Saints and Suffering: A Naruto Fanfiction

chapter 57

The bulk of the Fire and Lightning Armies stared at each other in the midmorning sun. Several hundred yards, far enough to render arrows ineffective, were all that separated the two forces.

Hidden inside the vanguard of Fire, beyond the view of those who might care, were the 9 surviving genin dispatched to aid the Fire Daimyo. Iruka and Mizuki were among them, scraping by and evading death by the skin of their teeth time and time again.

The Fire Daimyo was not an unnecessarily cruel man, and it was not his decision that sent the genin, children really, to the front of the army. It was the situation. They were skilled fighters, and he needed them at the front. There was no other way. And all of the children still evacuating the capitol? All the children that would die if Lightning wasn't stopped here? A small sacrifice here and now to save a million more children.

It was necessary. He had no choice but to send them in. They were ninja, they were more likely to survive. They signed up for this. He wasn't a bad person, he was just doing what was necessary. He was sure. He didn't doubt himself. He didn't question his decision. He was right.

Or at least he kept telling himself.

From a nearby ridge, Yama was forced to watch the battle unfold, and the voices never stopped whispering poison into his ears.

They blamed him for all of this. He had failed. He caused this.

It was his fault.

He had heard it all before, and it was because of that that Yama's will held strong and Hatred could not take full control over his body.

There was no one more critical of him than himself. Everything that the voices had to say to him, he had said to himself already. He accepted all of himself, flaws, insecurities, and doubts. The whole experience was what made him him.

In spite of failure, in spite of despair, in spite of everything, he would never give up. That was what made Yama Yama.

After so many years, so many memories, so many moments that blurred together in the river of time, there was the only thing that had never changed, one thing Yama had always had.

The Guts to Never Give Up!

Off to the side of the main battlefield, the shinobi of Kumo and Konoha faced one another, the forces, spread thin over a several mile stretch, allowed each and every ninja team enough room to fight and maneuver. Unlike common soldiers that underwent a qualitative upgrade in fighting force when focused together in rank and file, shinobi decreased in effectiveness the more crowded their surroundings were by allies.

Jutsu were too large and engendered too much collateral damage when surrounded by allies, leading to a more dispersed form of warfare that favored skirmishes and frequent, short engagements.

A battle like that of Kannabi Bridge was fairly unusual, the bridge and canyon naturally funneling Iwa forces towards Minato. Out here, in the fields only a few days march from the heart of Fire Country, there were no such features to concentrate the battle.

Such a situation was terrible for Konoha. One of the downsides to having your forces so far spread from each other is that any individual team could easily be surrounded, isolated, and picked off. With Kumo shinobi having the large numerical advantage over Konoha, the current skirmishes that had been erupting all morning and throughout the previous night were heavily favoring the Village Hidden in the Clouds.

Minato and Jiraiya, sitting in reserve at Konoha Central Command, could only watch the casualties roll in hour after hour. Those who came back with injuries were the lucky ones, for more than a few patrols went out but never returned.