"Saburo-sama!"
A figure clad in beige armor and a cloth head covering burst from the thick cloud of mist.
"Saburo-sama! Your shoulder!"
The Suna jonin ignored the stinging pain radiating from his cauterized wound and raised his hand to silence his subordinate.
"It is but a scratch. Nothing to worry over."
He brushed his shoulders off and quickly scanned the battlefield. Over four hundred and fifty Suna chunin and jonin were locked in fierce combat with the Uchiha. He glanced down at the molten slab of his shoulder armor and stretched his shoulders and arms, then back at the young swordsman standing in the center of the clearing as the mist began to settle.
"Gather the men!" Saburo barked.
"Saburo-sama?" an older jonin questioned, hesitating. "Our orders were to ambush and hold down the Uchiha's main force!"
"And?" Saburo glared at the elder. "What do you think benefits Suna more? Taking down these Uchiha, or capturing the battered Nine-Tails Jinchuriki?"
Saburo's subordinates widened their eyes as a wave of excitement and anticipation swept through them.
However, the elder remained calm and expressionless. "Orders are orders. We have a duty to—"
"My duty and loyalty lie with Suna and the Land of Wind," Saburo interrupted sharply. "If you won't follow my command, remain here and fulfill your part. But my men and I will bring victory to Suna!"
With a silent signal, Saburo and his faction retreated from the battlefield in an organized fashion. They were Suna's elite home guards, assigned to this perilous task for a reason.
The old man squinted, glaring suspiciously at Saburo's retreating back. 'Is this your true face?' he thought. 'An opportunistic glory hound? Or...'
He glanced back at the puppet brigade and the remaining Suna forces clashing against Uchiha Naka and Uchiha Fukashi. The frontline had entered a stalemate, but Suna still held the advantage of overwhelming numbers. However, with Saburo's forces pulling away, the outcome was no longer certain. Offering a silent, earnest apology to the frontline, the old man closed his eyes, nodded, and chased after Saburo.
---
"Shinichi-sama, should we pursue?"
"No, that won't be necessary," Shinichi replied, keeping his eyes locked on the chaotic battlefield ahead. "We have more important matters to focus on."
In the distance, his father was holding his own quite well against the Suna forces. Nearby, on Naka's side, a red skeletal Susanoo was rampaging through the enemy lines.
"Eisuke-niisan, take squads one, two, and three from the Seventh Division and support my father."
Eisuke nodded and immediately took off, followed by three jonin and sixty chunin.
"Squad four, remain here and protect Kagami. The rest of you, follow me!"
"""HAI!!!"""
Without a moment's delay, the remaining forces of the Seventh Division surged forward behind Shinichi to support Naka against Monzaemon Chikamatsu and his puppet brigades.
In the moment of their hurried departure, the swirling sand settled, slowly revealing what lay buried underneath: a molten piece of beige Suna armor, and a severed arm, cleanly cleaved and cauterized from the shoulder down.
---
Meanwhile, the sudden withdrawal of Saburo's forces allowed the Uchiha to quickly gain the upper hand.
"Chiyo-sama! Saburo-sama's chakra signature—"
"I know!" Chiyo snapped, her fingers dancing rapidly through the air as she manipulated her puppets to cover her retreating comrades. "Damn it! What the hell is going on? Where is Saburo going?"
"No, Chiyo-sama, Saburo—Uwaah!" Tetsusa screamed, raising his arms to shield himself.
Chiyo spun around, cold sweat breaking out across her forehead. 'When?'
A massive kusarigama sliced through the air from behind them. Reacting on instinct, Chiyo used a puppet to shove Tetsusa out of the way. She braced herself and closed her eyes; it was too late for her to escape.
"Sis!"
A desperate shout echoed over the din of battle. Chiyo felt herself violently shoved aside. She hit the ground with a heavy thump, a sudden weight crashing down on top of her.
Slash!
Chiyo opened her eyes wide. "Ebizo?"
"What are you dozing off for, Sis? It's not over yet. Get back up!"
"But..." Chiyo weakly grasped her little brother's right hand. "YOUR ARM!"
Ebizo smiled, gripping Chiyo's hand tightly to pull her back to her feet.
"It's just one arm. I can still control my puppets with what I have left," Ebizo bantered lightheartedly, shrugging his good shoulder.
Chiyo quickly wiped her reddened eyes and turned back to the battlefield.
There, Uchiha Fukashi moved like a dark shadow, dancing through the crowd of Suna shinobi with terrifyingly flawless precision. His Mangekyo Sharingan spun lazily, reading the trajectory of every incoming kunai, jutsu, and hidden puppet mechanism seconds before they launched. He tilted his head a fraction of an inch to let a poisoned needle graze past his cheek, simultaneously driving the heavy iron butt of his kusarigama chain into a puppet master's jaw, shattering the man's teeth and skull in a single fluid motion.
Without breaking momentum, Fukashi whipped the chain outward. The heavy, crescent-shaped sickle cleaved through wood, severing puppet joints before sinking deep into the chest of a nearby jonin with a heavy crunch. Then with a swift flick of his wrist, Fukashi unspooled meters of heavy iron chain, wrapping them tightly around the limbs, torsos, and necks of three Suna shinobi who had tried to flank him.
He didn't offer them a quick death. Fukashi planted his heel into the blood-soaked sand and gave a sharp, violent yank. The iron links bit deep into flesh and armor alike, instantly snapping the spines and shattering ribs with a sickening chorus of loud, echoey cracks. The men collapsed into the dirt like discarded ragdolls. blood gurgled out of their mouth as they suffocated in their own blood.
Further away, a towering red chakra giant and a massive, spiraling pillar of fire tore through her master's detachment.
Across the flanking lines, Uchiha squads dismantled the Suna puppets and incoming shinobi charges with perfectly coordinated precision under the leadership of their crimson-eyed captains. Their targeted jutsus severed invisible chakra threads to neutralize the puppets, while their intricate shurikenjutsu pinned down Suna's mobility—completely breaking their rhythm and momentum.
Chiyo could see the bitter truth clearly now: over the course of this long campaign, the Uchiha had entirely adapted to Suna's puppet playstyles. Even if Saburo had stuck to the plan, the final outcome would remain unchanged. The ambush was a total failure.
"Ebizo, take Tetsusa and fall back to Sunagakure!"
"Sister?"
"We lost. Again." Chiyo gritted her teeth. Aside from the very beginning of the war, they had faced nothing but defeat, even suffering the humiliation of being the only major nation to let Konoha march directly into their territory.
Ebizo tapped Tetsusa on the shoulder and released a flare into the sky, signaling the general retreat. Stepping forward, Tetsusa slammed his hands together. The desert sand began to shift violently across the battlefield, rising up to shield the retreating Suna forces while forcefully pushing the Uchiha back.
Chiyo nodded in satisfaction at the exhausted teenager, then watched as Ebizo helped support him and carry him away.
'The intel on Konoha's attack on the Kuchiyose clan was too timely,' Chiyo muttered to herself, her mind spinning with doubt as she, too, began her retreat. 'This was likely Konoha's scheme from the very beginning. But does Kazekage-sama know something about this? Is that why Saburo left? Did he have another objective ? Why weren't we informed ahead of time?'
***
"Did you think you could escape us in our own territory, Senju Kenji?" Saburo called out, standing tall atop a high sand dune as the Suna shinobi encircled the tattered group of Konoha ninja.