Currently, both battles between the sand and the stone armies were under with each side holding their own, trying to press forwards against the leaf and the mist, in an all-out bloody effect to win the first major conflict of this war.
Currently, Fuyōna was fighting using his clones in each battle, but that wasn't all he was doing. Fuyōna had made five clones, each holding 25% of his full power, meaning they were still very strong in their own right. And while some were fighting, others were busy with other tasks, equally as important.
The real Fuyōna had remained in the village hidden in the mist, doing his best to keep things running in this time of war. Missions were still piling in, especially now that thieves and bandits had become more at large, knowing that with the ongoing war, they would be less likely to meet resistance.
As Mizukage, Fuyōna had not only the duty of leading his men in battle but also maintaining the village for its people. Currently, he had maintained another force of at least 7000 strong inside the village. However, this number was made up of a large number of chunin and genin, who had not seen the likes of war before.
The last thing he wanted to do was to send mere children off to war, as he had been forced to when he was younger. However, if the situation became severe and the need arose for him to use them for the sake of the village, he would have no choice.
Fuyōna currently sat in his office, overlooking all three squads who had entered the chunin exams. Kimimaro, Haku and Koyuki, Hattori and his squad mates, along with Kujira and his teammates. All in all, the nine genin who had fought in the chunin exams.
"It has become apparent that the need for greater power has become important for the village now that we are at war. So I and the elders have decided that in order to improve the combat ability of our village, we must collect the remaining seven ninja swords that are no longer in our village's possession." Fuyōna said as he looked at the genin who stood before him.
"However, with our main manpower focused on the war front, I have no choice other than to task this mission to you nine." He then said, getting a surprised look from them.
"But sir, we are only genin... Who is going to lead our squad?" Hattori said, noticing that there were no chunin or jonin inside the office.
"Well, I have the results from the chunin exams here," Fuyōna said as he picked up the paperwork, getting a nervous look from them as they fell silent.
"The result of the exam was decided by your instructors and exam proctors, including input from lord Hokage and myself," Fuyōna said as he placed the paper work back down onto the table.
"Hattori, Kimimaro, Haku and Rokuro. You have all been promoted to chunin!" Fuyōna said with a smile, giving them the good news.
Everyone was happy for them, even if they didn't show it right away.
"You mean I made the cut..." Rukuro said in surprise, not quite believing it.
"You did, and as a result, the four of you will be leading this mission together." Fuyōna then said.
"Currently we are missing the Kiba blades, which were believed to have been stolen by Raiga after the death of Ameyuri Ringo. The there is the Kubikiribōchō which is currently held by Jūzō Biwa. And last is Samehada. Which is in possession of Kisame Hoshigaki." Fuyōna said growing serious.
"Your mission is to locate the Kiba blades and the Kubikiribōchō blades. Under no circumstance are you to engage in battle with Kisame." Fuyōna said as he raised his voice slightly."
"Do I make myself clear?" Fuyōna then said as he looked them all in the eyes.
"Yes sir!" They replied.
"Good. Remember, these people are trained members who were once members of the seven ninja swordsmen, they are S rank ninja and are not to be taken lightly." Fuyōna said before he sighed.
"I wish it didn't have to come to this, but there is no one else I can spare who I believe would be able to complete this mission." Fuyōna then said as he stood from his seat.
"Forgive me Lord Mizukage, but why are we not allowed to go after Kisame Hoshigaki, isn't the Samehada blade supposed to be the strongest of all seven swords?" Hattori asked.
Fuyōna smiled as he crossed his arms.
"I see you know your stuff about the seven great swords of our village. But the reason is very simple." Fuyōna said before he fell silent for a moment.
"Kisame Hoshigaki... Also called the tailless-tailed beast. He is the strongest member of my clan, and was feared by all for his impressive powers." Kujira suddenly said, almost shaking from the memory of his former senpai.
"None of you would last one minute against Kisame once he got serious against you. And I am not sending you on a suicide mission." Fuyōna said with a serious face, knowing that they would all be killed if they tried to fight him.
"Is that understood," Fuyōna asked again, watching as they all nodded their head.
"Good. Now take this." He said as he handed a sealed document to Hattori.
"That is all of the current information we have on where you can start, other than that you are on your own." Fuyōna said as he stepped closer to them.
"I wish you good luck, as Mizukage, I declare this your first mission in the fourth great ninja war!"
Meanwhile...
One of Fuyōna's clones who was fighting in the battle against the sand found himself currently facing off against the elder Chiyo. She was a master puppet user and still considered an S rank ninja even in her old age.
"I have to give it to you Kage killer... You certainly live up to your reputation." Chiyo said Fuyōna foiled another of her attacks, having dodged everything she had thrown at him so far.
"It seems I have no other choice than to use my ultimate technique." She said as she slowly pulled a sealed scroll from her sleeve.
Fuyōna watched as she unclipped the clasp on the scroll, knowing what was to come.
"I guess I had better get serious too then." He said as he lowered into a ready stance.
"Secret white move, Chikamatsu's 10 puppets jutsu!" Chiyo said as she flung the scroll open, summoning the ten most famous puppets in puppet user history.
Fuyōna remembered watching her use this jutsu against her very one grandson all those years ago when he had watched the anime. Still, seeing the jutsu in person seemed to hit differently as he stared down the ten white puppets as if he was facing an army.
"Quickly, help lord Mizukage!" A mist ninja shouted as he landed in front of his leader, surrounded by a unit of his men.
"Attack her!" He shouted, rushing forwards towards Chiyo with the other ten mist shinobi, all of them intent on taking her out.
"No, wait!" Fuyōna shouted as they charged, knowing that they were no match for her.
Chiyo smiled before she simply flicked her wrist, forcing her puppet to fly into action as they attack in perfect sink, cutting down the mist ninja like they were nothing.
"Look out!" Fuyōna shouted as he quickly charged into action, darting forwards and stopping one of Chiyo's puppets that was holding a two-handed sword with his forearm bones, saving one of the mist ninjas lives.
"Retreat now, you are no match for her!" Fuyōna shouted before he was forced back by the puppet as it pushed off of his arm, quickly drawing another sword and starting another flurry of attacks with both of them.
Fuyōna quickly flipped back as he dodged the first slash, ducking under the second before he allowed bones to grow from his chest to deflect the downwards slash and counter-attack, knocking the puppet away.
However, another puppet that had razor-sharp cable wires coming from its head charged into his left flank, using the cables from its head to attack as they tried to rip him apart limb from limb in all directions.
"Let's see how you deal with this!" Chiyo said as she raised her arm, controlling all ten puppets with both of her hands, using all of them in perfect sync.
Fuyōna flipped and darted around as fast as he could, only just avoiding the cables that tried to skewer him, doing his best to avoid them at all cost. However, that was easier said than done as the female puppet with red hair and two great swords came back and started attacking with the cable puppet, making his life hard work.
Fuyōna had no choice now and quickly flicked his wrists unleashing a barrage of bone bullets that deflected the cable wires of the blue-headed puppet, giving him time to deal with the two swords puppet as it came down with a powerful swipe, intent on cleaving him in half.
Fuyōna quickly met the attack with his arm, using his bones to block the heavy blow, feeling the pressure on his shoulder, watching as the puppet pulled its other arm back getting ready to deliver a thrusting attack towards his stomach.
However, Fuyōna raised his other hand and formed a hand sign that summoned an ice mirror that absorbed the sword of the puppet causing it to pass straight through.
Chiyo hadn't noticed the other mirror from behind her until it was almost too late, only just being able to use her oni mask puppet to push her out of the way, taking the attack from the sword for her.
Fuyōna had expected as much, but his actions had caused her to lose concentration for a split second and now it was his turn to press on the attack, quickly making a few other hand signs with his free hand before he trapped the puppet with two swords in a block of ice, taking it out of the fight as the chakra strings on it froze and snapped off.
"That's one down!" Fuyōna shouted as he charged forwards, using his wind style to boost his speed as he darted past all of the puppets getting ready to attack Chiyo directly.
"I don't think so!" Chiyo shouted, using her hand to quickly pull one of her puppets around to meet Fuyōna's speed, with one on either side of him as they attack at the same time.
Fuyōna twisted in the air and shot bones out of his body, deflecting their attacks as he blocked and countered at the same time, dancing and jumping around as more of the puppets became involved in the battle.
"It feels like her control over the puppets has improved somewhat." Fuyōna thought as he flipped backward using a handspring.
However, one of the puppets with grey markings around its mouth area and hair coming from a single point on its head appeared behind him and gripped him in a tight bearhug, squeezing so tight that it threatened to snap him in half.
"You won't escape this time!" Chiyo shouted as she used her chakra strings to tighten the puppets grip around his body.
Fuyōna smiled as he allowed his bones to suddenly blast out from his back, tearing the puppet into pieces, freeing him from its grasp.
"Sorry, but it will take more than that to trap me!" He shouted as he watched the other 8 puppets charge toward him.
"It's time to end this fight Chiyo," Fuyōna said as he placed his hands together, interlocking his middle fingers around his index fingers.
"Ice style, crystal ice mirrors!" He shouted as he created a prison of ice mirrors that he used to surround them in, causing Chiyo to halt her advance with her puppets and draw them back to her in a defensive formation.
"What is this jutsu?" She said, watching carefully as Fuyōna slipped into one of the mirrors before he suddenly appeared in all of them.
"It's over for you Chiyo." Fuyōna said from inside his mirrors.
Chiyo frowned as she watched carefully, doing her best to try and figure out a weakness of the jutsu, deciding to test the ice mirror's strength as she used her strongest puppet with large fists to charge and attack with brute force.
The puppet pulled its arm back and slammed its massive fist into the ice mirror in an attempt to smash it to pieces. However, its attack did little other than cause the ice mirror to shake a little, showing that it would take much more force than that to smash the mirrors.
Fuyōna smiled at her efforts, knowing that it wouldn't work.
"Sorry lady Chiyo. But I cannot lose here." He said as he closed the emotion in his heart.
Chiyo frowned again before she spat on the ground.
"You aren't the only one!" She shouted as she quickly moved three of her puppets into formation so that one of them was standing on the other twos shoulders.
"Now, Three Jewels Suction Crushing technique!" Chiyo shouted as the puppets made the hand signs, creating a huge suction jutsu that was extremely powerful.
Another of the puppets with a red face suddenly jumped into the middle of them as a four-bladed chakra blade appeared from his head, spinning rapidly and cutting anything that was sucked into the jutsu into ribbons.
"let's see how your ice mirrors can handle this!" She shouted, watching as the powerful suction was enough to pull the ice mirrors out of their orbit.
"No way... It's actually working?" Fuyōna said in surprise as he tried not to smile.
"I didn't expect this..." He said again as he watched one of his ice mirror start to crumble as it became trapped in the suction of the puppets before the chakra blade cut it into pieces, proving that her jutsu was strong enough to break his ice.
"Seems I will have to try even harder against her than I thought," Fuyōna said, knowing he would have to go all out now if he wanted to stop her.
Meanwhile...
Another of Fuyōna's clones who was currently in the middle of a fight against the stones army found himself facing down against Gari of the explosion style. Gari was currently the captain of the demolition corps and considers a top shinobi in and outside of his village.
Currently, Gari had shown that his explosive taijutsu was a match for Fuyōna's bones, even those that he had strengthened to their maximum, having blasted them to dust.
"Take this!" Gari shouted as he punched Fuyōna, aiming for his chest so that he could unleash a powerful explosion into his chest.
But Fuyōna was too quick and blocked the strike with the palm of his hand, using it to push Gari's wrist from the outside, giving it enough force to make his punch miss as he deflected it before he countered with his bones for good measure.
However, once again Gari had been too quick to react and had jumped back avoiding the attack having expected it already.
"I have to admit, I expected more from you," Gair said, not taking his eyes off of Fuyōna.
"is that right?" Fuyōna said, also watching Gari carefully.
"I can see that you are holding back against me... But I cant seem to figure out why." Gari then said as he quickly darted forwards, throwing a kick toward Fuyōna's head.
Fuyōna leaned back and avoided the kick, but was quickly met with a spinning back fist with explosive potential, forcing Fuyōna to lean all the way back and fall into a bridge position.
Gari roared as his attack missed again, quickly turning around and lifting his heel into the air above his head.
"And I won't accept it!!!" He suddenly shouted as he unleashed his axe kick, using his explosive style to Obliterate the ground beneath his heel, causing the earth to uproot and crumble under them.
Fuyōna was sent flying back from the force of the blast before he flipped a couple of times in the air and landed back down to safety.
"Man this guy certainly packs a powerful punch..." He said as he watched Gari walk out of the smoke with a frown on his face.
"Why won't you fight me!" He shouted while clenching his fist, clearly growing angry at the fact that Fuyōna was not trying against him.
It wasn't that Fuyōna was holding back against him, it was more to do with that he had used a rather large amount of chakra, and at the moment he was doing his best to simply maintain his clone so that it did not disappear.
"I have to hold on just a little longer unit my chakra replenishes. But that is easier said than done..." Fuyōna thought as he watched Gari wind up for another attack.
"Fine... Prepare to face my full power!" Gari suddenly shouted as he jumped high into the air, focusing the chakra in his fists before he slammed them down into the ground near Fuyōna, creating a powerful blast that once again caused the very ground to shake and be blown to pieces.
The resulting effect was not to hit Fuyōna, but to take out his men, causing a change in the battleground and giving his own troops the advantage as the debris crushed leaf and mist ninja alike.
"That's enough... I can't let this guy keep doing that!" Fuyōna shouted to himself, knowing he had to stop him before he killed anyone else.
"I no longer have a choice..." Fuyōna said to himself as he concentrated for a second.
"Saiken, lend me some of your chakra, I need to finish this fight quickly."
The six tails inside of Fuyōna suddenly came to light in his head, giving him its reply.
"Of course Fuyōna, it took you long enough to ask." It said, giving Fuyōna a large amount of its chakra.
"Thank you Saiken. It's time to finish this battle altogether." He said as he looked towards the larger battle that was taking place around the entire battlefield as all three nations continued to struggle against one another.
Fuyōna turned his attention back to Gari as he quickly appeared behind Fuyōna, getting ready to slam his fist into his back and finish him off.
"Die!" Gari shouted, watching as his fist was about to make contact.
Yet, as close as his fist had been to Fuyōna's back, it never made contact, and instead only succeeded in hitting thin air.
"What in the?" Gair said to himself as his attack missed as Fuyōna seemed to suddenly disappear from sight.
"Where did he go?" He said as he turned around doing his best to look for him.
"Sorry, Gari. But it's time for me to get serious." Fuyōna suddenly said from behind him, causing his eyes to widen in shock as he hadn't been able to sense that he was there.
Gari quickly turned around and tried to attack, doing his best to get clear from Fuyōna. However, Fuyōna grabbed both of his arms, twisting them tightly and forcing him onto his knees before he slammed his foot into the centre of his back, getting a grunt of pain from him.
"This is the end for you." Fuyōna said as he used his chakra to start freezing Gari's arms, causing him to scream in pain as the cold seeped into his flesh.
"W-what are you doing!" Gari yelled in pain, trying to break from Fuyōna's grasp with everything he had.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to use these arms to hurt any more of my comrades," Fuyōna said as he continued to freeze Gari's arms.
"ARRGHHHH!!!" Gari screamed in pain as the pain from the cold became worst, even causing his forearms around where Fuyōna's hands held to become black from the frostbite.
Fuyōna had closed his heart to all emotion as he blocked out Gari's screams of pain, knowing that the only other way he could stop him was to kill him.
"Lava style, scorching rocks!" A voice from behind Fuyōna shouted, taking him by surprise as a huge blast of molten rock hit him in the back, knocking him flying into the air and freeing Gari from his grasp, allowing him to drop to the ground where he tried to hold his black arms.
"Y-you are..." Gari said as he turned to look at his savior.
"Sorry I took so long to get here, Gari." The man said as he walked over to him.
"Here, let me see your arms." He said as he crouched down to get a look.
Fuyōna could feel the heat on his back and quickly used his ice style to cover his very skin and deflect the lava that was about to melt him, saving himself as he recovered and landed on the ground deep in enemy territory.
"Lava style?" Fuyōna said as he looked at the jutsu as it melted into the ground, mixing with his ice as it started to crystalize.
"This war keeps getting more and more interesting," Fuyōna said to himself as he stood to his full height, looking at the stone shinobi that now surrounded him.
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Alright, thats the end of this chapter!
I hope you enjoyed the fighting, and as always thank you for your support.
I hope you are all doing ok! And as always have a great day!
We are nearing chapter 200 on P.atreon now so feel free to check it out if you want more chapters in advance.