Chapter 60

Close to a dozen Iwa elite Jonin moved together and launched a large-scale jutsu to restrict Tsunade's movement. "[Doton: Chidōkaku]" (Earth Release: Moving Earth Core) The ground around Tsunade and the dozen elite Jonin from Iwa, along with their commander, sank right into the earth, close to almost a hundred meters. They completely isolated the high-end battlefield using this technique. Tsunade understood this because, now, only most of the elite Jonins from both sides were present on this new battlefield.

She quickly turned to Kazuki and Shizune. "Both of you go up there and stay there; I will finish things here soon and get back up with the others." Finishing her statement, she quickly approached her two students, first picked Kazuki, and threw him up like a cannonball with all her might. After Kazuki got out of the pit, he heard a screaming Shizune landing next to him. Kazuki summoned one of the shadow puppets from within the pit to support Shizune as they both jumped into the battle again.

Kazuki knew that such a large battle might take a day or two for a proper victor to emerge. Spamming jutsus continuously was not a possibility, as anyone would exhaust themselves if they tried something like that. After a few initial rounds of jutsu clashes, most ninjas would try to reserve their chakra and then start engaging in close-range combat. Kazuki had yet to master the Hiraishin; if not, he could have singlehandedly turned the tides of the battle, just like Minato did back during his days, where he killed more than a thousand Iwa Shinobi alone. Currently, Kazuki was only proficient in using the basic Hiraishin like that of the Nidaime, which he chose to hold back for the moment and use as a trump card during a time of danger.

Kazuki noticed an Iwa Jonin, fully clad in Earth Spear, overpowering a Sarutobi clan Jonin, so he decided to intervene. For the first time since the start of the battle, Kazuki reached for his blade on his hip while moving rapidly in the direction of the Iwa Jonin. The Iwa Jonin noticed this and couldn't help but smirk internally because a little child was charging at him.

"[Ichi no Kata: Boruto Senkō]" (First Form: Volt Flash) Before the Iwa Ninja could realize what had happened, Kazuki had moved past him, beheading the Iwa Ninja with one smooth draw. Even the Shinobi surrounding him had no idea what exactly happened; as for Kazuki, he simply started engaging a new enemy while using his Kenjutsu. "[Hachi no Kata: Arashi Tsuki]" (Eight Form: Tempest Thrust) One more Iwa Jonin, who underestimated Kazuki's prowess, fell victim to his blade. The Iwa Jonin, with disbelief, looked at the pitch-black blade that had pierced right through his heart. He had somehow misjudged the length of the blade, but what the dying Shinobi did not know was that Kazuki's blade had extended just at the last second, catching him off guard. Kazuki's blade was greedily absorbing the blood from its victims, and by the time Kazuki pulled out the blade, the Iwa Jonin was already dead.

"[Doton: Doryū Jōheki]" (Earth Release: Earth-Style Rampart) Another Iwa Jonin, who saw his friend fall in battle, targeted Kazuki to eliminate him, creating multiple needle-like spears attempting to impale him. Kazuki, already aware of the incoming attack, clad his blade with lightning chakra and executed his kenjutsu to counter the incoming attack. "[Nana no Kata: Raiarashi Jinbu]" (Seventh Form: Thunderstorm Blade Dance) Kazuki executed a series of electrified sword moves that literally cut through the sharp mountain peaks like a hot knife through butter. Before the Iwa Jonin could react, Kazuki was right before him, about to swing and cleave him clean in two.

"[Yōton: Rakuseiha]" (Lava Release: Planet-Branding Blast) A dangerous projectile of acid was launched at Kazuki. He quickly created a pitch-black spherical shield using his Kekkei Genkai, as this was the best maneuver while mid-air. The lava release quickly clashed with the spherical shield. Contrary to the Iwa elite Jonin's expectation, the black sphere did not take any damage or melt; it only crazily absorbed the chakra from the acid attack.

"You kid, what kind of Kekkei Genkai is that? How was it able to absorb my attack?" Although Kazuki was not harmed, the sphere was knocked back due to the force of the attack, so the Iwa Jonin he had targeted escaped safely. Kazuki was irritated because that was a confirmed kill, and the elite Iwa Jonin intervened with a sneak attack. Kazuki did not answer the Iwa Shinobi but released the black sphere around him and charged toward the lava user, saying, "You shouldn't have done that." Kazuki, with anger brimming, now decided to kill the Iwa Shinobi who intervened.

"Heh, you are still too wet behind the ears to take me down, you bastard." The elite Jonin quickly weaved hand signs, "[Yōton: Yōkai no Jutsu]" (Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique). He launched a huge wave of lava to melt Kazuki into ashes; however, Kazuki, with a smile, sank into his shadow. Before the Iwa Jonin could react, a blade pierced through from behind. He could not help but gasp in surprise.

"You... you can phase through shadows." The elite Jonin realized his mistake too late. Kazuki appearing behind him without any evident chakra fluctuations only meant the kid had used the shadows to phase through as he sunk into them earlier. He had to warn the others; such a Kekkei Genkai was too dangerous. This kid needs to be eliminated now. If he is given room to grow, then it will be a repeat of the Yellow Flash all over again. Gathering his last reserves of energy, the Iwa Jonin wanted to scream, "Be careful..." but before he could finish, Kazuki had beheaded him. The last thing Iwa Jonin saw was the demon-like eyes of Kazuki that were staring at him.

Tsuchikage's office, Iwagakure

Onoki, with a furious expression, was going through the recent report from the Konoha battlefield. He had just received an update from their ANBU team that the commander from the Konoha battlefield had mobilized a third of their total forces, close to ten thousand Iwa Shinobi, and launched a full-scale battle. He also received intel about the other side: Konoha was marshaling close to twelve thousand Shinobi to face this head-on, and the Senju princess herself was leading this army from the front. Even Onoki himself would think twice before engaging the Slug Sage in a head-on battle. Onoki was someone who wanted to take advantage of situations; attacking Takigakure first was because it was a chance they couldn't miss. However, the commander he had assigned had foolishly launched a full-scale attack on a numerically superior enemy.

"What is that bastard doing? Quick, send a message to the Takigakure camp and have them mobilize Han to support the troops who have engaged in battle. Have them retreat from the battle; we need to preserve our numbers," Tsuchikage barked his orders in anger, and the Iwa ANBU quickly complied and flickered out with the scroll.

"Tsuchikage-sama, why don't we take this opportunity and mobilize our remaining troops and crush the Konoha army? The number they have mustered should be their maximum," one of the elders within the office couldn't help but question because they still had close to twenty thousand Shinobi on the Leaf battlefront ready to be deployed.

"Nonsense! Do you think I haven't thought of such a simple thing? Do you guys think a Shinobi War is all about numbers games? Just because we outnumber them two to one, do you think victory is absolute? They are better geared and better provisioned, and as much as it pains me to admit, they have a better quality of Ninjas. And numbers are the only advantage we hold, and this bastard goes and throws it away! Why do you think the leaf hasn't fallen through three Shinobi wars? Do you think it's because of the numbers? Out! Out! All of you, get out; I need to fix this mess before it's too late." Onoki started walking up and down his office, fuming in anger. Although he had asked the elders to leave, they knew if they left now, he was only going to get angrier at them later.

"How long will it take if we start mobilizing the rest of the army now?" Onoki asked one of the elders, who thought for a second and replied.

"We will need at least four days to do so. Even if we tried our best, we will need three days, Tsuchikage-sama."

"Damn that brat! I shouldn't have assigned him to the commander post just because he reached Kage class. I hope Han doesn't get there too late to intervene." Onoki had a bad premonition because this large-scale battle was too hasty; there were no plans made, no supply lines established, no retreat plans—nothing. Onoki just wanted to rip the Iwa commander's head off. He only hoped that the Sannin wouldn't commit completely to the attack.

The battle between Iwagakure and Konoha had been raging on for more than a day. Normally, in such large-scale battles, once both armies felt their losses piling up, they would disengage and clash multiple times over the time span. However, what the Iwagakure commander didn't expect was that the Konoha army was pushing ahead regardless of the damage they sustained. What caught him completely off guard was that, despite the damage, the numbers of the Konoha Shinobi army didn't seem to dwindle.

Tsunade, who was already a peak Kage-class ninja earlier, had breached the Super Kage class after recent upgrades. The Iwa commander, along with the other Iwa Shinobi, had no answer for the monster named Tsunade Senju. Unfortunately, though he wanted to retreat multiple times, the pit they originally created to restrict the Sannin's movements became a shackle that kept them from running. Tsunade had killed more than half a dozen Elite Jonin from Iwa, and if the commander had not had the support of other Iwa elites, he would have perished by now. The casualties on the Iwa side were piling up as the battle progressed.

"Commander, we cannot continue this. If this goes on for longer, we might lose all these Iwa Shinobi. We need to retreat," one of the Elite Jonin supporting the commander against the Senju informed him.

"Do you think I don't know that? How the hell are we supposed to escape being confined within a barrier? We can't even break the barrier from within, so unless someone from outside assists us, we might as well perish here," the Iwa commander complained to the elite Jonin.

The elite Jonin looked up and realized a blue triangular barrier was covering the elite-level battlefield overhead. About half a day before, when the first thoughts of retreat came to the Iwa commander's mind, they had raised the ground level. But all they saw was a triangular barrier covering the overhead. The Iwa elites caught within the barrier couldn't pass any form of instruction, so the Iwa army kept engaging the Leaf army, irrespective of the losses.

Tsunade had just pierced through the heart of an elite Iwa Jonin and threw away his body. She had already killed more than a dozen elite Jonin from Iwa. The only reason she still hadn't killed the enemy commander was so that the Iwa army wouldn't retreat without orders. The Leaf elites within the barrier, fighting alongside Tsunade, had now fully surrounded the Iwa elites.

"Senju, Don't think you have won this war yet. Iwagakure will surely pay Konoha back for this defeat," the commander, already exhausted and almost at the end of the line, declared. Just when he thought that all the remaining Iwa elites would perish here, Tsunade suddenly reacted.

"[Doton: Doryū Jōheki]" (Earth Release: Earth-Style Rampart) The moment she raised a huge rampart to defend the Konoha Shinobi side, a bijudama crashed into the barrier and destroyed it completely. The attack even caught a few Iwa Shinobi off guard, and they died due to the force of the shattering impact. The three shadow puppets that were holding the barrier were thrown away due to the force of the explosion. Even Kazuki didn't expect such a long-range attack. He sighed in relief because the tailed beast bomb was aimed at the barrier; if it was aimed at the Leaf army, then they would have lost quite a few Shinobi on their side.