The Fourth Shinobi World War erupted in full.
With the declaration made and the lines drawn, the shinobi world moved as one vast body pushed into motion - an entire era shifting from uneasy restraint into open conflict. As Supreme Commander of the Allied Shinobi Forces, Chiba issued orders immediately, directing the Five Great Nations to respond to the chaos with speed, structure, and ruthless clarity.
Uchiha Obito - or rather, the one hiding behind the name Uchiha Madara - had launched this war for more than spectacle. War itself was a tool, a pressure that would force every village to stretch thin, to expose weakness, to bleed resources. But his most direct objectives were simpler, sharper, and far more personal.
First: capture every remaining Jinchūriki.
Second: reclaim the Rinnegan that Chiba had taken from him.
Those were the necessary conditions for the Mugen Tsukuyomi ("Infinite Tsukuyomi"). Without them, the so-called salvation of the world would remain nothing more than a delusion whispered into darkness.
Chiba, of course, needed no special protection. He was the protection.
But the remaining Jinchūriki were different. Under his command, they gathered once more, regrouping in a single secure location - watched over by the Allied Shinobi Forces themselves with a vigilance bordering on paranoia. No unnecessary movement. No isolated assignments. No openings for Kamui ("Divine Might") to slip through like a blade between ribs.
As for the sheer manpower required to meet Akatsuki's army of nearly a hundred thousand White Zetsu… the answer was the entire world. The Five Great Nations, the smaller countries, even the samurai of the Land of Iron - every force with a stake in survival was pulled into the same war machine.
Under Chiba's leadership, the Allied Shinobi Forces were divided into multiple units, each with its own command and assigned fronts. And unlike the original history, Chiba did not force a full intermixing of shinobi from different nations into the same squads. He kept the structure rooted in each great nation's own strength.
It was a coldly practical choice.
Familiarity meant smoother coordination under pressure, fewer fatal misunderstandings, and - most importantly - far less risk of infighting. With the Five Kage and the leaders of smaller nations present to command their own, there was no need to place the entire battlefield's rhythm in the hands of a handful of elite shinobi who might not be obeyed by strangers. Chiba wasn't building an alliance out of ideals. He was building one out of results.
So under his allocation, the Allied Shinobi Forces were split into five major divisions.
And Kirigakure's grand division - its first and largest force - marched toward the battlefield like a tide.
It was led by the acting Mizukage, Terumī Mei, with Ao and Bi among her core support. The ranks also held those who, not long ago, would have been spoken of as nightmares in the dark: members of ANBU like Hoshigaki Kisame and Momochi Zabuza, and the formidable Hōzuki clan under Hōzuki Mangetsu. The Karatachi clan stood alongside them, and other internal powers - clans and families that once existed as separate currents now flowing into the same river.
But what truly changed the scale was what Kirigakure had become under Chiba: a village that no longer relied only on its original bloodlines.
The Tsuchigumo clan had joined them, led by the clan head Yakushi no Gyōja, with the young Tsuchigumo Hotaru among those skilled in puppet-secret arts. The Yuki clan stood present as well - headed by Yuki Yoru, with Yuki Yuki and Haku Yuki among their members.
The Hyūga clan was there too: Hyūga Hiashi at the front, with Hyūga Tokuma, Hyūga Kō, Hyūga Iroha, Hyūga Neji, Hyūga Hinata, and Hyūga Hanabi among their ranks.
The Uchiha clan marched beneath their acting head, Uchiha Hachidai, with Uchiha Mikoto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uchiha Kei among the clan's shinobi - an impossible sight in another era, a quiet statement in this one.
And the Kaguya clan, led by Kimimaro Kaguya, carried the inheritors of Shikotsumyaku ("Dead Bone Pulse") like a sharpened spear aimed at the future.
The Hōzuki clan head, Hōzuki Kūgetsu, led Mangetsu and Suigetsu Hōzuki as well, while the Karatachi clan moved under Karatachi Izumo, with Karatachi Shigure - an exceptional shinobi skilled in Magnet Release techniques - among their best.
Back in Kirigakure itself, elders like Genji and the council remained behind to hold the village steady. But nearly everyone else poured onto the battlefield. Even veterans and elites who might once have stayed as symbols were sent out as soldiers: Gonbei, Nakayoshi, the remaining Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist - including Ringo Ameyuri and Chōjūrō - along with Pakura of Scorch Release, Uzumaki Karin, Jūgo, Sagiri with her sand-control techniques, and countless others.
It was, in every sense, a full mobilization.
For now, Chiba ordered the Jinchūriki - Sanbi Jinchūriki Miru, Rokubi Jinchūriki Utakata, and even the not-yet-perfect Nanabi Jinchūriki Fū - to remain out of direct combat. Not because he doubted them, but because he understood the battlefield's true economy.
A Jinchūriki was not merely a fighter.
They were a target.
Still, if the war ever reached a point where restraint became impossible, Chiba would send them in personally. There was no sentimentality in his thinking - only the cold arithmetic of survival.
So the first grand division of Kirigakure surged forward, killing intent and resolve braided tightly together.
And what waited to greet them was Akatsuki's force - specifically prepared for Kirigakure.
Nearly twenty thousand White Zetsu.
And beyond them…
An Edo Tensei ("Impure World Reincarnation") army led by the man who had once been Kirigakure's strongest Mizukage - Hōzuki Gengetsu.
Before Chiba's rise, Gengetsu had been unquestioned. Not merely the strongest Mizukage of his era - he could be called Kirigakure's greatest shinobi in history. His large-scale genjutsu, Magen: Kijō no Jutsu ("Demonic Illusion: Mirage Steam Fortress Technique"), could spread across an entire battlefield, drowning thousands of shinobi in deception until reality itself became unreliable.
And that wasn't even the worst part.
Gengetsu's body wasn't a normal body. His Hōzuki transformation - more accurately, an oil-like liquefaction - made him immune to most physical strikes and greatly reduced the effect of ninjutsu. And because it wasn't standard water liquefaction but something closer to oil, even Lightning Release - normally the Hōzuki clan's bane - didn't frighten him the way it should.
Then came the clan's lethal hallmark: Suiton: Teppōdama ("Water Release: Water Gun"), enhanced by Gengetsu's own bubble techniques, bombardment after bombardment that turned the air into a minefield.
But the most terrifying of all -
His explosive Water Release, Jōki Bakuhatsu ("Steaming Danger: Explosive Might").
A technique that didn't merely kill - it erased, turning the battlefield into a violent, expanding grave.
To speak bluntly, Hōzuki Gengetsu alone could contend with an entire major force of the Allied Shinobi army.
And he wasn't the only one.
Among the Edo Tensei ranks were other fallen elites of Kirigakure - figures from the previous generation of Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, shinobi who had died at the hands of Might Duy and Chiba in years past: Kurotsuchi Raiga, Biwa Jūzō,… even without their swords, their presence was suffocating.
As if that weren't enough, Akatsuki's side also held one more blade of chilling precision:
Uchiha Itachi.
Soon enough, Kirigakure's grand division collided with the force Akatsuki had prepared specifically to crush them.
Mei stood at the front, eyes fixed on the two figures leading the enemy line - Uchiha Itachi, and the resurrected Second Mizukage, Hōzuki Gengetsu.
For a moment, she couldn't help the rush of emotion. The battlefield was loud with chakra and intent, yet her thoughts were strangely quiet, drifting to how impossible this would have seemed in the old days - how many of the people behind her would have been enemies, exiles, or ghosts.
Gengetsu, however, stared at the Kirigakure division as if looking at a dream he didn't understand.
Shock spread across his face - raw, unfiltered, almost boyish in its disbelief.
"T-this…" he muttered, voice hoarse with astonishment. "Is this what Kirigakure is now?!"
His gaze swept the ranks - clans, bloodlines, elites, numbers, cohesion. Not a fractured village of fear and silence… but a nation at war with its head held high.
"How can there be this much power…?" he breathed. "Compared to the village I ruled…"
His expression tightened, disbelief sharpening into a grim laugh. "It's not just stronger - it's stronger by tenfold… a hundredfold!!!"
Mei smiled, and there was pride in it - but also something softer, something personal. Pride wasn't just for victory. Sometimes it was for survival. For proving that the village you loved wasn't doomed to rot.
"Second Mizukage-sama," she said warmly, "this is all thanks to our current Godaime Mizukage - Chiba-sama."
Her eyes narrowed with conviction. "He saved Kirigakure from the abyss of the Bloody Mist. And in less than ten years, he transformed it into the strongest force in the shinobi world."
Her voice steadied, carrying the weight of a truth she had watched happen with her own eyes.
"Even surpassing Kumogakure and Konohagakure… standing proudly at the very peak of the shinobi world."
Gengetsu's lips curved. "Is that so?"
For a moment, his tone turned almost nostalgic - like a man remembering the village as it once was, and realizing he'd never truly known what it could become.
"Then I'd like to meet this Godaime Mizukage, Chiba…"
Mei shook her head slightly, amused - though there was seriousness behind it. "That won't be easy. He's the Supreme Commander of the Five Great Nations now."
Her gaze turned toward the deeper end of the battlefield - toward the war's true center.
"The only enemy he needs to face is their Supreme Commander…"
"Uchiha Madara."
Gengetsu frowned, thoughtful. "I see…"
He exhaled slowly, and the laughter in his eyes faded into something heavier. "A man like Uchiha Madara… aside from the God of Shinobi, Senju Hashirama, I don't know who could possibly contend with him."
Then he looked at Mei again, as if weighing her words.
"But from what you're saying… this Chiba-sama has that kind of power."
Mei nodded, her smile returning - quiet, confident, unshaken.
"He does."
Gengetsu burst into laughter, loud and strangely relieved. "Good!"
The sound carried across the front lines, bright against the darkness of war. "Then I can finally rest easy."
His gaze softened for the briefest instant, as if he were speaking not as an enemy, but as a Mizukage.
"It seems Kirigakure, in the hands of this Godaime Mizukage… will truly flourish."
He laughed again, and there was a strange satisfaction in it - like a man accepting the end with open eyes.
"That makes even dying worth it…"
Then his expression tightened.
His voice lowered, regret flickering through it like a candle fighting wind.
"But don't let your guard down. I'm being controlled by the caster of Edo Tensei."
His shoulders shifted, chakra stirring - forced into motion by someone else's will.
"I won't be able to stop myself from attacking."
A breath.
And then his eyes sharpened, the last trace of warmth washed away by the cold necessity of war.
"Next…"
"We fight!!!"
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