-Pao Bridge and eliminate it as well, then exfiltrate back to Suna." Friday huh? Arada was setting a pretty brutal pace for them here.

"Understood. When do we split off?"

"Make your preparations now, we will split immediately." Arada declared with a decisive nod.

"Two smaller groups will better slip through whatever border patrols they maintain." Ryoma nodded, performing the handseals and expending four motes of chakra. Sand clones always took about one tenth of his total chakra to perform, and he had forty-four motes these days. Twelve personal, thirty two peripheral. Almost immediately, the dust clinging to his form and surrounding their steps swirled together and took his shape. Clone Ryoma, Cloma, nodded as he ran along.

Ryoma quickly unsealed a vial, biting a finger and collecting a few drops before capping it off again and handing it over to the clone to secure. The Summoning Jutsu required a few drops of blood to perform, regardless of what you were summoning, unless you were cheating somehow.

"Genin- Carry the clone." Sato groaned in despair, and Cloma grinned as he angled his run over to him. —"You are troubled." Tsubame declared much later that night, as they stopped briefly to eat and recuperate. She stared at him with a placid expression, slowly taking a bite of her ration-snack.

"Hm? Troubled?" Ryoma asked with a raised brow, eating another bite of warmed meat from a can. It tasted like salty can meat, which meant it was perfect and nostalgic.

"What makes you say that?"

"Your chattering ended as soon as we broke off from group A." She observed.

"And it slowed when Captain Arada commanded you to participate in the destruction of Naito Village." Ryoma stared at her blankly for a few moments, slowly chewing his ration of salty can meat as he considered how he should respond. After a few moments, he swallowed, then nodded slowly and looked back down to his food.

"Yeah- I suppose I am." He took another bite, no longer disguising the contemplative look on his face.

"... Does the threat of the Kyojutsu being revealed bother you that much?"

"Hm? Oh no." He shook his head.

"It's not that at all. It's certainly something to consider, but Captain's reasoning was sound enough to justify the command. I don't have a particular issue with that."

"... The destruction of Naito Village itself, then." Ryoma was quiet for a few moments, taking another bite of the canned meat. Oh look at that, all gone. He sealed it away into his bulk scroll as he chewed, and moved onto the next meal-item. Dried fruitbar.

"Yes, that's it." He agreed with a nod after swallowing.

"No matter how sound the reasons, or how absolute the strategy, attacking a civilian target isn't something that I'm going to ever be excited about." And yet- it was his plans that may have influenced the Kazekage into ordering this very mission. He didn't say it was absolutely his fault, because it would be egotistical to assume everything that happens was caused by him, but he was pretty sure.

"They did very little to deserve this, other than having the misfortune to live in this particular place at this particular time." Ryoma shook his head.

"If I am to kill them, I should at least have the decency to do it solemnly- and light a few expensive candles after I get home. Anything less would simply be rude." He found himself almost wishing for an interruption that would disrupt their mission here, even if that meant Suna's position would be slightly worse off for the next phase of the plan. Wishes, of course, wouldn't do anything here.

'I wish I didn't have to kill you.' Oh wow, thanks a lot, jackass. That made everything better. He rolled his eyes at the thought.

"I see." Tsubame replied softly.

"... that's good." Ryoma glanced over at her, her gaze downcast at the little candle that served as their current 'campfire'. Barely more than a single light and a thing to warm ration tins on. He huffed, waving a hand.

"Eh- don't worry about it. Instead- think about how fun it's going to be to blow up the bridge!" He let out a chuckle.

"I got explosive tags to spare- if you want to have the honors of charging and detonating them. Let's aim for the biggest 'boom' we can, alright?" She nodded resolutely, face still blank. — They reached their destination after two more days of mostly silent travel, to the currently unoccupied stone bridge that spanned the immense river.

Perhaps more than five hundred feet across, built of immense, solid blocks that rose out of the waters themselves and just barely high enough in the center for ships to pass underneath. It was a truly impressive bridge, taking nearly an hour to set all charges along the supports and stay hidden from the occasionally passing merchant at the same time.

The explosive seals had been gradually charged as they traveled over the previous days, allowing their reserves to remain more or less at full by the time they were primed and ready to detonate, supported with a handful of explosive tags for good measure. They elected to stay low and quiet, waiting for almost the last moment to actually trigger the explosion. As soon as the bridge went down, he'd be summoning himself back to the village and get ready to deploy the Mk2.

Hidden in the distance, he crouched next to Tsubame behind a natural earthen mound and under dense shrubbery, staring at the primed stone bridge in the distance. The minutes ticked away on his mental clock, slowly, gradually, until… It hit midnight. He sent the mental command for his clone to summon him, raising his hands into a seal. Tsubame copied him with a slightly different handseal and command.

"Release."

"Explosion." Almost simultaneously, explosions rippled through the supports keeping the bridge up, stone shattered and groaning as it began to tilt. The bridge itself crumbled in slow motion, breaking up as it toppled and crashed into the swift water below with tremendous splashes. He grinned at the deathless destruction, the childlike joy at seeing something blow up never really getting old. He gave Tsubame a thumbs-up. A moment later, the command finally reached his clone, many miles away.

Ryoma disappeared in a plume of smoke, and reappeared in another. The air was less humid here, the stars were darker, and the air filled with the smells of city life. A howling hurricane was screaming towards the town in the distance. His sand clone dissolved into dust, chakra expended, and Ryoma raised his thumb to his teeth to bite- There was too much smoke around. The hurricane crashed into something immense and metallic, slowly growling down and losing power against the smoke-shrouded barrier.

An immense toad loomed between him and the village, massive iron shield in one warty hand and house-eclipsing sword in the other, a speck of bright white on the forehead. A dramatic voice boomed out boisterously.

"AHAHAH! DON'T YOU KNOW? THE GALLANT JIRAIYA ALWAYS ARRIVES AT THE VERY LAST MOMENT TO SAVE THE DAY!"