Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto (either the story or the character) or any of its component parts or associated bits of intellectual property. I do think it's pretty cool, and enjoy examining it through the looking glass of "What If". The originator, Masashi Kishimoto, is a creative guy and deserves credit for his work.
"Chidori!" Sasuke yelled, plunging his arm directly into the cocoon of sand.
Gaara screamed within as the arm – surrounded by a corona of crackling lightning – penetrated his defense and he bled for the second time in his life. The sand that had been gathering closely around him lost cohesion and form, flowing back down onto the ground around him.
Sasuke pulled his arm out and backed off. For a moment he thought he had seen something through the gap, within the darkness of the cocoon. It had looked like an eye, but not of anything human.
"Slicing winds!" Temari yelled, sending a focused blast of air directly at Sasuke. "We need support down here!" she called.
Sasuke dodged most of the technique, but the edge caught his shoulder and arm, shredding his light armor and cutting into the flesh. He grunted and pulled out a roll of bandages, hopping behind a tree to quickly wrap them around the small wounds.
Gaara's cocoon shattered. When the sand uncovered him he stood there, looking as he had before, with small bloodstains on his clothes. Gaara reached forward, one hand each directed at Sasuke and Lee.
"Desert Coffin!" he cried, and his sand flew forward, seeking to envelop the two Leaf genin.
"Lee, look out!" Sakura warned from behind him. "The sand!"
Lee turned his head and immediately began evading. Sasuke was already doing so, his bandage forgotten amid the urgency of the threat despite the blood flowing down his right arm. Gaara's face wasn't impassive now; there was clear bloodlust on it, and he wanted to kill the only two people who had ever made him bleed.
In her urgency, Sakura was distracted for just long enough to let the arm of Kankurou's puppet get close, its blade stabbing at her torso. She narrowly dodged the poisoned weapon, striking it with a kunai, and began moving toward its wielder. Kankurou had barely managed to avoid being caught in this battle, but somehow he was still up.
Temari was fighting several figures that looked like Naruto, and didn't immediately realize that none of them was the genuine article. None of the battling genin realized it until Naruto kicked Gaara in the back of the head.
Most of Gaara's sand was chasing Sasuke and Lee. What little was left wasn't enough to stop Naruto's kick from connecting, although the force was greatly reduced.
Given that Gaara was again wearing sand armor, the blow did not injure him at all.
It did distract him, however. His concentration on Lee and Sasuke was broken, and he turned toward Naruto, now. He yelled in incoherent rage, instinctively sending much of his sand after this new threat, while some returned to guard him.
Sasuke took advantage of an apparent opening as Temari cleared out the last of Naruto's clones and left her back exposed, but she was sharp enough to hear him coming and avoid being taken out immediately.
Lee jumped to Sakura.
"Sakura-san, can you keep this one busy?" he asked, gesturing at Kankurou.
"I think so," she answered. "Why?"
"I may have a way to stop this Gaara," he answered. "There is some risk, but it is my most powerful technique. The lotus blooms twice, and I have only used the weaker version."
"Go for it," she told him. "None of us have managed to stop him yet."
Naruto was having no success getting past Gaara's sand, no matter how hard he tried. The stuff was quick, and couldn't really be hurt or damaged in any way.
Sasuke had Temari on the defensive when a pair of Sand ninjas jumped down into the arena. These two had been chuunin candidates as well, though they failed to reach the finals. The first was a young-looking blond man with a fresh scar on his face, while the second was wearing a mask.
The pair attacked Sasuke together, freeing up Temari and placing him in a difficult position.
"Naruto-kun, help Sasuke," Lee shouted.
Naruto didn't like to abandon a fight, but he was getting nowhere and if one of his teammates needed help then he was more than prepared to provide it, so he followed the advice. In the meantime, Lee began to run in a ring around Gaara.
Karasu was completely destroyed at this point, for all practical purposes, so Kankurou was forced to resort to fighting Sakura personally, which he loathed doing. He especially hated the fact that he was losing, until a gust of wind struck the girl from the side and sent her flying away from him.
"Is Karasu gone?" Temari asked, running up to him.
"Completely," he confirmed. Before he could go on, he saw Lee and his jaw dropped.
"What is he doing? How is he doing that?" Kankurou exclaimed incredulously.
"I don't know," Temari answered, frustrated. "I can't hit him, dammit, and I've tried!"
Just then, Lee suddenly accelerated and ran to Gaara, knocking him up in the air. Soon everyone in the arena was at least partly distracted as Lee sent his opponent higher into the air, then suddenly grabbed him and plummeted to the ground.
They hit hard, devastating the ground and sending dirt spraying outward.
Lee stumbled away from the impact site, twitching, and fell onto his side, gasping for breath.
Gaara was motionless from shock at first, but then suddenly he screamed again. This time the cry was different; it seemed to begin as pain, but then became something different. The sound rose in pitch and volume until it no longer sounded human. As he cried out, his sand flowed over him, coating him completely until it took the form of arms, legs, and two eyes that Sasuke recognized from his brief glimpse earlier.
Temari and Kankurou backed away in terror. Sakura, rising groggily from the ground, saw their reaction and felt a sinking sensation in her stomach that only grew stronger when she saw Lee cradling one leg, clearly in pain.
Then Gaara turned toward him.
"Die!" he screamed in the same inhuman voice, leaping forward toward his target.
Suddenly there was a sound like chirping birds and Sasuke was there, coming between the sandy form and its prey. His arm was sheathed in lightning once again as he sliced a line clean across its chest and his hand came out wet with blood, but the sand seemed to reform a moment after he passed, and now he had the thing's undivided attention. It swatted at him with one huge hand and he barely rolled aside. He ran, trying to lead it away from Lee.
It stopped chasing after him as the last of Gaara's sand flowed into the back and took the form of a tail. The terrible voice returned, letting out a howl of exultation as the figure began to grow dramatically, and Sakura saw Kankurou and Temari turn and flee, horror plain on their faces.
…
"That's the last one," Chouji told Asuma. "This street is empty of civilians."
"Asuma, we could use you!" Kakashi called from the battle around the corner.
"Good," Asuma told his student, glancing behind the building. "I want you to follow them and make sure nothing happens to them."
"I can fight!" Chouji exclaimed.
Asuma looked at him sternly, eyes narrowing. "Then you can do your job. Go!"
With that, Asuma ran around the corner to join the battle, readying his knives as he moved.
Chouji grimaced, but did as he was ordered.
They were more than halfway to the evacuation tunnel when the squad attacked.
There were four Sound ninjas, all of them wearing standard armor and gear. The closest held curved knives in both hands, and dove straight for Chouji, but he had the reactions of a trained fighter now and the man missed completely.
"Partial size technique!" he yelled as he released his chakra. His left arm grew to huge proportions and he swatted two of the enemies into a wall, ignoring the most immediate threat in favor of the greatest opportunity. The two were knocked out cold, and suddenly the odds were two to one instead of four to one.
The first man came back, though, slashing in two places. Chouji let the man cut his arm to protect his body; he hadn't worn his armor to go watch the chuunin finals, so he was almost completely unequipped for combat. Chouji stepped backward as the man advanced further, throwing a piece of rubble to his right where the second enemy was standing, forcing that man to dodge.
The second that enemy was on the defensive, he struck again. The Akimichi clan's signature size technique could allow them to grow, or it could be employed in a few variants. One was a bit easier to learn and required less chakra, while causing slightly less property destruction. He employed the Human Tank variant now, increasing his effective size and weight while turning himself into an almost perfect sphere and rolling over the man in front of him, crushing him to the ground.
He heard bones break and quickly returned to his normal form, whirling to face the last opponent.
That man was holding a woman by the hair. He had a knife at the civilian's throat and a wild look in his eyes as he stared at Chouji, then his fallen teammates. His eyes flicked madly in every direction.
Chouji stood still, looking at the man but doing nothing. The captive woman didn't speak, for fear that even that much movement might provoke the man into killing her.
Chouji saw her sister off to one side, holding her children: one boy and one girl, each straining against their aunt's grip in fear and confusion.
Chouji took a deep breath, then spoke slowly and calmly. "If you let her go, I won't chase you," he told the Sound ninja. "Do you understand? Just release her and you're free. Or you can surrender, and I give you my word that you will not be harmed. No torture, nothing like that, as long as you don't hurt her."
Seeing the ninja's panicked face, Chouji realized he'd overestimated the boy's age; this kid was younger than he was.
"I don't know what you've been told, but we're not all monsters," he said. "We keep our word. I'll help you if you just don't hurt anyone."
"You killed them," the boy whispered. "All three of them. Just you. Just one. No, no no…" his terrified whispers trailed off as he stood there trembling. It almost seemed like he couldn't hear what Chouji was saying.
"I only killed one," Chouji told him. "Your other two teammates are knocked out, not dead. Look, you can see them breathing."
The kid looked, and their chests were indeed rising and falling. That seemed to help him calm down a bit. He was still terrified when he looked back at Chouji, but it was a rational fear now, not an animal panic.
"I…you give me your word?" the kid asked uncertainly. "You promise?"
"You heard me right," Chouji agreed. "You won't be hurt if you surrender."
The boy nodded jerkily. "Yes. Yeah, I…I surrender."
Chouji nodded back. "Okay. Just let her go, and I accept your surrender."
The Sound ninja twitched for a moment, then began slowly pulling the knife away from his captive's throat.
There was a sudden explosion in the building behind him. The boy's hand jerked out of nervousness and reflex, and the woman bled as she staggered away, screaming. His eyes were wide and he suddenly looked at Chouji, mouth opening to speak and terror on his face.
Chouji's fist was ten times larger than normal when it crushed the enemy against the wall behind him, and the sound of bones breaking was sickening.
He ran over to check on the woman.
"Am I dying?" she whispered, eyes panicked.
He quickly wiped at the blood on her neck with a bandage and was surprised to find that the knife had actually cut her shoulder.
"You're going to be okay," he reassured the woman, "it's just your shoulder." He handed her the bandage. "Here, use this to keep pressure on the wound. You shouldn't be in any danger, but the medical personnel at the evacuation center can make sure."
He helped her up and urged the civilians to move again, heading for the tunnel into the rock behind the village.
…
Asuma returned to the battle and saw what Kakashi had meant; they were up against two squads of Sound ninjas supported by a single squad from Sand and the leader of the Sound ninjas had summoned a pair of snakes. While they weren't giants, they were still large enough to crush a man with ease if they got close.
"One each?" Asuma asked.
"I'll take the right," Kakashi confirmed.
With no further words they split up, charging around the periphery of the fight. There were seven Leaf ninjas in this fight, in total, and they needed to start improving the odds immediately. The only reason they hadn't lost more people already was that the Sand and Sound ninjas didn't seem to be very good at coordinating with each other. One had actually used a wind technique that unintentionally sent a Sound ninja's attack off course. While such mistakes were the exception, timing that was off by a single second could mean the difference between life and death when ninjas battled.
Of the other five remaining Leaf ninjas, four were a long-standing team of experienced chuunin with a jounin leader, while the odd man out was a genin from the Sarutobi clan. He wasn't accustomed to working with the others, but he took orders well enough that he wasn't throwing off their timing.
Kakashi suddenly turned and plunged into the heart of the fight, hand sheathed in lightning. He struck the first of the two snakes right between the eyes, killing it instantly and forcing two of the Sound ninjas to dodge to the side as it nearly fell on top of them.
When one of them tried to counter-attack, Kakashi read the man's attack with his Sharingan and left him on top of the snake with a severed spine, unable to move or even breathe.
On Asuma's signal, two of the other Leaf ninjas quickly breathed gouts of flame at the enemy. He augmented their fire with a wind technique of his own, strengthening the flames and sending them at a cluster of three Sound ninjas even faster.
One of those three managed to dodge completely. The second was barely singed only because he dove behind his teammate, who was closer to the burst of heat and caught fire immediately, though the fire was hot enough that the man died quickly.
The one who had hidden behind him was not much more fortunate. Asuma followed behind the flames as they dispersed, and his chakra-enhanced knives were as sharp as ever. They cut right through the man's kunai and then his head. He was about to turn toward the second snake when he was forced to change his plans.
The Sound ninjas were struggling to regroup from these losses, but the quartet from Sand stepped in. One attacked Kakashi with a wind technique that spun and advanced like a hurricane, while two with swords charged Asuma, and the fourth threw kunai with explosive notes at the other Leaf ninjas, forcing them to dodge. The obvious bid to cut off and eliminate the two best fighters among the Leaf group was a basic tactic. Even if it didn't succeed, it would buy time for the Sound ninjas to regain their poise.
Asuma held off his two opponents but they were forcing him to retreat, until he finally leapt backward and threw one of his knives. The Sand ninja dodged too slowly, and the blade – made sharper by Asuma's use of wind-natured chakra – passed cleanly through his chest. Its momentum was sufficient to send it right at a Sound ninja who was about to attack Kakashi from behind, forcing the woman to break off abruptly.
That left her partner alone in what had been meant as a two-on-one attack, and Kakashi took the man apart. He blocked a punch and grabbed the man's wrist, pulling him in close and twisting so that the enemy bent forward to keep his wrist unbroken, then spun behind him, slashed his stomach and kicked him toward his partner.
She instinctively caught the man, then dropped him to evade Kakashi's follow-up strike, but he never made one. Instead, he turned back toward the Sand ninjas while the Leaf chuunin struck her from behind.
In the meantime, Asuma had dispatched his second Sand opponent and was now trading punches and kicks with the last of the quartet, who had forced him to drop his second knife in order to avoid getting his fingers broken.
The entire fight changed immediately when two more squads of Sand ninjas showed up. Two of them immediately bracketed one of the Leaf chuunin with shuriken, allowing a third to hit him with some kind of long-range wind technique that nearly decapitated the man.
"Retreat!" Kakashi called immediately, charging toward Asuma. He struck the Sand ninja his colleague was fighting from the side, knocking him away. "Now," he ordered quietly.
Asuma nodded and did as Kakashi wanted, breathing a cloud of ash and smoke that blanketed the area to cover the retreat of the Leaf ninjas.
"Regroup and ambush in two blocks," Kakashi said as the six remaining Leaf ninjas sprinted away. "We strike once, then disappear. Don't get tangled up with them."
They could hear the enemy close behind them as they moved, and Asuma found himself wondering where the rest of the village's forces were. He hadn't seen ANBU deploying in force since the whole thing began.
…
"Is there any way we can speed this up?" Ebisu asked. "The kids are sitting ducks stuck in these tunnels."
"They're digging as fast as they can," Iruka said, gesturing over his shoulder to the two ninjas behind him. The pair was working in tandem to clear and pack the earth in the tunnel ahead. "Tokuma says they're almost through, and this is the last of the blockage before we get to the evacuation center."
"We're lucky he's here, then," Ebisu answered. "Otherwise we'd have no idea how close we were."
"Iruka!" Hyuuga Tokuma called from back up the tunnel.
"What is it?" Iruka asked.
"Trouble's coming," he answered. "Five Sound ninjas. I think one of them heard us somehow, or maybe found the hollow under the ground. We can hit them first if we move now."
Iruka turned and signaled one of the other teachers to take the students further into the tunnel, away from where he was standing. "Call it, Tokuma. You've got the eyes."
The Hyuuga nodded, preparing himself. "There are two there, two there, and one here," he said, pointing to three spots on the ceiling.
Iruka, Ebisu and the other teachers readied themselves.
"Now," Tokuma called.
The two teachers trained in earth techniques strained in concentration as they abruptly parted the tunnel's ceiling and then closed it again, leaving five surprised Sound ninjas to drop into the tunnel before they were ready. Tokuma was immediately on two of them, striking the first in the head before he touched the ground and hitting the second in the back as he struggled to overcome his surprise and regain his feet. Blood spurted from the second man's mouth as he collapsed, and neither rose again.
The second pair were more alert and better at teamwork. One threw several shuriken at Ebisu and Iruka while the second steadied them both so they landed on their feet.
The two instructors knocked the projectiles from the air and responded with their own, then closed in. Ebisu dropped behind Iruka for a half-second and then suddenly there were two of him, moving around his colleague to either side.
The Sound ninja on the right moved to block Ebisu and realized too late that the figure was a simple illusion, rather than a clone with substance. She recovered in time to block Iruka's slashes at her throat and body, but by then the two had managed to double-team her partner, and he was bleeding out on the ground, clutching futilely at his neck and his upper thigh where arteries had been severed.
The pair worked together perfectly in the narrow tunnel. When the Sound ninja managed to get Iruka between herself and Ebisu, he dropped to the ground and swept her legs, dumping her onto her back. Ebisu was already leaping over his comrade, and he threw three kunai into the opponent from midair before she could react.
The last Sound ninja was buried alive when he first hit the ground. The two teachers who had been clearing the tunnel opened a grave beneath him and then shut it over him, letting the earth swallow the man whole. His struggles shook the tunnel a bit, until he ran out of air.
"Status report," Iruka commanded once the fight was over.
"All enemies dead," Tokuma confirmed. "No others nearby. We have a squad of our own approaching above, with one of my clan looking at the ground."
…
"I see them, sensei!" Hinata exclaimed. "Teachers and students. One moment."
Are you all together? She asked in hand signs.
Two teachers dead, all students accounted for and present. Small cave-in delaying us; tunnel ahead is blocked, Tokuma replied with his own hands.
Assistance required? Hinata asked.
No. Tunnel almost clear. Proceed to other duties.
Understood. Hinata replied, turning back to Kurenai and Inuzuka Tsume.
"They're all right," she reported. "A small collapse slowed them down, but the students are safe and most of the teachers are still with them. They lost two. One of my clan is with them, and they shouldn't take long to get through to the evacuation shelters."
"Ah," Tsume said, understanding dawning. "You could see each other."
"That's a relief," Kurenai commented. "What next?" she asked Tsume.
The woman shook her head. "You know as much as I do now. We report in on the status of the academy folks and get new orders. We're all still in fighting shape."
"That's the Hokage's building, then," Kiba said. "There was heavy fighting there, but it seems to have calmed down."
"Alright, move out," Kurenai ordered, leading the way.
Good luck, Hinata signed to Tokuma as she left.
To you as well, Hinata-sama, he replied.
…
"We've got word on the academy students," a subordinate reported, running into the downstairs office of the Hokage's building. "There was a cave-in that blocked the tunnels, but they're almost done clearing it. They should be at the shelters soon."
"That's the last unknown accounted for," ANBU's second-in-command said, turning to her boss. "It's time."
"Agreed," the leader of ANBU said, nodding as he stood up. "Send the signal. Begin full counterattack. I'll stay here to coordinate."
Most of those in the room dispersed to their separate units, except for a few messengers and guards.
They were eager to strike back.
…
ANBU, composed of some of the Leaf Village's best and stealthiest, led the counter-attack. At first, they were so quiet that the invaders didn't realize anything had changed. The defenders isolated squads and even individuals when possible, picking them off one by one. More than thirty ninjas from the Sand and Sound villages died before word even began to spread that ANBU was on the move. Of those, many had improved senses or methods of detecting enemies; ANBU preferred to do its work unobserved, and killing the observers was a time-honored method of accomplishing that goal.
Secrecy could not be preserved long in pitched battle, however, and the invaders soon realized what was happening. Once they began looking for the ANBU creeping through the shadows, the second phase of the counter-attack began.
…
Several squads of Sand ninjas were tasked with holding open the line of retreat so their forces could escape when it was time. While it would have been ideal to crush the Leaf Village with the opening blow of this war, the Kazekage had been clear from the start; doing so would have required such overwhelming force that it would have been impossible to maintain the element of surprise. They would have to settle for a crippling blow that gave them and their allies a decisive advantage.
There was also the possibility that the Sound ninjas would prove weak; the new village was untested in war, and the Kazekage had also made clear that he had no intention of gambling everything on the skill of their new allies. If they failed, the Sand ninjas would retreat, so they could face the Leaf from a position of strength.
"Something is coming," one of the guards spoke up, frowning. "I can't tell what, the signatures are strange."
"You can't tell?" the detachment's leader asked. "What do you sense?"
The man shook his head. "Chakra signatures, but they're odd. Small and dispersed, I think. It doesn't make any sense."
A thick cloud of flying insects suddenly descended from the trees outside the village, nearly obscuring the sun as they fell towards the Sand ninjas beneath them.
The men were well-trained and reacted quickly; one even had experience fighting the Aburame clan. He let loose a burst of wind that knocked many of the creatures away from himself and those near him. The others tried to dodge at first, but followed his lead once they saw what he was doing. They used their wind to try to corral the bugs and threw explosive notes into the swarm, hoping to kill them before they could disperse again.
The guards nearest the trees went down when the rest of the bugs crawled up their legs. They hadn't even seen the creatures, having been so distracted by the swarm descending through the air. Their cries drew the attention of their comrades, but it was too late to help them as their chakra was completely consumed.
Now the Sand ninjas were down by a third of their number as the men and women of the Aburame clan revealed themselves, charging forward to fight. The Sand ninjas reflexively moved to engage their enemies, and several more were taken out when the insect clones dispersed and the bugs landed on them, leaving them as unconscious as their comrades.
The remaining few found themselves retreating to the center of the small clearing they now occupied, turning their backs toward each other as they looked in every direction for their opponents. The Aburame ninjas still kept themselves hidden, their insects flowing across the ground and through the air in a shifting formation, forcing the Sand ninjas to expend chakra to keep them at bay. Meanwhile, many of the insects were gorged with chakra and prepared to fight for even longer, having drained several of the enemy.
Suddenly, the Sand ninjas found themselves surrounded by billowing clouds of smoke, and they heard growls that seemed to echo through the forest around them.
The ones who stayed in the smoke were eliminated by the newly-arrived forces of the Inuzuka clan, or fell unconscious when they ran out of breath.
Those who managed to leave it found themselves trapped by the Aburame and their bugs.
When some of their colleagues tried to escape along the route later, the two clans ran them down before they could get far.
…
The members of the Akimichi clan spread out and ran down several of the village's widest streets, crushing any enemies they found with brute force and daring the rest to attack them. Those who did so fell afoul of the Yamanaka and Nara clans as they shadowed their close allies, and many were taken alive.
At one point the drive to retake the town was brought to a halt when several odd Sound ninjas made a stand, attacking with long-range techniques that the Akimichi found difficult to avoid. Blasts of wind and sound sent echoes through the air and walls crumbled. The ground shook as if an earthquake were about to begin as one squad acted in tandem, sending an unbalancing rumble through the air around them that left many of the unprepared Leaf ninjas vomiting or staggering to the side, struggling to avoid giving their enemies any openings. The other Sound ninjas counter-attacked, leaping into the fray with abandon as they sought to reverse the tide and take advantage of this opportunity.
Just as suddenly as it had started, however, the strange sound attack stopped. One of the four ninjas who had been maintaining it abruptly rose from his kneeling position and struck his comrades, killing them in rapid succession and then leaping toward the Leaf forces. He looked disoriented for a moment, blinking in confusion and looking in every direction as if uncertain how he had gotten there.
Yamanaka Inoichi sent three shuriken at the man and was waiting when he dodged with a knife to slit him open.
"Thanks for your assistance," he said to the dying figure on the ground.
Half of the Sound ninjas who were mixed in with the Akimichi clan forces found themselves paralyzed as the Nara clan made its move, and were quickly dispatched by the recovering Leaf ninjas.
The march picked up momentum once again.
…
All across the village, in the midst of pitched battle, everyone heard the inhuman cry of glee. Those who could spare a glance looked in the direction of the arena, and many could see the gigantic figure there, like an animal made of sand, with blue veins running across its surface. It was as tall as the arena and nearly filled the area reserved for fights.
The massive form swiped at Sasuke with one paw, and he narrowly avoided being crushed. He ran up the wall, looking over the form, and saw Gaara sticking out of the top, half-submerged. The mask he typically wore was gone, exposing his bloodlust and madness for all to see as he tried to catch the one who had hurt him twice now.
Sakura frantically grabbed Lee and pulled him out of the way of the rampaging monster's feet.
"Naruto!" she called. "Come on!"
Naruto was frozen in awe and horror for a moment at what was before him, but he quickly snapped to his senses at the sound of her voice and ran to Sakura.
"I have no idea how to fight that," she said to him. "We need to get clear."
"I might," Naruto responded hesitantly. He looked around for a moment, but the sand behemoth above them was barely noticing the attacks against it, except to swat the insignificant gnats around it when they drew its attention. Gaara's form slumped over and then disappeared further into the sand, nearly unreachable.
Sakura gasped when it looked like the thing's hand had hit Sasuke, but he jumped away just in time and she caught her breath.
Naruto felt his resolve grow firm.
"Sasuke, get here!" he called, before turning to Sakura. "Keep a hold of Lee, and stay close."
She looked confused but nodded, trusting that he knew what he was planning.
Sasuke tried to comply, but was forced to go over the building's wall to escape the sand creature, which began smashing buildings to get at him.
Naruto bit his thumb, summoned all the chakra he could and performed five hand seals very precisely, then struck the ground in front of himself.
"Summoning technique!" he cried.
Sakura was utterly shocked when Gamabunta materialized under her feet, suddenly lifting her to roof level.
Naruto laughed in relief.
"What's going on?" Gamabunta asked in a dull rumble.
"Hey, boss!" Naruto called. "We need your help! We have to get that thing out of the village and beat the guy inside!"
Gamabunta exhaled deeply, breathing smoke from his mouth as he surveyed the scene before him. "You're going to owe me one for this, kid," his voice said loudly.
"Fine, just help!" Naruto urged. "You said only to call if I need you, but I definitely need you for this!"
The few people who were close enough to see what was happening were utterly shocked by what they saw, although it was a pleasant surprise for the Leaf ninjas.
The sand raccoon turned around, having heard the commotion, and reared slightly in surprise.
"Who's this?" it said, the voice different now. It sounded more like an animal, with little or no trace of Gaara's voice underneath.
"Your enemy," Gamabunta answered, drawing his massive knife.
"Oh, sounds fun!" the creature exclaimed. "Let's have a party, then!"
Sasuke jumped up onto the massive toad, rejoining his team now that he had a moment to do so. "What the hell am I standing on?" he asked Naruto quietly as the two behemoths spoke.
"This is Gamabunta, the boss of toads," Naruto explained, loudly enough for Gamabunta to hear. "I figured if we were going to fight that thing," he gestured at the massive sand raccoon, "we'd need someone big on our side too. He's a bit tall for us to fight alone, you know?"
Sasuke gave him an appraising look for a moment, and then looked down at Gamabunta. "Well, I'm glad he's on our side," Sasuke answered finally.
As he finished, the sand raccoon opened its mouth and fired a massive, incredibly dense ball of air and Gamabunta leapt to one side, landing on several already-demolished buildings to dodge. The blast blew a gaping hole in the arena, turning one-third of the structure into a crater. The various ninjas from both sides who had been fighting scattered in every direction, trying to avoid becoming collateral damage of the battling behemoths which had suddenly appeared in their midst.
"Boss, we need to get that thing out of town!" Naruto yelled.
"Right!" Gamabunta replied. "Hang on tight. Use a fire technique when I tell you to!"
Naruto was about to explain that he couldn't use fire techniques when he realized he had someone right next to him who could.
"Sasuke, you hear that?" he asked.
"Of course I heard that," Sasuke shouted back, clinging to the toad's back for dear life as it sidestepped to the right, dodging another dense blast of air.
"Now!" Gamabunta ordered, spitting oil at the raccoon in front of it.
Sasuke hurriedly complied, squeezing out enough chakra for his dragon fire technique. He didn't realize until afterward how exhausted he was; he had used the Chidori twice today, and several other techniques during his match earlier before the battle had started. He was so tired he began losing his footing; it was only Sakura's quick reaction that kept him from falling off as Gamabunta made another leap.
"Thanks," he muttered. "I've got it now."
Sakura let go of him, trying to hold onto Lee without losing her own perch on top of the toad or injuring their unconscious ally.
Gamabunta swung his knife hard and overextended, leaving himself open to attack, and the raccoon jumped forward to take advantage, arms swinging.
The opening was a feint, however. The massive toad suddenly reversed his grip on his weapon and crouched low, then jumped sharply upward, using his weight and momentum to body check the sand creature up and cleanly over the village's defensive wall. The previous steps in the fight had been designed to get them both close enough to make it possible.
Their landing flattened a small hill and dammed the stream that ran below it. Gamabunta, who had known what was going to happen, recovered faster. He swung his sword upward and pushed forward with his legs, slicing through the creature's left arm.
It screamed in anger and whirled, catching him with a glancing blow from its other arm and preparing to spit more air attacks.
"Hey, listen up!" Gamabunta said. "One of you three needs to hit that guy inside the sand monster to wake him up. That's the only way to win this fight, got it?"
"Yeah, I understand," Naruto answered. "To do that I need to get close!"
"I'll get you there," the toad promised. "Just get it done. I can't fight this guy head-on for long."
They went airborne again and the toad intercepted the raccoon's balls of wind with his own spheres of water, sending a shower of rain and gusts of wind down on the landscape below.
"Now!" the toad yelled, leaping in.
He hit hard and thrust his dagger straight into the main body of the sand raccoon, impaling it and keeping a firm grip on his weapon.
Naruto jumped from Gamabunta's back as soon as they landed, heading straight for Gaara, but the creature noticed him.
"No way I'm going back yet!" it yelled, swatting at him with its right hand.
The distraction helped Gamabunta secure a firm grip, and the toad tried to intercept the arm with his own left hand, though his muscles were being overpowered.
Sasuke and Sakura threw explosive notes at the raccoon's eyes to distract it. The creature stayed focused on stopping Naruto, but they obscured its view enough for him to substitute a shadow clone for himself. When the thing popped the clone, Naruto was nearly at Gaara, and he didn't stop at its scream of frustration. He struck the Sand ninja in the jaw, waking him immediately.
Gaara looked disoriented, shaking his head to clear pain and confusion as he was knocked conscious. When he opened his eyes the strange creature's voice screamed one last time in anger, then seemed to fade away as if growing distant.
His eyes regained focus only to see Uzumaki Naruto's fist right before it hit his nose, and Gaara found a third person in his life who managed to make him bleed.
He screamed in surprise and anger and lashed out blindly with his sand even as the massive body beneath him began to vanish. The wave of sand sent Naruto flying backwards, and he began to plummet to the earth.
Gamabunta caught him in one hand and deposited the ninja on his own back.
Gaara was exhausted as well, at this point, and ran out of energy to do anything. His sand gently bore him to the ground and laid him down, then reformed into its typical gourd shape.
"I have to go back now; that guy hit hard," Gamabunta said. He set the four Leaf ninjas on his back down, then turned to look at them and Gaara. "You kids didn't do too bad. Oh, and you!" he jabbed his tongue at Naruto, "need to learn how to work with toads better if you're going to keep calling me. We'll talk about it later. For now, you'd better get him back home, and tell Jiraiya who you caught."
"Thanks!" Naruto called up to Gamabunta just before he disappeared.
…
Jiraiya was frustrated when he arrived at the arena; he had been looking for Orochimaru everywhere with no success. The initial reports had clearly stated that the Kazekage had taken Sarutobi Hiruzen into a barrier and was fighting him alone, and it was only later that the hermit had found out that the enemy in the barrier had used a forbidden summoning technique.
Now Jiraiya felt certain that Orochimaru was inside, but in the back of his mind he wondered where the Kazekage was. Was the man even participating in the attack?
Still, one concern at a time. First, he had to help the Hokage.
ANBU had met with no success in their attempts to breach the barrier that concealed the village's leader, but Jiraiya was considerably more knowledgeable in certain areas.
He carefully probed at the barrier with his chakra, searching for a weakness. Physical matter couldn't pass through, and the shield was being maintained by four people from within. It surrounded the area fully, so there was no gap to be exploited. All four seemed to be reasonably strong, and quite skilled in the use of the barrier technique.
That left brute force as the only practical option. Fortunately, Jiraiya was capable of applying quite a bit of brute force when it suited him to do so. He stood still for a moment, calming himself and shutting out all distractions and thoughts of the day, focusing only on the energy of the world around him. He was practiced at this, so it didn't take long for him to begin gathering natural energy, even though he rarely used the ability.
When he felt he had gathered enough, he opened his eyes, focusing all of the chakra to his right hand, and struck.
His fist stopped just short of the barrier but the chakra didn't; it hit hard, and the wall shattered, ripples spreading out through it. The two Sound ninjas who had been maintaining that side of the barrier clutched at their heads and the others flinched as the sage tore a gap in their technique and jumped through, but they were skilled indeed, managing to repair the barrier before any of the ANBU behind Jiraiya could follow him.
He didn't care. He had more immediate concerns, such as the scene before him. He pushed through the earth and trees that now filled much of the space on top of the building until he found his mentor.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, was wielding a familiar-looking staff as he kept his resurrected predecessors and Orochimaru at bay all at the same time. The traitorous monster was wielding a sword, while the First and Second Hokages relied largely on their ninjutsu.
The Third looked tired, but he wasn't slowing down. Every movement he made was efficient, and he didn't waste so much as a single punch if he thought it wouldn't accomplish anything. All the same, he was facing three opponents in their prime and any one of them would have been dangerous in a serious fight.
Jiraiya's arrival changed things. The Hokage had just been considering taking a rather drastic step and attempting a fatal technique in the hopes of ensnaring all three of the opponents he faced, but now that the sage was here, his options had just shifted radically.
The Third threw his staff at the second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, and his hands blurred into a few seals. His eyes met Jiraiya's for a moment, but they needed no words to understand what the next move was; they had to take the reanimated Hokages out of play before going after Orochimaru. The two were essentially invulnerable to conventional damage. Complete incineration might be enough to destroy them, but they were too sharp to be caught that way without drastic numerical superiority or other advantages that the two living Leaf ninjas did not possess, which meant they had to be sealed instead. Besides, there was no guarantee fire would work.
Jiraiya was relieved to find that his old teacher was not also fighting the Fourth Hokage; that might well have been enough to let Orochimaru win the day if it had succeeded, even against Jiraiya and Hiruzen. Their odds were much better this way.
More to the point, he didn't want to fight his own student.
The Third finished his hand seals and sent a blast of fire at Orochimaru, while Jiraiya leapt forward, attacking the First Hokage with a Rasengan. The village's founder sidestepped and reached for the sage's wrist, but Jiraiya was prepared and kicked off of the man's arm, releasing his Rasengan as the change in momentum took him over to his ally.
"Which one?" he asked the Third.
"The First," Hiruzen replied. "I'll set him up, you seal him."
Orochimaru attacked as they finished their whispered exchange, slashing at Jiraiya's face with his blade. A quick glance revealed the thing was poisoned, and Jiraiya took extra care to avoid even the slightest touch, bobbing his head and weaving side to side as he dodged backwards.
The Third kicked Orochimaru in the side as he passed by, but the traitor was quick enough that he only took a glancing blow, and he ignored his old mentor in favor of pursuing his new target.
The First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, reentered the fray. He came at his successor, employing an acrobatic style that mixed sudden, short punches with powerful, sweeping kicks. The man was as skilled as the Third remembered, and now he was completely undeterred by the risk of damage to his own body, since the forbidden technique that had brought him back would see to it that his physical form was maintained.
The Third took a punch on his shoulder to slap a pair of explosive notes onto Hashirama's legs, then rolled around a tree and set them off. The blast shredded the reanimated man's limbs, leaving him on the ground, but he felt no pain and barely reacted. Instead of crying out as a living enemy would have, he simply changed tactics, hands blurring into seals Hiruzen recognized as he lay on his back.
The Third barely dodged in time to avoid the trees that suddenly sprouted around him, which grew into each other to form a cage. A moment later he was forced to do so again, as Tobirama reappeared, leaping forward in a kick at his face.
He gambled and led the Second through the maze of still-growing trees, using one enemy's technique to try to trap or at least slow the second.
"Jiraiya, now!" he called to his student.
Tobirama zeroed in on his shout, but the Monkey King Enma caught up with him just as he arrived, kicking him away from the Third and continuing his efforts to delay the Second and separate him from his brother. The two were an extremely deadly team; keeping them apart was a necessity if they were to be defeated.
Hiruzen was waiting when Hashirama limped out of the miniature forest to return to the battle, and struck at the man's limbs again, burning one arm to ash. Unfortunately, the First finished his technique just before he was hit, and spears of wood erupted from behind and beneath the Third. He dodged them as quickly as he could and his armor deflected two, but another pierced his flesh. He managed to take the strike in a non-fatal area, but he knew blood loss would hasten his fatigue and slow his reflexes if he didn't act soon.
Just as he stumbled, Jiraiya returned from his face-off against Orochimaru. The sage glanced at his teacher but ran straight for the First Hokage, whose legs were almost back now. He finished preparing his technique just as he arrived, unrolling a scroll from the pack on his back.
"Seal!" he shouted.
The First Hokage disappeared in an instant, and Jiraiya ran for his teacher.
"How bad is it?" he asked.
"It's fine," the Third responded. As they spoke, he was focusing a small amount of chakra to one finger. He imbued it with his fire nature and pressed the finger to his wound, cauterizing it to minimize the blood loss.
Jiraiya handed him a roll of bandages when he finished, then went to join the battle between the Monkey King and the Second Hokage. Enma was covered in small cuts, now, and no doubt sporting bruises that were hidden by his fur. The animal's armor was in tatters, with holes cut in it and pieces missing, but the beast was loyal and fought on in grim silence, determined to do his part in this fight.
Jiraiya was about to go to his aid when he heard a faint sound back near the Third and instantly reversed course, breathing fire in a cone to his mentor's right. The flames forced Orochimaru to abandon what would have been a deadly surprise attack as the traitor returned to the open.
"You know, Jiraiya, I'm beginning to get irritated with you," Orochimaru said. "I planned this whole celebration just for dear Sarutobi-sensei and you're ruining it. On top of that, you brought uninvited guests; that's just rude."
"You didn't like my toads, Orochimaru?" Jiraiya answered calmly. "I don't know why. They're so fond of you, after all. And if you didn't want me to show up, you shouldn't have brought out the previous Hokages; I thought it was a reunion."
"Ah, I suppose I'm a poor host then," Orochimaru said, circling. "Perhaps I can make things more lively again!" As he finished speaking, four snakes erupted from his left sleeve. They slithered rapidly toward Jiraiya. He stomped on the first, crushing its head, caught the second inches from his neck, and dodged the other two. As they landed behind him, they were abruptly turned to ash by the Third as he leapt by, moving to help Enma.
Orochimaru followed that attack by coming in personally, slashing and thrusting in intricate combinations with his sword. Jiraiya continued to evade carefully, at one point losing his forehead protector as the blade sliced through the cloth that kept it tied to his head. He managed to retaliate with a blow that broke one of Orochimaru's arms, but the man simply straightened the bones and smiled as they repaired themselves within his body.
While Jiraiya wasn't thrilled with how things were going, he was confident that his allies would be returning soon, so he settled for delaying his opponent.
As the former comrades continued to battle, the Third and Enma were finding it difficult to pin down their opponent. The resurrected Second Hokage was fast and tireless, while Enma sported a number of minor injuries and now had a deep gash in one arm.
The Third was less injured than his faithful ally, but he was old, tired, and had already used a substantial amount of chakra. On top of that, he wasn't adept in sealing techniques the way his pupil was; they needed Jiraiya over here to finish the job.
He began to lead the fight back toward where his two students fought, preparing for one more burst of energy to deal with the Second.
When he arrived, Jiraiya was forcing Orochimaru to back off slightly with a burst of flames and toad oil from one of his allies.
The Third attacked Tobirama furiously, taking several punches in order to stab two kunai into the man's shoulders. He thought he felt a few ribs creaking under the blows. The last hit him in the stomach wound he had cauterized, opening it once again and forcing him to let out a gasp of agony, but he went with the momentum of the strike and fell backward into a roll, detonating the two explosive notes he had planted as he did so.
The Second's arms came cleanly off, though it was strangely bloodless.
"Enma!" Hiruzen called, gesturing to his old ally, and the monkey king leapt toward him, resuming the form of the diamond staff as he did so. The Third caught the staff and engaged Orochimaru immediately, employing every trick he had ever learned when it came to staff fighting and driving Orochimaru back a few paces. The traitor's arrogant smile vanished as his old teacher forced him to focus. Mindful of the dangers of Orochimaru's sword, Hiruzen parried the side of the blade whenever possible, trying to ensure that the edge would not cut his ally.
Jiraiya saw the Third's attack and turned toward Tobirama Senju. The dead man's arms were already beginning to restore themselves as he retreated to buy time, and Jiraiya didn't waste a second. He immediately gave chase, pulling out another sealing scroll and finishing the last few preparations it needed. His toad came with him, drawing a blade as it moved and leaping ahead of the Second to cut off his escape route. It slashed at the man, but he jumped over the cut and kicked the toad in the head, sending it face-first into the ground. He was about to follow up on the stunning blow when Jiraiya arrived.
"Seal!" the white-haired sage yelled once more, striking.
The figure dissolved into water as he struck it and the true Tobirama came out from behind a tree, striking at Jiraiya's back.
The moment he saw the clone disperse Jiraiya began turning, continuing to run in the direction he had been moving as he spun. He dodged two straight kicks but took a shin kick to the side of his chest. When the Second followed up with a punch from his newly-reformed left arm, Jiraiya managed to trap the limb and yank it toward the ground.
His toad had recovered by now, and cut the arm from Tobirama's body, once again leaving him unable to use ninjutsu. The animal then thrust forward, impaling the Second Hokage on his blade and stabbing into a tree behind him so that he could not escape. The man almost wriggled off the sword, but Jiraiya got there in time, finally sealing him into the scroll he had prepared.
With that done, he headed back toward the battle between Orochimaru and the Third.
He froze in shock for a moment when he saw the grim look on his old mentor's face and the tiny cut on his cheek. It was so small it would have been easy to miss, but he could tell from the Third's reaction and Orochimaru's smug smile what had happened.
The poison was already beginning to spread through the old man's system, and Sarutobi Hiruzen knew that his reactions would begin to slow any second now.
Jiraiya returned completely focused, launching an assault on his former teammate, but Orochimaru laughed and evaded him.
"It's time!" he called to his four minions.
Orochimaru turned to Jiraiya. "Tell Sarutobi-sensei I look forward to seeing him again. I'm sure he'll be an excellent tool when I bring him back."
Jiraiya nearly lost control in his rage, but managed to avoid making any foolish mistakes despite the surge of anger he felt.
Orochimaru's four attendants released the barrier and gathered behind him in seconds, and the traitor led them away, still laughing.
Jiraiya reluctantly let them go, running for the Third. He picked up the Hokage and rushed him to the hospital.
…
END CHAPTER