Chapter 8: Echoes of the Future
"Okay, Naruto and Sasuke, take your teams and smash right through the center lines," Shikamaru was giving out the final instructions, "Iruka-sensei, take your team and attack the left side to split their forces. Kiba, you'll be joining them in that area. Shino, you and I are going to attack the right side and keep the enemy from reinforcing any one position. With Sai attacking from the air, we'll hit them on 4 fronts in one go. Everybody got that?"
All 180 shinobi nodded at their commander. Shikamaru raised his hand in signal, and every shinobi pulled out their weapon of choice in response. With a deep breath, he brought his hand down as the signal to charge. As one the mass of ninjas charged towards the Protoss lines, splitting up as they went.
The Protoss defending the siege lines looked over at the sound of the approaching force. Immediately, they all ran to hold the line against the humans.
Kiba and Akamaru ran towards their enemies, their company of shinobi in tow. The first thing they saw was a grid of at least 9 floating gold orbs, powered by no less than 5 floating crystals whose power fields clearly overlapped. Even an idiot who know nothing about them could tell by the way they were positioned. Kiba knew that those things were automatic defense things that shot blue balls of burning light; if he didn't dodge them he was done for. All 9 of the things started to point towards his forces when they got within 30 feet, and started to fire nonstop at them. Kiba and Akamaru were able to use their agility to easily dodge around the burning spheres, but many of the shinobi behind him weren't so lucky.
On the exact opposite side of the siege line, Shino and Shikamaru found it was the same deal. The cannons fired shot after shot, taking out many of the shinobi under their command. Shikamaru grimaced slightly; he didn't have any sort of way to deal with the things effectively, and neither did Shino.
'Come on Sai, where's that back-up?' Shikamaru asked silently.
Right on cue, Sai's massive art birds flew overhead, carrying the ANBU teams on their backs.
"Concentrate all attacks on one cannon at a time!" Sai commanded.
A hail of kunai with explosive tags rained down on the golden spheres, swiftly overloading their shields. One by one, the cannons went down under the rain of explosives.
Xelios looked up at the giant white birds that flew overhead. They didn't look real; they looked more like a hand-drawn picture come to life. Regardless, the humans they carried were hostile, and who knows what powers the birds themselves might have.
"We don't have sufficient anti-air. Have the photon cannons and stalkers switch priorities; target those flyers first. Shoot them all down," he ordered.
Sai's eyes widened. All of the cannons and other ranged defenders had switched targets; instead of shooting at the 180 charging shinobi on the ground, they were now aiming for him and his 40 airborne ANBU. He and his forces quickly scattered as incoming projectiles sailed into their ranks. Sai veered to the left, avoiding two of the cannon's blue spheres, only to see one of his squad members shot down right in front of him.
"Evasive tactics!" he yelled, "Strafe them!"
Naruto looked up at the swarm of white birds circling overhead. They were constantly evading the different projectiles being shot at them, and throwing down explosives onto their enemies. Problem was, there weren't too many of them, and there were still quite a few Protoss shooting up at them. If the ground force didn't intervene soon, they were probably going to all be shot down.
"Push forwards!" he urged his shinobi.
He and Sasuke led a charge straight past the cannons and into the lines of zealots in between them. Naruto hit the one in front of him with a Rasengan, just as Sasuke used a fireball to force the rest to scatter to the sides.
Xelios looked around the field; the humans had decided to attack from all three sides at once. Their own forces were thinned out that way, but now he couldn't just focus all his forces to crush any single position. Plus, those flying ones were becoming quite a nuisance. Alright, now how to counter this particular strategy?
"Thanatos, take your forces and reinforce the center. High Templars, take a force of zealots and reinforce right, I'll take the rest and reinforce left. All sentries make hallucinations and guardian shields to help deal with all ranged attackers. Send word to the Gantrithor for them to prep phoenixes for launch to deal with the air force," he ordered.
Thanatos nodded at his mentor, and motioned to a large group of zealots and stalkers. As they headed towards the central section of the battlefield, he noticed the man with the yellow hair. It was the leader of the village, the one he had fought against earlier. It was time for a rematch, and there was no white-haired shinobi to save him this time!
Iruka had never fought against such opponents before; these Protoss were so much tougher than any human. If this is how strong the subordinates are, how strong must their leaders be? No wonder Kakashi wasn't able to beat their leader. No time to think about that now though, as a zealot swung its arm blade right at his head. Iruka ducked, and struck out at the zealot's exposed midsection. The shield stopped it, but it still made the alien back up, giving him some room to maneuver.
Kiba saw Iruka fighting a zealot as he and Akamaru took down one of their own. He was doing pretty well for someone who'd never fought one before. But he saw something that wasn't so good; 5 of those floaty death Protoss were heading straight for them, backed up by a ton of zealots and those creepy metal stalkers.
"Iruka-sensei! Get out of there!" Kiba yelled at the older ninja.
Iruka disengaged and jumped back into the main group of shinobi immediately. Kiba sighed slightly with relief. Immediately afterwards the high templar raised their glowing hands, and a large lightning storm suddenly struck the large group of shinobi. Kiba yelled in horror.
Across the battle, Shikamaru heard Kiba's yell, and looked at what was happening. The shinobi were crawling out of the storm of lightning, but almost none of them were capable of fighting anymore. Kiba and Iruka's battle group had just been annihilated in one move; 60 shinobi reduced to maybe 10 in one go. Shikamaru gasped in horror.
"Sai!" Shikamaru yelled at the ANBU captain flying overhead, "Assist Kiba and Iruka-sensei! Get them out of there!"
The remaining white birds wheeled around and headed for the left side of the battlefield. Sai nodded at Shikamaru as he flew past. The surviving shinobi were quickly loaded onto the birds, and flown to the field hospital Sakura's medical ninja had set up behind the battlefield.
Iruka found himself on a stretcher in the field hospital. He hadn't been struck by the lightning, but his mind felt like it had just been torn in two. Whatever that thing was, it can attack the mind too if it's strong enough.
With the loss of the entire left side of the battlefield, the Protoss were preparing to get a surround on the remaining shinobi. Naruto was fighting against 2 zealots at once when he saw the Protoss attempting to surround his people. He had to do something about that.
"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" he concentrated his chakra into about 200 shadow clones.
At his command, the 200 shadow clones attacked the Protoss advancing from the left side, keeping them from surrounding everyone else. He turned back to find his 2 opponents had gone, retreated back into the battle. Standing before him was the young zealot Thanatos.
"You again!" Naruto glared at his alien rival.
"Me," Thanatos glared right back, "Let's see if you can match me now, without your friend to protect you!"
"Bring it on!" Naruto pulled out a kunai, "I'd have kicked your ass the first time if Kakashi-sensei hadn't beaten me to it, so I'll just finish kicking your ass this time!"
"Like you stand a chance!" Thanatos activated his psionic blades and charged the young Hokage.
Naruto laughed, and ducked under the zealot's swing.
"Rasengan Barrage!" Naruto hit Thanatos with not one, but two Rasengans at the same time. The twin attacks right in the chest sent Thanatos flying all the way across the battlefield, skipping off the ground like a stone over water. Thanatos got up slowly. His armor nearly broke from the impact! If he wasn't careful, the armor protecting his hearts might break, and he'd be done for. He looked up to see five kunai with explosive tags attached to them headed straight for him. Quickly he dodged to the side, and the kunai exploded well outside the battle zone. Ha, what a lousy shot. He looked up at yet another yell; Naruto was headed straight for him with another one of those annoying "Rasengans" in hand. Thanatos jumped clear over Naruto's head, and watched as his attack tore straight through a large tree. Hmmmmm; maybe the human wasn't so weak after all.
Across the field Shikamaru observed Naruto's clones battling the Protoss behind them. Once again his friend showed his mastery of the jutsu; the clones outnumbered the Protoss four to one. Still, the Protoss's shields and armor kept things closer to even than he'd like.
Sai circled around the battle overhead, sniping whatever enemies he could hit without fear of accidently striking one of his own shinobi. He threw 3 explosive tagged kunai at one of those creepy metal monsters, and watched with satisfaction as it had to teleport to get out of the way in time. It wasn't fast enough to dodge the second volley he launched immediately afterwards, and the explosion knocked the metal stalker onto its side. More stalkers quickly scuttled over to assist their fallen comrade.
"Doom atuhn nal'ra!" one of them spoke in their own language.
The group teleported right underneath Sai's bird, and started shooting at him. Sai dodged one shot, two shots, three shots. But the fourth, the stalker had shot in front of him, directly into his path. There was no time to dodge. The beam of light tore straight through the head of the bird, and Sai plummeted to the ground below. He hit the ground with a bone-cracking 'Thud!'. He looked up to see the stalkers surrounding him.
"Forever sleep!"
Shino was directing his bugs around the battlefield like crazy; attacking foe after foe. He was about to finish off yet another one when he heard the battle cry of another zealot behind him. He turned at the noise, but there was no way he would be able to react in time. Less than a foot from him though, the zealot froze with his arm still extended, completely immobilized. One of Shikamaru's chakra blades had pierced the alien's shadow, stopping him mere moments from killing Shino. Shino nodded his thanks at Shikamaru before proceeding to finish off his previous opponent.
Thanatos fought Naruto all through the base, never pausing for more than a second. The shinobi was different this time; he was more prepared, more determined. Thanatos had thought he had killed him several times, but each time it turned out to be a hallucination or a piece of wood that looked like him, or something. It was getting quite annoying; why wouldn't this idiot just die?! Thanatos hit the real one this time and sent him flying. The human flipped upright yet again, with yet another one of those Rasengans in his hand. The pair charged at each other, Rasengan and psionic blade extended towards the other.
Just then, a faint high-pitched shriek sounded from far through the trees. Thanatos froze halfway through his charge, causing Naruto to stop in surprise as well. Thanatos listened hard. There it was again! A faint cry of savagery, a bit closer this time.
"Oh no," Thanatos whispered mentally.
"What is it?" Naruto asked the alien.
This scared Naruto slightly; he didn't think the alien even understood the concept of fear, and yet there it was in his eyes. What could possibly be so terrible it scared even the fearless Thanatos? He listened for the sound again; was it getting closer?
"STOP!" Thanatos's mental voice resounded across the battlefield.
Instantly everyone and everything on the battlefield was still and silent. They all looked at him questioningly.
"Listen!"
The sound came through the trees again, even closer now. Accompanying it was the drumming of hundreds upon hundreds of feet hitting earth. There were more of the screaming cries now, full of a savage lust to kill. The eyes of every single Protoss on the field grew wide. Xelios moved to where his student and the Hokage stood; he knew that sound all too well.
"Protoss warriors! Terran shinobi! A grave threat approaches!"
The surviving zealots swiftly moved to their Praetor's position, making a long line. Thanatos moved in between 2 of these zealots, joining them. The metal stalkers quickly moved just behind the zealot lines. The Protoss motioned for the shinobi to back up behind them. All the while, the drumming of running feet grew closer and closer. The animal screams grew closer and closer, more frequent. Then at last, Naruto saw what was making that screaming. A massive horde of relatively small monstrous creatures, with huge claws extending from their backs was thundering towards them. They had small merciless eyes, and a curved tusk on either side of their mouth. The horde of them seemed limitless.
"Zerglings!" one of the Protoss yelled.
The massive horde of what was apparently known as zerglings definitely knew no fear as they threw themselves at the line of zealots. The merciless blades of the Protoss flashed out again and again, cutting down zergling after zergling, but there were so many that it didn't matter. The zealots were being forced back, or the monsters would gain a height advantage over them by climbing on top of the piles of their dead brethren.
One of the zealots wasn't fast enough though, and a zergling pounced on him, bringing him to the ground. The shield protected him long enough for him to kill the thing, but the damage was done; the abominations had an opening. The zerglings swarmed all around them, causing the cohesion of the defenders to fail. Naruto found himself fighting desperately to protect himself and his friends from these new monstrosities. Shikamaru was immobilizing and dispatching a dozen of them at a time; Shino's bugs were covering and killing more right next to him. Sasuke had just used his phoenix fire technique to burn at least 15 of the monsters. But none of this was enough.
"There's just too many of them!" Thanatos stated, sidestepping and beheading another charging enemy.
"All warriors, retreat!" Xelios ordered.
Naruto looked around the swarming battle. He watched a zealot get tackled and the claws brought down the shield while the warrior was on the ground. The zealot spiked the monster through one side of the head and out the other before shoving its dead body off of him, but three more pounced on him before he had a chance to get up. He stabbed one through the chest, and took off the leg of another before he burst into blue flames and disappeared.
Nearby, a small group of stalkers was holding their ground against the rising tide. Before they were overwhelmed, they teleported backwards to safer ground. Across the field, a small group of zealots and shinobi had been cut off, and were completely surrounded by the monstrous zerglings. The zealots and shinobi had the edge in strength, endurance, valor, and skill…. but in the end only sheer numbers mattered.
Xelios looked around; there was no way they had the numbers needed to hold. Wait, there were different shapes in the massive throngs of zerglings. There were heavily armored, squat ones with horns, and the serpent-like ones with the long blades for hands. Roaches and hydralisks were on their way. It was time to leave. Just as he thought that, a couple of worms with wings zoomed overhead; there were mutalisks too.
"Everyone, full retreat! Pull back to the village, the remaining photon cannons will hold back the Zerg long enough for us to escape!" Xelios commanded.
Every single Protoss and shinobi still standing obeyed instantly. The disorganized groups pulled back as fast as was possible, but the confusion the Zerg Swarm had caused was taking its toll.
Naruto was being buffeted back and forth by the jostling bodies of the fleeing humans and aliens. He darted in between them, but something caught his foot and he crashed to the dirt. He barely managed to shove his last remaining kunai into the throat of the zergling that had just tripped him. He turned over and scrambled to his knees. As he got up, a hand grabbed his shoulder and hauled him to his feet. It was Thanatos.
"Come on, quit lolling around! We need to get out of here now!" the alien told him.
Naruto nodded, and together they ran towards Konoha without a second glance back.
Onboard the Gantrithor Executor Selendis, Kakashi, and Hinata looked at the chaotic scene in horror. The observers that were hovering above the battle showed a gruesome picture; the entire area was riddled with the fallen bodies of all 3 races, and the rubble from the ruined structures the Protoss had built.
"Executor! The mutalisk flock is heading straight for the Gantrithor!" one of the crew members told her.
"Launch every functional phoenix and interceptor this ship has at once!" Selendis commanded, "Are the graviton catapults functional?"
"No Executor, the catapults still need a several parts replaced. They'll be ready in about 20 minutes."
"20 seconds is too long! Launch everything we've got now, before that flock even gets within range. All available stalkers, ascend to the roof of this ship and assist our fighters. Shoot the damn abominations out of the sky, show no mercy!"
"Perhaps I can be of assistance?" Kakashi offered, "I have several techniques that could help deal with those worms with wings."
Selendis looked directly at Kakashi.
"In light of the current circumstances, you are no longer our enemy. Any assistance you can provide would be most appreciated."
Kakashi nodded, and a zealot motioned for him to follow them to the roof.
Naruto and Thanatos were amongst the first to make it back to Konoha; the casualties that the two races had suffered were horrifically high. As everyone else made it in, Naruto gave the order to slam the gates shut.
"Stalkers, high templars, get onto the wall and defend this village!" Xelios ordered, "Humans, gather every single defender you have and prepare for the battle of your lives!"
