Shinobi World No. 1, the northern border of the Land of Fire, in the mountains where the Land of Frost met the Land of Hot Water.
The fighting here was utterly different from the slow, brutal war of attrition grinding away like a millstone in the South, yet equally strange. Lead-gray clouds hung low, and bitter winds swept up fine grains of ice, lashing bare rocks and scorched earth. Yet the atmosphere on the battlefield held an indescribable sense of... "restraint."
Kumogakure's assaults were like their Lightning Release: swift and violent, but always just a little short of "staying power" at crucial moments. They could easily crush the Northern Army of Konoha's forward outposts and tear open breach after breach. Yet whenever Hiruzen Sarutobi brought the main force forward, especially when he summoned that gleaming, indestructible "Adamantine Staff" (Enma's transformed form) and charged at the front, roaring about the "Will of Fire," Kumogakure's offensive would be checked "just enough." Then they would slowly withdraw, leaving behind a few inconsequential positions and corpses.
After several such encounters, the atmosphere in the Northern Army's headquarters grew somewhat subtle.
"Hahaha! Did you see that? This is the power of the Will of Fire! This is the power of Hiruzen Sarutobi!"
After once again "repelling" a medium-scale Kumogakure assault, Hiruzen Sarutobi stood atop a recently recaptured hill, leaning on the slightly winded Enma, who had reverted to his old ape form. Watching the distant Kumogakure troops recede like the tide, he laughed heartily.
His face was slightly flushed from battle, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. The pent-up frustration of recent days-being impeached from within, threatened by Sunagakure, and divided by Danzo-seemed to have vanished completely.
"Kumogakure's elites? The Third Raikage? Against the true Will of Fire and Konoha's strength, they amount to no more