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Chapter 22 - Chapter 22

At midnight the signal was given, and their squad rushed in first. Tajima would stay last to coordinate things. The guards were quickly taken care of, before they could raise any alarms and they barged into the Uzumaki compound. It felt a bit sickening to have to go into someone's house, and into his room to kill him and then go out and repeat the process. Sometimes they would meet up with kids, and Hikaku would use his genjutsu to put them to sleep. Both he and Izuna were loyal supporters of Madara's undercover work for peace and members of their innermost circle, and there was no need for these kids to be awake to witness this nightmare.

Soon enough they no longer had to barge into houses because the screams alerted the neighbors and the shinobi started to come out to check what was going on, only to be slaughtered. Some were more ready than the others, and put up a fight, but it was no use because they were outnumbered and Uchiha freaking Madara was leading the assault. Some of the Uchiha men were injured however and she had to stop fighting and get into doctor work. Slowly their squad started separating as everybody was busy fighting one of the Uzumaki shinobi.

Tajima had joined the fight too, and clearly had found the Uzumaki leader he was looking for. The old man put up one hell of a fight. His scrolls kept absorbing Tajima's jutsus and sending them back to him, which forced Tajima to use kenjutsu instead. The old guy proved himself to be a good opponent in that field too, but Tajima was used to Butsuma's level by this point and there was no way his opponent could hold for long. And sure enough one misstep and he was struck in the heart and died almost instantly.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye she noticed a girl, around her age, with red hair tied into two buns and a small green diamond shaped mark between her eyebrows. She was hiding behind a door, but watching the fight unfold from a small crack, her face bathed in tears. When the old Uzumaki leader fell, she bolted out of her hiding spot, a scroll in hand trying to attack Tajima from behind. She was clearly an over emotional idiot.

Haruka had just finished patching up someone and gave him to one of the shinobi tasked with getting him back to the medical tent. She looked frantically around for Hikaku, to get him to throw the idiot in a genjutsu before she lost her life stupidly, but he was otherwise occupied. She was the closest one to her, and was left with no choice, so she bolted in front of the redhead and made it look like she was attacking her. The girl was clearly scared when her eyes met the two tomoe sharingan, but had on a determined look, clearly planning on going through with her suicidal mission.

Haruka couldn't let Tajima know that they were playing favorites, and so she moved fast and punched the girl in the gut, with one of her special punches, sending her flying to a wall that cracked from the impact. The redhead immediately lost consciousness, and blood came out of her mouth. Tajima only gave the situation a once over and nodded at her before bolting, probably to meet up with the other leaders.

She went to kneel next to the girl, knowing that she wasn't dead because she had carefully angled her hit to cause the least possible damage. Her squad joined her and silently hid her in the middle of them. She would give the girl the first aid care that she needed, but her survival would depend on her own will after that. 

When she was done, she got up to leave, but then Izuna said, while looking at the door from behind which the girl had come out, "You can come out now. Take the girl with you and go hide somewhere. And try not to do anything stupid like that again."

The rest of the squad were only a bit surprised. Izuna was a great sensor, he never missed any chakra that was within nearly a 5 kilometer radius. He had insisted on learning the skill when he came to know that Tobirama was an exceptional sensor. If you thought that Hashirama and Madara's rivalry was a bit over the top, wait until you hear about Izuna and Tobirama. Sometimes, even in the middle of battles, their siblings had to stop what they were doing just to shake their heads at the two's antics. Especially when it came to swearing and cursing. Tobirama had quite the extensive vocabulary too, and some of the colorful language that was exchanged made everyone in the vicinity pause to make sure that they understood their meaning.

Sure enough, the door was opened, and a woman in her forties came rushing to the girl. From the equally red hair, you could guess that she was her mother. She hugged her in her arms, and when she realized that the girl was practically fine, she raised her eyes to meet Haruka's and murmured a tearful thank you before dragging the girl back in. Imagine having to thank your own attacker.

The matter was concluded in a few hours, every involved party met up in the compound square to share their spoils of war.

The Uzumaki basically kept all their secret scrolls in the clan's school building or in their administrative building. They were worth millions, and after multiple copies were made so that everybody could get one, they split the money and valuables they had found. The Lightning Shinobi and the Uchiha had no qualms about splitting it evenly between them, leaving the others with barely enough to cover the cost of this campaign. There was no honor amongst thieves, and that's what they deserved for coming up with such a plan anyway. Nobody had agreed that it would bring them benefits other than the scrolls, and if they wanted them, then they should have been strong enough to carry their plan on their own. This was the price for hiring outside help.

Even when they tried to take some of the survivor women and children they had captured with them, to do god only knows what with, the Lightning shinobi leader, a dark skinned man with long braided hair, and Madara put their foot down. Shinobi might not care about honor like samurai do, but trading defenseless women and children was a line that no one would be allowed to cross. Tajima went along with it too, even if he really didn't care, because appearances were important.

The surviving Uzumaki were left with some money and the food that was already there wasn't touched, and everybody went back to where they came from. The whirlpool shinobi cursed their luck for having such bad teammates but what was done was done, and they were too scared of the Uchiha and the Lightning's wrath to come back for more after that. And let's not talk about the coming Senju wrath.

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