The Wanderers
Chapter 52 – War is Here
A/N: Thank you for your patience with this chapter. I'm back now in the land of kangaroos, so I can now give my writing the time and dedication it deserves. My aim is to get chapters out every week again, and I might be able to finish the story by the end of the year. Maybe. Probably not. I dunno.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, there would be long term injuries.
***Previously-On***
With Neji's status as an equal, the meeting of the Five Kages truly began. Each Kage displayed a personal perspective on the Quiraji issue, with old grudges and issues emerging to the forefront of the discussion, even as both Neji and Gaara gave the group the information they had on the shinobi's enemy. During a break in the meeting, Neji and Shikamaru took the time to discuss their current situations and families, both recognising that they can't go back to how it was before the destruction of Konoha and how much everything had changed. The Raikage and Tsuchikage met in the meeting room and discussed their problems with the meeting, with both of them agreeing that the Otokage was hiding things and required investigation. Gaara, on the other hand, met with the Mizukage, and made a deal for some extra intelligence she wasn't willing to share with the others, and testing Mei Terumi's temperament with the Quiraji issue. When the Kages reconvened, no consensus was able to be reached, though each displayed a concern about the Tailed Beasts and their place in the war. Before they could continue though, the meeting was attacked. When they emerged outside, the five Kages and their bodyguards found Sensou standing out the front of the building at the head of an army of hundreds of converted shinobi.
***End Summary***
Sensou looked over at the shinobi facing off against her with a smirk. Behind her stood her army of converted shinobi, still wearing the clothing and forehead protectors of their previous villages.
"So the intelligence was correct. The Four Kages all assembled in one nice little bunch. How stupid are you shinobi?"
"Not as dumb as you think, Sensou," said Neji boldly, flicking a wrist to produce a personally made Kage hat with a black colouring and the Sound symbol in the middle. He placed it on his head to match the other four Kage around him. "You won't find us easy prey."
To the Otokage's left, the Raikage cracked his neck loudly and clenching his fists. "You're telling me this little girl is the cause of our problems? She looks like she would snap in two at a stiff breeze."
"Don't underestimate her, A. See all those warriors around her? They came from our villages. She converted them herself." Neji indicated to the converted shinobi army behind Sensou with a robed hand.
There appeared to be an equal number of converted shinobi from each of the other four villages, nearly one hundred shinobi each with the same dead icy-blue look that chilled the blood of the Otokage.
However he was more affected by the fifty Otogakure converted shinobi that were directly behind the Quiraji leader. He recognised each man and woman's face, some he had recruited personally, and some had joined with their respective clans. He knew they had all gone missing on missions against the Quiraji, but as much as he had steeled himself against such an image it still clenched at his chest.
Neji could see the other Kages having their own reactions to their shinobi facing off against them. The Raikage was clearly furious, though that was difficult to discern from his usual demeanour. Gaara was the calmest out of the whole group, though judging from his rapidly rising chakra he was just as concerned as the others.
Particularly since the contingent of Suna converted shinobi was made up of mostly Jounin level combatants. It was also the largest out of the five groups.
"This is no type of warfare I've ever seen before," observed a floating Onoki, even as his two bodyguards moved to stand in front of him. "Even the Uchiha wouldn't do this kind of thing."
"Aren't those the Biwa twins?" asked his granddaughter with a curious expression, staring at two dead-eyed long haired women with butterfly knives in their hands. "I thought they were on retreat."
While her village's contingent was the smallest of the five, the Mizukage was under Neji's watchful eye and he observed that she was acting rather strangely considering she was being confronted by her own people.
"What are we going to do, Mizukage-sama?" asked her blue-haired bodyguard, his bandaged sword in hand. "I don't want to fight our people. I worked with some of them."
"Grow a spine, Chojuro," snapped Ao, his Byakugan paining him as he tried to turn his gaze to the Quiraji leader. "We have to do our duties."
He leaned forward to whisper to his leader, "We are outnumbered and outmatched, Mizukage-sama. I would advise that we retreat."
"It is our responsibility to look after our people who have been taken," said the Mizukage quickly, though unlike the other Kage she was not moulding her chakra to the same levels as them. "I want you to concentrate just on the shinobi from Kirigakure."
"The Mizukage is correct," stated Gaara from the other side of their line. "We will only concentrate on our people for the time being. We owe them that much."
"Enough talk," said the Raikage, activating his lightning armour and charging straight at the red armoured woman at the head of the converted shinobi army. "This bitch is mine!"
Sensou had no trouble following the large man's movements, even managing a sigh as she placed a hand up in his path. "You'd think you would have learnt your lesson from your bout with my younger brother."
The Raikage aimed to strike through her chest with his clenched fist, but as he came within close range his lightning armour disappeared and she easily caught his large fist in her red gauntlet.
His two bodyguards sped to catch up with him, but their surprised expressions couldn't be matched by A's, who could barely believe that there was another being that could stop his attack so easily.
Sensou grasped her hand around his wrist, causing the Raikage to grimace in pain and glare at his opponent angrily, trying as hard as he could to reactivate his lightning armour and failing due to her negation field.
"This is why you are simply lambs to the slaughter. You know nothing except brutal flailing."
Sensou brought back her other fist, dozens of long blades appearing out of thin air to form a drill that began spinning rapidly. "It's time for the shinobi to realise the truth of the sins they have committed."
A's eyes didn't change as she went to drive the loud drill into his bare chest, though his Kage hat blew off his head during the exchange.
The blow never fell.
Just as the metal drill on her hand threatened to pierce his chest, a wide metal blade came in between the Kumogakure leader and the weapon, while a gloved hand clutched at her wrist and pointed a kunai at Sensou's throat.
"Don't think you can get the boss so easily," said Darui, struggling to hold the blade as Sensou slowed her drill back to its blades and rested her hate-filled gaze on the woman pointing a blade at her throat.
"I could slit your throat now," said Yugito with a cocky grin.
Sensou scoffed loudly and let her blades disappear. "You know that your chakra-tricks won't work on me. How prudent of you. But what makes you think that blades will work?"
As Darui moved the Raikage back against his will, Yugito decided she had had enough of the conversation and attempted to slit Sensou's throat with her kunai.
The metal blade dragged along the red haired Quiraji's throat, but instead of piercing her flesh it simply appeared on the other side without a mark on it.
Yugito's eyes widened as she saw how her attack had had no effect, but she was still able to put her hands up to defend herself as Sensou spun around and kicked her straight in the chest, sending her flying backwards into the Raikage and Darui.
Sensou put down her foot with a deliberate motion, "You shinobi never could understand what true power is. Always flailing in your own powerlessness."
"And you are overconfident, Sensou."
The Quiraji leader spun around and flinched as she saw a flash of metal move past her face, forcing Sensou to leap backwards. As she skidded to a halt, she snarled and reached up to feel at the long cut across her cheek.
Pulling back his weapon, Neji stood up straight and stared down the red haired warrior. At the end of his hands extended a pair of bladed gauntlets with a slight trickle of blood down their shiny blades.
"What are you doing, Otokage?" yelled the Raikage, having shoved off Darui's grip. "She's my opponent, fight your own enemy!"
"Can it, Raikage. You have your own people to fight. I'm better suited to fighting her out of all of us, I have the tools to do so."
A glared at the Otokage angrily, but as he saw the other Kages and their bodyguards charging into the converted shinobi army he was forced to agree. If he and his bodyguards didn't remove the Kumogakure contingent, there was a lot of damage they could do.
"Fine, take her then. But if you fall, she's mine."
He and his bodyguards jumped past the Otokage, causing his robes to flutter for a moment before they settled down, Dosu and Kidomaru appearing behind him.
"Orders?" asked Dosu quickly, wary that the battles had begun.
Neji turned his head slightly, "Delay as much as possible. I will take her for as long as I can. Remove the Otogakure converted shinobi from the battlefield. Standard orders."
They both nodded and disappeared in a flash towards the Otogakure contingent.
Sensou stared at the gauntlets on Neji's hands, "You have some interesting weapons there, kid. It's not the most common metal that could cut through my physical energy armour."
Neji grinned and brought up one of his gauntlets, looking at the symbol that had been printed on its base, "I have one hell of an armourer. But don't act like I've impressed you. If you hadn't been wearing that physical energy armour, that attack would have taken your head off."
"You prepared to fight me?"
Neji shrugged, "Who knows? I'm taking you down here and now, Sensou."
A pair of swords slowly began to form in her hands, taking on long curved shapes with a black gleam, the Quiraji leader testing the weights of her weapons before pointing them at the Otokage. "Don't think you can defeat me just because you scratched me. Boys like you crumble under the smallest pressures."
Neji grinned slowly, "Enough trash talk. Come at me."
Sensou made no sound as she ran towards him, her blades like a blur in front of her.
Looking at their village's converted shinobi in front of them, it was hard to believe that they were having to fight them on such a battlefield. Besides the fact that they didn't say anything, none of them could sense chakra from them at all.
"Are we going to attack them or what?" asked the Tsuchikage's red haired bodyguard, cracking his knuckles loudly. "It looks like they are about to move."
The Tsuchikage sighed, rubbing at his back sorely. "It looks like we have no choice. They appear to be lost to us."
"How can you two say that?" demanded Kurotsuchi, even though she had her hands ready to activate her ninjutsu techniques. "They are our people. Maybe they are just being controlled…"
"No, they are too far gone," came Gaara's voice to the young Iwagakure shinobi. "All we can do is put them down."
The converted shinobi seemed unwilling to wait for the shinobi to make up their minds, several clasping their hands together to activate ninjutsu techniques despite their lack of chakra.
"Prepare yourself," said the Raikage, having recovered from his failed assault on Sensou. He turned to his two bodyguards, "I'm going in."
The two of them didn't get a chance to respond as their leader activated his lightning armour and dove straight into a large pack of Kumogakure converted shinobi, sweeping away dozens in a single strike.
Following in her leader's footsteps, Yugito dropped to all fours and growled loudly, her nails extending into long claws. "You coming, Darui?"
"Yeah yeah, I'm going," said the tall man, holding his large blade limply. It still shook slightly from taking the attack from Sensou, but he didn't have a chance to repair it as two Kumogakure converted shinobi jumped towards him with swords raised above their heads.
"Or not…" he said dryly, blocking the strikes with his blade. He ran lightning through his blade to send them flying while watching Yugito protect the Raikage from thrown kunai as he punched his way through the converted shinobi lines.
Shikamaru moved his head slightly to avoid a kunai, turning to Kankuro with a tired look, "Can you take care of the five Jounin at the front?"
The puppet user nodded and turned his red haired puppet towards the Sunagakure Jounin, opening up its arm joints to fire two poison gas bombs into the converted shinobi army.
While Shikamaru held the Jounin in place with his shadow binding technique, the Sunagakure shinobi choked and died with Kankuro's poison attacks, though they were quickly replaced with more converted shinobi.
It's strange that this technique still works on them. I guess there are only some in the Quiraji army that are immune to chakra attacks. This is good, we can still fight back against them.
A dozen Sunagakure shinobi clapped their hands together and sent a large blast of scything wind at their old leader and his two bodyguards, though neither Shikamaru nor Kankuro seemed particularly concerned about the attack.
As the blast came near to strike them, a wall of sand emerged in front of them from Gaara's gourd, protecting them while sending out tendrils of sand to block attacks aimed at the Tsuchikage's position.
"I don't need your help, boy!" yelled the old man, even as he destroyed the three attackers with his dust technique.
Gaara ignored the Tsuchikage's remark, concentrating on defending all their allies while they attacked the Quiraji army. His sand moved with a mind of its own, the Kazekage having extended his sand to attack those he had once called his people. They attempted to fire off several fireballs to take him out of the picture; however Shikamaru brought up his shadow to defend his leader.
"That was unnecessary, Shikamaru," said Gaara slowly, firing off several sand bullets into the Quiraji army.
"You don't want your sand turned to glass, sir." Shikamaru looked over at the Kirigakure leader, noticing that while her two bodyguards were fighting to protect her valiantly she wasn't doing much besides dodging attacks.
Is she preparing some kind of attack? The Kirigakure contingent is small but fast, though her Byakugan-user seems to be holding his own.
Deciding to sort out his own battle, Shikamaru placed his hands together and considered their position. While he planned, Gaara protected him with a sand bubble and Kankuro pulled out two scrolls from his side.
"We've got to delay until he comes up with a plan," said the puppet master, activating his scrolls to send four puppets to fight against his old friends. The puppet of Sasori's old body sat limply on the ground while Kankuro brought with the strength of a Jounin in each puppet, easily out matching the slower converted shinobi facing off against them.
Leaving Shikamaru's defence to his sand bubble, Gaara took a step forward and put up his hands as massive quantities of sand came pouring out of his gourd to form the hands of his occupant, though on a slightly smaller scale.
The arms of Shukaku slammed into the converted shinobi army, sending dozens flying from every contingent, not just from the Sunagakure side. Several attempted to get away but his ability to direct the giant raccoon arms was unparalleled, easily able to grab and slam any converted shinobi that he could get his hands on.
Having fired two arrows consecutively into the chest of an Otogakure shinobi he had once played cards with, Kidomaru chuckled in amusement at the Kazekage's display of power.
"He isn't even using the beast inside him, how scary. We ought to get one of those just to level the playing field."
Dosu used one of his sound gauntlets to block a fireball from an Otogakure Chuunin before turning to look up at his six-armed companion, "The leader won't like you talking like that. You know how he feels about that kind of stuff."
Kidomaru rolled his eyes as he pulled the string of the two bows in his hands, "He'll do what he has to." He released two powerful arrow shots into the faces of two Otogakure Jounin that had once been part of the Chiza clan. "I wasn't suggesting we steal one or anything…"
He didn't need to use his third eye to keep track of his leader's battle with the Quiraji leader, it appeared that all Neji was currently doing was defending himself.
"Where the hell is Jin? The bastard is always damn late."
As if having read his mind, after dodging a side swipe from one of Sensou's blades, Neji took a split second to throw him a quick hand signal before being forced backwards by a secondary strike from Sensou, followed by a kick to his stomach that forced him to leap back and parry a metal spike aiming to slit his throat.
Despite the speed of the motion, Kidomaru understand the signal even if it was cut off half-way through. He dispersed his bows into worthless golden metal on the ground and turned to his companion, "Can you handle things here? He wants me to go find the others."
"That's not what I saw, but fine. Do as you will." Dosu sent a large blast of sound into a Kirigakure shinobi that was looking at him funny before tapping both of his sound gauntlets together. "I've been meaning to test this for a while, anyway."
"Oi, don't bring that out here! You'll take out everyone here, not just the enemies."
Dosu chuckled grimly underneath his bandages, shouldering off his poncho to reveal a pair of cannons sitting flat on his back. "I can control it. Besides, she said 'battlefield conditions'. Now is a better chance than ever, Kidomaru."
The spider-like shinobi sighed loudly and placed a hand on the ground in front of him. "Well I'm getting out of here."
A large cloud of smoke appeared underneath his hand, causing a long spider to walk out and stand in front of him. It had long spiked legs and a bright red skull on its back.
"Kuchiyose: Ookamikumo." (Summoning Technique: Spider Wolf)
With a single bound he leapt on top of the long spider and commanded it to take him out of battlefield. The spider made a clicking sound with its pincers for a second before leaping across the battlefield.
I've got to punch through to the other side, without wasting any extra time or chakra.
Keeping himself stable with his legs, Kidomaru grabbed at his mouth for a moment with all six of his hands, stretching out six globes of white liquid and forming them into balls in each hand.
As his mount leapt through the battlefield, several Otogakure converted shinobi moved to block his path, with a dozen Iwagakure shinobi following behind them.
Kidomaru took two of the balls and crushed them before hurling them towards the Otogakure shinobi blocking his way. Just before striking them, the balls expanded outwards into large webs that instantly bound the Quiraji-enslaved shinobi to the ground, allowing his spider mount to leap straight over them.
"Sorry I can't play with you guys, but I'll be right back."
He used his other four balls of web to clear a path through the other shinobi to get through, and within moments he was outside the field of battle, riding his spider towards a clearing to the east.
Dosu groaned at Kidomaru's line even as the cannons on his back moved up to his shoulders and attached themselves to his sound gauntlets.
Judging from the thirty Otogakure converted shinobi converging on his position, Dosu estimated that he would require half of his overall chakra to control the technique. If it weren't for his leader's nearby presence he wouldn't need nearly that much, but orders were orders after all.
He tapped his sound gauntlets together loudly before aiming them at the pack of converted shinobi approaching him.
"Otogakure Ninjutsu Ougi: Otokeiji!" (Hidden Sound Special Technique: Sound Apocalypse)
The two cannons on his shoulders flashed momentarily before smoking and fizzing out. He struggled to keep his gauntlets steady as his chakra dropped massively, but judging from the silent cries of pure agony and blood pouring from every orifice that his attack had been successful.
The Otogakure shinobi in front of him collapsed immediately, though to his surprise a dozen Iwagakure converted shinobi and several Kumogakure shinobi behind them were also caught in his attack. It appeared that his attack was only contained to a 45 degree angle in front of him.
"Well, I suppose that should be considered a success. She'll be pleased, if not intolerable."
He glanced around to see that nearly half of the Otogakure contingent had already been taken out, though the rest were already preparing to avenge their companions' deaths, though he couldn't quite tell their motivations from the dead looks in their ice-blue eyes.
Their heartbeats are regular and they appear normal physically. How horrible to not feel anything even as your comrades fall around you. Even in our darkest days, we still tried to look out for each other, in our own way.
A large blast of sound came from his right, forcing him to put up his sound gauntlet to absorb the attack. "That isn't going to work, you guys must realise that."
He got no verbal response from his opponents, though he noticed that the Otogakure contingent was being reinforced by over a dozen Kirigakure converted shinobi attempting to send a large cascade of water into his position.
Dosu pushed up his shoulders to drop the cannons to the ground, as his technique was only a one shot at the moment. "I guess it's time to go all out."
He didn't waste a moment in funnelling his chakra into his sound gauntlets before leaping into the pack and driving a thundering sound into his opponent's ears.
oOoOoOo
Kurotsuchi filled her mouth with quicklime as two Iwagakure Chuunin charged at her with large fists raised to punch through her to the Tsuchikage.
"Yoton: Sekkaigyou no Jutsu!" (Lava Element: Quicklime Congealing Technique)
She spat the grey quicklime at the two converted shinobi, forcing them to hesitate as they were covered in the sticky substance from head to toe. In a quick follow up, Kurotsuchi send a large globe of water at them, causing the two of them to harden into cement rapidly.
The young Iwagakure Jounin scattered her two opponents with a quick kick, then ducked on instinct as a fist made of lava flew over her head and slammed into a group of converted shinobi, melting their bodies even as they screamed out in silent pain.
Kurotsuchi stood up with a deep frown on her face, turning around to yell at her companion, "Damnit, Roshi! You nearly took my head off there!"
Standing a short distance away from her, the tall red haired shinobi simply cocked his head in curiosity before lighting one of his fists with lava again and slamming it into the face of a Kumogakure converted shinobi that had gotten behind him.
After a few seconds it became clear that she wasn't going to get an appropriate response from him, so Kurotsuchi simply gritted her teeth in anger and turned back to the battle.
"Jinton: Genkai Hakuri no Jutsu!" (Dust Element: Atomic Dismantling Technique)
The cube of the Tsuchikage's technique compressed instantly, pulverising eight of his former subordinates into dust. He floated closer to the ground momentarily as he the old man panted softly.
"They don't seem to be putting up much of a fight," he said dryly, disappointed in his soldier's poor performance even if it was against him.
Roshi spat out a wide spread of lava onto a stone wall that their enemy had set up, watching it melt quickly with a low grunt, "What do you expect? If these Quiraji people kidnapped our people to make these soldiers, they can't have been that strong."
He indicated to the two melted bodies being trampled on by the Iwagakure shinobi as they tried to get near the Iwagakure leaders. "Those two were pathetically weak, hardly worthy being called Jounin."
"They were your people!" came Kankuro's angry voice as his second puppet was destroyed by a blast of wind from a Sunagakure converted shinobi. "Don't you have any respect?"
The Iwagakure shinobi ignored him, turning their attentions back to their contingent that had been cut in half by their continued attacks.
Despite her confidence in their abilities, Kurotsuchi was still suspicious of the fact that none of them had been attacked as heavily as the Sunagakure and Kumogakure leaders had been.
Her dark eyes squinted as she defended herself from a Genin attacking her with a kunai, there was a large group of a dozen converted shinobi that were running through large sets of handseals. It took her a moment before her eyes widened when she recognised the technique they were about to perform.
She jumped back in front of her grandfather and slammed her hands into the ground, summoning up a wide wall of earth to cover the two of them while Roshi did his own battling.
"What are you doing?" demanded the Tsuchikage, hovering at her head level.
"Saving your butt, old man," snapped his granddaughter, placing her hands on the wall to keep it as solid as possible. "They were about to do a pretty dangerous technique, and I'm not ready to replace you just yet."
"Hmph, how impudent. I can defend myself perfectly well without…"
His sentence ran off as parts of Kurotsuchi's wall were pierced by several blasts of concentrated mud, with one scrapping along Kurotsuchi's face, causing her to cry out in pain and drop to her knees, clutching at her face tenderly.
The Tsuchikage frowned as he saw his granddaughter fall, knowing that her barrier was one of the strongest in the village, and yet it had been so easily pierced. He clapped his hands together and began to create a large earthen golem out of his mouth.
Before the golem was half way through though, the wall Kurotsuchi set up collapsed into tiny bits of rubble as hundreds of mud blasts came shooting at him all at once.
Shi…
From the middle of the converted shinobi army, Roshi slammed his forehead into the face of a converted shinobi before looking over at his leader. For several seconds it appeared like the stubborn old man had been pulverised into a thousand pieces, but Roshi knew that it took more than that to take out the Tsuchikage.
It was clear that he was right as a wide rectangle appeared around the Iwagakure shinobi that had attacked both Kurotsuchi and Onoki, with the user wasting no time in activating his Dust Technique to destroy those that dared to attack him so.
As the smoke cleared from the technique, Onoki slowly floated out with half his face covered in blood pouring from a wide cut on his forehead. He held onto his left shoulder carefully as he floated down to the kneeling Kurotsuchi, who had been spared the worst of the damage.
"Get on your feet, girl. It's barely a flesh wound."
For a few seconds Kurotsuchi didn't respond, though she did slowly get to her feet. His attack had gained them a slight reprieve, though Roshi wasted no time in taking out as many as possible while using his unique abilities.
She turned slightly to look at her grandfather, glaring at him through a single eye. The side of her face that had been struck was fractured and disfigured, with one eye practically destroyed with a long scar tracing along from her eye to her ear.
"Screw…you…old man."
Onoki swallowed slowly as he saw the damage his granddaughter had taken, he hadn't been expecting that.
The strength of that technique was on the Kage level, yet the shinobi using it had been the Chuunin level when they were taken. They seemed to fall very easily after using that attack though, meaning that without chakra they are likely too drained to be useful again.
"Do you need to retreat to heal yourself?" he asked quietly, wary of the amount of blood the both of them had lost. Roshi appeared to be having little trouble bashing his way through the enemy ranks, and while the Iwagakure contingent was getting smaller Onoki could feel the battle swaying either way at the moment.
I can't do any more Dust Techniques, and I think my shoulder is dislocated.
He floated upwards to look at an overall look at the battlefield, manoeuvring out of the way of several lightning strikes coming from the Kumogakure contingent.
He only afforded himself a few moments to see how the battle was going, though he found himself intrigued by what the group of Suna was trying to do against the remaining converted shinobi from Sunagakure.
After emerging from the bubble Gaara had surrounded him in, Shikamaru hurled two dozen shurikens into the remaining Sunagakure converted shinobi, who numbered less than twenty after Gaara moved on to attack the Kirigakure converted shinobi who were seeming to have trouble attacking the Mizukage.
"Kankuro! Throw me the scroll with Sanshouo in it!"
Without hesitating the puppet master hurled him a black-lined scroll while he reattached his chakra strings to his Sasori puppet and began spraying poison darts into the converted shinobi army.
Using the shadow attached to his feet, Shikamaru manipulated the shurikens to hit in the ground in front of the remaining Sunagakure converted shinobi. He opened the scroll with the puppet inside and drove a foot into the frill to open up the mouth of the long puppet.
He used the tendrils of his shadow to activate the buttons on the sides of the puppet, while jumping behind the frill and clapping his hands together to activate the technique.
"Kurohigi: Sanshouo Koukitaihou!" (Black Secret Technique: Salamander Final Cannon)
A bright light shone out of the long puppet's mouth, sending a large ball of metal in the centre of the Sunagakure converted shinobi army, one that was completely resistant to their attempts to destroy it with fire and wind blasts.
Shikamaru changed his handseal and pumped his chakra into the shadow around the puppet, building up his shadow to grab at the shurikens he had thrown earlier, sending them straight into the black ball that Kankuro's puppet had fired, embedding them in the rubbery substance it was made out of.
He didn't have a name for the technique, but that would have to be worked out later as the ball exploded violently, sending most of the combatants on the battlefield off their feet.
None of the Sunagakure shinobi had more than two limbs attached to their bodies, and Shikamaru looked up from behind the frill to see the severe damage it had caused to the defensive puppet itself.
"That worked…I guess."
The sand shield protecting Kankuro and his Sasori puppet fell to the ground as the puppet master walked out with a tired look on his face, "You could give us a little bit more warning, next time you decide to blow up half the battlefield?"
Shikamaru only shrugged, he could tell that his action had moved the battle into their side's favour.
Withdrawing the shield around himself, Gaara nodded his approval before turning his attention to the rest of the converted shinobi army. He could tell that Neji was still holding his own against the Quiraji leader, and he recognised that out of all the Kages he was the only one that could compete with her.
We really need those techniques from Kirigakure. Although it's clear that she hasn't used those techniques herself, her bodyguards have been doing most of the damage to her contingent.
Seeing little value in hesitating, he calculated how much chakra he had left before directing his sand towards the Kirigakure converted shinobi.
oOoOoOo
"Yugito! How many of these things are left?"
The fast moving Tailed Beast container removed her claw from the chest of an Otogakure shinobi and turned to yell at her leader. "From us? About forty, sir!"
The Raikage snarled as a converted shinobi failed to pierce his lightning armour with a long sword, reaching out to crush his head before turning to his other bodyguard.
"Darui! Summon Kiki and tell her to get the Lightning Corp, as fast as possible."
"I don't think that'll be necessary, boss," said the white haired Jounin, indicating with his cleaver to the Sound bodyguard who was watching the Otogakure battle with the Quiraji leader passively, not even showing an interest in assisting. "I think the Otokage has an army on the way."
"What?!" The Raikage glared at the Hyuuga leader dodging a hail of metal spikes aimed at impaling his feet to the ground. "How could…that bastard…he knew all along!"
Seeing no other way to vent his anger, the Raikage slammed his foot into the ground and sent a blast of lightning into a small cluster of converted shinobi, burning them to a crisp.
Appearing at the Raikage's side, Yugito stood back up on her two legs and cracked her knuckles loudly, "He must have leaked information about the meeting to the enemy, that's why he is armed to take her on. A clever plan, for such a young man."
"I don't want to hear you praising him in my presence, Yugito. There is too much suspicion surrounding the Otokage for me to trust him yet."
Yugito rolled her eyes before running a clawed hand through her straight blonde hair. "I get it, I get it. Should I transform and end the battle now?"
The Raikage shook his head slightly, "No, I don't want the enemy to have any more knowledge about our Tailed Beasts than necessary."
"Do you mean the Quiraji? Or the Otokage?"
He turned to her with his usual serious gaze, "Both. Now assist Darui in removing those pitiful Kirigakure weaklings from the battle."
He looked back at the remainder of the Kumogakure contingent, activating his lightning armour to its fullest extent. His technique wasn't particularly linked to his anger, but the mere presence of his old subordinates daring to fight against him was enough for him to want to go all out.
This is nothing like the invasion. They must have taken our people captive during that battle, since we had lost a significant portion of our force in that battle.
A pair of lightning strikes came screaming towards him from two Kumogakure converted Jounin, but they dispersed easily over his lightning armour, causing the frown on his face to deepen. If they had been still under his command, they would never make such novice mistake.
He aimed to correct that, by the method that he specialised in.
With a nearly inexhaustible chakra tank, the Raikage exploded towards his old subordinates, decapitating a young woman with a single strike from his lightning-covered arm. He didn't know her name, or how long she had been a shinobi in his service.
But A didn't care; she had simply become an enemy for him to remove.
The Raikage flipped around and caught a pair of swords that were trying to attack him from behind. A quick snap of his wrists and the blades shattered in his hands, before he sent his leg crashing into the face of one of his assailants, slamming the converted shinobi into the other and turning back to confront the rest of them, ignoring the loud crashing as the two Kumogakure converted shinobi slammed into several Iwagakure shinobi being beaten to death by a large earthen golem.
"Sorry about that…" said Darui across the battlefield, recognising that his boss had unintentionally taken away one of the Tsuchikage's targets.
"Don't apologise, Darui!" yelled the Raikage, though he knew it was pointless. His subordinate was fighting side by side with one of the Seven Swordsmen from Kirigakure, as he saw the Mizukage clutching at her leg with a pained look on her make-up covered face.
He would have to give his subordinate grief for fighting side by side with another village without his permission; it was different than Yugito who was like a tornado through the Kirigakure converted shinobi ranks.
"You don't need to be here, Darui-sama. I…I think I can handle this…" said the timid voice of Chojuro, causing his chakra-based sword to shrink slightly in size.
Darui sighed and blocked a kunai strike with his cleaver, "I know you can, kid. I'm just here to help the cause, I'm sorry if I'm in the way."
"You are more than welcome," said the Mizukage behind the two of them, trying to stand up on her injured leg and failing. "I appear to be incapacitated at the moment."
"You let your guard down, madam," came her Byakugan-user's voice as he jumped down to land beside the Mizukage. "You haven't been acting like yourself lately anyway. Why, back in my day…"
They got no chance to continue the conversation as a large group of Kirigakure converted shinobi converged on their position.
"The two of you can use Suiton, correct?" asked Darui, driving his cleaver into the chest of a nearby Chuunin.
"Of course we can," said Ao, walking forward to stand on the other side of Darui. "What did you have in mind?"
Darui ran through a quick set of handseals and put one of his hands up to his mouth. "Fire as much water as you can directly in front of us."
Chojuro slammed his sword into the ground beside him and timidly placed his hands together in a handseal, while Ao merely put up a hand in front of himself.
"Suiton: Suijinheki!" (Water Element: Water Wall)
"Suiton…Bakusui...Shouha." (Water Element: Exploding Water Colliding Wave)
"Suiton: Taihoudan." (Water Element: Great Cannon Ball Technique)
A large wave came spraying out of Darui's mouth, augmented by the massive amount of water being produced by Chojuro, it's force being multiplied by the continuous blasts from Ao's hand.
As the cascading water slammed into their opponents, Darui shifted his handseal.
"Raiton: Kangekiha!" (Lightning Element: Emotion Wave)
His hands crackled with lightning and caught the water being poured out of his mouth, slamming straight into the converted shinobi, though it didn't appear to have any more affect than sending them off balance.
"I hope that isn't all you've got," said Ao, continuing to fire water blasts from his hand while maintaining a vigil on the battlefield with his Byakugan.
Darui bit at his lip to cut off his water technique and grabbed his cleaver, leaping forward to run along the water the two Kirigakure were streaming out. His weapon sparkled with white lightning before slowly changing to a black colour that neither of them had seen before.
Once he determined he was in range, Darui skidded to a halt and clapped his hands together before yelling at his two fighting companions to duck their heads.
They barely got down in time as he swung his cleaver in a wide circle motion, drawing up a large amount of water before activating his technique.
"Raiton: Kuroenjin!" (Lightning Element: Black Ring)
Nearly two dozen converted shinobi were caught in the black lightning ring that emanated from Darui's cleaver, cutting most of them in half with the extended strike while barely missing the heads of the two Kirigakure shinobi he had been fighting with.
As the water slowly disappeared, Darui rubbed at his head sheepishly with his cleaver attached to his back as he regarded his fighting companions, "Sorry about that. I didn't realise it would be so strong with that much water."
Ao picked himself up first, patting himself down before checking with his Byakugan that the Mizukage was still okay. "It's fine. You Kumogakure shinobi are violent, but useful in a pinch."
"That was amazing…" said Chojuro, gingerly picking up his double-hilted blade. "I couldn't do anything like that."
"You should have more confidence in yourself, Chojuro," said the Mizukage behind them, smiling sweetly. "I picked you as my bodyguard because you are strong."
It was only for a split second, but Darui could have sworn that the Swordsman threw the middle-aged woman a furious look that appeared completely out of character, though he quickly returned to his normal unsure expression.
He hefted his chakra-based sword with a groan, "That's right. I have to protect Mizukage-sama."
His expression slowly changed as he concentrated on the converted shinobi climbing over the corpses of their brethren, while he funnelled his chakra into his blade.
The blue sword began to grow in size, resembling a large bladed fish as Chojuro jumped forward and swung the blade in a wide arc in front of him.
It caught two converted shinobi in his first swing, sending them flying away with a blast of chakra as Ao jumped to his side to block a retaliation strike with a kunai.
"You ready to fight now?" he asked sarcastically, slamming a fist into his attacker before slitting his throat and kicking away the body. "We still have a long battle ahead of us, and we can't expect any help from her." He kept his voice low so that Darui couldn't hear him, as the Kumogakure Jounin moved to attack several Iwagakure converted shinobi that were trying to build a large earthen golem.
"I know, Ao," said Chojuro, hefting his blade heavily onto his shoulder. "I'm okay, really."
"Good." The Byakugan user placed his hands together and concentrated his senses on the battle around them. "Something is coming…"
"Friends, or foes?" asked Chojuro, blocking a strike with his blade before driving them back with a single swing.
His companion frowned and he could tell that Ao was concentrating on using his Byakugan to determine which it was. "I can't tell, we should be prepared in case they are enemies."
Chojuro nodded and jumped back with Ao to stand in front of the fallen Mizukage, holding his blade up in a defensive stance. "Yes sir. We should hold here."
Ao nodded and sent two quick blasts of concentrated water into a small clump of converted shinobi before drawing another kunai and holding it up in front of him.
oOoOoOo
Holding two Kumogakure converted shinobi in his arms, A slammed them down into the ground in front of him. "Liger Bomb!"
After a second the Raikage stepped over the dead bodies and clenched his fists together in anticipation. "Is that it? You people are an embarrassment to the Hidden Cloud!"
He watched as five converted shinobi ran around to form a circle around him, their hands in a common handseal to activate a ninjutsu.
"Good. Come!" yelled the Raikage, bracing himself and his lightning armour.
Each of the five converted shinobi activated their technique at the same time, sending five fire blasts at the Raikage from every direction.
Having faith in his lightning armour, the Raikage takes the blasts without a word, feeling a slight heat as the power was dispersed across his crackled second skin, though it did cover the area in a thick smoke so he couldn't see anything.
The Raikage used his large arms to try and disperse the smoke, but as he moved around he heard a skidded sound behind him. He turned to watch the smoke dissipate in a thick line as a single Otogakure converted shinobi drove a blade of wind straight into his chest, piercing through his lightning armour.
Dropping to one knee for a moment the Raikage clutched at his chest painfully, the wind blast hadn't drawn blood but it had winded him and cancelled out his lightning armour momentarily.
Clever bastards...
Taking a long breath he stood up and turned around again as the remainder of the smoke disappeared, strategising that he had been underestimating them enough and it was time to end the battle. Before he could activate his lightning armour again however, he noticed a young Kumogakure shinobi skidding to a halt in front of him.
For a moment he recognised the shinobi, though he could have sworn he hadn't disappeared from Kumogakure.
"Atsui?"
The blond haired converted shinobi said nothing even as he drew his sword from his belt and slashed at his old leader's chest.
A easily took a step backwards to avoid the attack, saddened that his old subordinate honestly thought that was going to take him down.
Before he even knew what had happened, a large slash appeared across his chest, lighting on fire and sending him flying backwards.
Shit…Atsui's Kumo-Ryuu Kaengiri (Cloud-Style Flame Slice). But I sensed no chakra…and this is far more powerful than he ever could normally do it.
The Raikage wasn't given a chance to recover from his wound as the converted Atsui leap forward and prepared to decapitate the Kumogakure leader.
With a loud swear the Raikage launched himself into the air, barely avoiding a second flame slash from the converted Kumogakure shinobi. He snarled and ran a lightning-covered hand across his chest, putting out the flames and momentarily burning the skin to cover over the surprisingly deep slash to his stomach.
If I hadn't taken a step back, he would have cut straight through me. These converted shinobi don't have much coordination or timing, but when they do their power is remarkable.
While falling slowly to the ground, the Raikage grimaced and reactivated his lightning armour, aiming himself to fall towards the converted shinobi that had used the wind technique that had made him vulnerable in the first place.
The moment he hit the ground he used his maximum speed to slam into the Otogakure shinobi, driving his lightning-covered fist into his chest before turning around and launching himself into the midst of the Kumogakure converted shinobi.
With his lightning armour activated as much as it was, the Raikage's movements were barely visible to his opponents, and they stood no chance as he struck out with every step, taking out converted shinobi left and right.
This is a terrible thing, even if they aren't salvageable.
The Raikage spun around and slammed a foot into a young woman, sending her crashing into a group of other Kumogakure converted shinobi that he rapidly followed and drove his fist straight into the middle of them. With a quick surge of chakra he expanded his lightning armour and electrocuted the whole group, feeling several blasts of fire and water slamming into his back to no effect.
In a single motion he kicked up his back leg towards the attackers, sending an arc of lightning straight into them, though they were able to scramble out of the way of the attack.
For a split second the Raikage stopped and frowned at their ability to dodge his extremely fast attack. By his calculations the converted shinobi army was at about a quarter its original size, but it appeared like the converted shinobi were actually fighting harder and better with every casualty they suffered on their side.
He took a moment to glance at the red armoured woman who was clashing with the Otokage. As someone who was almost always a melee fighter he could see that she was fighting with less than half her actual fighting ability.
Does she control them herself? The woman looks distracted, though it's hardly depreciating her fighting ability. The less converted shinobi there are, the more she can concentrate on the rest, like a puppet-user. That is an odd technique…
During his analysis he found himself surrounded by half a dozen Kumogakure converted shinobi, but with a loud roar and slammed his arms outwards, sending them all flying away.
Enough time wasting. Time to end this battle.
Summoning more of his chakra, the Raikage charged back into the midst of his enemies, punching and kicking his way through to the other side.
Neji ducked under a kick aimed at his head, moving to strike back but was forced to jump back to avoid the group of spikes that extended from Sensou's leg towards his body.
Sensou grinned as she lowered her leg and created a metal circle with a razor-sharp edge in her right hand, "You are pretty quick for a shinobi that isn't using chakra."
The Hyuuga leader took several long breaths, trying to ignore the bloody wounds in his sides. His white and black robes were stained red, and his Otokage hat was little more than rags on top of his black hair.
How is it we missed these abilities? She was supposed to be a scientist, not a fighter like her brother.
He glanced down at the gauntlets that Tenten had made for him, wary of the fact that they were cracked and ready to fall apart. He had known that he wouldn't be able to pierce through her red-scaled armour without chakra, but he hadn't even been able to attack her with them after his initial ambush.
"This isn't my full strength, Sensou. Surely you must know this?"
The Quiraji leader shrugged and pointed her metal ring at his face, "You shinobi require time to complete your seals for your larger scale attacks, which wouldn't work against me anyway. While you may be quick, I have centuries of experience on you, boy."
Neji took a slow breath to calm himself, steadying his hands as he watched Sensou's movements carefully.
Her ability to create metal from anywhere seems to be associated with her body. The spikes and weaponry come out instantly…who knew she had that ability?
He stole a glance at the fighters around him, realising that it had been longer than he had expected, yet everyone was still fighting normally.
They aren't here yet. Something's happened.
"This isn't a time to get distracted," yelled Sensou as she leapt towards him, her metal ring aiming to take his head off in a single motion.
Neji barely brought up a gauntlet in time to intercept her strike, his blades sticking in the open space between the metal and her own gauntlet.
Sensing an opportunity, Neji twisted his wrist to lock her blade in place and slam his other blade into her wrist, hoping that he would be able to pierce through the gap between her gauntlet and her arm.
With the same speed she had been using against him the entire fight, Sensou grabbed his attacking hand before his blow could fall, gripping it tightly as she dispersed her metal ring to let his blade hang uselessly at his side.
"Too slow…"
In a single motion she used her free hand to form a long curved blade across the side of her other hand, and cut straight through his hand at the wrist.
Neji screamed out in pain and dropped to his knees as Sensou unceremoniously removed his bloody hand from within Tenten's weapon and tossed it to the ground before examined the blade with fascination.
"Ah, clever craftsmanship using carbon steel rather than normal steel."
Attempting to ignore the blinding pain in his left hand, Neji reached out to try and grab at his bloody hand, but Sensou intervened and drove a summoned sword straight into it, destroying any potential for him to retrieve it.
"Oh, I'm sorry, did you want that?" She lifted up the sword with the hand at the end like a skewer of meat, "It's mine now, though I'm not going to hang onto it for too long."
With a simple flick of her hand she shredded the hand to pieces with a burst of metal from the tip of her sword, causing Neji's face to fall even as he stumbled backwards to get out of her chakra-cancelling field.
He clutched at his stump tightly, trying to cut off the flow of blood even as it poured onto the ground. By his calculations if he didn't cauterise the wound soon he would faint from blood loss, and she would simply slaughter him and move on to the others.
Neji wouldn't let that happen, it was by his machinations that she had been brought here in the first place.
I don't have the physical abilities to keep up with her, not without chakra. This miscalculation could cost all of us; I didn't think she would be so fast and have the ability to create metal.
From his position he could Sensou ignoring him momentarily, taking a glance at the battle that was slowly turning into the shinobi's favour, despite her easy defeat of the Otokage. She knew she could kill the other leaders, but a part of her was frustrated that her converted shinobi army wasn't as effective psychologically as she would have expected.
"I guess only brutes wouldn't care about killing their own kind."
Having ripped a part of his robe off and tied it quickly around his stump, Neji grimaced as he felt the blood flow lessen. He figured he had less than a couple of minutes, but he knew that if Sensou wanted to kill him she could in less time than his injury would.
"Hmm, who should I go for after the boy? I can't touch the woman, and the old man would hardly be a challenge. The red haired one seems interesting, at least more than the thuggish one…"
For several moments it seemed like Sensou was making ready to turn around and finish him off, but a large explosion in the middle of the converted shinobi from Kirigakure drew her attention.
Grateful for the diversion, Neji reached into his robe and produced a scroll, laying it on the ground in front of him. He placed his remaining hand on the centre of the seal matrix and funnelled a small amount of chakra into it.
"Drive straight through to me. I want a fire-user at my position immediately, along with a medic."
"Calling for help?" asked Sensou with a grin, though she appeared less than amused.
Neji left the scroll on the ground as he slowly stood up, waiting as dozens of explosions and cries of pain thundered around him among her army. "In a manner of speaking. You weren't the only one to come here with an army."
Sensou had to give it to the wounded shinobi, her converted shinobi were being slaughtered left and right by the combined forces of the other Kages and their bodyguards with the rather sizable Otogakure army that had just arrived, with barely a tenth of her converted shinobi putting up a pathetic attempt to retaliate.
"Well-played, though you must recognise it is meaningless." She flicked her hands and summoned a pair of long swords, having discarded his gauntlet after her analysis. "I could kill everyone here with my own two hands without breaking a sweat."
Six Jounin from Otogakure jumped in beside Neji as he stared down the red-armoured leader.
"Perhaps, but if that was so you would have come yourself. Even someone of your strength would be worn down by our numbers, since you aren't a crowd-type of fighter."
A Jounin at his side whispered something to him, but Neji waved her off, he had no time to heal his wound at the moment.
"I brought you here to take you down, Sensou, and that's what I am going to do. If you have your brother's tactical sense, you would have known this is a trap. But unfortunately for you he is dead."
Sensou gripped her swords tightly, particularly at the mention of Shouri's pathetic demise during his invasion of Kumogakure. "A temporary setback, if that. Unlike my brother, I can recognise lost battles. Besides, it hurts my head running this many by myself. I should have come with my commanders."
Her swords disappeared as she crossed her arms across her armoured chest, "The project was effective regardless, and I now know the strengths of your people. We should have little trouble reclaiming what was ours."
"What was yours? This has always been our land, and you're a fool if you think we will give it to you without a fight."
Sensou shrugged and put down her arms, "Think what you like, I care not."
The air behind her began to shiver, and while the shinobi around Neji went to throw their weapons at her he put his hands up to stop them, there was no point. The other Kage were all occupied with disposing of the last of the converted shinobi of their respective villages. As their flanking attack crushed the Quiraji army, more and more Otogakure shinobi joined Neji near the centre, with Neji grateful to see that sending Kidomaru off to get them was worth the effort.
Taking a risk, he activated his Byakugan, making sure not to look at Sensou's direction. After a second a smile slowly came across his face, even though he knew that Sensou was making her retreat.
"Sir? We aren't just going to let her get away, are we?" demanded Jin, having just arrived after slicing through two converted Suna shinobi.
Neji deactivated his eyes and shook his head, "Stand back everyone."
As she stepped into her portal, Sensou frowned at the fact that she was being let go without a fight. It had been clear that the boy's mission had been to take her out, yet he seemed content to watch her leave.
Cowards are always…
She found her thought cut off as she noticed a strange blur moving at an impossible speed towards her.
No way…he couldn't have…
Her thought was once again cut off as a sandaled foot came crashing into her chin, sending her flying upwards out of her portal. While she flew through the air, the blur jumped up over her in a green flash. With a quick spin it followed up with a blow to her forehead, sending her back down to the ground with a loud thump.
Sensou groaned as she picked herself up from the ground, "Damnit…he's meant to be dead…"
Landing back on the ground, the green blur stood up and took up a simple defensive stance.
"I've come for you, Sensou! The day for you to pay for your crimes is now!"
The Quiraji leader gritted her teeth angrily as she glared at the new arrival on the battlefield. He stood with a large frown on his face, which seemed at odds with the large afro attached to his head. His face still bore the brunt of her torture from nearly three years ago, though it was clear he had accumulated even more scars from his years of hunting her.
Straightening up his stance, her opponent began jumping in place while swiping at his nose in a strange manner.
"Let's go."
Author's Note:
It should be clear by now that I have no trouble doing terrible terrible things to my characters, though I didn't think of taking Neji's hand until I actually wrote it. I feel like in times of actual war, there would be things like that happening all the time, along with people dying unexpectedly.
I initially wanted to write this chapter in each individual segment with each Kage and their bodyguards against their converted shinobi, but I've done that in the past and wanted to try writing it as one battle. Please tell me if it was incoherent or confusing, or if you liked how one part flowed into the other.
Please review and tell me what you think. I try to take each review into account, and believe me I read them all. Tell me what can be improved, what you liked, what you didn't, everything. I'm a writer so I'm always open to criticism.