Koutou:
Even with his face hidden behind a mask, Koutou could tell the man was tense, wary.
Perhaps even afraid.
"You're...there's no possible way-"
The Daimyo smirked,watching the young man's protests die away. "You understand now, don't you? In order to chase me through these backwoods, miles away from your village and battle lines, you've left your throat open. Your Anbu. Your Jinchuuriki… These things are here. Overextended and exposed. While I am more than capable of fielding forces to both defend and attack. The Sannin and the lesser ninja to defense and…"
He trailed off, letting the Anbu's own imagination fill in the rest.
Sarutobi? The Bijuu they stole from Iwagakure years ago? The Kyuubi?
Koutou couldn't help but wonder what would run through the man's mind.
"As I said." Koutou continued. "You may kill me. But once word reaches Sarutobi, and I promise you it will do so long before you can return, your village will be little more than a smoldering ruin."
Sarutobi:
Iwagakure.
It was decidedly strange.
The village that he and nearly everyone in Konoha had considered an enemy for so long...it...was a place he'd only seen twice in his lifetime before today.
The first time was after the second great war, where he had signed the ceasefire agreement.
And the last… the last had been at the end of the third war where they had officially accepted Iwagakure's unconditional surrender.
He'd been to Kumo by nearly four times as many instances: chuunin exams, trade talks, even to act as a mediator, alongside the Sandaime Raikage, between two feuding border villages.
But the sheer enmity with Iwagakure had prevented him from coming here as much as it prevented Iwa from approaching them.
Koutou had been the only person in at least the last sixty years, possibly longer in order to try and bridge the gap.
And this was the result.
The message Koutou had gotten to him by bird summon had said very clearly 'Spear Thrust' an old, straightforward codeword that had first been introduced by Koutou's grandfather. The order commanded a ninja to ignore the Daimyo's protection and try to break the enemy's offensive campaign by attacking their most vulnerable position.
At first, Sarutobi believed that he would attack some forward base camp or staging area. But, as they slipped further and further into Iwagakure territory, it was becoming more clear that whatever caused the talks to degenerate so rapidly had not ended well for Onoki.
He wasn't sure if his old enemy was incapacitated, ill or captured but it was clear Onoki was not in command of his forces here.
That man was careful, meticulous and thorough. His defenses were nearly impenetrable and his offensive movements were smooth and deceptive. He took in every factor and precaution.
But this…
The Hokage and over thirty handpicked Anbu were standing inside Iwagakure… inside the walls of the village. A force of them. They'd gone almost entirely unmolested through the defensive grid as what seemed like every possible Iwa-nin left the village. All of them dedicated to what could only describe as a singled-minded assault.
No. Onoki was not in command here. Not his old rival.
Which presented a golden opportunity. One he would take hold of for all it was worth.
He stood on the roof of a building overlooking the dominating courtyard in front of the Tsuchikage tower.
With a single gesture six Anbu appeared around him, almost materializing from thin air, concealed in the shadows of the adjacent buildings. The team leaders.
The rest of his force moved through the dark. Their path, though silent, was devoid of mercy. Quietly murdering all that they found and concealing the bodies with quick, practiced efficiency.
Sarutobi didn't even bother looking at his men, knowing they were paying attention. He disseminated his orders through quick coded gestures.
First team: Forbidden techniques.
Second team: Find archives. Target; Roster.
Third. Fourth. Fifth: Defend.
Sixth team-
He looked up, eying the very top of the tower, one final hand-sign delivered.
Raze.
Tsunade:
The steam was suffocating her. Even without the heat, the sheer volume of it was nearly overpowering.
She felt herself rising above the forest canopy, where there was still a sheer wall of superheated vapor, surrounding her on all sides.
"Katsuyu move!" She half-yelled and half-coughed, feeling the movement beneath her feet propelling her up and out of the steam. The wind whipped through her hair as she breathed the sweet, cold night air again.
The cloud billowed and shifted, moving like a balloon imploding in on itself for a moment before Manda burst out with a screech, Orochimaru perched on his head.
The two of them were left staring at the cloud of steam as it slowly formed itself into the image of the Gobi.
The heat. Gods, it was rising. She could feel it even from this distance. If they entered now to attack they would be boiled alive.
And without a physical body to harm…
She didn't have the time to try and think of some kind of plan though. The thing rushed her like a charging bull.
"Get us closer to Manda!" She barked, knowing full well Orochimaru had a plethora of wind techniques. Might not be able to stop it but it'd be enough to slow it down at least.
She hoped anyway.
Katsuyu moved with speed that belied both her size and her species, deftly splitting into three smaller versions of herself. Each rushed off in different directions. The feint succeeded in confusing the steam monster confused, giving them enough time to reach Orochimaru's side. Once there the other two Katsuyus dispersed into even smaller forms, vanishing entirely into the forest canopy. They'd reconverge in this body shortly, she knew.
In what would have been impossible in an organic body, the steam creation became nebulous for a moment before coalescing into shape, again facing her. It's charge uninterrupted by the change of its momentum in ways that defied common physics.
Then Manda was in front of her, letting off a half hiss, half screech before she heard Orochimaru's voice.
"Fuuton: Daibakuha!"
His roar, amplified by the vibrating air particles of the wind technique boomed through the entire forest, nearly deafening her.
The steam monster collapsed in on itself, all but imploding before re-assimilating itself, entirely unharmed.
Not unexpected. Stupid to hope a Bijuu would die to the equivalent of an overzealous breeze.
It rushed them again.
She felt a tug. A pull along her insides.
It was Orochimaru, his chakra brushing along her own. So she allowed herself to be pulled. A human Kawarimi dragging her away well over a hundred feet below staring up at the monstrous Manda, Katsuyu and Bijuu a second before their summons were swallowed up by the steam cloud.
"I don't suppose you have any ideas?" She heard her teammate drolly question.
She turned, looking at Orochimaru's grim countenance. "Me!? Huh… Well… damn. If you're out of ideas I guess shit's really hit the fan huh? I'd honestly just say find the Jinchuuriki and take him out."
"The steam…" His lip curled."Its permeating the whole forest. I can't sense him any more than I can sense a drop of salt-water in a pool of fresh-water."
Manda let out a hiss, screeching as it thrashed and flailed inside of the cloud, trying to crush whoever was controlling it, or perhaps fight back in some way.
"I can't endlessly fire off wind techniques. We need a way to bring him to the fight again." He said.
"I'll get Katsuyu to spread across the forest. She'll find him." Tsunade declared, already focusing on the nearest chakra signature of Katsuyu's separated bodies.
"Quickly then. Manda can survive for a time but he will eventually be cooked inside his own scales."
Kurotsuchi:
They barely had time to fully comprehend the sounds of combat inside their village before they were under attack themselves.
Their warning, wasn't even a warning, was the sound of a blade slicing flesh, the splatter of blood on cold stone and the muffled scream of the Chuunin behind her.
She whirled around, pink eyes wide in surprise, just in time to see the Chuunin fall dead. An Anbu standing at his back, blade stained red.
Her heart pounded in her chest, a whitewash of adrenaline flooding her body.
She wasn't cuffed, thank the gods for small mercies, but she was bereft of her weapons and her armor. Of course, She had her Tai and Nin-jutsu but it was a small comfort when facing down a combat-ready Anbu for the very first time in her life.
Her father moved before any of them, his hands flying into seals as the three remaining Iwa Chuunin darted off to the side moving to surround the man.
It was sound, again, that tipped her off. The flap of cloth in the wind.
None of the Chuunin had enough fabric for that.
Kurotsuchi found the shurkien just in time to see it hurtling towards her father. By pure reflex she reached out, trying to catch it. In the next split second she felt a spike of pain shoot up her whole arm, originating from her hand.
She screamed before choking it down. She leaped away feeling, rather than seeing, her father do the same. Both were painfully well aware that there was more than one attacker here now.
She hit the ground and ducked into an alleyway for cover. She pressed her back against the wall, as she heard the fight, quite literally begin just ten feet away from her.
Kurotsuchi looked to her hand, the shuriken had ripped through the flesh and bitten down to the bone, entering through the soft tissue between her thumb and index finger. She reached down, ripping the weapon free with a spurt of blood that sent droplets splattering over her own face.
Kurotsuchi tried to move her fingers, feeling the muscles sing with pain. Her thumb especially. Her index finger was more worrisome; it didn't move at all.
That wasn't good. This was her dominant hand. She might be able to compensate her kunai and shuriken accuracy, somehow make up for her hand seal speed and precision but this was not the time nor place to be able to suffer the luxury of a crippled dominant hand.
She took a breath, hearing the clash of steel against steel just down the street.
When she was about to dare a look when she felt a spike of Chakra directly behind her.
She dove to the side as a lightning blade punched straight through the wooden wall that she'd been leaning against a second earlier.
Her body moved before her mind fully caught up, rolling away to gain some distance before her hands moved in a rapid sequence of sloppy seals. Kurotsuchi struggled for control of the technique as it required more chakra to compensate for her deadend finger.
She sucked down a breath and spat out a fireball, watching it hurdle onto the far wall. Not wasting the moment's distraction, she leapt up to further the distance between her and her her foe, before the wall the attack had come from exploded in a shower of wooden shrapnel and debris.
Kurotsuchi landed on the roof of the opposite building, looking into the smoke-filled hole that remained of the spot she'd been leaning against.
For a blessed moment, there was no movement. The night rushed into the space all the fighting, all the sudden chaos, had occupied. Then the Anbu came hurtling towards her, bursting from the smoke like an arrow, sword in hand.
He reached the edge of the roof and vaulted over felt a burst of chakra before his whole blade lit up with snap cracks of electricity.
She almost took on a Taijutsu stance before realizing that the chakra hadn't come from the Anbu she was looking at.
Furiously, she flooded elemental chakra through her still functioning left arm, as she braced herself and punched straight down.
The fire chakra went off at the end of her fist like a shaped explosive charge. Unlike the uncontrolled blast of her earlier attack, this one was directed entirely downwards. Piercing roof tiles and wood before exploding into the home below.
Just as the explosion ripped the whole roof out from under her feet she felt the crackling pain of a blade ripping up her entire left arm. The sword grazing the back of her hand to trail from forearm to elbow.
Her whole body seized up with the electrical discharge. Her muscles spasmed and jerked her limbs uncontrollably. The fall through the roof which should have been nothing ended with her legs failing and an awkward side landing, her legs sprawled on top of the now blacked Anbu. The top half of his face, the part she could see, was a mess of blood and charred flesh. His mask had shattered and slagged to drip down his forehead, nose and eyes.
Kurotsuchi grimaced, looking down at her new bleeding limb. The patches of flesh where her skin met the wound were charred black, already the injury itself looked angry and red. It would likely be infected soon if she didn't see a medic.
Half an inch.
Half an inch more to the side and she'd have lost the limb entirely to the Konoha ninja's lightning blade. It would have been split straight down the middle.
She crawled herself up, over his corpse, searching for kunai and shuriken pouches, soldier pills, blood pills, other combat equipment she could use.
How many of them were there? Was her father alright? What village were they from?
Before her mind could even slow down from racing… There was light.
It speared through the window in front of her, blinding . The light was followed, hardly a split second after, by a deafening boom. Kurotsuchi felt the force rattle the house around her, felt her insides tremble and quake with the concussive wave a second before the window itself shattered forcing her to shield herself behind the body.
When the brightness died enough for her to look, she felt her stomach sink.
She stumbled to her feet, shambling towards the window like a drunk, staring in disbelief at the Kage tower…well...
The shattered, broken, and burning ruins that remained of it.
Orochimaru:
It was one of the few times in his life that Orochimaru felt useless in a fight.
How exactly did one best water vapor?
As the battle wore on Manda became more and more enraged, shifting from trying to find his assailant inside the steam cloud; to simply attacking anything that moved, uprooting nearly the whole forest, boulders notwithstanding.
Similarly, to Orochimaru's eye the Jinchuuriki seemed to move on as well. Once he realized that they were no longer on their summons the steam cloud had spread out across the forest, losing what form it had to become nothing more than a nebulous cloud.
Despite the diffusion, Katsuyu had spread far and wide yet she and Tsunade still couldn't find the Jinchuuriki.
If he were anyone else he'd accuse her of sheer incompetence but Orochimaru knew better than that.
Frankly, she was one of the few people that could best him in a fight.
She wasn't incompetent. The Jinchuuriki was just that skilled.
Skilled enough to nullify Katsuyu by blowing a lot of hot air. .
At least mostly, It was impossible for the Jinchuuriki to blanket the forest floor with enough steam to burn the slug so long as she stayed on the ground. But on the trees was another matter. If she tried to raise her multitude of miniature selves above a handful of inches, she was quite literally flash steamed.
So they effectively had nothing.
"This is ridiculous." Tsunade snarled, watching as the steam cloud continued its implacable advance towards the capital. No doubt the Jinchuuriki knew they would eventually have to try something in order to intercept it.
"Indeed." Orichimaru agreed. "I'd normally suggest a retreat….but with the capital so close…" He trailed off.
"I'm honestly starting to think we should just try blowing up the whole goddamn for-"
She stopped. And he recognized that look in her eye.
"You've stumbled on an idea." He smirked.
"I'm honestly kinda disappointed in myself for how long it took. Especially, given how simple and stupid it is." She looked to him, smirking. "I'm thinking you'll be downright pissed you didn't think of it first."
"Go ahead. Spit it out then." He demanded.
"Burn the whole forest down."
He blinked. "What?"
"He's hiding in there. We can't go looking for him. But if we burn the whole forest down it does the job of flushing him out, and also dispersing the steam cloud . Win win for us."
"Predictably inelegant coming from you." He drawled.
"You got any better ideas?"
"I never said I did." He stated, smirking before he spoke again. " After two days of running, Manda, and all my previous techniques I should have enough chakra in me for five large scale wind techniques. I trust married life hasn't led you to forget those fire techniques of yours?"
She smacked him on the shoulder. "Let's get this over with. We have a plan now."
"It'll do this time." He clarified. "This is hardly a viable plan in a population center, and I imagine he'll figure that out quickly. We'll have to think of something better for the future."
Koutou:
"You're lying." The Anbu insisted, shaking his head in disbelief. "If you had truly thought of everything you wouldn't stop to tell us about it. You wouldn't be monologuing. This...this desperate ploy...this… doesn't make sense." He shook his head. "You must be lying."
He was nearer to the truth than he probably realized. But he was hesitant. Years of conditioning, years of believing the very worst of Konohagakure, and therefore of Koutou himself, was warring with his reason.
Best to continue feeding his prejudice then.
"I am telling you this because I already won, boy. Onoki is dead." He drawled, shrugging his shoulders for emphasis. " And while I could easily destroy you now, how do you suppose the other villages will respond once word reaches them?"
"You're holding a knife to our throat knowing it would destroy you as well?"
"Destroy us? Doubtful." He laughed. "It might, perhaps, cost us lives. Maybe some money. Even some resources and political capital. You, on the other hand, will be destroyed. For us, the remaining villages will eventually be appeased enough to cease whatever reprisal they decide on. If they actually decide to do so. Which village have you all befriended recently? Suna is our ally, not yours, they will easily be appeased with promises to hand over portions of your territory to them. Kirigakure is already entering trade talks with us. Do you believe they will risk that in order to avenge you?"
Koutou laughed, his shoulders shaking as he shook his head. "Your only hope for true reprisal would be from Kumogakure, and indeed, only because Kumo despises us more than they despise you."
He tsked, shaking his head. "Your Tsuchikage has done very little but make enemies. I'm only glad it was my designs that granted me the privilege to finally give him his comeuppance."
The Anbu's grip on his sword tightened, his clenched fist visibly shaking.
But he was not so quick to threaten him this time. Much less strike him.
Better.
He looked to the cat masked Anbu. "So, I will repeat myself. Call off your pursuit and crawl back to your holes and perhaps my message will reach the team in time to call off their attack on your village."
"You expect me to just take your word for it? What guarantee do I have that if I do as you ask you won't try and have them destroy the village anyway?"
Koutou shrugged. "You don't. What you must ask yourself is simple. Is my life worth more to you than everyone in your home?"
Just then he became aware of a glow on the horizon, coming from the north west. Fiery orange, blazing like the first spears of a dawn.
As the Anbu turned away, looking behind him to follow Koutou's gaze, the Daimyo realized that it could only be one thing. Orochimaru and Tsunade against the Jinchuuriki.
He prayed that whatever it was, it meant Tsunade and Orochimaru had won.
If they hadn't his position just became far more precarious.
Best to end this now.
"I see that this Jinchuuriki has been dealt with as easily as the last one." He drawled.
The Anbu rounded on him, the surprise and concern visible, even through the mask.
That meant he wasn't sure as to who won either.
That gave him a few minutes at best as a head start if Orochimaru and Tsunade had failed.
Koutou, very deliberately, turned his back on the Iwa Anbu and looked to his guards. "Prepare my horse. We're done here"
He saw his men tense a second before he felt a blade pressed to the back of his neck.
"You don't leave here until I say so! You're not in control here! You are not the one to call the shots! Now turn the hell around."
He did so, looking at the man over his shoulder before rounding on him fully.
The blade was to his chest now, he felt its edge against his armor as he leaned forward ever so slightly.
"I have your village by the throat. Your Kage is dead, your last remaining Jinchuuriki defeated, the other in my service - ready to be unleashed at a word - and your men are soon to be surrounded and cut down."
He sneered, eyes ablaze with a fury that was not entirely feigned. "So the next time you raise your weapon to me I suggest you be fully prepared to use it boy." He snarled
For an interminable moment, the Iwa nin held the weapon in place, his hand steady.
Naruto:
Far to the north, miles away from Magojiro, Tsunade, Orochimaru, or even Sarutobi, another battle was being fought between the the respective ninja forces of the two villages.
Naruto was the witness to this one, soon enough he'd be a part of it.
Hopefully he'd end it.
The seal he'd drawn at his feet was an impressive thing, easily big enough to allow him and Itachi to stand within its boundaries.
His chakra poured into it, spreading out, in and through the earth to blanket the entire battlefield.
As his awareness expanded, dragged with his chakra, Naruto felt the presence of the other ninjas as a spider feels the touch of a fly on its web.
Itachi's signature was crystal clear, familiar, and bright. A single beacon. Ryoko and Kyofu were no different - still alive, still active.
Ironically, it was his shadow-clones that were the hardest to detect. Formed of his chakra, they were too familiar, it was like looking for a rainbow with sunglasses on.
Itachi wouldn't have this difficulty. At least, he hoped not.
As his clones moved through the treetops, mimicking his skill and plethora of experiences to stay hidden. They were imperfect - some were detected, attacked and subsequently dispelled. But most slipped into place.
Lost in concentration, Naruto didn't notice as Itachi broke away from the battle and headed towards him. Not until she was right on top of him.
She hit the ground with a grunt, spattered with blood, and wasted no time in carefully placing herself inside her place in the seal array.
He reached up, gripping her bicep, and began pouring his chakra into her.
For a moment, she did nothing, taking the time to adjust to the feel and pull of the foreign energy within her body before she put it to use.
Instantly he felt the drain on his system. His chakra rushing through her and into the seal array according to her will.
Show time.
Iwagakure Jounin Nobuyuki:
There had been no battle cry. No theatrical charges or warnings. Both sides were determined to remain hidden for as long as possible.
No, the battle, one destined to be remained for it's speed and brutality, started silently; the whispers of the trees was the only sound.
It took one scream of pain, someone stabbed unexpectedly, to open the floodgates and bring the forest to life like a hornets' nest stirred into a frenzy. Nobuyuki and his men wasted no time launching themselves straight into the fray.
Chuunin made up the bulk of their forces this for this assault and the difference was evident. A and B rank Ninjutsu lit the night like a bonfire: lightning crackled and forked through the air, fireballs brought the forest to a blaze, the earth heaved and quaked. And, the impossibly tall and thick trees of Konohagakure's forest were, quite literally, being torn apart under the exchange.
As Nobuyuki moved through the crowd, he noted that there was a desperation to chuunin. Rage or fear, in equal measure and equal blamed for their haste. Unlike the Jounin that had engaged the Konoha-nin earlier, these men didn't pace themselves. These men didn't try to preserve their energy for emergencies. They saw their enemy in front of them and their whole world began and ended with that enemy until one of them was dead.
That meant they, Iwa, were going to lose.
Certainly, they would reap their tally of bodies, but in the end, this battle was lost before they'd even begun. Even if Iwa won they would need to retreat, and hope and pray a pursuit party of fresh troops didn't come right at their heels to finish the exhausted battle-group.
He hated this fight.
Onoki-sama was… He was dead now. But this; throwing themselves like savage beasts at a wall of well-prepared, experienced and skilled enemies to die was not the way to avenge him.
If his people could pull themselves free of the frenzy that had swept through the whole… mob that their leadership had degenerated into they might have a chance of actually winning. Not just the battle but the war in the coming months.
Regardless of his thoughts, he moved quickly through the forest. The motions of his body falling into a pattern, a routine, as he met the Konoha ninja in hand-to-hand. Nobuyuki would rush up to their sides or back while they were distracted, his kunai blade flashing in the night a split second before the squelch of a blade slicing flesh and the splattering of blood joined the cacophony of the battle.
He was fast, using the minor Genjutsu he knew to augment his stealth while avoiding entirely any enemy that detected and rebuffed his illusions. Someone skilled enough to spot him would take three times as long to kill as someone would could not.
Pattern. Jump, land, stab, jump. The noise, the stench of blood and the chaos of the night battlefield were all a white noise to him. A background static he could just tune out.
Until his blood ran cold at the sound of a single… terrified shout.
Kiiroi Senkō!
Itachi:
Naruto's chakra was like a river behind a damn. His reserves dwarfed hers and quite possibly everyone she had ever met.
Even so, when she took hold of it, molded it, and spread it across as many the targets as she could manage, Itachi felt how draining this actually was. Despite their size, she felt a noticeable drain on his reserves.
She would need to be careful.
Genjutsu worked in one way. The manipulation of chakra coils.
A Genjutsu wielder, always manipulated the chakra of another Shinobi. To do this they made use of the chakra coils of the intended victim.
Either along the eyes to fool the sight, the ears to trick the sense of sound, the sense of touch, even the sense of balance.
The more invasive or complex the illusion, the more one had to manipulate the chakra of the intended victim. Thus, the easier it would be for the victim to detect it, or for the wielder to screw up the delicate act in some way.
To try and manipulate so many, and from this range would normally be impossible. The greater the range, the greater chakra had to be utilized, and thus, the less control one had of the technique.
In short, it all became exponentially more difficult.
At least. Without this seal. And without Naruto's particular advantage of massive reserves.
The seal Naruto had designed, was a combination of two lesser. The first, of course, was the chakra transfer technique. Simple and easy enough, it was used by ninja all the time for a multitude of purposes, not the least of which was the medic ninja in long term operations.
The second seal, was a detection seal. The precursor, or so she understood it, to the barrier sensor field that surrounded the village as a warning system.
It allowed, as long as the seals that marked the edge of its range remained intact, for a person to detect all chakra signatures, all chakra coils within its range.
Useful. But ultimately a benign seal.
In the hands of a Genjutsu wielder however… one with an abnormal level of chakra at her disposal.
This benign seal suddenly became very dangerous.
The chakra provided by Naruto answered to her every whim, moving and twisting as she bade it move through the array. Without the need to supply her chakra for the technique, her full focus was leveled solely on creating the mass illusion. Invading the foreign chakra coils, planting the trigger within their psyches, supplanting the reality of what they were seeing for her fabrication.
Soon, she forced the illusions to take root, boring into their skulls, lying there, undisturbed and unnoticed, waiting for her to trigger them.
She looked to Naruto and offered a single nod. "Ready."
At her word, a mental command was given and the clones that had been concealed through the use of Henge, or more simple hiding techniques, each sprang into action. Each attacking the first Iwa nins they could see.
To the Konoha ninja, all they saw was the equivalent of a mass ambush. Several dozen or even hundreds of clones springing up out of the ground to attack with a furious cry before dispelling themselves the instant their victim died or their bodies were struck.
To the Iwa battle group, however, their vision was of something entirely different.
In their eyes. It was one attacker. A single nightmare they'd hoped to never see again.
He was there. To the right in one instant then he was gone. A flash and he was somewhere else, another of their friends dying, a knife to his throat. Another flash and a new man was left screaming, a kunai blade having ripped through his cheek. Another flash and he was at their backs. Another and he was above them or at their sides, below. A hundred, a thousand places at once as Itachi tried to blanket as many eyes as possible in her illusion.
It was a panic that swept through the ranks. A pure, freezing, all-consuming terror that washed a cold bucket of ice water onto the ninja, whom just a moment ago were filled blinding fury.
There were others that she didn't capture in the illusion. Those that were trying to rally their comrades, break them out of it. These she had to force out, dull the senses to them so they wouldn't be noticed. She felt another drain on Naruto's reserves as another layer was added to the illusion.
All the while the clones continued to disappear, less and less to fuel the fear and anxiety into pandemonium.
Itachi knew she had to make up for the loss.
Another layer to the illusion, another twist on the senses, changed the appearance of friendly ninja for instants at a time. It made them seem like someone else for a moment. Then, it vanished them entirely from sights.
Another layer, and this time she felt her hold on a few of them slip, the illusions she crafted forcefully dispelled as she felt her concentration fumble on so many subjects.
Naruto gripped her bicep tightly, sucking down a sharp breath as his reserves dwindled to less than half of its base state.
But it wasn't enough. They were rattled, but not broken. The Konoha ninja were taking up the momentum and slaughtering the ranks wholesale but the objective Naruto wanted was to stop the needless death, not subject one side to a complete rout.
She took more.
Another layer, focused this time on the center of the battle; focused on those towards the rear, adding to the illusion of the yellow flash come again, she added… more.
Tsunade, Orochimaru, Sarutobi. The three of them bursting onto the field like gods of death returned from hell. The trio tearing into those at the front, ripping through all of friends and their strongest comrades with laughable, almost exaggerated, ease.
In the face of their three strongest ninja and a nightmare long thought dead returned…
Their lines broke
She was far from the field, far from the fighting. But even she heard the call for retreat when it came. A near hysterical panic filling the voice a split second before the Konohagakure forces cheered in celebration.
And then pursued.
The retreat became a butcher's charnel lane. The Konoha ninja tore into the thinning front lines and sank their blades into the ones now looking to quit the field.
She felt it all. Watched it through the sixth sense provided by the seal, could feel the chakra flows ebb and die as their owner's breathed out their last.
Watched until the ninja slipped out of range, the Konoha forces right at their heels.
She didn't look to Naruto again until he fell at her side, the chakra that had powered the seal vanishing instantly, like a light-bulb that had been switched off
She looked to him, finding him on his hands and knees, breathing heavily. His skin was pallid, his cheeks tinged green.
It was likely he'd never suffered the effects of chakra exhaustion before.
She knelt down, pushing him until he fell on his side.
"Lie still." She commanded. "Move too much and you'll pass out."
His breathing was harsh, like a winded dog. A vein was visible along his temple.
Then he threw up.
Not… an uncommon reaction but always an unpleasant one for both parties.
She was about to say more when she felt a shiver race along her spine.
Killing intent!
She heard a sound at her back, turning, seeing the glint of a kunai blade rushing towards her spine.
She moved, adjusting her place before she felt the burning, searing pain lance up across her whole back and around her sides. She bit down a scream of pain as she lurched forward, and placed herself over Naruto.
The Iwagakure Jounin that leapt from the trees looked feral. His eyes locked with hers and she could see the wild, savage rage held within them.
"Let's see how tough you are without your illusions."
She reached around herself, fisting the hilt of the kunai blade before yanking it out. It would bleed more. But it would make it easier to move.
"You don't seem to understand captain-" She hissed from her place on the ground.
The Iwagakure Jounin, Nobutada, only had a moment to realize the woman he was speaking to had quite literally evaporated, like mist in a breeze before he felt his own kunai blade plunge into the side of his neck.
He gasped and choked on blood. His arms flailed as he pulled away, trying to strike her and staunch the bleeding. When he felt the hilt of the knife between his fingers it was already too late.
Itachi stood there, bleeding from her side, arm still outstretched from where she'd stuck him with his own knife, fingers held in a loose fist from when she'd let the blade slip through them.
Those eyes stared into his own.
"As long as I can see you… I'm never without my illusions."
Koutou:
As they once more moved through the forest, their pace much more sedate, it was Rahman that eventually marched up to his side.
"They will be hating you for this." The captain of his personal guard said.
"Long after I'm dead most likely." He responded.
"All these things you do for peace...what will you do now?"
He shrugged. "Peace will never come for us now. Perhaps the future generations will do what I could not. Perhaps they will be seen differently. But this world seems to have want of a villain-" He brought his hand up, fingers splayed wide before he beat his open palm into his chest twice. "I've done it before. I did it again. I suppose I play the part well if the gods' keep casting me in the role."
His voice sounded even, measured.
Rahman had known him long enough to know better.
"I see." Was all he said.
They remained quiet the rest of their journey to the Capital.