Chapter 18: 16: Flames Swell and Surge

A series of white lights accompanied a blade as it streaked through the battlefield, threading through the last of the Ame shinobi like a needle. Blood splashed from their necks, granting them a relatively quick death. Konoha's encirclement was complete after around another hour of intense fighting.

A few enemies may have fled, but there should be no surviving forces from Amegakure in the region able to threaten Konoha's northern front. Hanzō, The Salamander himself, would likely have to appear here to upset Konoha's position now. Amegakure's gamble here had failed.

Blood still dripping from his blade, Sakumo finally allowed himself to sigh. It had taken him long enough as it were.

A brief leave of command to witness the birth of his son. Approved by the Hokage himself months before. A two week round trip. Apparently that was enough of an opportunity for Kandachi, a general of Amegakure, to launch an all out strike to dismantle Konoha's foothold in the area.

Though, how the intel of his absence leaked was anyone's guess. Sakumo suspected a deliberate conspiracy, from either the gods or men, to make his life difficult. It was just too coincidental, such that his intuition warned him to be wary.

He had received the urgent communique summoning him to the battlefield while his dear Harumi was in labor.

It saddened Sakumo greatly, to be only able to spend a few hours with his wife after the birth of their son, Kakashi. Duty and Family were two of his greatest concerns. So often those two facets of his life worked in tandem and he loathed the rare times when they conflicted.

It was always a difficult choice, a test of character, where he had to look deep within himself and ask himself what kind of man he was, what was it that he valued most in the face of death. Some might say that this self-reflection was healthy, but it carried life-altering implications that always threw Sakumo off. His compromise this time around was to stay by Harumi's side for a few more hours until she bid him farewell and drifted off to slumber.

Hours that might've made a difference in this battle, had he failed to make it back in time.
Still, Sakumo knew in his heart, he would always choose to save his friends and family over any one of his assigned duties.

Sakumo Hatake was a man who felt love very deeply, his greatest source of strength and his greatest potential weakness.

Fortunately, Sakumo had returned in time to resume command before the battle took place, but he had significantly exhausted himself rushing back to the front lines in just a few days. The chakra exhaustion forced him to limit his active participation, only joining the fray for the end clean-up operations and even then just relying on his kenjutsutechniques that entail the use of swords for the most part. Indeed, for strategy too, he had to rely on the aid of his Nara clan advisors.

Sakumo smiled fondly at the thought of them. They'd had battle-plans well prepared for him too, thankfully. Plans certain to work, though caused more casualties than Sakumo would have preferred. Having competent subordinates was really something special. They had all even expressed their congratulations about the birth and condolences for having to return so soon. Comrades like these were especially precious to him. They shared everything on the battlefield, had each other's backs.

Sakumo had just finished cleaning and had sheathed his clan's heirloom sword when he suddenly sensed a strange fluctuating and powerful chakra presence in the region, moving around the northernmost and easternmost edges of the battlefield.

Difficult to pinpoint, it wasn't like any he'd sensed before, seeming to shift in ways that made it elusive to grasp. Yet, neither did the chakra's owner seem to be suppressing or hiding their chakra in any way.

Anyone trained as a shinobi wasn't likely to let their chakra rampage and swirl like that within their body, it would surely be too difficult to mold any nature or shape transformations otherwise.

Neither had Sakumo ever encountered a human with chakra like that... components of it deviated too far in nature. Maybe some kind of natural phenomenon? A rare plant or beast? Some kind of spirit or demon?

"How bizarre." He intoned with curiosity, voice deep and gentle. It might be a good idea get a Hyūga or sensory type to scan the area, just in case.

Just as quickly as it came, the chakra began to fade from his senses like dew dispersing in the sunlight. Sakumo relayed orders to a nearby chūnin for a scouting party to head over in that direction.

Sakumo's misunderstanding was born from conventional knowledge, but little did he know that there was nothing conventional about who he'd sensed.

 

---

 

Kana had seen her opportunity and taken it. While the Konoha forces were engaged in their final assault to wipe out the Ame forces, Kana skirted around the battlefield through the treeline towards the eastern roads.

It seemed that most of the border garrisons had taken part in this battle, given that the sentry towers and fortifications on the eastern horizon were all empty. She had witnessed reinforcements arrive herself, flanking the Ame shinobi in a final blow that crushed their morale.

It was an opportunity like no other, surely nothing better was going to come along. A set piece battle between hundreds of shinobi was, in retrospect, the perfect diversion for Kana to cross the border.

The only thing that made her uneasy was a white-haired and stern looking man who joined the fray with the reinforcements near the end of the battle. That man cut down dozens of Ame shinobi by himself, using only an odd glowing blade. He didn't even need ninjutsu and he outclassed essentially all of the remaining combatants, swiping through them with an exquisite combo of blade maneuvers. His prowess unnerved Kana, and she did not want to find out how she'd fare against his blade.

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She had just about made it a few hundred meters along the forests paralleling the eastern road when she noticed a stirring of movement bustling around the regrouping Konoha shinobi.

Soon after, a squad of four shinobi departed in the direction she was heading. Kana hesitated, surely they weren't...

No, wait. It was unmistakable, they were angling directly at her... they had somehow detected her. How?

Ah, her chakra.... just because she couldn't use chakra sensing techniques properly right now, that didn't mean others couldn't. Had she been visible to them the entire time?! She was such a fool! Hiding in the woods was totally pointless if your chakra broadcasted your position like a beacon.

She willed herself to move even faster now, sprinting among the treetops and propelling herself off any surface she touched. A liberal use of Shunshin no jutsuBody Flicker Technique scattered her movements in a roughly zigzag pattern. Simultaneously, she tried to force her chakra to condense within her, willing it to somehow conceal itself. It was an extension of her will, after all. She should at least be able to manage this.

Something felt different, like her skin was cooler or that she wasn't radiating off as much heat. Kana hoped whatever she'd done would work.

Those shinobi had just fought a large-scale battle, there was no doubt they had used up a substantial portion of their chakra. As long as she kept up a high enough speed, escaped their field of view, and delayed them as much as possible, Kana was sure she could outrun them. Outlast them.

After what she had witnessed today, Kana had no desire to interact with shinobi for a good long while. Much less face that white haired kenjutsu user. At least, not until she had refined her abilities mor—

 

One pursuer fired off a long-range KatonFire Release justu, that produced a stream of flames arcing in the sky behind and above her, widening and fanning out as the range extended.

She scraped to a halt on the road, kicking up a cloud of dust as she turned to face it. Behind her mask, Kana's violet eyes widened, reflecting the light of the soaring flames. A serious attack, were they planning to kill her?!

Unacceptable.

Her hands flew into four hand seals, and then another four, slamming both hands on the ground :

"Doton: Doryūheki!Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall" she murmured, voice edged bitterly.

A doubly thick and massive earthen wall shot up from the ground before Kana, completely blocking off the road and simultaneously shielding her from the flames.

As waves of heat continued to impact the Doton jutsu and damaged it, Kana placed her hands on the walls and channeled some of her chakra into it with a YōtonLava Release transformation.

This was a little something she'd come up with while observing the battle. Combined with her insights into chakra nature transformations, as well as kekkei genkai, she now knew it was possible to turn an opponent's jutsu against them by responding with a stronger counter jutsu.

Well, the components of Yōton were a mixture of Katon and Doton.

Her adversary provided the Katon, Kana the Doton. Add a slight push, a little shaping, and condense it together...

The wall and fire exploded backwards down the road towards Kana's pursuers, blasting out with a tremendous shockwave that leveled terrain in a half circle around.

Then waves of lava and hails of explosive rock flowed out for nearly two hundred meters, coursing along the road center and far off to the side as well, forcing the four Konoha shinobi to beat a hasty retreat.

Of course, as soon as the shockwave began, Kana had already flickered out into the woods.