Marching through a desert was quite possibly the worst thing a soldier could be ordered to do. Especially when they were born in such a pleasant climate like Konoha's. The infernal heat wasn't the only problem. Stepping through the sand while carrying their equipment became more grueling by the second, and the nights were cold enough to freeze a man down to his bones.
Kiba looked over his back. Akamaru probably had it the worst. It looked like his fur coat weighed him down, and he walked everywhere with his tongue hanging out of his mouth as if begging for water. Kiba gave it to him sometimes. Not having enough water was never a concern when they had so many Suiton specialists, but they still couldn't afford to slow down before reaching their first objective.
One burning question went back and forward in his head, though.
Where the hell was Naruto?
Kiba had heard their celebration all night long, but as soon as dawn broke and the rest of them prepared to leave, the entire Uzumaki army was nowhere to be found. His first instinct was to panic and let Asuma know about it, but Itachi told him that all was well and that he'd simply ordered them to fulfill some sort of secret mission.
'A secret mission, eh?' Kiba thought, looking up at the sky while shielding his eyes. Before there was neverending grey, now he just saw an endless expanse of bright blue. It was beautiful, in a way, but he couldn't stare at it for too long. He thought about the first time he had ever met Naruto, and how much things had changed since then. 'You sure are rising up in the world, Naruto.'
Kiba and his men were following in a single-line formation behind Asuma and the rest of the man's army. Itachi and Kurenai had the same structure to their forces, albeit in slightly different regions. A small portion of men was sent as a scouting party to locate enemy fortifications in advance. Kiba figured Asuma's lieutenant, Yoshimitsu, was among them. He hadn't seen the man since they reunited with Asuma and the others on the previous day.
Soon, a red flag rose on the horizon. Kiba, and all of his men, immediately stopped moving. A messenger ran up from the front, faster than any man he had ever seen, and quickly conveyed orders to the commander in front of him before slowing down by Kiba's side.
"They've found the enemy's first base." He told him, not even gasping for air. "Everyone's to form a standard combat unit and wait for further instructions up ahead, you and your men are in the right wing."
Kiba saluted him as the man continued downward, relaying Asuma's orders. "Standard formation!" Kiba yelled behind him, and they began to move in unison. Akamaru's ears perked up, and the hound immediately jumped into form. No matter the circumstances, an Inuzuka hound was always ready for war. Kiba wished he shared in his readiness.
Konoha's standard combat formation basically consisted of armies forming big rectangles, with each line equally divided in ranks of men according to their positions. Kiba, as their commander, was always leading from the front.
They quickly scaled the nearby sand hill, at which point Kiba's eyes caught sight of what the messenger was talking about.
It was truly quite ingenious.
A massive wall of stone graced their eyes, with watchtowers that scrapped against the skyline and countless black dots manning every inch of it. It extended to each side as far as the eye could see. Kiba knew Suna couldn't have built it around their entire border - the village simply didn't have enough manpower to sustain something like that.
That meant they probably left huge gaps on the rougher patches of terrain, where leading an army through would be impossible. "So we have no choice but to scale through the front, eh?" He said, mostly to himself. "The bastards really thought this through. That's gonna be rough alright."
At least they didn't have ranged weapons strong enough to reach them from that distance. Kiba imagined they'd mount camp right there and then, considering the siege would probably last several days.
It was a beautiful thing, seeing all of their armies standing side-by-side on the frontline. Kiba couldn't even fathom how many people were there, but he was sure the Suna garrison up ahead was already dreading the upcoming battle.
He temporarily left his men and quickly marched to go meet Asuma and the other generals. As he had guessed, temporary headquarters were already being built, and the three of them sat around in wooden stools. All three were turned toward the wall in front of them. Kiba looked around after making it there.
Other commanders stood and waited for orders. Hinata was there and gave him a brief nod. Shikamaru stood by her side, and the two quickly saluted each other. Barring any surprises, they'd be serving side-by-side soon.
Standing with crossed arms behind Itachi was the general's younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha. Kiba didn't even look over at him. The two of them had never gotten along well, and he could only imagine his time in the army had made the boy more insufferable. Thankfully, they probably wouldn't be around each other for too long.
And… A pink-haired girl Kiba was vaguely familiar with. Wasn't that Sakura Haruno? The merchant? What the hell was she doing there?
"This is quite the pickle," Asuma said before he could try to contact her. All of the commanders stood at attention, and Sakura held both hands together behind her back. "Who'd have thought they'd have built something like that since we last came by…"
"Sir, if I may?" Shikamaru asked. Asuma gave him the go-ahead with a nod. "Have our scouts verified the surrounding areas for possible openings?"
"They have," Kurenai answered his question, twirling some locks of her hair. "They're as cunning as usual over there. Their flanks look more vulnerable, but there are enough traps over there to wipe all of us out if we're not careful enough. The front is also filled with explosive tags, just waiting for us to cross to be detonated."
"...We outnumber them." Said Itachi. "Just barely, though. Two-to-one if I had to guess. This would be a sure win on even terrain, but in a siege like this…"
"Itachi." Asuma suddenly said. "What you've told me about earlier, is it…?"
Kiba's ears perked up. Could they be talking about Naruto? Itachi nodded. "Yes, all of the preparations are finished."
Asuma stood from his seat and turned to face Kiba and the others. "As I'm sure you're well aware, there are three ways to deal with an enemy like this. First, starving them out. Needless to say, that only works when we have them surrounded. Two, breaking through the walls. A costly, and long-winded method. We'd manage to tear them down with enough Jutsu, but only after at least a week of continuous attacks considering they'd be on us the moment we got close enough to try it. And finally, we have the third, and most dangerous one. Scaling up those walls, maneuvering ourselves behind them, and opening their defenses from the inside."
Kiba could tell everyone there, except for the other generals, were eagerly awaiting Asuma's decision for how they'd deal with the fortress. "What we're going to do…" He said as if savoring their suspense. "Is the fourth method."
Kiba blinked. Asuma turned away from them, and fortifying his voice with chakra, yelled out a command that could be heard not only by all of their troops but everyone in a ten-mile radius. Strangely enough, Kiba thought he saw Kurenai move just before he began his speech.
"ALL MEN, TO YOUR POSITIONS!" He raised an arm and turned toward the commanders, and all of them rushed to the head of their armies. Kiba cursed in his mind as he did. That was possibly one of Asuma's worst habits, keeping the details from his plans secret to everyone but himself until the very last second. Akamaru barked at his heels as they ran.
His men were already clutching their weapons and preparing their equipment when he arrived as their vanguard. And still, throughout all of it, Naruto was nowhere to be seen. He swallowed a heavy lump. "PREPARE…" Asuma continued. Kiba felt an odd sensation again, like the view in front of him had just changed out of nowhere. He guessed it probably had something to do with the unbearable heat.
Kiba already realized what Asuma was going to make them do, although he couldn't believe it. There's no way someone as experienced as the general, someone who had survived through so many battlefields, would commit to such an abrasive maneuver without having a plan behind it.
"CHARGE!"
Ryusa watched the entire thing from one of the watchtowers, chattering away at his nails. Out of all possible outcomes for the start of their battle, he never guessed that'd be one of them. Some of the men around him laughed, already counting on their victory. "They sent all of those scouts for that?" One of the captains by Ryusa's side said. "I always knew Konoha soldiers were morons, but come on!"
Yes, that was the issue. Despite what their propaganda said, Konoha was far from stupid. He recognized the voice that rang out across the desert as Asuma Sarutobi, one of the most renowned generals in the world. While sacrificing copious amounts of men to achieve a small victory wasn't necessarily unthinkable on his part, Ryusa saw several of their commanders leading the charge, identifying them by their banners. People like them weren't usually the first to be sacrificed in a suicide charge.
What was he missing? There was no way they hadn't seen the tags yet. Was Ryusa just being paranoid, not believing they could achieve such an easy victory that early into the war?!
"Hey!" Yura exclaimed, pointing to the left. "Ain't that the Uchiha banner?"
And it was. Which probably meant Itachi Uchiha was in the fray, someone who was known for their strategic thinking. There was no doubt about it now, even as their troops came closer and closer, and as Ryusa's men took out their projectiles and prepared to throw them.
Asuma, no, Konoha itself had something up its sleeve.
"Yura." He ordered, trying to hide his anxiety. "How much time until they come across the first line of tags?"
"Thirty - no, twenty seconds at this rate," Yura reported, looking closely over the battlefield. His friend had some of the best eyesight in the fortress, making him the perfect man for mid-battle updates.
Ryusa hadn't managed to go through with all of his plans due to his superior's interference, but he still had one last trump card on him, the unthinkable option. He hoped to any god that would listen that they wouldn't need to resort to it that day.
The feeling in Ryusa's chest was getting worse, especially as the celebrations in the tower grew. "Hold your weapons!" He ordered. Stunned eyes turned to him. "Prepare the bombs instead!"
"But sir-" One of the deputies said by his side. "Shouldn't we start with suppressive fire first?!"
"Get them ready!"
Ten seconds until the first Konoha soldier stepped on an explosive tag. Sweat covered Ryusa's body as if he was the one about to trigger their traps.
"Ryusa!" Yura suddenly exclaimed, pointing at something in the far distance. "That's the Yuhi sigil, on that banner!"
His mind went through the implications that posed in a matter of seconds. Kurenai Yuhi was one of Konoha's generals, known for her Genjutsu. Genjutsu could be triggered in a myriad of different ways, including… SOUND!
"ALL TROOPS DISPERSE GENJUTSU!" He ordered furiously, putting his hands together in a tiger seal. "KAI!"
Similar shouts spread to his right and left, like a wave of sound crashing upon the fortress as thousands of men dispelled the technique at once. As expected, the Konoha army was suddenly farther away than they seemed at first, and running at a slower pace as well.
Asuma had ordered Kurenai to use his voice to trigger a basic illusionary technique on everyone around them for some reason, now he only had to figure out why. Simply changing their distance couldn't be it…. could it?
Then he saw another disparity. While most of Konoha's army was only a bit behind where the illusion had shown them, the Uchiha army in particular was far too delayed in their charge. 'So they're trying to do something in our left wing, but what?!' Ryusa thought furiously. 'That still won't be enough to bypass the wall… UNLESS?!'
He turned away from the battlefield and ran to the other side of the watchtower, looking inside of their fortifications instead. Yura quickly followed him, though the younger man was disoriented and didn't understand exactly what they were looking for.
The Genjutsu Kurenai and Asuma prepared was just the first layer of distractions prepared by Konoha's army. Even if Ryusa noticed and told the others to dispel it - as he had - that would just further their plans even more. Now every single eye in the fortress was turned toward the advancing army, and only him and Yura bothered to look behind them.
The charge itself was nothing but a distraction.
Right in front of Konoha's left wing, behind the towering walls, the ground burst outward in a massive explosion of sand and wind. Before Ryusa could even give proper orders, showers and showers of Kunai blew out from inside of it, directed at the watchtowers and other sections of the walls.
"Down!" He ordered, grabbing Yura by the arm and throwing them both onto the ground. Some of the people around them followed in his example, but it was too late to notify the others. Half a second later, the explosive tags attached to the weapons detonated, showering them in debris and briefly deafening everyone who had been exposed to the sound.
Guttural yells came out from the hellish hole that had just formed behind them, followed by hundreds of sandals stomping down at once. But the very first person to charge out was what Ryusa focused on. Green eyes stared back at him, together with a wild mane of red hair.
"ALL MEN!" The newcomer shouted, crouching down as if preparing to leap straight at them.
"CHARGE!"
Naruto rushed head-first into the fray of battle, outrunning all of his allies. He still couldn't quite believe Itachi's plan had actually worked. The general had approached them in the previous night, hours before the sun dawned, and asked him if he had any men who were skilled enough at Dojutsu techniques to participate in a secret, and extremely important, mission. Naruto quickly introduced him to Itsuki and Izuno.
Every single man under his command then proceeded to sprint through Amegakure's border, deep into Suna territory, where they first laid their eyes on the enemy from afar.
After that it was a simple manner of using the Moguragakure technique to go underground, where they spent hours stealing every one of Suna's explosive tags. It was exhausting, both mentally and physically, as any slip from their Doton specialists would mean the death of every single man and woman present.
Asuma and the others arrived just in time. And as per Itachi's instructions, Naruto and his men made their way beyond Suna's walls. 'Not a single enemy will have their eyes turned toward you,' Itachi had assured him. 'So take use of it, and do as much damage as you can.'
Which brought them back to the present. The explosions were deafening from that distance, but Naruto knew they had just managed to kill enough Suna soldiers to make a difference - not to mention damaging the structural integrity of the walls themselves.
Channeling power into his legs, Naruto leaped far beyond what any normal human could, landing in the dead middle of the wall's garrison while they were still stunned from the sudden attack.
Eyes, weapons, fists, all turned toward him. They were all too late. By the time they had recomposed themselves, Naruto had already gone through the necessary seals for his first attack. "Futon: Tatsumaki no Jutsu!"
Inspired by an attack he had seen Hinata use, a large orb of wind surrounded Naruto's body before immediately expanding outward, enveloping several dozen soldiers in its radius. To them it must have been like being sucked into a tornado. His enemies' bodies were torn apart by the pressure, together with their armor, weapons, and anything else they were holding at the time.
Another big hole was formed under his feet, further damaging their fortifications.
Naruto abruptly turned to his left and charged at the confused group of enemies waiting for him there. He hadn't even waited until his first Jutsu fully dissipated before preparing another one. "Suiton: Kudakeru Nami!"
Water formed at his ankles before shooting out at the men, forming a small wave that occupied the entire width on that part of the wall. It rose up to four feet into the air before crashing down on them, crushing and tearing apart at some while pushing others off of the wall, where they fell to their death.
His instincts warned Naruto of immediate danger to his back. He pivoted around, wrapping his armpit around a spear's shaft before crushing it with his arm. His attacker had a whole second to look surprised before Naruto grabbed him by the collar and - with a mighty push - threw him at the men behind them. The crash was enough to send them stumbling away from him, furhter increasing their disorientation.
When was the last time his mind had been that clear during battle? When did Naruto know exactly what he had to do and when to do it?!
"Mizu!" He yelled to his lieutenant, who was scaling her way up the wall while fighting off enemy combatants left and right. "Make space for the men to come up here! Go for the watchtowers as soon as you can!"
He deflected a flurry of enemy attacks from both sides, skillfully dodging and parrying every weapon thrown his way. "Bando!" The other man was in a similar position, throwing all sorts of projectiles in the air while others defended him. "Cover their advance from down there! I don't want a single casualty on our side today, you hear me?!"
Naruto used the water under his feet to make a temporary barrier that protected his back while he focused on the soldiers in front of him. From the moment he saw their eyes, he knew the fight was his. He kicked a Kunai from the ground, grabbed it with his right hand, and charged straight at them.
"Itsuno, Itsuki!" He yelled at the Jutsu squad leaders, who were still attacking specific parts of Suna's fortress and helping their soldiers leave the hole in the ground. "I want you two to make a big hole right in the middle of this thing so that our boys outside can get in, as soon as you can!"
Four cries answered to him as one. "YES, SIR!"
Now, Naruto was far from invulnerable. The men he was fighting against were still trained in their own right, and could do some serious damage of their own, especially when they used their overwhelming numbers against him.
But they were still shocked from their sudden appearance, and Naruto and his men did everything they could to hammer that shock in. Their attacks were violent and quick, disorienting the already confused enemy even more.
And Naruto didn't underestimate them. As a Jinchuuriki, he had more than enough power to throw around, and no need to save up on it. The very brief rest he had after his fight with Bokuden was enough to allow him to back his every blow with all of his power.
"Make way!" He heard from his right. Naruto turned to see an absolute mountain of a man rushing past his allies, with an iron mace having its weight held by his shoulders. "You think you can just waltz in here, BOY?!" He asked, throwing his weapon's weight back. "DO YOU THINK YOU CAN WALK PAST RAIDO THE-!"
Whatever Raido was going to say, he wasn't quick enough about it. Naruto cut the distance between them halfway through his speech and kicked the man's front knee, feeling muscle and leather break underneath his weight.
Then he punched Raido's stomach with the back of his right hand, and raised that arm's elbow up into his enemies' nose.
Finally, he grabbed the back of Raido's head with both hands when his large body keeled over and jumped into the air, hitting the middle of his nose for a second time with a flying knee. He fell back, crushing some unfortunate souls who couldn't get away quickly enough.
As he stood there, over the man's defeated body, Naruto's unspoken answer to Raido's question was made clear to every single spectator of their fight.
'Yeah, I do.'
Not that Naruto allowed himself to linger on that victory, though. His main objective was getting to the watchtowers and destroying the opposition there before their army arrived.
Suddenly, a jet of water came from the wall's edge, cutting three men apart in the blink of an eye. Mizu quickly jumped up from there, landing right by Naruto's side.
Her entrance was followed by the hundreds of men flying Naruto's banner as they quickly met Suna's soldiers and overwhelmed them in combat. Mizu and Naruto shared a quick look before turning toward the nearest tower and sprinting to it.
Ryusa's body shook all over, as if assailed by the harshest of winter nights. It was a sensation he hadn't felt in a long time. Fear. Sheer unbridled fear that was only further exacerbated by his surprise and shock. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed since the young commander made his entrance, but the brief moment of hesitation they created was enough to throw all of his plans into disarray.
"Holy shit…" Yura said, hanging off of the wall's side as he watched the massacre unfold. "They're not stopping…"
"Yura, the bombs!" Ryusa suddenly demanded. "Are they ready?!"
"Sir, if we fire that on the walls, our men-!"
"Our men are being torn apart! Do it, now!"
Getting over his hesitation, Yura and the other men in the tower fired off five projectiles that were headed straight toward the newcomers' position. They had fabricated hundreds of them, which had been spread among their troops, but many of them had already been engaged before they could fire them, and Ryusa's communication lines with the rest of their men had been cut-off by the sudden attack.
On the surface, they looked exactly like smoke bombs, but they held one of Suna's fiercest weapons inside of them. An extremely toxic and near invisible gas that would easily overwhelm anyone who came into contact with them, no matter how strong they were. Ryusa had originally planned to hold it until the battle was at its direst, but if they didn't deal with their intruders right there and then, their forces would collapse from the inside.
Their commander, the redhead, seemed to catch sight of them immediately. Ryusa's heart nearly stopped. If the bombs managed to explode, the man would be dead for sure, but if he managed to throw them back somehow…
The enemy spotted the projectiles right away, but thankfully didn't seem to recognize or know about its contents. Rather than swatting the bombs away while their content was still volatile, the boy simply ran ahead at them, intent on tanking through the damage. Ryusa took comfort in knowing that they would finally gain an edge over their enemy in the first day, despite it coming with the grim task of killing a child in the process.
Just as the thought entered his head, a massive torrent of fire shaped like a phoenix soared through the air and consumed all five of his bombs in a matter of seconds.
"What?!" Ryusa exclaimed, looking at his side to see a black-haired youth floating in the air. His clothes denounced him as a member of the Uchiha clan, whose eyes snapped over to Ryusa and his men.
Had he known about the secret behind the bombs - that their toxin would be destroyed under immense heat - or had he simply acted on instinct?!
No, there was something more important than that!
The youth's entrance had been so explosive and destructive that Ryusa and the others completely neglected to focus on Asuma's charging army. Similar events happened all over the battlefield.
A white Inuzuka hound leaped over the wall and tore men apart, together with his owner, who moved so fast his visage was blurred from sight.
Scores of men were thrown high in the air as a small contingent of the Hyuga clan, led by a nimble woman, assailed and quickly destroyed the watchtower to their left.
Another torrent of flame crashed against the wall, so hot it melted the stone and made a hole for men to run through. That'd be the other Uchiha, whose overwhelming power had managed to sneak by them up to that point.
All over the wall, shadows enveloped themselves around Ryusa's men, forcing them to kill each other in quick and brutal ways. Similarly, many of them chose to run off of the wall altogether, hitting the ground below head-first, undoubtedly affected by a Genjutsu.
And, of course, Asuma Sarutobi himself made his entrance in the most heavily populated area of their fortress. No matter how many weapons, men, or Jutsu they sent his way, he carried on, completely unaffected.
It was over, he realized. From the very moment their gamble worked, Ryusa - no, Suna, had lost the battle. "Yura." He said, grabbing the other man by the arm. "Gather your men, we're leaving."
Naruto and Mizu trampled over the men who decided to stand in their way. The woman employed a strange Jutsu Naruto had never seen before. She always had a stream of water by her side, floating in mid-air, that she threw and quickly brought back to her side, like a whip.
Their goal was the central watchtower that had just released several smoke bombs at them.
Thankfully, the strange youth by their side had managed to intercept them before moving on to deal with opponents of his own.
Naruto made a mental note to thank him for it later.
The men they were dealing with grew progressively tougher as they advanced toward the tower, until Naruto actually had to spend a few seconds to kill each individual. It seemed like their commander had decided to keep some sort of honor guard as close to himself as possible.
"Mizu, can you handle these guys on your own?" He asked the woman. "Yes, sir!" She replied. Naruto nodded and used one of their bodies as a jumping platform to leap past the rest of them and straight into the tower itself.
What he found was an empty room. Bafflingly, it seemed like the enemy's commander had managed to escape in the brief time Naruto was held back by his men. He looked around, quickly identified a potential exit, and followed through it.
Now Naruto was by himself inside of the fortress' interior tunnels. Sometimes he found men running toward or away from him, and he quickly cut them down before they had the time to react.
Finally, he found a closed metal door and kicked it off its hinges.
What he saw made him stop dead in his tracks.
The room was covered, quite literally, from top to bottom in explosive tags. Enough to blow the entire building away. At the other end of it, he saw the entrance of another tunnel, one which led deeper into Suna, being closed. Several of the tags had already been lit, and it was only a matter of time before the building itself, Naruto, and all of his comrades were blown to hell.
Thinking quickly, he ran into the middle of it, ignoring the fleeing men, and poured out as much of his chakra as he could, until the entire room was filled in it. His hands blurred into movement.
"KAWARIMI NO JUTSU!"
Smoke exploded around him. When it cleared, Naruto - and the tags - were over a hundred feet into the air, high above the battlefield as a whole. Then, as he was falling down to earth, he repeated the technique - appearing a few feet on top of the watchtower. He fell through the ceiling as the tags went off.
Naruto's position, with his back on the floor, staring through the collapsed ceiling, gave him the best view possible for the explosion. Fire and noise filled the heavens, turning blue into red and black. The shockwave was so strong Naruto feared he'd be punched through the floor, and the sheer smoke that resulted from it clouded his vision, as well as every other fighter's.
While he laid there, ears ringing, an odd sound replaced the thundering in the sky. Naruto rolled to his feet and stumbled toward the tower's edge, where he saw thousands of weapons being dropped to the ground at the same time.
No one seemed to have understood what had just happened. Naruto was the first to put things together. He raised his fist high into the air and shouted with all of the air in his lungs.
"VICTORY!"
Even after the battle was finished and scores of prisoners were being handled, it was still hard to navigate the fortress properly through the thick smoke that had been released by the detonation. Hinata had sat with her troops in one of the liberated regions for a good while, flexing her new metal fingers.
They had served her well, not hampering her combat ability in the least, but it would still take some time for her to get used to it.
She still hadn't accepted what just happened. A fortress that was supposed to take days, at the very least, to take over was defeated in mere minutes. And all because of the general's trickery - and Naruto's versatility.
They had both been in the army for the same time, and Hinata had definitely made some progress when it came to her strength, but it was hard to not feel as if she had been overrun by him.
Not that she blamed him, of course, Hinata knew Naruto too well for anything like that. But she was still thoroughly annoyed. 'I'll have to train twice as hard when we get back home.' She resolved. 'No way in hell am I going to sit back while those two rise in the ranks…'
"Commander?" One of her men asked, standing from his seat as Hinata began to move away from them. "At ease." She told him, shaking her head with a smile. "I'm just going to go see a friend."
It was a bit surreal, walking through enemy territory without having to look over her shoulder. There was some fighting happening around, of course, but the enemy resistance consisted of less than a hundred men total.
Finally, she found the Uzumaki camp. They had taken residence on the top section of the wall, next to the central watchtower. Some of the men were sitting on the steps leading up to it, while others did some standard patrol routes.
Not a single one of them seemed too injured, although she noticed several of them were more than a little sleep deprived.
Most that saw her immediately stood and saluted. Hinata saluted them back, asking where Naruto was and quickly moving past them.
She was stopped at the entrance of the watchtower, where she saw a familiar and unexpected face. "Kiba?"
"Oh, Hinata." The Inuzuka said, turning back to her with crossed arms. "You were looking for Naruto too, huh?"
But he wasn't the only one there. Shikamaru was also tapping his feet on the floor. All three of them were stopped by a woman with blue hair sitting in front of the tower's door. "Commander Hyuuga." She said, saluting her.
She impatiently returned the salute. "Can't we see Naruto?"
"He's sleeping." Kiba said with a shrug. "Apparently the generals have been working him like a dog, so they let him chill out for a couple of hours before we move on."
"I'm sorry, commander, but he gave me strict orders." Mizu said, sounding genuinely apologetic. "He told me I wasn't supposed to wake him up unless it was urgent business."
"I understand." Hinata sighed, leaning against some of the still intact wall. "How are you two going, then?"
"Better than expected." Shikamaru said. "Thanks to him, my troops didn't even get to see any action, we sorted things out pretty cleanly."
"How's Choji doing?" Hinata asked frankly. Shikamaru shook his head. "Doctors said he'll fully recover, thank the gods. His dad gave him one hell of a lecture over the whole thing. I think it shook Ino a bit too, she's still.. Sorry, but we should go back to the whole you know, war thing."
Sensing the topic was a bit off limits with the boy, Hinata conceded and turned to Kiba.
"Wish Asuma would have told us." Kiba grumbled. "Getting put under a Genjutsu like that… If Naruto hadn't gotten rid of those tags we'd all be dead meat."
"Just goes to show how much he trusted him." Hinata said, shrugging. "He was leading the charge too, wasn't he?"
"Though I don't think those would have stopped him." Shikamaru said, rubbing his chin. "Chances are he'd walk straight through the flames." He let out a long, drawn out sigh. "I seriously wish they'd just let guys like him and Naruto handle this whole war by themselves, it's not like we're actually needed anyway."
"Y'know Shika," Kiba interjected. "Most people would be happy the outrageously strong guys are on our side."
"Not just ours." Hinata corrected. "Suna still has some cards to play."
"Gods." Shikamaru leaned over some destroyed pieces of stone, letting them carry all of his weight. "I wish we could just end this whole thing now… Then I could go look at the clouds back home instead of dealing with this bullshit."
"Yeah, well," Kiba said, looking up while shielding his eyes from the sun. "I don't think there's any clouds to look at around here, Shika."
"Hey, Asuma." Kurenai said as she walked in from behind him. They were overseeing some of the operations in the fortress while looking at a large, hand-drawn map of Suna. "You've noticed it too, right?"
"Yep." Asuma said, not even turning back to look at her. "This place is impossible to defend. As soon as they launch a counter-attack, we're done."
Those Suna engineers had been resourceful, he had to give them that. Since there was no one that'd attack them from behind, their newly conquered territory had no way to defend itself in that direction. It'd be the same thing as fighting on flat ground.
"Itachi?"
"Scouting the terrain up ahead." Asuma said, scratching his bearded chin. "I think we're going to come to the same conclusion when he gets back, though."
Kurenai raised an eyebrow. "Why's that?"
He motioned for her to step closer. Although the map didn't tell them everything about the terrain, it was pretty up-to-date, recent fortifications notwithstanding. "We're here," He pointed at the border between Suna and Amegakure. "And Suna itself, obviously, is here." A red star to their south.
"Of course, Iwa could attack us from the north, but I figure they would have already moved by now if that was the case. Which means Suna's counter-attack will either come from the north-east, or the south. Now, the closest city to the former is about a hundred miles away, while the latter…"
"Is only twenty five." Kurenai surmised, looking over his shoulder. She whistled. "I remember that place from the last time we tried to take them on. Probably only got worse over time too."
"Yep," Asuma took out a pack of cigarettes from his vest. He was about to light it when Kurenai slapped it out of his hand. He shook his head and sighed. "The kids really have their plate filled this time."
"Hey, isn't that where…" Kurenai began to ask. Asuma nodded solemnly, before turning toward where Naruto's quarters were.
"Yeah, Suna's very own wild tiger comes from there. We're lucky Guy isn't here - that student of his could fuck the entire thing up to fight him. Let's just hope Naruto can keep his cool… and match him."
Konan destroyed the building's entrance with her papers, not even bothering to try and undo the seal. Without looking back, she rushed into the room to find Nagato seated in front of a giant Gendo Tensei statue, the usual rods and spikes running through his body and into its magnificent frame. "Nagato!" She yelled, kneeling by his side. "Are you okay?!"
His ringed eyes focused back on her after hearing the woman's voice. "Oh… it's you…" He said, before turning away from her. "Forgive me Konan, I was… thinking."
"You were supposed to come back days ago!" She said, trying to look over his body for any signs of damage.
"Yahiko was destroyed." He said abruptly. "Together with the others. "
"How…" Her eyes widened and Konan's entire body trembled. "How could she be so powerful?"
"We've underestimated her." Nagato admitted, leaning against his seat. "Even Hanzo couldn't handle our combined might, but her…" He shook his head. "The stories were true, Konan. We'll need to rebuild." He raised one of his pierced hands to the ceiling. "From the very start."
"The Akatsuki… Madara, they musn't know." She said fervently. Nagato nodded. "I agree. Thankfully, we won't be moving in full any time soon. I should have enough time to prepare… Jinchuuriki's body, bring it to me." He ordered. "We'll begin immediately. And Konan?"
She looked into his eyes. Those same familiar, and immensely powerful eyes. God's eyes. "We'll need to warn the others. Naruto Uzumaki isn't to be approached for the time being, even if an opportunity presents itself."
"Are you saying she's protecting him?!"
"Protecting…I wonder."
Something was wrong. Nagato's tone hadn't been that contemplative, that thoughtful, in years. It had been a long time since they ever had to strategize about handling an enemy, ever since his powers had awakened.
"No, I think she's acting like a beast." He decided. "Fighting others off of her meal. I only hope she doesn't kill him before the time comes for our plan to be completed. Please, bring me the Jinchuuriki's body. And leave me here to rest."
Konan wanted to say something to him, to comfort him, but couldn't find the words within herself. Solemnly, she nodded, stood, and left to follow through with his orders. Nagato, now sitting on his own, closed his eyes.
"I wonder… how long has it been… since I've felt this tired?"
Ryusa walked toward Altia's front gates with half a dozen men. They had been running toward the city for hours already, taking no stops on the way. Those who were too injured or tired were simply forced to be left behind, with Ryusa promising they'd come back for them later.
He still couldn't believe what had happened. When the men exited their last-resort emergency tunnel, detonating the tags behind them, they all expected to see Konoha's army in its entirety being destroyed together with the walls they were supposed to protect.
But they were still utterly intact. All of his well-crafted preparations were washed away in a matter of minutes, all because of a single miscalculation regarding what their enemy was capable of. Was war truly that merciless?
The city guards, recognizing that they were Suna soldiers and had urgent business with their city, allowed them to pass without any significant examination. Ryusa demanded they take him to those in charge of their defenses, and that they send a messenger to Suna proper, letting them know about the battle.
They were given water and food, and most of Ryusa's soldiers were allowed to rest. Meanwhile, he and Yura hurried to meet the commander in charge.
Altia was somewhat of a crucial vanguard for Suna. Geographically-speaking, it was harder to capture than the rest of the country, since their walls stood high, and the terrain around them was almost entirely plain, without any significant dunes or valleys. It was also one of the country's primary trade centers.
Thundering footsteps approached the room they had been coached into. A tall man squeezed through the door, having to bend his body to fit through.
Anyone could tell at a first glance that this was a man who was used to combat. Wisened but ferocious eyes stared at them from behind a pushed-back mane of light grey hair. His clothes were far from what one would expect from an officer, simple tarps that were adorned for purely utilitarian reasons. "Report." He said, crossing his arms and sitting in front of Yura and Ryusa.
And report they did. Ryusa told him everything he had gathered from the fight, all of the notable fighters on Konoha's side, the generals they had employed, and especially the young man who had slipped past their defenses.
"Mhm." Shira, the commander, said after he was done. "Interesting."
He turned to one of the guards in the room. "Tell the men to prepare for a siege. Prepare the shelters for the civilians, and put a curfew in order."
"Sir, shouldn't we ask Suna for reinforcements?" Ryusa said. "Their army number in the thousands, and-"
"If Suna had reinforcements to give, they'd already be here, commander." Shira said, sneering at him before standing from his seat. "Your men are welcome to find refuge here until the battle is over, but I promise you this - as soon as victory is ours, you will be handed over to the courts. They will decide your fate."
And with that, the goliath left the room. Soon, Ryusa and Yura were left alone. He shook his head profoundly. "It's hopeless." He said, going limp in his chair. Yura turned to him with concerned eyes. "Sir?"
"They really believe they can take out Konoha by themselves, and the high command is too worried about saving their own asses. Shira's right. That's why they didn't send an entire army to protect us here - they're all holed up in the village, just waiting until they come knocking on their doors." He shook his head. "Fools. All of them are fools. We won't survive this war, Yura. Suna's already dead."
"You can't talk like that, commander." Yura said, trying to cheer him up. "No one knows what will happen in…"
He paused. Ryusa had clenched his fists so tightly his nails drew blood, and tears were running down his eyes. "I haven't given up." He promised them both. "I haven't given up yet. As long as I'm alive… As long as I'm alive I'll fight."
Even though he knew they were fighting for a lost cause…
Memories danced in front of his eyes, showing the moment Ryusa had first seen the magnificent view of Suna in all of its glory.
When his dream died, only then would he give up. Ryusa abruptly stood from his seat. "We have a few hours before they arrive, do your best to rest, Yura." He ordered, not looking at his friend while he wiped tears away from his eyes. "Once you're done, we're setting off. If these people won't help us, then we'll find someone who will."
"Yes, sir!"
After getting some precious few hours of sleep while Asuma and the others rationed out the soldiers who'd be left behind to garrison their conquered territory, Naruto and his army were quickly ordered to move toward their next target.
Kiba and Hinata were both with him as they leaped from dune to dune. Now that they had a clear goal in mind, their forces moved at ludicrous speeds. As usual, the commanders were in the front, together with officers of higher importance and the generals themselves, while their infantry followed from behind.
"So," Naruto started. "You guys saw Shikamaru recently, right?"
"Yeah, he's the same as always," Kiba said as their feet dug into the sand before jumping several feet away in one go. Naruto found it wasn't that difficult to accompany them. "Grumpy and lazy. I heard he was trying to fish some information out of the generals about our next target, but they didn't say anything."
"It's not normal for armies to be this secretive in the middle of an invasion like this." Hinata said, frowning. "You think they're trying to fish out a rat?"
"A rat?" Naruto asked, genuinely surprised. "Who would rat us out here? Wait, no I already know your answer." He grinned. "You're going to point fingers at the merchant, aren't you? Haruno, was it?"
"Haruno? I think I saw her earlier." Kiba said before Hinata could speak up. "Pink hair, white vest, holier-than-thou attitude?"
"That's the one." Hinata grumbled. "And I'm not saying that because I dislike her," She quickly amended, glaring at Naruto. "But it'd make more sense for a merchant to turn rather than an actual soldier."
"You're already assuming there's an informant here." Kiba pointed out. "There's nothing to prove that. Maybe the generals didn't say anything because they just don't have a plan ready yet. You know how…. on the fly Asuma can get."
"Asuma maybe," Naruto said, shaking his head while in mid-air. "But Itachi? I'm pretty sure that guy already planned this entire thing out before we even left the village."
"What makes you say that?" Kiba asked with palpable interest. Naruto shrugged. "I don't know, the way he speaks I guess. Like he already knows everything that's gonna happen before it does. You really need to talk to him to get what I'm saying here."
"You don't actually believe those Sharingan rumors, do you?" Hinata asked. Naruto blinked at her.
"Hinata, I don't even know what rumors I'm supposed to not believe in here."
"All sorts of stuff," Kiba said, dropping his voice so that only they could hear him. "You already know about the basics of the Sharingan, right?"
"I heard," Naruto said, accentuating the word. "That they can read your movements really well, and that they can copy anything they see."
"Yeah, that's the basics of it." Kiba nodded. "But there's more. Some people say the Sharingan has different forms, you see? And that the higher it gets, the more stuff they can pull. Course, no one can actually prove any of that besides a member of the Uchiha clan. And Hinata here has more than enough reason to take sides against them."
"Do not!" She protested. "Just think about it logically. Obviously they'd want to hype up whatever abilities they have. That's what makes their clan valuable to the village! I bet they started those rumors themselves."
"But anyway," Kiba said, glancing at Naruto. "They say they can do stuff like see the future, days before it happens. Some even said that they can become immortal, or slip through dimensions. Some even say…"
"That they can create flames that burn forever and a giant spirit that protects them in battle." A very unamused voice said from behind the tree of them. Naruto immediately turned to see the boy who had helped him out earlier in the siege with his phoenix of fire. He also saw a brief moment of recognition pass in Kiba and Hinata's eyes. "Inuzuka, Hyuga." He said, eyes glancing between the two of them.
"Sasuke." They both greeted back. If the temperature in the desert's night could drop any further, Naruto swore it just did. "What are you doing here?" Kiba asked, cutting straight to the chase. Sasuke shrugged. "Brother asked me to bring him," He stared at Naruto. "To the front. They want to speak to him."
"I'll be there in a second." Naruto said diplomatically. Sasuke stared at him without saying anything for a couple of seconds before jumping ahead of them and disappearing into the horizon. "Sympathetic guy." He said, causing the other two to chuckle. "You three seem to have some bad history, huh?"
"Nothing like that." Kiba said, shaking his head. "Sasuke's an ally at the end of the day. But he's also the peak of his clan's bullshit."
"If you had to grow up around him, you'd understand." Hinata promised, rolling her eyes. "Especially when everyone you know expects you to shoot over him."
"Or under." Kiba said with a rare tone of bitterness in his voice. "But we shouldn't keep you from the big dogs, eh?"
Naruto silently took their words before nodding. "Yeah, well, I'll be back soon. Let Mizu or Bando know if they come by please."
And with that, he was off to be alone with his own thoughts while rushing to catch up to the generals.
Hinata and Kiba clearly already had their own opinions about Sasuke, but he had just met him for the first time, so his mind wasn't quite so made.
He knew one thing about him, though. The boy was strong. Not that he'd say it in front of them, but probably quite a bit stronger than Hinata and Kiba.
In the past, that'd probably make him want to fight him, to prove himself against his prowess. In the present, though, it just made Naruto glad to know he could rely on someone like that.
Finally, three figures came into view. Naruto stopped on his tracks right behind them, climbing another dune to stand by their side. "You're here." Asuma said, turning to him. "Did you have a good rest?"
"Couldn't complain." He replied honestly. "So, why did we…"
His words cut off as the view cleared in front of him. Just like before, high walls covered their objective, only this time they were shaped like a big square, covering a multitude of lights and color inside of it.
There was a sizable pit surrounding the city, with a closed-off drawbridge blocking the way to closed stone gates. Soldiers could be seen from where they stood, standing on top of the walls.
"Oh."
"Yeah, it's quite a sight, isn't it? Pretty different from how it is back home." Asuma said with crossed arms.
"Suna's cities are more densely concentrated on the edge of their borders." Kurenai explained. "They've been making fortifications for a good while now, since it'd be harder to intercept an army like ours to them."
"There's so many houses…." Naruto said, leaning in to get a closer view. "Shit, how many people live there?"
"Enough for it to work." Itachi said, turning to Naruto and the others. Asuma nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right on the money again. Assuming this goes as planned."
"You guys mind cluing me in?"
"Just a little plan to make this whole thing easier." Asuma assured him. "Don't worry, this time we'll only be able to put it in effect after taking them over."
Naruto sighed. "Okay, I need to ask, are you guys not telling us anything because you're worried about a spy or something?"
The three generals stared at him. Naruto was worried he had broken a taboo or something until Kurenai turned to Asuma. "Wow, I wasn't expecting that."
"Told you he's got good insight for his age." Asuma said before answering his question. "It's pretty much a given in a village like ours that there'll be spies, yeah. Konoha has a really strong merit-based system, which means we accept anyone who wants to join, including people from other villages and countries."
"Which makes it easy for them to send families disguised as refugees to join us just to stab our back a couple of years later." Itachi continued his explanation.
"But… why would we accept them in the first place then?"
"Good question. The Hokage always says it's about accepting anyone who comes to us asking for help, but the truth is we just need the manpower. When you factor bloodline techniques onto it, the decision becomes even easier. To side-step the risks, though, we just tell the troops what they need to know." Asuma grinned. "Hope you don't mind, of course."
"No, I…I guess it makes sense. What do you guys need me for here then?"
"As you see, repeating our trick from yesterday would be hard." Asuma pointed at the pits surrounding the city. "That, and the enemy's probably expecting it already."
"Yeah, looks like climbing over those would be pretty tough…" Naruto said, squinching his eyes.
"With an army, anyway." Itachi said, arms still crossed. "But there's a lot we can do to turn the tides in our favor."
"Consider yourself a 'super scout.'" Asuma said, tapping Naruto on the back. "Your mission objectives are to…"
His head was almost spinning by the time the general was finished. Itachi then added onto it.
"You're not going to be doing this alone, of course, though the less agents involved the better. Sasuke here," Naruto was surprised to see his fellow soldier step out from the night by Itachi's side. How long had he been there? "Will be your support. It goes without saying that you two have until dawn to finish it."
Both of them saluted the generals. After a few more instructions, the two were gone, sliding across the desert and heading toward the city. Sasuke, Naruto noticed, instinctively took point ahead of him.
Both of them used their chakra to halt their sliding as they approached, ducking under the darkness to avoid the patrolmen's notice.
They used their chakra to halt their sliding as they approached, ducking under the darkness to avoid the patrolmen's notice. Finally, they attached their feet to the ground - which was almost as hard as walking on water, if not more - and slowly climbed down the pit that surrounded the city.
It wasn't that deep, but there were spike traps underneath it for any unfortunate souls that fell in. Naruto and Sasuke both leaped across it and attached themselves to the city walls. Now it was only a matter of climbing back up.
No alarms, no shouting from the guards… as far as they could tell, the initial part of their infiltration had gone by perfectly. Sasuke went on a bit ahead of him, taking a good look around the walls to make sure no one was onto them. Before Naruto could climb up to his level, the boy gestured for him to stay behind with a hand and ducked his own head down.
Not long after, Naruto heard four sets of footsteps slowly walking past them.
"...But yeah, that dude's in deep shit when they get him back home, that's for sure."
"I'm a bit lost here," Someone else said. "You're talking about the dude who came back from the border, right? Ryusa?"
"Damn you're fucking slow."
"I was on duty when that shit went down!"
"Yeah, that's who we're talking about." The first man said diplomatically as they all paused right above Naruto and Sasuke. "Him and his assistant or whatever, they both disappeared a couple of hours ago. No one knows where they went or what they're doing, but personally? I think he was a rat from the get-go. We can't even trust his reports about the invasion anymore because of it. Goddamn mess."
"I'm glad I'm not the moron who let that dude slip past me, that's for sure." One of them said, moving closer toward the edge of the wall. Both boys knew he was about to look down and have a good view of them, and Naruto saw Sasuke immediately reach for a Kunai.
He grabbed the boy's leg with one hand and made a seal with the other, sticking himself to the wall with both feet in an awkward crouching position. Silently he cast a Henge over them, and when the man did look down, he saw nothing but more empty desert and his familiar stone wall.
"This sector's clear. If they're even going to be coming after us in the first place." He shrugged and turned back to his friends. "Bet the commander's gonna be bummed to hear about that."
Naruto would have let out a breath of relief if that didn't risk getting them discovered. He quietly and slowly let go of Sasuke's leg, and both of them waited until the noise was completely gone. Sasuke then dispelled the Henge and moved up to see if anyone was around, gesturing for Naruto to follow.
Both of them supported their legs on the wall's edge, and with a mighty push, leaped over it and into the city proper. Naruto quickly spun his body around in mid-air and found his footing on the inner city, halting his advance. Sasuke did the same. They both stood in position and waited to see if any alarms were being raised, relaxing when they weren't.
"Thank you." Sasuke whispered. Naruto turned to him, not understanding what the boy meant until things clicked. "Ah, yeah, you're welcome."
That brief moment of camaraderie behind them, both boys began to move toward their objective. Although the city was smaller than Konoha, it was truly massive. For a second Naruto found himself regretting visiting it under those circumstances. He was sure that in the daylight, as a tourist, it'd be a beautiful sight.
Naruto felt a bit embarrassed. His movements when traversing the city were serviceable, to say the least. He managed to jump over any hurdles in their path without making so much as a single sound. But Sasuke's movements had a more cat-like, elegant nature to them. Naruto didn't doubt he could walk right behind a seasoned guard without them even noticing until it was too late.
Finally, they found one of their objectives. On the north-eastern corner of the city there was a big block of a building, with no houses built around a great distance of it. Naruto also saw more guards than before circling it. Sasuke turned to him, nodded, and they both began to make their way toward it.
Naruto thought they'd have to kill some of the guards to make their way in, but Sasuke guided him toward the building's rooftop where there were no nearby patrols. Both of them knelt together on its center and took out their Kunai, slowly carving a hole in through the wood. Sweat dropped from his forehead as they did so.
If Kiba was there he'd try to start some sort of conversation, but Sasuke seemed much too focused on the mission at hand, so Naruto just tried to bear with the awkwardness of it all until they were done. Both of them let go of their knives and lifted the wooden circle they made, revealing the warehouse's insides.
Food rations stretched out as far as the eye could see. Most of it were under labeled sealing scrolls, while the rest was out in the open. There must have been enough there to feed the city for months in case they were sieged. Sasuke handed him some explosive tags. "I'll wait here." He whispered. "I'll whistle if anyone comes close."
Naruto nodded and went ahead with the morbid task. He knew making a distinction between murdering someone with his own hands and starving them out was hypocritical and naive at best - he'd be ending their lives either way. But the civilians in the city would suffer too. 'We'll just have to end this entire thing before they notice it.' He thought to himself, gluing the tag under another shelf, away from sight. 'But… where are they going to go after this?'
Deciding that wasn't the time for a moral crisis, Naruto finished his job and made his way back to Sasuke, who seemed surprised at the speed in which he accomplished his objectives. "Did you put all of them there?" The boy whispered. Naruto nodded. "Even if they go in right now, no one will see them."
Apparently satisfied, the Uchiha nodded and they proceeded to close the circle, blocking the moonlight from entering the building. "Three more to go." Naruto said, and they both set out accordingly.
It took them about an hour to finally make it to the very last warehouse. They didn't actually come into contact with any enemy soldiers, but the stress that came with trying to go undiscovered in enemy territory significantly slowed them down. Naruto was starting to get the impression that, despite his skill at it, this was Sasuke's first infiltration mission as well.
Neither of them spoke too much during the entire thing either, but Naruto managed to garner some details about his fellow soldier. He was a tenuous mix of consummate professionalism and reckless abandon mixed into one. Sometimes he'd be about to eliminate a guard before Naruto showed him a way to sneak past without being discovered, and the same went the other way around.
'He's like me.' Naruto realized. 'From before… but who does he need to prove himself to, though? Everyone already knows he's strong…'
"I'll go this time." Sasuke whispered, snapping Naruto out of his thoughts just as they finished drilling the final hole. "Wait for me here."
He leaped inside before Naruto could say anything. He tried to look down on him, but the boy had long since slipped away from the moonlight covered area. He sat back down and looked at the rooftops around them. Something was odd.
Despite the high security the city should be in, they hadn't seen a single guard actively guarding the warehouses yet. All of them just waited and talked outside, like it was just another day.
Could it have something to do with what those guards said earlier, back during their initial infiltration? The city's leader didn't know whether or not Konoha was actually invading them?
No, that couldn't be it. They should have been at high alert regardless.
'You're overthinking things.' Naruto thought to himself. 'It's not like they let us in. You two are just good at what you do, that's all. What's taking Sasuke so long?'
As if on cue, Naruto heard a commotion from below, like one of the shelves had been thrown over. He cringed at the sound, already hearing some shouts of alarm coming from around them.
Then three parts of the district exploded into flames at once. Even standing as far away as they were, Naruto felt his knees buckle as the warehouse's foundation was shaken. What the hell was going on?! Sasuke wasn't supposed to detonate those tags until they were back in camp!
Then the boy himself jumped out at Naruto, upper-body covered in blood. He formed a tiger seal and detonated the tag right underneath them. Not waiting to be incinerated, Naruto followed his lead as they jumped away from the soon-to-be-destroyed building.
"What the hell happened?!" Naruto shouted as they ran alongside an empty street, the pretense of not being detected being dropped.
"It was a trap!" Sasuke shouted back, looking over his shoulder. "They knew we were - DODGE!"
Naruto immediately followed the command, leaping into the air and flipping away from a burst of projectiles. Him and Sasuke landed right by each other as an unfathomable amount of people began to surround them from every side. They were on a four-street intersection, with bodies covering every exit.
Naruto quietly entered his fighting stance, and Sasuke did the same by his side. Both boys circled around until their backs were touching each other.
Thundering footsteps came from one of the streets in-between the two of them. Troops quickly stepped aside to let their commander go through. Naruto had no doubt that he was the general in charge of that city. His brown, sand-colored eyes gazed over them and he quickly shook his head.
"So this is the state Konoha's military has reached… sending children into war…" He shook his head again. Naruto's mind was far more preoccupied with finding a way out of there. "You two seem well-trained enough to know there's no getting out of this, and there's certainly no way you can win this fight. Surrender right now and I promise you will be treated with dignity."
"How did you know we were coming?" Sasuke asked the man as both of their eyes scanned their enemies. Naruto was starting to sweat. As much as he hated to admit it, the man was right. There was no way for them to get out of that without a seriously bloody fight. But he also wouldn't ever let himself get captured again.
"Don't be arrogant." Their general said, crossing his arms. "This is war. Do you think we didn't have precautions in order even before you began your attack?"
Naruto slightly turned his head away so the general couldn't look at his lips. "Hey, Sasuke," He whispered. "You got a plan to get out of here?"
"...Working on it." The boy whispered back.
"You two have fifteen seconds to surrender." The general said. "After that, my men will apprehend you. If you live or die after that, it's up to them. And I guarantee your conditions won't be nearly as generous if you don't come in of your own will."
Naruto began concentrating on his chakra. Sasuke didn't say anything in response to the man's ultimatum. Both of them already knew their time was running out.
'According to what he said, we didn't actually nail any of the food depots.' Naruto thought as fifteen seconds became ten. 'If I had to guess, that means they either put it all in one building, or their actual storage is underground.'
Ten seconds became five. Naruto heard some soldiers Sasuke was facing gasp and step back, but the boy didn't use any techniques. "You're deadset, aren't you?" The general said, closing his eyes as if in deep suffering. "Fools…"
An idea popped into his head. One that was so simple and obvious, Naruto didn't know how he hadn't thought of it earlier. Slowly, he began to envelop both of them in his chakra. Sasuke seemed to have noticed somehow, considering his body almost jolted in shock, but none of the soldiers moved in to attack them yet.
Four seconds were left.
It was said that one of the marks of a top-notch martial artist was the ability to counter any technique after having only seen it once. Naruto's recent fight with Bokuden was still engraved deep into his psyche. He remembered every move the man had used against him and Yugao.
Three seconds were left.
He remembered one Jutsu in particular that seemed rather simple to use. All he did was put two fingers together in each hand and cross them onto each other, forming a cross. As if directed by his hands, the chakra inside of Naruto's body immediately began to reform itself.
He cautiously allowed it as it concentrated into his core, condensing itself more and more until it felt like all of the energy in his body was made into a pinball sized point.
"Follow my lead." He whispered to Sasuke.
Two seconds were left. The men around them were already starting to advance. It seemed like none of them had seen what Naruto did with his hands while they were in the dark.
He felt Sasuke nod on his back. The enemy general seemed to finally realize what Naruto was going for. His expression changed several times over the course of a single second, first into total shock, and then into resolved fury.
Naruto opened his mouth to scream the Jutsu's name as the chakra within him seemed to reach its breaking point. Whatever consequences he'd incur for butchering the technique couldn't be worse than being captured for a second time.
"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"
The miniscule atom of energy inside of Naruto's body was split. Sheer power exploded around him, condensing into a cloud of smoke that occupied the entire block. Even Sasuke's body began to be pushed back, but Naruto managed to hold him back by the scruff of his shirt.
When it cleared…
Naruto was expecting to see one or two look-alikes, just as when Bokuden had used the technique.
Instead the entire area around them was filled with Narutos. No matter where one looked, his visage was there, staring right back at them. They were surrounding Sasuke and himself, crouching on top of buildings, inside of other people's houses, in the sky, behind the soldiers, everywhere.
The enemy general was the only one who didn't pause in his amazement as he continued to rush at the original Naruto and Sasuke. He kept his hold on his companion and jumped into the air, and at the same time, half a dozen Naruto's moved to intercept the general during their escape.
Sasuke himself seemed to break out of his awestruck state due to the urgency of their situation, and he quickly set a Henge on himself to look exactly like Naruto.
Suddenly, he was assaulted by a bout of headaches and visions. Visions of himself being torn apart by the general pursuing them.
Only they were located right behind where they were, and in the very last one he saw the general himself reaching out to grab Sasuke's leg.
Naruto turned around and was shocked to see that happening in front of his very eyes.
While they were still in mid-air, he grabbed Sasuke's arm and used him as a platform, spinning his body around to strike out at the general with a spinning kick. He was successfully blocked with the man's forearm, but still managed to send him back to the ground, where the other Narutos were already doing battle.
As if on cue, several of the clones jumped up at Sasuke and Naruto, making it impossible to tell which was real and which was fake to the enemies below. Naruto himself, of course, could instinctively tell.
"The exit!" Sasuke said, beginning to move toward the wall.
"Go on, I'll cover you!" Naruto shouted as he turned around to intercept a flurry of Kunai and Shuriken that was thrown their way.
"What the hell are you talking about? You need to-!"
"We still haven't finished our mission!" He shouted back, pushed the boy away from him, and leaped back into the city.
Not turning to see if the boy followed or not, Naruto leaped straight back into danger. Again, without needing to be ordered, several of the clones scattered around him. Rather than engaging the enemies below, they scoured as much of the city as possible.
It was only a working theory for the moment, but it seemed like Naruto could naturally receive the memories of those who fell in combat. Since they were the same person, it seemed like all of them had the same thought he did.
All they had to do was break into every single building in the city and immediately kill themselves upon finding where their food was kept.
Another burst of memories hit him. Naruto frowned while turning behind his back, seeing the same general as before hot on his heels. "Seriously?!"
Oh well. If it was a chase the man wanted, Naruto was more than happy to oblige.
Naruto suddenly realized there was something about the clones he hadn't tested yet. One of the ones who were ahead of him jumped at his back and they locked elbows together. The clone ran through his own sequence of hand seals, and Naruto felt a burst of chakra coming from behind him.
"SUITON: HAHONRYUU!"
Like a water hose at full blast, the clone opened his mouth and spat out a torrent that could only be described as a small typhoon straight at the general, whose eyes widened in surprise. He grit his teeth, though, and kicked the water away from him with a single axe-kick. The clone disappeared into smoke immediately afterward.
"They can use Jutsu too?!" Naruto asked himself as he continued to run around in circles looking for the food while the general desperately chased after him. "Holy shit, why didn't anyone tell me about this before?!"
Memories burst into his head one after the other, but none of them had found the scarcely needed depot yet. While several clones had already been annihilated, Naruto knew he still had enough to keep the enemy occupied.
When he looked back again, the general had somehow miraculously leaped several feet in one go, and was now standing right behind him.
He pulled a fist back and dished out a straight punch at Naruto's chin, which he caught with one hand. The impact was enough to almost send him flying back, but he still managed to nullify most of the blow.
'Woah, he's strong!' Naruto thought as their eyes locked onto each other. 'But why hasn't he used any Jutsu yet? Chasing me down like this is way too ineffective. Unless…'
"You can't use Jutsu, can you?"
That was clearly the wrong move. The general's eyes narrowed in pure fury at his words, and he immediately snapped a leg back for a mid-kick intended to halt Naruto's movement.
Too bad for him, though. Naruto wasn't about to play on his rules. One of the clones jumped behind the general and put his leg on an elbow lock, while two others grabbed Naruto himself by the arms and threw him behind their back. He circled around in the air dozens of times at a frankly uncontrollable level of speed.
Finally, his head was once again intruded by memories, one of which contained what he was looking for.
He had to give it to their enemy. They were certainly creative. All of their food supplies were contained inside of a regular-looking building, in a nondescript part of town, which had its insides substantially expanded via sealwork.
His fortune seemed to be reaching an end, though. At the exact same time he reached that realization over twenty Suna soldiers jumped from the streets below, landing right in front of him, Jutsu already on the tip of their tongues. No matter how many clones he had, they wouldn't block a barrage of that extent.
But then again… He didn't have to. A hand grabbed Naruto by his arm and carried him out of their trajectory. At the same time, a huge fireball immediately shot toward those soldiers. "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"
Naruto immediately turned toward the still disguised Sasuke as he desperately headed toward their objective. "Why the hell are you still here?!"
"Oh, is that your way of thanking me?! Why the hell are YOU still here?!"
"I found the fucking objective!"
"WHY THE HELL HAVEN'T YOU DESTROYED IT YET THEN?!"
"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I'M DOING RIGHT NOW, SMARTASS?!"
"DODGE!"
With that brief, second-long warning, Naruto bent his spine backward to narrowly avoid Sasuke's leg as he struck out at a soldier that tried to sneak attack them, sending him flying into one of the city's many stone buildings.
"THERE!" Naruto shouted, pointing at the building. The city alarms were now at full blast, and the entire Suna army was undoubtedly heading straight toward them. Many of his clones had already died during their search, leaving them in a more than dire position. They had to complete their mission and leave, fast. "THAT'S IT!"
"ARE YOU SURE?"
"YEAH I'M FUCKING SURE!"
They were three jumps away from it. Hundreds of sandals and boots sounded behind them, as if the city as a whole had just risen to eliminate them.
Two jumps now. Naruto and Sasuke went through their seals simultaneously, hands and feet operating entirely separate from each other.
The same general Naruto had kicked away earlier seemed to materialize in front of them. 'A KAWARIMI?!' Naruto thought as he and Sasuke glanced at each other. That brief split second moment was more than enough for both of them to decide on a course of action, and both commanders nodded at each other.
Both of them prepared to call their Jutsu before the building even came into view. The general lashed out at them with a medium kick with a trajectory resembling a whip, which obliterated the rooftop tiles under their feet. Naruto and Sasuke both committed to a leap of faith at the same time, both flipping over the man's head.
"FUTON:"
"KATON:"
Air was being compressed inside of Naruto's lungs. Sparks of fire began to come out of Sasuke's mouth. The general turned to both of them at once. Both of them had no more leverage to jump away from.
"BAFUKU RANBU!" "SHINKUHA!"
It was a sheer act of coincidence that both of their attacks happened to strengthen each other. Sasuke released a massive spiral-like flame torrent that spread across the night's sky, while Naruto spit out a continuous current of air. Both of their attacks met halfway through the sky, converging onto each other and striking the building with their combined strength. The sheer pillar of fire that resulted from it extended over twenty feet into the air, and the resulting blow-back was strong enough to send both of them well over the city walls.
Now Naruto only had to deal with one small little problem.
How they'd avoid dying when falling from that high into the air straight into the cold sand below. Acting with the level-headedness that only life-or-death situations could grant him, he straightened his body in mid-air to fall toward Sasuke faster. He roughly grabbed him by the wrist and, using some of the chakra that was left in his body after creating the clones, screamed out one last technique.
"KAWARIMI NO JUTSU!"
And soon enough, their position in the sky was replaced with several handfuls of sand, and the two soldiers landed back-first into the dunes.
They rolled along for a few feet before regaining control of their bodies. Sasuke was the first who stood, and he quickly grabbed Naruto and moved them to hide behind a small gathering of sand. Shouting and fire emerged from behind them, but the drawbridge wasn't dropped to follow - probably because they were still worried about dealing with their army as a whole.
Both of them waited for what felt like several minutes in a tense silence.
Then they looked at each other and laughed heartily.
"I can't believe it." Naruto said, slapping his own knee. "It actually worked!"
"You're fucking insane." Sasuke said, shaking his head. "How did you even know that Jutsu?"
"I didn't!"
More laughter. Growing from the same primal source as Kiba and Naruto's friendship. It didn't matter what type of relationship two people had beforehand, after facing a life or death situation like that together, Naruto considered Sasuke a brother for life, and the same went to him.
Then Naruto recoiled, clutching his head in pain. Even more memories assaulted him - all of his remaining clones being destroyed in incredibly violent ways. He felt none of their pain, but those memories came into his mind all at once. He almost fell back, but Sasuke helped him sit up. "What was that?"
"Just… the Jutsu, I think." He shook his head. "Every time they were destroyed, it was like I could feel… like I could see what they saw."
"...Weird."
"Yeah, no kidding." They both stood, but Naruto nearly tumbled and had to be helped to his feet by Sasuke. "I've never used so much chakra with a single Jutsu like that before."
"Let's hope you don't need to use it again, then." Sasuke said, looking up at the sky. "Looks like it'll be dawn soon. This thing's going to be ours by tomorrow."
"Yeah…" Naruto said, looking back at the city they had just briefly invaded. Flames coated the sky now, probably spreading from their Jutsu and tags. He couldn't help but think about those hundreds of homes he had seen earlier, and the people living inside of them. What sort of damage had they done during their brief battle against the Suna general? How many people had they actually hurt in the process?
And how many would survive to see another day once Konoha's army forced themselves in?
"...Tomorrow."
A/N: A bit of an action packed chapter this time around. I hope you guys enjoyed it! Sasuke finally made his debut, Shikamaru has (more or less) returned to the spotlight, and the city's defender was introduced. Shira was actually a character in canon, and was sort-of like Suna's version of Rock Lee, which says a lot about what he's capable of. It's hard to blame a guy for being caught off-guard when someone like Naruto busts out an S-tier Jutsu like that, in a way only he really could. More on him later.
Ryusa's role is far from over. Him and Yura are actually also based on canon, and understandably underused, characters. Their relationship was a bit inspired by Yang Wen-Li and Dustin Attemborough from Legend of the Galactic Heroes, though obviously they're quite a bit more out-matched here. For the time being, at least.
Writing a big-scale war is obviously quite different from everything else in the fic so far, so I hope I've been doing it justice for you guys so far. As the scale of the story keeps getting bigger, I hope to still maintain it character-focused, mostly because I just think stuff like that is more interesting when you have someone to root for and follow.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed after I posted Chapter 11. We're at 40 reviews as I write this right now, which actually suprasses this story's previous version, To Be Strong, by 5. You guys really help me out and I can't thank you enough for the support you've given this fic. The same goes for everyone who followed and favorited it as well, obviously.
Thank you all, and see ya next time!
Jutsu Translation List:
Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu!:("Earth Release: Hiding-Like-A-Mole Technique!")
Kawarimi no Jutsu!("Body Replacement Technique!")
Futon: Tatsumaki Wana No Jutsu!("Wind Release: Tornado Trap!")
Suiton: Kudakeru Nami!("Water Release: Breaking Waves!")
SUITON: HAHONRYUU!("Water Release: Tearing Torrent!")
Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!("Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!")
KATON: BAFUKU RANBU!("Fire Release: Blast Wave Wild Dance!")
FUTON: SHINKUHA!("Wind Release: Vaccum Wave!")
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!("Shadow Clone Technique!")