Chapter Thirty Seven- The Return

Hearing sand scrunch under my boots was a surreal feeling, so much so that I decided to just stand still and enjoy being back in the elemental nations.

Despite how war-torn and hellish it was, it was a nice place. 

A minute or so later a confused frown nearly appeared on my face, it was only my rigorous training and a feeling of power that stopped it.

The sand around me rose by the grain as it was lifted by the weight of my chakra. I opened my eyes as the whites turned black around my Sharingan.

'Maybe it's because it's a desert but it took me nearly twice as long to take in enough natural energy to enter sage mode' The reasoning made sense as a desert was nearly barren of life when compared to a forest, it wasn't a big deal but the extended time to enter sage mode was something I'd have to remember.

'Now where's Sakumo sensei?' I hummed as I focused on my boosted sensing. I felt him not too far away, his chakra was flickering and moving at an extreme speed. The reason was answered as I locked in on another chakra in the area. The other combatant's chakra felt like a thousand blades though in the depths I felt a hint of earth and wind energy. So that's what Russo of the Iron Sand's chakra felt like.

'What should I do... Either re-enter the war with a bang or keep it lowkey?' I smirked at that question, when the hell have I ever kept things lowkey?

"Summoning Jutsu!" I flew through the five hand seals and felt a fourth of my chakra abandon me.

"Really cub, you just left…" Mufuso said with a sigh as the smoke around him cleared, I could only smile at his put-off expression. 

"I told you all that this entire continent is embroiled in war," I said in apology as the bipedal lion jumped on my shoulder, immediately fusing with me and taking over gathering natural energy.

"No, I know how you young ones are. You get something new and you want to show it off to the entire world." Mufuso said as he crossed his arms, yet I could feel the battle lust through our connection. He was more excited than I was for a battle, true to his name as the Elder of Combat.

"More to my sensei than anybody, but you are right," I said with a smirk as I let a bit of chakra trickle to my legs, reinforcing them as I blasted forward.

"Sage Art- Afterimage step….." I was nearly over the next dune before I completed my sentence. A line of afterimages followed behind me as I kept increasing my speed, an entire twenty steps. This was my technique mastered, the starting boost of the body flicker jutsu repeated over twenty times in quick succession. My eyes could barely keep up but my sensing handled the rest.

[Sage Art- Afterimage Step- An S-rank original movement technique. Using the bursting motion of the body flicker jutsu over and over again to a degree that you can make extreme turns and pinpoint dodges. Combining the sensing ability and durability of sage mode with your Sharingan you can move so fast that you leave real afterimages that can attack yet can't be hit. Cost:15-???]

I moved with a grace and precision I had never had before. I felt unstoppable, in a mere minute I was zipping through a few battles on the outskirts of the war zone. A few tried to tag me with a kunai or shuriken but they were aiming at an afterimage I had left fifteen jumps ago.

"I assume we're heading towards the only two combatants with chakra levels that dwarf yours?" Mufuso asked as if it wasn't obvious. I could feel it as well, despite my massive increase in chakra plus the boost of sage mode I still barely had half of the chakra Sakumo and Russo possessed.

Russo especially as he had more chakra than Sakumo, it made sense as his fighting style seemed extremely chakra intensive.

I surely wasn't the third highest on this battlefield either, there were many Jonin or elite Jonin that neared or just barely eclipsed me.

One in particular was getting in my path, a dog at his hip and two kunai in each hand. 

"Tomeku? Sakumo's brat?" Tora Inuzuka asked as he got in my way, I could've easily gone around him but I'd rather not have his dog jump on me. He was probably watching Sakumo's back in case of interference, thus a line of after images coming in hot had caught his eyes immediately.

"Yeah, see ya," I said with a smirk as I blitzed around him, knowing he wouldn't be able to stop me nor could he without hurting me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a wave from Hizai Hyuga to which I nodded, knowing well he could see my every action from kilometers away.

It was then that I finally caught sight of a lightning bolt battling a sea of black sand, my sword came from its sheath with a satisfying click as it caught fire.

It would've been rather hard to pinpoint Russo in that sea of black sand but with Sage mode boosted sensing it was trivial. 

He was standing at the epicenter of a tornado of sharpened blades with his arms crossed and a small frown on his face. A literal tornado of iron sand senbon surrounded him as he threw large blades of iron sand at Sakumo periodically.

It was obvious as to how this battle was going. They were at a complete standstill as many times before, neither willing to risk completely committing to an attack. 

They were the two absolute strongest combatants on this battlefield. If either would fall, the opposing army would be decimated by the sole S-rank shinobi on the battlefield.

So they were tip-toeing around each other at the highest level.

Yet from what I could tell Russo was completely focused on defense. Out of all of his chakra usage over seventy percent was focused on his defensive tornado of senbons.

Yet it seemed Sakumo sensei didn't have a direct answer for the defensive usage of the man's bloodline.

"There is no such thing as an impenetrable fortress cub, find the path," Mufuso advised from my right shoulder.

He was right. I could see a path through it, an advantage I had that Sakumo lacked. With my afterimage step, I was sure I could get through. 'So what else was there to think about?'

I blasted forward in a zigzag motion perfectly placed so I was out of the man's line of sight. I swerved between a few black blades as I had nearly reached the defense tornado of senbon.

My eyes had long tracked a path through it. On my next flicker, I jumped directly into it, twisting and contorting my body just enough that I dodged nearly all of them.

One found its way into my shoulder. Of all the paths I'd found this was the path of least resistance. 

I was behind the man's back in less than an instant, my sword poised and ready to stab straight through the back of his head.

'Is that it?' I was so shocked that I barely noticed him twitch at the last moment and duck. Yet a splash of blood and a few tufts of hair were the only results of my sneak attack. 

A growl followed by a monstrous release of chakra was my only warning to retreat. Spikes of iron sand rose and completely impaled me from every direction. Or an afterimage I'd left behind that is. As for me, it felt like I had attacked ten seconds ago. 

I had just finished contorting through the tornado of iron sand to land next to a stunned Sakumo who had just landed in a burst of lightning.

"Hey there sensei, I drew blood," I said from behind the man who was still looking at my most recent afterimage. Credit to the man his head had jerked back to look at me after the last word left my lips.

His eyes looked over my features as if to confirm it was me before trailing down to drops of blood that fell from my sword. A few strands of black hair followed as it died a patch of sand under my blade red.

POV Change-Sakumo Hatake

"Hey there sensei, I drew blood," that cocky voice I would've killed to hear a few days ago had appeared in the middle of my near hundredth bout with Russo.

A whirl of trailing afterimages was my first hint yet when it had even tricked me to the point I was looking at one myself. A cold sweat hit the back of my neck as the smell of blood hit my nose.

This shinobi had injured Russo, in less than a second.

I turned and regarded him. A near-feral appearance that would make me think Tora had found an opening to attack. Yet the blood-red eyes and swirling tomoe gave it all away. 'He's twelve... this shouldn't be possible'

"…..What the hell happened to you Tometsu?" I asked in near disbelief as I regarded my student, no, the shinobi in front of me. 

The kid laughed as he turned and pointed a thumb at the back of his blood-red armored haori. 'Sage of…..Panthera'

"I'm a Sage. Oh, and this is Elder Mufuso meet my sensei Sakumo Hatake," he said as he motioned to an old-looking bipedal lion that seemed stuck to his right shoulder.

"A pleasure, though you smell of dogs. Unclean vile creatures." The lion spoke, surprising me slightly, as among my summon clan the only one who could talk was the boss summon and his direct line.

A sage. A title often referred to monks and the like. However, when a shinobi has taken up that title it can only mean one thing. They were legends in the making. The last known Sage was Lord Hashirama who had used his power to subdue Madara Uchiha when he attacked Konoha with the nine-tailed demon fox at his back.

Jiraiya of the newly christened Sannin has been in training for the last decade in an attempt to earn that title and power. The length of which could be attributed to him being called for missions and his role in this war. Yet from when I last spoke to him he still didn't claim to master it.

It was a joke between comrades because to this day he hasn't beaten me in a spar, yet his boisterous claim that he'd defeat me as a sage rang in my mind.

Yet my student went missing a mere two weeks ago and had staked claim to a title that only Hashirama Senju has held in the last hundred years. It was preposterous, nearly as much as a twelve-year-old chunin drawing blood from Russo of The Iron Sand. A Kage without the title single-handedly holding me and this army nearly at his village's gates.

Yet I could nearly feel it, he had an energy about him that spoke of power and dominance. Yet that had nothing to do with his chakra as I couldn't sense a drop, as if the boy was a ghost. It even seemed he had finally mastered his own self-created movement jutsu in less than a month. At first glance it was on par with my 'Thunder Step' technique and that spoke volumes.

My shocked and bewildered expression surely looked hilarious as I looked at the kid's wide smile, a fang had poked out of one side of his mouth making him look even more feral. 'Toketsu sensei... please come back to life and deal with your son….'

Before we could banter or talk further a wave of iron sand was headed our way, before I could even bark out a warning the kid laughed. "Care to race Sakumo Sensei?" 

I couldn't help myself but smirk at that. A crackle of thunder was my response as I raced into the field of black blades and senbons. 'It seemed he didn't need me to watch his back and block stray kunai for him anymore…. '

A figure appeared on my left, keeping up with ease it seemed. The Sharingan plus an S-rank movement jutsu based on the body flicker? A dangerous combo I'd have to push myself to outdo.

It seemed my student had suitably enraged Russo as he stopped holding his punches. Giant swords of Iron sand rose into the air and came down towards us, we split at that moment. Dodged and swerving through a forest of raising blades and flying swords.

I released my saber and let lightning crackle along its length. Easily parried what I couldn't dodge as I kept my momentum blazing toward the dark-haired Suna shinobi.

Tometsu held up well, his afterimages making it near impossible for Russo to land a clean hit without his full focus. Yet with me charging at him as well, he would be a complete fool to not keep most of his attention on me.

I dodged and swerved until I had caught up with Tometsu who had just dodged into a cartwheel spin. I noticed his eyes locked with mine and knew the play. 

When his hands hit the ground his torso turned. The soles of his feet held at an angle I used to flicker off of.

Putting me eye to eye with the surprised Suna shinobi, my lighting-coated blade streaking toward his neck. His newly made prosthetic rose forcing the saber to skid off his elbow as I flicked my wrist. Running a deep gash into the man's ribs before I was forced to retreat.

"God dammit, there can't be two of you bastards now!" Russo practically roared as every bit of iron sand he had surrounded him in a cacoon. A small slit was made so that he could glare at us, I had finally caught sight of the wound Tometsu had given him. A gash through the crown of his head that started past his hairline, the man's face was coated in blood.

"As I've been telling you for days, it is in your and Suna's best interest to surrender," I said with a smirk that caused the man's bloodshot eyes to twitch.

"A few more tries and we'll kill you, take your sorry-ass army back to your village and tell that idiot of a Kage to surrender," My student had added, causing my smile to twitch.

"Tell me your name, you ignorant disrespectful child, Sage of Panthera. You leaf bastards, endless resources given to mere children," Russo asked as he regarded Tometsu with a level of hate that surprised even me.

"My name is Tometsu Uchiha, you sandy fuck," He replied as he kept his cocky smirk and crossed his arms. From what I could tell the boy wasn't bluffing, right at this moment, he was an A-rank speed specialist. Russo's worst matchups were fast and slippery opponents.

His ingenuity had led to that blow landing just like the one that took Russo's arm a month and a half ago. The kids' battle IQ was dangerous.

"Just wait you little red-eyed bastard, I'll bring a prodigy of Suna's own to kill you while I wrangle that white-haired bastard's neck!" Russo yelled as he disappeared under the sand. A few flares hit the sky signaling a retreat by the Suna forces.

Tometsu had talked a lot yet he was right. With him at my side, Russo was forced to retreat. We could've forced the attack, yet it wasn't necessary. Not to mention our orders were to simply hold out and wait for Tsunade. I had no idea of the kids' new limits or true skill set.

"Now... what the hell happened in two weeks to turn you into this?" I asked as I regarded Tometsu with my full attention.