In Naruto: Reborn With Talent

by Little Merger

A soul was transmigrated into Narutoverse but was refused to be given any sort of insta-OP power, instead, he could choose from three talents. Follow him and his loved ones on their journey to become strong as they pave their own path through the battle-filled world of Naruto. Will they be villains? For some, surely. Will they be heroes? For others, maybe. But anything they do is d

4. 97

In Naruto: Reborn With Talent #Chapter 97 - Ch97. Punishment - Read In Naruto: Reborn With Talent Chapter 97 - Ch97. Punishment Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

Chapter 97 - Ch97. Punishment

Rei finally spotted Ringo and his being was flooded by even more rage. Her body was powerlessly lying on the ground while A was about to land a finishing punch which made Rei quickly send a Water Release: Water Jet at the burly man, dispersing his lightning armor because of the highly concentrated and finely controlled water chakra in the water. It drew the actual lighting away from A's body, canceling the Chakra Mode in that particular part of his body. The waterjet went straight through the lighting armor and impacted A's side before he could finish the punch, sending him rolling on the floor for some tens of meters.

A was utterly flabbergasted from the sudden attack that completely neutralized his strongest defense and inwardly thanked God that the waterjet was not highly pressurized otherwise it would go through him like a knife through butter. The fact his fist was descending onto Ringo saved him because Rei decided to lessen the danger to Ringo by pushing him away rather than killing him and risk him somewhat landing the last punch.

A's body tensed in preparation for a fight but when he raised his gaze to the mysterious attacker, he relaxed seeing that the man, Rei, prioritized checking up on the redhead rather than do a follow-up attack. Many things swirled through A's mind, the prevalent one being the direction from which the man came. Like everyone on the island, A could also hear the sounds of a massive battle in the distance. The explosions, the 'visual effects', the large pillars of scarlet flames, the bijuu damas... Yes, A knew B had a tough fight but he had his own one and focused fully on it. But the second he realized the man who interrupted him came from the direction of B's fight, his heart chilled in worry for his surrogate brother.

Fortunately for A's peace of mind, B landed next to him in his human form because rather than going on land, he used his immense strength in the Hachibi form to jump into the sky, and then changed into human form, becoming lighter, therefore covering more distance.

"Ya fine, brother? Cuz this will be quite a bother!" B said but his tone held an undertone of seriousness that put A on edge. To him, it was obvious B was not playing around anymore.

"Who is it, B?" A asked as he watched Rei kneel next to Ringo and assess her injuries.

"That's Rei of Kiri, bro. We gotta be careful an' stop him being wrathful, oh." B rapped.

The second A heard Rei's identity, his head snapped in the direction of his troops and his eyes widened in realization. "B! Where is Konan of Kiri?" He shouted in distress.

"Konan of Kiri, oi, yo?" B asked as his face scrunched in confusion, making A almost have a heart attack. "O~! There was a woman with him at first, kono yaro. But she was only a jonin level, baka yaro." As B said, and A really felt his heart jump to his throat. A possible S-rank destructive threat might be with his troops while he was lured away!

"B we have to retu-" A started with distress but was interrupted...

Ignoring the discussion of the brothers, Rei leaned above Ringo's unconscious form as he gently turned her over to see her injuries. He winced when he saw the multiple deep gashes along her face and thanked God he could heal her with his nature energy mixed with healing chakra enough so she wouldn't scar despite not being able to heal everything on the spot. He would have to get her to a proper medic-nin asap. Pushing his meager medical chakra into her, he quickly found out that Ringo was lucky. Whatever she did, saved her as the front of her skull was cracked in more places than Rei bothered to count but there was no clean break nor anything immediately life-threatening. Concussion... yes. But at least her face was not caved in. Rei let out a small relieved sigh as he raised his head towards the man who caused this.

Sure, this was a war but Ringo was precious to Rei and he still felt angry at A for almost killing her. As his eyes landed on A's form, his killing intent flooded the surroundings.

A and B quieted down as they could suddenly feel themselves be drenched in a cold sweat as the massive killing intent engulfed them. B had a better time as he was used to Hachibi's killing intent while A was frowning at how his instincts screamed at him to run. But both were shinobi and facing killing intent was normal for them. They stood their ground.

"So you are the bastard who almost killed my dear student." Rei coldly stated as he looked towards A, his chakra flaring.

Out of nowhere, the molecules of water in the air started gathering and in a moment, a strong water current formed in the air, not unlike Water Dragon Jutsu. What baffled A and B was that Rei didn't use any hand signs nor needed a body of water. Above them, in the sky, a massive body of water that could easily create a big lake compressed into ten Water Tendrils was flying, just waiting to be released at them.

"I think now is a good time to change, B." A said with a frown as lightning armor reformed on his body. B seriously nodded and his form started growing until he was again in full Hachibi mode, preparing for the upcoming battle.

Rei looked at their nervous stances and smiled. "Good, you are prepared to face your punishment." He said, trying to act arrogant. Despite his anger, his head was cool and he would like nothing more than to be labeled as powerful but with exploitable arrogance. "You will be good guinea pigs for my new Jutsu. Especially you, lightning swine!" He shouted and the world... rippled.

The water tendrils in the air started to rotate at high-speed white moving like a snake made out of the water, quickly aiming to crush both A and B. The tendril aimed at A missed as the man just sidestepped it but his arm brushed the edge of the water because the water sped up by almost five times before the impact so he miscalculated his evade. As the chakra in the water and A's lighting armor met, a violent reaction happened, making A scream bloody murder as his lightning armor was completely negated and his arm gained multiple long gashes. This Jutsu was a perfect counter to Lightning Based Ninjutsu, after all.

B was not faring any better since his form was big. Too big to evade water tendrils rotating at high speeds like a tornado. His form was not fast enough to evade and the nine remaining tendrils all aimed at him. He tried to block them with his tails and eight tails intercepted eight water tendrils, only for the last one to impact his chest. B miscalculated as pain engulfed him and Gyuki, sensing B's panic, pushed a lot of his chakra out to shield the impact locations and defend against the shredding tendrils of water.

'Pull yourself together, B, or you will die. We gotta rotate!' Gyuki shouted, and B, still shaken from the pain, quickly wrapped his tails around himself and started to rotate his bijuu body, creating a move like Kaiten, only it was on a massively larger scale. This proved to be the right choice as the water tendrils were being deflected before returning and hitting the revolving body of the Hachibi again and again, only to be deflected every time, sending water raining everywhere.

During all this time, A was doing his damnedest to ignore the pain in his arm as he evaded the singular tendril of high-speed water that chased him. His Lightning Mode was certainly far below his father but he never thought there would be a technique capable of almost matching his speed. Fortunately for him, he was just a bit faster.

For a normal bystander, the tendrils and A would seem like a flash or blurs as their speed was staggering. A was appearing and reappearing through the battlefield only for the water tendril to flash into his position a split of a second later and create a lot of destruction in its wake.

Rei smirked as he turned his back towards the battle and focused on flooding Ringo's body with his medical and soothing water chakras. She was far more important than the victory or the battle itself to him. The Jutsu he performed was his best counter to Konan. Strong, hard-hitting, massive, and insanely fast while being made of Water. Much to her dismay, Konan didn't yet come up with an idea of how the Jutsu worked or how to counter it as it was completely autonomous. Rei chose to use this Jutsu in particular so he could tend to Ringo while being sure his opponents were preoccupied enough.

Water Release: Susanoo

For a long time, Rei wanted something like Shadow Clones and after Tsunade brought the technique itself alongside a lot of material about it straight from the Senju Library, he instantly started researching it. There were even notes of the Second Hokage too! But in the end, Rei decided to make something else. Clones were good and the group indeed did use them to perfect Jutsu, train control, and so on but Rei and Konan were more used to their own variety of Rock and Paper clones. They just added the memory function into them and were good to go.

In the center of each Water Tendril was a half-formed water clone with the sentience of shadow-clones, therefore able to perform their own tasks and think for themselves while also gathering information about the enemy in case the Tendril is destroyed. These clones are then wrapped in insane amounts of water chakra mixed with wind chakra and stabilized with nature energy, wearing it like armor. That was the primary reason why Rei called it 'Susanoo' as it made a mockery of Uchiha's Susanoo. While the entire thing looks like a huge water snake or tendril, just a touch of the water could shred chakra-enhanced iron and the swirling water tended to pull things inside while the rotation increased its speed only to be enhanced even more by the wind chakra, resulting in a flying incredible high-speed shredding current. This was one of his more ingenious techniques… despite its unimpressive but deceptive appearance.

Rei heaved Ringo up on his arms into a princess carry and turned towards the battlefield that instantly stilled as the Water Tendrils stopped in their places. Both A and B were bloodied with multiple deep cuts all over their bodies, panting hard with wide eyes as they could feel the despair and fear of death that loomed above them. They knew... this technique was utterly unable to be avoided. A tried to run away multiple times only for one tendril to stop focusing on B and the second he had two on himself, he was pushed back, guided back towards the battlefield by being forced to dodge in its direction.

B tried to fire multiple bijuu damas into it but the tendrils mostly avoided it. He only managed to hit one tendril in its center which then burst into a shower of water that spilled on the country below, flooding it in water and mowing down a forest due to the sharpness of the water. The tendril didn't reform and B was starting to form ideas on how to counter this Jutsu... Alas, by that point he was too exhausted.

Rei watched their bloodied and beaten forms with satisfaction. 'That's what you get for hurting my girl, humph.' He vindictively thought, regretting he couldn't put them out of their misery for it. A was a stubborn idiot who would mix the waters of the Elemental Nation with his retarded plans while B was a good deterrent and a focus of either Akatsuki or the other Shinobi Villages. Simply, he was too good of a distraction from whatever Rei would secretly try to do in the future. No, these two would be more useful alive.

"Now then," Rei's voice rang through the destroyed battlefield as the two burly men forced themselves to raise their heads despite the apparent exhaustion on their faces. "This was your punishment for hurting Ringo. I must sadly inform you that your forces were massacred and there is no longer any Kumo ninja alive except you two on this island. My partner, Konan of Kiri, has seen to that." Konan didn't really help all that much, mostly watched out to prevent the death of any Kiri shinobi but they didn't need to know that. "Killing you two can bring short-term gains but it will forever sour relations with Kumo so you got lucky, I guess." Rei shrugged at the bullshit he was spewing and turned around, walking away with Ringo in his arms. It was time for her meeting with a medic-nin.

Both B and A just powerlessly flopped onto the ground, unconscious, the last thing on their mind was regret at being too arrogant to take another S-rank with them despite being offered multiple times. Now… their entire force was completely wiped out.

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Chapter 98 - Ch98. Conclusion

Rei landed next to Konan who was quietly observing the Kiri shinobi searching through the corpses while gathering all valuables and then storing the corpses into scrolls. Konan didn't even glance at him when he appeared as they could always sense each other so she knew he was about to abruptly appear. Kuga Mizura who stood next to Konan and was de-facto the second hand of Ringo was a different matter. She almost jumped back while drawing her kunai from fright when Rei silently appeared next to her.

Rei gently put Ringo on the ground while slowly channeling his healing chakra into her face. "Kuga, could you please call Irazu? Ringo is stable but I am not a medic and there are still injuries done to her skull." He said in a soft tone but Kuga quickly listened and scrambled away to get Irazu, the best medic they had.

"So she lost." Konan impassively commented, not even glancing in Ringo's direction. It was more to occupy Rei's mind with light banter rather than have him focus on being worried for Ringo. 'Sigh, Ringo... you really are more trouble than you are worth. Rei should not show such a worried expression because of you.' She thought apprehensively.

"Yes... but to be honest, she did have every disadvantage in that fight." Rei nodded.

"She should have been a good little girl and let me handle A. But no, she just had to try to prove herself." Konan said in the best deadpan voice she managed, making Rei chuckle.

"In a way, you are right. Anyway, how did the battle go?" Rei 'smoothly' changed the topic.

There was no way he could defend Ringo as they told her she wouldn't be able to handle A but she stubbornly wanted to fight him. Their hands were tied as, firstly, Ringo was the commander, and secondly, she actually had orders from the Mizukage to fight any strong lightning user so she could get a grasp of his technique and try to replicate it. In a way, she was forced into this situation due to her orders.

"Not perfect but it was??? satisfactory," Konan showed a rare smile as she gazed towards the men sealing up corpses. "We lost only two and that was because the idiots threw their shurikens straight at the shockwave from the initial explosion. Retards. Of course the 'sharp and spinny' returned straight back at them, giving them a reward for their stupidity in the form of a new hole in their body." Konan rolled her eyes. To be killed by your own thrown shuriken... that was new even for her. "Then we had twenty injured but none of them is in a critical condition..." She stopped herself and half-turned towards Rei, briefly glancing at Ringo with a snort. "Well, except the commander."

"I see. Good job assisting them." Rei praised and Konan beamed at him while giving him an eye-smile. Rei smiled as he saw that. His praise could always lit the woman's expression up... that was actually the reason why he praised her so sparsely. It wouldn't lose its spark this way.

Konan crouched down for a second and quickly kissed him in acknowledgment of his praise. "Thank you." She whispered before standing up and turning away to observe the troops. This time, however, Rei could see that she was slightly swaying from right to left while quietly humming to herself. Oh, if he didn't have injured Ringo next to him he would drag the adorable bluenette into bed and...

'Down boy.' He thought grumpily.

Just then, Mei pitter-pattered towards them with expectant expression and puppy eyes that simply screamed 'Praise me!'. Both Rei and Konan quickly swept her with their eyes, noting she had a lot of blood on herself but fortunately not even one scar marred her skin. She shot Ringo's body a quick curious look while she was approaching but then an uncaring shrug told Rei what Mei thought about Ringo.

'Really now... certainly, I can see your tutelage in the girl, Konan.' He dryly thought at the utter disregard Mei had for her senior disciple Ringo and could swear there was amus.e.m.e.nt in Konan's eyes for a split of a second.

When Mei came closer to Rei, he chuckled and affectionately patted her head. "So, how was your first battle, Mei?" He sincerely asked, knowing that it was a completely new experience for the girl. Not necessarily a good one, at that. 'Well, her career as shinobi depends on how her psyche holds up to something like this. Not like I have to be overly worried as Konan prepared her well.' He thought as he observed any, no matter how small, gesture Mei did. He would not risk her keeping her emotions to herself and drowning in them.

"It was..." Mei's beaming smile slowly started to turn into a concerned frown, "different. Fighting bandits or small squads of shinobi is much less chaotic and easier." Mei said and her face told everything Konan and Rei needed to know. The girl had no idea how to feel about this. Now that the battle is over and instincts stopped flaring, and Mei got time to think about all the people she killed, about all the times she could have been killed, about the chaos that was the battlefield. In the end, Mei just looked at Konan with a determined gaze. "I want to become as strong as Konan-nee! Thanks to her many of us survived. I know that I was saved three-"

"Seven." Konan quipped with an amused smirk.

"times..." Mei stopped in her tracks and widened her eyes when her mind processed Konan's correction. "What! When?!"

"You know about the one time I covered you with earth paper to protect you from an explosion. You also should be aware of the man who I decapitated because he was awfully close to removing your arm from the elbow down. Then the last time you counted as a save would be when I helped you fight against five enemies who surrounded you... and by the way, we will talk about that later." Konan hummed, making Mei cringe but nod at the accuracy of Konan's statement. "There were two situations where a lightning enhanced projectile would skewer you if I didn't intervene. They were covered by the smoke and you didn't notice them so we will have to train on that too. Then there was that one time when 'you' parried a downward strike from jonin that, by all means, should have bisected you. Stupid girl, I taught you better." Konan rolled her eyes, making Mei lower her head in shame. She really thought she managed to parry it! Apparently not.

"And the last one was something I can't really fault you for. It is a standard Kumo tactic though so remember it. The first thing the Kumo ninja did was to charge the ground with as much lightning chakra as possible, creating various areas with different concentrations. I had to keep my earth chakra flowing to the ground in order to prevent a few inexperienced idiots who didn't isolate their soles with their own chakra from being fried inside out by stepping through areas with different concentrations of lightning chakra. Just because it goes to the earth doesn't mean it becomes harmless." Konan lectured and Mei was eagerly nodding before her expression turned to puzzlement.

"But why could the Kumo mercenaries fight then? Shouldn't they also be fried?"

Konan smirked and also patted her. Something she did not do often as she tried to emulate in Mei the good feeling she felt every time Rei praised her. "Clever girl." She praised, making Mei blush. "If you look attentively, you would spot the mercenaries having mostly electric proof boots and their clothes are also made from materials that are good insulators. They were simply prepared to fight in that environment."

The lecture was interrupted when the two girls stopped talking as the medic-nin finally came and Rei could finally stop pushing his medical chakra into Ringo. He walked toward Mei and scooped her into a princess carry which made her squeal. "Well, princess, do you have any other questions?" He asked her tenderly as he nuzzled his nose on hers, knowing she loved that.

Mei giggled and despite wanting to protest that she was too old to be treated like this, she wanted nothing more than to lean her head forward and steal a kiss from Rei. Unfortunately, she knew it would not be received well. 'Three more years... endure!' She chanted in her mind.

"How was your fight, Rei?" Mei asked after Rei pulled away from her, still cradling her in his arms.

"I fought A and Killer B. Both should be lying unconscious a bit further that way." He gestured towards the direction he came from with his chin while focusing on channeling his soothing water chakra into Mei through his hands. It would at best prevent bruises from forming and relax her muscles but he knew Mei loved the feeling it gave her so this was akin to her reward for having to be saved only seven times by Konan. For her first chaotic mass-battle, it was good. Especially since some jonin had to be saved a lot more, at least according to the glares Konan was giving a few select people.

"Why spare them? Didn't they hurt Ringo?" Mei curiously peered into Rei's eyes.

"Sometimes, it is better to let your enemy live so he can still be useful." Rei shrugged, noticing that Mei didn't understand him but didn't elaborate as he turned to Kuga, Ringo's right-hand-woman. "I see the sealing of bodies is almost finished. Ringo is out so I am taking the reins. Order retreat to the newly created," His lips curled into a devious smirk. "base."

Kuga bowed and jumped away to notify the squad captains.

"Eh... I wonder how our dear Mizukage will react to having his plans completely f.u.c.k.i.e.d up, haha." Rei exclaimed as Konan snickered. The old coot's plan depended on them losing, after all. "Well, time to write a letter, I guess..."

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Chapter 99 - Ch99. Letter for the Mizukage

Himeno felt the loving squeeze and pressed herself even more into her lover, affectionately sticking her tongue into his mouth, deepening the kiss. She knew he needed this and took it as her duty as Kiri kunoichi to help her Lord Third.

The Mizukage m.o.a.ned into the soft lips that were tenderly pressing onto his mouth and couldn't help but even more softly squeeze the h.i.p.s of the wonderful being who was straddling him. In his incredibly busy and stress-filled schedule, these moments of bliss and pleasure were the only thing keeping him sane. He could feel her b.r.e.a.s.ts on his chest, making his head going blank as he became more and more l.u.s.tful. His hand suddenly slowly dragged itself along Himeno's back, tenderly caressing it until his thumb finally reached the hem of her pants. Slowly, very carefully he started pulling it lower and lower...

'knock, knock'

Both lovers froze in their tracks and Mizukage let out an incredibly annoyed sigh as he buried his head into Himeno's chest. "Wy nw." His muffled voice resounded from her chest, and Himeno giggled as him speaking into her b.r.e.a.s.ts tickled her.

"Well, time to do your duties as the Mizukage." She smiled, inwardly delighted at how annoyed he became for not getting any. She was well aware he even removed every important thing from his desk beforehand. It was obvious what kind of play he wanted to do with her today. Well, tough luck.

She tried to pull away but he was still tightly embracing her waist, not letting go. "Maybe they will leave if we don't answer?" The Mizukage asked while raising his head and giving Himeno a puppy-eyed look.

"Ah~, that's so cute of you..." She sighed as her hand softly caressed his hair. It was only when he thought she accepted his 'plan' did she continue in a deadpan tone. "being so naive. I am your Jonin Commander and that means no slacking." She used her chakra to sting his arms which finally freed her. After she stood up and pulled her pants back up before also clothing the upper part of her body, she went towards the door to check what this was about. The Mizukage had a break right now so it must be important for them to interrupt it.

'knock, knock'

The Mizukage's head fell onto the table with an audible thump as he groaned in annoyance. 'F.u.c.k! Being c.o.c.kblocked might be even worse than having to deal with Rei!' He thought fervently but a sudden spike of Himeno's killing intent made him straighten himself and notice her glare.

"Tidy yourself up." She plainly spoke in an ordering tone that made him gulp but comply. Sadly, most of his time awake was spent deep in planning and giving out orders so he was pretty freaking stressed. Worse yet, Himeno's body was the only outlet he had, and the minx clearly knew she was the only thing keeping him sane. For now, he was utterly whipped.

It took Himeno a few moments but when she re-entered the room, she was carrying a scroll. "It's a report from Rei." She hummed and Mizukage couldn't help but feel sour at that.

'If there is one thing that's worse than dealing with Rei or being c.o.c.kblocked, it must be being c.o.c.kblocked by Rei.' He dryly thought as he accepted the scroll with a visible eye twitch and unrolled it.

His eyes looked through the report, reading it once... twice... thrice as his jaw was getting progressively lower with each readthrough. He was blinking in astonishment at what he was reading and when he was done reading it for the sixth time, the scroll fell from his hands onto the table.

"So? How screwed are we?" Himeno asked in amus.e.m.e.nt, predicting something like this would happen.

"They won." The Mizukage stated in an emotionless and even tone.

"Oh~, isn't that great?" Himeno quipped sarcastically, fully aware of what this meant. Yet, her voice held the barest hint of amus.e.m.e.nt.

"They f.u.c.k.i.e.d up months of extensive planning." The Mizukage stated. He was now on the verge of crying and mental breakdown as months of his hard work just went down the drain.

Himeno just scoffed at that. "I told you to not send them as reinforcements. You! Didn't! Listen!" She spelled it out for him while poking his shoulder with her index finger as her expression was twisted in exasperation.

The Mizukage lifelessly turned his face to look at her with his shoulders sagged. "I have given them clear orders-" He started only to be interrupted.

"You mean these?" Himeno raised her eyebrow as she drew out a scroll from the stack of scrolls next to the desk. When the Mizukage saw it, he could only gape at what were his written orders to Rei and Konan. The ONLY copy. Himeno huffed and crossed her hands under her chest as she continued. "You told them they are reinforcements and then got into one of yours 'playful' arguments with Rei. In the end, the scroll with the secret orders was never given to them. Heck, you can't even blame this one on them not listening to you! This was your idiocy all along!"

Himeno knew this moment was coming the second she noticed that scroll in the morning a few days ago when she was tidying the office up. She didn't want to make a scene at that time but this was important as the Mizukage was clearly slipping whenever Rei was involved. She decided to be a bit heavy-handed when the fallout from this mishap came. She could always hope it would make the Mizukage more focused.

"F.u.c.k." Was the only response Mizukage could give. The orders for Rei clearly stated he was NOT TO win. His mission was to save Ringo's life and Ringo's life alone. The people in the Kiri force who were sent to Nagori Isles were all 'undesirable' from a political viewpoint or were in some way related to traitors. It was simply a 'legal' purge while it would also be a good way to diminish Ringo's reputation. Ringo was a good tool for the village. Excellent assassin and tracker. But the Mizukage would rather be damned than let her have some political influence. She completed every S-rank assassination while being sick and on her deathbed. Now that she was healthy again, her accomplishments would just pile up and her pace was frankly frightening. He already had a candidate for the Mizukage hat but Ringo was a very good runner up in the eyes of the clans. That had to be prevented.

Himeno sat down in the guest seat opposite the Mizukage as she took the scroll into her hands and quickly swept the contents with her gaze. As she was about to finish, she could suddenly hear the pondering voice of her lover. "How did the scroll arrive?" An understanding flash appeared in her eyes for a bit before vanishing, leaving only a sad pity.

"It wouldn't work. A copy was sent to the council. This can't be swept under the rug." Himeno said while sighing as she heard the Mizukage cursing. "You gotta admit though, this was masterfully done." She hummed. "The council of clan heads will now most likely push for opening a Kumo front since we have a good and well-hidden outpost in a location incredibly close to the shores of the Land of Lightning that could be easily and discreetly accessed by our sh.i.p.s. Not to say about the morale boost due to the victory and how big of an achievement it was."

In the letter, Rei described that they discovered one of the smallest islands of Nagori Isles was actually an underwater mountain that had only the peak peeking out so they used it to create an underground hideout. It was really well-positioned, well-hidden, and too good of an opportunity for an invasion towards the Land of Lightning to pass up.

"Yes..." The Mizukage drawled, pulling out his pipe from the drawer. Himeno frowned but didn't stop him from starting to smoke. This time, she could bear with it. "This win will shift the entire war." The Mizukage exhaled a puff of smoke as he comfortably leaned into his chair as he continued in a fed-up voice. "Every plan for the invasion of the Land of Fire can be scrapped because of this."

"It's worse, actually. I was referring to how it would affect the village politics when I said 'masterfully'." Himeno started with a hint of respect. "The letter is written in a way that gives most achievements to Ringo. It was written as if it was her leadership that won two hundred versus seven hundred with only two casualties, getting injured in the process. We both know better as I would bet it was Rei who dealt with both A and Killer B while Konan finished off the enemy army but the report says nothing about that. It's vague enough with a good amount of facts that it can be misunderstood as Ringo's achievement. This will give a lot of ammunition to the people who want her as the Mizukage due to her excellent skill as an assassin."

Kirigakure was the village of assassins first and foremost so it was natural the clans wanted someone skilled in the art as the leader. Ringo fit the bill for them but the third Mizukage had a different opinion. The letter however really screwed up his plans both internally and externally. The Mizukage wanted someone with greater firepower though and Ringo was not on the list of his candidates. As the realization in just how much more than he predicted would this report affect, Himeno continued speaking with an unbothered tone.

"We can't forsake the two hundred ninjas who were sent to Nagori Isles to be purged either. It would create unrest among our shinobi populace since the event of this victory is too good to not be spread among our ninjas in order to boost morale. We really can't afford to have our ninja question if they are going to be sent on a suicide mission next. In small and unnoticeable doses, it is fine but right now… We will have to actually open the Kumo front or prepare for discontent. During the war, that could prove fatal." Himeno shook her head in exasperation at just how many angles the report covered. She highly doubted Rei did that deliberately.

This mission would be seen as the greatest victory of Kirigakure but for the Mizukage, this was the greatest defeat in his career yet. The problems this would cause for him were almost mind-boggling.

"Ah f.u.c.k it!" The Mizukage ruffled his hair. "I still have thirty minutes of break. We can talk about how screwed up we are later!" He grumbled.

Himeno could only sadly smile as she stood up and made her kimono fall onto the ground near her ankles. She didn't plan on doing this since they were interrupted but her lover now needed some serious cheering up.

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Chapter 100 - Ch.100 The Shift in the battlefields

Tsunade entered the Council Room with a barely restrained grin on her face. The previous nights, she spent with Rei and Konan having a very heated 'debate' in the sheets so she was very aware of what this impromptu meeting was about. She was observing mostly confused looks on the faces of the other clan heads who had no idea what exactly happened in the past several days nor that this meeting will decide the direction Konoha will take in the war. Tsunade sat on her chair and supported her chin with her hand, waiting for the meeting to start.

"Order!" The Third Hokage exclaimed after five minutes and the door into the Council Room was closed. "I am sure many of you are wondering why we are meeting this fine day." Hiruzen started on the lighter note. "I'd like to recount some of our war efforts and then discuss albeit minor skirmish, a skirmish that will shift the entire war nevertheless." He calmly said with an authoritative voice despite inwardly cursing whatever brat was the cause of that event. Because of that, his paperwork tripled and he had to completely write off many plans! Months of his work were utterly destroyed and he couldn't help but do what was the recurrent theme for every Kage these days. Seeth. 'The second I get that little shit into my hands...!'

"Troublesome..." Shikami Nara, the Jonin Commander, muttered but nevertheless stood up as this was his job. "In that case, I will start with the recent happenings in our war efforts. Our ally, Suna, is suffering from intense large-scale battles on their borders, both countries of Wind and Rock are trying to get some of their ninjas in so they could either run sabotage, reconnaissance, or assassination of wealthy nobles. Fortunately, there was no request for help so far therefore we don't need to be concerned about them for now. That's everything about Suna's front."

Everyone in the room knew why this was mentioned first. Suna front was something Konoha had no hand in influencing. Not in the light anyway. But it was important as heck. The second Suna falls would be the second this two-front war would become three-front for Konoha which they wanted to avoid at all cost. It was obvious Iwagakure was stronger, better equipped, and Tsunade would dare to say, better trained. Suna was winning due to their environmental advantage. It was as simple as that. They didn't have many people for offense but excelled in defense in the desert.

"The next would be Iwa," Shikami sighed as he took a paper from the table and his eyebrows scrunched. "As troublesome as this is, we are in a deadlock. Amegakure completely refused to let the war engulf the Land of Rain because of the event of recent years where the village was attacked and almost flattened by..." Shikami stopped for a second and sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "meteorite? As unbelievable as this is, it's what our spies told us."

"Do we know who attacked them?" Tsunade interrupted, leaning into her palms as her elbows put more pressure on the table while curiosity was sparking in her eyes.

Shikami briefly looked at her but then shook his head as if in annoyance. "Nope, no clue. Only Hanzo saw them and he supposedly suspects they were using some disguising transformation anyway. Something about their features shimmering from time to time."

'Ah... they didn't yet have proper control of my Transformation Jutsu at the time. And here I hoped there would be some funny theories about the attack, and maybe someone would be framed. How... sad.' Tsunade thought with amus.e.m.e.nt while nodding in satisfaction at Shikami.

"Anyway," Shikami continued. "there are some skirmishes on the territory of the Land of Rain, but our and Iwa's troops are continuously attacked by Amegakure forces and some new organization of ninja calling themselves Akatsuki that wants to keep the Land of Rain peaceful." He shrugged. "In short, the biggest battlefield between Iwa and Konoha is the Grass Country. It's a mess since neither can push with enough force to get past the deadlock and I, as the chief strategist of Konoha, unfortunately, don't see any way to get out of it in the foreseeable future." Shikami finished and the mood turned somber.

Every clan head was aware of the high death toll of the battlefield in the Grass Country. Iwa and Konoha had their own bases and the Land of Grass was engulfed in ferocious Guerrilla warfare between them. While major cities didn't really suffer, the countryside was in tatters.

"As for Kumo fro-" Shikami started.

"That's all Shikami." Hokage interrupted and gestured for his Jonin Commander to sit. "As for the Kumo front, that's no longer relevant." The Third said with an irritated sigh that made many clan heads straighten up. They quickly deduced this was the reason why this meeting was called. After a moment of sullen lamenting, the Hokage continued. "According to our intel, Kumo lost a skirmish with Kiri for Nagori Isles. Leaders A and Killer B led around 700 men to confront 200 Kiri shinobi and lost." Many clan heads gasped at that, understanding what they were just told while Shikami looked as if he wanted to bang his head on the table... with the large black circles under his eyes and all.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at this statement. 200 Kiri-nin... well, that information was broadcasted to Konoha most likely at the Mizukage's order. But for Hokage to know that Kumo sent 700? That was a testament to how good Konoha's Intelligence Department was. Or was it? 'Danzo...' She pursed her lips. There was simply no other person capable of getting to this information.

"That means," Hiruzen continued to explain it for those who didn't yet pick up the meaning of this information. "Kumo is retreating from their offensive and as of now, the Kumo front ceased to exist."

Kumo needed to consolidate their position so their ninja stopped attacking Konoha's borders which would give Konoha more breathing room. Kumo had to prepare for a war with Kiri since Kiri forces gained a foothold so close to their borders. It had to be said the war between Kumo and Konoha was rarely fought on the borders of either of their countries. Sure, both pushed to penetrate into the countries, but there were still Countries of Rice, Hotsprings, and Frost in between them, so there was enough buffer to prevent the hostilities to reach the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning. And now, Kiri had a free ticket and the war would most likely start inside the Land of Lightning. Kumo was forced to forsake either Konoha or Iwa front, and while Konoha was more hated by them, they quickly deduced that Konoha front was the better option since Iwa was not really trying to invade the Land of Lightning except for some very rare skirmishes that are more often than not just a diversion for an attack on Konoha forces. Most of these battles were fought on the islands between the Land of Earth and Lightning anyway so it was not really a threat. Konoha, on the other hand, had its hands full and won't be really able to retaliate even if Kumo dropped the front. Their decision was obvious.

"Hokage-sama, isn't that a good thing for us though?" Hyuuga clan head stood up and asked, making the Hokage briefly look at him with a tired gaze.

"No, not really." He said dryly. It was utterly vexing how the situation didn't change for Konoha despite the major change in Kumo. "Nothing really changed. What many of you don't know is that there were some small skirmishes between samurai and Kiri ninjas in the cities near the shores. Despite the Kumo front being unofficially closed, the ceasefire was not signed. Meaning, we are now in a 3-way battle rather than a 2-way. Lucky for us that Kiri also started a war with Kumo rather than focus only on us. It's all the merit of our counterintelligence department that made it impossible to find out just how bad the situation on our side is." The Hokage sighed.

"Nevertheless, we now have to prepare for a war on our territory." Tsunade quipped, simplifying what Hokage wanted to convey. 'Not to mention that Nagori Isles might not be that close to Konoha's shores but are still closer than the Land of Water. I wonder if Mizukage or Hokage will realize that...' Tsunade inwardly chuckled. Kiri now had the best possible outpost for bringing the war into the territories of both Land of Fire and Lightning. Something that didn't really happen since the first war.

As she said that, many widened their eyes and the mood turned gloomy. No longer did they inwardly rejoice at having to fend off only Iwa forces. Now they realized that... the situation just got a whole lot worse.

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Chapter 101 - Ch101. Three months, quiet before the storm

It has been three months since the battle of Nagori Isles and since then, Kumo sent multiple squads to look through them with a fine comb. But despite their backbreaking effort... they found nothing.

The Kiri troops hidden in the new secret underground hideout received a simple order. Stay hidden. For three months, they did so while Rei and Konan were focusing on enlarging the underground base to house thousands of ninja. And slowly but surely, more and more Kiri ninja were arriving by sh.i.p.s. Not in large quantities, rather the Mizukage chose subtlety so it took three entire months for the Nagori Base to house five thousand men. Rei knew the war would start in earnest for Kiri in a short few weeks and marveled at how the Mizukage handled the shitstorm he delivered to him.

Simply said, when Kumo didn't find even a single trace of Kiri ninja and heard there were some skirmishes at the southern shores of the Land of Fire, they were led to believe Kiri didn't intend to attack them. The Mizukage even leaked some 'intel' of his war plans through a few spies of Kumo in his ranks he knew about so it was 'obvious' that Nagori Isles was just a distraction for a full-out assault on the southern coasts of the Land of Fire.

This had a double effect.

Firstly, Konoha started reinforcing this part of the country, wasting their war potential on fighting what was, in reality, poorly managed and very random, which made it frustrating to deal with attacks of various pirate crews the Mizukage hired. These men should not pose a problem to ninjas but their raids were so spread out and random that Konoha had no other way to counter them than to keep their ninjas stationed in the coastal cities. The villages however were left to their own devices... Most of them were already razed to the ground, women r.a.p.ed and enslaved, and men, elderly, and children used for amus.e.m.e.nt as the pirates stole and plundered to their hearts' contents. Simply put, the Konoha forces abandoned them to protect rich merchants in the cities. For now, Kiri was winning this faux invasion while its forces were secretly amassing themselves at Nagori Base. And yet... not one Kiri shinobi set even one foot on the Land of Fire territory during this invasion. It was all the job of hired sc.u.m who couldn't even use chakra. Rei really had to applaud the Mizukage for this as the man was single-handedly screwing with two nations of the Great Five by just spending some pocket money on expendable pirates simply by using the situation he found himself in.

And secondly, after hearing of these events, Kumo finally deemed Kiri wholly focused on Konoha and stopped searching through the Nagori Isles about three weeks ago. Kumo was now regrouped and their ninjas well-rested and better equipped while Konoha forces were spread thin. There could be only one conclusion if one considered the hatred Kumo had for Konoha. The Kumo front opened again. It didn't take even a week after the searches were called out for some really bloody battles to commence as Kumo forces started pounding on the borders of the Land of Fire like a sledgehammer.

In the end, Konoha was spread as thin as possible while Kumo completely disregarded any threat Kiri's previous presence so near their borders signified. Rei could only applaud the Mizukage for the job well done at organizing his troops as the man showed he really deserved his S-rank earned by numerous assassinations. He made it damn near impossible to spot where Kiri was going to hit next.

The second Ringo awakened after the beating she received from A, she asked, no, begged Rei to help her with Lightning Release. He could only delay it so much and told her he would help when she is fully recuperated. It took her an additional month for that to happen but in the end, Rei could only helplessly shrug and pretend the vexed and peeved look Konan directed at him every single evening as they were falling asleep didn't exist. At least, for the next two weeks, angry s.e.x and the pointed glare was the norm. Tsunade certainly had a lot of fun watching their antics.

After these two weeks, Konan had had enough. And that was when the hell for Ringo started. Konan took it upon herself to 'help' the young woman train in Lightning Release with the only method a non-Lightning release user could. By combat. Since then, Ringo started going to bed badly bruised or cut up while Konan was again as meek and snugly as a kitten in the bed. Rei had to admit he didn't stop Konan because he knew these 'training' sessions were more of a frustration relief for her and he liked silently bashful tender Konan more than silently seething angry Konan. As a man, he wholeheartedly believed he should avoid jumping into this matter as it was between two women, and decided to let Konan bea-, uh, get her frustration out of herself with Ringo's help...

Mei also had very productive months. She didn't expect that during the war there would be a three months break. The war's duration was reaching almost three-quarters of a year and yet, for Mei, there was only one battle so far. She however understood her weaknesses during it and bugged Tsunade until the woman caved and started to bug Rei who then bugged Konan who after that dragged Ringo into it... All four were giving Mei some lessons in their free time.

Rei, Konan, and Tsunade also started doing 'practices' in Rei's personal dimension, creating an army of tough earth clones for Mei to go one versus army. Whoever said Tsunade was a gentle teacher was an idiot. The woman was doing her very best to stop one blow short of killing Mei. If Tsunade wasn't such a good medic who could use nature energy to heal while being fully supported by the over-abundance of the said energy in Rei's dimension, Mei would be crippled for life only after five minutes of these new exercises. And yet... she was getting stronger at a rate most would call insane. The only thing Rei could do when he saw Mei's progress was to dryly think... 'The plot armor is strong with this one.'

But like all good things, the peaceful period was on the verge of the end. The Mizukage now had all troops where he wanted them. He also had all the countries where he wanted them. Moreover, he had Konoha where he wanted it and it was time to start offensive...

Fuguki Suikazan, Kushimaru Kuriarare, and Ringo Ameyuri... these three, the Mizukage decided, would lead the Kumo front while the other five members of the Seven Swordsmen were preparing to lead an offensive against Konoha. These three were chosen especially because of how fierce they were since that was something that would save them in this vastly outnumbered gamble. They weren't given all that much resources or troops. Their whole deployment was simply a necessary 'evil' as the clan heads pushed for an attack on the Land of Lightning in some inane vision of 'glory'.

Sometimes Rei wondered if stupidity was a necessary trait to become a clan head or being a councilman. If Kiri set all its might onto Konoha, the village would fall as quickly as Uzushio did in the second war and yet, it was Kiri council that prevented this from happening.

Nevertheless, Rei was really curious about how Ringo would handle this when the odds were stacked so much against her. After all, he did spend most of his training time with her by giving her various strategies and teaching them how to devise her own unique strategies. He doubted she would again get c.o.c.ky or suicidal enough to face A alone, not after the verbal spanking he gave her, the physical trashing Konan gave her, and most importantly, the sullen angry pout Mei gave her.

Sadly, he wouldn't be there to witness or help her as Team Downpour received new orders... onwards to Suna.

--

Author Note:

Yeah, I know... summary chapter :D. Alas, it's a necessary evil for a time-skip-kun.

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Chapter 102 - Ch102. Suna/Iwa front 1

The Mizukage wanted to cement his advantages over Konoha by convoluting with the village that hated treehuggers most. The Iwagakure.

Unfortunately for the Team Downpour, they were the fastest 'delivery boy' the Mizukage had, therefore they now flew in the sky on Konan's platform made of paper towards the borders of Sunagakure, one of the least expected places where a meeting between Iwa and Kiri messengers could happen.

"So? What is the plan?" Konan asked as she sat next to Rei who just hummed at her with a shit-eating smirk.

"What do you mean?" He asked, making her roll her eyes at him in exasperation. Rei chuckled at her reaction and promptly regretted it as Konan pinched his side, hard.

"Ai, ai, au! Stop it, woman!" He exclaimed and to his eternal relief, he felt Konan stop. With an exaggerated pout, Rei turned to her and puffed out his cheeks. "That hurt!" He petulantly proclaimed and waved his right hand in the air, making Konan snicker at his antics while taking hold of his free hand as she leaned onto his shoulder.

"You know what I mean. I wasn't born yesterday. I am fully aware you planted some listening seals into Tsuchikage's office, Iwa's Council Room, and a few spots of interest." Konan said with half-lidded eyes as she enjoyed Rei's warmth while pressing herself more into him.

"Ahahaha, so you noticed?" Rei tried to laugh it off and rubbed the back of his head with his free hand.

"Of course," Konan deadpanned, looking into the rising sun as it painted the horizon in bright orange. If it was up to her, she would want to stay like this with Rei forever... "After all, I did the same and bugged these places with my paper slices too." She finished smugly, making Rei open his mouth but no sound came out as he was quite speechless.

"In retrospect, I should have seen this coming. It was just a precaution though. That's why I never told you as I never thought it would be of use." He said in an apologetic tone.

"Ye-" Konan started but was quickly interrupted as an explosion sounded from afar and Mei jumped awake because of it, starting to rub her eyes as she cutely yawned.

"Mo~" She whined sleepily, making both Rei and Konan smile at her while spreading their nature sensing towards the explosion and veering the platform in its direction. "What's going on?" Mei asked as she came closer and kneeled behind them, leaning on their backs while propping her head in between theirs.

That was when they saw it. In front of their eyes, a scene of carnage appeared as they stumbled on a battlefield with still on-going battle. Fortunately, from the platform, they had incredible views while having minimal chances of being discovered since no ninja ever looked far up into the sky due to flying being extremely scarce.

"Well, would you look at that? Looks like we are quite lucky today. I mean, what are the chances?" Rei chuckled. Major battles like this didn't happen on daily basis. There was seldom one per six months and even that was a stretch. Ninjas were more of a Guerrilla Warfare type of combatants. Forward clashes like the one they were just witnessing were something rare as villages could not afford to waste their men. To think they would randomly stumble upon one...

The mangled bodies of Iwa and Suna ninjas covered the desert as the two armies clashed. Hundreds of ninja fought for their villages, bravely but foolishly killing each other. Suna Tessenjutsu units worked together to perform joint ranged Wind Jutsu and tried to keep their distance while the weaponry and pieces of puppets from Kugutsu Units flew everywhere. Rei had no doubt every single piece from those was soaked in a very dangerous poison. The Iwa had similar tactics as their Explosion Corps were focusing on ranged attacks and throwing explosives and their ninjas fought more defensively with their Earth Ninjutsu. The situation however complicated four combatants who clashed in the middle of the battlefield, not really caring about who would become the collateral of their actions.

Golden sands rose, crushing tens of people as they raced towards a plump guy clad in Iwa attire. The guy just clapped his hands together and commenced weaving hand signs in preparation of his jutsu before the area in front of him exploded, tossing the golden sands away from him. The golden sands however quickly reformed into yet another wave and flew back at the plumb Iwa-nin who jumped back and started throwing kunai at it, each of which exploded on contact. These explosions were a lot bigger and louder than an explosive tag and released a momentary blinding flash of white light.

"Clever, the Iwa guy is using these flashes from his explosion to make his opponent lose sight of him. The golden dust user must be pretty annoyed by now." Konan commented, more for the sake of Mei so she would be fully aware of what was going on and why the round guy managed to fight back.

"Look there." Konan calmly pointed towards the other high-level battle a bit away, making both Mei and Rei turn their heads towards it.

A small slim woman holding two kunai was in a fierce melee clash with a big muscled guy who used his fists hardened by some Earth Jutsu to try ferociously hit the woman but she always just side-stepped, using her incredible agility to avoid each strike while also retaliating with her kunai, trying to find a purchase. Konan pointed them out because these two were amazingly fast and as they fought, they moved all over the battlefield, sometimes killing some poor soul without even noticing. Suddenly, the woman jumped back, and above her hands two fiery orbs of orange pulsed into existence.

"Oh! It's Pakura." Rei said surprised. He never expected her to be so good with kunai.

Konan and Mei didn't have time to respond and only narrowed their eyes at the now 'introduced' woman as she flung her Scorch orbs at her opponent. The bulky man from Iwa didn't stay idle and knew these orbs would kill him on contact. But it didn't matter as he was where he wanted to be. From his mouth, he suddenly spat a large amount of lava, creating waves of it covering the vicinity.

"Damn, that must have killed hundreds." Mei exclaimed with wide eyes while in her head, she was already calculating how to use something similar with her own bloodline. Rei was a bit sad at how easily Mei reacted to so many people dying but this was the reality. She would either accept it or die.

Pakura, seeing her comrades scream in unthinkable pain as they were being melted by lava, screamed in rage as another three scorching orbs appeared around her and she quickly sent them towards Iwa ninjas rather than her opponent. From there, the battle became a total massacre. Pakura focused more on mummifying the Iwa ninjas while evading currents of lava that killed everything around her while the Iwa ninja evaded occasional kunai or scorching orb while spewing lava bullets and lava waves in hopes to kill more Suna ninjas. It was no longer about a fight between the two. Instead, it was about who kills more cannon fodder faster.

"Rei... I never told you how happy I am you took me in." Mei suddenly said breathlessly, her mind in turmoil at what she saw. If Rei didn't take her in and train her, she would probably become a genin... an average genin, at that. Meaning she would, most likely, be a participant in a battle like this, ending in the role of the screaming cannon fodder. She gulped at the chilling realization and briefly pitied her classmates. Rei only sadly smiled at Mei and tenderly patted her head in reassurance.

The fight was getting to the closure since both sides were running out of ninjas. Many already retreated and it was now mostly a fight between the four strongest. The surrounding area was covered in molten lava, golden sands, loads of obsidian glass created from the immense heat through the scorch or lava releases... it was a mess. Even the bodies of ninjas were already either melted or mummified, if not buried deep in the sands.

The four ninjas suddenly stopped fighting as they realized this was a stalemate and their forces already retreated. Nodding at each other, they disengaged.

"Wait, what?!" Mei exclaimed when she saw how anticlimactic this was to which Konan only snorted.

"These are the aces of their respective villages. Do you really think they can afford to fight to the death? No, it never was about killing the other guy. From the start, it was about killing as many enemy ninjas while keeping the opponent from killing their own." She simply said the complete truth that made Mei gape.

"Yup, continuing would be a risk. In the end, there would be a loser and they can't be sure who that would be. Losing would mean being killed which would result in their village losing one or possibly two S-rank ninjas which would completely change the stalemate of the Suna/Iwa front. Sure, Iwa would like that while Suna would rather stay it as it is but Iwa can't afford to rashly sacrifice their S-rankers. Not right now when they are in a three-way war with Suna, Konoha, and Kumo." Rei continued the explanation.

The stronger one was the lesser danger of dying. Oddly enough... quite often that didn't mean surviving due to actually winning the fights.

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Chapter 103 - Ch103. Suna/Iwa front 2

"What now?" Mei asked sullenly as her eyes trailed over the retreating form of Pakura. She didn't like that Rei recognized the woman. Nor that the woman seemed to be extremely strong… and pretty. Not to mention Rei looked at Pakura more than the other S-rankers in that battle. Nope, she didn't like it one bit.

Konan on the other hand, also watched Pakura with her calculative gaze and 'heee~' kind of playful expression, making Pakura feel chills go up to her spine but being unable to tell why no matter how much she looked around.

"Now we go and follow the Lava spitting guy from Iwa. If I am right, that's the youngest son on the Tsuchikage." Rei stated absentmindedly, bringing the two thoughtful girls to reality. "He is the man we are supposed to meet and hand the letter to, according to the mission orders." He shrugged, not expecting this to be a pleasant mission at all. He knew better as did Konan who slightly tensed, amus.e.m.e.nt never leaving her eyes. Only Mei stayed blissfully clueless, not that the older duo would enlighten her. They wanted to see if she would find out by herself.

...

A lone Iwa shinobi had guard duty at the gate of the closest Iwa outpost to the Suna borders. It was a bother, to be honest, and the job was dangerous as heck since during war they had to be expecting an attack twenty-four-seven. At least, it was well paid. He was yawning as it was almost evening and he was mind-numbingly guarding the gate for eight hours now despite the fact he was to be swapped four hours ago. When one of your work 'buddies' is the niece of the outpost commander, then those less fortunate, like him, have to quietly suffer for it.

Suddenly, in the distance, something shimmered and the Iwa guard narrowed his tired eyes as he tried to get a better look at it. It took him a few minutes to finally manage but his eyes widened when he saw three figures making their way straight towards the outpost gate. Now... he was conflicted. He could report this but it didn't seem like an attack. If it was, good. If not, he may be punished for disturbing his commander! The man gulped as his mood soured. 'Why did I become a ninja again? Stupid, stupid, stupid!'

While he was having internal turmoil, Rei, Konan, and Mei finally arrived in front of the gate and nodded at the guy in greeting. Slowly, not to show any threatening movement, Rei withdrew a scroll with his orders and handed it to the man who took it curiously before reading it. The scroll didn't really contain the message of the Mizukage but it was more of a confirmation of their identity.

"I-, I will get my commanding officer fast!" The Iwa-nin scaredly exclaimed before scurrying away into the outpost.

Mei frowned at the guy who seemingly left the gate wide open and without any guardian but when Konan poked her cheek with her index finger and attracted her attention, Mei could quickly see the amused look Konan usually had when she wanted her to find out something 'hidden'. Usually the meaning of a lesson or exercise... 'Oh! I get it!' Mei's eyes sparkled and darted all over the place while she acted like an overenthusiastic child... a mere new genin who thought this was a vacation or something. 'Two, no, three hidden ninjas?' She tilted her head as she turned to Mei and discreetly showed her three fingers, expecting to be praised.

"Almost, you missed two hidden in the ground. This is Iwa outpost, after all." Konan bluntly said with amus.e.m.e.nt in her eyes, making Mei pout childishly and the hiding Iwa ninjas face-fault at being discovered so easily, by a child no less, and then having it thrown straight into their face. 'Heh~, now we would be taken seriously.' Konan thought, resisting an urge to exaggeratedly roll her eyes as she, with the corner of her eye, watched the two men observing them from within the outpost.

They waited for close to thirty minutes before the guard returned and with a shaky voice started speaking. "The Commander and Lord Kitsuha will see you. Follow me." He said before awkwardly turning around without even looking at them and started walking.

The party was led into a big lavish room where two men sat behind a plain wooden table with various battle plans strewn on it. One man was a lanky, middle-aged man with short grey hair and a very calculative gaze that slithered over them like a snake... making Mei glare at him in return as she didn't really like the way he looked at them. The man smiled as she saw Mei's glare and with a slight bow, introduced himself.

"I am Kimura Hagareno, the Commander of this outpost, and jonin of Iwa. Nice to meet you Rei and Konan of Kiri. I wonder... who is the third member of your party?" He asked in a fake-pleasant voice, his eyes lingering on Mei as he stared at her with suspicion.

"She is Mei. Our apprentice." Konan stoically stated, her expression cold and detached. Rei could only inwardly smirk as Kimura shivered at how lifeless her eyes were despite not an ounce of killing intent being used. Mei politely bowed but wisely stayed silent, observing the conversation.

That was when the other Iwa shinobi in the room introduced himself. "I am Kitsuha, the youngest son of the Third Tsuchikage," He started with great pride. "a jonin from Iwa." All three of the Team Downpour recognized him as the burly lava spitter from the battle they witnessed. After all, they found this outpost by following his retreat.

It was obvious the man craved recognition so Rei just politely smiled and tilted his head enough to send the non-verbal message that he never heard of him. Amus.e.m.e.nt filled him as the man clearly understood the gesture and deflated while a small scowl appeared on his face.

'So easy...' Both Konan and Rei thought with a sweat-drop.

"Please, sit." Kimura gestured to three free chairs, obviously prepared in advance. "Now then, I heard you have a message from the Mizukage for Kitsuha."

Rei nodded and handed the letter to Kitsuha who carelessly took it, opened it, and started reading only for his eyebrow to rise. His eyes trailed between Rei and the letter as a frown appeared on his face but in the end, the man nodded at Kimura and stashed the letter away. He would have to send it to Tsuchikage, after all.

"Now that this is out of the way, if I got it right, you are to return towards Konoha after this?" Kimura asked and Rei slowly nodded. "Wonderful! In that case, what about accompanying Kitsuha? His unit is going to move in the direction of the Land of Fire and regroup with some more troops before starting an offensive against Konoha."

Rei raised his eyebrow, enjoying the eye twitch of Kimura, knowing he annoyed the hell out of the man by the silent treatment he was giving him. "Sure." Rei shortly replied, his eyes flickering to Konan who slightly smiled. She enjoyed how nervous Rei was making the slimy git despite how good the man could hide it.

"We will gladly accompany you." Konan pleasantly confirmed, and Mei's body went rigid. She knew that tone. She knew that precise tone very well. It didn't spell anything good for...

'Oh, so it's one of those situations!' Mei mentally groaned, resisting the urge to smack her head on the table.

Mei had to admit she was out of her depth during the conversation. She didn't miss how there was no last name when she was introduced. Konan gave out nothing that could give even the slightest tell of Mei's ability. For all Kimura and Kitsuha knew, she was just a random genin. This was the first thing that made Mei tense and overly aware of the discreetly veiled distrust between their two groups.

The way both groups acted... it was obvious this was yet another form of a battle between the shinobi of two different nations. Each of them overly cautious in their own way. And yet... something didn't add up. As the debate about which route they would take started, Mei was already aware this mission would end up in bloodshed, simply because Konan never used a pleasant voice unless she was talking to her 'sisters' or Rei. Using it for Kitsuha? That could only mean the man would soon die.

Mei's head swirled with possibilities of 'why' but her face stayed expressionless through the entire conversation. The debate finally ended and they were offered a separate room which was promptly declined and Mei found herself bunking in with Konan and Rei. That way it was safer since Rei sealed the heck outta the room. Not even a fly would be able to get in unnoticed and not even an elephant would be able to strong-arm its entrance. It was only when she was falling asleep between both of her teachers, embraced from each side did a spark of realization hit her like a proverbial truck. Her eyes went instantly wide as she kept herself from waking Rei or Konan up by abruptly sitting up. She remembered multiple discussions about bugging Tsuchikage's office and connected the dots with how Rei and Konan acted during the meeting. Yes... Mei really understood why her teachers were so unfriendly.

'Shit... so this is a freaking trap all along?!'

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Chapter 104 - Ch104. Suna/Iwa front 3

Rei, Konan, and Mei joined ten squads under Kitsuha's order that were supposed to travel through the upper part of the Land of the Wind towards the borders where an army of Iwa mercenaries and cannon fodder should be waiting.

This was the web the Mizukage spun. Iwa pushing the stalemate in the Land of Grass while also attacking through the Land of Wind, going into the Land of Rivers where the Konoha didn't expect its borders to be breached due to the proverbial 'shield' the Land of Wind provided. Kumo was expected to keep Konoha busy on the Kumo front... and then Kiri ninjas go into offensive on the northern shores of the Land of Fire without being noticed while the southern shores are busy with erratic hired pirates. Even Rei could only bitterly smile at how well the Mizukage's plan went despite his intervention on the Nagori Isles. It was really baffling and a great show of Mizukage's smarts and his ability as a tactician. Coupled with the upcoming mission of the team Downpour in the Land of Fire, Konoha would have no time to react to the real assault in the northern shores of their territory. Rei doubted they would realize that the northern shore was the location of the real attack until it was too late.

The following days spent traveling towards the borders was a pure annoyance in Rei's opinion and he was fairly sure Konan also had thoughts of lighting the camp on fire whenever they stopped for a night. Since Mei found out this was an incredibly badly veiled ruse, there was no longer a need to keep much of a pretense of politeness with the Iwa ninjas that would inevitably end up on the other end of his kunai one of these days. Mei passed her test so as long as Rei's actions didn't make their tag-along group wary, he decided not to act friendly towards them only to throw Mei off.

Rei knew Konan was fed-up with rebuffing two moronic guys who tried to win her over with their 'dashing' looks as if it wasn't obvious they were a part of Iwa's seduction corps. The idiots didn't even try to change their mannerisms from that of a high-end man-s.l.u.t.

To be honest, he was too bored with the Iwa kunoichi trying to flirt with him. By his estimation two of the squads traveling with them, that means ten people, were from the seduction corps and ten of these were a quite beautiful kunoichi. Well, beauty is good and all but when one knows that sticking into it means being stuck by kunai in exchange, no matter if that kunai is from the Iwa kunoichi or Konan, it was just not worth it. Needless to say, Rei made sure that Konan was extremely 'vocal' of her 'feelings' during their nights... just to show how exasperated he was by the flimsy flirty attempts. Poor Mei had to use silencing seals to sleep. Unfortunately for her, Konan declared it was training to be familiar with s.e.x and not act shy when witnessing it... Rei totally had no chance but to comply with that, right?

Neither Konan nor Rei had any idea why the Tsuchikage deemed it important for these guys from the seduction corps to be here. Well, they did have an idea. Maybe he wanted to see if there is a way to 'convert' their loyalties? For them to be manipulated and somehow controlled by l.u.s.t? It wouldn't be the first time a dangerous S-ranker was a horndog who could be either easily killed by a p.r.o.s.t.i.t.u.t.e or promised to have a harem for his services. Every man had his price and Rei thought Onoki was trying to shoot blindly to find theirs in a 'maybe' scenario.

At least, they didn't go for Mei, and for that Rei was grateful. It would be so awkward explaining to her the 'finer' divisions of Ninja Villages. He was aware Konan explained s.e.x in great detail to Mei... and when Tsunade pitched in, to his unquenchable horror, Rei was sure Mei knew every little thing he loved in bed. Something he didn't forget to punish both Tsunade and Konan as Mei started looking differently at him after that particular debate with her older 'sisters'. But despite that, he knew neither of the women in his life deemed it important to explain what seduction corps was and he was definitely not the one who would have that kind of debate with the girl. Nu-uh.

On the brighter side, Kitsuha was an utter disappointment and Rei was now quite certain the Tsuchikage wanted his youngest son to die on this mission. Rei's thinking process was simple. If Rei was Kage and had a son like Kitsuha, he would also want him to die as soon as possible and stop embarrassing him. Oh, how the guy bragged when piss drunk. About this and that insignificant accomplishment. About how Kiri ninjas were insignificant pussies... in front of Kiri shinobi at that, about how he would 'spank' Konoha's ass after he accomplished a special mission from his father and made him proud. Well, Rei was actually surprised the guy had the decency to not blurt out his special mission was to kill the Team Downpour in an ambush. Point for the guy, he guessed. Nevertheless, Rei promised Kitsuha would get a very painful end, if only due to the way he looked at HIS Konan. Nothing short of being boiled alive would suffice...

And then the guy started droning on and on for hours upon hours about his nightly conquers of the kunoichi from the seduction corps whose only reason for being present in this squad was to seduce Rei... not be s.l.u.ts for their 'Commander'. Alas, the guy was still their commander so tough luck for them. The more the moron talked, the more annoyed Rei became, the more kunai-happy his hand twitched. The worst part? The guy just wouldn't shut up... and he would always follow Rei to talk. At times, Rei wondered if Tsuchikage was some grand schemer and this was some elaborate scheme to prolong the time he spent with Kitsuha in order to make the trash he spewed infect Rei and make him go insane or possibly die before they even reached the ambush point. It was certainly a very distinct possibility and with every passing day, Rei became more and more assured of this theory of his. The Tsuchikage was scary...

That's why, on the afternoon of the sixth day of traveling with Kitsuha, Rei was incredibly happy when his natural senses started tingling and his eyes snapped forward, widening slightly. He looked at Konan who grimly nodded at him, signalizing she also noticed it. But heck... not even the realization of what exactly was waiting for his team couldn't wipe away the happiness he felt at finally getting away from the boasting chatterbox.

"Halt!" Kitsuha self-importantly ordered, almost puffing in pride, inwardly almost squealing that his hour of glory was almost upon him. The Seduction Corps women didn't manage to do their mission and seduce Rei nor did their male counterparts have any progress with Konan who during the entire journey utterly ignored them, not speaking even a word to them. "Rei, it was very brief but we will have to wait here for a messenger. The best and fastest way to get to Konoha would be through the mountain pass in front of us. I wish you the best of luck, my friend!" Kitsuha boisterously ushered the Team Downpour to continue forward with his words.

Rei sighed and wondered if Kitsuha was really as stupid as he seemed. This didn't reek of a trap at all... The small straight road with two jagged tall cliff-like mountains towering on each side of it seemed totally safe. The walls were jagged enough that even attempting surface-walking would be something insane and would most likely result in getting mortally injured on the sharp rocks rather than walking the surface upward. Any self-respecting ninja would never walk into such a good location for a trap and would rather go around the mountain just to avoid this on the off-chance of there being an ambush despite taking the detour took much longer.

Konan actually facepalmed.

Mei, on the other hand, was blinking as she stared at the road, her mind completely blank, not being able to comprehend what she just heard. The talk about what kind of places to 'not' go was among the first lessons she received and the path in front of her seemed to be awfully like those at the very top of that list. 'This... they are kidding, right? They must be, right? I mean, I am a genin and they should be jonin... That means they should be smarter or at least more experienced, right? They can't really expect us to just walk in there, right? Don't tell me they chose such a textbook place for an ambush... that would need for one to be as dense as a rock! Nobody is that dense, right?' Mei thought in turmoil at the ridiculous situation she found herself in.

Kitsuha's orders were to walk into the mountain path with the Team Downpour. It wouldn't be really suspicious if he did so and explained they already secured and scouted this place. In the hurry, the Team Downpour was supposed to not pay much attention to it and when the people waiting on the other end blocked one of the paths, Kitsuha's ten squads were supposed to block the other path out, trying to prevent the Team Downpour from fleeing long enough for their helpers to flood the narrow path, using their numbers to overwhelm Team Downpour. Easy plan. Alas, Kitsuha had to decide not to listen to orders and 'advised' Rei to go through the path alone which made it very obvious this was a trap.

Rei just sadly shook his head, giving up on trying to find a shred of intelligence in Kitsuha. "Let's go." He simply said with an apathetic and disappointed shrug and led his team into a clearly obvious trap. A plan on how to deal with this ridiculous situation already at the forefront of his mind, his lips twisted into a nasty smirk aimed at Mei, making her shudder as she was now well aware this was yet another test and a way of how to make her stronger.

'Oh... this will be such a pain in the ass, won't it!' She groaned to herself.

--

Author Note:

Okay, before someone flames me that I make Iwa being stupid on purpose, I am not. I am making Kitsuha stupid and this was somewhat of his operation. The place for an ambush was good but he was supposed to walk inside WITH Rei and co and then spring a trap.

Remember, nobody except the Mizukage should be aware of the flight ability (Ringo told him, of course) and their sensing ability (He has no idea to what extent though) so thinking this could stop the Team Downpour was totally normal

As for what 'THIS' is, it will be revealed in the next chapter :D.

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Chapter 105 - Ch105. Mei vs Army 1

Team Downpour was rushing through the narrow path surrounded by tall walls of jagged rocks when Mei suddenly felt Rei's hand on her shoulder, firmly stopping her in her tracks, almost making her fall onto her back due to how abruptly she was stopped mid-run. Mei quizzically turned her head in Rei's direction, her expression clearly asking what was the plan since their current situation was quite obvious. Thankfully, neither the ninja in front of them nor Kitsuha and his ten squads would start their offensive until Rei and his girls reach a certain point in the narrow path. Mei was in Rei's squad for two years and by now she knew he would never let an opportunity to discuss the battle plan slip by, hence their momentary stop for a discussion.

"Well, Mei... you probably already know we will be jumped the second we reach the 'ambush' point. It's time to get some things straight..." Rei said, grinning at her and that was when Mei knew she was in for another world of pain in a pretense of training.

'At least it really helps me to get stronger...' She mentally grumbled while Rei obviously ignored her pouty face as he explained what he had in the store for her.

...

Kitsuha looked through the telescope as the Team Downpour suddenly stopped, seemingly talking among each other. His face was instantly marred with a frown as he changed 'go, go, go' in his mind when he saw them almost reaching the ambush point. He could already almost see his fame in Iwa skyrocketing after he managed to take them down. The riches. The women. Respect... Yeah, not once did he regret taking this mission despite the vehement protests of his father, the Tsuchikage.

"Why are they stopping?" He asked his second in command, a woman whose name he deemed too unimportant. In his mind, he called her Sucker as she had one incredible tongue.

"I have no idea, Lord Kitsuha." The woman evenly said, pleasing his vanity by calling him 'Lord'. It wasn't every day she was straddled with a man-child in the form of Tsuchikage's son. Tsuchikage's inept son at that. The rumors of how different Kitsuha and Kitsuchi are were quite the thing back home, after all. Both capable and very strong S-rank shinobi trained personally by the Tsuchikage. For that, the man deserved respect... and by extension her body whenever he asked. If it wasn't for his apparent ability as a ninja, no matter if he was the commander, she wouldn't bend to his antics. Sadly, while both brothers were strong as heck, Kitsuha was always the less renowned through the Nations, the child even the Tsuchikage rather keeps a secret. In the end, it all boiled to one important fact. No matter how strong Kitsuha was, he was an utter idiot. Without somebody holding his hand, he would drive others to their death. She sighed as a sudden headache ran through her head. 'Why the heck did I take this mission to look out for the big an' dumb again? I swear this is no different than these babysitting D-ranks when I was a genin!'

"Hmmm~," Kitsuha intoned, "Prepare to move. We are going in." He said, making his second in command freeze.

'Damn you, bastard!' She mentally wept. 'Wasn't it enough you f.u.c.k.i.e.d up the entire plan by sending them alone into the mountain path? Why the f.u.c.k would they stop? Maybe because you made it oh-so-obvious this was a trap, perhaps?' She couldn't help but minutely scowl. 'Now you want to f.u.c.k it up even further by engaging with them when they are not even at the designated location!?'

"Captain, I think th-" She tried to be a voice of reason but...

"You are not here to think but to satisfy my urges and listen to my orders. And I said we are engaging. Go and tell the troops to prepare." Kitsuha interrupted her coldly, flexing his powerful and dense chakra in order to remind her of her place. In the end, she could only resignedly do what he wanted of her.

'Hehe, don't you worry, girl. Today I will accomplish this mission and tonight I will show you that being obedient is very enjoyable!' Kitsuha thought, utterly unaware of the depressing thoughts of his second in command.

'I am so f.u.c.k.i.e.d...'

...

Rei, Konan, and Mei were done planning and started to again run forward only to stop approximately two hundred meters and turn to the mountain wall on the left side. Rei and Konan put their hands onto the surface of the cliff and both exclaimed.

"Earth Release: Hidden Cave."

Mei instantly saw the rock part but instead of a cave, it created a pathway. A so-called third exit from the narrow mountain pathway. Mei was sure this was possible only due to Rei's nature sensing and his ability to pinpoint which part of the mountain wall was the thinnest, and therefore easiest to get through.

"Damn that took quite a bit." Konan dryly stated, not really sounding happy so Mei kept quiet as they again started running. For a few seconds, they were still surrounded by two walls of parted rock but then a peaceful massive lush green clearing appeared in front of them, encompassed by tall dangerous cliffs. A dead-end.

'Meaning we are certainly not running from this one.' Mei offhandedly noted. Despite hearing Rei's plan, she still hoped he only joked and they would run away. She didn't really feel ready for 'this'.

Team Downpour ran towards the opposite side of the clearing, their backs to the cliff, facing the only opening that led to this future battlefield of theirs. Rei chose this place especially because it would be impossible to sneak up on them and the clearing was large enough for a battle between thousands of people while not having many obstacles. In his opinion, this was the perfect place for Mei to show the full power of her bloodline.

Soon enough the enemies finally understood that Rei and Konan 'created' a way out of their ambush and quickly followed them, amassing their forces in the clearing as they observed calmly-waiting Team Downpour, waiting for them to gather. It was quite a surreal sight. On one side three relaxed figures. On the other, a ten thousand strong army made of mercenaries and slaves trained to be as good as genins with a few high-ranked ninjas mixed and hidden in it.

This was the same tactic that Rei recognized was used in the anime for the Third Raikage. Except, instead of protecting their comrades, the Team Downpour was supposedly trapped since the enemies had no idea about their ability to fly.

Three versus Ten thousand.

Certainly, Rei could see why this would work. No shinobi had unlimited energy or never got tired. There were only so many people one could kill in a day and the longer this dragged out, the worse it would be for the Team Downpour. Or so, Rei surmised, must have been the thinking of the tactician behind this plan. A pity the guy never accounted for large-scale area of effect ninjutsu and most likely didn't believe that Rei and Konan could cast their destructive 'collaboration' Jutsu fast enough to counter the army.

Rei grinned when he saw the smug face of Kitsuha as the Iwa army finished gathering in the clearing. "And so it starts." He said and reached his right hand forward, His palm facing the sky as a ball of chakra threads suddenly appeared above it before it started rapidly fly high into the sky, only one thin thread connecting the ball with Rei's hand. "Since you were so eager to deliver yourself here... I don't think you should be given the opportunity to leave." Rei muttered to himself in a menacing tone as his chakra flared, changing into earth nature while being mixed with nature energy as the Jutsu was performed.

"Earth Release: Natural Cage." Rei stated, interested if it would work exactly as he intended and how strong the Earth Release mix with Nature Energy would be while he pumped more of this mix through the lone chakra thread connecting his hand with the ball in the sky.

The Iwa army could only stare in bewilderment as the small ball of blue threads suddenly burst out in massive amounts of black-ish chakra threads. One of their ends buried deeply into the ground while the other was still connected to the small, now black ball in the sky. Together they created something akin to a black bird-cage made of threads encompassing the entire clearing. That was when Rei started pumping Lightning Chakra through the thread and the gaps between the threads shimmered with blue arcs of lightning, making it impossible for anyone to get in or out as it trapped the Iwa troops inside of the clearing. Obviously, nothing short of killing Rei would get them out of here. Hence, the army prepared for the battle.

"Well then, Mei, yet another test for you." Rei said 'kindly' as he turned towards Mei. "I prepared the stage, the rest is yours." He pointed at the army in front of them while being amused at Mei's baffled expression and trying to ignore Konan's muffled snickering. With an amused tone, he added, "Defeat them."

--

AN:

Yeah, sorry, I was kinda tired when writing this so dunno about the quality...

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Chapter 106 - Ch106. Mei vs Army 2

Pa treon - 43 chapters ahead.

If you want to support me or read ahead:

pa /kasicair

--

Mei looked towards the army she was supposed to fight with a completely baffled expression. It didn't last long however as she schooled herself into a practiced indifference, the only indicator she was not okay being the minuscule shaking of her hands. Both Rei and Konan could see it in Mei's eyes though. Slowly but surely, the girl was gaining an unshakable resolve.

Mei was frightened. Almost as much as she was excited. As much as the idea of fighting the army of thousands by herself scared her, it was the words of her two teachers that stopped her from freaking out. Her bloodline... Rei often told her she was a veritable army killer. It was time to prove she really belonged to Team Downpour. That she had the right and necessary strength to be a part of it.

Mei... charged forward.

She was aware of how ridiculous she must have looked. One small girl charging at an army numbering in thousands and yet, this was what she was trained for. Mei was getting closer and closer to the Iwa army.

200 meters, she started molding her chakra.

150 meters, her hands snapped together in the familiar cross-shaped hand seal.

100 meters, in a burst of smoke, nineteen shadow clones of Mei appeared, running alongside Mei.

50 meters, Mei was surprised no kunai was flying at her yet only to realize with a pang of disappointment that she was not facing ninjas. Well, not entirely. The force in front of her might be around ten thousand strong but it was mostly mercenaries or slaves that were rapidly trained into genins worth not even the clothes they wore. She doubted there were more than 300 real Iwa ninjas in there and most would be spread out in the enemy army so there was nobody to attack her yet.

With a smile, all twenty Meis abruptly stopped 30 meters away from the army, their chakra molding finished as they took a very deep breath, arching their heads backward while puffing up their chests.

'Boil Release: Mei-chan's Super-Duper Steamy Surprise!' She thought with a bit of regret, promptly deciding to rename all Jutsu she named when she was just a small girl.

All twenty Meis simultaneously spat a monstrous amount of steam from their mouths straight at the enemy army. The steam created a huge white cloud that spread through half of the width of the clearing in all but a moment and was still spreading and towered at least ten meters above their heads. The unamusing white cloud was rapidly rushing to engulf the army, creating various reactions from the Iwa troops.

Some were unbothered as they thought it was just a normal smoke-screen if a bit on the bigger scale. Others were horrified as their guts were telling them the cloud was something very dangerous. These people decided to spin on their heels and run away... that didn't go well, however, as behind them were their densely packed comrades. In but a second the Iwa army descended into utter chaos as the massive white cloud was about to engulf the front-lines.

It was only the small number of ninjas who were utterly speechless at the massive army-killing Jutsu that was hurling their way courtesy of a small girl! Needless to say, not many believed their own eyes, and only when the screams of the mercenaries in the front lines reached them did their brain finally reboot, their instincts kicking in. Quickly, the experienced ninjas started channeling chakra into their bodies, covering them in it in an attempt to protect themselves from what they incorrectly guessed to be acidic mist made by Boil Release.

The searing steam cloud was pushing itself through the ranks of the enemy army, engulfing more and more Iwa mercenaries who deeply regretted even accepting this commission. Couldn't they tell that something was wrong when the Tsuchikage hired thousands of them to fight against three people?

They wailed and squealed like pigs when the steam even softly caressed their bodies, not to mention anything about engulfing them entirely. The second it came into contact with unprotected skin, it started melting them alive as burning boils appeared all over it. The mercenaries could only furiously thrash in a vain attempt for the pain to stop as the steam reached beyond the skin and started liquifying their muscles, fiber by fiber, reaching all the way to the bones which were instantly being corroded as holes started to form in them, submerging the victim in a world of excruciating pain as the bones started shattering while being slowly dissolved due to a special 'ingredient' in the cloud that had a nasty reaction to bones in particular. After all, Mei was also an apprentice to Tsunade and Tsunade did study Kaguya bloodline into a nasty extreme.

Innumerable deafening inhuman screams and screeches of untold suffering rang through the clearing, scaring the heck out of the experienced shinobi, the inexperienced slave genins, and the mercenaries alike as they now started pushing back, away from the still spreading cloud of searing death. Many were stomped to their death by their own comrades in the panic, only for those closest to the only exit to find out that they are trapped and realize that those who were stomped to death were in reality the lucky ones.

Two black strings were vertically along the sides of the narrow mountain path surrounded by tall jagged cliffs, a blue hue shimmering in between them, blocking the only way out. At first, the scared soldiers didn't even think about it, only when the first batch rushed through it and with a blue flash became just blazed corpses bathed in blue lightning flame, dropping onto the ground, not a meter away from the boundary of the blue hue, creating a pile of bodies there, did they stop in their tracks in even bigger fright.

The frightened soldiers could only cry in disbelief as their bodies rattled in fear. They were trapped. Their heads snapped back to the quickly spreading cloud that was now half-way through the army and they could only with wide eyes stare and wait for their turn, regretting ever coming here.

Not every Iwa soldier was powerless though. The three hundred experienced Iwa ninjas and even some of the better slave genins were able to some degree cover themselves in their respective chakra and save themselves or at least delay their eventual burning. At first, they also looked for a way to run away but when they saw the barrier keeping them inside the clearing, they quickly resolved to put a hell of a fight before going down.

The boiling steam finally reached the end of the clearing and enveloped the remaining despairing Iwa troops only to hit the blue barrier that contained it, preventing it from spreading further. Half of the entire clearing was now submerged in a thick white cloud and the screams... slowly starting to fade to a serene silence.

Over ten thousand Iwa soldiers came... only a bit more than four hundred of the most experienced ninjas still remained.

The real battle... just started.

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Chapter 107 - Ch107. Mei vs Army 3

As the cloud finished spreading and killing the useless and weak, Mei quickly made her nineteen shadow clones create steam clones because shadow clones wouldn't be able to survive in the cloud. She enwrapped herself in a protective layer of suiton chakra, creating a soft, almost invisible blue aura around her body, and with the newly created nineteen steam clones, she rushed into the white searing steam cloud of death while her shadow clones popped out of existence, much to her relief returning her quite a bit of chakra. Mei used a whole lot to create the first attack and despite having what Rei proudly dubbed as reserves of an almost jinchuuriki, thanks to his brutal training, Mei was quite exhausted. Getting the chakra from the clones gave her much needed second wind.

She was aware she had every advantage over her enemies. They were scared, demoralized, trapped in a cloud where visibility was as good as nill. The cloud also made them use their chakra, forcing them to effectively albeit a bit slowly burn through their reserves if they wanted to stay un-melted. On the other hand, she was still alone and there were hundreds of them. She had to be careful.

Mei could have waited until the enemies wasted more of their chakra but she didn't want the Iwa ninjas to find out a weakness in her Jutsu, especially since these were Iwa ninjas and the cloud was already starting to very slowly disperse. She decided to charge into it and made her clones also engage in combat with the remaining enemies.

She couldn't go and face four hundred men head-on. That would be suicide. Thankfully, there was a thick smoke-screen... It was time to act like a true Kiri ninja and use the silent killing technique she was forced to learn in the academy and later by Rei and Konan who brutally beat its mastery into her. Not that she complained. That single skill was something for which she would be eternally grateful to Rei and Konan.

Rushing through the white cloud with her eyes closed, Mei could hear the sound of starting battles as her steam clones started engaging their targets. She didn't need her eyes to fight nor could she even use them in such a thick cloud. Instead, Mei relied on her own albeit a bit limited, but still incredibly useful chakra sensing ability to sense her own chakra. The cloud was, after all, saturated with the stuff, and with just a bit of focus, Mei had an overview of the positions of every enemy of hers in the thick cloud. Well, figures. If it has a humanoid shape and is not full of her chakra, it was obviously an enemy. Locking on at the closest one, Mei charged at the ninja.

Mei felt herself being barely two meters away from her first target, happy he didn't notice her yet thanks to how silent she moved. The poor sap was confusedly looking around, not knowing what to do so Mei decided to make a quick work of him. Pulling out a kunai, she swiftly leaped at the man and buried it up to the handle into his neck, severing the spine while also supporting the dying body in order to prevent it from loudly falling to the ground. 'Damn, no sensing capabilities nor any honed instincts? This must have been one of the better genins made from the slaves.' Mei disappointedly thought as she slowly and carefully laid the body on the ground, making sure she did it as silently as possible before dashing onwards to her next target.

Mei found a gathering of five ninjas who had the sense to group up in the mist. She started molding her chakra and with just one one-handed seal, she spitted out a blob of lava while thinking, 'Lava Release: Lava Bullet.'

Contrary to her expectations, the five ninjas noticed her attack and jumped away, making the Lava Bullet impact only an empty ground. This also made the ninjas aware of Mei's position and she suddenly found herself evading two taijutsu practitioners who cracked the ground every time they impacted it.

'Thank God for Rei's agility exercises and Konan's Territory evasion course.' Mei idly thought as she sidestepped yet another haymaker of one Iwa shinobi and ducked under a right hook aimed at her chin from the other. 'These two must be chunin.' She noted before her senses flared and Mei quickly smashed her palm into the ground.

"Earth Release: Earth Wall!" Mei whispered... a testament of how surprised she was since Konan made sure to instill into her doing Jutsu silently and not say the names like some mentally-challenged idiot.

A wall of the earth with a semi-circular shape quickly appeared in between Mei and the two taijutsu-using Iwa ninjas, continuing all the way to cover her right side just a second before the wall there was impacted by Two Earth Bullets and one Fireball Justus. The three remaining ninjas from the group of five clearly could pinpoint her location by using sound. 'Tsch, just my luck, running into an experienced group.' Mei clicked her tongue.

Fortunately for Mei, the impact cracked her Earth Wall which sent some debris in the direction of the two taijutsu chunins due to the circular shape of the Earth Wall. Mei used this slight distraction and the fact they couldn't see her to her advantage and performed yet another Jutsu.

'Water Release: Cutting Blast of Finger-Doom.' She thought, again embarrassed at the naming sense of her younger self while gathering a small blob of water on her index finger. She shot the small blob of heavily condensed water straight through her Earth Wall, running it through the heart of one of the chunins, killing him instantly. The second one didn't even have time to notice his comrade's untimely demise when he found himself having the same fate.

Relaxing, Mei released a relieved sigh when her senses noted the three remaining ninjas of the group were just ambushed by one of her steam clones who just materialized in their midsts. Two were already dead due to the clone touching them which increased the concentration of the steam cloud, momentarily getting through their chakra cloaking. This made them shriek in pain and interrupted their defenses against the cloud in the surroundings, hence, melting them entirely. The last from the group was desperately trying to avoid the clone but suffered from numerous burns on his body since his control was far better than his comrades and he was able to keep his chakra cloaking... Mei didn't care enough to go and personally finish him off. The clone would have to suffice. The man was almost out of chakra anyway.

"That said, I am very low on my chakra too..." Mei dejectedly said as she kneeled on one knee to take a slight breather. 'Worse yet, while my own suiton cloaking is very cheap, due to my depleted reserves I can't really use much ninjutsu as I need the chakra. Hah~, ninjutsu specialist unable to cast ninjutsu... Is this Rei's way of telling me to not slack off in taijutsu training?' Mei dryly thought as she tracked another target with her senses, assessing the situation. '320 enemy ninjas remaining... My clones already killed more than seventy of them, huh? Well, no wonder since they can just materialize and dematerialize while killing people by just disrupting their chakra cloaking.' Mei hummed in satisfaction. Steam Clones in the middle of a searing steam cloud... so far, this was her best ninjutsu combination. She totally didn't try to emulate Rei's Kirigakure no Jutsu and Earth Clones. Nope... not at all.

After five minutes of resting, Mei stood up with a quiet groan, gleefully noting that during her rest, her clones reduced the enemy numbers to 290. She would have rested more if only Konan and Rei weren't watching her. She had no doubt they knew exactly what was going on in the steam cloud as not once during the practice did this Jutsu even slow them down. Preparing her weaponry, Mei started hunting solo prey in the thick cloud, aiming to reduce the numbers for now.

Leaping, she slit the throat of an unsuspecting boy, no older than fifteen.

'280 remaining.'

Throwing shurikens at a duo of Iwa ninjas, Mei luckily hit the throat of one while the second managed to deflect the projectiles only to be run through with a tanto Mei picked up from one corpse before she sheathed it and threw it away as the man's body fell onto the ground.

'250 remaining.'

Mei was pleased with the efficiency of her clones as she attacked yet another slave genin by using Rei's trick of latching a barely visible chakra string onto the victim's foot and tripping him. Needless to say, the thirty-year-old woman had no time to react before her spinal cord was severed, Mei already sprinting away, leaving the immobile woman to die from the steam.

'220 remaining.'

Her chakra started to be slowly replenished but Mei still didn't use any ninjutsu as she knew those who fell were the weakest sort and she would most likely need her chakra later for the stronger opponents. Especially the sole S-ranker, Kitsuha. She avoided him like a plague in the cloud and always kept her senses on him. Luckily, the man was completely disoriented and ran circles as his vision was impaired.

'Thankfully he has no chakra sensing capabilities... how disappointing.' Mei thought with an amused chuckle as yet another slave genin of Iwa fell to her kunai. '200 remaini-'

Mei was suddenly forcefully pulled back, making her eyes widen as a chill went through her spine when she saw a sword cleave the place where her head was just a second ago. From the corner of her eye, Mei noticed a barely visible thread connected to her back and sighed in sincere relief, inwardly thanking Rei for watching out for her. She didn't sense the attack at all!

'I got too c.o.c.ky.' Mei scolded herself, completely aware this would give Konan enough ammunition to tease her for weeks... worse yet, this meant her training will be most likely painfully increased. 'F.u.c.k...' She thought in resignation as she for the first time since she entered the mist, opened her eyes and melded back into the steam, using Silent Killing footsteps to move around in order to prevent being jumped again.

Chakra sensing was not giving her any feedback so Mei had to rely on her other senses in this fight. Using a small trick taught to her by Rei, Mei channeled chakra into her eyes, ears, and nose, improving her senses ten-fold. It was only then her nose scrunched as she caught a peculiar aroma with it.

"So it is the second-in-command of Kitsuha. Guess you are not just a p.r.o.s.t.i.t.u.t.e then..." Mei quipped, making sure to make the steam around distort her voice so it was impossible to tell where it came from.

"Any you are that small brat. Who would have thought Downpour is raising yet another little army-killing monster." A sarcastic feminine voice resounded from the surroundings, also distorted. "I am going to kill you, brat."

"I wonder about that, s.l.u.t. You should have stayed with what you know best. Being f.u.c.k.i.e.d by your superior." Mei lightly said and slightly smiled to herself when she felt the incredibly small angry fluctuation of chakra a few meters away to the left. Unfortunately, it was so short Mei didn't manage to react in time before it entirely disappeared from her senses, no doubt her opponent already gone from that spot.

"When the son of your Kage tells you to bend over and raise your ass up so he can get better access, you listen or you die." The woman's apathetic voice resounded from the surroundings, trying to sound as indifferent as possible but Mei caught the slight venomous undertone in it.

'A bit more, then...' Mei thought deviously. "Oh, if Rei told me that, I would be the happiest woman in the world. I wouldn't mind being used like that by my Master! Wagging your butt for a worthy man must be really fun!" Mei cheerfully exclaimed, making sure to bleed all of her sincere feelings into that statement while making it obvious she mocked the woman and the way she was treated by Kitsuha.

"Good try..." A quiet rageful whisper entered Mei's ears from the steam cloud, sounding almost sorrowful. "Your words won't force me to reveal my position, young assassin of Kiri. You are good. I admit that. Even I, one of the best Iwa assassins, can't locate you in this thick cloud of steam. I guess it's time to call the big guns." The resigned voice of the woman resounded with a sigh and Mei's eyes widened as she suddenly felt a big fluctuation of chakra from her right. Mei quickly snapped her wrist in that direction, throwing a kunai there but her answer was only a loud 'clang' before her lips stretched into a smile as a loud 'boom' resounded.

'Explosive tags, bitch.' Mei smirked as she felt a slight recoil in the now visible chakra, signifying the woman was injured. Her lips however set into a frown as the chakra of the woman yet again disappeared from her senses before she could pounce on the woman. "... F.u.c.k this shit. She got away again." Mei muttered in irritation before her senses caught one important detail.

'Oh... so the s.l.u.t fluctuated her chakra to alert Kitsuha.' Mei wanted to scream in agitation to the heavens. The man she avoided like plague was now hurling towards her position at break-neck speed. 'Guess this is unavoidable now. And the bitch is still hidden somewhere around... jeez, this will be a major pain in the ass, won't it?' She sighed as she checked how much chakra has been regenerated and mentally recalled the five closest of her steam clones to her position.

Mei could only chuckle bitterly at the unfairness of it all. "Time for the boss fight, then..."

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Chapter 108 - Ch108. Mei vs Kitsuha

Kitsuha landed on the spot where his second in command previously flared her chakra and instantly pulsed his own chakra outwardly, momentarily dispersing the steam in a small radius around him. This made Mei silently curse as she was caught off-guard and Kitsuha spotted her.

"It's the pipsqueak!" Kitsuha exclaimed as he pointed at Mei with a puzzled expression only for his eyes to show an understanding light a moment later as his expression scrunched to one of utter resentment and anger. "You! You are responsible for this! My glory! You ruined everything, bitch!" He shrieked in rage, not even noticing wisps of his chakra violently whipping around in reaction to his emotions.

Kitsuha was really enraged. This mission should have been his one-way ticket to being one of the most reputable ninjas of Iwagakure. It should have been easy as heck! And yet, his army was decimated by one little girl? He could not accept that lying down!

He didn't exclaim any death threats, however. Mei found herself facing his fist that was quickly approaching her face and only barely managed to use the flexibility beaten to her by Konan to arch her back into the bridge position, causing Kitsuha's fist to sail an inch above her belly. She knew there was no way to get away from Kitsuha by any physical means, so, with a quick Kawarimi, Kitsuha's second punch hit a half-melted corpse of Iwa ninja, burning him slightly as Mei appeared panting from exertion a few feet away.

Despite the rush she felt, Mei quickly joined her hands into a single hand seal. 'Water Release: Wet Beam.' She thought with a mild amount of embarrassment as the steam around her started to be absorbed to two spots on her right and left side, creating two growing balls of water that quickly enlarged into the size of a football ball and out of nowhere released two crushing torrents of water at Kitsuha.

Kitsuha didn't have even two seconds to react after Mei started her Jutsu. He only managed to raise an Earth Wall in front of him by slamming his palm into the ground, blocking the water's offense. Despite being blocked, the water flowed to the ground where it evenly redistributed and created a thin water surface on the ground.

Mei smirked at that. For the next Jutsu, she didn't need any hand sign. 'Water Release: Spiky Boo'. The small amount of water on the ground quickly gathered into small, sharp, and thin water spikes, aiming to impale Kitsuha who suddenly felt his feet to be pierced by something as pain flooded his brain and fear crept up his spine. It was only his reflexes as S-rank shinobi that enabled him to instinctively use Earth Release: Rock Skin to harden his skin. The water spikes started at first impaling his feet, only for bigger and longer water spikes to form and try to continuously impale the higher spots on the target's body. The Rock Skin Jutsu however prevented them from penetrating Kitsuha's skin so the only damage Mei's jutsu did was to injure Kitsuha's feet. It was only his pain tolerance that made Kitsuha able to stand but his ability to move was completely ruined.

Mei couldn't do a follow-up attack on Kitsuha who was suddenly a sitting duck. She had to jump forward as her senses suddenly alarmed her of an approaching sword. The feeling suddenly appeared and Mei wasn't about to question it which saved her from being pierced from the back as Kitsuha's second in command abruptly appeared behind Mei and went for a decisive blow.

Mei evaded and cursed as she saw the woman again meld into the steam and disappear from her senses. She was distracted and paid the price for it when she suddenly felt a searing heat closing in on her back. Mei only barely managed to pump as much of the mix of her suiton and doton chakra there to stop the damage as Kitsuha's spit of blob of lava impacted her back. Mei also jumped to the right, evading yet another slash from Kitsuha's second in command who thought she would be distracted enough by the lava.

"Graaah!" Kitsuha couldn't take it anymore and let out an enraged roar, attracting the attention of the two females, only for their eyes to bulge out as they felt his chakra build-up for a massive Jutsu.

"F.u.c.k!" Kitsuha's second in command cursed in fright and disappeared again.

Mei frowned and decided to play it safe. She recognized the chakra mixture he was building up. It was yet another lava Jutsu. Fortunately for her, the buffoon didn't realize this was completely her expertise.

Kitsuha jumped up and spat out wave after wave of lava, covering hundreds of meters of the battlefield and killing a lot of his own unsuspecting ninjas while doing so. The waves of lava hit the ground, making it sizzle, sending white smoke to cover the area Kitsuha previously dissipated with pulsing his chakra. The surroundings were yet again full of thick white smoke, shooting the visibility to hell.

Mei just jumped a bit and used her lava-walking exercise to prevent herself from being covered by the waves of lava as she surfed on it until it slowed down enough to stand steadily. Mei smiled to herself. This gave her quite the much-needed advantage in this fight since Kitsuha clearly couldn't sense a shit in the mist and she didn't have that much of a problem facing his lava Jutsus.

'Damn...' Mei thought tiredly as she looked at her chakra levels. 'I'll have to end this quite fast since lava-walking takes a lot out of me and I have to continuously use suiton aura to prevent my own steam from burning me.'

The only consolation to Mei was feeling Kitsuha's chakra levels. The man had still more than her but it was dropping at a fast rate by protecting his body from the steam and using lava-walking. Not to mention...

Kitsuha went berserk. The massive failure of what he deemed to be an easy-going mission and the pain in his feet. It all stacked up until he couldn't help but blackout from sheer rage, instincts taking over. He started to shoot Lava Jutsu after Lava Jutsu all around. Large Fists made of Lava flew in every direction. Lava Bullets ripped through the mist. Animals made of Lava rose up and traversed the surroundings looking for the girl who messed his plans up. His chakra was depleting but he didn't care.

Mei didn't go to engage him. Instead, she decided to increase the distance between them, tracking his whereabouts with her senses every second. As she finally reached the four hundred meters mark away from Kitsuha, she smirked feeling another large fist of lava impact the ground a hundred meters in front of her. The heat was high and the steam was sent away by the shockwave only for white mist again to fill the air due to the searing heat released as the lava quickly cooled and hardened.

"Well, finally..." Mei mumbled as she felt every Iwa nin disappear from her senses sans Kitsuha. "Who would have thought he would kill his own men in the end. What a berserker." Mei quipped, making sure to stay steady as every time Kitsuha's attacks landed, the ground shook. Mei knew she would not win an honest one versus one against him. She knew it the second he started spitting an ocean of lava and seeing how little it drained him. She wasted too much chakra to create the steam to beat Kitsuha in one versus one... without cheating, that is. "At least my steam clones are finally finished."

Since she could not win honestly, it was time to go for a boom. When Kitsuha first jumped towards her, Mei mentally commanded five of her closest steam clones to her position and made them wait for an opportunity to strike. That plan went downhill the second Kitsuha's second in command showed she is capable of ending Mei with her sneak attacks. And when Kitsuha started using Lava, Mei changed her plan completely.

All nineteen of her steam clones gathered in the area around rampaging Kitsuha and started pulling the steam from the entirety of the clearing towards themselves, making it thicker and thicker... The white covering in the air rapidly receded from the edges of the clearing, the white mist engulfing the clearing slowly disappeared as it was dragged towards one particular area.

Mei watched as a hundred meters around Kitsuha became a thick white cloud ball while the clearing cleared of her steam since it all concentrated at her opponent who surprisingly enough, didn't react at all.

"I see... he is far too gone." Mei frowned, watching the occasional Lava Bullet or Fist to shoot out of the white cloud ball, making it ripple.

While Kitsuha's chakra expenditure increased exponentially due to how concentrated the steam was, this was not the end-game for Mei. The nineteen steam clones were made of her chakra. That meant she could manipulate them. Which meant she could change the properties of the steam too since her chakra was dispersed in it. She only needed a medium such as her clones to act as a proverbial 'middle man'. The clones started pulsing the chakra inside of them which made them quickly disperse into the steam. This chakra seeped into it and the ball of pure white slowly started changing to grey.

Mei smiled. The grey ball of steam was now perfectly flammable. She didn't even need to do anything as the second the change in the steam reached Kitsuha and his lava...

A loud booming explosion suddenly rattled the entire clearing, sending an earth-shattering earthquake through it as the surrounding mountains cracked, large rocks chipped off of them and fell to the ground while massive shockwaves spread through the land. Even Konan and Rei had to brace themselves and bend their knees, pushing their bodies against the large mass of wind that impacted them, hard, while their clothes were flapping in the strong winds, making their feet slid back on the grass. Mei didn't fare any better as she didn't even dare to think the resulting explosion would be so powerful and was sent rolling on the ground. Only Rei's string made it possible for him to keep Mei in the air until she managed to regain her bearing and twisted her body to land onto the ground with her feet and also brace herself for the strong shockwaves, groaning due to feeling all the bruises her quick but brutal roll on the ground gave her. Mei thanked whatever deity that watched over her that nothing was broken and knew well that only the chakra-strengthening prevented her organs from rupturing due to being so close when the shockwaves hit.

When the clearing finally stopped being ravaged by the aftereffects of the explosion, Mei let out a relieved sigh. The Kitsuha's chakra... disappeared. She wobbled towards a slightly battered Rei who grinned at her with a thumbs-up and Konan who growled and glared at her, most likely due to the last attack. Mei confidently stuck her chest out and stood in front of her teachers waiting for their final evaluation despite feeling like flinching and running for her life as she heard the silent growl of Konan.

"Good job. I will admit I never expected you to succeed and we were prepared to jump in whenever necessary but you proved me wrong. Color me surprised." Rei praised Mei, patting her head which made her deflate and giddily hug him around his waist.

Konan didn't feel generous, however. Her hair was all tangled mess and her clothes were ripped in various places due to the shockwaves but when Mei's expectant eyes looked at her, even she couldn't bring herself to scold the girl. "Yes, you did fine. Now..." Konan smiled menacingly and gestured at her torn attire. "you earned yourself some more of my personally supervised torture." She ominously said as her eye twitched, telling just how furious she was.

"You mean training, Konan-nee?" Mei squeaked, trying to appear small.

"Oh, no... nope. I mean what I said." Konan innocently replied, making Mei jump behind Rei for protection from the demon who wanted to torture her.

"Stop it, girls." Rei chuckled at their antics. "Let's go, we are leaving. We gotta have a serious talk with Tsu before finishing the second part of our mission."

Konan's demeanor instantly changed from glaring at Mei to a completely serious one, causing Mei to sigh in relief as she clutched the back of Rei's shirt in her small hands.

"Are you sure?" Konan asked while narrowing her eyes and for a second, flickered them over a certain area in the clearing. Rei however just uncaringly shrugged and nodded.

"Let it go. It's better this way anyway. I can't wait how much headache this would cause to Mizukage if it really goes as I think it would." He said reassuringly and before long, the trio was yet again on their way to Konoha.

It was only half an hour after they left the clearing, the spot on the ground to which Konan previously glanced rippled as Kitsuha's second in command slowly emerged from the earth. She had some mild burns all over her and was drenched in sweat but she was alive. Her heart pounded despite the fight being long over as she helplessly fell on her face, her chakra completely drained. She barely had enough to stay alive as it was.

It didn't take long for the sole survivor of the previous battle to faint.

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Chapter 109 - Ch109. Warning

Tsunade barged into the office of the Hokage only to find herself under two sets of eyes as the discussion between Danzo and Hiruzen abruptly ceased. She wasn't deterred much under their scrutiny, not really caring about their opinion of her barging in. Instead, she just walked towards the couch into which she lazily flopped before speaking. "Don't mind me. Finish your gossiping, old folks. I can wait." She waved her hand lazily in a dismissive manner, enjoying how their eyes twitched.

Danzo was livid. The Senju brat just interrupted a very important meeting. He wanted to get some clan ninjas to his ROOT but Hiruzen was vehemently against it. Danzo knew he would eventually persuade the old monkey. He always did. The usual schtick of 'I do it in the shadows and you pretend you didn't see' always worked. In truth, he already had a few 'lost' clan females strapped to a table with the sole purpose of breeding more clan kids. He would give these kids to orphanages owned by him, naturally not the ones inside of Konoha, and then, when the kids are older, he would take them back into ROOT, getting rid of weak and bad seeds while nurturing those strong and resilient ones. Needless to say, these females he managed to kidnap would not leave their current 'accommodations' for a long, long time. He also had quite a bit of clan males being trained but those were in significantly lesser numbers since kidnapping a female for breeding was easier than kidnapping and persuading a male to serve him. They usually got aggressive and had to be put down. All Danzo needed was to make Hiruzen give him okay for having clan ninjas in ROOT and he would be able to not fear being persecuted when he reveals these clan ninjas he had. At that time, nobody would look how they came to be nor would they have any right to. Danzo sure as hell would make sure of that by having the council set some laws in place. Laws that individually might not even make sense but together would create a perfect shield for this operation of his. And yet, when he was almost done persuading Hiruzen, the Senju brat just barged in and f.u.c.k.i.e.d up four hours of his persuasion efforts!?

Hiruzen just watched how his friend huffed in anger, something he didn't see Danzo do for two decades at the very least, and walked away from his office while glaring murderously at Tsunade. He was aware that Danzo probably wanted more than just a 'few willing clan shinobi for his ROOT' as he put it but for all the smarts he had, Hiruzen couldn't really figure out what was his old friend's end goal.

Instead, Hiruzen looked at Tsunade and with a tired sigh, greeted her. "Hello, Tsunade. What can I do for you?" He tried to ignore the broken door and thanked heavens for sending his ANBU away before Danzo came in. It could have been bloody otherwise. Not that he believed his ANBU would be stupid enough to come into Tsunade's path when she is in a mood to smash things.

"I came to warn you." Tsunade plainly stated as she looked at the pictures of her Grandfather and Granduncle with fondness. Hiruzen wanted to bloom in a full-blown smile when he saw it but her next words chilled him to the bone. "Kiri is planning a full offensive to the northern shores of the Land of Fire." She said as if it didn't even matter.

Hiruzen's mouth opened as a thousand thoughts swirled in his mind. He had no idea what to think about that. It was plausible. Probable. Possible, even. As a plan... if Mizukage did what Tsunade just said he was planning to do, 'It could spell the end of Konohagakure.' Hiruzen realized in horror.

"Why do you think so?" He carefully asked Tsunade. If it was true, now was not the time to panic. It was time to act and plan accordingly to this new information. "You surely have some proof. Jiraiya's spy network spans every single nation. He has spies even in the Land of Earth but no report of Kiri forces planning to attack our country was received."

"Well, duh." Tsunade deadpanned. "The Mizukage is much smarter than you think yourself to be, Sen-sei." She said in a sing-song tone. "I am sure Jiraiya informed you I lived some time in Kirigakure. I have a few... friends there." She deliberately stopped, letting Sarutobi digest what he just heard. "And they informed me. Believe me or not, that's not my problem. I gave you the intel I had and that's where it ends for me." Tsunade stood up and shrugged. "Anyway, I'll return to the hospital." She said before marching out of the broken door, ignoring Sarutobi calling her name.

Rei wanted her to alert Konoha. To be honest, Tsunade didn't really have much fondness for the village itself. It could burn for all she cared. The possessions of her clan were already stored safely in Rei's dimension and she didn't much care for the lands. After all, even if Konoha burned to the ground, the lands would still belong to the Senju clan. The clan money was also in the bank, not in the village itself. As for her Grandfather's wish? She could care less what one idealistic fool wanted. The village was corrupt and twisted. The village higher-ups were responsible for the extinction of the Senju clan. Tsunade was only curious how her grandfather would react to hearing this. Sure, he wanted peace but he was a Senju. The family went first, no matter what angle one looked at it. Tsunade had no doubt Hashirama-jii would burn the village down himself if it saved the Senju clan.

'I just wonder why Rei wants Konoha to survive. Sure... if it fell, there would be a power vacuum and the war would probably considerably lengthen. By now, the villages are going on fumes and one to two years should be enough to end the war but is it really worth it? We could maneuver better if there is a war among nations...' Tsunade thought in confusion. Rei informed her he would defect from Kiri and as such, it would be easier for him to do whatever he wanted to do while Kiri was preoccupied with war. Tsunade had no idea why he wanted to alert Konoha to something that could be a fatal attack. 'Well, he probably has his own plans.' She shrugged, deciding to just go along with it.

At the same time, the Hokage was cradling his head, for the first time since the start of the war not knowing what to do. If Tsunade was right, then this was a major threat to the village. He would also have to re-evaluate the Mizukage... something he didn't want to admit he was wrong about. Alas, he didn't really have much of a choice. If he believed Tsunade or not, he was grateful she alerted him and it made his heart warm that his student still cared for the village and its people. Since she returned, she was completely cold and uncaring. Especially during the Council Meetings. At times, he wondered if she was a Nara as she often just laid her head on the table or tended to her polished nails, not really listening to what they discussed. Her most likely reply to any question was, 'Don't care, do whatever...' and it really worried Hiruzen.

But he was unable to complain since the civilians and ninjas alike utterly loved her. If he decided to give her the hat, he knew the village would burst into celebrations despite being in the middle of the war. Tsunade was just that good of a medic. Every single clan had many fatally wounded people she somehow saved. Nobody except Tsunade had even an inkling how but they clearly lived past something that should have killed them. Tsunade was always cordial towards people and never acted high and mighty... she was a Senju, after all. This made the civilians love her despite her bitchy attitude when it came to scolding people who didn't listen to her medical advice. For people, it was just a sign that she cared and while they always left the hospital grumbling under their noses, they appreciated it. Tsunade Senju was a legend before she left the village. But now that she returned? She didn't even need to enter the battlefield, something that irked many, and despite that, she became one of the biggest heroes of this war. The number of lives she saved... Hiruzen really couldn't complain about her acting like an utter bitch to him and anyone on the Council. Sadly, that was also the sole reason why he was unable to pass the hat to her. He feared the Council would be dismantled sooner rather than later if that happened and he could not in good conscience do that.

"Tsunade... why can't you be a cute and obedient girl like you were as a genin?" He groaned and banged his forehead on his table while pressing a button under it to call his ANBU. Not a second later, four people appeared kneeling in front of his desk.

"Hokage-sama." They chorused.

"Three of you back into your positions, Owl, wait until I write a message for Jiraiya. I will need you to deliver it... discreetly." Hiruzen said, not bothering to wait for a reply. He took his pipe out of the drawer before starting to smoke as he wrote new orders for his spymaster. It was high time to get a better look at the actions of Kirigakure.

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Chapter 110 - Ch110. When personal morals and mission clash, its time to troll

Team Downpour was standing on a small hill as the sun rose behind their back, bathing them in orange light while they observed their new supposed target, a miner town called Tanera. The town that was the target of the second part of their mission.

Mei frowned and crossed her arms under her nonexistent chest as she looked at the town, squinting her eyes in annoyance. "Are we really going to massacre the civilians?" She asked a bit peeved, not really caring about the lives of strangers. Nevertheless, she was irked to be ordered to kill someone who can't defend himself. After all, killing an army of mercenaries who can't even swing a blade properly and killing untrained kids and defenceless, weaponless people are two different things. She would rather not...

"Of course not." Konan snorted at how ridiculous the notion of them slaughtering unsuspecting civilians sounded. Sure, in their missions they razed a few castles to the ground but with hordes of clones and the spying abilities of her paper? It could not be easier to find out who was actually deserving to be drowned and who not. Nor was it difficult to relocate the people deemed innocent away before they actually struck. It's not like they went in and just dumped a large area of effect Jutsu, not caring who would be hit. There was a reason why they were the go-to demolition experts...

It was not like they never killed an innocent either. That was something unavoidable in their profession. Nobody who was chunin at least for a half-year already ever avoided doing that. Whether as collateral damage or target of assassination... it was a part of the job and Konan made sure Mei knew that and made her peace with it before she even became a genin. Rei didn't believe in not preparing Mei for these tough choices beforehand to 'preserve' her childhood. He would rather have her prepared and take some childlike happiness from her life rather than dead later on.

But neither Konan nor Rei would ever slaughter an entire town just because it was 'asked' of them. They lived through the war in Amegakure and the assault of Konoha ninjas on their town. Neither of them really wanted to be seen in the position of the Konoha ninjas.

"Well, technically," Rei quipped in an amused tone, "it was never outright stated we have to kill. They said 'distract' and that's exactly what we will do." He stated, earning himself a chuckle from Konan before she lovingly kissed him on the cheek.

'Never outright stated, my ass.' She mentally laughed. 'Sure, the Mizukage never said it out loud but it was implied in such a manner only a mentally retarded person would miss it. Guess this was the reason why he burned our orders after reading them, pretending to lose them.' She noted with mirth shining in her eyes.

'Uwa~, trust Rei to understand the orders however it fits him.' Mei thought in deadpan as she desperately tried to prevent the corners of her lips tugging upwards.

...

Tanera was an important town in the Land of Fire. It was the main mining town in the entire southwestern section of the country and it was also the only place in the Land of Fire where chakra metal could be mined. This led many blacksmiths to settle into the town and many famous forging companies were established and resided in the town. Tanera was the main supplier of the highest quality chakra weapons in the country. Not to mention they were also one of the main suppliers of kunai, ninja wire, and shurikens as well.

Because of its importance, Tanera had always thirty ANBU stationed in the town and now during the war, a regiment of a hundred ninja was added to it. Most of these were only chunins but it was still one of the most defended places in the country if one added around two thousand Fire Country Samurai courtesy of Daimyo. Despite being far from the borders and since the Land of Wind was an ally of the Land of Fire in this war, there was literally no threat to the town whatsoever. And yet, the stationed troops inside were numerous. The town was just that important.

So... why was the town in complete disarray?

The first people who realized something was wrong were the miners. When they came to the mines in a merry mood and started to use their pickaxes, a smoke engulfed them and they suddenly found themselves holding a bouquet of origami flowers. The miners quickly started looking for working pickaxes only to find none. In their places were just more bouquets with an awkward message of, 'Don't pick axes, pick up girls!'

Without their tools, they could not mine so the dejected miners went back home while grumbling under their noses. At that time, they didn't yet know there was no pickaxe left in the entire town courtesy of Konan and her lazy humor. The worst part? She made sure to steal every bit of ore and any ingot she found in the entire village and stored them in her storage dimension alongside the mining tools, effectively crippling the mining and forging business in the town.

Rei had a bit more vicious thing in mind and the next group of people who noticed something amiss in the town were the samurai and ninjas. Poor fellas didn't even have the time to deal with the complaints of miners and forgers alike due to the theft of ingots.

The Samurai suddenly found themself missing their swords and all hell broke loose as they ran around the town, looking literally everywhere in a frenzied madness induced by sword deficiency. One poor guy was even flipping the skirts of women, wondering if he would find some holy sword underneath them.

The Ninjas, on the other hand, wondered how they could lose their forehead protectors. The forehead protectors were very important to them. They had the function of identification tag and losing it was a mark of utter shame. Needless to say, they also looked all around the town in frenzy and for them, Rei prepared a small surprise. Many ninjas found their forehead protectors in places riddled with childish traps and by the time they managed to retrieve them, they were either repainted to rainbow glory by paint bombs or got closely reacquainted with sticky feather bombs courtesy of all the generous chickens in the town who now sported a new fashion style. Bald one.

When the ninjas after hours of effort to get their precious forehead protectors back finally managed to do so and put them on their foreheads, these protectors just burst into smoke... many ninjas became bald that day while having 'Shine YOUTH!' tattooed on their heads by some non-removable seal that prevented hair from growing. Frankly, Jiraiya was quite busy in the upcoming months.

Mei was told to target the forges and she decided to go childishly into it. The walls of every forgery were repainted to look like a sky with a rainbow. The thick grey protective aprons were changed for frilly pink thin ones used for cooking sporting nice unicorns. Many housewives would miss their aprons later that day but Mei really needed something as a base to create her 'Super Duper Cute Aprons of Embarrassing Doom'. She didn't forget to add itching powder from the inner parts either! Nor the small genjutsu that would make them appear as the protective aprons for thirty minutes before dissipating. Mei only needed the smiths to put them on since she made sure to ask Rei to inscribe a strong sticking seal to them. No way the blacksmiths could take it off anytime soon. She only wondered how they would solve the problem of peeing with them on. Oh, well, not her problem. Her next target was the safes in the forgeries and they were also completely cleaned out by Mei as instead of money, shé deposited tons of pink toilet paper.

At the end of the day, the peaceful village was quite quiet but underneath that mask of normalcy, this day was a disaster for the town that lost its ability to supply the ninjas with weapons and mine the chakra metal. Needless to say, both Hokage and the Daimyo would have to be informed.

Unknown to the poor victims, the Team Downpour was just starting. After all, they had a few months to waste since they didn't want to return before the attack on the northern shores was over. Lazying and terrorizing the townsfolk of Tanera from the shadows seemed much, much more fun.

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Chapter 111 - Ch111. Northern Shores 1

The Hokage was standing above a table with a huge map of the northern shores of the Land of Fire, loudly banging his fist onto the table with passion as he explained his tactics and asked the other men in the tent about their opinion. Around him, his most trusted aides and the most powerful ninjas from Konoha that he could afford to relieve from their previous posts listened with rapt attention, occasionally giving their own two cents to the battle plans.

Hiruzen felt drained. The town of Tanera was supposedly heavily harassed by pranks of all things and he could not dispatch anyone with the current situation so their disposable weapon supply suffered. Worse yet, the economy around Tanera was collapsing and many people already moved out. The Daimyo demanded something to be done about it because Tanera mines were the only place with chakra metal, therefore very profitable for the country. But when Hiruzen was about to send Jiraiya to Tanera to find and skin alive anyone causing trouble there during wartime with pointless pranks... The toad sage appeared very pensive and troubled. Apparently, the warning from Tsunade was real and Konoha now had to protect the Land of Fire from the biggest invasion to their lands since the first shinobi war. Oh, joy...

In the end, nobody was sent to Tanera. Another problem was to find out who to send to defend against the Kiri invasion. When Jiraiya told him the estimated numbers of Kiri ninjas, Hiruzen quickly decided to take a more hands-on approach and go himself, dragging a lot of strong ninjas from their posts from the Kumo front or Grass front. Even the outposts closest to the Land of Wind were almost emptied, leaving only 20% of its occupants as the others were ordered to one-by-one relocate towards the new make-shift camp close to the northern shores of the Land of Fire while being discreet about it. The gathering of Konoha forces commenced... and if Jiraiya's estimate was to be trusted, Hiruzen was still facing a situation where Konoha was outnumbered one to four Kiri ninjas.

Which led Hiruzen to the current situation. He furiously hammered his fist onto the poor innocent table as his eyes sparkled with fury while he was sweeping the uncomfortable and nervous people around him with his piercing glare.

"What do you mean, Tsunade is not coming, Jiraiya!?" Hiruzen bellowed, causing some less experienced ninjas in the command tent to take a step back from the intensity of his voice. Hiruzen, while glad he still had it in him and was capable of making even someone as strong as Jiraiya squirm like a little genin, was utterly furious at what he just heard.

"Sensei, you see, Tsun-" Pale-faced Jiraiya unsurely tried to explain but Hiruzen interrupted him by grabbing the note he was clutching in his hands as if his life depended on it.

Hiruzen looked at it and started reading out loud. "Yo, old monkey," Just from that bit he knew he would not like what would follow. The only time Tsunade called him 'old monkey' was when she was angry with him or trying to use it as a form of endearment to 'borrow' some money from him. Just the thought sent chills run down his spine as he subconsciously straightened up with a gulp, his anger quickly forgotten. "You would not believe what happened!" Hiruzen frowned. "I, the head of Konoha hospital, found an order to leave Konoha hospital! I have really no idea what kind of idiot could sanction something like that! Honesty..." He could almost feel Tsunade's fake disappointment and mockery of her tone as he read her message. Many people in the command tent shuffled at that, not knowing what to do as they knew it was the Council and the Hokage who wrote that order. What Tsunade did was incredible disrespect towards them. "So~, just thought I will let you know I am not coming. Cheers!"

Hiruzen raised his eyes from the letter from Tsunade and his frosty eyes trailed over the form of every single council member who was in attendance. "You did not tell her directly?" He asked quietly but his voice started rising. "You sent a f.u.c.k.i.n.g ORDER? To someone like Tsunade? Are the heads of you, dipshits, completely empty or what!?" Hiruzen panted harshly. For two weeks he was stuck in this camp to give orders and organize defence against Kiri forces, leaving the village in the hands of the Council. They were supposed to persuade Tsunade. Meaning giving her some incentive to join rather than flat out ordering her. He knew his apprentice and that never worked well. And yet, his 'esteemed' Council did precisely that and Tsunade decided to blow her gasket by saying proverbial 'f.u.c.k you'. As disappointed as that simple fact made him, Hiruzen understood Tsunade's actions as she was treated somewhat coldly by Konoha's higher-ups as of late.

Suddenly, one newer ninja, barely a boy who just reached chunin rank thanks to his ability to survive during the war, timidly raised his hand, making Hiruzen nod at him in a sign he can speak. "Lord Third... isn't Tsunade-sama still a ninja from Konoha, therefore bound to follow orders? Isn't justice on the side of the Council?"

Hiruzen just stared at the fool. "You naive idiot." He groaned, tired of it all. Tired of the war, of the general stupidity he had to deal with each day, of being attacked from every side. "Can you even imagine what kind of influence Tsunade has? Do you really think I could force her, you fool?" He drawled irritably, causing the new chunin to show a disgruntled expression. "But no, Tsunade is no longer a Konoha ninja since she left after the second war. She is officially retired and effectively a clan head of the Senju clan. That makes me unable to call her back to duty from her retirement as retired clan heads have certain... privileges." Hiruzen explained patiently, showing that his title of Professor was quite fitting.

"Sensei, I think you should look at the other side of the letter." Jiraiya suddenly spoke with a wince. Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and did so, finding a reference for a page in the newest edition of the Bingo Book which made him quite baffled. Before he could ask, however, Jiraiya just handed him a small black book. "Tsunade sent it alongside her letter." He added.

Hiruzen browsed through the book until he found the page Tsunade referenced and instantly paled a new shade of white as he saw something he never thought possible in his long life of strife. Something that made feel creep into his heart and shook him to his core.

Something even the fabled Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't expect.

--

Mei of Kiri

Affiliation: Kiri - rank unknown, Team Downpour - 3rd member.

Prowess - SS-rank.

Bounty - 250,000,000 Ryo (Iwagakure) - preferably dead.

Strength - Steam-based bloodline(?), Good at Taijutsu and weaponry, Exceptional reaction time, and superb chakra sensory abilities.

Info: A new team member of Team Downpour who single-handedly wiped out 10 000 strong force gathered by Iwagakure to deal with the Team Downpour, leaving only a single survivor.

--

"An SS-rank." Hiruzen said reverently as he remembered the feats of his teacher and Hashirama Senju. Child soldiers were a common sight on the battlefield but to think a girl of thirteen could get SS-ranking... Hiruzen was utterly speechless and could only hope the girl was far away from the soon-to-be battle between Konoha and Kiri. Inwardly, Hiruzen was very grateful for the heads-up from Tsunade as his eyes hardened. 'Kid or not... I will not hesitate if she shows up!'

Honestly, if she knew his thought process, she would just roll her eyes at him in exasperation.

Nevertheless, the name Mei of Kiri started to spread through the world like fire through the woods. A new SS-rank, the first one in more than half a century, was finally born, sending chills through the collective spines of many higher-ups of many villages. Rei could only snicker at the thought that it was actually Mei, his youngest apprentice, who attained such a rank even before him.

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Chapter 112 - Ch112. Northern Shores 2

The Third Mizukage was staring at his new, opened Bingo Book with his mouth opened in disbelief as cold sweat ran down his temple at the chilling realization of what exactly seeing the new and only SS-rank Iwa entry into the Bingo Book meant.

"That f.u.c.ker made Mei into SS-rank ninja..." He breathlessly muttered under his breath, still unable to comprehend how a thirteen years old girl can be given a rank only those like Hashirama or Madara deserved. The only reason these two titans of the Shinobi World weren't ranked as such was that the Bingo Book was not a thing in their era. And yet... Mei Terumi, a genin from his village, was the first-ever SS-rank in Bingo Book. Oh, he knew he should probably be happy but... 'F.u.c.k! If Rei and Konan managed to train Mei to destroy an army of ten thousand people then how strong must he be? I might have been severely underestimating them!' The Mizukage shivered as plans were discarded and new ones were being created in his mind.

"What is it, dear?" He suddenly heard Himeno's voice as she entered their shared cabin on the boat in which they currently sailed to the Land of Fire. The Mizukage found himself momentarily speechless so he opted to simply hand her the Bingo Book without even looking at her so she could find out herself. Himeno just raised her eyebrow in surprise when she read through the page and chuckled. "Well, that makes any political play a moot point and this war suddenly got a helluva lot more dangerous. Now we will probably be targeted just for having SS-ranked ninja..." She said as her eyes narrowed at the Mizukage. "You know the best and most rational thing to do here is to retreat from every front and hole up in our little island, right?

"Yes." The Mizukage stated blankly.

"From your tone, I presume we are not doing the most logical thing..." Himeno rubbed her forehead in exasperation. "The Hidden Villages are too preoccupied with killing each other that they just might do nothing about this despite the war raging on which is giving them free rein to attack us whenever they want without giving a flying f.u.c.k about a proper reason. I mean, come on! This brings an enormous target above the entire Land of Water! There is a reason why most nations dispose of their most unruly S-rankers! Mei was given a rank above even that..." Himeno tried to persuade the Mizukage but when she looked at his impassive expression as he stared in front of himself with determination, she could only groan in irritation. "You really sure we are not retreating?"

"Yes..." The Mizukage gave a small, almost unnoticeable nod, still not looking at her in his stubbornness. Himeno knew deep down he felt ashamed for prioritizing his revenge rather than the village but she would not stop him. She loved the man too much to do that.

"Great..." Himeno only sarcastically quipped before releasing an exasperated sigh. "I guess I am going to check the preparations once more. Just wanted to give you heads-up that our fleet will be arriving at the shores of the Land of Fire in a day." She said before storming out of the cabin.

The Mizukage showed a small loving smile at her antics, feeling heartfelt gratitude for her loyalty and never-ending patience she showered him in.

'And so it finally begins.'

...

A day passed and the fleet finally arrived at its final destination. The sh.i.p.s were anchored a kilometer away from the shore and the Kiri forces numbering ten thousand ninjas of all ranks were ready.

The shore looked peaceful and empty, not even the slightest sign of enemy could be spotted anywhere so the Kiri forces jumped from the boats onto the water, dead-set on walking on the water for the last kilometer of their long journey through the sea. The Mizukage himself was leading the forces with Himeno running by his side towards the land.

The Kiri ninjas were not vigilant. After all, none of them thought they would be attacked. The invasion was supposed to be the most guarded secret and at this point, it was too early for a battle. Alas...

The Kiri front-liners of the forces were crossing the last hundred meters of water, about to finally reach the shore when suddenly a big puff of smoke burst out from the woods a bit away from the shore and the Kiri ninjas found stopped in their tracks from sheer bewilderment at the massive toad staring at them in amus.e.m.e.nt while smoking its pipe.

The Mizukage managed to only curse under his nose before he heard...

"Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet!"

Mizukage's hands instinctively started weaving seals before he could even comprehend what was going on as the massive toad started spitting toad oil in the direction of the front-liners of the Kiri force while a white-haired man standing on the top of the toad spat fire into the oil, igniting it.

The Mizukage managed to perform a water wall in front of his forces near him and some meager amount of satisfaction coursed through his being as he noted some of his ninjas doing the same as the water from the sea rose, creating a shield for the Kiri ninjas from the fire.

Despite the wall being primarily made by the more experienced and stronger water-oriented ninjas of Kiri forces, when the flamethrower-like stream of fire from the Toad impacted the Water Wall, sizzling noise erupted from the connection and the superheated flames started to boil the water almost instantly while making steam from the most of it. The remaining parts however were blasted onto the Kiri front-liners by the pressure and whichever poor sucker who was hit started screaming bloody murder when it landed on his skin, severely burning it.

Chaos instantly erupted as those people that were hit with the boiling water started thrashing around, running into ninjas around them which started a chain reaction of people bumping into each other. Some lost concentration and stopped using water-walking, falling into the water. Some just got disoriented and panicked. But the worst were those that lost focus on maintaining the Water Wall...

As that happened, the flame stream finally breached through it and the Mizukage could only jump back with wide eyes, out of the range of the fire stream while watching quite a lot of his men being torched as instead of the Wall of Water, an orange flames started influencing the water, making the sea in front of him boil. Only a very few ninjas in the front lines managed to avoid the flames or the fate of being boiled alive as the stream of burning oil swept through them. It was only Mizukage's chakra sensing that made him aware he just lost around a hundred and fifty men and a moment of surprise.

He stood in front of his remaining few thousand men, looking at the shore beyond the wall of flames while slowly starting to regret pressing for the invasion to continue. Luckily, Himeno stood next to him, panting from slight exertion and a small burn on her right forearm but clearly alive. Despite that, the Mizukage instantly knew his plan failed.

He was not about to give up though and would try to press on. Raising his hand about to give an order to use a water-style collaboration Jutsu to put down the Wall of Fire burning on the water, separating them from the land, suddenly a booming voice reverberated through the area.

"You want to invade the Land of Fire!? Then come and face your death!"

The Mizukage instantly recognized the voice of the Third Hokage and paled, realizing that winning just became a hundred times harder. But he had no time to consider it as a hail of sharp metal started raining on his forces.

The battle of the northern shores of the Land of Fire... started.

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Chapter 113 - Ch113. Northern Shores 3

Both Konoha and Kiri ninja armies hurled ranged Jutsu and weaponry at each other. Kiri ninjas tried to get to land while Konoha ones were fervently doing everything in their capabilities to prevent precisely that.

Unfortunately for Kiri troops, what the Third Mizukage had in terms of talent for large scale tactics, he lacked in the actual commanding aspect. The man could manipulate the entire war with just a few deployment orders and feint troops movements but when it came to him leading men into battle...

That's why despite Kiri forces being four times larger, they were still kept at bay, wasting chakra by having to walk on the water. The battle progressed and both sides started losing people due to the ranged attacks.

The Mizukage was starting to contemplate retreat as he saw the incredibly disadvantageous deadlock for his army but then finally some of his soldiers reached the land. He felt overjoyed at the opportunity to turn the tables only for his hopes to crash down when his ninjas on the land who focused mostly on securing an easier passage through the hail of fireballs, kunais, shurikens, and explosive tags, were surprised by the earth turning into swamp courtesy of Jiraiya.

The problem of Kiri forces was that while numerous, they had only a very few of their forces fighting and those in the backlines had nothing to do due to being unable to get in range. In short, they were stuck.

Finally, Himeno had enough and temporarily took command, ordering the Kiri ninjas to spread which changed the entire battle. The Mizukage would protest if he didn't know he brought her exactly for that. To cover his shitty commanding.

Instead of trying to rush through the focused ranged attacks of the enemy, the Kiri forces spread out to the left and right, taking advantage of their numbers. It didn't take long for some of them, mostly these furthest to the right or left, to finally reach land without much resistance as Konoha forces couldn't spread out enough to cover the sides due to insufficient numbers.

The battle on the land started.

As the Konoha and Kiri forces finally reached the state of both fighting in more melee combat, the Third Mizukage engaged in a battle with the Third Hokage while Himeno was intercepted by a woman around twenty years old with long red hair.

The Third Hokage spun his staff, trying to hit the Third Mizukage with fast-paced and powerful swipes while the Third Mizukage flowingly dodged like an expert dancer, bending his body in ways to most thought impossible while occasionally hurling hidden senbons with incredibly powerful poison at the Third Hokage from his sleeves or blocking the staff with the sword he held. After all, Kirigakura was heavily invested in swordsmanship so the Third Mizukage was naturally good at handling swords despite being more of an assassin than anything else.

Their fight was very fast-paced and the Third Mizukage made sure to limit the Third Hokage by fighting near Konoha ninjas, causing the old monkey to be unable to use strong and destructive ninjutsu. Despite this massive advantage, the Third Hokage has shown the exact reason why he was called the God of Shinobi. The Third Mizukage was being pushed back... horribly so.

There were no interruptions to talk nor any condescending insults. The battle started and continued being completely silent, both men focusing only on murdering the other with precise brutality of their strikes. Not one sweep of the Third Hokage's staff was aimed at a non-vital place. Not one counter-slash from the Third Mizukage would not be fatal if it hit despite him being pressured. Both were exchanging a flurry of strikes, slashes, blocks, parries moving across the battlefield while ignoring the general chaos of Jutsu, summoning animals, and weaponry with exploding tags flying around as the two armies clashed. Muscles ached, bodies protested, and bruises formed almost with every move but neither of the Kages slowed down in their resolve to win, waiting for an opportunity to land a fatal strike.

...

Himeno panted as she had to freeze yet another massive amount of water that came at her from the sea because of the Jutsu of the overzealous redhead who decided to fight her.

"Damn... You have... incredible... Suiton." She praised between her labored breaths, trying to stall for time to recover. Fortunately for her, her opponent seemed to be a brash idiot...

"You bet, dattebane! Name's Kushina Uzumaki. Your Hyoton is incredible! It's such a pity we are enemies! We can feel we could have been good friends but for Konoha I will defeat you, believe it!" The redhead gave Himeno a thumbs-up, causing her jaw to almost fall onto the floor as she blankly stared.

'What. The. F.u.c.k!?' Himeno for the first time in her life was startled by the sheer stupidity of her opponent. She was unable to comprehend what was going on because since she was just a little girl, she was taught to exploit any opening but the... sad excuse for all power but no brains in front of her was akin to something out of her wildest dreams.

Alas, Kushina's Talk no Jutsu was quite underdeveloped compared to Naruto so no enemy-to-friend conversion happened.

While Kushina was talking, Himeno finally got her breathing under control and prepared herself for the continuation of their fight. She now knew she would not win an honest ninjutsu fight. For that, the woman in front of her had too much chakra. Heck, the redhead didn't seem even winded after thirty high-ranked large-scale Suiton Jutsu while Himeno was almost on the floor from exhausting much of her chakra too fast. Himeno knew she still had over half of her chakra reserves, but she felt very drained after their previous quick Jutsu exchange.

Himeno quickly ascertained that the woman in front of her was one of the noble types so she pulled out her tanto, resisting a smug smirk from appearing on her face when the redhead mirrored her action by pulling out a katana, readying for a weaponry clash.

Both women jumped at each other, slashing their swords only for the blades to meet in between them. Kushina's self-assured face quickly revealed shock only to morph into realization followed by panic as she quickly jumped away...

Himeno smugly smiled as she saw Kushina's clothes starting to die themselves red due to ice skewering her as the redhead panted, glaring at her. Himeno had no desire to play by the book when her sword had a smaller reach and was most likely of poorer quality. She naturally added Hyoton chakra into the blade in order to create ice spikes at any given moment and did so the second their blades met, riddling Kushina's body with wounds.

"It was too obvious from your expression you are too confident." Himeno started talking, trying to distract Kushina into a conversation while discreetly feeding chakra into the shards of ice in Kushina's body. While the redhead managed to get away from the ice spikes without tearing them apart, some shards were still in her. It was a very hard thing to affect the shards and required incredible control despite giving almost no result but right now, as long as it widened Kushina's wounds, Himeno didn't care.

Unfortunately, Himeno miscalculated as Kushina's eyes became red with black slits and Himeno instantly felt the connection to the ice shards disappear as Kushina's wounds started healing at a visible rate. It didn't take even five seconds for Kushina's eyes to return back to violet and her face to reveal a winning smile. "I won't lose, dattebane!"

'A fockin' Jinchuuriki! My luck...' Himeno cursed, throwing a blank stink-eye at the beaming Kushina who just shrugged off wounds that would kill a lesser woman. 'Well...' She bent her knees and raised her tanto in front of her. 'No choice, I guess.'

--

Author Note:

First of all, FUUUUCK.

WORST CHAPTER EVER! - at least from my point of view as the author.

Writing this chapter was a nightmare! My motivation hit an all-time low... I started in the morning hours and the second I got to the fight between the Thirds... I lost my motivation in the first sentence and couldn't bring myself to continue...

Hence, I am sorry if the fight between the two Kage guys is not described in detail. I just could not bring myself to do it :D.

Only when I somehow pushed myself and decided to conveniently skip it, going for Himeno v Kushina instead, I regained my drive. I wanted to end it in this chapter but, I guess I am liking it too much to only show so little of either Himeno and Kushina's prowess.

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Chapter 114 - Ch114. Northern Shores 4

Kushina relished seeing the annoyance and frustration on the face of her foe after she used the chakra of the fox to heal herself. Admittedly, even the demon had its occasional uses. Kushina made sure her expression was that of confidence as she learned fast enough in her first months spent in Konoha that showing how despairing one was, was the biggest mistake she could make. The others would just capitalize on it, and so, new, always cheerful, and completely confident Kushina was 'born'. Nevertheless, seeing the crushed, frustrated, or resigned looks of her opponents always brought her some kind of sadistic joy. Well, she personally blamed that on being raised in Konoha...

"Prepare yourself!" Kushina exclaimed as she ran at Himeno, swinging her katana in a wide arc from the right side only for Himeno to perfectly dodge by jumping back... exactly as Kushina wanted. Himeno quickly found three kunai flying at her while she was in the air due to her jump. She was forced to Kawarimi, appearing behind Kushina before her hands started weaving hand seals, sending an ice spike hurling at Kushina who just sidestepped it.

Kushina was about to brag in order to show her confidence when a pained cry resounded through the surroundings, erasing her smug grin. Half turning in a way that would make it possible to look behind but also not lose sight of Himeno, Kushina's eyes almost bulged as she realized a Konoha ninja was hit by the ice spike because she didn't block but dodged. Anger flared in her chest as her head whipped back to Himeno with a heated glare.

The tables have turned and Himeno just smugly shrugged in a 'what can you do?' manner while it was Kushina who was aggravated for once. "Can't save them all." Himeno playfully exclaimed in a mock-sadness. She knew endurance-wise there was no contest between her and Kushina so she went for the oldest trick in the books. Mind games.

"You..." Kushina said darkly in a low tone, gritting her teeth. Sure, she knew people die in war. She killed her fair share, after all. She was not even pissed the Konoha ninja died, rather she was pissed he died due to her blunder. If someone saw it, her reputation would be ruined, dammit!

'Anger, huh? Simple enough.' Himeno hid her smile as she realized Kushina's biggest weakness.

Kushina was livid but despite that, no Kyuubi chakra leaked from her due to her superb control. She instead decided to beat Himeno with her own strength as she lunged into yet another melee sword clash, exchanging strikes with Himeno in a rapid flurry of deadly slashes at speeds most chunin would be hard-pressed to follow with their eyes. Both women started to acc.u.mulate slashes on their bodies but most of those could be said to be akin to paper cuts compared to the scale of their sword fight. Himeno and Kushina's clothes were bathed in their blood, either theirs or from the unfortunate ninjas who came in between them, and were promptly diced into pieces without the women even noticing as they uncaringly continued their fight, focusing only on their respective opponent.

Kushina was fine. She lost quite a bit of blood but overall, she felt fresh as daisies. She could go on and on for a few hours yet. Himeno was... f.u.c.k.i.e.d. There was no other way to describe it as she was bloodied, dirty, battered, messy-haired, and worst of all, tired. She had had enough. 'Clearly, mixing Jinchuuriki with an Uzumaki would create a freak of nature that... just... won't... stop!' She thought with apparent frustration ringing in her head. But... thankfully Kushina was too noble for her own good and Himeno quickly noticed her penchant for not using her biggest advantage, ninjutsu, when her opponent doesn't use it too. Frankly speaking, Himeno knew she should have been dead by now if the redhead actually played according to ninja rules, meaning dirty. 'She is more like a samurai.' Himeno mentally snorted, calculating the best plan to continue the fight.

With a smirk, Himeno straightened herself. "So..." She drawled, "up for another ninjutsu fight, princess?" And Kushina was instantly annoyed and angered again. Not much but enough to change the way they fought. Himeno no longer needed to engage in a sword fight with the horrendous disadvantage of a shorter blade and less experience compared to a kenjutsu prodigy with a clan-based style like Kushina. During their long clash, Himeno led Kushina exactly where she wanted her and that was the end of her need to fight with kenjutsu.

"Bring it!" Kushina's eyes flashed, realizing they were far away from any ally who could be injured by large-scale attacks, her hands instantly started weaving seals as she failed to notice the small smirk on Himeno's face. Kushina finished her seals and clapped her palms together as she shouted, "Water Release: Whirlpool Torrent!"

A massive amount of swirling, whirlpool-like torrent of water appeared and quickly flew at Himeno, destroying trees all around. Himeno just enhanced her legs with chakra and jumped to the side, evading the Jutsu as five ice needles appeared in front of her with one one-handed seal.

"Ice Style: Ice Needles."

The needles flew at Kushina who grinned and clapped her hands together.

"Water Release: Water Wall."

A wall of condensed water that rotated around Kushina appeared, blocking the Ice Needles before Kushina started creating an inhuman amount of water.

"Water Release: Mega Water Prison!"

The water created a humongous sphere, a hundred meters tall with the previous position of Himeno right in its middle, and Kushina released a strained breath, holding the water in a spherical shape. She then conjured her chakra chains and sent them into the sphere to seek and skewer anything that moved inside. This was her finishing move...

Because of Kushina's incredible focus, she didn't notice Himeno rising from a small patch of frozen, mirror-like ground. This was nothing like Haku's speed-enhancing mirror technique. This was a real space-time ice mirror transportation. The thing that made Himeno into a famous assassin. Kushina paid dearly for lowering her guard as a long ice spike lodged itself right through her abdomen, and even then she was quite lucky she instinctively leaned to the side otherwise she would be dead.

Kushina was not one to forfeit the fight. She let the water prison end and the water came crashing onto the ground, causing the forest around to be changed into a small lake with crowns of the trees peeking from the surface. Kushina changed the environment to suit her best.

Himeno used water-walking to stand on water, as did Kushina, but her eyes widened when she got a glimpse of Chakra Chains going under the water from Kushina's back. Only barely did Himeno manage to dodge the chakra chain shooting from the water below her as Kushina made her run around, chasing her with chakra chains while occasionally throwing a Water Bullet or some other Water Release Jutsu at her all the while Himeno did her damnedest to dodge, create more mirrors on the water surface, sadly they were being actively destroyed by Kushina so Himeno had to run more, and from time to time, Himeno even hurled ice Needles and Ice Spikes at Kushina.

An hour passed and both disheveled women stood opposite each other, panting hard. Even the chakra powerhouse Kushina was almost floored due to exhaustion. While Himeno dodged and focused on precise attacks, often guessing where Kushina would dodge and throwing an ice spear there right after throwing an attack on Kushina, Kushina focused more on her chakra chains and large-scale chakra-exhaustive massively destructive Jutsu that could level the surrounding country. Hence, despite Himeno having much lesser chakra reserves, Kushina was also spent.

"Haaaaa~. You are goo-'' Kushina started praising Himeno in between gulping air. She could respect the woman for being so agile and nimble. Hour of throwing S-ranked Jutsu at her and not one hit her. That, in Kushina's humble opinion, deserved recognition. Himeno Yuki was a damn good ninja, especially with her bloodline that allowed her to use some kind of space-time bullshit to teleport through the ice. Kushina's eyes suddenly widened as she reached her hand in Himeno's direction, making her look at Kushina funny before horror appeared on Himeno's face when she realized Kushina was not feigning it.

"Watch out!"

Alas, it was far too late...

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Chapter 115 - Ch115. Northern Shores 5 Kirigakure's treasury

The Third Mizukage could only despair as the world slowed around him and despite his herculean attempts to move fast enough, he could only watch as the staff of the Third Hokage neared his lover's, Himeno's head without her even knowing as she faced the redhead Konoha ninja, panting and exhausted, too distracted by her own fight to watch her surroundings.

'No!' He mentally screamed with wide eyes, unable to do anything to save Himeno as the Third Hokage's staff impacted her head from the behind. Himeno's head caved in from the force, sending her body crashing to the ground, folding like a paper and the Third Mizukage couldn't help but freeze in his tracks, mentally repeating 'no' as he refused to believe what just happened.

Himeno... the love of his life, was dead.

The Third Mizukage couldn't help but sucked the cold air that permeated the surroundings, balling his hands into fists so hard that blood started dropping onto the ground. He was still shaken from the sight of Himeno's collapsed and deformed body, offhandedly noting the redhead ninja was horrifiedly staring at the scene in a manner quite similar to him.

The world stilled as regret swelled in the Mizukage's heart and his gaze slowly turned to a furious glare full of deep-seated hatred boring into the grimly satisfied mug of the Third Hokage who spat a fireball onto Himeno's body, burning it to cinders, to add an insult to an injury.

The war between Konoha and Kiri was over. Both men knew it, no matter how much one of them wanted to admit it. The Hokage didn't use the momentary distraction of the Mizukage and in order to kill him. He just watched and waited, hoping the death of the woman the Mizukage clearly loved would be impactful enough for a full retreat but not enough to make a man who was a Kage, and knew what that entailed, to decide going out with one last bang in an act of revenge.

The Mizukage wanted nothing more than to tear the old shriveled monkey to pieces and stick the freaking bo staff up his ass but... he was slowly losing men. Konoha might have been outnumbered but they clearly brought only the best of their fighters to confront Kiri forces. This expedition was a failure and he knew it. If he continued, it would only endanger Kiri further and he couldn't have that.

Reluctantly, the Mizukage threw a kunai with a special seal tag attached towards the sky where it burst into a very bright red sphere, lingering amongst the cloud as it declared the order to retreat for the Kiri forces.

With one last tear-stricken glare, the Mizukage ran towards the shore, cursing and blaming himself for Himeno's death.

The battle of the Northern Shores ended.

...

While the armies of Konoha and Kiri clashed on the northern shores of the Land of Fire. Rei had other plans.

"It's creepy how empty the village is..." Mei mumbled as her eyes were tightly closed and her senses were dutifully monitoring the people in the Village Hidden in the Mist through a harmless mist-like dense cloud of white steam she created. Not unlike her boiling one, Mei was completely capable of sensing everyone inside of it.

"Well, most of the ninjas are either on the Kumo front as a distraction or a part of the invasion to the Land of Fire. That's why now is the best time to do this." Rei shrugged as his eyes flickered across a seal while he was in the process of altering it in such a way that it would not attack him and nobody would notice his intrusion.

Rei and Mei were currently in front of the most guarded building in the village. The Kiri ANBU headquarters, more specifically its treasury. Now that the village was almost empty, Rei finally decided to check the place out since there was almost no danger of being discovered as long as he knocked out the guards and used Mei to create a small disturbance with her steam. Not to mention Mei was an incredible sensor with it.

The ANBU guards that were supposed to guard the place were numbering twenty and all laid on the ground after Rei sneak-attacked them with his chakra strings, and zapped them unconscious with lighting chakra through them.

Rei was quite glad though. Normally there would be at least a hundred ANBU patrolling around the place and every few minutes, a new ANBU, one who was not part of the hundred, would walk around it, just in case. It was really the best-guarded place in the village as even the Kage didn't have such protection. To get inside without making the entire village alarmed was almost impossible during normal times but now that more than sixty percent of the ninja population was away... the hundred ANBU guardsmen were reduced to a mere twenty and instead of every few minutes, it took at least three hours for an ANBU not part of the guardsmen to walk by. It was the best opportunity for Rei to discreetly get inside.

"Aaaaand done." Rei smirked as the seal glowed a bit before subsiding to normalcy. He turned to Mei and nodded at her. "Wait here and warn me if anybody is getting close. It would be infinitely more comfortable if we are not caught trying to steal the most precious things Kirigakure owns." Seeing Mei nod, he entered the room containing the most precious things in the whole Land of Water.

Thirty minutes passed with Rei browsing through the things stored there, his face marred with an enormous frown as his eyes twitched.

"Trash, useless, bad, crap, unusab-, no, wait, that could work... but I have no interest in an explosive rubber ducky the size of a horse. Seriously, who made that thing!" Rei muttered as his lips morphed into a profound scowl. "Why the heck is most of these things so useless? ... Scrolls of S-ranked Jutsu? Scrolls with sealing knowledge? Summoning Scrolls? Poisonous deodorant? All of these I have no need for!" Rei was frustrated. Sure, the scrolls were stashed to his storage dimension but he didn't really need them. They were mostly for his future endeavor rather than for him or his girls. All in all, he wasn't really happy with what he found in the best treasury of Kirigakure.

Rei almost gave up the further he went in the room, not finding anything immediately useful when he suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked at an unassuming small brown jar that looked as normal as possible. It had no special odor. No special appearance. No special chakra signature. Safe to say, even a high-ranking ninja would find it to be just a normal jar.

Not a Seal Master though.

Rei's lips widened into a joyful smile as he finally found something worthwhile. Something that was a big part of the reason why he still stayed in the Kiri.

"For years, I was looking for you..." His eyes hungrily lingered on the jar with an excited glint. "And even though you probably won't wake up due to the seals on the jar. Nice to meet you... Saiken."

--

Author Note: Okay... I can honestly say I will not write about a battle that MC or his harem is not a part of. I did so for the last five chapters and while a bit enjoyable, it was also quite boring for me as the writer...

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Chapter 116 - Ch116. The aftermath.

The Team Downpour was recalled to Kirigakure not even two weeks after the battle of the northern shores ended. Them being so far away from the village was also the perfect alibi for the ongoing investigation on who broke into the Kirigakure's treasury... but didn't take anything at all. Honestly, Rei was quite amused at the disbelieving and uncomprehending looks of the Kirigakure's higher-ups whenever he spied on them discussing it. He naturally left copies of the scrolls in the treasury so all seemed as if somebody was there but didn't take anything. It was driving them sparse and Rei enjoyed every second of it.

Sadly, he found only the jar with the sleeping Six-Tails in it and had no idea where Three-Tails was but he didn't care much about that. Six Tailed Demon was much harder to come by anyway as Rei knew a few events in which the Three-Tails was supposed to 'participate'. He would still have time to act on it later and get some chakra from the beast but the Six-Tails was different. Rei didn't even remember the arc with Utakata as he was totally bored by it and didn't much care about it.

The biggest topics in the village were mainly two things.

Mei's ascension to the first SS-rank ninja ever, and the failure to invade the Land of Fire alongside the loss of the Kiri forces in the battle of northern shores. One was incredibly positive while the other... not so much. It was more than obvious which one was the preferred topic in the village and Mei was simply going sparse by how casually she is being greeted by people who would glare and scorn her just a few weeks ago. She really wasn't happy about it and this time it was her who was glaring at everyone who even tried to open their mouth in order to start a 'casual' conversation with her.

As for the less popular topic... Kirigakure lost 10% of its ninjas in that battle. The order to retreat from the Kumo front was already sent. Officially, Kirigakure was still a part of the war while unofficially, the village lost too much in Konoha to continue fighting. The higher-ups basically decided to hole up and focus on surviving the war rather than participating. Two of the four members of the seven swordsmen fell and only thanks to the other two surviving members did Kirigakure managed to keep their swords. Himeno, the heiress of the Yuki clan died. At least twenty more A-rank shinobi of Kiri also met their end... Kirigakure was simply too exhausted to continue to waste its forces for the war. There was no profit in it anymore.

When Rei heard about the losses, he even felt a pang of guilt for the deceased since it was because of him that Konoha managed to ambush Kiri forces but then he remembered one crucial thing. The commander was the Third Mizukage. He was supposed to be a genius at tactics and he made such a grave oversight as not expecting a searingly warm and pointy welcome when he arrived near the shores? At that point, Rei decided to not bother. Frankly, he expected better from the man.

Speaking of the Mizukage, he became a broken husk of his former glory. The village had to be mostly run by the Council as he grieved for Himeno and that state lasted for three weeks until the Mizukage finally decided to take his responsibilities seriously again and since then, he didn't leave his office at all. Just lucky he had an adjacent bathroom there.

The guy didn't even have the time to chat with the Team Downpour about their recent mission since he was dealing with the f.u.c.k-up he caused. Many whispers of removing him and installing the Fourth Mizukage started to be heard in the wind and Rei could only shake his head. Even Konan believed the Kiri was going to become worse for wear.

"Are we finally leaving?" Konan asked as she sat on the couch with Rei's head on her lap while she lovingly caressed his hair. "I am quite fed up with this village. Living normally is nice and all but when you got paper everywhere in order to eavesdrop and know the darker secrets..."

"Yeah," Rei sighed. "I just want a last meeting with Mizukage. Call it my vanity but I want to see his new mental state after he lost the woman he loved. After that, we will use the war to elevate our status, perhaps?" He threw her a mischievous look which she promptly returned.

"Eh? You want to get an SS-rank rating? I doubt it would be so hard." Konan hummed.

"Not only that, we still have a year and a half until the end of this war. We gotta improve the Dimension, get stronger, get better, ahem, I mean get more infamous..." Rei trailed off but then snorted. "I personally don't want to join any other hidden village. They are too constricting and expect their ninjas to serve them to their deaths without question." Rei shook his head. "I have had enough of that in Kirigakure and I must admit we were lucky the Mizukage wanted to accommodate us otherwise it would be far worse and much more uncomfortable."

"Right..." Konan gained a faraway look as she reminisced about the last years. Suddenly she snapped out of it and tilted her head. "What about Tsunade? She should be stuck in Konoha until the war ends."

Rei nodded at her with a slight appreciative smile. "As she should be. That way nobody can associate her with us. It's not like she can't just teleport to the Dimension and train. Furthermore, I am sure she is quite content with having so many free test subjects. Poor patients of Konoha Hospital." Rei snorted mockingly, earning himself a reproachful but amused slap on his shoulder by Konan. Both settled and Rei just enjoyed Konan's finger coursing through his hair for a few moments before he sighed. "I noticed I have been neglecting the creation of new seals since the war started." He idly commented.

"Yes, I have become a bit lazy too. It's time to get back into the form." Konan simply agreed and if Mei or Ringo heard her, they would quickly pale and run for their lives. If the training they were put through was to be considered 'lazy', they didn't want to see what 'real' training was like.

"By the way, Tsunade is getting quite good with Senjutsu. Becoming a real berserker with her instant healing and brute strength."

"Ah?" Konan playfully tilted her head. "Well, you would know. After all, you did spend a few days with her in the Dimension. So? Did she get any better? You know... in bed." She sultrily asked and Rei barked out a laugh.

"Yeah... she is a delight." Before Konan could react, she found herself in a princess carry as Rei marched towards their bedroom. "In fact, I will just show you."

Both laughed at that, l.u.s.t apparent in their eyes. Somehow, puberty hit them hard, and with the high amount of Nature Energy in their system... let's just say Konan and Tsunade were glad for anti-pregnancy seals. Yet another reason why Rei didn't want to add Mei until she was fifteen years old and was willing after knowing all the facts.

That night became Mei's favorite as she spied through a barely visible mist on Konan and Rei having fun while she was left to her own lonesome devices. Who said training in espionage was boring and unexciting?

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Chapter 117 - Ch117. Mission report

Rei m.o.a.ned as he woke up, feeling somebody laying on his chest. He half-opened his eyes and relaxed when he spotted the messy and tangled mess of blue hair enter his vision. Clearly, they took it a bit too far with Konan yesterday night and both fainted. Releasing a deep sigh of relief, Rei put his hand on Konan's head and gently caressed her hair, carefully to not wake her up, causing her to snuggle more into his chest. He would chuckle if his mind didn't freeze as he spotted Mei standing next to their bed with her arms crossed and exaggerated pout on her lips while her eyes were trying to drill a hole through Rei's face.

"Uh... hi?" He awkwardly greeted her, scrunching his eyebrows. "What are you doing here, Mei?"

Mei only jealously huffed as she turned her head towards the still sleeping Konan who was blissfully sprawled on Rei's chest with a megawatt smile, her hands possessively around his waist. Rei saw Mei let out a small whine before she turned around towards the door and her back now faced the duo lying in the bed. "I just came to inform you that you were called to the Mizukage's office." She sullenly said before stiffly walking out.

'Is she... jealous?' Rei wondered in amus.e.m.e.nt.

...

Rei, Konan, and still sullen Mei walked into the office of the Mizukage and couldn't help but wonder how much it changed with Himeno not being around. The first thing they noticed was the air becoming stale and stuffy. The Mizukage most likely didn't open the window often. The room was not really messy. It was tidied up but didn't give the feeling of proper care and neither was there the vibe of superiority that was always present when Himeno was there to tend to it. Frankly, the woman knew exactly how to arrange things for people to feel small or insignificant when in her presence and something was clearly missing in the room to give it that important vibe of it belonging to someone important.

Further in the room, Mizukage was wrestling with stacks of paperwork. He no longer looked cheery, rather he had a weary look and black circles under his eyes as he sat with his shoulders slumped while filling out form after a form. Rei could understand why the Council wanted him to name a successor. The man was ruined and lost his drive.

"Team Downpour reporting as ordered." Rei stated, snapping the Mizukage from his reverie, causing him to look up at them. His eyes were quite dull and sleepy, making Rei frown. This was really not the man who welcomed them in Kirigakure years ago. It was almost sad.

"Ah... Rei. Sure, I wanted to hear how your mission went." The Mizukage stated hollowly, no longer having that vicious bite in his tone that always produced witty arguments between them. Rei frowned at that. He enjoyed their verbal sparring. It wouldn't do if the man completely folded. Nevertheless, he started explaining what happened...

"Wait! You used PRANKS to get attention in Tanera!?" Mizukage shrieked. "I ordered you to destroy it!"

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I most assuredly did." The Mizukage spat with a venom lacing his tone as he gave Rei a scathing glare.

"Oh, well. I must have forgotten, then." Rei said with a light uncaring tone, making the Mizukage groan. "But the mission was a success nevertheless. We stalled hundreds of ninja and thousands of samurai so not like anyone can complain. Well, anyone besides the inhabitants of Tanera since they were the victims of our witty and nefarious plans on how to screw Konoha over. I think we did an incredible job since most of them are jobless and penniless." Rei finished with a beaming innocent smile that made somehow the Mizukage aware Rei was angry with him at being given such a mission.

"Rei..." The Mizukage called out almost pleadingly. "You are a ninja, act like it!"

Rei's smile dropped and complete seriousness filled the room. "Sure... You are also a ninja, act like it too, then."

The world stilled as the Mizukage and Rei stared into each other's eyes before the Mizukage chuckled. His chuckles slowly morphed into snickers before becoming small laughter and ending up as full-blown unrestrained laughter as the man banged his fist on the table, hunched over from stomach pains due to laughing.

All members of Team Downpour were just awkwardly standing in front of his desk, staring at the apparently new madman until he finished with his practice of mad laughing.

'Was I too straightforward?' Rei thought worriedly.

'Did he crack?' Konan thought in amus.e.m.e.nt.

'Somehow, I am suddenly glad we are leaving Kiri.' Mei thought as she gave the Mizukage a weirded out look.

The Mizukage finally stopped laughing, and only an occasional chuckle left his lips as he tried to calm down. "Thank you for that, Rei. I needed the reminder."

'So he didn't go crazy. Such a pity' All three members of Team Downpour thought ruefully. Outwardly, Rei just nodded in acknowledgment.

"Now, care to explain why one of my genin is marked as SS-rank by Iwagakure?" The Mizukage glanced at Mei before he turned to Rei with his left eye twitching in irritation and exasperation.

"The Iwagakure is crazy?" Rei tried to sound innocent but the Mizukage instantly gave him a deadpan stare. "Fine! She fought ten thousand enemies." Rei shrugged.

The Mizukage could only groan again. "Why does it have to be always so difficult with you?" He idly asked, not expecting an answer but Rei obliged nevertheless.

"Because I am special?"

The silence became deafening in the room and it took a few seconds before the Mizukage started speaking again. "Right... Anyway, we fought ten thousand people is NOT an answer, Rei."

"But I didn't say 'we' fought them. I said 'she' fought them."

That stopped the Mizukage short, causing him to be completely flabbergasted. "Wait. You want to tell me that a genin managed to win against-"

"Yup," Rei interrupted. "I am apparently a marvelous teacher!" He gave the Mizukage a thumbs-up before Konan swatted him on the shoulder while barely restraining her snickers. Mei had no such problem and openly laughed at Mizukage's expression. Maybe Rei really was a bad influence? Nah, that couldn't be it.

The Mizukage looked from Mei to Rei and back before his eyes settled at Konan. "Is it the truth?"

"Oi!" Rei rebuked, annoyed at being doubted but both Konan and the Mizukage just ignored him.

"Yes." Konan stoically said with a nod.

"I see... Fine." The Mizukage sighed. "I want a full report on that battle on my table in a week at most. You are dismissed." He said and returned to his paperwork with a lighter and happier look.

'Really, I am such a good therapist!' Rei proudly thought to himself only to receive another swat on the shoulder from Konan who instinctively felt her lover was thinking something stupid.

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Chapter 118 - Ch118. Leaving Kiri

Rei, Konan, and Mei sat in the living room of their flat, recounting what they have to do before finally leaving Kiri for good. The biggest problem was Mei's report to the Mizukage since they doubted they would be allowed to go on a mission before Mei handed that to the Mizukage. In the end, Konan proposed to make use of the Mizukage's busy schedule and Rei accepted which basically meant they would be leaving Kiri at the end of the week, right after Mei handed her report. This made their schedule quite packed for the following week.

First, Konan made sure to spread her papers everywhere in the village, put them into hidden spots all in order to be informed. She even created a new Jutsu, a special type of paper clone that could access all these spying papers in the Kirigakure and had her own intelligence to determine what was and what was not important to report. The entire clone was powered by natural energy so it could last indefinitely until it was canceled. Funnily enough, despite the Council knowing Konan could manipulate paper, nobody really paid attention or even tried to find out the limits of it. Nobody had even an inkling she could spy through it. The best they could imagine her doing was cutting things with it which was plain dumb in Konan's opinion. If anything, Earth-hardening was much better for offense than Wind-sharpening. This ignorance made it incredibly easy for Konan to become aware of almost everything important that was going on in Kirigakure. Not even three days later, she brought the news of where exactly was the sealed three-tailed beast hidden to Rei but he just shrugged, deciding they will get its chakra later when it actually had a jinchuuriki.

Even Konan didn't understand yet why Rei told her to create such a massive information network in Kirigakure. He naturally wanted to get some clans for himself once the purge started and without knowing when to rescue them, any effort from his part would be useless. Needless to say, Rei wouldn't have that if he could help it.

As for Mei, she decided to stay the entire week indoors if only to avoid the idiotic and bothersome fawning of the villagers. She was not blind and could see the great fear they had for her in their eyes and how fake their acting was.

Mei-sama this, Mei-sama that. Mei-sama you look so wonderful. Mei-sama you are so powerful... who did the idiots think they were fooling when not even a half-year earlier they were all glaring and sneering at her? Seriously, only an utterly brainless idiot would be happy for getting recognition from people who clearly hated him and believed it was real when they switched their cloaks and became nice out of nowhere after he or she performed some meritorious deed for the village. Mei would rather have none of it rather than have some fake recognition.

Rei spent the week browsing through the library and discreetly storing any Jutsu scroll he found interesting or useful. His kleptomaniacal craze was stopped only after five days when the library was flooded by ninjas looking for clues who was stealing their scrolls after they finally noticed something amiss. Rei wondered what it was. The completely empty shelf in the B-rank Jutsu section, the fact that twenty A-rank Jutsu were currently unaccounted for, or the collection of cookbooks from the civilian section he took for fun... Personally, he suspected it was the cooking books. Jutsu were overrated, after all.

The week finally passed and the Team Downpour sans Mei found themselves at their personal training ground, ready to embark on another mission... unknown to the Kirigakure, their last one for the village.

Mei finally arrived and huffed in discontent. "These stupid chunins at the mission center had the cheek to ask me why I am taking mission right after handing the report for Mizukage before he could even assess it!"

Konan just chuckled at the clearly vexed girl while Rei rolled his eyes. "You know it's their job. It really is suspicious and you know we had you take the mission because as the newest SS-rank, the chunins won't give you any trouble in fear of it backfiring later."

"Maybe so but still!" Mei angrily stomped her foot on the ground before averting her gaze and crossing her arms under her developing chest. "I should have melted them."

Rei gained a mischievous smile and approached Mei. Before she could react, Mei found her cheeks being pinched by Rei as he smugly raised an eyebrow at her, causing her to blush and try to pull away from him.

"Ah, ah, ah. Don't be arrogant, Mei." Rei ruffled her hair. "Or I and Konan will have to beat the arrogance out of you. You won't enjoy it." He warned her, happy to see her flinch, taking it as an assurance she understood.

"Well, then le-" Rei was about to turn around to leave when he was surprised by a person approaching them from the tree line. All three of them instantly put their guard up.

To their utter shock, it was Ringo who was unsurely approaching them, a bag slung on her back, her face looking pensive while her hands held the handle of two swords around her waist in a fond manner.

"Uh... hi?" She uncomfortably greeted them, getting a raised eyebrow from Konan, a piercing look from Mei, and a slightly concerned frown from Rei. Before any of the three could start speaking, Ringo decided it would be better if she explained herself first. "I... I know you are leaving Kirigakura and I want to go with you." She said, feeling her stomach sink, as she for the first time uttered out loud what she was doing. She was turning traitor. It was almost physically sickening for her to even think about it but... Kirigakure betrayed her first. In the end, Tsunade was correct. Ringo had to choose and after many sleepless nights, this was her answer.

Ringo expected questions, bewilderment, protests, demands to prove what he said to be the truth so she was naturally floored when she was met with shugs and clicking of the tongue from Mei as Konan smugly outstretched her hand, palm up, towards the girl and the peeved Mei handed over a pouch to the smug Konan.

Konan saw Ringo's jaw drop as Mei gave her the winnings of their little bet and amusedly smirked in her direction. "What? I know everything that's going on in Kirigakure. Did you really believe I wouldn't be aware of your internal debate? I just didn't know if you would get your shit together before we left or if you would defect later in order to find Rei." Konan rolled her eyes while Mei scoffed, clearly not believing Ringo would defect later. Konan ignored Mei and continued. "You love Rei and with the way the Mizukage treated you and the fact that Tsunade set you straight, making you face your feelings for Rei and weigh them to those for the village..."

"Yes, yes. Our resident manipulator knew what would happen. We get it." Mei interrupted while her eye was fiercely twitching. "Frankly, I am watching you, Ringo." She said, stating her intentions and distrust towards the former wielder of Kiba.

Ringo mutely nodded, knowing she really deserved that one for her blind loyalty to Kirigakure as she turned to the most important person from the Team Downpour, Rei. He was watching her with his pointed piercing look as if looking into her soul. This was no longer the happy-go-lucky, witty, and mostly carefree teacher who taught Ringo most of what she knew. This was a ninja who was showing her he didn't trust her fully despite their past student-teacher relationship. It broke Ringo's heart a bit to be doubted by the man she loved but in the end, with the way she always acted, it was natural and she would be greatly disappointed if he just accepted her.

After a while, Rei threw something at Ringo who caught it and opened her hand to reveal a small ring, making her give Rei a questioning look.

"It's a camouflage ring with seals that will mask your chakra signature completely. If you want to come with us, you will have to get through every sensor and sealing barrier around the village since you did not take the mission with us." Rei said and turned around.

Just like that, their final journey away from Kirigakure started. Rei was told long ago what Tsunade did for Ringo and that the final decision was on the girl herself. Ringo chose and there was nothing to talk about. He would just respect it and see where that led them. In the end, no matter how he tried to just let it go, he still liked the girl he basically raised and made into a respected killer.

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Chapter 119 - Ch119. New base

Rei, Konan, Mei, and Ringo traveled quickly to the west, not stopping until they reached the sea.

"What now?" Ringo asked, looking at the calm waves of the shining water washing the sandy shores. She had no idea what Rei wanted to do since they didn't go to any port city. He clearly didn't want to leave a paper trail of their departure from the country nor any witness but here they were, in the middle of literally nothing. Ringo knew they wouldn't be able to water-walk to the other side of the sea, no matter their chakra reserves. At least, she definitely could not do it, hence her confusion.

All of the Team Downpour gave Ringo a questioning look that stopped her in her tracks, making her furrow her eyebrows and adorn a pondering expression before a realization struck her. "Ah! So we will fly?" She more stated than asked. "Er, I think it was too long since I did missions with Konan and Rei so my memory can be a bit slow. Hehe." Ringo awkwardly laughed, trying to avoid the pointed and amused looks from the Team Downpour.

Rei just chuckled and came closer to Ringo, putting his hands around her waist with a mischievous expression, causing her to blush and look down as Mei silently snickered in expectation of Ringo's reaction.

"Wha-?" Ringo shyly started but then her entire world as if blinked in and out and she was hit with the feeling of peacefulness and yet, she was also greatly cowed as the full might of Natural energy in Rei's dimension fell onto her shoulders due to her entering it for the very first time. Ringo was in awe and so shocked she forgot how to breathe as the waves of energy washed over her body, the world as if slowed to crawl as her pupils dilated and her throat tightened. And as soon as it came, it went and Ringo found herself staring at a small town from a hill behind it.

Rei smiled knowingly at Ringo, unhanding her. She didn't spend even a second in his dimension but her star-struck expression was something he expected. Mei reacted much the same and even now she was a bit out of it from time to time. Unless one bonded with Rei, nothing he could do about that. On the other hand, at least because of Mei not being bonded with Rei yet, they found out that training in the dimension makes chakra reserves grow faster. There would be no way for Mei to have enough chakra to defeat a ten-thousand-strong army otherwise.

"We are here." Rei said, pulling Ringo out of her reverie just in time for her to spot Konan blinking into existence two meters away from them, holding Mei around her shoulders in a similar manner Rei held her around the waist.

"Wait... Where is here? No. First, tell me what the heck was that!? Did you find a way to teleport? That was not a speed technique! No, no, what the heck was that place full of gigantic trees, massive roots, and energy... god so much energy." Ringo muttered to herself in a crazed manner, breathing so hard she was close to hyperventilating. "How can something like that exist. There is just no wa-"

Rei's lips suddenly landed on hers, making her eyes widen as she leaned into the kiss, her arms snaking around his neck. Ringo pulled herself closer to Rei, deepening the kiss as her previous thoughts evaporated from her mind.

It took a while for them to pull away, much to Mei's ire. Unfortunately for Mei and fortunately for Ringo, Konan had Mei's shoulders in a vice-grip while giving her a barely noticeable smug smirk and shaking her head so Mei could only pout and watch, stewing in her own jealousy.

"You calm now?" Rei whispered to Ringo who meekly nodded laying her head on his shoulder to prevent him from seeing how flushed she was. "Good," Rei chuckled, making her shuffle closer to him. "Now then, we are in the Land of Waves and our destination is the Land of Whirlpool. We need a new base, after all." Rei said, making Ringo's eyes widen. Before she could say anything, however, Rei left the embrace and gestured for her to follow and Ringo could only huff in exasperation.

Soon after, the four ninjas were traversing through the sea between the Land of Waves and the Land of Whirlpools.

...

Finding Uzushiogakure was not really a problem. The problem was getting inside since the entire village was shielded by multiple sealing arrays, either geared to cause sickness, weakness, or Rei's favorite, a seal that actually inflicted chakra poisoning on an intruder if he stayed too long. There naturally were also instant-kill sealing arrays and other offensive seals strewn all over the Uzushiogakure.

The mystery of why the villages didn't have so many Uzumaki sealing scrolls was finally unraveled. The entire place was a death-trap designed to not let anybody who enters to leave alive. Only a jonin would be able to get out once he enters and even then he had to be very, very lucky. That explained quite clearly why Kirigakure had so many low-level sealing scrolls of the Uzumaki clan but none of the higher quality. They simply couldn't manage to retrieve them before dying.

After all, it took Rei quite a bit of time, three months to be exact, to first find out every single seal in the whole village and then change them so they would allow him and his party to stay without fearing to be either incinerated, poisoned, flayed alive, or frozen to death due to activating a hidden seal. While the world waged war, Rei was cracking his head, trying to find a solution how to make Uzushiogakure safe for his team as Konan made sure to whip Ringo into shape while adding what she previously did not teach the woman, lessons on anti-indoctrinations ala Konan, which basically meant she was indoctrinating Ringo to be loyal to Rei. Eh, not like Ringo didn't see it. She was too experienced not to, she simply went along with it because it was what she wanted.

During this time, Mei followed Rei like a puppy, trying to be cute and endearing. Rei knew she wanted a kiss since she saw him kissing Ringo, someone who didn't spend that much time with him. Mei simply felt Ringo was getting ahead and it took two months for Rei to finally break. To his eternal dismay, since then Mei became a lot bolder and demanding which only prompted Ringo to be the same... the two started an odd competition for his affections. He could only sigh in exasperation, especially when Tsunade heard of it and laughed her ass off on his account. Yes, he had to spend every night with either Tsunade or Konan since Mei and Ringo started competing, otherwise, he would long ago lose his nerves and go apeshit on them. In the end, Tsunade made sure to persuade him in a very heated 'conversation' that he had to bond with the two women soon if he wanted peace and calm. After all, the bonding made them feel like sisters and while Mei and Ringo would most likely still retain some kind of competitiveness among them, it won't be the ferocious kind.

Finally, the months passed and Rei was finished with the entire Uzushiogakure and the only thing that was left was to name their group. After all, they were a gathering of three S-rank and one SS-rank ninja. They naturally needed a proper name to represent them! Or so, argued Mei...

And such was the beginnings of Yozora.

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Chapter 120 - Ch120. Gear

Another three months passed and the third shinobi world war has just entered its third and final year. During these three months, Rei finally bonded with Mei and Ringo and since then, two hours of his day had to be sacrificed for the two needy girls. Thankfully, Mei respected Rei's reluctance to sleep with her before she reached fifteen years of age and Ringo respected Mei and waited for her to have the first turn.

It brought Konan and Tsunade an untold amount of amus.e.m.e.nt when they saw Rei trying to pry Mei away from him or when the two girls argued about inane things like which one of them has softer lips. Rei would say Konan was the winner hands down but he was too clever to open his mouth in front of his girls...

What brought amus.e.m.e.nt to Rei was Ringo's reaction when she found out that Tsuna was actually Tsunade, one of the Konoha sannin. Ringo flat-out fainted when grinning Tsunade with her hands balled into fists and put on her h.i.p.s cheekily told Ringo who exactly cured her disease.

The funniest moment though was when Rei showed Ringo the dimension. The poor woman could not properly breathe for five hours and had to crawl while being taunted by Tsunade and Konan as they dangled Rei's specially made dango, Ringo's favorite food and the only thing he was addicted as they found out in the past months, in front of her face on a string while she was creating a path by drooling onto the ground. Rei really had no idea if he should roll on the ground from laughter or stop his two cruel women. In the end, Mei decided for him when she brought popcorn.

Fun was nice and all but these past three months were also quite busy. Rei decided their new group, Yozora, needed a proper recognizable attire and as such, they started creating one, a very special one at that.

Rei was aware of the dangers and advantages of such a thing but after carefully weighing them, he still decided to get a proper 'uniform' so to speak. His main reason stemmed from Akatsuki itself.

Akatsuki black cloaks with red clouds... most would believe it was a stupid thing to wear them and from a certain point of view, they would be absolutely correct. Akatsuki was supposed to be a hidden organization of mercenaries. Their secret purpose was to collect the bijuu and yet every time they attacked a jinchuuriki, it was two dudes in black cloaks with red clouds. Very subtle indeed.

Not to mention that two S-rank nuke-nin grouping up was already quite suspicious and alarming but could still be somehow overlooked and written off as just teaming up for a hard mission. The bets are off the table the second these two ninjas start to wear a uniform of a sort, however. Especially if more S-rank nuke-nin are sighted wearing the same uniform as them. The whole point of being a secret organization becomes a moot point as a group of ten S-rank ninjas would be right in the striking zone of every village, which would mean they would be watched like hawks. And that's before they actually start to attack jinchuuriki. Rei had no idea how they got so far with bijuu collecting since their goal was so obvious. Either the hatred towards the jinchuuriki was really so great it drove the hidden villages near mad and not care about people collecting weapons of mass destruction, or the world itself was plot-forcing like mad for it to happen.

And yet, despite the reasons why he found the Akatsuki cloak a stupid tell-tale sign similar to Naruto's kill-me orange jacket, Rei decided to also make a uniform for Yozora. The reason was simple. In the beginning, it would not bring much to the table but later on, when their reputation spread, the uniform will become a symbol. The villages know not to f.u.c.k with Akatsuki because they are made out of S-rank ninjas. And they always wear their cloaks and are easy to spot.

Rei wanted such recognition for his own group as while stupid, it was also a very powerful weapon. After all, if he ever wanted someone to do a secret mission, all that would be needed was to take off the Yozora cloak.

The first piece of Yozora gear was a pitch-black cloak reaching the ankles with a black hood. Rei didn't care what people wore underneath it so the cloak was it. Now, Rei was quite protective of his girls so he grouped up with Konan and they got to enhancing these cloaks.

Firstly, they decided the hood will be always up during encounters with an enemy so Rei quickly added a see-through seal on the inner part of the hood. This way, the wearer's vision was not obstructed at all.

Secondly, he naturally added a seal to obstruct the vision of anyone trying to peek under the hood. Anyone who tries will see only a black void. This was Rei's measure to protect the identity of his girls. Sure, they said it was redundant but Rei wouldn't hear of it and glared at them until they relented.

And thirdly, Rei added some miscellaneous seals like warming seals that would keep the user warm if activated or cooling seals with the opposite function. There was also a durability seal drawn from the inner part of the cloak, affecting the outermost layer from being damaged. All those seals were self-sustaining by a minuscule amount of nature energy so they didn't need any chakra from the wearer. The cloak was already something the hidden villages would covet but Rei was not satisfied yet and that's where Konan came into the picture.

The cloak was made out of two layers of black, very comfortable but durable fabric mostly used for ANBU uniforms. Between these two layers sewn together, were slices of Konan paper tightly put one by one next to each other with minimal gaps between them. The ingenuity in this was the fact that Rei inscribed a sustaining seal on each of these slices and Konan hardened them the best she could with her Earth Release. This basically made the entire cloak a better armor than a full-plate from chakra metal despite being light and foldable as a feather since the paper was still, in fact, just paper. It would take some serious destructive power to get through the cloak which was yet another reason why Rei insisted on having a uniform. Akatsuki doesn't really utilize theirs well but Rei would be damned if he didn't make use of his fuinjutsu and the protective capabilities of Konan's Earth-hardening in Yozora's cloaks.

This came at a cost however as the entire cloak was a shining beacon in the senses of even the weakest chakra sensor which unfortunately made Rei forsake the idea of invisibility seal on the outer layer of the cloak and he instead drew a chakra masking seal which made it virtually invisible to the chakra sensors despite the high chakra output the cloak was giving out at any given moment due to the always active Earth-hardened slices of paper.

Rei might have created his own dimension but these cloaks... they were a masterpiece on their own.

The cloak was mostly made by Rei and Konan with Tsunade doing the sewing since she was, according to herself, free and had the greatest experience when it came to needlework. Well, as expected of the best medic... Sewing people and clothes mustn't be so different, right?

Ringo and Mei started their own project while the others worked on the cloak. Both were trying to create swords. Rei gave them tons of chakra metal to experiment and at first, he did so only to indulge them but when he saw their techniques rapidly improve, he even started debating the option of offering the two a change of occupation from ninja killer to ninja blacksmith.

Honestly, Rei had no idea why ninjas didn't use Jutsu for crafting. He was in one of the villages where the chakra weapons were made and yet, no ninja was helping in the process which took weeks for one blade. Here, Mei with her Lava Release and Ringo with her exceptional Lighting Release could create ten chakra blades per day and they were not even that skilled yet.

That was actually two months ago...

The next month, the two blacksmithing she-devils requested Rei's help. He couldn't give the blades full attention but when he had time, they experimented with putting seals on the blade which was frankly an annoying endeavor since every time they had a spar the seals would be damaged.

The solution appeared in the middle of the third month. It needed a special ink that could withstand chakra metal melting temperatures and Mei had to keep the forged swords in a melted state until Rei inscribed the seals before covering them in another layer of molten chakra metal alloy. The seals were inside of the sword... and finally, they didn't get damaged during the first spar.

The sword actually conducted electricity better, imitating Kiba Blades and Ringo was giddy at the future prospects but it was still a far cry from the actual Kiba Blades. Nevertheless, progress was progress.

Honestly? Rei was just glad that Ringo and Mei stopped arguing and found a mutual hobby.

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Chapter 121 - Ch121. Team Downpour gone!?

Pa treon - 43 chapters ahead.

If you want to support me or read ahead:

pa /kasicair

--

Akachi was sweating like a pig and nervously glancing at the empty seat of the Mizukage as he waited for the council meeting to start. He was one of the only three civilians in Kirigakure that managed to get onto the council due to their usefulness. Akachi was especially good when it came to getting information via his merchants, which was his reason for being on the council. He was not really the spymaster of Kirigakure, he would rather describe himself as some kind of handy informant since his merchants were, in the end, just merchants, not spies. Then again, not even the Mizukage could afford to dismiss him since a lot of the important intel during the war was brought to him by Akachi rather than the ANBU or through Kirigakure's spymaster. One should never underestimate drunk merchants and their capacity for spouting things that should stay hidden, after all.

Akachi knew much. For example, he knew there was some new group moving in his field of expertise for the last few years, namely the Biri-Biri company. He had no proof even after years of monitoring them but he knew they were doing exactly what he did, except on a much, much larger scale. Frankly, it scared him shitless when he thought about the intel they must gather all around the Elemental Nations as one of the major international companies in good graces of almost every Daimyo. Akachi had no doubt whoever was behind Biri-Biri knew every single move of any Hidden Village before even the Kage gave the order just by looking through their 'shopping list'.

Akachi even knew that Jiraiya the Sannin owned most brothels in the Land of Fire under an alias and even in different countries under different aliases. Akachi had no idea about the sheer scale of Jiraiya's brothel network, but he knew it was larger than any Hidden Village would be comfortable with if they knew about it. It certainly took a long time to get rid of them in the Land of Water and they couldn't be sure all of Jiraiya's brothels were dealt with. The real list was something not many people even in Konoha council knew as it was one of Konoha's top S-class secrets. No wonder the man was the best spymaster. People talk when they are drunk while playing birds and bees. Men especially feel an unexplainable need to brag...

Anyway, Akachi could get some rumors even from somewhere as far as Iwagakure, where they rumoredly wanted to use a jinchuuriki to attack Sunagakure's outposts. Really, how could Iwa jonin freely talk about it in a bar was beyond Akachi.

And due to knowing so much, the latest rumor was whispered to him. A rumor that made him very restless... He briefly swept his gaze through all of his fellow councilmen and it was painfully obvious none of them knew, after all, none of them were nervous. In fact, they looked all peaceful. As if the war was no longer their problem.

Finally, the door opened and the Mizukage walked in with two ANBU surrounding him and the councilmen stood up in respect until the Mizukage sat down in his seat. He instantly put his hat down onto a small table next to his seat and a smoking pipe found its way into his mouth. The man was old. Ready to retire, at least in the opinions of most of the councilmen but Akachi knew it would take some years yet. Mizukage's eyes were too cold, too ruthless for him to just roll over and do as the council wished.

"Hello everyone, I hereby open this council session at the request of merchant Akachi. Mr. Akachi, the stage is yours." The Mizukage said, looking irritably at the sweating merchant who gave a small insecure laugh.

"Uh... I heard rumors... er," Akachi really had no idea how to breach the topic. Thankfully, the other councilmen didn't pester him and just quietly waited. He proved his worth long ago, after all. Akachi decided to hell with it as he straightened and cleared his throat to calm himself. "I heard rumors of a new group of rogue ninja called Yozora. According to these rumors Rei, Konan, and Mei of Kiri are members."

'There, I said it!' Akachi thought as he flopped back into his seat with relief, ignoring how deathly silent the room went. Despite his relieved state, Akachi still had his eyes trained on the key figures that touched this information. Namely the Mizukage, and the resident spymaster, Ichika Shuu, who was in charge of the Information Gathering Divisions of Kirigakure.

The various councilmen showed astonishment and speechless expressions the second they heard him. They didn't want to believe he was speaking the truth since Team Downpour was the best team they had.

The silence quickly passed and the room erupted into chaos. People started yelling at each other, some not believing the three most powerful ninja of the Kirigakure went rogue, some calling for their blood, others screaming how stupid it would be to provoke them... it was a mess.

"ENOUGH!" Mizukage shouted, instantly silencing the room, and turned to Ichika who just silently enjoyed the show, sensually scratching her right forearm with the long polished nails of her left hand. "Do you have something to say about it, jonin Shuu?"

'He already knew...' Akachi thought in disbelief when he spotted how deceptively calm Mizukage was. Akachi just shook his head in exasperation. 'What else did I expect? He is Mizukage. Stupid me…'

"I only know that some upstarts calling themselves Yozora showed up, you see... I had sadly no idea about what Mr. Akachi just informed us of. They didn't really do much yet except for ending some small skirmishes. If they didn't show capability to go one versus at least four squads, I would not even be interested in them." The melodic and enchanting voice of the brown-haired beauty rang through the room and Akachi scrunched his nose in distaste.

Ichika Shuu... she was a crafty and amoral woman and that was exactly why she was capable of getting a position on the council as a non-clan shinobi in Kirigakure. If there was one member on the entire council of the Bloody Mist Akachi was wary of, it was the curvaceous and tempting vixen in front of him. She was the leader of the TI department, or for clueless civilians, the Information Gathering Division. The woman had no qualms about the way of obtaining information. She would gladly fulfill any sick and deranged wishes of her target if it made him talk... as she would not shy away from inflicting the worst of tortures for the same reason. She simply had no moral limits and that was a very scary thing in itself.

'That woman will be the end of Kirigakure...' Akachi tried to not glare at her, causing him to lower his head. He was overly aware of the rumors spreading through the general population and noble court in the capital of how monstrous and devilish the Kekkei Genkai users supposedly are. Some describe them as even less than animals. These rumors first started before the war but that was quickly suppressed. Imagine Akachi's surprise when they started again during a time when there was nobody free enough to suppress them, causing them to spread far and wide across the entire country. Akachi knew it was Ichika's work, he just didn't have any proof so he kept his mouth shut. The woman wouldn't mind a bloody civil war if it brought her a higher position in the proverbial pecking order of Kirigakure. She definitely didn't like the fact that 80% of the political and economical influence was in the hands of clans.

"Lord Mizukage, what will we do? We can't just let two of our S-rankers and god forbid an SS-ranker to roam free! We have to do something!" The new heir of the Yuki clan, chosen after Himeno's death, spoke with determined eyes only for the older man from the Hozuki clan to scold him.

"Shut up, you young idiot! How do you want to stop them!? They can deal with any hunter squad we sent after them! You know nothing of their secret mission records, you young gnat. Do be quiet when a.d.u.l.ts are talking, child." The Hozuki clan leader sneered.

The Yuki heir started spluttering but before he could start screaming murder at the Hozuki clan leader, the leader of the Suiran clan, one of the smaller but very powerful and respected clans, started speaking. "I am afraid I must agree with the old and grumpy," He chuckled, making the Hozuki clan leader scoff, "We really have no other option than to ignore it at the moment." He knew the other councilmen wanted to interrupt so he quickly added with a shrug, not sorry for a second to throw the Mizukage to the wolves. "And besides, the Mizukage already knew long ago."

The second that sentence was uttered, every set of eyes in the room intently looked at Mizukage. Surprisingly, even ANBU were not an exception. The Mizukage puffed out smoke from his mouth and sighed, mulling over how to explain so even the old idiots on the council would understand.

"Yes, I knew. They are missing for a few months already alongside Ringo Ameyuri." He nonchalantly said, starting the second wave of protests and screams that only stopped when he released his killing intent. While it didn't faze the ninjas in the room, it was a sign their Kage wanted to speak so they shut up due to respect rather than fear. But none of the councilmen were happy. Ringo was a major figure in the village. A war hero even. If she defected... "But there is really nothing we can do about it. Before you start arguing again, LISTEN!" The Mizukage groaned. "We are weak at the moment. Even putting them in the Bingo Book would be announcing our weakness only increased. We have to keep it quiet and not confirm anything long enough for the war to end, hopefully with enough casualties on each side to not bother us in the near future." The Mizukage hollowly chuckled, causing the atmosphere in the room to turn somber. Akachi noted some clan heads were not-so-discreetly glaring at the Mizukage but the man didn't even spare them a glance. "Anyway, despite everything, I know Rei has some attachment to the village so we are not in immediate danger. For now, we will do exactly nothing." The Mizukage ordered with a tone of finality.

The session then lasted for another three hours, discussing the late Team Downpour's weaknesses and strengths, their intentions and motivations for going rogue, even ways to get them into the fold again... with minor punishment, of course. Honestly, Akachi was bored out of his wits, something the Mizukage could relate to if Akachi's eyes were still working. Even Akachi, a civilian, knew no matter what the old fogies discuss, it was all just guess-work at best. After all, the only person in the room who knew enough about Team Downpour was the Mizukage and he certainly was not very forthcoming with the details. Even Ichika ground her teeth in irritation every time she was asked about them since she knew virtually nothing, much to Akachi's only amus.e.m.e.nt during the session.

Alas, his work sucked and he already came to terms with it long ago.

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Chapter 122 - Ch122. Getting SS-rank 1

Pakura nervously shifted, tightly gripping the kunai in her hand as she watched Iwagakure border outpost from her team's hiding place. Thankfully, they were far away from the never-ending sands of the Land of Wind and the forests were quite lush here, in the Land of Claw that was located between the Land of Rock and Wind. They were in the forests at the very borders between Claw and Rock, waiting for these... mercenaries the Kazekage hired to deal with the border outposts so the Suna army can march further into the Land of Rock's territory without being obstructed. Pakura had her own thoughts about some no-name mercenaries however and that was the source of her recent frustration. She was responsible for her team and the hired kunais were already a half-hour late!

"The Kazekage won't be happy... we should be attacking right about now, not wait for late-comers." One of her men gruffly grumbled.

"Oh do shut up Nakaro." Mirano, the trap expert of the team, snorted at Pakura's second in command. Mirano was also the only member of the team who knew who exactly was hired by the Kazekage. She, or rather her clan, was the one who introduced them to the Kazekage, after all. Something that only increased the suspicion of Pakura.

Mirano's clan was quite small and a new one. They were originally merchants specializing in seals and weaponry. Apparently, Mirano's father had quite the position in Biri-Biri company before they 'settled' in Sunagakure for whatever reason the ferocious politician deemed enough to make Suna suffer his presence for.

Then again, Sunagakure was in no position to refuse since they brought a big reduction of merchandise cost from Biri-Biri company which in turn gave Suna ninjas a big advantage in the field. Sadly it also gave them quite a bit of political capital and Mirano's grandfather somehow found himself in the Council, not even a year after they settled in the village and Mirano proved to be elite jonin skill-wise.

Pakura didn't trust their loyalty to the village more than she could throw them, honestly.

"Maybe we would be calmer if you finally told us who are the mercenaries? All we know is that they were hired through the Biri-Biri company. Our lives kinda depend on them, you know?" Pakura dryly stated, hoping Mirano would at least hint at their identity. Right now, the team was sitting ducks and it would be only a question of time until they were found and hunted.

"Well, sucks to be you, then, no?" Mirano just grinned happily, her eyes refusing to leave the outpost tower. "Alas, my fun seems to end here since... look." She pointed at the tower and instantly a huge explosion shook their world.

Pakura suddenly found herself fumbling helplessly before falling onto her ass as her eyes widened, watching the big ball of crimson red flames engulf the entire tower and its surrounding. Even from afar, she could feel the incredible heat and a shudder went through her spine at the thought of actually being targeted by it. Sure, it was not as hot as her scorch but the heat reached much, much farther than her Bloodline ever could.

Slowly, the crimson flames started receding and the ground stopped shaking. Her team started to recollect their wits from the spectacle they just saw when yet another explosion resounded from afar, then another, and another, until the count, reached nine and even the earth couldn't decide in which direction to shake and instead was jerking from side to side, making even the now prepared Pakura having to spend quite some chakra to keep standing.

'The f.u.c.k is happening?' Pakura thought, her stomach sinking when she realized every explosion came from the direction of Iwa border outposts that were scheduled to be hit sometime next week by Suna ANBU. Her eyes flickered to Mirano who was still laughing like mad but to Pakura's surprise, she was the only team of her team who managed to stand still through the world-shaking earthquakes. The woman didn't even look 'shaken', and it honestly made Pakura quite worried when she remembered she was supposed to be trained by the Biri-Biri company. 'What the heck is Biri-Biri company planning?' Pakura narrowed her eyes. Mirano was in no way just an elite jonin. The woman was solid S-rank!

When the trembling finally subsided and Pakura was about to give the order to retreat, a hand landed on her shoulder, almost making her jump in fright as she realized somebody managed to sneak up on her back. She slowly turned her head, only to be met with faceless darkness under the hood of a cloak so black, even the ANBU would m.o.a.n in envy. Despite her various experiences and ability to suppress fear, Pakura knew she was scared. Something about the black figure who was as if melting into the shadows, made her hair stand. She didn't even dare to peer into the faceless void under the hood in an irrational fear it would suck her in.

'Killing intent...' Her mind idly supplied. It was just so different from what she was used to. Killing intent should be malicious, angry, menacing, even disgusting, not just... dark. The killing intent of the man was making her feel empty, apathetic, and cold. 'It's making me sluggish... Snap out of it, woman!' Pakura's mind shrieked at her but she just couldn't. This was far too different from what she was used to.

The man suddenly lifted his hand from Pakura's shoulder and Pakura gasped for air, instantly leaning on a nearby tree for support in order to prevent herself from a shameful display of falling from fear in front of her subordinates.

"The contract is fulfilled, remind the Kazekage to send the money." A lifeless dark voice came from the hood, making Pakura's team take a step back at how eerie it sounded before the man simply vanished. Ten trained jonin-ranked ninjas were unable to spot how. He just... blinked out of existence right in front of their eyes. Pakura and her team couldn't help but gulp, the intimidation tactics clearly working.

"What the hell was that?" Nakaro quietly asked, still shaken from the cold and soul-wrenching feeling of the killing intent.

"That... was Rei of Kiri, the leader of Yozora." Mirano commented, making others' eyes widen when they realized the man who created a lake in the desert a few years prior was just in front of them

'So that's why the Kazekage so readily accepted…' Pakura mentally nodded. It was then she also noticed Mirano being far too relaxed. No barely noticeable shivering, no veiled fear on her face, no flinchy behavior that could be seen in all of the members of her team. Pakura narrowed her gaze at the trap mistress of the team. 'She expected it and knows how to counter... it. How? That feeling must be some new way of showing the killing intent but why would Mirano be able to counter it?' Pakura pondered only for her eyes to narrow even further. 'Looks like I will have to be extremely careful of you, Mirano.'

"Anyway, I will talk with the Kazekage about the payment." Mirano shrugged Pakura's suspicious gaze off. Not like she would in her team for much longer. After this, her father would be promoted even higher in the council and she would become the head of the clan in his stead, meaning being holed up in the village. "And look! He even destroyed nine additional outposts as a gift for Sunagakure!" She cheerfully exclaimed, seeing only further looks of fright when the ninjas finally remembered the nine additional explosions.

Mirano couldn't help but roll her eyes. 'Looks like getting SS rank will be much easier than you first thought, won't it, Rei-sama... If only my oaf of father didn't volunteer our family to settle in Suna.' She grumbled.

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Chapter 123 - Ch123. Getting SS-rank 2

"What are we even doing here?" Mei asked, watching a force of five thousand Kumo mercenaries and ninjas slowly sailing towards the border of the Land of Earth through the Aisu Bay as she alongside Konan stood on the tallest hill on the shore.

"You know it's a job." Konan impassively stated in a tone that clearly made Mei aware the woman would roll her eyes if she didn't wear her cold professional facade.

Mei scowled and crossed her arms. "You know well that's not what I am asking about. I want to know why you took me and not Ringo. Why here? Why Iwagakure? They tried to kill you and Rei! If anything, we should be helping Kumo forces by making their path towards Iwagakure clear..." She grumbled, narrowing her eyes at the approaching sh.i.p.s.

"You are here because Ringo is not ready y-." Konan said, making Mei snort gleefully.

"Ha! I can't wait to say this to the sword-waving bitch's face!" Mei mockingly exclaimed, interrupting and irritating Konan. Her relationship with Ringo was actually very good, contrary to the meaning of her words. They were, for a lack of a better term, competitors who liked to snark at each other every so often but never escalated to physical fight... well, other than some spars.

But what Konan said was the truth. Ringo was not yet ready for facing down an army. Six months of training but the woman would need at least another year to reach Mei's prowess. But...

"I wouldn't be so loud about that." Konan resisted the urge to smack Mei. "As I was saying before you interrupted me... Ringo is not ready yet but she has more experience. Some of which you still clearly lack if you have to ask why we are here."

That shut Mei up somewhat fiercely and instantly.

Konan continued only when she saw Mei switched to the lecture-listening mode and would not interrupt her anymore. "It's all about balance. Rei is attacking Iwa outposts, letting Suna get through their borders and attack. If Kumo succeeded in attacking too, Iwa would be quickly overwhelmed since they have to keep Konoha forces at bay in the Land of Grass. That..." Konan sniffed. "we don't want to happen. As much as I don't like the village for trying to kill us, I must admit its existence brings certain benefits."

"Such as?" Mei slowly asked, not really getting it.

"If you can't come up with anything, then you just show you are not really all that good at scheming part of being a ninja. Power is good, power is necessary but without a great mind able to plan ahead and reasonable foresight you will not get far." Konan explained.

Mei just nodded, committing the words to her mind as she thought about the apparent benefit of Iwagakure's existence. Honestly, she definitely could see one or two but her own stubbornness and want for revenge for the attempt at the life of her two mentors was really making it hard to persuade herself about the usefulness of the Iwagakure's continuous existence.

"I think it's time." Konan's voice pulled Mei from her contemplation, making her eyes shone with excitement.

"Soooo, how are we doing this?" She asked expectantly a mischievous smirk on her face.

Konan slowly turned to Mei with an amusedly raised eyebrow. "We? Oh, no, Mei. We are not doing anything. I am. You will just stay here, keep the forth so to speak. After all, it's I who need to earn my SS-rank. You are here more to learn more about large-scale combat. Last time you fought it, this time you will see and analyze it while having my back if anything too unexpected happened."

"What!? But that's not fair!" Mei whined only for Konan to lean forward and, much to Mei's annoyance, ruffled the auburn hair of the shorter girl with an indulging smile.

"Get used to it, brat. That's life." She said in a mock rueful tone with a dreamy sigh at the end.

"Stop it, or I will melt you..." Mei growled but Konan only flicked her nose in a playful way before turning around and jumping off the hill, flying into the air as her lower body changed fully to paper. Mei knew she lost that argument and will probably suffer during one of their training sessions for it too but she was just so irritated!

Konan literally threw her out of her warm bed, took away her Rei plushie, told her to get ready and meet her in twenty minutes. Heck, she didn't even have the time to properly eat breakfast before they teleported to a clearing near Iwagakure, the same Rei and Konan were hiding when preparing the Hokage monkey prank, and then Mei was forced to make the track towards the northeastern coast of the Land of Rock. Not the most enjoyable of her mornings for sure. Konan could at least let her kill something!

Konan was already quite high above the hill when a bit in front of her, slices of paper started hovering before their color started to change into brown as she supported her chakra in order to harden them the most she could.

Konan then pulled out something she very rarely used in battle. Her fan unfolded, prepared to rain destruction on her enemies as chakra started to build up, before Konan brutally swung in without mercy, sending raging winds in the direction of the Kumogakure forces as she willed her Earth-hardened slices of paper to fly towards them at their fastest speed.

The more experienced Kumo ninjas managed to pull out the Water Wall, Lightning Jutsu capable of shielding, or any other technique they deemed capable of stopping the ungodly hard projectiles. Unfortunately for them, the ferocious winds that blew above the ocean due to Konan didn't only rip the sails while leaving nasty cut marks all over the sh.i.p.s with some occasional buggers being cut in half. Their primary function was to speed up the hardened projectiles and the Kumo forces certainly felt that.

The defensive Jutsu's of Kumo ninjas were ripped right through by the rapid hard projectiles, riddling the ninjas, boats, sails, and water with holes alike. It was certainly chaos. People burst into blood, being plummeted by the projectiles. Broken bones, ruptured organs, missing appendages... and when one thought himself lucky enough to survive all that, the hard truth reared its ugly head. The boats became almost unusable due to the holes that went right through the hull, ending all the way in the water under the ship. The sh.i.p.s quickly started filling with water, sinking.

Mei could only watch with her mouth agape at the clean display of wholesale slaughter her mentor just showed her. It was not some showy battle. Nor was it a showdown of guts and sweat. Nope. This was a show of gore and blood caused by 2 Jutsu her mentor could perform rather easily. The entire point of it was that Konan cast the Jutsu at a good angle, aiming them downwards so the gravity did a very good job and by the time her projectiles impacted the Kumo fleet, it was as if small meteorites were raining on it.

"We are finished here. There is no one who could give me a challenge. The strongest dude of the lot is most likely mid-A rank ninja." Konan's impassive voice once again pulled Mei from her reverie as she watched the fumbling and screaming Kumo soldiers. She didn't even notice when Konan managed to descend from the air and it certainly made her aware of the ever-present power rift between Konan and her.

"But... they are still alive!" Mei pointed at the small percentage of the previous fleet that was still kicking and... screaming. Loudly.

"Of course they are," Konan actually broke her facade momentarily and rolled her eyes at Mei. "who would spread the news if they were not, in fact, alive? Rei surely does the same things and let some of his targets actually walk away completely fine to spread what happened in order to speed up our SS-rank Bingo Book promotion. There are also Iwagakure's ninjas hidden all around, keeping a distance from us. Even your new meager skill at nature sensing should pick them up... if you actually bothered to check." She said reproachingly.

Mei flushed a deep red, trying to stammer a few words only to find herself utterly speechless.

"They are here to 'collect' my bounty if they found me weak enough to risk it after my fight with the fleet. This is exactly what I wanted to show you today, Mei. The way you won your first one versus an army situation was stupid and very risky. You didn't account for someone popping up after the battle is over to engage you again. I let you bathe in your glory long enough but it's time to start your learning again so from now on, you and Ringo are in Clone Army Challenge training."

Mei pouted but nodded a bit in a subdued manner. A bit fearful of having tens of thousands of Clones of different variety flung at her by both Rei and Konan. Alas, fair or not... such is life.

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Chapter 124 - Ch124. Getting SS-rank 3

Rei groggily opened his eyes and the first sight that greeted him was the beautiful mess of blonde hair spreading all over his chest as Tsunade's cheek was blissfully snuggling into it while she was holding onto his waist with her steel-like vice-grip as if he was her lifeline. It always drew a smile on his face when he woke up to the gorgeous sight of n.a.k.e.d Tsunade lying on him. Something in her just screamed happiness and contentment in these situations... must be because she was Senju.

'Yup, that is surely it.' Rei thought sarcastically, enjoying the warmth of her body pressing to him as tightly as possible without it being uncomfortable.

Rei's hand slowly rose and started gently caressing Tsunade's hair, not enough to wake her but enough to make her melt into him even more.

The separation was really hard on both Tsunade and Rei despite being together most of the nights. The longer it was, the more fidgety they became. Rei quickly assumed it had to do with the bond but this kind of weakness didn't garner much worry from him. He quickly understood that making Tsunade leave for Konoha was one of the biggest mistakes he ever made. He didn't even need the bond subconsciously telling him that. Just losing her warm and firm hugs through the day was a good enough of a reason for him to start hating the current circ.u.mstances.

But Rei was a man and a too prideful being to just tell her to abandon Konoha when she clearly quite liked working in the hospital no matter how she grumbled about it... he just couldn't do it. In the end, Rei decided to suck it up and wait until the war ended. After that, he didn't really plan on letting Tsunade leave his side for a few mo-, er, weeks.

As he pondered about these things, Rei suddenly blinked, finding himself staring at two honey-colored warm orbs staring straight at him with love and devotion that made him almost breathless. Yet another thing he missed about Tsunade. While Konan was definitely very loving, especially in their alone time, there was just something fierce and passionate in Tsunade that Konan couldn't match. Just like there was something calming and soothing in Konan that Tsunade couldn't dream to match.

"Morning." Rei whispered and smiled, realizing his fingers are still affectionately entwined with Tsunade's hair.

"Hi" Tsunade almost purred, propping herself up to give him a passionate morning kiss before she pulled her n.a.k.e.d body upwards and sat on his stomach, giving him a show of her entire body. Needless to say, Rei was very interested, especially since Tsunade took his hand and put it on her left b.r.e.a.s.t, making it squeeze a bit as she kept it there with her hand. "Wanna do some morning exercise?" She hungrily asked with delightfully narrowed eyes, seductively biting her lower lip. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #.-getting-ss-rank-3_51034400565030379 for visiting.

Rei was really tempted to say yes, more so since he could actually feel just how wet she was, dripping her juices onto his stomach. In the end, however, he sighed and mentally cursed as he sadly shook his head. "I remember you just wanted to pop in to show us the Bingo Book and then go back and yet, here you are, after five hours of non-stop very passionate s.e.x. I don't think we will stop today if we actually start and you still have some duties as the Head of Konoha Hospital." Rei ruefully said, making Tsunade frown and let out a long whine as she petulantly wiggled her h.i.p.s.

It took a while for her to accept the situation but with an incredibly irritated expression, Tsunade relented. "Fine! But this weekend you are mine!" She grumbled, knowing well there was no way in hell that would come true.

Rei, knowing that too, just shrugged. It would, after all, come again to the good old fashioned rivalry between the four bonded girls. He just hoped it would be a brawl in the mud this time and not a freaking card game to decide which one of them will spend time with him. He wanted some good entertainment dammit!

'I could always suggest it?' Rei hummed to himself, a very suggestive smile started spreading on his face only for Tsunade to give him an unimpressed narrowed look.

"You are thinking something very punch-worthy right now, aren't you?" She asked in a dry tone, making Rei vigorously shake his head

"Of course not! How could I do that? You know m-"

"Yes..." She drawled. "And that's the problem. I know you." And rolled her eyes. Rei sweatdropped at that but Tsunade just chuckled and lovingly pecked him on the lips. "And despite that, I just can't stop loving you." She said happily, pulling herself away from her position of straddling his stomach. She now laid herself on his left side, just in time as the door opened and inside walked Konan who calmly marched her way to the right side of the king-sized bed. It didn't even take a hand gesture for her clothes to change into paper and being absorbed into her body as she, now fully n.a.k.e.d, laid herself on Rei's right side.

"Morning, Rei, Tsu. We can start." Konan said with a small telling smile, causing Tsunade to stick her tongue out at her before pulling out the newest Bingo Book from her dimensional Inventory."

"I hereby inform you," She started playfully, "as of yesterday, both Rei of Kiri and Konan of Kiri are the newest SS-rankers in the Bingo Book for Suna, Kumo, and Iwa respectively. Their rank is apparently for wide-scale destruction of large forces alone." Tsunade summarized before snorting. "Bloody bullshit if you ask me." She clicked her tongue. "These two I know personally and they are as harmless as squirrels. About as cuddly too!"

"Yeah... everyone knows squirrels are just a tad bit too murder happy." Konan rolled her eyes.

"Evil too." Rei quipped, and with the hand under Tsunade's waist, he reached for her bottom.

"Only if you feed them coffee!" Tsunade exclaimed before yelping from the unexpected squeeze, a pink dusting appearing on her cheeks.

"And we all know you energized Rei a lot during the last night." Konan smirked at blushing Tsunade. "I could clearly hear you going 'ah, ah, faster, R-'"

Tsunade quickly reached Konan, covering her mouth with her palms but forgetting her state of undress as her chest squished itself on Rei's stomach, providing a very nice view for Rei. "Shut up, Konan! We both know just who is the biggest screamer of-"

"Mei is in the door." Rei said, making Tsunade's eyes go wide in horror as her head whipped towards the... still closed and locked door. Needless to say, she quickly turned to Rei, glaring, and about to scold him when she found herself held against his chest as his tongue invaded her mouth, her anger quickly forgotten. Rei pulled away, chuckling at Tsunade's silly smile, and gently chided. "Now... play nice, you two. Konan, Tsunade needs to go back to Konoha today. Don't try to goad her into a mind-blowing threesome. Not today."

Konan became mildly subdued after hearing that and gave a small nod. "I am sorry." She said before giving a quick peck onto Rei's cheek and standing up, walking towards the door. "In that case, I am going to fix a quick breakfast. After that nightly wrestling Tsunade had with you yesterday, she will naturally be starving."

As if on cue, Tsunade's stomach grumbled, causing her to flush even more as she did the only thing that would get her out of her current predicament. She stood up and... "Dibs on shower!" And just like that, the loudest member of the Konoha sannin ran from the room with her proverbial tail tucked between her legs.

Rei found himself alone in the room, still lying in the bed, and couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head at their antics. He took into his hands the Bingo Book and read his and Konan's new pages before chuckling some more.

'Now... I wonder what are the reactions of the important people to this new unforeseen development.'

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Chapter 125 - Ch125. Reactions to the new SS-rankers

Ichika Shuu, the head of TI Department of Kirigakure sat in her office, smirking as she remembered the bewildered faces of the councilmen when she told them about the two new rank-ups in the Bingo Book. Apparently, Konan and Rei of Kiri were really busy in the last months since they earned themselves SS-rank for what they did best... Destruction and Annihilation.

Honestly, Ichika was really glad they left as they could have been a serious threat to her plans.

'Three SS-rank ninjas at once, moreover they all are from a single team. I wonder what exactly Team Downpour discovered to enable them to become so strong.' Ichika mused, not for a second doubting there were some special circ.u.mstances at hand.

Since the establishment of the Hidden Villages, no SS-rank ninja was EVER raised. No matter how much the villages tried. Before though... despite Bingo Book not being a thing yet, Ichika knew there were many SS-rank people. Hanzo the Salamander was close. Madara and Hashirama were SS-rank power-wise even if they were never acknowledged as such. In the past, many reached such strength and Ichika wondered...

"Kiga," She called out and a second later a ninja wearing a Kiri ANBU mask appeared kneeling in front of her, "gather a squad and go after one of the new SS-ranks. Mei would be the most preferable. Something tells me Rei and Konan are far stronger than her even though she got her rank first. Make sure to be cautious and approach only when you are sure she is alone. I want to know their secret." She ordered and the ninja nodded before promptly leaving.

A brief grin spread on Ichika's face. 'Now, if only it was so easy to get rid of the pesky clans and confiscate their businesses...' She eyed the inconspicuous innocent-looking letter laying on the edge of her table. 'I wonder, should I trust and go with the plan of this... Zetsu?'

...

The Third Mizukage cradled a glass of sake in his hand, contemplating how it all went so wrong. Firstly, Himeno died... now that was his fault and he was completely aware of it. Then, Team Downpour left... and he had no idea what to do about that. On one hand, they were too powerful to antagonize, on another, he was grateful for Rei cheering him up and reminding him of his position. Only thanks to that he still pulled through and became at least somewhat acceptable Kage while he looked for a successor.

He... kept quiet about their disappearance. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #.-reactions-to-the-new-ss-rankers_51077987252104044 for visiting.

And then they started the whole mercenary business and the council heard about it, well, that was a quite big shitstorm.

But the council understood his take on the situation. How could they antagonize them? Rei and Konan made sure to show they harbored no hard feelings towards Kirigakure and the Mizukage didn't want any semblance of goodwill between them and the village to disappear. Who knows, they might help Kirigakure out of nostalgia when shit hits the fan?

He could only hope nobody in Kirigakure is stupid enough to piss them off.

...

Sarutobi Hiruzen was reading the new Bingo Book with a twitching eye. 'Did the Kirigakure infiltrate the Bingo-Book-makers to sow disinformation? How the f.u.c.k could they gain 2 another SS-rank ninjas!?' He fumed in disbelief. Surely if they had such firepower, they would use it in their invasion? How come they did not? Hiruzen swore to pay extra attention to all three SS-rank ninjas as even he was very afraid of crossing someone capable of wiping armies, much less when there are three individuals like that in one freaking team...

At least the war became very defensive after he won the battle against Kirigakure forces on the northern shores of the Land of Fire and Konoha entered a stalemate on both the Kusa front and Kumo front which meant fewer skirmishes. It was more of a waiting game.

After he beat the Third Mizukage and killed his lover, he came home, enjoyed the cheers at his victory, had a very enjoyable night with his wife, played with his son for a few hours in the morning, and then... he found it wise to yell at Tsunade goddamn Senju for not showing up when he called her deployment during the battle.

Not the sanest moment of his life but he digresses.

After that, he only remembers a hard fist, his cheekbone breaking, the muscles in the right side of his face tearing, the wall his body slammed into crumbling down, the trench in the ground his body dug, the cracking sound of the tree that stopped his brief uncontrolled roll on the ground, and blinding pain engulfing him before the world went briefly white only to for darkness taking him a few seconds later.

Hiruzen Sarutobi awoke in the hospital... where he was forced under the care of a very irate medic... Tsunade herself. Needless to say, his stay at the hospital was utter hell.

But he was the Professor and as such, he learned three things that became almost religious to him.

Never piss off Tsunade Senju.

Tsunade Senju is retired.

Tsunade Senju doesn't give a shit he is the Third Hokage.

And since then, Tsunade reminded him of her position as the Head of Konoha Hospital and NOTHING more on every turn. On every Council meeting. Even going as far as stating it in her monthly reports!

And when he found out the Senju Princess used the war to take over some of the economically most important supply lines and businesses in the village...

'I am too old for this shit. I need to retire... yes, that's it. Hmm, that brat of Jiraiya could be a good successor. Yes... that would do... I am too old for this shit, indeed.' Hiruzen sighed in frustration. 'Let the blond kid deal with the blond hag.'

...

Deep under Konoha, Danzo Shimura stared at the three hundred kneeling ninjas wearing blank masks. His ROOT. The full might of his forces. He recalled them all, partly because the new two SS-rank made it imperative for him to personally give new orders, and partly to prepare for what he was planning to do next.

"The new addition to the Bingo Book is a very dangerous thing to Konoha's safety. I want all of you on the lookout for these three individuals, Rei of Kiri, Mei of Kiri, and Konan of Kiri, during your upcoming missions. Sadly, no matter how our spies in Kirigakure try, they are still unable to unveil their identity. Getting them to serve Konoha or eliminate this threat is however imperative to the prosperity of Konoha so I want every single one of my ninjas to be extremely vigilant! Any piece of information you can get about them is extremely precious!" Danzo sternly spoke. "Until further notice, wait for your orders! Dismissed except Toruma."

The ninjas all jumped away, only one lanky man stayed behind.

"I want you to go to the Land of Earth... discreetly, and I want you to find a way to 'alert' the Tsuchikage that Konoha's defenses in Kusa are really weak right now. Shuffle the story a bit and make them gather a thousand of their strong ninjas. You are allowed to bribe and blackmail the Daimyo court and if possible, the Iwagakure's councilmen. I want Hiruzen having no other choice than to confront them himself." Danzo impassively ordered, gritting his teeth.

'Thrice damned Senju bitch, I have no idea where you got the information about the Kirigakure invasion but this time you won't ruin my plan! Sarutobi will die and I will be the Hokage!' He seethed, remembering all the failed assassination attempts at Tsunade's life she seemed to just brush away like annoying flies without even giving them much of her attention.

Poisoned dart? She plucks it mid-air and throws it behind her, not even caring.

Poisoned beverage? She drinks it and just circles her chakra to purge the poison. When she survived the most potent Kusa poison Danzo knew about without even coughing slightly, Danzo almost ripped out his hair.

Outright attack? Not one of his ninjas survived. He already lost forty of his best and he was not losing more valuable men.

Danzo wanted the Mizukage to penetrate deeper into the Land of Fire without being noticed. This would give less time to Hiruzen to prepare, making it impossible to gather his troops which would result in Hiruzen fighting against the Kiri troops while being vastly outnumbered. Danzo was so sure the old monkey would die there and then... only for Tsunade to inform Hiruzen about the invasion.

"Don't fail me Toruma... You won't like the consequences." Danzo said as dark lines started to form on his forehead. Even remembering Tsunade was bringing him an incredible headache. "Dismissed."

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Chapter 126 - Ch126. Yellow Flash

Namikaze Minato stood in front of the Konoha forces that were usually manning the hideouts in the Land of Grass. He was observing the large force of approximately a thousand experienced Iwa ninjas that gathered at the moment's notice.

Destroying Kannabi Bridge certainly broke the stalemate and Konoha even started to push Iwa back but nobody predicted the Third Tsuchikage would do something so rash as pulling a thousand high-ranking ninjas and attack Kusa outpost with the full might of Iwa. By doing so, the old midget has basically forsaken the war against Kumo and Suna, focusing fully on Konoha.

It was clear to every single ninja on the battlefield that this might very well be the battle that would decide the outcome of the war. What was Minato's problem, then? It was that Iwa had a fresh thousand high-ranking jonin and chunin gathered on the opposite side of the field while Konoha had barely five hundred, made of chunin and a few occasional jonin that were weary from long fighting in small skirmishes all over the Land of Grass. Their sole back-up was the two hundred genins that were usually used for bringing supplies. The odds simply didn't favor Konoha right now and Minato was very disgruntled by the situation.

Minato also wasn't feeling most charitable towards the Iwa ninjas right about now. Obito died, Kakashi lost and gained a new eye, Rin was mentally at her lowest... and it was all caused by Iwa ninjas. Needless to say, cold fury was gripping Minato's heart. He spent hours upon hours every day training these three and came to like them as if they were his siblings and now they were on the verge of breaking apart. His heart wanted some payback.

'I will have to use THAT, won't I?' He mentally lamented, remembering his promise to Kushina that he would try to avoid using it as much as possible due to the target it would paint on his back. 'Beggars can't be choosers, I guess.' Minato hummed and the decision was already made for him. He would, however, never admit that he actually wanted to use it and since Iwa ninjas willingly volunteered...

Before the battle, they had a bit of time to decide on a plan. Minato was one of the very few elite jonins available so he was naturally in the leadership position despite such a thing being unthinkable under normal circ.u.mstances. Normally, it would be a clan ninja in charge or someone older in the case of a civilian-born. Alas, Minato became the victim of circ.u.mstances and gained this opportunity. He was just elated that he always carried thousands of his special kunais... just in case. Minato quickly ordered every ninja to carry two of his kunais and throw them when signaled to, which was now.

Minato raised his right hand and a volley of kunais flew high into the sky, showering the ground a hundred feet in front of the charging Iwa ninjas who just funnily watched at the Konoha idiots who couldn't even aim properly.

The Iwa ninjas were quite amused at their enemies wasting kunais and throwing them without anyone even being in the range. If they just took a second and thought about the situation, they would naturally stop or try to go around the field of 'harmless' kunais, maybe even realize whose these special kunai were but the Iwa ninjas were too drunk on the vision of success to give it a thought. They just stubbornly charged ahead.

...

"Is Konoha really so stupid to waste kunais like that?" Mei asked, tugging on Rei's sleeve who chuckled at her naivety as the two of them watched the beginning of the battle from a nearby hill. Nobody else was interested in it, to be honest.

"No..." He started but stopped talking when Minato started charging alone into the Iwa army. "Just watch." In the end, he said, letting Mei make her own assumptions after witnessing the battle.

Honestly, Rei didn't know what he was expecting. This was supposed to be the event that made the Fourth Hokage a living legend and cemented his position as Hokage candidate despite him being a non-clan shinobi in a village where most of the council is made of clan heads.

Did he expect to see a yellow flash and all Iwa ninjas fall as if their strings were cut? A total, as if magical annihilation in under a second? Maybe he did before he knew how chakra works and studied Jutsu and Seals deeper. Maybe he did before he reincarnated. After all, that would be certainly cool, no? But it was impossible. Being able to kill a thousand people with a transportation seal in under a second would tear the user's body apart.

That was naturally not what he witnessed...

What followed was three hours of blood, gore, and screams as Minato Namikaze fought the force of thousand ninjas alone, without the aid of the Konoha ninjas who just stood out of range, gawking at him and occasionally throwing kunai or two to any poor Iwa-nin who got into their throwing range. So much for the Will of Fire...

Minato flashed left and right all around the battlefield, reaping lives and creating chaos in the ranks of his enemies. He used their numbers against them, sowing more and more fear and uncertainty with his sudden appearance and disappearance. One second he was in the left-wing of the Iwa army, the next second he could very well be in the right-wing, in the middle, or anywhere else for that matter.

"They can't fight him at all." Mei commented. "He is too fast for them to even retaliate."

"Yup, the seal must take quite a lot of chakra to create but I guess it takes a very minimal chakra to actually use otherwise he would already be dead by now due to chakra exhaustion." Rei nodded, analyzing the seal by the way it worked and what he knew of it. "I must say I am a bit disappointed. I expected more. Even the Raikage could do this if he had an unlimited supply of chakra. The only two reasons why this is so deadly is that firstly, the enemy didn't expect it and don't know how to counter such tactics... they basically panic at this point and are getting slaughtered for it. And secondly, it takes little chakra to maintain such a pace."

"I don't think it would work against me." Mei proudly stated, narrowing her eyes at another flash of yellow in the distance. Rei was observing her too and he noticed she could somewhat follow the yellow lad's movements. This only made Rei even gladder for Mei's progress.

"Well, you do have an area of effect melting mist. The second he would face you, the poor sod would run as far as his seals could get him if he knew what is good for him." Rei chuckled and ruffled Mei's hair.

'Honestly, there are so many techniques that could counter this bullshit porting that it's not even funny. And yet, the Iwa idiots don't use them. By now, I can honestly say most of them deserve being slaughtered.' Rei shook his head and twirled one of Minato's kunais on his finger. He swiped it from the air with a chakra string when the Konoha ninjas threw them and quickly disabled the beacon seal so the kunai was as good as dead to Minato's senses. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #.-yellow-flash_51134710063091890 for visiting.

"I wanna try to fight him." Mei said, startling Rei. "He has almost finished with the Iwa ninjas anyway. Soooo, can I? Pretty please?" She used a very effective Puppy-Eye no Jutsu on Rei who facepalmed and groaned but couldn't really say no to that cute expression. Minato was almost finished and the remaining Iwa ninjas were running away anyway. The young man didn't even seem all that winded to Rei. He only gasped for air on all four which translated to being able to keep going in shinobi jargon. Surely he could entertain Mei for a bit, right?

'Minato, you poor lad. I think you are about to get shafted...'

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Chapter 127 - Ch127. Mei vs Minato

"Yo, you look like shit." Minato, who was still gasping for air on all four, heard an amused feminine voice not far from him, causing his head to snap up only to see a teenage girl crouching five feet away from him.

'How the hell did I not notice her sneak up on me?' He idly thought, his mind mostly blank after three hours of non-stop flashing and killing. He might have spent only half of his chakra in doing so but the amount of stress his mind and body were under was quite immense and Minato would like nothing more than to drop into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness right about now. Alas, it was not to be.

Minato took one deep breath before forcefully calming his gasping for air, pulling himself first onto his knees before sluggishly standing up, almost falling down multiple times while doing so, causing him to circulate his chakra through his body, energizing it. The girl just watched him with barely veiled enjoyment, making him quite disgruntled.

Only now did Minato take a proper look at her. She had black shorts, blue haori with a flowery pattern, and on her forehead was slashed Kiri symbol, showing her status as nuke-nin. Obviously, she was not clad for war, much less fight which made Minato slightly hesitate.

"Who are you and what do you want?" He asked, stalling for time and trying to appear fine while still working on getting his body combat-ready.

Mei frowned but as soon as the frown appeared, it again disappeared into the amused facade with a slight smile. "Haaa~, whatever. Forget it. You are wasted. I doubt I could get a good challenge from you as you are now." She reluctantly said, making Minato relax a bit.

Despite that, he was inwardly quite amused. 'Fight? This girl wants to fight me? She isn't very bright, is she?' He thought while keeping his polite expression up, not commenting at the field of hundred corpses that died by his hand all around them. If that was not enough deterrent for the girl in front of him, then he could only pray her stupidity won't one day be the end of her. 'Oh who am I kidding... of course morons like that die first.' Minato inwardly snickered.

"Well, since I obviously won't get the fight I wanted, I guess taking a few kunais with your seal for research purposes will have to do." The girl boredly stated and stood up, about to leave.

'Wait... taking my seal? Oh, no, girlie, you don't-' Minato was about to protest when Mei suddenly raised her arm and her forearm blocked a surprise kick from one of the Konoha jonin who came to help him... after three hours of gawking. 'Great.' Minato mentally snorted.

Mei raised her eyebrow as the Konoha jonin tried to push her arm back with his strength only to fail horribly at it. She didn't even budge. "Heh, looks like I will get the fight I wanted, after all." She happily said, causing Minato to groan.

Kunais and shurikens suddenly flew at Mei from behind Minato as the Konoha ninjas finally decided to intervene. Minato saw the projectiles hit the girl and inwardly shook his head. She was not his enemy, more like a stupid annoyance but still, he didn't like meaningless killing. Contrary to his expectations, the second the sharp projectiles came into contact with Mei, they ricocheted from her as if they hit steel while Mei still stood in her previous spot, now scowling at the approaching Konoha ninjas without even scratch on her body.

'Uh, oh...' Minato thought as he contemplated when and what Jutsu did she use. He certainly didn't see her use anything and that was bad. Incredibly bad at that. He prepared for yet another exhausting fight. sensing all the seal beacons on his kunais strewn all around.

Mei tilted her head, letting a kunai with an exploding tag sail harmlessly an inch from her cheek, passing her and later exploding far away behind her as she stared with impassive eyes at the Konoha idiots. For three hours they just waited until the yellow flashlight finished Iwa troops, not even pondering about helping him and now when there is only one, probable, foe, they charge at her with five hundred of them? Throwing weapons without even ascertaining if she is an enemy or not? 'Somebody needs to be properly taken down a peg, I guess.' Mei's eyes shone with determination.

The first to run her was a screaming twenty years old man who was waving his hand holding a kunai at her. Mei kicked him into the stomach, making him fly back from where he came running from, still screaming.

The entire field fell into a pin-drop silence at once.

"You didn't really think I would not retaliate, did you?" Mei rolled her eyes at the men staring at her as if she grew a new head.

They quickly snapped out of their reverie and again charged at her and the battle started anew. Minato watched as Jutsu after Jutsu, Weapon after Weapon impacted Mei's body only to be deflected the second it came into contact with her while inflicting no wound whatsoever.

Mei danced amidst the flurry of strikes, fire, water, earth, and weapons, using only taijutsu to break bones and tear muscles with a quick succession of punches. After Konan's trademark clone training, Mei had incredible spatial awareness and it showed.

Leaning back, she evaded a sword, grasping the hand of her would-be attacker before throwing him into three ninjas running at her. She then sent a bigger than needed amount of chakra into her soles, propelling herself into a jump only to land in the middle of five bewildered Konoha ninjas. Using her momentum from the jump, Mei quickly lowered her center of gravity by crouching down and dropping them off their feet with a sweeping kick.

Minato just watched as a ninja after the ninja was downed with broken bones and decided that enough was enough. Feeling for the closest beacon seal near Mei, he teleported in a yellow flash.

Mei suddenly felt her instincts flare, not as if she was threatened but more annoyed when she tilted her head to the right and raised her eyebrow as she spotted the tip of Minato's kunai an inch from her neck, a visible strain appearing on the blond-haired man's face as he tried to plunge the knife deeper with all his might and his wide eyes betrayed how unbelievable he found the situation.

Mei smirked. "Did you really think you could sneak attack me? I wanted to fight you to properly show you how easily countered your technique is. Naturally, I have a way to deal with it." She rolled her eyes, causing Minato to narrow his.

A completely new battle began. Minato was flashing from kunai to kunai while trying to cut, pierce, kick, and even plant an explosive tag on Mei while Mei didn't even try to dodge his strikes and instead focused on trying to punch him.

'She has some kind of wind barrier around herself? My attacks are completely useless!' Minato mentally exclaimed, distressed as he watched the previously planted explosive tag explode and engulf Mei in a fiery ball for a second before only smoke remained. He would cheer if he wasn't such an experienced sensor. A few seconds later, Mei just walked out of the smoke, completely fine in a pristine condition. 'Shit... Not even a smear is on her clothes.' Minato gaped, thinking about how to defeat her. He was starting to feel the hits the girl scored on him... and couldn't help but inwardly praise her instincts and speed. He could almost feel the nasty purple bruises he would surely feel tomorrow. Surprisingly enough, Minato didn't really get the feeling of dread from the girl. She was not fighting to kill, she was acting as if this was a harmless spar!

'Who the heck is this monster?' The Konoha ninjas thought, cowed.

Mei mentally nodded to herself, happy with the result. Her new Jutsu was incredible. 'Listening to Rei's stories about Susanoo with Ringo really paid off.' Mei slightly smiled. 'Even those boring science lessons were useful.' She admitted with disgust as she thought about them.

Mei just used her Boil Release to form a translucent smoke around her entire body, compressed to the thickness of an inch. The smoke would normally cover the entire clearing... simply there was enough of it to stop even a powerful A-ranked Jutsu without letting it penetrate deep enough to even scratch Mei. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #.-mei-vs-minato_51147751211193102 for visiting.

"Well, this was fun and all but now that I know my Jutsu is working and you really can't even scratch me... Mei is out!" And with that, white smoke burst from under Mei, covering the entire battlefield but quickly dissipating.

When the smoke cleared, Mei was gone, leaving flabbergasted and confused Konoha ninjas with their uniforms painted in unwashable bright pink color and pensive Minato with neon green hair contrasting with his cerulean eyes that flashed with shocked understanding.

'Did she just call herself Mei?'

--

Author rant time!

Nothing interesting here so just skip it!

Okay, so I have read some comments about the previous chapter and this is the reaction.

The first thing I will cover is the timeframe because there was a dude having a problem with the fight lasting for 3 hours and wanted to reduce the time to 30 minutes.

I mean... I feel you, mate. I get it. Just... I did the math, alright?

The previous chapter probably made it clear I do not believe Minato to just flash himself and the Iwa shinobi to fall dead from shock in under a second.

So... why 3 hours? Simple. 1 hour is 3 600 seconds. If the fight lasted 30 minutes, it would be 1 800 seconds which would on the other hand mean Minato would have to kill one person in under 2 seconds. I honestly do not believe he could manage that. Just swinging his arm to stab or cut with his kunai would AT THE VERY LEAST take a second. And I am extremely generous here considering the Iwa ninjas did NOT just stand waiting for their deaths. Yeah, some died without even realizing it because Minato was fast but, in the end, they were high-ranking ninjas. Most certainly had the reflexes enough to block Minato at least a few times. No... 3 hours or 10.8 seconds per person seemed more manageable.

In this fight, Minato used the confusion of their enemies against them. Some say, 'Why were Iwa ninjas so stupid and simply did not do something about the kunais!?' My answer... confusion, chaos, and this was the first time Minato used the Second Step of his Thunder God. Minato was one small target moving at barely noticeable speeds in the midst of thousands. Any general would be hard-pressed to do anything about it. What order could Iwa commander give when Minato was in one moment on the right flank of his force and in another on the left? Retreat... that is about it. Then again, Iwa ninjas are supposed to be too stubborn for their own good. After all, what could one single ninja do?

Minato might be SS-rank. But just take into consideration that he is a human too and that Thunder God is not Henge. Using it consecutively over thousand times ( because if he could not get a kill, he would obviously flash away to another person, not try to fight somebody capable of blocking him while surrounded by high-ranking enemies ) would simply drain his chakra. I honestly believe his chakra coils would burst if he tried to do that. I do think human bodies have a certain limit and using a high-ranking teleportation technique in a short time a few thousand times would probably make a mince-meat out of anyone who didn't spend YEARS training it. (That is also my faux reason why I simply do not make use of the Self-storing seal in fights. Other than it would make them a bit boring if I just had my characters use the seal as Thunder God. )

The best example would probably be the death of Tobirama. He was probably strength-wise the closest thing to Hashirama there was in his time. I am not saying he got to Hashirama's level. Far from it. But he was close. Just remember all the techniques he invented on top of his water Jutsu. And yet, he died fighting around twenty (not sure if I am correct about the number but it is not a big number) of JONINs. They simply tired him out.

So...

Yeah, what Minato did here was incredibly impressive and worthy of calling him an SS-rank legend. I just took into consideration the limits of his body, mind, and chakra reserves because he DEFINITELY has those.

People are like: BUT MADARA-SAMA!!!!!

And I say: F.u.c.k Madara, he was reanimated with limitless chakra. Naturally, he could use the army-wipe fire technique without worry because he simply, had no limit in how much chakra he could feed it.

Honestly, I doubt the Gokka Mekkyaku would be army-wipe in the hands of ANY other Uchiha or even 'living' Madara simply because there would be a limit to their chakra reserve. If you look at Sasuke, he is mostly using technique and skill rather than bombard his enemies with a massive amount of energy like Naruto is prone to do.

Now... I am going to address how a 'small girl' handed Minato his ass because I know some would be like: Duuuude! Why Minato lost to Mei!? Are you Minato-hater!?

I am going to give yet another simple example here... Naruto.

Naruto managed to get from utter loser to almost Kaguya level in four years and that was without any capable teacher. (Nope, Jiraya sucks. We all know it, most just refuse to admit it.)

As much as I like Jiraya's character, he is NOT teacher material. Jiraya is inherently a ninjutsu-based fighter... as is Naruto. And yet, in the years together, he only taught Naruto taijutsu basics and how to make Rasengan bigger. NOT. A. SINGLE. JUTSU!

The man didn't even tell Naruto the secret of Shadow Clones... ( Now, we all know this is a fault of Kishimoto because, at this stage, Kishimoto most likely didn't even know he would introduce such broken mechanics to Shadow Clones, nor did he want to make Naruto someone throwing Ninjutsu around but the perspective of a reader is different from the perspective of a writer )

So... in the end, Jiraya sucks. And no, I am not even taking into consideration how he abandoned Naruto. As much as I like Jiraya's character in the show, I don't think he is a good teacher, parent, or even that he deserves Tsunade. Just look at how he behaves and acts. The man is one big comedy relief.

So back to the topic, compare Mei to Naruto or Sasuke. Mei has two SS-rank ninjas teaching her since she was a little kid. Two ninjas who simply do not use the traditional way of using jutsu as the normal ninjas do. With the introduction of nature energy, ninjutsu and body get stronger. But most importantly, the elementary BLOODLINES get an extraordinary boost to their power, not to mention they taught her to be creative with her Jutsu rather than just... spit at her enemies. (Because honestly? That's all the canon Mei does. She just spits lava or acidic steam on her enemy and that's it.)

Mei, under such tutelage, and yes, they DO spar quite regularly, had around 6 years to get strong enough to beat Minato with relative ease, using a direct counter to his Thunder God Jutsu. Minato... could always simply flash away, making the fight draw. Also, take into consideration Mei is taught by a Sealmaster of a higher calibre than Minato. Naturally, Rei taught her a few ways to fight seal-users.

Naruto who had no-one, or Sasuke who was mentally impaired, got to almost-Kaguya level in under four years with an unhealthy amount of plot armor. So... please, do not m.o.a.n and bitch about Mei getting to her level through diligent training under strong people.

The last thing I want to rant about is the strength classification. I am not entirely sure but I think there was one comment about: How can Mei who is chunin-level beat Minato!? (Yeah... not sure if the context was exactly like this but it is a good example to explain some things so...)

First and foremost, I sometimes use terms, 'genin-level, chunin-level' etc. This is stupid of me but I simply find myself using it sometimes without even realizing it.

Why is it stupid? Genin, Chunin, and Jonin are military ranks in the village. They do not showcase the strength of an individual, just his ability to climb ranks. Simply, if somebody is chunin level with a good connection, I think he probably could get into Jonin rank even if he was not exactly at that level yet. Same with wartime promotions.

Another example... Naruto was genin when he fought Kaguya, Pein, Madara...

So Mei being chunin on paper doesn't mean she can not be stronger than Jonins. It simply means she hid her strength well enough to not get a wartime promotion.

If you look deeper, you will realize the Narutoverse uses D-SS ranks for the strength of the ninjas (Bingo Book) but it feels a bit wonky using it in fiction, hence, genin/chunin/jonin-level. The only rank that probably gives sense is S-rank because, at that stage, the person proved he or she deserves such ranking through actions rather than promotions that could be based on connections.

Last example... Naruto should have been chunin after defeating Gaara but he was not the most likeable person in the eyes of the Konoha higher-ups (Danzo and civilian council) so he stayed a Genin even after defeating Nagato and saving the village. Sucks to be him...

Anyway, I could go on and on but I think here is the best part to cut myself short so I will just say...

Have a nice day.

Chapter 128 - Ch128. Mei's prank

Tsunade looked between yet ANOTHER new issue of Bingo Book and Rei who busied himself with making breakfast and swiftly moved right and left in the kitchen, maintaining multiple stoves and pans while also masterfully adding chakra into the food.

"Hmm~, the Bingo Book is updating somewhat often these days..." Tsunade offhandedly stated, only her curious and sparkling amber eyes betrayed how much mirth she currently held within herself. "I must say I would never think Mei would have so much talent!"

Rei just smiled at her, instead of answering, he started putting the food onto plates while also activating stasis seals to plates belonging to people who were still sleeping. After he was done, he also sat down.

Konan just smugly nodded in reaction to that. She saw the newest entry to the Bingo Book and it was utterly hilarious. "Naturally, Mei was trained by me, after all."

That made Tsunade snort derisively and add her piece into the conversation. "Really? Maybe you should have taught her a bit of restraint... I mean, not that I am complaining. These threesomes with Rei when Mei starts pushing and pushing only for him to later find us to scratch the itch." Tsunade playfully smirked at Konan who wanted to groan.

Mei wanted to further her relationship with Rei and was starting to get more and more flirty by the day but Rei was unwilling to take that step until she was fifteen. This resulted in some tension which was mostly resolved in the embrace of Tsunade, or Konan, or both. Most often both as the two competitive women made a game out of it.

It was then the door slowly creaked open, instantly silencing the conversation, and into the kitchen walked a freshly awoken, still sleepy Mei on her wobbly feet. She was clad in light-blue pajamas with cute teddy bear pictures strewn all over it, and her hand was under her shirt, most likely scratching her belly. It was quite obvious the girl was still half-asleep and worked more on instincts which made Rei, Konan, and Tsunade chuckle in amus.e.m.e.nt at the youngest member of their merry band of Yozora.

Mei instinctively walked towards Rei and sat on his right side, promptly leaning on his shoulder with her entire weight and blissfully nuzzling her cheek and sometimes even nose into his shoulder.

'Well, the girl is certainly getting bolder and bolder.' Tsunade frowned but kept quiet. She could hardly fault the girl she saw as a surrogate sister. After all, she did rub on Rei quite a lot yesterday night. And the night before. And the night before that. And the... ugh. In short, quite a lot.

It was then she saw the amusing resigned look on Rei's face and decided to give him a bit of help. "Oi, Rei's ramen!" Tsunade exclaimed, making Mei snap at attention, straightening her back and widen her eyes as she fervently looked all around the table only to cutely pout when she didn't find what she wanted and Tsunade received a heated glare, making her chuckle.

"You tricked me!" Mei grumbled and snatched a mug of coffee straight away, uncaring about the food at the moment. Her body also relaxed and again leaned on Rei but this time it was more reserved, measured, and careful not to cause any discomfort.

Tsunade just waved her hand dismissively and threw the Bingo Book at Konan who caught it and her eyebrows went up into her hairline as she started snickering to herself. Find authorized novels in , faster updates, better experience, Please click #.-mei's-prank_51162813661500045 for visiting.

"You really outdid yourself. How did you persuade the Bingo-Book-makers to issue that?" Tsunade asked, barely holding in her own snickers while Konan wasn't faring much better.

Rei tilted his head, not knowing what was so hilarious since he was busy making breakfast. He leaned more towards Mei and looked at the page of the Bingo Book in front of her to get a proper look only to cringe. His eyes landed at the newest entry to the Bingo Book, The Yellow Flash of Konoha, Minato Namikaze. The problem, however, was that his picture was him in battered pink attire with an openly gaping mouth in bewilderment and wide bulging shocked eyes present on his face, and to top it off, neon green spiky hair.

"Ou..." Rei winced. 'Poor guy. Bingo Book photo is something that should represent the ninja. I doubt this would win Minato much respect though. At best he would be regarded as a poof.' He briefly glanced towards the gleeful Tsunade who had a wide mischievous grin and her narrowed scheming eyes stared into space. 'And I bet I know who exactly won't let him live it down.' Rei chuckled and shook his head as he started eating his toast.

...

Meanwhile, in Hokage Office, one very tired monkey just finished an all-nighter of paperwork and thinly smiled in an indulgent way at the small but new Bingo Book where the biggest achievement of his successor, Minato Namikaze, was currently written. Konoha finally gained SS-ranked ninja!

'I was putting this off until I finish my paperwork. Now I can finally peek at the greatness of Minato, and indirectly at that of Konoha. This is exactly the thing Minato would need to endear Daimyo and the village council to help him and stop all opposition to him attaining the position!' Hiruzen almost proudly teared up, putting his pipe into his mouth and with shaky hands opened the book.

Needless to say, the second he saw the shocked-looking ninja in pink with neon green hair having Konoha headband, his pipe actually fell from his mouth as his expression froze and his heart almost gave out. The last thing Hiruzen thought before he fainted was...

'What is this shit!?'

...

Minato Namikaze was not having a great day.

When Kushina heard he was marked as SS-rank by the Bingo Book, she was ecstatic, and never before Minato felt so much pleasure and attention as what she showered him with during the following night. They celebrated his victory. His triumph over Iwagakure. Him alone ending the war even! But most importantly, his survival.

It was very hard to finally convince Kushina to teach him Uzumaki seals and Minato was aware there would be no way he could finish his Flying Thunder God Second Step without that. This victory, therefore, belonged to Kushina as much as it did to him and his girlfriend showed exactly how delighted she was.

So why was his day so bad?

Eh, it had something to do with his girlfriend actually opening the Bingo Book that was delivered in the morning onto their porch and seeing his picture... Now, Minato had his Flying Thunder God technique but even he couldn't quite dodge the frying pan that impacted his forehead and sent him flying towards the floor as nine streams of crimson hair rose into the air behind the furious Kushina in an apron. Minato was really not sure why he was sent flying by his girlfriend but...

The suggestion he is having an ongoing affair with Might Duy might have helped though.

Now, if only Minato found out how exactly did the Bingo Book got ahold of such precise information about his meeting with the man and even supplied a photo of the two huggin, ahem, in a manly embrace of youth, shedding tears together while their noses might or might not be quite close. Well, Minato did need the best physical conditioning and Duy was arguably the best guy to go for it.

'That's some serious photographing skills to get us in such a suggestive way.' Minato idly thought.

Alas, now Minato had to pay for his folly of not telling his clearly enraged girlfriend who was glowing crimson... and holding two frying pans... and her chakra was cracking the floor... and she was glaring at him...

"I always found it strange how much time you spent with Duy." Kushina growled.

"Eh... honey? It's not like that, we only... uh," Now, in a day where Minato was in a better state of mind, he would certainly just shut up and endured through the anger but today was not that day. "exchanged some liquid Youth?"

The walls and the ceiling suddenly cracked as the killing intent burst out of Kushina whose eye was now madly twitching and Minato just watched in horror with his mind completely blank except for one thought.

'Oh... shit.'

He didn't manage to run...

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