A dust cloud billowed forth, blotting out the light of the morning sun. The great shadows that previously loomed overhead had suddenly disappeared. Jiraiya cursed under his breath as his gaze panned in search of the tailed beast and the chimeric Susanoo to no avail.

"My right arm is broken," Jiraiya said as he leapt out of the dust cloud to a higher vantage point. "I might need help to fix it, boss."

"That would have to wait, Jiraiya boy," Fukasaku replied gravely from his perch on Jiraiya's shoulder. "He's still here. He is close; very close. I can sense him, although barely so. The child has simply gone into hiding to reset the playing field. We can't let him buy the time he wants; we must find him! Immediately!"

"On it!" Shima said from atop Jiraiya's other shoulder as she formed a two-handed ram seal. "Creature Detection Jutsu!"

The toad elder focused senjutsu chakra into her tongue, making it grow as its tip reshaped into a snarling face. The animated organ slithered out of her mouth, seeking the young Uchiha's scent as it sniffed about the rubble.

"Haha! Found him!" Shima exclaimed as her tongue whipped out to detonate an innocent-looking boulder. A figure blurred out of the way before it could be caught in Shima's grasp. Sasuke skid to a stop a few meters away only to flicker out of sight again as a lance of pressurised water cut the pile of rubble he was standing on in half.

"He's fast!" Jiraiya yelled.

"I'm aware, brat!" Fukasaku roared. "He shouldn't be able to keep this up though; it must be too taxing on his reserves. We must increase the pressure! Try to close the distance!"

"Taijutsu? But I can only use one arm!"

"Just do it!" Shima bellowed. "We will support you with Frog Kata!"

Jiraiya grunted as he sprinted towards the fleeing Uchiha. In response, Sasuke flickered, his body flashing between the rubble as he pushed to create distance. Jiraiya forced the Uchiha to dodge once again as his white mane suddenly puffed up, sending a barrage of hardened hair needles toward his opponent; the chakra-hardened hair strands burst through the earth beneath the Uchiha's feet, shattering the ground and sending him tumbling through the air.

The Uchiha landed gracefully on a rocky outcropping before rounding on his heels and blurring towards the sannin, his bone-white prosthetic poised to land a killing blow. Jiraiya's hair whipped out in response, thickening and lengthening as chakra flowed through it making its hardness comparable to that of steel wire. Sasuke batted aside the bundled mass with a short blade that stuck out from his prosthetic's palm before racing along the length of the hair towards the sannin.

Jiraiya responded with a pulse of chakra that sent spikes bursting out the length of his mane. The Uchiha leapt to evade; Jiraiya pressed the offensive, spewing a large volume of oil at his airborne opponent. Beside him, Fukasaku performed a large Wind Release technique to propel the oil, with Shima igniting it with an equally large Fire Release technique. Within an instant, the air was filled with oil burning at temperatures of thousands of degrees. The super-heated oil created an inferno of such magnitude that, within an instant, a ballooning field of negative overpressure and fragmentation erased the spot the Uchiha was last sighted.

"...Did that get him?" Shima asked, her voice filling the resulting silence.

"I doubt it," Jiraiya grumbled as he quickly repositioned to get a better view of the smog and dust-shrouded battlefield. "He can teleport. And even if he couldn't for some reason his Susanoo is sturdy enough to shrug off an attack of that calibre."

"Wouldn't his chakra reserves be low though?" Fukasaku pointed out.

"The boy can steal chakra from tailed-beasts," was Jiraiya's reply. The toad elder looked around at the ominously absent Sand Tanuki and muttered a dull "oh".

"...Lady Shima, can you help us root out the boy's location again? We mustn't let him get away."

***

Tobirama stared at the figure skewered along the length of his Katana as a black, unnatural flame ate away at his undying body. The Hokage staggered away from Fugaku, his face set in a deep frown.

"So you are that foul thing's father?" he asked as he stared at the Uchiha patriarch's unmoving form.

"Whose noble heir do you call foul?" the undead Patriarch replied, his gaze condescending. "Watch your tongue, Senju; my son is a hundred-fold the man you will never be."

Tobirama snorted, his eyes scanning the suddenly still battlefield even as his body crumbled away. "Your son is a monster; even you must know that."

"Do not speak as if you know him."

"I know him well enough, Uchiha. Better than you do, it seems."

The Uchiha patriarch fell silent at that. Tobirama glanced back at his opponent, surprised at the lack of a scathing retort. His katana fell to the ground with a clatter as Fugaku's body suddenly glowed before crumbling into a
pile of dust.

"...Well, at least, that sorted itself," Tobirama mused just before the black flames consumed him in totality.

***

“Tora, Hebi, Inu, Tatsu… Reanimation Jutsu!”

Dust and ash encased the screaming sacrifice, giving them Fugaku's appearance. The unfortunate fellow's chakra signature was completely overridden by the Uchiha Patriarch's within a few moments, as his rebirth slowly concluded. Danzo scowled as he stared at the living corpse, his previously depleted chakra reserves diminished further.

The elder had always known himself to be a man who did not appreciate uncertainty; for one with the sort of ambition he held, such a thing could only spell ruin and spawn disaster. And as his gaze swept over the scene above ground, Danzo found, to his great displeasure, that he was surrounded by a sea of uncertainty.

For all the power he held, and his careful machinations, it would appear that the Hokage's pet project would have its way; Konoha would fall...

No... it had already fallen.

Incensed, Danzo's hand tightened around his cane, a frown marring his scarred face. Beside him, Mikoto stood guard. Her reanimated husband joined her, his grey eyes set in a scathing glare.

"Follow me!" he ordered as he turned to speed away—urk!

Danzo looked down to see a fist sticking out of his right lung. With a gasp, he willed one of the Sharingan in his right arm to life... only to find nothing happened. Pain still radiated from his chest and a body fist remained embedded in his chest.

Izanagi had failed to trigger.

"Don't bother," a gruff voice said from behind him. "I've already severed the chakra conducts that control those."

Fear lanced through Danzo's heart as he unhesitantly burned the Mangekyo in his right eye socket, rewriting reality and reappearing a few meters away, free and uninjured.

"Oh," the voice said again. Danzo looked up to meet the gaze of an imposing, unfamiliar man with a scarred visage. "You had a backup? Orochimaru never mentioned that... Well, no matter."

Fugaku and Mikoto were already moving, but once again, they simply couldn't match the attacker's speed. The towering man blurred and Danzo found himself skewered again on the fellow's massive arm, this time without a backup sharingan to rewrite reality.

"You've been very naughty, Danzo," Jinrui said as he teleported them both back to an underground cell in the Land of Waves.

"No more Izanagi for you..."

***

Kakashi sat silently in his cell, his face set in a dull impassionate mask. Beneath his feet, the earth trembled, shuddering in the wake of a battle he could not intervene in; Tsunade having forbidden him from leaving due to the uncertainties surrounding his allegiances and mental stability.

…Still, how was he supposed to sit here and do nothing while his former student continues to wreak havoc on the village?

With a sigh, the Copy Ninja placed his head against the wall as he stared at the duo standing across from him. Muta and Ensui both wore equally sombre expressions and Kakashi could easily understand why; how galling must it be for them to be placed on guard duty while the entire village was being uprooted beneath their very feet?

"It's not too late," Ensui grumbled as another shudder shook the dust off the cell's ceiling. "We could still help."

Muta looked at the insomniac Nara then, his expression morose. "...and risk triggering whatever trap that boy planted inside his head?" he groused, gesturing towards Kakashi with his chin. "Nah, I'll pass. Sorry, but Kakashi going rogue is too great a risk to ignore."

"That's assuming that he could go rogue in the first place," the dark-haired Jonin muttered in response, his eyes narrowing as they met the Aburame's impassive gaze. "Lady Tsunade didn't find anything, did she? Seems counterintuitive to be wasting valuable manpower during a time like this, no?"

Muta said nothing for a long moment before responding. "...that's not your call, Ensui. Lord Third didn't veto this decision, nor did any member of the Council; they ought to know what they are doing."

"...Lately, I have been finding it hard—"

"Enough."

"Oh, for fuck's sake!"

Muta hissed in response. "The more you speak, the more I suspect you might be the one going rogue, Ensui."

Kakashi blinked at the accusation, his brow creasing into a slight frown as he suddenly felt the urge to intervene.

"Excuse me?" Ensui growled.

"Yeah," the Aburame replied. "You heard me."

"Stop it. Both of you." Kakashi sighed, his gaze shaded with disappointment. "Don't you two understand the stakes at hand? We are all on edge, so how about you both stop bickering like a pair of Genin and do your jobs?"

Muta and Ensui stared at each other, neither willing to concede the point. Still, it appeared Kakashi's words got across to them as silence again reigned in the cell with nought but the occasional rumble of a tortured earth.

And in this silence, Kakashi found himself wondering…

***

Mito stared at her opponent's body as it lay unmoving before her. Around her, the rubble had settled, and the dust was starting to disperse. The air was quiet; there was almost no sound, no movement. Just the soft, gentle breeze rustling the leaves above and a sense of peace, as if the world was holding its breath.

The Uzumaki woman took a step forward, her eyes narrowed condescendingly on her fallen adversary before panning to the dead ANBU littering the forest floor.

"...It seems you couldn't handle it," she mused as she weaved a string of hand signs. Thick roots emerged from the earth to entomb Raza's corpse before pulling it underground. Insurance, just in case the gold user turned out to be the sort of shinobi that tended to refuse to stay dead.

With the disturbance taken care of, the former jinchūriki turned her attention back to her scrying orb. Eyes glinting stubbornly, she set her mind to dismantling the barrier surrounding the village.

Mito wasn't about to allow some upstart skank to get the better of her.

No, she wasn't.

***

In the already dim and murky depths of the underground cave, Baki stood with his arms crossed above his chest. The Jonin couldn't help but think they might have bitten off a bit more than they could chew as he stared at
Gaara's curled-up form. The boy was fast asleep; unmoving as he had since the moment Kage teleported in with him hanging from the crook of her arm.

To see him so peaceful... it was a strange sight.

"...The Tanuki?" Baki asked as Temari suddenly overcame her trepidation and slowly began to approach her slumbering sibling; Kankuro stood unmoving behind her, his eyes narrowed in suspicion as he stared at the younger boy.

"Sasuke destroyed it; It was making itself a nuisance."

Baki’s right hand quivered as he raised it to adjust his vest.

Destroyed it? he whispered in his mind, his spine tingling as a cold chill caressed the heckles on the back of his neck. What kind of person just destroys a tailed-beast because it was 'making itself a nuisance'?

"...So what now?" he asked, unwilling to think further about the matter.

"Exfil," Kage said simply. "Our job here is done. Sasuke should be wrapping things up soon."

***

Tsunade panted as she slid to a stop before a cratered bunker. Her skin was covered in horrid burns, her hair was a frazzled mess, and her dress was melting off her shoulders, but none of that mattered; she had finally managed to shake off the mizukage.

The Senju Princess leaned heavily on the remains of a wall to catch her breath, her chest heaving as she tried to regain her bearings. Before her, the bunker lay open, the door hanging by its hinges as the building's innards were laid bare to the naked eye.

The sight made a pit form in Tsunade's guts.

"...No," Tsunade breathed as she stood to rush inside.

The bunker was in ruins. Broken furniture littered the floors alongside shards of glass, splinters, slagged concrete and shattered wood. Bodies littered the floor and blood ran down the walls; it was a slaughterhouse.

Tsunade's hands shook as her eyes caught sight of the corpses, her body frozen in shock.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" She staggered towards the closest victim, her hands glowing green as she knelt to do... something.

Anything.

"That one is dead," a gruff masculine voice rumbled. Tsunade looked up to see Ibiki standing on the other side of the room. Beside him was Yamato, Might Guy and Genma. "Come with me, Lady Tsunade," he said, "we might be able to save a few others."

"How is this possible? The bunker! The bunker was supposed to be sealed and protected! How did they get past the barrier?"

"...It was Yakumo," Might Guy said with a tired sigh.

"Who?"

"Yakumo Kurama," Ibiki replied. "Heiress of the Kurama Clan and one of Kurenai's former students. She possesses a powerful Kekkei Genkai; one able to project a very powerful Genjutsu, if her records are to be believed. She often used paintings as a conduit to cast these illusions, causing those around her to believe what is on the painting as reality, despite it only being an illusion. We suspect she managed to turn the Shinobi who were supposed to protect the civilians against them and each other. The result of so many Chunin and Jonin-level actors suddenly turning against each other in such an enclosed space, as you can see, was quite catastrophic."

"...Where is the traitor now?" Tsunade asked darkly.

"My cell arrived to see a four-man team absconding from the scene with the culprit," Genma replied. "When we did a cross-reference to confirm the identity of the squad and we found them to be the infamous Furido 4-Man Team that terrorized the coastal regions of the Land of Fire a few years prior before they were forced into hiding by bounty hunters."

Tsunade remained silent as she followed the men underground. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but she knew now wasn't the time. Inside, Tsunade found a sight that had her guts roiling in horror. She shut her eyes for a moment to recentre herself before opening them again. Her gaze descended on a stone-faced Asuma; he knelt beside a body that upon closer inspection Tsunade found was a badly battered Kurenai. The red-eyed woman was still alive, but only so.

As her gaze panned around, the sannin was forced to remember why she loathed conflict as much as she did.

***

Guren raced ahead, ignoring Toroi and Kimimaro as they fought off an enraged Hiashi Hyūga. The Patriarch fought valiantly, but against two immortal reincarnations of their calibre, he could only watch as his youngest child was carted away, encased in a pillar of pink crystals.

***

Mangetsu enjoyed himself today. So much so that he didn't mind so much when Kage stole him away without permission. Being immortal had a way of making those fights he cherished feel all the more carefree.

***

We side-stepped the punch, as well as the phantom strike one of the toads on the sannin's shoulder threw at us. Sticking to the side with Jiraiya's bad arm, we slid past him before dodging another beam of high-pressure water shot at us by the second toad on his shoulder. We could feel, the climax approaching as the path neared its end. Expressionlessly, we kicked the sannin in the back, launching him into a crater before righting ourself.

In the distance, we could feel several Chakra signatures approaching—Hashirama's being the most pronounced—but we ignored them. The Path showed no victory there. Instead, we willed our presence away, returning to the Land of Waves.

There was no point in participating further in that battle; Kage would find much better use for the Tanuki's chakra than we at the moment.

The battle was already won; our revenge halfway achieved.

We felt...

Content.

.

.

.

For the moment at least...