Dont forget to comment and vote, its makes me happy ...
only 5$ read full story in patreon : belamy20
Southern Land of Fire, outside the Mist camp.
Falling leaves and splattering mud filled the air as every kind of attack crashed down on the spot where Taiichi had been standing.
The clearing went dead quiet. Everyone held their breath, eyes locked on the center of the barrage, waiting to see what was left.
When the wind finally died and the dust settled, shocked voices broke out all at once.
"Where is he?"
"When the hell did he disappear?"
"He activated that technique instantly. Does it just happen the second he thinks about it?"
Through the noise, the Third Mizukage walked slowly toward the edge of the mud pit. He stared down at the crater where lightning had torn everything apart and the mud was already starting to fill back in.
Nothing. Not even a scrap of cloth.
In his head, Taiichi's mocking voice still echoed.
Why's the Mizukage running too?
If he had stayed locked in close combat instead of pulling back, would Taiichi have had time to escape?
The thought flashed through his mind, then he crushed it immediately.
That kind of wide-area barrage could have killed him if he'd stayed. There was no way he was going to keep trading blows.
If anyone was to blame, it was Matsushita Taiichi for being too fast. Flying Thunder God was practically instant.
Once he accepted that, the tight feeling in his chest eased. He raised his voice so everyone could hear.
"Stay alert. Taiichi might still be nearby—"
A scream cut him off.
Every head snapped toward the sound. Taiichi was rising slowly out of the mud directly behind one of the Mist jonin.
The jonin was already dead, impaled from below on a thick stone spear that had punched straight through his body. His arms and legs twitched uselessly while broken, animal sounds still leaked from his throat.
A cold ripple went through every Mist shinobi watching. That was a brutal way to die. Nobody wanted to be next.
"Mizukage, that habit of yours really isn't good," Taiichi said, voice calm and cutting. "Running in the middle of a fight is one thing, but ordering everyone to jump me at once? Looks like Mist's reputation is worth about as much as I thought."
He stomped his right foot. The stone spear beneath the corpse lengthened and stretched, carrying the dead jonin forward until it stopped right in front of the Mizukage.
With a sharp crack, the spear broke. The body and the lower half of the stone spike dropped to the ground at the Mizukage's feet.
It was a deliberate, public humiliation.
"Kill him!" the Mizukage snarled.
He moved first. Water whipped out from around him like living lashes, lashing toward Taiichi. This time he stayed at range.
The rest of the jonin reacted fast. Two close-combat specialists rushed in to try and pin Taiichi down while the others started forming seals.
Taiichi wasn't about to play their game. The moment they got close he clapped his hands.
Fire Release: Great Fireball.
A blazing golden sphere exploded outward, buying him just enough cover to spread his chakra wings and launch into the sky.
"Mist rats, I'm done playing with you. Sit tight and wait for Konoha's main army to show up!"
His voice drifted down, loud and arrogant.
Down below, the Mist forces could only watch him go.
"Mizukage-sama, what are your orders?"
Yagura stepped forward carefully, glancing at the Mizukage. To his surprise, the man didn't look nearly as furious as he expected.
The Mizukage pulled his gaze away from the sky.
"Back to camp. Gather every jonin. We're holding a meeting."
He turned and walked toward the main tent without another word.
Yagura watched him go, thinking hard, then hurried to pass on the order.
Three kilometers away, Taiichi hovered at the very edge of his chakra sensing range. From here he could clearly see everything inside the Mist camp that wasn't covered by barriers.
This was his kind of surveillance. They knew he was watching. There wasn't a damn thing they could do about it.
Mist main command tent.
The silence was thick. Everyone was still rattled by what had just happened. Dozens of them had tried to kill one man and not only failed, they'd lost a jonin in the process.
The fear in the room wasn't just hatred anymore. It was something colder.
They couldn't beat him. They couldn't run from him. If you got caught alone, you were probably dead. That kind of opponent scared everyone.
The Third Mizukage looked at their faces and felt his temper spike even though he'd expected this reaction.
"What? One Matsushita Taiichi and you're all acting like whipped dogs?"
His voice was sharp. The jonin lowered their heads and took the scolding without arguing.
That only made the Mizukage angrier, but he forced himself to stay calm. He still needed these people for what came next.
He took a slow breath and spoke in a steadier tone.
"I've decided to abandon the fight against Konoha. We're shifting our target to Sand."
The words hit like a bomb.
They had been fighting Leaf for three months. They had lost a lot of people. And now the Mizukage was saying they were just going to walk away?
"Mizukage-sama, you can't be serious!"
"Lord Mizukage, Leaf killed too many of our comrades!"
"Restarting the war with Sand… the village leadership won't accept that!"
Voices rose from every direction. The Mizukage simply sat there and let them talk themselves out.
Gradually the noise died down. Everyone turned to look at him.
"I wanted to test ourselves against Leaf one more time," he said, voice quiet but clear. "See who was really stronger before deciding our next move."
He swept his gaze across the tent.
"But you all saw what happened. One Matsushita Taiichi was enough to break your fighting spirit. How are we supposed to face Leaf's main army in that state?"
No one had an answer.
"The village wants results. If we can't get them from Leaf, we change targets. Sand has been ground down by constant war. Their strength is at its lowest point in years. They're the perfect target right now. If Cloud could raid them and come out ahead, so can we."
The mood in the tent shifted. People started nodding. The more they thought about it, the more it made sense.
Why keep bashing their heads against Konoha's wall when there was an easier, fatter target right next door?
Once they accepted the logic, the discussion turned practical. Within minutes they had a workable plan.
"Mizukage-sama is wise. We will follow your orders."
Mist moved fast.
As soon as the meeting ended, they started breaking down the camp. No delays.
High above, Taiichi's shadow clone watched the sudden activity with narrowed eyes.
Are they pushing deeper into the Land of Fire?
He dropped lower to get a clearer read.
Half an hour later he had his answer, and it only confused him more.
Mist wasn't advancing inland. They were heading back toward the coast.
They had gone through all that trouble to open a new front, and now they were retreating to the sea again.
Taiichi couldn't figure out what had changed. He had no idea his earlier fight had been the final straw.
Still, his job was reconnaissance. As long as Mist wasn't launching an immediate attack, he kept his distance and kept watching.
They moved quickly. The sea wasn't far. It didn't take long before the entire force reached the shoreline and started boarding their warships.
Taiichi watched from above as the last shinobi climbed aboard. Sails unfurled. The fleet turned south.
South. Straight toward the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers.
Is Mist giving up on fighting Leaf?
The thought refused to leave his head.
He created another shadow clone and sent it back to report while his real body stayed behind to keep tracking the fleet.
The clone used Flying Thunder God and appeared right beside Tsunade.
The entire Konoha column was still on the march. Taiichi's sudden arrival drew immediate attention.
"Well? Got news already?" Tsunade asked, half-teasing, trying to ease the tension around her.
Taiichi nodded seriously.
"Sensei. Big development."
Tsunade stopped walking. She glanced at his face, then turned to Nara Shikaku.
"Order the column to halt. Rest here."
She looked back at Taiichi.
"Talk."
"Mist broke camp and left the Land of Fire. They boarded their ships and sailed south."
Taiichi gave her the full story—how he had found the empty camp, fought the Mizukage and his jonin, killed one of them, and how shortly after the fight Mist had started packing up.
Everyone listening looked stunned.
"They're not trying to circle around and hit us from the Land of Rivers, are they?"
"Doesn't make sense. They already landed once. They could've pushed inland then. And there's still a southern garrison in the Land of Rivers they'd have to deal with."
The group fell quiet, trying to piece it together with too little information.
Then someone spoke up.
"What if… they're going to link up with Sand again? Hit us together like before?"
The idea sent a visible ripple through the group. It actually made sense. Mist had worked with Sand against the southern front once already.
"Lady Tsunade, should we reinforce Jiraiya-sama?"
Every eye turned to her.
Tsunade stood with one arm crossed under her chest, the other hand resting on her chin, thinking hard.
"Bring me a map."
A staff officer immediately unrolled a large map on the ground. Taiichi stomped once and raised a flat stone table beneath it so everyone could see clearly.
Tsunade gave him a brief, surprised look, then focused on the map. Her finger traced routes between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers.
"Here," she said, tapping a spot. "We're going here."
Everyone leaned in. It was a cluster of low hills inside the Land of Fire, about a hundred kilometers from the Land of Rivers border. High ground with good visibility.
"From there we can quickly support Jiraiya if needed," Tsunade explained, "and we'll still be in position to respond to any coastal threat along the southern border. Best of both worlds."
After a quick check of the distances, the others nodded.
"Nara Shikaku, send a message to Jiraiya under the eastern front's authority. Warn him to watch for Mist trying to land in the Land of Rivers and to be ready in case they link up with Sand. Give him our new position and tell him we can reinforce if things go bad."
"Yes, Lady Tsunade!"
"Taiichi, you're the fastest with Flying Thunder God. Deliver the message to Jiraiya, then keep tracking Mist. I want to know exactly what they're planning."
"Understood."
"Everyone else, give the troops thirty minutes to rest, then we keep moving."
Out at sea.
Taiichi felt the space ripple and turned just in time to see his shadow clone appear.
Before he could say anything, the clone tossed him a sealed scroll and popped out of existence.
Efficient.
He caught the scroll and absorbed the clone's memories. Tsunade's orders were clear.
He had no objections.
Far below, the Mist fleet was cutting through the water under full sail, heading south.
They had already crossed into the waters off the Land of Rivers, but their course stayed straight. If they kept going like this, they would reach the Land of Wind's waters by tomorrow.
Taiichi shook his head. He still couldn't guess their goal.
He left another shadow clone to keep watching and teleported away.
When he reappeared, he was standing on a marker he had left behind during the earlier southern campaign. Two kilometers east sat Jiraiya's camp, still exactly where it had been.
The southern front had been quiet for a while. That explained why Minato and the others had been pulled away. There probably wasn't much fighting left here.