So, hello everyone, welcome to a new story of mine. This is probably a strange cross over but I really like Kingdoms. It's an amazing mixture of battle and strategy and it even has heartfelt moments in it. The best part is that I love all the characters, they're super cool and interesting. This is one of the few animes that I went to the manga and excitedly wait each new chapter.
If anyone is curious about The Brightest Light, check out my profile, I haven't abandon it but as of now, I don't have fun writing it and that is the reason I write.
So without further ado, I present you The Other Side
I don't own Naruto or Kingdoms.
"All units, charge!"
With that, the lines of infantry took off in a fast run. Spit flew from their lips, the days they spent fast marching was wearing on them but the adrenaline of enemy contact made the weariness go away.
Naruto himself was only in the second line and grimaced a bit when he saw the enemy for a defensive wall formation. He sighed, he wasn't trying to pull to much attention to himself, but it looked like he didn't have much of a choice.
'Jiraiya should know by now that I can't really control myself in a battle.'
He reached down and pulled out two of his three weapons, his third weapon not on him at the time. His head reached the silky handles and grabbed his trusty daggers. They blades themselves were a midnight black and the handles were an ember red. On the bottom of each dagger, a metal fox head was pointing downwards and if one looked closely enough, they would see that the longest part, the nose, was sharp enough to kill with.
Unfortunately, they drew a lot of attention, even the sheaths themselves used high quality leather and had a gold trim down each of them. Whenever he wanted to use his daggers, he waited until he was already on the battlefield, less questions would be asked.
As they neared the wall, Shin, if he remembered his name, charged out in front of them and leaped over the wall. After he disappeared in the wall of Wei soldiers. A heartbeat passed before he saw a few enemy troops from the front of the line were knocked forward, flying towards the Qin armies. He created an opening in the wall.
Naruto, still running forward, dashed towards the opening that Shin created, hoping to make it in before they closed it back up.
He couldn't help but think what a risky plan that was, but it turned okay. He made it in the gap and start to swing his daggers, cutting through the fodder of troops.
He looked to find his squad, but they were either dead or stuck at the wall.
Naruto did the only thing he could, he kept charging, slicing his way through the Wei infantry. He saw the captain getting cut down by Shin and narrowly dodge a spear from his side. He slashed down onto the spear with one dagger and the other went straight for the guys neck, cutting it open.
He felt the ground start to rumbled and it was a telltale sign of a cavalry charge. He noticed the Wei troops start to retreat from combat but he felt something was off.
'Oh, shit! Are those..?'
His question was answered as out of a dust cloud came a line of war chariots, slaughtering the Qin infantry. He saw one of the chariots charging at him and a small group of Qin units behind him.
He knew he couldn't out run them and desperately thought of a plan as they got closer and closer.
He couldn't think of anything and just said, "Fuck it."
The horses were already on him and he dodge to the side and saw the blade on the wheel. He jumped over the blade and was in air between the blade and the chariot. He block one of the spears that tried to stab him. The added force of the spear pushed him down and the blade on the back end of the chariot nicked him in the shoulder.
He got back up on his feet in an instant and his hand went to his shoulder. He didn't feel any blood, it looked like it only hit his chain mail. He looked around and found that only small handfuls of Qin soldiers were alive. He spotted Shin and saw that he was with his squad, deciding that it would be better to stick together, he darted over.
"It's all or nothing! I'm gonna gamble and hit them head on!" Naruto heard Shin yell.
He decided to make his presence know, "That wouldn't be a good idea, you'd just die. Don't worry!"
"I have a plan."
"I have a plan!"
The two people who spoke at the same time looked at each other.
Naruto turned his head to the voice who spoke up, and was about to speak but was interrupted.
"Kyou Kai? You are still alive?"
"Where have you been?"
Shin turned his head to the other person and drew his sword, "Who are you?"
Naruto frowned and stared at the sword, "Hey, I'm on your side! We don't have time to argue between each other."
That seemed to make sense to Shin and he put his sword away still wary of the newcomer, "What's the plan?"
"Let's make a barricade."
"We will make a rampart."
The small group that had been formed just stared at the two of them, unsure how to proceed with they copying eachother.
The two glanced at each other again as the others questioned they about what they meant. A heartbeat passed as they stared at each other.
For once, both of them not repeating each other, Kai pointed down at the corpse, "Use the corpses."
With this, the squad leader shouted out his orders about building the walls of corpses and everyone seemed to agree. They started to pile up corpse with shields and spears sticking out.
Kai and Naruto were the two that stood still, while the rest of the men worked. He glanced over at Kai.
"So, any particular reason you're out here or is it just to serve Qin." He watched Shin get yelled at and waited for a response but was only meet with silence.
He decided to continue talking, "I mean, it's a bit strange for a female to take the battlefield." He expected that to get a response.
And it did, Kai's head snapped over to his and she looked him up.
Kai responded tensely, "How do you know?"
"Don't worry, I have-"
"That's enough, everyone get to cover, they're coming!"
Their conversation interrupted, they quickly got to the cover of the body walls. They watched as Shin narrowly made it back.
Even as the chariots were charging in, he could help but compare Shin to his younger self, reckless, thinking he was unstoppable.
The chariots hit the sides of their literal, man made wall.
They survived.
They feeling of safety didn't last as the chariots made their way around to strike again.
Shin decided he had enough, he grabbed a javelin and attack the charging chariot. The javelin stuck one of the riders and penetrated right though his throat.
The deceased man tumbled off the side of the chariot, the unexpected force from the throw and now limp man, tipped the chariot over and flung the men on the chariot off.
Naruto wasted no time and attacked, putting the knives through each of their necks. He noticed Shin getting onto the surviving horse and he knew what he was going to do.
He stood there and watched as Shin made his point. He shook his head, Shin was way too much like him, it was kind of scary.
Shin grabbed the flag and planned to make himself a decoy but as he took off Naruto leaped onto the horse sitting right behind him.
"Gah! What are you doing?" Shin exclaimed, a bit unconformable about the extra rider.
"Saving you, that's what, who just decides to play decoy with only a flag as a weapon." He ignored the fact that Shin still had his sword on his back, it wouldn't save him if he couldn't use it in time.
Shin was about to respond but the incoming threat of the Wei horsemen made him shut his mouth.
He was thankful for the random blonde as he was able to block attacks from his back.
On the other hand, Naruto regretted his decision instantly as he block an attack that was aimed for Shin's head. It would be much easier if he had a horse of his own. He glanced behind him and relaxed a bit, they were a bit to far behind. He turned his head forward, frowned and saw the incoming chariot.
Thinking on his feet he stood up onto the horse, wobbled a bit, and just as Shin blocked the attack, he leaped onto the chariot. The men looked on in disbelief before one of them responded swinging the pole arm at him. In mid air, he blocked it away making the man almost fall of his horse and landed onto the wooden carriage. He kicked the one who overextended himself to attack Shin and he flew off the basket with no resistance. The man hit the back of the chariot and was ripped in half, but it didn't know the chariot over. Naruto ducked as sword that came from the one who was controlling the chariot and blocked an overhead strike from the other passenger.
With his left hand still free, he took a swipe at the pole arm wielder and smirk as he felt it swipe through the chest armor like butter. The man tipped back and fell off the chariot, dead before he hit the ground. With those two down he focused on the last remaining rider who was coming back at him with another slow attack. Naruto easily blocked with one of his daggers and stabbed the guy through his head. He tipped him off the chariot.
With all the riders dead, he returned to the situation at hand. He now had complete control of the chariot, what to do, what to do?
He sat at the head of the chariot and turned it towards a charging enemy chariot. He smirked, and made the horses charge at the man who was charging at him.
"Hmm, he shouldn't have such a hateful face, he might hurt himself."
While they were charging each other Naruto took the time to cut the wood that was holding the horses together.
Before they chariots hit each other, Naruto took one of the horses and pulled off to the left. He watched with a grin at the distraught look on the enemies face as the two of the chariots collided with each other. The after math was an explosion of wood and the men were killed on the collision.
Naruto was happy with the turn of events, he had a horse and he took out two of the chariots. He turned and watched as Shin took out the commander of the chariots.
He made his way back to the Qin forces as the rest of Wei's chariots were destroyed. As he made his way his face paled a bit there was hardly anyone left in the 4th army.
"Shit, enemy reinforcements are here."
He turned to Kai, the only other person here who seemed smart enough to use tactics.
"Any ideas?"
She shook her head, "With the limited number of able warriors, there's hardly any options."
He heard the negative murmurings of the rest of the troops and turned and face they as the large numbers of Wei soldiers got closer and closer.
"Men!" He shouted, the unexpected noise caused all of them turn their heads towards him.
"We've defeated a large number of Wei's forces and this is their response! Stand your ground, for behind us we have the might of the Qin's forces behind us!"
With that being said, the ground started to rumble as the Qin's reinforcements arrived.
He watched as the cavalry demolished the advancing forces.
He heard his leader call for them to assemble and frowned at the remaining troops of the 4th army who looked exhausted from the fighting.
'The bad part about calling troops to arms in villages is that many of them don't come back. I'd much rather have personally trained troops.'
He heard his squad leader, Baku, tell them to charge and it made him think of what kind of commander Duke Hyou as he heard more rumbling of the rest of the cavalry units.
'Definably not a strategist. This wouldn't be something you could predict, he's defiantly an action oriented man. I can imagine how the rest of this battle will go.'
With that, he got the order to charge and charge they did.
They sliced their way through the untrained infantry. The cavalry was trained, but there was a massive amount infantry. While many of the enemy infantrymen perished, they would bring down one or two horsemen.
Once they broke through the enemy lines, their squad was left with a meager 47 men.
His thoughts were broken by their leader.
"Oi! Kid! Leave your squad behind and come to the attack the vanguard with us. Right now we need every horseman we can get."
He turned his attention to Naruto, "You too, blondie!
"Oi! The name's Naruto, not blondie, you old man."
Said old man's twitched and he shouted out, "You're lucky were on the same side and short on men or I'd kill you!"
Naruto smirked and looked over at Shin who was a bit upset that he was leaving his squad. He tried to stay with him but the rest of the encouraged him to go. He left them with Kai.
Naruto made his way by and focused his vision on Kai, "Kai," she turned her head a bit surprised he was talking to her. "Stay alive, I feel like you have an interesting story and I want to get to know you better."
She widened her eyes, surprised by the random request and the smallest smile came to her face, not that anyone could see it.
"You too, Naruto."
He smiled at her and set his horse forward to join the rest of the cavalry unit.
Naruto saw Shin move forward to Baku Koshin's left and Naruto, not wanting to be left out, joined him on his right.
"Kid. Are you seeking a huge achievement."
Shin's face was serious, "Of course."
"How about you?"
Naruto looked forward, not quite sure how to answer. After a second of though, "I'm here to make sure that idiot doesn't get himself to far ahead of himself."
That got a laugh from Baku, "A rivalry. I see. Both of you, concentrate only on cutting down enemies, moving forward without ever turning back."
Baku started to move, "Baku Koshin unit, move out!"
'Moving forward without ever turning back, huh? What a simple commander.'
Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu
Naruto laughed gleefully at the surprised faces of the enemy troops, surprise attacks are the best. He easily smashed through the enemies with his daggers. He noticed something strange as he stabbed someone through the face.
I assume Duke Hyou is driven by instinct as shown by how his commanders act, but, the enemy wasn't. So far each attack has been predictable. Charge in with troops, retreat them, call in the chariots, have more troops finish off the remanding infantry, send large numbers to slow down enemy charges.
A very simple strategy that's been used many times before. So, where is the archers in the enemy vanguard? They troops were easy to get by but, he felt uneasy as they climbed the rest of the hill.
He swore as he saw one of Baku's limited troops get hit by an arrow. Smart, keep them in your base, as a last defense where the horse couldn't charge at their full speed, increasing accuracy. He watched as a rain of arrows can falling down on top of them. He dodged and maneuvered out of the way of the arrows, occasionally swiping at an arrow that go to close.
He saw a Baku got struck by and arrow but kept pushing forward. Shin moved forward and Naturo watched as he blocked each shot from the bowman. He was slightly impressed but if that was him shooting the arrow, the sword wouldn't be able to stop that.
A stray arrow struck his horse in the eye and the horse tumbled down launching him forward.
He reacted and jumped forward moving with the extra momentum of the horse. He flew by the crossbowman that slay his horse, 'This if for killing my horse!'
He positioned himself to role forward and landed next to Shin, as Shin killed the special archer.
He watched the exchanged between the two leaders as they both killed each other. He could of interfered but, 'I think Baku would of wanted this. Killing himself but killing the enemy commander. Duke Hyou, you must be a great general for you to inspire you men to do this.'
He charged forward attacking the enemy while they were too stunned by their commanders death to react.
Shin turned angrily towards Naruto, "Did you even take time to notice that our commander is dying?! How could you..." Shin trailed off tears, stinging his eyes.
Naruto ignored him, "The rest of you, cut down Wei's flags and wave our own, let our troops know that we've taken this hill and the enemies base!"
"Hey! I'm talking to you!"
Naruto looked over at Baku and quickly explained the situation.
"We've taken the hill and Wei's troops are retreating, but, I imagine more are on the way and with the what," he did a quick head count, "the fourteen of us, we are unlikely to be able to hold. I would suggest to take the general's head and retreat, this will be a huge morale boost for our army."
Shin again looked aghast and practically screamed at Naruto, "What bullshit is this! We've taken the hill and you're suggesting us to retreat? Fuck you! I don't care what you say but I'm going to stay and fight."
The rest of Baku's troops felt a similar aura around Naruto and defend him against Shin.
"I don't care! We lost thousands of lives to capture this hill and for what a morale boost? This hills is important and I don't care how many troops come! I'll kill them all!"
Naruto scoffed and was about to reply but Baku stopped him when he started to chuckle.
"Kid, what's your name?"
The rage that Shin was emitting was instant turned into silence, "Shin."
"Shin, listen. There's a difference between courage and recklessness, or in your case, stupidity. The moment you fall to far into recklessness, you will die and nothing will be left. Leave as Naruto suggest, that's an order."
All the men looked downtrodden and started to leave but stopped when the enemy started to taunt them. Naruto felt a light trembling as the commander finished his taunt. Shin was the second to feel this and sprinted towards the other side of the hill, with the other troops following.
Naruto turned to follow but was stopped when Baku addressed him.
"Your names Naruto, right?"
No one else was around.
"There's something about you," he coughed out some blood. "When I look at you, I feel this similar aura to Duke Hyou." He paused as to think of how to word this. "You're…" he coughed again, this time coughing up more blood then before. "You have the feeling of a general. Am I right? I'm sure there's a reason..."
Naruto looked down at the man and spoke, answering, possibly, his last question. "Yes, I've lead armies before."
Baku chuckled, "Make sure Shin stays alive, I think..."
He fell into another fit of coughs as death approached closer and closer. "Don't worry, speak no more, I get the same feeling. And, if you do survive, could you keep what I've said to yourself, as you'd probably imagine, there's a reason I'm doing, what I'm doing."
Baku nodded and put his head back down.
Naruto looked over towards his allies as he felt something, strange, wash over him. He looked down the hill and saw the Monstrous Bird of Qin, Ouki approach towards the hill.
'Hmm, so Jiraiya was right, he has returned to the field.'
Naruto's gaze turned to Shin, 'There is something happening in Qin and it revolves around this kid, right here. He wants to be a general, I think I'll join him on his journey for right now.' His eyes spotted Kai, 'No, I'll follow her, she would make a good leader.'
Ouki started to slow down as he reached the top of the hill, and Naruto fell into walking pace right next to him.
"Oh? And who are you, you have a strange aura around that seems awfully like a powerful general."
Naruto smirked, "Well, I'll take it as a complement to be recognized by such a man as yourself, Great General Ouki."
"Nfufufu, flattery I see. What's your name?"
"Naruto."
"Hmm, it seems as Shin is not the only up and coming youngest for Qin."
Naruto thought about how to respond to this and decided to wing it, "Well, I can't say I'm exactly aligned to Qin, I'm-"
He grabbed his dagger in an instant to block Ouki's glaive to his neck. A brief power struggle between the two of them happened, Naruto's one dagger against Ouki's glaive. Sparks erupted between the two metal weapons, before Ouki pulled his weapon back.
"Nfufufu, to think there was an unknown man like you out there."
"Oh? Do I have the approval of such a famous general." Naruto inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, Ouki is a monster.
"Hmm, maybe."
All this happened while they were walking.
They reached the end but all of Ouki's men, and his lieutenant were all staring in shock at this blonde man, Naruto. Who is he?
As they approached Shin he turned and faced the both of them.
He was intimated by Ouki and for the first time, noticed how opposing Naruto is. Even next to Ouki, the blonde himself was no slouch. The whiskered cheeks, the determined eyes. His muscles bulged against his specially made chainmail and now that his cloak was out of the way, he noticed how lean his arms were. He had a beautiful crystal necklace that hung around his neck and around his waist was a black belt with both of his stunning sheaths.
Even next to the monstrous man, Naruto seemed right there with him.
Who are they?
Finally Ouki started to talk to Shin, but Naruto zoned out as he watched as Duke Hyou appeared. He had a feeling about Ouki's plan, just his presence here was putting fear into the enemy. This battle was as good as won, even if Duke Hyou was to fail, Ouki could charge down this hill and take the enemy general's head.
"You're an interesting man Ouki, I quite like you."
"Nfufufu, I'm glad you approve but I offer the same bet to you, will intuition or strategy win?"
Naruto smirked, there was no defiant answer to this question but he had general idea.
"It depends."
Ouki turned his head, "Oh?"
"How far did the person with the strategy plan out, taking into consideration the intuition of the general, how much does the person with the strategy respect the person who makes decisions on a whim. And how far is the general with the intuition will to go and will he follow his gut all the way?"
Naruto turned and looked at Ouki, "It all depends, this is battle, it's almost impossible to determine the victor without knowing everything."
Ouki started to chuckle but both Shin and Heki looked at Naruto, impressed by how far his train of thought went.
"Nfufufu, such an interesting look on the eternal question, I'm curious Naruto, just which are you?"
Heki charged down to assist Duke Hyou
Naruto looked down at the field, "That's a question, I can't quite answer."
Shin, having enough of the conversations, ask Ouki for a horse, and drove down to continue the fight.
"How about you? Do you want a horse too?"
"I think you know the answer to that question."
"Yes, it is quite obvious."
"I'm surprised Shin didn't want to watch how this battle progress, it's quite hard to see a battle play out when your in it."
"Ahh, but Shin is one of this instinctual types, I doubt he will ever use strategy."
A silence fell between them.
Ouki spoke up first, "Respect the other type of general you say? You are a strange one."
Naruto nodded in agreement. "Aren't we all?"
"Nfufufu, true."
The battle continued as Heki made his way to Duke Hyou.
Naruto spoke up, "It's not just Shin who is a rising star."
Ouki didn't say anything.
More time passed and the two generals engaged each other.
"This battle has been decided."
Naruto looked at Ouki, "Yes, hopefully this won't be the last time we meet. I'll leave you now."
"I do hope we meet again, young Naruto."
Kai sighed, while she had been brought out here, she was no closer to her revenge. She got up to leave.
"You know, I saw some of those sword skills of yours and I have to say, I'm quiet impressed."
She looked over at Naruto, when did he get there?
"You obviously aren't here to fight for Qin, so I'm curious, what's your story?"
She didn't respond and started to walk away.
"Hmm, I guess I just have to follow you until you feel confident enough to talk to me."
Her eyes widened, but quickly narrowed, he would be like the rest, he would leave when he saw what she really was.
Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu Uzu
A week has past since Naruto started follow Kai.
And it was finally after a week that Kai got annoyed enough and snapped at Naruto. She really didn't expect him to stick around for so long.
"So, when can we stop to get food and do you know where any ramens is? I haven't had that stuff in ages and I'm starving. I miss-"
She had enough, he literally talked all the damn time and having been so alone for so long, she loved the silence.
"I'm from a clan called Shiyuu and we are mass murders." She spoken with a bit of passion in her voice, for once, her irritation getting the better of her.
Naruto was a bit speechless, he thought it would take a least a month and he didn't expect her to just, shout out who she is.
Coming out of his shock he responded with a thoughtful expression, "Hmm, the Shiyuu, huh? Let's see what did Jiraiya say about them, something about them being super strong and that's all I really remember."
Kai just stared at him, unsure of how to take this response, so Naruto just kept going.
"What, you think that because your from some clan of assassins that I'd just leave you."
"I could accidentally kill you."
Naruto snorted, "Yeah, and I don't risk my life every time I go to the battlefield."
Silence fell between them as they kept walking down the road.
"Fight me."
This got a response from Kai, "What?"
"Fight me, if I die well, that would be rough, but, if I survive, you start opening up to me."
Kai's heart pounded in her chest, even if she loathed to admit it, she did enjoy his company, it was nice, to listen to someone talk. She mumbled something to him.
"What was that? I swear you said something."
For the first time since he met her, he saw her look nervous and maybe even, embarrassed. She whispered what she said next, but he heard it even as the wind picked up and blew his hair back.
"Promise me, you won't die."
There we go! I hope you like it, I'm having a lot of fun writing this one because I get to read the manga and find out some of the smaller details that weren't included in the anime.
I have some cool plans that I'm going to try to do but I don't know how conformable I am deviating from the main story but, when I write sometimes stuff just happens. I sometimes go in with a plan and end up writing something completely different.
As always, leave a review if you have time!