The Spark

"We're here on behalf of the Hokage," Akuta spoke with a certain dignity about him. In his eyes was a twinkle that seemed far greater than his age.

"Oho?" A chuckle came in reply. Akatsuchi's tone was playful. "We were indeed called here for a proposal. I hope it doesn't disappoint!"

"And make it quick." Yugito urged the conversation forward.

Seeing Yugito and Akatsuchi's impatience, Akuta nodded. "Then this will be simple. Konohagakure would like to unify all shinobi villages under a single name."

***

"What?!"

Had Suguru been sipping on a beverage, he would have spat it all out in shock.

"A what?!"

He exclaimed, actually surprised, wondering what Danzo was up to. He was fully expecting another shinobi world war to be waged in the coming years. The unification of all shinobi villages had never popped up in his mind.

However...

'Thinking rationally, perhaps this makes sense.'

With the amount of power in Danzo's hands, he could deal a lot of damage to any non-compliant village. Sudden rebellions and hostile objections could be solved with a forceful grasp of his enemy's hearts.

This proposal was simply a setup for everything.

A drawing of boundaries between friend and foe.

'Still...'

Just like Yugito Nii, Suguru felt that something was off about this situation.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't be given any answers.

It was then.

"Hm?"

Ripples appeared on his Mark of the Mirage. Numerous, like someone was flailing inside his sphere of blood. The overlapping ripples soon created a wave that swept outward.

A foreshadowing of what was going to happen.

Suguru's eyes widened.

"What foul luck," 

Cursing to himself, the endlessly increasing ripples in his Mark of the Mirage drew a grim future for his surroundings.

Directing his gaze toward the source of these ripples, he looked at the headbands worn by each shinobi.

With a masked Anbu shinobi leading the charge, a chill coursed through Suguru's spine.

Appalled, Suguru had no choice but to reevaluate the situation a third time.

"...Danzo sent an army,"

He was right all along. Why did he doubt himself?

This looked like war.

***

When the army of shinobi reached a certain range — most likely the sensory field that Hiruzen was capable of kneading — their demeanor shifted. From rushing through the vast forests of the Land of Fire, they suddenly moved from shadow to shadow.

Suppressing their chakra.

Navigating carefully.

Wary of the senses of powerful shinobi.

However, this only delayed the inevitable. It was impossible for an army as large as this to continue moving undetected.

But that was enough.

Once their approach pricked the instincts of a war-honed veteran, there was no turning back.

Suguru watched as the expressions of all three clones darkened. Akuta instantly vanished into a puff of smoke. Akatsuchi turned into loose soil. Yugito flashed into nothing but lightning.

Their brief conversation had been composed of nothing but meaningless interactions. It didn't even serve as a good distraction.

***

"Sensei?" Mitsuko was the first to react, noticing the disappearance of Akuta's clone.

"Something's happening," Akuta replied, receiving the memories of his clone. With his hand on the ground, he spoke with an indifferent expression.

"Use your Byakugan to look South. I sensed a large amount of ninjas approaching."

He bit back his next words.

'And they're all from Konoha.'

While Akuta felt a looming threat, Mitsuko followed her sensei's command. Pouring her chakra into her eyes, she directed her gaze Southward.

The moment she did, she gasped.

"There's a lot of ninjas approaching us! What's happening, Akuta-sensei?"

Unaware of the eerieness of the situation, Mitsuko's innocent tone elicited a wry smile from Akuta. Sasuke and Sakura were similarly confused, wondering why such an army was approaching.

'Are they here to help us fight the jinchuriki?' Sasuke thought, analyzing the situation with what knowledge he had.

However, Akuta's reply to Mitsuko would cause a knot to form on his brows.

"I don't know." He said, signaling Team 7 to prepare to flee. "This wasn't part of the information I've been given."

Hiruzen already suspected the subsequent flow of events.

It was then.

—BOOM!

Several explosions, timed so precisely it couldn't have been a coincidence, sent shockwaves through the air.

Small, detached shinobi squads encroached upon the Valley of the End. Two squads each intercepted the Iwa and Kumo squads.

A flash of lightning instantly illuminated Akuta's peripheral vision.

The sound of steel colliding with steel rang throughout the forest and the rumbling earth roared in haphazard defiance against the ambush.

A fire had been ignited, spreading like a tide.

"Formation four!" Akuta spoke with a dark conviction.

The way he carried himself shifted as he prepared for battle. With the way he distributed his weight, he appeared like a primed spring.

"Remember what I taught you." He told his students in hopes that they would survive what was to come.

'Shadow Clone Jutsu!'

Three clones appeared, standing before the three young genin while the wind suddenly began to whistle. 

—Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Raising his kunai, Akuta deflected a barrage of shurikens aimed at each of his students. With the situation at hand, he had long come to a realization.

'Everything Danzo said about maintaining the balance is a likely lie.'

Cursing his old friend in his mind, Hiruzen was thus left with no other choice.

Flames began dancing around his body, flowing like lava, burning the surrounding trees. Summoning a drought upon the land that held him in its embrace.

With a flicker of golden flames, Hiruzen's clones rushed into the distance.

Then.

—Boom!

Flames erupted en masse.

***

Suguru was not spared from the unfolding battle.

With several shinobi capable of using Earth Release, his lab was discovered by accident.

—Crack.

His seals shattered, forced open by the shifting stones. The walls of his laboratory vanished as his lonely form was exposed to sunlight after so long.

Earthen spikes formed rapidly from the ground beneath his feet, forcing him to abandon his position.

"Tsk,"

Watching as Akatsuchi slammed his hands onto the ground, Suguru cursed his luck. As he hurriedly flickered away, a water dragon summoned from the nearby waterfall roared to life. Then, with a thundering impact, slammed into Akatsuchi's dome of earth and stone.

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