Chapter 12 War

Sand Battlefield.

The sand in an area of two to three miles was charred from repeated battles, the smell of blood and burned flesh in this particular area lingering around.

Broken swords, shurikens or kunai's from the battles were still lying around proving one thing, the last battle that occurred here wasn't long ago.

SWISH!!

Suddenly wind rustled and in the sand dunes, a huge outline of something appeared and the closer it got to the charred area, the clearer it became.

Sand Shinobi donning the light brown jackets marched forward under the leadership of two figures, one a woman who looked nearly fifty, grey hair with a poncho-like hat and light brown battle gear.

Chiyo, the poison and puppet expert of the sand.

Next to her walked a tall man with fair complexions. He had short messy dark-blue hair and narrow yellow eyes.

The Third Kazekage, hailed as the strongest Kazekage.

"The frontal battle is leading this war nowhere; we can't sustain this for long so we need to find a breakthrough today"

Said Chiyo in an exhausted voice to the kazekage, they have been fighting Konoha for a while now but the war has been in a stalemate all long.

Her poison a weapon which could turn the tide of the war in Sand's favor but everytime got countered by that slug girl, and Kazekage all though strong couldn't all by himself defeat Jiraiya, Ino-Shika-Cho and other jonin.

A while ago they planned to unleash One Tail Jinchuriki in the battle but Konoha immediately brought the Nine Tails Jinchuriki to the front lines, forcing Sand to change their mind.

One Tail against Nine Tails the strongest of the Tailed Beast would most likely result in the loss of Sunagakure, so they refrained from doing so.

"Hanzo has promised us full support today. The stalemate will surely be broken today"

Said Kazekage confidentially, the bright look in his eyes clearly showing how optimistic he was for today.

"I hope so!"

Said Chiyo in a hopeful tone, she truly wanted this war to move on.

The sand army soon arrived at the charred battlefield, some hundred meters away an even bigger army waiting for them.

"I really hope the worst doesn't happen!"

Said Tsunade looking at the Sand army that was ahead, her eyes revealing a little uncertain look.

"Don't worry! as Orochimaru mentioned in the meeting other day he had sent the news back already; Sarutobi Sensei must have taken some measures already!"

Jiraiya the vice commander standing next to her was fairly optimistic, trying to boost her confidence.

In the jonin meeting held two days ago, Orochimaru brought out the possibility of bearing the full brunt of Amegakure shinobi and Hanzo himself taking action as well.

Although he did reveal the good news of asking Third Hokage for more reinforcements but no more help arrived, not even any news.

So Tsunade worrying a little was understandable.

"With me here today we have some more room in the fight, if we are able to take down the Third Kazekage quickly then even if Hanzo arrives we might be able to still manage!"

Said Orochimaru in a relaxed manner, like Jiraiya fairly optimistic about the upcoming fight.

Just couple of rows behind Orochimaru and others, right in between the army stood Kazuki with his hands crossed on his chest.

His row was mostly composed of Genin around his age, all having nervous, excited, fearful or anxious faces.

"The Sand Army is here so it's finally starting, my heart seems like it might pop out!"

Spoke a genin who had a buzz cut and was standing next to Kazuki, his hand feeling his fast beating heart.

From nervousness or maybe the heat, he was sweating already and had a wry smile on his face.

"Same here, I had never left the village before and now here I am about to fight a life and death battle; so if I were to say I'm not scared I'll be clearly lying!"

Another genin who was forcefully graduated and had never done a single mission was going through the same phase as the buzz cut genin.

Most of the genin who were just graduated had more or less similar thoughts like the buzz cut genin, all excited for the fight, hoping to live, fearing to die.

"At the end of the day all this fear stems from the thought of death, from the unknown!"

Hearing their words Kazuki's calm look didn't waver as this was something he had expected, for most nothing truly mattered before one's own life.

"Give me strength, mother!"

But Kazuki's calm look wavered when he saw the buzz kid taking out a necklace and giving the framed picture a look and muttering but Kazuki clearly hearing him.

BOOM!!!

At this moment from the front, the sound of a huge explosion became an indicator the for the start of the fight.

20 chapters ahead on p@treon.com/Gojo6666.