Chapter 81: Serpent's Monstrosities
He didn't know what it was that he was expecting when he was ordered to the west and onto a new battlefield. In a way, there couldn't be much of an expectation for an abrupt order that came from an abrupt attack, but that usually stemmed from the general rule of their being the flesh and blood of another human standing across the battlefield. Asuma Sarutobi couldn't count the amount of times he's faced life or death situations with another man or woman dictating that balance in a savage dance that they participated in. He's an elite jounin of the Leaf Village, a former member of the Fire's Guardian Twelve that ensured the safety of the most powerful man in the country that wasn't the Hokage. What he didn't have experience with, what he hoped none other than the shinobi he fought side-by-side with on this battlefield had experience with, was these grotesque monsters that poured into the Land of Fire from the Land of Sound. Whatever it was that the Snake managed to do in his den on the other side of the border, Orochimaru surely succeeded in creating the most monstrous army that has ever been seen.
It wasn't numbers that made the Sound forces monstrous. The Leaf corps that Kakashi allowed Asuma seemed to outnumber the current amalgamation of bodies by a healthy amount, but that wasn't the issue. It was the grayish-brown hide that was as tough as any armor, the spikes that crawled up arms and down spines, the horns that sprouted from the crowns of heads, and the various accumulations of animalistic features that was most apparent on their ugly visages. Dark purple chakra that swirled around their bodies when they were enraged to boost their already massive strength or swirled around wounds that managed to actually be incurred gave a thick sense of eeriness that spread across the battlefield. Roars echoed over the already deafening sounds of battle made, large appendages slammed into bodies and the ground with percussive force, and cries of pain rang throughout with no indication of respite near. That's what made this relatively small contingent from the north monstrous.
When given the order and the list of who he was to take, Asuma was left wondering a number of questions that wouldn't leave his silent ponderings. It wasn't his place to question Kakashi in his orders when they were so close to battles erupting on their own soil. He didn't have the right to question why his Hokage separated the Akimichi from the Yamanaka and Nara on a battlefield when those clans were so notoriously complementary to each other. When the large clansmen were paired with the Inuzuka and a large number of the Leaf's shinobi corps that were gathered, it was clear that brute force was the idea that the Hokage held, but the why evaded the jounin in his travel westward. Kakashi wasn't stupid, and he wasn't someone that needed to be told that brute force didn't solely win battles. Hell, any one who made it out of the academy should know as much, and yet, that was exactly what Asuma was given. When he finally let his eyes settle on the beasts that sat at the base of their border wall, it made more sense. When Asuma watched the monstrosities assorted with wings, tails, spikes, and other otherworldly attributes on massive humanoid frames, it was clear that the finesse that was so distinctly associated with many shinobi arts wouldn't cut it here.
Asuma didn't need any explanations from the samurai or the few shinobi that manned this portion of the walls to inform him of anything before he joined them in throwing down barrels of pitch to turn the monsters below them aflame. He, along with as many of the men that had the ability to join him after such a quick travel from the main Leaf contingent, sent down what ninjutsu they could, distributed as much explosive tags as could be found, and activated seals near the top of the wall to allow outpourings of elemental chakra. None of it, however, slowed the vicious clamoring that the countless behemoths launched at the wall with claws biting into the wall's surface. There was a point in the night, long before the dull haze of the encroaching Sun flirted along the horizon, that Asuma, and all around him, realized that their efforts would only do so much. That, no matter what they threw down the wall's face, the beasts that sat beneath them would keep coming until they tunneled all the way through the barricade and into their country. The longer the fruitless scampling atop the wall continued, the more inward the beast's would tunnel until the first line, then the second and third, would be unreachable from their position.
"Go and take your men to the ground, my men will make sure that they won't make it through to you easily." The gruff and grisled voice of the samurai captain that led the Fire Country army on the wall spoke to Asuma without hesitation or second thoughts evident. The Sarutobi was torn from his focus downward to look into the eyes of a man easily a decade older, wearing the scars of numerous battles of seniority of Asuma himself, with dulled and scratched armor that still showed the bright red of the Land of Fire accented with details of yellow that fell close to the line of gold. As far as Asuma was informed, the samurai of the Land of Fire hadn't been called into a large scale battle in years, these borders not threatened by a foreign army in a significant length of time, and yet the man that was asking him to abandon the top of their greatest defense still proudly wore the battle worn plate.
"What about your men? You won't be able to follow our retreat all that easily." Asuma noted quickly, making sure the man knew what it was he was saying. Shinobi could walk down vertical surfaces soon after they leave the academy, but it was a fundamental practice that didn't extend to their samurai counterparts. Perhaps some country-trained soldiers had some learned experience with the arts of chakra, but to assume any significant number in any group of the army men was hopeful at best and ignorant at worst. If Asuma took his men off the wall, the samurai would be left to fend for themselves with no backup available to them.
"They've breached the outer layers of the wall and are only getting deeper, shinobi. We can at least impose their advance in what little ways we can before we abandon this section of the wall. These walkways continue on toward another outpost that we can climb down to the ground level without the passageways being overwhelmed by those demons." There was no room left for discussion as the samurai captain turned on his heel and began shouting out to his men to conduct the swirl of bodies on the wall's pathways into a different current altogether.
Asuma quickly took heed of the captain's words, allowing him to lead his men to gather themselves and return to the ground below in swift sprints down the wall's face. At the ground level, Choza ordered men through the makeshift camp that easily accompanied the newly grounded men from the heights of the wall to give them space and accommodations for much-needed, and likely short-lived, rest until the next portion of their night would start. Asuma found himself sitting next to the Akimichi clan head with a ration bar filling his mouth with a brittle, subtly-flavored ration bar that was more akin to dirt than whatever flavor was intended to be found on his tongue. The entirety of the humble camp was silent aside from whispers of men trying to explain what their eyes saw to those that never made it up to defend the wall. Choza didn't say much in their rest, choosing to fill his body with food to accommodate the clan techniques he would call upon soon and hear what Asuma had to say about their situation.
The minutes passed by with swiftness, and the first signs of the next phase of Asuma's night followed swiftly behind his final swallow of the ration bar. Through the corner of his eye, dancing with the brightly lit flames that lined the battlements of the border wall, Asuma saw the running figures of the samurai mounted on the wall. Loud calls echoed through the air, unintelligible but it didn't matter as Asuma knew exactly what it meant. Their time was up. The samurai made their preparation, were making their escape, and now the rest would be up to the men the Hokage ordered to defend the Land of Fire.
"Get up, all of you!" Asuma forced his voice to call out to the hundred of men that sat in the same empty area that sat between the trees and the wall itself. There was a second of pause, a second to realize who was talking and why, but then there was a flurry of movement that let all the shinobi before him leave the circles that were formed in their short rest. "Form up behind the treeline in front of the gate, spread yourselves, and prepare to fight!"
No one argued with the jounin, not a man, woman, or large dog within the camp had something else to say about the order. Still, there was the squinted, pondering gaze of the ever-quiet Choza that looked over at Asuma as their shinobi buzzed around them. The man leaned heavily on the bo staff in his grasp before he lifted it and slapped the butt of the staff of the ground beneath it when he seemed to have grasped what it was he was searching for.
"The treeline must be protected, yes, but the flanks would do better for my clansmen and the Inuzuka. The open space of this land would let our clans' jutsu have the space to target and punish these beasts of ours. I'll lead one flank, I'll find an Inuzuka for the other, and we can see just how tough Orochimaru's creatures are." Choza ended his declaration with a gaudy laughter that betrayed how serious their situation was, but that didn't keep Asuma from letting laughter flow from himself as well as a hand dug for his pack of cigarettes in his pocket.
It only took a few short minutes for the ninja to all dash toward their positions and for Choza to isolate the clans that he took the liberty of leading into battle. By the time the early crackles and pops of the wall began, Asuma was already perched on the branch of a tree ready to watch the collapse as he exhaled thick plumes of smoke into the air. A fourth of the shinobi that Kakashi left Asuma stood before him, split in half on either side of the wall that was following through its chain of explosions from the top toward the bottom. The explosion grew louder, more percussive the closer to the ground they were, and soon the explosions were aligned with Asuma's eyes as rocks exploded from the outside of the wall into the grassy ground. A deep, rumbling growl emanated from the wall in its entirety, becoming a precursor to the swift collapse that made the wall fall entirely within itself. That made two different portions of the Land of Fire border wall collapsed to allow their enemies within their lands, and one more was still planned to come where the Hokage was located.
Rocks, rubble, and dust filled the air for several precarious minutes, shielding the Leaf shinobi from what awaited them on the other side, but it wasn't long before their enemies made themselves known. Grating, ear splitting roars sounded out from many different sources with many different pitches to them. Some were high and screechy, others deep and gravelly, but all of them were deeply unsettling. All of them only grew worse when the dust settled and the yellow eyes of their monstrous adversaries glowed in the night, their large forms looming in dark shadows, and the purple haze of their gross power muddying whatever light could be used to see them. It was easy to tell that many of the beasts were buried in the rubble, the muffled screeches distinguishable from the rest, but those would be dealt with when they were an immediate threat. Asuma's focus was immediately kept to that of the figures that stomped over the high mounds of stone that the wall was once made of to enter into their lands.
"Keep your distance, keep your heads, and make sure that these things don't make it any farther than they have to. The Hokage gave me the order to protect the Land of Fire from these invaders and that's what I plan on doing." He spoke loud enough that the men that were a few degrees removed from him could still hear him, but there wasn't any boisterous yelling. He wasn't the type and these men would know an artificial speech when they heard it. All he needed was for his shinobi to know that he was just as unsettled as they were, but that they still had a job to do. Still, it wasn't even them that had the first pick of the litter, but the Akimichi and Inuzuka that littered each side of the field awaiting Choza's signal.
The first action that broke the tense stillness of the field came from the enlarged body of an Akimichi that rolled furiously toward a winged beast that meandered too far into the Land of Fire and away from the wall's rubble. Loud booms accompanied the bounces of the large spherical shinobi that collided with the creatures and continued to barrel through to the other side of the field. For a moment, a single moment, the winged beast that felt the force of that barreling ball appeared to be felled by the single strike, but the following screech that erupted from it and purple blanketed its body proved otherwise. That single interaction opened the floodgates to all the rest. Suddenly, the sum of all the beasts that awaited to charged forward became to pour from the mound of rubble, the Inuzuka and their canine partners that waited on either side of them drilled forward with their clan's intense spiraling attacks, and the rest of the Akimichi joined the first in enlarging themselves to pound the invading beasts with as much strength as possible. Asuma quickly realized that strength was the name of the game here. Glancing blows from either clan did little more than stutter the monsters, lower-level attacks that landed flush only temporarily grounded them, and any attacks sent back by the beasts were devastating. One hit could send a man flying, one claw could disembowel, and one charge could flatten even a burly Akimichi.
Quickly, the battlefield turned into a brawl of man and beast, of shinobi and monster. The creatures didn't care about flowing south, they didn't have the awareness to push through the assault in a single direction to break their clear distraction. It seemed that they were as animalistic as they looked, and Asuma could work with that. He had been prepared for a frontal charge to follow a line to the Leaf, but now, with Choza's choice to initiate from the sides, Asuma realized that they could focus on trying to down these monstrosities. Fingers found purchase on the pack that sat at his waist behind his back, digging out the pristine knives that the pouch held within. His fingers slid into the sized holes of the handles, dusting his clenched fists in sharp edges as a long blade extended out from the bottom of his hand. Trench knives weren't something seen often with shinobi, many tended to find an affinity with a sword of one sort or another, but not Asuma. He appreciated the closeness of a fight, the intimacy of the dance with death, and now that seemed like a more pressing endeavor in who he would be facing. It would be a little late for second thoughts.
"Go!" There wasn't a mark he was waiting for, a line that was drawn for when they would initiate their strike. As it was, waiting would only put their comrades fighting in more danger if the beasts had no interest in pushing south so long as they were there distracting them. Asuma shot forward with his trench knives snuggly wrapped around his fingers, and the shinobi perched around him followed only a moment behind him to join the fray of snarling teeth, gnashing claws, and human boulders.
His first mark was a large beast that slapped away an Inuzuka canine that tried to latch onto a scaled forearm from behind to protect its downed partner. Before the beast could turn its attention back to the downed Inuzuka, however, Asuma let the familiar hum of wind chakra tightly wrap around the steel of his trench knives as he charged forward in a burst of speed. The same scaled arms that easily batted away the large dog immediately rose to swing at Asuma in the same fashion, a mighty growl falling from the beast's fanged mouth. Even with a close, clear look at what it was that stood before him, Asuma couldn't be sure what it was no matter how hard he tried to focus on one thing or another. Its hide matched the rest of the monsters around it, scales traced up its arms and legs, its spiked reptilian tail was stiffly waving behind it, and its face was twisted into a snarl as spikes literally twisted from the face in every which way. It was grotesque, imposing, and deadly.
Fortunately, in a small glimmer of hope, speed wasn't something that stood out for the creature. The swings were powerful but slow, allowing Asuma to slide past the powerful right arm that cut across the beast's body to hook his left fist across the abdomen of the beast and step out of range before the left arm came crashing down on top of him. The steel of his trench knives were high-quality, its edges sharp, and the wind chakra that wrapped around it was well controlled and only accentuated that vicious edge, but when Asuma peered back at the slash across the beast's body, there wasn't much to be found. A deep, dark substance that may be interpreted as blood, trailed down from the gash left on the beast's abdomen, but it wasn't comparable to the lethal strike Asuma was usually met with when his blades made contact. It was hardly a flesh wound.
His target surged forward, one long stride followed closely by a shorter one as long, clawed fingers rose above its head to slam down on Asuma, and likely the ground that lay under him. It was faster than the swings from earlier, showing more intensity and some sense of urgency, but Asuma was considerably swifter in his hop steps to the right to strafe out of the way of the heavy impact that cratered in the grass and soil of his previous position. The beast slowed again at the bottom of the swing, letting its hands pause on the ground for several moments to allow Asuma the time and space to charge forward again with wind chakra howling within his hands. A left hand dug into the beast's ribs underneath the left armpit, then the right hand hooking into the back, and just as the beast began to torque its body toward Asuma, large muscles tightening visually under the hide, Asuma jumped into the air. Long sweeps of the arms whipped through the air under Asuma's feet, but the jounin paid no mind as the trench knives in his grasp only howled loud as he dropped down onto the beast's back. The long blades at the base of his fist broke through the scaled hide of the beast's back and slowly sank deeper within, causing the violent lash of the spiked tail that slammed into the ground below him. An awkward mix of a hiss and a roar echoed from the beast to join the symphony of noises around them while dark liquid oozed from the stab wounds, liquid that kicked up recklessly from the wind chakra inserting in the flesh.
Asuma held on tightly as the creature lashed one way and then the other, twisting and turning as its massive arms reached above its head but never quite grasping the man that was backpacking it. Deep, calming breaths were taken, teeth were clenched, then weight was leaned heavily on the left blade as Asuma unsheathed the right blade before stabbing it into the base of the monster's neck. There wasn't nearly as much leverage in this stab as there was in the free fall that got his blades embedded to the hilt and that lack of leverage, and momentum, made sure that the blade still stuck halfway out of the base of the beast's neck. Abandoning the left trench knife in the beast's body, Asuma let his second hand join in the downward pressure of the knife, letting the man's whole weight drive the blade inward slowly. The bucking of the monster quickened considerably as another pained howl erupted from it, but like a bundle of strings being cut from a puppet, the beast eventually dropped to the ground in a limp heap of flesh and slowly leaking blood.
He didn't remove himself from the beast's back immediately, patiently waiting for any delayed movements before he pushed himself from his awkward lying position on the beast's back. For a moment, he peered down at the knife he inserted into the beast's neck, right at the base and at his best approximation of the cervical spine on a creature that was still a bipedal humanoid despite whatever else it appeared to be. He had hoped that thrusting a chakra coated blade into the beast's spine would put it down, and by the looks of it, it did. Taking a deep breath, Asuma stood and grunted out as he removed his blade before turning and doing the same with the second of the pair. Looking around, it was clear that they had the numbers advantage, it was clear that the teamwork of many shinobi dedicating themselves to one titanic body could bring them a victory against these disgusting monsters. Bodies laid on the ground still, bodies of his men, women, and canine that fought for the Leaf, but they weren't in vain as they laid next to the grotesque remains of what they fought against that were all in different states of death.
Asuma recognized that he wasn't the only one that realized that a slow and measured approach would be useless against what they faced. Inuzuka, Akimichi, and the many shinobi that they fought alongside toted their most fearsome techniques and tactics to punch through the might of the beasts. At a steady pace, beasts fell in the Leaf's defense. Asuma joined his men as they cut through big bodies, but not without taking their fair share. It wasn't long before Asuma was caught by an errant spike that dug into his flesh, a claw that bit into him, or the backswing of an arm that launched him to the ground. Light began to shine on their battlefield, showing the product of their fighting, the reward for their blood, but it wasn't what he had hoped to see through the dirt, blood, and grime.
The Sarutobi was tired. The whip of wind in his hands was duller, his body heavier, and his eyelids aching to close from his night of exertion and turmoil. He stood near the treeline, another monster lying motionlessly at his feet as he looked out to the field he fought within. Bodies littered the ground, in the open ground before the wall that they had yet to stray from, but it was increasingly filling with green flak jackets and blue sweats. There were more and more canines, Inuzuka, and Akimichi that lay motionless in the heat of battle. At the start, those bodies were a sacrifice of their defense, a necessity for victory, but he couldn't help but notice that titanic bodies were rarely found. The beasts that he and his shinobi fought together to fell seemed to be in thin numbers at their feet, but their comrades numerous, but then he saw it.
It was a beast with a scaled hide that joined a spiked tail that swung into the ground with heavy thumps. Its body twisted and torqued as it tried to swing at a Leaf jounin who tiredly drifted out of reach, but as it twisted, Asuma caught the sight of two bloody stab wounds on its back and another at the base of his neck. A cold wash settled in the tips of his clenched fingers, a dryness fixating in his already dehydrated mouth, and a heavy realization in his mind.
All of these deaths, and they aren't even staying down.
Asuma was at a loss as he watched his countrymen fight valiantly through their fatigue against these beasts that they've thrown everything at. What was he supposed to do? Did he kill it again and wait for it to stand once again? Did he order a retreat to allow his men to rest before they try once again? What did he do?
"WORRY NOT, FOR THE GALLANT JIRAIYA HAS APPEARED!"
"I don't need backup, kid. You'll just end up getting in my way if you try and tag along." Jiraiya didn't even try to hide his annoyance at Neji's appearance at the Leaf's front gate. Neji had been quick to call upon those left within the confines of his clan's compound and continue toward the village's exit as he was ordered by Danzo Shimura, but he was still impeded by the Sannin he was ordered to follow. It wasn't a surprise to the Hyuuga. In the time that either Sannin have been in the village since their returns, Neji hadn't seen much of one or the other. Most hadn't. Having a young jounin tag along to the northern border didn't prove to be something that the Legendary Three would be receptive to, but his orders were clear and simple.
"I understand that, Lord Jiraiya, but the Hokage has ordered me and my clan's men to join you, and so we shall." His voice didn't raise, his words weren't hard, he simply reported what it was he was told. The men and women behind him, only standing at a stout 27 Hyuuga that was left behind to help ensure the control and safety of the village with the rest of the standing shinobi corps tending to the war around them. Their ages were closer to the Sannin's than they were to his own they were to follow. Aged but experienced shinobi that stood aside the occasional younger soul to round out a less than ideal guard, but none of them made a statement of displeasure or voiced their concerns of going out to war. They kept their stoicism as the green seal showed proudly on their foreheads.
"You don't understand anything, boy. Danzo made that order, not Kakashi. I wouldn't be surprised if one of your shinobi were hiding the stamp of his organization somewhere under their robes to keep an eye on me." A silent moment passed as the Sannin's gaze danced around the bodies behind Neji for a few precious moments before returning to the clan head with a look of annoyed relenting. "I don't have the time to keep up with anyone else. Follow along but don't fall behind, I won't be keeping a head count."
Neji nodded to the Sannin immediately after the man's condition, but the man hadn't seen it before he turned his back to the Hyuuga to walk out of the village gates. He followed closely behind the Toad Sage, expecting the man to launch himself ahead in a burst of speed after leaving the border of the village, but Jiraiya stopped soon after a handful of steps along the dirt road that extended before them. No questions were asked in time to interrupt the hand that met the Sannin's mouth, the series of hand seals, or the large burst of chakra that plume a mass of smoke under Jiraiya's feet. That plume of smoke was quick to break in favor of showing the mountainous, light-blue toad that had swirling white patterns flowing across its oily skin. Neji could only watch wide-eyed as the faint murmurs of the sage on the toad's back barely carried to his ears while massive hind legs stretched themselves out in careful movements. Dark eyes glinted back at Neji, pairing themselves with the curling lips below them, and a cheeky call behind him forced the Hyuuga into action.
"Remember what I said, Hyuuga. Don't fall behind." The Hyuuga's sharp eyes didn't need the benefit of his family's visual prowess to see the tightening muscles that the large toad flexed easily after its loosening stretches. He didn't need to have an in depth knowledge of the Toads of the legendary Leaf summoning contract to know that the Sannin he and his clansmen were supposed to be guarding was about to leap off into an airborne trajectory toward their destination.
"Come!" Neji said in a quick shout, pushing off his feet to launch himself into the body of the toad. Around him, Neji felt the impacts of his subordinates following his lead, all of them attaching themselves to the pure white jacket that covered the broad back of the toad with chakra covering the body parts in direct contact. The moment the gathering of Hyuuga fastened themselves, a rush of force pushed down on their shoulders as the safety of the ground drew further and further away from a might hop, that heavy force was replaced by weightlessness once the toad and its passengers reached the apex of the jump, and that too was replaced by the jarring reunion with the ground before it all started over again.
Neji could've sworn that he heard the Toad Sage laugh at their expense from much higher up on the summoned animal's back, but noises weren't clear from any direction with the constant rushing and ever-changing direction of air that flowed past the Hyuuga's ears. He wasn't sure how fast they were moving in comparison to sprinting on foot, he wasn't sure the passage of time through the rhythmic leaps that was the entirety of Neji's reality at that point, but eventually there was halt to the jumping that brought a delicate peace to the world around him. Turning his head, Neji made eye contact with a man to his right that was only a few years his senior, a tense eye contact that was paired with a disheveled appearance from the robes to the long dark hair. Peering at their surroundings, Neji couldn't quite make out where they were, relative to their destination or village, but he did know the voice that called back down to him.
"Seeing as you and your clansmen are intent on sticking around, don't you want to make yourselves more comfortable? Or did I mistake your scrunched faces for the relaxation of a Hyuuga?" Jiraiya gave a chuckle in response to his own words, the suggestion and jape properly shaking Neji out of the silent deliberation he fell into in their brief peace. Pushing off his hands, the Hyuuga clan head swung into a stand that wobbled back and forth as Neji tried to regain himself from the bizarre transportation. He and his clansmen climbed up to join the sage at the top of his summon, spreading out across the large amphibian's broad shoulders with some pouring over the gentle slope of the back. It wasn't perfect, but he supposed that riding a toad wasn't something he quite had the hang of and it was objectively better than being caught on the lower back holding on desperately.
Jiraiya pushed forward without further words between any of them, speaking gentle words to their accommodating toad to draw the amphibian into another leap forward. With this new point of view of the world around them, Neji could admire just how far and fast they flew across the ground toward the northern border. They cut the time of travel by several minutes with every leap in comparison to a fully dedicated sprint, and Neji could appreciate the fact that they would be arriving at their countrymen's aid hours in advance compared to when he had expected to arrive. It was no long measure to have assumed that they would get to the battle with the Sound until the hours of the night without the benefit of Jiraiya's summons. The speed was appreciated by the Hyuuga, much so. He had been ordered to stay in the village to aid with its running with so many absences due to war, he was a young clan head that needed not only to gain experience but also the head of the most prominent clan. He accepted his duty as it was, but Neji wasn't one to prefer the sidelines. He grew up with the dedication to the Hyuuga's combat arts and the desire to show them, even if his hopes had been tainted with sour feelings.
"Get ready, kid, we're almost there and I don't know what we're going to be hopping into. You chose to be here, so make sure you follow whatever I have to tell you once we get there." The end of Neji's waiting came with stern words that betrayed no others feelings, especially not the playfulness of no longer than two hours ago. The Sun was starting to truly shine above the horizon, the edge of the Land of Fire's forestry could be seen when they went airborne, the border wall visible to them long ago. The pent up energy that gathered while Neji was held within the village decided to enliven itself all at once after Jiraiya's words, but he fought down the urges to show that energy behind the stoic face and strict posture he stood in behind the Sannin.
Soon after the edges of their country were seen, it wasn't hard to also find the battling that occurred at the wall's base. Details were hard to make out with the naked eye, but with the Byakugan, Neji had no issues inspecting the field they were charging toward. That sight, however, didn't bring much clarity. Bursts of purple chakra stood in place of calming blue chakra as two sides clashed back and forth in a tiring display of combat. Large burly bodies fought amongst circles of half a dozen and still wouldn't fall, behemoths that were on the ground still glowed with life as the purple was joined with the chakra that was pulled from the world around it to allow that foul energy to burn brighter than ever.
"What do you see? Anything I need to know?" Jiraiya asked his question from over his shoulder while keeping his gaze in front of him. For a few moments, Neji didn't know how to answer that question. Even if he could see the field, it felt as if there were still things that Neji himself should know but didn't. When the Sannin's gaze focused solely on the clan head, Neji spoke only of what he could be sure of.
"We have numbers, but what we fight isn't known. Creatures with foul chakra fill the field and Leaf shinobi are fighting together to bring them down." For how long they would be down seemed to be the question as his visual prowess focused again on the downed bodies that gathered the chakra of the world to fill their own, somehow. Jiraiya nodded but didn't ask anything further. A frown deepened on the sage's face, a dark glint catching the man's eye, and Neji was forced to merely wonder if that look was due to himself or for what they were heading into.
The silence became tense for several minutes, the thumping of their travel being the only true filler of the silence, but that silence was broken by a sudden burst of boisterous energy from the Sannin before him.
"WORRY NOT, FOR THE GALLANT JIRAIYA HAS APPEARED!" Jiraiya yelled loud enough to echo through the air far and wide. Neji's eyebrows rose and looked to the man that paid him no further mind, instead focusing on the deeply scarred field that lay just before the line of trees at their mount's feet. "LEAF SHINOBI FALL BACK AND WATCH A GRAND DISPLAY FROM THE SAGE OF MOUNT MYOBOKU!"
Jiraiya stood with a wide, powerful pose as they looked down on the field, watching as Leaf Shinobi quickly listened to the orders of the sage. It was clear how fatigued the Leaf forces were by the speed of some of their retreats. Some darted out of the way with full mobility, but others jolted and stumbled away from the titanic beasts that they fought against as a mass of grotesque roars echoed from the things that held the tainted chakra.
"Gamaku? Could you be a doll and drown these monstrosities of my old teammate's doing in toad oil?" Again, Jiraiya's personality flipped as he addressed the toad at his feet, holding the summon in high regard every time he spoke to it. There was a gentle grunt that came from the toad that was followed by a deep and breathy inhale. The exhale, however, came in a flooding shower of clear, thin liquid that quickly poured down in thick globs to cover the entire battleground before them. "Fire Style: Flame Bullet!"
The embers of Jiraiya's technique was utterly dwarfed by the torrent of oil, but it mattered little and less when the flames tickled the surface of flowing liquid. In one, thunderous roar, the entirety of oil lit up the field below them and all the monstrosities that laid on it. The howl of the high climbing blaze that substituted as a second Sun in the early hours of the morning drowned out most of the pained howls of the beasts that burned, but not all. Neji listened and watched as shadows within the blaze slowly sank into the ground as the flames continued to burn, and it made Neji consider why he was even here. In seconds, an entire battlefield was reduced to a pit of flames without so much as a batted eye from the sage just in front of Neji. Maybe after all his waiting, Neji would still not see the sight of a battlefield that he was a part of.
Just as that thought idly scraped through the Hyuuga's brain, a blur of movement danced on the other side of the fallen section of wall. Activating his visual prowess, all that sparked his gaze in the north was a burning violet within hefty bodies.
Another day, another battlefield covered. Originally, the first gap in time for this war would have been here, making the battles progress a little bit, but I've changed that. The next two were additions that I think would carry a bit more insight before that transition, and after that we shift gears a little bit before jumping back into it.
I see the horizon folks. There is still much to cover, but I see it in the distance. Perhaps there will still be a hefty sum left, but a month ago I couldn't tell you how this was gonna come around to any sort of conclusion. Now I see it and that's pretty dope to me.