Chapter 21: Invasion
A/N: IMPORTANT: Ok so I have mistakingly deleted my chapter 22 and deleted my backup file too. I have updated a training chapter as per request if a reviewer but in the process deleted the Naruto vs Gaara fight. I am trying to recover. If I can recover I will update as soon as I get. If not well then I will have to rewrite and probably Won't be able to update the Hieuzen Orochimaru fight till next week. Sorry. And I request StrikerTheFallen to help me recover how the Naruto Gaara fight went down. If you are reading this please PM me on how it was written and additional suggestions. The story is on hiatus until further untangling of this mess.
Shikamaru grudgingly woke up. He was having such a nice nap! But of course, someone had to wake him. As he stretched, his eyes snapped wide open as he remembered his last memory before going unconscious. , "Kai!" Shikamaru muttered to make sure he was still not in a Genjutsu. He could see the Jounin and Chunin fighting the Suna and Oto nin who he guessed were invading.
"Shit!" Shikamaru thought as he saw some of the civilians awake as well, most of them panicking and getting in the way. He hurriedly got the others awake when a sound ninja nearly took off his head.
Slang! Shikamaru looked back to see Kakashi block a sword aimed at his head. Kakashi threw the ninja back and slit his throat without a care.
"Shikamaru, are you okay?"
"Yes, Kakashi-Sensei."
"What's going on?" Kiba asked getting up from the Genjutsu.
"Invasion," Shino replied stoically as ever but with a slight waver in his voice.
Kakashi nodded, "Ok I don't have enough time to explain but I am giving you an A-rank mission.:
Chouji's eyes widened but ever so slightly determined to carry out the mission while Shikamaru gave a confident smirk.
"Your job is to gather all the genin here and take the civilians and wounded to the marked safety zones. Unfortunately, Chunin or Jounin can't help you, so it's up to you to carry out the rescue of civilians from the stadium and then protect the safety camps. If you can, have some of the Genin carry out rescue operations elsewhere in the village. Understood?"
Shikamaru nodded.
Kakashi heard the chirping of birds and saw Sasuke trying to fight through a horde of ninja with Haku on his back, "Ok, Shikamaru you're team leader with Shino as his second, brief everyone and get the mission underway." Kakashi shouted out his final instructions as he took out the enemies surrounding Sasuke.
"Hey guys, what's the plan?" Sasuke asked catching up with his fellow Genin.
"Ok first thing's first, gather all the genin and brief them on our assigned mission, we will need all the help we can get," Shikamaru replied, immediately taking charge. "Chouji, Shino and I will calm down the civilians and get them together in one place. Kiba, you and Sasuke get the others. Move!"
All of them scrambled, just then a huge burst of Chakra flooded the stadium and all the civilians woke up. "Stupid Naruto," Shikamaru muttered knowing only he had the chakra capacity to do this. "Now we have to stop thousands from panicking, then again I wasn't sure how I was going to transport them while they were asleep. At least most of them are horrified by the Ichibi."
Shikamaru was right, nearly the whole of the Konoha populace was rooted in their spot as they felt the venomous intent of the sand monster. The killer intent which the Kyuubi had brought, so many years ago. Shikamaru thanked their senseis for training them not to get frozen up at any amount of intent. As he tried to move some of the civilians to a secure spot, he heard the familiar voice of Naruto calling out a summoning Jutsu.
Shikamaru turned anxiously and for the second time that day, the Mata's eyes widened. Shino too stared with nearly bulging eyes. They had heard stories of the red toad that appeared on the night of the Kyuubi attack and had helped the yondaime defeat the Kyuubi. Their speculations were confirmed as a Konoha nin exclaimed in shock, "G-gamabunta sama!?"
"Give it up sensei, the Shukaku has been unleashed. Even you can't do anything anymore. Your hands will be full of fighting me. And there's no one in Konoha who can defeat the one-tailed, not even your precious Kyuubi Jinchuriki." Orochimaru bragged while engaging the Hokage in a taijutsu combat.
Hiruzen simply smirked, "You underestimate him too much, something I had also done. Not only is he an unpredictable ninja, Obito has made sure, he has the strength to back up his foolish yet effective plans."
Orochimaru's arrogant smirk fell off his face, "That may be but he has virtually no chakra left, and being the kind-hearted fool you are I know you didn't teach him to control the Kyuubi's Chakra."
Hiruzen smiled surprising Orochimaru, "Yes you are right, I didn't teach him how to control the Kyuubi but..." Hiruzen stopped as Orochimaru felt the malevolent chakra of the Kyuubi, "Jiraiya has." Hiruzen finished.
"Impossible!" Orochimaru cursed as he turned towards Naruto. He was shocked as he saw the familiar red toad that had defeated him and the Kyuubi alongside Minato all those years ago, From where the hell did he come?"
"Gaki! What did you call me for, I ain't your familiar." Gamabunta remarked in a deep gruff voice.
"Sorry, but I summoned Gamahiro just a while back to fight someone else and I needed help again."
"For what?" Gamabunta demanded.
"That," Naruto pointed at Shukaku. Gamabunta stared hard at Shukaku before sighing, "You blondes always have to pick a fight with a biju don't you?"
Naruto smiled sheepishly. "Fine, I will help you," Gamabunta said.
"Mother wants your blood now Uzumaki! In fact, I am going to let him loose. Playing possum jutsu."
"Shit!" Gamabunta remarked falling back a bit.
"What?" Naruto asked. His question was answered as the Ichibi's demonic voice rang out, "Woo Hoo! I am free!"
Shikamaru cursed, he had gotten all the civilians to calm down but they were frozen stiff again, "Guys slap them out of it, we can worry about repercussions later." Shikamaru added as some of his fellow Genin looked at him disbelievingly.
"Do it!" he yelled out.
Immediately all the assembled Genin got in action. Chouji enlarged his arms and slapped them all out of their stupor., "Get going if you don't want to become mincemeat!" Sasuke yelled after them.
The civilians didn't need a second order as they ran for their lives. Sakura and Ino herded them in the right direction while Haku, Kiba, and Sasuke acted as the main assault team ready to strike anyone who tried to hurt the civilians. Lee wanted to fight too but he was too injured and had been knocked out by Tenten who was part of the defending team with Chouji, Shikamaru, Shino, and Hinata. The rest were on crowd control.
"Move faster but carefully!" Tenten called out as Sakura saved someone from being stampede to death.
"Enemy at four' o clock," Shikamaru called out
Haku struck the sound ninja down with perfectly thrown senbon.
"Sand squad at 2'o clock."
Sasuke and Kiba sprang into action tearing their way through with the help of Kiba'a tunneling gang.
"How much further?" Sasuke called out.
"My bugs say that the camp is in the next clearing," Shino replied
"Crap, duck!" Kiba yelled as a wave of kunai flew over the strike team's head."Shikamaru, you guys go on! About 15 chunin level ninja are coming our way. Get the civilians to safety. We'll hold them back."
Shikamaru thought for a while torn between letting his friends stay for what might be a suicide mission or help them putting all of them, civilians included at risk. "Fine but Chouji and Shino are staying to help. We will send the Chuñin guarding the shelter to help, later."
Sasuke nodded and leaped off after Kiba to ambush the ninja. "We will be the bait, Chouji," Shino stated calmly.
Chouji nodded and glanced around to see Haku, Sasuke, and Kiba hiding ready to strike. They didn't have to wait long as another hail of kunai fell around them. Chouji pulled Shino to the ground with him.
"Heh, what's this?" A voice called out as a Sand kunoichi appeared., "Only two mutts to defeat us!"
Instantly she regretted her words as two of her teammates fell to the ground dead from an ambush and a third was kicked into her. The Kunoichi dodged and immediately tracked the point of ambush. Giving some sort of signal, the remaining ninja pounced upon them. Haku was caught and Sasuke rushed to help him gutting a ninja on the process but he didn't get far as he was knocked out cold.
In the confusion, everyone forgot about Shino and Chouji. Chunin expanded his arms and punched away two of the ninjas guarding Sasuke and Haku. He carried both of their limp bodies in his enlarged hands and set them on the ground. Kiba appeared behind them. Shino cursed, they were at a disadvantage. Only he, Chouji, and Kibaa could fight and there were still 9 of them.
"Shikamaru should have reached already, so the backup shouldn't be far away. I just have to stall for some time." Shino thought to himself. No sooner than that, his bugs and Kiba sensed a ninja creeping up behind. The two moved out of the way but Chouji was too slow and was caught in the ninja's grasp, "Give up, or this boy dies."
Shino and Kiba cursed. Kiba tried to rush but a draw of blood from Chouji's neck proved that the sand nin wasn't joking. Shino couldn't see any way out and relaxed into a normal stance, "We give up."
"Smart choice, now get over here, and let me you up, maybe we can use you as hostages."
Shino gritted his teeth but he knew he couldn't do anything, he was too weak, all he had were his beetle jutsu. If only he had taken a better approach at taijutsu, maybe he could have saved Kiba. Shino looked beside him to see Kiba in deep thought, no doubt thinking the same thing.
As the Suna nin tied all of them up, one of them stopped cold in his tracks. The others called for him to hurry up when he fell over with two kunai sticking out of his skull. The rest of the Suna nin got on alert.
'Fire style: Phoenix flame jutsu.' A voice called out from the forest. Large balls of fire shot through the air. "Heh no problem, I will just a wind technique.: One of the inexperienced Chunin said.
"NOOOO!" The others yelled but it was too late, the fireballs grew more and burned them to bare bones. The remaining three shinobi tried to figure out the point of attacks but they dropped dead as Izumo and Kotetsu appeared, their kunai red with blood.
"Come on, you can worry about this scene later," Izumo said cutting the ropes and noticing their horrified look many of the Genin were giving him. Without a word, Izumo and Kotetsu led them to the camp.
"You guys are ok!" Tenten screamed out in delight.
"Barely," Shino managed to reply and waved his hand indicating he would explain later."
"Anything happen while we were gone?" Izumo asked.
"Two Oto nin had come across the camo while fighting but Tenten managed to kill them with her weapons.
Izumo nodded, "Ok all the other Chunins are either out fighting or defending other camps. The other camps should be coming here, this was supposed to be the main camp because most civilians would be at the stadium and this is the closest camp. So Kotetsu and I will go ahead and look out for enemy ninja and help other camps travel safely to others. Those of you who are injured will keep a lookout and the rest will kill anything that moves without hesitation as long as it isn't a friendly, understood?"
The group of Genin nodded Grimly. Izumo and Kotetsu disappeared and everyone took their posts. Shikamaru couldn't see the stadium but hoped that Naruto was okay.
'Fuuton: Wind Bullet,'
"Suiton: Water bullet,"
The two jutsu clashed and a rain of water fell on the fighting ninja again. The Shukaku was a one-trick pony who kept on shooting the wind bullets but Gamabunta countered with his water bullets. Shrieking loudly, ("much like Sakura and Ino," Naruto commented) The sand beast sent wave after wave of sand to try and squash Gamabunta or slip him. Gamabunta easily cut through the sand with his sword. Suddenly Gamabunta noticed an orb of chakra forming in Shukaku'a mouth, "Just when I thought this is easy,"
Orochimaru escaped from being skewered by his old sensei yet again. He noticed that two of the ANBU were inside the barrier but not engaging him. He deduced that his old sensei had told them not to, determined to fix his own mistake. Suddenly Orochimaru felt a huge surge of chakra, he looked to see an orb forming in Shukaku's mouth. He smirked knowing full well what it was, "You see sensei, in a few minutes, your village won't exist, I made the Shukaku finish what the Kyuubi started, and this time there's no Hokage stopping it."
Knowing he was right Hiruzen tried to get out of the barrier but two coffins sprang up in front of him. I couldn't get that as Minato, reaper seals can't be undone unfortunately but no matter these two will keep your hands full." Orochimaru smirked. 'Reanimation Jutsu!'
The doors of the coffins fell, "No it can't be, Shodaime-sama, Nidaime sama."
"You have aged Hiruzen," Hashirama remarked, "but it seems I can't save the village this time," he added sadly seeing the tailed beast bomb.
"Orochimaru, you were right, there's no Hokage to stop the biju this time around." One of the ANBU guards came forward and threw open his mask, revealing Obito's face, "But there is... a future Hokage."
'Hiraishin!'
A/N: And done, sorry to end on another cliffhanger but couldn't help it. I will probably update twice or at least once by 24th so look out for those. Please review, follow and favorite and let me know if you have any suggestions. And I would love input on my use of various perspectives in one chapter. Bye for now, hope you review.