THE BATTLE FOR THE EARTH – NO HOLDING BACK
Near Hashirama and Grace's Starting Point
Tobirama may be calm in this moment but Sarada is not. This is probably it for them and while the 2nd Hokage spent most of his youth and much of his tenure walking the line between life and death, Sarada has not. She has, of course, risked her life for the hidden leaf many times but she had training, allies that she could have faith in. Most of the time, Tobirama had little hope in accomplishing his goals, his training came from his family and his blade was sharpened on the battlefield, not in an academy.
Seeing Sarada's nervousness, Tobirama knows she won't say anything. She may be nervous but she is not a coward, as the 9th Hokage she will undoubtedly throw herself into the situation head first, she will give everything to win here.
He places a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "We go together" he says gently, "If we can divide their attention then it will be easier".
Sarada calms upon hearing this advice. She nods lightly.
"And take this" Tobirama hands one of his marked kunai to Sarada, "We may get lucky".
Sarada takes hold of the kunai. They only have to dash once. They only need to touch the prison once. One of them is a user of the rinnegan, with the ability to both manipulate gravity and transform into a comet. The other is the creator of the flying thunder god jutsu, someone who in an instant can teleport to any point which he has marked with a formula. They can do this, it is as if fate has placed them here for this exact reason.
'It may be true that I'm nowhere near 100%' Sarada notes, 'If I had my full power, there is every chance I could touch the prison before any of them reacted. I'm the 9th Hokage though, so I'm not going to give up'.
Then, she begins.
The air in the immediate area noticeably changes in pressure as Sarada transforms into her comet form. The moment she transforms three gazes flicker in her direction, Grace, Peterson, Sheer, how could any of them not notice this sudden flaring of chakra. They activate their elemental cloaks and prepare for another fight.
Sarada wastes no time, immediately upon transforming she bursts towards the prison. As she noted previously, she is nowhere near her full power, as such her speed is reduced dramatically. It is still a site to behold though as she moves towards the black metallic structure.
In her wake, Tobirama activates chakra mode, embracing the source of chakra that Kurama is willingly providing him with. He stands up and arcs his arm, throwing a marked kunai towards the prison as hard as he can.
Peterson lowers his head, his eyes rapidly shuffling as he does his best to keep track of both his enemies at once. "No matter what, don't let them touch it" he shouts to his comrades.
Grace is quick to react to the situation. If Tobirama can teleport to any marks, simply get rid of all the marks. She extends her hand, pointing her palm at the moving blade before launching a fireball towards it. No matter how fast Tobirama throws this kunai, it won't be able to reach the prison quicker than Grace can react, no matter how fast he throws this kunai, Grace will be able to calculate its trajectory. She uses that as she blasts it from the air.
Sheer intends to use the same logic, she flicks her hand, creating an arrow of wind that flies into Sarada's path. This is not the most powerful attack she is capable of but she is already exhausted with Sarada being in the same position, if this attack were to hit, it may well put her down for the count.
The attack doesn't hit though, Sarada changes direction by ninety degrees, flying parallel to the surface of the cubic prison. Her speed isn't the only thing that has increased as a result of this form, her manoeuvrability and acceleration both have as well. Then she spots the next incoming attack.
Peterson throws something overhand, it seems to be like a concentrated sphere of electricity, tailed by a narrow burst of lightning, like a yoyo followed by a piece of string. The yoyo style attack is moving such that it will collide with her, that is if she keeps on her current path.
Sarada does not maintain her current path. 'Just like Tobirama said, he's fast'. She drops her transformation, reverting from her comet form to her human form as the yoyo passes in front of her. She drops underneath the lightning string before drawing the kunai Tobirama handed to her earlier. She throws the kunai towards the prison without hesitation, her starting point far closer than the 2nd Hokage's when he threw his kunai.
Tobirama teleports to the kunai just before it reaches the prison. He is not so naïve as to think this is the end though. 'Now, prepare for the incoming attack'. He swiftly draws a kunai from his pocket before dropping it down towards the floor.
His premonition of an incoming attack proves right. Grace arrives at his side, when teleportation isn't used, her speed is far greater than his in this beaten state. She throws a flame clad punch towards him. This is the attack that he had foreseen. He is more than ready for it though, he teleports to the kunai he just dropped, his feet touching the floor with the prison not a meter away. He stretches out his hand, reaching for the prison's surface, 'I only require one touch'.
'We can't let him touch it' Peterson desperately thinks to himself.
Sheer is panicking as well, 'Grace won't make it in time'.
The purple-haired Colonel lifts her foot, a signal that she is about to become one with the wind, to disappear momentarily before reappearing at Tobirama's side. This is a technique she has used many times in this competition so far. Naturally, one person has seen it more than any other, one person is prepared for it.
Suddenly Sheer and Peterson both feel as if they are being pulled away from Tobirama. Gritting her teeth, Sheer looks around to confirm her suspicions. Indeed, this is the pull of an unnatural gravity source. 'Sarada!' she shouts in her head as she realises what is happening. Grace cannot reach Tobirama in time, Peterson and herself are too far away now that they are being pulled by this gravity source. Tobirama is going to make it.
At least, the 2nd Hokage would make it, however, Peterson has something to say about that. 'As if I would let you'. Echoing his fight against Tobirama's elder brother, Peterson pulses a huge amount of electricity through his legs and into the ground.
Just as he is about to reach the prison, Tobirama is paralysed.
This can only last for a moment but that is enough. Grace drops down to Tobirama's level, holding nothing back as she punches him in the chest.
As the white-haired shinobi comes to halt a short distance away, he quickly fumbles around, removing his armour as quickly as he can. He quickly discards the enflamed blue body armour and takes a few deep breaths. He realises now that no matter what he does from here on, that effort has failed.
"Tobirama!" Sarada shouts as she looks towards her injured comrade.
Sheer cares little for her adversary's concern. She uses Sarada's own gravitational pull against her, allowing it to add to the Colonel's momentum, she emulates Grace's attack, punching Sarada with a fist clad in wind energy instead of fire.
As Sarada is launched backwards, Grace re-joins Peterson. "Good work Peterson" she praises her ally as she taps him energetically on the back.
"Yeah" he breathes out, "That power, it's not easy to use. Especially on such a strong opponent".
"We will have to use another method to defend against them".
"No, look closely" Sheer gestures to their two opponents, "They are both completely exhausted".
"So are you" Grace reminds Sheer.
"But you two haven't done much fighting yet" Sheer counters as she looks dejectedly at her junior, "You are fresh and they are on their lest legs. If you attack now it's an easy win".
"That attack was well coordinated before" Peterson nods, "Likely they won't have a backup plan now that it has failed".
"Then I will finish of the teleporter" Grace begins, "Peterson, you finish off the gravity controller".
"Got it" Peterson acknowledges the order before launching at Sarada. This is seemingly, the end.
Sarada attempts to move her feet but then immediately vomits up a mouthful of blood. This is the worst possible moment for her to come under attack. She knows that there is nothing she can do to avoid this attack now. 'I can't… I can't do anything' she realises, 'Boruto, I'm sorry, I have broken my promise'.
She is then surprised by the sudden appearance of someone between herself and Peterson. It's Tobirama. 'No matter what, the Hokage of today is a symbol in this fight, you have to survive Sarada'. Of course, Sarada reaches forward to try and push Tobirama out of the way, both wanting to risk their lives to save the other, this is the way of the Hokage.
Peterson is momentarily surprised by this display of comradeship. He hardens his heart and continue to press on towards the duo, 'This makes no difference to me, you will both die'. He continues to press on towards the 2nd Hokage's back.
Tobirama closes his eyes. He has experienced a lot since coming to the future and doesn't regret anything he has done. He has been able to meet many incredible people from the future. He has seen the Uchiha clan redeemed by both Madara and Sasuke, something his friends in the past fought hard for. He has seen Sarada change the opinion of the Uchiha name. He has seen his brother's true successor in Uzumaki Naruto. Despite Mito's death, he pressed on, just like she had wanted. This is the right thing to do.
Then an explosion blasts Peterson back away from Tobirama.
Sarada turns around, a smile coming to her face as she recognises the origin of this explosion.
"Mirai!".
As Peterson steadies, himself he skids back to the side of Grace and Sheer. Mirai throws several more bomb-style attacks towards them, with small explosive bolts of power exploding upon contact. The Colonel's only defence against this is his lightning shield, something he uses to protect all three of them from the fiery attacks.
"Sarada!".
Arriving just a moment after Mirai is Boruto, who, with Kakashi, runs to Sarada's side.
"Boruto…".
"I'm glad your fine" he says as he puts his hands on his knees, struggling to get is breath back, "You too Lord 2nd".
Tobirama shakes his head slightly, noticing that Boruto seemed to forget about him until just now. "Thank you Boruto, though I fear Sarada and I won't be able to help much for the rest of this fight".
Kakashi explains to Tobirama just what he and Boruto have been through in this fight. The only one amongst them who is fresh at this moment is Mirai. "You say you won't be much use in the rest of this fight. The same probably goes for us too".
"I don't know about that" Tobirama smiles to Kakashi, hoping he understands the 6th Hokage's newfound abilities, "Please, Mirai cannot win this fight alone, free my brother".
As Kakashi nods, Tobirama places a hand on the back of his fellow Hokage, pushing him in the direction of the prison. Kakashi takes this momentum and runs with it, while Mirai is holding down the enemy's three Colonels, he will run, he will touch the prison and the fight will change around in an instant.
Mirai continues to throw her explosive attacks, her most effective weapon, at this trio of Colonels. Their elements are lightning, wind and fire, possibly the worst trio of proficiencies to fight against Mirai. 'Go, Lord 6th, I'll cover you'.
Contrary to Mirai's expectations, Grace braves her attacks. The green-haired Colonel runs through the explosions before tackling Mirai to the ground. They did some damage, her face being largely covered in ash is a testament to this, but her determination has served her well. "I won't let you" she shouts as she holds Mirai to the ground with all her might. Hashirama may have been too much for Grace but Mirai is by no means too much.
Sheer uses her wind-dash technique, arriving at Kakashi's side before attacking him with a punch. Her punch though, is intercepted by a Susano ribcage. Not the cyan of Kakashi's Susano though, it is yellow, this Susano is from Sarada who has just arrived in her comet form, after allowing her strength a moment to recover.
That leaves just one Colonel to attack. Peterson realises he is the only one who can get in Kakashi's way, he transforms into a bolt of lightning, hurtling towards the 6th Hokage.
Once again, the attack is intercepted. This time it is by two people, Tobirama teleports to Kakashi's side, having marked him when he pushed him earlier. He has brought Boruto along with him. Boruto stretches his hand out before him, using the Tenseigan's repulsion power to push Peterson back. This is initially not enough to push Peterson back but when Tobirama creates an arm from Kurama's chakra and hits Peterson, together they manage to knock him backwards.
Grace lifts her arm from Mirai's neck, firing a last-ditch effort at Kakashi. A blast of fire, large enough to engulf and kill the 6th Hokage.
As Naruto once said though, Kakashi is the hidden leaf's ultimate trump card in this contest. Activating his Sharingan, Kakashi allows the fire to pass through him as he runs inside the prison through the wall.
The Hidden Leaf Hill
"Mirai's doing great" Hiruzen smiles cheerily.
"That's our granddaughter" Biwako nods as she admires the job that Mirai has done. True she had not defeated a Colonel or anything of the sort, but, in the effort to free Hashirama, she had played the most important part.
Tsunade nods, "And now, our greatest asset is about to come into play".
"Let's hope Lord 1st doesn't waste his chakra again" Shikamaru frowns.
"He won't". As Hashirama's granddaughter, Tsunade feels she knows him better than anyone else, "He knows he can't afford to fail this time".
Grace and Hashirama's Starting Point
Kakashi walks out of the prison, stepping through the walls using the power he inherited from Obito.
As the 6th Hokage activates Kamui, the figure of a man begins to appear next to him.
Tobirama, Mirai, Boruto, Sarada, all of them smile as the man fully appears in the outside world.
"Lord 1st!" they all cheer.
"Don't worry, everyone" Hashirama says as he begins to absorb nature chakra.
Amongst this group, only Boruto can sense nature chakra. Therefore, he is the only one who understands just how astonishing Hashirama's power is. When you learn the power of a sage, you have to be very careful not to absorb too much nature chakra, else the consequences will not be good for you. From what he can see though, it looks like the 1st Hokage is ignoring this fact completely, taking in nature chakra with wild abandon.
"I have no intention of holding back this time".
Sheer is the first of the Colonels to react to Hashirama's release. She creates a spear made from pure wind and throws it towards the 1st Hokage as hard as she can.
Then, she is stunned.
Less than a meter from her face, Hashirama has caught the spear.
The 1st Hokage squeezes his hand. The spear made from the most powerful of wind energy, is shattered into a thousand pieces. It must be understood, this spear is made from a Colonel, someone on the level Hashirama only just touched a month ago, now, not only had he caught it but he shattered it, after catching it so close to her face.
Hashirama pulls his fist back, pulling a gasp through Sheer's lips with it. Then, he punches her in the chest. She is driven backwards by his fist, a considerable distance. As she is she is pushed back along the ground, dust is driven up into the air, so much so that it can be seen from a mile in the sky.
Sheer clutches at her chest. 'That hurt like hell. His level is among that of the very peak Colonels. Damn, this is what Clyde was like back when he was a Colonel', she looks to her side, at a man who is now some distance from her. 'Likely, only Peterson I is match for him amongst us'.
"Hold it right there" Grace shouts as she aims a ball of fire at Mirai's head. Waiting for Hashirama's gaze to intersect hers, she the continues, "If you don't go back into that Prison, I will fry this woman here and now".
Hashirama looks to his younger brother upon hearing this. "Despite our differing philosophies, we're still on the same team, right?".
Tobirama returns Hashirama's look. Since they have reunited, the latter has done nothing but go against the wishes of Mito, the wishes that the former's sister-in-law left with him. On the same team, what sort of question is that? Tobirama opens his mouth so as to answer, then he disappears.
'Gone!' Grace starts before looking from Tobirama's position to Hashirama's. 'The other one is gone too'.
A hand grabs hold of Grace's bright-green hair from behind.
Hashirama's hand.
He smashes her head down into the ground, knocking her unconscious with one attack.
"Hey" Mirai groans as she wriggles out from underneath her unconscious enemy, "You could at least warn me next time". She rolls Grace's body off of her before preparing an attack. That's when she realises, Grace is already out, it really had happened with only one attack.
As Mirai looks to Hashirama in astonishment, Hashirama closes his eyes and shrugs. "It had to be done".
'What a guy' Mirai reflects on what just happened, 'With one blow, she is already out of it'.
Hashirama snaps the hidden leaf shinobi from her stupor. "With the condition our allies are in, it's just the two of us now Mirai. The two of us against the two of them". He has an excited smile on his face as he looks to Hiruzen's granddaughter, "Are you ready".
The answer to that. Mirai thinks back to all her training. Before this had all begun she had been hopeless, she had watched too many times as Colonels had obliterated her friends without being able to do anything about it. The one who had changed that was Sarutobi Hiruzen. The one who noticed her talent was Sarutobi Hiruzen. The one who believed in her, was Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Now everyone believes in her. Now everything has changed.
Smiling she stands at Hashirama's side, "Damn right, I'm ready".
Nearby Sheer and Peterson congregate. Burns, Sisto, Grace, all three of them are down, now they are the only two left. Sheer surviving up until now has already been a tremendous feet of endurance, now it looks like she will have to go even further.
"Peterson…" she whispers.
"I know" he replies, "While the teleporter and the others are here, even though they are low on energy, we don't know when they may recover".
Sheer is so exhausted that she hadn't even considered this. Despite having much more experience than Peterson, she looks to him for instruction, at this point she is just a weapon. She has very little mental strength left, so she will just entrust her physical strength to her ally.
"We can't fight freely here" Peterson decides, "There is no way I can beat that guy in these conditions".
"Shall we run?" Sheer asks.
"Yeah. Retreat".
With the decision made, Peterson and Sheer retreat into the air. The Colonel who had started this all by attacking Hashirama, the Colonel who had made it personal by reviving Sasuke, they flee towards their leader. Leaving those on the shinobi team with a moment of peace.
They have forced the Colonels to retreat.
If only for a second, this is their victory.
HokaHHHHJH