Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
(Somewhere in the Land of Fire)
He sneered at the ninja trembling in fear in front of him. The headband that the ninja wore showed that he was a leaf shinobi. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see where the corpses of the leaf ninja's comrades lay.
"Sir, should we kill him?" One of his subordinates said to him. He shook his head and smiled evilly as he looked down at the leaf ninja, "No, I want him to deliver a message to the Hokage."
The leaf ninja paled when he mentioned the Hokage, and tried to sound brave as he said, "W-what do you want with the H-hokage?"
He smirked as he told the leaf ninja his message. "Tell him that after two years of building our strength, we have grown strong. Tell him, that we are coming to destroy Konoha and to kill everyone in it. Now run, or I may regret my decision to let you live."
The leaf jonin hurriedly got up and staggered in the direction of Konoha. After the jonin disappeared, he turned to his nine subordinates.
"We invade Konoha as soon as the jonin gives the message. Get ready." He smiled as the morning sunshine reflected off his glasses. By tomorrow, Konoha will exist no more. He took off after the jonin, taking care to mask his chakra so he would not be noticed.
It was one of those sunny afternoons in Konoha, when you don't feel like doing anything. Kakashi was in his office, trying to finish his paperwork but failing to concentrate. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were training in Training Ground 7. Gai and Lee were doing another one of their crazy challenges. Jiraiya and Tsunade were drinking in a tavern, talking about random stuff. Asuma and Kurenai were playing with their daughter. Team 10, team 8, and Neji and Tenten were at Ichiraku Ramen, Choji and Kiba were having an eating contest. Everything was peaceful.
The peace was shattered when a leaf jonin raced inside the gates, ignoring the questions of the two chunins guarding the gates.
"Hokage-sama! I need to speak with the Hokage!"
"Calm down. You were in one of the border patrol groups, right? Where's the rest of your team?" One of the chunins said, trying to stop the frantic jonin from running around.
"Where's the Hokage? Where is he?"
"I'm right here. Ryo, was it?"
"Hokage-sama!" Ryo quickly turned towards Kakashi, who was casually leaning against the gate. He quickly kneeled in front of Kakashi, "permission to report."
"Permission granted. Stand up, you don't have to kneel."
"Yes sir." Ryo quickly stood up and faced Kakashi, expression grim. "My team was patrolling the east border when a group of ten people attacked us. I...I was the only survivor." Kakashi bowed his head in respect to Ryo's team, everyone who died in service to their village was to be respected. After a few moments of silence, Ryo continued.
"But, the leader of the group left me alive to take a message to you. He said, 'Tell him that after two years of building of strength, we have grown strong. Tell him, that we are coming to destroy Konoha and to kill everyone in it.' Also, I'm a sensor-nin, and I sensed that all but the leader had bijuu level chakra. They are most likely the jinchurikis."
"What? Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
This was bad. The group was most likely responsible for the missing bijuu chakra in the Valley of the End, and apparently their goal was to destroy Konoha by unleashing the bijuus. Right now, all he could do was tighten the village's security so they couldn't enter Konoha.
"Hokage-sama, ten intruders are nearing Konoha. About two miles from here." One of the Hyuga guards Kakashi had assigned to guard the gates after hearing about the missing chakra said.
"Ryo, you're dismissed." Kakashi quickly teleported to the top of the Hokage Tower. He turned to one of his ANBU guards. "Initiate level 1 security immediately. The ANBU nodded and disappeared. Kakashi activated a jutsu that would allow his voice to be heard all over the village.
"The Leaf Village is under attack. Genins and chunins will escort all the civilians, children, and the elderly to the safe houses and stay there. Genins and chunins will not participate in the battle. Two ANBU will guard each safe house. One of the safe houses will be a medic tent, all medics will go there. Jonins and ANBU will assemble on top of the Hokage Tower." Kakashi could hear panicked shouts coming from the civilians before, but the genins and chunins quickly comforted them.
Kakashi waited until all of the jonins were in front of him, the ANBU were standing in a circle around them, standing guard. There was team 7, all of team 8 except for Hinata, who was pregnant, team 10, team Gai, Asuma, Kurenai, Gai, Jiraiya, Aoba, Genma, Raido, Sai, and some other jonins. He cleared his throat and braced himself before saying, "we might be facing a mini version of each bijuu."
Immediately, the jonins started to speak.
"What?"
"All nine of the bijuus?"
"Konoha was almost destroyed by Sora, how can we defend against eight more of them?"
"What are we going to do, Hokage-sama?"
"Hokage-sama?"
"We're all going to die!"
Kakashi was getting a horrible headache from all the shouting and questions, and it didn't help that the nine jinchurikis were coming closer every second. Finally, Naruto couldn't take it anymore and shouted, "Shut up, all of you!"
Surprisingly, everyone did. Kakashi glanced gratefully at his ex-student before speaking again. "However, they won't be able cross the boundary. Only leaf ninjas know how. Still, be on your guard. I want a squad on each side of the village, the rest of you, stay with me."
Four squads left, and the rest of the jonins started murmuring among themselves. Kakashi walked over to the railing, looking towards the village gates. Gai walked up beside him.
"Gai?"
"My Eternal Rival, we must not give up hope. We defeated Kaguya together, nine mini bijuus will not stop us!"
"But your leg..."
"Oh this?" Gai raised his injured leg. "This will not stop me, I can still fight better than most of the jonins here."
"Still-"
"How can we be Eternal Rivals if we do not fight together? Don't worry, this will not diminish my YOUTHFUL spirit at all!"
Kakashi sighed, he knew that arguing with Gai was pointless, though that didn't stop him from worrying about Gai's safety. Gai patted him on the shoulder, then limped towards Lee on his crutch.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
"Hmm?" He turned to see his team standing behind him. "Sakura? Aren't you supposed to be with the medics?"
"Tsunade-shishou can handle it. Besides, nothing can defeat team 7 together!" Sakura said confidently.
"That's so right, Sakura-chan. I'll save Konoha again, like the last two times." Naruto said.
Sakura growled angrily and hit Naruto on the head. "You idiot, other people helped too! Stop hogging all the glory!" Sasuke sighed as Naruto rubbed his head painfully.
Naruto was about to say something when a figure ran onto the middle of the Konoha.
"Hey! What are you doing? The Hokage said all ninja except jonins and ANBU to go to the safe houses!" The figure didn't appear to hear Naruto and pulled out a kunai. Kakashi narrowed his eyes and looked closer. "Wait, he's not wearing…"
"He's not wearing a leaf headband! He's an enemy!" However, it was too late, and the mysterious figure cut himself and slammed his hand on the ground. He shouted, "Summoning Jutsu!"
After the smoke cleared, nine people stood there, they all wore the sound village headband protector. And Kakashi had a bad feeling as all nine of them started releasing huge amounts of chakra.
"How did they get in?" Sasuke said, sharingan activated. Kakashi had no idea, but they had no focus on making sure the invaders didn't destroy Konoha first. He lifted his headband and confirmed his suspicions, especially when orange chakra started to envelope the nine of them.
"They're jinchurikis! Stop them before they fully change!" The jonins surged forward, but a strong wind blew them backwards, and they were forced to focus chakra to their feet to avoid being blown away. Kakashi watched in horror as the mini versions of the Ichibi, Nibi, Sanbi, Yonbi, Gobi, Rokubi, Nanabi, Hachibi, and Kyubi appeared. Waves of malicious chakra washed over them, and Kakashi felt a chill go down his spine as memories from that horrible night when the Kyubi was unleashed came back to him. 'Calm down, they aren't the actual demons,' Kakashi thought to himself.
The figure who had summoned the jinchurikis had disappeared, but Kakashi had bigger problems to worry about. Namely, how to stop the jinchurikis from destroying Konoha.
"Jiraiya-sama! Do you have any chakra-suppressing seals?"
The Toad Sage held up nine pieces of paper. "I only have nine of them, one for each bijuu. Be careful with them, if one is destroyed...I don't know what we'll be able to do." Before Kakashi could make further commands, another puff of smoke appeared near the safe houses. 100 seemingly dead bodies appeared, however, they were moving. 'The Dead Soul Jutsu.' Kakashi thought, seeing it before. His heart nearly stopped when he realized what their target was, the safe houses.
'Based on what I know, the dead bodies won't feel any pain and will keep moving unless they are cut into tiny pieces or the caster is killed. The nine jinchurikis need to be managed too…' Kakashi looked towards Shikamaru, who had his hand in the box shape, showing that he was thinking. Kakashi knew that Shikamaru had the best strategical mind in Konoha, so he waited for his plan, even though the army of dead bodies were moving closer and closer to the safe houses.
Finally, Shikamaru opened his eyes and said, "Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura can take on the Kyubi; the Naras, Yamanakas, and Akimichis can take on the Hachibi; the Aburames can take on the Nanabi; Jiraiya and Asuma can take on the Gobi; Gai, Lee, and Tenten can take on the Yonbi; the Hyugas can take on the Sanbi; the Inuzukas can take on the Nibi; and Hokage-sama and Yamato can take on the Ichibi. The rest of the jonin can fight the Dead Soul Jutsu army. Also, Kiba and Kurenai should hunt the person who summoned them here down."
"You heard Shikamaru, get moving." Kakashi said. The Nibi and the Nanabi was heading towards the safe houses too, while the Ichibi and the Sanbi were heading towards them. Jiraiya quickly handed one of supression tags to each of the groups, and the jonins all scattered except for Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura.
"Sensei, promise that you won't die?" Kakashi could see that the memories of what happened against the battle of Pain a few years ago was still fresh in their mind. They had thought he died, and based on what he had heard, they had been devastated. Kakashi wanted to reassure them and say yes, but he couldn't promise that he wouldn't die, no one could control fate. He was spared the choice when the Ichibi started to inhale to spit out Wind Bullets, and of course the Ichibi was facing towards the safe houses.
Kakashi quickly said "Fire Style, Great Fireball Jutsu" and launched a fireball at the Ichibi while Yamato used his wood to attempt to create some sort of...muzzle on the Ichibi. The Ichibi was forced to stop and defend himself. Kakashi quickly started to form another fire style attack. 'This is not going to be easy.'
So far his plan was going perfectly. After Konoha was exhausted from fighting the jinchurikis and his Dead Soul army, he would strike. However, the mini bijuus wouldn't be able to fully weaken the Konoha shinobi with Jiraiya and the Wood Style user helping, and the Dead Soul army would eventually be destroyed or trapped. He had another plan, one that would certainly be entertaining to watch. The next part of the plan would take advantage of the main weakness of Konoha. After all, the current Hokage preached the importance of teamwork and to never abandon a comrade.
It would be interesting to see whether or not he would uphold his principle.
First, he had to create a distraction to buy enough time for the plan. And he knew just what the distraction should be.
Kakashi winced as his left arm throbbed from the chakra burn he received when he slapped the seal on the mini Ichibi's forehead. Unfortunately, all of the jinchuriki were already too far gone to be saved. He looked around, and saw that all of the bijuus had already been taken care of. Almost all of the jonins were injured, though by the looks of it Choji and Asuma were both severely, and two Hyugas, an Inuzuka, and a Yamanaka had died.
"Tenten, Shino, take any who can't fight anymore to the medics." Neji and Ino nodded and went to do what he had asked. Kakashi turned to the Hyugas, Inuzukas, and Yamanakas who were mourning the loss of one/two of their familiy members. "Konoha is forever indebted to the deaths of these four excellent shinobi, however, now is not the time to mourn. Mourn later, concentrate of fighting now." Kakashi then looked towards the safe houses, it looked like the rest of the jonin weren't having much luck with the Dead Soul Jutsu army though. He hoped Kiba and Kurenai found the caster soon.
He was about to go help the rest of the jonins when an explosion sounded. He turned to see where the explosion sounded, and his heart froze.
"The safe houses!" One of the jonins shouted. One after another, the safe houses started to explode. After the debris settled down, there was no movement. For a moment, Kakashi believed that no one in the safe houses survived.
Then Kakashi saw a section of a wall collapse, and a few people came out. A fist smashed through the wreckage of a safe house, and Tsunade appeared, helping a few medics climb out. Slowly, more and more people started appear. Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that most of the safe houses was able to activate the emergency protection seals in time (The seals were a one time use and only lasted for a short time so they couldn't activate it as soon as they went in the safe house).
"Go help them!" The jonins didn't need to be told twice. They quickly ran towards the safe houses, each shouting out the names of their family and friends. Naruto was the fastest, shouting "Hinata! Are you alright?" Hinata was pregnant with Naruto's first child, and Naruto was always fussing over her. Thankfully, she was alright. She also carried Asuma's and Kurenai's child, who immediately ran to Asuma and Kurenai. However, Kakashi saw that a least two house worth of people were missing, 'Not everyone made it.'
"Watch out!" Kakashi looked up and realized with horror that the Dead Soul army was moving towards them. No doubt that the caster was commanding them to attack people who could not fight back.
"Everyone, protect the civilians! Start escorting them onto Training Ground 10!" Kakashi turned to his four ANBU guards that were following him. "You too. I'm going to go search for the castor."
"But Hokage-sama, it would be safer for you to escape with the civilians." One of the ANBUs protested. Kakashi shook his head. "A Hokage's duty is to protect the village, what kind of hokage would I be if I hid with the civilians? Besides, I'm one of the best trackers in the village."
The ANBU hesitantly went to protect the civilians. The Dead Soul army might be almost invincible, but they were slowly being driven back. Sure, ninjas bled while the Dead Soul army didn't, and they tired more easily, but every single ninja of the leaf would gladly give their life and fight to their last breath in order to protect their village and more importantly, the people in it. Kakashi smiled with pride, then summoned his pack.
"What happened?" Pakkun asked. Kakashi quickly told his pack what happened. "I want you to find the castor, and quickly." They barked in confirmation and sniffed the ground. "This way," Pakkun ran towards the east side of the village, and Kakashi hurried after him.
Naruto quickly stabbed one of the dead bodies controlled by the Dead Soul Jutsu, but it just kept coming. He quickly used a wind style jutsu to push it back.
"Konohamaru, escort Hinata to safety. I'm counting on you." Konohamaru nodded seriously and turned to Hinata. "Hinata-san, let's hurry."
Hinata looked at Naruto worriedly. "Please be safe Naruto-kun."
"Of course I will. After all, I have to be a father to our child." Hinata smiled at Naruto's words and kissed Naruto quickly. "Stay safe," Hinata said before going in the direction of the training fields. Naruto watched Hinata go, then went to stand by his teammates Sakura and Sasuke.
"Hey Sasuke, do you know how to stop them?"
"We have to kill the person who cast the jutsu of course." Sasuke said and he blew a fireball at a group of them.
"We should go after him, we can't hold them off any longer." Naruto shouted back as he used a Rasengan on one of the Dead Soul bodies.
"But Kakashi-sensei already went to help Kiba and Kurenai. Besides, how will we track the castor down?" Sakura asked as she punched one of the Dead Soul bodies halfway across Konoha.
"We're going to help them too. I'll track them down with my Senjutsu." Naruto closed his eyes and gathered sage chakra, trusting Sasuke and Sakura to keep him safe. When he opened his eyes again, his eyes were yellow with a horizontal pupil in each eye. All of a sudden he could sense every living being within a five mile radius.
"Kiba and Kurenai have stopped moving...Kiba's chakra's kind of weird, I think he got injured...wait, I sense the caster...he's heading towards the east side of the village...and Kakashi-sensei is near him. Let's hurry." They hurried towards the east side of the village, hoping that they could stop the caster before any more people get hurt.
The first thing that Kakashi saw as he turned around a corner was a kunai aimed straight for his face. Luckily, the Sharingan allowed him to dodge the attack before it landed. He stared at the cloaked figure who was standing in the middle of the road. 'He's good, I didn't sense him at all.'
"What are you doing in Konoha?" Kakashi demanded. The figure said nothing, and continued doing whatever he was doing before Kakashi came. After a couple of seconds, the figure straightened and turned to face Kakashi. Kakashi still couldn't see his or her face though, the hood of the cloak still hid it.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "Speak! Why are you attacking Konoha?"
The figure chuckled, a very familiar laugh. "Why, Kakashi, you should know that I have plenty of reasons to attack Konoha."
Kakashi's eyes widened. "You!"
The figure lifted his head, and a young man with grey hair could be seen.
Kabuto looked at Kakashi with a smirk on his face. "What? Surprised to see me?"
Kabuto's face was a lot different from when Kakashi had last seen him. His eyes were yellow with purple markings around it, like Orochimaru's.
"What happened to your face?"
"I implanted Orochimaru's cells into me. You wouldn't believe how strong I've become, Kakashi."
"So what Naruto said was true, you've really became a freak."
"Better be a freak than be weak." Kabuto said.
Kakashi took this opportunity to closed his right eye and looked around with his Sharingan, trying to see what Kabuto was planning. He inhaled sharply as he saw a large amount of chakra gathering in a space behind Kabuto. "What are you doing?"
Kabuto laughed evilly, "You've finally noticed, haven't you?" He stepped to one side and Kakashi could see what looked like a huge explosive tag.
"There are 4 of these around the village, they are set to go off at midnight. Each one of them has enough explosive power to blow up an entire village."
Kakashi's first instinct was to do whatever he could do to rip the tag off, but as he thought it over, it seemed too suspicious.
"Why are you telling me this? I can just tell Pakkun to tell my jonins and they can take the tags off while I hold you off. Even if you take me down, you are no match for the entire leaf village," Kakashi said. Kabuto laughed manically and gestured towards the explosive tag.
"You can take the tags down if you want, however, the person who takes the tag down...dies," Kabuto smirked at Kakashi's shocked expression. "Also, clones and summons don't work. Even I can't take the tags down without dying myself."
'This talk has gone on long enough,' Kakashi thought to himself. He gathered chakra around his right hand and charged towards Kabuto with a Raikiri. The Raikiri struck Kabuto squarely in the chest, however Kabuto just laughed. Kakashi pulled his arm out, and saw that the hole created by the Raikiri was already starting to heal.
"Oops, I forgot to mention that you can't kill me with anything as simple as a hole in my chest." Several snakes shot out of Kabuto's arms and wrapped themselves around Kakashi's neck and arms, choking him.
"It seems like this is all the great Copy Ninja's got. Die." Kakashi's vision started to go black. He gathered chakra behind his left eye and was about to use Kamui when a Chidori Spear cut through the snakes.
"Nobody hurts our sensei and gets away with it!" Kabuto looked up and just barely got out of the way before Sakura's fist smashed into the ground, creating a humongous cloud of dust. Before Kabuto could even try to attack Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke charged towards Kabuto from both sides, with a Chidori and Rasengan in their hands.
The two powerful jutsus hit Kabuto, and Naruto smiled triumphantly, "That's what you get!"
"Naruto, Sasuke, get back, he's not dead!" Naruto and Sasuke leaped back to land in front of Kakashi and watched in surprise as Kabuto's skin knitted back together.
"How is he healing so fast?" Sakura said and joined her team.
Kabuto acknowledged the rest of team 7 by nodding his head mockingly. "Ahh, Naruto, Sasuke, it's been a long time. And now I've seen your teammate Sakura too. The whole team seven is here."
"Kabuto, you're responsible for what happened tonight, aren't you?" Naruto snarled at Kabuto, "You coward. You blew up the safe houses, you caused many people to die today. You ordered those 9 jinchurikis to die for you! Hinata could have died today! I'm going to kill you!"
"While I'm really tempted to see you try, I'd prefer to see Konoha blow up. See you later, if you survive. I wonder what you will do, Kakashi." Kabuto threw a smoke bomb down, and thick purple smoke enveloped him. "Wait!" Naruto started forward, but Kabuto had already disappeared.
"Sensei, what did he mean about Konoha blowing up?" Sasuke asked. Kakashi quickly told his team about the explosive tags, and after he finished they were all pale with fear. Kakashi quickly turned to his ninja hounds.
"Go tell everyone about what happened, tell them to evacuate quickly!" They nodded and disappeared.
"Sensei, the tags go off at midnight right?" Sakura said hesitantly.
"Yes. If we hurry everyone should be safe."
"I don't think we have enough time," Sakura said. They all looked at her, confused. Sakura pointed at a clock that was lying in the debris of a destroyed house nearby. Despair threatened to choke Kakashi.
"The civilians will never move that fast, they won't make it in time." Kakashi knew that it takes civilians would take about 10 minutes to evacuate the village. The elderly and children would take even longer. Now he understood about the "choice" that Kabuto was talking about. Only ninja could leave the village in time before the explosive tags went off.
11:55
They could either die helping the civilians, or abandon them to their deaths.
