However it wasn't either of them that attacked first.
It was Kumo Jonin.
Why waste the chakra of powerhouses on your side when you could make the others waste theirs?
The forest had been relatively peaceful until now, even with all the modifications that Yamato and the Earth Nature Jonin from Kumo had done, the forest itself looked rather untouched.
It changed with the next move however.
Kunai and shuriken shot out in all directions from the Kumo Jonin.
They weren't connected by fancy wires or had any explosive seals dangling from their ends.
And yet, Yamato felt all the danger in the world emanate from them.
In an instant, Yamato made several hand seals, being mindful of his chakra expenditure while aiming to erect a wooden wall that would keep them out of view.
But Darui wasn't so keen on letting Yamato's plan come to fruition. His body flickered in a black spark as he was in front of Shizune before Yamato could even react mid way through his seals.
Darui's hand turned into a black flash, his tanto whistling through the air as he aimed to slice off Shizune's head.
There was no time for Yamato to stop his wall summoning and then use body flicker to interrupt Darui, their enemy was just that dastardly fast and Yamato knew he had no hopes of catching up to him in speed unless he used a burst of chakra wastefully.
This wasn't to say that Yamato didn't have any regard for Shizune, no instead of spending so much chakra to save her, Yamato only clicked his tongue inwardly, his plan had been something different but now the truth had to be revealed a little before planned, even still he hoped to take down one of his enemies.
And so under the guise of modifying his current jutsu he was about to use, he added an extra seal onto its end before slamming his hands onto the ground.
However when everyone had only expected Yamato's newly modified jutsu to cover Shizune as she struggled to defend herself, something unexplainable happened.
In the sharp moment that Darui's black lightning coated tanto reached Shizune's neck, her hands slammed around Darui's waist, hugging him tightly before jumping onto him and wrapping her legs around his.
It looked like an octopus had suddenly landed on the battlefield.
Three things happened in rapid succession after that.
Shizune's body exploded into a forbidden thorn bush, just like a riled up hedgehog.
Darui's body exploded next in a shower of black lightning, its arcs exploding and burning everything they touched including the now obvious wood clone Shizune while Yamato himself dissolved into the ground, hiding completely to the point that not even Gyuki could point out his location anymore.
Darui, standing atop a tree, jumped as the branch underneath him exploded in shrapnel before he used the body flicker technique to get back to the top of the raised earth platform that the Kumo shinobi had created.
No one had gotten hurt in the exchange.
Only a clone had been exchanged for a clone.
And yet the Kumo Jonin merely grinned in excitement since they had delayed the Konoha shinobi from disturbing their plan.
In the short time that everyone else had been distracted, the Jonin had pulled out a pair of their own kunai, new ones after they'd launched their previous ones into the trees around them, and once they finished their handseals, their kunai lit up.
"Cooperation Jutsu : Lightning Relay."
And even without any visible targets, the Jonin all threw their kunai at the previous kunai stuck on the trees.
Anyone would've half expected the kunai to bounce off the old kunai or even explode once they came in contact because of the strange jutsu the Kumo Jonin had used.
However, things took a drastically different turn once the lightning charged kunai shot out of their hands.
The lightning charged on the Kunai shot out like strings, connecting with every other Kunai on the field, creating a vast web of lightning that arranged itself in a perfect lattice like structure, simply waiting for anyone to come in contact with it.
Nothing happened for a few moments after that, as no one from Konoha appeared to want to take the initiative to test out the jutsu's effects and Kumo's own jutsu appeared to be purely reactive.
The battlefield turned stale but also tense, making the Kumo shinobi stay on the lookout for any surprise attacks while the Konoha shinobi eyed the web of lightning with a wary gaze.
But after a moment or so of silence, eventually, a head peaked out from the ground, it was Yamato.
He observed the Jonin while hiding under a tree root and waited for the opportune moment, and just when they all appeared to have let their guards down, Yamato shot out at blinding speeds before using his momentum to rail what appeared to be a simple pack of seeds out towards the grouped enemy.
Having noticed him almost immediately, Killer B turned around, but he didn't attack, instead he paid attention to what Yamato was trying to do and spotted him make quick handseals before the single seed pack exploded into thousands of individual seeds.
"Wood Release : Flood Of the Wood Cutter!"
Almost instantly, the simple seeds birthed thick tree spines before morphing into sharp spinning projectiles as they shot forwards towards their targets.
Even still, the Jonin only smirked and reacted, they cared not for the sharp projectiles flying towards them at speeds that threatened to poke holes the size of footballs in their bodies if they were even so much as grazed by them. Instead most of them activated their lightning cloaks and shot outwards.
The web of lightning all around the area sparked for a second before filling the entire air with the smell of ozone as thick bolts of lightning shot directly out of the kunai floating in the air, like a frog slinging its prey, shooting each projectile down before they could reach their targets.
However that was not the end.
Each projectile that was stopped, turned instead into a new point for the relay, and before anyone could guess what the Jonin wanted to do with them, they were expelled outwards by the web.
This did two things.
Wooden spikes that were impaled within the trees already inside the web served to turn it denser by becoming new points from where it could launch more connections, while those that fell outside served to expand the size of the area covered by the web.
Yamato looked at it all and frowned.
He still had a trick up his sleeve. The wooden spikes he'd created and sent out were not all 'dead', he could still feel them and he knew he could detenonate them at any point in time should he choose to. Yet he didn't for now because he didn't understand how his enemy's jutsu worked or even what it did.
'Is it a simple crowd control jutsu?'
'But wouldn't this hinder their movements too?'
Unfortunately for him, Yamato got the answer to his question almost immediately when the Jonin flickered outwards from the platform.
Four came right towards Yamato, moving straight through the web as their own bodies were turned into relays, carrying connections from the entire web to themselves wherever they went, and in this case directly towards Yamato.
Three of the Jonin remained on the raised Earth platform, seemingly controlling the complicated combination jutsu set up while the last eight shot towards the web itself, managing to stand on it as if they were solid ground.
It was at this moment that all hell broke loose.
The Jonin standing on the web of lightning rapidly performed handseals to perform a new jutsu.
The Jutsus seemed long, requiring several dozen sets of handseals but Yamato didn't have the time to look at that.
Instead he was forced to contend with the four that had shot towards him.
Two of the Jonin came up to him from the sides, aiming their tanto at his torso in an attempt to hold him back while the third aimed for his head.
The fourth hung back forming new handseals.
Yamato ducked for a second, the tantos aimed for his torso barely grazing the top of his head singeing several strands of hair before retaliating with a brutal strike of his own. His fingers formed quick handseals before they formed an o-ring around his lips as he spewed out a pressure wave.
"Water Release : Severing Wave."
Had it been anyone else in the shinobi world, Yamato would've likely ended up slicing their guts out for the world to see, however these were Jonin of Kumo with lightning cloaks covering them.
Almost as soon as Yamato's jutsu finished, the Kumo Jonin jumped, letting the severing wave pass behind them and just when the wave was about to target the Jonin standing on the lightning web, the fourth shinobi finished his jutsu.
"Lightning Release : High Voltage."
A sharp short bolt of lightning shot out of his hands, flying like a beam of light straight at the severing wave.
The aim wasn't to cut off or blow up the severing wave, it was to use its conductive properties to shock Yamato!
Forced to cut off his severing wave, Yamato used the fact that the previous Jonin were still in the air to perform a new jutsu.
"Wood Release : Creeping Hunger."
Four small beads shot out of Yamato's hands, flying at high speeds like bullets before they slammed into the Jonin in the air.
The results were immediate and rather drastic.
Each bullet burrowed into the Jonin's lightning cloaks, tearing through their vests before rooting itself into their bodies.
Since the projectiles themselves were small there was not a huge amount of damage externally, however the horror had only just begun.
Yamato made the concentration handseal and flared up his chakra and within moments the Jonin were left hanging as a new tree sprouted through them, branches growing straight through their bodies and out of their heart, lungs, neck and legs, turning them into natural macabre art installations that blended right into the forest environment.
Even if they seemed natural or not, either way they became a striking voice of warning to all the Kumo shinobi present.
The trees a symbol of Konoha and the blood of their enemies a source of its growth.
Even still, the battle hadn't ended yet, the Kumo shinobi had the advantage still and they pushed on as the Jonin continued to perform their large scale Jutsu, with their only defence being the fourth still alive Kumo shinobi who eyes Yamato warily.
It was at this moment however that Killer B shouted in surprise, saying something that shocked them immensely!
"Cover your nose yo!! Stop breathing in the poison yo!!! Gyuki says it's going to kill us all yo!!!"
Shizune had acted. She had spread an almost odorless and colourless poison through the air, making sure that any that breathed it would die the most painful death.
The Jonin all stopped breathing almost immediately, covering their nose or simply swallowing the military provided common-antidote for situations like this.
But it was too late.
Such was the life of Jonin's, even though they were the strongest, they were also the ones that performed the riskiest jobs, death was their glorious friend and sacrifice was the breath that led up to it.
The eyes of many Jonin reddened as they started to bleed, yet they marched on. Their fingers never stopped performing the handseals required for their next jutsu and their chakra flared to reach its conclusion.
But Shizune wasn't going to let them.
Her desire for revenge in this moment was immense and within moments everyone realised just how terrible it could be.
The poison already in the air, that had previously been odor less suddenly pulsed.
A fresh dose of chakra had been pumped through it all as it coalesced within the bodies of the Jonin that had breathed it.
And in seconds, sharp poison crystals began to form inside the Jonin's bodies, inside their bloodstreams, inside their lungs, inside their eyes and all around their brains.
The Jonin dropped like flies.
The Cooperation Jutsu disturbed and the entire field turned into a burial ground for anyone present.
Darui aimed to intercept and put an end to it all but he himself was intercepted by Yamato, or rather three wood clones of his that flickered before him without delay.
With Darui blocked, Killer B acted instantly. Their plan to drain Yamato and Shizune of their chakra had worked, technically, but the price had been too great. And if they allowed their Jonin to die, they'd become no more than a laughing stock for having let an entire troop of Jonin die to two Jonin from Konoha.
A dense amalgamation of hatred and violence shot out of Killer B's body in the form of dense orange chakra, creating eight tails that swung wildly around him covering all the Jonin that were suffering from the effects of poisoning and purifying the poison in the air before they breathed in anymore.
Even still about eight of the eleven remaining Jonin collapsed to the ground, dead, while the rest only managed to keep their eyes open while feeling immense pain from the crystals damaging them from within.
Seeing the Jonin under his command die out like insects, a fierce feeling of anger and dejection arose in Killer B. He glared at Yamato and his clones that were engaged with Darui before turning towards a dark spot in the forest.
Yamato noticed too and rushed in the same direction however his attempts were stopped rather quickly when Darui almost conjured up beams of light and shot them towards him like bullets using Storm Release.
"Storm Release: Laser Circus."
Yamato, forced to stop to conjure up a wooden wall around him to protect himself, could only watch helplessly as Killer B rushed in Shizune's direction, she'd just used a large scale poison mist jutsu and she had to be running low on chakra, a perfect time to take such an annoying enemy out quickly.
It was at this moment however that a rather strange thing occurred.
The ground trembled slightly and before Killer B or even Darui could react properly, the earth split apart as a large growling roar escaped from underneath them all.
Darui's eyes widened.
Did Konoha release their own tailed beast too?
That thought only lasted for a few seconds however, until the entire earth underneath their feet rose up high, rushing outwards at unimaginable speeds as they all saw a towering fort that had come to life in front of them all.
And within the confines of the wooden walls that Yamato had used to protect himself from Darui, he too admired his creation.
"Wood Release : Palace Of Gluttony."
The entire underground fortress had come alive.
It split right down the middle, as if opening its mouth, before snapping shut on Killer B, consuming him entirely like a child consuming a pill, in a single gulp.
Darui's eyes widened in shock as he saw the wood in the fortress wrap around Killer B's tailed beast transformation body and suppress it entirely, burning him in the process as the transformation was forcibly sealed back into his body.
Yamato behind his wooden wall panted deeply. He had used up nearly a third of all his chakra to seal the Eight Tails Jinchuriki inside the Palace of Gluttony. But the good thing was that he didn't have to continue to provide any chakra to keep the seal active. As long as the Jinchuriki would have chakra, the seal would keep itself alive by feeding on it.
This was a trap he'd set up from the beginning, hoping to capture Killer B when his guard was at its lowest. He'd imbued the wooden fortress with the ability to seal the chakra of everything it came in contact with, that was how he'd quickly killed all those that were trapped in it earlier without even giving Naruto a chance to finish them off.
It was his aim in this fight to keep Naruto safe, because just like Tachibana, Yamato had already figured that the only other danger that they could have during this time that would arise from them leaving this spot would be from someone targeting the Jinchuriki of their own village, i.e Naruto.
And so, Yamato had hidden away Naruto in the depths of the fortress on purpose while spreading around Sakura, Sasuke and Tachibana so that none of their attackers could pinpoint exactly where the genin of their team were without prior knowledge.
Well it was also partially because he still didn't trust either of his four little Genin followers to have a level head after having just lost Tsunade. Shizune was already having a hard time keeping a level head through her attacks and he didn't trust the little kids who were just bawling their eyes out to still keep calm and not overextend in a fight.
So he had taken the burden mostly alone along with Shizune.
But even then, to him, this was the biggest win.
They'd captured the Jinchuriki of their enemy's village, alive. Now it could be used to bargain for peace and even to extract appropriate compensation. Not that Yamato was keen on doing it. He wanted to kill B without hesitation, only Yamato felt a little afraid.
Could he fight off the people who were here to target their Jinchuriki? Since they'd so blatantly walked into their fight they had to be strong people with at least some semblance of power. So the question still remained, could he fight them off for long enough for either Konoha reinforcements to arrive or for them to retreat back to an outpost with Naruto?
And if he could not then could he perhaps use Killer B as bait? Wouldn't people targeting their Jinchuriki be satisfied with a weakened Eight Tails? Perhaps he could use Killer B to carve out a path for their escape.
The village had already lost Tsunade. It couldn't afford to lose Naruto at a time like this.
The Palace of Gluttony that had been hovering in the air collapsed back onto the ground after fully consuming Killer B, sending waves of tremors all throughout the ground.
It knocked Darui back to his senses but all he could do was look at Yamato's wood wall from a distance. He didn't dare carelessly make any moves for the fear of aggravating his enemy which could lead to the loss of their commander.
But he couldn't do nothing either.
And so his blade flashed with black lightning as every muscle in his body tensed.
"Release him." Darui said gravely, causing Yamato to raise his eyebrows and look at Darui after slowly shrinking his wooden barrier.
But before he could respond another voice interrupted.
"Hee~...so this was Konoha's trump card? A wood release user? Do you think you can take him out? Or should I since Samehada is almost growling to get a piece of his chakra rich flesh…"
The eyes of both Yamato and Darui shifted towards the newcomers on the battlefield.
Two tall people wearing black robes with strangely contrasting red clouds on them showed up as Yamato recognised both almost immediately.
They were famous.
One was the most famous rogue shinobi born named after his unique characteristic of having as much chakra as a tailed beast, Hoshigaki Kisame.
And the other, just as dangerous if not more, a rogue Shinobi born and exported out of Konoha after killing his entire clan single handedly in one night without letting them make a sound, Itachi Uchiha.
Itachi's red eyes glowed in the darkness of the forest as Yamato instantly averted his gaze before it was too late. Darui was not as lucky however.
Before even a second passed, Darui collapsed on the ground, spitting blood as his gaze turned from pain to shock and then to absolute horror.
Yamato had only one idea on his mind at that moment and he executed it with flawless perfection.
The Palace of Gluttony broke.
But before it could unravel fully, Yamato sank into the ground, vanishing instantly from the presence of anyone around the area using the Mayfly technique.
He rushed up to Shizune and forcibly dragged her away, then dragged along the three kids on the surface using his clones before using another clone to capture Naruto.
Each one of them moved in separate directions from the area and within moments Yamato heard it.
A loud bone chilling roar that chilled him to the bone.
Yamato heard the Eight tails go on a rampage.
The only problem was that the world shattered at that point and Yamato found himself standing in the same place he was just at. Right in front of Itachi and Kisame.
Yamato immediately felt like he didn't need Tachibana to see the future at that moment, because he knew it would be filled with pain.