The moment Amamiya Raizen saw three Quasi-Kage-level enemies closing in on him, his mind clicked into battlefield mode.
"Daisaku Inuzuka," he barked, already stepping forward, "you've got command."
"Yes, Raizen-sama!" Daisaku's voice was crisp — no hesitation, no wasted words. Orders started rolling from him like a well-oiled machine.
Raizen didn't wait to watch. Three powerful chakra signatures rushed toward him, each one flaring like a miniature sun.
Three Quasi-Kage against one broke salaryman. Guess today's special is pain with a side of humiliation.
Inuzuka Daisaku watched his leader draw the strongest enemies away and knew what it meant. His chance had come.
"Fire Style! Frontline barrage!" he roared.
Hundreds of shinobi exhaled streams of flame. In seconds, the battlefield became a sea of roaring fire, the air thick with ash and smoke.
"Water Style! Counter it!" a Hyūga commander bellowed.
"Water Release: Water Barrier! (Suiton: Suijinheki!)"
Dozens of Water Release users from the Hyūga coalition moved in unison. Great walls of water surged up, colliding with the inferno in a deafening hiss. Steam exploded outward, cloaking the entire gorge in mist and heat.
"Wind Style, coordinate with Fire Style! Blow that fog away!" Daisaku ordered again.
His troops responded instantly — a mix of Fire and Wind Release shinobi working together like clockwork.
The Fire users crouched, unleashing low waves of flame, while the Wind users behind them fanned the heat into monstrous, rolling bursts of fire.
The technique wasn't elegant — it was war-forged and ugly — but it worked. The Hyūga coalition began to fall back, forced to cover their Byakugan eyes against the glare.
Still, sheer numbers told the truth. The Hyūga coalition had three thousand shinobi. Daisaku had barely one.
When his front lines began to waver, he gave the only sensible order: "All units, fall back! Controlled retreat!"
The Konoha Alliance fought like a tide — advance, burn, fall back, repeat. It was disciplined chaos, but the Hyūga commander was no fool. Seeing the pattern, he grinned.
"Don't chase," he told his captains. "Encircle. Split into three divisions — crush them from both flanks."
The order spread like wildfire. Soon, the battlefield turned into a slow suffocation.
Daisaku clenched his teeth as reports came in. Left flank collapsing… right flank surrounded… damn it.
Still, his voice stayed steady. "Wind–Fire teams, maintain cover! Lightning–Water teams, ready counterstrike! Earth Style units, fortify!"
Walls of earth erupted from the mud, halting enemy advances. Each one shattered within seconds — but that was enough to save lives.
The men steadied. Hearing their commander's calm voice in the chaos was like feeling solid ground beneath their feet again.
The Hyūga commander watched from his high ridge, smirking.
"So that's his play — attrition. Hah. He's got guts but no time. We'll crush them by weight alone. All units — close in and consume them!"
And so began the grind.
Three thousand pressing against one thousand.
Fire, water, wind, and lightning devouring each other in endless cycles.
Meanwhile, Raizen fought his own losing battle.
Sarutobi Sanbei from the northern line slammed his palms to the ground.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow River! (Doton: Doryū Taiga!)"
The battlefield twisted, liquefying into a river of mud rushing toward Raizen.
Raizen leapt onto a boulder, landing light as a hawk — only for a howl of slicing air to follow.
"Wind Release: Sky Split! (Fūton: Tenranha!)" roared Hibiscus Takuma.
Blades of wind exploded outward, hundreds of them spinning like invisible scythes.
Before Raizen could land, Hyūga Shibuya was already beneath him, Byakugan veins bulging.
"Eight Trigrams Palm! (Hakke Kūshō!)"
The combination was merciless — three elements, three masters, each covering the other's blind spot. They weren't trying to kill him fast; they were keeping him caged.
Raizen's grin turned sharp. Smart bastards. They know I can't help my army like this.
He inhaled deeply, chakra thrumming through every nerve. The air warped around him — heat meeting light. His eyes flared red-gold.
"Guess I'll stop playing nice."
Golden light burst from his body, his hair whipping in the pressure wave of chakra.
"Sage Art: Thousand-Armed Judgment! (Senjutsu: Ukei Senju Koroshi!)"
A massive golden Buddha erupted behind him, its many arms unfolding like a storm of divinity and wrath. The sheer chakra pressure cracked the ground beneath their feet.
The trio staggered, instincts screaming at them to retreat.
Too late.
Raizen's voice came calm and cold.
"My turn."
The Buddha's thousand arms moved — a storm of golden fists descending like meteors.
The gorge shook.
The Hyūga commander looked up just in time to see the sky itself turn to gold.
...
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