Prologue ~~~~~~
POV: A kaguya clan elder that stayed behind.
I’ve been an elder of the kaguya clan for 30 years, I’ve witnessed the rise and fall of many clans, and I watched many of them slowly be forgotten by all but history books. The kaguya clan itself has faced possible extinction dozens of times in our clan's history, but this is the worst one yet.
The kaguya clan is done, the writing is on the walls. What was once tiny alarm bells spelling out doom has evolved into a church bell. The clan is defenseless and unprotected, left completely unguarded by the patriarch and his wire-brained idea of attacking kiriakure. He refused to listen to any advice, and now we have to deal with the aftermath.
We should have known, anyone familiar with history would have known. The attack on kirigakure is just the latest in a long string of bad ideas, the patriarch and shinobi elders more focused on battle than clan management. A successful clan needs both.
The kaguya clan patriarch had never been the most intelligent man, being chosen for his strength and courage more than tactics. But we never expected he would lead ninety-five percent of the clan's shinobi, all but those that physically couldn’t come, or weren't available, to a death charge just to see if they could win. No plan, no tactics, no rear guard, and no home defense. A bad strategy for large scale operations of any kind.
Now, a week after they left on the single most poorly planned mission in our clan's history, a mission that should have lasted 5 days at most. They still haven’t returned or sent a messenger. If they were still alive they would have sent one, and even if they are but can’t send one, that doesn’t help the fact that all the civilians of the clan lie undefended, everyone with fighting capability gone.
Given that they were planning to fight a professional hidden village with tactics, planning, and logical thinking skills. It’s safe to assume they died or were captured. Both cases leave us civilians to deal with a likely supremely peeved hidden village with hundreds of shinobi, and more than enough reason to come remove an enemy before we get the chance to try again.
With the clan indefensible, enemies likely on the horizon, and the chance that Kimimaro escaped and wants revenge. Small as that chance is. Escape is our only option.
Thankfully, at the very least, we hid Kimimaro’s cousin, the only female Kaguya with our family kekkai genkai. After how the patriarch reacted to kimimaro, we spent years hiding her, but she alone cant protect us. Hiding her abilities did not lead to many training opportunities. And expecting a child to fight an army is a poor plan anyway.
Escape is our only option, hiding our families' signature red forehead dots, slowly seeping into the nearby towns and hideouts. We’ve done it before, even succeeded, but that was a hundred years ago. We are unprepared and unpracticed in subterfuge or stealth, so often relying on ours clans shinobi strength and power, complacent in our training and preparation.
Every clan has a civilian population. Someone has to make their exploding tags, their equipment, and their food after all . Many have up to 20 civilians per shinobi, ours had 6. Which while small in comparison, is still over 600 people.
600 worried, sad, angry, and unprepared civilians to organize and send out with proper cover stories and food. All the remaining elders are busy organizing escape efforts, all secretly trying to scheme to travel with our clans' few remaining shinobi, or bone user. Not a good situation by any measure.
I’ve often questioned myself about why I never retired, after so long running the clan's weapon creation. Now I’ve found my answer. It turns out my entire life’s work boils down to my want tomake sure these dumbasses don’t get themselves killed. especially Haru.
“GOD DAMMIT HARU, I SAID COVER YOUR FOREHEAD, NOT YOUR EYES!”
These fools probably couldn't even find the tip of a kunai if they stabbed themselves with it. Today alone I've seen the worst disguises In my life. It's like their trying to get caught, likely a problem caused by the patriarchs' continuous refusal to let the civilians be self sufficient. Another mark of our failure, not training people in stealth.
But so far, things have gone fairly well for an unplanned frantic escape. No one has died yet, no one tried to hog supplies beyond weapons or food, of which we stored plenty. In the best case scenario, this will all be pointless and we'll just recall everyone. But for now, at least 500 people have been sent, and all we have left are the people who didn't prepare quickly, the elderly, and the injured. Pretty good if my expectations were anything to go by.
That, of course, right when I finished that thought, is when everything started going wrong. The universe seems to love when things start going wrong just as things are starting to look good.
It all started when we heard the first scream, a bone-freezing scream of pain, followed by another. Then the attack truly began.
Everyone started running. The only people for miles around were family, and while the chances of us killing each other are higher than usual for clans our size, it was unlikely. That left ninjas, something we all knew would come, come for revenge, come to loot. It hardly mattered, in the eyes of a ninja, a dying clan is a clan easily taken advantage of. And their arrive proves our attack failed.
No one was going to stay still while under an attack, no clan good enough to call itself a clan was that ill prepared. But that didn't make our situation much better. The problem with a hundred people all running at once is that most forget where they are supposed to be running too, more focused on leaving quickly than their destination.
That wasn't helped by the Kiri nin suddenly attacking. Shuriken were sent flying, ninjas killing our last defenders, and bodies hitting the ground. All in the blink of an eye. All leaving me to frantically try to defend my escaping family and friends, all while under assault myself.
All the elders of our clan were trained in the use of chakra, but with me being almost 60 years old and a grandmother more focused on weapon production management than battle, that didn't give me many advantages. Every kunai I throw is deflected or blocked, every fireball I make dissipates on shields. The blades of air I unleash upon my enemies leave little effect.
For every enemy I slay, 2 more arrive to defeat me, 2 more to chase my family. Something I refused to allow. The battle has barely started, and I’m already running low on chakra.
((Wind Style: Gale Wolf)), using a quarter of my chakra, I summon 3 wolves of wind to guard my fleeing family from attacks. Followed by a dodge of a long kenjutsu blade and a slash at the unprotected thigh of the chunnin wielding it.
Dodging back from the retaliatory swing, I duck under an incoming wind blade, leaving just enough time to cast a jutsu.
(Wind Release: Wind Dragon) sending a large deadly dragon made of wind at the largest group of enemies, taking half my remaining chakra. I body flicker to the roof of the nearest building, all while dodging kunai, shurukin, and small high-speed fire bullets. All from ninja, my level or greater. An unsustainable defense.
Ever since we realized an attack was inevitable, I was prepared to lay down my life. My chakra pool not large enough, my skill not great enough, and my will not strong enough to defeat the jounin that will inevitably arrive. Being a chunnin myself, no amount of self-sacrifice and burning of life force will allow me to do anything but delay against foes of these numbers and magnitude. So that is what I shall do, delay for my family, delay so one day my great grandchildren might be able to rebuild the clan, but better this time. Perhaps even without letting morons become patriarch.
With 67 years of life and duty to the clan under my belt, it seems fitting that my death is in duty aswell.
Gathering all my chakra and life force, I form the seals for a jounin level jutsu no one in our clan has used for years, always a more fitting jutsu for the occasion, always a more brute force method. Not to mention the stigma against using jutsu copied from enemies. In this case, Suna.
(Great Infinite Sandblast Breakthrough)
The strongest jutsu I’ve ever used, all my chakra and life force in one blast to delay. All my life spent on giving my family a 5 minute head start at least.
At the very least I lived a good life, not many live to 60 in this day and age….
The world fades to black.
