A few minutes ago.
Atop the walls the three stared at the incoming shockwave with panic.
Sakuko and Shoto moved first.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Wave"
Sakuko released a wind jutsu, creating a buffer zone.
"Earth Release: Earth Wall"
Shoto followed with earth release and created two long walls that formed a "V" in front of the village.
The shockwaves slammed into the walls and diverted the blast harmlessly around the wall, saving the village from further destruction.
After a few seconds, the dust began to settle and their jutsu crumbled away.
In the distance, they saw Saki standing there looking behind one last time towards the village. Then, she turned. And stepped forward and with each step, the ground beneath her fractured and her surroundings changed by the sheer density of her chakra and in the next second she vanished into a blinding crimson streak in the dark.
"It seems she surpassed us," Kenji said as he looked at the advancing streak. Then he looked at their surroundings, nothing but barren land with big craters and few trees that were miraculously still standing.
"I thought she surpassed us a long time ago," came Shoto's curt reply.
Kenji chuckled and looked behind him— at the gathered shinobi who also had watched the whole scene.
"Gather every available shinobi," Kenji commanded.
They nodded and flickered away.
Moments later, the remaining shinobi assembled along the walls. Sakuko looked slightly confused by the sudden, mass summons, but Shoto remained perfectly composed.
"We don't have much time. As you all saw, Saki was fighting for us at the front," Kenji started.
"It's our one and only chance for survival. Either we remain in this crumbling turtle shell or we fight alongside her— for our survival," He paused, watching some hope return in their tired eyes.
"Follow me towards the frontlines. I will lead you, but fight keeping in mind the consequences of losing." With that, he pulled a scroll from his inner pocket and unsealed it.
Dozens of paper bombs spilled from the seal. Without a word of hesitation, Kenji grabbed a handful and began sticking them directly to his own body.
"MAY OUR LIVES BE THE SALVATION OF OUR FAMILY!!!"
"Yeah!!" came the war cry.
Then they saw it. A dark-red mass of chakra shot upward from beyond the treeline, punched so high it scattered the gathering clouds. A second later, the boom reached them.
"YEAH!!" they shouted louder.
Shoto nodded inwardly.
In their group, the thing Kenji had which he and Saki both lacked was: Charisma.
Kenji had both overwhelming charisma and the will to be a leader, but he was also an optimistic person.
***********
At the front lines, Saki finally reached the docked warships.
Spinning on her heel, she delivered a brutal kick to the face of the pursuing Two-Tails, flinging the heavy beast backward. She immediately launched herself into the air to dodge a retaliatory strike from the Four-Tails, her fingers grazing the hilt of her weapon. Mid-air, she activated the seal etched into her odachi.
The blade erupted in flames. With a vicious swing, she launched massive, sweeping waves of fire directly at the enemy fleet.
The Kiri commander reacted instantly. "Water Release: Water Waves!"
Others followed his lead, unleashing torrents of water to meet the incoming attack. The elements collided violently. In an instant, the flash-boiling water blanketed the entire shoreline in a thick, suffocating mist.
Saki materialized from the fog like a ghost, beginning her slaughter. Her blazing odachi cleaved through the enemy ranks, the extreme heat turning their severed bodies to cinders before they even hit the ground.
Right behind her came the enraged Jinchūriki. Their devastating attacks tore blindly through the mist, aimed solely at Saki.
She wove flawlessly through the panicked Kiri, Kumo and Iwa shinobi, and whenever a fatal blow closed in on her, she simply vanished into the fog like a mirage.
Unable to track her, the Tailed Beasts' massive attacks plowed straight through their own allies. The invading army had officially become collateral damage in a clash of monsters.
Sanji watched as Saki bisected his men and fought two jinchuriki simultaneously without breaking a sweat. He froze for a moment by the sheer display of her power.
He clenched his fists and forced the instinctual terror down.
Beside him Kiri swordsman said, "I will take the army further away from here. You two try to keep them here," then the swordsman looked at the two jinchuriki who were now rampaging, killing everyone in their sight.
"Those two have lost their minds," Sanji stated and looked at the third commander — leader of Iwa forces. "Separate the battlefield in two. I will deal with the fog."
Then both nodded and Kiri swordsman disappeared, and Iwa shinobi began his hand signs.
Sanji glanced at the flashing fire in the mist and did a series of hand signs.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
Sanji released his wind release jutsu. While not powerful enough to uproot the surrounding trees, it was more than enough to violently shred the suffocating mist, blowing the shoreline completely clear.
"Earth Release: Earth Spikes!"
Iwa commander launched his jutsu a split second later. The ground violently ruptured, thrusting massive, jagged pillars of stone into the air that successfully split the battlefield in two—isolating Saki and the Jinchūriki on one side, and the remains of the invading army on the other.
Saki, who felt the earth moving around her, instantly stopped her slaughter. She pivoted sharply on her toes, weaving through the erupting stone spikes that chased her.
When she finally skidded to a halt, the dust cleared. She found herself standing alone in a crater, completely boxed in. And right in front of her were the two Jinchūriki, as they charged a pair of devastating Bijuu-dama.
Her eyes narrowed slightly just as she was about to interrupt them, she had to parry an attack from her blind spot.
She jumped back two steps, narrowly dodging another erupting spike.
She looked at the two new additions, the Kumo and Iwa commanders. She narrowed her eyes. They were strong, stronger than the fodder she was cutting down until now.
Sanji suppressed the trembling in his slightly burned hands as he watched her red eyes lock onto them.
"Do you remember me, Witch?!" Sanji snarled.
The Iwa shinobi raised an eyebrow. Do they have history? he wondered inwardly, but kept his mouth shut.
Saki didn't even blink. Her eyes assessed them in a fraction of a second: from the Kumo shinobi's trembling hands and half-melted tanto, to the Iwa ninja's preferred long-distance Earth Release style. Finally, her gaze flicked past them to the Jinchūriki, who had almost finished charging their Bijuu-dama.
She had to finish this fast.
She vanished. An instant later, she reappeared directly behind the Iwa shinobi, the blazing edge of her odachi inches from his neck. The Iwa commander's eyes widened in terror as the searing heat washed over his back.
But before the blade could connect, Saki raised her free hand, blocking a high-speed punch from her blind spot. The sheer impact forced her two steps back.
Sanji stood there, his body crackling violently with his Lightning Release Cloak. His heart was hammering wildly against his ribs; he had actually managed to intercept her.
But the moment Saki's foot touched the ground to steady herself, she vanished again.
Before Sanji could even process the movement, she reappeared cleanly inside his guard. Her blazing odachi was already in motion, mere centimeters from his chest.
Sanji froze in absolute horror. A heartbeat later, an agonizing, searing heat traveled diagonally from his left shoulder all the way down to his right hip.
The last words he heard before the world went black were a cold, indifferent whisper.
"Still weak."
It was a... bait, Sanji realized as his body fell apart.
In the meantime, the Four-Tails Jinchūriki had finished forming its massive Bijuu-dama. Instead of launching the sphere, the beast swallowed it whole, instantly releasing a concentrated, devastating beam of pure chakra that obliterated everything in its path.
Saki's eyes widened slightly. Gritting her teeth, she tightened her grip on the hilt of her odachi, pivoted with all her strength, and hurled the massive weapon directly at the incoming beam.
The odachi spun like a buzzsaw. Its blade ignited in a brilliant crimson, leaving a roaring trail of fire in its wake.
Weapon and beam collided. With a deafening, tearing screech, her blazing blade cleaved the massive chakra laser cleanly down the middle.
The divided energy violently trenched the earth on either side of her, while the odachi continued its forward trajectory straight toward the Four-Tails.
Now completely unarmed, Saki immediately raised both her arms in a tight guard, bracing herself for the Two-Tails' incoming impact.
As the beast opened its maw to launch a concentrated beam at her, time slowed to a crawl. Suddenly, her heightened instincts screamed a new warning.
From the corner of her eye, she spotted the Iwa Commander. The man she had been forced to leave alive—or rather, simply hadn't found the time to finish off yet—was rapidly weaving hand signs, gathering a massive amount of chakra for a devastating jutsu.
Just before their attacks could strike, the seal on her forehead flared to life, as if sensing her distress. Saki's dense chakra instantly molded itself into a protective second skin, wrapping thickest around her braced arms.
Boom.
A massive explosion of sand and debris erupted, completely blinding the Iwa commander.
From the smokescreen, Saki was violently flung backward over the ocean. She crashed like a meteor into the shallow seabed, the sheer kinetic force of her impact kicking up massive tidal waves that surged back toward the shoreline.
Further inland, the Kiri swordsman was already commanding the vanguard toward the village when he heard the roaring water. He glanced back just in time to see the towering waves rushing toward his army. Instantly, Iwa shinobi reacted, thrusting massive earth walls from the ground to block the crashing tide.
Before the water could even settle, another blinding beam shot from the shoreline, aimed directly at where Saki had sunk. The concentrated chakra laser flash-vaporized the ocean upon contact, violently striking the seabed. The restless sea instantly dissolved into a chaotic, boiling maelstrom.
The Kiri swordsman turned his back on the boiling ocean. "Order everyone to prioritize the Uzumaki village! Ignore the monsters and keep moving!" he barked at his subordinates.
With that final command, a massive force of over eight thousand shinobi resumed their march, pouring across the barren wasteland straight toward Uzushiogakure.