Akashi stood motionless for just one second in the battlefield's heart — yet everything changed.
The Emperor Eye glowed like a golden sun etched in blood.
Every motion around him was calculated:
The chakra movement of fleeing enemies.
The twitch of a Kumo Jonin preparing a lariat.
The angle of a kunai mid-air.
"Kiri Jonin 40 meters at 3 o'clock. Knee weakness: scar tissue."
He flicked a shuriken without looking — it hit the tendon exactly, breaking stance.
"Iwa Earth Style build-up at sector C-3 — 2.4 seconds from casting. Collapse point: left ankle. Trigger with ricochet."
He pivoted, parried a punch, and redirected it — striking a boulder that shattered and sent rock shards in the exact trajectory needed to disrupt the jutsu.
"Absolute," he whispered. "I am absolute."
But behind the brilliance… his hand trembled.
Aiko's voice buzzed in his seal-link:
"Your chakra — it's draining. That eye—"
"Ten minutes. I need just ten," Akashi replied. "That's all I need to shift the war."
Within those ten minutes:
He broke a Kiri squad formation by predicting their flank routes two seconds early.
He countered an Iwa sealing array by triggering a false detonation 4 meters off-center.
He redirected a falling cliff onto Taki shinobi using precise chakra-pulse timing.
"Akashi's chakra is flaring dangerously," one sensor noted.
"No… it's orchestrating," Ashina corrected from the command post. "He's not fighting. He's conducting war."
Then Akashi staggered — blood from his nose, eye flickering.
"Almost... just need to hold."
---
The time came.
With Akashi weakening and the younger squads fully engaged, the enemy commanders advanced.
Like gods stepping into the fray.
Onoki floated down on a levitating platform, arms crossed.
The Third Mizukage dissolved into mist and reappeared in liquid form.
The Seven-Tails, in partial transformation, buzzed her wings with explosive chakra.
And A, the Third Raikage, cracked his knuckles, golden lightning rippling off his body.
Facing them were the Uzumaki Elders, standing tall in crimson armor etched with ancient seals.
At their front stood Ashina Uzumaki — robes fluttering, kunai spinning with explosive tags inscribed in seal-language so ancient it pulsed like runes.
"If you think the youth are terrifying," he said, stepping forward, "then let me remind you…"
"We're the ones who taught them how to fight."
Behind him stood three elite Uzumaki:
The Barrier Mistress, Genka — wielding layered phase-seals.
Daiki, the chakra blade specialist.
And Sealer Tosho, who bore a scroll said to suppress Bijuu movement for six seconds.
The battlefield split — a collision of titans.
Onoki vs Genka: a battle of gravity vs shifting barriers.
Mizukage vs Daiki: corrosive mist vs chakra-cleaving steel.
Seven-Tails vs Tosho: insect-wing agility against binding seals and speed-scrolls.
And at the center:
Ashina vs the Third Raikage.
Lightning vs Art.
Muscle vs Mind.
Legacy vs Will.
---
Two Titans Collide
Ashina raised his hands. Seals floated mid-air — ten of them, spinning.
The Third Raikage didn't speak — he charged, roaring like a beast made of thunder.
Ashina's fingers danced once.
Boom.
A seal detonated — not around the Raikage, but beneath him, distorting the earth and slamming his footwork mid-dash.
A crack.
A missed strike.
A precise, sharp tag-laced blade slashed across the Raikage's ribs.
Not deep… but enough to draw blood.
Ashina's eyes narrowed.
"Do you wish to dance too?."
---
Ashina vs The Third Raikage – Duel of Titans
Ashina Uzumaki stood firm, seal-inked armor glowing faintly under the red-streaked sky.
Across from him, The Third Raikage loomed like a mountain carved from thunder. Veins of lightning crackled across his obsidian skin, and the ground trembled under his steps.
"You're no child," Raikage said, voice like stone grinding stone. "But you will break."
Ashina's fingers danced mid-air, symbols materializing before him in glowing circles.
"Break me," he replied. "But beware boy… I've rebuilt myself before."
Then—
Clash.
The Raikage blurred into a blitz, faster than any normal shinobi. But Ashina had timed the seal detonation 0.4 seconds before his movement — a pulse of compressed chakra cracked the earth.
Ashina leapt back, sliding on a seal-tagged platform mid-air, flinging a palm outward.
"Fūin: Thunder Vein Disruption!"
The tag latched onto the Raikage's shoulder.
It fizzled.
Then exploded with chakra-static bursts, causing a micro-paralysis for half a second.
But even that half-second wasn't enough to stop A.
He tore through three layered barriers, lightning flickering into spears — one jab missed Ashina's neck by an inch.
Ashina's fingers bled.
He smirked.
"Your power is raw, but your footwork speaks."
Ashina exhaled.
He formed a 7-pronged hand seal and slammed his hands into the earth.
"Great Binding Spiral Seal: Crimson Spiral Tomb."
Ten rings of glowing chains erupted from the ground around the Raikage. A giant crimson spiral rose like a cage — chakra-conductive and linked to Ashina's heartbeat.
The Raikage didn't dodge — he punched through the spirals.
BOOM.BOOM.
With every step, Ashina staggered — each ring broken sent recoil to his internal chakra system.
But Ashina smiled grimly.
"It's not about holding you… It's about slowing your storm long enough."
He raised his arm.
A hidden kunai flipped into his palm — glowing with the Exploding Spiral Mark, the seal Akashi developed.
He hurled it directly into the Raikage's path—
Boom.
The seal detonated mid-air, warping space into a spiral compression. The Raikage was blasted back, forced to skid and brace for the first time in the battle.
A gash opened across his cheek.
He wiped the blood.
And grinned.
---
Aiko vs the Mist Elite
Aiko ducked under a cleaving blade of boiling water. Her opponent — the Mist Blade Hunter, Sōgetsu — moved with serpentine precision.
She had three cuts along her arms and a cracked rib.
But her eyes were burning.
She clapped a sealing scroll mid-movement, chaining it into a tag that froze the mist's particles.
"Got you."
She vanished behind him and stabbed both hands forward, detonating a flash-freeze seal against his spine.
He collapsed, twitching.
"This one's… for Riku," she muttered.
---
Tama & Riku's Stand
Tama and Riku fought shoulder-to-shoulder.
They were surrounded, and Riku was bleeding from the leg.
"They're not breaking rank…" Tama whispered.
Riku grinned.
"Then we make them. Like Akashi said — 'one decisive moment changes everything.'"
Together, they unleashed the Chain-Snap Tag Formation — a new combo they created under Akashi's training.
The enemies rushed—
Boom. Boom. SNAP.
Dozens of chakra chains burst from the detonated scrolls, binding and crushing the formation.
But both collapsed after. Riku's vision dimmed. Tama's fingers wouldn't stop trembling.
Still, they smiled.
"Still standing," Riku rasped.
---
Konoha
Inside the Hokage's office, reports came in from a nervous Root courier.
Hiruzen Sarutobi sat, pipe clenched, gaze unreadable.
He spoke only once:
"Dispatch ANBU. Hatake Sakumo will lead. Priority: Evacuation of survivors. Do not engage the armies. Until it is done… we are not involved."
Danzo stood in the shadows, cloak still.
"Root has already prepared, Hiruzen. I will ensure no vital resources are lost."
"Root is not to engage until—"
"I understand," Danzo said flatly.
But his lips curled into a whisper later:
"Orders are simple. Do not engage until it ends… Then kill all but one to bring back to the village."
And far beneath the streets of Konoha…
Root moved.
---