Azula saw that flicker of confidence in his eyes. The kind a man gets when he's holding a pair of threes but wants you to think he's got a royal flush.
Interesting.
Her lips curved. So he thought he had something up his sleeve. A trump card. Some hidden ace that would turn the tide.
Only one way to find out.
She almost felt bad for him. The Raikage would've been a fun real challenge that may have made her blood sing and her bones ache the next morning.
But since he wasn't there, she chose to go for the second objective, which was to kill, maim, eliminate and thin the herd until these mountain-dwelling guys decided their little cultivations were better off practiced back home where it was safe.
She liked that wording. Make them retreat to their mountain.
Time to put on a show.
The first crackle of lightning made a few of them swallow. By the time the full Lightning Release Chakra Mode cloaked her in blazing electric aura, some of them had stopped breathing entirely.
She could see the recognition and the fear in their eyes. They'd watched their Raikage tear through battlefields with this very technique. They should know exactly what it could do.
And now a stranger was wearing it like a second skin.
Beside her, Tsunade's Water Release Chakra Armor flowed into existence with a wicked grin. The same armor that had laughed off the Raikage's full-powered punch. The same woman who'd turned that punch into a learning experience.
D's earlier optimism took a sharp left turn into 'oh no' territory.
But Azula had to give credit where it was due. These weren't Kiri-nin.
There was no panic in their eyes, no desperate glances toward escape routes. Some of them had already made peace with dying here. They just wanted to make it hurt on the way out.
That was almost respectable.
"Squad 9—Earth Barrier. Now."
D's voice cut through the tension without hesitation. A commander doing what commanders do even if it may not have been the correct decision.
Too bad casting speed meant nothing when your opponent's speed was almost like teleporting.
Azula blinked out of existence and reappeared directly in front of him, fist already cocked. Squad 9's hands were still halfway through their seals when her knuckles introduced themselves to D's ribs with enough force to crack stone.
Crack, maybe literally.
Behind her, Tsunade had been waiting, letting them build their precious walls first. Let them feel safe behind all that earth and effort.
"Pressure Super Punch!"
She didn't just punch the wall. She annihilated it. The kind of hit that made physics cry and retreat to a corner. One wall was strong enough to tank B-rank jutsu, then it ceased to exist. The second wall joined it, then the third, fourth, fifth.
But the real cruelty was the broken pieces that flew instead of just falling. A shotgun blast of stone shrapnel moving faster than most Chunin could track, much less dodge.
By the time D picked himself up off the ground, courtesy of Azula's fist introducing him to it, she'd already carved through a dozen ninjas trying to intercept her pursuit. Their bodies hit the floor in rhythm, a percussion section for Tsunade's ongoing demolition project.
First contact: thirty seconds and almost thirty bodies.
What in the actual hell?
For the first time in his career, D questioned whether he understood what 'ninja' even meant. This wasn't even a battle. This was a slaughter wrapped in lightning and served with a side of absolute terror.
But he was the commander.
His function wasn't to understand. His function wasn't to survive. His function was to defend this base and make them pay for every inch of it.
If we can kill even one, he thought, pushing through the pain in his ribs. If we can take even one of them down, A-sama will understand. And the village will be safer for it.
The math was simple and the cost was acceptable. At least that's what he understood despite him being bad at calculation.
He rose to his feet, blood dripping from his mouth, and prepared to die like a Kumo-nin should.
•••
While Azula and Tsunade were duking it out in what could only be described as a 'who-can-kill-the-most-kumo-nin' contest, things at the back of the army were getting interesting.
With over 10,000 Kumo-nin packed into the area, the two heavy hitters were way too busy trying to kill to notice the little people.
Then there was Mabura, the Raikage's secretary—a gig he inherited from his father, who got it from his grandpa, who got it from his father was was a Daimyō guard during the Warring State era.
It was a family business, really. And what did this family do? They had this neat trick called the Heavenly Transfer Technique. You want something shipped anywhere at the speed of light? They're your guys.
Great for wartime logistics, right?
But then came A, the current Raikage, who decided to one-up everyone by being tough enough to survive being transported.
Suddenly, this technique went from 'useful' to 'absolutely terrifying'. The guy could theoretically pop up anywhere in the ninja world faster than one can say 'oh crap'.
'Mabura. What is the current status?.' A voice crackled inside his head, his buddy from Comms using some top-secret mind-whisper technique.
Mabura's mental gears turned. 'Uh, the Raikage just got the news. He's currently sprinting toward the teleport station. I'm guessing ten minutes, give or take?'
'Ten minutes...' The voice trailed off, and Mabura could almost hear his colleague's gaze drifting toward the absolute chaos unfolding up front. Lightning was cracking, the ground was quaking and people were screaming.
Ten minutes? That's a lot of lives. And even if the boss showed up with all the lightning and muscles in the world... would it even be enough to settle the score?
°°°
(A few minutes ago)
It had been almost two full days since the Raikage left Kumo for Iwa, and today was supposed to be the day he headed back. In that time, he, Onoki, and Ebizō had cooked up a solid plan to systematically weaken Konoha.
But just as things were falling into place, the emergency lightning transmission network crackled to life. And that changed everything.
The setup was simple: before leaving, the Raikage had a portion of his Lightning Chakra sealed inside a special tool back in the village.
If that seal was ever broken, the chakra would instantly snap back to him faster than thought. Kind of like how a Shadow Clone's memories hit you the moment it poofs out of existence, except instead of memories, it's pure chakra surging back.
There were limits, of course. You couldn't keep that chakra sealed forever, and you couldn't store enough to fully recharge someone who'd been drained dry.
But It was perfect as a distress signal. The moment that chakra slammed back into him, A knew something had gone very, very wrong.
Without missing a beat, he formed a Lightning Clone, his twist on Tobirama's old technique and flickered into his Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
Then he was off, tearing through the landscape at speeds that would leave 99,99% shinobi in the dust, heading for the nearest Heavenly Transfer Technique station.
Normally, if Mabura were here, the guy could teleport him anywhere in the world. But Mabura was stationed at the frontlines, with no clue where the Raikage was at any given moment.
So the only way this worked was if A reached one of the preset transfer stations. Once there, the formation would let Mabura pull him back either to another station or directly to his location.
The nearest station was just outside the Land of Earth. And with A's speed second only to Azula and her Flying Raijin, he'd be there in a few minutes.
The clone he left behind would fill Onoki in. Normally, A would've loved to bring reinforcements. But he knew neither the Tsuchikage nor anyone could keep up with him, and after a Heavenly Transfer, the strain would flatten someone like them
Still, as he blurred across the terrain, one thought gnawed at him: What the hell could've happened?
(END OF THE CHAPTER)
Late for the update, most of you probably used your power stones on others, hoped to makes it back to the top three but oh well, thanks for the support still, it's really cool.