An exhausted and bleeding Yuugao hit the ground hard. The Konoha ANBU had fought to the best of her abilities, but the enemy just kept on coming. This is it. The kunoichi only prayed that Haruto would get out alright.
I'm sorry, Captain. Yuugao had failed to look after their student. Tenzou would undoubtedly be displeased. As the outlines of shadows swirled around her, the wounded kunoichi used the last of her energy to push herself to an upright position. If she was going to die, she was going to die like a proud ninja, not a groveling coward.
The blow never came. Yuugao chanced a glance and was shocked at what she saw. The entire battlefield was covered in a near opaque blue mist and the Rain ninja's coordinated ambush had degenerated into scattered skirmishes. Dozens of strange new figures bearing the Konoha symbol were darting left and right, sowing confusion across the enemy ranks.
"Senpai, are you sure it's wise to meditate in the middle of a battle?"
Despite the hard, dispassionate tone, Yuugao caught the whiff of humor underneath the words.
"We need to get out of here!" Haruto's words conveyed a sense of urgency. Both knew his shadow clones were not going to last forever. Yuugao nodded as she struggled to her feet. Through her blood filled vision, she saw the stocky ANBU captain nearby urging his team to mount a counterattack.
"Captain, perhaps we should fall back."
The bloody and clearly wounded ANBU leader gave her a dark look.
"It is essential that we complete our mission, Captain." Yuugao pressed forward as she held out the information scroll.
"If the enemy gave it to us, then it must be a fake!" It was a valid consideration, but not necessarily the correct one.
"Maybe, maybe not. The enemy clearly didn't expect to leave any survivors. It could very well be genuine information used to lure us into lowering our guard!" Yuugao retorted with more than a touch of anger. Most was directed outwards, but some was also directed inwards. Had she taken Haruto's concerns more seriously, this disaster could have been avoided. As it were, the Konoha task force was already down to little over half their original number.
"It's in our interest to survive."
The ANBU captain looked furious, but could do little else. What remained of his team was in no condition to fight. The Konoha survivors, however, had little time to think as a series of elemental ninjutsu blasted their general location. The Rain nin were beginning a general sweep of the fog.
"We must act now. Our cover won't hold for long," Haruto added.
The outer edges of the mist cover were already receding. A sudden burst of fire forced the group to duck. Haruto's mist obscured the enemy's senses, but it did not negate the effects of their attacks.
"Captain, we must–" Yuugao stopped mid-speech as she gazed at the ANBU captain, or rather at what remained of him. The kunoichi ignored the muffled grumbling from Haruto. "Genji, what's your assessment of our position?"
"Bad. We're outnumbered at least five to one."
"Can you have your mist cover us from here to the Mirage Forest?"
Haruto shook his head. "Won't do us much good. They must know that's our escape route and have it heavily mined. We'll be jumping from the frying pan and into the fire."
Yuugao looked grim, but had to admit that it made sense. Of course, that was entirely why she was asking for his opinion. Alas, Genji's words did little to dispel the doom and gloom atmosphere.
"Then let us make one final stand!"
Idiot. Are they ninja or samurai? Yuugao resisted the urge to slap the speaker. Alas, reacting harshly now would only panic her companions. Plus, she herself was not terribly sure what their next step should be. Ambushes were the most open and shut scenarios in the ninja world. If one was the ambusher, victory was all but guaranteed. On the other hand, if one was the ambushed… Well, history left precious few survivors of such experiences.
"Genji, what are you doing?" Yuugao questioned in confusion. All the remaining Konoha nin turned towards the subject, who was calmly emptying his explosive and inflammatory tags onto the ground. The purple-haired kunoichi felt a sense of dread. Had the youngster finally succumbed to pressure and despair?
"There is another forest to the southwest approximately two miles from us. It's a forest that directly borders Hidden Rain and sweeps around it. If we can reach there, we might have a chance." The primary Rain village was geographically to the west of Konoha. They were currently north of that location. So a westward move would…
"You suggest that we move away from Konoha and closer to Hidden Rain? And to move blindly without the benefit of any intelligence no less?" Yuugao asked in amazement. Surely, Haruto had gone mad. His proposal was contrary to all logic and nothing less than suicidal.
"I'm perfectly sane, thank you," the young ninja stated fiercely. "Think about it. They managed to sabotage our intelligence, which came from Jiraiya-sama himself. The more we think we know, the more likely it is that we are wrong. We have to assume that they already know every logical choice we have and make countermeasures. The only chance we have is to act contrary to logic."
Ergo, after breakout, the Konoha survivors would not attempt to return home as soon as possible. Rather they would try to put as much distance as possible between them and the Rain forces, which would undoubtedly deploy to block the shortest and likeliest route towards Konoha, leaving the region west of Hidden Rain relatively unguarded.
Yuugao chided herself for not remembering Haruto's particular genius with combat strategies. The kunoichi, however, was not overly optimistic. Her student's contrarian strategy would only work so long as the enemy was predictable, inflexible and unimaginative. The proposed circumvention of Hidden Rain would add close to a week to the group's travel time. At any point during that time, should the Rain leader catch on to Haruto's plan and quickly allocate units to the west, the Konoha survivors would be done for. It was a dangerous and audacious gamble, but it was the only chance they had left.
But it was still rather brilliant, if not for one thing.
"How are we supposed to break out?" Yuugao asked. After all, they were pinned down and massively outnumbered. The veteran ANBU would later swear that she saw the brat smile through his mask.
"With explosives. Leave me all the explosive tags, kunai, shuriken and projectile weapons you can spare!" A nod from Yuugao, the unofficial leader of the mission, and everyone was emptying his excess equipment onto the ground.
As final preparations were made for the breakout, several ANBU members suddenly stepped forward. "We will stay behind to assist."
Haruto blinked in surprise. This was certainly unexpected. Yuugao, however, understood. Having been saved once by Haruto's timely arrival, the other ANBU felt indebted to stay behind as well.
"No. Genji can look after himself. Our presence would only hinder him," Yuugao answered quickly. Now was not the time for bravery. A firebomb exploded just meters away from the gathered group's location. "Do what you need to do, Genji, but do it fast!"
Her subordinate nodded.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
"Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Haruto quickly created a small core of solid shadow clones surrounded by a much larger force of insubstantial ones. The rest of Konoha's ANBU team looked on in silence as the young ninja positioned his clones and equipped his shadow clones with explosive tags and weapons. No one dared or wished to interrupt. For now, everyone's faith was with the young prodigy.
Haruto did, in fact, have a plan. Unfortunately, he had neither the chakra nor the equipment to resist the enemy. His only hope was to strategically catch large enemy formations off guard with explosive tags. The force of the explosions combined with the miscellaneous kunai, shuriken and weapons would hopefully create secondary shrapnel damage capable of wounding, maiming or killing additional targets. It was a ghastly plan to be sure, but dire times called for dire measures. Should he succeed in eliminating the Rain field commander or in crippling their special forces teams, then the other Konoha survivors might have a chance to escape.
"We'll give you two minutes to lure the enemy to the other side before we initiate the breakout. Ready when you are!" Yuugao shot her student a firm look which forcefully told him that he had better survive or there would be hell to pay.
"Yes, Senpai!" the young ninja answered with far more cheer than appropriate for their situation. Haruto raised a clenched fist and turned it outstretched towards the main Rain contingent. At the predefined gesture, the army of assorted clones leapt forward and charged head on into the mass of gathered Rain nin. The first explosion went off exactly five seconds later. Amidst the absolute chaos that followed, the rest of the Konoha ANBU team slipped away under the cover of darkening skies.