In a guard tower of the Kumo outpost, three ninja were gossiping. Like every other guard tower, this one also had a squad stationed: three chunin and one jonin, a standard issue at the outpost.
"I really need to get some sleep. Maybe staying up all day playing games was a bad idea."
"Now you think it is a bad idea. I am pretty sure your words were different when I tried to ask you to take some rest."
"Umm guys, there is no need for you to fight. He can just take some re—" the chunin stopped mid-sentence when he saw three fireballs in front of him and many more in his peripheral vision.
He was certain he wasn't seeing things, as all of his teammates' eyes also went wide at the same time as his. Before they could even make sense of what was happening in front of them, a giant frog appeared on the other side of the outpost—not out of their vision but far enough to not give a clear image.
But no one who had fought in the Great Ninja War needed a clear vision to figure out what, or who, the frog was, and what that implied.
"Jiraya... Konoha is—"
Boooom
His shout was muffled when the combined explosion from fifteen fireballs hit the first array, effectively breaking it for good.
"What is happening?"
The leader of the guard post came out. The jonin looked toward the outpost where the barrier had started to appear and the numerous fireballs going toward its direction.
Even before he could ask anything else or give any order, those fireballs made contact with the ground around the barrier. For a second, he thought they missed.
But his eyes went wide the next second as the barrier stopped forming as soon as the fireballs hit the ground, not having any more chakra to complete the process.
And then his eyes went toward the giant frog in the area. It only took him a fraction of a second to understand what was happening.
The scent of burning smoke in the air, the fleeting sensation of heat, the blinding light of the explosions had made it very clear for him to understand what was happening.
They were under attack, by no one else than Konoha. The sleeping, wounded dragon had finally decided to wake up, and the mountain lion—
With a roar-like command, the jonin shouted: "What are you guys waiting for? Some cowards have decided to attack our outpost in the cover of the night! Let's show them they have made the worst mistake of their lives!"
The shout brought the chunin out of their state of shock. They all finally registered what they had to do. They quickly started searching for the perpetrators of the attack, but there were none present now, all vanished in light, just like how they had emerged.
While the chunin were trying to locate the Konoha ninjas, the jonin tried to contact the outpost. The array was down, the barrier was down, and from the looks of it, a giant toad was about to send one of its well-known—or well-dreaded—attacks toward the outpost.
The jonin first tried to activate the array's warning message to send the message to all of the ninja in the outpost, but to his dismay, the array was already broken beyond use. Even the basic function of the warning messages were now things of the past.
Though he didn't keep the thought in his mind for an extra second than necessary. The second the array path failed, he went for the second method, but it was already too late.
In just a few seconds since the frog had been summoned, it had released a torrent of black viscous liquid toward the outpost. The smell coming from the liquid stretched meters, making it painfully clear what it was.
Though the worst part everyone was seeing was not what they thought. The oil was bad in itself, but the half-built barrier acted like a cup, holding the oil around the outpost. The same thing that was supposed to protect them had become the death wall.
And then the fear in the heart of every guard came forward, as a stream of fire ignited the oil coming out of the toad's mouth. The whole outpost, which was now covered in oil with so much of it pooling at the base, caught fire in a fraction of a second.
The initial fire burned any unfortunate soul who had decided to come out and check what was happening. Then the oil below started acting like the fuel of a lamp, and the outpost blazed in fire much hotter than should have been possible. The walls began melting and the wood used around caught fire.
All of the ninja inside the outpost didn't even get to understand what was happening.
A few seconds after the loud explosion they had heard, the whole place was on fire. The walls that had been for security now became the prison holding them in for their death.
The genins, chunins, even some elite chunins burned to their death, not being able to think things through in the presence of the smoke and fire—their lungs burning, their eyes burning, their skin melting.
It was truly one of the worst ways to die.
Only some of the elite chunin and jonin had the presence of mind to use iron skin jutsu and brave through the fire to come out of the outpost fortress which was about to become their grave.
But even the view out of the fortress was not a good one either. The barrier was surrounding the outpost enough to stop them from running away, and the fire below was a deterrent enough to prevent them from jumping.
The commander of the outpost did the most logical thing he could think of: he turned off the barrier with the little control he had, resulting in the oil finally flowing out, the fire losing its flame. But it had already spread enough to stop now, and the ground had absorbed the oil by now, making the floor around the outpost similar to the lava from a volcano.
Out of 200 plus ninja in the outpost, only sixty-eight were able to come out of the whole ordeal.
Even with the iron skin jutsu active, some of them using water jutsu to create a path and douse themselves in water to stop the torment of fire—all of them had various degrees of burns on their skin. Some walking without any skin on their exposed parts like hands and neck, while some experienced ones had light burns but low chakra reserves.
Alas, they were not even given a bit of chance to take a breath as the source of their suffering was onto them once again. The toad had released another breath toward them, this time accompanied with fire, the attack promising to complete the task its previous one had left unfinished.
"Disperse!" the commander shouted, his body vanishing with a bolt of lightning left behind, followed by others. Years of training took effect and they jolted out of the attack range on instinct. Only the ninjas whose hands were burned too much wasted precious seconds wincing, and... losing their lives due to it.