3.15

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I stood next to Yahiko, Konan and Nagato in awe as I looked at the thousands of Shinobis in front of us.

I knew they had more members than the show showed, after all Hanzo would hardly feel threatened by a group of 10 members, with the average member barely reaching Genin level, but this was something else.

They came from literally all over the Elemental Nations, from the seven bases spread through the world to protect the innocent from the war.

And today, they had all arrived here, to liberate their country from Hanzo.

Yahiko stood tall before the entire Akatsuki as he shouted in a chakra-enhanced voice, "Today we gather, brothers and sisters, not because of greed for power, but for the defense of our very values!"

"HAI!"

"A week ago, Hanzo, under the pretense of forming an alliance, ambushed us, and tried to kill us. And now that we have survived, he will not hesitate to ally himself to other nations, and once again bring war to our country! Are we going to let him once again plunge our country into war?"

"NO!"

Yahiko unsheathed his sword, raising it high as he commanded, "Then we fight!"

The crowd echoed, "Fight!"

Their spirits incensed, the army now had the morals to fight as they started marching, the Shinobis among them disappearing with the Body Flicker.

The Akatsuki had many members, but most hadn't been trained as Shinobis. It didn't mean they were useless however, as there were other ways to use Chakra than Ninjutsu. Samurais, for instance.

The Ame Orphans and I looked at each other, before they nodded and disappeared with the Body Flicker, leaving me alone to lead the troops.

We had already discussed our plans for this fight, and had decided that it would be more efficient to divide their men into groups.

While they would lead the stronger but fewer troops, the trained Shinobi, I was to lead the bulk of our army.

My golden armor and golden sword, although not made of gold, would make it easy for our troops to find me on the battlefield, and having one's leader in sight was always a boon in a battle.

Well, that's what my rudimentary knowledge on war told me.

As I moved alone, followed by thousands of men, I felt the ground shake with their steps as we approached Hanzo's mansion.

I had asked Chris to meddle in the crowd, so that he wouldn't be singled out by the enemy.

So I truly was alone, and I couldn't help but feel good about it. I knew it was probably the Dark Side of the Force influencing me, but I felt good about leading so many men. I knew better than to overindulge in the feeling, but I was about to fight for my life against the guy who had named the Sannin, the Legendary Trio of the Leaf, so I allowed myself some guilty pleasure.

As we walked, I heard some ruckus from around us, nearly covered by the sound of the rain. These were probably the Ame Orphans and the other Shinobi stopping Hanzo's men.

Other than sneaking around, Shinobi were good at throwing large elemental attacks. A B Rank Jutsu would be enough to wipe out a dozen of our men, not to mention higher ranked ones.

Of course, I suspected Hanzo's men were Chunin at the very best, so they shouldn't have mastered Jutsus that strong, but I would rather have access to all of our men for this battle.

Thanks to our allies in the shadows, we managed to reach our destination without seeing a single one of Hanzo's men.

Hanzo's mansion was more like a castle. Not a western one, of course, but something more similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing, or Japanese castles in general.

It was made of several rising buildings, and was probably large enough to house two dozen people. It might have belonged to some feudal lord before becoming Hanzo's property.

And in front of said mansion, or castle, was a large army. Unlike us, they all dressed uniformly, and did look like an army. On the other hand, while there were thousands of us, there was only perhaps four to five hundred of them.

Hanzo had much fewer men than I expected. But I guess that makes sense, the Rain Village was never considered a Great Hidden Village, despite Hanzo absolutely being a Kage level. Since he was good enough, then the problem had to be elsewhere, and here it was his forces.

The village hidden under the Rain, or Amegakure, was far from unified, as we had around 200 of their Shinobi ourselves, plus a hundred from other villages who defected.

On paper, we were absolutely stronger than Hanzo's forces, even if only our Shinobi forces, who were still hidden, fought against Hanzo's men, they might actually be able to win. Adding us would simply be overkill.

But because of the simple presence of Hanzo, the odds were not simply evened, I would even say they are in his favor.

Personally, I hard countered Hanzo, as the man mainly relied on poison, which I was very resistant to. After all, while my Elven Sword had dulled and lost its enchantment over the past week, enchantments on armor were permanent.

His other strength, Bukijutsu, or the art to use weapons, was also countered by my stronger physical body. But I was under no misconception, I wasn't winning against him in a one on one.

Physical might might be his weak point, as a Kage level fighter, he was surely stronger than me, and that was without Chakra augmentation. And there was also his summon, the large salamander, Ibuse.

I might be resistant to its poison, but I wasn't resistant to getting crushed to death.

So I expected things to be hard, but that was fine. After all, the harder they were, the more Points I would get.

I stopped a hundred paces from the enemy, and raised a finger, twirling it around. As I did so, the troops behind me transmitted the order, and before long, the troops behind walked the sides, quickly surrounding the enemy troops.

As cool as it looked to have two armies run at each other, that was about as inefficient as one could get in a large-scale battle.

We had already made plans for this battle, and this was the first step.

In response, all the enemy did was use a single Jutsu. The summoning Jutsu.

I hadn't even seen him arrive, but Hanzo now stood on top of a giant Japanese salamander, which was easily over ten meters tall, and looked down at me with his arms crossed.

Well, all I can hope for now is that his skills have rusted enough… because we were gunning for him.

I suddenly broke out into a run, moving across the hundred paces separating us in a couple of seconds. Hanzo did not move, but Ibuse opened its mouth wide, transmitting a putrid smell over to me, which was mixed with passive poisons. But I knew that a much deadlier poison would follow, and while it wouldn't do much to me, the same couldn't be said about those behind me.

So, in response, I thrust my hand forward, and made a gripping motion as I used Force Pull.

Hanzo, who was standing on top of Ibuse, was suddenly strongly pulled forward as he fell from Ibuse. He tried to use Ibuse as support, no doubt to use the Tree Walk technique on it, but I used Force Push on it.

It was the first time I ever used Force Push on something so large, but the effects were a little better than I expected as although I didn't manage to send it flying, I did force it to stumble back, making Hanzo narrowly miss as he continued falling. I did feel some of the stolen lifeforce which I hadn't absorbed yet disappeared with the technique however.

Jumping up at him, I swung my sword at the Shinobi Demigod, who couldn't dodge because he was in mid-air, and slashed at him from hip to shoulder.

But the moment my blade made contact with him, he burst into a cloud of smoke, revealing this was a clone.

At the same time, a voice modified by a respirator mocked behind me, "You really expected me to fall for the same trick twice?"

My instincts were telling me that his scythe was coming for my heart, and as I was in mid-air, dodging it was impossible.

But I merely smiled, replying, "I was planning on you not doing so, actually."

Pieces of paper suddenly slipped out from the back of my armor, all painted golden. And on the part that was sticking to my armor, were inscriptions.

They all flew at Hanzo, and burst into a great explosion!