Naruto The Warlord

chapter 28

The girl had collapsed from exhaustion and her wounds right after she'd uttered her words, but it had been enough to spur Naruto in action. As she fell, she was caught in Naruto's arms before she could hit the ground. En had glared at him for risking himself so, on the off chance that it was a ruse to draw him in, but Naruto didn't care.

For some reason, he knew in his heart that he had to help.

The medics, including their officer Yano Beni, had been waiting and ready in the treatment tent, immediately beginning their treatment of the girl. Several minutes passed where Naruto and his officers waited outside, beneath the gentle, eerie snowfall in front of one of the bonfires, until finally, Yano came outside to inform them.

"Bad news, Warlord.", Yano sighed tiredly, wiping blood from her hands as she walked over towards them. "Girl's lost a whole lot of blood; It's a wonder she made it here. She will live, but she won't be waking up any time soon."

"Shit.", Naruto cursed with frustration. Gritting his teeth as his mind started working, he gave Yano a thankful nod. "Thanks darling. Keep me posted, aye?"

"Aye.", Yano nodded back, turning right back to the tent from which she came.

The surrounding officers looked at each other warily as Naruto stood quietly with his own thoughts, considering their choice of action. The girl's headband was in his hands, clearly that of a shinobi, but he was unfamiliar with it's symbol; A star, shining bright in the night sky.

They had no idea who the girl was or who else needed help. For all they knew, they could be walking into a trap or straight into a conflict they would be on the wrong side of. No matter what they did, it would be a gamble.

They had no clues, no directions. Nothing.

"...This is bad news, Warlord.", Shou muttered to Naruto as the other officers discussed worriedly among themselves. "What are you thinking? What should we do? Seeing as we're not alone here as we thought, maybe we should...", Shou droned on, but Naruto wasn't listening. He was busy with his own deductions.

From their position on the hillside, they could easily see far inland. The middle of the island was covered by a mountain range, and it was the one place they had not yet sent any scouts, having seen it as adequate enough to keep the scouting to a minimum in the surrounding area.

Seeing as they had no clues, perhaps the best place to start would be the one area they had not yet checked out. If anything, the mountains would provide them with some much needed oversight over the surrounding island.

"Shou.", Naruto interrupted his second in command who had been droning on with his own ideas. "I want you to ready half our army; Archers in the middle, flanked protectively by our spearmen. Rangers will scout ahead in the front with half our medic capacities protected at our rear. I want us to be ready for march 5 minutes ago."

Shou opened his mouth, to protest or question Naruto knew not, but he sent Shou a glare none the less which spurred the man into action. As Shou began to bark orders at the rest of the officers, En came up at Naruto's side with an inquisitive look.

"So? We're off looking for trouble?"

"No.", Naruto drawled absentmindedly, distracted by his own thoughts still. "Just gonna have a look, see what we're dealing with."

'...As if that have ever worked out before...', the Kyuubi groused.

Naruto ignored it.

Naruto pushed hard through the dark forest and his forces struggled to keep up. It took them an hour of the night to reach the bottom of the mountain, where they quickly began to scale the mountainside.