LATER THAT DAY
Jiraiya and his temporary squad were still jumping through the trees, ever since they left Konoha, their pace had been relentless, only stopping for a few hours of sleep every night before returning to running.
Most of the squad was fine, all of them had not slacked off on the physical side of being a Shinobi, Kurenai being the only one he could see that was struggling slightly, but she had her eyes set in a look of determination that would not allow any weakness.
He had a feeling that she would be focusing on her Taijutsu skills after this mission.
But as the sun touched the horizon, Jiraiya spotted faint columns of smoke rising up in the distance.
"Ready up, everyone." He warned his squad calmly. "Be prepared for anything."
Everyone responded to his words in their own way, by which he meant Gai and Naruto loudly shouted affirmatives, while everyone else simply gave him a quick nod or quick response.
He thanked every deity out there that this mission was urgent, if Gai and Naruto interacted in a more relaxed setting for too long...
That could lead to an explosion of pure enthusiasm and energy, and he didn't want to be near it when it happened.
So they picked up the pace, jumping through the trees with ever greater speed, no longer pacing themselves for days of travel, instead choosing to burn through their reserves.
And that's when Jiraiya noticed The Order members hiding in the trees, one jumped out, right in front of them, causing everyone to stop.
"Hoh! Hello, Shinobi from Konoha." The masked man greeted politely. "It gladdens me to see that your Village is willing to send such powerful reinforcements."
Jiraiya relaxed slightly at the friendly greeting, if The Order was this relaxed, then the Invasion must be going in their favor.
"My name is Asura, Templar of The Order." Asura introduced himself. "If you would follow me, I will guide you to our temporary headquarters."
"That's fine, Asura-san." Jiraiya replied easily enough. "Lead the way."
They all followed Asura at a slower pace, tension lessening even further, of course, now that the mood was more relaxed, Naruto had to open his mouth.
"Templar?" He asked curiously. "What does that mean?"
"It is the highest rank we can achieve, meaning you have shown both strength of character and body to be recognized by The Watcher Himself."
"Oh! Like a Jonin!" Naruto concluded with a nod. "Cool."
Asura paused for a moment, before chuckling.
"No, more equivalent to being a S-Rank Shinobi." He corrected lightly.
If emotions were physical, Asura would have been slapped in the face by the wave of doubt that rolled off of every single Konoha Ninja.
"That's a bit arrogant, isn't it?" Asuma asked dryly. "To be considered S-Rank a Great Village has to recognize you as dangerous enough to consider your presence enough to redraw battle plans."
Jiraiya agreed with that sentiment, even if he wanted to slap Asuma over the head for being so rude.
The strongest human member of the Order he had met was that Osamu fellow, and while he was strong, he didn't exactly come off as an S-Rank Ninja.
He didn't count Mukuro, he was not human, and a Sage.
"We can spar, if you wish, I was left deeply unsatisfied with Kiri's offerings." Asura replied, a hint of hunger in his voice.
And that set off a fire, slowly escalating into a blaze as Naruto and Gai immediately jumped on the offer, which wasn't helped by Asura's reply.
"Of course, all of you together would surely overwhelm me, so maybe two groups?" That caused Asuma to scoff, Kurenai to glare at him, even Gai had a hint of competitiveness in his eyes, only Genma and Raido looked unbothered by it all.
"Oi, don't underestimate me!" Naruto declared. "I could totally beat you up!"
Jiraiya simply sighed and let the conversation continue on without him, at least Kakashi was amused by all of this, if that slightly raised eyebrow meant anything.
A few minutes passed until they reached their destination.
What they saw instantly killed the conversation in its tracks.
A field of sheet covered corpses, lined up in neat rows, he counted about 400 of them, some were being dragged to burning pits where their bodies would be turned to ash.
Jiraiya could see that the ones being burned wore Shinobi gear, but the ones under sheets were a mystery to him.
"What..." Naruto muttered, he sounded a bit sick.
Sakura was not doing much better, also looking a bit green in the face, the rest of the squad looked unaffected, having seen more than their share of dead bodies.
"How many are yours?" He asked Asura grimly, hoping that the answer wasn't too bad.
"Oh, none of the bodies you see here." Asura responded casually. "They're all Kiri's forces."
"You've killed about 400 Kiri Shinobi?" Jiraiya asked dubiously.
"No, we killed about 500, and about 200 more died to The Watcher's wrath."
A part of Jiraiya wondered what the fuck that meant, but the rest of him was wise to Wave's bullshit, so he didn't dedicate any focus on it.
The next question came out with a bit of disbelief.
"And none of your people have died?" He asked dubiously.
"Oh no, our dead have been transported back to the mainland, we will not spit on their sacrifice by burning them in a mass grave." Asura responded firmly. "They will receive a funeral procession once the situation has stabilized."
Ah, that made much more sense.
"How many casualties then?"
"51 Initiates and 7 Acolytes." Asura said solemnly, clearly saddened by it.
But Jiraiya wanted to start pulling his own hair out, or maybe punch the man, because that was an absurdly low casualty rate, especially against a Great Village.
The rest of his squad, or at least the ones more strategically inclined, seemed to be having similar reactions, which calmed him down instantly, Wave had almost gotten him again.
Just smile and nod, just smile and nod.
Actually, don't smile, that would be very inappropriate considering the circumstances.
"Did Kiri send all their Genin or something?" Asuma asked incredulously. "Otherwise, there is no way that makes sense."
Asura looked amused at that comment.
"The Order is simply of a higher caliber than your typical Shinobi." He said lightly. "A good portion of the enemy forces were indeed Genin, but most of them were Chunin, and I counted around 22 Jonin amongst my own kills."
He waved his hand to get everyone's attention.
"Now, please, let's continue." Asura guided them forward. "The camp isn't too much further."
***
3 DAYS LATER
I was keeping an eye on Mei, this time I said fuck thematics, and just made bug-bodies to follow them.
They were about to reach Kirigakure itself, and I was preparing to make sure everything went smoothly.
The rebellion? Defectors? Whichever they are, well, they had already encountered some patrol squads.
And only about half of them ended in a fight, the rest of the time it was more of a, 'Well, I can't fight you, and I kinda hate the government' so they joined up with Mei's group.
But instead of being greeted by Yagura looking down at them from atop the walls, they found chaos.
"Mei-sama!" A woman cried out in relief. "Thank the gods!"
"Yukata-chan!" Mei called in response. "What happened here? Why is Kirigakure..."
Well, they both had a right to be confused, the gate was unmanned, there were at least 2 fires raging somewhere within the village, and people were clearly hiding.
"The Mizukage disappeared." Yukata said rapidly. "A urgent message was delivered by a summon, it bore the seal signifying it came from Fumio-sama himself."
She paused for a second before continuing.
"The Shinobi stationed at the docks immediately delivered the scroll to Yagura-sama, and that was the last time he was seen." The woman seemed anxious as she explained the situation.
Oh? Guess Obito decided that Kiri's situation was too hot for his Puppet.
Still, my plans hadn't changed much, but I would have to be more direct about my presence to make sure that Mei understood the message.
I patiently listened to Mei learning the situation, which was something about how after Yagura vanished, most of the Village split into various factions, and some started fighting each other.
It took a single day before they started raiding each other.
And now the only reason they had not escalated into full out war was because they weren't stupid enough to burn down the village while trying to claim it for themselves.
But the specifics here didn't matter, just that there were a few different groups vying for control.