"Oh no, the enemy is flanking us," Dodai muttered, his single eye narrowing as his sensory ability picked up Uchiha Gen's movement. His expression shifted sharply.
But Gen hadn't bothered concealing himself. He wanted them to know, it was an open provocation.
The other two Jonin panicked when they heard Dodai's warning. They were already straining against the relentless flames from Shuryu's breath, unable to spare any strength.
What kind of Summoning Beast was this? Even with one handler down, its flames were still this powerful and unyielding…
"Stop whining! Stand firm...you are Kumogakure Jonin!" Dodai barked. "Go intercept him. If you don't, none of us will survive."
The Jonin who had been writhing on the ground in agony forced himself upright. His face was blistered and nearly unrecognizable, but he grit his teeth, gripped his blade, and charged to the right, where Gen was approaching.
Gen sensed every movement clearly through his Soul Perception, yet he made no move to dodge. He could have avoided the man, but there was no need.
Cloud-Style: Crescent Moon Triple Slash!
the Jonin roared, swinging his sword in both hands. A crescent arc of silver-white chakra surged forward.
Wind-Flame Sword.
Gen's Kusanagi cleaved down, releasing a golden-white crescent.
The two arcs collided, but there was no stalemate, Gen's flame-coated strike sliced clean through the silver arc and kept coming.
The Kumogakure Jonin flinched, sidestepping fast and countering with a lightning-coated slash.
Clang!
His blade struck Kusanagi. Sparks exploded outward, but the crackle of lightning was quickly drowned by the golden-white fire eating at the steel. A fresh chip opened on the edge of his weapon.
He grimaced but had no time to dwell. Gen pivoted on the clash, spinning his blade in a sudden reversal.
Clang!
The Kumogakure swordsman reacted swiftly, parrying the strike and even knocking Kusanagi from Gen's hand. His eyes lit with a flash of triumph as he lunged.
But just before his blade could split Gen's head, fire flared behind him, Kusanagi pierced clean through his abdomen from the back.
"Wha—how… how is this possible…?" His voice broke in disbelief.
Even without a soul sealed inside it, Kusanagi was not a mere sword. Its wielder could control it telekinetically to a certain degree... Orochimaru had shown the same mastery once against the Third Hokage.
The man's body went stiff. Gen's Sharingan flared, dragging the Jonin into a fear-based illusion and ripping his soul and lifespan free before his corpse even hit the ground.
Because that sacrifice had bought time, Dodai and the others managed to endure Shuryu's fire breath. They were drained and pale, but still standing.
"Kyouji… is dead," Dodai said grimly.
The other two Jonin exchanged glances, eyes filled with hate but no words.
Gen strode from the smoke, smiling faintly. "Why the long faces? Your comrade's death was magnificent." His voice sharpened into a mocking edge. "You brought this war on yourselves."
Dodai's brow twitched, but he refused to take the bait. Instead, he reached out through silent telepathic ninjutsu to his allies: "His Fire Release and that Summon are overwhelming. We go in close, surround him and cut him down."
"Understood."
Troy, the Magnet Release user, unfurled a scroll. Two puffs of smoke burst forth, revealing two oversized square shuriken. He hurled one, gripping the other as he charged. Dodai and the last Jonin fanned out, one with a kunai, the other with a blade, converging from three sides.
Gen chuckled, sweeping Kusanagi in a wide arc. Golden-white sword energy laced into a blazing net, scorching the earth and forcing them to scatter.
He already knew Troy's ability well. The Magnet Release allowed him to imbue magnetism into objects and transfer it between them, turning even a simple throw into a homing attack. Gen had no intention of ever letting those blades touch him.
The first shuriken was sliced apart by the fiery net.
Then Shuryu unleashed a volley of crimson Exploding Flame Bullets, while Shizukamaru in Gen's grasp discharged streaks of pale lightning from the sky.
The storm of flames and lightning forced the three to scramble through the dirt, coughing dust, unable to form seals. Without hand signs, a ninja's repertoire shrank to nearly nothing, this was the crippling limitation of shinobi.
That was why no-hand-seal ninjutsu was so terrifyingly rare and valuable.
Watching them struggle under his seamless onslaught, Gen's lips curled. He released Shizukamaru to act autonomously, bit his thumb, and slammed his palm into the ground.
Summoning Technique!
With a thunderous crack, white smoke burst across the battlefield. From it slithered ten massive pythons, each more than ten meters long, scales glinting in varied hues.
The serpents immediately lunged.
Now the Kumogakure Jonin were besieged from three sides: fire, lightning, and fangs.
Troy was the first to fall, a lightning bolt paralyzing him before a green python coiled him up tight. Another Jonin screamed as a flame burst consumed his leg; slowed and unbalanced, he was struck again and again by lightning until he collapsed twitching.
Only Dodai still stood, his Lava Release rubber shielding him from the paralysis of the strikes. He fought on, gritting his teeth, until he saw his comrades fall. Then his chest clenched with grief but he didn't hesitate. He turned and bolted for the main battlefield.
Gen let him go. Not out of mercy, there was no point in killing him.
Dodai wasn't just a Jonin; he was Kumogakure's frontline commander, a trusted aide of multiple Raikage, examiner of the village's famed Lariat. Killing him here would draw the full wrath of the Cloud's high command, and Gen wasn't here to escalate the war that far.
He and Orochimaru wanted to bleed Kumogakure's frontline, not invite retaliation from its core.
"Bring them here," Gen commanded.
The pythons dragged Troy and the other fallen Jonin over, their struggling meaningless. One look into the Sharingan and their souls were stripped away, their bodies crumpling to husks.
Dismissing the pythons back to Ryuchi Cave, Gen reclaimed Shizukamaru, leapt onto Shuryu's back, and once more became a dragon knight of flame and thunder. He carved across the battlefield in sweeping arcs, spreading terror and devouring souls with every pass.
Kumogakure had nothing left to stop him. Their formations shattered. To salvage what remained, Dodai made the call no commander wanted to: retreat.
But retreating from chaos was never simple. Konoha's forces pressed hard, making every step costly. By the time the order reached the rear lines, Kumogakure's dead littered the field.
It was only the personal intervention of Yugito, the Two-Tails' Jinchuriki, that kept the rout from turning into annihilation. With her chakra cloaked in blue fire and claws cutting swathes through the battlefield, she led the surviving Kumogakure elites and covered their withdrawal. Without her, their casualties would have been catastrophic.