Arashi came out and looked around him, after performing his jutsu he had retreated to a pre-planned location, saving him from any harm. The surrounding area had been reduced to nothing but a pile of ruble. The majestic tower in the center, that could be seen from miles away, was now nothing. But fortunately, all the citizens had been evacuated and till now, there were only a few shinobi casualties. Arashi sighed and thought to himself, 'perhaps it was a bad idea to start the fight inside the village, the plan to quickly take out the three of them in one swift attack has failed. Time to change our way of conducting this task. Kumo and the others don't pay us enough to risk all our men and village.'
Shikamaru looked around him, bruised and panting. They could've been killed by the immensely powerful jutsu done by Arashi, but fortunately Sasuke activated his Susanoo in time.
"This man is something else." Sasuke spoke while drawing his blade from its sheath.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Naruto asked in a questioning glance.
"You are still as dumb as you were back then, teme." Sasuke replied in an irritated voice and continued, "Couldn't you see how he formed that big rasengan like chakra ball in his hands with lightning chakra? It was not as tightly concentrated as your Rasengan so my Susanoo could endure it, but it still nearly pierced my susanoo."
"What Sasuke says is true, this man is very different from others we've faced in the past thirty years. First, he has the courage to attack Sasuke and Naruto, then, he seems to have a seal or jutsu that allows him to pierce a Susanoo. The place we're fighting in is the enemy's territory, let's worry about getting out of he-" While Shikamaru talked a kunai with a paper bomb attached to it, landed near his feet. The Nara was alerted instantly alongside his companions, who immediately jumped away from the explosion. Sasuke got into battle stance, wielding his kusanagi blade with one hand.
"I expected more from the Hokage of the hidden leaf, the one who defeated Kaguya Otsutsuki itself." Arashi appeared in front of the three leaf ninja, he was barely injured, he wielded two short-swords on each of his hands. Upon catching sight of Arashi Shikamaru crouched down and made a single hand sign, closing his eyes to further focus. The rain that had started some half an hour ago was reduced to a drizzle, thin droplets of water hit the men, but were barely felt due to the sheer focus the respective shinobi had on their enemies. The surrounding area was filled with water, excluding a small area which was raised compared to the rest of the land, it was where the central tower of Ame used to stand. the symbol of Amegakure, the three straight lines, was carved on the grey cement floor. usually, the drainage system of Amegakure would drain the water into the moat near the walls or collect and store the rainwater in tanks. But all of it had been destroyed on the place where the battle was taking place, there was a slight risk that a big portion of the village will be flooded but his men can surely control the situation, Arashi thought.
Shikamaru suddenly opened his eyes and gave Sasuke a signal, which, upon receiving, Sasuke jumped into action, rushing at Arashi to strike. Arashi and Sasuke busied themselves in a duel, parrying and blocking each other's attacks while also giving counter-attacks. Shikamaru then performed his clan's special and famed jutsu, and a small figure appeared from his shadow, making its way towards Arashi. The latter noticed this attempt of Shikamaru's to take control of him, he quickly forced Sasuke away but it was too late to counter this Nara technique. Arashi instead made a cross pattern with his hands. And a second later Shikamaru held control of Arashi's movement. Shikamaru smirked as he knew he had been successful in his plan.
"What happened lord Arashi? Couldn't you dodge this simple technique?" Shikamaru taunted his opponent.
"The shadow control technique, or whatever it is, can only restrict physical movement but not the flow of chakra." Arashi gave his opponent a smile. Afterwards, Arashi made more than a dozen water clones, Shikamaru was quickly alerted and spread out his technique to take control of the clones as well, Sasuke followed in retaliation and slashed through Arashi, but, it turned into water. Sasuke stood wide-eyed, not knowing what had occurred, just then all the clones were dispelled except one.
"Surprised, are you Uchiha? I did nothing but simply substitute myself with another clone. When your Nara friend here spread out the net of his shadow technique to take control of the clones as well, it weakened the one holding the original me, allowing me to do the slight movement and perform the substitution jutsu."
Shikamaru was astonished the most, this jutsu had been taught to him by his father, Shikaku Nara, more than 20 years ago and he himself didn't know about this loophole.
'This one is a sly and cunning fellow, what a drag, but I need to take things seriously from now.' Shikamaru thought to himself, and went for another shadow possession jutsu.
Arashi leaped into the air, followed by Sasuke who flung several kunai at his opponent, which were easily dodged. Naruto finally set himself to action and formed a wind-style Rasengan in his hand, and with a raised voice warned his subordinates,
"Stay back, Sasuke, or you may be hit as well." Naruto prepared to throw the wind-style Rasengan, Sasuke immediately got out of the way. Arashi threw some Shuriken at Naruto, but they were parried by Sasuke's sword. Naruto finally threw the Wind-style Rasengan at his opponent, the Rasengan moved violently, Wind Chakra was leaking out and created an aura around the Rasengan. The Rasengan went at such rotating and moving at such speed, it seemed as it was cutting through the air. But the jutsu narrowly missed its target, Arashi moved away just in time to not get his head cut off. The wind-style Rasengan kept going and hit a ruined pillar, causing it to collapse and splash into the water.
"Hm, the Wind-style Rasengan isn't it? It is really much impressive, but you know what?" Arashi spoke softly, as chakra appeared on his hand. The chakra had a fiery and orange color, with each passing second the chakra got more concentrated and organized in his hand until it was one big ball of flame and fire. Naruto's eyes widened, Arashi slightly chuckled and spoke again.
"Surprised, are you, Lord Hokage? You seem to think you and your Konoha chaps are the only skilled shinobi in this world. But here I present to you a Rasengan, it might look different because it's the fire release variant, my own creation." Saying this Arashi threw the "Fire-style Rasengan" at his enemies, who went out of the way, but that was of no use. Instead of going straight forward, this Fire-style Rasengan exploded mid-air between Naruto and the others. It was like a bomb, a much deadlier bomb. This explosion distracted the Shinobi of Konoha, who found Arashi missing upon looking around.
At this moment a familiar voice caught Naruto's ears,
"Yamato-sensei." Naruto muttered and looked back, and indeed it was Yamato with the other Anbu who had accompanied them. They rushed to their leader's side and bowed.
"Are you alright, Lord Hokage?" one of the Anbu asked, he wore a tiger mask.
"Yes he is, currently. But I doubt he would be if he stayed here for long." Shikamaru replied.
"Naruto, you should escape from here with the other Anbu. Your presence is known to all the enemies and we are in enemy territory." Sasuke replied in his stoic manner.
"But-" Naruto tried to speak but was immediately interrupted by Sasuke.
"No buts here, Teme, this is a concern of your safety and the village's too. You go straight back to Konoha, that's final." Sasuke was a bit irritated, he spoke in his usual dominant manner. Even though Sasuke was now supposed to be following Naruto's orders, the latter didn't object to his friend and quietly left with the other Anbu. It would've made a good laugh back in the village that the Hokage himself followed a Genin's orders. (Sasuke is still practically a Genin). Shikamaru also went away with the Anbu.
Now only Sasuke and two Anbu were left in the middle of Amegakure, even though Sasuke was confident, Naruto insisted two Anbus be left here to assist him.
"Now, what's our task?" One of the Anbu questioned.
"We stay here and gather the attention of all the enemy shinobi, while Naru-" Sasuke coughs, "Lord Hokage and the others escape. Once they're out we also escape." Sasuke spoke with Authority. Even though no one had said so, he was technically the leader of this small contingent of shinobi stuck inside enemy territory.
"Did you gather any intel while coming this way?" Sasuke asks the other Anbu.
"Yes, the enemy shinobi have spread throughout the area to search for Lord Hokage, but we can be somewhat assured with captain Yamato on their side." One of the Anbu answered.
"Humph, it seems we will have to attract their attention, then." Sasuke spoke while he sheathed his sword. Then he weaved several hand signs with his one hand and performed a fireball jutsu, that hit several buildings, causing them to collapse. This did work, however, several dozen Ame Jonin and Anbu gathered on top of the ruined buildings. Sasuke and the Anbu were in the middle of a flooded area, they were standing on the place where the last battle with Arashi had happened. Immediately, Sasuke and the other Konoha Anbu were met with heavy firepower. The shinobi of Ame preferred to use a crossbow as well aside from kunai and shuriken. The one currently in use was a modified version of the original, it was semi-automatic and could provide constant firepower.
Sasuke and the Leaf Anbu were excellent with their swords, but they just couldn't parry or dodge this many arrows. Two of the Anbu did a swift movement, placing barrier seals around their position. After getting back, they joined their hands and activated the barrier, forming a transparent semi-sphere of chakra around them. The firing continued. Then suddenly it stopped, The Leaf and Ame shinobi glared at each other for a while. And then suddenly, several pillars appeared from below the ground upon which the Konoha shinobi stood. This was an Earth-style Jutsu. The Leaf Anbu had no choice but to deactivate the barrier and engage in direct combat, the Ame shinobi again started to rain down arrows, kunai, etc. on their enemies. Sasuke stayed where he was, forming his Susanoo's torso around him to protect against the attacks. He and the other Leaf Anbu had already formed a rough plan before, the rest were to attack the enemy directly. Sasuke will stay there and take the brunt of the enemy attacks, hopefully exhaust their long-range capacity and then attack. Or if their attention is directed elsewhere then attack.
The leaf Anbu formed several dozen clones and charged the enemy positions. Forcing the latter into hand-to-hand combat. The Leaf Anbu were not outnumbered, with their shadow clones being more durable and powerful than the Ame shinobi's water clones. This was natural however, because the second Hokage had designed the shadow clone to be used in almost anything, from espionage to combat. But the water clones' function was merely to distract the enemy, that's also why they were cheap in chakra, causing them to be very tender in comparison but more in numbers.
Sasuke stood there and slightly smiled, their plan was rough and was formed in a hurry but it seemed to work. The attention of the rest of the enemy had also now been redirected to his fellow Leaf shinobi, seeing this Sasuke prepared to leave and aid his comrades. But his path was blocked by a recognizable fellow.
"Where'd you think you're going, Lord Uchiha?" Arashi smiled as he again appeared with his sword in hand.
"The bastard's back... again." Sasuke muttered to himself as he got into a battle stance.