A/N: Two chapters left. The Warborn must hold their own.
Review Replies:
MYK-ON: Eh, not really. As in canon, no one knows that Minato had a kid.
tenneyshoes: Pretty much, yeah! I debated making all the tailed beast a separate gen-mod, but it just seemed kinda dumb to me, since they would essentially they all do the same thing. And I will! :D
tobi-is-an-artist-too: I like all of those things! Particularly Halo and Mass Effect. One big difference is that I don't have sentient aliens in my universe. And I don't know, it seemed more out-there then other fics. Apparently, I haven't been looking hard enough haha
Cover Image by u/BendyWend
Disclaimer: I own the universe that the Naruto characters have been dropped into, but not the characters themselves.
Chapter 13 - Charnel House
"Get to cover!" I yelled. Sasuke's sharingan once again held true. A low shaking reverberated through the street, shaking sand and dust off ruined buildings. One step after another, the earth shook and rattled under the weight of the approaching walker.
Boom.
Boom.
BOOM.
BOOM.
I ducked under the fortifications, aiming our newly-acquired rocket launcher at the imminently approaching mass of steel. Any second now.
BOOM! And like that, it turned around the bend in the road, and faced the hallway of death we constructed. It was titanic, reaching halfway up the four story pre-fabs. It was easily the biggest walker I'd ever seen. Autocannons and rail rifles bristled from its redoubtable hull, gleaming with dark promise and bloodthirsty war paint.
"BRING IT DOWN!" I cried, thumbing the activation switch on the rocket launcher. The targeting system opened in my H.U.D., green marks circling the monstrosity before us.
Sakura thumbed a detonator switch, and one of her satchel charges went off, rocking the ground out from underneath the walker. It stumbled and fell, unharmed, but floored.
The red targeting marks turned green, and the launcher gave me a green thumbs-up icon. I pulled the trigger, sending a rocket soaring into the air.
Rebel troops swarmed past their downed armor support, rushing forward in a surge of brown and red. Sakura pressed another button, and ten of them shattered into broken red dolls, flying apart and painting the streets. Everyone else opened up, pouring rifle-fire onto the surprised rebels. One man exploded, his head vaporizing from a well-placed shot. Doused in brains, his comrades dove to the asphalt, where they fared little better. Team 10's combined fire ground them into mincemeat.
Shaking and whirring, the walker struggled to right itself. The rocket slammed into its main hull, screaming down from the smog-choked sky. An orange fireball bloomed, swallowing its target in flames. A few troops were caught in the blaze, thrown aside like toys by the blast.
And it stood. Sparks and smoke billowed forth from its ruined face, but it stood. Missiles flew out from a pod on its shoulder, scattering in unpredictable arcs before crashing down to earth. The explosions shook us to our cores, a few landing far too close for comfort. Red sand shot into the air like bloody geysers, raining shrapnel and debris on us.
"Anyone hit?" I cried, dropping another rocket down the barrel.
"I'm grazed, but everyone else is good!" Shikamaru replied, holding the right side of his face while blood spilled through his fingers.
"Chouji! Hit it with whatever else you got!" He grunted in acknowledgement, raining grenades onto the damaged walker. Each one sheared metal off it, but got no closer to halting its advance.
Reload complete, I ducked under the hail of returning fire, trying to lock on to the walker again. We could deal with infantry, but not that fucking walker!
It locked on, but before a firing solution appeared, I had a better idea. Diving out of cover, I selected manual-fire mode, electing instead to take this thing down my own way. Kiba was the expert at this, he was our rocketeer, but I guess I would have to make do.
I inhaled sharply when a bullet whizzed past my helmet, centimeters away from braining me then and there. Aiming at the most ruined part of the walker, I squeezed the trigger. Racing forward in a straight line, the rocket struck the walker, hitting its ammunition bank and sending the whole thing sky high.
"YATTA!" We cried, as it toppled over onto the street. I rolled back into cover behind a police car, panting and grinning. Still had a ways to go, but damn that was satisfying.
Sakura's Hellhound roared, suppressing the rebels that managed to find cover, and killing those that couldn't. Tracer fire raced down the street, blue streaks of light amongst the overpowering red of blood and sand.
Sasuke's rifle cracked, and each shot meant another rebel corpse. Hinata hit one that was sliding behind the hulk of the burning walker, throwing him against the blackening metal. He screamed, his hands pulling at his smoldering, sloughing skin.
I helped Sakura suppress them, watching for signs of retaliation.
"Yo, Gunso, should I hit the traps?" Tenten asked, ducking down from a sand box to ram another mag into her rifle.
"Wait. We don't know how many more are coming."
"In that case, watch this." She said with a grin. Reaching to her belt, she activated a small, two-wheeled contraption. Pressing a few buttons on its center, she dropped it to the ground, and it sped off into the street.
"What is that thing?" Ino asked, also reloading. Tenten grinned, and put her fingers in her ears.
Peering over the vehicle, I saw the little black device zoom into a corner that sheltered a few squads of rebels. Then it vanished with a low THOOM, shooting a cloud of red sand and bodies into the street.
"I've been waiting to use that." Tenten said, beaming. The rebels, decimated and shaken, sprinted back to where they came, dashing and ducking under our withering fire. A few made it.
Most didn't.
"Yeah, run you fuckers!" Chouji cried.
I breathed deep. That was one wave halted. I had no idea how many more were coming, but I knew that was only the beginning.
"Reload, check your weapons!" A few of the enemy remained, taking potshots from behind whatever they bit of cover they could find. For the most part, Hinata and Sasuke kept them locked down.
"Incoming Hoplites!" Sasuke cried.
"How many?"
"Six! At least! Followed by ten… no, eleven APCs!"
Sure enough, the treaded monsters turned the corner, grinding fallen corpses into the sand and shunting the walker wreckage aside. One fired, a thundering roar that blew the buildings above us to smithereens, showering us in dust.
Coughing, I dropped another rocket in, desperate to get a shot off before the Hoplite tore us to pieces. Before I could, I saw a small figure vault over a balcony, and dart into the street. A blue bandana was wrapped around his face.
"Don't! Don't shoot him!" I cried, and my squad obeyed, instead shifting their fire to the rebels nearest to the figure. He was a partisan, that much I could tell, but I didn't know why he was charging so recklessly at the rebels. He wasn't even armed. It looked like suicide!
Then, my questions were answered. He jumped forward when he reached the Hoplite, dropping something down its main gun. He ran towards us then, bobbing and weaving, avoiding the torrent of rebel bullets at his back.
With a muffled wumpf, the tank erupted, spewing flames from its main gun and its hull. The crew bailed out, screaming at the fire that consumed them.
As the partisan got closer, I realized he was young, no older than fourteen. He wore a bright smile, ecstatic from a mission complete and sheer adrenaline. He waved to us as he approached, hand raised in supplication.
His legs caught, and he stumbled and fell, his torso rent from rebel fire.
I still remember the face he made. The shock, the pain. I don't think he realized what had happened at first. Then, his hands clutched desperately at the holes that sprouted from him, and he fell to the ground, screaming incoherently.
"Ah, shit." Someone said.
"Teme?" I asked.
"Four in his stomach, two in his femoral. He's not gonna make it." He replied. I sighed.
"Just… do it." He didn't answer, ending the boy's pain with a crack of his rifle.
"Tough little bastard." Sasuke muttered. The words sound harsh, but back then, the way he said it… I don't know. It sounded… real to me. Fuck, I don't know.
"Hey Nii-chan," Sakura said, nudging me from my brief trance, "look." My eyes followed to where she was pointing. The tank hand been destroyed, and had jammed the street up with its mass, combining with the walker wreck, and effectively blocking the street for the rest of the rebel forces.
"That kid saved our asses." I said, a note of disbelief crawling into my voice.
"Indeed he did." Shikamaru said, eying the situation. His head was wrapped in bloodied bandages, covering the right side of his face. "So let's make the most of his sacrifice."
"What do you suggest?" I asked. "They're still all bunched up behind it, but we're locked in a stalemate." He shrugged.
"Call Dad." I grinned.
"Good idea!" He lit a cigarette in response, muttering something about 'troublesome gunsos'. I rang up Shizu-chan.
"Hey Shizu-chan, we need some artillery down here, STAT. Patch me through to Daddy Nara, would you?"
"Roger that, fire mission approved on clearance level one. Give me a second." Comms hissed as she cycled me through the channels. A gruff voice answered the call.
It was Shikaku Nara, Shikamaru's father, and the Tactical Officer aboard the Omodaru.
"Reporting."
"Hammer-Six Actual, this is Kosenjobi Actual, request immediate danger-close fire support at our beacon. Adjust aim by two hundred meters towards point… six-two-six." That should line up perfectly with the clusterfuck behind the downed Hoplite.
"This is Hammer-Six Actual, fire mission approved on target. Adjusting main cannon, over."
"Roger."
"Keep them suppressed, damn it!" I yelled to my squad, who obeyed immediately, hemming in the rebels.
"This is Hammer-Six Actual, cannon adjusted, ready to fire, over."
"Copy that, Hammer-Six Actual. Fire for effect!" We tensed.
"Firing. Standby for splash, over. In six. Five." A small star winked into existence, burning brighter and more brilliant than its heavenly company. It disappeared as quickly as it came, fading into a hollow, deafening roar.
"Four. Three."
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" I cried, diving with my hands over my helmet.
"Two." I threw myself over Hinata, smothering her as best as I could.
"One."
The ground heaved and buckled. A white flash appeared, and the world was silent for a moment, before submitting to a mind numbing, all-consuming inferno. The air heated, ripping the breath from or throats.
And I was a little boy again. Crying. Running, while Konoha burned.
"NARUTO!" Huh?
"Up! Get up!" Sakura was here, just as before. This time, she had a hand extended. I looked around, bile building in the back of my throat. My vision shook, and Sakura's worried face split into two, into three, into four. Hinata was below me, face pressed against the sand. She was unhurt, thank God.
"C'mon!" She cried, hauling me up. Blood ran from her nose, and her helmet was askew. Ringing. That damn ringing was back. It vanished quickly, my kekkai genkai withering the pain that had flushed my body.
"Ugh. Ow." I managed. My nose was wet. I wiped it, watching blood stain the back of my armored fist. Oof.
"Holy shit." Hinata mouthed. She never swore, so I giggled a bit. My senses were returning to normal.
"Look." Someone said. My head crested over our cover, revealing a hellish landscape before me. The street had disappeared, swallowed by a flaming crater. Our defenses now sat on the top of a shallow cliff, so powerful was the blast. The pre-fabs that had previously lined the street vanished, leaving an open and twisted landscape in its place. In truth, the street was no longer a street.
The rebel vehicles had vanished, bits of blackened metal the only thing that remained. The corpses that had not been consumed in the explosion were set alight, disturbed from their rest by the Omodaru's strike.
It took my breath away, both literally and figuratively. I panted and wheezed. I had taken a huge risk calling the steel rain down so close to our own heads. I trusted Shikaku though, and rightly so. Any approaching rebel forces had been ground to a halt.
"WHOOOOOOO!" Chouji cried, throwing his hands up in the air. We laughed, whooping and coughing at the successful strike.
"This is," I coughed. "Kosenjobi Actual. Good effect on target. Enemy task force destroyed."
"Copy that. That's the last one you get. Reloading will take another two hours."
"Hard copy, Hammer-Six Actual. Thanks for the help."
"Anytime. Tell Shika-kun to lay off the cigarettes." We snorted with laughter. Hell, even Neji cracked a smile. "Hammer-Six Actual, out."
Shikamaru raced to disobey his father, hands reaching for a lighter. Finding it, he lit up, inhaling deeply.
"You have a pretty cool dad, Shikamaru." I said.
"Hn." He said, mimicking Sasuke in his dismissal. We laughed again.
"No time for rest, Kosenjobi!" I called. "Shore up any holes in the defenses. Get the flanks covered too." They complied, and I helped, before stray rebel survivors tried to pick us off. They were unsuccessful, but forced us to stop working. We returned fire, and they retreated.
So we picked up our shovels again. And so it went for an hour or so, building our defenses, getting shot at, shooting back, building again. It was painfully obvious that they were testing us, prodding our defenses.
We couldn't do anything about it. Orders are orders, so we weren't going anywhere. I had Shizu-chan drop us some more ammo. We were still stuck, but the artillery had done serious damage to the rebels. It would be awhile before they counterattacked. Hopefully, our allies would get here first, and we could get off this horrid rock.
The strain of the past few days was getting to us. Ino started shaking, her body deprived of food and sleep. Sasuke started muttering to himself, whispering observations into his mouthpiece.
"Collapsed balcony. Possible rebel approach vector. Marked for future reference."
I checked my mag for what must have been the fourth time since we last had contact with the rebels. Still loaded, thirty-six brass death sentences packed tight into the boxy gunmetal. I pushed it back in with a snap-click.
Hinata remained calm and collected, scanning the gutted ruins of the street before her. A few bullets whizzed by overhead, and she snapped her rifle around, but couldn't find the shooter. I sighed.
Sakura leaned against a ruined car, her LMG braced and ready to fire. With a deep, rattling breath, she took off her helmet, wiping her sweat-stained face with her hitae-ate before returning it to its place. Sasuke snapped on comms.
"It's here." No one asked what it was. Sakura grimaced, strapping her helmet on and settling into a crouch. She nodded at me.
"Ok, everyone, they're coming. Pick your targets and drop them. Watch the flanks, and mark anyone you can't hit. Teme," I asked, "any vehicle support?"
"Two tanks, and a good number of IFV's." (Infantry fighting vehicle… think APCs but with bigger guns).
"I'll try to call in whatever support I can."
"We'll need it, dobe."
I called up Shizu-chan just as the torrent of bullets began.
"Shizu-chan, this is Kosenjobi-Actual! We need some fire support, whatever you can give us, over!"
"Copy that, Kosenjobi-Actual. I'll try to bring in some forward elements. Expect it in the next six minutes or so. Do your best to hold out until then, over." A tracer screamed past my head, missing my head by a few centimeters.
"Fuck!" I returned fire, hammering the trigger with extreme prejudice. "We'll do what we can, out!" I crouched behind the fortifications, struggling to load a new mag in. Bullets thudded into my cover. They certainly had our number.
"Sakura, keep 'em down!"
"Hai!" she yelled. Her Hellhound whirred and spat pure death, butchering the approaching green-clad forms in a hail of fire. The others dived down, crawling behind debris and into ditches for cover.
One form peered out from cover and his head exploded, picking him up and throwing him to the floor in a spray of red. The corpse's arms flailed, his legs jerking and kicking.
"That's their officer." Sasuke growled, already selecting a new target.
A roar echoed across the battlefield, and our first barricade flew apart in a cascading shower of burnt and broken metal. A second roar, and a screaming whistle flew over our heads, the explosive round crashing into a building far behind us.
"GET BACK!" I roared, waving my arms at whoever was still behind the first barricade. Sakura, Tenten, and Chouji clambered over the second row of barricades, dodging the flurry of death that howled around them.
I braced the rocket launcher against my shoulder, looking for the culprit. I didn't get the chance, as the building besides me split apart under combined IFV fire. Dust and debris erupted from the collapsing building, choking the air with sand and obscuring the rebels.
"AUGH!" Sasuke cried, falling from his perch as his cover broke apart and buried him.
"Sasuke!" Sakura screamed.
"I'm," He gave a rattling cough, "Okay. Fuuuuuuuuck. I think my leg is broken. Ow. Son of a BITCH!"
"Someone dig him out!" I cried, returning to my hunt. I found it then, a hulking black beast. Rebel troops rode desant, spilling off the IFV like hornets out of a recently-kicked nest. I put it in my sights, squeezing the trigger to let the targeting solution derive itself.
More tracer fire raced across the night sky, bright blue streaks dancing in the ruddy mess of Erebus.
"C'mon." The crosshair focused on the vehicle, numbers and letters spilling across my H.U.D.
"AUUUUGHH!" Sasuke screamed as Shikamaru pulled him from the wreckage. "Oh God it hurts!" I blocked it out.
"C'mon."
"Sakura!" Shikamaru yelled.
"I'm coming!" She replied. A burst of rounds before Sakura dashed behind me. The rocket launcher blipped, and a thumbs-up icon appeared again. Bingo. I squeezed the trigger, and the rocket screamed off towards its target.
Then a Hoplite fired.
The world was red and sand. It was spinning, rolling, bouncing crashing. I didn't even realize I had been hit until I came to a rest, my arm dangling over the precipice that looked over Erebus' plumbing.
"Ah." Was all I could say. Up was down. Left was up, and right was back. Disoriented and pained, I got to my knees before I vomited. The pain disappeared, as it always does, but the confusion stayed. I tried to check myself over before a rough hand dragged me into cover.
"Uwah." I said, thanking the kind soul. Black hair and white eyes stared back. Hinata. It was Hinata. The hand was Hinata. She was beside me. To my right. Or… fuck, I couldn't tell. I vomited again.
"Naruto!" She said.
"Dazed. A little dazed." I managed. From what I could piece together, the Hoplite round must have struck my cover. Or the ground right before it. Probably the second one. Oh. Oh shit. Where was Sasuke and Sakura? Did Shikamaru get them down in time? I stumbled over to where I had been, trying to ignore the small-arms fire that pattered against our defenses like rain from a hurricane.
"You." Ugh. Ow. "You guys ok over there?"
"We're alive!" Sakura cried. I couldn't see her with all the dust and sand that had kicked up in the firefight. Sasuke gave a roar of pain and a stream of invective. I needed to cover them. Where was my M-34?
Ah. I found it lying in the dirt. I must have let go somehow. I snapped it up and rammed a mag home.
"They're pressing up!" Neji cried, his shotgun blaring. Where the hell was our support? I fired around the new hole in our defenses. I couldn't see much, but I had to try. They were getting closer. I could hear English screams and commands echoing over the tumultuous gunfire.
I ducked behind cover, panting. My senses were still not back to normal. I looked down at my hands. Vomit stained the front of my armor, which was chipped and broken. Some of my equipment had been blown away. I couldn't tell what it was at the moment though, I could barely count my fingers.
"Grenades!" I coughed.
"Right away, gunso!" Tenten cried. "C'mon you big lug," she tapped the back of Chouji's helmet, "get a move on!" Together, they sent frags screaming downrange, where they shattered and burst, tearing our enemies to pieces.
But their assault was not impeded. Uncountable boots stampeded towards us, our deaths demanded by the lips of furious men.
Then, I heard it. Over the storm of gunfire, over the screams of the wounded, over the chaos and death that surrounded us, I heard it.
Strings. Swelling, cascading like a flooding river. Behind them lay the blare of horns, low and ominous.
It was tune I'd recognize anywhere, and one I'll never forget for the rest of my life.
Our support had arrived, and they were blaring Ride of The Valkyries.
"YOU ASSHOLES STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM MY BOYFRIEND!" Comms screeched. The voice was unmistakable.
Temari no Sabaku.
The ground shuddered and shook, the feet of three walkers bending it to their will. The Sand Siblings had arrived, and with them, an arsenal of death.
A blue fireball blossomed beyond our cover, splitting a Hoplite apart and shooting shrapnel across the battlefield.
I will never attempt to glorify war, but… wow. The music, the walkers… it was all so... unspeakably majestic.
"FUCK YEAH!" Sakura cheered, pumping a fist into the air.
"Heard you guys needed some assistance." Gaara droned, his Walker spitting thousands of spent cases. The earth before him exploded, rippling and bursting apart under a shower of autocannon rounds.
"I SWEAR IF SHIKA-KUN'S BEEN HURT, I WILL FUCK. YOU. UP!" Temari roared, her walker erupting in a shower of smoke as her missiles launched.
"They can't understand you, sis." Kankuro drawled. His walker jumped over our defenses, sixty-eight tons of metal soaring over my head. It crashed down to earth, scattering the rebels before it. He mowed them down.
The missiles impacted in the middle of the rebel assault, detonating the IFVs in a shower of sparks and fire, and ripping rebel soldiers apart, throwing their broken carcasses into the night sky. Turning my head away from the carnage, I looked at Shikamaru. He was utterly slack-jawed, his arms hanging loosely at his side.
"Boyfriend?" I asked. He didn't reply. Instead, he took a cigarette with trembling hands, lighting it with great difficulty. Another barrage of missiles shot forth, piercing the suffocating haze of war with whining cries. They detonated, more fuel for the funeral pyre that was Unification.
"You like THAT?!" Temari yelled, desperate to be heard over Wagner's thunderous trumpeting.
"Troublesome." Shikamaru said to no one in particular, more terrified than aggravated. "Troublesome. Troublesome." He slowly folded into the fetal position in an attempt to burrow into the sand and escape the pure, object terror that was his girlfriend. A few rockets whistled past the walkers, the rebels too shocked and panicked to form an effective defense.
"Deploying Tsunami." Gaara said. "Watch the Hoplite on your three."
"Copy that, bro." Kankuro said. Rifle fire pattered off their hulls, metal ringing noises that did little more than flick away chips of paint.
With a high-pitched needling sound, Gaara's Tsunami system activated, spraying hundreds of minuscule, self-guided bombs into the rebels. They detonated, waves of flame bursting into existence among the fleeing rebels.
Explosive rounds tore into Temari's walker, the tessen pattern on the face of her walker buckling under the punishment.
"Is that the best you got?" She snorted, returning fire with her rail rifle. The offending vehicle split apart, vanishing under the sheer firepower. Plasma from the heated cannon hissed and spluttered, the boiling matter extinguished by the cold night air. It spat another round into the last Hoplite. Striking its fuel tank, it burst into flames, shooting a towering blaze a dozen meters into the air.
Kankuro fired his Scorpion, and the ruined street erupted into a raging inferno. Fire swept across the debris-strewn field, catching the rebels and swallowing them whole. The remaining rebel vehicles spun around, desperate to escape the murderous onslaught.
They didn't.
"YOSH!" Lee cheered. An IFV bowled over from the force of a missile, careening and spewing flame. Its comrades suffered a similar fate, all split and sundered by the Sand Sibling's assault. Black metal and wreckage strewed the ground.
The annihilation of the rebels was total and all-consuming. Their butchery complete, the walkers returned to us.
We gave them a rousing cheer, saluting with wide smiles and tired faces. We tried to ignore the smells around us.
A/N: The one Hinata shot had two daughters. Lovely girls, the both of them.