Naruto : Saga of Tanya the Kunoichi

Town of Yukihana

Tobi smirked seeing Kumo finally make its move. He stood casually on a communication tower, overlooking the town Yukihana now turned into a military base. He killed around 43 Shinobi in total from Konoha and from Kumogakure around the border. Quite fun.

"Mama… mama… wake up… please…"

Tobi noticed the little girl of just 4 years old, shaking a cold body of her mother lying dead in the snow at a dark corner, unnoticed by anyone. Her eyes look towards the sky, yet they are stiff, the light already losing its colour.

His Sharingan tells him she's not alive.

Even without my genjutsu, these people could cross moral lines casually. No one cared for these two civilians.

He appeared in front of the two. A blade glimmered from the sleeve of his robe. Blood splattered across the walls of the dark corner in the next second. 

It is mercy. 

***

Aerial Shinobi Unit HQ

24 members of aerial combatants grouped into 2 companies of two lined up with their backs straight. Each of them had gone through Hell's Week, and each of them exude the aura of the Elite.

On the back of each of them, arm thick sealing scroll placed at their waist, containing the Wing Unit ready to be deployed at any time.

Armed to the teeth with storage seals on their arms containing their chakra-based guns and other weapons, smaller storage scrolls on their buckles containing ammunition and explosives. Tenten had a variety of sealing scrolls of her more than the rest - a trust Tsuyu gave her after seeing her mastery of various kinds of weapons in such a short time.

Ino, Hinata, and Tenten clenched their fists, their body thrumming with nervousness as they stood in line behind their Captain Tsuyu.

Danzo enters the hall with calmness, his cane tapping on the cement floor.

He recalled his past, as an active shinobi, when he was a leader and a commander on the battlefield. It's as if his past self was returning seeing the Units under his command.

"For a month, all of you have trained hard to become who you are today. This will be your very first deployment, and your very first mission. While they are marching without a care, you will deliver judgement from above from where they least expected. There may be hundreds of them at the moment, but… I do not doubt the outcome. Tsuyu, you are to brief them on their mission."

"Yes, Danzo-sama!"

Tsuyu stepped forward towards the end of the hall, where multiple big blackboards were planted on the walls.

Tsuyu took a map covering Land of Fire and Land of Frost, with various regions, major towns, and villages labelled on them. She spread and sticked them on the blackboard, visible for every member to see.

With a pointing stick and a marker, she briefed over the landscape of Yukihana, and its neighbouring villages that may be used as smaller bases, along with spots where Kumogakure would establish their military structures.

"Yukihana is established as a forward base, an important structure that passes big military decisions to their fronts and is a main supply hub. The town is filled with civilians that they had taken control of, and estimated to be fortified with more than 500 shinobi at the moment of their occupation."

If she's shameless and evil enough, she would have nuked the whole town, even the thousands of civilians in there because the base is truly important for Kumo. But of course, not directly. She had her plans.

"Our main mission includes tracking enemy troop movement to confirm the fronts they choose to fight. Confirm any established structures and destroy them pre-emptively. Kill any marching troops that come from Kumogakure before they can gather their army through aerial strikes, taking down as much as we can without any direct engagement. We act fast and decisively, and disappear like the wind the next instant."

Tsuyu explained the details, the objectives and their goals for this operation.

"At the very start, we will rain down letters of notice on the town of Yukihana. Civilians are given 3 days to evacuate the town, and after 72 hours, we will proceed with bombardments and destroying their infrastructures."

An officer passed stacks of paper containing notices for people of the Yukihana and Kumogakure forces residing inside.

Ino, Hinata and Tenten take a read on the notice.

The three of them had myriads of thoughts. Most of the Aerial Shinobi Unit had their own thoughts as for most, this is their first time going to fight in war. No, rather than fight, it's more like throwing blades from the sky.

This is the first time aerial bombardments would be done in Shinobi World at such a fast response speed toward a fortified main base. Iwagakure Weightless corps were slower compared to Konoha's shinobi unit, compromising their safety each time they were taking actions for aerial strike and bombardments. There had never been a case where such a fortified and important base was bombarded.

It can be considered a first in Shinobi World due to the nature of Konoha's aerial units.

Danzo himself never thought of bombarding Yukihana entirely because by logic there's hundreds of Kumogakure shinobi present and guarding, along with barriers and fortifications inside. How could 24 units have any effects on them at all?

The old man almost had his heart stopped when he heard Tsuyu's proposal. In fact Tsuyu thought her recommendation was almost common sense but for Danzo and the rest of the world, it would shake their very core because no one could think it can be done. Aerial warfare was still backward, with only Iwagakure Reduced-Weight Rock technique as the most known but their units are slower and could be caught up easily even by ground units.

But Tsuyu's units? Escaping is almost too easy. Their skills and aerial manoeuvre were a first in Shinobi World. At this point would let them shoot pursuers to death while dodging any incoming attacks, and with their speed making the enemy lose sight is easier compared to Weightless Corp in comparison. As for the worst case scenario? She can just teleport all of them out at the cost of chakra waste.

"I created a demon of a unit…" Danzo almost had his hands shaking as he read about Tsuyu's plans before, realising the implication. A smile carved on his lips, feeling very excited. Even he didn't think too much before.

Kumo… you will face Konoha's retribution!

***

Multiple V shaped objects are suddenly seen in the sky of Yukihana moving at fast speed. The civilians, most of them looking fearful and in terror of recent occupation, look up as mysterious flying entities pass through Yukihana in a matter of seconds.

"Mama… what's that? Snow?" A child asks her mother, seeing objects like leaves swaying in the wind, raining down on the town.

The child managed to jump and catch one of the flyers, handing it to her mother since she couldn't read. She picked it up, feeling anxiety in her heart.

…

By Order of the Aerial Shinobi Unit of Konohagakure

To the citizens of Yukihana:

The village of Yukihana has been illegally occupied and militarized by Kumogakure forces, violating the neutrality of the Land of Snow and placing its civilian population in direct danger.

You are hereby given a formal evacuation window of 3 days (72 hours) from the time of this notice.

Any further presence of non-evacuated individuals after this window shall be considered active cooperation or compliance with enemy operations.

…

"This…?"

***

"Reporting to Commander! Those are Konoha shinobi from the Aerial Shinobi Unit! They rain down these flyers on the whole town when they pass by. Unfortunately our units are unable to catch up. 13 of our Shinobi fell while pursuing… they are too nimble and their movements are hard to track for any of our attacks to land from the ground…"

"Bunch of waste! You can just let them go!?"

The dark skinned commander with a stern face had his eyes almost turning red. He had 800 units in the town. And 24 units of Konoha can just fly over their head and they can't do anything to them?

The Field Commander leading Yukihana operation snatched the flyer with force, reading it with a frown. But then his eyes turned to that of panic.

He remembered Iwagakure's use of aerial bombardment of their smaller bases. But Yukihana wasn't a small base.

It's a main forward base that's really crucial for this war!

"They are going to bombard this town…! Damn it!"

He took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"Block all exit from this village! Do not let ANY civilians escape! Transfer all military structure to hospitals, schools, and you know what I mean!"

"C-commander… but…" The barely 13 years old genin that merely acts as a scout was shocked.

He knew what his commander wanted to do. He wanted to use civilians as human shields so Konoha wouldn't dare to destroy this town.

The commander simply kicked him in the knee, causing him to groan in pain as he fell.

"Pass my orders now! Those from Konoha would not dare to attack. Those people have always been soft boned." He said almost in confidence.

"Y-yes… commander…" The genin shakily stood before going out.

Is… is this what war is like… the young teen clenched his fist, feeling hopeless. He looks at the civilians that are trying to escape with their family, but the people from his own village are forced to make them stay. His eyes dropped down, but he still had his mission to do.

***

"Reporting to Captain. They… sent notice that they had civilians as hostages…" Ino had a worried tone in voice after receiving the transmission from Konoha's nearest military base.

"Those Kumongrels never stopped surprising me with their shamelessness. Blatantly ignoring Shinobi Code of Ethics to use meat shields." Tsuyu said calmly, already expecting this situation. No one actually cares about SCE in this Shinobi World so she figured out Kumo will do this dirty move.

"Captain… then, we have to back away from Yukihana?" Hinata asked, almost thinking that's the answer.

"The Highest Commander will give the decision." She said coldly as they flew as a squad towards the nearest possible location of a smaller military base from Yukihana.

The trio silently nod, understanding. But Ino received an instruction in an hour, almost unreal in her ears.

"Passing the order from the Highest Commander… he gave direction to proceed with the bombardment of Yukihana at our own discretion… as long as the base is destroyed at the end… failure can be tolerated if it's impossible." Ino looked at Tsuyu as if questioning this decision.

Why… Why are we still proceeding? They have thousands of civilians there…!

Danzo has no mercy in his decision. But he's giving way for the Aerial Shinobi Unit to make its own decision because he wanted to test Tsuyu's bottom line, announcing that they had the chance to back away. If Tsuyu was able to proceed with his order, he would place 100% trust on her from then onward. And in his heart, he hoped Tsuyu wouldn't have a soft heart.

"Do we try to save the civilians first? We only have 24 people… it will be risky, they have hundreds of shinobi in the town. And there's thousands of civilians…" 

Hinata said carefully, actually she's just thinking and saying it out loud at the same time. She knew Yukihana was a very important forward base for Kumo, and destroying it would bring so much advantage for Konoha.

"No. Hinata, you have to remember this is war. We don't have the luxury to care about collateral. Ino, Tenten, you two as well need to learn what war means."

 "What… Do you mean?" Tenten wanted clarification. It can't be as she thought.

"We will proceed. It's up to the civilians to abide by the time window we gave. We gave a warning loud, clear, and documented. Kumo stopped them. That makes it their blood, not ours." 

Tsuyu's words cause their scalps to tingle.

"Captain! The Highest Commander said failure can be tolerated…. We can consider backing…" Ino's voice was shaky. But even in her defiance, her words were still in suggestion form.

"I will not repeat myself." Heavy chakra pressure pressed on the three of them as her cold sharp gaze pierce through them, causing them to tremble.

"Yes Captain…" The trio replied.

***