"They are finally here." Rei said as he felt a few hundred people of varying strength through his nature sensing. This made the people surrounding him tense slightly, except Konan who just smiled and reassuringly squeezed Rei's hand.
It was three days since his talk with Ringo and these days were quite busy and demanding for every single shinobi in the small Kiri force. Rei decided to fight like a shinobi and that's why he was now looking at the 'main' base that was completely empty from a bit further away in an underground bunker made in a cliff. The Kiri troops were also scattered and hiding all around, a few meters away from the base that was supposed to be a bait. The Kiri shinobi were in ten-man squads and everyone already knew their role.
"There are around five hundred people with civilian-level chakra reserves. Mercenaries most likely... cannon fodder, I suppose." Rei said with a frown. While these people weren't ninja, they shouldn't be underestimated despite them probably hardly having low genin-level strength... if that. The important part was their numbers. Obviously, they were largely outnumbered. "Then according to the chakra-levels, there are around two hundred genins, around eighty chunin, and twenty jonin for three hundred shinobi."
"Three hundred..." Ringo repeated. "Eight hundred in total..." She bit her lower lip, hoping their plan would work.
"Plus there are two incredibly strong chakras." Rei added. "Probably commanders. I'd bet one of them is a jinchuuriki." A grin spread on Rei's lips as he said that. He was, after all, a bit of a bijuu chakra collector as of right now...
"That's bothersome." Ringo stated seriously while narrowing her eyes to the horizon. Rei's sensing range was quite a lot and the enemies couldn't even be seen yet.
"Don't bother," Rei quipped in amusement when he saw her trying to spot them. "even with your incredible eyesight you won't see them yet. You would have to be a Hyuuga for that. They are still on the other side of the island, getting out of their boats."
Ringo nodded, understanding there will still be quite a bit of waiting involved before all hell breaks loose. She only hoped their enemies would fall for the ploy.
...
"What do you sense, B?" A asked gruffly as he turned to his surrogate brother.
B frowned as he watched the base of Kiri ninja. At the very first glance, it was suspicious. There were no patrols, no traps, no nothing, and the base looked empty. It was only when B started using his chakra sensing he got a quite worrying surprise.
"There is no Yeti, it's totally empty... Broza!" B rhymed while wildly gesturing with his hands, successfully creating a tick-mark on A's forehead. Despite his silly action, inwardly B was in a discussion with his tenant about what was going on. He tried to increase the range or precision of his chakra senses and even let the eight-tails try but neither could sense anything human-like anywhere close.
Rei was too experienced when it came to sensing and had the foresight to expect enemies to bring at least one sensor with them. He made sure that every hiding place of Kiri's ten-man squads had foolproof anti-chakra-sensing seals. Unless B had a skill like Kurama's emotion-sensing, he would be unable to feel the Kiri shinobi no matter how much he would try.
"Commander A!" A barely twenty years old orange-haired woman with shoulder-long hair approached A. She at most reached his chest but the second he saw her, his face lit up. "Looks like the enemy retreated. May I take some of our men to scout the base?" She enthusiastically asked and A couldn't help but chuckle as he patted her head, making her lower her head with a pout from embarrassment and start muttering something suspiciously similar to 'A no baka'.
"Yeah, L, feel free. Looks like the Kiri cowards ran!" A boisterously laughed, making the woman smile at him tenderly. He would never allow his fiance to do this if B didn't confirm there was no one nearby. After all, she was barely a mid-chunin. It took a lot of persuasions to make his father allow him to bed someone weak like her... Alas, he really loved the girl.
L gathered the men, five jonin, ten chunin, and fifteen genins while the rest of her hundred were normal mercenaries. B was still watching the surroundings with a frown and furrowed eyebrows when L's men started to cautiously approach the base. He really didn't like the mist that was starting to rise all around. But the mist was natural and no chakra was in it so he had nothing he could say. An uncomfortable feeling however didn't leave him no matter what he did.
All of the L troops heaved a sigh of relief when no trap sprang up nor any ambush happened when ten minutes later they finally reached the door of the base. A and the rest of the army waited in the clearing, observing the situation. They saw L's men entering the base without any problem, making them inwardly happy. The mercenaries mostly cheered at the easy job, happy for being paid without fighting while the more experienced, mostly jonin, started to get a bit jumpy due to the ever-so-slowly rising mist around them. The only reason why they weren't on full alert was that it was confirmed the mist was natural.
...
Rei smirked and released another batch of storage seals that had a natural mist from around Kirigakure stored inside.
"They are making this so easy..." He heard Ringo snicker in wonder.
"Nope, it's just that ninjas use so much Jutsu they forget the basics of stealth and covert ambush. Look at them, Ringo." Rei said seriously. Ringo quickly recognized the glint in Rei's eyes. It was the one he had every time he was giving her some important lesson when she was a genin. It was the glint she so loved on her sensei. It was the thing that made her less of a battle junkie. She lowered her head slightly in bashfulness and attentively listened to Rei. "The second the mist appeared, their guard went up. But the second they confirmed the mist has no chakra in it and is natural, most of them stopped caring. Despite that, the more experienced ninja's are still tense." Rei revealed a devilish smile. "And that will be their undoing. Oh, how much chaos that can cause..."
Ringo just shook her head. "Sometimes I wonder where did you get such a nasty streak." As she said that, she gave Rei a stink-eye. "And you always admonished me for being too 'battle crazy'." She huffed and crossed her arms in mock-anger, making Konan and other people in their ten-man 'commander' squad chuckle at her antics.
Rei just ignored Ringo and turned to Kuga Mizura, a jonin who had a minor bloodline that could infuse her chakra into two sources of water... in this case water in a bowl... and 'connect' them. Rei found it incredibly useful for sending messages without needing to reveal his communication seals as the woman could basically form a text from the water and due to the connection, the same text would be created in every hiding spot of Kiri shinobi. The best and the most confusing part for Rei... no chakra was being transmitted to accomplish this so chakra-sensing would not spot it.
"Well then, Mizura, your turn." Rei gestured to the bowl and the gentle-looking brunette revealed a blood-thirsty smile as her blue eyes sparkled in anticipation. She wasn't a hunter-nin for no reason. He then glanced at Konan, giving her a silent order to prepare the start of the plan 'Boom, here we are'.
It didn't take long and the Kiri ten-man squads started to sneak through the natural mist towards the Kumo forces. Rei provided them sealing tags that could mask their chakra similarly to the ones inscribed to the hiding spots but the second they used chakra, they would be revealed. It was solely for getting closer in the cover of the natural mist without being noticed.
The 'commander' squad was still in the hideout, observing and prepared to react if anything went downhill while Ringo, Konan, and Rei were intently staring at A and B. It was obvious who would be in charge of distracting these two.
...
It was thirty seconds later that A was watching his fiance's troops entering the base as the visibility was slowly starting to drop to worrying levels.
"Bother, we should retreat." B suddenly said in a serious tone that was very unusual for him.
"Didn't you say you can't sense anything?" A raised his eyebrow at B and crossed his arms.
"Yes..." B trailed off, not in the mood to rap which made A really nervous. "But I just have this really bad feeling, kono-yaro, baka-yaro."
A furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head. 'A very bad feeling, huh?' He nodded. Certainly. Despite the mist, it's not like his men had only B as a sensor. They had twenty of them... which was a lot since there were only 300 shinobi. A requested them especially since he knew about Kirigakure no Jutsu and that good sensor-nin are best to counter it. But neither of his sensors were giving him a red alarm, meaning nobody sensed anything. Not in the mist, and certainly not in the surroundings. Yet... he still couldn't get the feeling of being watched out of his mind.
A looked at B's worried expression which was only masked by his black sunglasses and curtly nodded. He would rather get scolded for not finishing what seemed like an incredibly easy mission properly in the earliest possible time due to regrouping of his troops than being ambushed. He decided to trust his instincts. "Q! Take ten fast men and go tell L that we are retrea-"
A didn't finish his sentence when a sudden but powerful 'boom' reverberated through the island, making the wind violently rampage, dispersing the mist while also making the unprepared Kumo forces quite dazed due to the abrupt booming sound followed by a strong force of the wind that impacted the troops. Some mercenaries were sent tumbling across the ground but shinobi and only the more experienced mercenaries withstood the residual shockwaves, managing to keep standing.
"NOOO!" A's anguish-filled scream tore through the clearing as he realized what blew up when he looked at the burning rubble of what was previously the Kiri base. The explosion was so strong, even the guards stationed outside the already destroyed building were torn to shreds by it. Obviously, no one survived such an abrupt explosion. A dropped to his knees as his mind was swirling in the horrid realization that his fiance just perished. He had no idea what to do when... the distressed screams of rage and surprise of his troops filled the clearing.
The real battle has just begun.