Zabuza spotted the crow in the distance, heading straight for him.
He prayed to the Watcher, which he rarely did, that this idiot would give him a concise report. Otherwise, he might lose his cool.
"Honorable Zabuza-sama!" Yomi called out loudly. "I have returned!"
"Report." He ordered flatly, hoping against hope that he would get something coherent.
"I have battled forces of both grace and raw strength, yet even then, I was victorious-"
"No." Zabuza cut him off. "Tell me how many ships, what their numbers are, and if you saw anyone who was on the list."
Yomi paused for a moment, he looked like he was struggling to not speak about whatever he wanted to say.
"My allsee-" Yomi stopped himself at Zabuza's intensifying glare. "...200 Shinobi, 7 warships. I saw the Iron Nail Jōnin, Poison Mist Jōnin..."
Zabuza tuned him out as he continued listing names.
Good, this was manageable, Haku's Serpents could easily take out seven ships, and there weren't any Shinobi here that Zabuza couldn't defeat one on one easely.
He would let The Order deal with most of the enemies, they needed the experience, but if they couldn't at this point, then everyone was going back to basic training, with their blessed learning and the absolute bullshit that the Watcher's Blessings were, there was no excuse.
He tapped Kubikiribōchō's hilt as Yomi continued listing names.
More blood would feed his blade today.
***
Teruto watched has Wave came into view, besides that one Crow he sadly missed killing, he had not seen any issues yet.
It annoyed him slightly, he was sure that they knew he was here by now, and he would have expected the boats to be harassed at the very least.
But looks like that bastard's plan actually worked, his eyesight was good enough that he could not spot anyone on the beaches, of course, that didn't mean there was no one there.
But it did mean that there wasn't any large-scale defenses being prepared.
Which was all just a part of Fumio's plan, divide their attention with disposable squads, attack in two places at once, retreat if the defense is too strong and reinforce the other front.
Classic hammer and anvil strategy.
What could he say? For a scrawny rat, Fumio knew how to lead a war.
"Ready Up!" He ordered, raising his hand. "Prepare for landfall!"
Everyone around him was tensing up, preparing themselves for the coming battle.
They weren't ready for it though.
"There's something in the water! Massive!" One of the sensor types yelled suddenly.
And not even a moment later, several massive heads bit down on the ships from below, huge ice serpents started dragging them down into the sea.
While the ship was listing beneath him, Teruto calmly channeled Chakra into his wristbands, in one hand, an iron nail appeared, while the other held a large hammer.
He casually suspended the nail in the air with some Chakra Strings before smashing it with his hammer, sending the nail flying at several times the speed of sound, which tore a chunk out of one of the serpent's head.
It didn't care, continuing on its task.
Damn, how annoying, he had hoped that they were summoned creatures, but seeing as it didn't even react to being shot...
"Leave the ships! Don't try to fight them directly!" He ordered quickly. "Regroup on the beach!"
Several people were already diving off the ships, and there was a moment of hesitation before everyone else followed suit.
A few of the Genin and slower Chunin were eaten by another batch of serpents that showed up, but the serpents were slow due to their massive size.
He himself jumped onto the water and started running towards the shore, everyone around him doing the same.
Another nail appeared in his hand, the first person to show up on the beach was going to have a hole in their head, because he was annoyed about losing his ship.
But as they approached the beach, he sensed something wrong.
Mist started flowing in from behind the beaches, obscuring everything past the first few meters of sand.
"Stop!" He ordered quickly, people just barely stopping themselves before walking into the mist. "Wind and Fire Jutsu! Blow it away!"
A more foolish person would not have stopped, but Teruto knew that Zabuza was a major figure in this Order they were fighting, and even if the man himself was not here, if these people were confident in fighting Kirigakure Shinobi in the mist...
Then it was better to be cautious, instead of simply rushing forward.
Several voices overlapped as dozens of Shinobi performed their respective Jutsus, mist being torn apart by roaring flames and swirling winds.
It was working well enough, but even with the constant effort of those trying to dispel it, the mist stubbornly refused to vanish entirely, making a clear view impossible.
Not a normal Hiding in The Mist Technique then...
A sustained version? Someone hidden, constantly channeling Chakra was the most obvious choice, or maybe a Ninjutsu seal matrix powering the Jutsu?
He was personally betting on the former, it didn't need to be someone that strong, just competent and with decent Chakra reserves.
"Cur off the Fire! Anyone with Wind Release, create a bubble around us!" He ordered sharply, seeing how much Chakra some of his subordinates were wasting. "Don't separate, expect people adept in Silent Killing!"
Everyone instantly did as they were told, they had all trained for this kind of scenario before, even if it wasn't exactly common.
With that, the army advanced, staying on the Ocean was a foolish idea, especially if they had been given time to prepare like this.
"How nice of you to finally join us." A deep voice spoke from ahead of him.
Teruto raised his hammer, turning to stare at the direction the voice came from.
A moment later, Zabuza Momochi stepped out of the mist, Kubikiribōchō resting on his shoulder.
A part of him wanted to order everyone to attack the Demon at once, but he quickly discarded that idea, there was no way in hell the bastard would expose himself like this unless he was confident that it wouldn't end with his head being caved in.
"Zabuza Momochi, the failure himself." He replied, annoyance bleeding into his tone. "Did you get tired of running like a coward?"
Zabuza just grunted in response, unbothered by the insult.
"Ah... The Iron Nail..." He said instead, as if just realizing who Teruto was, they had multiple missions together, Teruto knew that the bastard was fully aware of him. "Kiri must be scraping the barrel if you are leading an army, what? Did they run out of competent people?"
Teruto glared at the man for a moment before relaxing slightly.
"You're distracting us." He stated calmly. "So what is it? Assassins? Traps?"
Zabuza cocked his head.
"Nothing like that, I'm just bored." Zabuza denied easily. "I wanted to see how many I could kill before the real fight started."
Teruto paused, well, if he really wanted to stand there and get hit by high-level Jutsu...
He looked around at his people and nodded, everyone understood, especially when he lifted his hammer.
"Earth Release: Earth Pillar Prison!"
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
"Lightning Release: Wave of Inspiration!"
The Nail was the first to reach Zabuza, but it simply passed through him without effect.
Then the other three Jutsus were upon him, the earth pillars surrounding him in a tight cage as a wave of wind and electrified water hit him simultaneously.
It dispersed the Mist Clone perfectly, not even leaving any traces behind.
A short silence filled the battlefield after that.
"How rude." Zabuza's voice drifted from the mist. "Not very friendly, are you?"
A scream echoed out as a completely silent Kubikiribōchō shot out from the mist, almost bisecting a Chunin, leaving him trying to hold onto his guts as they spilled out.
"Get into formation!" He ordered, raising his hammer defensively. "Fighting advance, and keep those Wind Jutsu going!"
"Anyone experience in Silent Killing, go kill the bastard!" He screamed out to everyone behind them, even if they were weaker than Zabuza, they would at least be able to force him to waste Chakra.
The army began advancing forward slowly, but their pace started picking up as multiple squads split off to hunt for Zabuza.
After the first 3 cut off screams from the surrounding mist, Teruto couldn't help but sigh.
This was going to be an annoying day...
***
Suigetsu was bored.
"I'm so boreeed..." He complained again, hoping that maybe with enough complaining, they could just get this over with.
"Shut up, moron." The midget hissed. "You've been saying the same thing every minute since we got here."
"Because it's been boring every minute since we got here, isn't a war supposed to be exciting?" Suigetsu complained loudly. "Instead we're sitting here watching a ball of mist."
"Zabuza-sama ordered us to wait until the enemy arrives, so that's what we will do." Midget said sternly. "Go complain somewhere else."
But Suigetsu didn't care, so he complained more, if he knew this is what his begging would get him, he would have happily stayed at the Capital helping with moving boxes around or whatever.
"Aren't you bored, Midget?"
"My name is Rin."
That didn't sound right to Suigetsu's ears, so he ignored it completely.
"Do you think if I kill enough enemies, Zabuza will finally fight me?" He wondered out loud, maybe if he defeated some Kiri Jōnin, the man would finally consider him worth fighting?
Rin looked at him, he felt a judging stare coming from behind her mask.
"You really don't have any loyalty, huh?" She said disdainfully. "Not even a little bit of reluctance in fighting your old comrades?"
Suigetsu's mood worsened slightly, what was there to be reluctant about?
"I guess you don't really get it." He said dismissively, turning his gaze back to the sea of mist below them. "Kirigakure is not a place where you have comrades, just people who want to kill you slightly less than everyone else."
He remembered well enough how the village treated its people.
The silence stretched on for a long moment.
"Sounds like a shithole." Rin replied, before she turned her attention away from him.
Suigetsu laughed at that.
"Yeah... It really is." He agreed, mood brightening again. "So feel free to kill as many of them as you want! The bastards deserve it."
"...I wasn't planning to spare them in the first place."
"Ah, right, I forgot you guys were all crazy cultists."
That actually made Rin twitch, she slowly reached for her sword, clearly wondering if she could get away with murdering him.
"Awww, does the wittle midget want to cut me up nice and good? Did the wittle midget forget that she can't cut me?"
But before she could actually reply, someone burst out of the mist, and then another, and another, until almost a bit less than two hundred people were running across the sand, glancing back occasionally as if something was chasing them.
Suigetsu didn't waste a second, he jumped off the cliff he had been sitting on, drawing his sword midair.
"FUCK YEAH! FINALLY!" He shouted in excitement, a fraction of a second later, all around the beach and cliffs, a hundred masked men and women joined him, some attacked from range, some rushed forward.
But he didn't pay any attention to them, he just aimed straight for the nearest Shinobi, someone who felt like a Jōnin.
As he cut straight through their chest, he couldn't help but smile as the man disintegrated into water.
He hadn't fought seriously since before Orochimaru took him, the fight with the eight-armed fucker didn't count, because he was a total cheater.
Finally, some fun.