The raging torrent, like a wild stallion broken free of its reins, swallowed the entire Cloud Village encampment in an instant. Paired with the simplified Great Toad Flatness – Hell's Cauldron technique unleashed jointly by Gamabunta, Jiraiya, and Kakashi, it shattered Kumogakure's will to resist in the blink of an eye.
Water and fire, merciless as ever, proved once again why they were called the twin terrors of the battlefield when the flood was swallowed by a heaven-scorching inferno.
In that single clash, more than three thousand Kumogakure shinobi lay dead, and another thousand were taken prisoner. When added to the losses from earlier engagements, only a few hundred managed to escape alongside the Raikage.
A resounding victory.
In the shinobi world, where each hidden village could boast only a limited number of ninja, to annihilate over three thousand enemy shinobi in one battle, capture a thousand more, and force the Raikage himself to flee with the tattered remnants of his army—this was a triumph rarely seen in history.
And the name of the victorious commander, Jiraiya, would be etched into the annals of every nation.
Konoha Year 51Konoha clashes once more with Kumogakure. Jiraiya leads his forces in a water-borne assault and claims total victory; the Raikage flees in disgrace.
As dawn broke, the first rays of the sun pierced the lingering darkness, illuminating a vast inland sea where a battlefield had been only hours before. Jiraiya stood atop the water's surface, gazing at the endless waves rolling to the horizon. Yet no trace of joy touched his heart—only a quiet, bone-deep sorrow.
Before the fighting ended, every decision had been made with a single purpose: victory at the lowest possible cost, no matter the means. Now that the war was over, the aftermath had to be faced.
This water attack—just as Uchiha Shisui had warned—had submerged half the Land of Frost. Countless civilians had lost their homes, their fields, their entire lives.
When they returned to the village…
The earth rumbled. Submerged ground rose once more as Kakashi reversed his technique. The moment victory was certain, he had flown straight back to the spot where he'd buried his team beneath the earth, racing to pull his death-bound comrades from the depths.
Boulders and clumps of soil tumbled into the floodwaters with heavy splashes, revealing the scene within.
Kakashi swept his gaze over the figures inside and let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
Thank the gods… not one of them was dead.
Of the eight hundred who had charged with him, only these hundred-plus remained.
"Medical-nin! Over here!"
Someone nearby shouted the moment they saw the state of the survivors.
"C-Captain…" a trembling voice called out. "We… we won, right?"
More than a hundred and twenty exhausted, mud-caked faces turned toward Kakashi, eyes shining with fragile hope.
"Yeah," he answered softly. "We won."
At his words, one hundred and twenty-eight weary shinobi broke into relieved, trembling smiles.
They had won.
Everything they'd risked, everything they'd sacrificed—it had all been worth it.
Not a single one of the eight hundred had died in vain.
From a distance, Jiraiya watched the suicide squad being carried away one by one on stretchers. His gaze finally settled on Kakashi.
The kid wanted to be Hokage.
Jiraiya walked over and rested a heavy hand on Kakashi's shoulder, lowering his voice so only the younger man could hear.
"I'll take responsibility for this."
The scope of the water attack was simply too vast; the civilian toll would be incalculable. If Kakashi had no ambitions for the hat, it wouldn't matter. But a future Hokage who treated civilian lives as acceptable losses? The higher-ups would never allow it.
And by "higher-ups," Jiraiya didn't mean elders like Koharu—he meant the Fire Daimyō.
The Land of Fire had tens, perhaps hundreds of times more civilians than the Land of Frost. The daimyō, as their lord and protector, could never stomach a Hokage who would drown entire regions without hesitation. Even if he approved the nomination, the resentment would linger like poison.
The Hokage required the daimyō's seal.
By shouldering the blame himself, Jiraiya was effectively ending his own path to the hat—while doing everything in his power to clear the way for Kakashi.
Kakashi didn't argue. He simply turned his eye toward the cluster of filthy, bound Kumogakure prisoners lashed to makeshift rafts.
"What do we do with them?"
Jiraiya's expression grew troubled.
In ordinary wars, prisoners were eventually returned—ransomed after the peace treaty for greater concessions.
But these were a thousand fully trained Kumogakure shinobi. Release them, and they could form the backbone of a small nation's military overnight. Their influence would ripple across borders.
If they were simply sent home…
"Use them as bargaining chips," Kakashi said flatly. "Put forward demands at the negotiating table that Kumogakure can never accept. The moment they refuse—and they will refuse—execute every last one."
"Then make sure the entire shinobi world hears about it. I don't need to spell out what happens next."
Jiraiya's heart gave a cold lurch.
This kid truly showed no mercy to enemies.
Even bound and helpless, even after surrender, Kakashi still intended to wring every drop of value from their lives.
If the plan worked, the war the Raikage had started would become the noose around his own neck. Provoking the fight, suffering catastrophic defeat, fleeing the field, and then abandoning a thousand of his own shinobi to execution—the outrage in the Land of Lightning would be apocalyptic.
The Raikage's position might not survive the backlash.
Jiraiya stared at the distant prisoners for a long moment before answering quietly, "I'll discuss it with the Old Man."
A short distance away, Uchiha Shisui—who had been approaching the two of them—froze mid-step.
First they drowned countless innocents for the sake of victory.
Now they would slaughter those who had already surrendered.
Kakashi… senior.
Jiraiya noticed the younger jonin's exhaustion and waved a hand. "Go. I've set up a temporary camp on the high ground behind us—not far from where we were before."
Kakashi had been the cornerstone of this triumph. Not only had he devised critical strategies, he had personally led the most dangerous charges and held the entire Kumogakure army at bay. Add the fact that he'd already slain the Two-Tails jinchuriki earlier in the war, and this entire conflict had practically been Kakashi's one-man stage.
"Kakashi!"
"You okay?!"
[Might Guy's emotions fluctuated +1] [Chakra +1%]
Might Guy—who had been hovering anxiously on the sidelines the entire time—came barreling over the moment he saw Jiraiya release Kakashi.
"Let me check you for injuries!"
He reached out with both hands, fully intent on inspecting every inch of his rival.
Kakashi caught Guy's wrists before he could make contact. "I'm just tired. No injuries."
If he actually let Guy start poking and prodding, Kakashi doubted he'd get any sleep for the next week.
"You're really okay?!" Guy wailed, tears already streaming down his face. "That's so youthful! So powerful!"
When he'd heard Kakashi had taken a team to hold off the entire Kumogakure army alone, Guy had been certain his eternal rival was going to die a glorious death for the village. The fact that Kakashi had not only survived but brought most of his team back alive—it was too much for Guy's heart to handle.
"Enough, Guy," Kakashi sighed, patting the crying man's shoulder. "Just… take me somewhere I can sleep. And please, for the love of everything, don't wake me up. I'm beyond exhausted."
His gaze flicked briefly past Guy's shoulder, catching sight of Shisui standing silently in the distance.
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