Naruto: The Senju Patriarch

The battle between Kumo and Konoha was perhaps the battle with the biggest possibility to go either way. On one hand, Kumo held a massive numbers advantage, boasting over 8000 Shinobi, over double of Konoha's force of about 4000, and it wasn't just that. The entire force that had been fighting Kirigakure immediately moved south through the sea and the Land of Hotsprings. With the pace they were moving at, not even properly setting up supply lines they would reach the border of the Land of Fire before even the Konoha forces, who realised and reacted to their movement later since they had been moving by sea.

Kumo were led by the Third Raikage, A, the strongest Raikage in history, and from an outsider's point of view, it looked like Konoha were 'cooked'.

However, if you looked at the entire picture, you would see a different story. Firstly, Konoha's front here was led by Namikaze Minato and Orochimaru, both of who were highly skilled, S Rank Jonin - potentially beyond that. The force also contained the entire Inuzuka clan, who, with their man and beast Taijutsu, would be a valuable addition to the already diverse and strong Konoha Shinobi, who were of higher quality than the Kumo Shinobi with a few Sautobi and Shimura clansmen alongside them.

But the most decisive factor, however, was the presence of one man and his army nearby. Senju Katsuro, having successfully put down Kiri with the Senju, Uzumaki and Hyuga by his side, was on his way back through the Land of Hotsprings, which was very near the battlefield. Like the Raikage had done, they were moving through the sea so they could reach the battle quick enough to help the severely outnumbered army. It therefore became the objective of those commanded by Orochimaru and Minato to delay the Cloud as much as they could to buy time for Katsuro and his army to reach them, which would undoubtedly turn the tide of the battle dramatically.

Having said that, the Konoha leadership still had significant hope that Minato and Orochimaru's army would be enough to beat Kumo - after all, Orochimaru was one of the legendary Sannin and Minato was the most promising prodigy of the Leaf, since Katsuro.

Either way, I won't know until I actually fight him, Minato thought. Instead of experiencing or showing uneasiness or nervousness, like many would think he would, given his inexperience and his role as leader in such a crucial battle, he stood before the frontline, tall, strong and with an expression of grim determination as he stared at the much larger army in front of him.

I want to become Hokage. Compared to that burden, this is nothing.

Konoha's strategy was relatively simple. Orochimaru and a squad of highly skilled Jonin would engage and hold the Raikage for as long as possible, while Minato would wreak havoc on the battlefield, and try to whittle down the numbers difference as much as he could, as would the rest of the Shinobi.

Minato had advocated for himself and for his speed to hold the Raikage, but the veterans knew of the Raikage's reputation, and they were unsure about leaving the relatively unproven Minato by himself. Instead they had more confidence in Orochimaru - he was a proven expert and excelled in these types of delay situations due to his survivability.

That being said, we discussed alternatives, Minato thought. I need to look out for the switch.

Suddenly, in the distance, Minato heard a loud noise - thunder - and saw the army in front of him advance, the Third Raikage leading them. True to his nature, the Raikage did not use typical Shinobi tactics. There was no scouting, no setting up or hiding - no, he just charged right at them, believing in his own strength and the strength of those behind him.

He looked towards Orochimaru and his squad, and the former nodded at him, indicating his readiness.

Minato inhaled deeply.

"Let's go."

The Shinobi of the Leaf charged forward, meeting the Kumo invaders on their land. Like the head of the arrow, the Raikage's charging blue figure sweeping up dust behind him intimidated those he was running towards, but Orochimaru and his squad moved out in front with body flickers to intercept the Raikage. Biting his fingers and using the tattoos on his arms to omit the handsigns, Orochimaru slammed his hands on the ground. As if descending from the heavens themselves 3 massive gates that dwarfed the summons of even the Sannin slammed between the two armies.

The effect was two fold, it was meant to block the Raikage's charge with his Hell Stab and it also forced the respective armies to move around the massive gates, thereby creating space for the proceeding battle to avoid friendly fire.

But only one of the benefits actually unfolded. The Raikage with just 3 fingers of his hell stab tore through and penetrated the first wall, before reducing the number of fingers to 2 to make the technique even stronger as he did the same for the remaining two.

The dismantling of his strongest defence left Orochimaru shocked with the Raikage right upon him. The Jonin and Orochimaru attacked desperately with various ninjutsu and snakes but the Raikage's 'impenetrable' shield let him shrug them off like flies. They created defences with Earth Style that clearly had no hope before being forced to dodge and evade with bodyflickers, creative manoeuvres with their jutsu and substitution jutsus.

As they fought a losing battle elsewhere Minato was tearing through Kumo ranks. Despite conserving his chakra and mainly using Taijutsu, Kunai, Shuriken with a few lower level Jutsu he was looking unstoppable. Occasionally he would spew a wind style or fire style with perhaps some shuriken he multiplied with the Shuriken Shadow Chlone Jutsu, but he was mainly a blur of limbs with his incredible speed slaying his opponents in brief clashes before they even realised what had happened. The strongest Jutsu he had used by this point had been the Wind Style: Wind Arrow, an original he had learned from Katsuro which acted as an extremely quick precision shot of wind. Minato has used it to take out a stronger Jonin who was further away - taking him completely by surprise due to the relative distance and speed.

But, at a certain point Minato started to retreat slightly. His enemies saw it as an opportunity - a sign he was running out of chakra. But they couldn't be more wrong. A similar scene that had happened on the other side of the world repeated itself as several Shinobi carried out their mission throwing special three pronged and marked kunai in specific locations.

Katsuro had claimed Minato was the fastest Shinobi after him, but him disclosing his Flying Raijin during the war meeting came as a complete shock. A second Flying Raijin user in the same generation? Unbelievable. The lower ranked Shinobi still didn't know, to ensure the information would stay confidential for the maximum effect. Unfortunately, they had still preferred to rely upon Orochimaru initially and instead of helping his case somewhat hurt it instead, as they saw this as a perfect opportunity to deal the most casualties they could.

And indeed it was, Minato muttered under his breath with the space he created. "Flying Raijin, Light Step Style: Formation 1." Minato disappeared before numerous eyes, as his yellow hair flashed across the battlefield as he reaped unpredictable lives with his Kunai. This formation was built for this situation - to take the most lives in a head on fight. Kumo being unprepared for his flying raijin and erratic instant teleportations caused them shock that cost even more lives. Minato's kill count easily reached hundreds in under 10 minutes, and if he continued as he was he could even reach the thousands.

But after a while, he stopped. Not by anyone else, but by himself. He noticed the squad designated to handle the Raikage losing - badly. His strength, speed and defence were even greater than they had estimated and it had cost them. Nearly all the Jonin lay dead, pierced through by the Raikage's Hell Stab, that at one point became One Nukite and had even left a massive hole in Manda, Orochimaru's main snake summon - forcing him to be de-summoned.

Orochimaru himself was struggling, surviving the onslaught of speed with his plethora of survival abilities such as his snake substitution, snake-like body which allowed inhuman movements, stretching and healing and even his snake shedding which restored him.

Minato stopped his massacre which had been slowing down from the Kumo Shinobi adapting. Instead, he moved towards the 2 behemoths fighting. He made his entrance, throwing a Kunai to the Raikage's annoyance like it was a little ant interfering. But instantly, on the Kunai, a yellow haired man appeared with a glowing swirling blue ball in his hands. He pushed it into the Raikage's body in one motion as he teleported shouting.

"Rasengan!"

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