Opening - Love Deterrence by Nana Mizuki
X
The ability to see chakra is one trait shared by every known doujutsu. There are even minor and obscure ones such as the Kagura Shingan that grant this ability and nothing else. The Byakugan in particular can see the flowing shape of chakra in a person's body in total clarity, as opposed to an eye such as the Sharingan or Rinnegan perceiving it as a uniform haze of colored light.
While noteworthy, this facet of the Byakugan's power seems to receive far more attention than the others, to the point that any shinobi other than a Hyuuga would mention it first if asked to describe the Byakugan's entire suite of abilities. This is because of the infamous Gentle Fist taijutsu and how it draws its effectiveness from the ability to see chakra more clearly.
But if a Hyuuga were asked to explain the functions of the Byakugan, they would speak first of its field of vision. When activated, the Byakugan expands the user's sight to take in everything in a bubble of space around them extending up to fifty meters, excluding a tiny blind spot at the nape of the user's neck and everything behind that point.
Next the Hyuuga will tell you that this field of vision can be expanded, and this is where things get interesting.
After practicing the ability, a Hyuuga can temporarily expand their field of vision from the initial fifty-meter bubble centered on the user to a greater scope of less rigid dimensions. For example, it took Hinata until she turned sixteen to build her strength enough to see ten kilometers away from herself in one direction at a time. She could maintain this field of vision for several minutes uninterrupted, but the strain would eventually reach her and she would need to deactivate her eyes.
Given the numbers involved, one could be forgiven for assuming this made her a prodigy among the Hyuuga Clan.
Hinata's strengths lay in her perfect chakra control, her access to a unique Sage Mode and her skill with Water Release jutsu, the Rasenyari in particular. She stood out as quite possibly the strongest Hyuuga of all time, not counting any of her ancestors from before they took their current name. Even then, she was a solid contender. But the abilities of her Byakugan, by contrast, were ordinary. Her younger sister Hanabi could already see farther despite being a newly minted Genin at twelve.
But there was a Hyuuga prodigy elsewhere on the battlefield of the Fourth Shinobi World War, currently standing atop one of the higher mounds of rubble that had been the Alliance's first line of defense. Wrapped up in a white cloak that was standard issue for Konoha-nin, he blended in with the blizzard that filled the air and had already covered the first wall in snow. It would have been useful if there were any enemies nearby to hide from, but they would take hours to reach the wall and by then he would be gone.
The abilities that made Neji a prodigy were built into his body; he'd been born gifted. But he had grown fully out of his arrogance in the past three years and now held admiration for the way Hinata had developed, so very different from himself. She had worked well outside the comfort zone of a Hyuuga to achieve her power, mastering ninjutsu and learning to wield the chakra of the world itself; with it she put herself on par with a Tailed Beast and Neji couldn't help but be awed by it.
It became something for him to live up to, a standard she set for him to match. But unlike her, the likely pattern of Neji's growth had been determined before he was born. He was a prodigy by virtue of his kekkei genkai and his skill with it, and so focusing his skillset on it was the only option that made sense. It was his destiny, and he had no objections to it.
The range of her Byakugan was ten kilometers at maximum in one direction at a time, slightly below average for a Hyuuga. He, on the other hand, could see from one border of the Land of Frost to the other and just slightly beyond. Everything between Lightning and Hotsprings fit comfortably within his field of vision which he could maintain for well over two hours. He trained and pushed his sight further every day, aiming for omniscience across the entire continent at his current rate.
I didn't and still don't believe Fate can hold us back. It's always pushed both of us forward!
She couldn't have known how her words three years ago would affect him so deeply, but even after so long they were still there at the back of his mind. He hadn't forgotten, would never forget the day his view of the world had twisted completely backward with those words.
A tiny smile crossed his face as he thought; it might have been broader if not for the dismal weather covering most of the country. But he activated his Byakugan regardless, and suddenly the storm was a stunning natural artwork when viewed in its entirety. Lightning flashed through the upper reaches of the blizzard, visible even under the clear sunlight touching it from above. It took several seconds for him to hear the thunder and even then it was muffled by the wind roaring in his ears.
He moved on, shifted his attention back to the ground and searched. It would have been trickier to spot the White Zetsu Army through the snowstorm that turned the air and ground the same color as their bodies, but each of them gave off a glow of chakra that was unmistakable to the Byakugan. The poor visibility did absolutely nothing to hinder that light; it took Neji a matter of seconds to send his focus roaming around the Land of Frost and spot them.
"...They're moving pretty fast," he noted, surprised. "Like a single shinobi tree-hopping instead of a huge army marching slowly to conserve strength. And they don't look tired for it at all either... At this rate, they'll be here a bit after sunset."
The horse-sized fox seated next to him frowned. "In case you haven't noticed the weather, sunset doesn't mean much to me."
Neji nodded. "Three hours, maybe?"
"Hm." Kurama's frown grew further into a scowl. "They've already passed Shimo then."
"That's right..." Neji focused on the village for a moment. "The storm can cover up their footprints, but even in this weather I'd still be able to see if they'd cleared up Shimo's roads at all. It doesn't look like they made camp there, and I don't see any chakra silhouettes. Shimo is empty."
"And the Oto-nin? Can you see any of Kabuto's minions mixed in with the Zetsus?"
"...No," he admitted. "Not even one. They're probably still with Kabuto... or maybe he didn't bring them into this at all. We know he moved them out of Juugo's facility, but that's not a guarantee he meant to use them in this war. They're unstable; maybe he just locked them up somewhere else or killed them."
"That doesn't seem like Kabuto Yakushi to me," said Kurama. "It's not like I've held a conversation with him, but I think I know his type. He'd consider a move like that a waste of resources, and he'd keep looking for a way to use the Oto-nin. Have you had any luck spotting his hideout?"
"Nothing," Neji sighed. "No sign at all. I know how he's hiding the place... it's a seal, or more likely a barrier ninjutsu that blocks chakra light from my eyes. I've scanned most of the country with a focus on civilian villages and forests... but there's nothing. It's possible I've already passed him and his barrier hides physical bodies from the Byakugan as well as their chakra."
"It is?"
"Possible," Neji stressed. "Konoha doesn't have a jutsu like that, but Kabuto and Mariko both have the Byakugan themselves. They know what to look for, so maybe they could develop one."
"And what about Zetsu?" the fox growled.
"Nothing, but at least that much isn't surprising. We already know he can hide from the Byakugan; he escaped Hinata-neesama's sight in Ame."
Kurama huffed. "Alright then; that's the last of it. By your guess, we have three hours to get ready for a siege." he curled up onto his hind legs and formed the hand seals to call a Seal Summoning platform. I'll speak with Itachi about the Fire-Wind Division and you'll go to the Hyuuga. Naruto already knows everything we've said through our link, so he can brief the Five Kage."
X
By nightfall the storm had only gotten worse. Even under the protection of the Alliance's second wall, the keening wind and tremorous thunder still reached the ears of the army gathered before Itachi Uchiha. More than that, the White Zetsu Army was upon them and matched them for numbers. From Neji's report, the enemy didn't tire and they weren't even inconvenienced by the storm.
None of this was good for morale, and something had to be done. Itachi cleared his throat and all attention was on him in a flash.
"We don't have long now," he began. "No more than a few minutes before the enemy reaches us. Then we'll have to meet them out there, and it'll be unpleasant." he paused, let them grumble for a moment on his choice of words, then went on and his voice took a more relaxed tone. "But to tell the truth, I'm more concerned with the weather than our opponent tonight. That blizzard will give us ten times the trouble Akatsuki will."
They perked up at that; it was a nice start. "So with these last few minutes," he gestured to the hearths periodically placed along the room to keep thousands of shinobi warm under the storm, "sit and enjoy the heat. I have a few words for you all before we go."
"It might help if we changed our perspective here," he spoke up louder, his tone went harder. "All of you gathered before me, you are not just shinobi, not anymore. Think on it like this... Iwa, Kiri, Konoha, Kumo, Suna. Together we are the greatest army this world has ever seen, the greatest it will ever see."
"Take a good look at these walls around you. Those of you who can sense, reach out and feel the chakra of entire nations coursing through this stone. This fortress is also the greatest in history, unbreakable as we are."
"So now, each of you take a breath and steel yourselves. We are the largest army in history, guarding the greatest fortress ever built. Our own strength, the strength of our wills have a high standard to match, so think of why we're about to fight."
"We are ninja. Our world has never been black and white; you've all gone through your whole lives questioning what side you should really fight for. I have. I know how it feels to wonder if maybe you've been the villain of the story all along. But now... now it is black and white. Now there is no reason to doubt! We fight to protect the entire world and everything good in it!"
"So hold onto that thought. Right now for the first time, you can be completely sure that you are good and the enemy is evil. Because if we lose, the world ends."
"But we won't lose. We are the greatest army in the world. We have the greatest fortress to protect us. We hold in our hearts all the light in the world; our cause is pure."
"In the face of that, I admit... I don't feel worthy to be your general. I'm not the greatest commander in the world. How lucky we are then, that you don't need a commander. Our task is simple. We'll line up at the top of this wall and burn the enemy to ash with collaboration ninjutsu. Those of you with Fire, simply shoot at the enemy. Wind users, aim your jutsu at the Fire attacks once they're in flight. That's all! A simple and efficient strategy to add to our list of advantages!"
"Everything is on our side! So we won't lose!"
"The enemy is here and they are powerless. Their jutsu can't break this wall or reach us at the top. We've already won; all that's left is to put in the actual effort. Mind the blizzard, because it's the only thing out there that can trouble you."
He paused one last time, took a deep breath. They had been cheering for a while now. He raised a hand and called them all back into silence.
"So much for the end of the world. Let's go, Shinobi Alliance."
He turned away to face the wall and glared into it with his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan spinning to life. He saw the emerald glow of so many thousands of Zetsu clones, all gathered together to attack a single point on the wall. They were within shooting distance now; it was time. He brought up his hands and meshed them through a short string of seals, then laid his palms on the floor and deployed his army.
The heat and light of the fires vanished instantaneously and the Alliance found themselves lined up at the top of the wall. True to his word Itachi stumbled under the sudden push of the wind. It was harsher up here than on the ground, and the storm itself was angrier than an hour ago.
"Fire users take aim!" he roared over the wind with the help of the same genjutsu that had carried his speech through the wall. "Cast!"
Thousands upon thousands of Fire Bullets, dragons and Great Fireballs shot forth and down, lit up the pitch-dark night like a new sun and thundered as they made for the Zetsu army. Somewhere along the wall his little brother breathed out a cloud of black flame that ate some of the light instead, but still it was so bright that Itachi squinted.
Then the wind jutsu struck the flames en masse and they grew hotter, so bright that he turned away entirely. It was because of this reflex that he saw the lightning bolt strike the wall. It was far past the outer edge of the gathered Fire-Wind Division, but still it struck the wall and the stinging scent of ozone hit them all, carried on the screeching wind. The thunder wasn't more than half a second behind.
"Steady!" he bellowed, fighting to be heard over the ringing in their ears now as well. "It's under control! Chuunin Uchiha, report now!" Sasuke hopped out of a Yomotsu Hirasaka portal to his older brother's right. "What would happen if you used Kirin with a storm of this size?"
Sasuke hesitated and thought, and the Alliance loosed another barrage of wind-enhanced fire jutsu. "I don't think one shot would be enough to use up all this lightning," he called back. "In theory the jutsu should come out like it always does, but it won't stop the storm! Maybe I could stop it if I used it more than once!"
"Do that," Itachi ordered. "More firepower is always welcome."
"Got it." He lit up his hand with a ball of chirping electricity, its sound lost under the weight of the rest of the battle. The flashes of lightning elsewhere thoughout the swirling blizzard went dark, and instead a single area above the bulk of the White Zetsu Army lit up with a consistent, thrumming blue light.
The enemy so far below must have felt the charge building because they whipped into a frenzy. Those directly below the blue pool of light started frantically piling up Wood Release structures over their heads, while those closer to the wall fought twice as hard to tear into it with their own attacks. Sasuke felt the scraping vibrations all the way through to the top of the wall, but this wasn't like last time. The first wall might have been saved if its fuinjutsu had been applied before the attack, and this time the Alliance didn't wait until they finished construction.
The wall held with only light scratches to show for all the enemy's efforts, and Sasuke let his jutsu touch the earth. He poured extra power into it for good measure; there was plenty to draw on with a hurricane of this size. Even knowing that, knowing that the jutsu would be scaled up according to the increase in power, Sasuke wasn't prepared for how much light poured out of the sky when he called for it.
Everything turned glowing blue to match Kirin's light; the color was seared into his vision in slow motion. His active doujutsu drank it all in and the lightning appeared to hang in the air forever. It was even worse when the sky went dark again; he was blinded in the dark and would stay that way for some time. D-Dammit...
He couldn't see but he could hear, the awe in the voices of the Alliance and the terror among the Zetsu Army. The attack had hit them hard, he guessed, probably wiped out hundreds at the center of the attack and marred the sight and hearing of thousands more around that point.
"Keep shooting!" Itachi called and the Alliance did as ordered. "Sasuke, how bad is it?"
He realized he had stumbled into a sitting position and was rubbing his eyes. "I'm blind for now," he admitted. "You must've looked away before I fired, didn't you?"
"Hn," Itachi replied with a nod Sasuke missed entirely. "Turn off your Sharingan and give it a minute." he turned his attention back to the army and assessed their current state, which was about as bad as it would get. "It's time, activate the Swamp of the Underworld!"
There was a delay of a few seconds, then the ground just a few inches out from the base of the wall went from soft white to dark as the stormy sky above. The darkness poured out further, as the earth turned to liquid under the army's feet it all swallowed up and melted the snow. The Zetsu Army backpedaled but the Swamp of the Underworld was vastly faster; it crept out well past them so even if they retreated they would still be standing in its range. Those who didn't immediately fall in resorted to water-walking chakra instead.
The overwhelming majority of the clones managed this much, but all the structures of wood they'd raised to hide from the Fire-Wind onslaught sank in a flash. The next wave of Alliance attacks struck their heads with nothing to hold them back, hitting as hard as the initial volley.
"Keep it up!" Itachi ordered and his doujutsu spun to life. "Until they recover, this is the best shot we'll get!" A bit of blood trickled from the Eternal Mangekyou and he brought a Tiger seal to his lips. "Blaze Release: Great Fire Annihilation!"
Even as he let loose the unfurling cloud of black flame, he saw the Zetsu Army trickling apart at the center of their formation almost exactly where he'd aimed. They're getting ready to counterattack... The enemy marched and gathered themselves at four points set far enough apart that the space between them could well hold the entirety of their forces.
He saw their chakra building up there, then watched it burst up and out into the air as four beams of the same lime-green light. From the cries of surprise among the Alliance he guessed that light was visible without a doujutsu, a guess he confirmed a split-second later by turning off his Sharingan. The pillars of light shot out webs of the same color between each other and filled the space between them with a canopy of chakra.
A barrier ninjutsu, he realized with a scowl. Large enough to protect their whole army, but maybe if we concentrate fire on just one point we could overpower it...
Lightning struck the wall again and violently cut off his train of thought. It struck near the edge of the Alliance's formation to his right; he instinctively jumped to his left while glancing in that direction. He was immediately grateful his Sharingan was off; the image of dozens of his allies tumbling over the edge of the wall would be seared permanently into his memory regardless but the absolute clarity of the Sharingan wouldn't help.
"Damn it," he murmured under his breath and the genjutsu didn't carry his voice this time.
Sasuke rubbed his eyes again, still seated at his older brother's side. He sighed and gave his forehead protector a quick tug, pulling it off before he climbed to his feet. "That sounded pretty bad," he said sadly. "Sorry I didn't think of this a minute ago." He tied his headband back on, this time squarely over his eyes. "I'm looking in the right spot, aren't I?"
"You are."
"Then here goes..." Again he wrapped his hand in the light of a Chidori without seals, a blue light matched by the sky over the White Zetsu Army. This time the Alliance could hear their worry despite the distance between them, which helped their own morale somewhat.
The blue glow in the thunderhead kept building without pause, and although he didn't show it Itachi began to feel a bit nervous. He activated his Sharingan for a moment, but there was no chakra in the natural lightning so it didn't help him gauge the strength of the jutsu Sasuke was about to fire.
"H-Hn," Sasuke gritted his teeth and the hand wielding the Chidori curled into a fist. "Niisan, I've charged it too much."
"Too much?" Itachi's worry came out just slightly in his tone. "What does that mean?"
"I don't think I can aim this Kirin like before," he admitted. "I've got all the electricity in the storm built up in one place, but now the best I can do is aim it in a general direction. Before it was way more precise, but now... I think if I fire it, it'll lean toward the highest point on the ground like a normal lightning bolt. It'll hit us."
"Hn..." The Alliance let fly a volley of fire and wind jutsu, but it was stopped cold by the Zetsu Army's barrier. "Can you cancel the jutsu and let it go back to normal?"
"No, there's no way. It's still gathered up; if I just let go it'll hit us for sure. Let me think..."
"Do we have that kind of time?"
"I can hold it; it's not draining my chakra so there's no reason to worry." he went silent for several more seconds. "I... think I've got something. We need a lightningrod as tall as this wall or at least close. There's only one way I can think of to get us a way out like that."
"Go on."
"I'll have to use Yomotsu Hirasaka," he began. "I'll call a portal over a certain spot on the wall, far enough down that the enemy can't see it from here. Then I'll push the portal down and it'll slice out that chunk of the wall. At the same time I'll move another portal up from the ground behind the enemy, and we'll have a lightningrod big enough for the Kirin to notice."
"...That'll open up a massive hole in our defenses," Itachi said slowly, "assuming it works at all. You might not be able to cut this wall even if you use that kind of space-time jutsu. And if you do, we'll have to retreat after this battle even if we win. Is that all you have?"
"The only other way would be to... oh. Well now I feel pretty stupid."
"Hn?"
"Yomotsu Hirasaka," said Sasuke, and the cloth holding his forehead protector turned red and glistened. High above the Zetsu Army, a square portal of the darkest possible black opened up and blotted out the light of the storm's electrical charge. The other end opened well under the canopy of green light that was their barrier ninjutsu, though this was purely by accident on Sasuke's part since he didn't know it was there. Rather, he meant it to sit as close as possible to the ground without being low enough that a Zetsu could jump up and in. He needn't have worried; it was hardly tempting.
Something glowing blue crept down out of the mist, huge and sharp and made solid with what looked like shape transformation. Itachi peered up at it and guessed it was the snout of the beast called Kirin. From what little he could see it seemed bigger than usual, which made sense considering the size of the storm Sasuke had used to grow it.
But the shape was all wrong; it was smooth and solid and shaped like a perfect cone from what Itachi could see. Normally the face of the monster was a mesh of jagged lightning bolts drawing its outline through the air, set with a pair of red eyes that were also completely absent here.
The shaped lightning continued to fall and Itachi realized it was a single claw. With it came a hand whose other claws were curled inward leaving the first to point down at the White Zetsu Army. The hand alone was comparable in size to a boss summon; even as he stared with panic in his eyes Itachi realized the thing couldn't have a body above its shoulder, or perhaps the elbow. The storm simply didn't have room for it.
The hand dipped through Sasuke's portal and the Zetsu Army started screaming; its claws sank into the ground and took up a fistful of mud and hundreds, perhaps thousands of clones.
Then Itachi was on his back in a daze, ears ringing, vision dark, heart pounding. The wall under him was trembling as though struck and the light of Sasuke's jutsu was gone. He blinked twice and realized he hadn't been entirely blinded; his Sharingan had been off and his eyes had adjusted to Kirin's light before it destabilized.
His vision gradually returned and he found himself staring up at a perfectly clear, starry sky. The storm had vanished as a side effect of Sasuke's Kirin and he saw that the moon was full or almost so, just as it needed to be for the Infinite Tsukuyomi.
He sat up, looked down over the edge of the wall and frowned. The Zetsu Army had been hit terribly by the attack; there was a smoking black crater torn into the ground where Kirin had struck and it looked broad enough to accomodate Gamabunta. Unfortunately the presence of that crater meant that the ground was solid again, broken and burned though it was. The Swamp of the Underworld had been destroyed.
Worse, the pearly green barrier still hung over the survivors and kept them safe from the Fire-Wind Division. Still a solid half of the initial Zetsu Army remained; they started to move and resumed their siege as if nothing had happened.
But worst of all, the Alliance wall had been hit by Kirin's explosion as well. It had been sealed to ideally withstand a Tailed Beast Ball, but not an attack of the same scale with an added elemental advantage. The wall still stood firm but there were cracks in it now, and scars where the lightning had cut and melted through the rock.
"...We need the Hyuuga," Itachi sighed. "That barrier held up when our wall didn't; we don't have a chance of getting through it with fire-wind jutsu."
Sasuke untied his headband and peered down at the barrier for the first time. "...I guess we're lucky I aimed low," he murmured. "I'll go give the signal, niisan." he rolled sidelong into a black portal from his sitting position, leaving Itachi to guide the Fire-Wind Division.
"Hold your fire," he ordered as he stood. "Save your chakra; we're done for now!"
X
"Draw!"
There was a huge coil of rough wood stretched across the ground parallel to the Alliance wall, still cocooned in its natural bark which by now was cracked and falling off in huge strips. It curled back away from the wall tightly, drawn by the call of several dozen Zetsu clones working into tandem. It was effectively a gigantic crossbow, its string made of vines woven together half as thick as the bow itself.
"Load!"
A tree burst up from underground, tall and strong and wrapped in vibrant leaves that were out of place in this season. These were quickly shed along with their branches, then the bark tore open and fell away and the upper reaches of the bare trunk grew into a sharp, tempered point. The stake fell neatly into place on the crossbow which creaked under its weight; the tip came to a stop aligned with a split in the Alliance wall where an arc of lightning had melted deep into it.
"Fire!"
The Zetsu clones released their hold on the construct, flinging the huge projectile directly into the slice in the wall from point-blank range. It cracked open a bit further, just barely a foot at its thickest point but that was all the Zetsu Army needed. The stone had shifted which meant now there were great pieces of the wall that had already been broken out; now they only needed to be pushed aside.
Hundreds of Zetsus let fly tendrils of living wood that scattered wildly over the surface of the wall, found cracks and melted slices into the rock where there seemed to be pieces broken off, ready to shift and fall away. They all began to pull as one; those who had handholds in the right places got the satisfaction of feeling the enemy's defenses creak and move under their efforts.
"Keep on 'em!" the leader of their team roared. Physically he was identical to all of them and mentally there was only the tiniest of differences left. But when he was human he had been an officer in an army, and that training came back to him along with his physical skills. In his hand was a glaive with a double-edged broad blade. "Draw!"
The wall shattered open around the crossbow bolt, tens of thousands of fist-sized fragments that blasted forward and pelted the vanguard of the Zetsu Army. The attack struck them hard but they didn't flinch, not now that the Alliance wall was torn wide open. The vanguard sent hundreds of Wood Release tendrils wrought of saplings and vines into the hole in the wall, then spread them out in every direction inside to tear at the inner structures.
A curved wall of swirling blue light and wind suddenly filled the hole and shredded the vines where they passed through the breach. Inside the wall beyond that point the vines continued to attack whatever they could, but this next move from the Alliance was still a terrible complication. The barrier fell and through it charged a blur of white and black, shortly followed by many more with a similar color palette.
One of them in particular shot toward the officer with the glaive at his side; his right hand reached out with two fingers and his left went up to the collar of his cloak even as he continued to sprint. The shinobi opened whatever clasp or button held his cloak in place and it fell behind him hard enough to crush into the rocky ground. Without its weight the incoming attacker's speed at least doubled.
Zetsu had the advantage of reach; if the enemy kept charging at him head-on he'd only be impaled and that two-finger jab would never hit its mark. But that fact was equally obvious to the Alliance shinobi as to Zetsu, so he stopped with his outstretched palm just past the blade of the glaive and to its right; from where he stood he was at no risk of being stabbed by a sudden lunge from Zetsu.
He wore a bodysuit in a white pattern vaguely meant as camouflage, together with footwear matching the same pattern and his right hand was wrapped in white bandages that indicated repeated abuse to that hand. The cloth was thick yet worn, likely meant not only to cover his bruised and scraped knuckles but also to armor them against further injury. He also wore one of the armored headbands the Alliance favored, but it tightly guarded his throat and left his forehead bare.
Zetsu noticed absolutely none of this, being preoccupied with staring in horror into the solid white eyes of the Ootsuki Clan, eyes that meant he stood no chance of surviving the night.
Neji's hand flicked to his right and struck the shaft of Zetsu's glaive; the wood bent aside and he felt as though he were waiting in slow-motion for the weapon to snap and leave him unarmed. But it flexed back instead and Zetsu decided maybe that was worse; the shock of the weapon bucking in his hands nearly broke his fingers and tore it from his grasp. He held as his weapon did, just barely, and found himself whipped aside by the force of Neji's slap.
"Retreat!" he screamed as loudly as he could and raised his weapon to parry Neji's next palm. Again the impact shook his entire body and bent back the shaft of his weapon, but this time he knew what to expect and brace for. It was helpful, however slightly. He slashed ahead aiming for Neji's face, but he was hardly surprised when his target brushed his weapon aside effortlessly.
A cluster of wooden tendrils burst up through the shattered ground between Zetsu and Neji. They both sprang back from it, but Neji lunged in again and struck into the center of thr group with an open palm. There was a flash of blue light unmistakably from a powerful surge of chakra, and the trees crumbled apart into tiny splinters.
But in the time it took Neji to destroy the Wood Release attack, Zetsu had already taken one huge backward leap. He tucked his glaive against his side and reached out with his free left hand, and a swirl of orange-yellow mist appeared in his palm. It stayed there for only a moment before it shot toward Neji, who spun on the balls of his feet and whipped up a barrier identical to the one that had blocked the Zetsu Army's charge into the wall.
The poisonous spores struck the Revolving Heaven and scattered over its surface. For a moment Zetsu grinned, but then the top of the dome opened and the structure became a tornado of blue light steadily growing taller. The spores were swept upward and bunched together in a ring; only when they were several stories over Neji's head did he stop his spinning. The light winked out and left the ring of spores floating on the wind; they would fall eventually but the Ootsuki had plenty of time to see it and move out of the way.
Another Zetsu with a nodachi sprinted headlong into a clash with Neji, who spun and whipped a knifehand chop into the side of the blade near its tip. The blade rippled from its tip down to the hilt and jarred its wielder's grip, but unlike the glaive it buckled under Neji's blow. The last few inches of the sword snapped off.
The glaive-wielding Zetsu shakily sighed in relief; he would already be dead if none of the others had moved to distract Neji. Even as he watched the Zetsu with the sword fell, his sword shattered into tiny pieces. There was no visible damage to the outside of his body but Neji had struck him dozens of times in a single blur of motion; there was no question he was dead.
Three more clones charged in on Neji from different directions; they wielded a maul, an arming sword, and a pair of short swords respectively. They were doomed as well and they knew it, but now their commander had a few extra seconds to finish his job. He glanced up and saw the green glow of the barrier dimming; the Ootsuki Clan must have made their way to the divisions supplying chakra to the four corners of the barrier. Now that the battle had reached them, they likely had no more than a minute before the barrier fell completely and the Alliance could burn them again.
Zetsu spun the glaive in his hand and stabbed its blade deep into the earth at his feet. If Neji had killed him a few seconds ago, every last Zetsu clone with a line of sight to him would all make a rush for the glaive and deploy its secret weapon in his place. It was simply too valuable to lose.
"Release!" A web of fuinjutsu shining faintly silver began to creep out across the ground in all directions, slowly at first but it picked up speed as it went. Zetsu let go of the weapon and closed his eyes; he braced himself as best he could for the sensation of his body being ripped apart and transmuted into ash and singed paper.
But it never came. Somewhere else across the battlefield, a number of people started screaming and he opened his eyes. The jutsu had targeted the enemy and only the enemy, and now Zetsu felt slightly stupid. Of course it would go for the Ootsuki first. The survivors were calling for a retreat; he guessed it was to escape the newly-spawned Edo Tensei rather than to survive the field of fuinjutsu-covered ground. The jutsu had already taken all the sacrifices it needed, and the Byakugan would be sure to see it had stopped.
Above them the barrier had dimmed and broken apart until there was nothing left, which meant it was time for the Zetsu Army to retreat as well. Fortunately he'd already given the order, and now the clones were following it more earnestly. With their defenses down and the Alliance infantry quickly leaving the battlefield, it wouldn't be long at all before they started pelting the Zetsu Army with fire jutsu again.
He turned and ran as fast as his legs would carry him, meshing his fingers through a few quick hand seals to raise up a line of trees meant to slow down any Ootsuki who bothered to follow. He kept running at full speed even as he cast a glance over his shoulder, spotted Neji glaring at him, and grinned smugly. Go ahead, come after me. You're strong, but I don't think you're strong enough to handle this kind of fight!
X
"Well... shit."
The Fire-Wind Division had stopped shooting at the Zetsu Army now that they had ran well out of range. This included Nagato, who contributed his Wind Release to the volley since he no longer had any more poweful jutsu to offer. The Alliance hadn't moved yet; they were still waiting for the order to sweep back into the wall and meet the enemy indoors. At the moment it seemed a better idea to bottleneck the enemy at the doors to the top of the wall, since the stone surrounding them was reinforced enough to block a Tailed Beast Ball.
Itachi stood to Nagato's left at the edge of the wall, staring down at the assembling Edo Tensei with his Eternal Mangekyou gleaming under the starlight. "It would help," said he, "if you had any clever strategies to deal with that. Anything you can observe that we might've missed."
Nagato looked down. It was harder than it had ever been with the Rinnegan; his natural eyesight was nowhere near as sharp as Madara's doujutsu. Still, it seemed to be enough for this.
"Those are the previous Seven Swordsmen," he pointed, "minus Zabuza. They've put Kisame in his place."
"Hn. They only have five of the swords?"
"Four," said Nagato. "Kiri still has the Hiramekarei. Now look there," he pointed again. "Those two are Uzumaki; no one else in the world has hair that red. I don't recognize them from the history books, but Kabuto went to the trouble of sending them which means they're strong. They're probably Rinnegan users. Are you seeing a pattern here?"
"...No," he admitted. "Not at all."
Nagato frowned. "Look at the last guy; there's no way you don't recognize him."
Itachi breathed in sharply, an alarmed hiss between his teeth. "Izuna Uchiha."
"And now you see the pattern," Nagato nodded. "They're meant for you and your team. It would be so easy for them to breach the wall now; half the Hyuuga Clan have already retreated inside and the other half won't be long."
"Hold on," said Sasuke to Nagato's right. He kept himself from flinching, but only barely. "That means Kabuto is intentionally holding off on a move that could win him this entire battle, just to call out Taka. Is that what you're saying?"
Nagato stayed silent; the Uchiha brothers could almost see his thoughts whirring faster and faster. "...Kabuto doesn't particularly care about the Eye of the Moon; I've known that for a while but now I think I have a better idea of what he really wants. He's after the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, and he wants it fast. That means now he needs to make different moves to achieve his goals instead of Akatsuki's. This is his way of sending that message."
"He's saying he can predict you now," said Pain. "Itachi, Sasuke and Sakura will go after Izuna. Suigetsu wants to take on the Seven Swordsmen; he's probably more likely to bring Juugo along than any of the rest of you. That includes Kimimaro, who'll be following Karin into a fight with the Uzumaki. Kabuto's plan is to lay out a bunch of battles that he knows you'll take personally."
"So what do you want us to do?" Sasuke asked with a glance up at the glittering, crystal-clear night sky. A pity he'd already used up the thunderstorm; it would've been a great help now. "Wait here and let someone else fight those Edo Tensei?"
"No," Nagato immediately shook his head. "He wants a fight with you, which means he's willing to let you come to him if you play along. So you'll play along, because if you don't then we'll literally never catch him. I've seen what he can do with the Hidden Mole; he's probably used it against you before, hasn't he?"
"A few times," Sasuke admitted. "What's your point? Why is it different now?"
"The world is ending," said Nagato. "If he wants your eyes before the Infinite Tsukuyomi goes off or Akatsuki falls or whatever, it has to be now. With his next few moves he'll probably send out Kage-level Edo Tensei to occupy all of our fighters on that level, like Naruto and Hinata. Then he'll let slip where his hideout is, and if anyone other than Taka shows up to hit him there, he'll just run underground and pop up somewhere else."
"Sounds like you know him pretty well," said Sasuke, making no effort to hide the suspicion in his tone.
"I spent the last three years waiting for him to stab Akatsuki in the back," Nagato shot back with a bit more ice in his voice than he intended. "So I kept a closer eye on him than the others. I had to make use of him but I couldn't take any risks, and that meant getting to know him pretty well."
"Hn." the youngest of the Uchiha shrugged.
"The best option we have right now is to play along," Nagato went on, his voice still slightly cold. "If we keep going like this, Kabuto will set you up to fight him and he won't run away this time. Granted it'll be on his terms and in a battlefield he sets up, but my point stands. If we don't give him what he wants, we won't get a clear shot at him. But if we do, this could win us the war."
Itachi nodded. "Truth be told, Hokage-sama has already picked us as his first choice to deal with Kabuto. This works in our favor."
"And we all want a piece of him anyway," Sasuke added. "I'll go grab the rest of the team and we'll be on the ground in a minute."
Nagato nodded, eyes still locked on the Edo Tensei far below. "Let's hope a minute is fast enough. He's probably already getting impatient."
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