"Scorch Release!?" Onoki shot to his feet as he was informed about the progression of their first push against the Suna forces. His wide eyes grew alarmed, instantly remembering the legendary trouble Pakura of the Scorch Release gave his village's forces during the previous war. Cold sweat washed over him.
That damnable woman once vaporized a quarter of the Iwa army by herself! Sure, it was a small one composed mostly of genin and low-level chunin, but still!
Onoki had learned a harsh lesson about how foolish it was to send his forces against a Scorch user while hoping to win with numbers. Scorch Release wasn't like other bloodlines or jutsu. Much like his Dust Release, there wasn't much that could counter or block it. Even worse, unlike his Dust Release, Scorch techniques usually had a devastating area of effect. Fighting it required a completely different approach.
"I need to see this for myself!" He exclaimed and strode out of the command tent like a man on a mission despite the protests and attempts to stop him by his loyal jonin.
They were correct. He would be putting himself in danger, but he was the Tsuchikage! He had a duty to his troops. If the new Scorch user was as much of a threat as Pakura had been, he needed to know. They could always retreat and come back with a different strategy later.
Flying into the air, Onoki was very wary of any sudden beam coming at him, but surprisingly, no such thing happened. Yet, he didn't lower his guard as he rose to a respectable altitude where he could oversee the battle below.
Before he did that, however, he glanced toward the rock where he knew Suna had its command center. His eyes fell on the figure of the rude youngster who had almost killed him three days ago.
Their eyes met, and they shared a tense moment. Onoki now knew who the man was, and what made him even angrier was that he was actually a Konoha ninja. He was ready to snap into action at a moment's notice, but after several seconds, he realized that as long as he didn't overstep, this Ren would not attack him either.
Tersely nodding, he kept part of his attention on this threat while he finally looked at the situation of his forces on the battlefield. His experienced gaze quickly assessed the situation, causing him to frown in dissatisfaction, but... Then he sighed in relief.
"Scorch Release? This? Don't make me laugh." He muttered with a grunt, feeling foolish for reacting so strongly when the extent of the girl's prowess was so abysmal.
Yes, the center of his forces was suffering casualties and was stalemated halfway toward reaching the enemy lines. But from this far up, Onoki could tell the situation was not that bad. Casualties were an unfortunate certainty of war. The important thing, however, was what their lives were exchanged for.
While the center came to a halt, the left and right wings were progressing nicely. His ninjas managed to use the cover to reach the enemy lines and engage the Suna ninjas in close-quarter combat. The Suna forces were even being pushed back in those places. All the while, the Scorch girl was having immense trouble keeping just the Iwa forces in the center at bay.
Onoki could easily see she was inexperienced. Not yet grown to her prime. She was a far cry from the sheer might Pakura of the Scorch Release so effortlessly wielded during the Third War.
He felt a sudden itch to vaporize her with his Dust Release before she could get anywhere close to that level. Nipping her threat in the bud would let him sleep easier at night. His hands twitched slightly up, only to stop as he noticed with the corner of his eye that far in the distance, the Konoha youngster threateningly imitated him, his eyes practically dared him to try it.
Pursing his lips, Onoki eventually huffed and slowly put his hands down. The risk was not worth the effort. For now.
Since he was already here, he decided he might as well continue to observe the clash, looking for a good opportunity to maybe do something.
One never knew. His enemies could slip at any moment. Vigilance was imperative.
...
Kankuro cursed as he pulled a kunai from the wrist storage seal Ren gifted him. The weapon suddenly appearing in his hand was enough to surprise the Iwa chunin, who managed to get close to him, and the unfortunate woman barely resisted as Kankuro drove the kunai into her eye.
Not paying the newly-made corpse any more attention, Kankuro snapped his fingers and skillfully controlled the chakra threads connected to his puppet, causing a senbon shooter to spray a cluster of Iwa ninjas, managing to kill some and injure others before a few Suna ninjas engaged them.
By then, yet another Iwa ninja, one that felt like a genin, already rushed at Kankuro from behind. He ducked under the teenage kid's lunge and, with a flex of his fingers, a discarded shuriken was snatched by a chakra string before being sent flying from the ground. A split second later, it ripped the kid's throat wide open at an angle that ensured Kankuro's catsuit would stay untouched as the kid's cooling corpse flopped onto the ground.
"Why do I always have the worst luck?" He bemoaned his luck while causing his Karasu puppet to separate into several pieces as hidden blades unfolded and started attacking preoccupied Iwa ninjas from their blind spots.
"I am a puppeteer, for fuck's sake! I am supposed to fight at rang-, grah!" An earth bullet almost nailed him in the face, and he barely managed to throw himself to the side. 'Fuck this!' He thought as he landed into a roll and sprang back onto his feet, only to hop into a nearby trench, all the while his puppet did not stop fighting.
For the next fifteen minutes, Kankuro grew progressively more weary as the frenzied melee continued. He had to navigate the battlefield to both avoid getting killed while also assisting his own comrades, but the undeniable truth was that they were slowly losing ground.
The left wing was not having a good time.
A loud whistle suddenly resounded through the air, and Kankuro couldn't help but tiredly grin. "Fucking finally." He muttered before he started covering the retreat of the weaker, still-alive Suna ninjas, as he was also stepping back and heading toward the third line of trenches.
Noticing the pursuing Iwa forces, Kankuro coldly smirked. With yet another twitch of his finger, a flare was sent into the sky from his puppet, and Kankuro's smirk widened.
"That bastard Ren... Let's see if this will work." A glint of anticipation filled his gaze before his world turned purple.
...
The minutes stretched as Onoki watched the slow slaughter below. To be honest, it was quite boring. These were not the cream of the crop elites of his village.
No. Those were still back in Iwa, getting ready for their campaign against Konoha.
Sure, their Daimyo wanted Suna punished, but what did that have to do with Iwa's ambitions? They only needed to appear to be obedient to satisfy their ruler's vanity. Other than that, Iwa only committed subpar forces to this war.
Then again, that was how their conflicts with Suna always went. Onoki was not stupid enough to think his forces could advance all the way to Sunagakure. No. Two provinces near the borders would be enough for him.
In such a merchant-filled land like the Wind Country, even that would earn Iwa a lot of money while only using second or third-rate ninjas. It was the epitome of big benefits for a small investment.
Watching how the Scorch girl was still, even after half an hour, holding the Iwa ninjas in the center from getting close, Onoki regretted a bit that he didn't assign more jonin to this front.
But no matter, the left and right wings were doing fine. Suddenly, the left wing of Suna's forces collapsed, and they started retreating, making Onoki feel smug.
Now, his forces only needed to advance a bit, and then they could flank the center. In an hour or so, this battle would be theirs!
His good mood was interrupted as he saw a retard from his village spew a torrent of water against the Scorch girl's superheated winds. The two attacks met in the middle, and an intensely hot, sizzling vapour was created before it was blown back at the Iwa forces by the following wind techniques.
Onoki grimaced and almost didn't manage to resist the urge to rub the bridge of his nose as the now dead moron caused nearly forty dead Iwa ninjas with his stupidity.
Before he could lament about it more, a flare suddenly flew up into the air above the left wing of the Suna forces, exploding in the air. For a moment, Onoki wondered what the signal was for...
Only for his jaw to drop when an explosion of deeply purple smoke covered the entire left wing, submerging hundreds of Suna and Iwa ninjas together in its grasp.
"Those madmen! They are poisoning both their own and my ninjas!" Onoki whispered in horror as his throat suddenly went dry and his face paled. Suna was renowned for its poisons, but they had never done something this drastic before. Those ninjas... they were as good as dead!
While Onoki's attention was captivated by this dreadful spectacle, the Suna ninjas on the right wing fully retreated to the third line of trenches, causing the Iwa forces to rejoice.
But it was short-lived as the true, sinister purpose of those trenches was revealed just as the Iwa forces ducked into the first and second line of Suna's previous trenches for cover.
Numerous hidden mechanisms embedded in the walls of the trenches were activated at once by the retreating Suna ninjas, spewing everything from needles, kunai, and poisoned gas at the unfortunate Iwa ninjas that were trying to use the trenches for cover.
This drove them out of them near instantly, but the already newly entrenched Suna ninjas were already waiting for it, and as the true masters of ranged combat, they made the Iwa ninjas pay dearly in blood by drowning them in ninjutsu.
Once again, the battle had completely shifted within a minute, while Onoki watched in disbelief, wondering when Suna had grown this ruthless. Putting traps in their own fortifications, he could understand, but poisoning their own?
But even those tactics were unable to completely deter the Iwa forces. More and more Iwa ninjas joined the fray, and outside of the left wing that was still submerged in a cloud of poisonous smoke, the center and the right wing returned to an even bloodier stalemate.