Chapter 12 is here! Invasion time! I just love this part, because there's so many ways it can change. Just changing one sentence can alter the entire storyline. Anyway, before I begin the chapter, I'd just like to say thanks for all the reviews and suggestions, they're what keep me writing. Enjoy the show!

Chapter 12, Where I Call Home

"Sasuke, engage Gaara, lead him away from the village! Naruto, help me take care of these ninja here! Sakura, go regroup the other Leaf squads and tell them to report to me! We can't let them take over!" Kakashi shouted over the roar of battle. Sasuke nodded, and sped off through a hole in the arena wall, Sakura ran off to find the others, while Naruto just stood there.

"Kakashi, may I make a suggestion?"

"This isn't the time, Naruto!"

"I'm just saying, wouldn't it be a better idea if I were to take care of Gaara? I have the best chance of winning against him, plus being a jinchuuriki myself, I know what he's going through. Just give the order, and I'll have this village saved."

"Whatever, just go!" Kakashi yelled, while Naruto grinned and vanished. He reappeared on a tree branch deep in the forest, watching a battle between Sasuke and Gaara. His grin faded, a frown replacing it as he saw how pitiful the Uchiha's attacks were compared to the ferocity of Gaara's. He looked behind him to find Shino facing off against the puppet user, Kankuro, while his sister was crouched in a corner, hiding from Gaara's terrible power. He jumped over to her, notcing that she was shaking with fear. She jumped as Naruto placed a hand on her shoulder, before looking up into his dark blue eyes.

"You should get out of here. Wouldn't want you getting hurt when I defeat your brother."

"Y-You can't possibly hope to defeat him! He has the power of a demon!"

"He does, does he? That just makes it more interesting."

"Are you suicidal? He's gonna rip you to shreds!"

"True, he probably would. If he could. You see, he's not the only one with the power of a demon," Naruto said, a red aura forming around his body. Temari's eyes widened as he jumped towards Gaara, leaving cracks running through the branch she was sitting on. The next thing she saw was a hole being punched in the armour Gaara had fashioned for himself out of sand. Another hole joined it, and soon the entire armour was riddled with fist-sized punctures. Eventually the holes stopped appearing, and Naruto reappeared on a branch above Gaara, a dark grin on his face as he bared his elongated canines. Gaara looked up at him, a murderous gleam in his eye as he growled in anger at Naruto's cocky demeanour. "What's the matter, sandman? Tanuki got your tongue?"

"Uzumaki...you're the one...mother screams for!"

"Not that don't like being in demand, I just don't feel like being tied down. Now, why don't we just end this? I understand what you're going through."

"You know nothing of my pain! Just lie down and die!"

"I know nothing? You have me all wrong. Let me guess, your entire village fears you, despises you, hates you for something you can't control. They lash out with numerous attempts on your life, bu there are some who would turn you into a weapon. Am I right?"

"What...This changes nothing! You still don't know what it's like! Give me your blood!" Gaara roared, sending out columns of sand as he clutched at his head in pain.

'Tch, looks like I'm not getting through that sand-clogged head of his. Well, I guess peaceful negotiations are over.' "It's time...FOR ACTION!" Naruto shouted, his eyes turning yellow as he unleashed the Darkness. Instead of attacking, however, he ran through hand seals and slammed his hand down on the branch, sending a cloud of smoke rising into the air. From the cloud burst a number of grey beasts, holding knives, crowbars, bats, and anything they could get their hands on, each charging at the Tanuki-possessed genin. "Kyobo-na-hito, attack!" The grey creatures jumped on Gaara, clawing at the skin that wasn't covered by sand. After a few seconds, a primal roar was heard throughout the forest along with several poofs as the berserkers were thrown into trees. Then silence. Then, a dark chuckle, followed by maniacal laughter and a loud roar and several crashes.

"I'M FINALLY FREEEEE!" The now-dominant Shukaku roared, his giant form filled out with the sand from Gaara's half-transformation.

"Oh, fuckberries."


Top of the Hokage Box...

Sarutobi glared at the man before him, his brown eyes narrowing as he took in his pale skin and yellow eyes.

"Won't it be humiliating to be defeated by the one who once called you Sensei?" Orochimaru said, a sick smile on his paler-than-healthy face.

"I should have killed you when I had the chance."

"Now you won't get the chance at all. Since I'm fighting my sensei, I thought you might like to fight yours; the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokages," Orochimaru said, running through hand seals before slamming both hands onto the ground. "Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei!"Two coffins began to rise from the ground, one with the kanji for 'first' on the front, the other baring the kanji for 'second'. A third coffin began to rise, but was quickly stopped by a fireball, courtesy of Sarutobi.

'Phew, if I had had to fight all three, I would've been done for.' The fronts of the coffins burst open, revealing Senju Hashirama, the Shodaime, and his younger brother Tobirama, the Nidaime. "You demon! They look exactly as I remember! But you're wrong, these aren't my teachers, no matter how much they may look like them! They're simply your puppets!"

"Is that what you'll tell yourself as you fight them?" Orochimaru said, still smiling before gesturing to the Hokages. They ran forward before stopping halfway between Orochimaru and his old sensei. Tobirama ran through hand seals before a column of water rose around him, several jets of water bursting from it and flying towards Sarutobi. The Sandaime slammed his hands into the ground, a wall of rock rising from the ground with him on top, protecting him from the water-based jutsu. The resurrected Hokages ran forwards again, Hashirama stopping this time to use his own hand seals, branches and roots bursting from the tiled roof of the building and the steep side of the Doryuuheki. Tobirama began to run up the branches as Sarutobi ran down them, jumping out into the newly made forest. He landed on a thinck branch and performed his summoning jutsu, calling out the monkey king, Enma. The summoner and the summoned looked at each other, exchanging no words yet having a full-blown conversation at the same time. The monkey king nodded, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke, leaving a large bo staff in its place which Sarutobi grabbed, getting into a battle stance. His eyes widened when he saw a snake rise from the depths of Orochimaru's throat, bearing the Kusanagi no Tsurugi which the snake Sannin proceeded to grasp. The old Hokage jumped forwards, hoping to hit Orochimaru in the stomach with the end of his staff, but was blocked by the Kusanagi. He stopped jumping and spun the staff above his head. Most of the strikes were blocked by the snake summoner's sword, but a few got past his guard and smacked him in the face, sending him skidding back. Orochimaru looked up at the face of his elderly sensei, his slitted yellow eyes filled with hate.

"Why do you continue to resist? Trying to change the outcome of this battle is futile, old man. Just fall down and die!"

"No...I will not fail this village. I won't stop until I've at least done some damage to you, you bastard!" Sarutobi yelled, jumping towards his former student once again.


In what's left of the forest...

"How the fuck do I fight something that big?"

"Have you forgotten already?"

'What are you talking about, Kyuubi?'

"Idiot, you just signed the contract! How could you have forgotten?"

'What...Oh, right! All contracts have a boss summon. Then let's see who the boss for the darkness contract is!' Naruto thought, slamming his hand onto the ground once more. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A large cloud of smoke obscured his form, along with everyone else's forms, being that the cloud of smoke was as big as Shukaku. Everyone held their breath as they waited to see what would appear form the cloud. Their waiting was ended when an enormous zanbato pierced the smoke. It had several large curved blades running down the side, with what seemed to be black roots in the centre and making up the handle. The blade turned and cut sideways through the smoke, dissipating it and revealing one of the most horrifying sights the genin had ever seen. It seemed to be a gigantic black ghost, no legs to speak of as it seemed to just rise out of the ground. Its gleaming purple eyes shone out of its dark blue head, the rest of its body being a black that absorbed all the light around it, leaving nothing but shadow. Its large claws tightened around the handle of its sword while two purple, rune-like wings hovered ominously behind it. Naruto found himself on the creature's shoulder, looking out onto the battlefield.

"You must be Uzumaki Estacado Naruto, the new summoner. Greetings, I am the boss summon for the Darkness contract, Entropius. For what purpose have you summoned me?"

"I have summoned you to aid me in protecting Konohagakure no Sato and its inhabitants. Will you lend your sword?"

"I will, but know this. In three years time, my reapers will come for you, to take your soul to the Otherworld for eternity. If you defeat them, not only will you live, you will gain immense power and I and my subordinates will bow to you, as will all those who carry darkness within them. That is the only condition for summoning me."

"I will take and uphold my end of the bargain. Now, let's rock."

"Indeed."Entropius flew towards the one-tailed sand demon, swinging his massive sword as he went. The sand demon tried to block, bringing up his blue-veined arm to protect itself, but to no avail. The curved blade sliced right through the sandy appendage, letting it fall to the forest below. Entropius swung again, but found that the arm had reformed itself from the leftover sand, and continued to block his attacks. While the left arm blocked, Shukaku swung its right arm at Entropius' head, which was stopped by a black hole which proceeded to absorb the arm until Shukaku managed to pull it away, leaving nothing but a sandy stump. The arm reformed, but not fast enough. Entropius shoved his blade through Shukaku's stomach and cut to the right, leaving a large empty space in his side which quickly reformed just like the rest of the body. Entropius' glowing eyes narrowed and he floated backwards, away from Shukaku.

"Hmmm...There must be a way to stop him from reforming...Naruto, can you tell me a little more about the enemy?"

"I'll try...it's Shukaku, the one-tailed bijuu, its jinchuuriki is Gaara no Sabaku..."

"Jinchuuriki? Then Shukaku must have taken control somehow. Can you think of any distinguishing features that might give away how Shukaku is controlling him?"

"Well, only that Gaara had huge bags under his eyes, it looked like he was wearing makeup."

"An insomniac, eh? Then that must be the jinchuuriki on top of Shukaku's head, asleep. If we wake him up, Shukaku's control should end."

"Get us in close and try to keep Shukaku occupied, I'll take care of Gaara!" Naruto yelled, while Entropius nodded, flying towards Shukaku once more. Instead of trying to cut the sand demon, the summon pierced his chest with the strange blade, holding him in place. Naruto ran down Entropius' arm and onto Shukaku's shoulder, dodging all manner of spikes, sand bullets and blasts of wind on his way to Gaara's resting place. Shukaku's last line of defense were a set of tentacles sprouting from the top of his head, grabbing onto Naruto's wrists and ankles and keeping him from waking Gaara. This didn't work, however, as Naruto used two Demon Arms to cut him free and reduce the tentacles to nothing more than grains of sand. Smirking at the pathetic attempt the demon had made at stopping him, Naruto turned to Gaara's unconscious form and kicked him aquare in the forehead, not too hard, but hard enough to wake him up. Gaara's eyes opened wide as his head flew backwards, a loud rumbling and crashing sound coming from all around him. With the Ichibi's control relinquished, the demon's body was falling apart into the sand it was comprised of. Both Naruto and Gaara fell to the ground, a few feet apart from each other. Naruto stood up and walked over to Gaara, holding out a hand to help him up. Gaara simply looked at him with wide eyes.

"How...how could I have lost? What makes you so strong?" Gaara said, staring at Naruto and the giant cloud behind him as Entropius disappeared.

"Hmm...I'm not sure I can answer that question. It's kind of a toughie. Anyway, on an irrelevant note, you seem kinda strong and cool. Wanna be friends?"

"F-Friends?"

"Yeah, friends. You know, the opposite of enemies."

"Uhh...s-sure."

"Something wrong?"

"You don't hate me? I destroyed half your village!"

"So? I f you hadn't I would've. Plus, you hurt the Uchiha. Anyone who does that is OK in my books."


Back with Sarutobi...

Hiruzen Sarutobi was, to put it bluntly, fucked. He was standing in front of his former student while holding onto his shoulders. Not only that, but said student's sword was currently impaled through his chest. Enma was behind him trying to stop the sword going in any further. On top of all that, the Shinigami was floating behind him with his hand through his chest and was halfway through pulling out Orochimaru's soul. In exchange for taking said soul, the death god would be taking Sarutobi's soul as well. Not a good situation by any standards.

"Gimme your soul!" Sarutobi shouted, a moment of insanity breaking through under his current state of desperation.

"No!" Orochimaru shouted back, trying to release himself from Sarutobi's grip.

"I said gimme!" Sarutobi shouted again. The Shinigami watched this argument with unbridled enthusiasm (read: unfathomable boredom) yet eventually got bored with it all and removed the bandaged dagger from his mouth, raising it high above his head. The death god swung his dagger, cutting off the soul as close to Orochimaru as he could so as to preserve as much intact soul as possible. Orochimaru's arms fell limp at his sides as he screamed in pain. Shinigami removed his arm, taking Sarutobi's soul with him as he disappeared from the plane of existence. The former Hokage fell to his knees as the life left him, his student still screeching in agony.

"Release the barrier! Take me back!" He yelled to the four ninja upholding the purple barrier around the battlefield. The barrier fell, a large nin with orange hair lifting Orochimaru's wounded body and retreating from the village along with the others.

The Sound ninja were either killed, taken prisoner or managed to retreat. The outcome for the Suna-nin was prety much the same, only less prisoners. Konoha had beaten back its invading foes and struck a mighty blow to the traitorous Hebi Sannin, but at what cost?

And there we have it! The invasion is over with, and the story can only get more riveting from here on out! Oh, and congratulations to animefanbren for winning the boss summon competition, however I did decide to develop on the idea and take it a step further, instead of using a simple Voidwalker I used the Void God and former naaru, Entropius/M'uru. Don't blame me for knowing that, I had to look it up ^_^'. Next chapter may be a little later than usual, being that I'll probably be playing on the 360, plus I got my GCSE Statistics exam in two weeks. But don't worry, I never revise anyway. And so, until next time: Goodbye, Private Cinnamon Buns, I will miss your buttery goodness. (Michael J. Caboose)