[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]Third Person POVLand of Fire Year 42....

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  A squadron of thousands of ninjas came from the Land of Fire, while the coastline was finally spotted by the ninja leading them. He raised his hand to halt all the troops. More than ten thousand Konoha ninjas were there, with the finest forces of that generation, and his command made everyone stop in their tracks.

  The moment they halted, Sakumo simply raised his hand for everyone behind him to cease their movements, since it was now possible to see the sea, still a bit restless, with several smoke lines in the distance on the horizon.

  The other ninjas behind them all kept their formation. Jiraiya watched with a gleam of anxiety; his students were somewhere out there, and now he was going to help them, while they were probably trying to defend the Uzumaki on their own at that very moment.

  Now, the Vilge was no longer in the hands of Sarutobi-sensei and the elders. Konoha had made a different decision this time, and those who had chosen not to take part in the defense of Uzushiogakure before did not oppose the decision now, likely due to the shame cast upon them, since five Konoha ninjas had refused to accept the Vilge's decision and had gone to fight on their own. The rest had remained like cowards, unable to protect their allies.

  The same look Jiraiya carried was shared by Tsunade Senju, who hoped to find her daughter safe, along with Minato and the other girls. She still had issues with blood, but her determination to protect her daughter outweighed her weakness.

  At the same time, Orochimaru wore a faint smile. He had not spoken much since the beginning of the mission. He obeyed the Vilge by being there, just as he had obeyed before when they tried to eliminate Minato in the Land of Wind — and ended up getting involved in a dangerous game that nearly led him to death. The thought frustrated him a little, and a slight disappointment lingered in his expression.

  There were others besides the main leaders. Mazu Uchiha hoped to find his daughter well — or perhaps that was normal and he merely wished to witness the powers that his new eyes granted him, to bring pride to the cn, along with all the testimonies from Konoha itself standing behind him.

  Nawaki Senju also led the ptoon, carrying an air of confidence with his Mokuton arm fully adapted to his body at this point. He was no longer weaker than an elite jōnin, since the mokuton had strengthened even further with chakra, and the adaptation had settled well into his body. He did not possess Wood Release — at least, not yet — though it was possible that, in the future, he might achieve a level close to what Yamato would have. He did not have the might of Hashirama, his grandfather, but he certainly had enough strength to be an elite with the fearsome Wood element.

  Might Duy was also confident, wearing his jōnin uniform while standing on a tree branch. He was considered an elite jōnin and showed even more confidence around his Konoha comrades, waiting for the commander's order. He was also eager to head into the battlefield, carrying a bit of concern for his friend Minato and his companions.

  He had trained a bit with the techniques Minato had given him, but a few days were too little to master anything. Still, he saw potential in them — he had already seen how they worked when he fought Minato himself. It was nothing disappointing; he saw great value in them, increasing his own possibilities: being able to fly by stepping on the air, giving small bursts of speed along with his Gates… it would be incredible.

  While trying to completely reach the seventh gate, he nurtured the idea of challenging Minato in the future, because he knew that, physically, in their st battle, he had not been stronger than the boy. Not in his current state.

  While many carried their own thoughts, several teams began to appear in front of Commander Sakumo, who led the entire Leaf Vilge at that moment as temporary leader. The jōnin teams nded — they were the coastal scouts — bowing, while the other ninjas awaited an order.

  "Sakumo-sama, you finally arrived, with reinforcements!", said one of the ninjas, looking at Sakumo with a bit of caution. And Sakumo nodded.

  "Tell me what is happening. Are they still at war?", he asked with a more urgent and serious tone, while the ninjas looked at one another, seeming a little uncertain. This only made Sakumo raise an eyebrow.

  "Sakumo-sama… actually, I think the battle is over." The outpost commander, who had been there to watch the start of the battle before reinforcements arrived, spoke. This made Sakumo and everyone behind him widen their eyes, while the entire pce fell silent for a moment.

  "Wait… you're saying the battle is over? It's midmorning. Only if they attacked at dawn… then?", Sakumo thought. The sun had risen only a few hours ago — three at most, judging by its position in the sky.

  "The truth is that the battle began at sunrise and ended before you even arrived," said the ninja, making the pce sink into tense silence.

  "Another thing we need to report… even if you advance toward the sea, Uzushiogakure is no longer there," said another ninja from the scouting squad.

  "What do you mean by that?", Sakumo tried to remain calm but immediately questioned.

  The fight is over, and Uzushiogakure is supposedly no longer there… what the hell happened?

  "It flew, Sakumo-sama. I don't know how to expin it, but there was a summoning in the sky… long, it looked like a blue winged snake. It must have done something to the isnd, since it seemed to pull it toward the sky. The entire cn simply followed it, flying. We saw it from a distance. Even though we didn't see the battle completely, we saw the isnd rise until it disappeared into the clouds of the sky...", said the scout, sounding unsure with such an exaggerated story, but it was still the truth.

  Sakumo paused to think for two seconds before raising his hand. "We will verify," he said. Immediately, he advanced, and all ten thousand Konoha ninjas followed him as well, running across the seawater and moving forward together like a V-shaped multitude.

  "Tell me what you know about the battle," Sakumo asked the scout who ran beside him. As they moved, the ninja began reporting all the explosions he had seen, the bijūdama that detonated in various directions without him knowing whether they hit the isnd or not, and how everything suddenly went silent.

  They saw Iwa retreat, and judging by the silence, it seemed that all the other armies had also fallen back; otherwise, Iwa would not have withdrawn without returning.

  Sakumo remained thoughtful as they continued advancing.

  When they reached the area, everyone looked upon the trail of destruction. There was no longer any isnd there. No matter how far they walked toward the horizon — all they saw was the sea, still quite turbulent. But nothing of Uzushiogakure. Even knowing they were in the exact location, this was not an illusion born from the ninjas' exhaustion. The isnd had truly risen into the heavens. And all that remained were hundreds, if not thousands, of ninja corpses scattered across the area where the isnd should have been, hulls of destroyed ships and many other pieces of debris, with fires burning in some pces in the middle of the sea, or even shattered objects still releasing smoke after the war.

  "We arrived too te… but there are no Uzumaki bodies, only enemies," Sakumo said, kicking a flipped-over body and revealing an Iwagakure ninja wearing the red and brown uniform and the Stone forehead protector. He was dead with an arrow lodged in his heart, leaving only a hole, since the arrow had pierced straight through due to its immense speed.

  "This kind of death… I know who did this. Or at least I know who taught it," Jiraiya appeared beside him, looking at the wound in the chest. There was no doubt: that was an arrow in the style Hanabi usually used.

  "It's not as powerful as my student's," Jiraiya said to Sakumo. "But it's certainly her technique. Perhaps she taught some Uzumaki."

  "Can you contact the toads? Minato could have summoned one of them, correct? And you had left a message for them to warn him," Sakumo asked. Jiraiya nodded and immediately tried summoning Fukasaku and Shima. However, he felt the seal lock — someone had already summoned them.

  "Considering that… it seems they are already summoned. I can't pull them, and they're blocking the summoning," Jiraiya said as the seal on the ground began to dissipate.

  "I'll try another one." He quickly formed the seals again.

  In the next moment, Gamabunta appeared, looking around with a bit of confusion. He was still injured from the fight against Shukaku.

  "Jiraiya," he said upon seeing the sage.

  "Gamabunta, you look terrible. Just came out of a fight, huh? Tell me: did Minato summon you to Uzushiogakure?", Jiraiya asked.

  Gamabunta nodded. "Yes. He summoned me, and I had to fight a damned One-Tail. Then he summoned his dragon and started pulling the isnd… shortly before I was dismissed."

  "I'll get information from Fukasaku and Shima ter, when they're avaible, but for now, I'd like you to tell me exactly what happened here. Tell me every detail," Jiraiya requested, while Gamabunta nodded and began recounting everything from the moment he had been summoned — right in the middle of the battle already underway.

  As the thousands of Konoha ninjas faced a completely empty stretch of sea filled with dead bodies, a few survivors were still agonizing. When asked what had happened, the only thing they managed to say, with failing voices, was: "Monsters… fear…" — before dying.

  At the same time, in the Land of Waterfalls, Uchiha Madara was sitting in his underground base, while White Zetsu appeared slightly nervous, looking at Madara, and Bck Zetsu remained standing nearby.

  Madara was silent, but his aura made his growing fury clear. White Zetsu could feel the heavy atmosphere emanating from his body — something between rage and disbelief.

  "Tell me… what is the test news?", Madara asked in a surprisingly calm tone. He expected the Uzumaki cn to fall, to be just another pebble in the way of his Infinite Tsukuyomi pn. But as he listened to the reports from the start of the battle, he saw that things had not gone even remotely as he had wished. On the contrary: ninjas far too powerful for this era had emerged.

  The boy — the one who could fight bijū, alter the trajectory of a bijūdama, battle kage on equal footing without tricks and kill them; the one who "pyed" at throwing Tailed Beasts off the battlefield with a strange body. Zetsu reported having seen him take damage, but simply regenerate, with his body turning to gold. There was no blood, nothing. It was as if his body were no longer tangible.

  Not to mention the absurd speed and devastating attacks. Zetsu said he could not feel any chakra from him at all.

  Madara was certainly surprised that Konoha had obtained a perfect jinchūriki after Mito's death, that someone from his cn had awakened the mangekyō Sharingan — he believed it was only the first one.

  However, among all of them, Minato was the most irritating, with extremely versatile abilities. If one did not take him seriously, the only thing to expect was death. Madara believed that even he himself would need to be calm and cautious before the terrifying power the boy dispyed, and he doubted Minato had shown everything.

  "Tsk… This makes me…" He could not help but feel excitement. Could this boy have enough power to fight him and force him to use his full strength? Madara longed to battle someone powerful, the way he once fought Hashirama.

  "Two women… One a perfect jinchūriki, one a mangekyō user, and everything indicates they are lovers of that man… This Minato Namikaze… It seems an interesting individual was born in this era…" Madara commented, and even with his pn failing, he could not deny how surprised he was in the end.

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