War Progresses

The news about Minato killing thousands of Rock Ninjas in that ambush and Me killing two thousand mist ninjas spread everywhere. All the Ninjas on the Lightning Country Battlefield knew about it. But in fact, most were also skeptical about it as well. Even a Kage shouldn't be able to kill a group with that many Jonins in just an instant. When it comes to Rock Ninjas, Onoki issued an order that all his troops could not accept: "If on a mission, you happen to encounter Minato Namikaze of Konoha, give up your mission and retreat immediately. You will not be penalized for doing so!"

However, this order was deemed confidential by the 3rd Tsushikage, and the Rock did not publicize the shameful order they received. Quickly, the Ninjas began to appreciate Onoki's reasoning, as Minato became the main harvester of souls in the following few battles. While Minato's name was ringing through the Lightning Country, Me and the 3rd Mizukage's battle started. Victory and defeat for both camp depended entirely on the outcome of their match-up.

In terms of brute strength, I was far ahead of the 3rd Mizukage, but his battle experience made up for the gap and I also didn't want to use my full power and am not using any of my uchiha abilities. I need to improve my battle sense by fighting strong opponents and the Mizukage fits the bill. When the fight gets tough, the Mizukage would retreat. Over the course of those six months, dozens of battles took place between the two camps, ranging for all out battles to small skirmishes. I had to face the 3rd Mizukage no less than twenty times during that period. With this "free" training, I accumulated a lot of combat experience, and my strength greatly improved. Now was the time to end this game.

the Hidden Mist Village was in the critical time of passing over the power of the Sanbi. Neither Yagura nor the Sanbi Jinchuriki could leave the village.The village had no high tier Ninjas to support this battlefield, and that made the Mizukage even more anxious. At that time, I had no time to pay attention to the Mizukage's movements, because Jiraya was coming to the Wave Country battlefield. On this day, I was supposed to meet Shikaku Nara who had been taking care of the camp management for a long time. However, as soon as Shikaku sat down, I disappeared with an yellow flash.

Shikaku Nara had been thinking for a long time that I was being lazy and ditching my responsibilities. And this incident wasn't the 1st one. However, it didn't take me long to come back, but this time, I had Jiraya with me. Jiraya had used the special Kunai I gave him, so I went to see if there's any trouble, but he just told me to pick him up to the mist battlefield. It actually took Shikaku a while to wrap his mind around what happened, as he looked at us in shock.

After arriving there I directly asked Jiraya "Uncle Jiraya, what brings you to the Wave Country? And why are you in such a hurry that you resorted to using my special Kunai?"Jiraya replied "Well, Sarutobi Sensei asked me to help you deal with the 3rd Mizukage, so that you could then go to the Lightning Country and join forces with Minato to deal with the 3rd Raikage." The 3rd Raikage himself joined the battle so soon?" I was surprised that I had to ask.

"Well, his son and the Hachibi Jinchuriki lost to Minato, so he decided to go to the battlefield himself." Jiraya explained. I then recalled the scene from the Anime, where Minato faced the man to be 4th Raikage along with his brother. He relied on his speed and actually managed to beat A, and during the battle, he left a Flying Thunder God Seal on B. During the second round of attack, he managed to teleport behind the Hachibi Jinchuriki and placed a blade near his neck, while the latter managed also to quickly point his blade at Minato's abdomen. In the end, neither side wanted to make a sacrifice.

"So, why don't you just go support Minato directly?" I asked Jiraya. "It's because of the Lightning Chakra Mode of the 3rd Raikage. You also have that technique, so you know how much defense it can grant. The 3rd Raikage is also extremely fast. This isn't really my type of match-up." I nodded and said that he was right. Sending me is the best choice. Jiraya then asked Well Ryu, tell me whatever you've gathered on the 3rd Mizukage. Their secrecy is too tight for me to know something of value."

I shook my head and said "You don't need to bother about it uncle Jiraya. He'll die today." Jiraya's interest piequed and he asked "How do you plan to kill him? You have already faced him more than 20 times". I nodded "Actually uncle Jiraya, I had nothing else to do and the mizukage was an old man with a lot of experience. So I was using him to improve myself. Not that I am not able to kill him". Jiraya shook his head "So you will finish the battle today and head out to lightning country right?" He asked and I nodded.

Shikaku who was listening to us speak was pissed off as he spoke "Ryu, if you could beat the Mizukage, why didn't you do so early? We could have saved so much...." I raised my hand interrupting him and said "Shikaku, have we faced even a single casualty since the last six months? I also saw how the battlefield was before I arrived and how many died here. I singlehandedly killed the seven ninja swordsmen and killed 2000mist shinobi and I have held back the mizukage all the while helping other shinobis when they were in danger using my wood clones. It was like I fought the battle alone all this time. So don't show me that pissed off expression".

Jiraya saw the tension in the air and my anger and interfered. "Ok cool down. All is done and well. Now we will have to plan what to do in the future."