Chapter 417: News Travels

[Report]

[Raven squad report], the officer on the other side got worried about the report, but then the voice came back.

[There is nothing to report here, the whole outpost has been melted] a voice filled with dread came from the other end. The officer was confused about what he was hearing; he even checked if he actually received the previous message or if it was just some hallucination.

[Raven squad, the message was unclear, repeat clear, what are you seeing?] the officer asked once again.

[I am seeing a molten fortress which is now looking like a melted candle. There's nothing left of the fortress at all,] he repeated, same dread still in his voice. The scene in front of him was just so unreal that it would break the confidence of any person who knew the true form of the building before.

It was one of the most defended and safe places in the world other than the great ninja villages. Heck, even a minor village may be less secured than this one.

And here he was standing in the tad bits of remains of the enormous building.

[Check for the enemy first, if none, then scout for any survivors. I am sending reinforcement,] the officer said, passing the chakra communication device to his assistant while he went to report the shocking findings to the commander of the outpost.

If the report was correct, then he couldn't even think what would happen when the news reached Kumogakure. All he could do now was complete his duty.

While he went to report the initial findings, the Jonin and team on the other site were standing in front of the molten outpost.

'Lookout for enemies? As if any enemy capable of this will even allow us to live for a second,' but considering they were alive till now, he took a deep breath and ordered his team to go towards the outpost.

When they were standing in front of the outpost, a single thought came in the mind of all four of them.

'Survivors? How the hell will someone even survive this?'

The place which used to have the stone door was now melted in the blob of molten rock. The building, though solidified, was still hot enough to burn through their skin easily.

"Cool down the building with Water Jutsu, then we will go inside to check for survivors," the Jonin ordered.

"But how sir? I can't see any way inside," the chunin in his team asked, praying in his mind that their leader would take back his order and ask for retreat.

"There has to be a way inside. If not, then we will make one. Now get to work," the Jonin crushed their every hope as he started looking for a way inside the outpost, while his three teammates started using water jutsu, whichever they knew, to cool down the burning hot building. As soon as the water met the wall of the outpost, it evaporated into steam while also evaporating all of the hope of seeing someone alive in there.

Even if someone was alive inside, they would have been slowly cooked till now. Alas, they had orders to follow and they did. While they reduced the temperature of the building, the Jonin was finally successful in finding a way inside.

A hole was formed due to the walls melting away from that part. He was pretty sure there was not a single enemy inside and he could go inside and check for survivors, but the hot air coming out of the hole stopped him from doing that.

So like his comrades, he also wasted a few more hours and tons of chakra on Water Jutsu to extinguish the heat from the building before going inside with the team.

Only to find... nothing. There was literally nothing inside the building. All of the furniture and clothes had been burned to ash, and the weird piles of ash, which they didn't want to identify, populated all of the building, strangely looking like humans.

The Jonin took a deep breath and searched one of the piles only to find some small pieces of bones which were somehow not burned completely.

This just solidified that there was not a single survivor in the building. He took out his communication tag and reported his findings. By now the officer was back, once again shocked by the revelation.

[Stay there, the backup will arrive there soon. Till then don't allow any merchant caravan to come near the outpost.]

The Jonin understood the order clearly. The outposts are not just for security; they are also tax collection points for the village. They collect tax from the merchants moving through the countries for keeping the path safe for them.

And this particular outpost was built over a major merchant route, due to which it had a high tax collection point, and everyone knew how fortified this place was.

If any merchant found out what had happened to the outpost, the news would spread like wildfire, and with Konoha's sudden uprising it would be bad, really bad.

Sadly for them, a small merchant caravan had already passed this place, and they had already glanced at the state of the outpost. Luckily, they had not waited for inspection, because if this group had found out about them, they would have been eliminated to keep it a secret. This was also a reason why Shikaku had chosen this outpost.

...

While Kumogakure ninja was busy with their outpost, a squad was deployed in Iwagakure as well, but unlike the sudden inspection of Kumo squad, they were utterly confused when they reached the location of the previous outpost.

"Are we at the wrong location?" one of the chunin asked, seeing a massive mountain present in front of them.

"No, the surrounding is the same. I have been posted here for years; there is no way I will come to the wrong place. But why is this mountain present in the place of the outpost?" a middle-aged Jonin from Iwa and the leader of the squad said.

"Maybe it was a defensive move against an attack or something?" another chunin said.

"We should go and check out," the Jonin said, but no one used any jutsu to dive into the ground. Rather, the Jonin first sat and scanned the area using a jutsu from Iwagakure.

A Uchiha or Hyuga present there might see a sonar-like wave going out of his hand and forming a half sphere inside the ground, giving complete details to the Jonin.

"There are no traps, let's go," the Jonin said and entered the ground, followed by other chunins.

Sadly, all of the work was for naught, and there was not a single ninja below the ground... alive. All they found were the various traces of explosions, bits of flesh and bones lying here and there, and bodies of various ninja on the ground.

"What the hell happened here?" one of the chunin said.

"Let's go back. We have to report to the village about the complete annihilation of the outpost," the Jonin said after searching all of the outpost for any survivor.

...

Both of the villages got the news of the complete destruction of their outposts. Their leaders sent specialized teams of ninja to find out more about it. Both of them knew that Konoha had made its moves.

Though a question was going in their minds: 'How the hell did Konoha move such a big force to eliminate outposts having so many ninja?'

Though this question couldn't be answered, and they had a few very important decisions to make, they waited for the report of the second team to arrive before calling the council.