4.2

“Here, here, and here,” the sensor laid three pins on the map in front of them. “These are the three largest concentrations of chakra. They’ve made three bases right behind the ridges, half-way to the foot of the ridges on the other side. There’s a few more located at the very peaks. Lookouts, mostly, their chakra isn’t all too impressive. The real issue, well…”

Commander Shiro chose that moment to place two red pins a short distance behind the ridges, one on either side. He was a man on the older side of things, but the greying hair and the short stubble he had only added to his persona. “Han and Roshi showed up not long after you left Suna. So far, they’ve made no moves inwards, but they’ve flared their chakra every now and then. They’re letting us know they’re here.”

A grim silence enveloped the tent. My expression was carefully set, showing none of my concerns or worries.

“Whoever Iwa put in charge isn’t playing around,” Daiki murmured. The Kazekage nodded, frowning.

“What are the chances we’re able to sneak any ninja through?” Rasa already knew the answer, but he asked anyway. Commander Shiro considered it, glancing my way once.

“Low, but it wouldn’t matter in the end. Even if we were able to get a squad or two to infiltrate the border, the moment a clash begins, their sensors will sound the alarm. Then, Han and Roshi will rush there, and it’ll be over before it begins. Perhaps with you holding off one, we might have been able to combat the other, but that would still require us to get through the other side. Iwa won’t let us do that without inflicting heavy losses on us, which means our combat effectiveness will be significantly lower by the time we engage the Jinchūriki.”

“That won’t be necessary,” I said. Everyone in the command tent turned their heads toward me. I returned their stares, challenging them to contradict me. Predictably, only Commander Shiro took me up on that, frowning heavily as he did so.

“Kazekage-sama has spoken highly of your abilities, Suleiman-san, but the same issue applies to you that applies to anyone else. If the lookouts engage with you, you’ll alert the entire formation. If you manage to get past them, you’ll still have to engage a company’s worth of ninja when you reach their base. If the lookouts didn’t spot you, that fight will draw Han and Roshi to you like moths to a flame. We won’t be able to reinforce you anytime soon.”

A small smile was playing on my lips. The last of my spells had been completed a short while back. I could feel that which I had guided forward waiting to be unleashed, hungering for the chance to soar. I clamped down on the urge.

Perhaps if I had not done what I had for Suna, I would not have been so firm in my tone. Perhaps if I did not have the Kazekage's ear and the loyalty of its only Jinchuriki, I would have worded my statements like suggestions. Perhaps if I was not who I was, if I was not capable of what I was, I would have remained quiet.

“By the time I’m done, Commander,” I began, drawing on my true form. Wisps of silver light danced across my eyes. “There will be no more ridges to keep our forces away.”

I turned to look at Gaara, who was standing a foot behind his father. He looked bored, but I could sense the nervousness, the anxiety, the anticipation. I smiled at him reassuringly, ruffling his hair. “I’ll need you to start drawing on it soon, Gaara. When you see it happening, remember to bring it up so its lying just under the surface. The sensors here will alert you when Han or Roshi head here. Only then will you embrace it fully, is that understood?”

Gaara nodded, clapping a fist against his chest. That drew bewildered stares from the other occupants of the tent – Gaara was a ninja that was known for the sheer antipathy he had towards everyone else. Who was I to him that he would not only obey my instructions, but do so willingly?

“Suleiman,” Rasa began. I held up a hand to stop him. The spells were almost in position. If I wasted more time, they’d be ever so slightly out of focus by the time I called upon them.

“Kazekage-sama,” I stressed on his title. His eyes widened slightly. “Gaara can handle one of them. The other will have to be yours. I’ll be out of the fight for a short while once I’m done. If I’m hit then, I’m gone. I’ll try to hightail my way back, but I think it’s likely I’ll only be able to make it half-way.”

He nodded slowly.

I smiled. “Excellent.” Then, I spoke to the others in the tent. “When the ridges are down and Iwa’s come out to play, I’ll need you to give me at-least half an hour before I can rejoin the fight. Your job, once Gaara and the Kazekage have occupied the Jinchūriki, will be to encircle Iwa’s forward-acting forces. They won’t be expecting any of it, that much I can promise you, so you’ll have the time and space to manoeuvre yourselves accordingly. The intent is to capture, not kill. Is that clear?”

They nodded reluctantly with the exception of Commander Shiro, who was studying me carefully, warily.

With one last smile directed at Gaara and Rasa, I stepped out of the tent and marched towards the centre of the base. At my approach, Suna-nin looked up from what they were doing, staring at me intently. They were waiting for orders, for information, and for whatever reason, they thought I was going to be the one delivering it to them.

I drew on the essence of faith congealed in me, letting it spill out of my pores, casting the ground in a soft, warm light. I heard a Suna-nin with his headband tied around his bicep inhale sharply at the sight, saw a pair in the middle of chatting pause to stare at me. I let the light flow out of me and touch the souls of those nearest to me. Soon, I had an audience again.

I looked at every man and woman in the eyes, letting the weight of my gaze settle on their shoulders for a moment. I continued and called upon the Blue Wind of Magic, felt it rise like the storm from within me, heard the Empyrean scream at me, call out to me, laugh at me, weep with me. I smiled, embracing the weight of what I had gathered, letting Azyr roar through the world. Heads snapped left and right to locate the source of the noise, but they would find nothing. Then, I rose through the air once more, faster this time, till I was suspended perhaps a hundred feet above.

A shadow was cast on the base, unnatural and writhing. Those that saw me stilled.

“When you return to your homes,” I said, amplifying my voice just a little with the Song. “I want you to tell them that you came here with fear in your hearts, having heard tales of Han and Roshi, who wielded the powers of the Tailed Beasts themselves.”

The spells I had cast earlier were merely preparations. No matter how strong I was with Azyr, I could not command it to do my bidding at such a large scale on the spot. I had to wait, had to imbue my will into its currents over a period of time before it would let itself be guided by my soul. Now, I felt that which I had corralled into place resting overhead, glimmering to my mind’s eye.

“I want you to tell them that you saw the fangs of the earth rise to meet the sky and wondered how you would scale them.”

The first settled into place. It whispered to me that it was ready.

“I want you to tell them that you gathered at their foot, waiting for the enemy to deal death and misery to you, your teammates, your village.”

The second did the same, and then the third. By now, each and every ninja that had been here before we arrived and the ones that had marched with me from Suna were staring up at the sky with something not unlike wonder in their eyes. I could feel it waiting to reach a tipping point, testing to see if wonder could be realised into reverence and true worship.

“I want you to look them in the eyes and whisper to them that you saw a man stride across the sky.”

Finally, I felt the fourth, fifth and sixth enter position. I smiled.

“And when you grow old, I want you to tell them of this day, this battle, when you first saw a man command the heavens to do his bidding.”

I drew on every last iota of my energies – that of a Maiar, that of a mage, that of faith itself – and focused, reaching through the currents of Azyr to grasp within my hands all that I had guided into place with my mind and my soul.

There was one, brief instant where everything was silent.

And then reality was torn apart. The shadows that had crept up in the camp were banished in an instant as the sky above me bent as the Blue Wind of Magic flowed from the highest heavens down to the mortal plane, brilliant streams of light condensing till they pierced space itself. Slowly, slowly, the light condensed into five circles, each glowing a shade of azure so bright it defied description.

I stretched my hands forward, reached towards that which I had pulled from the Aethyr, and imposed my will on them at once, no longer guiding them as much as I was simply telling them where to go. For a second, the entirety of my being contended with chaos-given-form. It was agony the likes of which I had never experienced before. And then, Azyr relented, bowing to my will.

From the openings in the sky exited six bright, blue spheres, streaking across the sky at incredible speeds as they descended towards the ground.

“-what in the wor-”

“-is that a-”

“-many of those is he-”

Here and now, I was master of a power that, before my arrival, could only be wielded by those who had inherited the bloodline of the Sage of Six Paths. Mine was a lesser version, for it lacked the sheer force or spontaneity that the other could bring to bear, but it was no less useful in this scenario.

“Comets of Casandora,” I whispered, a shout in my ears, a roar that echoed across space. “COME FORTH!”

As one, they descended towards the ridges, three aimed at the bases that had been pointed out to me which shone brightly in my mind’s eye, and three at the ride directly in front of our forces. I could feel their descent like a pressure on my skin, could hear the screaming of wind as it parted before their falling mass, could see them glow blue and red and white as friction heated their masses, attempting desperately to disintegrate them before they impacted the ridges.

It would not kill them all, or even most of them, the spell simply wasn’t that powerful and ninja were simply too fast, but it would break the fangs that jutted towards the sky. It would ruin the three bases which housed the enemy-nin. Most importantly, it would force Han and Roshi to leave the territory that would give them the most advantages and come here, to battle Gaara and the Kazekage at the edges of a desert, where both would wield their elements to maximum effect.

There was a mighty sound, a rush of wind, a burst of light as the comets made contact with the earth, that nearly sent me tumbling from where I hung in the air. I held on, blinking away the light just in time to see mounds of stone and dirt fly upwards.

The ridge directly in front of our forces buckled under the weight of three comets sent hurtling towards it. Like the angry fist of god, they struck with such force that they sundered the ridge from the ground till it was little more than shattered rubble, debris and stone and dirt and all manners of vegetation collapsing inwards.

I fell through the air, landing on the ground not quite softly, but not harshly. There was a medic-nin to my side that very instant, pressing his palms to me. I waved her off, focusing instead on guiding the remaining three comets to their targets. One by one, they each landed where I guided them to, each impact shaking the earth thunderously. I did not know how many died because of my actions in those few moments, nor how many lived.

All I hoped for was that this would be enough for Suna’s forces to advance, that it would be enough for Han and Roshi to leave their nests and come hurtling towards us.

Slowly, almost disbelievingly, the ninja closest to me turned their eyes toward me. And then, one yelled out, “For Suna! For the Tennin!”

“Tennin! Suna!” Another took up the cry.

“Tennin!”

“Suna!”

“Tennin!”

The dam that had kept their wonder from turning into worship burst, and a thousand sparks of golden light, visible only to my eyes, flowed from them towards me, each filling me with warmth and energy. It was all I could do to hold on. Commands were barked out, orders were followed, and soon I was almost alone in the camp, with a handful of ninja left behind to aid Rasa and Gaara when – if, I corrected myself grimly – Han and Roshi showed up.

“Suleiman,” I heard the Kazekage speak, watching distantly as wave upon wave of gold sand formed and flowed around him, hanging in the air like a massive, serpentine cloud, waiting to be called to the aid of its master. “Thank you.”

I nodded briefly, focusing on breathing in and out deeply, slowly. “Make sure,” I gasped out, “Make sure Gaara’s safe.”

From my left, Gaara emerged, his skin glowing a brilliant gold as he called upon Imperfect Chakra Mode to rest just underneath his skin, waiting for the ideal time to bring it out. A moment later, it flared into existence just as I heard two mighty cracks, felt the ground shudder in place. Rasa’s gaze snapped from me to the base of the now non-existent ridge, a grim determination to his eyes I had never witnessed before. To my senses, his soul shone like the winds of a tempest, certain of the inviolability of its own path, immense in its scale, utterly impossible to break or bend. In that moment, I truly believed he was worthy of the title of Kage.

I managed to turn my neck upwards.

There, perhaps a hundred or so feet away from us stood two men. One of them was quite possibly the most physically imposing man I’d ever seen, standing many heads above even I. He was garbed in red, plated armour that extended across his lower face. A straw hat was balanced on his head. The other was much closer to Rasa’s height, perhaps a bit shorter, with an odd headpiece that jutted from his forehead in three directions, an Iwa headband set into the centre. He was dressed in a magenta tunic and pants, with olive armour above it.

Both gazed at us furiously, their chakra almost visible to the naked eye.

Han and Roshi had arrived.