Chapter Thirteen

Indra wasn't in a hurry to get to the Land of Rice capital, and by the time he'd get there the news of the massacre of the elders of the Fuma clan would have spread to everyone in the capital, and it would make getting into the town would be harder if he got there early as the clans and Daimyo would be worried about their safety, which would have them increasing the guards around the capital. Instead, he'd use the time to gather information on the slave trade, and bandit situation in the country, as this would hasten the search for his mother.

Three months quickly passed, although Indra had settled in the capital for over a month now, he hadn't done anything significant as 'kitsune', he used the time to map out the entire capital, the Daimyo mansion, as well as the various clan compounds. The capital had the traditional building designs that could be found everywhere on the continent, with the more affluent region of the capital occupied by the Daimyo's Kuge, as well as the clans that chose to settle in it, which was all of them.

The living condition wasn't very good, and it was obvious to Indra that the ruling class were tyrants that forced whatever little the citizens had from them. In the short month, Indra had lived in the town he had seen the clan shinobi oppressing the citizens while sporting wide grins and laughing loudly at the plights of the people they oppressed. The residents couldn't leave the capital, as bad as life was for them inside the town, it was way worse outside of it. So all they could do was endure and pray for someone to save them, and their prayers had been heard and answered. But instead of a saviour, they were sent a shinigami that would reap the lives of their oppressors, and leave the country in more turmoil than what they were currently dealing with.

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While Indra was carrying out his mission in the Land of Rice, the first shinobi war happening outside of the small country was becoming bloodier, Kumogakure had officially joined the war, with their primary opponents being Konohagakure and Iwagakure, but like bloodthirsty hounds, the five great nations nipped at each other, every distinction at who they were fighting all but gone, cutting down any shinobi that didn't don the forehead protector of their village mercilessly. The blood of various shinobi dyeing the countless battlefields that littered the entire continent.

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"Minari of the explosion corps," an exhausted Sarutobi Sasuke said, facing a light brown-haired woman with a thin scar running down the left half of her face.

Standing opposite from each other, in a battlefield littered with the dead bodies of hundreds of Konoha and then the dead bodies of Iwagakure shinobi.

'You're exhausted already, Sasuke-sama. Just give up so I can kill you,' she said as she attacked him for the umpteenth time, the battle between Konoha and Iwagakure shinobi having lasted the better part of the day.

Sasuke rolled out of the way as her foot slammed on the ground right where he was a second ago, and a massive explosion accompanied her landing foot.

"Minari-sama," five more shinobi with Iwagakure headband screamed out as they entered the battlefield.

Disregarding the reinforcements his current enemy had received, Sasuke made hand seals, 'Fire Release: Ash Pile Burning'.

Sasuke spews a stream of chakra-infused gunpowder from his mouth, which surrounds the region. The gunpowder lingered in the air around the Iwa shinobi, also acting as a smokescreen, he immediately ignited the ash, not giving his enemies any time to react. Having already deduced the location of the reinforcements, he dashed into the fire created by the jutsu with his sword ready to strike. Only the screams of the five Iwagakure shinobi could be heard as he came out of the fire right in front of the retreating Minari.

"You!!!"She screamed at the loss of her village shinobi.

Charging at Sasuke with her fist ready to strike, Sasuke raised his sword to block but the resulting explosion destroyed the blade, forcing him to protect his face from the shrapnels. Minari used the opportunity to attack him again with her fist, but Sasuke sidestepped, dodging the attack and subsequently, the resulting explosion. Not missing a beat, he brought out a kunai from his pouch and stabbed Minari in the thigh with it.

"Argh!!! Teme!!!" Minari screamed in pain.

Sasuke had been on the defensive for the past hour, buying time for Konoha shinobi to safely retreat back to Konoha. He was in charge of overseeing the battle against Iwagakure shinobi inside the Land of Fire, his job was to push out the Iwagakure forces out of the country's territory and it was going well up until twelve hours ago when he received news of a regiment of Iwagakure shinobi crossing into the Land of Fire from the border shared with the Land of Waterfall.

It was a pincer attack that he didn't expect, and he had just twelve hours to retreat from the now frantically attacking Iwagakure forces, that was now trying desperately to keep him and his forces at the location so they'd be wiped out once the Iwagakure reinforcements arrive. He knew there was no way for reinforcements to arrive from Konoha on time, so he had to fight his way out while preserving as many of his shinobi as possible. Although he immediately sent a messenger bird to Konoha the moment he received the message.

Konoha forces consisted of 700 shinobi, against a force of about 1000 Iwagakure shinobi, and then a rapidly approaching 2000 Iwagakure shinobi from the Land of Waterfall.

The battle lasted for hours, with Sasuke ensuring over 300 of his Shinobi retreated back to Konoha, but with the 5 shinobi that had just appeared, it was clear he won't be able to retreat too.

'Hiruzen,' he whispered the name of his son, as Iwagakure shinobi started streaming into the battlefield.

"You did well keeping him here," A cold but distinctively feminine voice sounded out as 2000 Iwagakure shinobi surrounded Sasuke.

"The death of Sarutobi Sasuke would be a major blow to Konoha," the woman added.

"Who said it would be easy to kill me," Sasuke said as he picked up a sword from the ground, he then gave the sword a swing to test the balance of the weapon.

With a roar, he charged at the Iwagakure shinobi without any fear showing on his face.

The resulting battle lasted for five hours, with reinforcements from Konoha joining Sarutobi Sasuke halfway through the massacre, while he fought till the last Iwagakure shinobi was cut down, it was already too late for him. Sasuke had burned his lifeforce in order for him to put down the threat of Iwagakure, he died as a hero to everyone in Konoha.

But his sacrifice did not slow down the war with Iwagakure, if anything, the slaughter of almost 3000 Iwagakure shinobi was seen as a slight to the stubborn Iwagakure elders, and they were adamant to pay blood with blood. It would take a brutal beat down to quench their thirst for vengeance.

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