The Mizukage wanted to cement his advantages over Konoha by convoluting with the village that hated treehuggers most. The Iwagakure.
Unfortunately for the Team Downpour, they were the fastest 'delivery boy' the Mizukage had, therefore they now flew in the sky on Konan's platform made of paper towards the borders of Sunagakure, one of the least expected places where a meeting between Iwa and Kiri messengers could happen.
"So? What is the plan?" Konan asked as she sat next to Rei who just hummed at her with a shit-eating smirk.
"What do you mean?" He asked, making her roll her eyes at him in exasperation. Rei chuckled at her reaction and promptly regretted it as Konan pinched his side, hard.
"Ai, ai, au! Stop it, woman!" He exclaimed and to his eternal relief, he felt Konan stop. With an exaggerated pout, Rei turned to her and puffed out his cheeks. "That hurt!" He petulantly proclaimed and waved his right hand in the air, making Konan snicker at his antics while taking hold of his free hand as she leaned onto his shoulder.
"You know what I mean. I wasn't born yesterday. I am fully aware you planted some listening seals into Tsuchikage's office, Iwa's Council Room, and a few spots of interest." Konan said with half-lidded eyes as she enjoyed Rei's warmth while pressing herself more into him.
"Ahahaha, so you noticed?" Rei tried to laugh it off and rubbed the back of his head with his free hand.
"Of course," Konan deadpanned, looking into the rising sun as it painted the horizon in bright orange. If it was up to her, she would want to stay like this with Rei forever... "After all, I did the same and bugged these places with my paper slices too." She finished smugly, making Rei open his mouth but no sound came out as he was quite speechless.
"In retrospect, I should have seen this coming. It was just a precaution though. That's why I never told you as I never thought it would be of use." He said in an apologetic tone.
"Ye-" Konan started but was quickly interrupted as an explosion sounded from afar and Mei jumped awake because of it, starting to rub her eyes as she cutely yawned.
"Mo~" She whined sleepily, making both Rei and Konan smile at her while spreading their nature sensing towards the explosion and veering the platform in its direction. "What's going on?" Mei asked as she came closer and kneeled behind them, leaning on their backs while propping her head in between theirs.
That was when they saw it. In front of their eyes, a scene of carnage appeared as they stumbled on a battlefield with still on-going battle. Fortunately, from the platform, they had incredible views while having minimal chances of being discovered since no ninja ever looked far up into the sky due to flying being extremely scarce.
"Well, would you look at that? Looks like we are quite lucky today. I mean, what are the chances?" Rei chuckled. Major battles like this didn't happen on daily basis. There was seldom one per six months and even that was a stretch. Ninjas were more of a Guerrilla Warfare type of combatants. Forward clashes like the one they were just witnessing were something rare as villages could not afford to waste their men. To think they would randomly stumble upon one...
The mangled bodies of Iwa and Suna ninjas covered the desert as the two armies clashed. Hundreds of ninja fought for their villages, bravely but foolishly killing each other. Suna Tessenjutsu units worked together to perform joint ranged Wind Jutsu and tried to keep their distance while the weaponry and pieces of puppets from Kugutsu Units flew everywhere. Rei had no doubt every single piece from those was soaked in a very dangerous poison. The Iwa had similar tactics as their Explosion Corps were focusing on ranged attacks and throwing explosives and their ninjas fought more defensively with their Earth Ninjutsu. The situation however complicated four combatants who clashed in the middle of the battlefield, not really caring about who would become the collateral of their actions.
Golden sands rose, crushing tens of people as they raced towards a plump guy clad in Iwa attire. The guy just clapped his hands together and commenced weaving hand signs in preparation of his jutsu before the area in front of him exploded, tossing the golden sands away from him. The golden sands however quickly reformed into yet another wave and flew back at the plumb Iwa-nin who jumped back and started throwing kunai at it, each of which exploded on contact. These explosions were a lot bigger and louder than an explosive tag and released a momentary blinding flash of white light.
"Clever, the Iwa guy is using these flashes from his explosion to make his opponent lose sight of him. The golden dust user must be pretty annoyed by now." Konan commented, more for the sake of Mei so she would be fully aware of what was going on and why the round guy managed to fight back.
"Look there." Konan calmly pointed towards the other high-level battle a bit away, making both Mei and Rei turn their heads towards it.
A small slim woman holding two kunai was in a fierce melee clash with a big muscled guy who used his fists hardened by some Earth Jutsu to try ferociously hit the woman but she always just side-stepped, using her incredible agility to avoid each strike while also retaliating with her kunai, trying to find a purchase. Konan pointed them out because these two were amazingly fast and as they fought, they moved all over the battlefield, sometimes killing some poor soul without even noticing. Suddenly, the woman jumped back, and above her hands two fiery orbs of orange pulsed into existence.
"Oh! It's Pakura." Rei said surprised. He never expected her to be so good with kunai.
Konan and Mei didn't have time to respond and only narrowed their eyes at the now 'introduced' woman as she flung her Scorch orbs at her opponent. The bulky man from Iwa didn't stay idle and knew these orbs would kill him on contact. But it didn't matter as he was where he wanted to be. From his mouth, he suddenly spat a large amount of lava, creating waves of it covering the vicinity.
"Damn, that must have killed hundreds." Mei exclaimed with wide eyes while in her head, she was already calculating how to use something similar with her own bloodline. Rei was a bit sad at how easily Mei reacted to so many people dying but this was the reality. She would either accept it or die.
Pakura, seeing her comrades scream in unthinkable pain as they were being melted by lava, screamed in rage as another three scorching orbs appeared around her and she quickly sent them towards Iwa ninjas rather than her opponent. From there, the battle became a total massacre. Pakura focused more on mummifying the Iwa ninjas while evading currents of lava that killed everything around her while the Iwa ninja evaded occasional kunai or scorching orb while spewing lava bullets and lava waves in hopes to kill more Suna ninjas. It was no longer about a fight between the two. Instead, it was about who kills more cannon fodder faster.
"Rei... I never told you how happy I am you took me in." Mei suddenly said breathlessly, her mind in turmoil at what she saw. If Rei didn't take her in and train her, she would probably become a genin... an average genin, at that. Meaning she would, most likely, be a participant in a battle like this, ending in the role of the screaming cannon fodder. She gulped at the chilling realization and briefly pitied her classmates. Rei only sadly smiled at Mei and tenderly patted her head in reassurance.
The fight was getting to the closure since both sides were running out of ninjas. Many already retreated and it was now mostly a fight between the four strongest. The surrounding area was covered in molten lava, golden sands, loads of obsidian glass created from the immense heat through the scorch or lava releases... it was a mess. Even the bodies of ninjas were already either melted or mummified, if not buried deep in the sands.
The four ninjas suddenly stopped fighting as they realized this was a stalemate and their forces already retreated. Nodding at each other, they disengaged.
"Wait, what?!" Mei exclaimed when she saw how anticlimactic this was to which Konan only snorted.
"These are the aces of their respective villages. Do you really think they can afford to fight to the death? No, it never was about killing the other guy. From the start, it was about killing as many enemy ninjas while keeping the opponent from killing their own." She simply said the complete truth that made Mei gape.
"Yup, continuing would be a risk. In the end, there would be a loser and they can't be sure who that would be. Losing would mean being killed which would result in their village losing one or possibly two S-rank ninjas which would completely change the stalemate of the Suna/Iwa front. Sure, Iwa would like that while Suna would rather stay it as it is but Iwa can't afford to rashly sacrifice their S-rankers. Not right now when they are in a three-way war with Suna, Konoha, and Kumo." Rei continued the explanation.
The stronger one was the lesser danger of dying. Oddly enough... quite often that didn't mean surviving due to actually winning the fights.