Previous Translations: Yorokobi - Pleasure/Delight/Joy
Yokubo - Desire/Lust
Kajo - Excess
Shifuku no Kurushimi - Blissful Throes/Blissful Suffering
Tatakainouta - Song of Battle
Zeitakuna Kutsu - Luxurious Torment
Hentai-ryu: Erokenho - Pervert Style: Erotic Fist Art
Konton - Chaos
Kanzen - Perfect
Henka - Change
Harakainokeru - Dispel
Aka-en - Red Flame
Aoi-en - Blue Flame
Kiiro-en - Yellow Flame
Orenji-en - Orange Flame
Tankoshoku-en - Pink Flame
Maho - Magic
Chishiki - Knowledge
Unmei - Fate
Nozomu - Hope
Hoho no Chenja - honestly this one is a mess, but roughly means Changer of Ways
Ryuketsu - Bloodshed
Chikara - Strength
Meiyo - Honor
Budo - Martial Arts
Ikari - Rage
Jumon - Incantation
Himitsu no Sewanin - Secret Caretaker(Keeper of Secrets)
Sento - Combat
Same no On'na - Shark-Woman
Maebure - Harbinger
Shibari no Ashikase - Binding Fetters
Kanpeki - Perfection
Reikan - the closest English word would be Inspiration, but it specifically refers to 'a divine creative impulse'
Sekkyo-sha - Preacher
Aijin - Lover
Kaen Hosha-ki - Flame Radiator (Flamer of Tzeentch)
Himeiwoageru - Which Screams (Screamer of Tzeentch)
Shikkan - Disease
Ai - Love
Zetsubo - Despair
Mi Haito - Undivided/Not Divided
Shibo - Aspiring
Koki - Exalted
Chakra no Bato - Coruscating Chakra/Chakra of Coruscation
Gyokai - Industry
In case someone somehow doesn't know, Hi - Fire
Don'yoku - Greed/Avarice
Yokuatsu - Tyranny/Oppression
Yami no Chichi - Father of Darkness/Dark Father
Raimeiton - Thunder Release, what Naruto has decided to name his mix of wind and lightning chakra
Shuryoju - Hunting Beasts (same word for plural or singular), an alternate name for Fiends of Slaanesh, best word I could find for them
Konton no Omo - Lord of Chaos
Kemonojin - a very jank way of translating Beastmen into Japanese, basically would mean Animal-Human
Gyumao - Ox Demon King
Eiyu - Hero
Gyumahime - Ox Demon Princess
Kajomahime - Excessive Demon Princess
Renkinjutsu - Alchemy
Over the next few days other teams filtered in, Gai's team being the next to manage a pass. Sasuke expected that as soon as he learned how Naruto and Hinata had used the Byakugan to corner the remaining members of the team Gaara dealt with. The Kumo team made it as well, and a couple of Kusa teams, Sasuke recognized the staff wielder who had won the first match of the first phase and stuck around the entire day.
He figured it was a good idea to gauge that team, so he took note that the kunoichi of that cell had a chakram and a shuriken holster on each leg while the third member had a ninjato. The two males of that team dressed in what Sasuke assumed was the traditional Kusagakure attire from what he'd seen, but the kunoichi dressed in rather skin tight black leather and had long black hair in a ponytail. The Uchiha was surprised the blonde of his team wasn't ogling her, noticing the hermaphrodite was oddly focused on the other Kusa kunoichi genin, the short haired one with the katana.
Sasuke realized idly that he just assumed Naruto would want to ogle her because he did, and kept the realization to himself despite Aoki's mental cackling. Eventually the Taki cell containing Fu made it as well, and Asuma began to get nervous until one evening his team arrived with the chief examining officer.
"Alright, I'm going to be honest, I didn't think this many would pass this quickly." Jirojin began dryly, "Clearly our chunin were too lax on you brats." he said to the group of twenty-seven genin, Kakashi couldn't blame the man for being surprised or annoyed, this was even more than last time.
"Preliminaries?" Naruto asked, sounding eager for the prospect with a wide grin on his face.
"Yes, tomorrow, stop smiling like that." Jirojin answered and scolded in swift succession, "The third phase examining officer and Aiko-sama will be here to oversee them tomorrow. No killing each other until then." he finished, turning to leave with clearly annoyed body language.
Asuma almost felt bad for the guy, but he was too glad his team had barely made it at the last minute, "Cutting it close." he commented as they approached.
Shikamaru shrugged, "No point rushing I figured, play our hand too openly and a chunin hears the commotion." he explained, "It was a real pain." he added with a sigh.
"We'd be done days ago if Shikamaru wasn't so lazy." Ino complained indignantly, hoisting all the blame for them being last on him.
Naruto stretched, he'd had a bit of sake the night before, which had been Maemi's insistence that he should or his sudden lack of drinking for too long would negatively affect him. He supposed he did feel fine, no hang over like Tsunade always complained about. He grinned, looking forward to the preliminaries, it seemed they'd be using the same arena as the first phase of the examinations.
The jonin were allowed to watch from much closer this time, but kept their distance from the assembled genin anyway as the Shinobigashira, Kakashi was pretty sure he recognized her, stepped up into the arena with a more modestly dressed young woman with long black hair in a hime cut.
"Why is that woman dressed like a geisha?" Sakura asked quietly, she didn't care how well it distracted perverts armor was far more useful in her eyes and less disgraceful too.
Ino shrugged, she thought the woman had good fashion sense. Hinata glanced at Naruto and was surprised to see he was more interested in the dark eyed girl next to the Shinobigashira, she tried to figure out why out of curiosity, still interested in appealing to him despite having already nabbed him as his future first wife.
Naruto could tell the town was more empty than when they'd first arrived, in a matter of days no less, but he also felt like there were less chunin around too. He wondered if they were escorting Kusa genin who lost home due to those screams he'd heard, he still didn't know what those were exactly.
"Well, this is a lot of genin," The loud musing of the Shinobigashira took Naruto's attention from his own thoughts, "I think I see why so many of you got this far though." she continued as her gaze swept over the amassed group of genin, "Figures every team Konoha sent made it to the finals, you bastards only needed one of these teams to show off." she added, surprising a few who had expected her to speak proper, "Well I suppose it can't be helped," she decided with a shrug, "there are an odd number of you though, so one loser of the first round of eliminations will get one chance to redeem themselves against the final genin whose name doesn't get pulled out of this box." she explained.
"Is that a tissue box?" Tenten wondered quietly, she felt like Kusa's methods were a bit more low tech than Konoha had been.
"Oh, you brats can call me Aiko-dono at minimum, this is Jun-chan and she'll be the chief examining proctor or whatever." The Shinobigashira continued, shoving the box to the more modestly dressed young woman, "Start these preliminaries so we can set a date for the finals already." she finished with a dismissive wave as she moved to spectate.
Jun gulped, "Uh, hey." she began, pausing for way too long after saying that, "Like Aiko-sama said, my name is Jun, I'm a tokubetsu jonin and I like tea ceremonies." she continued, Sasuke wondered how that was relevant as Neji realized the young woman was terrible with crowds, "So, uh, this is a fight though, or a tournament I guess, or the preliminaries to a tournament would be most accurate right?" she rambled, avoiding eye contact with the entire crowd of genin, "Yeah, so, uh, first up is," she began before she rummaged with the box she'd been handed and retrieved two slips of paper, "Tenten versus Ichigo Benikiri." she announced, holding the papers up as if anyone but those with dojutsu and Naruto would be able to read them at that distance.
Sasuke wondered how the nervous woman had become a tokubetsu jonin as she stepped back away from the center of the arena while Tenten and the kunoichi of the Kusa team Sasuke had his eye on entered the ring. Tenten was adjusting a new mantle with an eager grin while the older kunoichi who would be her opponent was readying her chakram as she landed in the arena with a shunshin, the Konoha kunoichi taking a moment longer to get into the arena, look over her opponents gear and reach up into her camo-pattern mantle to pull a three-sectioned-staff from a concealed Fuin tag.
Sasuke was pretty sure that was dangerous, but the weapon would be good for knocking aside thrown weapons. The Uchiha found it interesting that the bun haired girl was basically countering herself, and amused that this was a battle between shurikenjutsu specialists. Ichigo tossed a testing volley of shuriken that Tenten knocked out of the air by spinning a third of her weapon in their path by the chain that connected it to the middle piece.
The Kusa kunoichi sighed, "Of all the weapons you could use as a shield, you pick and are proficient with one of the best." she grumbled, reaching into her tool pouch with her left hand and withdrawing a small make up container.
"What?" Tenten asked, confused by the choice of tool.
"I won't explain the details, but think of it like a hijutsu of my clan." Ichigo answered as she applied a bright red to her lips, oddly prompting her chakra to spike and flow up around her. Sasuke was surprised that Aoki recognized it, it was similar in principle to his Juinjutsu, but a much lesser form and the energy was very different still. Weaker, but similar enough that the Uchiha wondered if Orochimaru had gotten the idea from such a jutsu.
Then the Kusa kunoichi weaved hand signs and unleashed a Suidan from her mouth, giving those who couldn't see or sense chakra a sense of how much she'd empowered herself. Tenten was pretty sure her weapon couldn't block that and dodged aside before rushing to cross the distance, swinging her weapon like a long flail to attack from a reach. Ichigo blocked the strike on the back of her right wrist and flicked a pair of shuriken at Tenten with her left hand at high speed.
In such close proximity the Konoha kunoichi narrowly managed to evade the shuriken without being cut and frowned as she reconsidered her current choice of weapon, then she flipped backwards and tossed her weapon to spin at her opponent's legs. Ichigo hopped over the tossed weapon and tossed two handfuls of shuriken before weaving hand signs and again launching a Suidan at Tenten's feet as the younger girl landed.
The Konoha kunoichi narrowly evaded by diving aside, knowing that backing up further would land her dangerously close to the edge against an opponent using more raw power than her, she weaved hand signs of her own as the older kunoichi landed near the puddle she'd made and formed the tiger seal. A par of mizu bunshin rose for Ichigo as Tenten unleashed a Karyudan from her mouth, catching one of the bunshin as it formed but the other escaped with the original.
Tenten frowned as her opponents bunshin rushed in and tossed a watery copy of the chakram, the bun haired kunoichi palmed a kunai and cut it out of the air before thrusting at the charging bunshin, noticing her opponent charging her while weaving hand seals she prepared one of her own. The audience watched as Tenten seemed to be caught in a Suiro, only for a puff of smoke and bubbles to reveal a log rigged with kibaku fuda.
"Katsu!" Tenten declared from a distance behind her opponent as the log exploded, some splinters drawing blood from her opponent as the concussive force sent the older kunoichi sprawling. The young woman struggled to stand but Tenten was in it to win and quickly pinned her with a kunai to the neck, "Had me worried there with that power, but I've been practicing enough that-." she began to brag but was thrown off.
However, despite this show of strength, the Kusa kunoichi failed to rise, "Ugh, you caught me off guard, if I just had a bit more chakra left I could beat you." she grumbled her excuse, revealing her 'hijutsu' of sorts was a stamina draining one, indicating the principle was indeed similar to Orochimaru's Juin, but Aoki still insisted there was something key missing that Orochimaru had added.
Tenten took a moment longer to be startled that her opponent had still had the strength to throw her off before grinning, "My training paid off!" she laughed happily, "Damn, that's one scary hijutsu your clan has." she added as an iryonin arrived to escort the Kusa kunoichi away.
Jun waited for the arena to clear and reached into the box again, careful to look up and away from the box as she did, "Izo versus Jinmui!" she announced, giving time for the young man on Kusa's kenjutsu focused team and the younger Kumo genin time to get into the ring and face off against each other. Naruto was interested in this, watching others kenjutsu duels could give him ideas on how to improve.
Both genin drew their swords and faced each other in rather standard, basic front stances, blades held at a ready guard. The the Kusa genin smirked, chuckled and sheathed his sword casually, "Good stance, no openings despite the distance between us." he praised before lowering his stance and shifting his left thumb to his tsuba, "Let's test that guard you've honed." he warned before leaping low across the distance and swinging an iaijutsu strike.
Jinmui narrowly managed to lower his guard in time to catch the swing with his own blade, stepping back in surprise as the force behind the swing knocked him off balance. Izo twisted and sliced at his opponents face as he stepped past him, smirking at the hasty guard and corrected stance before he spun around his opponent to thrust his sword into the younger genin's back. The blade struck the left lung of the Kumo genin but missed his heart, something the iryonin were relieved by.
Ino frowned, "That guy is kind of dangerous isn't he?" she asked, Shikamaru just nodded in agreement. Military rankings and threat rankings really needed to be more consistent. Kakashi noticed that he hadn't recognized any of the kenjutsu the young man did, he'd overwhelmed the rather well refined fundamentals of his opponent with an iaijutsu strike, a lazy slice, and an overly stylish thrust to put things simply.
Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi all felt it was oddly similar to Naruto's self taught methods, albeit more aggressive and less predictive ability. At least he didn't seem to have any predictive ability, Sasuke made a mental note to keep an eye on the man just for having kenjutsu vaguely similar to Naruto's.
The head of said blonde suddenly turned attention sharply as he heard someone approaching fast, "Sakura Haruno versus Kuromaru!" Jun announced, Sasuke noticed the brass staff wielding genin approaching the ring and wondered if he wore all white in protest of his name. Then the Uchiha noticed Naruto's attention was elsewhere right as a volley of kunai arced over a nearby building, each one had a kibaku fuda tied to it and they rained down on the assembled shinobi.
The explosion failed to kill anyone, but the blast did serve to force the various shinobi to scatter as more explosions rocked the town, Sasuke saw a group of Iwa shinobi land on a nearby building and prepared himself only to witness Kakashi, Gai, and Asuma intercept them, but there were more. He couldn't tell how many or when that had happened but it made the town feel less like a ghost town again.
Maemi moved with Naruto as best as she could, but the Imp knew that even the edge of that blast had almost dispelled her. The blonde in the lion hide frowned as he popped a combat drug in his mouth, he hadn't even learned everyone's names or gotten a chance to fight before Iwa shinobi descended upon the shell shocked group of genin. He shifted his head to the right and allowed a kunai to sail past where his head had been before he gripped his sheathed wakizashi in his left hand, twisted, leaped, and cut an older Iwa genin out of the air with an iaijutsu strike.
Sakura caught a tanto on her right shoulder armor while recovering and sucker punched the one attacking her with her right fist as she took the tanto from her right shoulder, frowning at the slight pain in her joint despite her armor stopping the blade itself from sinking into her brass flesh. Neji used Kaiten to deflect a volley of thrown weapons and give his teammates a chance to regroup before Lee leaped to kick an enemy genin aside.
Naruto noticed the remaining Kusa genin were all holding their own, although the kenjutsu team needed to cover their kunoichi as she was apparently having a coughing fit for some reason. The two remaining Kumo genin were fine, Hinata had dealt with an Iwa genin already, Kiba and Akamaru were already tearing through the battlefield like air born drills, and Shino was using his bunshin formed of kikaichu to hinder multiple enemy at once.
It seemed the jonin and chunin were all fighting outside of the square, but before the blonde could analyze that he twisted to avoid being skewered by the ninjato of a kunoichi from Iwa, roughly Haku's age by Naruto's guess. He spotted Kankuro's puppet taking out an Iwa ninja over her shoulder and heard Temari throwing wind at another, as well as this he saw sand rising to attack the young woman across from him who leaped to avoid it.
Kakashi noticed the fights breaking out and saw a group of Iwa shinobi attempting to attack Kusa's shinobigashira, "You guys picked a strange time to attack such a small time town." he mused, having already found his opponent was capable of keeping up with him without his Sharingan. Gai was matched up against an Iwa taijutsu specialist from the looks of it while Asuma was fending off two enemy jonin of slightly lesser power, the silver haired jonin risked a glance to see Kurenai was fending off a group of chunin from engaging the genin who already all seemed to be engaged.
Kakashi shifted his stance and caught his opponents attempted surprise attack with his left hand to deliver a cross counter with his right fist and followed up with a left snap kick. His opponent was no slouch and managed to pull back and make the punch a glancing blow, bunting Kakashi's kick with his own left leg before settling into a defensive stance, "I was going to scold you for taking your eyes off me, but you live up to your reputation." the young man said with a stern expression.
The Hatake guessed his opponent was determined to win, "I get that a lot." he confessed lazily, palming a kunai and taking his own stance, "You guys may have picked the worst possible time to attack though." he added dryly, recalling Naruto, Gaara, and Fu were all down there and he had suspicions about them. Only Jiraiya would be able to confirm such suspicions for certain, so that would have to wait.
The Iwa shinobi chuckled, "You think we came unprepared for this?" he asked as he palmed a kunai of his own, "We're just the advance team, now our heavy hitters are coming." he revealed arrogantly, which was admittedly a cause for concern to Kakashi since they were already outnumbered. He wondered what the purpose of such a brazen attack could possibly be, the only thing he could think of was that they'd found the location of Kusagakure and were instigating war to expand territory to border with Konoha for all out war between Tsuchi no Kuni and Hi no Kuni.
Lee was surprised as a red blur bowled him over and slammed into Gaara, a large man in strange red armor, complete with a rounded armored hat and emanating steam knocking the sand wielder flying with a high speed punch. The other genin, particularly from Konoha and Suna were startled by this as Gaara crashed through a wall. Seconds later a wave of sand moved to crash into the red armored man but he blast through it and into the building after Gaara only to come skidding back out as sand exploded from the building.
The mass of sand formed spikes that chased after the strange new arrival who seemed to fight on Iwa's side, turning prehensile when they missed and attempting to corner the man as he looked for Gaara. The red armored shinobi had completely lost sight of Gaara when he'd gone to attack, falling for a suna bunshin or a kawarimi with a suna bunshin, it didn't matter which. But he was blindsided by two things, a wakizashi and a foot.
The man blocked Lee's right leg with his left forearm and Naruto's wakizashi with his right forearm, his armor providing adequate protection. Then with a burst of steam he slammed a fist into the face of each one of them, knocking them flipping backwards to land in defensive stances.
Naruto sheathed his wakizashi before gripping the scabbard of his katana with his left hand as he grinned at the new opponent, "You seem like an actual challenge for once, what's your name?" the blonde asked.
"Han." The red armoed man answered plainly, curious about the two genin who had caught him off guard.
"Naruto-kun!" Lee exclaimed, "I wish to fight this one!" he insisted, "He is a taijutsu specialist, like myself, therefore-" he began.
"Sorry to burst your bubble kid, but this is technically a Kekkei Genkai." Han interrupted, not technically a lie but he was implying it was closer to ninjutsu. Naruto noticed Gaara moving to help others again only to have his sand halted by a massive wad of lava, "Oh now he shows up." the man grumbled.
Naruto was starting to get the feeling things had gotten particularly bad, "You can take him, Lee." the blonde said seriously, recognizing the other genin getting outnumbered as more enemy shinobi showed up, "Maemi-chan, weights." he added and the Imp moved to obey him. Han moved to halt the grey skinned humanoid but Lee managed to intercept him and engage in a brief taijutsu exchange before a powerful jab to the chest knocked him back.
That was enough time for Maemi to slip off Naruto's weights and hop up to grab his backpack as he leaped to intercept a katana going for Tenten's back with an iaijutsu slice from his own katana, following up by a spin kick that delivered his right bone spur into the neck of the older man before the spike retreated back into his leg like a cat's claw. The blonde quickly sheathed his sword and unhooked his backpack to toss Maemi and that to the bun haired kunoichi.
"Wha-?" Tenten asked in confusion.
"Use the Raito, help protect Hinata-chan." Naruto ordered, directing the first to Tenten and the second to Maemi before he made the seal of confrontation and moved to help the remaining five Kusa genin with shunshin. Tenten decided she liked her orders and grinned as she brandished the legendary weapons she was slightly jealous of Naruto for having.
The kenjutsu specialist genin of Kusa were particularly surprised when Naruto landed in between them and a pair of Iwa kenjutsu specialists, then startled them more by forming a pair of kage bunshin that cut in underneath the attacks of the two Iwa shinobi with wakizashi iaijutsu cuts. Then the two bunshin leaped to help other genin as the real Naruto leaped to intercept the kunoichi with a ninjato who seemed to be a jonin, the blonde felt she was familiar and that he'd seen her face briefly in the past as he unsheathed his own ninjato to stop hers from getting close to Kankuro who had almost been blindsided by the woman.
Naruto's expression seemed oddly blank to those who caught a glimpse of him, and the Iwa kunoichi he intercepted saw his glance shifting constantly as if unable to focus on any one thing and she swung as he swayed to the song no one else could here, "My magnificent self has never heard such a complex Tatakainouta," he mused quietly as he stepped forward and to his left while parrying a follow up swing from his current opponent to avoid a pair of shuriken coming at him from his blindspot, "it's beautiful." he added before making a sudden twist, shifting his stance, stomping towards his opponent and swinging his ninjato so fast he was a blur.
The Iwa jonin narrowly evaded with a deep cut in her left forearm by jumping away before Naruto swung, but still shifted her grip and stance to favor her left hand. The blonde instead ignored her and sheathed his ninjato, offending his opponent into charging. Naruto reached for his nodachi and turned to his right, shifting his entire body to lower the sheathed longest sword and use the scabbard to parry the young woman's charge.
Then the blonde unsheathed the heaviest, longest sword at his disposal and, with a burst of chakra, left his former opponent behind to intercept a man attempting to attack Hinata with an axe. The dense sword cleaved right through the treated wooden haft of the axe, the length and weight of it bisecting the man holding the axe with alarming apparent ease. Naruto felt his muscles strain avoiding hitting the ground with that downward swing and appreciated for the first time exactly how many muscles he really used when swinging a sword correctly.
Sasuke noticed Naruto showing off as he took a moment to take cover behind Sakura and Genkei so he could open his left thumb with his beak, weave handsigns, and wipe his blood on the array on his right inner forearm, "Kuchiyose!" he declared, riding the Disc he'd summoned to give himself aerial superiority only to be forced to take evasive action as more Iwa shinobi tried to throw rocks at it. He knew it was Doton no Jutsu, but the fact they were just chakra intensive siege equipment attempting to hit him was irritating, and slightly scary because they were big rocks and getting hit directly would be fight ending.
Sakura was baffled by the Kekkei Genkai of the two heaviest hitters among Iwa's second wave, the rapid shock of being hit by an explosive advance attack followed by these power houses directly after was staggering. She was silently grateful Naruto and Gaara were around to take most of the heat off them, then she noticed Fu fending off a group of chunin as well and moved to help, readying her first axe and shield for now as Genkei moved to assist her, pulling out a kunai she didn't recall giving him.
Fu's teammates had apparently been an early casualty, Naruto hadn't even noticed until he'd spotted their cooling corpses and the reality of the situation set in, "Faster..." he muttered to himself, leaping and swinging his sword as fast as his muscles and chakra would allow, lesser blades snapping under the weight of his sword as each swing drained his stamina and he slowly took longer and longer between each swing.
As the blonde whittled down the enemy chunin, Tenten moved to assist Hinata, parrying the kunoichi the blonde had already wounded with one of the raito and using the other to stab a chunin that was moving to attack a preoccupied Neji in the back. The young bukijutsu specialist twisted to yank that left hand blade from the older ninja to parry another attack from the same kunoichi as Neji disabled a jonin who was attempting to attack Hinata.
The formed heiress managed to disable an opponent of her own with lethal force, and reached into her tool pouch to pull out some of the combat drugs Maemi had given members of Naruto's harem, wordlessly sharing them with Neji while the had a chance as Tenten covered them, Maemi reaching into Naruto's back and helping her current ride by feeding the girl a dose of the same combat drug.
The young kunoichi tolerated the discomfort of swallowing the pill without water as even injured her opponent forced her on the defensive, until Neji stepped in and struck the woman in the chest with a palm thrust, chakra bursting from her back as the kunoichi dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.
Ino readied to capture an enemy but frowned as they scattered away from the hand sign associated with her clan hijutsu, "Of course Iwa would know about it." she grumbled under her breath, their villages had been to war often enough. Choji palmed a kunai and helped Ino defend against the older enemy shinobi, glancing to see Shikamaru surprisingly interfering with a fight well above his pay grade.
Han halted in surprise as a force paralyzed him, "Lee, take your damned weights off." Shikamaru ordered bluntly.
"But I-" Lee began to argue.
"Don't talk back! I can't hold him long and this is a war, this is the time to protect your loved ones." Shikamaru snapped, remembering what he'd overheard last chunin exams. Lee nodded, making no further argument as he took off his weights in time to dash in between Han and Shikamaru right as the Kagemane no Jutsu ended. The Nara turned to see another chunin coming at him following a volley of shuriken, "Fuck sake." he grouched.
Naruto landed between Shikamaru and the Iwa shinobi, catching the thrown weaponry on his lion mantle and angling his blade to catch the approaching ninja in the chest, impaling the man on the long blade until he tossed the body aside by swinging his sword off to his right. Shikamaru could hear the blonde panting and saw the subtle rapidness to the rise and fall of his shoulders, he could tell the blonde was pushing himself with that oversized sword but before he could comment the Uzumaki was on the move again.
The source of the lava, a red haired older man with slightly more armor than Sakura, was having some difficulty defending against Gaara. The sand seemed nigh endless and the auburn haired boy was apparently good at hiding in urban environments. He caught sight of an eye made of sand floating around watching him as various Suna no Jutsu attacking him from every angle, indicating the genin didn't even need to have direct line of sight to fight him, "Good grief, this kid is scarier than I heard." the man mused to himself before he became engulfed in a cloak of Yoton chakra, almost like cloaking himself with translucent magma.
Even without his weights Lee could only keep up with his opponent, not truly overwhelm the man like he was used to, he'd had the upper hand for a moment but the older shinobi had adapted to his speed quickly and matched it with bursts of steam from his armor. A heavily armored, high speed taijutsu specialist, Lee understood such a man must be feared, but he showed no fear and grinned at the prospect of a finally worthy challenger for the first life or death struggle since Gaara.
Sasuke used orange flames to turn his staff into a spear again, keeping the shape simple and primitive for his current purposes. Then the flames turned crimson red as his Sharingan activated and he focused on one of Iwa's long range demolition specialists, "Kayari-aka!" the Uchiha announced, thrusting his spear and shooting a red spear shaped flame that swiftly pierced and ignited his target. More stones flew at him but the Disc rose to evade the worst of them, a few stray shuriken coming close but bouncing off a barrier none of the Iwa shinobi had expected.
Fu was surprised to be assisted by Sakura, but was grateful for the thrown axe lodging into one of her opponents followed by the Haruno herself landing to grab it as her shield blocked a tanto and a ninjato glanced off her brass skin before her axe swung into the neck of the man who swung the ninjato. Fu gathered herself and flew up to deliver a dropping side kick into the face of the man with the tanto as Sakura rounded on him.
Choji and Ino were surprised to be assisted by the remaining Kumo genin, "I still say we should use the distraction to hit that guy who nearly killed our teammate." the girl said in a grumpy tone as her sword held the naginata of an older Iwa shinobi at bay.
"What if Kusa takes that as an act of war?" The male reasoned, "What if they drag Konoha into it and we're forced to side with guys who attacked us?" he reasoned although it sounded more like he was making predictions as he deftly parried the kunai swings of his opponent.
"I don't really want to side with that Kusagakure no Kenshi." The girl muttered angrily as Choji moved to stop another enemy shinobi from getting her with a kunait as she knocked her opponent back. Ino leaped in and slammed her fist into the man's chest with a burst of chakra control, cracking his armor and his ribs as he was sent flying back. The kunoichi from Kumo then swiftly assisted in taking down her teammates opponent and the four turned to see Shikamaru had caught another four that had been sneaking up behind them.
"I'm going to be honest," The Nara began in his usual lazy tone but Choji could see the sweat on his friends brow, "that Han guy drained me with just that small amount of time I had him." he confessed as a warning before he was forced to release the four Iwa ninja he captured. Ino and the Kumo genin moved to defend themselves as Choji moved to intercept the one who swung his ninjato to finish off Shikamaru.
The nodachi Naruto had bought swung over Shikamaru and Choji's heads cutting the man attacking them in half under the shoulders and dropping his arms to the ground for good measure. The genin were alarmed at how easily the blade ripped through meat and bone, it was obvious from the damage that the cuts were more from the weight of the sword than the sharpness, although it was sharp it was no Chakra To.
"Shikamaru, take a back seat." Naruto ordered, "Choji, protect him as best you can." he ordered before moving again and the tip of his sword left a long gash in the back of his nearest target, paralyzing the man with the spinal strike and the blonde managed another swing before they could hit the ground that took the head off another, "Ino, follow me, you know iryoninjutsu and there are wounded." he finished.
Ino stared in disbelief at Naruto but nodded, moving to follow him after the Kumo genin cut down the remaining Iwa shinobi.
Kakashi smirked under his mask as the tables turned in the town square and rippled outwards from there, the Iwa suffering heavier losses than Kusa causing a shift in morale, "You might as well run home with your tail between your legs." he mocked, seeking to tilt his opponent into running away so he could could his students out of this war zone. He'd noticed Naruto rescuing people and, strangely enough, even giving orders from what he could tell.
"Don't count on it, I told you we came prepared damn it." The Iwa shinobi insisted, although he was clearly unnerved by the way the battle had progressed. However he did notice Kakashi halt, and turned to see what it was, "Ah, so they did show up." he realised.
"You actually hired them!?" Kakashi snapped angrily, he supposed the common ninja wouldn't know the threat of that particular mercenary group, but this was still a bit much.
Four S rank shinobi, from what Jiraiya had told him about the black cloacks with red clouds. He recognized two of them, Itachi and Kisame, but with them was a blonde young man, androgynous almost, along with a hulking slouched over man wearing a baliclava. Akatsuki had been hired by Iwa for this mission, Kakashi felt his stomach drop.
AN: War scenes are hard, that's all I have to say really. There's a lot to keep track of so I tried to just do a perspective flip thing to portray how chaotic it feels for the characters while covering as much of what's going on as I can without going into minutia.