THE END WAR – ATTACK ON DUNSTONE
South-West Seblix
Beneath a volcano is the last place Boruto expected there to be a Dark Dimension base, nevertheless this is where Ashen has brought he and Himawari. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience that is already proving very valuable to them. She has shown them procedure she created for avoiding imperial patrols, something that would have been very useful to know when the war started. The base is very large and very well hidden, it is no wonder that the people of Homeworld never found it.
The architecture of the base is very similar to the temple they visited. Inojin wishes that he had more time to learn about the Dark Dimension's artwork, of the god and goddess Yton and Kalena, but they are here on urgent business. He vows that he will learn more about the Dark Dimension's culture when the war is over, at least he will if he survives. Shikadai is similarly impressed with the base but for entirely different reasons, this is an excellent spot strategically, positioned near the border with Okarin and within striking distance of the city of Massidal.
"Why are we here?" Shikadai asks.
"This is where a lot of front-line research took place during the war," Ashen reveals.
"Do you believe there will be information about the Hive Mind here?" Boruto asks.
"There should be, this is where it all began. Tao Ma was the victim of a battle that we won. I don't remember where he was from but he was brought here to test out a new divine ability our scientists were creating, that divine ability became the Hive Mind. I remember being sent here to congratulate our greatest minds on their significant breakthrough, and I spoke to Tao Ma himself. He made it clear to me that his objective was to destroy the people of Homeworld, it was just like we intended."
"Doing that was wrong."
"Of course it was."
"Then why did you allow it? You are the empress; you could have stopped it!"
"I was the empress but my power was not supreme. I was afforded the best resources and treatment of anyone, I was admired and respected by all, even the politicians kowtowed before me. But I was a figurehead, responsible for strategy, tactics, and for battle. Dark Dimension policy was decided by politicians and always had been."
"You didn't challenge it?"
"Nobody did. Of course I realise now that I should have challenged them. But I was told to wage war against the people of this world and a set of rules for how to do that was given to me. As far as we all understood these rules came directly from the wishes of Yton and Kalena."
"Do you still believe that Yton and Kalena made those rules?" Himawari asks.
"No, of course not. I believe that the politicians made them up, a means of controlling us. What Yton and Kalena plan for me is my business and mine alone."
Himawari nods, it is good that Ashen is developing her own opinions about what is right and wrong. Himawari questions if Ashen has always had these views and if this is the first time she has felt comfortable expressing them. It must have been difficult to be empress of a place like the Dark Dimension, with such specific expectations and so little flexibility. She is glad that Ashen is free to be herself now.
Ashen approaches a desk at the back of the room which is styled differently to the others. Shikadai recognises this style as it is the same as the one they saw in the temple. This desk belongs specifically to the empress herself. Ashen sees a series of important documents have been left on the right side of her desk, just as she always liked them to be. She looks through these documents for any crucial information about what happened in this place.
Every document which is marked as being related to divine abilities she passes to Shikadai, this makes up about one in every five of the papers. Once she has sorted through the pile she looks up at the Nara clansman to see that he is very nearly finished going through his papers. He gets to the last one and nods before placing it down on the desk and pointing to the final paragraph.
"It says here that research notes and other details pertaining to the Hive Mind have been sent to the Homeworld Command Centre."
"The command centre?" Himawari asks as she looks at her teacher.
"That was the largest base we had beneath Homeworld. It was where I spent most of my time, truth be told I was hoping never to go there again. It is north from here. It was a long way underground as you might suspect, I doubt that the Homeworlders will have found it."
"Why do you want to avoid going back?" Boruto asks.
"I… I have a complicated history with that place. There are a lot of memories for me there, most of them good, but some bad."
"Are you willing to go back?"
"For Himawari of course I will go back, but don't expect me to take it my stride. If there is a weakness to the Hive Mind we will find it in that place. If there is not then we will do whatever it takes to find a cure for your condition. I will not allow my student to be controlled, I am never letting something like that happen, never again."
Dunstone, Ewoa
Naruto looks at the destroyed quadrant of Dunstone in horror, using the One True Sense he can tell the devastating effects of the attack. With his heroic effort he managed to save many people, but there are many more who have not been so lucky or who he cannot detect. He crosses his fingers and remakes his many destroyed clones, sending them forward to search for survivors immediately.
People are already bringing their fallen friends and family in his direction. He projects a bubble of 'life' energy around him and shouts for people to bring the injured inside the bubble so that he can help them. The first few he is able to save without bother, but the longer it goes on the harder it is to save everyone. The numbers of people being brought to him is already devastating and he has only just begun.
"What could have caused such devastation?" Naruto asks.
"It was Furst."
"Furst can't be that strong! We saw him fight against your uncle, even then he was not that powerful. Most of his attack missed and he still caused all of this damage. How did he project the attack over such a wide area but maintain such offensive power? How can anyone wield so much power?"
"I don't know, like you say nobody should be capable of causing this much destruction. This is more like a core detonation than an attack, I've never seen anything like it before. There is no way Furst detonated his core, it is not in his nature. I'm worried, if he did this, if he can do something like this again whenever he wants then there is no way anyone can rebel against him. Next time he might not miss, and if he can destroy Homeworld's biggest city he could kill any of us at any time."
Naruto looks around in dread. "If he can do this once then he is definitely going to try to do it a second time. If we can't end the war before he can do that then Homeworld is done for. Hinata we need to step up the war effort immediately!"
"We don't have time for that right now. This is like the time that Pain attacked the village, we need to work on protecting as many people as we can as quickly as possible."
"Agreed, we need to help the city first. I am most effective here as a medic, right now you need to go to the far side of the quadrant and rally as many warriors as you can. They may have survived but the civilians are in real danger. Get as much help as you can muster and start to send people back to me. If we're lucky we can save some of them."
"What if it is Furst? What if he arrives?"
Naruto throws Hinata a low-grade communication stone. "If it is Furst let me know and I will rush over right away. I will hold him off for as long as possible while you take the people and escape. My father can take me away using the Flying Thunder God technique once everyone is at a safe distance."
"There is no safe distance from Furst!"
"If everything goes against us then I will die," Naruto admits, "But I have no intention of dying today. Go Hinata, we don't have enough time to discuss this anymore. Hurry!"
Hinata nods before leaping forward, heading towards the opposite side of the quadrant as quickly as she can. She hopes that there are enough powerful survivors from the attack to help her, otherwise the wounded civilians don't stand a chance.
Nearby, Dunstone, Ewoa
Hannah shouts loudly as she lifts several pieces of rubble off her trapped friend Claude. As she removes the final piece she finds the wounded owl beneath. He seems to have damaged his wing. She is glad that her instincts helped her to locate him so quickly this time, she is more glad for them than she has ever been before.
"Claude, are you OK?"
"My wing is hurt but other than that I will be OK. I was trying to protect a man, he should be around here somewhere Hannah, see if you can dig him up."
Hannah digs at the rubble once again until she sees a dark gap in it. She brings 'light' energy to her hand and uses it to illuminate the darkness. She can see him down below so she continues to dig the rubble away until he is free. She inspects him but can't find any serious wounds that her instincts didn't warn her about. She tells Claude that he seems to be unconscious but that other than that he is OK.
"Take us to Naruto, he will be able to help," Claude says.
Hannah nods. She carries the man on her right shoulder and lifts Claude to perch on her left. She then begins to jump through the quadrant towards her teacher. She looks around and sees dozens of Naruto's clones searching through the rubble. Just as she thought, the attack has completely devastated this part of the city. Several valiant civilians from the other parts of the city are helping Naruto's clones and the few spare warriors to dig up survivors, but it looks like a huge effort will be required, even for this number.
"I saw you rushing to protect me even before the attack started to fall," Claude says. "How did you know that it was coming? I know that your instincts are good but the attack came from nowhere, it just suddenly appeared in the sky."
"I don't understand it myself," Hannah admits. "I think my instincts are getting stronger somehow."
"If your instincts are getting stronger, do you have any ideas about who attacked us?" Claude asks.
"It was Jonas."
"One man did all of this?"
"Yes, I think so. My instincts tell me that we're not in any immediate danger of being attacked again, at least not from above. I get the feeling that some of the Imperial Guard may be coming to try to retake the city, but I think they will be unsuccessful. Yes, there are enough class 9 warriors here to fight them off."
Hannah stops halfway back towards Naruto when she senses someone buried beneath a building below. She stops and puts the man on her right shoulder down before digging at the collapsed building. She eventually runs into a large single slab that is covering several people, she lifts this away and finds that Mana and Michel are beneath.
"Mana, Michel, are you OK?" Claude asks.
"We are both OK," Mana says as she slowly stands. "We were both lucky to be honest, we didn't see the attack coming and we had no time to react. If we had been hit by any of the energy that seemed to be flying about we would have died."
"Do you know what happened?" Michel asks Hannah.
"I have an idea, but right now we don't have time to discuss it. If you are both OK can you help with rescuing people from the city? We're going to need all the help we can get. Bring them to Naruto when you can."
Hannah leaps away and leaves Mana and Michel to see the remains of the city for the first time. They had not realised that the attack on them had been so devastating. Even if they win the war it will take Dunstone a long time to fully recover from the physical and emotional damage of an attack like this.
Nearby, Dunstone, Ewoa
Minato teleports to Naruto's side with Kushina and Mito. Naruto is relieved to see that they are all OK. Nevertheless he uses his Energy Projection to send 'life' energy to all of them, just out of caution. Even as they stand beside him he continues to divide his attention between talking with them and healing everyone else. He is especially glad now that Enri taught him how to divide his mind.
Nearby, Dunstone, Ewoa
Hinata digs as she finds Sasuke beneath a fallen building. He makes small taps with his finger to indicate to her that he is OK but she still rushes to save him. If a class 8 warrior like the Uchiha is injured then he must have been hit with 'destruction' energy prior to the collapse of the building.
"Are you OK?"
"I think I broke my arm."
"It won't take long for Naruto to fix that; I'll take you to him right away. I'll need your help to save as many people as possible. Your 'spacetime' powers will be very useful."
"No, don't waste anymore of your time on me, I'm not any immediate danger, I'll work my own way to Naruto. You need to stay here and help the others. As class 9 warriors yourself and Hannah will be the quickest to save people."
Sasuke activates his Rinnegan and looks over his shoulder as he slowly gets to his feet. He can see that while some have sustained injuries everyone who was travelling with Naruto is safe. The civilians on the other hand are in a much worse position. He understands the urgency with which his help is required, he is not in danger but he can quicken the rescue effort significantly.
Sasuke has an idea. "Do you have a communication stone?"
"Yes, Naruto gave me one."
"Ask Michel to come and get me. He will find it more difficult to dig others out of danger but he can quickly carry me to Naruto."
Hinata nods. She sends for Michel with her communication stone and in less than two minutes the noble horse is with her. Hinata tells Michel to carry Sasuke back to Naruto quickly and he departs immediately. The Returning Empress is still overwhelmed by the carnage that Furst has caused, by the family's he has torn about, by the previously happy city that he has plunged into chaos. She vows that she will stop at nothing to take the throne back from him.
"Well it looks like chaos has reigned supreme."
Hinata looks over her shoulder, terrified as she recognises the voice of this newcomer. She lays eyes on her and sees a dishevelled and pale-skinned warrior, a crazed individual. It is of course one of the worst possible people to arrive at a time like this.
It is the former queen, Mauer Sabine!
Hinata looks back at the many Naruto clones rescuing people behind her. He is busy, she cannot allow him to waste his time here. She must find a way to delay Sabine as long as possible if they are going to save the people of Dunstone. She resolves to do just that. They are both class 9 warriors but she knows how powerful Sabine is, how few people have been able to defeat her; she does not believe that she is on the same level as those warriors.
"Why are you here Sabine?"
"Isn't it obvious princess? I am here to take back the country that was stolen from me. I am here to take back Ewoa."
"Don't be foolish, Naruto's counter-aspect defeated you the last time you fought, and he then went on to defeat that counter-aspect. Not only is Naruto here but Hannah and I are as well. There is no way you are going to win against all three of us."
"I may be crazy but I'm not blind princess. I can see that Dunstone just met with a little accident. Uzumaki's healing powers are too valuable to waste in this desperate situation, he is too busy to fight me. When he is done he will not be at his best. Yes, I believe that I can take back Ewoa."
Hinata pauses for as long as she can. "I don't know if you know this Sabine, but I recently fought another class 9 warrior. Dark Dimension Empress Helion Ashen has returned, someone even stronger than yourself. I fought against Ashen and I defeated her. If you know what is good for you don't risk your life in a fight with me. Turn away now and run for your life."
Sabine laughs. "Yes, I do know about your recent fight with Ashen. Though if our information is to be believed you were aided in that fight by the Crown Prince and the Blaze Princess. You are not even close to being on my level. To defeat Ashen you needed a three on one advantage and even then you only won because the emperor weakened her first."
"Are you willing to bet on your intelligence being correct Sabine?"
"Good point princess, you may actually be stronger than I give you credit for. You are Endou Akashi's daughter after all, it would be foolish to underestimate you. But frankly I don't care how strong you might be, no, the stronger the better. I want to fight the best and win, survival of the fittest, even while all this crazy stuff happens around us, that is how we find out who is the strongest. When this is all over I will prove that the strongest is me!"
In Response to Demon90340
Who asks if the Little Diamond has already been introduced in this story by name
Yes they have.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to S
Who asks what Furst's goal is with the empire
I couldn't possibly say without giving away spoilers.
Thanks for reading.
In Response m'j doom
Who asks who is class 9
Dai and Sasuke are both class 8 warriors.
Naruto, Hinata, Hannah, Boruto, and Himawari are class 9 warriors.
Thanks for reading.