"They're here!"
"Iwa shinobi incoming!"
"Hold the line! Just thirty minutes! Thirty minutes is all we need!"
At the defensive works before Tenchi Bridge, the Konoha border commander wiped sweat from his brow as shadows burst from the treeline ahead.
Every Leaf shinobi tightened their grip.
This was it.
Victory — or collapse — hinged on them.
A thousand battered Iwa shinobi stormed out of the forest.
Even before closing distance, a storm of kunai, senbon, shuriken, and burning explosive tags filled the air.
Metal shrieked.
Detonations thundered.
But the difference in logistics was obvious.
The Iwa remnants had fought for days without resupply. Their projectile barrage faltered quickly under Konoha's prepared defenses.
They were suppressed.
And yet—
They charged harder.
Every Iwa shinobi understood the truth.
Behind them: four pursuit squads.
Retreat meant death.
Forward was the only direction left.
The distance collapsed.
Steel met steel.
Bodies slammed into the first defense line.
"Madmen…" the Leaf commander muttered.
They weren't fighting like shinobi.
They were fighting like cornered beasts.
"Contract formation! Fall back to the second defensive line! Do NOT let a single Iwa through!"
The Leaf commander adjusted instantly.
He'd miscalculated earlier — spreading the defensive rings wide around the bridge to layer resistance.
But this wasn't a cautious advance.
It was suicidal impact.
If one hole opened, the entire Iwa force would flood through.
Better to compress now.
They fell back toward the bridge.
Tenchi Bridge was narrow — barely wide enough for a dozen shinobi abreast.
As the defense tightened—
The terrain itself became their ally.
Now, at any given moment, only dozens of Iwa could engage.
The rest were bottlenecked.
Forced to wait.
Forced to watch their comrades die before stepping into the meat grinder.
Leaf shinobi rotated seamlessly.
One fell.
Another replaced him instantly.
For the first time—
The line stabilized.
The commander exhaled.
At this rate, thirty minutes?
They could hold three hours.
"Captain! They're scaling the canyon walls!"
The warning snapped him around.
Iwa shinobi, blocked at the bridge entrance, had diverted.
They leapt into the canyon, chakra adhering to their feet, racing across sheer cliff faces like spiders.
For civilians, the cliff was death.
For shinobi—
Just another path.
The commander reacted immediately.
"Emergency Plan Two! Cross the bridge! NOW!"
He led the withdrawal personally.
On the opposite side lay their true fortress.
For most shinobi, crossing a hundred-meter canyon was no trivial matter.
The fastest route was still the bridge.
The alternative — descend the cliffs, cross the raging river below, climb back up — was slow and vulnerable.
Exactly why the bridge was left intact.
Hope.
And a funnel.
Once across, the Leaf forces fortified the narrow span.
Now—
The ten-meter-wide bridge limited Iwa's numbers.
Those attempting cliff assaults were exposed to attacks from above.
Terrain dominance shifted completely.
Minutes passed.
Blood flooded the canyon mouth.
Half of Konoha's five hundred had fallen.
Iwa losses were nearly double.
Limbs scattered.
Eyes stared lifelessly.
No screams remained.
Only steel and breath.
Then—
A flare rose in the rear sky.
Signal.
Four pursuit squads had arrived.
From behind the Iwa formation, over a thousand fresh Leaf shinobi erupted forward.
The trap closed.
Leaf morale surged.
Iwa morale shattered.
Under the command of:
Uchiha Jin
Uchiha Obito
Namikaze Minato
Orochimaru
The hastily reformed Iwa defense collapsed instantly.
Against four Kage-level combatants—
Resistance became slaughter.
Hundreds of surviving Iwa shinobi—
Became lambs awaiting the knife.
Less than thirty minutes later—
Minato's kunai flashed.
The final Iwa shinobi fell in a single, precise strike.
Silence descended over Tenchi Bridge.
The encirclement was complete.
The remnants were annihilated.
The battle—
Was over.
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