Shiro can't be quiet on the Kishin Front (TOW)

Despite the title of this topic, things had started relatively quiet in that afternoon. Of course quiet is always a relative term for the environment of a trench war, but that afternoon in Kumogakure no Sato's side of this particular trench was calm. Explosions and the sound of metal clashing could be heard in the distance, as well as screams and the crackling of burning wood in gigantic fires. But right here in this section, there was little fighting going on. The trench was relatively new, set up as a defensive line further east where neither Kumogakure nor Konohagakure had fully committed to all out warfare yet. Their forces would still outright murder each other if given the opportunity, but neither side was risking much here yet.

This is why the two Kumogakure no Sato shinobi guards stationed at this guard outpost built into the trench felt incredibly lucky. Yet again lucky is a relative term for someone engaged in trench warfare, but the fact that they got to only hear horrors in the distance instead of witnessing them first hand with their eyes was something they valued.

"I hate this sage damned war." One of them would say as he lit up a cigarette. The smoke rose to the air before being carried away from the hell hole by the wind. He envied it because unlike smoke, the most probable way he'd get out of there would be in pieces carried within a coffin. If at all.
"You don't have to tell me about it... If the kages are so powerful why won't they sort this shit up amongst themselves? I just wanna see my wife and kids again."

"AAAAAAAH!"
*BOOM*...*BOOM*

"Don't even mention kids... If this goes on any longer I might see mine here. I'd rather not see them at all again."
"Oh shit, I'm sorry man, I didn't mean to-Wait. Do you hear that?"

"For the love of the Sage leave me aloooone!"
*BOOM*BOOM*BOOM**

Initially the screams and explosions seemed to mix in with the rest, like the echoes of a war happening close by but far away enough to allow one to feel relatively safe. Like hearing the sound of a thunderstorm in the distance.  But as the sounds came closer and the screams became more vivid, their expressions began to change and the the look on their faces became a worried one. This look would change into a mix of terror and confusion as they witnessed a red haired ninja with Sunagakure no Sato's headband turn around the corner of the trench and wave frenetically at them.

"MOVE, GET OUT OF THE WAY! SHIT'S EXPLODING! "

Now if it were just Shiro doing this one might chalk it up to him being up to some sort of odd activity yet again. But the oddly well timed explosions behind the ninja seemed to perfectly back up his statement.

*BOOM*BOOM*BOOM*BOOM*BOOM


Now at this point there could be a number of fair questions you might want to ask. How did Shiro Suzuki who was a Sunagakure no Sato shinobi somehow end up on Kumogakure no Sato's side of the trenches? What were those explosions? Why is a 15 years old kid running from them?

Well the answer to the first question was a simple and honest mistake. Shiro was kind of a simpleton, while he knew the deserts of Sunagakure no Sato and the Land of Wind pretty well he had never actually left the country before he snuck out of the village to support Konoha during the war. He'd gotten lost somewhere along the journey and his voyage was delayed for weeks with all sorts of odd and strange adventures before he finally found the right path to the Land of Rice fields. By the time he got there however, the landscape had been so devastated that very little differentiated a hole in the ground from a built trench, or one built trench from another. Who the hell was he to know how to differentiate Konoha's holes from Kumo's holes? There were holes everyone god damn it! So he'd done the natural Shiro thing to do: He picked a trench and jumped in during the night. Because this side of the trench warfare hadn't fully committed to combat here, it was relatively easy to do so. The Kumogakure ninjas inside were just happy to get reinforcements when he was he saw there to help. "At least the kids aren't being sent out to the worst frontlines" they'd said. No one in their right mind would do what Shiro'd done, and he'd had plenty of opportunities to sabotage them during that night he sneaked in and hadn't, so somehow he'd earned their trust. And for half a day he enjoyed a sort of celebrity status in that trench as the only red hair to occupy it. Gingers were apparently a rarity in the Land of Lightning.

Of course as you might have guessed by now this didn't last much. There were all sorts of traps surrounding the trench, from both the side that faced Konoha's forces as well as the side that faced the third and fourth lines of defense. Kumogakure no Sato's ninja had a careful withdrawal plan in case of necessity which allowed them to retreat without triggering traps while leaving basically a minefield for any enemy daring to occupy their trench.

So naturally, Shiro fucked up during a bathroom break. He'd had to pee and to be frank the bathrooms inside the holes were disgusting. So this genius took it upon himself to climb out of the hole towards the third and fourth line of defenses just so he could pee. And pee he did. Miraculously he managed to not to trigger anything on his way out.

On his way in however, something else entirely happened. You see there was a carefully well placed line of wire running alongside the borders of the trench. This long line was filled with explosive tags every ten meters. If required, a ninja could make them explode in succession in order to cause massive damage and possibly bury the trench. Due to the nature of the trap however, it was also possible to cause single explosions by pulling the wire in specific manners, for more targeted strikes. But Shiro didn't know how to pull this wire.

He had just tripped over it into the hole. Which had been a minor nuisance at first. But when an tag exploded twenty meters away from him, Shiro found himself running along the trench in the opposite direction. And with the wire still tangled around his fight foot, what had been a single accident suddenly became a terrifying chain of explosions. The more things exploded, the more he ran, and the more he ran, the most things exploded. Truly he couldn't comprehend it.

And that's what's gotten us to this point.


Shiro was massively glad to have found a guard post he could jump into in order to shield himself from the explosions. The two guards, not so much. But there was little they could do as he jumped through the door and into the division built into the earth. A couple more explosions passed as since he'd finally stopped, the explosions stopped too.

"What the hell was that?" One of the ninjas asked, witnessing the destruction of half of the entire section of the trench line. Shiro was still catching his breath so he wasn't able to reply before a squad of three ninjas showed up turning the same corner he'd had.

"There's the red head that infiltrated the trench! Those must be his allies, catch them all!"
"W-what?"

Shiro figured he had already spent all his luck outrunning the explosions, there was no way he could outrun an entire squad. So instead he hopped onto the back of one of the guards and gestured (inadvertedely) in the direction of Konohagakure no Sato's trench. "We're under attack, they must be under Genjutsu, we can't beat them, ruuun!"

Perhaps it was due to the shock and panic, perhaps it was Shiro's luck playing at it again. But the truth was that both guards did the one thing no one ever wanted to do in a trench war. They jumped out of the hole and ran towards the enemy lines, explosions again trailing behind them.

On the man's back, Shiro would use chakra strings to divert kunais with explosive tags attached thrown from both sides, accidentally killing the second guard in the process. "Noo!" The two must've been friends and while Shiro might have sympathized in any other situation he was kind of busy right now. So he dug his heels into the man's waist. "Oye oye, I'm still alive here! Less mourning, more running!"

Eventually the man would jump into Konohagakure no Sato's trench, and they would both land and roll over the ground. Shiro would sit up to find himself surrounded by Konohagakure no Sato's forces entirely surprised by the attack.

"What have you done, this is the enemy line!"

Shiro blinked once. He looked over at the guard, then at the ninjas surrounding them. Then he blinked twice. And then after an awkward moment of silence, he spoke towards the guard.
"Silence prisoner! You'll speak when spoken to!" Then he would salute Konoha's forces while still having his butt on the ground and present himself. "Shiro Suzuki, Sunagakure Shinobi reporting for duty! I bring to you a prisoner!" As proof, he'd take Sunagakure's headband out of his pocket and tie it around his head properly.

Konohagakure no Sato's ninjas were dumbfounded. On one hand, this seemed like an obvious trap. On the other, half the enemy trench in front of them had been brought down. What were they supposed to do?

[Fighting for Konoha/Kiri]

Shiro Suzuki was not the only Sunagakure shinobi taking part in this war. Despite the state of Sunagakure, destitute and full of poverty, it remained a military encampment. It was only a shadow of its former self, but even in its current state there were mercenaries, riff-raff, or those who simply naturally gravitated towards violence and adventure who came in order to test their fates in this war. It was impossible to count exactly how many soldiers from Sunagakure were fighting in the trenches, as the village itself was unable to take count or control of them, and so those from the Land of Wind would be sprinkled among the much more numerous Konoha and Kiri shinobi.

What was something that could be kept track of was the number of shinobi that Ei Kanagawa, the Kazekage, had brought with her. Roughly one hundred and fifty shinobi from Sunagakure. Finally they had been cleaned up, able to afford proper flak jackets and other basic equipment like kunai. The newly built armories allowed them to more or less be equipped similarly to other shinobi in the trenches, and this was likely for the best. Appearing dirty, unarmed, and unsupplied would just completely break their morale, and likely the morale of the shinobi they were assisting. At least now they could give their best, whatever that was. Of course, this meager group of Shinobi didn’t participate in the trench warfare in the same way many of the others did. They more or less served as Ei’s personal guards, following her in a closely knit group wherever she went. Scouts, guards, and counter espionage personnel all performed in their specialty as she moved through the trenches.

Truthfully, she wasn’t here to fight the opposing side. Of course, she was. She was treaty bound to fight on Kirigakure’s side. Or at least, Sunagakure was. That didn’t mean that she, the Kazekage, had to personally get down in these trenches though. Still wearing her outrageously colorful kimono that made her look incredibly out of place. All dressed up as she was, Ei was a sight to behold compared to the muddy trenches and the dirty and disheveled shinobi. Eyes would follow her as she walked, her geta staying above the mud through an application of chakra. It was clear that her presence here was considered strange and alien by the other shinobi, especially with the way that they became silent as she drew close, but that's none of her concern. She was here to find someone in particular, and until she managed to discern their location there was still work to be done.

“Report.” She turned to one of the ANBU who was beside her, a tall and burly man that towered over her. His facial features were mostly obscured by the cloth turban he wore, with only his eyes being shown.

“No trace of him. We went up and down the trenches for the next two kilometers asking for information and scouting out the location ourselves. We haven’t seen a single hair of his so far.”

She sighed. They had tracked Shiro here, at least, but it seemed that here the trail ran cold. There wasn’t any sight of him in the Alliance trenches. Not even any traces of activity.

A series of explosions rang out in the distance after that, not too far from the trenches Ei was standing in. The three ANBU that served as her personal, immediate guards would stand at the ready, scanning the area for any potential conflict. She would squint her eyes for a moment, and then everything would go silent.

“Just some buffoon being blown up by landmines. No need to worry.” She diverted her attention. It was a good distance down the trenches that those explosions originated from. Even if there was an attack, they wouldn’t face the brunt of it.

""Shiro Suzuki, Sunagakure Shinobi reporting for duty! I bring to you a prisoner!""

A familiar voice rang out, and her head would turn. So would the head of every other Sunagakure Shinobi in the trench. A few meters down the line was Shiro, with a variety of Konoha Shinobi, and what appeared to be a Kumo Shinobi.

“Shiro? What are you- What are you…” She was at a loss for words. She could only stare, and after a moment she would point a finger at him. “Come back here, Shiro! Don’t let him escape!” Sunagakure Chunin that had come with her would be quick to pursue after she gave the order and the initial surprise wore off, and they would all dive after the little kid who had just jumped into the trenches.


[WC 799]

(Chen is fighting on Kumo's side)

Chen was awoken by the loud sound of explosions inside his trench. He wasn't startled just surprised that the enemy had managed to get so close. He slowly rose to a sitting position and analyzed his surroundings. The bunker housed within the trench had not collapsed so it couldn't have been an all out attack. He was wearing his battle gear just in case he needed to spring into action and so he walked out to see the trail of destruction and chaos that was left in his wake. Chen was fighting under a different name for the Kumogakure forces. While it was true that Iwagakure was allied with Konoha for the purpose of the war, Chen could not bring himself to fight for his invaders. Kumo had actually helped them and while he understood that geopolitical machinations prevented them from assisting their old ally, Chen refused to let his will be crushed by the beaucracy. He was going to return the favor regardless of whether each side liked it or not.

He had dyed his hair snow white and enlisted as a Hot Springs shinobi under a false name with false papers. The Springs ninja didn't scrutinize him too hard and he had not been flagged via Mind Reading technology. He was above suspicion as his intentions truly were to kill Konoha-Nin. He had found that his superiors cared little about the "who" and the "why" so long as that singular goal was valid. They needed more bodies in the trenches and so they were happy to take a white-haired kid who spoke little but fought at every opportunity. The trenches were a miserable place but they were also an arena in which he could grow. So many combatants from all across the ninja world were fighting in these ditches of hell. He was bound to grow stronger here.

Chen walked out of the bunker and into the trench line proper. There was smoke, fire, and confusion and ninja tried to understand what had just happened. Some idiot had ran into the trench and had managed to survive. In turn, others came after him, and had been captured by the enemy side. The soldiers were in uproar and wanted to go over the top. Chen knew it was foolish to assault an enemy trench line out of revenge but he was curious as to how all this would play out.

Chen didn't dare look over the top. That was a good way to get your head blown off by an archer. How moronic could someone be to attack a trench line on their own? Chen didn't know many stupid personally. There was one back in Iwa whom he despised and another in Suna whom he found amusing. He doubted either had the guts to fight down here in the dirt. Chen began collecting kunai just in case the supervisors decided to use the men's newfound courage.

(487)