Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Authors Note: this story is the end of a trilogy and while this world is slightly different than canon at this point I believe it can stand alone. So give it a shot.
Excerpt from Konohagakure a History Volume V
It is the prerogative of the historian to seek the root cause of conflicts and the Fourth Great Shinobi War is no exception. Many catalysts have been identified for the start of this conflict and certainly there is truth in all of them. In the case of Konohagakure though, the root cause and here I shall depart from most of my contemporaries and state that it was the conflict with An no Kuni which came to be known simply as the Uprising.
The daimyo of this country used its isolation to promote an anti-ninja movement in his country. His goal was to restore the samurai class to the position they had enjoyed before the rise of the ninja and the hidden villages. Having found allies who had agreed with his position mostly for their own gain he was able to arm his army with weapons banned by ancient treaties. One of their first targets was Kirigakure which they attacked by sea.
Although the village was heavily damaged it had the unintended side effect of uniting the other hidden villages in an alliance against the rogue samurai. In unprecedented numbers they descended upon the samurai army and destroyed it. As these events were only months after the Sand Sound invasion, Konoha was still recovering. This was reflected in both the number and quality of ninja that were allowed to participate in the attack. This fact was not missed by the other hidden villages.
Shortly thereafter the machinations that set the stage for the next Great War began. Iwagakure began to fund Otogakure then led by the S-Class Missing-nin Orochimaru which allowed him to pursue a low-grade war against Konoha. This went on for almost two years until Kumogakure an unlikely ally agreed to a secret alliance to attack and remove the leadership of Oto village. With their combined forces this was easily done. Even as Iwa lost their proxy they still made preparations for war.
Naruto leaned against a tall tree as rain fell gently around him, each of the raindrops making a cracking sound as it froze against the snow. He turned over the ANBU mask in his hands examining it and compared it to the one he was more familiar with from his home village. The Mist masked made no attempt to look like an animal and actually looked very human with a smooth simple painted face, emphasize with geometrical patterns. Although it had no visible eyeholes, when it was on you could see very well. It was actually very similar to the one Haku had worn or at least as far as he could remember.
He was on his first A-rank mission since being promoted to Chunin and his first mission with the entirety of team seven in almost a year. The Mizukage had requested assistance in dealing with some rebels within his ranks. Numbers were unknown, but the list of people he could trust was very short. To the surprise of just about everyone he had turned to Leaf for surreptitious help.
He sighed for the umpteenth time and wished this mission would just be over with. Part of Naruto knew he should be honored that his team had been chosen for the mission, but so far all they had done was just watch a small abandoned mansion nestled by a lake. There were rebels in the mansion, at least two of them, but their orders were not to move in until the people they were waiting for arrived. Unfortunately, no one knew how long that would be.
Turning his head he looked at the rest of the team who were spread out across the hilltop. Kakashi had his head buried in the newest offering from his other perverted sensei. During his last training trip he had been forced to proofread every chapter and still could not understand how it had become a best-seller. Then there was Sasuke. Since the end of the war with Sound he had been leading missions in an attempt to hunt down his brother, but had no luck so far.
That left the two kunoichi. The closest to him was the only Mist ninja on their team and technically their leader. Her name was Mie and she couldn't be any older than he was, but was a Jonin. When they had first met her he had the nagging suspicion that he knew her from somewhere, but he couldn't place her. Part of her face was lightly scarred and he thought he would remember seeing someone that looked like that, but he couldn't place her.
Then there was Sakura. She was the furthest away from him and was reading a scroll. His relationship with her had become complicated. He wasn't sure, but he was pretty sure they were dating. At least he thought they were. They were spending time together outside of missions, but at the same time were they really doing date things? Sure they went out to eat, but sometimes he would pay or she would or they would split it and it seemed more like a friend thing. Of course other times it felt like they were dating. To make things even more complicated as the ship they had ridden to Water Country was docking, they had been talking. Then out of the blue, she had kissed him on the lips.
Okay, she had kissed him before, but that had just been a quick peck on the cheek. This had been different, even if it had been just as quick. He had been so stunned that she had disembarked by the time he had recovered and there hadn't been an opportunity to talk since then. Now he couldn't help but think she was ignoring him. He let out a long exhalation which only barely formed a cloud around him. He was starting to envy Sasuke and Ino's relationship. At least they knew what they were doing.
A hawk startled him as it silently and deftly wove through the trees before landing on a branch near the Mist kunoichi. Hoping it was a change in orders he hurried toward her snow crunching under foot.
Taking the message from the back of the bird, the mask teen silently read the message to herself before crumbling it. "Change in plans. The conspiracy has been broken up and we now know who they're meeting with. We only have to take out the two in there and then we can go home."
"You can verify this," Kakashi questioned.
The girl removed her mask to answer and Naruto was again struck with an odd sense of familiarity. "She added a personal anecdote that only she and I know. The number count between that and the order is accurate."
"All right," Kakashi turned towards the small mansion. "Well, what are your orders?"
The blonde knew it was part of the mission, but he still found it strange that the man he was so used to taking orders from was taking orders from someone the same age he was.
The Jonin in question paused for a second before answering, "They will try to head for the lake so, we're going to let them." With one quick movement she bit her thumb and flashing through hand signs produced two small clouds of smoke. The white clouds slowly dissipated to reveal two crabs about waist high wearing modified samurai armor.
It was at that moment Naruto remembered where he had seen her before. "You tried to kill me!" All four of the people and the two crabs turned their eyes towards him with expressions ranging from confused to annoyed. "At the castle," he said in a much quieter tone trying to explain his outburst.
Mie's expression changed from annoyance to recognition, "You were the kid in orange. I thought you'd be dead by now." She turned to the two crabs as if he had said nothing. "You two are to enter that lake over there by going down the hill to where the trees meet the lake. Then, while you're underwater, you are to make your way to that house and wait under the dock. If anyone, but these people or myself," she gestured towards the entire team, "stand on or go into the water, tear them apart."
The two crabs raised their right claws with a loud, "Yes ma'am," before scurrying off.
Naruto looked down at his drab clothes, wondering if he had been wearing his customary outfit if she would have recognized him. It was childish and he knew it, but he liked being recognized.
Mie turned back to them, "It should take them fifteen minutes but will give them twenty. There's no way to creep across the field so we'll just sprint to the outer wall. You two," she pointed to himself and Sasuke, "stay on the near side. Pinky and I will go around the wall to the other side. We will attempt to enter silently and creep in until we make contact. You hang back," she nodded towards Kakashi. "If they try to escape by any other route except the lake intercept and eliminate." She paused for a second and added, "You have twenty minutes to prepare."
The group broke apart quickly, Mie headed a little downhill and Sasuke and Kakashi joined her. This left Naruto and Sakura alone for the first time since the beginning of the mission. She turned to face him with a small smile, "How do you meet all of these important people? First it was Gaara who became Kazekage. Now it turns out you know the Mizukage's apprentice."
Taken off guard he said weakly, "Yeah, but they always try to kill me."
She slipped her mask on covering her smile, "It seems to me, that the worst your first meeting with someone is, the better it turns out in the end."
The blonde blinked wondering what that meant. "What about us?"
"A perfect example," she replied.
"No, I meant about earlier. You know on the boat."
She paused before turning to face him, the mask making her expression unreadable, "Can we talk about this after the mission?"
He wanted to say no, but that was always something he had trouble saying to Sakura. Fortunately, he was saved from saying that dreaded word by a crackling coming from their waists, "Radio check."
They both responded and before Naruto could ask her again Sakura had gone to join the others. Defeated he joined them and waited with the rest until Mie said, "Alright let's head out. We'll stick together until we hit the wall and separate there. Remember, were trying to sneak in, but if we have to we will smash our way through."
They all nodded, then in a flash they were running down the hill. There was simply no good way to cross a snowy field. The only thing they could hope for was that neither of the two inside was looking out of a window at the moment as they raced toward the building, snow crunching underfoot the entire time.
Breaking into their two teams wordlessly, the two kunoichi split off from the other two heading around the mansion paralleling the wall for cover. Naruto didn't stop running and instead just slammed his back into the hard wall. Glancing over at Sasuke, whose body language was calling him an idiot just caused him to grin under his mask. The two friends waited in silence until the voice of Mie came over the radio giving them the go order.
Both of the chunin jumped to the top of the wall and before Naruto could take in the situation Sasuke snapped, "Window second story."
He jumped onto the roof and Naruto followed. The mansion had not been abandoned for long, but one of the upper windows was slightly ajar and his teammate was able to push it to the side with help from a kunai. They quickly and quietly slipped into the room. Sasuke whispered a quick status report as Naruto took a position at the door listening for any noise.
The only sound he could make out was the rain gently hitting against the building. Still, they were forced to pause at every doorway and check every room. The building was shaped like a rectangle with a single hallway on the second floor. Over the radio the two girls were reporting doing the same thing and with no sight of the enemy. The end of the hallway opened onto a balcony that overlooked a large room and this time Naruto gestured for Sasuke to stay behind as he darted forward. Before he could peek over the edge, he heard a sound of something scraping against metal.
Sliding backward he reported over the radio, "Far end, at least one enemy."
Sakura's voice came over the radio, "We're almost there."
Naruto and Sasuke prepared to jump down as soon as they were given the order, but before it could be given an unfamiliar voice called out, "Is that my sister over there? Why not come out and greet me properly."
For a second the two ninjas shared a glance wondering if they had been found out, but over the radio they heard Mie say, "Shit. Everyone stand down, he's mine."
From where the two were hidden they could hear a shoji screen slide open and Mie's voice call out, "Hello, Tomo."
"Mie, what are you doing here," he didn't seem to sound surprised, but more disappointed.
"I'm following the Mizukage's orders."
"The Mizukage," derision dripped from his voice. "What would father and mother think of you being a lapdog to a pretender? She cares nothing for tradition and is worse than the Fourth. How can you betray everything our parents wanted? You belong here with me."
There was a moment of silence until Mie spoke again, "If you come peacefully and tell us everything you know, I might be able to persuade her to spare your life."
"Our parents would disown you for that. Suigetsu deal with the others, this is a family matter."
A second after the last word was spoken Naruto heard the clash of metal against metal. He was about to jump down to help her when Sasuke jumped back as a thin long blade pierced the floor nearly striking the ceiling. Then with no warning the blade cut towards him tearing up the floor as it went.
He rolled forward and jumped over the balcony to the room below. The room was large and about ten feet from where he landed stood the two dueling Mist ninjas. There two swords flashed back and forth and it was beyond his comprehension who had the upper hand. Behind him was a wall of shoji screens one of which exploded outwards and for the second time that day Naruto rolled away from a blade that would have cut him in two.
Rolling to his feet he eyed his attacker. He was a teen, probably a little older than himself, but what really stood out was his hair which was pure white. The sword he wielded was as long as he was tall, but still had the shape of a normal katana. He pushed some hair out of his eyes which were a violet color. "Twice, I have missed hitting someone today. Must just not be my day," he smiled showing serrated teeth like a shark. "Well the third time's the charm."
The muscles in his arm suddenly increased to three times their normal size and he moved the large sword as if it weighed nothing, but before he could attack shuriken rain down upon him. Blocking the incoming projectiles with his sword he was wholly unprepared for the follow-up attack. Sasuke who had thrown the weapons jumped off the balcony to the ceiling flashing through hand signs and producing the Phoenix Flower Jutsu.
Apparently he had no faith in blocking flames with his sword and instead retreated a half a step ahead of the fiery barrage. Just as he was about to run out of space Sakura darted forward in a zigzag pattern and landed a punch directly against his chest. The blow Naruto knew should have sent him into the wall, but he seemed to morph into water and her fist passed through him and smashed into the wall creating a sizable hole.
It took him a second to reform the disrupted water and by the time he was changing back into himself, Naruto had already created a clone and was charging at him with a Rasengan. When spinning chakra hit water the affect was interesting. The majority of the mass shot through the whole while the rest went in just about every other direction including soaking him. For a second he thought it was over, but even as he watched the body started to reform and he stepped through the hole quickly followed by his two teammates.
Naruto wasn't sure what to do as the body reformed. The teen still had his sword, but he was panting now and scooped up a handful of snow and placed it in his mouth. Surprisingly this seemed to revitalize him a little and he stood a little straighter.
"I think I know this guy." Sakura's voice came softly over the radio as if she was whispering. "He was one of the people Orochimaru was experimenting on. They were keeping him in a tank and were running a mild electrical shock through it to keep him in his liquid form."
"Gotcha," Sasuke replied.
Naruto spared a glance through the newly made hole. The two ninjas were still going at it seemingly ignoring everything that was going on around them. Even as he watched Mie who was the smaller of the two was kicked in the stomach. This sent her flying backwards onto the deck right over the lake.
He was just about to create some clones to help her out when their opponent made his move. His sword arm extended its length and he tried to cut all three of them in half, but was blocked by Sasuke's sword. After stopping the initial blow Sasuke channeled electricity into his sword. The two swords acted like lightning rods and it had the effect Sakura had said it would. The body dissolved into a puddle.
Unfortunately, before they could capitalize on that the puddle shot away heading for the lake. The wall only surrounded the mansion on three sides and it actually built several feet into the lake so there was no barrier to his escape. For some reason Naruto knew that something bad would happen if he was able to merge with the lake.
Sasuke flashed through another series of hand signs and this time Naruto recognize the signs for the Great Fireball Technique. It became a race between the amorphous blob and the large fireball. His eyes watered and by the time the fireball hit he couldn't tell if the steam that rose was from the water, the snow or had it hit the lake. Darting foreword he tried to get a better look.
A large swath of ground was now barren of snow, but he couldn't tell if the enemy had been hit or not. Again he heard the clashing of swords and jumped up onto the wall that jutted into the lake. Before Naruto could decide on what to do to help her she swept his legs out from under him. Tomo he remembered she had called him, rolled away and into the water.
Normally, this probably would've been a good thing for him, but he disappeared under the surface and a second later the water churned. Seconds later a dark liquid seemed to rise to the surface. Naruto was frozen not knowing what to do as his two teammates joined him. There was a long moment of silence as the two crabs rose to the surface. She dismissed both of them upon sight and turned towards her Konoha allies and shouted, "Did you deal with the other one?"
Her voice sounded strange as it was on the verge of cracking and Naruto wondered why she just didn't use the radio. He glanced between his two teammates wishing one of them would answer and it was Sakura that summoned up her courage first. "Unfortunately, we can't be sure. He was able to transform himself into water. Sasuke may or may not have evaporated him before he could get into the lake."
"Fine, we're going to report to the Mizukage." She turned and disappeared into the building. The three members of team seven didn't say anything as they all started to come down from the high of a battle.
Kakashi had positioned himself in the middle of the field and as he saw them leave through the gates of the mansion he approached them. Mie came out a minute later her expression unreadable under her mask, but she made no effort to join them. Before he could say anything though there was a loud roaring from behind them and they all spun in unison.
The water in the lake was quickly forming into a huge wave of impossible proportions. It was already cresting over the mansion and on top of it was the upper half of the ninja they had thought they had defeated. Before any of them could react it started to move forward turning the building into kindling as it ripped through it.
For a brief second Naruto wondered if he had enough time to attempt a Rasenshuriken, but before he could even create one clone something bizarre happened. The space in front of the wave seemed to twist, at first he thought it was a prelude to an attack, but then the twisting space began to suck in the water as if a drain had been inserted at the top of the wave.
The massive onslaught of water was easily cut in half and then it crashed. It quickly dispersed over the ground and by the time it hit them it barely splashed over their ankles. Naruto spun back around as he heard Kakashi fall to one knee. "Sensei," he cried out running to his side.
The man groaned and covered his one eye, "I really didn't want to use that."
Not knowing what else to do, Naruto patted him on the back and turned to Sasuke, "I guess you missed."