The only sounds were the frantic percussion of their footsteps on the damp earth, the ragged symphony of their breathing, and the relentless rustle of leaves as they tore through the dense, suffocating forest.
Kakashi led the way, a silver-haired spectre moving with lethal grace, his single visible eye narrowed to a slit, consuming every shadow, every flicker of movement. Behind him, Rin's head whipped around constantly, her brown eyes wide with a desperate, aching need to see the clearing they'd left behind, to know if Commander Isao and the others still held.
"They're closing," Obito gasped, his voice tight.
He wasn't just running; his newly awakened Sharingan spun with a frantic energy, its twin tomoe tracing the chilling signatures burning in his mind's eye. "Five of them. Fast. Their chakra… it's all over the place. It's like they're screaming without making a sound."
"Formation hold!" Kakashi's command was a sharp crack, devoid of panic, a steel wire holding their fraying nerves together. "I take point. Obito, watch the left flank. Rin, stay centred and shielded. Do not engage unless directly ordered."
He was the spearhead, Obito the living shield, and Rin the precious cargo they were sworn to protect.
The pursuers descended not with the disciplined silence of Hunter-nin, but with the chaotic frenzy of cornered animals. They burst through the foliage, their Kiri headbands glinting like malevolent eyes. Their faces were a gallery of terror and resignation. One, a man with wild eyes, had explosive tags crudely strapped across his chest, the papers fluttering like pale moths.
"Don't let them escape!" he screamed, a raw, desperate sound that was less a battle cry and more a sob. He charged directly at Obito, his body a living missile.
Kakashi was already moving. "Shhh-ting!"
The Chidori enveloped his hand. He didn't dodge; he met the charge, his movement a blur of efficient motion. A sharp, precise thrust to the heart, a twist, and he shoved the dying man aside, the body slamming into a tree with a sickening thud before the tags could activate.
They ran again, a desperate game of cat and mouse where the mice were also bombs. As they vaulted over a gnarled root system, Kakashi's hand shot up, fist clenched.
"Halt!" he hissed. His visible eye scanned the path ahead. It looked clear, but the air… it shimmered, almost imperceptibly. A faint, pearlescent quality to the light.
"Genjutsu. Mist-based. Low-level, but it'll disorient us long enough for them to surround us."
He formed a quick hand seal. "Kai!"
The air in front of them wavered and dissolved, revealing a net of nearly invisible tripwires connected to explosive tags nestled in the canopy above.
"Now!" Kakashi yelled, and they dove forward, scrambling under the lethal web just as a rain of kunai with exploding tags descended from the trees behind them.
"BOOM! BOOM-BOOM!"
The concussive blasts showered them with dirt and splinters, the heat searing their backs.
Obito pushed himself up, spitting out a mouthful of soil, his face contorted in anger and confusion. "Are we even going to get reinforcements?!" he yelled, his voice cracking. "Someone in Konoha has to know this is happening! Why isn't anyone coming?"
Kakashi didn't answer. He simply stared ahead, his posture rigid. He had no answer to give. The silence that followed was more terrifying than any explosion.
=====
Elsewhere, in the rugged, sun-dappled mountains bordering the Land of Water, a different Konoha squad was meeting a similar fate. They walked with a casual ease, their packs light, their laughter echoing in the crisp air. The war was over.
A burly chunin was in the middle of a story about his wife's cooking when the first kunai took him in the throat. He fell, a look of profound surprise etched on his face. From the tree line, Kiri shinobi emerged, their movements a mirror of the fanatics chasing Team Minato.
"Kiri? Wait, we're allies!" a young Konoha genin cried out, lowering his weapon. His hesitation was his death. A water dragon, clumsily formed but lethal, slammed into him, crushing the life from his body.
"DON'T HESITATE!" a Jonin screamed, his voice raw with fury and grief. "FIGHT BACK! THEY ARE NOT ALLIES! THEY ARE THE ENEMY!" But the lesson came too late for many. The psychological shock of being betrayed by those who were supposed to be comrades had already cost them dearly, painting the mountain path with Konoha blood.
=====
On a muddy track that served as a supply route, a medical convoy was being systematically dismantled. Carts laden with precious supplies were overturned, their contents scattered and ruined by torrential water-style jutsu.
"Abandon the wagons!" a medic-nin screamed, her face pale as she dragged a wounded soldier from the wreckage.
"Save who you can!" It was a healer's worst nightmare: choosing between the many and the few. As they fled into the woods, a Yamanaka among them, her eyes blank with concentration, sent out a desperate psychic pulse.
"Mist shinobi… attacking every retreating squad… something is wrong in Kiri…."
The message was a ripple of terror in the informational network of Konoha, a stark contrast to the victory announcements of mere hours before.
=====
An Uchiha patrol unit, elite and proud, found themselves encircled. Their Sharingan spun, copying enemy techniques, predicting movements. But what they saw in the chakra flows and the body language of their attackers confounded them. The Kiri shinobi fought with a broken rhythm, their minds a cacophony of forced intent and internal rebellion.
One Uchiha, deflecting a hail of senbon with a perfectly timed fireball jutsu, shook his head in grim realisation. "This isn't a betrayal. This is madness."
=====
Back with Kakashi's team, they had managed to lose their immediate pursuers by forging a path through a treacherous, fast-flowing river, the icy water numbing their legs and washing away their scent. They collapsed on the far bank, heaving for breath in the cold, dark hollow of a riverbank cave. The only light filtered through the vine curtain at the entrance, painting their faces in sickly green.
Rin hugged her knees to her chest, her body shivering uncontrollably. "How many…" she whispered, her voice a thread of sound. "How many groups is Kiri sending after us? It's like… like they've unleashed every shinobi they have."
Obito slammed a fist into the soft earth beside him. "Why are they doing this!?" he demanded, his voice thick with frustration and a burgeoning rage.
"The war is over! We were supposed to be going home!" His dream of having his name celebrated seemed childish and absurd now, buried under the reality of this inexplicable, relentless violence.
Kakashi offered no words of comfort, no theories, no platitudes. He simply stared out at the river, his silence a grim monument to the fact that they were alone, hunted, and that the peace they had fought for had been nothing but a cruel, fleeting illusion.
=====
Across the Land of Fire, as dusk began to bleed into night, other small Konoha detachments met similar fates. Unnatural mists, thick and cold, rolled in with unnatural speed, heralding the arrival of Kiri squads who fought with the desperate, suicidal fervour of those with nothing left to lose.
The Yamanaka channels, once buzzing with victory reports, were now clogged with frantic, overlapping messages: "Multiple ambushes at sector seven!"
"Uncoordinated but lethal assaults!"
"Kiri forces acting like fanatics!" The pattern was clear and horrifying: this was not a localised incident. It was a systemic, bloody tantrum from a village that had apparently snapped.
=====
Far from the main routes, Renjiro and his team were on their way back to Konoha. His blind eyes were unfocused, but his chakra field extended around him like a second skin, painting a perfect, vivid picture of his surroundings. It was a peaceful, detailed world of energy and vibration.
Then, the picture distorted.
The peaceful hum of the forest's natural chakra was violently shredded by the arrival of multiple, aggressive signatures. They burned with the cold, sharp intensity he associated with Kirigakure. His head tilted, a faint frown on his lips. It made no tactical sense. Why were Kiri shinobi here, so deep in the Land of Fire, and moving with such hostile intent?
He took a single, measured step back. The air in front of him concussed.
"KRA-BOOM!"
Dirt and shredded foliage erupted upwards, the shockwave slamming into him, whipping his hair back and making his clothes flap violently. The dust cloud washed over his unseeing eyes, the scent of ozone and burnt earth filling his nostrils. His chakra field recalibrated instantly, mapping the new crater, the falling debris.
"What the hell is going on?"
=====
Bless me with your powerful Power Stones.
Your Reviews and Comments about my work are welcomed
If you can, then please support me on Patreon.
Link - www.patreon.com/SideCharacter
You Can read more chapters ahead on Patreon
Latest Chapter: 681-Power should change a person