The lost soul..

The morning sun was greeted by battle cries and explosions as it rose high above what was now another day in the city of Sakai.

As instructed, Lee and Toushiro's unit had battered the northern wall with everything they had. Even so Iwa was holding on, forcing them to bleed for every inch of ground they gained.

Lee's title as a Taijutsu master truly shined through as his form was visible for a scant few seconds in which he was delivering vicious, and often brutal blows that shattered bones and snapped necks. His feet barely touching the ground for more than a brief second as he dodged and blocked Kunai and Shuriken with ease before appearing infront of the ninja and systematically disabling him. The gasps barely escaped their lips before they were almost instantly killed and or tossed into a world of blinding pain as their knee's or their arms were broken in several places.

Toushiro too showed his skills, but in a different way, whereas Lee would dodge the attacks sent at him before he countered with his own, Toushiro simply shrugged them off, weather they be Kunai or Shuriken they simply bounced off the heavy armor that covered his form. Strangely, while it did seem heavy the young Kiri ninja moved like it weighed nothing and could easily keep up with most of the Iwa ninja that tried to attack him. He showed his mastery of the twin axes he carried with him as he hacked off limbs with single swings or crushed skulls with the dull side of them, the sickening cracks not even making the younger man wince before he moved on to his next victim.

Together the two distinct styles of combat kept the Iwa ninja off balance as Lee and Toushiro continuously switched positions to confuse or surprise the enemy.

From his temporary HQ Yoshihiro watched as Konoha nins began to push back the Iwa nins along the northern side of the wall. He could tell this was not the main attack force, their numbers were too few and their aggressiveness too staged.

Still, most of his men were beginning to get anxious, having to watch your comrades get injured and killed was never easy, especially when you were just a little ways away.

"Yoshihiro-sama!" One of his Jounin captains called to him. "Please sir, they're getting slaughtered out there, let us go help them!" The man pleaded, his features torn, as if he was struggling not to go over there himself, to hell with his permission.

Yoshihiro sighed, while he admired the boys bravery and loyalty to his comrades, he did not admire the boys rashness. Still, he had to keep his men's morale high. Doing that meant keeping a delicate balance of complying with his men's wishes and doing what was tactically best. At this point he had to go with the former. If his men didn't think he cared about them, which he did, they would not fight for him, at least not as much as they would if they knew he cared for them. So for now, he would indulge them. "Alright." He sighed before looking at the Konoha ninja a ways behind him, each of them looking anxious and angry. Standing up he made his way towards them. They froze for a moment before straightening up and bowing their heads in respect for their superior in both skill and rank. Yoshihiro looked each of them over before he finally spoke. "Alright kids, you're under my control for now, so I want you three-" He said gesturing to Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru. "To head along to the northern wall with the reinforcement units. The three nodded before they left, sparing silent glances at their comrades as they left.

As his men and temporary allies left, Yoshihiro allowed his eyes to travel over to the rest of the defensive structures. 'Alright brats...I'll play your game.'

As the axe in Toshiro's left hand split the skull of another Iwa ninja he spared a glance down to the courtyard where he saw that finally more ninja were coming to aid their comrades. Turning quickly he deflected a kunai before throwing his axe in retaliation, catching the ninja in the chest with enough force to send him falling over the wall. Rushing over to the edge of the wall opposite the Iwa nins he took out a green smoke bomb which he quickly tossed over the wall, the trail of green smoke rising high above them.

"Konoha-Senpu!" was the cry he heard behind him, spinning around he caught sight of Lee as the Taijutsu master delivered a brutal spin kick to another ninjas face, snapping his neck and sending him crashing into his comrades, knocking a few of them off the wall.

Catching sight of another ninja getting ready to throw either a kunai or shuriken at Lee he threw his other axe catching the man in the temple with a sickening crunch. Blood and brain matter splattering the floor beneath him in a gruesome display.

Lee continued to pound away at his opponents, easily taking them down, he gave pause however as he caught sight of a small black tendril approaching him from the ground. Curious, but not curious enough to let it approach him the Taijutsu master leapt back. To his surprise however the black tendril continued to follow his form, or...his shadow.

Recalling what Gai had said at one point about Konohas clans he recalled the Nara's ability. He also recalled some of the reports from the scouts that Iwa nins had been seen using Konoha techniques against them, thinking fast Lee grabbed a flash bomb from his pouch. "Revealing light!" He called out the code word to warn all nearby allies of what he was about to use. Then he threw it towards the enemy ranks, as far away from his men as possible, a massive flash and deafening noise tore through the air around them Lee's ears were ringing and he could scarcely see the faint outlines of people in the distance, this was why these were not used more often, they were very disorienting and sometimes even those with warning could end up blinded or deaf for minutes at a time and for a ninja that was deadly.

Still the Taijutsu user had enough sense to look back at the receding shadow and follow it to the user who stood a few feet away clutching his bleeding ears as tears leaked from his eyes. Though he felt as if the bones in his legs were tooth picks Lee still made his way over to the shadow user and delivered a brutal kick to the downed mans ribs. He would have continued his assault had it not been for the massive fist that smashed into his side at the moment, nearly sending him over the wall had it not been for his reflex to grab the ledge.

Chouji though too was feeling the crippling effects of the flash bomb, but he luckily had managed to open his eyes long enough to catch sight of the ninja that had attacked his best friend and lashed out in retaliation. He felt his fist hit something and hoped it was the attacking ninja. Opening his eyes again he could faintly see the ninja trying to lift himself up from the ledge of the wall. Not wanting to give the man a chance to do so the large ninja picked himself up and made his way over in order to kick him off or something.

Before he was halfway there however something crashed into his back, sending both him, and whoever had crashed into him over the wall, passing right by Lee, the Taijutsu user could only stare in mild confusion as two blurry figures flashed past him and fell to the floor below. Picking himself up he managed to catch sight of the shadow wielder again as he stood, being helped up by a blond haired Kunoichi, judging from her appearance she was far enough away from the flash bang to have not been affected too severely. Taking a moment to regain his bearings Lee finally managed to get the ringing out of his ears and clear the blurriness from his vision.

He shook his head and saw that the shadow using ninja had apparently regained his bearings and now both he and the blond haired girl were taking up their stances to fight him. Remembering what he had heard, the shadow techniques went with the Yamanaka's mind techniques and the Akimichi's body enlarging strength techniques. So judging by their looks the girl was a Yamanaka and the one that had hit him was an Akimichi. All of these techniques were relatively slow so if he could just keep himself moving fast, he would hopefully be able to eliminate them.

Well it was worth a shot.

Lee took his stance and with a blur of movement was already upon them.

Meanwhile down below Toushiro, who had tackled Chouji when he saw him approaching Lee could only groan in pain as he picked himself off the floor. He was not affected that badly by the flash bang since he had been far away but if the flash bang didn't cripple his senses the fall had certainly crippled him, that was a seventy foot drop, and even with ninja training that was a leap. Landing on his feet wouldn't have been so bad, but he hadn't landed on his feet. Luckily he was able to use chakra on his armor to absorb the blow. But it still HURT.

Picking himself up he stole a glance at the large man he had tackled only to find him in a similar situation of getting to his feet, luckily, some of his Kiri ninja had seen him fall and had pushed their way passed many of the still stunned Iwa nins in order to make it to him. Spreading the fight down the wall into the courtyard.

Straightening up he stood to his full height of five ten and turned to face the ninja he had tackled. Only to find himself staring up at Chouji's imposing height of 6'1, 6'3 with the extra bulk of his body armor.

Toushiro had the good sense to keep his sudden trepidation from his face. 'Okay then.'

The ninja along the central wall, distracted by the battle taking place so close by, never noticed the extra force of Konoha ninja as they crept silently up the wall, hidden by a mass Genjutsu. Hinata's Byakugan flared to life, sending out a pulse of chakra, dispersing her part of the genjutsu, shortly after others holding the Genjutsu dropped theirs before the ninja leapt over the wall with a battle cry, catching the unsuspecting ninja by surprise as they cut them down without mercy. Blood splattered the cold, stone floor at their feet as throats and arteries were slashed. Kunai rained down from the guard towers, killing more Konoha ninja as the thrown projectiles were tossed with pin point accuracy.

Hinata however continued to push forward. She showed just why she was the Hyuuga clan head. She would continually switch between Juuken strikes, and catching weapons aimed at her and using them to catch her opponent by surprise. Easily twisting and contorting her body expertly to avoid both incoming projectiles and physical strikes from the opponents in front of her before countering with her own quick, devastating attacks. The chakra in her palm was like a piercing, thin knife, injuring the heart, kidneys, lungs and other important vital organs with nothing but light taps as she seemed to flow like water between her attackers.

Yoshihiro smirked as he could faintly see the silhouette of the Hyuuga girl he had fought before, above the central wall. Well she was certainly skilled, even though she was too much of a rookie to really go against him one on one. Give her a few more years...still, if he didn't do something now then it looked like she really would break through the central group with relative ease, something he couldn't allow. Looking around he decided that he didn't want to really send out another unit from the reserves, seeing as how he only had one left since he had sent out two to the northern wall. "Alright then." He contemplated before he looked back at the Suna ninja. "Okay Dog boy, Pinky and Blondie." He said making Kiba, Sakura and Temari bristle in anger though they kept their tongues to themselves as they approached. "Alright brats..." He peered into the distance pointing at the white clad form of Hinata. "Ya see that girl over there?"

"Aren't you a bit old for her?" Kiba shot back only to get an elbow to the gut, which knocked the air knocked out of his lungs as Akamaru growled his disapproval of his masters impertinence, though he could faintly hear Kiba chuckling at having gotten one over the old man.

Yoshihiro rolled his eyes as he pointed again. "She's the enemy commander. Take her out and the enemy morale will collapse and they'll be easily pushed back. That's your job."

"Three of us against one woman? Isn't that a little much?" Temari questioned somewhat insulted at the insinuation that she was weak."

"Yeah well I fought her before, she's tough. And this time she'll be at the top of her game, for sure. And also since I don't know your skills that well, A little overkill wont be so bad. Add to that, she's a Hyuuga."

"A Hyuuga?" Sakura questioned, memories of their old classmate Hinata suddenly returning to her. She had never been close to the girl, but intelligence reports from the investigators shortly after the massacre nine years ago reported that it was Hinata that had been the one to betray them to the one that had ultimately killed off everyone at the compound. Needless to say she was held in no high regard amongst their group since then.

Kiba was immediately serious as he straightened. "Do you know her name? Was it by any chance Hinata or something like that?"

Yoshihiro paused as he watched, the dog boy and the dog girl tense up as their canine companions growled in anger. He knew her name, since his scouts had reported it. But judging by their body language they would be completely irrational with anger if he said that was her name. So deciding to play it smart he simply said. "I don't know, it was surprisingly difficult to get spies within the camp to gather intelligence.

Kiba growled before he rushed off.

"KIBA!" Temari yelled after him only to curse as she whipped out her fan and took to the air, Sakura soon leaping up to join her.

"Hmm, that brother of yours is a real hot head isn't he?" The Tsuchikage spoke back to Hana with a lazy shrug.

Hana, though also angry had to agree with the Tsuchikage. Her brother really needed to learn how to control his temper. One of these days it was going to get him into trouble.

"KAITEN!" Hinata yelled, a massive shock wave of chakra soon enveloped the part of the wall she had been standing on sending nearly a dozen Iwa nin flying as the Kaiten blew them away. With the Byakugan still activated she caught sight of two unique sights approaching her fast. A man riding a massive dog and two girls riding a large fan. For a moment she didn't register them in her mind, but then she recognized their features, Inuzuka clan markings and a white/beige dog. An Inuzuka? Here?

'Well now...this just got interesting.' She thought before she reached into her robes and pulled out a red smoke bomb. Throwing it over the wall she then turned back to the approaching ninja, who seemed quite fixated on her if the direction of their eyes was anything to go by.

Yoshihiro continued to overlook the ongoing battle from his temporary HQ when his senses caught something. Smirking he looked to the last of his commanders. "Take your men to the wall, Inuzuka girl, south mind you. That's probably where the next wave is coming from."

Hana looked at the older man a little strangely and was about to protest when an explosion rocked the southern wall, indicating that indeed the next attack was coming from there. She rushed off, her three dogs following shortly after her.

As soon as everyone left Yoshihiro allowed the smirk on his features to widen. "Well, you two must indeed be skilled, considering you were able to get in here without anyone noticing."

The two guards who stood at the entrance of the room behind him were suddenly enveloped in a puff of smoke, revealing the copy ninja Kakashi and The former member of the seven swordsmen, Guan.

Taking out six kunai Kakashi threw them to the four corners of the room, and the center of the floor and ceiling. They glowed purple for a brief moment before a purple barrier was suddenly erected around the room. It was similar to the Sound fours technique, only difference was that this had a time limit of about twenty minutes and if one of the kunai were destroyed the whole barrier would fall apart. Still, hopefully twenty minutes would be enough to deal with Yoshihiro or at least weaken him between the two of them.

"Well now..." Yoshihiro spoke as he stood from his seat and turned around. "My name is Yoshihiro Shimazu, otherwise known as 'Devil Shimazu', who will I be facing today?" The older man questioned with a grin as he hefted his hammer onto his shoulder, smirking at them. Looks like the brat had decided to send some, 'not so wet behind the ears' jounin to face him this time.

"Copy ninja, Sharingan no Kakashi."

"Second in comand of the seven Swordsman, Green dragon of Kiri Guan."

Yoshihiro's smirk only widened, this was a fight he was definitely going to enjoy. Who knows, maybe this time he'd have to actually use his clans signature technique...

Meanwhile somewhere within lightning country.

Two men wearing cloaks with red clouds were sitting around the campfire, one had bleached blond, almost silvery hair with a three bladed scythe on his back, the other was rather tall, standing at 6'8 with a cowl covering his lower features as well as a headpiece which covered the rest of his head, leaving only his eyes visible, which were somewhat beady and white around the iris.

"Jeez how long is this gonna take, we've been skirting around this place for nearly the past month. This is getting real fuckin annoying. I say we should just go in now and fuckin-"

"Quiet" his partner snapped. "We'll make our move when Pain commands us, no sooner, no later."

The silver haired man snarled in anger but kept his silence, hopefully the leader would contact them soon. If not...well, lets just say it wouldn't be pretty.