-August 2nd, 347 NE-

-10:25 AM-

-Konoha-

"That," Kuushou said, "is how you make sure an enemy stays down for good."

"I'll say," Kankuro muttered, staring at the shattered mess that had been their attacker. Then he shook himself, turning his gaze to Kuushou. "Nevermind that though, how are you standing right now? I got a look at you before the fight really got going; you were... well, not ok," he finished lamely, realizing that Ino was standing right there. Temari just nodded silently in agreement, looking vaguely disturbed.

Ino looked unperturbed, but then Kuushou knew she understood that he could survive pretty much anything and so had no cause to worry. On the other hand, she had been rather upset judging by what she had threatened to do to their attacker.

Gaara looked as impassive as ever, appearing more interested in his answer to Kankuro's question than worried about his health. Hinata had witnessed lesser feats of healing from him prior to this, although she looked rather pale and seemed to be staring at him with an odd intensity.

Kuushou shrugged. "I'm quite good at healing myself, and my condition is rather useful in that regard. I wouldn't expect that to work for anyone else in similar circumstances, though," he added. "Anyway, we need to keep moving."

The others nodded quickly, saving any additional comments they may have had for later. They continued their journey towards their assigned shelter, paying much more attention to their surroundings and wary of any further attacks. They completed the rest of their journey without incident, arriving outside a small restaurant that appeared perfectly normal, only the name on the sign distinguishing it from the others around it.

"Ino and Hinata will lead you to the actual shelter, but I have a different assignment," Kuushou said.

"I still don't like it," Hinata said suddenly, frowning. "What happens if you get hurt like you did earlier? You won't have anyone there to protect you."

Kuushou turned to face Hinata, curious. She had eventually accepted the plan when they discussed it last night, but she seemed to be having second thoughts now.

"You are one of the targets," Kuushou pointed out, "whereas I am not." The Hokage had decided it would be much easier to explain his role to his teammates if they were not told he was being targeted as well.

"But-" Hinata began, but was interrupted by an unexpected source.

"I will accompany him," Gaara said calmly.

"What?" Temari snapped. "Gaara, we just fought off an assassin who was trying to kill you! You need to be in the shelter just as much as she does!"

"And if I were attacked in such a confined space surrounded by other people, I would not be able to defend myself properly without endangering everyone else."

Kuushou clapped his hands together, the sudden sound cutting the brewing argument short. "The Hokage appointed me the leader of this little group, so it's my call. Hinata and Gaara both have a point, and so Gaara will come with me. Between the two of us and our... advantages, I doubt we'll run into anyone who could cause problems. Everyone else into the shelter. Now."

Their training dictated that they follow orders even when they didn't particularly like them, so the others eventually acquiesced and entered the restaurant, although not without some worried glances from Hinata.

"Kick some ass, little brother," Ino called out as she gently pushed Hinata through the door.

Once they were out of sight, Kuushou motioned to Gaara and hopped to the rooftops, where he paused as he focused on his senses and tried to determine the situation within Konoha.

"So why'd you really want to come with me?" he asked, turning to Gaara.

"I have not had the chance to determine what I am fully capable of now," Gaara admitted. "The circumstances of the exams were rather limiting."

"Looking for a real challenge, eh? Or is a certain someone itching to cut loose?" Gaara didn't reply, but Kuushou shrugged. "Either way, I don't think we'll have a lot of luck. I'm not sensing anyone particularly interesting that we could run into. On the other hand," he said, his head turning, "the Shinobi District seems to have the most action, and that's close enough that we could accidentally run into trouble. Shall we?"

Gaara nodded, and they both began hopping from rooftop to rooftop.

-10:25 AM-

-Shinobi Distinct-

Anko growled in annoyance as she took in the appearance of the Shinobi District. Large plumes of smoke were pouring out of nearly every building in sight, and in the distance she could see would-be thieves and looters scurrying about. Her teams had been in position to respond to any threats that may appear once the anticipated "disruption" actually occurred, but they had all be taken off guard by the sheer scale of the attack as well as those responsible.

It hadn't been intentional, really, or even a conscious decision, but everyone from the Hokage on down had focused on potential attacks from foreign ninja or missing-nin, and Anko and her team were no exception. She realized now that had been a mistake, as their current opponents were nothing more than normal thieves and bandits for the most part and they had not adequately prepared to deal with large numbers of opponents. They had anticipated fighting highly skilled infiltrators and assassins, not dozens upon dozens of two-bit thugs.

The continuing detonations from exploding tags indicated that at least some among the enemy were capable of utilizing chakra, but the skill required to activate a correctly constructed exploding tag was D-rank at most – all Academy graduates were expected to be able to do at least that much. Chuunin and even blooded-genin could handle the people Anko was dealing with right now, but they were all assigned as reserves or to non-combat zones in anticipation that they would not be able to deal with the caliber of opponents likely to strike in the middle of a ninja village.

They had already come across two corpses who had apparently blown themselves up, though, so it seemed that someone – a missing-nin, most likely – had attempted to teach common thugs enough to activate tags without necessarily warning them about what could go wrong. The gaping holes in walls and the shattered doorways were telling signs that enough of them were skilled enough to be a threat, however.

Anko spotted another small group of thieves making their way into one of the nearby apartment complexes and summoned up another group of snakes to take care of them. Her orders were to capture if possible, and with the relative skill levels of her team compared to the people they were facing, it was just as easy to capture them as it was to kill them. On the other hand, they already had quite a few prisoners and nowhere to take them at the moment, so she would likely make the call to begin taking out the thieves using more permanent means soon.

"Mitarashi-san," a tokubetsu jounin said as he appeared nearby, "my team has been dispatched to provide an update regarding the situation elsewhere within Konoha and to provide reinforcements if necessary."

Anko motioned for him to follow her to a nearby rooftop and cleared the distance in a single leap, landing lightly on her feet. The tokubetsu jounin landed a moment later, his team appearing around him. There were four of them, all chuunin.

"Split them up into two groups," she ordered, "and start taking out any thieves you spot."

"Capture or kill?"

"Kill," she replied after a moment. "We've got too many prisoners as it is, and I don't want to tie up any more ninja keeping track of them."

"Understood," the leader replied, and with a series of quick motions his subordinates had paired off and left the rooftop.

"Now give me that update."

"The enemy is using the Impure World Resurrection technique and has summoned the First Hokage," he replied. "At this time there appears to be only one summon, although we do not believe that is the full extent of the attack. Hokage-sama and ANBU have moved to contain that threat while other teams are searching for the summoner.

"The stadium is currently being evacuated, with current estimates placing complete evacuation still thirty minutes away. All high-risk targets have already been secured, including the known targets. As of the time I was dispatched, there had been no attempts to infiltrate or attack the stadium.

"In addition, three missing-nin, all A-rank, have been killed – we believe that they were among those who accepted the bounties for the various targets."

Anko nodded to herself, sorting through the information. All in all, they seemed to have things more or less in hand, though she found it very strange that no one had even attempted to target the stadium.

She scanned around her, keeping an eye out for any further thieves, and noticed one standing outside a house near the edge of the district. He seemed to be doing something with the gate, though she couldn't quite make it out from here.

She moved closer, clearing the distance between the buildings easily, and observed as the blond man lifted his hand, formed some sort of technique, and slammed it into the gate. There was a bright flash, and when her vision cleared the ground before the gate was charred and there was no sign of the would-be thief. Smirking, she realized that the thief – a ninja, judging by the technique, though a particularly stupid one – had attempted to force his way into the Fourth Hokage's compound and run afoul of the security seals that guarded it.

A moment later, she noticed movement at the base of the gate. There was some sort of small black object there, but it was rapidly obscured by a dark substance that coalesced seemingly out of thin air and took the shape of a man. She took in the blonde hair and the white coat... a white coat with a very distinctive flame design along the bottom edge.

For a long moment, it felt like her heart had stopped beating.

The next moment she was pushing her body as hard as she could and flaring her chakra in the agreed upon emergency retreat signal. That signal meant that all of the ninja under her command were to disengage immediately and move to a designated location to regroup and reassess the situation. She snagged the newly arrived tokubetsu jounin a moment later, gripping his arm tightly as she carried him along with her.

"Fucking go back and tell them that they fucking called back the Fourth too. Go!"

-Miles Outside of Konoha-

-10:30 AM-

Orochimaru frowned as he sat in a meditative pose in a small hideout miles outside of Konoha.

Jirobo remained hidden for the moment under the rubble of the hotel, but he didn't expect that to last much longer. The Shodaime had successfully drawn the attention of the Hokage and a significant portion of ANBU – along with, he noted delightedly, another of his former experiments. The ANBU countering the Shodaime's wood release techniques with his own was without a doubt one of the children he had gifted with power shortly before he left Konoha.

The death toll on Konoha's side was fairly low, but then he didn't want to kill them; he wanted to wound them enough that they were sent to the various medical extraction points so that Sakon and Ukon could pick up some promising specimens. In that regard he was doing very well, as five ANBU and three jounin had been removed from the battlefield by medical teams.

The Nidaime had not been spotted as he moved stealthily towards the stadium – or at least none of the ninja in the area had reacted to his presence yet – but that would be changing very soon.

And the Yondaime... well, that was proving to be rather irritating. Attempts to command him to "open the gate," "unlock the seal," or some variation thereof had all failed miserably. He had contemplated attempting to gain access through other areas, but it had quickly become obvious that there was a barrier protecting the entire estate and that the gate was the "weakest" point, not that the designation meant all that much. His last-ditch effort to simply destroy the gate entirely had instead destroyed the reconstructed body as well as managing to slightly damage the anchor rod for the jutsu. He could readily admit that he was impressed by both the thoroughness and the lethality of the Yondaime's protections – it reminded him of how he protected his own possessions.

Still, that left him without access to the Yondaime's house and any knowledge or tools stored there, so it was time to move on to the secondary option in the Hokage's Tower. It was possible either the armory or the Hokage's office contained a working Hiraishin kunai; if not, a few exploding notes would still ensure that his visit was not entirely without merit.

He shifted his attention back to the Shodaime for a moment, manipulating the forest around him to strike at the ninja closing in, then to the Nidaime as he crept ever closer to the stadium.

Despite his preparations and planning, he still found that he had thoroughly underestimated the complexity of maintaining three separate entities under true battlefield conditions. The threads from the chakra teams were proving much more difficult to control than they had on prior occasions, and even with only one of his summons actively engaged in combat at the moment he was still having trouble fully keeping track of the movements of the Hokage and his ANBU.

He was gaining a great deal of useful experience from this, but it seemed that he would be better off controlling one body at a time than attempting to maintain a group of them. He would need to take that into account for future plans.

His attention was pulled back to Jirobo as a swarm of kikaichuu descended on that body. He could feel them leeching away at the chakra moving through the resurrected ninja, but the anchor prevented them from severing or even significantly impairing the connection itself.

A small chuckle escaped from Orochimaru's lips as he remotely observed the enlarged limb of an Akimichi crush Jirobo completely, the organs liquefying and bones shattering under the force of the giant ninja's blow.

Time to begin phase two.

-10:35 AM-

-Commercial District-

The Hokage watched in satisfaction as the imitation of the First Hokage crumbled, the black rod that served as the anchor for the jutsu clattering to the ground a moment later. With that threat dealt with, the ninja gathered here could begin sweeping the village for more threats. He wasn't naive enough to believe that this was the extent of the threat, but this was certainly a large portion of it.

He signaled for the other ninja to begin securing the area and splitting off into teams, then turned to his ANBU Commander.

"Do you see anything we need to address immediately, Dragon, or should we fall back to check in with Shikaku?"

The other ninja didn't reply immediately. "Hokage-sama...," he said slowly, his voice tense. "The ninja they just took out had a black rod implanted within him. The body was real, but... that rod is identical to the one that was controlling the Shodaime. Something doesn't seem right about this."

The Hokage frowned thoughtfully, turning to examine the forest once again. He opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a massive surge of chakra coming from the direction of the stadium. Even from this distance, the enormous wall of water was easily visible; it stood taller than the stadium itself and looked to be several feet thick at least. He could also just barely make out someone standing atop the wall of water before the whole thing rushed forward and crashed into the stadium.

"It's the Nidaime, Hokage-sama," Dragon bit out, his voice tense. "Whoever is doing this has summoned him as well."

"Take command here," he snapped. "Once you are certain that the situation is under control, dispatch as many ninja as you can spare to assist at the stadium. The evacuation likely isn't even half over yet, so the priority is to rescue as many civilians as possible. I will deal with the Nidaime."

"Understood, Hokage-sama."

Dragon immediately turned his attention back to the situation at hand. One of the Akimichi was currently trying to break the black rod that served as the anchor tag for the Shodaime, but despite his immense strength he was unable to so much as bend it. Then the Akimichi let out a pained cry as a dark substance began to cover his arm and threw the rod to the ground. He began to frantically brush the ash off of his body, revealing that his flesh on his hands and arms had been eaten away.

The other ninja in the area sprang into action, beginning to pelt the rod with a continuous series of jutsu to prevent the Shodaime from resurrecting. They seemed to be successful in destroying the ash that was forming out of thin air, but none of their attacks damaged the rod at all.

"Set up a rotation!" he ordered. "Don't bother trying to break the rod, just focus on keeping the body from reforming!"

His byakugan was unable to find the source of the chakra that was surely flowing to the rod from somewhere, but the byakugan wasn't the only option available. He turned to a nearby Aburame, asking "Can your kikaichuu detect where the chakra is coming from?"

The Aburame hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "I believe so. The chakra seems to be saturating the air around the anchor, but it seems to be slightly more concentrated in one direction."

The Aburame released even more kikaichuu from his body until they filled the air around him, thousands upon thousands of small insects moving in all directions. After a moment, Dragon could also discern the pattern to their movements as they began to drift in one direction... towards the other enemy ninja that had been defeated less than a minute before.

"So... he is the source of the jutsu?" he asked hesitantly. "Why is it still working then?"

While he waited on the Aburame to determine what was going on, he shifted his focus in a quick scan of Konoha.

The Hokage had arrived at the stadium and was personally combating the resurrected Nidaime while the ninja still in the stadium were frantically scrambling to ward off the Nidaime's attacks, which were focused on the still-entranced civilians. The genjutsu was beginning to break, however, and if they didn't get the situation back under control the people still trapped in the stadium would begin to panic. If that happened, the casualties would only get worse.

He turned his attention to the Shinobi District and his brow furrowed in confusion. He could see Anko flaring her chakra to signal a retreat, but couldn't determine any reason why she would do such a thing. He started to make a more thorough sweep of the area, but the Aburame spoke up and pulled his focus back to his current location.

"I do not believe that he is the source," the Aburame said finally, shaking his head. "There are at least four directions where the chakra may be coming from, perhaps more. One leads back to the Shodaime, another towards the stadium, a third towards the Shinobi District, and a fourth towards the Hokage Tower. I believe if we follow those threads we will eventually find the true source."

"Very well," Dragon said quickly. "Pick out three more of your clansmen, and I'll assign each of you a squad of ANBU to support you. Your sole objective is to find and eliminate the source of chakra that is sustaining the Impure World Resurrection jutsu."

"Yes, Dragon-sama," the Aburame said quickly, moving off to carry out his orders.

Dragon then turned his attention back to the teams who were dealing with the anchor rods. As per his orders, there was a group of five shinobi who were alternating jutsu at a measured pace as well as ten more ready to step into place should it prove necessary.

Deciding not to take any risks, he directed that the second ninja's body be moved next to the Shodaime's anchor rod so that both could be eliminated at the same time. The body did not seem to be regenerating as the Shodaime's did, but that didn't mean it couldn't given the opportunity. Soon the body had been completely destroyed and both tags were bathed in a constant stream of fire.

Satisfied that they had the situation under control, Dragon designated ten ninja to maintain their attacks on the rods and sent the rest towards the stadium. As he did so, a tokubetsu jounin arrived via shunshin, his face clearly panicked.

"Hokage-sama!" he called out, his voice tense with fear.

"Hokage-sama is dealing with the resurrected Nidaime at the stadium," Dragon replied calmly. "You can deliver your message to me."

"The Nidaime too?" the ninja yelped. "Kami, they resurrected all of them!"

A sudden hush fell over the assembled ninja, even the steady stream of fire jutsu faltering for a moment.

"What do you mean, 'all of them'?" Dragon asked lowly, his voice tense.

"Mitarashi-jounin sent a report that the resurrected Yondaime was spotted outside the Namikaze Compound!" the ninja shouted

Dragon quickly stifled his fear, calling upon his years of experience to remain focused and rational. At least now he knew why Anko had abandoned the Shinobi District – after all, the Yondaime was the only ninja in the history of the Elemental Nations who had earned a universal Flee-On-Sight order. Even Sarutobi-sama couldn't claim that distinction.

He was fully in control of himself a moment later, his mind already analyzing how he should respond. Judging by the capabilities shown by the resurrected Shodaime, the Yondaime would be far from his peak condition; it also seemed that he was not able to use the Hiraishin for some reason, else they would likely already be dead.

Even without the Hiraishin, however, the Yondaime still had the Rasengan, which made him incredibly dangerous to combat at close-range. Not for the first time, Dragon cursed his clan's stubborn insistence on focusing so heavily on their taijutsu skills. His own abilities at long-range combat were limited at best, barely meriting an A-rank. It was also unclear how effective the Jyuuken would be against a ninja brought back by the Impure World Resurrection technique.

If they could eliminate the body, they should be able to keep him down just as easily as they were preventing the Shodaime from reforming. Accomplishing that task in the first place might be beyond their capabilities, however.

-10:40 AM-

-Stadium-

"What could you possibly hope to gain from this?" the Hokage snarled as he faced off against the resurrected Nidaime. "Konoha will never rest until we have eliminated the ones who are behind this attack – you have only succeeded in signing your own death warrant."

Whoever was controlling the jutsu did not respond immediately, instead summoning another wall of water out of thin air and sending it crashing towards another group of civilians. The ninja guarding the stadium were prepared this time, however, and the wall was met by ramparts of earth and stone even as the Konoha ninja with water affinities pulled the wall apart or forced it to move away from the civilians.

The Kurama were struggling to maintain the genjutsu keeping the crowd calm and organized, and some sections of the crowd had already broken free and had begun rushing towards the nearest exit. With the stadium breached, the ninja who were previously guarding the walls and keeping an eye out for any attackers were now assisting with the evacuation, but it was still going far too slowly for the Hokage's peace of mind.

He froze when he heard a hauntingly familiar laugh issue from the Nidaime's mouth.

"Kukuku...," the Nidaime chuckled, a smirk crossing his face. His movements suddenly became far more fluid, a sharp change from the stilted, halting motions punctuated by moments of grace that had characterized them before now. "I'm hurt, Sensei. You make it sound like you weren't already trying to kill me before now."

"Orochimaru...," the Hokage growled, his emotions torn between seething hatred and bitter self-recrimination – his moment of weakness so many years before had come back to haunt his village in the worst way possible. "Does your depravity never cease? Must you defile the memory of the Hokages in this manner?"

Even as he spoke, his mind was racing as he added this new knowledge to his understanding of the situation. It seemed obvious now that Orochimaru was the one who wanted the various bloodline-bearing children kidnapped – he was undoubtedly trying to continue the inhumane experiments that had turned the village against him in the first place. That might even explain who was after Anko, though he shuddered to think what his fallen student would do to the newly promoted jounin in the name of research. As for the bounty on Naruto... that seemed unlikely; his student had never shown any interest in jinchuuriki before, although that could have changed in the years since he had fled Konoha.

Sarutobi still felt like he was still missing a piece of the puzzle, though. All of the known targets were being handled by mercenaries and missing-nin, which was the complete opposite of Orochimaru's normal method of operation. Like Anko had said, anything truly important he handled himself, which meant the real purpose of this attack lay elsewhere.

The Shodaime was already taken care of, however, and the Nidaime stood before him, so-

"You didn't," the Hokage gasped, his face paling.

"Didn't what, Sensei?" the Nidaime hissed, his tone mocking. As he spoke, more water coalesced, this time forming into a towering dragon that he sent rampaging into the stadium. The outer walls broke apart and part of the interior was destroyed before the water dragon was met by three smaller dragons fashioned of earth and stone. The titanic creatures began to crash against one another, their serpentine bodies coiling around their opponents and claws digging into water or stone. The battle seemed even for the moment, but the water dragon was prevented from pursuing the fleeing civilians.

The Hokage barked a laugh then, and his expression changed to a look of pity. "You couldn't figure it out, could you? Not even after you tore part of his soul out of the afterlife. You, who have thrown aside all morals and limits in the pursuit of knowledge, are still scrabbling desperately to reach the feet of my successor."

Sarutobi darted forward, the adamantine staff in his hands blurring as it assaulted the Nidaime from all sides. The Nidaime dodged what he could and allowed the unnatural regeneration of the jutsu to restore the damage he took from the blows he was unable to avoid. The Nidaime's efforts were focused on summoning more attacks to send into the stadium, and he got off two more despite the Hokage's intervention.

The Nidaime's expression twisted. "As if you could possibly understand the beauty of what I have accomplished. No technique ever created shall remain beyond my reach." He laughed then. "Even you shall die before long, perhaps even today, and then I shall learn from The Professor once again."

"I may have taught you much, Orochimaru, but it seems you have learned nothing," the Hokage said, his expression hardening. A moment later the staff thrust forward and impaled the other ninja. The Nidaime's eyes widened as he felt the massive amount of chakra closing in, and he tried to tear himself off of the staff. Before he could, though, the adamantine staff in the Hokage's hands burst into smoke, revealing Enma. The Monkey King wrapped his body around the Nidaime, preventing the simulacrum from moving out of the way.

"Dynamic Entry!" Maito Gai called out joyously as he leapt into the fray from behind the Nidaime, his whirling kick catching the Nidaime in the back and flinging him into the air. Enma dispersed himself a moment later, leaving the Nidaime alone in the air.

Gai paused a moment, breathing deeply; chakra was pouring off of his body and his skin had reddened, while his eyes were completely white. He exhaled sharply, then leapt into the air, proclaiming. "Morning Peacock!"

His fists blurred into motion, and the very air around him began to ignite until a fiery trail followed the path of his hands with every strike. Each blow shattered the construct that was the Nidaime, clothing and skin reverting into ash once again before burning away completely. The form of the Nidaime was no longer even recognizable mere moments later, but still Gai's attack did not falter. Soon the black rod that served as the anchor for the jutsu was visible from within a misshapen lump of ash, and still Gai's onslaught continued.

The Hokage could feel the heat generated by Gai's attack from the roof of the stadium; he smiled slightly to himself as he watched one of his most loyal and effective shinobi in action. He turned his head then as he heard a crackling sound from the left, and saw Kakashi crouched slightly, one hand held in front of him with a blade formed of lightning chakra extending from his fingers.

"Gai!" Kakashi called, then immediately darted forward and leapt into the air.

Gai seemed to understand the signal as he ceased his attack and seized the black rod, positioning it so that Kakashi would have a clear cut at it. Ash began forming around the rod, and Gai winced slightly as it began to eat into his flesh, but the rod did not change position in the slightest. Kakashi was there a moment later, the Raikiri technique moving through the rod.

There was a tense silence on the roof for a moment, then Gai pulled his arms apart, revealing that the rod had been split cleanly in half. The ash fell away a moment later, revealing Gai's bleeding but mostly intact hands.

"Well done, both of you," the Hokage said as they landed. "However, this is not over yet; the Fourth Hokage has also been resurrected and is likely somewhere within the village. We need to find him as soon as possible."

"Understood, Hokage-sama," the two responded in unison; their expressions were tense but they were both ready to follow their Hokage into battle. All three vanished in a shunshin a moment later.

-10:40 AM-

-Outside of Konoha-

Itachi perched in the branches of a tree far above the clearing, observing the two ninja who had fled the Records Department. He watched for any sign that they may have noticed someone following them, but they gave no indication of that; instead it seemed like they had reached their destination for the moment, as they relaxed slightly and began to rest. There was a tense silence between them and they did not remain near each other for very long, but there were no signs of imminent betrayal by one or the other either.

That they were stopping here meant this was probably a rendezvous point, which meant that additional ninja could show up at any time. His chakra wasn't entirely restored yet, but he had more than enough to take on the two in the clearing below. The longer he delayed the more likely it was that they would get reinforcements or that a third party would intervene and make the situation even more complicated.

He moved closer, his steps completely silent as he walked down the side of the tree, and pulled out four kunai. This particular trick he had learned long ago, but it had never stopped being useful; after taking a moment to make sure his targets would remain still, he threw two of the kunai and performed a variation of the bunshin technique.

To the ninja in the clearing, it appeared as if a swarm of kunai were lancing towards them from every direction. The gray-haired Konoha ninja threw himself out of the way, rolling desperately to avoid the lethal projectiles. The Oto-nin was much calmer, spinning behind the tree he had been leaning against and running through a quick series of handseals before creating a dome of earth to shield him. Though it wasn't visible, Itachi could feel the tiny pulse of chakra indicating that the ninja had slipped underground and was moving out of the clearing swiftly.

Clearly the Oto-nin was much more skilled and experienced and thus the greater threat, but he would take care of the Konoha ninja first. He watched the ninja continue to scramble about for a moment, then hefted the other two kunai he held and threw them. Both struck true, one piercing the ninja's throat and the other striking his chest and penetrating his heart with a solid thunk. The ninja crumpled to the ground and expired a moment later.

Noting that the other ninja was still moving away from the clearing, Itachi leapt to the forest floor and swiftly sealed the Konoha ninja's corpse into a storage scroll; he would take the time to examine the corpse for any useful items or information later.

That done, he set off in pursuit of the fleeing Oto-nin.

Thirty seconds after Itachi left the clearing, two black-cloaked ninja entered it. One had a nodachi strapped across their back while the other had no visible weapons.

"Someone died here," the second said in a distorted voice as they knelt next to the blood staining the grass. "Looks like another ninja took the body, probably in a storage scroll."

"There's a battle taking place to the northwest. I don't recognize either of the signatures, though," the first ninja said, their voice equally distorted.

"We'll check it out. We can't help out inside Konoha, but we can take care of any problems outside the walls."

With that, they both left the clearing.

The shadow clone Itachi had left behind observed their interaction curiously as he attempted to discern the identity and purpose of the two ninja. They matched the descriptions he had heard for the infamous "Sword and Hammer" duo - the nodachi was an unusual weapon, especially for a ninja - but those two were independents; there had been no indication prior to this that they worked for Konoha in any capacity, not even in rumor.

After a moment, the clone dispersed to alert his creator of the pursuers he would soon have to deal with.

A/N:

I'm not entirely satisfied with how this chapter turned out, but I think the issues I'm having are due to the nature of the story more than anything else. I've used a lot of viewpoints in the last thirty-seven chapters (holy shit, I've written thirty-seven chapters for this story) and it feels wrong not to include at least some of them as I detail the battle. At the same time, the attack itself is largely a feint and the readers know that, so I don't feel that I should waste time writing thousands upon thousands of words for a particular battle where the outcome is essentially predetermined. Not sure if that's a flaw in plotting or presentation, but I'm leaning towards the latter. I have read (and lost interest in) stories that do that (long, drawn-out, pointless battles where Naruto or some other character is involved when you know that they have plot armor seven miles thick), so I'm pretty sure that's one mistake I'm avoiding.

I estimate another two chapters to deal with the attack, and then another chapter or two of aftermath, then the end of Part II. Given how accurate I've been with estimates up to now, that translates to 3-8 chapters more. z.z

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for all the reviews!