As Kakashi assembled his strike team Miya contacted the garrison at Sekirei Base. In the military base that had been built around the ship a permanent force of thirty ninja were stationed. They had their own commander, though he was under the overall authority of Orochimaru as the base commander. Miya did not expect anything positive but tried to contact him regardless.

"Garrison commander Renji, this is the Hokage, please respond, this is an emergency."

The screen on her hand held communicator lit up and an image appeared.

"Greetings Hokage-sama," the smiling visage of Karasuba greeted her. Around her were the dead bodies of the leaf ninja who had been stationed there. Mutsu, Haihane, and Benitsubasa were all checking to make sure there were no survivors. "I am afraid the garrison commander is indisposed at the moment." Taking a rag she cleaned her sword. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Miya frowned at the woman, she was anything but surprised. She would not have expected Orochimaru to be rash enough to act without dealing with the leaf nin outside his door. "Yes, tell Orochimaru that I am going to kill him, one way or the other."

"I'll be sure to pass that along to Orochimaru-sama, anything else?"

Miya's thumb came down on the cancel button and the screen blackened.

"Damn him," she muttered.

"Mom?" Naruto and Tsukiumi were both on his wagtail. Tsukiumi's arms were wrapped around his waist and they were ready to take off.

She hopped on her own and nodded to them. "Let's get airborne."

Naruto was only too happy to do so. Activating his flight computer he switched on the engine and felt the thrum of it beneath him. Like most hydrogen engines it was almost completely silent. The initial thrust went to the vertical lift and both his and his mom's wagtail rose swiftly twenty feet into the air. The two metal 'skids' that acted as the feet of the wagtail retracted up into the body. Once they were retracted Naruto switched power from the vertical to the primary engine. A large circle of blue flame appeared on the rear of his flier. Naruto and Tsukiumi both grunted as they thrown forward from a standing position to a hundred miles per hour in less than a second.

Together he and his mom got up to 1,000 feet and began to circle as they waited for the rest of the strike team to join them. It would not be more than a minute but Miya hated wasting any time at all while Orochimaru was busy carrying out whatever scheme he had in mind. Her one and only consolation was in knowing that the missiles could not be launched independently without the central computer, not even with Matsu's brilliant efforts. But that only meant the worst case scenario was impossible, there were plenty of other possibilities, all of them bad enough.

As she circled she thought about some of her mistakes. The worst one was caving into Sarutobi and the Council and allowing Orochimaru to remain in charge of Sekirei Base. By the time she had succeeded her husband he'd had the post of over a decade and all the leaders of Konoha, especially Sarutobi, had great faith in him. They were adamant that he be allowed to continue his important research unimpeded. Looking back she should have damn well over ruled them and gotten Orochimaru out of his post.

That had been her first mistake; her second had been allowing him to keep the ship as his own personal research base with access restricted to those Orochimaru trusted. Unfortunately, as with mistake one, that was how he had always been allowed to function. Minato had agreed to it against his better judgment. Again at the insistence of Sarutobi and the council. And again by the time she came to power everyone insisted she respect his position as Konoha's top researcher and maintain the status quo.

Flying above Konoha the monitor on her dashboard lit up. Her son's grinning face was looking at her. Though they were only about ten yards apart it would have been utterly impossible for her to hear him if he'd tried shouting to her. "What is it son?"

"Mom I just want to thank you for letting me and Tsukiumi join you for this!"

"Don't thank me!" She said harshly which wiped the smile off his face. "And don't be happy about this! This is a serious mission! It's S rank plus, and I wouldn't have asked you and Tsukiumi to join except for two reasons. The most important one being I know what the tow of you can do, and that was before winging which will greatly increase your abilities. You're both powerful and I'm afraid I may need that power."

Naruto gave a slow serious nod. "What was the other reason?"

"You have your own wagtail."

She had realized another mistake she'd made. It had been done with the best intentions but right now it was a major handicap. Over the last fifteen years she had chosen not to create a military air force, though the demands for one had been loud.

Konoha had a monopoly on flight technology, just as they had one on hydro trains, hydromobiles, solar energy and geo thermal plants, and all the other advanced technologies that were only permitted to function in the Empire of Fire. As soon as the ninja of Konoha had seen one of the shuttles flying through the air they'd instinctively realized it could be an awesome weapon. Even Minato had been in favor of creating armed fliers to be used in case of war and to help in putting down the endless uprisings in Earth and Wind.

But she and she alone had control over what technologies would be doled out and shared. In that one area she listened only to her own conscience and Sarutobi, the council, and even her darling got no say. Though few people would believe it given her own abilities and her record dealing with insurgents since becoming Hokage she had always wanted peace. As she had admitted to Sarutobi on their first meeting she had the military might to conquer this world.

She had deliberately chosen not to do so because of her own experiences with war on her home world. What she wanted was for her people to be able to live in peace. She never would have used the anti-matter missiles even once if the agreement with the Third had not required it. Since that time she had deliberately kept advanced weaponry from being shared. She'd feared that if the military difference grew too great it would lead only to expanded warfare and greater slaughter.

Enough people had died with weapons that were too powerful to be used casually. She feared that if Konoha had weapons they could use at will that the number of deaths would only escalate. She felt the best way to have peace was to be strong but not too strong. And the anti-matter missiles made that difficult. A Konoha armed with strategic bombers, tactical lazers, guided missiles, and air gunships probably would have felt almost compelled to conquer the rest of the world.

So while she introduced fliers she deliberately kept their numbers limited, and while they seemed fast in a world that had not yet invented powered flight they were actually quite slow compared to what they might have been. A wagtail was the fasted thing on the planet and it could travel only 215 miles per hour and had a maximum range of only about 600 miles. Only about fifty had been built and were meant for personal use as a fast form of travel and recreation. In the village at the moment there were likely only about twenty of them, all privately owned. The strike force Kakashi was setting up would by necessity be made up of ANBU members who owned their own.

There were about two hundred shuttles and most of those were state owned, they were meant to move men and supplies through the air where they would not be challenged. Unlike the wagtails the shuttles were fully enclosed and large enough to move eighty men or lift up to five tons of cargo. Their top speed was 190 miles per hour with a maximum range of 1,800 miles. If wagtails were thoroughbreds then the shuttles were pack mules.

The freighters were lumbering elephants. Designed to move massive amounts of goods easily and quickly they were a boon to civilian economy. Only three of them existed, the Shodai, the Nidaime, and the Sandaime. They had virtually unlimited range as they could carry enough fuel to remain air born for weeks at a time. Their top speed was only 160 miles per hour, but then they were meant for capacity not speed.

These were the only fliers that existed. They all ran on hydrogen fuel, they all used vertical takeoff (no fliers needed the use of wheels or a runway), they all had computers and computer safety protocols, and they were all unarmed and underpowered compared to what they could have been.

Miya had thought her reasons correct and was sure her decision had helped curb unnecessary wars. But right at that moment she would have liked just a couple interceptors with tactical lazers and engines capable of travel three of four times the speed of sound. They could have reached Sekirei base in a few minutes and prevented anyone from escaping.

Well, whatever she wanted she didn't have them. Her radar system alerted her as other objects approached. Kakashi had managed to assemble ten wagtails in the two minutes she had given him. And it looked as though every one of them had two ninja onboard.

That might be enough to do the job. If they got there in time to do anything. She contacted all the wagtails. "Maximum burn until we reach target." She led the formation that took on a rough 'V' like a flight of ducks. Even traveling as fast as they could it would still take 33 minutes.

She cursed silently. Maybe she should have let them build just one interceptor.

XXXXXXXXXX

In the command center Orochimaru was able to follow the progress of his people on the monitors that were not linked to the central computer.

He could see Matsu busily emptying out the small crystal cylinders that contained all the vast knowledge of the sekirei heretofore kept locked away and out of his reach. He hungered for that information. Anti-matter, space travel, bio engineering, the possibilities were absolutely limitless!

On another screen he saw Mutsu setting explosives outside the missile silos. He sighed in deep regret. He's originally dreamed of gaining control of the ship and those lovely weapons. Next best option would have been to physically take a few with him, but that was impossible they weighed several tons and were too large and bulky to be transported using shuttles. If he could have taken the anti-matter warheads…

Matsu had fainted at that suggestion. She'd explained how dangerous and unstable anti-matter was. If the containment fields failed for even a second they would all be killed in an instant. It was not something that could be improvised. So he was left with setting enough explosives to blow them up and detonate them. That would take care of the ship and the base and town that surrounded it.

Another screen brought up the shuttle bay. His sekirei were quickly filling the available shuttle with manufacturing components, the stasis tubes, and research equipment.

On yet another screen sekirei were emptying out the arsenals that Miya had kept such a carefully guarded secret, even from him. What those weapons might do, and more importantly, if they could be mass produced was another thing he was eager to learn.

Checking his watch ten minutes had gone by since he had disabled the central computer. He had at most 23 more minutes before Miya could arrive and intervene. The fifteen available shuttles would have to leave within nineteen minutes to assure they could get out of radar range and so effectively 'disappear' before the faster wagtails arrived.

So far everything was going according to plan.

XXXXXXXXXX

Miya took out her hand held communicator. Twenty minutes had now passed since the alert about the central computer. They would arrive in just fifteen more. She prayed they could make it in time. She dreaded what would happen if they didn't.

XXXXXXXXXX

Twenty five minutes had gone by. Orochimaru turned to Anko. "Shall we go?"

Anko smiled and nodded. "Sure Oro-sensei."

Outside the ship four wagtails waited. Mutsu and Matsu were on one. Benitsubasa and Haihane were on another while Karasuba was on a third. Anko went over to ride behind her while Orochimaru took the remaining wagtail for himself. He saw that cases filled with equipment had been stored on the small cargo spaces below each seat with more of them being tied on to the wings. They would take everything they possibly could.

Orochimaru looked to Matsu. "You have all the data rods?"

"Yes Orochimaru-sama," she patted a leather pouch on her hip. All the knowledge of the sekirei race fit into it.

"Excellent my darlings," he got on his wagtail and lifted off. The others did so as well. "The shuttles will launch in one minute. Let us lead them away from here."

They got more than two thousand feet in the air and headed west in the direction the shuttles would follow in.

As they hit the twenty nine minute mark the shuttle bay doors opened and the rest of the sekirei readied to escape.

XXXXXXXXXX

Miya's communicator gave a shrill alert as the bay doors opened. She had set this alert to not run through the central computer.

"Damn it!" She cried. They were now only six minutes away… but time had run out. "What a horrible waste," she said as she inputted a special pass code.

XXXXXXXXXX

On board the ship 198 anti-matter missiles received a detonation order.

Before the first shuttle could depart it, the ship, the village, and the settlement were engulfed in a sphere of pure white energy.

Everything for miles was reduced to atoms.

Except for four wagtails and their passengers who just happened to be out of range.