Civil Strife [Part Two]

At the front of the Allied Forces, Jonin Takuma fought desperately to fend off the Konoha shinobi. The Sand Shinobi's actions over the past few days suddenly came back to him.

He kept seeing the deaths of Saito and the other three. Every Stone shinobi who had died in the clashes between Iwagakure and Sunagakure remained vivid in his mind.

Takuma kept reminding himself that there was something suspicious about those four deaths. The Sand Shinobi might not have been responsible. Yet a voice inside him insisted that they were.

The Sand Shinobi had deliberately stirred up conflict between the two sides to weaken the Stone shinobi.

Confusion flickered in Takuma's eyes. His instincts as a ninja told him he could not attack the Sand Shinobi at such a critical moment, or he would become a traitor to Iwagakure.

But a voice in his head kept telling him that Sunagakure's goal was to weaken Iwagakure, not join forces against Konoha. Everything Sunagakure had done was meant to mislead Iwagakure, while its repeated attacks had been tests of Iwagakure's limits.

Takuma looked at the Sand Shinobi beside him. The weapon he had aimed at a Konoha shinobi abruptly changed course in midair and plunged into the Sand Shinobi's heart from the side.

"The Sand Shinobi have been plotting against us! They've slaughtered our Stone brothers, and today I'll avenge them!" Takuma shouted.

His weapon did not slow. He darted into the Sand Shinobi's ranks, his kunai slashing across one body after another and drawing sprays of blood.

Takuma was one of the Stone shinobi's elite. After Saito and the others died, he had commanded Iwagakure Camp for a time, and many Stone shinobi trusted him deeply.

The moment Takuma moved, many Stone shinobi followed. Hundreds of ninja who had been fighting