The battle between the hidden Sand, Lead and Mist had currently taken a large turn, pulling in the Mist and Leaf's favour, thanks to Fuyōna having not only defeated lady Chiyo and her brother but also having killed a large number of Sand shinobi thanks to his tailed beast blast.
Fuyōna had also managed to fight off Pain, something that was not an easy task to do at all. Thankfully he seemed to have no intention of fighting in the war, and only wished to capture Fuyōna, something he was thankful for, as Fuyōna knew that if Pain had for whatever reason fought in the battle, he could have ended it.
Now with the Sand's forces having taken such a beating, Pakura the current Kazekage had no choice other than to join the fight herself, having stayed in the backline for long enough.
"Step to it, men! We cannot and will not retreat here!" She yelled as she unleashed her scorch release, allowing it to surround her before she charged into the front lines of the Mist and Leaf shinobi.
Pakura was an elite shinobi and a Kage at that, showing off her prowess as she ripped through the ranks of jonin and chunin ninja before her, not breaking a sweat as her scorch style literally evaporated all of the water from any human body it touched, leaving the battlefield littered with desiccated corpses as none could stand against her.
"Watch out! It's the Kazekage!" One of the Leaf shinobi cried out, doing his best to try and warn the others before he let out another scream of pain, having been hit by Pakura's scorch style and killing him in one hit.
Both Kaga and Ganryu were also battling on the front line, surrounded by Sand shinobi as they did their best to lead by example with each of them holding the line and inspiring their men, taking out anyone who got in their way.
"Hey, Ganryu! How many?" Kaga said as he cut down another Sand shinobi.
"I'm a little busy at the moment!" Ganryu shouted as he slammed his explosive sword into the ground, taking out the five ninja that had tried to attack him at the same time.
"But if you have to know, I'm on 107!" Ganryu shouted over to Kaga, taking a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow.
Kaga smiled as he blocked a kunai thrust from a Sand shinobi and countered with his own, impaling him with his blade.
"I guess that makes us even then." He said as he let the body drop to the ground, giving him and Ganryu a moment as their eyes locked together, knowing they wouldn't let the other outdo them.
However, their little competition swiftly came to an end as it was interrupted by the screams of their men, alerting them to the sudden danger.
"What the hell!" Ganryu said as he watched a Mist Shinobi's body suddenly burst into flame as he was hit by Pakura's scorch release.
"Ganryu get back!" Kaga shouted, trying to warn him as he recognized the jutsu.
Ganryu watched as a large red orb appeared before him, knowing he wasn't fast enough to avoid it.
"Look out!" Kaga yelled as he summoned a water wall to block the orb at the last second, creating an explosion of steam that knocked Ganryu back.
"What the hell is that?" Ganryu yelled as he flipped back, landing by Kaga's side.
"That is... The Kazekage." Kaga said as Pakura slowly came into view, walking out of the steam with her hands by her sides.
"I've had just about enough of you Mist ninja. I'm going to kill all of you in one move!" She suddenly yelled as she summoned as many red flame orbs around her as she could, allowing them to all merge together to create one large one, holding it over her head as she looked forward to the Mist and Leaf shinobi standing before her, each of them watching in terror.
"Take this. Great steaming explosive blast!" Pakura yelled as she tossed the orb into the air and placed her hands together to create the hand sign that would activate the jutsu.
"Shit not good!" Kaga yelled as he looked behind him, knowing there was nothing he could do to save his men.
"Kaga then looked to Ganryu, doing the only thing he knew he could do, quickly making the hand signs as the massive red orb started to expand.
"Water prison jutsu!" Kaga shouted as he hit Ganryu and himself, trapping them both in a ball of water, much to Ganryu's surprise.
"What the heblurru!!!" Ganryu tried to shout as he was suddenly trapped in a ball of water, almost failing to hold his breath due to the surprise.
The giant scorch-style orb suddenly exploded, covering a huge diameter as it did, evaporating any and all water inside of the blast range and killing all who had been caught in the explosion in an instant.
A huge amount of steam had been given off from the blast as the heat rose into the air. With only Pakura left standing as she admired her handy work, smiling to herself knowing she had just killed a huge amount of enemy troops.
The Sand units had retreated back, already knowing not to get in the way of their Kazekage, unless they wanted to be caught in the firing line. Instead, they all rallied and pushed forwards, moving around her flanks as they clashed with the remaining Mist and Leaf troops.
"Shit that was a close one..." Ganryu said as he slowly sat up from the ground, spitting out some of the water he had swallowed.
Kaga did the same as he opened his eyes seeing that they had managed to survive the blast.
"She just wiped out an entire unit with one jutsu..." Ganryu then said as he realised what had happened, taking a look around as the fighting was continuing in the distance.
"Yeah, she's not the Kazekage for nothing..." Kaga said as he slowly stood to his feet.
"But how did you know about her jutsu, Kaga?" Ganryu asked as he used his sword to help pick himself up to his feet.
"I once had a run-in with her in the past... I quickly learnt the hard way about her jutsu's weakness to water. Something I will never forget." Kaga said as he picked his sword up, gripping the hilt tightly as he remembered his fallen comrades.
"So you survived my attack?" Pakura's voice said as the steam faded away, revealing her to the two of them.
"She found us already?" Ganryu said as he took a defensive position, raising his sword as he did.
Kaga kept his hands by his side as he looked her in the eyes, giving her a cold look fuelled by vengeance.
"Kazekage or not, I'm taking you down!" He suddenly yelled, quickly placing his sword into the scabbard on his back before he slapped his hands together and made a few hand signs at rapid speed.
Ganryu watched in surprise as Kaga suddenly charged forwards, clearly having a vendetta against her.
"Wait Kaga, we need a plan of attack!" He tried to yell, watching his friend charge in head-on.
"I have a plan, attack!" Kaga yelled as he jumped into the air.
Pakura watched as he charged toward her, simply smiling as she surrounded herself with her flaming orbs.
"What a fool." She said as she waved her arms, commanding the orbs to attack Kaga as he flew into the air.
"Water style, raging waves jutsu!" Kaga yelled as he unleashed a huge amount of water from his mouth, extinguishing her scorch-style orbs all at once, causing them to burst into steam that blocked both of their vision.
"I can't let her have time to create more of those orbs, I need to press the attack and not let up!" Kage said to himself as he flipped through the air, drawing his sword as he slashed down at her with full force.
Pakura hopped backwards and avoided his sword slash, quickly drawing a kunai in each hand as she used them to block another attack from Kaga, deflecting his blade, causing sparks to fly through the air as both of their reflections were caught in the metal of their blades.
"Did you really think I would be so easy!" She yelled as this time she pressed forwards on the attack, jumping into the air as she threw a spinning back kick at Kaga's lower body, forcing him to bring his knee up to block the attack as she threw one of her kunai at him with a quick flick of the wrist, forcing him to deflect it with his sword.
Pakura landed and flipped back into a handspring, using her free hand to balance as she kicked down at Kaga's head before twisting onto her knees and slashing at his legs, aiming low on purpose.
Kaga didn't realise that Pakura was so well versed in hand-to-hand combat, having been pushed back by her surprising skills.
"It's over!" Pakura shouted as she forced Kaga to jump back in the air to avoid her low slash attack, leaving him with nowhere to go as she threw a scorch-style orb at him with her free hand, waiting for it to hit so she could relish in his death.
"Shit!" Kaga yelled as he didn't have time to react, knowing that this could well be the end.
"Water style, water wall!" Ganryu shouted as he put up a large water wall in front of Kaga, stopping the flaming orb from killing him as it burst into steam.
Kaga smiled as he landed and looked at his friend.
"Looks like I owe you one, Ganryu." He said.
"You owe me more than one, Kaga." He said as he made more hand signs, allowing the water wall to start shooting small yet powerful blasts of water at Pakura.
"You think you can defeat me if you work together!" Pakura shouted as she jumped backwards, flipping onto her hands over and over again until she jumped into the air and twirled with expert skill, avoiding all of the water blasts before she landed on her hands and knee, flicking her hair as she looked up at them quickly.
"We can't take her in a head-on attack, we need some sort of distraction," Ganryu said as he reached into his weapons pouch, taking a hand full of shuriken.
"Agreed!" Kaga also said as he started to make hand signs, watching as Ganryu threw the shuriken using them as a distraction.
Pakura watched as the shuriken flew threw the air towards her, already seeing through their plan.
"How foolish." She said as she allowed two flame orbs to ignite, one in each hand as she used them to melt the shuriken on impact, giving her no cause for concern.
"Water style, water shock wave!" Kaga shouted as he blasted a large amount of water from his mouth, aiming it towards Pakura like a small wave.
Pakura once again watched, unimpressed as the two of them charged toward her, already knowing they were planning to use the large amount of water to cast more jutsu.
"I don't think so!" Pakura suddenly shouted as she once again allowed all of her flame orbs to form together, creating one huge one above the water that Kaga and Ganryu were now running on.
"Not good, I think she has seen through our plan!" Ganryu said as he continued to run across the water.
"Shit, we can't let her use that jutsu again! Kaga said as he slid to a halt, slapping his hands together again as he started to perform more hand signs.
"I've already used a large amount of chakra, but if I don't stop that jutsu, she's going to wipe us out!" He said, quickly making the signs so he could counter her with a jutsu.
"Water-style water dragon!" Kaga shouted, changing the form of the water on the ground into a large dragon.
"Too late!" Pakura shouted as she raised her large flame orb above her head, ready to activate her jutsu and wipe them from the face of the map.
"I don't think so!" Ganryu suddenly shouted as he appeared in a blob of water behind Pakura, taking her by surprise.
"When did he!" She yelled, watching as he swung his blast sword towards her, going for the killing blow.
"I don't have any other choice!" Pakura thought, having to stop her jutsu so she could defend herself against Ganryu's imminent attack. However, that meant she was defenceless against Kaga's water dragon coming from behind her, knowing it was going to be a dangerous call.
Pakura was able to turn and stop Ganryu's attack with her kunai, however, the explosion from the sword took her off guard and sent her flying right into the water dragon, feeling its bite as it crashed down upon her, smashing her into the ground with a mighty roar.
"We did it!" Kaga shouted as he quickly joined Ganryu's side, watching his handy work as the dust settled.
"I hope so..." Ganryu said, having an uneasy feeling as he too watched by Kaga's side.
Meanwhile...
Fuyōna stood side by side with Fugaku Uchiha in the battle with the Stone as they had come face to face with Ōnoki, the third Tsuchikage himself.
"Lord Tsuchikage is here! He saved us!" One of the Stone shinobi shouted, getting the others to rally at the sight of their leader.
Ōnoki took a good look around at the battlefield, seeing his son Kitsuchi had done a good job defending against such powerful foes by himself.
"My, my... This war is certainly a pain." He said as he slowly floated towards the ground, taking his side by his son, who he had placed in charge of this force.
Fuyōna took a step forwards so he could address Ōnoki, hoping that he would be able to talk to him, Kage to Kage.
"Lord Tsuchikage. My name is Fuyōna Yuki, the fifth Mizukage!" Fuyōna said with a strong and clear voice.
"I know very well who you are... Kage slayer." Ōnoki said as he watched him carefully, taking note of how young he was.
"Lord Tsuchikage, I implore you to call off your forces and allow us to seek a more peaceful solution to our problems," Fuyōna said, waiting for his response.
Ōnoki crossed his arms behind his back, continuing to float in the air as he listened to Fuyōna's words.
"Are you saying that I should simply stand aside and watch as you and the Hokage plot against the rest of the great nations? You may be a Kage, but you are still but a child. Do not take me for a fool!" Ōnoki yelled, clearly having been brainwashed by others.
Fuyōna sighed, as he listened to his words.
"I may be young, and I certainly do not take you for a fool, lord Tsuchikage. I and Lord Hokage only wish to improve our village's standing, uniting not only the strength of our military but our economy, building a brighter future for our citizens and nation's people. Our alliance has nothing to do with plotting to declare war on the other nations." Fuyōna said, trying to reason with him.
Ōnoki still stood defiant as he listened to his words with a frown on his face.
"Do you really expect me to believe such lies from one who would kill his own predecessor to take control of a nation!" Ōnoki shouted, squashing Fuyōna's words as if they held no meaning.
"Forget it Fuyōna..." Fugaku suddenly said.
"The only thing the Tsuchikage understands is power. That's the only reason he surrendered in the last war." He said as he watched the enemy carefully.
Fuyōna lowered his head a little, already knowing that his negotiations had failed, feeling shame as he knew more of his men would die in the fighting.
"I guess I have no choice..." Fuyōna said softly as he looked back up at Ōnoki.
"I will give you one last chance to pull your forces back and withdraw from the land of Grass. If you do not, I will use all of my power to force you to surrender, even if I have to kill every signal last one of your men." Fuyōna suddenly said, growing cold as his aura flared to life.
Ōnoki watched him carefully, sensing the chakra that was coming from him, and judging his words, knowing it was not a small threat that he was making. Ōnoki was also no fool, having been fed as much military intelligence from the start of the war as he could, already knowing that Roshi had been defeated and how many men he had lost, as well as Fuyōna's presence in both battles so far, having come to the conclusion that he was only a clone.
However, he also knew that standing against not only the Mizukage, but Fugaku the wicked eye alone with a half-broken army was a foolish idea, one that would not end well for him or his men.
"Father... I think we should withdraw for now, I don't see how we can win this fight." Kitsuchi said, giving his father his honest thoughts.
Ōnoki didn't like it, but he knew his son was right.
"Very well... We will withdraw!" Ōnoki suddenly shouted, raising his hand as he gave the order to his men, getting a surprised reaction from them.
Fuyōna continued to hold his ground as he watched Ōnoki carefully, not about to let his guard down at the last second.
"I will take you up on your offer for us to withdraw from this battle, but do not think that you have won this war," Ōnoki said before he turned around and started to fly away, getting the rest of the Stone's army to slowly follow as they retreated.
Kitsuchi also gave the order to pull back, knowing it was a wise move by his father. After all, they had taken heavy losses and the Leaf and Mist still held their commanders in toe, proving they had a stronger force than them.
"Are you running away!" A voice suddenly shouted from the distance, getting Kitsuchi's attention and causing him to turn around.
"I'm ready for round two when you are!" The voice shouted again, causing everyone to look towards a small plateau, seeing none other than Mangetsu, who was standing holding his sword over his shoulder.
Kitsuchi had to squint to see who it was, not believing his eyes once he did.
"He really survived that jutsu..." He said knowing he was another to watch out for in the coming battles that the future might bring.
Fuyōna also looked up, not being able to help but smile as he knew what Mangetsu was like. However, the thought did cross his mind, should they attack at full force and try to destroy the stone army along with the Tsuchikage.
However, he could see the look on the rest of the troop's faces, seeing that they were relieved that the fighting was over for now.
With that Fuyōna watched as the Stone retreated into the distance, showing that they had no intention of turning around and trying a surprise attack.
Fuyōna slowly turned to the army, getting ready to address them as he looked them over.
"It is thanks to your strength and resilience that we have prevailed today! Only thanks to the efforts of you brave men and women have we pushed the enemy forces back!" Fuyōna shouted, projecting his voice so that every one of them could hear him clearly.
The Mist and Leaf shinobi that stood before him started to cheer, giving an almighty victory cry as the battle had finally come to an end.
"I take it I can leave the rest to you." Fuyōna then said as he turned to Fugaku.
"Yeah, leave the rest to me." He said, still having his arms crossed over his chest, but this time flashing a small smile, causing Fuyōna to also smile.
The battle against the stone may have come to an end, but the battle against the Sand was still raging on and showing no sign of stopping any time soon. Giving Fuyōna yet another thing he had to worry about.
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Alright thats the end of this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, and as always have a great day!
Remember to check out my P.atreon page for more! Also check out my new Naruto story, Naruto Rebirth. Its about three friends who are reborn into the Naruto world with a system!