July 24th.
Four days into their invasion, the Iwa army believed their victory would arrive swiftly. From the borders into the core of the Land of Waterfalls, they had met little to no resistance—until they finally tasted Takigakure's cunning tenacity.
The first sign of defiance had come on the second day. In a sudden, coordinated ambush, a battalion of fifty shinobi was completely wiped out by a single Takigakure Jōnin.
Caught off guard by the unexpected losses, Ōnoki and Mū dropped all decorum, personally spearheading the hunt for the hidden village. They had expected Takigakure to fall as quickly as Kusagakure had, especially after the village suffered devastating damage—losing more than ten elite Jōnin and their leader—during the chaotic escape of the S-rank rogue ninja, Kakuzu.
Iwa had attempted to track down Kakuzu for intel. Yet, despite his burning hatred for the village that betrayed him, the rogue ninja unexpectedly withheld all information regarding its location.
To keep their movements hidden from the watchful eyes of Tobirama Senju, Mū had dispatched three teams of ANBU to scout the terrain before the war even began. The results had been entirely unfruitful. Now, with Tobirama dead, Mū deployed his entire army of three thousand shinobi to unearth the elusive village.
In the center of the Land of Waterfalls, a cohort of two hundred and fifty Iwa shinobi established a base camp, serving as the central hub for their scouting operations. It was one of seven major encampments Iwa had erected across the country.
"AMBUSH!!!"
A watchguard's scream shattered the peace as three Takigakure Jōnin burst from the treeline, three hundred meters from the makeshift fort. Explosion traps and sealing tags triggered rapidly in their path. Yet, the intruders pressed onward unscathed, shrouded in a wild, shimmering blue chakra coat that deflected both jutsu and projectiles. Their movements were unnaturally fast—far too swift for ordinary Jōnin from a minor village.
Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu 水遁・水龍弾の術 (Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique)
Their chakra multiplied the jutsu's scale tenfold, upscaling a standard B-rank technique into an S-rank threat. Three colossal water dragons surged toward the encampment.
But they were no longer facing ordinary Chūnin or Jōnin.
Doton: Dosekiryū 土遁・土石龍 (Earth Release: Earth and Stone Dragon)
A single earth dragon erupted from the ground, shattering the wedge formation of the three oncoming beasts. Absorbing the roaring water, the earth dragon swelled in size, transforming into a titanic mud dragon.
Floating alongside the beast's head, Mū crossed his arms, analyzing his opponents. There was something deeply unnatural about the trio that piqued his curiosity.
'Their chakra capacity has reached Kage threshold, but their control over it is worse than an average jonin's.'
Unfortunately for the Takigakure trio, Mū's curiosity did not equate to mercy. The mud dragon resumed its lethal pursuit.
Believing themselves invincible, the trio amplified their chakra coats and charged head-on into the beast. They successfully carved their way into the monster's mass, but their triumph was short-lived. Thick mud began to seep through their glowing shrouds.
The chakra coat proved to be useful as they carved their way in through the beast. However, the trio's joy did not last long as mud began to seep through their chakra coat.
"What a waste of chakra," Mū sighed, shaking his head in disappointment as he mentally downgraded their skill level to Chūnin.
Their poor chakra control created microscopic gaps in their armor. Though invisible to the naked eye—unless one possessed the Sharingan or Byakugan—the suffocating mud of Mū's jutsu easily found and penetrated these weak points. The mud rapidly wove its way past their chakra, invading their bodies, clogging their tenketsu, and filling their respiratory tracts until they suffocated.
"Their chakra, circulatory, and nervous pathways are completely shredded..." Mū narrowed his eyes, floating down to inspect the corpses. "Is it the Hachimontonko (Eight Gates)? That would explain the raw output... but with their physical conditioning, they shouldn't even be able to stand upon using such technique. Furthermore, the scarring on their pathway systems is far too irregular. Eight Gates damage centers around the gates themselves and localized muscle tissue."
Mu silently muttered as his eyes gleamed with blatant thirst for knowledge and power. "This venture may be far more interesting than I anticipated."
He turned back to the Iwa battalion waiting tensely behind him.
"Continue the search," he commanded.
The encampment bustled back into activity, but the operation remained grueling. The Land of Waterfalls was a treacherous labyrinth of jagged cliffs, deep ravines, and dense forests. Heavy mist rolled through the valleys, distorting chakra signatures, while massive waterfalls masked physical pathways.
Even Mū's elite sensory ninja struggled to pinpoint a direction, forcing the Tsuchikage and Ōnoki to personally scout from the air. However, two men could not cover the entire country in a matter of days. It helped them to quickly support ambushed bases, but it was a massive waste of their chakra.
Mū gritted his teeth, swearing to establish and train a dedicated airborne division the moment they returned to Iwagakure.
"Tsuchikage-sama," an ANBU reported, kneeling seamlessly behind him. "We have lost contact with three scouting teams. Their chakra signatures vanished completely."
"Vanished?" Mū's voice sharpened.
"Yes. We believe they were intercepted."
"By Takigakure?"
"…No, Tsuchikage-sama. By Konoha."
A ripple of tension passed through the Iwa camp.
"Konoha?" Mū questioned, as a rare note of doubt surfaced in his voice. "Already?"
The ANBU lowered his head further. "Our scouts report Konoha forces entering from both the southern and western regions of the territory. Their Kusa detachment, led by Nara Shikasuke and their main force lead by the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen crossed the border this morning. Several of our teams have already been captured or eliminated."
Mū's jaw tightened. 'So the Third Hokage moves quickly.'
He stepped into his command tent and unrolled a tactical map across the central table. Takigakure remained perfectly hidden—its location masked by geography, localized chakra interference, and natural barriers. Despite deploying three thousand troops, Iwa had made no progress in four days and had suffered embarrassing casualties.
Mū's mind raced with calculations. 'If we clash with Konoha head-on, our casualties will spike. If Takigakure deploys more of those kinjutsu users, we will need another Kage-level operative on the field. Logically, we should stop and preserve our strength. But... the Seven-Tails... this might be our only chance to seize it.'
His fingers curled against the parchment. The hunger for a Tailed Beast gnawed at him, but he was a master tactician, not a gambler. After a long, calculating silence, he made his decision.
"Relay my orders to Ōnoki. He will take over the first Battalion and continue the search for Takigakure. His dust release will be more than enough to deal with their kinjutsu. And inform rest of the camps to consolidate closer to our borders."
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama!" The ANBU nodded. "And what of Konoha?"
"Summon Taro's squad from the Explosion Corps and Team Okamoto from the ANBU. I will confront Konoha myself."
"Tsuchikage-sama, engaging Konoha directly—"
"—is necessary," Mū interrupted coldly. "Tobirama is dead. Their new Hokage is young and untested. If I strike swiftly and brutally, I can force them to concede the Seven-Tails to avoid a full-scale war."
"…Understood."
Mū turned away as Anbu left the tent.
***
The Konoha army surged through the dense forest like a disciplined tide, their banners fluttering heavily in the humid air. At the vanguard stood Sarutobi Hiruzen, flanked by elite squads of ANBU and a formidable coalition of Konoha's founding clans. Kagami's Uchiha scouts secured the flanks; Torifu's Akimichi-Nara-Yamanaka alliance division formed a dense wall; Homura and Koharu commanded the tactical civilian vanguard; Hiro's Hyūga branch guards kept their Byakugan active; and Kenji and Genshiro spearheaded the battle-hardened Senju elites.
Suddenly, the forest trembled.
A heavy, oppressive ripple of chakra swept across the clearing, flattening the surrounding brush.
Hiruzen raised a hand, stopping his forces mid-stride. "Halt."
Out of the rolling mist ahead, dark, imposing silhouettes doning maroon combat mesh under their brown one shouldered combat armor materialized. They were the hardened killers of the Explosion Corps and veteran Jōnin. And floating silently at their center was Mū.
The Second Tsuchikage hovered inches above the damp earth, flaring his immense chakra like a blazing beacon to dominate Konoha's attention. He drifted to a stop thirty meters away.
'An impressive vanguard,' Mū analyzed coldly as his sensory perception mapped out the chakra signatures of the Konoha clans. 'But a sudden transition of power breeds instability. If I can break the boy's resolve now, Konoha might withdraw more quickly, and the Seven-Tails can fall right into our grasp without suffering a single casualty.'
"Hiruzen," Mū called out, his voice echoing coldly through the valley. "You moved quickly, just like a child eager to prove himself to the adults."
Hiruzen's expression remained unreadable. "Tsuchikage-dono."
Mū smirked beneath his bandages as he collapsed his hands behind his back. "Iwa now controls the Five-Tails. And soon, my main force will capture the Seven-Tails. Your visit here are entirely futile. Why don't we strike a deal and secure peace instead? Of course, Konoha will simply have to recognize our claims."
An uneasy murmur rippled through the back of Konoha's ranks. Hiruzen, however, remained dead silent.
Mū's eyes narrowed, searching for a crack in the young Hokage's resolve. "What is Konoha without the Senju Hashirama or Tobirama? Hiruzen. You inherited a village built on names that no longer exist, leading clans held together only by sentiment. Tell me... what authority does a mere Sarutobi possess to hold this coalition together when the real war begins? Especially, when you abandoned your duty as Hokage Guards and let Tobirama die."
Hiruzen tightly clenched his fist, but he did not give in to the insult. Instead, he calmly turned his back on the Tsuchikage. He knew that Mū was acting as an elite roadblock. If they engaged all four thousand troops to crush him, the bottleneck would drag out the fight, giving Iwa ample time regroup their forces and capture the Seven-Tails.
"Ignore them. Do not let them anchor us here," Hiruzen commanded quietly as his voice carried down the line via Yamanaka telepathy. "Main force, push through the flanks. Advance deeper into the Land of Waterfalls. We must strike Iwa while they are spread thin."
With a roar of movement, the Konoha army began to surge forward, attempting to bypass the Iwa bottleneck entirely.
Mū's eyes narrowed beneath his bandages. 'Foolish.'
He had deliberately chosen this narrow ravine to compress Konoha's massive numbers into a single, tightly packed cluster. If they tried to force their way through, they would walk directly into the killing zone of his Jinton (Dust Release).
Hands snapping together, Mū began molding his particle style, preparing to erase the vanguard's center line.
But Hiruzen was already moving.
Genjutsu: Kokuangyo no Jutsu! 幻術・黒暗行の術 (Illusion : Bringer-of-Darkness Technique)
A curtain of pitch-black darkness dropped over the battlefield instantly, swallowing Mū and his elite squads in a void that erased all light.
Mū smirked beneath his bandages. An ordinary shinobi would be paralyzed by the total loss of sight. But Mū was a sensor, an exceptional one at that too. Closing his blind eyes, his sensory chakra mapped the battlefield. He felt the specific, youthful fiery chakra of Hiruzen leading the charge right through the black void.
'You cannot hide from me, boy,' Mū thought as he rocketed forward through the dark while tracking the young Hokage's trajectory. He gathered his hands to form a triangle.
Swish!
A sharp whistling sound sliced through the dark. Mū's sensory perception registered a single kunai launching directly at his torso. He didn't even break stride. Predicting its flight path, Mū tilted his upper body a mere inch to the left. The blade grazed past his shoulder harmlessly. He didn't waste a single millisecond halting his pursuit.
But the moment the kunai cleared his flank, the world shifted.
A massive, terrifyingly familiar chakra signature materialized instantly out of thin air, appearing directly above Mū's head. The raw pressure of it was suffocating.
'A Space-Time jutsu!?" Mū's mind screamed.
Reacting on pure instinct, Mū aborted his pursuit of Hiruzen. He pre-detonated the Jinton cube he had been charging for Hiruzen, using the explosive kinetic recoil of his incomplete Dust Release to launch himself violently backward, narrowly escaping the ambush.
Floating back to his original position on the battlefield, Mū immediately flared his chakra to its limit and broke the boundaries of the field, stepping outside the range of Hiruzen's illusion. His hands slightly trembling from stinging pain caused by the explosion.
The pitch-black void shattered and light flooded back into Mū's vision.
He blinked against the sudden illumination, his chest heaving slightly as his eyes locked onto the spot where he had just been ambushed. Standing there, holding the very kunai Mū had ignored, was a white-haired ANBU.
As their eyes matched, a puff of smoke erupted disrupting their vision.
As the white shroud dissipated, it revealed a man clad in iconic blue iron armor, a stark white fur collar, and piercing, crimson eyes.
Mū's breath caught in his throat, his clam shattering into pure horror. "You—"
Before he could finish, Senju Tobirama slammed his palms flat onto the earth.
Black sealing formulas erupted across the soil like a web of lightning, spreading rapidly across the entire clearing forming dozens—then hundreds—of calligraphic summoning circles.
From the center of each circles, heavy wooden coffins burst upward with a thundering crash.
Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei.
The reanimated Iwa vanguard and scouts rose from their tombs, their ash-skinned eyes lacking focus and clarity. Tobirama stood behind their ranks as his cold eyes locked onto the trembling Tsuchikage.
"Round two," Tobirama said quietly.