"Meow."
Takeshi let out a soft meow of agreement.
"What about Orochimaru?" Jiraiya mused. "The three of us, plus Kura, Minato, and Takeshi. How does six against one sound? We should be able to take down Onoki that way."
It was the kind of ridiculous plan only Jiraiya could dream up.
'Six against one?'
The thought alone was humiliating. They had already lost to Onoki once as a team of three, ganging up on him with six shinobi would be a farce. Even if they won, what dignity would be left? The other villages would laugh them into obscurity, and Onoki would go down in history as the man who held off six of Konoha's best.
Tsunade stared at him, speechless for a long moment before turning to the black cat. "Takeshi, what do you think?"
"Meow?" Takeshi tilted his head.
'And now they're asking the cat for advice,' he thought. 'Figures. Onoki's a tricky one. His jutsu don't just pin you down, they make him faster, let him fly. I don't have much of an advantage in the air.'
He considered his options. 'Gate of Great God could suppress him, sure, but only if it hits. If he dodges or just atomizes it with his Dust Release, I'm just burning through chakra for nothing.'
With his current reserves, he could probably only manage two or three gates powerful enough to restrain the Tsuchikage. There was, of course, the other possibility: wait for Onoki's old back to give out. But he wasn't quite that ancient yet, so the odds of that happening weren't nearly as high as they were in the stories from his past life. Banking on that was like waiting to win the gacha.
If it were up to him, he would just lie back and wait for Onoki to surrender. A stable, risk-free victory.
But he knew none of the Sannin would go for that. Not even Jiraiya, for all his talk of peace, would be naive enough to think letting Onoki go now would make him suddenly abandon his campaign against Konoha. That was pure fantasy.
A fight was inevitable. The only question was how they would approach it, target the jinchuriki to break the stalemate, or go for a direct decapitation strike against Onoki himself.
It was a difficult choice.
After a moment, Takeshi offered a simple suggestion. "Why don't we try first? If it doesn't work, we can all just jump him."
'Jump him?' Tsunade mulled over the simple, brutal logic of it. Takeshi had a point. How would they know they couldn't pin Onoki down if they didn't even try? Before the fight with the Raikage, everyone had thought he'd be an impossible opponent, too.
And hadn't they won anyway?
With that thought, she nodded. "I'll go out and act as bait. If their intelligence is solid, they should prioritize attacking me. The rest of you can look for an opening to capture him."
'Bait?' Jiraiya's eyes widened slightly. 'A trap. Orochimaru's work, then.' He immediately understood what she was implying. Tsunade didn't have many weaknesses, but her hemophobia was a fatal one. For a shinobi, a fear of blood was a death sentence on the battlefield.
"That's right," Tsunade confirmed, seeing his expression. "Orochimaru and I used my hemophobia to set a trap for Onoki, with Rasa as the messenger. I don't know if Rasa actually passed the information along, but it's worth a try. We don't lose much either way."
"Tsunade-sama, you have hemophobia?!" Kura exclaimed, his face a mask of shock.
Tsunade couldn't help but chuckle. "Hahaha, you never noticed, Kura?"
'So my acting was that convincing,' she thought with a flicker of pride. 'He didn't see through it at all.'
"Meow," Takeshi added dryly. "You only fought once, and that was just to scare the Raikage. Besides..." He glanced at the bewildered Uchiha. 'Kura was unconscious for the entire second half of the Kirigakure campaign. He only woke up after we'd dealt with the Mizukage. It'd be a miracle if he knew you were afraid of blood.'
But Kura shot to his feet, his expression firm. "No. If anything happened to you, the blow to Konoha would be too great. You can't be part of this battle."
"Don't be so hasty," Tsunade said, waving a hand. "The hemophobia is in the past. I'm not afraid of blood anymore." She explained that after a long period of therapy and self-conditioning, she had mostly conquered her fear. There were still minor issues, but nothing that would compromise her in a fight. It was precisely because she had this ace up her sleeve that she had dared to parade her supposed weakness in front of Rasa. If she had made the same mistake Chiyo had and gotten herself captured, losing the Hokage seat would have been the least of her worries. The shame would have been unbearable.
In her heart, avoiding that shame was far more important than any title. The position of Hokage... it would be nice to have, but she wouldn't crumble if she didn't get it.
"Tsunade," Jiraiya said, his voice dropping its usual levity. "I need to ask you one last time. Are you sure you're okay? This is important. I won't have you gambling with our comrades lives."
He was rarely this serious, and when he was, he didn't tolerate games. Tsunade met his gaze and stood, her own voice ringing with conviction. "I would never gamble with the lives of our people. Because I am the one who will be the Fourth Hokage."
Jiraiya was silent. The war wasn't even over, and she was already calling dibs on the hat. He didn't care about the position himself, but he wondered what Orochimaru would think. After a moment, he sat back down. "Fine. I'll leave command of the front line to you. I'll stay back and secure the main camp in case Onoki tries a sneak attack."
"Mm." Tsunade then turned to Kura, asking about which shinobi in the camp were best suited for a frontal assault and going over other logistical details. Takeshi quickly lost interest and was about to find something else to do when he noticed Jiraiya staring at him, a distinctly unfriendly look in his eyes.
'What does he want?' the cat wondered, narrowing his eyes and glaring back.
Jiraiya pointed a thumb at the manuscript in his hand. There was no way Tsunade could have found it without a snitch, and it wasn't the first time the damn cat had pulled something like this. Takeshi glanced at the manuscript, then dismissed him with a flick of his ear and turned his attention to his system's store.
Flying was essential when fighting Onoki. Otherwise, with one combatant in the sky and the other on the ground, the fight was already lost. Suddenly, a familiar name caught his eye in the twenty-thousand-point range: Earth Release: Lightened Boulder Jutsu.
It was an Iwagakure specialty, and a notoriously difficult one at that. The price wasn't outrageous, but compared to something as efficient as the Flying Thunder God, it felt a little steep. Still, as he thought about it, a plan began to form in his mind. He could use it not only to counter Onoki's flight but also to turn the Tsuchikage's own techniques against him. He glanced at the Added-Weight Boulder Jutsu, but it was even more expensive. The Lightened Boulder Jutsu would be enough.
He made his decision. Purchase.
The knowledge flooded his mind, the required seals and chakra control settling into place as if he'd known them his whole life. Earth Release wasn't his strongest affinity, but it was a close third after Wind and Water. He was itching to try it out, but with three top-tier shinobi nearby, each with their own sensory abilities, using a new jutsu would be noticed instantly.
He waited until their meeting concluded and everyone began to disperse, then slipped out of the main camp to test his new jutsu.
The effect was perfect. With a minimal amount of chakra, he could drastically reduce his own mass, making him faster and allowing him to fly with ease. It was a worthy purchase.
Just then, he felt a flicker of chakra nearby.
"Takeshi, what are you doing hiding out here?"
Minato appeared in a flash, looking slightly exasperated. "I've been looking all over for you. For a second there, I felt like a genin again, chasing cats around the village." He had eventually given up and just used the Flying Thunder God to find him.
Takeshi just meowed, not bothering to explain.
"We're moving out now," Minato said. "No rest. We're launching an immediate assault on the Iwagakure main camp."
"Okay, meow! Let's go!"
Takeshi leaped onto Minato's shoulder, hitching a ride back to the assembly point. The troops were already gathered. Hizashi stood at the front with a contingent of his clan and several members of the Inuzuka clan, their ninken standing ready. As standard procedure dictated, the reconnaissance team would move out first.
When Minato teleported them near the group, Takeshi found himself staring at the ninja hounds. The dogs turned their heads and stared right back, their expressions decidedly unfriendly. The black cat crouched on Minato's shoulder, held his head high, and looked down on them with contempt.
'Thank kami I'm strong,' he thought with a sense of relief. 'Otherwise, I'd be like one of these ninken, getting ridden around by people, forced to track, fight, and go on missions. They squeeze every last drop of use out of a ninja beast.'
He felt a surge of pride. 'I'm different. I'm a jonin. I have privileges. And most importantly, my normal form is small. No one would be shameless enough to ask a little cat to enlarge himself just to carry them. Even if someone like that black-hearted Kakashi had the nerve, he wouldn't dare say it out loud.'
This was the power of strength.
He let out a few low meows. Though they didn't speak the same language, the system's "Dog Language" perk meant they understood him perfectly.
"How pitiful."
"My sympathies."
"A true ninja beast should ride others. What kind of self-respecting creature lets others ride them."
After his remarks, low growls rumbled in the dogs chests.
"Takeshi, you really love to cause trouble," Minato sighed, turning sideways to put some distance between the cat and the hounds. A few moments later, at the command of their Inuzuka masters, the dogs reluctantly turned and followed Hizashi.
Takeshi glanced at his system. 'Tsk. Only five hundred points. These dogs are pathetic. I should have provoked their masters, too. It's not like I've ever gotten along with the Inuzuka clan anyway.'
"Everyone, move out!" Tsunade's voice boomed across the clearing. In an instant, the assembled shinobi surged forward.
--**--**
At that same moment, in the Iwagakure main camp, Onoki was in a foul mood. He had received the intelligence last night and immediately convened a meeting with his jonin. He hadn't demanded surrender, but had laid out the facts for discussion. After a full morning of debate, the consensus was clear: they wanted to fight. Onoki, however, felt that surrender was the more prudent option.
Those bastards from Kumogakure had clearly struck a deal with Konoha and were now hammering Iwa's eastern border. He'd already had to divert forces to deal with them. If Konoha had truly neutralized Sunagakure... a war on two fronts was a losing proposition. Not every village was as resilient as Konoha.
But his shinobi were spoiling for a fight. What could he do?
Finally, he had put his foot down. He was known throughout the ninja world for his stubbornness, and once he made a decision, he never went back on it. He declared that they would prepare for peace talks. Though his ninja were reluctant, they had no choice but to agree.
'Peace talks? They hadn't lost, on what grounds could this be called surrender?'
But not long after he dispatched the envoy, the man returned in a panic, bearing terrible news.
"Tsuchikage-sama, Konoha is attacking!"
"What?" Onoki shot to his feet, his face a mixture of disbelief and rising fury. "Where did you get that information?"
'Those dogs from Konoha!' he seethed internally. 'Just because they beat those Sunagakure cowards, they think Iwagakure is a pushover? Do they think rock is the same as sand?!'
"Tsuchikage-sama, the peace talks..."
"To hell with peace talks!" Onoki roared. "We'll talk after we win!"
He shot into the air with his Lightened Boulder Jutsu, bursting through the top of his tent and hovering over the camp. Sensing their leader's movement, Iwa ninja poured out of their tents and began to assemble.
"Konoha is attacking!" Onoki bellowed, his voice carrying across the entire encampment. "Everyone, prepare for battle! We will kill every last one of those Konoha dogs and drive them back!"
"Yes, sir!"
A wave of disbelief, quickly followed by excitement, washed over the Iwa forces. They had been locked in a frustrating stalemate for too long, and Onoki's talk of peace had been a bitter pill to swallow.
Now, this was much better. Peace talks? To hell with them. The time for talk was after victory. Winning a war was what gave you the right to speak. Anything else was a disgrace.
A massive force of Iwa ninja surged out from the camp, eagerly seeking battle.
On the edge of their patrol range, Hizashi kept his Byakugan active, tracking the enemy's reconnaissance teams. It wasn't long before he saw them converging on their position.
"Sir!" one of his clansmen reported, having noticed the same anomaly.
"Retreat," Hizashi ordered, raising a hand. The area ahead was littered with Iwa's traps, unsuitable for a large-scale engagement. They needed to draw them out.
But the Iwa forces were moving faster than he'd anticipated. They had only fallen back a short distance when the enemy vanguard appeared in his Byakugan's range. And leading them, flying high above the rest, was a furious-looking Onoki. The old man had flown all the way here. He had definitely seen them.
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