AN: Language Warning for this chapter. M

Chapter 13

Unleashed

Naruto and Sasuke continued to bait Gaara through the forest around Konoha, trying to get just far enough away from the village to allow ANBU some time to get in his way if they failed. They were hoping that if they chose the right place to fight, they wouldn't need to worry about that.

"Are there any streams near here?!" Naruto asked.

"How the hell would I know?!" Sasuke yelled back.

"You were the one who stayed awake in school; they must have taught you something about the forest!"

"Yeah. What plants grow here, what I can do with them, and where I can find them! Real useful!" Sasuke shouted back.

"Look, if we don't find a place soon, we're going to just have to stop and fight where we are at the moment! Let's at least pick our ground!" Naruto yelled. He looked behind him to see Gaara, not too far behind, foaming at the mouth and screaming for their blood. Sasuke also looked.

"At least we don't need to worry about keeping his attention!" Sasuke said.

"Now is when you get a sense of humor?!" Naruto yelled back. He began to frantically look around. He could run all day if he had to, but Sasuke couldn't. Sasuke tried to say something, but Naruto shut him up, saying that he was trying to listen for water. Sasuke gave him a blank stare, which he ignored. After a few minutes, he started getting desperate as he saw Sasuke start to lag behind. It wasn't just that this was tiring the Uchiha out. 'When that arrogant ass figures out he's falling behind, his pride is going to burn, at which point he'll get frustrated and angry. If he can't fight smart because his of his damn pride, he'll be a liability…' His thoughts were interrupted by a faint rushing sound.

"Finally!" Naruto yelled relieved. "There's a stream, northeast of here!"

Sakura had seen her teacher kill moving targets, but never real human beings. They caught up to a few Sand shinobi trailing Gaara, Sasuke, and Naruto. Jade ran up behind the first one, timing her steps and breathing to match his perfectly. As soon as she was able, she stabbed him through the neck, grabbed the body as it fell, and laid it down as she ran. By keeping her pace and location perfect, the remaining two didn't notice that their comrade had been replaced. She quickly made a shadow clone and had it use a Henge to appear like the late Sand shinobi. The real Jade repeated the run-stab-clone process on both, dispelling the clones when she finished. She would have just kept running if Sakura hadn't stopped. Jade looked back, watching her student look at the bodies.

"You've seen death before, haven't you?"

"Not like that." Jade nodded. It was her secret fear, dieing without seeing it coming. There wasn't any honor in a back stab. Not that war ever really was about honor.

Seth had taught here that those were concerned with honor over victory were idiotic fools. If there was any single perfectly reliable tool by which one could use to defeat a stronger enemy, it would be the pride of that enemy. You wait for them to make the inevitable mistake, at which you point you stop worrying about how you look and just stab the bastards in the back.

"You'll get used to it, and I expect you to do something if you're going to drag me out here." Jade said. Sakura looked at her teacher angrily.

"You just ran up and stabbed them, when did I have time to do anything?" Sakura asked.

"You wouldn't have killed them. You weren't even preparing to make a move. You may know the motions, Sakura, but they aren't any good if you can't get your damn brain in the fight. I thought you were smart. Stop just standing-by. If I didn't think you could handle yourself I wouldn't have let you out here. I'm asking you to do a very hard thing, I know. But you need to be able to kill today. You need to shrug it off until after the fight. If you need to breakdown, do it then."

"How are you all so… cold? Is it just your division or is it every Myrmidon that's like this?" Sakura asked.

"First off, in a fight, you need to keep focus, and we are trained to do that. Being warm and friendly is no good if you're dead. Secondly, I know full well what I'm asking you to do. I went through it when I was younger then you are. It was hard then, I imagine it will be hard for you. But necessity dictates what we must do. Now, I'm sorry if this sounds cold or cruel, but you need to toughen up and do your damn job." Jade said. Sakura didn't bother responding.

Kratos began to count the shinobi coming at him. There were maybe a few hundred in the crowd. All very likely Jounin. 'They might pose some difficulties, considering Orochimaru's training methods and experimentation. I would guess there are a few hundred more scattered about coming in from all sides, and a small team back at the stadium. The Sound shinobi are the bigger threat. I don't have to worry too much about the others, they'll be fairly normal.' He thought. Kratos began to intently watch how far they were from a small scratch in a tree exactly fifty yards from the main gate. When they got there, he just waited a few seconds for a good number of them to get on that stretch, and then he would push a large amount of chakra into a metal wire that was sticking out of the ground where he was standing, barley noticeable.

When they first of them reached the mark, he counted out ten seconds, and set off what proved to be an extremely devastating trap. The ground below the Sound and Sand shinobi proved to have been a thin layer of what looked to be dirt over a sheet of wire mesh metal. That sheet was covering a series of holes in the ground packed with heavy explosives, any sharp object that wouldn't disintegrate in the blast, all of which was covered with oil for an incendiary.

That first wire had set off the first trap. He could either close the gates here, or wait to see how many got to the second, kill them there, order the gates shut, and kill the stragglers inside. He thought over what would be best strategically. Then he thought, "Screw it. I like explosions." He waited to see how many would get through the blaze.Anyone in the trap was dead, not unless they had a damn good bloodline, or managed to get enough of their buddies under them to shield themselves. As the fire cleared, Kratos saw that the trap was nothing but charred skeletons, ash, and smoke. The trap had caught about a hundred and forty. The others were looking a little unsure of themselves. The roasting broken and shattered skeletons of their former comrades made for a good deterrent. Kratos looked at them. His eyes held a hunger for their blood.

Eventually, the shinobi decided to rush forward, expecting the trap to be spent; that no one would have time to set more then one of those up. Kratos didn't waste any time in activating the door seals. Any shinobi caught in their wake would make for a fresh coat of paint on the door. When the thrust seals came to life, they nearly melted half-way through the inner wall. It would be costly to repair that damage, but it would save a lot of time and protect a lot of lives. With all that done, Kratos turned his attention to the shinobi who were standing around shocked and the events that had just taken place due to their own stupidity.

He didn't even think about activating his bloodline, he just did it. He let the remaining four hundred feel his raw fury. It wasn't even killing intent; it was pure unadulterated hatred for their very existence. From that point, his heart was dead. Each shinobi he met with who wore a Sound or Sand headband would be the same.

Taurus took this as his queue to; as Kratos put it earlier "Make them shit themselves," and signaled his men to come out as well. The Sound and Sand didn't even notice them, they were too focused on Kratos, watching his every move out of fear he would kill them if they showed any sign of being distracted. He would have.

As it was, he simply spoke. "Now that I have your attention…" He began to let his Titanic features show. "You're lucky; I don't normally grant chances at this point. Give up. Now." None of the shinobi did anything. Kratos looked around, angrily. Finally, one finally spoke up.

"Fu…." The Shinobi didn't have time to finish the sentence. Kratos performed the Hiraishin and slit this shinobi's throat before he could finish. After that, war was on. The other shinobi, outraged at the death of their comrade, seemed to get some courage back. Kratos just picked them off like flies. The first few who ran at him he killed with their own weapons.

He faced one shinobi who was particularly skilled with a blade. Kratos was only using his first sword, although that made it no easier to fight him. As they wove through split-second decisions on thrusts, parries, dodges, slashes, feints, or any other trick that would gain the other any ground, Kratos learned very quickly that the Sound shinobi he was fighting was a smart warrior. Kratos kept this dance going for some time. The two fell into a routine, dancing around the fight. As Kratos ducked between the blows, he made sure to kill a few of the shinobi watching the fight, warning them to keep their distance.

After awhile, Kratos was satisfied that this swordsman had forgotten a very important part of being a shinobi. Jutsu. Kratos obliterated him with raw lightning, leaving a partially melted skeleton on the floor. Some would call it dishonorable, to use a jutsu in a sword fight, but all that really mattered was whoever walked away. Kratos left the man's blade untouched. As soon as he finished, he saw another shinobi running at him.

He saw Kratos' throw something, a shuriken. He moved to the right to block it. His head met with a shuriken tied to a string. Kratos hadn't thrown it. He'd swung it. Kratos kicked behind himself into the gut of a sand shinobi. Kratos could feel organs bursting from the force of the kick.

Naruto ducked under a sand covered arm. It snapped a tree in two like a twig. He had never once truly seen the strength granted by pure insanity, but now, faced with it, he was awed. It took everything he had to keep Gaara at bay. Granted, he hadn't removed all of his limiters yet, but he was finding that they were coming down one by one.

Gaara's sand shield took a fireball aimed to the head, not that it hurt him. It got his attention onto Sasuke. Naruto was hoping for a quick break. He only needed one jutsu before he could put the beat down on Gaara. He leapt to the other side of the stream and began performing hand seals. Sasuke quickly understood that the seals were for a water jutsu. He was amazed that Naruto knew water jutsu, and although he would never admit it, insanely jealous. He didn't bother trying to copy the technique, he knew he couldn't perform it even if he did. He might be a greedy, selfish, emo bastard, but he wasn't stupid. What Naruto wanted to accomplish with his jutsu, he couldn't figure out.

The water in the stream then began to circle in helix patterns around Naruto's arms, and seemed to be sucking more water as the helix slowly went from clear, to blue, to white. Sasuke activated his Sharingan to find that Naruto's technique was using chakra to do what he thought was impossible, compressing water. Naruto pointed both of this palms at Gaara, and let out a super high pressure blast. He kept it going for a good three minutes.

"Sasuke! Chidori! A strong one! NOW!" Naruto yelled before using a fire jutsu to torch the place where Gaara had been standing, his sand shield and sand armor visible as dripping mud. Gaara, too slow to move, and his sand ruined, couldn't protect himself. The fire engulfed him right when Sasuke began charging the attack. When the fire had cleared, the muddy shell had somewhat hardened. Sasuke saw Naruto on the other side of Gaara, and two clones, one to Gaara's left, and one to Gaara's right. All were readying Rasengans. "Now!" Naruto yelled.

Sasuke shot forward, looking like a streak of lightning as he hit Gaara's formerly impressive sand shield. He felt the remaining mud of the shield and armor turn to glass from the heat of the strike. He didn't go through though. Then he noticed another clone behind him. He took the hint.

Each Naruto rushed at Gaara, aiming for the weakest point they could see. Four Rasengans ripped into Gaara at once, unleashing a whirlwind from the backlash of the colliding techniques.

"He has to be down after that." Sasuke said. "No one could survive that."

"He survived it. But I will be very impressed if he gets up." Naruto answered, looking at the amount of blood splattered about. "And if he does, he is going to need some very good alcohol to shake that off."

Kratos had been wrong about the number of shinobi Orochimaru had at his beck and call. There were three full battalions coming toward the main gate. Stratos kept screaming out orders to the intel squads to find out where in hell that many shinobi came from, while simultaneously screaming out over radio to every Myrmidon that they had a minor problem.

"We're getting the hell over that gate, and killing every last one of those insects. It's that simple Stratos. Just let me know if the snake has any more surprises."

"Unfortunately he does. Coming from the northeast. Do you like snakes?" Kratos released a torrent of Greek curse words in response.

"How many?" He asked when he was done.

"I lost count."

"Why does this always happen with the big battles…? Right, I'm going to summon something to take care of this uh…who to use…" Kratos thought. Taurus, who had just bashed in a sound shinobi's head, sweat dropped on hearing this. Kratos pulled out a scroll from his cloak. "Hope you're ready Kyuubi…to take back your old name…" Kratos unrolled the scroll, pinching his finger and swiping it.

"Uh…boss…I don't recognize that one…" Taurus said.

"That's because I haven't been able to use this one for a long time." Kratos said smiling. He performed the summoning. To the general shock of Konoha, they saw the beast known as Kyuubi standing in their village during an attack. And Kratos standing on it's head. "Teumessian."

"You know my true name do you? I'm impressed…but as you well know, I did end up getting caught…twice…" Kyuubi spoke through a mental connection. He wasn't about to admit that he had been defeated twice. "At least the first one was at the hands of Zeus and that damn dog."

"You can reminisce about your screw-ups later. Go kill the snakes." Kratos said plainly. "I'll stay here."

"Brave of you."

"Shut it, fox." Kratos said, jumping down. "Go kill things now. You have your normal power back, don't go razing the town again."

"I was possessed, I'm telling you…"

"And I believe you. What I mean is, don't go doing it accidentally. Giant monsters, fighting near a village…I think we all know the motif. Keep shit away from here."

"Whatever you want." Kyuubi said. With one extremely terrifying a ferocious roar it ran off to go have a meal.

"Anyone else have anything for me to deal with?" Kratos asked, plainly beginning to find this battle annoyingly easy.

"Yes."

"What now?"

"Jade is with Sakura, they've been looking in on Naruto and Sasuke, keeping the enemy off them while they baited Gaara away from here. She was reporting that Gaara was down, but just now she radioed for immediate assistance. The kid somehow shook off whatever took him down, and played dead until he could use a sleep jutsu. Long story short, we have a very big tanuki to deal with. Take a look; you can probably just see him."

It was hard to miss the giant sand tanuki standing up above the forest. "Yeah…I see it…do we have anyone we can send?"

"I dispatched teams from the arena, replacing them with ANBU guards the prisoners we haven't processed yet. Unfortunately, those teams are encountering slightly heavier resistance. The Sand has been getting between us and Gaara. Not a problem, but it's slowing them down somewhat."

"Naruto can handle it until then…"

Naruto was in pure shock at the kind of powers that we're being unleashed for this battle. Kyuubi's power was intense, even when felt from far off. But Gaara, being so close…it was overwhelming. Sasuke was clearly getting desperate, and Naruto couldn't say he was faring much better. He jumped above the tree canopy, trying to get a better view of his opponent. Gigantic feet aren't exactly the best targets. He eyed Gaara, half sunk into the sand beast, sleeping eerily, slumped over.

He pulled out a shuriken, endowed with lightning. Gaara was a long way off, and this was a tricky shot. Naruto was aiming for the back of Gaara's neck, just visible due to the way he was slouched forward. He threw. Naruto followed the speeding projectile with his eyes as it flew towards its target, trying to determine if he would hit his mark. It seemed he had thrown well. At the last second, a wall of sand formed in front of Gaara and stopped the shuriken.

"Ah, it was a long shot anyway." Naruto shrugged. "What am I supposed to do against this thing?" He asked, looking up at Shukaku and Gaara. He was getting frustrated. He was strong enough and fast enough to take on Gaara, but now that Shukaku had control, it just wasn't enough. 'Kratos is probably going to send help…I hope so, at least…so I just need to find some way to slow this thing down…what can I do…' Naruto thought. "Fuck it!" He shouted.

Naruto stopped thinking tactics, and started doing what his brother would call a "massive overkill none-may-live barrage." When thinking slows you down, just destroy. Simple enough philosophy and Naruto demonstrated a very full understanding of it. Every weapon he had on him was thrown and multiplied, from ever conceivable angle, hitting any point on Shukaku that looked slightly vulnerable. Naruto was able to get onto the beast's back, and ran up it while digging his blade into the sand skin. He endowed the weapon with fire, leaving a burning red line up Shukaku's back.

The result of Naruto's barrage was an excellent, extremely vibrant display of explosions, lightning blasts, fire balls, and ice. This all seemed to irritate the gigantic Tanuki, who's ear twitched. Its sand skin was charred and burned in places, others it was frozen together, like permafrost. Small chunks were missing here and there, but it was apparent that they were re-growing. Shukaku simply shook himself like a dog drying itself off, sending sand everywhere. It looked angry.

"Well...shit." Naruto said, staring at the best blankly before being covered in a pile of sand.

Artemis quietly crept up behind yet another unsuspecting group of shinobi. She readied her two silver hunting blades. She continued forward, not making a single sound. One of the shinobi glanced around, but missed her. The goddess knew how to conceal herself amongst the vegetation of the forest.

'Foolish fools who foolishly tread into my domain…' she thought. One of her wolves, Logo, brushed up against her leg, and looked at her, almost pleadingly. Pleading with her to allow him to bring her a limb to play fetch with. She was all too happy to oblige.

Seth wove in and out of the enemy shinobi, his thin, wiry body weaving through the enemy, cutting off heads and stabbing poison into the veins of his enemies. His accuracy was perfect, despite the blood dripping into his eyes. He was covered in it, the blood of his enemies. As he cut his way through the force, he laughed. His reveled in the screams of his enemy. Inwardly, he took a moment to note that he really was a serial killer, in essence, he just channeled it towards people who deserved to die. He made another mental note to remind himself to talk to a shrink about that. Of course, the fact that every man present from his devision was acting like he was comforted him.

Taurus' axes ripped through flesh, muscle, and bone as if it where tissue paper. It wasn't long before he lost himself in the motion of battle, and began fighting like a berserker. An extremely talented one, albeit. He drove into the center of the enemy forces, maiming and slaughtering any who got near. Then he hunted down the cowards who ran. His men acted accordingly, slashing and hacking, fighting with every weapon they had to offer. Eventually, the Sound and Sand forces decided to count their losses and run for their worthless hides.

Kratos was pacing. He surveyed the blood soaked entrance to Konoha, looking over the hacked, charred, and maimed bodies. The battalions outside the gate had been mostly upper Chunin. Not even Jounin level. Kratos had been expecting special-ops. He reasoned that Artemis had taken many of those out, since she would aim for prime targets, but the strength of the enemy just didn't add up. Orochimaru knew what Myrmidons could do. He was smarter then what he was seeing.

"What's wrong Kratos?" Taurus asked. "Stratos reports that we took out nearly a third of their forces just there. Artemis is picking off the smaller groups in the forest like they were flies. I mean, if this is the best they can do…or are you worried about your brother?"

"Naruto will be alright. I know he still hasn't quite fully sharpened that dull knife that is his brain, but he's strong enough to somewhat compensate. I'm not worried about him. It's just that…it shouldn't be going this well. We haven't lost one soldier yet. I mean yeah, that's good and all, but c'mon. This is too good to be true." He said.

Taurus was about to respond, but before he could manage to get the words out, the blood began to pool. The now horrified Myrmidons watched as the corpses of the men they killed began to walk into the center of this pool. Storm clouds began to form overhead. Slowly, the blood formed around the pile of bodies, merging with them. The mass of carnage began to form a vaguely humanoid shape, save the fact that it looked to be about fifteen feet high and made of solid muscle. As other details came into shape, it was possible to make out the face.

The eyes were red, with no whites. In them was a fury that could take a man's soul from him, eat it, and spit out the bones. The face held a smile that held many facets of a truly evil creature. Menace, cruelty, intelligence, psychosis, confidence, and blood thirst all showed in the pointed teeth the creature flashed to his victims. And then, the blood-man spoke. Its voice was rough, powerful. One could tell by sound alone that its bearer was a warrior of the cruelest breed, a savage by all rights save his intellect.

"A pleasure to see you again, spoudastis." It said. Kratos, who had been watching this horrifyingly paranormal display intently, knew exactly to whom this voice belonged. Although his outer visage showed no sign of it, his mind was a hurricane of emotion. Terror and rage tore through him like an adrenaline rush. His response was seething with the urge to rip into the creature before him.

"You are my master no longer." Kratos said.

"And yet you remember my lessons…and use them, to good effect I might add. I love what you did with the gates."

"The dagger of my enemy is just as deadly as my own…well, not quite. What is your business here?" Kratos said. His control was very close to breaking. Every nerve in his body screamed at him to rush forward, to hack this creature to bits.

"An adage I taught you used against me…how fitting. But you know why I'm here, Kratos. I'm here to collect what's mine."

"Their lives don't belong to you, any more then mine does. Leave." Kratos said.

"Since when do you value the lives of others? Well, nonetheless, I wasn't talking about your debt. I have a new student. He promised me death in exchange for my power, and my teachings. You helped fulfill part of the obligation, in the realm of death itself."

"No…"

"You know the rules, Kratos. I have to be brought here by another. And it takes a lot of blood to do that, blood spilled by the enemy's hand. You are his enemy."

"If you're being here is my doing, then I will send you back…" Kratos said. "I've changed since then…and I'm stronger." Kratos turned to his army. "Run…" he told them. "You'll only get yourselves killed, and in doing so, donate to this monster your strength. Leave." Not a single one questioned the order. They could not only hear, but feel the quiet rage dripping from every word.

"A pity that a legacy such as yours should end like this. Dieing for a pathetic race, a society not even your own. Well, perhaps the younger of you will see more for himself…it would be nice to see another few great massacres like the ones you…"

"ENOUGH!!" Kratos screamed. He had snapped. "FOR FOUR YEARS I FOLLOWED EVERY ORDER, LEARNED EVERY LESSON, WORKED THROUGH HOURS OF PAIN AND MISERY FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF BEING A BETTER SLAVE FOR YOU!!!" His golden hair turned red. His eyes turned black. "IN YOUR NAME, FOR NO PURPOSE THEN TO AMUSE YOU, I KILLED HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS!! COMMITTED ATROCITIES THE LIKE OF WHICH THIS WORLD SHOULD NEVER HAVE WITNESSED!" The ground around Kratos cracked, and trembled. "EVEN TODAY I BARE THE SCARS! EVERY NIGHT, I RELIVE EVERY SINGLE ONE! EVERY LIFE I ENDED MEANINGLESSLY!!!!! TODAY I HAVE MY VENGEANCE, DO YOU HEAR ME YOU SADISTIC, TYRANNIC, POWER-HUNGRY, FUCKER?! I DON'T CARE HOW FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE IT IS, YOU ARE FUCKING DEAD!!!" Kratos yelled, getting lost in fury and in pain. He let all of his fear become washed away in his need to see this monster fall.

"That's right…let out all of that rage, just like I taught you." The gargantuan man said. His jeering voice served to further break down what little mental control Kratos had left.

"TODAY YOU BOW TO ME AND DIE, ARES!!!" With that final declaration of intent, Kratos rushed forward at the God, ready to die for his vengeance.