Several years ago—no one quite remembers exactly when—the great ninja-world author Jiraiya once wrote a traditional, uplifting novel. It was his debut work, titled The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja.
The protagonist of the novel was named Naruto. He came up with the name casually while eating ramen, after noticing the narutomaki topping.
The main character, Naruto, excelled at Talk-no-Jutsu. Every time he defeated an enemy, he would deliver a grand speech, causing the enemy to achieve a profound awakening. The two sides would come to understand each other, shake hands, make peace, and celebrate together.
This was also Jiraiya's philosophy of peace. He believed that as long as people could understand one another, disputes would disappear and eternal peace would follow.
Then the book flopped. Sales were dismal. Aside from Yahiko, who might have read it, its only true fan was Minato.
From that moment on, Jiraiya realized the secret to becoming a bestselling author and plunged headfirst onto the broad road of writing smut.
As for Jiraiya's philosophy of peace, part of it stemmed from his own personality. More of it was influenced by the Great Toad Sage Gamamaru of Mount Myōboku, and at its source was the Sage of Six Paths, Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo.
In reality, it is hard to say how deeply Jiraiya truly believed in that philosophy. But he was certainly no fool. He understood one thing very clearly: what matters is not the reasoning itself, but the procedure that comes before the reasoning.
That procedure is having the strength to knock someone down first.
If you cannot beat someone, you do not even get the chance to reason with them.
So when faced with the large force of Kumogakure ninja charging forward, Jiraiya understood that they were deliberately trying to set fire to Konohagakure. They had no intention of reasoning, nor could they be reasoned with.
To waste even a few seconds preaching at such a moment would mean suffering for striking second. His own side would pay with dozens, even hundreds, of lives.
So he gave a sweeping wave of his hand. The assembled Konohagakure ninja drew their weapons and blocked the Kumogakure forces before the formation.
The Iwagakure ninja in the rear also caught up. The three sides exchanged no words, held no standoff—at the instant of contact, they began fighting. Very quickly, the three clearly distinct forces were mixed together into a single chaotic melee.
At that point, anyone who tried to climb high, raise an arm, and call for calm would be guaranteed to be pinned into a porcupine by kunai flying in from all directions.
Now, what every ninja had to do was simple: watch in all directions, listen on all sides, grab whoever they could and strike—kill anyone wearing a different forehead protector, dressed in a different uniform.
It was that simple.
Konohagakure, Kumogakure, and Iwagakure—nearly three thousand ninja in total—spread across the vast rocky mountain and hill battlefield along the border and launched into a brutal free-for-all slaughter.
The sparse vegetation that once dotted the area had been like the stubborn patches of hair left on the head of someone going bald. But under the repeated devastation of ninjutsu, it had long since been reduced to complete barrenness.
The field of view was wide and unobstructed. Heads surged in crowds. Killing cries shook the heavens. Blood flowed like a river.
Makoto and the others also charged into the battlefield with the main force. Shuriken and kunai shot out from time to time, and long and short blades swung without pause, slaughtering every enemy that came close—whether they were Kumogakure ninja or Iwagakure ninja.
They kept firmly in mind the instructions of the jonin: they shifted positions frequently but did not become scattered, helping one another, rescuing one another, and while killing the enemy, they also had to watch out for protecting their comrades.
If an expert came over, the two jonin—Higashino Jirō and Uzuki Yūya—would step up as the main attackers, and then everyone would gang up shoulder to shoulder, joining forces to encircle and strangle the target.
In a ninja's worldview, there was no such thing as martial-code chivalry. This was war, and there was no need to bother with fair duels with the enemy.
Makoto kept watch on the surrounding area at all times. When he saw someone trying to form hand seals and cast a ninjutsu to strike at them, he casually fired off a few small Shadowless Sword and sent the other party flying.
What era is this, and you're still forming hand seals to cast ninjutsu? And you're forming them that slowly, too—only a complete idiot would wait for you to come kill them.
He stayed in the middle of the team the whole time. According to Gekkō Kumomi's arrangements, amid the chaos, his perception was everyone's eyes and also the team's guarantee of survival, responsible for clearing out every danger the others had not noticed.
Makoto had no objection to that. If he only cared about fighting to his own satisfaction, then after the thrill was over, he might come back and find that his teammates had all been wiped out.
The experience his father—who had spent years on battlefields—passed down to him was that in a melee, the most important thing was not killing the enemy, but first ensuring that he himself and the comrades supporting each other stayed alive.
Only if you are alive can you deal damage. If you are dead, you can only go AFK in the Pure Land.
At this moment, a squad of Iwagakure ninja—more than a dozen in total—charged in from the left. There were many small groups like this on the battlefield. Nobody was stupid; they knew to huddle together with people they were familiar with for warmth.
Hayate and Yūgao instinctively wanted to form hand seals and use a Wind Release—even if it could not kill the enemy, it could at least blow up dust and create conditions for kills.
But Kumomi, who had returned to his disciple's side, stopped them. He then led everyone to meet the attack, using only the simplest weapons for close-quarters fighting.
This was the difference between small-team contact combat and large-scale war.
Small-team contact combat could be very flashy: all kinds of tactical arrangements, ninjutsu duels, dazzling and full of highlights.
Large-scale war was different. Once the two sides got tangled together, there were basically no tactics—only see one, kill one—and very few people would use ninjutsu.
Because you did not know how long the fighting would last. Ninjutsu wasted too much chakra, so you had to budget carefully, save whenever you could, and use only the most efficient methods to kill the enemy, preventing your chakra from being exhausted and then getting butchered by the enemy like some stray by the roadside.
Even someone with an enormous chakra reserve would not find it easy to fire off a map-wide bombardment at a time like this, because you might take out your own side along with the enemy.
Unless you could do it like Senju Hashirama's Wood Release, which could still weave around allies in the chaos and switch on an automatic enemy-locking mode.
That was why he was called the God of Ninja. One large-scale Nativity of a World of Trees dropped, and the people of Konohagakure were perfectly fine while the enemies were all hanging on trees. How were you supposed to fight that? Fight with your head?!
When facing an Iwagakure squad of more than a dozen who, like them, moved in a tight cluster, the simple tactic devised by Kumomi and the three jonin was this: Makoto would leap slightly upward and slash several Shadowless Sword from above downward. No matter how many were killed, the rest would be left for everyone to rush in and hack down amid the enemy's confusion.
It was already so simple that it had only two steps. The battlefield was chaotic; there was neither the time nor the space to execute complicated tactics.
But at a time like this, simple meant effective. With a teammate in the squad who possessed an enormous chakra reserve and could strike first with a no-seal ninjutsu attack, they could do as they pleased.
They would use this kind of simple and effective tactic, and the enemy would use it as well.
The squad Makoto was in moved across the battlefield like a sharp blade, weaving left and right. Not only was their efficiency in killing enemies extremely high, they also rescued quite a few Konohagakure comrades at the same time.
Some small, quick-witted squads saw there was a powerful thigh to cling to and immediately gathered around them, following along to fight with the advantage.
At this moment, the sound of explosions continued in the distance, slowly drawing closer to their position.
This was an Iwagakure squad. The enemies they encountered—whether Konohagakure or Kumogakure—were first sent flying by someone's opening punch, or scattered by explosions, and then a teammate would step forward to finish them off.
The tactic they used was basically the same as Makoto's squad—simple and effective.
The two sides soon collided. The people around them, regardless of which ninja village they belonged to, saw the situation and immediately moved away.
It was obvious at a glance that elite squads were about to clash. What was the point of staying here? If you got caught up in it by accident, you might die without even knowing how you died. Better to slip away.
Makoto recognized the man leading them: tall and somewhat lean, with half-long explosive brown hair. Kumomi had once explained him to them, drawing on his knowledge as a former Anbu ninja.
The leader of Iwagakure's Demolition Corps, the possessor of the Explosion Release Kekkei Genkai—Gari.
The moment Jirō and Yūya saw him, their tempers flared. Before the Battle of Kannabi Bridge, the two had fought him many times. The injuries on their bodies were all thanks to his abilities.
Now, when enemies met, their eyes reddened all the more.
Jirō: "That bastard again!"
Yūya: "This time we have to wipe out this troublesome squad."
When Gari saw the people in the Konohagakure clustered squad, he revealed a delighted, ferocious smile. Clearly, he had also recognized his old opponents.
He leapt up and landed in front of the enemy, then suddenly drove a fierce punch diagonally into the ground.
Boom!
A thunderous explosion rang out. Clods of earth and rocks on the ground shot out like shells from a cannon, dense and overwhelming, delivering saturated fire against the Konohagakure side.
The moment the opponent leapt, Kumomi shouted, "Close ranks!"
At a time like this, trying to flee to either side or to the rear was suicidal. No matter how fast a person was, they could not outrun debris enhanced by Explosion Release.
Only coordinated defense could minimize casualties.
But they had an even better method.
In a flash, Makoto used Body Flicker to appear in front of the squad. Spreading his hands, a massive amount of chakra surged from between his ten fingers, and in an instant he set up a long defensive formation.
Earth Release: One-Horn Great Wall!
The earth-yellow, semi-transparent chakra barrier stood like a city wall, blocking all the attacks in front of them.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
The dense impact sounds were like rain striking banana leaves—but it was more like a machine-gun nest facing a torrent of heavy tanks: completely useless.
The members of the Demolition Corps behind Gari saw this and began throwing white chunk-like objects toward Makoto's side, each in different shapes, like tossing grenades.
Before the battle, Jirō had introduced this as the Demolition Corps' exclusive attack method.
What Gari used was Explosion Release, a Kekkei Genkai formed by fusing two types of chakra. The Demolition Corps members, however, did not possess this bloodline. They could not learn it, and there was no way to teach it—after all, even Gari himself had awakened it inexplicably.
So they adopted a workaround. They deeply trained the explosive nature of Fire Release chakra, then infused it into specially prepared clay, and finally detonated it with hand seals.
Because it was a workaround, it could not be called Explosion Release Kekkei Genkai. Instead, it became Iwagakure's unique Exploding Clay secret technique.
The kind used by that little blond Deidara.
It was a secret technique, not a bloodline. Although the effect was similar, it required an extra step and came with limitations. If they had not prepared detonating clay in advance, or if they ran out of it, they were no different from ordinary ninja.
At the same time, Gari was not restrained by Lightning Release, but detonating clay would be neutralized by Lightning Release. That was why the Demolition Corps had always been fighting Konohagakure and had not been dispatched to deal with Kumogakure.
Seeing the various shapes of detonating clay fly over the heads of the Konohagakure ninja, the Demolition Corps members formed hand seals together and detonated them. In an instant, firelight and deafening blasts engulfed the enemy.
But it was useless.
Makoto shifted his ninjutsu. Water Release: One-Horn Tranquility unfolded, covering the allied forces behind him like a firmament, firmly sealing the explosions outside the pale-blue chakra dome.
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