The First Move.

In the blink of an eye, Tsunade found herself standing in front of a vast rocky desert that seemingly stretched for miles in every direction. The troughs of its sandy waves gleamed under the bright lamp-like light of the full moon hanging from the center of the night sky.

Being a trained shinobi Tsunade immediately scouted the area for a few seconds and concluded no one to be in her vicinity.

'This is a fine spot for me to begin.' tsunade thought, clutching her odachi as she began a soft run.

Proving her worth for the title of a legendary Sanin given to her, she quickly oriented her direction using the stars and began to rush towards her mission.

Not long after using her chakra to enhance her body and thereby her running speed, Tsunade heard the sounds of weapons clashing and seals exploding in the distance.

'Why in the middle of the night when Konoha shinobi don't have to fight under the sun? Wouldn't it have been an advantage for them to fight us while we were tired from the hot sun during the afternoon?'

Stopping at the edge of a tall cliff, Tsunade peered down at the short group of fifteen ANBU shinobi from Konoha battling a group of about thirty shinobi amongst the cracks of the veins and open tunnels that ran through the steep desert rock towers.

Running her mind through the information she knew about the lands they were fighting in, Tsunade recognized a few of its features, both topographically and politically.

'There are seven unique tunnels and three branches on average that intertwine around each of them in this contested border area.'

'I still don't get why they started the fight during the night. Do they have a trick or is it just a tactical error from a new Kage who most likely knew nothing about war?'

'But both Sakura and Megumi were wary of him. So is he cooking something else?'

Glancing around the battlefield, Tsunade bit her thumb to draw a little of her blood which she smeared on the ground using her chakra to draw a summoning seal.

' Kuchiyose no jutsu.'

A bulbous but still tiny part of Katsuyu, which was still about as tall as Tsunade's waist appeared on the cliff.

"What do you need of me Lady Tsunade?"

"Katsuyu could you split up and join those ANBU members in secret? So that the enemies are not alerted of my presence?"

"Yes, Tsunade-sama! I will get on it!"

Katsuyu's body split into fifteen smaller versions of herself that each began to slide around the edges of the cliff in different directions to accompany their targeted ANBU members. One among the fifteen stayed back to accompany and listen to Tsunade's requests during this summon.

"Are you going to fight Tsunade-sama?" Katsuyu asked, her eye stalks waving about in the chilly night breeze of the desert that carried a hint of gunpowder.

"Not yet. I've got a bad feeling about their strategy, so I want to see what they have planned for us. If we can catch them off guard at this stage, we might avert the war for another few weeks."

"I see. I will stay by your side in case of any help Tsunade-sama."

"Alright."

When the battle only extended further into the night Tsunade was left questioning, 'How did such a small village get such highly trained shinobi? They've been fighting for too long without slowing down. That would've almost been ANBU level if not for their poor skill with the sword.'

'Did Danzo get them recently, or was he training them from much earlier and is only using the guise of a village to use these shinobi in war?'

None of the sides on the miniature battlefield had activated any sort of high-level elemental jutsus yet, they fought purely based using Kenjutsu and Taijutsu, so the damages to their surroundings were kept to a minimum.

It was at this point that Katsuyu spoke up something that confused Tsunade, "Tsunade-sama, I can feel something strange on the enemies. They seem to be able to gather natural chakra but not use it."

"Huh? What's that? That's weird."

Watching through the darkness, the innumerable sparks from clashing weapons and the random bright flashes of explosion from seals continuously lit up the fights and rumbled the rocky towers, enough for even Tsunade to get worried at this point if some of the towers would collapse and block the seven paths that ran through them, paths that would be invaluable in a drawn out war for the protection of caravans.

"Katusyu can you stay here and keep relaying to me the situation on the battlefield? I'm feeling a little uneasy about something I don't understand, so I don't want any surprises."

"Yes, Lady Tsunade." Katsuyu said and split into a smaller portion of herself that attached to Tsunade's neck and another one that stayed on the cliff, watching the gears of battle work to kill.

Tsunade rushed down the cliff and chose the most hidden path she could currently find, sliding on the walls of the rocky towers around her to weave in and out of the vision of her opponents who were focused on their fights, trying to distract them and grab their attention as she moved along to her own destination.

"Tsunade-sama, we're about to move to the centermost fight." Tiny Katusyu whispered.

Tsunade's eyes shifted to one of heightened focus as she jumped over the rocky tower and dove head down towards the enemy on the battlefield.

Gathering chakra to strengthen her arm, Tsunade fell like a meteorite whose aim was extinction.

Although she was noticed by the enemy due to a sharp whistling sound her kimono produced, it was too late.

The enemy raised their hands to protect themselves and brace for impact but as soon as Tsunade launched her punch, the enemy's hands snapped like chaff.

Tsunade's hands traveled through his broken hands and hit the center of his head, causing his entire skull to cave in and explode into a shower of blood, brain fluid, and gray matter.

Her hand only passed down through the shinobi's body and fully decimated it into an explosion of flesh, blood, and gore that no people untrained for looking at such things would be able to keep their stomach bags inside.

Her body only stopped with a loud explosion when she hit the slightly rocky desert floor, causing the entire floor around her to sink a few feet deep, along with the sand that buried it, forming an unnatural crater, a resting spot for the meteor that had landed.

The other shinobi who was fighting the same ANBU member looked at the blood-painted Tsunade in a maniacal flurry as he dashed towards her with both his short tanto cocked to swing down with force over her head.

But Tsunade wasn't impressed.

Without even drawing her Odachi, Tsunade took a stance and pulled her hand back, and just as the shinobi appeared above her head before he could even attempt to swing down his tanto, blew is head away, separating it from his body with a single punch.

The headless body followed its momentum and rolled across the sandy floor, leaking blood, painting the golden desert sand a metallic red like a certain flying armor.

The ANBU remained stunned in his position since he'd been fighting this guy for the last three hours without any success.

'Ah. So this is the level of the three Legendary Sanin.'

Tsunade's blood-drenched face looked at the ANBU corps member causing him to shudder for a second before regaining his composure and knelt.

"Tsunade-sama, the enemies belong to Yashinokigakure. They are the newly formed village that is being led by Danzo's subordinate, Kabuto, Yashinokage."

"I see. Thank you for letting me know. Have you felt anything weird about the enemies?"

"I did. They felt too strong. They have a lot of stamina, I fought with them for three hours only because I was trained to as part of the ANBU, but the enemy despite his lack of skill, had blows that felt like I was being thrashed by a tree and not a blade during every strike. I would say, he was a tonkubetsu Jonin if we simply consider his stamina."

"Thank you for letting me know. You may take a short break and find a vantage point to see if the enemy has any reinforcements arriving."

"Yes. Tsunade-sama."

"Katsuyu tell the rest to bring their enemies to the center."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

Turning to the sounds of the other battlefield that had stopped, Tsunade prepared herself for a more straightforward fight, waiting for her enemies to flank her from both directions.

'What a day.'

'I return to the battlefield only to shower myself in blood.'

'The same thing that had kept me away from it.'

Interrupting Tsunade's internal musings were the shinobi that appeared on all sides of the crater. She'd chosen this place for this reason alone, it was slightly larger than the rest and would allow her to fight more freely with everyone at once, since she was too lazy to chase small fries down for fights.

All the ANBU members got Katsuyu's orders and retreated to their companion to take a short rest while Tsunade looked on at the shinobi from Yashinokigakure.

They all had palm trees etched onto their headbands. Their hands were armed with two tantos, equipped with several tool pouches all along their bodies. A flak jacket protected their chest and a layer of chainmail pants protected their legs.

They all looked at her with a certain sense of battle hungriness indicated quite openly by their reddish eyes, wide grin, and the blood-thirsty aura they were forcing Tsunade under.

"What are you acting like feral mutts? Do you want me to beat you like one too?" Tsunade taunted, setting off a chain reaction among everyone, one that she hadn't expected.

All the twenty-eight shinobi's bodies began to transform and mutate with several black tomoe scattering across their faces from their necks, slipping into their eyes and turning them pitch black like the darkness, energizing their muscles to ridiculous extents by making them bulge. 

Their flack jackets began to tear due to this new growth underneath. And their previously perfectly-sized tantos now looked like toothpicks in their large 'dainty' hands, which they immediately discarded in favor of their nails that had become pointer and sharper.

Watching Tsunade's shocked face only made their feral grins wider.

'What the heck!? They're using Sage Mode!? Ho-'

Before she could finish her thought, two of the many shinobi jumped into her range with their arms extended, and their nails pointing forward as they attempted to pierce her head and stomach each.

But given Tsunade's experience, she immediately weaved herself to slip in between the two attacks and ended with a double kick that landed each leg on the faces of the two who had rushed towards her.

Their heads burst open, only partially this time, as their bodies collapsed and rumbled across the desert floor, but this time instead of red, there was a fountain of black blood being pumped everywhere.

Surprising Tsunade, the two mutated shinobi stood up once again, as their open heads healed in place, causing their feral grins to only grow wider.

"What the heck."

Several miles away, on an island, in his home high up in the sky, Megumi looked a little surprised as he looked on at the battle Tsunade was fighting.

While Sakura beside him looked positively terrified of what was in front of her.

"Megi, did you know something like this would happen?"

"It already has."

"Then, the meaning of this intrusion, it is to put on a show? For selling this to all enemy countries that will fight against Konoha?"

"I think so."

"THEN WHAT ARE-" Before Sakura to fly into a frenzy, Megumi hugged her tight and kissed her rather forcefully until she settled down.

"Relax."

"How can I relax Megi! It's that snakes seal! Sasuke had that damn thing and he turned into an absolute nightmare! Look at their smiles! They look and feel worse than Zabuza! And that was one maniac I know no one could match in terms of their killing intent!"

"....It's alright we'll figure it out. If they want to fight a war, I'll jut change the battle field until they can't make sense of what I'm doing anymore."

"Huh?"

"Don't worry about it. Just do as you would normally do. Leave the fringe things to me. Anyway, I think the Haruno store will soon become my customer."

"...why?"

"Oh, my organization will have teleportation points across the world, I think. So you'll probably supply us the mission for transporting things."

"...." Sakura deadpanned as Megumi tried to explain, "Keeping the money in the family is a good thing you know."

While they bickered with each other, Megumi's thoughts were on something else, 'Now that you've made the first move I wonder how long it'll take you to flip the board Hogoromo.'

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Thank you for reading!

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