As Yoshihiro's chakra flared, Kakashi and Guan didn't know what had actually happened, but the next thing they both knew this indescribable pressure, a seething raw fear gripped them.
They struggled to breathe as cold sweat trickled down their foreheads. Kakashi felt his legs go weak and he actually had to kneel to avoid falling on his ass. His vision swam for a moment and if it wasn't for his Sharingan he wasn't sure if he would have recovered as quickly.
Guan himself was leaning heavily against his sword in order to keep himself upright. The two stared back to Yoshihiro who's red skin and eerie glowing eyes increased the crushing feeling around them. The steam coming off the older man made it seem like he was being cooked, but that taunting, smug smirk of his still remained firmly plastered on his face.
"This, kids..." He chuckled. "Is my special technique. You like it?" He questioned mockingly. Kakashi's Sharingan eye slowly started to spin, as he realized this was some kind of Genjutsu but to his shock and no small amount of increasing horror, he couldn't dispel it. Yoshihiro saw Kakashi's distress and laughed openly at the copy ninja. "Don't even try that Sharingan of yours Hatake, its impossible to break outa' this thing with cheap tricks."
"Bu-how? That shouldn't be possible!" Kakashi gasped out, struggling to push down his fear enough to get to his feet.
Yoshihiro gave what sounded like a cross between a snort and a chuckle as he shook his head. "You kids, always trying to go over the top, if its not a newer, flashier technique, its a fancy eye technique that blows up a city block, never sticking to the basics." The older man sighed and shook his head. "Come on now, you're two jounin, what, do you know of that has similar effects as this Genjutsu?"
Guan thought for a moment before he looked to Yoshihiro, his eyes widening in disbelief. "No...that's not possible...no one has this much killing intent...not even Naruto-sama."
Yoshihiro smirked, "Heh, judging by the sound of your voice, you must certainly hold that Naruto kid in pretty high regard, either that or you fear him plenty. Anyway, yes kiddo you are right. This is killing intent."
"That's not possible." Kakashi rasped out, as he mentally counted off the several techniques for shrugging off killing intent that he knew. So far, they had managed to get his legs to regain some of their strength but not much else.
Yoshihiro's smirk still remained firmly planted over his lips. "The fact that your struggling to breathe says differently copy-cat." Kakashi glared at him but Yoshihiro ignored it before he looked to Guan and then back to Kakashi. "No matter what you believe, this iskilling intent, just a lot more refined than what you're normally used to."
He chuckled. "You see, the Shimazu clan, my clan, were the very first to discover the subtle projection which is known as killing intent. This was during the very early age of Ninja and Ninjutsu itself, so we tried to keep the technique a secret, thinking that we'd come up with something truly grand. Then when blood limits and Ninja clans began to be formed in the villages, with various manipulations and selective breeding- we of the Shimazu tried to become a clan, the village at the time could only support one clan though, so our rivals, the clay wielders of Iwa moved to steal our secrets, and we tried to steel theirs, in the end, they got to our secrets first, and spread them. Showed our abilities to the members of their clans so now they had both their clan techniques, as well as our own, so they managed to secure their place as the main Iwa clan."
"Eventually, Killing intent, as it is now known far and wide spread to all other countries, not being guarded very well by the clay wielders. And so our clan, faded into the background. But many of our clan members still sought to secure their place as a clan, so many of our clan heads and their heirs continually tried to refine and expand killing intent, because we were the ones that discovered it we knew some more specifics on how its formed and how it affects the targets. So we were able to refine it further, making the effects of our killing intent up to ten times as potent as it normally would be, eventually creating a minor Genjutsu to enhance it even further."
Kakashi's eyes narrowed and he was about to say something when Yoshihiro turned to him and spoke.
"The reason your eye doesn't even detect that is because we already found a way to cancel out that little effect of your Sharingan. We lost many of our clan members to those eyes in the war, and so I dedicated much of my spare time to further refining our technique, eventually creating a Ninjutsu to go along with it. This technique is, in essence, a Ninjutsu, Genjutsu hybrid hence the change in my skin color, that's the ninjutsu at work, and my eyes, that's the genjutu."
This time, his smirk was laced with a palpable gloat. "Something that is completely unique, your sharingan is used to dispelling Genjutsu and copying ninjutsu. But here it can do neither, when it tries to cancel the Genjutsu portion of this technique it becomes confused, because its also trying to detect and copy the Ninjutsu. But it can't do that neither, because of the Genjutsu over that."
Kakashi's features tightened, the effects of killing intent could be shrugged off, or ignored entirely, but at this intensity it was almost suffocating, also the fact that it had been so long since killing intent had affected him for any long amount of time was something that had to be taken into account.
Yoshihiro watched as the two Jounin took their fighting stances as best they could beneath the crushing force of their own fear and smirked. He had also actually lied about one part of that story. He hadn't created this technique so early in his life.
He had actually refined and perfected it to this degree, about nine years ago, when the Naruto kid had taken Taki, Ame and Kusa. He realized that his people still needed him, still relied on him as their protector.
He supposed he was partly to blame, he put up a very strong front, and used old tricks and experience to keep any upstart in line with seemingly minimal effort. But the truth of the mater was, that he knew he was getting on in his years, whereas about fifteen to twenty years ago he could have probably taken on any of the sannin in their prime with a solid chance of victory, now adays, he wasn't even sure if he could beat two Jounin.
He was getting slower, his bones becoming more fragile, his joints loosing cartilage, making it painful to move around too much, muscles loosing their strength, reflexes dulling and other...minor illnesses that were beginning to take their toll. For a close range fighter like him...age was the worst enemy he could possibly face. When this Naruto kid had come along, he knew that he would never be able to beat the kid in an up close one on one match. So he had visited his old clan achieves, finding his predecessors research and scroll techniques and in the end had come up with this technique in the hopes that he'd be able to use it against Naruto to get some kind of edge over the brat, that way even if he lost the fight...and he probably would, he'd injure the brat enough for someone else to take him down.
Yoshihiro felt pressure building in his chest before he muffled some coughs with his fist. Using the opportunity, Kakashi and Guan rushed the Tsuchikage, the minor hesitancy in their steps practically screaming to Yoshihiro of their intentions before they were ever even close to him. Looks like he may win this one after all.
Lee blocked a Spin kick from Shikamaru as well as a drop kick from Ino before he pushed them both off. Before Ino even landed however, another kick connected with her stomach, nearly sending her over the edge of the wall had she not managed to grab onto the ledge.
Shikamaru had a spare second to see Lee vanish from where he had kicked Ino, in order to drop to the floor to avoid a spin kick that would have slammed into the back of his head. Moving to kick Lee's feet out from under him he was not surprised when his attack didn't even make Lee stumble. It was only a second or so later a kick connected with his stomach, sending him tumbling until he reached the stairs, nearly falling down them in the process.
Lee was about to continue his attack when he realized that he couldn't move. Shikamaru slowly stood up, Lee imitating his movements.
The shadow user smirked and looked to Lee, confident that he now had the Taijutsu master under his thumb. He had connected his shadow during the Taijutsu exchange, it had been tough to concentrate with Lee's powerful attacks pummeling him, and even tougher to keep up with the Taijutsu user's sheer speed, but he had managed it.
Looking as Ino picked herself back up from the wall he called out to her. "INO, NOW!"
"Right!" The blond spoke as she formed a quick succession of handseals. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head but she remained standing nevertheless.
Shikamaru however, then noticed something. Lee's mouth...it looked like...he had something in it.
As Lee noticed that Shikamaru had recognized that he had something in his mouth, he spat out what it was, revealing yet another flash bang.
Shikamaru's eyes widened, it was common knowledge that the shadow techniques only affected all extremities from the neck down, but he never expected his opponent to plan ahead like this. Like all scientists and strategists...he made a critical error, the error of ruling out the human element from the equation.
Lee had planned ahead.
Soon enough the weapon served its purpose, exploding in a bright flash and a loud bang that left their ears ringing. But worst of all Shikamaru knew that his shadow had been disconnected to Lee. This time being ready for the explosion he was able to orient himself much quicker than before. He looked back to where Lee had been standing, but of course he knew that the boy wasn't there, and so wasn't surprised to find that he was right. He went to draw a kunai but paused as time seemed to slow. He realized almost like an epiphany...that Lee wouldn't be aiming for him...
In a split second decision the shadow user rushed back, towards Ino, tackling her, temporarily immobile, body to the ground as a Kunai tore through his vest, and down his back, Shikamaru screamed in pain as blood gushed from the wound.
Ino's eyes came back into focus, finding Shikamaru breathing heavily above her, blood flowing from his back, down his neck and dripping onto her. Grabbing him she positioned herself so she would be kneeling, with Shikamaru resting on one of her knees as he struggled against the pain.
She glanced back to Lee, who had a shallow cut on his arm where Shikamaru had tried to retaliate, swinging blindly with a kunai. The Taijutsu user looked to her, a kunai in his hand as he made his way closer.
Those who fight and run away, live to fight another day' The thought was a bitter thing.
Thinking fast Ino took one of her own flash bombs and as the thing went off used a quick Shunshin to escape.
Lee looked around for his opponents, but realized soon that they were paid them no further thought, there was still plenty more fighting to be done.
Chouji grunted in pain as his form smashed against the stone wall, cracking it slightly by the sheer force with which he hit. Landing on his hands and knees his breath came in quick pants. Everything hurt, and he wasn't anywhere near dry enough to be considered safe from those lightning axes.
Picking himself up, Chouji formed his own series of hand seals, and slammed both fists, elbow deep into the ground. Toushiro paused in his charge for a brief moment, before Chouji lifted his hands up, revealing them to be completely covered in hardened mud.
The large Akimichi moved with startling speed, rushing the Kiri nin with a desperate offensive.
Toushiro, spun his axes once before slamming them both onto the ground, sending huge lightning bolts through the earth, tearing it apart as they headed for Chouji. The Akimichi boy jumped high into the air, his trajectory bringing him closer and closer to drop right on top of Toushiro.
The Kiri ninja threw one of his axes, the weapon flew with ease as well as accuracy, but Chouji merely batted it aside with one of his earth fists, ignoring the chunk that was blown off from the impact with its elemental weakness as he raised both fists above his head. Before Toushiro could really do anything to stop him both fists grew to incredible proportions and were heading straight for him, intent on crushing him beneath their massive weight. The Kiri ninja ran, and he ran fast, lunging as he tried to escape the impact area.
A scream of immense pain was ripped from his throat however as he was unable to escape in time and one of his legs ended up beneath the very edge of Chouji's fist, pinned beneath an ungodly amount of weight.
Soon Chouji's fists returned to their normal size as he landed on the floor and walked up to Toushiro.
The Kiri ninja grunted in pain as he used a nearby wall to pick himself up, struggling to keep the weight off his injured leg. Chouji made his way over, ready to finish the fight before any other ninja arrived to help him.
Of course he had discounted one small factor, the axe Toushiro had thrown before. Quickly pulling, and controlling the blade with chakra strings, the weapon found itself spinning through the air again, coming right back around aiming for Chouji's back.
The large Akimichi felt a slow chill crawl up his spine, something was wrong, and he had learned to trust his instincts very early on in his life.
The crackling of lightning chakra was the only warning he received, reflexively rolling to the side, he watched in morbid, mildly sick fascination as the axe tore a huge chunk out of his upper arm, strangely, he felt little pain the moment it happened, the pain striking him a few moments later as the lightning took its effect and sent another shock through his system making him crumple to the ground in a heap, then the pain in his arm hit, it now hung uselessly at his side, bleeding heavily, the red liquid dripping down from his fingers and to the cold floor beneath.
Toushiro himself collapsed a moment later, not being able to hold himself up with one leg. The adrenaline that had been numbing the pain in his system was leaving him now, allowing the full effect of his injury to start taking effect.
"FALL BACK!"
Toushiro grunted as he looked up, finding that it was an Iwa Shinobi that had called out the order. He smirked as he looked back to Chouji. It appeared they succeeded in taking the northern wall, now if he could just get a medic nin.
Soon enough though one of the Iwa Anbu appeared at Chouji's side. "Akimichi-san!" The man cried in alarm before motioning to others, soon enough another Anbu appeared and they both put Chouji's arms over their shoulders, hefting him up before they ran, leaving Toushiro face down in the dirt.
The Kiri ninja groaned and hoped that one of his own men would help him out soon enough...if not...well, he was certainly in here for the long run.
Shino blocked a claw swipe from Kiba, kicking the Inuzuka's legs out from under him before leaping straight up to avoid a Tsuuga from Akamaru. Kiba growled as he got back to his feet and leapt up after Shino, forming another Tsuuga technique.
The Aburame head formed the familiar bug like wings on his back, using them to swerve out of the way. As Kiba came out of his technique Shino threw a kunai, trusting Kiba's limited evasive ability in mid air to carry the weapon to its target.
Coming to the dog boy's aid however was Akamaru, shoving him out of the way with his own body weight.
The Aburame boy judged the trajectory of their fall, launching yet another swarm of Kikaichu in their direction.
Kiba snarled, getting to his feet, flexing his claws once before he slashed at the air, Lightning chakra escaping his finger tips creating something of a static shield against the incoming swarm.
Shino was unfazed.
Kiba growled, his animalistic features making him look almost feral as he glared at the Aburame. "Tell me Shino, how does it feel to be licking that bastards feet? Knowing that you sold us out just to be a slave to him."
"I am no one's slave Inuzuka-san." He replied levelly. However I will say it is most preferable to be the the right hand of the devil, than in his path."
The Inuzuka boy growled before he spoke again. "Right hand of the devil my ass, I'm gonna show you what a real devil is! AKAMARU!" He called to his partner before he threw the dog a soldier pill. The beasts fur turned bright red, its ears standing on end as its fangs lengthened. The dog leapt up before it started spinning. Shino held his hands up, becoming disgusted as urine sprayed over his form. And people said insects were unhygienic.
As the dog landed Kiba leapt up on top of him, formed a series of quick hanseals before the two were enveloped in a cloud of smoke. Shino waited for it to clear, when it did, it revealed A three headed wolf like dog, its fur red like blood, its eyes shining and glowing an eerie yellow. The drool that escaped its three maws bubbled and hissed like acid.
"You like it? Its my own variant of my families technique, much more powerful than the previous one." The head in the center growled out, its voice grating and bestial, not at all like Kiba's regular voice.
Shino straightened his glasses on the bridge of his nose. "An improvement over your usual self I'm sure."
A faint buzzing noise reached Kiba's ears, steadily growing louder and louder, finally the buzzing was so loud regular individuals could hear it.
"What the-Look out!" Was the only warning Kiba received before a huge swarm, locust like Kikaichu flew up and over the wall, blocking out the sun with their numbers.
"This is one of my ultimate techniques, it summons all my hives of Kikaichu to my aid. Soon, you shall be nothing. They will devour you, in both chakra and body perhaps your bones shall remain. Perhaps not.
The three headed dog roared once in defiance and tried to bite at the Aburame, only for Shino again to disperse into Kikaichu and join the swarm flying above.
Kiba growled as his legs tensed, the muscles coiling back before he leapt high into the air, his form spinning and shredding through any of the bugs caught in his path, ignoring the ones that latched onto his skin, stinging, biting and tearing his flesh as he spun through the air.
Temari growled as she sent another series of wind blades at the Hyuuga heiress. Only for the girl to see the attack with her Byakugan and avoid it entirely, continuing her headlong charge without even breaking her stride.
The wind mistress snapped her massive fan shut before she used it as a makeshift shield to block Hinata's Jyuuken strikes. Pushing the girl off before she took to the air again, launching another attack to keep the girl from following.
Hinata backflipped several times to avoid the attack before spinning around and batting away Sakura's attempted strikes with chakra scalpels. The medic nin was fast, a tad bit faster than Hinata herself but not enough to make any real difference.
Finally Hinata latched onto Sakura's wrists, falling back before placing both legs on the pink haired girls stomach and throwing her back, over her. Sakura flipped in mid air, landing on her feet before spinning around. Hinata watched as multiple chakra strings appeared from the girls finger tips. Following them with her Byakugan she watched as they attached themselves to numerous stones, bricks and other pieces of rubble around her.
With a strong yank, Sakura pulled the stones together, heading towards Hinata. The Hyuuga girl again started spinning. "KAITEN!" The spinning cyclone of chakra demolished all that came near it, turning the projectile weapons into little more than particle dust.
As dome of chakra dissipated Hinata caught sight of another shadow, above her. Snapping her head in said direction the Hyuuga girl barely managed to catch sight of Temari's silhouette as the glare of the sun partially blinded her before the girl swung her fan again, sending a wave of air pressure smashing directly on top of the Hyuuga girl, making her collapse onto her hands and knees.
Seizing the opportunity, Sakura launched forward, a chakra scalpel formed in her hand as she moved to strike at Hinata's neck. The Hyuuga girl latched onto the other girls wrist, again, deftly avoiding the invisible blade. Sakura responded by delivering another kick to the girls mid section, which Hinata blocked, using the force of the kick to add to her momentum, leaping up and onto the roof of a nearby building, on Iwa's side of the wall, a tad higher than the wall itself.
Ignoring the shattering tiles beneath her feet Hinata straightened, watching as Temari launched several more wind blades at her, drawing some kunai Shuriken from her pouch, she threw them, well enough to avoid the numerous little wind blades and head straight for the Wind mistress.
Spinning her fan in front of her Temari blocked them all with its sheer size and weight, before she launched a second volley of wind blades at the Hyuuga clan head. Which Hinata avoided.
Taking up her stance the Hyuuga kunoichi eyed the other two as they leapt over and landed on the rooftop she was on, they circled her slowly, inching along to each flank her. It would do little good considering she could see them regardless. She let them.
"Hinata." Sakura growled out, "Just tell me why. Why did you betray everyone to that monster, what could he have possibly offered you to do so?"
The Hyuuga shook her head slowly. "He didn't offer me anything Sakura. I did what I had to do to save my sister and myself, from my fathers tyranny. The losses you suffered were regrettable, but there was no way I could have avoided them. Quite frankly, it was between your lives, against the lives of me and my sister...I simply chose the obvious path."
Sakura's eyes burned with a fury she hadn't long known. "You heartless bitch, do you have any idea what all of my friends, YOUR friends had to go through? Ino has been through hell, Kiba and his sister still cant look at a picture of their mother without tears coming to their eyes. Do you even have the slightest idea what you've put them through?"
Hinata closed her eyes and sighed. "Like I said, it was a regrettable necessity, but if I hadn't done what I did, both my sister and myself would have had the branch family curse seal placed on us, and none of your parents would have done anything, or even cared to do anything to help us. I did what I had to do."
Temari watched the exchange slowly. She wasn't sure what the branch family curse seal was, but she guessed it wasn't good, she could see both sides of the story, not having been truly involved in the events, but her loyalty was with her friends, not this stranger.
Tenten and Mika each leapt away from each other, as the shredding mass of fur that was Hana's summon plowed through the area they had previously been standing on. Deep, jagged claw marks digging deeply into the cold stones. The animal barely even stopped for a scant few seconds before it lunged after Tenten, choosing to ignore Mika for now.
The weapon mistress as she continued to hang in the air from her jump, threw a kunai, a thin wire attached to the end, lodging it into one of the stones to the side before pulling herself in to avoid the attack.
Hana smirked before she timed her leap from her mount, and finally lunged at the bun haired girl, forming her own Tsuuga mid way through her flight. Tenten caught off guard by the attack wasn't able to do much else other than brace herself before the blow hit her full force, smashing her against the stone floor, and into buttresses of the defensive wall.
Coughing up a good deal of blood the weapon mistress picked herself up off the ground, her scratches and bruises now marring her arms and knees from the skidding impact.
Hearing a crash off to the side she watched as Hana's summon lunged towards her, its jaw wide open and ready to snap shut over her form.
The bun haired girl rolled forward, barely avoiding the creature as its jaws snapped shut, unrolling a scroll as she did. In a puff of smoke, a naginata like weapon appeared in her hand. Getting to her feet she tried to swipe at the side of the beasts exposed neck. But it reared back before she had the chance too complete her strike.
The creature was about to bite down where she was again when it suddenly reared back, with what could only be called a screech of pain escaping its lips. Tenten was confused by this but as the animal turned it revealed Mika, her blade plunged deep into the creatures back, right between the beats massive shoulder blades, the pain must have truly been excruciating as Tenten could hear the blade scraping against bones as the Kiri kunoichi twisted it harshly, the smile never leaving her face.
Sensing movement behind her Tenten spun around in time to see, and dodge a claw swipe from the Inuzuka girl. Lashing back she spun the Naginata with the expertise and precision of a master of years, she managed to get the Inuzuka girl to back up a decent distance. Tenten then tried several quick jabbing motions with the weapon, the tip glinting in the mid morning sunlight as Hana dodged them with deft, equally quick movements.
Finally after another dodge, Tenten swiped at the girls face, followed by a swing to her legs. Hana leaned back, and leapt over each respectively, twirling in the air before she came down with a swipe of her claws, fire chakra trailing behind them, breaking through the weapon's hardened wood easily and digging into Tenten's shoulder, as the girl reflexively tried to block the attack. It wasn't a serious wound but it was a painful one. Kicking Hana in the stomach hard enough to make her stumble, the weapon mistress then flipped back unrolling another scroll and unveiling a three pieced staff. Ignoring the blood that trickled down her shirt from the recent injury as she glared at the female Inuzuka.
Guan's feet skidded back slightly as he blocked Yoshihiro's swing with his sword, the weight of the mans hammer throwing him off balance for a bit, barely giving him enough time to bring his blade back to block the follow up strike. He momentarily saw an opening in Yoshihiro's defense but the killing intent flared suddenly, just as he had seen it, making him hesitate, missing his opportunity, and leaving himself open in the process, allowing Yoshihiro to seize his own opening, punching the Kiri swordsman in the jaw, sending him tumbling to the floor before the Tsuchikage turned to face Kakashi.
The silver haired Jounin ducked under the hammer aimed at his head before he tried to plunge a kunai into Yoshihiro's side, which was slightly exposed being that it was only covered by the leather straps of his armor.
The Tsuchikage however, caught his wrist, yanked his hand away, holding it so it was exposed and then tried to swing his hammer down on it with his free hand. Only for Kakashi to form a seal-less shadow clone to take the hit instead before he kicked Yoshihiro off, ignoring the flare of killing intent with sheer adrenaline. Yoshihiro released his grip on Kakashi's arm before he delivered a brutal straight kick to the copy nins stomach, sending him flying across the room.
Yoshihiro couldn't turn in time to block the massive blade that slammed across his back armor. Grunting in pain, he stumbled before spinning back around, swinging his hammer, aiming for Guan's legs. The Kiri nin went to jump, but Yoshihiro again flared his killing intent, intentionally this time and again the man hesitated from the sudden fear that gripped him, managing to only leap up slightly after he caught himself. Still, the hammer slammed into his ankle, causing pain to flare up in the appendage. The Kiri nin grunted stumbling as he landed, the forcing himself to stand straight regardless, blocking the nerves with chakra manipulations to keep the injury from slowing him any further.
With a yell Yoshihiro raised the hammer high above his head before bringing it down over Guan, or at least attempting too, the man had rolled to the side quickly enough to avoid the bludgeoning weapon. Getting to his feet he barely blocked another strike from Yoshihiro, but even so, his weapon was knocked out of his hand by the sheer force behind the older man's blow. Yoshihiro grabbed the man by his hair and slammed his face against his knee with a sickening crunch, which was soon revealed to be his nose as blood flowed freely down his face.
The sound of a thousand birds reached the Tsuchikage's ears, Yoshihiro spun around, expecting to find Kakashi with his signature Chidori technique. But as he turned around he saw absolutely nothing.
Momentarily confused it only took him a brief moment to discover what had happened...
'Genjutsu.'
Kakashi suddenly exploded from the ground to his left, aiming to stab a kunai into his side, judging by the trajectory, it would pierce through his ribs and into his lung. Acting fast the older man barely managed to maneuver his body enough to change the fatal blow, to a crippling one.
"Your not the only one with skills in Genjutsu." The copy ninja remarked, watching as the Tsuchikage coughed up blood, and his skin returned to its natural tanned tone.
"Hehehe, damn kids." Yoshihiro muttered before he grabbed Kakashi's wrist with one hand. "Never...paying attention to the basics...not even the most important of them."
"And what's that?" Kakashi questioned dangerously as he twisted the blade into the mans side harshly. Yoshihiro ignored the pain as fire and earth chakra gathered in his palm, forming what seemed like a molten fireball. "A ninja...is sworn to give...everything to his village..." His grip over Kakashi's wrist tightened and the copy ninja's eyes widened as he realized what the older man was thinking.
"Especially...His life!!" The Sandaime Tsuchikage roared before he slammed the fireball into the floor at his feet!
The battle outside was drawn to a sudden, dreaded pause as the force field covering the building that had been holding off all ninja from rushing to the place where they each knew their respective commanders to be was enveloped in a massive, fiery explosion. The shockwave of which knocked many off their feet and even made the wall itself shake from the intensity.
As one, both armies rushed to the scene, each silently declaring a momentary cease fire, desperate to learn the fate of their respective leaders.
The sight that greeted them was disheartening to both sides.
Two of Konoha's legends, Hatake Kakashi, and Tatsuoki Guan were face down among the wooden debris, several third and second degree burns covering their exposed skin. Both unmoving.
With Iwa, the sight of their beloved Sandaime Tsuchikage, a man that had been the one immovable mountain of strength and charisma above all others, was more crippling to them than any physical injury, many hardened veterans felt tears beginning to form behind their eyes which they desperately tried to hold back, but failed despite their efforts.
Sudenly, a cough brought all of the ninja within earshot out of their respective stupors before leaping down, hoping that it was one of their leaders that had been the one to cough. Numerous cries of "Yoshihiro-sama! Hatake-san! and Master Guan!" cut through the air as each of them rushed to the fallen warriors.
Hinata broke through the crowd, activating her byakugan and watched that the chakra flow within the two Konoha Jounin was still flowing. She sighed in relief, they were both unconscious. Looking to Yoshihiro, as several of his Anbu helped the man stand, hefting his arms over their shoulders she was tempted to order the attack. But looking back at her own men, beaten and battered as they were she held back, considering the pro's and cons to her men's morale. If she declared an attack now, the Iwa nin would fight back tooth and nail without a second thought to their own safety in order to save their beloved Sandaime. Her soldiers, wouldn't fight as hard and would surely be pushed back. No now was the time to hold back, they would be able to come back on another occasion, when the full vulnerability of their leader would sink into the Iwa ninja, making their morale plummet.
"That's enough fighting for today." Hinata spoke, her voice strong as she looked to the older man dead in the eye. "Let both sides pull back for now, we don't attack you and you don't attack us."
Yoshihiro chuckled dryly, ignoring the blood that dribbled down his lower lip as he slowly nodded. "That sounds good to me girl."
Hinata watched as Kiba stepped forward snarling before he was held back by his sister, lip reading the older girl. She managed to see what she was saying rather easily.
"Let it go, now's not the time little bro, just let it go. We'll have our chance to gut her before this is done."
Slowly, tensely...both armies began dispersing, each eyeing the other warily, no cheers of victory were cried out that night.
Later that night, Yoshihiro lay, injured on the cot of their temporary hospital, many of his trusted ninja all standing around him, the medic nins here, including that Suna girl Sakura had done a remarkable job of patching him up, oh sure he could still feel the soreness, aches, dull and sharp pains. But the fact that he wasn't dead was certainly something to be grateful for. It was his armor, the heavy bulky piece of shit had actually saved him, absorbed much of the kinetic energy of the blast, and absorbing the subsequent impact, if it wasn't for that he would have probably have had much of his insides like goo and his ribs turning his lungs into Swiss cheese.
He would imagine, that Kakashi and Guan were not so lucky, they may have survived the blast sure, but they would most likely never be in any real condition to fight as quickly as he would, in about two days he'd be back to his seventy percent he estimated. The old mans thoughts were interrupted however, as a cough, one of the many he had been suppressing, escaped his lips in his now weakened state, racking his form violently.
"Yoshihiro-sama!" Many of the jounins called "Do you want us to call another of the medics?"
Waving their frantic cries of worry off, he grunted as his coughing finally ceased. "Nah-cough-bring in those Suna nin, in here eh..."
"Right away sir." One of the men spoke before he stood and walked out the door.
A few moments later each of the aforementioned Suna ninja was in the room with him. He looked them over once before he slowly began to clap. Each of the standing ninja looked at one another confused before they awaited his explanation.
"Well well well, I'm impressed, plenty of those field reports say that many of you handled yourselves exceptionally well against the main Konoha commanders you faced. Quite impressive."
"You've been reading and listening to reports?" Sakura almost shouted. "With all due respect Tsuchikage-sama you're in no condition to-"
"Hush girl." Yoshihiro interrupted sternly. "I know very well what my limitations are, and a few reports wont kill me...besides fearing death at my age is just plain old stupid.
The pinkete still looked uncomfortable but nodded none the less.
Yoshihiro looked like he was about to say something else when an Iwa chuunin burst through the door. "Yoshihiro-sama! A large ninja force from Iwa is approaching!"
"What?" Yoshihiro spoke startled, before he looked to Sakura. "Girl, fetch me something I can use to stand with."
"You're going to-"
"Now child!" Yoshihiro interrupted again, this time more firmly. He appreciated her concern but goddamn it he was seventy seven years old and no wet behind the ears medic from Suna no less was going to tell him what he could and could not do.
Sakura bit back a curse before she stalked outside the door, grabbed the nearest cane and walked back in, handing it to the Tsuchikage.
Yoshihiro grunted as his men helped him get to his feet, and used the cane to support himself as he made his way out the hospital and towards the gate.
Finally, a few minutes and stumbles later, in which Sakura insisted he let her get him a wheel chair the old man finally arrived at the gate.
Only to come across the sight of his nephew.
"Toyohisa!" Yoshihiro questioned. "What are you doing here?"
The young Shimazu bowed. "My lord, our men refuse to simply sit by any longer and allow you to face this threat on your own. We have come to fight at your side."
Yoshihiro looked as all the Chuunin and Jounin behind his nephew bowed lowly before the stood up straight again, saluting him. "What are your orders Tsuchikage-sama!"
Yoshihiro looked over the gathered crowd, a smile forming over his lips before he allowed his eyes to land over Toyohisa again. "You just didn't want to handle all the paper work huh?"
The younger man actually smiled and winked.
Yoshihiro guffawed loudly before he enveloped his nephew in a fierce hug. "Fine then! Men prepare yourselves, in two days time, we shall strike at Konoha's camp, and drive them out of Iwa for good! What do you say to that?"
His answer was the great roar of his men's cheers.
Hinata watched as Kakashi and Guan were settled into the medic ward, the diagnostic was not looking good at all. Kakashi had three broken ribs, a broken femur in his left leg, a punctured lung and a broken hip bone.
Guan had a ruptured spleen, several small cracks along his skull, a broken ankle, a hip bone fractured in several places, with the bone fragments causing even more internal damage as well as a severe case of internal bleeding. Obviously both were in critical condition.
Shino walked up silently behind her. "It appears that...Yoshihiro-san has defeated us yet again..."
Hinata nodded slowly. "Indeed..." She sighed as she rubbed her forehead. "He's not going to like this."
"Indeed...but we must still inform him. Yoshihiro is simply far more than we could handle and my Kikaichu tell me that he will soon be again ready for battle.
"Jesus...that man...he's..."
"A devil." Shino finished for her. "I can see where he got his namesake."
Naruto sat at his desk, going over the forms of a new trade agreement they were setting up with the land of waves. It was a tedious process these political negotiations, but Naruto knew that they were all necessary, dreadfully so.
He finished reading over one of the forms when a messenger bird suddenly flew into the balcony, perching itself on his desk. Grabbing the small scroll around its ankle, he unrolled it and allowed his eyes to pass over the encoded message.
The blond ninja took a deep breath, before opening his eyes again, and calmly reached for the intercom. "Suzume." He called his secretary.
"Yes Naruto-sama?"
A slight pause.
"Cancel all known appointments."
"When do I reappoint them then?" She questioned, hiding her shock at the sudden request.
"Inform everyone, that all appointments are canceled until further notice!" He answered again, removing his hand from the button, though he could still hear her startled screech of 'WHAT!' from clear down the hall.
When Suzume entered through the door however, she found that her Hokage was already long gone.
His pace brisk and determined, the blond seemed like a specter as he flew through the halls of his home, throwing the sliding doors to his armory wide open before he entered, walking towards the end of it where it revealed a metal container.
Kneeling down, he undid the metallic locks, and ran his blood over the seal over the chest before opening it.
He looked over the familiar contents, the same items that had not seen action in nearly a decade, he had them refitted and remolded so they could fit his current body structure many times over the years but other than that, they were still the same.
He let his eyes travel over them, before his hand slowly reached for the first one.