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She shifted her threads. This time she lashed her puppets toward Hiashi. Hiashi blocked, palms striking with measured precision, his movements calm and sharp. But as Chiyo pressed harder, Hizashi angled in, always half a step closer, intercepting a blade, diverting a puppet's lunge... protecting his brother.
Chiyo's sharp eyes narrowed. So that's it. The Branch shields the main. Even when their disguises are perfect, the body tells the truth.
She felt a pang in her chest, an ache she refused to name. Guilt? Nostalgia? She ignored it. She had buried her emotions long ago, with her son and daughter-in-law. She couldn't believe her grandson, sasori, defaulted sunagakure.
Her hands twitched, and from her scrolls, she summoned two familiar shapes... aged wood, lacquered joints, painted faces cracked with time. Mother and Father.
The two puppets landed lightly, their heads lifting as if animated by their own will. Their palms touched, and from their fingertips unspooled a steel-thin wire, nearly invisible in the smoke.
The Hyūga brothers stiffened. Hiashi's voice was quiet, wary. "Be careful, Hizashi. Something's different."
Chiyo's eyes hardened. "Forgive me, child. You are resourceful."
The Mother puppet lunged first, her hand slicing downward. Hizashi blocked, twisting his palm to redirect... but as he moved, the Father puppet darted in from the other side. The steel wire tightened, angling toward his wrist.
He barely noticed it until it gleamed under light inches from his skin.
"Damn!" Hizashi snapped, yanking back. His Byakugan caught the shimmer at the last second. He twisted his arm, chakra flaring to disrupt the thread connecting the mother... but Chiyo was ready. Her chakra threads flexed, pulling the wire just out of the line of his strike.
The Mother's hand slashed again. Hizashi blocked, but the Father cut in immediately, intercepting. It was a dance... a deadly rhythm designed to ensnare him, cut him apart piece by piece.
Hiashi lunged to help, but Chiyo's remaining puppets barred his path, senbon and blades forcing him to defend.
The wire flicked again. Hizashi twisted, too slow this time. A line of blood sprayed across the ground as the wire carved along his forearm. Not deep enough to sever, but deep enough to burn and leave a bruise.
Hizashi hissed, clutching his arm, blood dripping freely.
And Chiyo's lips curved in satisfaction. "There it is. The branch member bleeds."
Her eyes sharpened, cruel resolve filling her. Now I can differentiate them. The Hyūga brothers regrouped, standing shoulder to shoulder again, Hizashi favoring his injured arm.
Hiashi's jaw tightened. "Lo-... Hizashi…"
His twin shook his head, ignoring the blood. "Don't worry about me. We can't let her through. Not one step."
Chiyo's gaze flicked between them. Her fingers flexed, and the Mother and Father puppets lunged once more.
Meanwhile, around them, the war raged. Chunin-level Hyūga were crumpling one by one, their rotations shattered under clouds of poisoned needles. Suna shinobi pressed harder, pushing Konoha's line back step by bloody step. However, Suna also had their share of loss with hyuga seeing through their tricks.
But in the heart of it, the duel between Chiyo and the Hyūga brothers burned brighter. And Chiyo had made her decision. She would stall them, and when the moment came... She would take the Byakugan for Sunagakure.
--
The battlefield between Konoha and Suna had turned into a furnace of metal and chakra. Every clash of steel rang like thunder, every breath came with the taste of iron and dust. In the center of it all... two figures faced each other with the quiet intensity testing one another's limits.
Saoi, the Third Kazekage, stood calm amid drifting clouds of black sand, his cloak fluttering. His hands were half-raised, the faint magnetic hum of his chakra field vibrating through the air. Across from him stood Minato Namikaze, the Yellow Flash of Konoha... one hand missing, sleeve tied tight just below the shoulder.
The air between them pulsed with lethal anticipation.
Saoi's thoughts were measured, unhurried. So this is the one Onoki fears enough to call for a flee-on-sight. Hmph. Let's see if the legend holds up.
Minato's single hand gripped the hilt of his short katana. He wasn't smiling... his expression was steady, focused, calculating. He knew he couldn't outlast the Kazekage in a drawn-out fight. Not with his dominant hand gone. Every movement had to count.
He used his katana to take out a kunai from his pouch and flicked... a modified one, shorter, its edge soft-iron rather than steel. It spun once, cutting through the air toward the Kazekage.
Saoi thought, he only needed to make contact with the kunai once with his iron sand to magnetize it.
Saoi extended his palm. "Jiton: Satetsu Tate (Magnet Release: Iron Sand Shield)."
A black dome of iron sand swelled in front of him, thick and glinting like obsidian. The kunai struck it and bounced off harmlessly, landing several meters away. Saoi's eyes didn't leave Minato.
Minato vanished. Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique).
He reappeared at the kunai's location, just fifty feet from the Kazekage... but before his boots even touched the ground, Saoi's sand swirled again, reforming into blades.
Minato swung his katana, chakra flaring."Fūton: Reppū Yaiba (Wind Release: Gale Blade)!"
The sword howled with slicing wind, cleaving through the approaching sand tendrils. Black grains scattered into the air, harmless. Minato's hair blew back in the gale, his eyes locked on the Kazekage.
Saoi barely blinked. His left hand moved slightly."Satetsu Shigure (Iron Sand Shower)."
The dome exploded. Thousands of glittering fragments of poisoned iron sand launched into the sky, then came down like a rain of daggers. Each piece glimmered faintly green... the telltale toxin of Chiyo's poison coating every grain.
Minato cursed inwardly. A single scratch could paralyze him.
He disappeared again, teleporting back to the first kunai's marker.
A flash of gold. He appeared midair... then landed low, eyes scanning for a new angle of attack. Normally, he'd catch the returning kunai in mid-flash with perfect precision. But with one arm missing, his balance was off, his transitions slower.
He kicked the kunai upward, letting it spin in the air, then re-gripped his katana with the same hand, twisting his torso to stay light on his feet.
Saoi watched, expression unreadable."Your teleportation is good... no impressive. You move between your kunai seals… and metal is your weakness and I control it."
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A/N: It is only reasonable that Chiyo would target the byakugan for suna. As it is such a rare commodity. How weird it would be if she ignored the byakugan. Trying to make as realistic as possible.
I believe Third Kazekage is a natural counter to minato. Third Kazekage can control the battlefield with his iron sand and magnetise FTG kunai, and use that FTG kunai to attract or repel. With iron sand coated in chiyo's poison.
Minato lost his hand [in chapter 32] in an explosion of hiruzen's hand. This will be minato's battle to develop his arsenal.
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