Chapter 4;

Countdown

Aboard one of the many ships now waiting along the border of the Earth Country, Yukio sat in his throne with an expression of impatience on his face. This six guards in the room stood against the walls watching the door in silence looking like they wanted nothing more than for someone else to come and replace them. Yukio, though aware of this, paid no mind to it. He was used to his guards being afraid of him, he'd lost his temper on more than a handful of them before.

The guards hands dropped to the swords at their sides as the door opened. They relaxed a bit as they watched the red haired Homaru walk into the room. He shut the door behind him and Yukio smirked strangely in the direction of the wall to the right of the doorway. Without a glance at them he walked straight up to Yukio and bowed slightly. "You sent for me, Yukio-sama?"

He turned his attention from the wall and faced Homaru as he spoke and the smirk left his face. "Have the Elites been assembled?" He asked curtly.

"Nine of them have arrived so far...there's no sign of the other three yet." He responded quickly.

"I wanted this over and done with within a week and it's been five days already. We'll give the others two more days, then we attack whether they're here or not." His gaze suddenly left Homaru and shot to the wall beside one of his guards. "And if you touch that guard, I'll kill you."

Homaru followed his eyes in confusion. "What? Who are y-"

He was cut off as a voice began to laugh from the spot Yukio was staring at. The guard jumped back in surprise as a man seemed to materialize out of thin air right next to him. The man looked to be in his mid twenties and has messy black hair that hung down to his shoulders. On his belt he carried a pair of twin daggers.

"Lighten up Yukio, I was just tryin' to have a bit'a fun!" The man said with a laugh as he stepped forward.

Homaru gave the man a menacing look that made the guards cringe. "Juube! How did you get in here!"

"You really need to pay more careful attention to your surroundings Homaru...he followed you through the door before you shut it." Yukio stated plainly.

The new arrival took a look around the room at all of the guards before shouting "Go on! Get outta here ya worthless pieces'a trash! I need to have a little talk with Yukio-sama here." 'Sama' was said with a great deal of sarcasm.

The guards all turned to Yukio for orders and were out the door as fast they could be the second he gave the okay. Homaru however stood his ground, still glaring at Juube. Yukio leaned back in his chair and grinned as soon as the door fell shut. "Well then...what is it you want?"

"I've been meanin' to ask you why we're actually wastin' our time here. And don't give me that shit about 'bringing the traitors to justice', you don't give a damn about the traitors. Hell, what they did didn't even happen in our lifetime. Just what're you really after, Yukio?" He demanded.

Yukio simply laughed and shifted position in his throne. "I figured one of you Elites would see through that sooner or later. It's true that I don't have any interest in the traitors themselves. But do you happen to know what it was the traitors actually did, Juube?"

The man just gave him a puzzled look. "Does anyone, really? They were labelled traitors by the Emporer and they ran. Come to think of it...I really never even thought about what they might've done. Who gives a shit though, Yukio! It's ancient history now...it happened nearly five hundred years ago!"

"I spent years thinking that over, Juube. After they ran, the military spent nearly two hundred years searching for them before finally declaring it a lost cost. What reason would they possibly have to spend two centuries searching for a little group of traitors? Finally I realized...it's because they took something with them. Something important...something powerful. Think, Juube. What was it that mysteriously vanished hundreds of years ago?"

Juube stood there starting to look aggravated...then he realized what Yukio was talking and he instantly returned to the smirk he'd had when he first entered the room. "No...it can't be...their dissapearance was explained. You can't possibly mean the relics!"

-

"The situation has really become that bad...?" Kakashi said more to himself than anyone else as he followed Gai through the deserted streets of Hidden Stone.

"From what I saw last night the ships didn't appear to be from any of the hidden villages. We're dealing with an enemy we know nothing about." Gai responded with a seriousness that didn't fit him.

"No...we're dealing with an entire army of enemies we know nothing about. Hopefully the Tsuchikage's plan will at least be enough to hold them off."

Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura had arrived in the early hours of the morning after Gais team had arrived. A group from Hidden Stones special forces had escorted them to the inn where the others were being allowed to stay where they waited for the Tsuchikage to call for them. Now it was noon and the two Jounins were on their way back from their meaning with the villages leader to inform their teammates of the parts they would play in the coming battle.

They entered the inn to find Naruto, Lee, Tenten, and Sakura all sitting around one of the dining tables talking while Neji was busy doing his loner thing and sitting at a different table clear across the room. The room fell suddenly silent as everyone turned to their senseis. Or would have if Lee hadn't leapt to his feet and yelled "Welcome back, Gai-sensei!"

"Not now Lee", Kakashi said as he raised a hand to prevent Gai from responding, "The Tsuchikage has given us our assignments."

"It's about time." Mumbled Neji.

"Hidden Stones forces will be divided into ten groups. Each group will be strategically placed at different points around the village." Kakashi began.

"Myself, along with Sakura and Tenten, will be joining the seventh division. Gai and Lee will going with the third division." He glanced to Naruto and then to Neji.

"Naruto and Neji...the two of you have the most important mission of all. You will be joining the Tsuchikages personal guard. Everyone should relax as much as they can for as long as they can. The enemy might not attack for a month, or they could be crossing the mountain as we speak."

-

Juube paced the beach near the fleet of ships alone, a cunning grin plastered on his face. He appeared to be waiting for something, as he kept stopping and glancing around every couple minutes. Seeing nothing he would then continue to pace along the sand. Finally a large group of rowboats came into view, coming to shore on the beach. He stopped pacing and smirked at them as around fifty men and women stepped out of the little boats and stood before him. One of the women stepped forward and looked him over. "Our orders were to wait in the ship, as were yours. We could all get in serious trouble of Yukio-sama learns of this. Now why is it you asked us to meet you here?" Her voice sounded angry, but her eyes showed a great deal of interest.

Juube laughed. "Don't gimme that crap, if you were actually scared of Yukio you wouldn't even be here. You let me worry about him...the old bastard'll get what he wants."

One of the men spoke this time. "We're not afraid of him because we're under your command, Juube-sama. Regardless though, we'd prefer not to anger him."

"I told ya to let me do the worryin'. Now listen up. Right now Yukio is sittin' in his little throne not doin' shit, chances are he'll never even miss us. He wants to wait for all twelve of us elites to assemble before attackin', but personally I think that's a load of bull. Based on Homarus report the people in this village are a buncha weak-ass idiots."

The woman spoke again. "So what are you saying?"

"I'm sayin' screw Yukio and screw his orders. The fifty of us should be more than sufficient, so get back to the ship and get ready. We strike at dusk!"