SFF: 070 - The Fear Mongers (Patreon)

LAND OF WAVES

History, as is said, was almost always repetitive

Predictable.

In that same line, the Great Shinobi Wars had always been borne of grand causes.

The first, for example, was ignited by a volatile mix of political tension, conflicting ideologies, and disputes over territory and resources. The second was fueled by the proliferation of fear and distrust, and the spontaneous decay of diplomacy amongst the quickly maturing shinobi villages.

The origins of the third war could be summarised as the now "Great" shinobi villages first discovering, in the art of war, the means to finance their economies and support their rapidly bloating populations. After all, for the truly opportunistic, conflict was a rather profitable venture. And like most things involving shinobi, it was cruel, ingenious and surprisingly effective at producing results.

That said, never could Guren have imagined the Fourth Great War would be borne, not out of some overarching, deep-seated socio-economic or political issue, but rather something as pedestrian as vengeance. Surely, she did not imagine the Uchiha as some random, third-rate clan, of course. But in all honesty, she did not believe them important enough to warrant the entire region be set ablaze in another continent-spanning war.

Truly, she did not believe any single clan was important enough.

She still sometimes caught herself staring blankly into space, baffled by the turn of events. What perplexed her even more than the cause of the war, however, was the increasingly important role she was playing in its inception. With Kabuto now off on his inane, self-absorbed sabbatical, Guren found herself a lynchpin at the centre of Lord Orochimaru's operations. The sannin's increasing deference to his most recent partner also meant she found herself, more often than not, simply furthering the Uchiha's objectives.

Which was, objectively speaking, making sure the war went off without a hitch.

It was uncanny, she found, to be so involved as she now was in dictating the course of history. There was always a certain, indiscernible buzz at the back of her mind whenever she set out to put plots in motion at her master's behest. It wasn't excitement per se, but a mild feeling of anticipation that bubbled in her chest as she considered what dominos she might topple that time around. Even something as mundane as whispering tidbits of gossip in the ears of some noble halfway across the continent had a way of bringing the pot to boil.

Today, however, Guren found herself not on some trifling propaganda-peddling mission or some equally paltry reconnaissance assignment. Today she had been given the green light to take out the task force to do something grand. Something truly worthy of being touted as a key moment in the saga of man. Something pivotal to the conception of the Fourth Great Shinobi War.

Guren stiffened her spine as she pulled on the ends of the uwa-obi around her waist. She turned her gaze to examine her reflection in the crystal mirror standing across from her, finding herself pleased with what she saw. With a wave of her hand, she dispelled the pink slab of reflective crystals—the mass disappearing with a tinkling noise like icicles on glass—before making her way out of her room. Outside, Yukimaru waited with his arms crossed and face set in a dull frown.

Guren sighed. "You can't come with, Yuki," she said lightly as she breezed past him. The boy said nothing as he stalked after her.

A sigh escaped Guren's chest as she turned on her heels to face him. "I am serious."

For a few moments, Yukimaru said nothing, his face set into an uncertain expression that eased Guren's budding exasperation. "...I have seen the others, Guren," he said at last, his tone quiet. "Even Rinji looks worried ... Are you sure I can't come along so I can watch your back... or something?"

Guren stared at him for a long moment before a light huff escaped her. The younger shinobi pouted, folding his arms across his chest. "What's funny?"

"You are distracting me, Yuki," Guren said, patting him on the right biceps before moving closer to smoothen out his kimono. "Just stay here where you are safe and I can have peace of mind. I will be back in a few days at most."

"But—"

Guren placed a soft peck on the stubborn fool's forehead, silencing him before he could think up a good retort. "Stay safe, OK? I will be back soon."

She turned to leave, quickly making her way towards the meeting hall at the end of the rather long hallway. There, she found the rest of her task force already waiting, as well as a few others. Given the scale of the operation, a few more hands were needed to ensure the mission was completed successfully.

"Good morning," she said as she made her way to the front of the hall. "Everyone here has probably already received scrolls containing the mission details for today's assignment and should have had more than enough time to peruse it at their convenience. Hopefully. But so there is no misunderstanding, here is a mission debriefing to iron things out."

A thin crystal rod formed in Guren's grasp, with which she tapped the giant map of the continent hanging from the wall. "Lord Orochimaru," she began, "intends for us to alleviate the pressure on our ally to the west. Iwagakure's increasingly aggressive stance has been hindering Suna's ability to pressure Konoha. This is, of course, a detriment to the sannin's plans, hence our mission today is to put a stop to that."

She flicked her wrist, striking a drawn marker on the map with the crystal rod in her hand.

"Two weeks ago, a small fleet of merchant ships carrying military supplies disguised as mundane commodities set sail from Port Kobe in the Land of Glaciers. The fleet was escorted by two squads of Kumo-nin contracted on an E3-C form. A simple, entirely innocent C-class escort mission, of course. From Kumo's perspective, this is simply a smuggling operation to move war materiel discreetly into Iwa from clandestine suppliers in the Land of Glaciers. Now, Kumo has no issues with this given their neutrality with the Iwagakure and the distance between their border, so they would only flag the operation as a low-priority event.

"Unbeknownst to them, however, things aren't so simple. Seven hours ago, one of our sleeper agents disguised as an information broker was activated and tasked with selling Iwagakure documents containing mission parameters detailing an invasion of the Land of Earth from the east. All falsified of course. No culprits were named, and neither was there any indication that the attack was going to be amphibious in nature, meaning Iwagakure's upper echelon would reasonably be suspecting Takigakure as they are  the most likely suspect with the proximity, bearing, and manpower that pull off something like that."

"Our mission, therefore, stated simply is to attack and take control of the Port of Nagoya along the Land of Earth's eastern border while Kumogakure's attention is focused on their more land-locked borders. The goal of this mission is to bring the possibility of an incursion from their expansive eastern coasts to the forefront of the mind of Iwagakure's military apparatus. Whether or not this snowballs into something larger is not important at all; all that matters is the message passed along ... We will be performing this attack disguised as Kumo-nin and will need to hold down the port moments until the merchant fleet bearing military supplies and the real Kumo-nin arrive. Any questions?"

Guren paused to allow her gaze to sweep across the assembled shinobi and kunoichi before her. "Sound Five?" she asked, her eyes turning to meet Kimimaro's grey ones.

"None," the edo tensei replied.

Guren nodded before turning to face Gen'yūmaru and her own teammates.

Upon receiving no objections, Guren turned her attention back to the map. "This is going to be a quick in and out operation," she continued. "Timing and precision are important. Kage, as usual, will ferry us to our mission location, and afterwards, ensure we make a clean exfil. Once we have subdued and secured the port, Lord Sasuke will make an appearance to cast a wide-area genjutsu on the port staff to ensure whatever memories that could link us to the attack and exempt Kumo from taking responsibility are erased entirely." Guren glanced back at the lone Kunoichi leaning against the wall in the rear. "Unfortunately, Tayuya, Lord Orochimaru deemed your genjutsu insufficiently potent for the task, hence you have been reassigned from crowd control to combat support."

The Kunoichi grumbled something under her breath, but Guren ignored her.

"That's all," she said, allowing the crystal rod in her hand to dispel with its signature tinkling noise. "We deploy in five minutes."