Naruto: Dark Disciple

Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto; Kishimoto does

The desert of Suna was always renowned for its unpleasant heat and, as the forces of Kamigakure marched on its sweltering sands, they learned quickly that they would not be provided an exception. The western portion of the Suna desert was so inhospitable and hostile that it was the main reason the West and East so rarely interacted. Should any citizen or merchant attempt crossing it was far too likely they would die from heat exhaustion or be lost forever in a sandstorm of some sort. Eastern Shinobi were not welcome to the West, as they seemed to only be criminals or spies; Western Shinobi were generally too occupied with their own affairs to bother attempting to go east. The sandstorms in the western desert were well-known as being particularly dangerous and frequent, though the forces had thus far experienced none. At this point they had been marching for eight days and, though the temperature was hot, every precaution had been made to ensure that every shinobi was supplied enough water and the pace was kept slow enough to prevent heat exhaustion. Obviously, when going into a war outnumbered it was advisable to prevent as many non-battle casualties as possible.

When organizing his army, he sought about creating an organizational system that was as flexible as the system in the Elemental Nations while also maintaining a strong degree of centralization. In Konoha, for example, the Hokage created teams on a mission-by-mission basis with the exception of Genin teams. For his invasion force, however, he could not afford to do that; such a system would be completely outdated with an army such as his, especially one that was on the move without an established headquarters to operate from. After a long time of going over theories and reading prior writings on military organization, he eventually implemented a system that kept central leadership important while also promoting flexibility. In the end, it sacrificed a bit of flexibility relative to Konoha but was more fitting for his purpose.

In his main army were approximately twenty-thousand soldiers. For these soldiers there existed ten divisions, each numbering two-thousand. In each division there were an unspecified number of brigades and, within brigades, there were an unspecified number of squads. The number of brigades in a division was left up to the division commanders, shoshonin, who themselves answered only to him. The number of squads within a brigade was then left up to the brigade heads, the taisanin, who were appointed by the division commander. Naruto created divisions and appointed division commanders, these commanders would then create brigades and appoint brigade heads, and the brigade heads would then create squads led by gunsonin that could be either permanent or temporary at their discretion. The chain-of-command, then, was Naruto followed by division commander followed by brigade head followed by squad leader. Shikage, shoshonin, taisanin, gunsonin. By using this method, he issued orders to his shoshonin who would then use the assets under their control to complete them as they saw best possible.

There were many advantages to this system that he had thus far thought up. Firstly, it allowed for him to give orders directly to shoshonin, who he could be absolutely sure would understand them clearly. Secondly, it allowed for his shoshonin to judge for themselves the force required to accomplish a task as opposed to him himself having to personally assign a team which may or may not be enough. If he ordered Division Six to destroy a bridge, then shoshonin-roku could assign the appropriate number of taisanin to carry out the job. Thirdly, he could stay focused on the more large-scale aspects of the operation instead of having to worry which individual shinobi needed to do every task. Fourthly, it also meant he need not even assign every task; if he ordered a shoshonin to capture an area, then they could decide for themselves how best to do so and which bridges to destroy. He knew that his shoshonin had an understanding of how he personally wanted things to be done so would not have to worry too much about varying methods. Fifthly, the army organization was almost perfect for countering the military techniques of the Elemental Nations.

Shinobi Warfare in the Elemental Nations was a simple yet complex art. Ninja Villages generate the majority of their revenue through missions, which require shinobi of various skill to complete. In times of war, they still attempt to get as many missions done as possible in order to prevent any kind of economic collapse. After all, there was always a chance the Daimyo would not supply what was needed or it would be delayed. Therefore, even in times of large-scale conflict, ninja of mostly genin level would be completing missions in order to generate revenue. What this translated to was a simple fact: the large, overwhelming majority of shinobi warfare consisted of small-scale fights between fewer than fifteen shinobi of either side just so happening to meet each other due to assignments that overlapped. Occasionally, several teams of one side would meet, have orders that made them stay in contact, and would get reinforced until it was a large battle. Or, as in the infamous Kanabi Bridge mission, one side would send overwhelming force unexpectedly in an attempt to squash any opposition. Several of the largest battles in history were due to one-side attempting to use a single massive force to strike and end the conflict. These were the battles that resulted in figures like the Nidaime Hokage and Sandaime Raikage sacrificing themselves. The grand, pitched battles told of in history books were in-fact a small minority of the wars' battles.

His army, however, was not organized to fight like any other. His invasion force would not be completing missions for revenue; their homeland was taking care of its own revenue, the lack of a Daimyo serving as a middle-man meaning that the funds generated from all sources of revenue went directly into the budget, of which he had already allocated spending which ensured that smaller amounts than usual were going into public improvement in favor of creating a surplus that could keep his troops supplied. If he were to assign the shoshonin-go to take a region of Tsuchi no Kuni, he would have two thousand troops at the ready for the task, a far cry from the typical Hidden Village style of small-scale war. If two-thousand troops show up and start securing villages, raiding supplies, taking crops, would the Tsuchikage send five squads to combat it? Ten? One-Hundred? They will be forced into a philosophy of war that is new to them whereas he has been training in it for years. For those moments when the truly elite enemy shinobi began to make headway, when the battles became pitched, he had his Shugoshin to send in order to make a needed impact. Or, if need be, himself.

Finally, in the distance, Naruto saw the city of Sunagakure and let out a barely audible sigh of relief. As they had been walking, he had been utilizing a jutsu nearly constantly in order to prevent sandstorms. The basic way the jutsu worked was to utilize wind-chakra to push the sand in the air toward the ground, keeping sandstorms from forming. The idea had come to his mind during preparations, and he knew it was possible since he had already learned jutsu that could affect weather. Due to the low mass of sand and the natural wind in the air, it was a surprisingly low-chakra jutsu at its base level. However, whenever the wind gusted it caused him to be forced to use more chakra in order to compensate, and during the more intense gusts it began to take a toll on him. Having to use it for as long as he had done thus far was a bit more of a drain than he would have liked to admit, but it had been necessary, of course, to keep the passage over as safe as possible.

Up to this point, they had not run into any Suna-nin. In case there were Suna-nin patrolling the western deserts, he had assigned three Shugoshin teams to go ahead of them and attempt to clear out any enemies they may have run into while two others infiltrated the city itself. Apparently they had successfully done their job, though undoubtedly Suna would be put on alert if any of their squads had been missing. Then again, it was possible Suna had no one patrolling the area since, with their reputation as the weakest great ninja village they may have had as many shinobi as possible doing missions just to maintain their status among the top five. It hardly mattered at this point, though; if he could see Suna, then it was almost certain that there was a lookout on the walls who had spotted them and was undoubtedly reporting it to the Kazekage. This was not a concern, really; the important thing was that they had not been seen far enough ahead of time for Suna to call back all its shinobi. Yes, they undoubtedly had a large portion of their forces out on missions, but the hope was that the plan of attack would be successful no matter the enemy readiness.

The strategy for the capture of Sunagakure was actually quite simple, and he thought this was a good thing. While complex, multi-layered strategies were interesting to make successful, there were times where they could do more harm than good. Divisions One, Two, Four, Seven, and Nine would be participating in a frontal assault while Divisions Three and Eight secured the outsides of the city from a safe distance. In doing so, they would purposefully leave a large gap in the direction of Konoha in order to give the enemy the option of retreat, meaning that many would be less incentivized to fight to the death. Divisions Six and Ten would be staying back as a rear-guard and as a reactionary force should something happen that was not according to plan. The assault would begin with a series of long-range jutsu being launched against the wall's defenders, and after a few waves of this, Divisions One and Seven would attempt to secure a portion of the wall. Division One was specially designed in order to accomplish tasks such as this, with a very high number of taijutsu specialists and close-range ninjutsu specialists in their mix, with Hiroto himself leading them due to the positive morale factor the man had. Once Divisions One and Seven secured a large portion of the outer wall, Divisions Two, Four, and Nine would move in to reinforce. One, Four, and Nine would then assault into the city all the way to the Kazekage's Tower as Two and Seven fought to secure the entirety of the wall. Meanwhile, once the fighting had started, his two infiltrated Shugoshin teams would begin disrupting from the inside.

They were nearly within range now, the city's walls undoubtedly seeming daunting and impenetrable to the average shinobi. Even from this distance he could make out Suna-nin scrambling atop the walls to ready a defense. He stood at the front of his army, unafraid of any actions the enemy may take. From what he knew, a lot of Suna-nin had a natural affinity for wind jutsu, and he would be willing to wager that not one of them would be as trained in the nature as him. He'd spent years, with countless shadow clones, honing his wind affinity to a degree of mastery that he was certain few others had attained. As such, he was entirely confident that should the Suna-nin attempt to use long-range wind jutsu he could overpower and disrupt it easily. The orders had already been issued to his shoshonin and there were only five of the ten divisions behind him. They spread out to create a wider front and assure that no mass enemy jutsu could endanger too many lives, as a precaution. Hopefully the more defensive-minded shinobi would be able to protect their comrades when necessary.

They were within range, in his estimate now. The city of Sunagakure was probably still five-hundred meters away, far outside the effective fighting distance of most shinobi. For the most part he knew that many of his shinobi were also incapable at the distance but some were. The strategy was for the longest-range shinobi to attack with a series of simple yet concentrated jutsu in which they had trained; after two waves, wherein the enemy was softened up a bit from the attacks, the rest of the divisions would advance forward under the cover of the other shinobi. Luckily the walls of Suna were tall enough that the shinobi furthest back could direct their techniques over their allies' heads. The other divisions would march much closer into a far more effective combat range and launch attacks at the walls. Then, after two waves, Divisions One and Seven would move in, scale the walls, and engage in combat. As they made headway the other divisions would filter in.

He stopped walking forward, still a fair bit ahead of his divisions. Kunai began to fly at him from the walls but he had the perfect jutsu to counter it. The Wind Style: Wind Armor jutsu could deal with enemy kunai and shuriken with ease and at this point he could perform the technique practically subconsciously. Should any enemies try to enhance their kunai with wind chakra then the armor would counter-act the added chakra easily enough. He had no doubt that, to the enemy shinobi, it was somewhat demoralizing to see a man standing at such range, making no movements, having all the projectiles thrown at him being effortlessly deflected through some unknown method. No matter all the discipline, no matter the grandness of his intentions, there was always some part of him that loved a bit of dramatic flair. Moments later, he heard the sound of jutsu being called out.

The first wave of attacks were launched, all wind and fire jutsu from the long-range specialists. Each attack was as concentrated as possible, in order to minimize the amount of chakra lost during the journey to the wall. The wind and fire mixed shortly after leaving their respective users, resulting in a large amount of combination jutsu heading towards the wall of Suna. He could see the enemy attempting a variety of defensive jutsu, though since they were mostly of a wind nature they were not very effective at dealing with offensive fire jutsu. The attacks made contact with the wall, the flames folding up over the top and pushing onward. The enemy were given thirty seconds' reprieve, just enough to make them doubt if it was coming again, before the second wave of attacks. As this attack went on, the divisions began to move up towards the walls under the cover the friendly jutsu provided, enemy-nin ducking under the walls to cover themselves. Naruto moved up ahead of them, staying clearly in the front.

Once they were at adequate range, one much more dangerous both for them and their opponents, a much wider array of ninjutsu began to be flung at the wall in addition to kunai of differing types. Whereas before it had been a lot of fireballs and wind bullets, there were now streams of fire, great breakthroughs, dragons of both natures, and too many more across the whole front to really take notice of each individual technique. The defenders were really starting to look overwhelmed, their numbers along the portion of the wall decreasing, undoubtedly due to a combination of both casualties and repositioning. If the enemy wanted to simply give them a portion of the wall then he would take it, for he was sure they would never get it back. In his head he could see it clearly: the Kazekage attempting to organize his shinobi, attempting to mount a defense even while having to ensure some shinobi are evacuating citizens or running messages; the chaos of panic running through the citizenry and shinobi alike, the uncertainty of re-deploying troops along a wall that's being attacked when further enemies could be seen in nearly every other direction. Another wave of attacks, and Divisions One and Seven began charging up to scale the wall to initiate the close-range fighting. The shoshonin of the divisions seemed to have decided on going up initially with about four-hundred men and pushing in reinforcements gradually in order to prevent the fighting from being too cramped.

His divisions had, thus far, done their job perfectly and the casualties seemed to be nearly zero. Of course, most of the casualties from a mission like this for both sides was going to be coming from the combat in the city. Then again, assailing up the walls and getting the chance to fight on them at nearly full strength was a definite positive and absolutely not something to take for granted. To even get to this point had taken large-scale coordination between multiple divisions. With everything going according to plan, which at this point in his career was somewhat surprising, he decided that maybe it would be acceptable to lead from the front. After all, his shoshonin already had their orders and he could easily enough get a message to them using shadow clones. It made sense to him that, were anything to go horribly wrong from this point on, it would be within the city.

Unable to resist the call of battle, he ran at a slow pace, surpassing the divisions in front of him who he could practically feel staring at him as he passed. The enemies on the further sides of the wall, the ones not currently engaging in close-quarters combat, noticed him as well and a few attempted jutsu of varying types in an attempt at stopping him, perhaps sensing in some way that he was a priority target. It was of little use, however, for none of their kunai or jutsu could deal with his protective wind armor anyway. He simply ran through them, chakra being diverted around him and kunai being flung in random directions. Perhaps he was showing off just a little bit for his shinobi, but it had been so long since he had been in a real battle, a little over a year now, and its calling was sending a familiar surge of adrenaline through him in anticipation. Besides, he needed to start laying the groundwork for shinobi in the elemental nations to fear and respect him as much as his own shinobi did. He scaled the wall a bit further to the right than where the two divisions were currently fighting, in order to keep the fighting from being too constricted and in order to provide a bit of a distraction to help his forces. The very moment he reached the top of the wall there was a hail of jutsu from in-front and, with a quick glance, he judged that there were at least two dozen enemy shinobi right upon him, with the others in the immediate area focusing on his shinobi instead of himself.

He jumped in the air with a quick leap to dodge the pre-aimed jutsu and, once high above the enemy, did a few jutsu of his own. "Shadow Clone Jutsu." A clone appeared beside him, immediately throwing a kunai down toward the enemy. "Multi-Shadow Shuriken Jutsu." The kunai quickly multiplies into a hundred. "Great Breakthrough"the simple wind jutsu surges the kunai forward, making them faster and giving them much more impact than they would have had previously. The clone dismisses, its simple purpose done. Within moments the sound of steel impacting human flesh and screams of pain were heard and the shinobi who had not been able to react quick enough or to put a defensive jutsu soon enough were dead or dying. Landing on the ground, he quickly lunged at an enemy shinobi who attempted to land a punch to his stomach. He grabbed the arm, twisted it, broke it, punched the man two times in the midsection, and elbowed his head into the ground. Without a moment's reprieve, he turned around and punched at the next enemy's head. He let it be blocked, used his leg to uproot the opponent, then slammed a left-handed Rasengan into him. The next shinobi attempted to use a wind jutsu of some kind but it was ineffective against his wind armor; with the application of a few punches and a kunai, the man would not attempt it again. Briefly, out the corner of his eye, he saw a few explosions in the middle of the city. It seemed his Shugoshin were doing their job well.

That's when he got an idea. After his fight with Jiraiya, he had been inspired to begin working on a new jutsu. When Jiraiya had been in Sage Mode, he had utilized the ability to land powerful strikes without actually connecting his punches. It had been a surprising attack and, immediately upon the fight's conclusion, he had begun contemplating to what extent he could mimic the technique. In a way, it could be thought of as a natural extension of the wind armor, extending the reach of the chakra in his hands. The result of the jutsu so far at least was not exactly in the same realm as Jiraiya's technique. Instead of strong strikes resulting from some fundamental aspect of sage chakra, the wind chakra replacement resulted in more of a flowing, cutting motion. He was not really sure of the practicality of the jutsu at this point, seeing as how the wind armor could already damage enemies rather substantially in taijutsu, but decided to give it a try. "Wind Style: Cutting Fists" and now he had more wind chakra flowing down into his hands. He launched himself at the nearest opponent, punching him the arm with a bit less force than typical and seeing a decent-sized cut appear; next punch, to the throat, dead. For the next opponent, he used a lot more chakra and managed to kill him just before his fist made contact.

The terror in the eyes of his opponents as they realized how outclassed they were was definitely one of Naruto's guilty pleasures, one of the things that always inspired him more in his training. After twenty of their own shinobi had been killed by one man without landing a single blow in retaliation, the Suna-nin that were around him were definitely not looking like they were ready for a fight. Naruto, however, was feeling all too willing to continue, excited at having the thrill of full-scale battle once more. All of a sudden there was a loud scream coming from the center of the city as a large burst of chakra filled the air. Moments later, the Demon of the Sands himself, Shikaku the Ichibi, was in the middle of the city with Gaara atop its head. Apparently, his Shugoshin had managed to make the Kazekage quite upset and managed to bring out the beast itself. His thoughts turned toward the sword on his back: the Fujo Buredo. He couldn't decide if it was a positive or a negative that the Suna-nin couldn't see the slight smile on his face.


A/N: I put a lot of thought into this chapter, trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to make everything come together. The military organization, as I'm sure many already know, is pretty much a chopped-up version of the American system utilizing japanese names for military rankings as titles. I really like the way it worked out, personally, and hope that all of you will too. Hopefully you find that the combat has been described well-enough and that the military strategy makes sense, though I do hope to improve in my descriptions for both. I have been quite the fan of studying military strategy and history in my spare time and definitely enjoyed writing this chapter a lot because of it.

As always, thank you for reading. Please feel free to follow, favorite, review, or continuing to read.