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Moving just shy of a hundred shinobi stealthily was a logistical nightmare. Positioning them around an enemy territory in the dead of night with purposefully limited lighting while avoiding the constant risk of detection was a hellish experience.
"This is itchy!" Rikku said in frustration as she pulled on the collar of her undervest.
She was wearing standard shinobi gear under her flak jacket and a fully-equipped weapon cache strapped to her in pouches—the only peculiarity was that it was the Hidden Steam's headband and jacket instead of the Leaf's. In fact, everyone involved in the Gojiro Mine Operation was dressed in Hidden Steam gear.
Officially speaking, the Land of Hot Waters and the Land of Frost were at war with their shinobi villages involved in the conflict. But behind the scenes, both nations were being supported by the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning and their respective shinobi villages. At first, the aid was through financial support and equipment/weapons—but as the conflict escalated, the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Cloud sent in their own shinobi, which was the turning point in the war. The moment the two got involved, the scale of war changed drastically.
Even with their limited forces, the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Cloud had just as many shinobi in the war as the Hidden Steam and the Hidden Frost. However, the official involvement of theLeaf and Cloud was limited to indirect aid—but all the involved parties knew they were actively participating, but they couldn't make it public. If two of the five Great Shinobi Hidden Villages were in direct warfare against each other, the situation could escalate to the Hidden Leaf and Hidden Cloud declaring war against each other, which wasn't something either village could be careless about. Even the Hidden Steam and Hidden Frost and their respective Daimyo didn't want to a full-scale war between the two superpowers because their war would be fought on the their land(the Land of Hot Waters and the Land of Frost)—and that was something neither nation wanted—which was why for an operation as big as the retaking the Gojiro mines, the Hidden Leaf's forces were dressed in the Hidden Steam's colors.
"Bear with it," Anko replied as she sat cross-legged in a meditative pose.
The four teams of the Evacuation Unit hid among the bushes under the cover of the night sky, waiting for the signal to begin their operation. The mining had released enough particulates and pollutants in the air that obscured part of the natural moon and starlight, making seeing in the dark even harder.
Takuma knelt beside a tree like a statue with his communications radio before him.
*Beep*
"I'm getting a transmission," he whispered.
All four teams in the Evacuation Unit became alert at Takuma's words. As Takuma decoded the message, everyone began checking their gear and equipment. A silent tension hung in the air as everyone waited for Takuma's words.
"The operation is a go," said Takuma to his comrades. "Execute Stage-1."
Without any further communication, thirteen members of the twenty-four-person unit got up and paced towards the mining pit. Four chunin and nine genin capable of chakra masking were responsible for Stage-1 of the entire operation, which was to infiltrate the workers dormitory, take out the enemy guards stealthily, and begin the evacuation of the workers.
Takuma quickly packed his radio. "Let's go," he said.
The remaining eleven members of the Evacuation Unit got on their bellies and crawled towards the pit silently. They couldn't go down to the dormitory as they had no way to avoid the sensory-nin's detection, but they had to be ready to assist in case the situation soured at the dormitory, ringing the alarm bells.
"Stop," said another genin.
Everyone did. They couldn't get too close but had to be in range and ready to take action.
Takuma took a deep breath and began concentrating.
———
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Anko and the others jumped down the pit. Entering the pit wouldn't have been possible during the day, but with no light, it turned into an advantage as they could do it without real complications; they just needed to do it silently.
As they got down the step-like carving that made up the pit, the multi-floor dormitory stood a distance away from them. They had no idea about the floor plans of the dormitory or how guarded it was on the inside—all they knew was that seven shinobi guarded around a hundred people.
With their numbers and abilities, getting rid of seven guards wouldn't have been difficult—but Anko and others were masking their chakra—which meant they couldn't use chakra, which was a huge handicap.
The primary goal of the Evacuation Unit was to get the workers and people with priority status out of the mines—but they had a secondary objective that could only be accomplished if they retained their stealth.
It was to cause chaos.
Not much was known about the sensory-nin except for the fact that at least one existed among the enemy forces that occupied the Gojiro Gold Mines. But that knowledge made a surprise attack impossible for Camp Banana. The sensory-nin would detect the presence immediately and sound the alert.
If they had an insight into how many sensory-nin there were, things would've been easier—but they didn't have that information—and that information gap limited them.
Thus, a conditional plan was hatched.
If the Evacuation Unit was able to come out of Stage-1 with their stealth intact, the members capable of chakra masking would further proceed into enemy territory and place explosives all around the mines.
It was obvious that the enemy would be prepared for an invasion and would have a quick-response action plan prepared. Camp Banana itself had a contingency plan in place to combat an assault—there was no reason to believe the enemy didn't have one.
But what if something unexpected threw them off?
The element of surprise was an extremely strong advantage, and the conditional plan was to gain that. By installing explosives around the mines and setting them off, Camp Banana wanted to gain the element of surprise and mount an assault using that advantage.
However, the sensory-nin created a problem.
One mistake is all it would take for the plan to fail—which was why it was a conditional plan. Camp Banana was ready and prepared for a straight-on assault if the Evacuation Unit failed.
Anko looked up at the other three chunin. She knew all of them wanted the conditional plan to work—because it was good for them and added to their achievements. Of course, she was no different. She wanted the conditional plan to go well—she needed to work twice—thrice— as hard as everyone else to get the same result. The plan going well would be extremely positive for her.
They silently approached the dormitory building from the backside. Oeda, the leader, raised his hand and snapped his finger; immediately, the group split into two. The two groups hugged the walls of the building and proceeded towards the front side from opposite sides.
On their way, they checked the windows to see if they could open them silently, but metal bars were blocking the way, making the infiltration through the windows unfeasible.
The front side of the dormitory and the entrance were lit brightly by a single bulb. There was a single guard sitting on a chair, reading a book. The entrance to the dormitory was barred by a locked accordion metal gate. They needed to get the gate open. Doing it with the awake guard was not feasible.
Oeda raised his hand and signed to stop the group. He looked up; there was a ghanta (hanging dome bell) hanging above the gate. He threw a kunai at the wooden block from which the bell hung. The kunai went through the block, cracking the wood.
The bell fell down on the wet and muddy ground, immediately attracting the guard's attention. The guard shot up from his chair and warily walked to the gate as the two groups slowly backed off.
"What the fuck?" The guard muttered from behind the gate as he looked down at the bell. He sighed and turned back to get the keys that jingled. He opened the lock on the gate and pulled the accordion gate open to step out.
"Did the wood rot—"
The moment he took a step outside, Anko, who was leading the second group, surged ahead and snapped the man's neck before he could even sense her presence. She didn't let him fall and dragged him to the side before dumping him outside sight.
And the moment Anko broke the neck, she stopped masking her chakra.
It was to deceive the sensory-nin in case they decided to do a head count—which was unlikely, but it was a safe precaution. The person who landed the killing blow would stop masking their chakra to replace the dead enemy. There was the matter of chakra signature, but that wasn't something they could replace.
Oeda nodded when Anko returned to her line and signed again. This time, Ikeda and his five genin separated from Oeda's line and proceeded into the building. Unlike the other three teams, the entirety of Ikeda's team was involved in Stage-1, and with their background, they were the best team to do the initial scouting.
Sometime later, one of Ikeda's genin returned and signaled them in. Using signs, the genin directed the teams into different parts of the dormitory.
Anko patted Daiki on his shoulder, signaling him to follow her closely. Ikeda's genin, who had directed, joined Anko and Daiki as they were only two people. Anko nodded to him and let the genin lead. They reached a long corridor that had a dark room with workers sleeping on one side and a room with light leaking out on the other side.
Silently, they moved beside the door. Anko took out a small mirror and looked at the reflection. There were two guards inside the room, sitting at a table, playing cards. She turned to the genin and signaled two people.
After thinking about it a bit, she decided on a plan.
———
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The two guards inside suddenly heard the sound of footsteps in the corridor outside.
"Huh? Is one of the fuckers roaming outside? I guess I wouldn't mind another thrashing," one of the guards cackled.
"Go check." The other guard didn't remove his eyes from his cards.
"Don't cheat," said the guard as he stepped out of the room.
The guard in the room stared at his cards for a moment before looking over the table to peek at the other guard's hand of cards, but found that he had taken his cards with him. The guard clicked his tongue.
"Why bother warning me?" he grumbled.
He picked up the cup with tea and downed it in one gulp. He made a face as the tea had gone cold long ago. He got up to make some more, only to find that they had ran out of water.
He looked at the door.
"What's taking him so long?"
As he turned away from the door, the guard thought he saw something in the corner of his eye.
"Hmm?"
He walked to the door and peered out in the dark corridor to see nothing. But as he pulled himself back, something wrapped itself around his neck and pulled him up.
"Ack! Gck!"
He looked up to see a woman standing on the ceiling, looking down at him. She pulled on the rope she was holding, and the loop around his neck tightened. He tried to claw at his neck. By the time he was able to peek through the panic and went for his weapons pouch, someone hugged him—trapping his hands—and pulled him down, putting more pressure on his neck. He looked down to see a burly man but could do nothing but hang to death.
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