The Watchtower – Before Dawn
"Contact!"
The shout pierced the early morning silence.
From the eastern watchtower, a young sensor-nin stumbled down the stairs, pale and breathless.
Ashina met him halfway.
"How many?"
"We… we stopped counting after the third formation. Kumo leads the front. Mist cloaks the left. There are Iwa demolition squads already marking the ridges. And behind them…"
He handed Ashina a spyglass — chakra-inscribed for long-range sensing.
Ashina raised it. Focused.
What he saw made his jaw tighten.
"Taki assassins. Kirigakure bloodline units. They're all here."
The wind shifted.
And at the edge of the horizon, flags began to rise — one for each village.
Four banners. One intent.
"They've come to end us."
---
The Bell Tolls – Akashi's Address
Bong.Bong.Bong.
The great Iron Bell of Uzu rang through the mountain ridges.
All across the village, shinobi halted — in training grounds, kitchens, barrier halls. Civilians clutched their children. Young genin looked to the sky.
Akashi stood on the rooftop of the central tower — wind in his red hair, a black and crimson Uzukage mantle cast over his shoulders by Ashina just minutes earlier.
His gaze swept over the gathered warriors.
And he spoke — not with fire, but with clarity.
"This is the day they've waited for. The day they thought we'd shatter."
"But listen. The sea is still."
"That's not calmness. That's warning."
"They think we are few. That our allies will not come.That no leaf will fall from Konoha for us."
"Let them think it."
He raised his hand and clenched it into a fist.
"Because we will show them why the world fears red hair and seal chains."
"We are not a nation of giants.We are a nation of storms, and tides, and fury."
He paused.
And then, in a tone sharpened by a past life and a present legacy:
"We are Uzumaki.And today, the world will remember why that name once made shadows flinch."
---
The Preparations
The village moved like a machine:
Sealing squads layered glyph traps at tunnel entries.
Genin assisted in arming defensive perimeters with chakra seal bombs.
Barrier specialists activated Phase I of the Iron Ocean Protocol: atmospheric dampeners and anti-summon wards.
Ashina distributed last-resort evacuation scrolls to every field commander.
Aiko's squad lined the front cliffs, blending into the terrain.
Riku and Tama stood at Akashi's flanks, their eyes scanning every flicker of movement.
Akashi's Emperor Eye was not active, but his mind calculated every angle — terrain, formation, likely pressure points.
---
The Horizon Burns
From the top of the wall, Akashi now saw them clearly.
Ay at the front of Kumo, flexing his arm.
Mist Hunter-nin cloaked in fog.
Onoki floating above the Iwa formations.
A Taki jonin with a scroll sealed in blood and malice.
The enemy halted… just beyond jutsu range.
Then a single kunai was thrown.
It landed at the cliff's base.
Inscribed on it were the words:
"Uzumaki ends today."
Akashi didn't blink.
"No."
"It begins again."
He raised his hand.
The signal flare launched.
The Battle for Uzushiogakure had begun.
---
Smoke curled from the mountain pass.
Four armies stood aligned before Uzushiogakure. But this was no coalition of equal allies. This was a predator's pact.
At the head of the Kumo forces, dark and massive, stood the Third Raikage — A, the man whose skin was said to be harder than steel, and whose chakra could burn mountains to ash. Thunder crackled around him, muscles twitching in anticipation.
"Uzumaki blood is strong," he said. "Let's see how it screams."
Beside him, cloaked in swirling mist, floated the silent menace of the Third Mizukage — whose terrifying kekkei genkai of Boil Release once melted enemy battalions where they stood.
"We'll flood their seals with fog and rot," he muttered. "Let them taste drowning before death."
In the rear lines of Taki, the monstrous form of the Seven-Tails, Chōmei, loomed in partial transformation. But she was no beast — she commanded, her chakra signature organized and strategic, wearing a human face laced with armor made of living wings.
"For too long, they hunted my kin and called it peace," she said. "Let them now feel our unity."
And then — hovering just above the plateau — a diminutive but unshakable man in robes of rock and cloud: Onoki of the Two Scales, the Third Tsuchikage.
His gaze narrowed on Uzu's walls.
"One village should not control power that rivals nations. We end this mistake today."
Four leaders.
Four storms.
Marching as one.
---
Akashi Sees the Truth
Akashi stood atop the eastern tower, wind snapping against his robes.
"Four leaders. Three Kage. And a Jinchūriki."
"This isn't war. This is annihilation."
But he didn't look away. His Emperor Eye did not yet glow, but his mind raced through possibilities.
"Their pride will demand they strike first. Their arrogance… will be our opening."
Aiko came beside him. Her voice was tight.
"What do we do?"
Akashi turned.
And despite the doom forming on the horizon, he smiled.
"We bleed them. One line at a time. One hill at a time.And then, when they think we're breaking — we bury them in seals."
He raised a chakra-etched horn and blew once.
All across Uzushiogakure, shinobi moved like clockwork.
The seals were set. The battle lines drawn.
And the children of the whirlpool… were ready.
---