The Hokage's Will
Chapter Seven: Darkest Emotion
If there was one word to describe Danzo, then it was devious. The man was shrewd and ruthless. He has a distinct fanaticism to Konoha's military might, being the most powerful throughout the elemental countries as proven during the first shinobi world war. Why wouldn't it be? The village hidden in the leaves was established by the two most powerful clans before the formation of what was to be called now as Fire Country. This, along with the bountiful resources that Fire Country had in agriculture, fishery and the like, had established the nation as a powerful force to be reckoned with.
Danzo wanted to maintain that power and saw that the teachings of the Sandaime as too lenient and diplomatic. To him, there was no way to solve conflict without proper military intervention. He had seen war, he had been a part of it, he knew that killing was a necessary evil, and he would willingly do so again, if it meant Konoha would remain at the top.
It was worthy to note that the teachings of the Sandaime were stemmed from Hashirama and Tobirama of the Senju, the Shodaime and Nidaime respectively, and that those that followed after Hiruzen were also followers of their ideals. From Minato to Naruto, these leaders of Konoha had been/are, without a doubt, shining examples of their time.
Due to the images and personalities gained from each of these three leaders, the villagers and ninja alike grew to follow them in a heartbeat. Minato, after the third shinobi war, had been graced as Konoha's finest. Nothing or no one could have been compared to the Fourth Hokage. He was a prime and excellent example of what a shinobi should be. That was why the people loved him, why they followed him to an extent that bordered to fanaticism.
But even with the Yondaime, Danzo could not be convinced of this. Danzo saw the Yondaime as a fool who followed the teachings of his rival, he views the Yondaime as a weak hearted fool that could not capitalize on the sanctions given to Earth Country and possibly rid themselves of a nuisance for good after the Third War. That was why he was denied of the position to succeed the seat after him, instating Danzo as Hokage meant going to war just after the Yondaime had sealed the Kyuubi into his own son.
Shikaku had wondered what had occurred to Danzo's mind why he wanted to take matters this early on. Why couldn't he have taken the seat in a matter of five days that the Rokudaime was away? It might have been that the old war hawk had started his planning from there. He wasn't sure how the other countries would react to this, but he would be sure that it would put Konoha on a bad side if Danzo would succeed. Which he doubts it, an assault on a Kage in the presence of Five Kages no less would be quite idiotic. Danzo should have known that. Or is it that the man had finally grown impatient after years of tolerance under the rule of the Sandaime and the Godaime?
Shikaku would never know, nor would he care to ever find out. To him, Danzo is a criminal now, there was nothing more to be said about the man that had been plotting in the shadows.
Shikaku sat on the tallest building that Yamato had created, intent of observing the skirmishes that are about to take place, he could see Yamato on a fair distance by the northern gate as he stopped, along with him, were Naruto's former classmates.
Yamato then began to weave his hands to a series of seals at a fast rate, he said to the chuunin that were with him, "Do any of you trust me?"
All of them nodded, Yamato merely gave a smirk.
"Then don't move for a second, Kiba-san, Lee-san and Tenten-san. You three will serve as the strike force, I'll provide the distraction."
Yamato had then ended his slew of seals and shouted, "Mokuton: Daijurin no Jutsu! (Wood Release: Great Forest technique)"
Pillars of wood rose on the ground, propelling Kiba, Lee and Tenten straight up, all three of them look at each other as the rest of the pillars began interweaving with one another upwards, with some of them now bending and began barraging the northern gate below.
The Root operatives immediately went out of formation as the pillars began bombarding them at an astronomical rate, down below, Yamato was panting.
"The things I do for my village." The ANBU captain muttered, taking a deep breath and then nodded to the remaining members of Naruto's friends. "Chouji-san, I want you to use your Baika no Jutsu (Multi Size Technique) and serve as artillery while the others get to their work. Shino-san, I want you and Ino-san to serve as back up and you are to engage when you feel the need to, especially Ino-san since she is our medic in this field. Under any circumstance, don't intercept the ninja unless they are blindsided."
As the barrage of the wooden pillars came to a screeching halt, the five ROOT members regrouped and began scaling the bent wooden poles like a ramp. Each member was dashing on their own pillars as the three chuunin up at the summit of this wooden square structure began to prepare.
"Now, let us burn with our flames of youth and drive these people out who threaten the fire of our village!" Lee shouted raising his right hand, to his side, Kiba smirked riding his ever loyal companion, Akamaru, "Well boy, looks like we're going to have to party."
To the Inuzuka's right was Tenten who rolled her eyes; it was so typical of men. Grabbing a small scroll, she unsealed the content inside to reveal a Kusarigama and another scroll that contained a Nodachi.
"Whatever, stop dawdling and let's get this over with!" Tenten jumped as she landed on one of the pillars with Kiba jumping as he shouted, "Yahoo!"
His dog barked in agreeing as the duo jumped below, this time, Kiba was running with Akamaru, both at the same speed. Lee followed suit as he too jumped and somersaulted, landing on the wooden ramp down slope, the pull of gravity accelerating their speeds. They could feel their adrenalin pumping, as their hearts raced as they dashed downwards with the pull of the earth's gravity below, they could feel as if they were freefalling at such speeds with the wind gushing to their faces.
One of the root members in the middle clasped his hands together and formed a seal. "Ninpo: Enmaku (Ninja art: Smokescreen)"
Out of the sleeve of the one in the middle, as his area was soon covered with smoke, To Kiba, it didn't matter, "You can't get away! Gijuu Ninpo: Shikyaku no Jutsu! (Beast Mimicry Ninja Art: Four Legs Technique)"
As soon as he applied the jutsu, Kiba and Akamaru dashed even faster, as the boy squatted to Akamaru's level and dashed on his limbs. Making fair scratch marks on his side of the column. Two members then jumped from the smoke, wearing identical masks just like the one who initiated the smokescreen. Kiba could smell the scent in both of them as they lunged at him from above, Kiba then spun like a drill as did Akamaru to avoid getting assaulted by the two elite members.
"Gatsuuga! (Twin Piercing Fang)"
The two clones prevented their attacks altogether as Kiba stopped to a screeching halt as another member had appeared from underneath the wood this time, popping from the said structure and almost sliced Kiba's head off, who had ducked just in time.
It was then that a gigantic Chouji had appeared behind Kiba who then gathered chakra at the palm of his hands and throttled his hands on the area where Kiba was, "Chouharite! (Mega Palm Thrust)" The piece in front of Kiba shattered plummeting the ANBU with the cat mask down to the ground, Kiba looked back and both he and Akamaru regrouped seeing as the ANBU earlier with the Shadow Clones lunged at him once again, "Shougetsu. (Rising Moon)"
The clones of the ROOT operative swiped at Kiba with their swords sideways from the center, Kiba ducked and immediately stopped when he saw the cat masked ANBU appeared below, about to give a rising vertical slash. Kiba rolled to his side and noticed Akamaru's scent at the top of the clones. The fanged boy then recovered his footing as he dashed straight upwards with his four limbs.
Kiba then appeared this time with Akamaru once again on top, as both master and familiar began spinning like drills again and both began to intertwine this time.
"Tensouga! (Heaven Twin Fang)" The two formed a large drill-like attack easily rivalling as that of the Garouga (Twin Wolf Fang) as the two rammed towards the three shadow clones, dispelling the two clones and with the drill. The gigantic drill then drove the ANBU to the ground in a loud and sickening thud as the attack almost began digging deeper into the hole that the two had created.
With Lee:
As soon as the three of them dashed down, Lee had already prepared to loosen his bandages and had discarded his leg weights; he threw them to the ROOT member that was on his pillar, the man dodged and saw the things fall down as it picked up quite a pile of dust below and even gave a small crater to the ground. The ANBU quickly turned his head around and Lee was already giving a straight flying kick at him.
Lee's dynamic entry was parried however by the man's elbow arm padding. Lee jumped and used a summersault back landing on the wood column. The man eyed Lee carefully underneath his lizard mask; the man seemed unmoving at first until his hand flickered together. Lee wasted no time as the man finished his jutsu and unfurled a Goukakyou no Jutsu straight at him. Lee jumped and evaded the fireball. As went passed him, the elite Root member came upon him with daggers burning from his hand, Lee then kicked the man's forearms to avoid getting incinerated by those things and controlled his trajectory landing just in front of the man.
The Root member he was facing was a Katon expert and not just any Katon expert. It seemed that the man can use Katon at a close range effective enough to be weapon, his chakra was converted to flames as he held on to his dagger. "Katon: Soukoenga (Fire Release: Twin Tiger Blaze Fang)"
However once Chouji had started to shake things up with his Chouharite, Lee saw the man distracted for a moment. Quick to capitalize, Lee sped up, and in a blink of an eye, the gap between him and the man was cut short, Lee then gave a straight jab at the man's chest that had flinched from the pain. The man staggered but regained his footing, spinning around with his daggers in his hands; the flames arced in a wide angle almost grazing Lee at the cheek and at his flack jacket. Lee inwardly cursed the burning pain that he felt from his abdomen and cheek. The man then stopped, spun the dagger in his left hand in a reverse grip and then he gave forward thrust of his daggers straight at Lee who elbowed the man's left elbow drove a knee on the man's gut, the man staggered back as Lee had jumped once again and spun around.
"Konoha Senpuu! (Leaf Whirlwind)"
The man blocked with his forearm, but Lee did a reversal once his kick was parried. He used the halting force of the block and then reversed his spin, going for a low sweep kick that forced the man to fall Lee wasn't done yet, and he held the man by the elbow and disarmed his and spun around doing the same to his left before delivering a straight kick to the chest. Lee jumped down loosening his bandages even further plummeting down below as he went after the man, his bandages coming lose,
"Hachimon Tonkou, Daichimon, Kaimon: Kai! (Eight Gates Opening, First Gate, Limit Gate: Open)"
He felt the limiters in his muscles and chakra break away as the bandages unfurled and began to wrap on the Katon user whose weapons were clearly off from his hand. Lee had managed to reach the person and then began hold the man by the waist as the ANBU member was wrapped by the bandages like a cocoon.
Lee then began to spin around like a top, spinning faster and faster until they looked like a miniature tornado. Wind currents were picked up fast as Lee drove the man below to the ground.
"Omote Renge! (Primary Lotus)"
BOOM!
With Tenten:
Tenten threw her Kusarigama at the Root member with his sword drawn out, the member deflected the sickle with ease, Tenten pulled back the chain of the Kusarigama and the man still dodged. The man then accelerated his pace going directly to Tenten at such short notice, his sword brandished to his front as the sun glistened and shone its light to Tenten, casting her into his illusion.
"Magen: Shiranui (Demonic Illusion: Phosphorescent light)"
In that moment, Tenten saw what appeared to be a dancing ball of light as the image of the man contorted into a wavy pattern, going around her vision as he toyed with her senses. Tenten was never really good at Genjutsu, in fact she wasn't very talented in that field on her own as she, as Gai had trained her, was a long range expert who had improved on weapons training since invasion of the Sand and Sound. Besides, to her field, Genjutsu would likely cause more problems in her weapons training. She was trained to adapt to every single weapon she could think of, and that meant her studies in each field continued to be met with training for hours on end. From swords, axes to spears, it was too much already to do more than that.
Tenten, with her Nodachi in her right hand, blocked the white light that seemed to flicker and dance in her eyes. As she heard the high pitched sound of metal clashing against metal, she felt a sudden, painful pushing force pushing her at her back, she felt her feet lost the object she was supposed to stand on, she saw her vision as blurry, the sounds she heard were only ringing as if it was a high pitched tune that was about to destroy her eardrums, as the ringing continued to vibrate in her ear. The flicks and dances of the wisp, as she named, made its way towards at the top of her head, but her senses, her visions came to a sudden abruption, when one clear sound had broken her out of her reverie.
BOOM!
She could hear a large slamming of force just beneath her, as she was awakened to her senses, she could see the shattering of wood below and the ANBU black ops agent freefalling towards her. As she looked around a descending splinter of the wooden frame that Yamato built and destroyed by a giant palm from Chouji, descending very close to a wooden platform she could see just to her right. Fixating her descending trajectory, she landed on her feet on the descending pile of wood, and used it as a plank to jump to the platform, she threw the sickle of her Kusarigama at the platform and then swung around the giant symmetrical tree blocks and then with chakra gathered at her feet, stuck herself on a completely perpendicular piece of wood to the ground. The ninja with the owl mask that had cast the illusion earlier at her, chased after her as he jumped and weaved through the wooden blocks. Tenten had let go of her Kusarigama and then grabbed a handful of Kunai, all of them had explosive notes tied to their rings. She bit the Nodachi on the flat part of her blade as she began to run and jump through the massive coils of symmetrical wood, and fired kunai after explosive kunai to the ANBU who seemed unfazed by the impact despite the fact that he was freaking close to the to the highly explosive daggers.
That didn't seem to stop the operative as a kunai came merely centimetres away from his mask and exploding on his back. The man was clever; he used the impact to boost his speed and gained in closer to the Kunoichi. Tenten cursed her luck as she grabbed her Nodachi situated between her teeth by the handle as she defended herself from the man. The clashing of blades could be heard below as Tenten and the man clashed swords with one another. She was kicked by the man on her abdomen, as she stumbled back, but not before unsealing a small scroll from her hands and hurled it at the man; the scroll unfurled and revealed a stored seal pattern in the middle.
Tenten then raised her hand in a half ram seal and unfurled a small globular object that seemed to be glued with numerous kunai, there was a small explosive note in the middle that was about to go off.
Another loud explosion was heard and countless shrapnel had exploded as the explosive note went off, triggering the gunpowder in the ball to release the shrapnel from it. In a stifling sensation of pain, the ANBU member felt his footing on the wooden structure fall off, as he could feel his chakra loosing its grip on the wooden structure. As the ROOT member stared upwards, before he completely hit the ground, he saw a giant pole, no, a Tetsu-bo being hurled at him.
Tenten had taken cover after that explosion, as she saw the man was caught of guard. A few more seconds and the man could have had her head, as he saw the man descend from the explosion, with a few Kunai embedded on his chest and abdomen, Tenten seized the opportunity to finish the fight as she gave a jump that would be considered a leap of faith and unfurled another small scroll unsealing it and revealed a Tetsu-bo. She held it between her palms and gripped the weapon firmly. She then swung the heavy object with its tip straight at the man as they began to descend. The weapon had hit the Root member straight at the chest further plummeting them down.
They landed on the ground with a thunderous crash, as the earth below gave small fissures and cracks due to the weight of the weapon, her victim crushed under the weight.
She breathed a sigh of relief as she then looked to her sideways, Kiba and Akamaru were resting under the shade of the wood, as did Lee as they looked upwards. It felt like something was still missing.
To their surprise, another member had quickly appeared at the top, intent on taking down Chouji from the forehead straight down, his sword had glowed blue from his chakra as winds began to pick up.
"Fuuton: Ama no Fuuryuken (Wind Release: Wind Dragon Sword of Heaven)."
The chakra began to stretch and form a sharp blade that was about to descend to Chouji.
Chouji, surprised by the sudden appearance couldn't very well dodge in time, Tenten, Lee and Kiba watched as their friend was about to be sliced down in the middle, until they had seen the man was suddenly surrounded with swarms of insects.
"Hijutsu: Mushidama (Secret Technique: Insect Sphere)."
"I am sorry, I am late. My timing was a little off."
Shino had suddenly appeared on the summit of the wooden structure, hands in his pockets and his back to the enemy, as swarms of his insects enveloped the man that not even a glimpse of hair could be seen.
"I have intervened as I had deemed necessary, per Yamato-Taichou's instructions."
He then brought out his right hand open close to his face, as he said in his monotone voice, "You, who threaten the life of our comrade, shall suffer the wrath of my insects by a thousand fold."
With that, he balled his right hand into a fist as the man's chakra was consumed to an absolute zero as he descended below to the ground, his insects slowly going back to his sleeves.
Chouji dispelled his technique and gave a sigh of relief as he stumbled back. This was the third time he felt that he was going to die. It had been that close when he was about to be severed in half, he was thankful he had someone like Shino on his team.
Ino had arrived below the tree, running through each and everyone of them, checking for injuries. To her right, was Yamato who sat down under the shade of the tree, with that, the initial strike has began they just needed to wait for the remaining Konoha Shinobi to take care of the remaining ROOT problem.
Tsunade's tent:
Aoba, Shizune, and Genma were nervous. it had been a few minutes since the battle had begun. And by now, the citizens would have noticed the signs already and went back inside. Genma and Aoba were outside as Shizune was beside the Godaime, attending to her needs.
Shizune was nervous, the fact that the enemy could strike any moment was making it hard for her to focus. Tonton was at her side, concerned for his caretaker. Shizune had pet her pet pig as she sat down beside her master.
She heard the sounds of explosions, echoing through the skies of Konoha she could hear the sounds of footsteps abound as countless of her fellow ninja had begun running around the area, sniffing about of any of Danzo's forces that are about to threaten the Godaime.
Outside, Genma held his senbon between his teeth like a toothpick; his hands were at his sides not normally within his pockets. He was wary, and he should be, these were elite fighters they were taking on. Yamato's squad had the advantage when Yamato lead them and the fact that they had superior numbers compared to the people of the northern gate. He had seen almost every ANBU member take off their mask and began searching the area, so as to not confuse anyone further. Root Ninja tend to act like ANBU loyalists, but the difference is that Root Ninja do not respond to any communication unless it involves the mission. To them, there was nothing more important than the task that had been given to them.
To his right, he saw Aoba tense as he adjusted his sunglasses. The man was just as wary as Genma. These are black ops agents. They tend to be absolutely ruthless when given the task. It was what made Root so damn efficient at what they do. But they also had the lowest recruits. Often, the ninjas that are put under Danzo's training program were neglected children who are never going to attend the academy. In here, Danzo and his subordinates would brainwash these children to forget anything that had to do with their past, their lives, their ages, their hobbies, their names and the list goes on. It was inhuman, Aoba thought. These people were trained to become killers with no emotion, not even a tangible sense of guilt.
In Aoba's musings, it was then that they saw three ninja about to approach them, Aoba and Genma visibly tensed as they saw these three with hollowed look on their faces, Genma's teeth tightened the grip on his senbon.
Just in time, Shizune had appeared at the entrance of the tent, she had closed the cloth that led to Tsunade's room as she said to the ninja that stood before her, "You will not get past this point from this moment on."
Shizune then raised her right sleeve revealing a set of senbon shooters on her forearms, the weapons glistened in the sun as it accentuated its deadliness in front of the three emotionless ninja before them.
Unknown to the six combatants, a silhouette of a boy had squatted down behind Tsunade's tent; a small black rat had appeared inside sniffing around the small room.
Iron Country:
from the team, the samurai who jumped in the midst of the chaos, had pushed him to this area, as the wave of swordsmen began cutting down Root members left and right that used the woodlands as their shield with the samurai splitting into different directions intent on taking down every last one of the usurpers. Shikamaru got swept by the tide of really aggressive samurai, being pulled the sudden gush of battle when one of them dragged him into this depressing wood area and that was what led to this scenario.
Shikamaru stood up straight on a tree branch as he glanced to his side, taking a small peak at a squad of the Root Shinobi. Grabbing a pair of smoke bombs from his satchel, the lazy strategist looked to his other side and gave a deep breath.
Compared to these people, Shikamaru's physical prowess was un-appealing. He can't outrun someone like Kiba or Lee, can't outmatch Chouji and Naruto in strength, and can't even strike as fast as Neji.
Shikamaru found it troublesome to include any effort in physical training. Instead, he focused in letting his mind do the work, weaving formulaic plans that take a lot of people by surprise. Every time he used such articulate forms of tactics, almost all of his enemies play into his hands, every. Single. Time.
Shikamaru sighed again, his glaring disadvantage had been obvious earlier, and it was only thanks to his teammates that he was able to initiate the Kage Nui (Shadow Needles) at a closer proximity than he was originally comfortable in. Without something to cast a light around the area, his shadow techniques would be fairly useless. Shikamaru grasped one of the trench knives that once belonged to Asuma, gripping it with his free arm tight. As the three ninjas began to scour the dead frost of a forest, Shikamaru crouched down and began to think.
In heavily forested areas and jungle warfare, the best strategy would be to use guerrilla tactics. Striking simple but enough to slow down the opponent for easy pickings at the end, and although Shikamaru had the patience, he didn't have the drive to do such tactics here, and with his Shadow techniques out of the question at the moment, it would mean that his only choice to fight these assassins were to use his Ningu and trap making specialties.
'Fifteen Shuriken, five kunai, ten metres of ninja wire, a flash bomb, two smoke bombs, and twenty kibaku fuuda (explosive notes)… Yep, restocking is a bitch before an emergency mission.'
Shikamaru then stood up, for another time he had grabbed another stick of cigar from his former teacher's remaining stock… He popped one on his mouth and with a lighter; he ignited the cancer stick and began to let the nicotine fill his lungs. Now he knew why Asuma was addicted to this, somehow the cigarettes always made his nerves calm down.
Smoke bombs still in his hand, the young tactician ran forward, finally deciding to do his strategy.
'Ambush is out of the question, I'm not stupid enough to do that with my techniques limited, guerrilla tactics it is.'
Shikamaru then with one of his kunai, wrapped an explosive note by the handle carefully, and began stalking the three Root agents that had just went past him and separated to three different areas. Shikamaru, standing at a safe distance, flicked the kunai from his hand with it being thrown into the area that one of the operatives was at.
The Kunai had hit a trunk of the tree and gave a small resounding 'thunk!' as it embedded itself on the tree. The Root member with the ape mask looked at the kunai that had suddenly exploded, sending him careening to the side by the initial shockwave. The operative looked back from where he thought the kunai was fired and soon gave chase.
Shikamaru fastened three Explosive notes underneath the branch he had stood on then jumped below after throwing the first kunai, as he had hid himself below from of the bushes, he then grabbed four shuriken from his pouch and then changed his position to get a better angle to aim the throwing stars.
Once the member had landed on the branch that he had made, Shikamaru propped his hands together for a ram seal and the three explosive notes immediately had set off and ignited causing a resounding boom throughout the forest.
The Root Operative then fell down, emerging from the black smoke caused by the charred remains of the tree above. As the man descended from the freefall, Shikamaru, seeing that the man was now blindsided, flicked the four shuriken from his pouch and threw a kunai. Sure enough, the four shuriken had embedded itself on the man's limbs with the kunai sailing through the man's throat. Shikamaru thought he had a lucky shot at that. He expected someone like Tenten to do that kind of difficult shot. But then again, he wasn't too shabby on his Ningu usage, or so he thought.
Shikamaru immediately leapt away from the scene before those two members manage to jump him at the moment, Shikamaru's features darkened, flicking a smoke bomb in the area to bide him more time on how to attack the remaining two members currently on his tail.
'One down!'
Smoke had littered the area to where the two operatives arrived, seeing the fallen form of their comrade, they checked on the dead man and looked everywhere.
"The wind pipe has been pierced, based from position that he had fallen and the angle of the kunai, the enemy has taken a southwest route."
With that, the two ninja had flickered out of sight.
Over to the more forested area, Shikamaru then whisked his plan into motion. Now that the one of them was out of the fight, this would be a whole lot easier than he had thought, and if worse comes to worst, then a little gamble with the flash bomb would be his last resort.
As soon as he began weaving trap after trap with his Ninja wire and fifteen explosive notes around a small area, Shikamaru then grabbed one of the three remaining kunai in his pouch and planted one on top of the canopy of branches above. It was a good thing there was no light source for once, if there was then the shadow of that kunai could have been utterly obvious.
As he finished attaching the wires to the kunai on top, letting the tension of the wire reach its peak, Shikamaru then jumped away. He had two kunai and eleven shuriken left, coupled with a flash bomb that was all the tools he had left, and still no jutsu was used. Shikamaru's never ending patience was seemingly running thin. For him to be in this kind of disadvantage, it was terribly frustrating and difficult!
Shikamaru then turned to a corner, marking one of the trees with a slash from his kunai. Shikamaru knew that these people would be treating this mark as a decoy, and that was the pineapple headed chuunin had wanted them to think.
Naruto is going to owe him for this later, big time.
As soon as he had let his trap set into motion, he made it a point to let himself get in the way of the Root agents for the first time. Finally making his tracks obvious, Shikamaru leaned forward a little and soon ran like the devil itself was chasing after him.
When the operatives had finally managed to obtain the real tracks left behind by the chuunin, they soon ran at full speed following the trail left behind by the Nara, once they had caught up to Shikamaru, Shikamaru threw four shuriken that were easily deflected by the two masked ninja. Shikamaru then pulled out his remaining smoke bomb and tossed it on the ground, the smokescreen littered the area in a blanket of grey smog that the two agents got into. Shikamaru had then jumped from the smoke and immediately let loose eight shuriken from his hands and heard the sounds of multiple tensioned wires being effectively cut, springing the wires and lashed towards the blanket of smog like whips as it waved in the air and bound the operatives like the slithering body of a viper. Once the smoke had cleared, Shikamaru could see only one person in the binding tap that he made.
'Shit!'
Shikamaru then turned around and saw that the ANBU was already on top of him, with his sword brandished upwards.
Shikamaru had two kunai left in his pouch, and he tossed it at the man before jumping back and unfurling three more shuriken and throwing it at the remaining mobile Root member. Shikamaru cursed his luck, he had no more Ningu at his disposal, his jutsu were too close range for him to do the next step and the man that was bound by his trap was about to get out. Shikamaru then raised his right hand and formed a half ram seal.
The member then looked down as the explosive notes gave of a hissing sound as the sparks and flames began eating away at the paper.
As each of the explosive notes ate itself whole, a resounding explosion could be heard in the dense woodlands of Iron Country, wiping out a single man, now only charred remains, as a small crater bore itself as a testament to the fifteen explosive notes that had went off at the same time.
Through this small distraction, Shikamaru capitalized the moment and held out Asuma's trench knives and then threw them to the man who jumped away. Not one to finish his last gamble, Shikamaru then tossed his only tool left to his back…
A flash bomb.
With it making contact on a small tree, the bomb went off and gave such a blinding white light that the remaining operative in Shikamaru's sights shielded his eyes, Shikamaru, in that very second had finally began moulding his chakra and activated his Kage Nui.
The branches of the shadow needles crawled through the trench knives and instantly expanded, as it rose upwards and ascended like blades of grass and descended on the blinded man finally impaling him on every conceivable part of his body.
The man fell down in a limp as Shikamaru gave a sigh of relief, the tactician slumped on the forest and gazed up, how he wished that things were simpler back then when they were kids…
Shikamaru didn't care anymore. He just wanted to take it easy for a moment while staring lazily towards the dull and grey clouds that blanketed the skies of Iron Country. Shikamaru then let out another cigarette from Asuma's last pack and lit the said nicotine stick.
"I can see why Asuma-sensei was addicted to this stuff."
Another puff of the said stick and Shikamaru rested his head comfortably on the bark of the tree. He'd get back to his team later, right now; he wanted to recover his mind from doing those things so much. He'll be back… Eventually.
Hinata:
The moment the gates were opened, and the moment that the men had begun their assault, Hinata had activated her Byakugan to see just where her teammates were. When the Samurai had literally bulldozed their way towards the positions of the ANBU members, her vision shifted when she saw the collapse of the giant earth wall that was severed on its lower part. Resulting in the collapse of said wall and burying some of the ninjas there. Her vision however, shifted again when she heard Kakashi questioning her about Naruto's chakra coils. Which, surprisingly enough, were intermingling with each other, and that Naruto had three types of chakra flowing in him, the myriad of blue, green and red entered her vision, looking at the center of Naruto's chakra reserves. She could see that the green energy and the red one were trying to cancel each other out. In the middle laid the blue, normal chakra that was trying to absorb both. When the red one somewhat stabilized, the green energy began to feed the blue more of its energy as it then began to mix.
It had looked like Sage Mode had the ability to neutralize some negative effects that the red chakra had, the malevolent red energy was being put on stasis, slowly being absorbed by the blue energy.
Her musings were cut off when she had seen to her back, was an ANBU member that was poised to strike her down, until a blast of wind had sent the man flying from her and hitting the cold hard ground, skidding to the snow by the attack
"Hakke Kuushou (Eight Trigrams: Wind Palm)"
"Please do not let your guard down, Hinata-sama." Neji quickly implied as he chased after the Root ANBU reeling back his hand giving a palm strike directly at the chest.
Hinata nodded and turned around, her sights focused on the person in front of her, it was another operative.
Byakugan still active, Hinata had lowered her stance to the Jyuuken, palms open and faced against her would be assailant, charging palms open. The Root ANBU jumped overhead just as Hinata had outstretched her palm, sailing past over the man that had used a summersault over her, the operative then raised his sword, about to slash Hinata in a vertical swipe. The girl fluidly dodged to her right and directed her palm to the ANBU member's back. The operative twisted his body as he landed down, carefully evading the attack by mere centimetres from his spine. The man then landed on his free left hand and was about to swipe his sword horizontally at Hinata's thighs, but the girl managed to jump back evading the attack that could have crippled her for life.
Maintaining her stance in the Jyuuken, Hinata watched her opponent carefully. Studying the man carefully before making another assault, Hinata focused her vision to his chakra system that was now flowing like a cascading waterfall.
'Neji-niisan has more experience in fighting armed shinobi than I am. Tenten-san had been his sparring partner for a long time. I've been more used to fighting enemies unarmed. This would be difficult. But Neji-niisan always said that sword users are predictable to where and how they swing, if it's above their head, they will do a vertical cut, if it's by the waist or torso with the hilt forward, it's a horizontal slash and if the blade is pointing forward…'
The man then poised ran towards Hinata, his body flickering from side to side, the tip of the blade as expected, was pointed towards her.
'A thrust!'
Hinata simply leaned her torso to her left, effectively dodging the blade, Hinata then with her right arm, grabbed the man by the wrist with her two fingers; tried to poke the man's tenketsu situated on his solar plexus.
The man blocked with his free arm, using his white arm as a shield. Hinata then adjusted her strike and instead of poking the man by the chest, she directed her finger to close the tenketsu on the man's right arm.
Somehow, Hinata could hear a silent grunt of pain coming from the operative as he felt the grip on his sword loosen.
Hinata then felt the man force his sword down, Hinata then stepped forward and ducked. The blade completely missing her by a few inches as she went past the hilt, Hinata countered with another palm strike, this time, to the nape of his neck, trying to destroy the man's peripheral nervous system. The man simply ran forward, with Hinata missing her strike.
The man grunted in pain as he tried to lift his right arm but couldn't do so; there was that tingling, numbing pain that he had felt. But pain was a mere obstacle, Root had taught him that. Pain blocks what the mind wants, survival instincts are non-essential to ninjas of Root, to them; they had been trained to ignore their flight response as normal humans. Fighting would be their only option, if anything, if it meant cutting your own arm off to succeed in the mission then do so. By all means, you exist for the mission, nothing else.
The member could not feel his right arm, the prickling sensation sent to his right arm was all there is, it looked somehow limp. But the man still held onto his sword tighter, as if his own will had strengthened in holding his katana.
Forcing his hand up, the member didn't flinch or once wince with the amount of pain delivered to his right arm. All he knew was that he needed to win; the drive in his mind to finish and succeed in the mission was all that he needed. Nothing more. It was the belief that his superior had instilled in his mind for as long as he was active.
In Root, you do not exist…
You have no past…
You have no present…
You have no future…
Only the mission.
Hinata watched intently as the man forced his right arm to chest level, forcing chakra on the closed Tenketsu point that she had just blocked, she could see how the man was forcefully opening the small blocked point. She found herself cringe at the amount of pain that it must be doing to him. Forcefully opening your tenketsu point would lead to a serious amount of injury, one of which was straining the chakra coils that stream the energy all around the body. A forceful opening could lead to the collapse or burst of the veins that travel the chakra to different parts of the body.
The man used a ram seal as he began moulding chakra and then held his sword in a reverse grip.
"Ninpo: Mikadzuki no Mai (Ninja Art: Dance of the Crescent Moon)."
The man then separated to two, as the two clones began hovering to her side, as it looked like a firefly dancing in the wind. Hinata knew better though, as her Byakugan had already foreseen where her opponent was. Hinata began concentrating chakra on her palms as she began to thin it out like a sharp thread, as she began weaving around her area of what seemed like a net of repelling chakra.
"Shugo Hakke Rokujyuyonshou! (Guardian of the Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms)"
The man's blade from atop was parried and deflected away from his hands, as he was suddenly caught in the dome of the repelling chakra net, hitting him in every part of his body as it seemed like a thousand needles had just rained and was piercing his skin in a sharp and continuous amount of pain.
Hinata wasn't done yet, as she put the base of her palms adjacent to each other in a vertical manner with her palms open she struck the man in the middle of his chest.
"Izayoi Tenbu! (Sixteenth Moon Night Heaven Dance)"
Chakra shot out of her palms piercing the man at the chest, destroying every chakra pathway as the lights of the energy pierce the man riddling his body like bullets. The man convulsed in midair and was blasted away by the force of the attack.
Hinata turned around; another member had appeared, this time from the ground. The member lunged at her with his katana drawn. She gritted her teeth, defeating the first one was not an easy feat, and facing another one was just a problem waiting to pile up, one after another. Hinata then bared it with gritted teeth, even if these people were stronger than her, if it meant that she would defend Naruto with her life; then she would whole heartedly do so as she did before!
"This is my last gamble… Jyuho Soushiken! (Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists)"
She could feel the chakra on her hands glowing and dancing like wildfire as a pair of lion heads had began to take shape on her palms.
"For the person that I love… I will do anything!"
That confident smile that she had shown now, was all the answer that the ANBU shall get before she thrusts the attack straight to the man's body.
Sakura:
For most of the onslaught that occurred, Sakura stayed behind the lines and began treating injuries left and right, she had a competent medical staff to her aid and a very responsive medical unit at her disposal. The Samurai may be no slouch and posed an even more intimidating figure than the ANBU, but they were people that specialized in combat more, while shinobi branched out in different areas. Versatile, the Samurai were not.
"Get the antidotes ready for anyone who get's poisoned, have all the injured place in one area, separate the people those who are in mild and in critical injuries. Make the area for the critically injured close to our proximity as possible. Divide this unit into teams of three, three for every patient that are in critical condition, one for every mildly injured person. Make sure you all have your soldier pills for an additional chakra boost!"
Sakura began yelling orders left and right, being the apprentice of the Godaime Hokage, she knew more what was normal for her age. Tsunade considered her a prodigy in this field, with a potential to surpass her one day. Sakura began skimming through the notes as medics from left and right began delivering the wounded one by one, with some of them obtaining wounds themselves though minor.
She stopped for a moment, looking sharp as she could feel the killing intent well up from underneath the earth, she then commanded for the medic corps to stand back as she wore her black gloves and said, "Never underestimate a medic nin!"
Sakura punched the ground in such a violent manner, that the ground beneath her shattered. Fissures and slabs of earth rose up and spiked revealing a Root Shinobi that had been stalking them for quite sometime.
Sakura cracked her knuckles once again and said, "Nobody messes with my friends."
With that, Sakura darted like a lightning bolt, already on top of the man that had shook of his dizziness. Dodging another chakra induced punch that further caved the ground below.
Sakura then jumped, as the man began to breathe out fireballs at him with a Housenka. With a twist of her body in mid-air, she dodged the fireballs and raised her right leg above her head. She had seen Tsunade-shishou do this often when she was training her. Tsunade drilled it into her mind that a medic nin's job was to not be allowed to be hit. Dodging became first nature to her; she had become proficient at it that Tsunade said that many people would mistake her to have the Sharingan. Another was that Medic nins only fight as a last resort. Given that a medic was a vital part of the team, fighting was not an option, however if worst came to worse then fighting would be the obvious choice. It was in times like these that Tsunade had taught her fiercely aside from medical jutsu.
"Tsutenkyaku! (Painful Sky Leg)"
The ground shattering heel strike to ground shook the man of his bearings as Sakura had suddenly appeared on his side. Grabbing him by the nook of his shirt, Sakura tossed the man in mid-air with her nearly monstrous Tsunade-like strength and punched the man hard in the gut piercing through organs and with the lower half of the spinal column shattering from the blow.
Kakashi and Gai had appeared just in time to provide as back up, Kakashi was concerned about the Hokage who had ran off and fought Danzo on his own so he went back to find Sakura in case there was a backlash of this new type of power that the Hokage had accidentally accumulated. He had known that Naruto was feeling the stress levels of the political talks was reaching him at boiling point, add to the fact that Sasuke appeared and disrupted the meeting and facing Madara about the truth behind the Uchiha clan, Kakashi wasn't surprised that all of these revelations after revelations mentally exhausted Naruto so much that it left him quite frustrated about the whole thing.
Gai on the other hand, appeared just in time to double check the medic nin corps, with the brunt of the assault force fighting off the Root forces along with the leader of Iron, Gai thought it would be more prudent to be on guard for the medic nin corps, besides, out in the battlefield was Neji and Shikamaru, Gai would trust these people would be okay on their own, he just wished that the Hokage would keep his cool.
He had noticed that Naruto started to slump a little when they were about to exit the gates, and from the bags under the Hokage's eyes, it showed the fatigue that settled within him. He wasn't sure if he could leave him alone like that, after all, almost half of the attacks that was dealt to Sasuke was Naruto's doing, and he could see just how much it pained Naruto in doing so. Kakashi seemed to mutter something along the lines of, "It's the Valley of the End all over again." when they were in the hallways a little earlier.
Gai had not personally heard about this particular mission from Neji, as the boy refused to tell about it, as it was, Neji didn't want to talk about a mission that was an utter failure, and even though Neji got to open up, some of the accounts after Neji's and Lee's battles were missing, so he didn't know what exactly occurred at the end of the mission that led to its failure.
It was then that two ROOT ninja had appeared right in front of them, from the disposition that each of them gave; they were probably high in Danzo's rankings.
"Well, well, looks like I'll get to see more action after all." Kakashi then unfurled the Sharingan covered from his forehead protector, and gave a simple hand seal. Gai merely went for his Gouken stance.
"Sakura, go and see to Hokage-sama, Hinata is near his vicinity, she should be able to tell what occurred and what might happen." Kakashi commanded the pink haired chuunin who nodded.
"Keep Hokage-sama safe and uninjured! We will handle this and catch up to you in a moment!" Gai continued, not taking his eyes off their opponents.
Sakura nodded and ran off towards the Hokage, who was mere minutes away in killing the leader of Root.
Naruto:
Rage, indescribable fury welled from within Naruto's mind. Nothing could be compared to what he had felt when Danzo mentioned his actions against his mother, he could feel his anger rising and brewing like a storm back then, Naruto could only see red at that time. This anger and rage that he felt was worse when Kabuto almost killed Tsunade, when Sasuke left Konoha, worse than Jiraiya's death. It had hit him hard, harder than anything he could have felt. Was it the same for Sasuke when he saw his family die over and over again?
Naruto couldn't answer that question for the moment, for he had poised a kunai at Danzo's throat, the man responsible for ruining his and Sasuke's lives. The man that indirectly destroyed Konoha by allying with himself with a questionable leader, the man that had been under suspicion of using Akatsuki to kill the Sandaime, his grandfather figure, Naruto couldn't stand such the repulsive man before him, it only brought on his anger and unending hatred of the man so much.
With that, he had brought down the hammer of justice upon the wicked man that was Danzo.
And impaled the man by the right shoulder…
The old man grunted in pain as he felt the blade of the weapon piercing his flesh, blood began to damp Danzo's kimono. Oozing out to where the kunai was impaled. The man looked at Naruto who was looking at him with rage filled eyes, eyes of malice and wrath, eyes that could set fire to any object it sees. And right now, those eyes were piercing Danzo to the very pits of his soul.
"Death is a punishment too good for someone like you, you piece of shit! I have a better one in mind!"
Naruto then let his chakra focused to a single point of his right index finger; the chakra flickered and sparked brightly as Naruto then began to point it at Danzo's forehead.
Naruto then began carving the seal with his chakra on the man's forehead; it was an improvised seal that he had come up on the fly from his training a few days ago. Carving the character void on the old war hawk's forehead, Naruto then proceeded to his hand seal sequence then. He had intended to use this as a restraining measure if ever he encountered Sasuke on his way to the summit, but he couldn't exactly test this on Kakashi as it would have brought problems at an initial test. But to Danzo, he could do this without restraint, without holding back, without as much as a problem.
He first started with the seal of the Boar to suppress what he wanted to suppress, Danzo's Sharingan. Then he proceeded to use the seal of the ever noble tiger, the destroyer of all things, the symbol of flames and power. The rat for spreading the seal and start the connection of the network within Danzo's chakra system, and finally the Ram to finish and mould the chakra to a single focal point.
With that, Naruto touched the forehead of the extremist leader again and the seal had glowed. Within Seconds, Danzo could feel his Sharingan suddenly vanish from his right eye, like somehow, it deactivated. He could feel his chakra coils move to a standstill for a second and then a few minutes later, he couldn't feel his chakra anymore, he felt himself fall beneath the lowest of the low, as he felt utterly powerless to the boy that stood before him those cross eyes showing that undeniably heated glare against him. He could feel that the Hokage had wanted to do more than just seal away both his chakra and Sharingan, but the restraint from the man was unbelievable.
Naruto then could feel his sage chakra and the bijuu chakra dying down from him, as he knelt over the body of Danzo and began pummelling the beaten man on the ground. All the while, Naruto was crying his tears out.
"Bastard! You killed her! You killed her! You ruined my life! You ruined our lives!"
Naruto kept pounding, pouring all his anger and sadness into his fists.
"I wanted to kill you! I wanted to murder you! Make you feel pain before finally lobbing of your head!"
Another set of punches flew on the man, as Naruto continued pounding the man on his face as he broke Danzo's jaw.
'The answer to peace is understanding, Naruto, remember that!' The voice of Jiraiya echoed in his mind
Flashback:
"Mama! Where are you?" A crying three year old Naruto walked through the hallway of their tiny apartment, looking for his mother.
"I had a nightmare!" Naruto continued between sobs. Holding his closed hands to his eyes, trying to dry out the tears.
"Where are you mama?" Naruto continued
Thunder echoed throughout the house, a rainstorm had occurred that night, Naruto was crying, calling out for his beloved mother's voice,
"I'm scared! I'm cold! Where did you go?"
Flashback end
Naruto continued to pound the man's face as he could feel all of his anger and his rage balled into one moment.
Naruto punched the old war hawk to the face before he finally screamed all of his anguish out in the open.
As Naruto stood up, he could feel his eyes began to water more, as tears began turning to blood, Naruto coughed out more blood from his mouth as he looked on to the snow covered ground. He knelt down and finally collapsed. Red and blue marks began appearing on his right hand, as he slowly fell into unconsciousness.
'Right here, Naruto-chan.'
A voice echoed through his mind before slowly succumbing to the darkness.
To be continued…
Goddamn job hunt. I'm still searching for one and I manage to write this during my breaks. I've decided to do this to different internet cafes so that they won't recognize me, any of you know how uncomfortable it is to write a story in the presence of people that keep staring at you? I sure do. I've got two reasons to celebrate though, I watched the boxing match a week ago and damn, I won such a high rolling bet, (200 dollars!) not only that, it was one of the best I've watched in a long time. Pacquiao vs. Cotto, if any of you are interested in boxing, you must have watched the fight. If not, you missed out on such a big event.
Woohoo! More than a thousand favourites for this one! A milestone in my works. Honestly? I wanted to make the other characters shine in this event, I still feel very iffy about Ino, for one, out of all in their age group, Ino has yet to engage in a serious combat (the one with Hidan and Kakuzu doesn't count!). Damn it, I even had to go back and re-play Narutimate accel 2 to find something that might make her more of a kickass ninja, but alas, I couldn't. Aside from that missile drop kick (Gekka Bijin) and that Genjutsu, (Choushinka).
Well, I've made Sakura much more of a bearable character for this one in my opinion. All the while, many of you were enraged with Sakura's sudden confession that hit like a truck, I was somewhat laughing my ass off at that, me and my friends reading the manga shouted it came out of nowhere and was stupid as hell. So we just laughed it off, Kishi sure knows how to ruin his main characters, he screwed Naruto one over a few months ago, and this time it's Sakura. Rest assured, they will have this talk about their friend more; just not in the way it was supposed to be delivered to make Sakura more likable. Also, addressing romance again? Well, like Kishi, I'm no good at writing romance and lemon (Never tried writing them, never will for lemon at least) so I'll just have to do a Toriyama and surprise you all at the end (Naruto's reaction to Hinata's confession shall come soon, just don't expect it to be romantic to not be disappointed). Right now, romance isn't important at the start of the greatest war in the Naruto world. I'm focusing more on the plot. About Danzo, well, I didn't want to kill him yet for Naruto has plans for the useless beaten war hawk yet.
Take a good guess who said the last line near the closing sentence. If ever someone guessed it right, they get virtual cake!
Also, story challenge is up in my profile! Check it out if you want to have a go at it!
Reply no jutsu: A segment I made to reply to some anon reviewers, pretty much any reviews that I can't reply to that I need to.
Ok, let's get one thing straight, Naruto didn't NEED to use Kyuubi on this one, he could pound the old fogey to death in Sage Mode alone. Yet, with his stress levels reaching at its peak, and with the realization that the said cripple had killed Naruto's mother with that arrogant smirk on his face, Naruto eventually snapped. A reference for this would be Naruto and Pain's fight. Revelation after revelation, with Hinata's confession being the final push to break Naruto's rage out like a fire hydrant and immediately transforming Naruto to his six tailed state finally reaching the peak of eight tails. Remember, he wasn't in sage mode at this time, as he was impaled to the ground.
Think of this, and not in a logical way, what would you do if you find out that the person in front of you, right now, after a hard day at work, being yelled at by your boss, and with insurmountable paperwork on your desk, you find out that this was the fucker that had ruined your life as a kid by killing your mother? And he said it with an arrogant smile on his face as he stared at you with those amused eyes, what would you feel? Me? I'd be completely mad to the point I'd be seeing red and probably end up beating the guy to an inch of his life. Naruto is human, as human as any other person there is, he isn't perfect. The reason why he used the Kyuubi's chakra was because he was mad to a point that he WANTED to murder Danzo (Anger triggers Kyuubi), his mother's murderer, the one who denied him of a love that he had so desperately yearned for his life. Think about that for a second and come up to a conclusion, would Naruto have simply held back with his emotions in check and let Danzo do as he pleases? Hell no! Naruto may have understood the loss of someone close with Jiraiya's death and Sasuke's desire for revenge, he had wanted to kill Pein but denied himself of that thought, even though Naruto had sworn off revenge, he still is, at his core, a human. Here, he will understand the effects of revenge that had been fulfilled or partially, thus leading him closer to understand the pain of emptiness after such a struggle. Naruto may have become a leader, but his heart is still carried on his sleeve. Nothing will change that. That's what's make Naruto who he is.
Okay, now on with the part of 'Naruto relies on Kyuubi too much', Kyuubi is a part of Naruto and that fact won't change. It's like saying Sasuke relies too much on his Sharingan, Neji relies too much on his Byakugan, Shikamaru relies too much on his brain. Naruto, for most of his life, relied on the Kyuubi. If it wasn't for the Kyuubi, he wouldn't have his large chakra capacity, his regeneration, and his ungodly stamina. What you are witnessing, is the fact that Naruto is a jinchuuriki, the truth won't change, and it certainly won't at the very end. If Naruto had a bloodline, he'd use that, but since he has Kyuubi, he'll use it when he needs to or doesn't when he can't get his emotions in check.
On with this jive about the Mangekyou Sharingan, I can't reply to anon reviewers so I'm saying it here. We have seen partially of what the price of the Mangekyou Sharingan has given its users, blindness. For a doujutsu user, it's a terrible blow, for one, you can't use your Doujutsu if you're freakin' blind or your vision is hazy that would totally mess with your visual perception and acuity (With your peripheral vision in the dumps, that's already a bitch), you can't aim Amaterasu well, eye contact would keep you guessing, hell, if you want to make eye contact from afar, you need to wear glasses because you won't know if your opponent will look at you straight at the eye. That has got to be a kick to the crotch to someone like Sasuke (Mind you, he has been keeping his myopic eyes from his teammates) who flaunts his eyes so much that he'll eventually go blind. Why should I NOT give a price to Naruto's power? All power has a given price, Cursed Seal? Sanity, lifespan etc. Jinchuuriki? Seclusion, instability, fears of a takeover from the beast yadda, yadda, yadda. I mean fuck man, giving unreasonable power ups is well… Unreasonable, there's no fun, there's no challenge… Where's Naruto's theme of rising through adversity after that? (DNA wo Makeneze!) Besides, to me, Naruto is a diamond in a beach of rhinestones, many would pass Naruto as goofball or a moron, but he isn't an idiot, he just learns differently, but when he does, he learns fast.
Okay, now that I got that off my chest, read and review!
