A Senju Tale: Change of Fate - 31 Gorilla Warfare

It was a cool morning. After a torrential downpour the previous night, a dense fog consumed the land. An ominous silence hung in the clean jungle air.

At the base of a tree, a rabbit was munching on some leaves. Suddenly, a muffled crack startled it and it ran away. Behind the tree, a Kumo ninja had stepped on a stick and snapped it. Along with him was an attack force numbering at about 400 strong.

They slowly made their way through the fog, carefully planning each step as to not make a sound. The mission they were on required stealth. They were tasked with covertly advancing forward to the Land of Whirlpools and attacking Konoha’s encampment.

Despite the disappearance of their scouts, Kumo’s officers decided to go through with the assault anyway. Little did they know, Konoha’s forces had set up an ambush to intercept them.

Koryu had developed a masterful plan. A small team would go ahead and wait for the assault force to pass. Behind them, 2 lines would wait for the Kumo ninja to arrive between them. Lastly, another group would wait in their path. Once in position, the advance team would raise walls to block off their escape. Then the 2 ambush teams would launch large jutsus into the trapped enemies. Finally, all four groups would box the assault force in and take care of them.

Nawaki and Minato sat in hiding with their presence completely erased. Nawaki was completely invisible. As the Kumo ninja began to pass their position, Minato teleported away to notify the other teams of their arrival. Nawaki patiently waited for 5 minutes. Once the last of the Kumo ninja passed by, he made his move.

Nawaki slowly walked down the tree he sat in and stepped onto the ground. Carefully, he snuck into position. Everything was ready. He released his active camouflage and blurred through some hand signs before slamming his hands into the ground and yelling, “Mokuton: Jukai Heki” (World of Trees Wall).

A vast wall of branches emerged from the ground. In a burst of speed, it grew to 30 feet in height. Many of the Kumo ninja turned around to see the wall but it was too late.

In unison, various wind and fire jutsu consumed the small army. The intense winds and heat cleared the fog that covered the area. The flames raged for about 15 seconds and then died down. In that instant, 120 of the Kumo ninja were either killed or critically injured. Through the silence, a voice yelled out, “CHARGE!”

The area was overcome with the sounds of jutsu being fired off and metallic clangs as weapons clashed. The battle has begun.

Nawaki leaped over the wall. As he soared through the air he weaved some hand signs and slammed his hands into the ground as he landed. He yelled, “Mokuton: Mokujin no Jutsu” (Wood Golem). He was lifted into the air atop a towering wooden golem with a dragon wrapped around its torso. Manipulating the golem, he charged through the Kumo forces.

In a sweeping motion, he swung the dragon through the crowd. Many of the victims were killed on impact as bodies were flung through the air. In addition to the dragon, he had the golem charging and smashing various enemies as he made his way through the battlefield. On his own, he either killed or critically injured 150 enemies.

As Nawaki was on his rampage, the rest of the Konoha ambush teams cleaned up the rest of the enemy. The operation was completed swiftly. The Kumo forces surrendered once they only had around 60 ninja in fighting condition remaining. 115 of their ninja died and the rest were either injured or cooperated with the surrender.

Although the operation was a huge success, 4 deaths and 28 injuries afflicted Konoha’s side. Their bodies were retrieved and sealed away for transportation back to the village. For the enemy ninja, they were stripped of all their weapons and supplies before being transported back to camp. The dead Kumo ninja were also sealed in scrolls. They would be kept aside to be used as a bargaining chip in future negotiations.

During the cleanup operations, Nawaki was walking through the carnage. He was soaking in all of the destruction as he reinforced his ninja way. Suddenly, he felt that he was being watched. He closed his eyes and found an unknown chakra signature. It was similar to the one he sensed a few nights earlier.

He opened his eyes and rushed towards the signature. He quickly arrived in front of it and laid his eyes on the creature. It was massive. Due to the dense fog, only it’s piercing eyes and silhouette were visible.

Nawaki looked the creature in the eyes and said, “Who are you?” The creature stared back at him in silence. After a brief moment it said in a gnarly and deep voice, “I am but a resident of this jungle. It was quite interesting observing your actions. I have to say that I’m impressed with your senjutsu. I won’t reveal myself now but worry not. We will meet again boy.”

The creature then faded into nothingness and disappeared. Kensho then popped up and said, “Interesting fellow, eh?” Nawaki couldn’t hold in his laughter. After he got over the joke he said, “Yes Kensho, interesting indeed.” He then decided to take his time as he made his way back to camp.

When Nawaki arrived at camp, he was the last one to return. As he entered the grounds, someone shouted out, “Hey everyone look! It’s him!” Nawaki stopped and looked around to see who everyone was excited about. Kensho laughed and said, “You complete idiot. They’re talking about you.” Nawaki scoffed in disbelief. There was no way in hell that he was the person in question.

Little did he know, hoards of Konoha ninja started gathering around him. They were all looking at him with starstruck expressions. From the crowd, people were yelling different things.

“This kid is on a whole other level!”

“With him on our side, we can beat anyone!”

“He’s like a little god of shinobi!”

On that last one, people cheered in agreement. A group of them grabbed Nawaki and held him up in the air. They tossed him up and down. He was helpless. All he could do was smile and laugh as he flew up and down. As this was happening, a notification popped up.

*Title Acquired: Little God*

Nawaki was speechless. Seeing his new title, he thought of his grandfather and smiled. Hashirama would be so proud if he could see his grandson.

After the crowd died down and dispersed, Nawaki came down from his high. He suddenly felt sick. He stumbled over to his quarters and fell through the door. Once inside, he grabbed the garbage can and vomited. He couldn’t handle the grief.

It had finally started to sink in that he just killed around 100 people. He tore through them like paper. After he finished throwing up, he fell to the floor and laid on his back. He closed his eyes and tried to process everything.

The power he possessed made it so the enemies he faced were no more than ants to his boot. He struggled to accept that he possessed this strength and wasn’t sure if he was worthy of wielding it. After a few minutes of laying there, Nawaki passed out.

A few hours later, he was shaken out of his slumber. He heard a voice yelling, “Nawaki! Nawaki! Someone get the medical corps!” Nawaki slowly opened his eyes to see Minato and Fugaku kneeling over him.

As he opened his eyes, a piercing headache caused him to wince in pain. Noticing this, his two teammates looked back down at him. Fugaku then said, “Breath. Just keep breathing. Help is on the way.”

Nawaki held his head in his hands and he rolled over groaning in pain. The door then swung open as a team of medic ninja rushed inside. Minato and Fugaku stepped back. The pain was too much. Nawaki passed out again.

It was dark. In a familiar place, Nawaki floated through a void. Gradually, a light appeared ahead of him. He struggled but moved towards it. Once he reached it, he reached out to grab it. As he did, he heard a voice.

It said, “He is perfectly healthy. He must have experienced some emotional trauma. He just needs to rest and he’ll be up and about tomorrow morning.”

Nawaki slowly opened his eyes. This time, no headache ailed him. His vision was blurry but he could see four people in the room. One of them turned to him and said, “Look! He’s awake!”

Nawaki groaned as he sat up in the bed and said, “What happened?” The medic came over to the bed and said, “You passed out. It seems that you went through some trauma. I heard what happened during the battle and I am going to mandate that you get some counseling before returning to action. That is final.”

Nawaki slowly put his head back to rest it on the wall. He sighed. No one could have prepared themself for the feelings that come with taking that many lives. He then softly said, “Alright. I’m gonna go back to sleep now.” As he said that, he slid back down onto the bed and passed out as soon as he hit the pillow.

Early the next morning, the sun breached through the windows. Slowly, the light stretched onto Nawaki’s face. He slowly woke up as the sun blazed in his eyes. He raised his hand to cover his eyes from the bright light.

Someone noticed this and went over to the window to close the shades. They then came over and said, “Good morning Nawaki kun. How are you feeling?”

Nawaki lowered his hand and said, “A lot better than yesterday. That’s for sure…” She then said, “Oh how rude of me, my name is Sarutobi Ikuko. I am the chief medic on this front. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

He smiled and said, “Nice to meet you. Thanks for the help.” He sat up and turned to place his feet on the floor. Looking down, he realized that all of his clothing had been removed barring his pants. He blushed and then turned to Ikuko and asked, “Where are my clothes?”

Ikuko laughed and said, “Right over there on the table.” She pointed to a table in the corner. Nawaki stood up and put on his shirt after deciding to carry the rest. As he headed out, she said to him, “Just so you know, someone from Tu0026I will come by your quarters in an hour to assess you.” He continued walking and said, “Sounds good. I’ll come by later to help out.”