It was at this moment that the three Uzumaki Elders decided to mount a collective retreat.
They had bought plenty of time for the second defense line to be established.
However . . . Would the enemy really let that happen?
The Third and Fifth Elders were steadily moving closer to the Second while systematically blocking Onoki's orbital strikes and fending off the Iwa shinobi seeking to stop them.
Unfortunately, the real threat, was an unexpected, unforeseen one.
By this point, the fighting had moved close to the shore, within shallow waters and fighting against Iwa shinobi, there was not much meaning in expecting an attack from the water.
And so, when the figure of a shinobi coalesced from that very shallow water, the two Uzumaki Elders were woefully unprepared.
*slash*
With a single sweep from a bladed hand of hardened water, their achilles tendons were sliced clean through and they crumpled into the shallows.
*slash*
With another slice, fresh blood spilled from their open throats, spraying into the air as the two Elders wordlessly drowned in the liquid of their own life.
Uzumaki vitality was not to be underestimated however . . .
As such, a cruel grim on his face, their attacker flooded their lungs, already filling up with their own blood, using his own watery body, and viciously shredded their internal organs.
This was Hozuki Shingetsu.
Using his Hydrification Jutsu, he could quickly but stealthily travel ahead of his forces and claim two prestigious kills for himself ahead of everyone else.
From way up above, Onoki watched it all happen and snorted with disdain.
'Such a perfect ambush and killing was all you thought of doing. Such foes are always more valuable alive.' The Tsuchikage truly looked down on such individuals that had all the capability to be great but lacked the foresight to truly achieve it.
In the end, the way Onoki saw it, shinobi like Hozuki Shingetsu would never amount to anything beyond a useful brute.
The old man did not bother to hang on these thoughts though and immediately moved to assist Han.
With Kiri foolishly killing the Third and Fifth Elders, Iwa could secure the most valuable prize by capturing the Second Elder alive.
But while Shingetsu's aggressive maneuver did result in a catastrophic loss for the Uzumaki clan, it did not come at no cost, even if the man himself had not really considered it.
With the Hozuki shinobi going ahead of his forces, there was no one to effectively prevent Benihime from going on a killing spree.
*
Going back in time for a brief moment once again, Beni had been readying herself to harass and delay Kiri as much as she could.
Just as she was about to begin however, her Shuigan noticed suspicious movement by the leader of the advancing force, Hozuki Shingetsu.
He "masterfully" switched places with a Water Clone and melded into the sea with his Hydrification Jutsu before speeding ahead of his entire force.
'Did he think his presence alone would deter me? Is that why he left a clone?' Beni wondered to herself.
She was being underestimated.
Both her courage and her sensory prowess were being heavily underestimated.
Not only was she more than willing to attack even if the real Shingetsu was around, her Shuigan enabled her to clearly see the man going away.
'The situation is bad, I'll leave myself enough chakra to run and burn the rest in this single battle, taking out as many enemies as possible.' The girl decided.
The tachi at her waist trembled in its scabbard, the sword passed down amongst the Shuras of the Kurogane clan, it was responding to its wielder's rising bloodlust.
Crimson dust manifested in the air, covering the entire Kiri army.
Immediately, they stopped their advance and took defensive positions, their experience helping them notice the threat and react immediately.
Some things however, you could not stop even if you saw them coming.
For most shinobi, the Shuigan's large-scale genjutsu, Crimson Dust, was one such thing.
Veteran shinobi with highly tuned killing reflexes, trained to react on instinct rather than thinking about every move, and from a village notorious for its infighting . . .
. . . How would it be, for someone to use a little illusion to start some chaos.
Without a powerful leader to hold them together, a large group inevitably became more vulnerable to such tactics.
The Kiri shinobi split into squads of three, forming circles with their backs to each other to prevent sneak attacks.
As the village most notorious for assassination techniques, they also knew how to counter them, but would that be enough?
Within the forces, stood a squad that looked slightly more jittery, its members younger, less experienced, ripe for the picking.
The other Kiri squads around them were aware of it too, seemingly waiting for the enemy to pounce on the weaklings and kill them, only to be trapped and killed in turn.
None were better aware of this than the bait themselves, leading to more nerves and thus making them an even better target, compounding the issue.
It was in this situation, that one such jittering fellow saw, from the bottom left corner of his field of view, a reddish black flash.
Instinctively, he knew he was dead, such was the certainty and bloodthirst imbued in the slash.
The only thing this poor fellow could do, was mount a desperate token defense, blindly striking at the source of the attack with a simple kunai.
But unexpectedly . . .
"Argh!"
*gurgle*
A garbled scream of pain, the feeling of hot blood splashing onto the hand holding the kunai.
It was a sensation he knew well, he had felt it many times before, no Kiri shinobi made it to Jonin without copious amounts of blood on their hands after all.
But upon closer inspection, the voice telling of pain . . . sounded rather familiar . . .
The man turned and saw, his own squadmate slowly sinking into the sea as his chakra stopped flowing as blood sprayed from his throat and filled his lungs.
"Wha-" He did not even have time to fully comprehend what had just happened.
The third, and final member of the squad, put his own kunai through the back of the man's neck, instantly ending his life.
Similar screams and events happened across the Kiri forces as weaker willed shinobi unwittingly turned on their allies with a simple illusion, dying at the hands of their comrades soon after their careless reflexive attacks.
However . . .
'Tch! The ones worth killing are not moving, they don't care if the weak links die.' Beni internally complained as her Shuigan surveyed her handiwork.
She was hoping to create openings in the stronger Kiri shinobi by killing off the weaker ones but they seemed far too callous for that.
Benihime was roughly comparable to an Elite Jonin in strength, the only reason she could think of killing other Elite Jonin within an army was due to her specific skillset granting her a massive advantage in ambushes so long as the enemy did not yet understand the nature of her abilities.
'Unfortunately. They aren't biting . . . I'll just kill all the standard Jonin then.' The girl decided.
With that, only one front remained to be examined.
The Kumo forces led by Dodai that had chased the retreating Uzumaki while their Raikage remained behind to duel the First Elder.
Mysteriously though, they had dropped their pursuit.
But why had they done this??
Well, their second strongest combatant, behind only the Raikage himself, the Nigh-Perfect Jinchuriki of the Two Tails, had disappeared without anyone noticing.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -