Hey! I'm back with another chapter!
Alright, so I will answer to some reviews now, so you can skip this paragraph if you want to! So p6lishb6kser and reaver216, I'm glad you liked last chapter! (I already fixed the shinigami thing, thanks for pointing it out hehe). And Why, I'm sorry the battle wasn't much different from canon, but it wouldn't have made much sense to just have Gohan destroy the barrier as he was following the tailed beast; the story hasn't changed much because Gohan's character limits him to intervene in the conflict without having an actual reason to, he isn't like Goku and you can see this in the Cell saga (I hate having to explain this, but anyways). Now, about the One tail, the fight hasn't even appeared until this chapter.
Okay, with that said, I hope you enjoy this chapter! And remember:
I DO NOT OWN DBZ NOR NARUTO.
Screams, explosions, metal clashing. Many sounds surrounded the place and none was specially grateful to the ear. Advancing through the familiar halls of the arena got surprisingly hard to do, even for shinobi like them.
The way to the nursery wasn't really that long, but it was starting to feel like it. Every sign that there was an invasion going on, made them sweat more or their hands to tremble more evidently. And if it was already hard to be part of the group trying to get to the nursery, it was even worse leading said group. Tenten wanted to run as fast as she could and make sure that her friends were still alive, but Yakumo and her injured teammate made it impossible for her to do so. It was her responsibility to take them to the nursery and so she would.
Tenten finally spotted the door that led to the nursery. She beckoned Hinata, Chouji, Sakura and Yakumo to wait. Nobuyuki activated his byakugan without anyone noticing, he wanted to be sure that the girl of the pink shirt would be fine. It was for that same reason that he was able to see how that girl went to hug the black-haired boy of the amazing speed.
"It's safe, we can go." He said calmly while deactivating his dojutsu. He was excited to talk to the boy of the green jumpsuit.
Chouji, Hinata and Sakura ran past them while her teammate pushed his wheelchair to the nursery. He was calm, everyone was fine, and he was even excited because he would be able to talk to the one who managed to hit the monster that thrashed him.
The room resembled the ones of the hospital, white walls surrounding a handful of beds and hospital equipment. In the beds, the patients in the worst conditions were laying, the rest were either standing up or sitting in the chairs next to the beds.
They spotted Shiho, who waved at them once she noticed their presence. Nobuyuki smiled warmly. Yakumo ran to hug her, then telling her friend how much she was worried about her. The blonde girl didn't manage to hold her smile back; she never expected someone to worry for her that much, at least from others that weren't her parents.
"And why are you so excited to see us?" Ino asked, confused at the reaction of her own teammate and the rest of the genin that had just entered the room. "We were just going back to the balcony."
"Yes, I was wondering too." Shiho said, she was happy about her friends' concern, but she really didn't get why they were worried.
"Something must have gone wrong," Lee, who was laying in bed, put his hand on his chin, "that guy was unbelievably strong..." He turned to look at the girl of the pink shirt. "Did that guy of the purple clothes manage to handle him?"
"I'm not sure, all I know is that the village is being invaded." Tenten answered, causing shock in everyone that didnt previously know.
"An invasion? Now that's troublesome..." Shikamaru said as he scratched his chin. "You said Gohan was fighting against the guy that left you like that, right?"
"Gohan is really strong..." Naruto said after Lee nodded. "But we need to help him!" He raised his fist, his glance as determined as always.
"Are you sure? You just fought a match!" Sakura protested, she had checked on his injuries, and he really didn't seem ready for such a fight.
Neji glanced at the blonde boy, then back to his teammates. He remembered what they thought about him, then what Naruto told him after defeating him. Lee noticed this, and tried to stand up.
"I'll join you," Shikamaru stood up, his hands in his pockets, "just to make sure you come back alive."
"I'm also going." Neji said as he stood up, ignoring his injuries. Tenten was surprised by him, he didn't appear to be like the Neji they all knew. He was actually offering to help someone.
"If Neji goes..." Lee tried to stand up, but the brown-haired girl put her hand on his shoulder and shook her head.
"If Gohan is there, I'll go too." Ino stood up, surprising her pink-haired friend. Chouji nodded; he would go as well.
Tenten nodded in understanding, then glancing at the Hyuga genius. Lee clenched his fists, he wouldn't be able to impress his rival this time, and that disappointed him. Neji noticed this gesture.
"If no one else will go, then the remaining of you should stay and take care of the injured." Chouji proposed as he threw away the package of chips he'd been eating. "And we should get going."
Everyone nodded in agreement. The group was quick to leave, having already gathered what they thought would be useful from the room. Neji was the last one to leave. He put his hand on Lee's shoulder, which caused the latter to glance at him. "We should spar after all this is over." The genin of the white eyes said while still looking at the door. "Some training wouldn't harm anyone, right?"
Tenten couldn't help but to laugh as Lee's eyes filled with excitement. The genin of the green jumpsuit nodded in response, causing a smile to fill Neji's face.
Yuichi had been thrown off from the roof by one of Orochimaru's men. He erratically grabbed one of his special kunai, then extending his arm towards the wall. He nailed it in the wall with both of his hands, with as much strength as he could gather at the moment. The kunai successfully penetrated the wall, and his fall was stopped. He sighed out of relief once he saw he'd managed to save himself just some seconds before hitting the floor. He took his kunai out of the wall, letting him fall once again, although this time he was close enough not to receive any harm from the fall.
As he finally hit the floor, he noticed the battle going on between two of his fellow jounin and another one from the Sand. He was surprised to see those particular two struggling to beat an individual shinobi, it wasn't typical for two of the most remarkable shinobi of the village to be handled by just one man. The silver-haired man didn't care much about the reasons, though, and for such he jumped into the battle without doubting.
In the blink of an eye, he had already put hands in his colleagues' shoulders. Contrary to what would be expected, they weren't all that shocked when they identified who he was. Yuichi nailed a kunai, a regular one, in the man's abdomen, going through his yellow vest like it was nothing. His next move consisted of a kick in the neck which pushed him away, although the kick failed to knock the man out.
Baki didn't require more to figure that his chances against the man of the blue haori were null. His speed was just phenomenal, and he wouldn't be able to handle it in his current state. Reluctantly, he threw a smoke bomb, escaping as the cloud of smoke continuously expanded.
"We don't have time for this, let him go." The silver-haired man said as he turned to spot the balcony of the Hokage. "The Third is fighting Orochimaru as of now."
"So it was Orochimaru..." Kakashi spoke more to himself than to anyone else. "That explains what he was doing here."
Yuichi scratched his chin, only just figuring what he was able to see in that brief second he was about to join in the battle. He started to entertain his anxious hand with one of his kunai as he looked up at the balcony. "My grandfather was there."
"What?" Hayate asked, his logic not permitting to believe such a statement. "You're saying that the Second was there?"
"Reanimation technique, the forbidden jutsu." He replied. "His experiments were probably related to this."
"And how are we supposed to climb this?" Kakashi asked, his voice calm, as usual. "I thought you were in a hurry to go back up there."
Yuichi shook his head while looking back at the copy-nin, the one that had copied more than a thousand techniques. He hadn't really thought much about how they were supposed to climb the immense wall. His mouth opened, but he was interrupted.
"Don't worry, he's already doing his thing." The masked jounin pointed at the lizard expert.
Hayate's hands had been put together and his eyes were closed. The two other shinobi sat down, Yuichi still thinking of another way of going up that didn't take as long. Kakashi's only visible eye looked up at the balcony, spotting a purple barrier in the roof.
"Damn it," Yuichi stood up immediately as he was also able to see said barrier, "Hayate, hurry up!"
The apparently sick man obeyed, liberating the pressure he'd been accumulating through a slightly green aura that vanished within a couple of seconds. His face was slightly covered with scales, although not as much as it was usual when he entered that state. He stretched his arms and legs for some seconds.
"That should be enough." Hayate said. Then, he summoned another giant lizard, although this one was slightly smaller than the previous one. "Help us get up there, the Hokage is in danger."
The lizard nodded, lowering its paws. Once the two other jounin had gone up on the paw of the lizard, it put them on its back. Hayate was already climbing the wall with his bare hands and feet, as if he was a lizard.
Kakashi and Yuichi grabbed the lizard's white haori as they got under the great sword it carried on its back. It reached the wall in no time, and in even less time it climbed it up. Lizards weren't as popular as toads, but at least they could climb vertical surfaces without trouble.
Once they arrived at the roof, the two jounin jumped from the blue lizard's back and attempted to break the barrier almost immediately, but failing in their continuous tries. The lizard was surprised that said barrier wasn't harming at the touch, so it figured that the technique wasn't appropriately executed.
Hayate also arrived not long after them, although he did take longer to climb the wall. He jumped and landed a powerful kick on the barrier. His attempt seemed useless, so he decided to back off to rest for a moment.
"Can you help us here?" The apparently sick man asked as he went back to gathering chakra.
The blue lizard took his giant sword out and struck the barrier, although it also seemed not to cause any damage. It tried to break the barrier a couple more times before giving up, it was impenetrable. Kakashi and Hayate observed hopelessly as the human-sized monkey was the only force preventing the Hokage from dying.
"It can't be..." Scales disappeared from his face as he observed the old man struggle to stay on his two feet.
Yuichi was frustrated, he was about to fail in his job. He had sworn that he would protect the Hokage at all costs, but he was unable to do anything to save him, he couldn't do anything to prevent himself from failing. And yet for some reason he only felt frustrated for failing in his mission. It was then when he realized that he didn't really care for the Third. Something crossed his mind at that moment, something that surprised even himself. This is better for the future, just let him die...
The green lizard advanced at full speed on its four legs, finally reaching the great sandy-coloured monster in the outskirts of the village. They had gone past the forest a couple of meters prior, so they had to be considerably far away from the village. Once they got in front of it, Sasuke and Gohan jumped from the giant lizard as it stood up on two legs to stop the creature. It grabbed its two giant kunai and put them in front of its head, receiving the impact from the running creature.
"It's like a tanuki, now that I notice." Gohan pointed out with a really calm voice, which surprised the Uchiha. "But those blue marks all around its body surely takes away every charm a tanuki can have."
Sasuke remained silent as the lizard was finally able to stop the creature, which worked as a signal for them to join in. The Uchiha's pitch black eyes turned to an intense red color, intensely enough to represent the menace said eyes are. He made several hand signs as he approached the gigantic tanuki, expelling a fireball out of his mouth. To his surprise, the fire did nothing else than to alert the monster of his presence.
Gohan pushed the Uchiha away as the giant tanuki tried to stomp him. The red-eyed genin was surprised as the half-blood saiyan alone was able to resist the stomp and push it back. Then, he jumped on the creature's arm, running on it towards its face. Even the lizard was shocked as the boy was able to land a punch on the monster's face before being thrown away.
"W-what?" The lizard said as it pushed the giant creature away. How was he able to hit the One-tail?
So that was chapter 27! What did you think about it?
The fight against the One-tail finally starts!
Anyways, that would be it for now! Have a happy new year and see you soon with the next chapter!