Me: Sup dudes and dudettes. Sorry about the time delay, but I have great news. I have been hired to work for OfficeMax. I started a month ago and am now receiving 8.25 an hour. Life's good. Oh, but enough about me, enjoy the chapter. Oh, and FYI, I'm trying to describe what the characters looks like, but if that didn't help, then for the Mortal Kombat characters use the costume looks from MK2011 and Armageddon. Examples, Kabal from 2011 and Bo' Rai Cho from Armageddon.
Bo' Rai Cho scanned the arena floor and mentally sighs in relief that the field was still compatible to fight in despite all the craters and upturned vegetation. Hopefully it'll last three more rounds. "We will now begin the 3rd match between Shino Aburame and Kankuro Sabaku!" He yelled.
Kankurao inwardly sneered. 'If I use Crow now against bug-man, then he'll most likely be to banged up to use in the invasion.' "Proctor, I forfeit!" Kankuro shouted, earning a round of boos and jeers. Mushu even threw an empty soda can at his head. "OW!"
"YOU SUCK!" The dragon shouted.
Bo' Rai Cho raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Very well. Then we shall proceed onto the 4th match between Shikamaru Nara and Temari Sabaku!"
Temari just scoffed and flew down on her fan towards the arena floor.
"Ha!" Bo' laughed as the Suna kunoichi landed beside him. "Feisty huh? Your next boy!"
Shikamaru sighs. "Troublesome. Maybe I should just gi-AAAAHHH!" He screamed as he fell over the railing and landed on the arena floor. Everyone winced on impact.
Sasuke, Ash, and Shino heard a whistling sound and turned to see Naruto whistling innocently. "I didn't do that," The Uzumaki 'innocently' said.
Shikamaru stood up, cracked his neck, then glared at the blonde knucklehead. 'I am going to kick his ass!'
XXXTIME SKIPXXX
Naruto continued to watch the match, feeling extremely bored. The fight was just really slow, like watching Shikamaru play shogi. While he can appreciate his friends strategy, he could also appreciate that the guy was really lazy. He looked around and saw different reactions for the others. Shino and Gaara were just watching the match with calculating gazes, Kankuro and Ash struggled to stay awake, and Sasuke was cleaning his finger nails with a kunai.
Naruto then thought about what the Hokage said to him a couple of years ago. He said battles aren't meant to be amazing, cool, or even heroic, just people fighting each other and trying to win by any means necessary. And that's what Shikamaru's doing right now. But still the guy could at least put some effort into it.
He then sighs in boredom. "I really hoped Shikamaru wouldn't try anything like this, but I can't say I'm surprised. It is him."
"I expected it from the beginning actually," Sasuke mused, blowing on his fingers.
Then Ash shouted, "Guy's, look!"
Everyone looked down and saw Temari trapped via shadow possession by Shikamaru.
Naruto grinned. "Go Shikamaru!" He cheered. Sasuke however, just stood there expecting something else to happen.
Shikamaru raised his hand along with Temari, thanks to the shadow possession. The Nara opened his mouth and says...
"I surrender."
"..."
Silence. Silence was all there was in the arena. So silent that a real to honest tumbleweed rolled through. How'd that get there?
"I also expected that," Sasuke said to his brother. Naruto didn't respond, his face stuck in mid cheer and the occasional eye twitch.
Shikamaru then released an astonished Temari from his jutsu and said, "I only had enough chakra to hold the justu for another... ten seconds or so. If I continued then it would have failed and she would have beaten me." Then he started doing some stretches. "Plus a good strategist always knows when and when not to fight."
Bo' Rai Cho rolled his eyes. "The winner is Temari Sabaku!" He announced.
"SERIOUSLY!" Naruto shouted, being held back by Sasuke, Ash, and Shino lest he try to jump down and beat Shikamaru to a bloody pulp.
Back down, Shikamaru stood to the side of the entrance and allowed Temari through first. "Ladies first."
The Suna kunoichi raised a brow. "What's with the chivalry all of a sudden?"
Shikamaru shrugged. "My dad always says 'treat a woman right and she won't kill ya.'"
Temari giggled before composing herself and walked up the steps, a small blush appearing on her cheeks. Shikamaru followed behind.
As soon as Shikamaru walked through the entrance, Naruto grabbed him in a headlock. "That was the most stupidest thing I have ever seen in my entire life!" The blonde growled, increasing pressure.
"Can't... breathe..." Shikamaru managed to say.
"I know!" Naruto snarled
XXXXXXXXXX
"I... he just... but he... so dead..." Came from the angrily seething Ino as she tried to calm down and only managing to do so after Sakura promised to go shoes shopping with her after the final match.
Jets of flame were spewing from and angry Mushu. "What kind of a match was that! That was just a stupid game of Marco polo! I demand my munny back!"
"This tournament is free," Shizune said.
"It is?!" Mushu jumped to the ground and started making his way through the stands.
"Where are you going?" Ahsoka asked.
"To get my munny back from that scammer!" the dragon answered, a baseball bat in his claws provided by Tenten.
Few minutes later, Mushu came back with his munny and a now bloody bat. "If the cops come by, tell them you didn't see me." He said, counting his money. "What'd I miss though?"
"GOOD AFTERNOON EVERYBODY!" Came the very loud yells of both Might Gai and Rock Lee, making everyone within 30 feet to cover their ears.
"Gai, Lee, how nice of you to join us," Eraqus growled, picking his ear with his finger.
"Sorry we're late, I was just picking up Lee from the hospital."
"What'd we miss?" Lee asked.
"Ash defeated Dosu, Naruto beat Neji, Kankuro forfeited which means Shino won by default, and Shikamaru surrendered his match with Temari." Asuma said.
Both green beasts eyes widen. "Naruto defeated Neji?!" Lee whispered.
Kurenai nodded. "He actually bested him in close range combat, mainly using his earth jutsu as armor."
"Wow," Was all Lee could say before smiling. 'Then it looks like I have a new opponent.'
"What's with the lizard?" Gai asked, snapping Lee out of his thoughts.
Mushu exhaled smoke through his nostrils. "I ain't a lizard, salad man. I am a guardian dragon. Here, I'll show ya." He sucked in a deep breath and blew out a small plume of fire... right at Choji.
"AAAAHHHH! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!" Choji hollored, his bag of sour cream flavored chips on fire. Ino quickly knocked out of his hands and Kiba snuffed it out by stomping it.
Gai and Lee both gawked. "Okay, I'm convinced." Gai said. Lee nodded in agreement.
"Told ya!" Mushu exclaimed, oblivious to the death glare Choji was sending him.
XXXXXXXXXX
"We will now begin the 5th and final match between Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara Sabaku!" Bo' Rai Cho said.
"Wish me luck," Sasuke said, giving his brother and friends a thumbs up before heading down the stairs.
Gaara stayed in the fighters box for a few more seconds before following the Uchiha, only to stop when he saw two Kusa shinobi from the village hidden in the grass blocking his path.
"Listen here buddy," The first one said. "Our Daimyo wanted us to tell you that you gotta lose so he can collect the munny he betted on the last Uchiha."
The second one smirked. "So if you know whats good for ya, then it's best you forfeit right now."
Gaara just stared at them with a blank face. 15 seconds later, Gaara's sand was crawling back into his gourd after reducing the two idiots into bloody smears on the walls, floor, and ceiling. After the last of his sand was back in, he plugged it up and continued his way towards the arena floor.
Unfortunately the slaughter did not go unotice. Naruto, Shikamaru, and Ash were sitting on the steps, fear evident in their eyes. They heard the screaming and came to investigate, but instead saw what looked like human paste. Luckily for them Gaara didn't see them, but it was still a traumitizing experience.
Naruto's eyes widen. 'If he did that to them and what he almost did to Lee, then Sasuke's in trouble!'
'Naruto!' Kurama said, getting his attention. 'You gotta stop the match! You gotta stop this match now or Sasuke will die! HURRY!'
Naruto stood up. "We gotta get to my dad and Eraqus!" He exclaimed, surprising Shikamaru and Ash. "We gotta get them to stop this match."
His friends nodded in agreement and together ran towards the arena stands.
XXXXXXXXXX
By the time they made their way towards their friends, the match was well under way with Sasuke staying as far away from the sand as possible by utilizing an amazing speed.
"When did he get so fast?" Sakura asked.
"I had Gai train him on his speed before the match," Kakashi answered.
"I hope you don't mind, Lee," Gai said to his student.
Lee just smiled. "It's okay, I understand. Sasuke needed to be fast as possible to avoid Gaara's sand so what happened to me won't happen to him. And with a large area like this, it looks like he has the advantage."
"The only problem is how long that will last," Ahsoka mused.
"DAD!"
Everyone turned around to see an exhausted Naruto, Shikamaru, and Ash at the entrance of the hallway, all breathing heavily.
Kakashi blinked. "Naruto? What are you doing here?"
"You gotta stop the match!" The blonde shouted, surprising them. "If you don't then Sasuke could die!"
"What're you talking about?" Dawn asked. "What's going to- why do I hear birds chirping?"
Everyone looked back down to see Sasuke's hand covered in what looked like blueish-white lightning.
"Chidori!" Sasuke shouted as he ran towards Gaara, who was now incased in a dome made of his sand, and the attack actually went through the dome. Luckily though, he stopped in time before he was impaled by sand spikes.
'Okay, now that was a close one,' He thought to himself as his right cheek started bleeding from one of the spikes touching his face.
"What was that?" Hanabi asked in awe as Mushu's jaw comically dropped.
"An assassination technique, and a very powerful one," Gai explained.
Anko frowned. "How is it an assassination move if it's so loud?"
Gai smiled knowingly. "Kakashi actually had it changed from assassination to an S-ranked jutsu a few years ago. Anyway, it is essentially unstoppable. It's like a two-edged sword; to use it effectively you must be fast, very fast, but due to its execution it is best employed in a straight thrust. Thus, you need to have a Sharigan to use it to it's full potential. Its secret lies in the speed of the thrust and the activation of the body to generate a large amount of Chakra. Then he concentrates that large amount of Chakra into the thrusting arm. And because of the incredible speed he moves at, it emits a distinct chirping sound similar to a thousand birds chirping. While Kakashi calls his Raikiri, it looks like Sasuke calls it Chidori."
Eraqus rubbed his chin. "Yes, I remember. It's name is derived from when Kakashi once cut through lightning."
Kakashi rolled his eyes. "That actually never happened. I have no idea how that myth started."
"Maybe, Kakashi, but it is a very dangerous Jutsu," Gai said, eyeing his rival.
"Well unless you know of a way to get past that sand armor that not even opening all 8 gates could get past it, then please by all means speak." Kakashi snapped in a calm, but threatening tone.
Gai held up his hands in surrender. "All I'm saying is that maybe you should have waited just a bit longer."
"Does Naruto know how to use it?" Laku asked.
Both Kakashi and Naruto winced at the memory. "Actually we tried that about a year ago and it did not end well. Lightning isn't really his element."
"Thats an understatement of the century!" Naruto exclaimed. "I almost destroyed all my fingers and it took days until my hand was fully healed." Everyone grimaced.
"How could you teach him that?!" Tsunade demanded as Kakashi held his hands up in defense.
XXXXXXXXXX
'What is this…? What is this red…? This wetness…?'
Gaara stared at the arm that had pushed through his shell, imbedding itself in his shoulder. He blinked slowly, analyzing the sensations of the warm fluid soaking into his tunic. The metallic smell…
'Familiar… so familiar…'
The scent of a hundred kills, an aroma that washed over the senses, always exciting Gaara and his mother. The thing she craved, and he delivered, and always enjoyed.
'Blood…'
'Blood?! My blood?!'
"BLOOD! MY BLOOD! I'M BLEEDING?!"
Sasuke felt a massive surge of killing intent wash over the entire arena, dangerous and evil. He yanked his arm out of the sand and leaped away just before what looked like a claw could grab him.
On the waiting deck, both of Gaara's siblings took a few steps back in fear 'This isn't gonna end well.' They both thought.
Then before everyones eyes, feathers started falling from the sky.
'What?' Naruto thought rather... sleepy? 'Why are there feathers falling from the... oh no, it's a Genjutsu. Gotta perform a re-' He then fell asleep along with Shikamaru and Ash.
Noticing that a Genjutsu was being used, the adults, Hinata, Dawn, Ahsoka, and Sakura quickly used the hands sign needed to keep from falling asleep. But the other's weren't so lucky. Even Mushu fell asleep, mumbling something about a pedestal. Then there was an explosion over where the Hokage and Kazekage were. Before the adults could head over to help, a half a dozen force of Sand and Sound ninjas blocked their path, but were quickly taken care of by one good punch from Tsunade.
"Would somebody mind telling me how an army of enemy ninja managed to get into the village?!" The slug sannin demanded, backhanding a Sound ninja behind her without looking.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Hiashi said, sending a couple of Sand ninja's flying with a gently fist attack.
"Lord Hokage!" Kurenai shouted. Everyone looked to see not the Kazekage holding the Hokage hostage, but a familiar snake.
"Orochimaru?" Shizune said in surprise as Ton-Ton hid behind her leg.
Kakashi then noticed Temari and Kankuro taking Gaara away and saw Sasuke following after them and Bo' Rai Cho missing from the field. 'Why does he always rush off by himself!' He also noticed some kind of purple colored barrier surrounding the roof. One of the ANBU black ops tried to get through, only to meet a fiery end.
Two Sound ninja came at Sakura. Just as she shirked and shut her eyes, Kakashi quickly took care of the them by jamming a kunai into each of their skulls. "Sakura," said Kakashi. "I need you Dawn, Hinata, and Ahsoka to release the Genjutsu on eveyone but Hanabi. I'm sure Naruto will be excited, since now you, him, and the other's have an A-rank mission to accomplish. You got to find Sasuke before he gets himself killed."
"Aren't any of you coming with us?" Sakura asked, releasing the Genjutsu on Ino as Hinata worked on Kiba, Dawn with Choji, and Ashoka with Mushu and Akamaru.
"No, I have to stay here," Kakashi said. Then the copy-cat shinobi used a kunai to draw a little blood from his finger and used it as a medium to summon a pug. "Since I can't come with you, Pukkan will be your tracker along with Akamaru."
Dawn blinked. "Our tracker is a puppy?"
"Don't call me a cute little puppy," Pakkun said in an offended tone.
'I didn't say cute…' Dawn thought.
Ignoring the dog and after explaining everything to the now awoken Genin, Ino, Ahsoka, and Hinata went to wake up the three unconscious boys. Since Ash was the closest, Ahsoka woke him up first.
Ash opened his eyes sleepily, then snapped them open when he saw an enemy ninja charging him. He quickly summoned his keyblade and took the guy out with a whack to his head, knocking him out.
"What's going on?" Naruto muttered, rubbing his eyes.
"Look behind you for the answer," Ahsoka responded.
Naruto turned around... and quickly whipped out his kunai to block a couple of shuriken thrown at him. The Sand shinobi who threw them was quickly taken care of by Mushu via fireball.
"5 points!" The dragon shouted in glee.
As Ino was about to wake up Shikamaru, she saw his eye twitch. Ino grounded her teeth when she realized he was only pretending to sleep and was about to punch him on the noggin, but Pakkun beat her to the punch by biting Shikamaru on the ankle.
"AAAHHHH!" He screamed as he tried to shake pug off.
"Why are you sleeping at a time like this!?" Kiba called over to Shikamaru as he threw a kunai at a Sound ninja, hitting him in the leg while Akamaru went for his throat.
"Cause I didn't want to get involved," Shikamaru said as he pulled Pukkan off his ankle.
"Remind me to hurt you after this!" Ino growled as Choji tackled her to the ground as a dozen kunai and shuriken flew over their heads.
"No more arguing!" Eraqus shouted as he grabbed the head of a ninja and slammed it into a wall. "You all have to find Sasuke and stop Gaara before something happens."
"I'm afraid I can't let that happen."
Everyone turned to see a woman in a cloak standing at the bottom of the stairs. When the woman removed the cloak, Laku's eyes widen in horror at the sight of a now living Asajj Ventress.
Asajj put a hand up to her chin. "You see, I can't have any of you trying to stop the Sand user before his full power is released. So I'm going to have to pull out the big guns."
"What big guns you hairless harpy!" Naruto demanded, receiving a glare from the sith warrior.
"Look up."
Everyone did as she said and if it was possible their eyes grew ten fold.
In the air were giant metal objects flying from the space, at least a dozen of them. The best description for them would be sideways, two-sided, tuning forks with a foot in the middle. The older generation however remembered what these things were.
"Where did you come from?!" Laku exclaimed in shock at the Dathomirian, despite the fact her friends world was being invaded. "You're suppose to be dead."
"While I would love to explain my continued existence, I just remembered that I have to be somewhere else," Ventruss said. "Tata." And then she disappeared in a flash of super speed.
They then heard a clanking noise and saw dozens of metal men marching through the entrances. Laku, Eraqus, and Ahsoka narrowed their eyes. Battle droids, four different kinds. The B1 battle droids were the weakest looking ones with skeleton bodies in a rusty copper color. The blue colored B2 super battle droids were bulky and have built-in blasters in their wrists. The third ones were the rolling death balls Droideka's, or destroyers, with shields. The final ones were the grapple droids that looked a lot like supers, except they were colored darker blue and have electrified pincers.
"Oh crap," Anko cursed.
"What is this?!" Sakura shouted. "What are those things?"
"Um, we can explain," Ahsoka stuttered.
"Hey, look over there!"
Everyone turned to see B1's and B2's coming out of the closest entrance.
"Those are the targets!" The same B1 droid shouted.
Another sighs in annoyance. "Great, first day of being online and we have to fight Jedi."
One of the B2's smacked him in the head. "Just start blasting them!"
"Roger Roger." And at once, all the droids started firing their weapons.
XXXXXXXXXX
Near the wall of the village, Sand ninja were preparing a summoning jutsu. As soon as the symbol was drawn, they slammed the palms of their hands on the ground and instantly three gigantic snakes were summoned. The reptiles wasted no time and went through the wall, destroying it, a watch tower, and two unlucky Konoha shinobi.
One of the shinobi patrolling the walls tries to warn the Hokage, but what looked like a red bolt hits him in the back, killing him. His friend turned around to see dozens of Suna and Oto ninja on the wall with metal men, one of the B2's wrist blaster smoking, indicating it was him who killed his ally. And flying in the air were large, well, the closest comparison would be boats. These were heavy missile platforms, or HMP for short.
"Damn." Was all he could say before he was disintegrated on the spot by a missile.
XXXXXXXXXX
BEEP BEEP BEEP
"Huh?" A B1 droid with a yellow head tapped the side of his head. "Yes."
[Are the tank's in position?] Ventress' said through the communicator
"Yes ma'am. The HAG's are prepared to fire and we have AAT's and GAT's at standby."
[Have the artillery ready to fire on specific targets as soon as I have the weapon. Send the rest of the vehicles in immedeatly.]
"Yes, ma'am. Right away." The sergeant shut his communicator off and turned to the regiment of droids. "You heard her, move out!"
The droids responded with a chorus of 'Roger Roger' as they marched straight towards the village.
XXXXXXXXXX
Maul took a deep with of the air. "Fear. This village is rank with it." He turned to the Tarkatan battalion that Baraka provided for him. "Go. Amuse yourselves."
The leading Tarkatan let out a guttural roar and ran straight towards the village, followed by his brothers.
Maul smirked. 'A shame Savage had to miss this. Oh well, I'll bring him back a souvenir.'
Me: Now don't go telling me the arrival of the droid army wasn't to... I guess pronounce is the right word for it. You try not telling anybody who they are when half of the characters have never even seen a droid or Tarkatan. If anybody wants to help me rewrite this chapter to make it better, please PM me. And frankly, I needed to get a new chapter in before Christmas. Expect a new one before the new year everyone. BYE!