"Kill them!"
"Kill them all!"
"Kill those lying Sunagakure bastards!"
"They spread rumors, they caused chaos, they kept provoking the Leaf!"
"This is the price they're going to pay!"
At the exact same time, Iwagakure's army launched its own assault from the other side.
Two great villages attacking the same target at once.
"Enemy attack!"
The Sunagakure border forces panicked and immediately fell back, sending urgent messages toward the village.
In an instant, full-scale war exploded — sudden, brutal, and completely unexpected, just like the previous three Great Ninja Wars.
But Rasa had seen this coming.
Konoha's forces had been camped on the border for weeks. Small skirmishes had been constant, and Jiraiya had even tried a surprise raid that failed. Sunagakure had fought both Konoha and Iwagakure before… and lost.
This time would be different.
Even with both villages hitting them at once, Sunagakure would not be crushed like before.
The news reached the Kazekage Tower.
Rasa's voice was cold and steady.
"They want war? Then we'll give them war."
Sunagakure's reinforcement army split into two groups.
Pakura led one force straight toward the Konoha front.
Chiyo led the other toward the Iwagakure front.
Their response was faster than either enemy had expected.
The moment the Sunagakure reinforcements arrived, both Konoha and Iwagakure offensives slammed into a wall.
"Scorch Release: Extremely Steaming Murder!"
A blazing sphere of Scorch chakra shot toward the Leaf forces at terrifying speed. It detonated in the middle of a squad, instantly turning dozens of Konoha shinobi into dried corpses.
Pakura's kekkei genkai had been devastating against the Mist. Against the Leaf, it was just as lethal.
"It's Pakura!"
"Scorch Release Pakura!"
The Leaf ninja's faces went pale.
"We can't handle her! We need the village elites!"
Orochimaru appeared on the battlefield.
"Summoning Technique!"
The massive Manda burst from the ground in a cloud of smoke.
Pakura responded by summoning her own beast — the giant chameleon she now shared with Rasa.
Even though it was smaller than Manda, the chameleon was no easy target. And Pakura's Scorch Release was so overwhelming that even Orochimaru found himself on the defensive.
Seeing Pakura tied down, the Leaf forces relaxed.
"We're fine now. Pakura's being held by Lord Orochimaru. The rest of these Sand ninja are nothing."
"They can't possibly match us. We still have New no Jutsu, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio…"
"Sunagakure has nothing that can stand against the Leaf!"
They were wrong.
Akimichi Choza, enlarged by the Expansion Technique, was rampaging through Sand ranks when a figure suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Choza Akimichi. Your opponent is me."
Choza looked down at the much smaller man and snorted.
"Who the hell are you? Some nameless nobody thinks he can stop me?"
Daya grinned.
"Nameless? Let me show you what a so-called nobody can do."
In the next instant his body swelled violently.
"Dragon-Dragon Fruit — Triceratops Form!"
What had been a normal-sized jonin suddenly towered even larger than the enlarged Choza, three massive horns gleaming.
"Take this!"
Daya lowered his head and charged like a living battering ram.
"Devil Fruit?" Choza sneered. "Those things only work on chunin. Using it against elite jonin like me? You must be joking."
He stood his ground and met the charge head-on.
BOOM!
The impact was like two trains colliding. Choza was blasted backward, skidding dozens of meters before finally stopping. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
His expression turned deadly serious.
"The Devil Fruit's power… reached this level?"
Daya laughed coldly.
"It's my power now. And I'm one of Sunagakure's Big Board members. The fruit I ate is a superior type — Dragon-Dragon Fruit: Triceratops Form!"
"Elite jonin? Akimichi secret techniques?"
"Not even close."
Daya pressed the attack. Within moments Choza was on the defensive.
All around them, Leaf ninja stared in shock.
"Choza-sama is losing?!"
"What the hell is that thing? A giant summoning beast?"
"No… that's a ninja! I saw him transform!"
"Is that a Devil Fruit?"
"I thought those only worked on chunin!"
"Was our intelligence wrong?!"
"Damn it… one random ninja eats a fruit and suddenly matches an elite jonin? What was the point of all our training?!"
"This is completely broken!"
The Sand side was the complete opposite — roaring with excitement.
"That's the power of a superior Devil Fruit!"
"That's our Big Board member!"
"The Akimichi clan? Pathetic!"
"Kill them!"
"Take down Choza Akimichi!"
Daya's appearance completely shifted the momentum of the battlefield. Even Orochimaru looked genuinely surprised.
One Daya they could handle.
But the real question was…
"How many more superior Devil Fruits does Sunagakure have?"
On the other front, Iwagakure's forces were led by Kitsuchi.
As Ōnoki's son, Kitsuchi wasn't as mediocre as people claimed — he simply looked that way next to his father. His Earth Release was refined to an extremely high level.
Unfortunately for him… he was facing Chiyo.