Hiruzen Sarutobi, his body a symphony of aching joints and depleted chakra, watched the Third Raikage with the focus of a master strategist observing a pivotal piece on a shogi board. He saw the minute shift in Ay's stance—the subtle redistribution of weight from the balls of his feet, ready to attack, to his heels, preparing to retreat. The Raikage was a force of nature, but even a storm eventually exhausts its rage and moves on.
A small, almost imperceptible smile, thin and devoid of warmth, touched Hiruzen's lips. It was not a smile of triumph, but of confirmation.
Without a word, without even a turn of his head, he shifted his weight slightly. It was a minute gesture, but to the Mizukage standing twenty paces away, it was as clear as a shouted command. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second. A subtle, almost imperceptible nod passed between them.
Then, they moved.
Exhaustion was burned away in a final, desperate surge of chakra. They flanked the Raikage not with blinding speed, but with deliberate, coordinated purpose, cutting off his clearest paths of egress.
As Ay's muscles coiled, preparing to become a lightning bolt aimed at the distant Kumo lines, Hiruzen's voice cut through the wind.
"Leaving so soon, Raikage?" he called. "You came all this way for a fight, don't disgrace yourself or your village by running with your tail between your legs."
The insult was deliberate, a goad to prick the man's monumental pride. But the true attack was already underway. As he spoke, Hiruzen slammed his palm onto the cracked earth. The ground beneath Ay's feet instantly glowed with a network of crimson cracks, as if the crust of the world had turned to fragile glass over a bed of magma.
"Earth & Fire Release: Flame Prison—Ashen Seal!"
The circle of earth beneath Ay liquified into a searing, molten mire. But it was the pillars of flame that erupted around the perimeter that held the true danger. They were not mere fire; each roaring column was woven with intricate, glowing fuinjutsu seals that pulsed with a distorting energy. The very air within the prison warped, and Ay snarled as he felt it—a heavy, draining pressure that sought to slow his movements and choke the flow of his chakra.
Before Ay could muster the raw force to break through, Hiroshi acted.
"Hyōton: Hyōsō Heki!" (Ice Release: Glacial Fang Wall!)
It was not a wall, but a forest of spears. Spires of jagged, azure ice burst from the ground with the sound of shattering glaciers.
"KRA-KOOM!"
They spiralled around the outside of Hiruzen's flame prison, not to extinguish it, but to complement it. The result was a maelstrom of conflicting elements—blistering heat and absolute cold clashing in a violent whirlwind of scalding steam and freezing mist.
Hiroshi's voice emerged from the mist, "You thought you could just leave, Raikage? No one leaves."
Enraged, Ay roared, "You insects!" His lightning armour intensified, burning so brightly it pierced the elemental chaos, a blinding aura of pure power. He became a battering ram of incandescent energy, smashing through the flaming seals with brute force.
"BOOM!" A pillar of fire shattered.
"CRASH!" A spiralling fang of ice exploded into a million shards, only to begin reforming instantly thanks to Hiroshi's will. With each step, he melted and shattered his way toward the edge of the prison.
But as he broke through the final ring of ice and flame, a cold suspicion dawned on him. Both Hiruzen and Hiroshi were standing perfectly still; they had not moved to intercept him. They simply watched.
The pieces clicked into place with horrifying clarity.
"Clones…" he growled, the word dripping with venom. "Shadow clones."
The real Hiruzen and Hiroshi were already a quarter-mile away, standing on the highest remaining ridge of the ruined plateau. Their hands moved in perfect, synchronised rhythm, weaving a complex sequence of seals that was neither purely of Konoha nor Kiri, but a brutal, efficient fusion of both.
Below them, in a wide circle encompassing the entire battlefield, a dozen shadow clones from each Kage stood with their palms pressed to the earth.
"Combined Technique: Four Crimson Mirrors—Eternal Seal Formation!" their voices chanted in unison, amplified by their combined will.
From the circle of clones, a barrier erupted. It was not a dome of pure energy, but a translucent, multifaceted wall of overlapping hues—the deep crimson of Konoha's fire and the frigid, abyssal blue of Kiri's ice. It rose with a sound like a monstrous crystal growing,
"SHUUUUU—OOOM"
It sealed the crater, the plateau, and everyone inside within its shimmering, crackling confines.
The sudden development froze the other conflict within the barrier. Saitetsu, who had been marshalling his waning sand for another assault on Onoki, halted as his half-formed constructs crumbled to dust, their energy repelled by the new barrier's innate pressure.
"Hiruzen! Hiroshi!" the Kazekage's voice cracked with strain and outrage. "What is the meaning of this?" His sand, a dark tide of frustration, rushed toward the shimmering wall in a powerful wave. But upon impact, "ZZZRAAAPT!"
The barrier flared, repelling the attack violently and scattering the sand as superheated shards of molten glass that rained down, sizzling.
Onoki let out a dry, croaking laugh.
"It seems your new 'friends' didn't think to include you in their little scheme, Kazekage. How does it feel to be just another piece on the Hokage's board?"
"Shut your mouth, you stone-headed buffon!"
Saitetsu snarled, his pride stung more deeply than his body. "I want answers from them!"
Ay stood seething, his mind racing. The realisation struck him with the force of a physical blow.
"Those bastards…" he growled, his voice low and dangerous. "They're not keeping us here to win… They're keeping us here to stall!"
Hiruzen, standing calmly as the dust settled around his perch, looked down, his expression unreadable. He offered a faint, knowing smile.
"You're sharp, Raikage," he conceded, his voice carrying easily in the sealed space. "Took you long enough."
Hiroshi, leaning against a cracked pillar of rock, wiped blood from his lip with a trembling hand. "Didn't you realise it yet?" he called down, his voice hoarse but clear. "From the moment you took the bait and followed him into this valley, you walked right into it. All of you."
Onoki's face darkened, "You baited us here…" he whispered, then his voice rose to a shout.
"Every skirmish, every feint, every message intercepted—it was all a trap! While we've been here, exhausting ourselves trying to kill each other, something else is happening out there! You've been playing a different game entirely!"
"I didn't need to win this fight," he stated, "I only needed time."
Saitetsu's eyes widened in dawning horror. "You—you planned this from the start…!"
Ay, his rage now cold and focused, clenched his fists so hard the lightning around them spat and crackled. " Wanting to leave this battlefield without your head was a mistake I intended to correct now, Sarutobi. I see it was going to be my greatest error."
Hiruzen met his gaze, and for the first time, a flicker of profound weariness, of the burden of command, showed in the Hokage's eyes. "No, Raikage. The mistake was thinking I was here to fight you."
He glanced skyward, through the shimmering barrier, as if he could see the unfolding victory far beyond. "I'm too old for glory. My only duty was to keep you busy… long enough for the final blow to land elsewhere."
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