Right after their debut, those three had fought Hanzo of the Salamander—the acclaimed Demigod of the Shinobi World—to a standstill. No matter how much pride Onoki held in his own abilities, he didn't dare claim he could surpass Hanzo.
Furthermore, the Sannin were no longer the inexperienced greenhorns of that era. Each had matured into a Kage-level powerhouse in their own right. Hovering above the battlefield, the Tsuchikage realized his grim reality... surrender, or die fighting them.
But the cost of yielding was unthinkable. The war reparations would plunge Iwagakure into absolute financial ruin.
"Han!" Onoki's voice boomed from the sky. "I'll hold them off! Unleash your Tailed Beast Transformation—now!"
It was Iwagakure's only desperate gambit. Stalling the Sannin would give Han the opening he needed to transform and decimate Konoha's vanguard.
Onoki banked on a gruesome slaughter forcing the Leaf to reconsider their advance and retreat. Even if Iwa was forced to agree to the crippling compensation terms, inflicting enough casualties would level the playing field.
In the shinobi world, wealth was fleeting, a village's true foundation was its ninja.
Hearing the command, Han violently threw off the Konoha shinobi swarming him. Unlike Killer Bee of Kumo, he wasn't a perfect Jinchuriki. To fully manifest the Five-Tails, Kokuo, he had to manually release the seal suppressing it.
The moment the seal loosened, a guttural, agonizing roar tore from Han's throat. Violent, boiling Tailed Beast Chakra erupted into the air as pure white tails sprouted from his body.
"Did you really think I'd let you succeed?"
As the transformation neared its peak, Kokuo's overwhelming presence began to crush Han's consciousness. But just before his will faded entirely, a cold, calm voice pierced the chaos.
Han jerked his head up. A young boy with deep tear troughs stared down at him. The boy's eyes—burning with the scarlet light of the Sharingan—seared themselves into the depths of Han's mind.
Genjutsu!
The crimson glow flared. Han's eyes instantly glazed over, and the terrifying surge of Tailed Beast Chakra halted dead in its tracks.
"It worked," Itachi Uchiha murmured, letting out a heavy breath as he watched the colossal chakra recede. "The genjutsu brother taught me is truly formidable."
The technique was a custom illusion developed by Jie Uchiha, reverse-engineered from the ocular power of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
While it lacked the absolute devastation of Itachi's innate Tsukuyomi, its chakra drain and toll on his visual prowess were vastly reduced. It barely strained his eyes.
Factor in the Sharingan's natural dominance over Tailed Beasts, and even this modified illusion was enough to cripple both beast and host in a fraction of a second, stripping them of all resistance.
A figure flickered to a halt beside him. "Itachi. Did it work?"
Fugaku Uchiha surveyed the frozen Jinchuriki, his Sharingan spinning. Tailed Beasts were far too volatile, prompting the Uchiha clan head to abandon the frontline skirmishes to check on his son personally.
Itachi turned with a slight smile. "It was a success, Father."
Fugaku's tension melted into a proud grin. "Excellent. Your talent rivals even Jie's. You make me incredibly proud."
"I am still far behind brother...," Itachi replied, shaking his head.
He turned his gaze back to the battlefield, watching Konoha's forces tear through the Iwa lines with unstoppable momentum.
'Only brother's Will of Fire can bring true peace to the shinobi world', Itachi thought silently. 'Once this war ends, I need to speak with him about leaving the village. It is the only way I can spread his 'Will' to the rest of the world'.
'What is taking so long?' Onoki thought anxiously, barrel-rolling to evade another high-speed strike. 'Why hasn't Han transformed yet?'
The sheer power of the Sannin far exceeded his calculations.
Tsunade and Orochimaru were easily his equals in raw strength and lethality, and as for Jiraiya—the Toad Sage hadn't even unleashed his full arsenal.
If not for the massive aerial advantage granted by his flight, Onoki would have been swatted out of the sky long ago.
But beneath their relentless, synchronized assault, his defeat was only a matter of time. From the corner of his eye, he watched his Iwa shinobi falling by the dozens.
Grief seized his chest.
'Is Han planning to betray the village? Just like Roshi?' The very thought deepened his wrinkles into a harsh, bitter scowl.
"Wondering why your Jinchuriki hasn't made a move?" Orochimaru sneered, his raspy voice cutting through the din of battle....
"Did you truly believe the Hokage only sent the three of us? Onoki... for someone who has lived so long, you are remarkably naive."
With a sickening lurch, Orochimaru's jaw unhinged, vomiting a massive venomous snake that shot through the air like a javelin toward the Tsuchikage.
'What?' Onoki violently twisted his body, the serpent's fangs snapping empty air just inches from his face. His mind raced frantically. 'Konoha has a fourth Kage-level shinobi on the field? Who? Fugaku Uchiha?'
Fugaku was undeniably a Kage-level threat. Even without unleashing the Mangekyo Sharingan, the Uchiha patriarch stood at the absolute apex of Konoha's forces.
Wielding flawless Fire Release and his clan's peerless shurikenjutsu, Fugaku was tearing through the battlefield like a grim reaper, harvesting Iwa lives with terrifying efficiency.
But no matter how hard Onoki racked his brain, he never could have guessed the truth... Konoha's vanguard hid a fifth Kage-level presence.
Though strictly forbidden by Jie Uchiha from using his Mangekyo's ocular powers, Itachi Uchiha was a slaughterhouse unto himself.
Relying purely on his fully matured three-tomoe Sharingan and the lethal jutsu inherited from his older brother, the young prodigy cut a bloody, unstoppable swath through the enemy lines.
In a split-second gap between parrying the Sannin's coordinated strikes, Onoki finally caught a glimpse of Han.
The hulking Jinchuriki stood dead center on the battlefield, completely frozen in a partial Tailed Beast state. Reflected in Han's glazed, lifeless eyes were three spinning, crimson tomoe.
Watching his remaining shinobi fall like wheat to a scythe, Onoki's resolve finally shattered.
"Stop!" he roared, his voice amplified by chakra to echo across the blood-soaked plains. "Iwagakure surrenders!"
The battlefield practically froze.
The swirling Rasengan howling in Jiraiya's palm, Orochimaru's lunging vipers, and Tsunade's earth-shattering, chakra-enhanced fist all ground to a sudden halt.
Stripped of their will to fight, the surviving Iwa shinobi instantly dropped their guard, staring up at their Tsuchikage in a bewildered, defeated daze.
Konoha's forces, however, were not so sentimental.
Deaf to Onoki's cry, the Leaf shinobi ruthlessly plunged their kunai into the enemies directly in front of them, securing their final kills without a shred of hesitation.
Only then did they leap back, weapons raised and blood dripping, eyes burning with high vigilance in case Iwa's surrender was nothing but a desperate trap.
Watching Konoha's forces maintain their lethal intent, Onoki swallowed the burning humiliation in his chest.
"I'll sign your peace treaty," he forced out, his voice tight and ragged. "But Iwagakure cannot possibly afford those resources upfront. The materials will be paid in installments over three years. Now, tell your shinobi to stand down!"
Orochimaru's long tongue snaked out to wet his lips. His pale face was a mask of cold apathy. "Surrendering? How reasonable. However, the terms of the treaty have changed. The requested materials are now doubled."
"Orochimaru, don't push your luck!" Onoki gnashed his teeth, a furious glare boring into the snake Sannin.
"If we cannot reach an agreement, then there is nothing left to discuss," Orochimaru replied smoothly, waving a dismissive hand. "At worst, Konoha will simply collect the funds directly from the Earth Daimyo—right after we wipe your village off the map. Kill them."
Blades shrieked as Konoha's vanguard raised their bloodied kunai in perfect unison.
"Stop!" Panic finally broke through Onoki's hardened exterior. "Fine! Double! Iwagakure will deliver the doubled materials over five years! Now call them off!"
"Now, wasn't that much easier?" A faint, mocking smile finally curled Orochimaru's lips.
Realizing that the unbreakable Stone had truly capitulated, a brief beat of silence swept over the bloodstained plains—before the Leaf shinobi erupted into deafening, sky-shaking cheers.
Meanwhile, far away in the safety of the Hidden Leaf Village, Jie Uchiha sat at his desk. He had just started making headway on his new structural reforms when a familiar, mechanical chime echoed in his mind.
[Ding!]
[Host commanded the Sannin to defeat Iwagakure and force the Third Tsuchikage's surrender. Task Complete. Calculating rewards...]
[Rewards Distributed: Earth Release: Super Added-Weight Rock Technique, Earth Release: Super Light-Weight Rock Technique, and the training blueprint for the Kekkei Tota: Dust Release.]
Jie's pen paused over his paperwork. He leaned back in his chair, a slow, amused smirk spreading across his face.
'Talk about sitting at home while rewards fall right out of the sky.'
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