Mei looked towards the army she was supposed to fight with a completely baffled expression. It didn't last long however as she schooled herself into a practiced indifference, the only indicator she was not okay being the minuscule shaking of her hands. Both Rei and Konan could see it in Mei's eyes though. Slowly but surely, the girl was gaining an unshakable resolve.
Mei was frightened. Almost as much as she was excited. As much as the idea of fighting the army of thousands by herself scared her, it was the words of her two teachers that stopped her from freaking out. Her bloodline... Rei often told her she was a veritable army killer. It was time to prove she really belonged to Team Downpour. That she had the right and necessary strength to be a part of it.
Mei... charged forward.
She was aware of how ridiculous she must have looked. One small girl charging at an army numbering in thousands and yet, this was what she was trained for. Mei was getting closer and closer to the Iwa army.
200 meters, she started molding her chakra.
150 meters, her hands snapped together in the familiar cross-shaped hand seal.
100 meters, in a burst of smoke, nineteen shadow clones of Mei appeared, running alongside Mei.
50 meters, Mei was surprised no kunai was flying at her yet only to realize with a pang of disappointment that she was not facing ninjas. Well, not entirely. The force in front of her might be around ten thousand strong but it was mostly mercenaries or slaves that were rapidly trained into genins worth not even the clothes they wore. She doubted there were more than 300 real Iwa ninjas in there and most would be spread out in the enemy army so there was nobody to attack her yet.
With a smile, all twenty Meis abruptly stopped 30 meters away from the army, their chakra molding finished as they took a very deep breath, arching their heads backward while puffing up their chests.
'Boil Release: Mei-chan's Super-Duper Steamy Surprise!' She thought with a bit of regret, promptly deciding to rename all Jutsu she named when she was just a small girl.
All twenty Meis simultaneously spat a monstrous amount of steam from their mouths straight at the enemy army. The steam created a huge white cloud that spread through half of the width of the clearing in all but a moment and was still spreading and towered at least ten meters above their heads. The unamusing white cloud was rapidly rushing to engulf the army, creating various reactions from the Iwa troops.
Some were unbothered as they thought it was just a normal smoke-screen if a bit on the bigger scale. Others were horrified as their guts were telling them the cloud was something very dangerous. These people decided to spin on their heels and run away... that didn't go well, however, as behind them were their densely packed comrades. In but a second the Iwa army descended into utter chaos as the massive white cloud was about to engulf the front-lines.
It was only the small number of ninjas who were utterly speechless at the massive army-killing Jutsu that was hurling their way courtesy of a small girl! Needless to say, not many believed their own eyes, and only when the screams of the mercenaries in the front lines reached them did their brain finally reboot, their instincts kicking in. Quickly, the experienced ninjas started channeling chakra into their bodies, covering them in it in an attempt to protect themselves from what they incorrectly guessed to be acidic mist made by Boil Release.
The searing steam cloud was pushing itself through the ranks of the enemy army, engulfing more and more Iwa mercenaries who deeply regretted even accepting this commission. Couldn't they tell that something was wrong when the Tsuchikage hired thousands of them to fight against three people?
They wailed and squealed like pigs when the steam even softly caressed their bodies, not to mention anything about engulfing them entirely. The second it came into contact with unprotected skin, it started melting them alive as burning boils appeared all over it. The mercenaries could only furiously thrash in a vain attempt for the pain to stop as the steam reached beyond the skin and started liquifying their muscles, fiber by fiber, reaching all the way to the bones which were instantly being corroded as holes started to form in them, submerging the victim in a world of excruciating pain as the bones started shattering while being slowly dissolved due to a special 'ingredient' in the cloud that had a nasty reaction to bones in particular. After all, Mei was also an apprentice to Tsunade and Tsunade did study Kaguya bloodline into a nasty extreme.
Innumerable deafening inhuman screams and screeches of untold suffering rang through the clearing, scaring the heck out of the experienced shinobi, the inexperienced slave genins, and the mercenaries alike as they now started pushing back, away from the still spreading cloud of searing death. Many were stomped to their death by their own comrades in the panic, only for those closest to the only exit to find out that they are trapped and realize that those who were stomped to death were in reality the lucky ones.
Two black strings were vertically along the sides of the narrow mountain path surrounded by tall jagged cliffs, a blue hue shimmering in between them, blocking the only way out. At first, the scared soldiers didn't even think about it, only when the first batch rushed through it and with a blue flash became just blazed corpses bathed in blue lightning flame, dropping onto the ground, not a meter away from the boundary of the blue hue, creating a pile of bodies there, did they stop in their tracks in even bigger fright.
The frightened soldiers could only cry in disbelief as their bodies rattled in fear. They were trapped. Their heads snapped back to the quickly spreading cloud that was now half-way through the army and they could only with wide eyes stare and wait for their turn, regretting ever coming here.
Not every Iwa soldier was powerless though. The three hundred experienced Iwa ninjas and even some of the better slave genins were able to some degree cover themselves in their respective chakra and save themselves or at least delay their eventual burning. At first, they also looked for a way to run away but when they saw the barrier keeping them inside the clearing, they quickly resolved to put a hell of a fight before going down.
The boiling steam finally reached the end of the clearing and enveloped the remaining despairing Iwa troops only to hit the blue barrier that contained it, preventing it from spreading further. Half of the entire clearing was now submerged in a thick white cloud and the screams... slowly starting to fade to a serene silence.
Over ten thousand Iwa soldiers came... only a bit more than four hundred of the most experienced ninjas still remained.
The real battle... just started.