…When we left the village, our morale was sky-high, thinking it would all be like any other ordinary mission: wiping out a few rebels and restoring peace to a nation. Some felt like heroes, and more than a few rookies were eager to experience a real war. I'm sorry to say I was one of them.
At the time, my rank was chunin, with a sensory specialty, which I had earned not too long ago, so I was assigned to the logistics division, where I performed surveillance duties for the teams in charge of moving supplies.
My first baptism of fire was during the siege of Sakon, where my team and I were tasked with delivering supplies to the teams attempting to take over the city's grand hotel. There I saw firsthand the chaos that urban combat can be, with projectiles, throwing weapons, and justus flying everywhere. But what shocked me most was the amount of blood and guts that painted the streets. I saw heads, arms, feet, and even eyes as I navigated the dangerous alleys surrounding that damned building. Our ninjas could withstand such a level of horror and continue fighting, but I witnessed soldiers of the Daimyo who couldn't keep up with the pace of combat, many paralyzed with fear or simply fainted. The rebels used an enormous amount of explosives to confront us, so it's understandable that everything ended in a literal carnage.
As we traveled back and forth with supplies, we encountered rebel ambushes more than once. The usual hand cannon operators would open fire on us from buildings or residences that had presumably already been inspected. I was wounded twice, because despite my specialized sensory skills, it was impossible for me to differentiate rebels from ordinary people, since none of them possessed chakra. The projectiles pierced my skin and lodged in my muscles, hindering my movement, but I couldn't remove them until we reached the camp, since they were too small and too deep. Only medics can remove such objects without causing further damage.
That battle opened my eyes to what lay ahead in the campaign in general, but what happened next almost made me question the Raikage's decisions. Fortunately, I was on the front lines at the time, so I wasn't another victim. However, I witnessed what can be considered a true massacre: the surprise attack on our camp.
Our logistics division was made up of 200 ninjas, tasked with managing the military supplies, food, health, and lodging of nearly 600 ninjas throughout the campaign. But in that single incident, which no one knows how it actually happened, we lost more than 80 ninjas, including almost all of our medical specialists. Whoever was responsible, it practically ruined our ability to continue fighting in the short term, so offensive operations were canceled until we received new support from the village.
Emica was the commanding officer of all the supply teams, a powerful and experienced jounin, a candidate to become an elite jounin. I admired her and received advice from her more than once, but on that fateful day, I had to gather all the parts of her body that were scattered around the camp and sew her into one piece so I could send her back to the village. That night I wept in anguish, and a part of me died alongside all those who gave their lives for something I can't understand to this day…
Excerpt from the book "War Diaries: The Noodle War Vol. 1" by Mayumi Fukuda, Daimyo's Selection.
…
[Touki]
Touki never imagined he would become a sort of malevolent shadow leader, provoking wars for personal gain, at least from his perspective before coming into this world. The reality is that the man has less and less control over his organization, which, as it grows, has forced many of the decisions Touki can make. He is by no means innocent or blameless, but his fictional Akira persona has gradually shaped the man's true personality.
To this day, the situation in the land of noodles is partially under control. The losses suffered by the rebels in Sakon are high; however, they managed to repel the attack by the Kumo ninjas and still control more than half of the city, including the western entrance, through which significant support has arrived from rebels in other cities. However, none of this would have been possible without the catastrophic blow that the divine order dealt to Kumogakure's supply lines.
It must be said that the person truly responsible for the massacre at the Kumo camp on the outskirts of Sakon was Izumi, who spent over a full day monitoring the movements of the attacking army until she discovered a window of time where defenses were minimal. Her attack was brutal and ruthless, completely abusing her ocular power and paralyzing the Jounins who could pose a threat from the beginning, then taking less than 5 minutes to annihilate the entire camp and sabotage the supplies.
Izumi has undoubtedly become an extremely strong ninja, a specialist in stealth operations and targeted assassinations. Touki never imagined that the sweet girl described in the manga and animations would end up becoming someone so different, almost bizarre in some ways. Fortunately, the man believes he knows the ninja well and feels capable of keeping her under his control.
The war in the land of noodles is predicted to be long, as all the order's analysts agree, as long as Kumogakure doesn't give up in the face of the losses it has suffered. Touki personally believes the Raikage won't give up so easily, especially given his enormous ego and the poor image his village would receive in the rest of the world. In the end, all that remains is to wait and see what kind of compromise he'll be willing to make to quickly end the revolt.
Konoha is a matter that has Touki completely confused, as the village's almost nonexistent response makes no sense from a strategic point of view. He thought that by now, at least Konoha would have completely militarized the border and perhaps reinforced the cities the rebels hadn't taken, but the reality is that, at least within the land of noodles, the presence of its ninjas has barely been seen, the exception being the typical infiltrated agents who are only alive because Touki has allowed them to.
For now, the man has decided to let everything flow and trust in Izumi's abilities and her ability to harass enemy ninjas. Tomomi remained missing for quite some time, causing Touki some concern, however, she managed to return at the precise moment her services were needed, accompanied by a group of ninjas who truly managed to surprise everyone, especially Touki.
There he was, in person, the first villain from the Naruto anime, Zabuza, completely subservient to Tomomi, along with four other Kirigakure ninjas and a peculiar individual who is difficult to tell at first glance whether he's a boy or a girl, but impossible for Touki to miss: Haku.
Touki's instinct almost made him kill Zabuza the moment he saw him, something Tomomi seemed to sense, as she quickly proceeded to promote the ninja's qualities as a subordinate and the fact that she would be in charge of forging him as a new member of the Divine Order.
Touki remembers something from Zabuza's past and immediately stops seeing him as the villain he has yet to become, however he decides to pay attention to his performance in the future and urges Tomomi to keep a tight control over her new subordinates, and that only after a period of testing, Touki will be willing to provide them with weapons and armor.
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