Chapter 11
It's been a month since Shisui and the others showed up and three weeks since Iwa started attacking again. Only two days after reinforcement joined the camp, they were attacked by Kumo shinobis. Since then, they've been under attack every few days, sometimes two or three days in a row and other time they're left alone for a few days. Needless to say, everyone has been on edge since the two countries began coordinating their attacks.
Every time she's not on duty, Saeko has to consciously stop herself from sensing farther than her natural range to avoid a mental breakdown due to the stress she's under.
Every time they aren't on patrol or sensing duty, Saeko darts all around the battlefield. She heals her comrades, gets them out of harmway, calls out warning about this or that attack or joins the battle with her usual tactics of hitting the enemies while they're busy as Neji watches her back and joins the battle with his Juken and his aim.
They don't escape injuries. Such is the fate of warriors, the scars on their bodies tell the stories of their fights.
While getting a comrade out of harmway, Saeko wasn't quick enough to avoid the kunai aimed at her neck and she now has a scar left by the kunai that embedded itself in her shoulder. Neji nearly lost his right arm when a swordsman from Kumo appeared out of nowhere while he was using Juken on a Kumo-nin. They've been hit by a multitude of jutsus as well, Saeko narrowly avoided death by lightning thanks to her Raiton affinity, Neji was hit on the back by a stray Katon comming from his blind spot, a wind jutsu clipped her side while one hit Neji on the leg...
They've got their fair share of near death experience and aren't considered green Genins anymore.
Two months into their border duty, while there is a lull in the fighting, Saeko asks Genma for advice on improving her senbon throwing technique. He's more than happy to help her as he's bored and has nothing better to do. They spend three hours polishing her technique and he even shares with her his secret to spitting senbon from his mouth.
Their comrades, upon seeing them come back, simply shake their head.
Not long after she successfuly spat senbons out of her mouth 8 times out of 10, she decides to copy Genma and puts one in her mouth.
The next time Kumo attack them, she doesn't have the time to reach for her pouch. She's busy healing a comrade and she only has a moment to react so without stopping her Iryo-ninjutsu, she directs chakra to her lips and tongue and spits the senbon resting against her teeth. The cloud nin falls dead on the ground, a senbon sticking out of his eye.
After a particulary hard battle that lasted well into the night, Saeko carries Neji on her back. A doton spear went through his foot so he's unable to walk unless he wants to permanently damage his foot. She keeps an 'eye', as she usualy refers, on their surrounding to be sure Kumo wasn't trying to ambush them while they're retreating.
Thankfully, they're busy taking care of their own wounded to attack.
She puts him down on a cot and leaves him in the care of Jiro to change out of her bloodstained clothes as well as to wash the blood and dirt clinging to her skin. While taking off her clothes, she notices a few holes and makes a mental note to sew them close when she has the time.
Half an hour later, she checks on Neji. He's forbidden from walking for at least a week and a half and confined to the medic tent as they don't have crutches. At his request she brings him a change of clothes and his spare weapons.
She's on her way to her tent to lay down when she's accosted by a Chûnin.
"Sensor Nara !"
"yes ?" she turns to the Chûnin
"it's your turn to collect the weapons and our dead from the battlefield" he grimaces in sympathy
"ugh, guess I won't sleep for a while yet" she groans but she walks to the exit of the camp
She hides her chakra signature and runs silently until she reaches the battlefield, she's alone for now and she'd rather not cross path with Iwa while it's pitch black. She removes the chakra stopping most smells from reaching her nose and sends some to her eyes, she gags when the smell of blood, rot and who knows what else hits her. She has to breathe a few time to stop herself from throwing up.
She pulls out a storage seal, the easier weapons to see are swords and well sharpened kunais because the faint light from the moon is reflected on the blade. Not all swords are using reflecting steel so to find those and the rest of the weapons laying around, she uses her nose to locate the metalic odor they have or the polish used on the blades. She bends down to collect the weapons then she seals them in the scroll.
She stops to seal her fallen comrades every time she stumbles upon one, they try to do it as much as they can but it's not always possible with Iwa and Kumo breathing down their necks.
She has collected a good chunk of the weapons and their dead when she feels a group of cloud nins approach. She quickly seals the two dead comrades near her then she scampers away.
She's not fighting three Chûnins and a Jonin by herself.
As she runs, she progressively reveals her chakra. The sensor on duty isn't as skilled as the others so she flares her chakra briefly as she sees the hidden entry. She nods tiredly at the guards as she passes them, she needs to deliver the scrolls to their respective tent before she can sleep.
When she leaves her tent, the suns is high in the sky. It's around noon if she's not mistaken.
She joins the line to receive her portion, she's starving. She thanks Iroki when he hands her her bowl then walks away with a yawn, she needs to stretch her muscles after eating. Just as she was going to sit, Genma calls her so she plops down next to him and someone named Namiashi Raidou.
She greets them then tucks in.
"good morning kid" Genma ruffles her hair, she huffs at him but it only makes him laugh "Guess what someone found yesterday"
she swallows her bite "what ?"
"you're no fun, kid" he pouts "Anyway, someone found a Bingo book"
"really ? Which one ?"
"Iwa"
she frowns "why was a cloud nin in possession of an Iwa Bingo book ? Aren't they buddies ?"
Raidou shrugs "who knows ? They probably killed a rock nin then blamed it on us"
"probably" she nods "Any new pages ?"
"a few" Genma stretches his legs in front of him "Hatake Kakashi has a new nickname, he's the Copycat now. He copied a lot of jutsus with his Sharingan and now he's throwing them at Iwa and Kumo like candy" he snorts "He even smiles at them while doing so"
"that's one way to piss off the enemy" she huffs a laugh
"uh-uh, Uchiha Itachi gained the moniker of the Illusionist, Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu are now called The Shredders because of the giant blades they use in tandem to cut people, Toriyama Isamu is The Bird Whisperer because he can control birds and you won't believe the last one" he finishes gleefuly
"I like Uchiha Itachi's nickname, it's deceiving. And spit it out, I have things to do after" she rolls her eyes
"alright" he raises his hand in front of him "The last person is called The Spider because once she has a feel of your chakra, you can't escape her net"
"huh, that's a cool moniker. Who is it for ?"
"Hatake Saeko"
"who ? I don't remember another Hatake beside Kakashi" she frowns
"the description given is : grey hair tied in a ponytail, grey eyes, sharp canines, lichtenberg scars on the arms, around 3'1. Rings a bell ?"
"no way" she shakes her head
"yes way !" Genma smiles
"I'm going to die" she puts her head in her hands
"there, there" he pats her back "It means you're doing a good job !"
"or a bad one" Raidou adds drily "Nobody wants their face in the Bingo book, it kills their ability to blend in a crowd"
"ugh, at least use the correct name !" Saeko groans "I'm not even part of the clan"
"you are in all but name" Genma reminds her
"if Hatake murders me, you know whose fault it is" she slumps against his shoulder
"I'll be sure to tell him afterwards" he nods
Saeko would like to kill whoever gave her description to Iwa's higher ups.
Every time she steps a foot on the battlefield most of the attention shifts to her and she does not like that, she has barely any time to breathe before another oponent throws themself at her.
She grits her teeth as she feels a spike graze her side, both Iwa and Kumo decided to attack today and it's not going that well for her. She's been separated from Neji and is surrounded by 2 Iwa Chunins and a Kumo Jônin, they're dead set on killing her or at the very least capture her. She ducks under a punch and coats her fist in chakra, she punches the knee of the Chunin and doesn't hide the satisfied smile at the noise of his knee shattering.
She switches places with a stray tanto, she only has time to wipe the sweat from her forehead when she notices the chakra coating the ground. She narrowly avoids falling in the hole created and blocks the katana aimed at her throat inches from her skin. She stomps on the ground with enough force to destabilize the Jônin and uses the opening left in his guard to drive a kunai in his side. She doesn't have enough time to completely dodge his next strike but she manages to turn her head just enough to avoid losing her eye. The kunai catches the corner of her eye and cut all the way to the top of her ear, blood spurts out of the wound before the strand of her hair even touches the ground.
With an eye closed and two opponents stronger than her, she doesn't have much hope to keep them at bay for much longer. She'd love to switches place with one of her comrade but she can't afford to lose an ounce of her concentration to look for a familiar chakra signature because she knows she'd be done fore is she's the least bit distracted.
She reaches in her pouch for her kunais and throws three with an explosive tag attached then she kawarimis with a corpse to put distance between her and the enemies. Her eyes darts around her and she notices the kumo scum approaching Genma from behind, ready to stab him in the back. She trows a kunai with wind chakra, it goes right trough the side of his head making him drop dead to the ground.
She notices the raiton jutsu a moment too late, her muscles spasm under the intense pain and she can't help the scream that comes out of her throat. She falls on her hand and knees and the only reason she's not dead is because Shisui body flickers between her and the Kumo Jônin from before. It only takes him a moment to put the Jônin in a Genjutsu and kill him then he's lifting her in his arms and body flickering away. Small whines escaped her throat when she's jostled as he passes her to someone else, she doesn't know who it is but the familiar tang of Fire country in the chakra tells her all she needs to know.
She buries her head in the torso of the person holding her, she can't move without her muscles spasming but she's still coherent enough to use her sensing. She feels the jutsu coming from behind and tells her savior to dodge then she looks for Neji. He's not far and is nearly chakra exhausted.
"12 meters, left, comrade, chakra exhausted" she relays
"who ?" her savior asks as he changes direction
"Genin Hyuga"
they're close now "Hyuga !" her savior calls "Back to camp"
Neji kawarimis with something and lands next to them "Hai"
"stop using chakra, you're too low"
"hai, is that Sensor Nara ?" she can hear the worry in his tone
"hai, I'm not sure what happened but she needs medical attention"
Next thing she knows, she's being put down on something soft and a hand is on her shoulder. She growls when chakra enters her body but she still can't move. Something sharp pierce her skin and she know nothing more.