Saints and Suffering: A Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 47- Assault on Two Fronts

The Land of Hotsprings was often described as a garden of Eden with the most beautiful of vistas, no matter where one went. It was true to a certain extent. The mountains that made up the geography of their Northern neighbor, Shimogakure, always laid in the distance, and one would enjoy their splendor from the relative peace of the quiet foothills in the Land of Hotsprings.

The Land of Hotsprings seldom suffered from drought, and its moderate climate year round lent itself to its specialty, tea production. It was not as hot as the Land of Fire to its south, and its denizens were eternally grateful since if it were too hot out, the hot springs wouldn't be as enjoyable.

Furthermore, the somewhat varied terrain of the Land of Hotsprings allowed for easily built fortifications, whether they be in natural valleys or on rocky outcroppings. The natural defenses the dotted the land had helped decide the borders of the Land of Fire back in the days of the Shodai Hokage.

When the five great elemental nations were deciding on their borders, it was agreed upon that there should be border states between them as a neutral party to help ease tensions. As such, it was also suggested that each border nation be an easily defensible area since their location between two superpowers would be a bit precipitous at times.

That being said, non chakra based soldiers were still relatively common back in that time period, and now that Shinobi fought the bulk of conflicts, those plans were almost useless. Any natural barriers short of the ones that protected the hidden villages were almost inconsequential to ninja.

Kiri relied on an entire ocean of separation, Suna used an ocean of sand as well. Kumo and Iwa were nestled among mountains and were hard for even shinobi to reach.

So when it came to the natural valleys and outcroppings of the Land of Hotsprings, they didn't offer much barrier to the invading Kumo Shinobi.

However, they offered much better defense than anything than Land of Fire had.

The Land of Fire was situated in the great plains and forests of the continent, the bulk of its landmass was flat. Konohagakure, and by extent, Fire, relied on their massive size and strength as a deterrent from invasion because they had nothing else to rely on.

So when Kumogakure made its move, on the night of the first new moon in the year proceeding the Kyuubi Attack, they made great headway.

Both Konoha and Kumo were suffering from the tremendous losses of the Second and Third Great Shinobi wars. Konoha had perhaps 500 shinobi in the area that they could field while still retaining enough to guard its other borders. Konoha had perhaps ten times that number available at the beginning of the Second Great War.

Kumo on the other hand had not suffered such disastrous losses, losses yes, but not that much. It was originally weaker than Konoha, boasting a mere 4000 shinobi in the not so distant past, but while Konoha had suffered losses of over 50%, Kumo had kept approximately 75% of its forces intact.

There were a full 3000 healthy and strong Kumo shinobi ready to support the invasion of the Land of Fire.

500 were retained for village function and defense, but the other 2500 were already at the border, and a full three fifths of them would be mobilized in the first assault.

The Great River of the continent separated the Land of Hot Springs and Land of Fire. At its widest point near the mouth, it was over 2 miles wide, and it collected from 90% of the continent.

Up near the capitol of the Hot Springs, it was maybe only a few hundred yards wide. However, that was still a fairly large space to cross.

Ninja were capable of walking on water at the chuunin level, but competently fighting was a whole different story. It was one thing to use taijutsu, but ninjutsu and genjutsu were a whole different beast. Circulating chakra in two separate ways during the heat of battle was a skill that could be expected of jonin, chuunin might be able to, but it would preferably be avoided.