---Third POV---
In a boundless desert of swirling yellow sand stood exotic buildings, tall and mysterious. Unlike Konoha's greenery, Suna's architecture rose from the dunes like an extension of the landscape itself.
Beneath these structures, a Suna ninja squad tasked with routine patrol duties had gathered, chatting casually to pass the time.
The base was all about efficiency. They tracked every drop of water, and every scrap of food. Pretty different from how they wasted everything back in Konoha.
The ninjas wore standardized ninja attire, predominantly in shades of yellow that blended seamlessly with their surroundings, setting them apart from ninjas of other regions. On their foreheads, they bore the iconic forehead protectors engraved with the symbol of Suna.
"This war is ours to win, no doubt about it. Tsunade? Totally overrated," Satoru scoffed as he and his teammates discussed national affairs in their usual banter.
In this large base devoid of entertainment facilities, such conversations were one of the few ways they could while away their time. Shigeru eagerly nodded in agreement. "Exactly! What's so special about those so-called Sannin? They probably just hide in the back. I've never seen them on the battlefield."
"Hey, you two, don't get too cocky," their squad leader interjected, joining the discussion. "We haven't seen any moves from Iwa yet. Who knows what they're planning?"
Satoru, fiercely loyal to his village, retorted, "With Elder Chiyo's wisdom, there's no way we'd be deceived by Iwa!"
For Satoru, Suna wasn't just his village—it was his identity. Every grain of sand in the desert was worth defending with his life. He wouldn't tolerate anyone, not even his captain, speaking ill of it.
"Damn Konoha! If it weren't for their assassination of the Third Kazekage, we'd have already won this war!" he exclaimed with conviction.
"We don't know that for certain," the squad leader said.
"What else could it be?" Satoru shot back. "The strongest Kazekage in history doesn't just vanish without a trace. Everyone knows it was Konoha!"
"Exactly! They'll pay for this!" Shigeru chimed in, nodding vigorously.
A newer recruit, standing nearby, hesitantly offered, "But I heard rumors it might have been someone else..."
"Fairy tales!" Satoru waved dismissively. "Stick to what we know."
The desert wind shifted suddenly, carrying an unfamiliar scent that made Satoru pause. His skin prickled with a sensation he'd learned never to ignore—the feeling of danger.
"!!!"
Suddenly, a piercing, abrupt alarm echoed throughout Suna's base. The shrill sound sliced through the peace of the night, snapping everyone into full alertness.
Ninjas darted toward the source of the alarm. Each of them knew that such an alarm signaled something far from ordinary.
"Enemy intrusion detected at Entry Point Eight! All units, stay alert! Prepare for combat!"
"Secure the perimeter!" the squad leader commanded. "Second team, sweep the warehouses!"
Boom—
A deafening explosion roared, shaking the very ground. The impact reverberated through the air like a thunderclap, and an overwhelming shockwave spread in an instant.
The Suna ninjas turned their horrified gazes toward the source of the blast, where the supply depot had been consumed by a massive, radiant blue sphere of chakra.
The air around it warped from the intense energy fluctuations, creating visible whirlpools of distorted currents.
A high-pitched buzzing sound, sharp enough to make their teeth ache, overpowered even the harsh alarm, further heightening their unease.
Even from a distance, Satoru, Shigeru, and their comrades could feel the gale sweeping past their bodies. Its sting left a faint, prickling sensation on their skin.
Shigeru, whose simple mind struggled to process the chaos, muttered blankly, "Is this… a tailed beast attack?"
---Ryouma's POV: A few minutes earlier.---
I had just finished exchanging intelligence with Minato. After he briefly sensed the location of his Flying Thunder God kunai, he said, "Good, they haven't spotted our marked positions yet."
"Our mission is to destroy over half of Suna's supply depots. Do you have enough chakra for this?" Minato asked, though his tone carried more trust than doubt.
I knew he wouldn't have doubted my capabilities. If I had concerns, I would have voiced them earlier.
"No problem. I can destroy all the marked points simultaneously," I replied with a confident smile. My chakra control allowed me to maximize its efficiency, not only in jutsu but also in chakra molding.
Unlike most ninjas who inevitably wasted some chakra during its molding and using, I was blessed with the extraordinary precision of the Rikugan, which allowed me to use chakra with near-perfect efficiency.
If an ordinary elite ninja could perform a jutsu with a certain amount of chakra, I could achieve the same result with a fraction of that cost.
The difference might seem minor to some, but it was far from it. Take Minato as an example—his chakra control is already considered exceptional in the ninja world.
If he and I were the same age, my chakra usage efficiency alone would surpass his by more than tenfold. Coupled with no chakra wastage when performing jutsu, my stamina as a ninja was nothing short of terrifying.
In short, destroying these supply depots with the Rasenshuriken was not a difficult task for me.
Minato smiled at my confident response and said, "Alright then, let's begin."
Placing his hand on my shoulder, he added, "Get ready, we're flying."
I nodded silently.
This sensation never got less strange—like being everywhere and nowhere at once.
We had trained and synced our techniques several times back in the Konoha's camp, and I was now thoroughly accustomed to the spatial teleportation of the Flying Thunder God Technique.
The world compressed into a single point of yellow light, then expanded again in a heartbeat. My organs seemed to arrive a fraction of a second after my body, leaving me momentarily disoriented despite our practice sessions.
Minato and I instantly appeared at one of the marked Flying Thunder God kunai locations. We used the Body Flicker to appear beside the largest warehouse, which was a massive sturdy looking structure, likely able to withstand both the harsh elements and potential attacks.
From this angle, I could see how the buildings were strategically positioned to funnel attackers into kill zones.
At that moment, the alarm blared throughout Suna's base. Ninjas poured into every corridor, systematically searching for intruders in every possible hiding spot.
"Something triggered their security system," I said after a brief assessment of the situation.
"Changes nothing," Minato replied, calculating our options. "The kunai are already placed. We just need to accelerate the timeline."
"Execute the primary plan. I'll handle any interceptors."
From our infiltration to this moment, only eight minutes had passed. Minato had estimated that the Suna ninjas would take at least 15 minutes to discover the dead guards at the entrance.
Perhaps additional detection jutsu had been deployed to guard against intrusions. After all, this was one of the Five Great Hidden Villages, and its defenses were formidable.
However, Suna's efforts were ultimately one step too late. The Flying Thunder God kunai had been placed and marked long ago.
I raised my right hand, and wind chakra swiftly condensed and compressed before spinning violently. The smooth chakra sphere elongated instantly, forming a blade-like edge resembling a spiraling shuriken.
Minato, standing nearby, had seen this technique before during our training in Konoha's camp. But since it was a mere practice session, I hadn't fully unleashed the jutsu back then.
I knew Tsunade had described its full destructive potential to him.
But I wasn't finished yet.
Since destruction was the goal, I decided to escalate things further. I poured even more chakra into the jutsu, causing the Rasenshuriken to grow exponentially in size. Wind chakra blades rotated so quickly they appeared as a solid disc of chakra.
The shrill alarms echoing through Suna's base seemed to intensify with urgency.
---
Someone once said, "War is when a mother's child travels to another country to kill another mother's child."
It sounded undeniably tragic.
But when you were in the heart of battle and had no choice, protecting yourself and eliminating the enemy was not wrong.
History won't remember individual justifications, only victors and casualties.
I never thought war was justifiable. I felt a bit sorry for the Suna ninjas who might die by my hands today, but I had no intention of holding back
"In your next life, don't be born into this world."
After taking a deep breath, I hurled the colossal spiraling shuriken with all my might.
"Wind Release: Big Ball Rasenshuriken!"
The massive, radiant Rasenshuriken shot from my hands like a wild horse breaking free, accelerating with astonishing speed.
With immense power and force, it slammed into the thick, solid wall of the supply depot.
The seemingly indestructible wall was utterly incapable of withstanding its advance.
With a thunderous crash, the wall shattered and collapsed.
The defensive barrier of the Suna ninjas was violently torn apart.
As the barrier broke, I could see an invisible wave of chakra ripple outward like water.
In that moment, time seemed to freeze.
Inside the depot, the Suna ninjas stared at the enormous shuriken that appeared out of nowhere.
Through my Rikugan, I could see the expressions changing on the their faces—first confusion, then recognition, finally fear that came from understanding one's mortality.
A young Suna ninja reached for a barrier scroll. His movements were admirably fast but impossibly inadequate. In another scenario, he might have become a fine jonin one day.
Under my watchful Rikugan gaze, the Rasenshuriken flew to the center of the supply depot in an instant.
Raising a single hand, I formed a seal and uttered, "Detonate!"
Far surpassing the power and range of a regular Rasenshuriken, it effortlessly enveloped the entire massive supply depot, and its radius kept expanding.
Minato, seeing the incoming blue brilliance, instantly sensed danger.
Without hesitation, he placed a hand on my shoulder and used the Flying Thunder God to teleport to the next marked location.
I knew the Flying Thunder God kunai at this location had been placed by Minato himself after gleaning some intelligence about my techniques from Tsunade. He had calculated my jutsu's power and the depot's location with precision.
What he hadn't anticipated was that I would unleash an even more devastating Rasenshuriken.
Yet he adapted instantly, this was why he would become Hokage.
---Third POV---
The Suna ninjas who had rushed over after hearing the commotion looked on in either shock, fear, or anger. The youngest among them simply stared, unable to process the scale of destruction.
As the colossal blue orb of light gradually dissipated, all that remained was a massive crater stretching over several meters wide, utterly devoid of anything—as if nothing had ever existed there.
Naturally, under the microscopic, cellular-level slicing of the Rasenshuriken, nothing, not even smoke, could remain.
The Suna ninjas stationed here would never forget this day. For them, the nightmare had just begun.
Who was the enemy? They had no idea.
What was the enemy's technique? Unknown.
They couldn't even confirm how many enemies there were.
For a military force, uncertainty breeds panic faster than any direct attack.
The enemy's speed was so fast that the stationed Suna ninjas couldn't even comprehend it.
---
Meanwhile, in the command center, the commander of this Suna covert outpost paced like a caged predator.
"So much time has passed, and you still don't know who the enemy is? Are you all useless?"
The one ranting was a young Suna kunoichi dressed in a revealing, backless outfit—unapologetically bold and strikingly attractive.
"Apologies, Pakura-sama. The enemy seems to possess some kind of movement technique that can instantly breach our encirclement. We suspect the attacker might be the Yellow Flash," a Suna jonin, drenched in sweat, reported nervously.
According to frontline intelligence, he has never used a jutsu of this magnitude. Is it a new technique he learned, or has Konoha produced yet another formidable warrior? Pakura quickly analyzed the situation.
Her current presence here was somewhat related to a prior escort mission Ryouma had undertaken.
Back then, an elite jonin from the Sarutobi clan had fended off her team with great effort.
At that time, Team Inoichi wasn't on the main battlefield. Instead, they had annihilated a Suna ninja team attempting a flank attack elsewhere.
Thus, this was her first encounter with the Rasenshuriken.
For Konoha, as long as critical supplies could be safely transported to the frontline, some personnel losses were deemed acceptable.
For the Suna, however, Pakura's ambush team carried significant expectations from the village.
The higher the expectations, the deeper the disappointment.
After the failed ambush on Konoha's transport team, internal criticism of her had spread throughout the Suna, accompanied by classic blame-shifting rhetoric.
This highlighted a pattern in the shinobi world—similar to the White Fang incident. Injustice and blame weren't unique phenomena; it seemed every place had its share of vultures who fed on others' misfortunes.
But Pakura was no fragile kunoichi. She had weathered the desert's harshest sandstorms and emerged stronger. Internal politics were just another environmental hazard to be navigated.
She understood that during this period, she was likely viewed with disdain and resentment in the village.
To avoid the storm, she had quickly accepted an external mission to this outpost, knowing full well that such baseless criticism would eventually fade on its own.
The outpost command was considered a demotion by many, but this made it the perfect place to rebuild her reputation through success.
Though she deduced that the enemy was likely the Yellow Flash, she had no immediate solution.
Space-time ninjutsu was even rarer than bloodline limits in the shinobi world. The enemy could come and go at will, maintaining absolute control over the situation.
They couldn't even catch a glimpse of the enemy, let alone stop them. Fighting a shadow was like trying to hold water with open fingers.
Boom~~!
Another violent explosion rang out.
Pakura strode toward the window, gazing out at yet another supply depot enveloped by the rising blue sphere.
Damn it, this is the fifth one. Just how many times are they going to use this level of jutsu before stopping? Could Konoha have sent the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki to the battlefield?
She knew tales of the Nine-Tails' chakra reserves. If Konoha had deployed such a weapon...
Pakura realized that now wasn't the time to think about capturing the enemy. With their space-time jutsu, the only priority was minimizing losses. Wars weren't won in single battles.
Sometimes victory meant preserving what matters most.
She turned and walked toward the door, refusing to look further at the aftermath of the dangerous jutsu outside.
What was there to see? Once the chakra dissipated, all that remained would be yet another crater.
"Gather all elite forces and retreat to defend Warehouse Seven. We abandon the other positions," she commanded firmly.
"All forces? But that would leave our perimeter—" the Suna jonin began, startled.
"The perimeter is meaningless against the Yellow Flash," Pakura cut him off. "Also, thoroughly search the area surrounding Warehouse Seven. Destroy anything resembling spatial markers immediately upon discovery!"
"What about the remaining, undamaged Warehouses Three and Six? They contain our medical supplies and communication equipment," the Suna jonin asked hesitantly.
"I said, retreat everyone to Warehouse Seven. Do you not understand?"
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees. Those familiar with her bloodline limit understood the warning signs.
"I… I understand!"
The Suna jonin dared not question further and hurried off to mobilize the troops to defend Warehouse Seven, his footsteps fading rapidly down the corridor.
Pakura wasn't planning to stay at the command post any longer either. She intended to personally guard the crucial warehouse.
That warehouse contained the Suna's most critical resources, the ones giving them the confidence to wage war against Konoha.
It absolutely, unequivocally could not be lost.
When things mattered most, she believed in direct action.
---
Poll ended. No suprise, One Piece body and talent won.
I am not even sure if I should do a poll for the character cause it seems that Rocks would win. Either way, it will be a while till he will get the pity.
Want me to do a poll without Rocks?
Or just go with Rocks?
---
Come on, let's push the rankings!
Power Stones make me happy!
30 advance chapters!
p@treon.com/Malphegor