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Han ordered half a day of rest before the battle. His soldiers devoured what little food remained. Men slept on their armor, women sharpened kunai until sparks flew.
Roshi, on the other hand, was restless. He stomped around the camp like a caged beast.
"Han, you're wasting time! Let me go first, I'll burn them out like weeds. You keep holding men back like they're treasures."
Han's voice was cold steel. "If you burn now, you'll burn out when it matters. Wait."
Roshi spat lava onto the ground, letting it hiss. "You think too much. Me? I live to fight."
--
Dawn broke with a sky the color of blood. The Land of frost valleys echoed with war cries as Iwa surged forward. The 2500 2nd base Kumo shinobi stood their ground, lightning sparking across their ranks. Though outnumbered, they fought till their last breath.
Roshi couldn't be restrained any longer. He charged ahead, chakra surging like a volcano ready to erupt.
"Yoton: Kaen Rendan!" (Lava Release: Flame Rock Cluster!)
Molten stone rained upon Kumo's front lines, melting barricades and turning men into statues of ash. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. Roshi roared in delight.
"Dance for me, Kumo! Let the world see who owns the battlefield!"
Every strike was devastating, but chakra exhaustion crept in faster than he realized. The Four-Tails' lava consumed vast reserves, and after an hour of continuous destruction, Roshi's breath came ragged.
Still, his arrogance refused to bend.
--
Han advanced slower, steam bursting from his armor like the hiss of a great forge.
"Boil Release: Unrivaled Armor."
Every step he took, Kumo shinobi wilted. His body was a walking furnace, boiling water and flesh alike. Close combat was impossible; blades bent from the heat before they touched him.
He moved with precision, never wasting a strike. But even Han, efficient as he was, felt his reserves thinning. The Boil Release burned chakra like oil in a fire. He was having a bad feeling. He wanted to end this quickly.
--
The battlefield became a hellscape. Roshi's lava carved rivers of glowing rock that split the earth itself. Han's steam rolled over formations, suffocating shinobi in scalding clouds.
Iwa fodder pressed forward, sheer numbers overwhelming.
Kumo fought like cornered beasts, lightning cloaks flaring, coordinated strikes few of them taking down dozens before they fell.
By noon, the ground was unrecognizable. Valleys turned into cauldrons of steam. Forests became lava plains. Corpses littered the soil, and the Hot Water River boiled in its banks.
--
By afternoon, both jinchūriki were faltering.
Roshi's chest heaved. His lava release sputtered, his hands trembling as molten chakra refused to mold cleanly. He cursed, forcing one last eruption that only scorched a handful of survivors.
Han's armor hissed weakly. Steam output dropped, his movements slowed. Every exhale carried the weight of exhaustion.
Their power had annihilated hundreds, but even their monstrous reserves had limits.
And the Kumo shinobi? Still fighting. Still screaming. Even as numbers dwindled, their defiance was terrifying.
--
At last, Iwa's numbers did help. Seven thousand against two thousand five hundred was not a fair fight. One by one, Kumo shinobi fell, their formations shattered.
The Second Base was destroyed. Its barracks reduced to slag, its armories stripped bare, its defenders annihilated. Few Kumo soldier survived to retreat.
But it wasn't victory without price. Roshi collapsed on the battlefield, chakra drained to embers. Han's armor steamed weakly, his body trembling from overuse.
Of Iwa's 7,000, nearly 1,500 were dead, many more maimed. The Land of frost Valley was theirs, but their strength was fraying. They are tired and consumed last of their reserves.
--
Han stood over the ruins, chest still heaving. He looked at the corpses of Kumo shinobi, blackened by lava and boiled by steam.
"Even with three thousand of them… stubborn until the last man," he muttered.
Roshi laughed weakly, leaning on his knees. "Stubborn, yes. But they burned well."
Han didn't laugh. His eyes scanned the horizon. He knew. This was too easy. If three thousand could fight like this, He did not want to finish his thought.
Even as Iwa celebrated, messengers from Land of Frost had already reached the Raikage. The trap was closing for Iwa.
And Han, though he would never admit it aloud, felt the weight of inevitability pressing down like his own boiling armor. With almost no logistics and so far from Iwa, he knew many would not make it out alive.
--
The sliding doors slammed open. A shinobi in dark flak armor stumbled into the Raikage's office, his chest heaving as though he had sprinted the whole way from the mountain outpost. His eyes were wide, pupils trembling, as if the weight of what he carried pressed against his lungs.
"Raikage-sama!" His voice cracked with the strain. "The Iwa shinobi—they've arrived at the Second Base. There are two commanders we have never seen before… and they've brought nearly Seven thousand troops." [A/N: He says they arrived because that is the information 2 days prior...he had been travelling.]
The room seemed to still for a heartbeat. Then came the crackle.
Lightning flared around the Raikage's body, his chakra cloak exploding outward in a roar of raw power. The desk in front of him shattered into splinters beneath his fists. The messenger flinched back, bowing low, but the Raikage's attention had already swung toward the man standing by his side.
"Renga!" His voice was thunder itself. "Have the five thousand reinforcements not arrived at Second Base?"
Renga, the veteran adviser, clenched his jaw. "Raikage-sama," he said, steady but tight, "it would still take a week just to dispatch them. They cannot arrive in time." "We cannot arrange such huge numbers in such short notice." [A/N: Even Iwa took a month to arrange 10K Shinobi.]
The Raikage's eyes narrowed, lightning flaring brighter. His thoughts cut faster than his chakra burned. Two unknown commanders. A sudden overwhelming force. Eight thousand shinobi. He didn't need to ask again. He already knew.
"Iwa's Jinchūriki, Why were we not informed of Iwa's jinchuriki being present." he spat.
Renga stiffened. "The reports from our spies in Hidden valley might have not identified them as we have no information of who the Iwa's jinchuuriki were."
Aya... silent until now... drew a sharp breath. Kaien, small in his corner with a pacifier biting into his teeth, felt the world drop into his stomach.
The Raikage's rage was volcanic, but beneath it Kaien could sense his realization: they had been outplayed. For years, Iwa had hidden their jinchūriki, shadows without names or faces. Even their spies... men who had slipped through the mists of Taki... had brought back nothing but information about 10000 shinobi. Now the curtain had been ripped aside, and Kumo's forces were caught under the crushing weight of surprise.
The Raikage's lightning burned hotter. The crackling light revealed his clenched jaw, the blood in his teeth. He was already raging at the thousand Kumo shinobi lost on the Iwa front, but this... this was worse. Three thousand more stationed at Second Base. The battle would have already raged for two days…
No. He couldn't even lie to himself. They were gone. Or worse... still dying.
--
A/N: Kumo's Iwa front and 2nd base are destroyed. 4000 Kumo shinobi died (1K at Iwa front + 3K at Kumo front). Next the duo arrives.
I know people want Kumo to crush those 10,000 Iwa shinobi. But with Aya and Renga refusing to let the Raikage risk his life, he was forced to stay off the battlefield.
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