Ch3- Team Shōyo and the battle in the Land of Mountains

While Sunagakure ended their involvement in the war with the failed invasion of the leaf, Iwagakure and Kumogakure each invaded the Land of Mountains and the Land of Rain respectively.

After the hidden leaf defeated the hidden sand in the battle of Mount Katsuragi, a team of elite Jonin was sent to each location as countermeasures.

Kumogakure in the Land of Rain had to deal with Team Sarutobi, also called the three sannin and Iwagakure had to deal with Team Shōyō.

The team consisted of five Jonin-level shinobi, which resulted in the third Tsuchikage, Onoki, personally deciding to appear on the battlefield.

***

Slashing an enemy's neck with her kunai, Kurai once again defended against the enemy shinobi, which once again ambushed Onoki's team.

As this was already the third time, Kurai already knew what to do. With her small 6-year-old body, she weaved through the Genin-level enemies, leaving the higher-level ones to different people.

Everyone other than the Tsuchikage and a few chosen ones went all out to quickly finish off the attackers, as they were short on time.

They had gotten information that Konoha had deployed Team Shōyō to the recently invaded land of the Mountains.

As the forces deployed there were deemed as incapable of fending them off, the third Tsuchikage had decided to personally make a move.

Taking around one hundred of his men with him, the third Tsuchikage prepared an ambush for the incoming enemies.

As her mission was mainly focused on protecting him, Nozomi decided not to make a move, considering the enemy's strength, which was way above hers.

***

They had been waiting for days and it was finally time. Team Shōyō had made it to the point of the prepared ambush.

With the experience of the shinobi, which focused on this particular profession, many hidden traps were deployed without the enemy noticing.

Having them at the perfect spot, Onoki gave the signal to attack, as everyone other than their squad attacked.

"""""[Earth Release: Vast Mobile Core]"""""

""""[Combination Style: Firestorm]""""

Multiple Ninjutsu came raining down, as the earth beneath Team Shōyō began to sink, trapping them under the ground, while a huge Jutsu, combining Fire and Wind was hurled at them.

Unfortunately, the enemy was not weak, as multiple earth walls were erected within seconds, defending them, while two Fire Release: Great Fireball Techniques were fired back, turning multiple attackers into ashes.

Enraged by their comrades' death, Iwa's forces began to madly spam Ninjutsu and explosives into the pit, hitting the five.

Thinking they had won, a few shinobi collapsed because of chakra exhaustion before finally realizing that something had gone wrong.

[Substitution Jutsu]!

Although many had noticed quite fast, they were still too slow to warn their allies as a blood-curling scream was heard around the battlefield, giving Kurai goosebumps.

While Ryun, Seireitou, Hikaru, and Echo had been intercepted by the remaining shinobi, Shōyō was intercepted by Onoki himself, who started firing [Earth Release: Bullet Rain] at him.

Dodging the bullet rain, Shōyō quickly countered by attacking Okoni with his Kenjutsu, almost slicing his arm off, was however stopped by a white-haired member of the bodyguard unit.

As he was partly a member of the Hōzuki clan and had mastered the respective technique, he was not too bothered with defending himself as the attack would just go through him as long as he was hydrated enough.

Before she could even react, Nozomi saw her fellow shinobi falling over after being struck by Shōyōs sword, which had attacked a crack in the Hōzuki clan member's body, killing him instantly by attacking the soul.

No one interfered in the fight any longer, having seen what happened. As the fight continued in a stalemate with neither side getting an advantage, Kurai just continued to watch.

Meanwhile, it was Onoki with his Earth Release against Shōyō with his Kenjutsu.

Having figured out, that this couldn't go on like this anymore, as his team was still fighting against close to a hundred enemy shinobi, Shōyō retreated for a split second, leaving Onoki surprised.

Using this small time frame, Shōyō got ready to absorb nature energy after summoning an owl to defend himself, entering the Sage mode.

The shock the third Tsuchikage felt after noticing his enemy entering sage mode was evident, as all enemies of Nozomi's squad began getting ready to defend Onoki at the cost of their lives.

Having calmed down, Onoki started using his own hidden card, Dust release. Although powerful, it had a long activation time.

Seeing as he was on the losing side, Onoki had no other choice but to order his bodyguard squad to hold Shōyō off, while he prepared a powerful Dust release Jutsu.

As such, 80% of his bodyguard quad, not including Kurai and a few smart ones began storming towards Shōyō. It was however rather pointless, as he took their lives like cutting grass, proving her decision to stay back as correct.

Looking up, however, he noticed the finished Dust release Jutsu and realized he wasn't going to make it out.

"Listen Team Shōyō! After this, you will be forced to shoulder great responsibility. If you merely continue walking, you will find many things barring your way. What you do when that happens, is entirely up to you. I will not be able to guide you forever. So for now, I offer you these words. Fearing others, and picking up your sword to protect only yourself... Leave such thoughts behind. Wield your sword, not to defeat your opponents, but to protect your very soul. The soul that is within you, and the soul that you leave with those you love."

"[Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World]"

Leaving these words, Shōyō was hit directly by the powerful dust release, vaporizing on the spot.

However the damage was done, as all members of the bodyguard squad who had stormed at him had been killed, while Onoki was too injured to keep fighting.

From below, Seireitou noticed their old master's death, thanks to his Byakugan. While the immense pain of loss within Ryun and Echo awakened their Mangekyō Sharingan.

Struck with grief, the four shinobi renewed their assault on the remaining Iwagakure shinobi. As night fell, the four had cut down over 80 of the remaining troops, only having minor injuries themselves.

Still enraged by his master's death, and using the cover of darkness to his advantage, Seireitou went on a killing spree among the remaining Iwagakure forces, slaughtering close to forty men single-handedly, which later get him referred to as the White Demon, before his teammates joined the fray to aid him.

By early morning the next day, Iwagakure's forces were wiped out and Ōnoki and a few of the remaining ninjas guarding him were able to retreat. Luckily for them, only a few separated shinobi attacked their retreating team, with the last four Jonin-level shinobi defending the exhausted Tsuchikage.

The reason Kurai was one of the few to survive was not because of her strength, but only because she never really joined the fight. The only thing she had done was hide and disrupt a few stray kunai, which were aimed at the third Tsuchikage.

This battle made Kurai realize, not only that she could be ordered to die at any time like the ones before her, but also that she had to get strong enough to not be considered useless in the eyes of her superiors.

This conviction would later save her quite often, even if she didn't notice.

After returning to the village, Kurai was taken into interrogation, as it was strange for her to be the only living person remaining, below the high Chunin level.

After multiple hours, she was finally released and brought back to her room, where she instantly fell asleep after laying down.

Unfortunately, she was still covered in dried blood as she had no time to wash.

***

It was very early in the morning, around 2 hours before her usual training started when someone came to get her for training.

As it was still 5 in the morning, no one was outside of their rooms, with only Kurai arriving at the training grounds, where Raba was once again waiting.

It seemed like they had decided to make her life hell. Well as much as you can make it worse than it already was, by forcing her to train and take a beating for 16 hours a day instead of the usual 12.

As such her days went by, training till she collapsed because of exhaustion, while the fires of war slowly began to dim with Iwagakure being on the losing side.

***

Despite their forces, a nation was stupid enough to declare war on all the five Great Shinobi nations. Even she knew it was stupid, as even in its weakened state, the allied forces of the Great Shinobi countries could decimate every other country's forces easily.

In her opinion, they should have just surprise attacked the strongest of the Great Shinobi Countries after careful preparation, before going on to destroy the remaining four.

They did exactly that, however, they had severely underestimated Konoha, which destroyed the flying Land of the Sky. They had failed to consider, that some shinobi were the perfect counter against their technology.

As such she was once again called to the battlefield at the age of seven, barely making it to the rank of high-level-Genin then.