1.

- Katon: Fireball, - quickly folding his seals, the shinobi with the Hidden Leaf Village protector spat out a large blob of fire.

- Doton: Earth Shield," another shinobi dressed in red quickly placed his hands on the ground, and a wall of earth grew in front of him.

A second later a projectile of fire slammed into the earth shield, causing a great deal of dust to rise. The shinobi from Konoha was in no hurry to attack again. Instead, he decided to wait out his opponent's next move. He was not a sensor, so he could not sense that an enemy was approaching him underground.

A shinobi from Willow, in a cloud of dust, took advantage of the technique to go underground. Because of his affinity with the earth element, he was able to develop sensory abilities. As a result, he easily approached the enemy underground, grabbed his legs, and with a sharp movement pulled him towards himself, dragging his enemy into the ground up to his neck. Iva's shinobi then, also quickly surfacing from the ground, folded his seals and shouted out:

- Doton: Earth Vise," and the Konoha shinobi flattened out.

Wasting no time, Iwa's shinobi headed off at full speed to his partners' aid.

Suddenly a body fell into the centre of the battle. It appeared completely unexpectedly, so everyone stopped fighting and just stared at it.

After a second the unidentified man twitched slightly and then slowly began to rise. He was visibly struggling to do so and was now barely standing, slouching and swaying slightly.

When he stood up to his full height, everyone could see his strange clothes: a dark blue cloak somewhat similar to the sandaime hokage, black high boots, the same colour trousers, a hood and a mask. Uh-oh, the mask got all the attention it deserved.

It was as if his face had been stripped of its skin and replaced with metal plates sewn on with steel threads - exactly the kind of picture the mask presented. The threads were particularly visible at the level of the mouth.

- Euphoria," the stranger said in a muffled voice and stood to his full height.

The shinobi looked at each other nervously. The strange man in the strange clothes and mask was muttering to himself, which made the shinobi nervous.

The strange man, however, also seemed a little out of place. His name was Dmitri Sobolev. A guy of twenty-five, who liked to play online games with full immersion. He worked as a regular office clerk, and spent the rest of his time playing games and watching various movies and anime.

One minute he was fighting a raid boss, and now he's standing in some strange place in the rain. Through the magic of the mind he was able to remove his tiredness, weakness, and regained mental clarity.

He focused his gaze on the man standing in front of him, namely his green waistcoat and bandana. After a second he remembered an anime about a restless blond man who runs around the world just to get his friend home.

- Euphoria," a new bout of excitement forced Dimitri to use a spell.

"What's going on here! How did I get here! Where's the raid boss?!"

Dimitri strained his brain to find a way out of the situation.

- Hello, I'm Axel Reinhardt," he said, and no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn't think of anything but a greeting.

He called his nickname from the game because he was a very famous player in the online game Ancient World. He hoped that he was facing ordinary players cosplaying shinobi from the Naruto world, because thanks to the flexible equipment settings, even an Iron Man costume could easily be made. True, you can't fire real repulsors, but that's easily replaced with magic.

The shinobi, surprisingly enough, did not respond. Their intuition told them that this man was not as simple as he seemed. Besides, it was a very delicate situation right now, and if anyone made an unnecessary move, the fight could go on. It wasn't that they didn't want to fight. Stone's shinobi had a mission to eliminate Leaf's shinobi, but because it wasn't clear which side the stranger was on, no one dared to attack first.

"What is it with them? Wait! Are they blinking?! But the Ancient World doesn't provide for facial expressions... Don't tell me I got... Into... The... World... Naruto..."

With those thoughts in mind, Dimitri brought his hand up to his mask to mimic the world's Hand-Face gesture.

A particularly nervous Konoha shinobi couldn't stand it and threw a kunai at Dmitri. He felt a poke in his stomach, and then a clang of metal reached his ears. He pulled his hand away from his mask and saw the kunai lying beneath his feet. Someone had just tried to kill him, but the kunai could not overcome the protection of Dmitri's equipment. Dimitri immediately remembered the ancient saying, so instead of waiting for the next attack, he cast a spell of water magic.

- A scalding hiding mist! - This was a variation of the Hiding Mist spell.

It creates a thick, red-hot vapor that severely burns everyone but the caster, as well as greatly reducing the range of vision. Afterwards, Dimitri used the Darkvision spell from Dark magic. With it he could see through walls, and people and objects were illuminated in yellow and orange respectively. Now, however, the world around him darkened as usual when the spell was used, but at the same time it seemed to become clearer, and people began to glow a pale blue rather than yellow.

No sooner had the shinobi reacted to the clang of the fallen kunai than the red-hot mist began to literally boil them, leaving them badly burned. They all scattered around.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Akiyama Takahashi was glad that they were finally returning to camp after the mission. He was also glad to be alive. Now in war, one in three chunin would definitely not return home, and he really didn't want to be on that list.

Akiyama was not starry-eyed, so he knew that in any confrontation he could die. This assignment was no exception. But, thank Rikudo, he survived, albeit with wounds, but survived. And the wounds, by the way, were healed by their combat irenin.

A loud explosion from behind caught him off guard. Quickly turning back he saw the corpses of three of his co-combatants.

"Ambush!" - flashed through his mind.

Akiyama, hesitating, barely had time to repel the shurikens flying at him. The stone treaded ninja, who threw shurikens at him, quickly shortened his distance and almost put a tanto in Akiyama.

Jumping back, Akiyama was able to avoid the shinobi's attack at the last moment. He immediately realized that he was facing a jounin. He estimated his chances and concluded that there was a 21% chance of him winning.

"Gotta stall for time and hope I get some help."

Akiyama barely had time to block his opponent's lunges. He realised that a little more and his defence would fall.

"No, we must hold out! Just a little more and I'll get help!"

Akiyama decided to go on the attack. In his mind, he had a 39% chance of inflicting a severe wound on his opponent during the exchange of blows. He purposely set himself up for the next attack, which hit him in the shoulder, and then attempted to thrust the kunai into the throat of Iwa's shinobi. However, the blade stopped a few centimetres from the enemy's body. To Akiyama's surprise, Iwa's shinobi managed to intercept his attack. The clinch between them did not last long. Iva's shinobi's hand was covered in a thick layer of stone, and he struck the Konohovian right in the face.

The blow stunned Akiyama very badly. Staggering, he retreated a few steps away from his enemy and braced himself for death. He was aware that the enemy would take advantage of his condition. His whole life flashed before his eyes. He remembered every little detail of his life: the first time he went to the Shinobi Academy; the first time he took someone's life; the first time he fell in love with a stunning kunoichi. Akiyama now wished he had paid more attention to his training. Had he been stronger, he would surely have been able to defeat Iwa's shinobi.

However, contrary to his fears, the enemy did not finish him off. When he was able to pull himself together and suppress his dizziness, he saw that Iwa's shinobi was still standing where he was, but his gaze was directed elsewhere. Akiyama followed his opponent's gaze and saw some man lying on the ground. Akiyama then took a quick look at the situation. It was evident that they were losing, which meant that while such a respite was formed, a plan of retreat had to be contemplated.

What brought Akiyama out of his thoughts was the movement of the unknown man. He slowly, like an old man, rose to his feet. Now he could be seen in detail. The first thing that caught Akiyama's eye was the mask. A mutilated face, where instead of skin there were metal inserts connected by a steel thread. And one eye seemed to consist of three pupils.

- Euphoria," the persona's soft, barely audible muffled voice brought Akiyama out of his contemplation.

After these words, the stranger straightened up, as if his strength had returned to him. Akiyama immediately thought it was jutsu.

The tension in the air could be cut with a knife. No one was going to do anything first.

- Hello, I am Axel Reinhardt," his voice came out as if from a clear sky.

Out of the corner of his eye Akiyama saw how Tatsuo Reto, his teammate, could not stand it anymore and threw his kunai straight at the stranger. However, instead of stabbing him in the stomach, the kunai fell to the ground.

"Those strange clothes he's wearing are actually armour? There's no way that could be. A kunai would definitely be able to cut through leather armour!" - Akiyama's mind raced.

- A scalding concealing fog - and the battlefield was instantly engulfed in a thick fog.

Akiyama clenched his teeth so as not to shriek. This fog began to cook him like ramen in a pot. Even the rain could not penetrate this mist. The raindrops immediately evaporated on contact with the mist.

"One must endure the pain. The main thing now is to move towards the camp."

Dispersing his chakra through his body, Akiyama quickly ran towards the camp. The red-hot fog was severely burning and reducing visibility, so he ran at a low speed to avoid hitting anyone.

There were screams of agony all around him, and along the way he occasionally encountered the bodies of dead shinobi. It was all very affecting to his psyche.

Finally getting out of this fog, Akiyama breathed a sigh of relief. His entire body stung immensely, as if hot coals had been shoved under his skin. Even the cool rain didn't help the pain.

Shaking the tears from his eyes, Akiyama saw two other shinobi, Leaf and Stone. They were in exactly the same condition as he was. They were now standing in a fighting stance.

- Shit Rikudo, Akiyama, you scared the shit out of me! - Ichiro Abe shouted out, either happily or reproachfully, putting away his kunai.

- Ichiro! You have no idea how glad I am to see you! - Smiled cheerfully Akiyama. He thought he was the last of his group.

- Hey guys, I'm glad for your reunion, but who was that man? - Stone's shinobi asked, also putting away his kunai. All three of them knew it was best not to continue the battle now.

- Who knows," Ichiro brushed it aside, checking his burns.

- Better get out of here soon," Akiyama looked fearfully into the fog, "we can't beat him.

- Are we not going to wait for survivors?! - The Stone shinobi exclaimed in surprise. - We can't just leave them there!

- Look, Akiyama is right. We can't beat him. Do you see that fog? - Ichiro pointed his finger at the fog. - It's probably Futon's technique. He has a kekkei genkai. And those who have an enhanced genome are always strong. Think of tsuchikage for instance.

Stone's shinobi looked thoughtfully at the mist. He didn't want to leave his comrades behind, but the Kono's words made sense. Besides, the three of them were injured.

- Shit Rikudo! There's someone coming! - Everyone stared into the fog. And indeed, a vague silhouette of a person could be discerned through it.

The shinobi took up battle stances again. They hoped it was their comrades coming, but precautions had to be taken.

The seconds of waiting stretched into hours. Akiyama tried to quickly come up with a plan in case of retreat.

"Biju! I should have run to the camp at once, instead of regaining my strength!" - he chastised himself.

And then a silhouette emerged from the fog. It was the stranger. He dragged the corpses of the two Stone shinobi by the scruff of his neck like sacks of rice on the ground. He threw them at the shinobi's feet.

"Mother Rikudo! Is he provoking us?!" - flashed through Ichiro's mind. - "I hope this stone shinobi doesn't run into a suicidal attack."

- Oh you..." the Stone shinobi was shaking with anger.

"How stupid is he..."

Ichiro noticed out of the corner of his eye the strange movements of Akiyama's hand. He took a closer look, and realized that he was sending him a message.

/Offset/.

"And how are we going to retreat, Father Rikudo?! Scatter?!" - Ichiro was digesting the information.

- Ahhhh!" the Stone shinobi ran at the persona with a shriek.

- A flaming whip," the stranger had a long, not-so-thick strip of fire in his hand, resembling a whip.

With a single flick of his hand the flaming whip enveloped the shinobi, then began to burn him.

A scream of pain stunned the Kono people. They watched in horror as the poor man went up in flames.

After a few seconds the roasted body fell to the ground, and only then did they come out of their stupor. Leaf's shinobi realised that their chance to escape was gone.

The stranger lifted his head upwards and began to regard the dark clouds. Ichiro and Akiyama looked at each other as if asking each other, "what to do?"

- Has the war started long ago? - The shinobi flinched at the sudden question, but answered nothing, and the unknown man repeated his question.

- Well... Yes..." Akiyama barely made it out.

- Well..." the stranger turned his back to them and walked away into the fog.

- ...

- ...

- Shit Rikudo, he just took off? - Ichiro was shaking with tension. Even though the unknown man had already left, he still couldn't believe he had survived.

- Yeah... They say that all strong shinobi are a bit crazy," Akiyama tried to make a joke, thus relieving the tension.

- Hehehehe, that's for sure," Ichiro clenched his fists to collect his thoughts.

They looked at each other again and ran for the camp without sparing any effort.