Third Division

Assembled for the Fourth Shinobi World War, this battalion of the Allied Shinobi Forces marched under the command of Kakashi Hatake of the Hidden Leaf. It also went by the label of the Short and Mid-Range Battle Division. Its ranks numbered several thousand shinobi and samurai, all chosen for their aptitude in close and intermediate fighting, which demanded considerable physical strength from every soldier.

Once formed, the division pushed out ahead of the main allied army. Past the border of the Land of Frost, its members spotted a red signal flare fired by the Surprise Attack Division, a plea for urgent aid. Racing to the source, they arrived in time to shield their allies from four reincarnated foes: Haku, Zabuza Momochi, Gari, and Pakura. Because Zabuza and Haku had known Kakashi in life, the pair paused to ask after his students, only for their reanimator to smother their personalities and strip away their free will. In their last self-aware moments, both begged Kakashi to end them.

Zabuza then blanketed the battlefield in dense fog to blind the allies, pushing each squadron to form protective rings around their vital sensors. Freed of emotion, Haku, Pakura, and Gari unleashed their bloodline abilities and tore through the division despite its defenses. As losses mounted and the greener recruits faltered, Might Guy rallied their spirits. Kakashi had begun reading the enemy's pattern when the previous generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist was summoned to overwhelm the allies.

Mangetsu Hozuki called forth five of the legendary blades, which the Swordsmen used to silently thin the allied ranks. With casualties climbing, Kakashi drew up a plan to neutralize Zabuza and his fog: Santa Yamanaka would pinpoint him, Ensui Nara would pin him with shadow, and Maki would bind him. Kakashi closed in with his Lightning Cutter, but Haku intercepted the strike and Zabuza cleaved through his own comrade to reach the commander. Escaping a killing blow, Kakashi drove a second Lightning Cutter home, leaving Zabuza open for Ensui's shadow. Maki then wrapped both reanimations in cloth and sealed them so their master could no longer recall them, dispelling the mist at last.

Kakashi Hatake stands as the division's commander and its central figure, a man reputed to have copied a thousand techniques. After claiming Zabuza's massive sword, the Kubikiribocho, he charged it with lightning chakra and cut down Fuguki Suikazan, whom Sai then sealed inside a drawing with support from his ink jutsu. Reinforcements of White Zetsu appeared, but a clone of Naruto reached the field to bolster the exhausted troops. Might Guy served as a steadying presence throughout, lifting morale whenever the younger soldiers wavered. By later accounts, the division wiped out its opponents with only a single Swordsman left standing, then received orders to support Naruto and Killer B before regrouping with the wider Allied Shinobi Forces for the confrontation against the Ten-Tails commanded by Madara and Obito Uchiha.