This entire resistance was founded because they DIDN’T want to keep seeing their friends, family and comrades die for no good reason. The bloodline clans mostly banded together like this because the Fourth Mizukage Yagura had systematically been hunting anyone with a kekkai genkai down and even those without one that might one day spawn someone with one. The other shinobi of the village who were sick of the blood mist policies joined for that reason and thus the resistance was born effectively tearing the hidden mist into two factions.-
Unfortunately the blood mist policy had also left the village with almost no S rank shinobi beyond the Mizukage and after some time to mature Mei. That was why this civil war had lasted so long, both sides were too equal and didn’t want to directly clash yet. Yagura was insane sure but he was also a VERY cautious individual and it was only now that he thought he had an absolute advantage that he was willing to go for a final battle. Of course he couldn’t have known that his advantage was not nearly as big as he thought due to my own interference.-
I’m not even talking about the impact I myself may have if I fought but the shinobi he thought permanently crippled or dead that Mei and the higher ups hadn’t sent out again after they came in injured. I had easily restored a good five hundred shinobi, forty of which were Jonin level to fighting health while I have been here. I doubted Yagura’s army was much bigger or had much better quality to the resistances but he didn’t know that. Once Yagura was dead the game was basically done as the Mizukage faction he stood at the top of didn’t have any more S rank shinobi.-
So long as during the battle Mei doesn’t die or get crippled there will be no one in that faction able to stop her. The opposite is true as well in that if Yagura were to somehow kill Mei without getting crippled the resistance wouldn’t have anyone who could stop him. The board was more or less equal and that’s where I came in, the tie breaker. I didn’t even need to really go all out either as a few S rank water release jutsu on Yagura’s army would prove more than enough.-
“How are your preparations going?” Mei asked when we were in her war tent alone.
“I have set up plenty of supplies for the injured. As for my own participation that is only going to happen if it appears that you will lose the battle otherwise.” I said calmly.
“Then what are the combat preparations you’ve been doing for?” she asked confused by what I said.
“That was me informing you of the matter without causing your peoples moral to drop.” I said honestly.
“I see, so you won’t be participating in the slaying of Yagura then?” she asked and I shook my head.
“Your own preparations to fight him are good enough even if he were to unleash that thing so my interference is unneeded.” I said frankly.
I meant it too as from what I saw they had seals and poisons specifically made to mess up Yagura’s ability to fight using the three tailed beast within him. While impossible to stop fully due to him being a perfect jinchuriki causing problems with his power was entirely doable. It also helped that Mei’s kekkai genkai, boil release, directly countered the strange coral growth jutsu that Yagura used.-
In terms of chakra Yagura won out due to his jinchuriki status but Mei was more than a match for him in nearly every other regard. When the day of the final battle came it was an overcast rainy day off the coast of one of the uninhabited islands that the resistance chose to hold their last stand. The army stood at the ready above the waves while the fleet of ships approached carrying Yagura’s forces as well as the man himself. It was clear when they spotted our army as all the ships dropped anchor and shinobi poured out of them onto the waves and into formation as I finally got to see Yagura himself.-
The man deceptively looked like a child with dull blonde hair and purple eyes on a small round face with a scar through one side. There was no banter or back and forth insults as the man immediately attacked with a wide range coral burst water release technique that Mei countered with her boil release. That was the start of the battle and both sides charged at the other only to violently clash above the waters surface. I myself was invisible moving like a ghost through the battlefield imperceptibly altering the course of kunai or swords to lessen the injuries my side got.-
Anyone from my side that fell beneath the waves were grabbed by one of my shadow clones in disguise and brought back to the island where the treatment tent was. Some just fell unconscious and needed little treatment to rejoin the fight but others perished or needed much longer recovery times. There wasn’t much I could do without directly interfering however as Yagura and Mei clashed in the distance as they both understood and tacitly agreed that their battle would mess up the battle otherwise.-
I started to see Yagura’s forces start pushing the resistance back on the losing foot and immediately put a stop to that as I gathered water chakra and slammed my palms into the surface of the sea. Everyone from both armies that could sense chakra even a little outside their own bodies paused alerted by the flood of chakra spanning the water under the entire battlefield.
‘Sage art: thousand tridents!’ I thought as I activated my technique.
The chakra infused waters under the battlefield roiled and formed spears that shot out rapidly at those belonging to Yagura’s forces, and ONLY them.-
The effect was immediate and devastating as those who failed to dodge in time were ran through while those who dodged slightly too slowly were injured to varying degrees. The battles momentum instantly shifted in the resistances favor and their morale soared as they roared and charged with new found vigor. I couldn’t repeat that performance as the commanders of Yagura’s army had people disrupting any chakra that I sent into the sea beneath us after that. That was fine though as I wasn’t a one trick pony and had a few more powerful water release techniques I could use.