Amaterasu – Infernal Chronicles of Naruto
Legal: Naruto & co. © Kishimoto
Author's Note: Well another "experimental" chapter. Another first person view, but you'll have to read to find out who's the narrator this time around. Also I will try hard to actually be descriptive with a battle this time around. Also just a side note, I won't be able to update this story as fast anymore, I have classes now and they take up quite a bit of time.
Not betaed
Chapter 8
Hot Gates
I felt shocked; something heavy sank down my whole body. Then slowly coming to my senses my whole body felt boiling hot, an urge to cough.
Cough
Holding my left hand before my mouth I coughed. After coughing hard three times the urge stopped. I felt something warm and sticking in my left hand and as I held it out to look inside the palm I saw red, crimson blood.
Suddenly I heard another cough, higher pitched, smaller. Turning my head to my right I saw Sakura's left shoulder and the floor in front of her sprayed with blood. Hero, too, coughed up blood. A shadow loomed in front of us all the sudden. Tsunade had moved from her desk right in front of us, she held my left hand fiercely.
"Naruto, Hero, both of you still haven't recovered from the forbidden Jutsu you used during the training the other day. No active duty for either of you for another two days! This is an order, understood?"
"But … you can't expect me to just sit back while Sand is being invaded. I won't just sit back and let them attack Sand and Gaara just like that. And in two days they may have lost already."
Glaring into my eyes with such deadly intend Tsunade-baachan answered
"You'll be more of a hindrance then help in your current condition. Do you not see the danger of using forbidden Jutsu is just catching up with you; you can't go out into battle like this. And look it even affected Hero, which should tell you something of how dangerous the forbidden Jutsu you trained with are."
I couldn't believe it. I boiled with anger, couldn't believe that the training could stop me from helping a dear friend of mine.
"Shizune get Shikamaru here, we need to organize a counter offensive and reinforcement for Sand. We also need to figure out a way to get to Sand in a much faster fashion then traveling for three days."
I had already opened the door halfway when I looked back into Hero's eye, who was trailing behind me. When we heard that they would still need three days to travel to Sand, something that could mean the life and death of Sand, if Akatsuki was already at their door there was no way they could hold out for three days. The Stone village fell in less then two days, there would be no way that Sand could hold out much longer then that either.
Think
There had to be a quicker way to travel there and especially move large size of troops there. Looking into Ro-chan's eye I saw a glimmer of hope; he disappeared and reappeared on my right shoulder. Right, he had already mastered Hirashin no Jutsu.
Speaking out loud,
"Tsunade-baachan let us be support then!"
"What do you mean, Naruto?"
"Well since we aren't allowed into active duty; let us be support at least. We can transport all the troops faster into sand then they could possibly run. With Hirashin no Jutsu all we need is to have a messenger hawk reach Sand with a location seal. Then Hero can teleport all the troops right inside Sand. That would be faster then having them run all the way to Sand. Also I know a few barriers Jutsu that might come in handy, where protecting the medical station or changing the battlefield conditions."
Silence
She was considering the possibility.
"Shikamaru, what is your opinion? You will be in charge of the tactical movement of this operation, so what do you think?"
"How well can Naruto use any Jutsu right now, Sakura-san?"
"Let me examine him for a second."
And Sakura examined me and Hero with a medical earnest even if she was my girlfriend she would put my health as her top priority.
"Hero should have no problem performing Hirashin no Jutsu all day long, if that is all he does. Naruto should be able to do a few large scale barriers and even is able to make maybe three Kagebunshin, but no offensive Jutsu."
"Hmm, they could come in handy; I would take them with me given the permission," Shikamaru said. I could feel the joy in me rise.
"Fine, both can go into support, but you better keep your word Naruto, no active battling for you or Hero."
"Don't worry; I never go back on my word, Tsunade-baachan. That is my Nindo." I answered.
"Shizune prepare a few messenger Hawks and include the location seals inside them. Meanwhile, Shikamaru assemble twenty four-man-cells."
"Yes, ma'am"
"Dismissed"
I headed back into my apartment, while Sakura headed to her medical office to get her preparations ready. I packed all the sealing and barrier scrolls Ero-senin had left behind with me. I even summoned the scroll frog.
"Hey Naruto what do you need me out for?"
"Well I need to retrieve a few scrolls and Jutsu. And I need you to hold a few of them in for me."
"What you need?" as he opened his scroll.
"Barrier Jutsu, Sealing Jutsu, battle condition changing Jutsu"
"There you go"
A few minutes later we were standing at the meeting spot. Shikamaru briefed us once again on the situations. Honestly all we knew was that Akatsuki was invading Sand from the "Hot Gates". Which should demonstrate that either Akatsuki was not smart or so over confident they think they could take those gates with minimal losses.
The waiting was deadly too all of us. We could only wait for the Hawk to reach Sand in time. Usually taking half a day to travel was the fastest a Hawk required, but waiting half a day now seemed like an eternity. No one dared cracking a joke, it didn't feel right; they all were veterans by now. All of the eighty shinobi and kunoichi were veterans at facing Akatsuki. Everyone knew the danger they were facing.
"Hey does anyone remember when Naruto faced off Deidara at the Great Naruto Bridge?"
Ino's voice echoed through the whole squad.
"Yeah sure, I do."
They chatted of stories in the past of victories and other stories, their spirit lifted from the dreadful mission. Ino had a way with words, she could find the right story to tell, the right words and everyone would heed her attention.
While everyone's attention was focused on Ino, only Shikamaru and I noticed that Hero disappeared, no teleported. Looking at each others we decided to wait for Hero to return before announcing that we'd be teleporting soon. The second passed then Hero reappeared.
"Attention" I shouted.
Everyone went back into their ranks.
"Hero successfully teleported into Sand, now everyone hold each others hand. We will all teleport at once." Shikamaru said.
Holding hands, I grabbed hold of Sakura's right hand and Lee's left hand. Hero sat ontop of my right shoulder. In front of me stood Shikamaru facing me. All eighty ninja were holding each others hand. Shikamaru nicked his head once he verified that all were holding hands. A sudden surge of force emitting from Hero ran through my body and extending out through my hands to Sakura and Lee. Then without warning my view blurred and smugged, light moved by so fast that it stretched into lines. As fast as this feeling emerged it had ended. We arrived in Sand and far in front of us we saw a building collapse, the war must have reached the city already.
Sakura and her fifteen other medical ninja quickly build a medical station. Shikamaru met up with Baki trying to figure out the current situation.
"Baki-san what is the situation?"
"Shikamaru, Naruto, I am glad you arrived so quickly. I was shocked to only find a seal with the messenger hawk, not even a notice. When the fox arrived with the letter of reinforcement we understood and told him which buildings were still safe to teleport to. I never imagined Konoha had such a useful Jutsu."
"Thanks for the compliment, but more importantly what is your current situation?"
"Right, a single Akatsuki member broke through the Hot Gates and now is holding it by himself, while his troops are rushing through them. His troops have taken up about thirty percent of the city already. There is another Akatsuki member, with angel like wings, who's currently engaged in an aerial battle with the Kazekage. The other two siblings are holding two important check points. Kankuro with his puppet is helping the medical facility, while Temari-san is holding the weapon supply with her squad."
"Right, Sai-kun and Naruto, I need you to fly around and use these kunai to mark the check points and position you deem safe or important."
Sai drew two birds and the two of us jumped on top. Each flying in opposite directions we covered the area quickly, marking battles and hold ups with Kunai. Kankuro wasn't doing so well, even with his puppets Akatsuki had summons all over the places that would attack. The strange thing was that these summons looked nothing like any ordinary animal summons. They looked more like demons from another world or story; nothing resembled your typical animals from the animal kingdom. Minotaur, Chimera, Cerberus, Hydra all these weird monsters were fighting Sand Shinobi.
I arrived back in the base and found Sai already back.
"Naruto, I heard you developed an anti-summoning Jutsu. I'll need you to create scrolls with that Jutsu as quickly as you can."
"Right, can't have me directly engage combat."
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu
The four of me pulled out scrolls and started inscribing them with the sealing Jutsu. Meanwhile Hero was teleporting the rest of the reinforcement to the marked check points or retrieving injured Sand Shinobi into Sakura's Health Care. He even brought back most of the injured Shinobi stationed in the Sand Hospital.
Quickly the tides of battle changed. Shikamaru was able to stop their advance within an hour of arrival. Now four hours later we finally started to push back the enemies back into the hot gates. Shikamaru had ordered no one approaching the Akatsuki member that was holding the gates. Too many losses occurred already when Sand tried taking back the gates.
The sun was slowly setting down and even the aerial combat between Gaara, Sai and Konan was slowly dying down, she retreated back out, pass the hot gates. Neither Gaara nor Sai chased her.
"Gaara, glad to see you alive"
"Naruto, once again we are in your debt."
"Nah, don't make a fuss about it."
"How's the casualty list, Sakura-san?" Shikamaru asked when Sakura finally came out of the new medical post.
"Thanks to Hero's intervention, we were able to save about two hundred Sand lives. It may take longer for them to recover, but none are in critical anymore. Konoha hasn't lost anyone yet, Hero's been doing a great job bring them in and out of battle just at the nick of time."
"Neji, what's the situation with the summons?"
"They were all dispelled thanks to Naruto's seal. The only ones that are still present are the ones at the Hot Gates."
"Hmm, so now we only have to worry about the Hot Gates, for tonight at least. If we could take it back by the morning it would be a great success. Baki-san, do you have any info on the Akatsuki member that is holding the Hot Gates?"
"The 10 teams we send in to try retaking the gates were all annihilated. None survived, I am sorry. Other information besides him being able to summon we do not have."
"Hmm, he must have an unreal amount of chakra if he was able to summon this many summons and still has a few at the hot gates. Naruto what other seals or barriers do you have with you?"
"Well, I do have the one Orochimaru used against Sandaime-Hokage. Where he isolated him into a solo fight; then there is the Jutsu denial seal and the anti-summon seal."
"Wait; did you say Jutsu denial seal?" Shikamaru asked.
"Yes, it will denial you to use any type of Chakra based Jutsu. You'll only be able to fight with hand to hand or weapon type attacks."
"Where did you get such a handy Jutsu?" Sakura asked.
"I didn't, Ero-senin did. But it didn't really help him, since he's a Ninjutsu based shinobi, just like most of us."
"But I am not" Lee said proudly.
"True, Team Gai is the best at Taijutsu and not relying on chakra based attack." Shikamaru says out loud.
"Neji, Tenten, think you can deal with not relying on chakra based attacks?"
"It will be difficult, but we'll manage."
"Anyone else knows how to cast the barrier Jutsu?
…
No? Damn, Naruto you'll be in charge of building the barrier and the two seal Jutsu."
"Wait, Shikamaru; are you saying you are putting Naruto directly into combat?" Sakura asked.
"No, I am having him maintain the barrier and seals. No one in these eighty shinobi has the knowledge and capacity right now to build those barriers. Besides I need the rest of you to keep an eye out of the other Akatsuki member."
Hero howled in disagreement.
"Ah, Hero, yes I know you can do those seals just as well, but I need you to teleport the battle teams in and out of the barrier. Now the battle team will consist of Lee, Neji, Tenten, Choji, and Kiba. Kiba and Akamaru will be setting up the final trap, Tenten, Lee, Neji wear him down, and Choji protect the team until Naruto has all the seals up and running. Any further questions?"
"How do you think Naruto will be able to get behind the Akatsuki member and into position?" Sakura questioned.
"Well, even though these are the Hot Gates, he's holding the wrong end of them. All the advantages are on our side, I had plenty of time to examine the blue prints of the protective wall that build the hot gates. There were quite a few secret passages that lead outside, but usually invisible to the naked eye. Naruto take this copy and have your Kagebunshin move outside into position. Hero will teleport you right in front of the Akatsuki member. Gaara-san I will have to ask you to create a diversion up front before Naruto can get into position; you will also have the job of pushing him into the Hot Gates. Temari, Kankuro please support your brother in this task.
Mission Leonidas starts as soon as Naruto's Kagebunshin are in place. Dismissed"
"Naruto let me examine you one last time, please." Sakura said in a worried voice.
There wasn't anything I could say to her that would make her more confident or comfortable, so I let her examine me one last time. She wasn't examining me in her usual medical precise way; it was more like she wanted to hold me tight one last time. I returned her feeling by hugging her then suddenly the Kagebunshin signaled me that they were in position. I grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her away. Her eyes were with concern but I gave her a big smile.
"Shikamaru, we are set"
"Mission Leonidas, start!"
Gaara and his siblings left on foot and not soon after clashes of sand could be seen. Summons were clashing against waves of sand, puppets and blades of wind. Even as far away as half the village away we could hear the explosions as loud as air planes flying by. We could see splashes of sand and I wanted to help already, but Shikamaru was still holding us back, we had to make this battle count if there was a single mistake, the barrier could break and the Akatsuki could escape.
Then the signal was send over radio.
Ephialtes
Hero teleported me to the Hot Gates and I began immediately to form my hand-seals. Once cast it imprisoned both the battling Akatsuki member as well as the siblings. They were injured, Temari was hit most severe. Hero teleported Kankuro, who was protecting his sister, and Temari-san out; now Gaara was fighting alone against five summons and the leader, Pain. It was amazing, neither gave the other ground, with his sand shield Gaara could take all the deadly hits and with his sand spikes he pierced the most deadly of summons. Sometimes Gaara even used the barrier to his advantage and threw the summons against the destructive wall.
Suddenly Hero appeared, dropping off Team 300 (Lee, Neji, Tenten, Choji, Kiba) picking up Gaara he disappeared. Finally it had begun; I started my hand-seal to cancel out the remaining summons. In the time it took me to finish the seal, they were pushed around and if it wasn't for Choji's multi-size Jutsu they'd probably would have taken a few heavy hits. But even Choji could not hold against this many summons. The Cerberus turned into a nine headed Hydra. It now charged at the group splitting itself up into nine separate bodies ready to tear apart all of them. Choji managed to hit two of them but a third one was about to tear away his head when my seal took effect. In the last second with flesh wounds to Choji's neck all the summons disappeared.
Now it was only a battle between shinobi. Lee, Neji, Tenten charged ahead, while Choji was bandaging his wounded neck. Kiba was nowhere to be seen. He must have already started working on the traps. I started on my Jutsu canceling seal. Even without his summons, Pain was a dangerous enemy. Not only did he match the trio's speed, his Jutsu were powerful and if Choji didn't throw a few boulders into their general directions, the big elemental Jutsu probably would have hit team Gai very hard. Pain decided to even the numbers with two Kagebunshin and suddenly team Gai was being pushed back. Handling a Kagebunshin was too difficult for even team Gai on a one on one basis. Cornered and surrounded they were faced with certain doom as three big Jutsu were about to hit them from all directions. Just in the nick of time my last seal went into effect, canceling not only the three powerful Jutsu, but also Pain's Kagebunshin.
Lee took the initative with the sudden change of the combat situation. He engaged Pain in a melee duel, but Pain escaped always in the last moment of any critical strike. Neji still had to adjust to not being able to use his Byakugan and Tenten was left only with her chain weapon and shuriken. She started to support Lee from afar now throwing Kunai and Shuriken at times when Pain went into the offense.
Finally Neji joined the battle and both Lee and Neji started hammering down on Pain with fists and kicks, but none could hit or reach him. He always managed to escape tight spots or evade or parry hits. Suddenly I saw both Lee and Neji fly. Pain had kicked them away and now was charging at Tenten. A deadly punch was blocked in the last minute. Choji had finish bandaging his cut neck. But even with his great strength Choji was no match against Pain.
Pain was just too good; it seemed nothing worked on him. Even with restricting him to only Taijutsu he still outclassed us. He kicked Choji away, too.
Dynamic Entry
He blocked Lee's attack with his left elbow, but Lee would not give in so easily. He continued attacking. I observed Pain's defense pattern, his upper defense was flawless, and he parried every single blow directed at him. Then Neji stepped in, trying to aid Lee in battle once again as a duo. Even though their battle styles were so different they must have practiced to synchronize each others style. It was an unbelievable battle, so fast and flawless I cannot believe that Pain could parry or dodge each and every hit.
Then I noticed something the few times Neji or Lee tried sweeping his feet, he jumped up. If I remembered correctly usually this was a bad idea. Gai taught us to step back, not jump up to avoid a sweep. A jump seemed more natural, but a step back would allow us to follow up after such a sweep. I waited a few more times and I saw it again and again. Though Pain was first class in everything, he reacted to the attack pattern on instinct, he had not undergone through hard Taijutsu training. His footwork was his weak point.
"Lee, Neji, EARTH is his weakness!" I shouted out at them.
Neither showed signs of acknowledging my tip. Pain dashed back and even laughed at my comment.
"Earth?! Earth is my weakness? Don't be ridicules, heavenly punishment is all that awaits people like you."
"Shall we try it? Neji-kun?" Lee asks.
"After you, Lee" Neji replied.
Lee attacked. It looked the same as before in the beginning, but then I noticed a subtle change. Lee was dominating the pace. Pain was reacting to Lee's attack and he had far more difficulty parrying all his attack. I guessed right. Lee now was focusing on his foot work and let his body instinctively follow up with the punches. Though Pain was naturally gifted in everything, he did not have the years of hardship that Lee had put into his Taijutsu. While I was training with them, Gai had made it part of our daily routine to walk on poles or round and round on top of the edge of big pots. It not only trained our balance but also branded us on how to place our feet in specific ways. Lee was walking circles around Pain now and he wouldn't let him dash into safety. The few time Pain did try to dash, he found himself flying backwards.
As Pain stood up, Lee grabbed his shoulder and landed behind him. They were now back to back, Pain couldn't turn around, Lee knew how to step and shift his weight to not let him simply turn around. Neji too joined, now with Lee pinning his movement, Neji finally landed hits against Pain's pressure points. Even without his Byakugan Neji had memorized the pressure points he needed to hit and a deadly combo hit followed up.
Hundred and twenty eight pressure points were hit, before Pain could turn around to face Neji. Lee then followed up with another sixty hit combo before sending him high into the sky. In mid air, Tenten hit him with all her remaining kunai before Kiba and Akamaru caught Pain and drilled him into one of the barrier walls. He fell far down onto the ground, before exploding notes send him once again into the air. When he finally fell back down to earth a big hole was waiting for him. Inside were blood larvas waiting greedily for their meal.
Screams of pain and agony could be heard, when it was finally silent, team 300 looked into the pit to verify their kill. Choji rolled a giant boulder over the pit and they marked the position of their kill.
I released all the Jutsu and then Shikamaru and the rest teleported in.
"Good job everyone."
The sun was rising and we looked out into what was once the desert that protected the Sand Village. What we saw was shocking, outside stood an army so vast it stretched from horizon to horizon.
