In the aftermath of a surprise attack in the morning, a giant, eight-headed monster is seen flying away, leaving Hozuki Castle burning. Two guards are seen running down the stairs, away from the castle to safety. Half way down the flight of stairs that lead to the harbor, they both stop to catch their breath.

“DAMMIT…! W-wha… what do we… do now…?” The smaller guard says between pants. “Warden Mui is… dead, a-all the… other guards are dead, and the prisoners are all either wrecking the castle or have escaped…”

Getting his second wind, the larger guard slams his fist against the ground. “We need to send a message to the Five Great Nations and tell them to send everything.”

“They won’t come.” A mysterious voice from behind informs.

Startled, both guards turn to face the stranger with their weapons raised. The voice came from a woman with fair skin, waist-length white hair that is covered by a green bandana that has a long curved white stripe and gray eyes with multiple circular patterns. She’s wearing a sleeveless kimono over a green top that only has a long green sleeve covering her left arm along with the green bandana. Both her arms were bandaged up to her elbows. She also wore black trousers with shinobi sandals.

“H-how the hell do you know that?” The smaller guard asks, trembling. “And j-just who are you anyway…?”

“I’m an Anbu from the Hidden Grass, Ryuzetsu.”

“Okay, Ryuzetsu--what makes you think the Great Nations won’t send help?” The unconvinced larger guard interjects.

“Because the Fourth Great Ninja War begins tomorrow.”

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For three weeks, Jin and Ayanami have been sparring, growing more and more accustomed to their Sixth Path abilities. Echo, Mecha-Naruto, and Yeager watch the two clash with each other high in the sky. Yeager is completely lost, only seeing brief flashes of white and cyan-green.

“Masked man, are you seeing any of this?” Yeager questions.

“Every fifth attack maybe…” Echo responds as both his Rinnegan and Byakugan have been activated for the whole match.

Mecha-Naruto looks on with admiration. “I HOPE TO ONE DAY FIGHT LIKE THEM.”

Yeager turns to his left to see Rito and several of his crystal clones with a pile of bamboo trees. They’re cutting them into weaving them into something.

“What do you need all that bamboo for?”

One of the Rito stops and looks up at Yeager. “Think: NASA’s airless tires.”

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

As the Rito clone gets back to work and Yeager continues to watch the fireworks, a bush on the other side of the clearing begins to rustle. A gray snake with a black ring pattern slithers out of the bush, making its way toward Echo. Echo holds his hand out in front of the snake’s mouth and it regurgitates a folded piece of paper, a message.

Echo unfolds the message and reads it. “Hmph… took them long enough.”

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“Why aren’t you using your Gentle Fist taijutsu?” Jin asks as his and Ayanami’s fist collide.

“Doesn’t work on jinchuriki, remember? Wood Clone Jutsu!” Three clones grow out of Ayanami and take their positions.

Jin makes three shadow clones in response to Ayanami. One of the Ayanami clones flies at the four Jins, performing the Eight Trigrams Giant Palm Rotation. One of Jin’s clones flies at the rotating Ayanami clone and quickly counters with an Almighty Push, both the clones and their attacks are dispelled. The resulting shockwave parts the clouds in the process.

The four remaining clones engage each other in hand-to-hand combat, leaving the real Ayanami and Jin to hang back on opposite sides of the fighting clones. One of the Ayanami’s breaks off from the fight to attack the Jin hanging back, but as soon as she lands her strike, Jin detonates, creating a large explosion. The dust clears to reveal that the remaining clones were destroyed and that the real Jin was part of the skirmish, he’s in a small dome made of his truth-seeker orbs to shield himself from his clone’s explosion.

The dome unmakes itself, reverting back to orbs. With one finger, Jin smugly beckons her over. “I could be the real me, but I could also be another clone set to explode. Come and find out.”

The two hover in the sky as Ayanami is thinking about taking a chance on whether or not Jin’s bluff is real. Ayanami grabs hold of one of her orbs and focuses a tremendous amount of chakra into it, creating a giant golden sword of pure chakra.

Oh crap! Eyes wide with surprise, Jin has five of his orbs begin to merge when a Rasenshuriken flies up into the air between them and detonates.

Perplexed, both shinobi stop infusing chakra and descend down to their allies. Echo walks up to the two as they plant their feet on the ground.

Jin folds his arms in annoyance. “And what was that for?”

“Yeah, there are other ways for you to get our attention.” Ayanami adds.

“Your sparring match was getting too heated and it’s time to go.”

“The war?”

“Not yet… Do you remember all the prisoners from when you went with Sasuke to recruit Jugo? I had them scour the continent searching for Priestess Shion.” Echo crosses his arms.

Ayanami twirls her ponytail. “And where is she?”

Echo takes another look at the message again. “The prison for Moryo’s soul, back in the Land of Ogres.”

“That’s crazy!” Jin tilts his head to the side in disbelief.”

Ayanami puts her hand on Jin’s shoulder. “No, it’s ingenious! No one would ever think to search the place you’ve escaped from years ago.”

Jin takes a moment to mull it over and sighs. “When you put it that way… it is kinda brilliant.”

“Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s go!” Rito jumps into the air, biting his thumb to draw blood and slams his hand against the ground as he lands in the middle of the clearing. “SUMMONING JUTSU!!”

In a puff of smoke, Tsume appears with Rito standing on her beak.

The giant hawk focuses her attention on the boy on her beak. “Hmm… so I see that Jin taught you to summon me.”

“You know it!” A proud Rito replies, going back into character. “Come on everybody, ALL ABOARD~!!!”