I don't own Naruto.
Hello everyone and welcome to the next chapter of this story. I'm sorry to have taken so long but life caught up with me. Luckily my father is okay (thanks to everyone who expressed their support) so that's a major relief. On the other hand, I've been told that my contract at the firm where I work will not be prolonged so I'm out of a job in three weeks. Stupid economic crisis. So it's back to jobhunting for me.
Other than that I'm doing fine. I've been having an idea for a new story so check out the poll on my profile page and vote. Nothing else to report but enjoy the chapter.
Chapter Twenty-One: Legends of Konoha
Konoha had been the home of many talented shinobi; both in the past and in the present. From the Shodaime Hokage, a man said to be capable of controlling the tailed beasts and the only one in history to have had the Mokuton Kekkei Genkai, founder of the first shinobi village, the village that would later become Konoha; his brother, the Nidaime Hokage, a man whose skills with Suiton Jutsu was unrivaled even to this day; the Sandaime Hokage, the Professor or God of Shinobi as many called him for learning just about every Jutsu outside the Kekkei Genkai related Jutsu; then there was the Yondaime Hokage, the man who had won them the Third Shinobi war and defeated the Kyuubi by sealing it into his own daughter. And those were just the Hokage; there were many more that could be counted as some of the strongest and most talented shinobi to walk the face of the earth.
Jiraiya and Tsunade, two third of the Sannin each had acquired legendary status together with Orochimaru during their fight with the leader of Amegakure, Hanzo. Already they were considered some of the strongest shinobi but that fight cemented their name into legendary status. Then there was Hatake Kakashi, Chuunin at six, Jounin at age twelve, student of Namikaze Minato and to everyone's knowledge the only non-Uchiha to have the Sharingan and capable of using it to a level of near-perfection. His name was already renowned in all of the Elemental Countries as an enemy not to take lightly.
There were others who were not yet well known or some who were known only inside Konoha. Ibiki, head of the Investigation and Torture department springs into minds; Mitarashi Anko, pupil of the traitorous Orochimaru; Uzuki Yuugao, one of the finest swordmasters Konoha had; Maito Gai, eccentric but without a doubt one of the strongest Taijutsu user in the village; Yuuhi Kurenai, a Genjutsu mistress with never seen before talent; Sarutobi Asuma, son of the Sarutobi Hiruzen and one time member of the Daimyo's guard. These and many more were all some of the strongest and most admirable shinobi Konoha had to offer.
Then there was the current generation, the future of Konohagakure. As the Chuunin exams had revealed, it became clear that in this generation as well, there would be those that would achieve great things in life. When one looked at the latest class to graduate, one could find an heir to just about every clan in Konoha. Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino formed a team just like their parents had done before them and were well on their way to becoming strong in their own right. Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata and Aburame Shino formed an excellent team after a rough start but managed to pull through thanks to their teamwork and dedication to each other. Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Tsuyoshi Matsuda were rough around the edges and still had a long way to go what teamwork concerned but they would get there in the end. Uzumaki Naruko and Haku had already started on their ascension towards building their reputation in the village and would soon become known throughout the Elemental Countries in the next few years.
These shinobi were the reason why none of the other villages were keen on waging war with Konoha. While each village had their own shinobi that could be compared to Konoha's legends, none had as many as Konoha. Even Orochimaru wasn't foolish enough to believe he could destroy Konoha by attacking on his own and that's why had to wait for several years. Years of training his troops, years of gathering resources, years of patience were spend until finally he saw the perfect opportunity. The Suna Daimyo had foolishly alienated the Kazekage by reducing the budget for the village, forcing the Kazekage to reduce the number of men he had in order to keep the village floating. It was a process of years rather than months. Sunagakure wasn't blessed with good weather conditions nor did it have the riches Konoha or the other villages had. This resulted in some severe resentment towards those villages, especially towards Konoha as they had won the war against both Suna and Iwa. Orochimaru capitalized on those feelings of resentment, promising the Kazekage revenge on the village that was slowly but surely suffocating Sunagakure.
Suna wasn't only village to resent Konoha. Iwagakure for example had a fierce disliking of everything Konoha. The Tsuchkage, known as Ryoutenbin no Oonoki, was the leader of Iwa during the Third Shinobi War and still hadn't forgotten the humiliation of being defeated by Konoha. For years, Iwa had barely managed to survive after the terrible losses of manpower and financial problems. Only recently had they managed to find their way back to power, albeit slowly as not to alarm the other villages. Last thing they wanted was to make the others suspicious of their activities. They had no desire to find themselves involved with another war, not when they finally started to recover.
Kumogakure, another of the great Shinobi villages held an grudge against Konoha for several reasons. One of the main reasons what that Konoha was home to so many Kekkei Genkai, while they and the other villages only had a few. Over the years, Kumo had tried to acquire some of the those Kekkei Genkai, both through peaceful and non-peaceful ways. Unfortunately, every attempt failed so far. The most known attempt was several years ago when a so-called ambassador of Kumo was ordered to secure a female member of the Hyuuga clan so they could start a breeding program. That attempt ended with the humiliation of Kumo as Konoha managed to trick them into accepting the body of a branch member of the Hyuuga Clan, whose eyes proved useless at the time of death. That humiliation was source of many frustrations for the former and present Raikage.
There was one more village who resented Konoha the most. Ironically, it was a village that hadn't participated in the second war until the end. Amegakure and its country, Ame no Kuni, served as the battleground during the Second Shinobi war and suffered massive damage due to the shinobi battles. The habitants of Ame no Kuni were caught right smack in the middle of Konoha, Suna and Iwa and thus most of the battles took place there. Normally, civilians weren't involved in shinobi fights but accidents happened more than one dared to acknowledge. On top of that, the land was destroyed, crops were burned down in order to take away food from enemies and so on. Even after the war was over, Amegakure, just like Kirigakure was plunged into a civil war. Needless to say, Ame no Kuni had needed many years to recover and was only now getting back to their feet. Still, feelings of resentment toward Suna, Iwa and Konoha were still present in many of the shinobi.
All of these feelings and envy would came to haunt Konoha in the coming years but for now let us return to the present. Orochimaru, one of the Sannin who had left Konoha some years before had return to destroy his former village by creating his own village in Ta no Kuni called Otogakure. Together with the Kazekage he had planned the attack on Konoha, and when the time was right, he had disposed of the Kazekage and taken his place in order to assure their aid in the invasion. Orochimaru couldn't care less about Suna and its problems but he needed more manpower if this attack would have any chance of succeeding. Months of planning and gatherings, plan after plan rejected until he finally found the perfect way to deal with Konoha. Today would be the day Konoha went up in flames and he would have his revenge. Alas, it was not meant to be. The shinobi of Konoha wouldn't just stand by idle when their beloved village was attacked. He was prepared for this but not for the fact that his plans had been discovered several months before the attack, thanks to the carelessness of a Chuunin.
For a brief moment Sasuke wondered if he wasn't in over his head when he saw the partially transformed Gaara in front of him. He had known that the Suna Shinobi had been strange and not much was known about him but this was beyond anything he had expected. With half of his face transformed Gaara looked barely human anymore and it seemed his thought process had been taken over by a monster as well. He didn't have very long to think about it as Gaara wasted no time and attacked him. Thanks to his Sharingan he narrowly managed to dodge but it had been close judging by the rip in his shirt.
"Something is very wrong here." Shikamaru said softly to Sakura and Shino.
"Huh, what do you mean?" Sakura asked mostly concerned about her love interest.
"Nara-san is right." Shino agreed. "Look at his teammates. They're shaking in fear even though they're on the same side. It's obvious that they do not want to be here, which suggest that something even worse is coming."
"Worse than this?" Sakura exclaimed but the sound of her voice was lost when a huge explosion destroyed dozens of trees.
Sasuke had been hiding after the first attack but Gaara was taunting him out of his hiding place. Uchiha Sasuke was a lot of things but he was no coward and being called one really pissed him off. Then Gaara's words about his reason for hate being weak brought back the memories of his brother slaughtering the entire Uchiha Clan for no apparent reason other than to test his strength. With the Sharingan blazing he made several handseals and the Chidori manifested into his right hand. When the dust cleared Gaara and Sasuke looked at each other before charging in. They bystander watched in fascination as Sasuke's Chidori effortlessly cut Gaara's transformed hand in two. But instead of howling in pain, Gaara let out an insane sounding laughter.
"YES, THAT'S IT." He exclaimed. "NOW I KNOW WHY I'M SO EXCITED TO FIGHT YOU. IT'S THIS PAIN; THIS PAIN PROVES MY EXCISTENCE. DEFEATING A MAN STRONG ENOUGH TO HURT ME WILL GIVE ME AN EVEN GREATER SENSE OF EXCISTENCE."
Sasuke smirked but stayed on guard. This had been his second Chidori and that was his limit. Kakashi had been impressed but warned him that he shouldn't try it a third time as he would run out of chakra, endangering his life. The smirk on his face vanished when Gaara transformed even further and a tail made out of sand appeared. Once the tail was formed, Gaara's arm restored as well and he was once more ready for battle. On the ground two Suna-nin were whispering to each other.
"Temari, we have to get out of here." Kankuro urged his sister. "There's no stopping him now and you know it."
"Of course I know that." Temari bit back. "But we can't abandon him here, he's our little brother."
"I know but will he remember now that he's started the transformation?" Kankuro sighed.
Sasuke watched as Gaara prepared for a new attack and suddenly he had to jump aside for Gaara was besides him in the blink of an eye. He barely managed to dodge the hit from Gaara's transformed arm by jumping over it. That was a mistake as Gaara's tail just hit him in the back like a annoying fly sending him flying and ultimately crashing into the hard surface of the forest. Luckily for Sasuke he had managed to land on his feet but that blow had hurt him. Gaara watched in satisfaction at his prey before deciding to have some fun. Taking advantage of Sasuke's momentarily weakness caused by just taking a massive hit, he pressed forward.
"Sasuke-kun, watch out!" Sakura tried to warn her teammate.
It didn't help however as Sasuke was unable to move in time. The large transformed hand of Gaara impacted on his chest sending him flying once more. Gaara used his tail to get in front of Sasuke before slamming it into the Uchiha's back. Sasuke gasped in pain as he felt as if his back was being broking in several pieces before falling back to the ground. Sasuke managed to slow down his descend by grabbing on to a tree but that only helped him a little. He impacted on the ground pretty hard on his back. He was in pain and breathing hard.
"WEAK!" Gaara exclaimed. "YOU'RE WEAK. IS THIS ALL YOU CAN DO? I'M DISSAPOINTED, UCHIHA"
"S-Shut u-up." Sasuke managed to say while trying to get up. "T-this i-isn't over y-yet."
"I GROW BORED OF YOU." Gaara's insane laughter sounded through the forest. "TIME TO END THIS!" Gaara raised his enormous hand intending to crush Sasuke but suddenly a new voice could be heard.
"Fuuton: Reppushou no Jutsu" the voice exclaimed and suddenly a insanely strong wind impacted on Gaara flinging him away from Sasuke into the forest and through several trees.
Sasuke and everyone else looked on in amazement as the unknown source of the jutsu appeared in front of them. There stood Uzumaki Naruko, her long blond hair waving in the wind and her clothes showing signs of heavy battles. Here and there were blood spatters of enemies that had fallen at her hands.
"What's going on here?" Naruko demanded.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru said noticing Naruko's Chuunin vest. "Sasuke followed Gaara and we were ordered by our Jounin Sensei to assist him."
"Idiot." Naruko mumbled. "If you hadn't chased him, they would have left without causing any more trouble." Naruko looked at the Genin in front of her and decided that the best option was to get them out of here. "Alright listen up, Shikamaru and Shino will take Sasuke and head back for Konoha. Sakura, you are to give them cover and ensure they reach the village safely."
"B-but what about you?" Sakura said not understanding.
"I'll deal with Gaara." Naruko said. "The four of you don't stand a chance against someone like him."
"S-Shut up U-Uzumaki." Sasuke growled. "I don't need your help. Besides, why are you ordering us around?"
"In case you haven't noticed Uchiha-san, Uzumaki-san is wearing a Chuunin vest meaning she's a Chuunin and thus our superior." Shino calmly said.
"That's right, now move out of here before Gaara returns." Naruko said but just when the words had left her mouth, Gaara appeared back in front of them. Once more he had transformed a bit further as now both arms were covered in sand turning them into giant claws. "Oh crap, he's pissed." Naruko said softly.
"WHO DARES TO INTERFERE?" the transformed Gaara bellowed.
"That would be me." Naruko said stepping forward and away from Sakura and the rest.
"YOU! I REMEMBER YOU FROM BEFORE; THIS IS THE SECOND TIME YOU STOPPED ME FROM KILLING MY PREY." Gaara said as he recognized Naruko from the time in the hospital.
Gaara lunged forward intent on decapitating Naruko with his claw but Naruko saw the attack coming from a mile away. After months of training with either Yuugao, Anko, Tsunade and Jiraiya, this attack was slow enough that she had no trouble evading it. She reappeared behind Gaara and delivered a massive punch to his head making him stagger to the right. She unsheathed her two Tanto swords and channeled some wind natured chakra into them. Running straight at Gaara, she ducked under the large swipe make by Gaara while using her Tanto to cut and slice the arm. Just in front of Gaara she crossed her arms and brought them down in a cross shaped manner. She turned around and looked in satisfaction as sand seemed to explode away from Gaara. The arm he had used to attack her was completely gone, only his normal human arm remained; his torso had a large cross shaped wound but didn't seem to be that severe as the sand had absorbed most of the attack. The others were staring in shock at seeing their former classmate fight like this. This wasn't anything like they had expected out of Uzumaki Naruko. Sure, even in the Academy she had been an okay student but nothing like this.
"What the hell are you guys still standing around for?" Naruko yelled at them. "Go, you'll only get in the way." That was the wrong thing to say as Sasuke pushed both Shikamaru and Shino off of him and started running towards Gaara.
Gaara however was in complete shock that Naruko had managed to penetrate his sand; when he saw Sasuke advance on him he reacted by attacking. He put his arms backwards before swinging them forward with great force. Out of his monstrous arms several Shuriken made out of sand headed towards Sasuke, who was to angry to notice the attack straightaway. The deadly projectiles were headed straight towards him and would have killed him if, out of nowhere, Sakura hadn't grabbed onto Sasuke and dragged him to the ground. They both fell onto the hard surface but while Sasuke tried to get back up, Sakura remained unmoving.
Naruko saw Sakura running towards Sasuke in order to get him out of the way of the Suna Shuriken. She was impressed that Sakura managed to do so, not because of her speed or tactics but rather that Sakura had never done anything to stop Sasuke in any way. When she noticed that the pink haired girl wasn't getting up, she hurried over. When she rolled Sakura on her back she immediately felt the blood that was flowing out of several wounds. Apparently, Sakura had been hit with several of the shuriken when she saved Sasuke.
"U-Urgh, I-I did i-it." Sakura breathed heavily. "I b-became a r-real kunoichi. I-is S-Sasuke-kun alright?"
"Stupid girl." Naruko sighed. "You did it Sakura, he's fine, you saved him."
"G-good." Sakura managed to say before losing consciousness.
"Shikamaru, get over here." Naruko ordered and Shikamaru quickly went over. "Take her to the hospital. She badly injured and losing blood fast; Shino, you take Sasuke. Go now."
"I'm not going anywhere, Uzumaki." Sasuke growled.
"Because of your actions, your teammate is badly injured." Naruko answered. "You're in no position to argue or fight."
"You can't order me around." Sasuke said defiantly to which Naruko simply vanished from before him and reappeared behind him knocking him out with hit to the head before throwing him to Shino who caught him without trouble. Shikamaru hoisted Sakura on his back and together they ran back to the village. Naruko turned back to Gaara, who had been patiently waiting for her.
"Thanks for letting them go." Naruko acknowledged.
"I have no interests in weaklings." Gaara laughed menacingly. "You, on the other hand are strong. I can feel it, you're different from them."
"You're right, I'm different from them but not from you." Naruko whispered so softly that Gaara couldn't hear her. In truth she pitied Gaara; like her he was cursed with being a Jinchuuriki but unlike her, he didn't have a friendly, loving adopted grandfather that looked for him. Instead he was submitted to the worst of torture; being alone in the world with nobody to support him or guide him. Forgetting that for a moment she assessed the situation. She had been fighting for a while now and she had used up a large part of her Chakra already. While unhurt, she wasn't in the best of conditions as Gaara seemed to get stronger with any passing minute. She had figured out that the more Gaara's body got covered with sand, the more his Bijuu was getting closer to being released. She was going to have to pull out the big guns for this one; she couldn't afford to hold back. If Gaara unleashed his Bijuu, Konoha would be in danger and that was something she wanted to avoid at all costs. She looked over her shoulder and wondered how her Haku was doing. She didn't have much time to think about it as Gaara sprung into action.
'Please be safe, Haku-chan.' Naruko thought.
Haku on the other hand was resting after dealing with the last wave of shinobi that had attacked when suddenly Anko dropped on the ground next to her. Anko quickly looked over the battlefield and noticed Yuugao issuing out orders to the remaining Konoha shinobi. Relieved that her lover and little sister were okay, she grabbed Haku and told her to come with her. Quickly notifying Yuugao, the two raced back to the arena where the Chuunin exams had taken place. While running through Konoha, Haku noticed that Konoha had started the counterattack in full and that they were on the winning hand.
"Anko-neechan, what's going on?" Haku wanted to know.
"We're in need of your new technique." Anko said. "The Sandaime is in trouble but we can't get to him. He's been trapped into some barrier that we can't destroy."
"What makes you think my technique could help?" Haku nodded speeding up. The Sandaime had become like a grandfather to her in the few months she had been here, so she didn't want him hurt or worse. Not to mention that if anything happened to the Sandaime, Naruko would be devastated.
"The barrier is held up by four shinobi. If we could somehow dispose of them, the barrier would fall and we could assist the Sandaime." Anko explained. Just then they had arrived at the arena where all enemy shinobi had been defeated except a few of them. Anko guided Haku to the roof where the Hokage was fighting Orochimaru. Haku stared at the large barrier in front of her and wondered just what jutsu it was. Quickly, Anko and Haku were joined by Jiraiya and a few ANBU.
"Haku-chan, are you okay?" Jiraiya asked concerned.
"I'm fine, Jiraiya-sama." Haku smiled. "I'm a bit tired and have used up more than half of my chakra but other than that, I'm okay."
"Good, I need you to use that Jutsu of yours." Jiraiya said. "The barrier is being held up by these four." He then pointed to the four corners of the barrier. "From what I can gather, the barrier will fall if one or more of the shinobi fail to support it."
"I understand but I need some time." Haku nodded. "I've never tried to use it one more than one target before. I can only make two anyway."
"Not to rush you or anything but I'm afraid the Sandaime is getting desperate." One of the ANBU said. "Orochimaru has used a Kinjutsu called 'Edo Tensei' to resurrect the Shodai and Nidaime Hokage. Hokage-sama has been fighting them for some time now, he must be getting tired."
"He's right." Jiraiya nodded. "The old man is about to do something stupid again. Better hurry up."
"Guess I don't have much of a choice then." Haku said before going to some handseals. "Ninpou: Chakra Chikuden Kai" Everyone around Haku could feel the burst of Chakra coming from Haku and they stared in wonder. On her face were several marks coming from under her forehead protector to her eyes to just past her cheeks. Jiraiya smiled with pride as he understood what Haku had done. Together with Naruko she had created a seal that resembled Tsunade's 'Souzousaisei' but instead of healing, it released chakra that was stored into the seal back into the body. This meant that Haku now had replenished her chakra reserves to just about full again.
"What was that?" one of the ANBU exclaimed to which Anko quickly explained the process.
Haku on the other hand got busy and started to concentrate on two of the four corners of the barrier. At the corners stood a girl and a boy both sustaining the barrier with their chakra. The fact that they kept up the barrier for so long already spoke of their talents but nothing they did would stop Haku from helping out the kind old man inside the barrier. Sweat started to form on her forehead and slowly made its way to her chin but behind the two shinobi, a speck of ice started forming. Haku continued to force chakra into her jutsu. In the next half minute she had formed two small pieces of ice just big enough to put her hand through both in front of her and behind the two unsuspecting Oto-shinobi. Once the piece of ice was formed she took out two kunai and stabbed her hands into the pieces of ice and to everyone's shock her hands and forearms just disappeared into it, only to reappear out of the other pieces of ice. The kunai struck aim and the two Oto-shinobi fell like lifeless dolls as Haku removed her arms out of the ice and she slumped to the ground, shaking badly. She still very much disliked killing and while she knew it was necessary at times, she would never like it.
The effect of her actions was instantaneous. The barrier broke and the sudden disappearance of it was enough to stop both Orochimaru and the Sandaime in whatever they were doing. The Konoha shinobi outside the barrier wasted no time. The ANBU charged at the two remaining Oto-shinobi and tried to dispose of them quickly. Anko however grabbed the exhausted Haku and got her to safety, away from the battlefield.
"Great job, Haku-chan." Anko said smiling at the girl she had come to love as her little sister. "We'll take care of the rest."
Jiraiya moved quickly and appeared next to his former sensei. Before the Sandaime could comment on what had happened however Jiraiya just punched him in the gut, hard.
"Urgh, Jiraiya, what is the matter with you?" The Sandaime said after regaining his breath.
"What's the matter with me?" Jiraiya roared. "I should be the one asking you that. Don't think I don't know you, old man. You were about to do something drastic which would either result in you dying or something close to it."
"It's the only way I could think of." The Sandaime defended himself.
"There's always another way." Jiraiya disagreed. "Do you have any idea what it would do to Naruko if you died? She would be devastated to say the least. Right now she needs her grandfather to support her and guide her through life."
"Don't think I haven't considered that." Sarutobi said angry. "But I have to right my wrongs and this is the only way. Orochimaru is my mistake and I'm the one who has to fix it."
"Wow, are you really the sensei that taught me and Tsunade?" Jiraiya stared at the man in front of him. "Because the sensei I know always preached about teamwork being the most important thing for a Konoha shinobi."
"I…." Sarutobi started to say but he didn't find any words to continue.
"You're not alone in this fight, old man." Jiraiya said turning to Orochimaru and the resurrected forms of the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage. "Now, how about we take care of those three and then we can all go home. I've just got some really good inspiration for my new book."
Orochimaru had been very surprised when the barrier suddenly collapsed without him giving the order. Then he noticed two of his subordinates lying on the floor with a kunai stuck into the back of their head. He didn't understand how this could have happened but that would be something he could figure out later. More importantly, ANBU were now fighting the remaining members of the Sound Five and Jiraiya had arrived at the scene. While not completely unsuspected, it still bothered Orochimaru that his former teammate was here. If Jiraiya and Sarutobi joined forces, it could mean a lot of trouble for him. While an idiot at times, Jiraiya was one of the Sannin and not an opponent to take lightly. Even in their days as a team, Orochimaru had always felt threatened by Jiraiya's abilities and while he was the stronger one at that time, Orochimaru wasn't so sure anymore these days. Still, it would be fun to deal with him.