And so, the decisive battle for the Land of Uzu began.
There was no easing into it.
Han summoned up the Five Tails' chakra and the massive form of the Tailed Beast formed around him.
Kokuo, the Five Tails, opened up its mouth, gathering and condensing chakra into a dark purple, hyperdense sphere.
'Tailed Beast Bomb'
Without any further ado, the dense mass of chakra lit up in an ominous bright red and launched at the Uzumaki lines.
The First Elder stood bravely in the forefront of the Uzumaki forces.
His long, wild hair, once bright red in his youth, had now turned into a more subdued brownish auburn shade but the vitality bursting from his strong, lively form seemed undiminished.
Nine large spear tipped golden chains emerged from the Elder's solid back.
They all simultaneously burst forward at tremendous speed, rotating around a central axis like a vortex even as they advanced.
'Adamantine Sealing Chains: God Piercer'
The nine spiked chains fused into a massive spearhead with nine chains trailing behind it like a comet's tail.
The target? The rapidly approaching Tailed Beast Bomb.
The two jutsu collided in an instant but the expected clash of power did not follow, neither did a thunderous explosion.
God Piercer's giant spearhead pierced the approaching Tailed Beast Bomb but one had to remember, it was a variation of the Adamantine Sealing Chains, a sealing jutsu meant to restrain targets and suppress their chakra.
As such, once it collided with the Tailed Beast Bomb, the unstable, explosive chakra of the jutsu was immediately suppressed, causing it to disperse into the surroundings, harmlessly.
Silence filled the air at the utterly unexpected result before a triumphant roar began echoing from the Uzumaki forces.
On the other side . . .
'Now is not the time to falter, we can't let morale drop, we need to bulldoze the Uzumaki by the end of the day in a single relentless offensive.'Onoki thought to himself and immediately transitioned into a set of concise orders.
"Han, charge up one more, I refuse to believe a regular shinobi, no matter how powerful, can keep up with a Jinchuriki in a clash of chakra volume."
The Five Tailed Jinchuriki, still a young man, not even twenty, had previously been shaken at the apparent ease with which the enemy dealt with his most powerful jutsu but with his Kage's words, his composure returned.
'I underestimated them. With Two Tailed Beasts gone I should not have but I still did, irrationally believing no one among the enemy could beat me, that I was unlike the incompetent fools from Kumo and Kiri. But no more.' Han internally vowed and began charging up another attack.
Meanwhile, Onoki continued with his commands.
"Iwa shinobi! Enter ultra long range bombardment stance! No need to conserve chakra!" The Tsuchikage's chakra amplified voice echoed through his forces.
An earth shaking roar of commitment from his soldiers followed.
Swiftly breaking up into groups of four, they faced each other, each squad forming a circle with the members facing the center.
Unlike the usual for this more realistic world, the Iwa shinobi shouted the name of their jutsu out loud, a way to help synchronize their actions.
"Combined Earth Release: Rock Mortar"
At the center of each circle, the ground seemed to compress and tremble with stored force as massive amounts of chakra was kneaded into it.
And then, with a deafening sound like the firing or artillery, a large rock was launched into the air at supersonic speed with an extremely high arc.
"It's Iwa's ultra long range ninjutsu bombardment, the attack will come from above! Ready defenses!" The fourth elder sensed the enemy's actions with his Mind's Eye of The Kagura and urgently commanded the regular forces.
With a single look of communication, the Second, Fourth and Sixth Elders spread out across the Uzumaki army and gave the same command.
"Prepare chakra linking!" X3
The Uzumaki shinobi roared and proceeded without hesitation.
"Uzumaki Style: Chakra Channeling"
With a combined chant to facilitate coordination, all of them linked their chakra pools to those of the three elders.
'Adamantine Sealing Chains: Barrier Curtain' X3
Without delay, the Elders deployed a large scale version of a previously demonstrated jutsu, the Adamantine Sealing Chains: Barrier.
A curtain of golden chains covered the air like a giant canopy and an energy barrier formed between the gaps in the crisscrossing chains.
Almost immediately, large rocks began falling from above with tremendous speed and force.
However, against such a powerful barrier jutsu, one sustained by the chakra on an entire Uzumaki army, this ultra long range bombardment was never going to break through.
On the Three Village Coalition side however, there was no disappointment, because dealing damage was not the true purpose of the attacks
"The enemy forces have been suppressed. Your turn Mizukage." Onoki gravely declared telling his fellow Kage as a reminder not to delay.
And the man did not.
"Kiri shinobi with me! Advance!" His chakra amplified voice resounded.
"CHARGE!" Hozuki Shingetsu echoed, standing at the forefront of the Kiri Forces, eager for the slaughter.
As a sea of enemy shinobi surged forth, the First Elder blocked his fifth Tailed Beast Bomb.
'Thank the Sage that's over!' He mentally complained while sighing in relief.
The strain of blocking such a destructive jutsu with absolute precision, over and over again, was starting to truly wear on him but, with the enemy's troops advancing, the Tailed Beast Bombs would stop coming to avoid friendly fire.
Amidst this, the Fourth Elder swiftly shouted his next orders in response to the enemy's movements.
"Start the retreat! Get out of Iwa's range! We'll wear Kiri down in the forest and crags where their numbers won't be as effective as in an open field!"
In normal times, the Mizukage would have welcomed guerrilla warfare in the jungle and rocky crags where Kiri's signature stealth and assassination tactics could shine.
However, that was a time consuming endeavour that went against the Coalition's current plan, a plan majorly proposed by him.
"Spread out across the front of our advance. We'll flush them out and deal with their traps at the same time. The offensive must not stall." The Third Mizukage commanded his personal guard.
The four elite shinobi, just under Kage level, spread out as per their Kage's orders and molded their chakra in preparation.
On the side of the Uzumaki, they had weathered Iwa's bombardment and were now moving into the heavily trapped and tricky terrain behind them.
The goal was to wear down the coalition forces, not stall them, they too wanted to finish things in a single day, cutting down their numbers was to maximize the chances of the final counterattack working as intended.
Alas! Such subterfuge as traps and guerrilla warfare was what Kiri specialized in and their Kage was more than prepared to not let the Uzumaki turn his own methods against him.
The Third Mizukage along with his four Elite Guards had molded sufficient chakra as they moved.
'Water Release: Exploding Water Shockwave' X5
A combination ninjutsu cast by five powerful Water Release specialists, including the Mizukage himself.
The result? A massive Tsunami one could hardly believe was man-made.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -