"You Cloud scum, we're here to lay out terms."
"Hmph, Akatsuki trash."
"You think you can extort Kumogakure? Dream on."
"You dark-skinned brutes from Cloud, give it to me straight. Surrender or not?"
To make absolutely sure, Uchiha Makoto personally led the provocation. As expected, both sides had been holding back their rage.
Because of the propaganda,
Akatsuki's ninja believed Kumogakure had deliberately sparked the dispute, killed two of Akatsuki's Chunin, and then refused remorse or compensation. Meeting Cloud ninja now, they could barely restrain themselves from charging in to avenge the dead.
Kumogakure, for its part, felt Akatsuki was blind and bullying.
The moment the two sides met, words clashed and tempers flared.
Trash talk flew back and forth,
and then both sides were truly enraged.
Cloud ninja glared with fury, faces hard. Some even slid hands into their tool pouches.
Akatsuki's ninja were angry too, but because Makoto had ordered strict control, they didn't act rashly, only stayed alert for a sudden strike.
At last—
"Akatsuki, you've gone too far."
"Screw you."
Whistles of cutting air.
Some Cloud ninja lost control and cursed, then a handful of shuriken sliced through the air.
Makoto's smile widened. He wanted to toss his hair and shout: Finally took the bait.
His hand flashed a signal.
The Akatsuki behind him surged forward without hesitation. They had been ready.
The Cloud ninja who'd been trading insults had not expected Akatsuki to come prepared.
And with numbers.
No honor. A sneak attack.
Very quickly,
the battle tilted to one side.
"Kumogakure has repeatedly ignored Akatsuki's warnings, not only murdering two of our Chunin, but launching an attack on our negotiation team, gravely endangering its safety.
"Akatsuki is compelled to act in self-defense."
After smashing a few unlucky Cloud patrolmen on the border line, Makoto regrouped his squad to await the oncoming main force. He drafted a statement to broadcast across the ninja world the next day and asked the cameraman who'd filmed the Cloud striking first, "Did you capture everything clearly?"
"Lord Light Shadow, all of it."
"Edit it. Cut out our cursing."
The cameraman winced. "That might be hard to do."
"You don't even grasp basic filming. Open your eyes to the world. Even third-rate rogues can manage that."
"Study up. Don't let this happen again. If outsiders think Akatsuki ninja are uneducated bunglers, you'll be the village's sinner."
"Yes, Lord Light Shadow."
The ninja bowed, drenched in sweat.
Makoto didn't press further. A sharp rebuke and an order to study the fundamentals would do.
The rear main force moved the moment they saw the flare, and Makoto did not intend to waste the perfect window.
Comparing strength on paper, things weren't as rosy as Makoto would like. There was no obvious gap between Akatsuki and Kumogakure.
Akatsuki's edge lay in surprise and in lavish funding that guaranteed logistics. Barring surprises, Akatsuki could spend a year bleeding Cloud dry, little by little, until a crushing advantage formed.
But Kumogakure fought on home ground, with more ninja available for defense.
To seize the strategic initiative,
the opening phase had to be fast. Before the First Raikage fully reacted, they would spare no expense to scour Cloud's forces and cull its living strength,
preparing for the war of attrition to come.
Intelligence said
five key defensive lines stretched from the frontier all the way to Cloud's heart, directly along Akatsuki's planned route.
Makoto did not linger on the border. He led a night raid straight through.
First defensive line.
Under the night,
fire, blood, and slaughter wove a dark symphony.
"Damn it."
"So many explosive tags. Despicable."
"Are you Akatsuki insane?"
"This is naked war. Lord Raikage will never forgive you."
The Cloud garrison at the first line roared themselves hoarse, eyes bloodshot.
But their tone betrayed a hollow core.
Three night sentry squads, twenty in all including three Jonin, had been quietly erased. The remaining three hundred-plus ninja were still in dreams when Akatsuki's vanguard hit them like a hammer.
Fire lit the line.
Explosive tags beyond counting left Cloud reeling, unable to mount a proper counterattack.
Their fate was sealed.
Kaguya clansmen at the front bared feral grins, bone blades answering Cloud's hopeless fury as they crashed into the panicked enemy.
"Press them."
"All units, forward."
"On contact, throw dozens of tags."
Makoto led from the front, casually cutting down a genin while commanding the Akatsuki. If tags could kill them, forget ninjutsu and taijutsu. They had stockpiled more than enough. The goal was fewer friendly deaths.
Cloud's first line was broken.
Hit by surprise, Cloud suffered annihilation. Only a few scattered ninja escaped, abandoning the first line and retreating under pursuit toward the second. The outcome was obvious.
Akatsuki won their opening battle.
Joy shone on every face. It was a great victory.
"Makoto, with such a win, can we rest a bit…"
Uzumaki Shinji was thrilled, but exhaustion showed beneath the excitement. The main force had crossed the border and raced four hundred li through the night. It drained anyone.
More hard fighting lay ahead. Even a hardy Uzumaki like Shinji felt it. As for the rank and file—mostly Chunin and Genin—after a few C-rank jutsu they were out of chakra and down to bare-knuckle brawling.
Makoto had no intention of resting.
Strike once with full force. The second weaker. The third weaker still.
Let spirits slacken and the fatigue of the night march would crash down.
The night was long.
Intelligence said
the second line, unlike the third, lay less than eight hundred li from the first. They had to seize it before routed survivors could warn them.
"Pass my order.
"Keep moving. If you get drowsy, slap your cheeks and think of our Will of Light. If you're hungry or tired, eat a soldier pill."
Makoto knew the task was brutal. To keep a full-speed push without stragglers, they would have to lean on the Will of Light.
He gave the command without hesitation.
"For Lord Light Shadow."
Hearts blazing from victory, the Akatsuki roared and obeyed, surging toward the second defensive line.
At dawn,
mist thickened.
Cloud ninja at the second line saw fog bloom around the perimeter and frowned. "Why is it suddenly so foggy today?"
Seconds later,
hundreds of bloodshot eyes emerged from the haze.
These were Makoto's handpicked fighters after the night raid.
Many Akatsuki had indeed fallen behind or collapsed on the way.
They had burned their Will of Light dry.
"Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame."
Makoto opened with a B-rank fire technique. Torrents of heat roared out, as if to drown the outpost in a sea of flame.
"What power."
"I've heard that when the Uchiha master Fire Release, one can suppress an entire army. Seems true. Lord Light Shadow's fire is a signature technique. His seals, chakra control, everything is flawless."
Praise rose from the rear.
Makoto dipped his chin.
He knew that compared to Uchiha Madara's pinnacle Fire Release, his own still lagged in range and force.
But he would not sell himself short. This was still devastating, the fruit of long practice.
Even before he met Uzumaki Tsubaki Shizuku, Makoto had worked all day and then trained his hand speed every night. Marriage had made him slack a little, nothing more.
Cracks like shattering glass.
The perimeter barrier collapsed under his jutsu, and the Akatsuki behind him rushed in, blades already thirsty.
"Even the second line has a barrier. No wonder Cloud could go toe to toe with Konoha in the original tale and even gain ground later. Their strength and depth are greater than I thought."
Makoto frowned, showing no joy at smashing the ward with one blow. He sighed inwardly and charged on.
"Damn it."
"How are they here all of a sudden?"
"Did they really break the first line in one night?"
"Captain, they have too many tags. I can't get close. They're here."
"Wait, those are Shadow Clones."
Uzumaki turned trickster. With their knack for clones, they sent shadow bodies plastered in explosive tags rushing the Cloud ranks.
Cloud's second line was blindsided. The idea that Akatsuki could annihilate the first line and then push nearly a thousand li in the same night to strike the second was unbelievable.
"You pitiable Cloud."
"This is the Will of Light."
"Long live Lord Light Shadow. Long live the Will of Light. Akatsuki will prevail."
Fevered cheers followed.
Victory is the best glue. Led by Lord Light Shadow, Akatsuki had won the first battle.
Now they were inside the second line. Victory was in sight.
Exhausted and low on chakra, Akatsuki still felt power surge at the chorus, as if infused by Makoto's Will of Light. New chakra welled up from nowhere and they shouted with them: Glory to Akatsuki. Ten thousand victories.
Their momentum soared as they hurled jutsu and tags like water.
Thunder of explosions rolled on and on.
Amid chaos and killing,
Cloud's second defensive line fell.
Only a few small groups fled, abandoning the position. It had all happened too suddenly; no reinforcements would come.
The line belonged to Cloud.
Their lives belonged to themselves.
They knew which weighed more.
"Long live Lord Light Shadow."
"Banzai."
"Loyalty."
Akatsuki roared their triumph. Some raised both hands high while holding captives. Those who couldn't free a hand slammed their prisoners to the ground, knee on the neck, then thrust up the captives' hands to join the cheer.
The captives groaned.
"I can't breathe."
Makoto was all smiles.
He stood straight amid the half-ruined buildings and accepted the cheers with an easy heart.
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