Chapter 118: Ripples in the Shadows
The Land of Earth, Iwagakure Village
Onoki, the Third Tsuchikage, was enjoying a moment of rare tranquility in his office. He sipped a cup of strong, earthy tea—a local specialty—reclining in his chair with the deep satisfaction of a strategist seeing his plans unfold. The war was going… efficiently.
Their tactics, in concert with Sunagakure, were proving masterful. Minimal Iwa casualties for maximum Konoha frustration. The joint force, leveraging Chiyo's digging puppets and Iwa's Earth Release specialists, had become a phantom haunting Konoha's supply lines. They didn't engage in pitched battles; they were a persistent, gnawing sickness. Harass, sever, vanish. Repeat.
Konoha's response was exactly as predicted: stretched thin, constantly on high alert, unable to commit reserves to a decisive push. Without reliable supplies in the poisoned lands of Rain, an army starved. It was a war of attrition, and Iwa, with its allies, held the advantage.
Hah! Onoki thought, a smug smile touching his lips. Konoha is a lion with its fangs pulled. No Shodaime, no Nidaime. Just an old monkey and his students. Once we grind them down, we can deal with those Suna desert rats afterward. And with my Dust Release… who in this era can stand against the ultimate annihilation?
SHWIP!
The peace was shattered. An ANBU scout materialized in a kneel before his desk, breathing heavily, his face pale beneath his mask.
"Lord Tsuchikage! Emergency report!"
Onoki set his cup down slowly, the pleasant fantasy evaporating. "Speak."
"The… the joint harassment force with Sunagakure. It's been wiped out. Total casualties. No survivors returned."
SPLUT!
Onoki spat out his mouthful of tea. He stared, uncomprehending for a second, before a cold, furious pressure began to radiate from his small frame. The air in the room grew heavy.
"What. Did. You. Say?" The words were ground out between his teeth.
The scout flinched but held his ground. "The force, my lord. The one that has been harassing Konoha for the past fortnight. It's gone. The Suna digger puppets, our Earth Release teams… all of them."
"How?" Onoki's voice was a low rumble, the precursor to an eruption. "That force was elusive, a ghost! Did Konoha commit an entire division? Launch a trap with the Sannin?"
"They… they changed tactics, my lord. Two days ago, they abandoned harassment and committed fully to hunting a lone Konoha jonin—Orochimaru of the Sannin. They had him cornered."
"Orochimaru? A single Sannin did this?" Onoki's disbelief was turning to a boiling, incredulous rage.
"No, my lord. Konoha sent a single ANBU operative as reinforcement. It was… it was that one operative who caused the total annihilation of over eighty combined forces."
The room seemed to tilt. Onoki's face, already stern, went utterly still. One man. Annihilating a force of that size, with that mobility, in what was surely an ambush-friendly environment? It was beyond the capabilities of any shinobi he knew, save perhaps the legends of the past. Or…
"Don't tell me," Onoki whispered, the menace in his voice now glacial, "that this one man slaughtered our entire coalition by himself."
The scout swallowed hard, feeling the killing intent press down on him like a mountain. "The facts from our remote sensors and the lack of any other Konoha chakra signatures in the area… indicate that is exactly what happened, Lord Tsuchikage. There were no other significant engagements. The coalition was… harvested."
SLAM!
Onoki's fist hit the desk, not with a bang, but with a sound like splitting stone. He slumped back into his chair, the fury giving way for a moment to a hollow, staggering shock.
"Impossible…" he muttered, but the scout's terror was too genuine to be a lie. "Even Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't accomplish such a feat in open combat against a prepared, dispersed force. Who is this person?"
"A masked ANBU, my lord. Codename: Rakshasa."
The name landed like a second blow.
"RAKSHASA! AGAIN!" Onoki roared, leaping to his feet. The air crackled with his chakra. Reports of this 'Rakshasa' single-handedly destroying a smaller Iwa squad had been concerning. Now, this was catastrophic. A strategic asset, gone. Dozens of experienced ninja, gone. Morale, shattered.
"Could it be… Sarutobi in disguise?" Onoki mused aloud, pacing now, his mind racing through possibilities. "Who else in Konoha has that kind of raw, overwhelming power?"
The answer was terrifying: maybe no one. Or maybe Konoha had been hiding a new monster in its shadows.
"We can no longer play this cautious game," Onoki declared, his decision hardening. "If they deploy a weapon of this caliber, the rules have changed. The vanguard skirmishes are over." He turned, his gaze sharp as flint, looking out his window as if he could see all the way to the blood-soaked border of the Rain Country. "It is time for the true powers of this war to take the field."
The era of shadowboxing was over. The Kages would have to step into the light.
The Land of Wind, Sunagakure Village
A similar, though quieter, storm was brewing. Chiyo had returned, not in triumph, but in bitter, humiliated retreat. The forward Suna forces had pulled back, consolidating, awaiting new orders from a village now grappling with a shocking reversal.
In the Kazekage's office, Chiyo stood before the Third Kazekage, her posture rigid, her face a mask of shame and simmering hatred.
The man before her was young for a Kage, with sharp, intelligent features and the bearing of one who knew his own formidable power—the strongest Kazekage in history, master of the Iron Sand.
"A single operative… wiped out over eighty, including multiple jonin?" the Third Kazekage repeated, his voice calm but his eyes intense. "And you, Elder Chiyo, were bested?"
"My puppets were… unsuited to direct confrontation with his abilities," Chiyo admitted, the words ash in her mouth. "But yes. Even accounting for that, his raw power, speed, and that sword… he is stronger than I am in a stand-up fight. And this time, he didn't even use the strange fire transformation. He used pure taijutsu and monstrous physical strength to slaughter them."
Despite the hatred that burned in her heart—a desire to flay the flesh from Rakshasa's bones—she was a veteran. She could not lie about a threat of this magnitude.
"You're certain it wasn't Hatake Sakumo? The White Fang in a different guise?"
"Positive," Chiyo stated firmly. "I have crossed blades with the White Fang. Their aura, their style, their very essence is different. Rakshasa is… colder. More absolute. A butcher, not a duelist."
The Third Kazekage leaned back, steepling his fingers. First the White Fang, a legend born. Now this Rakshasa, a demon unleashed. And Konoha still has the Sannin, the Hokage… The weight of Konoha's hidden depth was suddenly oppressive.
Why did such monsters not arise from the windswept dunes of Suna? Why was the village blessed with fertile land, deep forests, and now, an overabundance of generational talents?
He let out a long, controlled sigh, the sound of a leader recalculating the world.
"Chiyo," he said, his voice now carrying the weight of the entire village's future. "We must reassess this conflict entirely. Our enemy is not merely Konoha. We must also watch the Rain, and our supposed 'allies' in Iwa. But more pressingly…" His gaze turned northward, beyond the maps on his wall. "…we have a neighbor to the north, in the Land of Lightning, who watches all our struggles with the patience of a vulture. They are waiting for us to bleed each other white."
The Second Great Shinobi World War had just entered a new, more dangerous phase. The pieces were moving off the board. The players themselves were preparing to step onto it.
The shadow of the crimson mask had stretched across two nations, and the response would shape the fate of the world.
(End of Chapter)
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