Naruto: The Lost Phoenix

Chapter 99: Front Lines

Neko's P.O.V

"Liger Chop!" The Raikage's furious voice filled the battlefield before the three soldiers with heavy shields that had surrounded him were all cut in half with their cries ending almost as soon as they'd started.

"Lord Raikage! The mounted soldiers are coming!" A nearby ninja reported, though Neko couldn't maintain her focus on their leader for long as she had her own opponents to face. However, while they'd been fighting for only a few minutes after attacking a section of the Phoenix Empire's main army as it moved inland, they apparently weren't going to stay when a few thousand enemy reinforcements started running towards them.

"Order the retreat! Everyone, fall back!" Ay ordered with his booming voice spreading across the battlefield again. And once they heard it, the entire attacking force all reacted at the same time as they disengaged from their opponents and began running away with Ay, Dodai and Bee in the lead and Neko following closely behind them as they ran across the bottom of a wide ravine.

"Press forward! Don't leave them any reprieve!" One of the enemy commanders yelled from behind them, making all of the foreign soldiers call out a brief battlecry before giving chase to the seven-hundred ninja that had joined the Raikage on the front lines. And as they ran away, the thundering sound of the enemy's oxen drew closer and closer until Neko looked to the side when they finally passed a large cluster of boulders which hid several groups of ninja from the Hidden Stone Village that were in position and ready to act.

"Now!" Kitsuchi, the man in charge of the Hidden Stone's forces, called out before all of the red clothed ninja began making their hand signs all at once.

"Earth Release, Great Mud Wall!" All of them yelled together before fountains of mud began pouring from their mouths. And as the mud gathered on the ground in front of them, it soon became a massive wall made of chakra infused rock which completely blocked both the soldiers and cavalry from giving chase to their retreating ninja as the top of it reached all the way up to the ridges of he ravine.

"Charge through it!" The enemy commander on the other side of the wall yelled, and Neko wasn't the only one surprised when the base of the rock wall suddenly detonated as the soldiers had managed to tear through the rock easily while coating both themselves and their oxen with the same barriers that all of them were able to make. However, while she hadn't known everything about their battleplan, apparently someone had predicted that the oxen riders would make it through the wall and were ready for it.

"Second phase!" Kitsuchi yelled before they all began making hand signs again.

"Earth Release, Quicksand!" All of them yelled together again before slamming their hands down onto the ground at their feet. And while the change wasn't as noticeable as like what had happened with the wall, all of the enemy riders immediately noticed what had happened as the first of their oxen fell into the massive lake of quicksand that had been formed with more sharing the same fate with each passing second as the soldiers going through the dust cloud from the destroyed wall couldn't see what was happening in front of them.

"Now!" Ay yelled, and soon the area became shadowed before a storm of all manner of shuriken and kunai fell from the sky and onto the riders who were still struggling in the quicksand and didn't have their barriers active. And even though the cries of all of the men and women dying filled the air, Ay's voice once again reigned supreme in terms of volume.

"Go! Attack now!" Ay ordered before all of the ninja that had been running away as well as over two-thousand more that had been concealing themselves on the ridges let out battlecries as they descended from the walls of the ravine and eventually collided into the soldiers that had followed the oxen through the destroyed wall on foot.

"It's another ambush! Fall back! Fall-"

"Wheeeeee!" Bee suddenly dropped down from the wall beside the commander before assaulting the man with a barrage of sword swings. And while the commander had surprisingly been able to block most of the lightning-fast attacks thanks to the large barrier that he'd put over his entire body, Bee eventually found a weak area before one of the blades managed to pierce through it while striking an artery on the other side. Though as she watched Bee finish his opponent as well as three other soldiers with shields who had attempted to stop him, Neko had to dodge to the side in order to avoid the thrust of a spear before she twisted and kicked the soldier that had attacked her, unfortunately hitting the armor on his stomach which must have mostly protected him as he was able to attack her again almost immediately afterward. However, when he moved forward again, she easily dodged the second attack before using a kunai in her hand to end the spearman's life. And as she moved on to her next opponent, all around her, both the cloud and nearby stone ninja started meeting the enemy soldiers as well while the leaf and sand ninja assaulted the other side in a mass gathering of clashing weapons, uses of ninjutsu, screams of pain and falling bodies.

While the enemy was scattered at first thanks to the ambush, now things weren't going quite as well for the ninja seeing as the dust had cleared and the enemy had set up some kind of formation at the base of the rock wall where they made a solid barrier of shields with the spears from the spearmen sticking over them. But if they thought that this would deter any more attacks from the ninja then the Phoenix Empire was mistaken as more stone ninja started digging themselves out of the upper areas of the wall before they dropped down in the center of the formation. Though while most of the ninja succeeded in landing on their targets and managing to ruin their formation, others weren't so lucky as the spearmen had noticed them and a good number of the ambushers were skewered in the air before they even reached the ground. But even if they took losses, the short and bloody battle was soon over in the ninja's favor before the last of the enemy attempted to retreat.

"Don't go past the wall!" Ay ordered while thankfully preventing most of the ninja from attempting to chase after the fleeing enemy. However, some didn't listen to him before they were each pierced by several arrows from the archers that had stayed on the other side of the wall.

"Fall back and regroup!" Dodai yelled in an attempt to reorganize their forces. But before they could rest and celebrate their small victory, the rest of the wall violently detonated in a large explosion that completely destroyed the rock and sent both debris and smoke flying into the air. And while no one knew what had happened or how the enemy had destroyed it, one thing was for certain and that was that the Phoenix Empire had recovered as they were now faced with another wall of shields with the archers behind them. Though as the dust in the air cleared more, Ay let out a low growl as a single spearman dressed in black armor stood in front of all of the other soldiers.

"No direct confrontations at all! It's just ambush after ambush after ambush with you people!" The new arrival yelled with his anger apparently growing after each word he spoke. "Hasn't anyone ever told you how to properly wage war?!"

"It doesn't look like we're doing too badly to me." Ay casted a fierce grin towards the man while gesturing towards the nearby bodies as the majority of them were the empire's troops.

"Laugh all you want, but you'll be joining them in a few minutes. After I take your head, of course." The man sneered at Ay in return before standing up straight and twirling his spear once in his hands. "My name is Ricard Phoenix, Second Prince to the Phoenix Empire and the second son of Emperor Gregor Phoenix."

"Ay." Their raikage replied, and after a few moments of silence Neko wasn't the only one who sweatdropped as everyone had been expecting him to introduce himself properly.

"Well then, Ay, prepare yourself." Ricard braced himself while twirling his spear again until he finished in a ready stance. However, he wasn't alone now as another man and woman both dressed in white armor walked behind him to support him.

"Dodai, you're taking command while I deal with this." Ay ordered. "Bee, Neko. You're with me."

"There's no time to rhyme, but plenty to shine. Yeeeah." Bee rapped in a low tone as he walked beside Ay with all of his swords at the ready.

"Alright then..." Neko agreed uncertainly seeing as she knew that both Ay and Bee far outclassed her in terms of ability. However, as she faced her soon-to-be opponent, she only hoped that they weren't more skilled than she was. Or, if they were, that she would be able to keep them occupied long enough for the Raikage and Killer Bee to finish with their own foes.