章 80: Chapter 79
Chapter 79
Kaen observed the situation he was in. The crowd that came to watch the finals of the Chunin Exam sat still. Not a sound escaped them. A and Onoki stood a fair distance away from him. Fuu stood still, too; she looked confused and afraid. Kaen couldn't blame the girl as he was holding the throat of her opponent. Kurotsuchi clawed at Kaen's arm, trying to escape his hold.
It was a messed-up situation he had put himself in. No one would believe him if he told them that it was Onoki and A's fault and they were the bad guys. But Kaen didn't care much about it. The truth wouldn't change anything. They wanted war; Kaen would oblige them. But as a Kage, he had to save his genin first.
"Fuu," Kaen called out to the Seven-tail jinchuriki and locked his eyes with hers. "Run."
It was a simple genjutsu. Everyone was an enemy to her now, and she had to escape and return home. Kaen didn't have the leisure to do a more complicated genjutsu on her. He could see Onoki and A ready to strike at any moment. They were waiting for a chance. Well, Onoki was, A was prepared to strike Kurotsuchi if she got in his way.
"Let her go," Onoki demanded with a calm expression, but Kaen could see that it wouldn't last long.
"Catch," Kaen threw Kurotsuchi at Onoki the moment when he saw A eyeing the retreating form of Fuu.
Kaen couldn't let them have another jinchuriki in their hands, so he would have to cover her retreat, too. Hopefully, he is skilled and fast enough to get away by herself. Well, most of the shinobi in this village will be concentrated on Kaen or the other Konoha shinobi, so she has enough leeway to escape. There was nothing else Kaen could do.
In a split second, Kaen threw Kurotsuchi at Onoki, A moved. Fast as he was rumored to be, A's fist was already at Kaen's face. Too bad A wasn't fast enough to escape Kaen's blazing red eyes with three tomoe spinning around. As Kaen turned his head to dodge the attack, the explosive tags Kaen attached to Kurotsuchi exploded. Kaen knew it was too much to think it would get Onoki, but one can hope.
As expected, Onoki emerged from the fire and smoke unscathed, with Kurotsuchi in his arms. His expression was beyond livid. He quickly gave his granddaughter to shinobi nearby and flew above Kaen, ready to kill him. Kaen was still busy evading A's punches. The Fourth Raikage was fast, and his lightning coating didn't let Kaen counterattack.
"This is the end, Kaen Uchiha," Onoki said as he put his hands together.
"The end?" Kaen asked as A backed away, Onoki was going to use his signature jutsu, and A didn't have any notion of getting in the blast. "It is only the beginning. You started this; don't think it will end so simply because you wished it."
"Dust Release."
Kaen received a small three-dimensional object made out of chakra as Onoki's response. The object expanded once released by Onoki and moved astonishingly fast at Kaen. Kaen knew that anything that passes through it is disintegrated on a molecular level. There was no defense against it. Because of the sheer destructiveness of Dust Release, its users are usually unmatched in a fight, and they can easily fend off countless enemies.
But every jutsu has a weakness, and this one wasn't any different. Kaen simply moved and positioned himself before the crowd of onlookers who were still evacuating. A dust release would disintegrate them all, and Onoki couldn't do it. They were the civilians of his village, after all. So, Onoki could only disperse the jutsu or sacrifice a large number of his civilians to kill Kaen.
"Do you think you saved them by stopping yourself from killing me?" Kaen asked as he stood at the stands as people ran away as far as possible from him. "It is you who put them in this situation. You know very well how many will die because of your actions. This is the price of war you will wage on us. So, accept it, and don't try to make excuses when the innocent people of your village are killed."
Dozens of shinobi surrounded Kaen. There would be more, but the rest were busy dispersing the crowd. They took defensive positions around Kaen, as they thought he would try to run. But Kaen had no thought of running away. Not now, at least. Every minute he bought for his genin to escape increased their success.
"Won't you surrender?" A asked, but he already knew Kaen's answer as he prepared to strike again. "You are surrounded. And I am sorry to say put your shinobi won't escape far. Even if you discovered our plans ahead of time, it changes nothing."
"That's why you will lose," Kaen replied, keeping the conversation. "You underestimate others too much. What you said about other villages isn't wrong. But they are stronger than you think. The blood you will spill trying to defeat them will be too much for your villages to handle. Wait a minute," A realization hit Kaen at that moment. "You never intended to fight the rest of the Five Great Villages, at least not to the bitter end. You wanted to take over the smaller countries and decimate the weaker villages. That is your plan. And by taking hostages from my village, you wanted to negotiate a non-aggression pact so we would stay put and won't interfere."
It made sense. They would advance their territories and increase their power with minimal sacrifice if they could stop Konoha from interfering. The other two villages were too weak to stop them on their own. Only with Konoha joining in did they have a chance. The rest of the villages outside the Five Great didn't have enough power to stop Iwa and Kumo.
"Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock jutsu."
Kaen felt as gravity pushed him back. The stands started to creak and crack under the increased pressure. And Kaen found himself unable to move. Onoki's strength didn't seem to be in vain with his age. And while Kaen was held back, the other shinobi found it a good opportunity as it would get to attack him.
But that wasn't even the end. The ground beneath the stands rose as earth got to Kaen's legs, pushing him down even harder. Kaen was in a difficult situation, and A thought so too, as rather than move to him, he was about to pass him and capture the Seven-tails jinchuriki or Konoha genin. Kaen felt quite insulted that he was looked down on so much.
"Fire Release: Blooming Fire Lotus jutsu."
Did they think because they restricted his movements they could stop him? Well, they were mistaken. The bright red flame bud of a flower surrounded Kaen, protecting him from attacks, and then the bud bloomed into a flower, burning everyone that it touched. Only charred bodies of Iwa shinobi were left in the aftermath.
"Fire Release: Fireball jutsu."
Onoki's gravity control couldn't stop the massive ball of fire from flying straight at him. He had no choice but to stop using his gravity control on Kaen and use it on himself to dodge the attack. A quickly replaced Onoki and tried to hold Kaen down with his taijutsu. Kaen was slower than A, so there was no way he could escape him.
But, like always, there were plenty of weaknesses Kaen could use. Since A's body was coated in lightning chakra, Kaen's counterattacks would barely hurt A, and it would only give him a better chance to strike Kaen. That is why A expected Kaen to dodge and not get hit and be thrown through the stands, crashing through chairs.
"Damn, that hurt like hell," Kaen grunted as he quickly stood up. "I have to say, I never thought I would be teaching the Fourth Raikage a lesson."
"What bullshit are you spouting now?" A asked as he prepared to move again, but feeling disturbed didn't rush to attack Kaen.
"You should remember who you are fighting. There is a reason why I am called the Hunter, and you just fell into my trap," Kaen smiled smugly as he raised his hands. "Sealing Technique: 5 Seal Barrier."
A transparent pyramid surrounded A. There was a reason Kaen stayed at the stands even when the civilians evacuated. This place had better hiding spots for his seals. It wouldn't be easy to break that seal with brute force, but it was not impossible. The other method was to find the five seals and remove them simultaneously. Either way, A was out of commission for a little bit.
"What is this?" A punched the transparent walls a couple of times to no avail.
"It is a trap that you so willingly fell into," Kaen replied, not giving A more attention as he focused on Onoki. "You already failed. Your plans were discovered. You lost the Seven-tails jinchuriki. You lost the clan heirs. Konoha will unite the whole world to stop if we need to. Just give it up. Put down this foolish ambition, and we can look for the solution to your problems peacefully with no more innocent dying."
"Earth Release: Earth Golem jutsu."
Kaen knew that his speech, no matter how good, wouldn't change their minds. But at least he expected a worded response. It wasn't time to retreat yet. And he had to save up his chakra when the rest of their forces showed up. Otherwise, he would be trapped here. Too bad Onoki had no intention of letting Kaen go.
As three golems made of earth rose from the ground, Kaen left the stands. The arena itself suited better for battle, and he could move more freely in the arena. Kaen played with the golems. They were big and clumsy. So Kaen could easily evade their attacks and climb over them. But he didn't like that Onoki wouldn't come down from the air, making it difficult for Kaen to do anything about him without using up his chakra.
While A was trying to force his way out of the seal, more Iwa shinobi showed up. Seeing them, Kaen was reassured rather than nervous. Iwa already had bad security since they tried to hide their forces, so with them here, it meant there were fewer chasing his shinobi. But he had to stop playing with the golems. Otherwise, he would find it difficult to face the other shinobi, and it seemed that Onoki didn't want to risk more and waited for the rest of his forces to come.
It took four explosive tags to destroy one golem. Kaen would have to start to worry about his resources, as he wasn't prepared to face a whole village while coming here. And he didn't have a chance to use his bow either. He didn't have a high position where he would be most effective, nor did he have the leisure to find the position he wanted to be in. This village was too unfamiliar to him.
"Die!" Kaen caught the Iwa's shinobi wrist, wretch his kunai from his hand, and stabbed him in the neck before throwing him at the other two with an explosive tag placed on his chest. Kaen noticed how Onoki winced as three more of his shinobi died in an instant. Onoki won't be able to hold back for much longer and go all out. A was getting closer to breaking the seal, too.
"Won't you come down, Onoki?" Kaen asked kindly as he moved his hands, weaving his chakra. "If not, I will have to bring you down. Fire Release: Fire Butterfly."
Hundreds of bright red butterflies made of fire rose towards Onoki. They moved like they had a will of their own. Surrounding Onoki and chasing him down as he tried to escape them. But Kaen knew that Onoki would easily defend against them with his mastery of earth jutsu. It was nothing but a distraction for Kaen to prepare for the next round.
"If that's all you have, you will lose this war," Onoki said as he blocked the fire butterflies by encasing his body in rocks.
"He had already lost this war the moment we decided on the plan," A added as he finally punched through the seal. "But he won't be able to see to the end of this war as we win."
"You right, I won't see your victory as it will never happen," Kaen replied as he defended against Iwa shinobi. "I am way too old even to imagine it. Well, only you two could dream of it, so it isn't a surprise to me."
A moved even faster than before. One moment, he was in the stands; the other, his kick was reaching Kaen's head. Kaen glided under A, but then was forced to move to roll away from stone spears flying at him. The moment Kaen was able to stand up, he was met with seven blades trying to cut him apart. While dodging them, he felt heat coming from behind him. Jumping over Killer B, Kaen dodged a blob of lava that was directed at him.
"Well, well," Kaen said as he looked around, finding hundreds if not thousands of shinobi surrounding him. "The cavalry had come to the rescue."
"Leave the Fifth Hokage to us," A said as he addressed the shinobi. "B, go after the Konoha genin. We need them alive."
"Roshi, chase after the Seven-tails jinchuriki. We need her," Onoki ordered as he prepared to hold me down.
"I don't think so," Kaen replied by biting his thumb. "It is time to even out the numbers. Summoning Jutsu."
Slamming his hands on the ground, a burst of smoke appeared before Kaen. Within the smoke, two wooden coffins emerged. They were covered in seals, but soon they broke, and the coffins opened. Two figures bound by chains emerged from the coffins, taking in the surroundings before the chains fell to the ground. No one moved as the First and the Second Hokage entered the battlefield.
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