Naruto: The Senju Patriarch

"Gold Dust Shuriken!" 

Gold dust infused with chakra flew around Rasa's hands, manifesting itself into countless deadly shuriken, to which Sakumo hastily avoided mid thought. He flickered between Rasa's attacks, dodging and weaving until the assault ceased.

Suddenly, with no warning, a poisoned kunai flew out of the mouth of one of the last puppets, which seemed to be smiling at the Leaf's White Fang. He dodged, but due to the appearance of the new reinforcements, his options had heavily been cut off by design. So when he heard a devastating: "Magnet Style: Gold Dust Spear!" and saw Rasa, floating on a bed of gold dust, smiling, hoisting a thin, glowing spear of sand and gold dust, which looked as sharp as, if not sharper, than any spear or kunai which he had seen. He realised he had let his guard down and had fallen into a trap. With no time to waste, Rasa launched the spear at terrifying velocity towards him, which only got faster by how the spear had been propelled by sand as well. 

Sakumo, who was caught just as they predicted, took in a breath of air, unable to evade. He braced himself for the impact, hoping to minimise the damage as much as he could within the few milliseconds he had by twisting his body.

The puppeteer duo smirked, thinking they would finally be able to fulfil their revenge. Rasa looked over at the White Fang, who was bracing for the giant spear, and huffed in satisfaction.

BOOM!

Right before the attacks made contact with Sakumo, a giant, 30ft tall Shinobi wielding a massive battle axe in complete battle armour landed in front of him. The enlarged axe struggled to block the spear somewhat, but with a grunt from its wielder held on, and fortunately, the sand spear crumbled. Lady Chiyo and Ebizo, unable to see their target ahead due to a huge sand cloud blocking their view, retreated with their puppets. All they had seen was an enormous individual leap into the sky before landing right in front of the White Fang. Rasa also slightly retreated, not wanting to make a possibly crucial mistake, yet still remained off the ground on his platform. 

"Chozan?!" Sakumo was shocked, being miraculously saved, just in time. "I let my guard down, I owe you one," he mumbled.

The head of the Akimichi clan laughed, booming across the battlefield, seeming to enjoy a change in fighting, swatting away at the puppets and Sand Shinobi, many of whom cried out in pain after being sent flying back to the main battlefield into all of the chaos, while the rest managed to dash out of the way in time. Sand and dust flew into the air, as Chozan's axe came flying down to rest.

Sakumo dusted himself off and backed away, bumping into someone behind. Immediately, drawing his blade as he darted and turned around. 

"Shikaro?!" 

The head of the Nara Clan stood behind him smiling, before kneeling on the floor as he formed the hand signs for: "Shadow Stitching Jutsu!" As the dust settled, dozens of tiny shadow hands sped across the floor and, acting like ropes, bound to and winded around the remaining puppets, constraining them. 

Sakumo turned once again, to see a figure standing behind the other 2 allies. 

"Inokuri!" 

The head of the Yamanaka clan nodded at him, before also kneeling and forming a triangle with his hands. 

Shikaro nodded at him, confidently.

The famous Ino-Shika-Cho trio…now we can't lose. Sakumo smiled, before nodding back.

"Let's go."

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Katsuro had been watching the encounter while taking over for Sakumo at the front lines, giving out orders to adapt to any movements they made. He was the one who had sent word for the Ino-Shiko-Cho trio to join together and make their way towards his sensei seeing the commitment made by Suna. While he believed in his Sensei, he also knew that anything could happen and at this point they could afford to send him help with Suna committing Chiyo, Ebizo, Rasa and more elite Jonin. But that fact itself also made him more wary of what plan they could have after arriving at the same conclusion as Sakumo.

The Kazekage had not engaged, and Katsuro hadn't either. They both seemed to be waiting for each other, but soon after the Ino - Shiko - Cho trio made their move, the Kazekage did too. He started walking over, as if taking a stroll and ignoring the battle happening around him. Katsuro, seeing this blatant provocation, merely smiled, and ordered the Shinobi around him to scatter, making sure that they would engage some distance away from his confrontation. 

Soon he too walked forward, but they did not start fighting immediately. They stopped some distance away from each other. Katsuro had his arms calmly crossed, radiating confidence while the Kazekage too seemed unbothered. 

"Shouldn't you be more worried, Stormbreaker? I hear the White Fang is your teacher."

Katsuro responded calmly, the tone in his voice answering the question by itself. "Sensei is more than strong enough to take care of himself, though I suspect you weren't aware he was quite this strong, did you?"

Katsuro's provocation got under the Kazekage's skin, making his arm twitch slightly, which normally was not a tell at all - but against high level Shinobi like Katsuro, it was more than enough. 

"The Shinobi of the Sand have a strength forged in the desert. They will not crumble here. We are not pampered like those of you in the Leaf, growing up with no struggles."

"We are Shinobi. We all struggle, but you seem intent on making sure it continues. Wasn't it you that attacked us? You start wars in the faint hopes that you will benefit in the end. You bring pain and suffering upon your people." Katsuro raised his voice, taking the opportunity for those around him to listen, "You fight for ambition, and greed. But us? We fight to protect! We fight for those behind us! The Shinobi of Konoha fight with purpose!" His words were met with enthusiasm from the surrounding Leaf Shinobi, who were now fighting harder and better than ever. Good.

The Senju Patriarch lowered his voice once again. "But what exactly is your plan? To just lose to us here?"

The Kazekage smirked, "Funny you should ask that." On queue, a roar echoed through the battlefield, momentarily putting a stop to the fighting,as a giant raccoon with blue tattoos and made of sand appeared. The Konoha Shinobi had to turn back slightly to get a look, and many paled upon realising where exactly it had appeared. It was behind their ranks and many Shinobi had the same thought go simultaneously through their heads. Isn't that where our medical base is?

Katsuro turned his head slightly to look, while also keeping his eye on the Kazekage. That should be where our medical Shinobi are set up. They're targeting Tsunade and the medics - they are our lifelines after all, especially with all these tools coated in poison.

He turned back around, still as calm as he was before. The Kazekage frowned at the sight.

"It seems you know exactly what's going on, but still don't react? No matter, I will hold you here," he said, gathering his iron sand, "while the One Tail will wreak havoc on the backlines of Konoha."

Katsuro smiled again, "It seems you are underestimating a certain someone," he said as he made the hand sign for a shadow clone, ensuring he gave it a large amount of chakra. The Kazekage saw this, and even though he knew Katsuro used shadow clones, he let it run off towards their back lines, thinking a shadow clone wouldn't change much anyways. "Although her fellow disciples seem to be taking all the glory for their fighting prowess right now, the world forgets who she is, reducing her to just a medical Shinobi. A disciple to Sarutobi Hiruzen, the granddaughter of Senju Hashirama, and the wife of Senju Katsuro. Shouldn't you have been much more wary of her?" 

He let the question sit, watching the Kazekage frown slightly before continuing. 

"And, by the way, you got it all wrong. You are not holding me here - I am holding you here."

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