The ground trembled beneath four thousand Konoha shinobi as they surged forward in a tide of blue and green. Intelligence had been clear: Iwagakure had deployed eight thousand soldiers. Every able-bodied fighter Konoha could spare now charged toward them, save for the critically wounded left behind at camp.
Two to one odds. A battle of attrition stacked impossibly in the enemy's favor.
Yet fear didn't touch a single face. Determination burned in their eyes—a fierce resolve to fight until their last breath.
Then the earth itself began to shake.
At the horizon, a yellow-brown torrent swept toward them.
"Here they come!" Jiraiya's sharp intake of breath cut through the noise. "Get ready!"
The Konoha forces tensed, sweat beading on foreheads. Some bit their tongues, the sharp sting keeping them razor-focused.
The vibration became a quake. The distant blur resolved into a roaring stampede of Iwa shinobi.
"Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique!"
Konoha shinobi formed hand seals in perfect unison, spewing serpentine flames that converged into an immovable wall of fire. Steel wires enhanced the linear attacks, twisting them together into a blazing inferno that engulfed the charging enemy.
"Earth Style: Earth Wall!"
Iwa's front lines slammed their palms against the ground. Earthen barriers erupted upward, meeting the inferno. Soil scorched and cracked under the heat, but the walls held, absorbing the assault.
As the flames died, columns of rock shifted from behind Iwa's lines. Shinobi half-knelt in the gaps between walls, palms striking the earth.
"Earth Style: Earth Divider Jutsu!"
The ground fractured violently. Ravines sprinted toward Konoha's ranks, destabilizing their footing. A formation of soldiers stumbled, the line threatening to break.
"Well done, Seiran!" Jiraiya flashed a thumbs-up toward Hyuga Seiran, hovering a short distance away.
Seiran nodded, his focus absolute. He'd decomposed metal particles within the soil earlier, using them to fuse the cracks with a binding, venom-like substance. The terrain stabilized just as the two forces collided in a crimson-eyed clash fueled by old hatreds and fresh grudges.
Seiran remained high above the battlefield, his right hand gripping the air. Metal particles surged from the ground, condensing into dense flying swords that tore through Iwa's lines like a hail of needles. Blood rained down.
The Iwa numbers were overwhelming. To maximize Konoha's chances, Seiran knew he had to thin the regular shinobi as quickly as possible.
But the Iwa heavyweights were making their move.
Roshi and Han activated their Tailed Beast Chakra modes almost simultaneously. Dark red chakra cloaked Han's body, five tails lashing out violently. Roshi, empowered by the Four-Tails' chakra, manifested molten armor and four lava tails behind him.
"He needs to go down!" they roared in unison.
Roshi's mouth widened like a cannon, launching a barrage of superheated lava balls at Seiran. He dodged mid-air as Han began charging a Tailed Beast Ball.
Both of them on me? Seiran's eyes narrowed, tracking the bomb forming in Han's mouth. The blast radius was massive. If it detonated over the Konoha lines, the casualties would be catastrophic.
With a flick of his fingers, Seiran's flying swords reformed, spiraling into a dragon of blades that hurtled toward the charging Han.
"Damn it!" Roshi spat a volley of fireballs to intercept the sword-dragon.
The swords scattered but instantly re-coalesced, their momentum unchanged. They slammed into Han before he could complete the blast.
Han's head snapped back from the impact. The unstable Tailed Beast Ball erupted prematurely in his mouth, obliterating a section of Iwa's own ranks.
Roshi grimaced. "Han! The plan failed. We have to close in and fight him directly!"
"Fine!" Han wiped blood from his lip, his eyes burning with rage.
Steam erupted from Han's body, rocketing him into the air toward Seiran. Roshi supported him, increasing his barrage of fireballs to cut off Seiran's dodging options.
One spits fire, the other uses steam propulsion? Low blows, Seiran thought grimly.
Han closed the distance in a heartbeat, flipping mid-air. His five tails whipped out viciously.
Seiran's silver fluid surged, forming a metal shield just in time.
The impact shattered the barrier and sent him plummeting. He crashed onto the battlefield hard, dust billowing around him.
"It worked!" Han and Roshi shouted, triumphant.
Seiran shook his head, clearing the dizziness. Then—a primal chill shot down his spine. The first time since the war began that he'd felt such lethal danger.
The ground beneath him collapsed.
He tried to fly, but his body felt sluggish, heavy as mercury. It wasn't gravity—it was a sealing technique.
When?
"Don't underestimate a Kage, boy!" Ōnoki's hoarse roar echoed from underground.
The Tsuchikage had lain in wait, using a sealing jutsu to mask his presence from the Byakugan. Now he emerged, his hands already forming the Dust Release seal.
A terrifying, blinding white light erupted beneath Seiran's feet.
"Seiran!" Rin's scream tore across the battlefield.
Jiraiya's eyes widened. "Dust Release..."
The blazing light swallowed Seiran whole.
In the back of his mind, a notification flickered—Electromagnetic Manipulation Level 2 (0/6000 EXP to next level)—but there was no time to process it.
So this is the moment, Seiran's thoughts raced even as the light consumed him. The evolution. The decomposition of flesh and impurities. The next step.
It's time.
In that split second, the silver fluid covering his body ignited with arcs of lightning.
The white light fractured.
Tyrant Mode: Electromagnetic Sovereign—Activated.
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