The Wanderers
Chapter 58 – Offense and Defence
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, Team 7 dynamics would make sense.
***Previously-On***
Naruto returned from his side mission to the Land of Fire and found the group had been slowly moving towards their target, waiting for his return before they moved properly onwards. After an unsettling meeting with Han, he spoke at length to Gaara about the current circumstances of his old Konoha companions. He also discussed his mission, and they decided there were some things they would share with the others and some they would keep to themselves for the time being. The group then moved on to their initial destination in the Wave Country, and Naruto was saddened to see that it was one of the first victims of the Quiraji invasion, with nothing remaining of the village and friends he had made on his first C-rank mission. While the group of Tailed Beast containers took a momentary break for the night, Han went on a personal mission to discover the reason behind the odd behaviours of the civilians of the new settlement. He used some questionable research methods, but got the results he was after nonetheless. As the group moved to the ocean limit, they discussed the fact that a large Quiraji force is moving towards Kirigakure, and how it impacted their mission.
***End Summary***
"It's strange working with other people again," said Utakata, bobbing up and down on his floating bubble. "I'm not sure I'll be very good at it."
"You've been on your own for a long time?"
Utakata turned to his companion, "You could say that, yes. I'm afraid that's why I'm not the most sociable person of our little band."
Floating beside the Six Tails container, Gaara slowly shook his head. "By our nature, we are removed from other people. You have more in common with us than anyone else in this world."
"I guess you're right. This, on the other hand, this is something else entirely. Whose idea was this again?"
Gaara had to agree, but even while he sat on his floating sand he admitted that he was interested to see how this would play out. "You did volunteer for this mission. Regretting your decision?"
"It isn't like there was anyone else who could do this kind of thing. Even you being here is a bit of a stretch. I mean this is hardly your kind of battlefield."
Looking around at their chosen field of battle, Gaara admitted it wouldn't have been exactly where he wanted to make a stand like they were planning, but he didn't have much choice in the matter. He wasn't going to let the Village of Water Tailed Beast container fight an army on his own.
Extending the sand he was sitting on to a larger mass, Gaara reached onto his belt and produced a small scroll. He opened it and pushed in a small amount of chakra, letting four puffs of smoke appear on the sand around him.
Utakata nodded his approval of the move as the puffs of smoke revealed four gourds identical to the one sitting on the Kazekage's back. "Good thing you came prepared."
"I offered to accompany you because of my aerial fighting capabilities," said Gaara, placing the now-empty scroll back on his belt. "I wasn't going to let you battle these foes on your own."
The bubble-user stared at the confident young man, wondering how someone like them had gotten to such a high position in their world. "You've really got things under wraps, don't you? How do you deal with the distrust of your people because of the thing inside you?"
Gaara stared out over the vast ocean in front of them, his third eye had shown him that the Quiraji force had reached the port and were beginning to board. It was only a matter of time before they sailed straight into the two of them, and that was when the real battle would happen.
"It hasn't all been easy," said Gaara, recognising the kind of pain he was really talking about. "It took a rather violent wake-up call by a good friend, and several years of struggling to gain their trust before I was even accepted in my village, let alone made the Kazekage."
"You should consider yourself lucky. I was exiled from my village long before any of that could happen." Utakata reached into his shirt and pulled out his weapon, "How long?"
"Few hours, little more."
The Six Tails container closed his eyes and concentrated on moulding as much chakra as he thought would be necessary. "Anything else I need to know about?"
Gaara crossed his arms over his chest and ignored the impatience of his occupant.
"They have a lot more soldiers than we had estimated."
"Fantastic."
Sitting on a smooth rock with her knees up near her chin, Hinata observed the group she had joined with interest. Rather than feeling like the odd one out due to her lack of a monster within her belly, her personality and demeanour allowed her to be accepted without any obvious problems, particularly with the two female Tailed Beast containers of the group.
Fu was almost insufferably cute and energetic, but Hinata saw the look she occasionally wore when she thought no-one was looking. The same look Naruto used to get, one that he had tried to hide from her.
A yearning for a place to exist without wearing a mask. Something Hinata was not entirely unsympathetic to. Both her and her husband had had similar experiences.
Yugito, on the other hand, simply oozed confidence. She walked with her back straight as if she had something to prove, but the hard look in her eyes said that she had already proved it to the person who mattered most to her, and everything else was simply white noise. Hinata admired her, particularly with how she dealt with her louder Kumogakure companion. She had grown more and more confident over the years, but she always felt like there were greater thresholds to overcome.
Of course Yugito was naturally suspicious of her, but Hinata was a well-versed judge of character and she knew what she really felt when she looked at her and her husband. It was only natural considering how close they were to each other.
The last of their little side group was almost a complete mystery to her, even after trying to get to know the man who had organised their get-together and orchestrated the plan. Despite looking the youngest of the entire group by a good measure of years, Yagura spoke with the strength of someone who had truly been the leader of a village of shinobi, and even death couldn't stop him from trying to protect his people. In his eyes, Hinata could see how many wars he had fought.
But his real agenda was unknown to her, and while Naruto was quick to trust the ex-Mizukage, Hinata was not so sure. Anyone willing to allow outsiders to invade and attack their own village and people was someone to be wary of.
"How long do we have to wait?" asked Fu, waving her legs absentmindedly.
Yagura looked up at the young girl, trying to keep his eyes at the rock she was sitting on rather than at her legs where she once again didn't seem aware that she was wearing a skirt.
"When the village perceives a threat, they activate a number of their defences and pull their forces back inside the village to repel the invaders. The civilians are escorted out of the village by an ANBU contingent while the Mizukage commands the army.
"A good plan of defence," said Hinata, recognising the similarities to Konoha's defence plans. "How does this relate to us?"
Yagura indicated with a thumb to a large rock formation behind them, "Underneath these rocks is the escape tunnel, one that leads to the underground complex where the civilians are being held. In case the village is completely taken over, the civilians are taken through the tunnel to another complex far away for safety."
Just by hearing that, the women of the group could see where his plan was leading.
"So we sneak in, take out the ANBU, use their disguises to infiltrate the village, and take out the Mizukage?" Hinata admitted it wasn't a bad plan, though there was one thing that bothered her. "How dangerous are these ANBU shinobi going to be?"
"Extremely," said Yagura. "They tend to be taken from the elite of the elite. Even when I was being controlled, he placed a priority on the safety of our civilians."
"Tell us about this female Mizukage," asked Yugito, the only one standing guard in the group. "What is she like? Is she worth saving?"
Yagura let out a deep sigh. That took some explaining, though they did have time to spare until the other team began their part of the mission.
"Mei Terumi was a promising ANBU warrior during my time as the Mizukage. Even though my actions were being dictated by another, I was still aware of the things that were going on around me. She was virtuous and strong, if a bit too ambitious. It was one of her subordinates who discovered the man manipulating me, and Terumi herself who turned the shinobi against me in a single masterful stroke."
"You don't sound bitter at all," observed Hinata, able to read the ex-Mizukage's emotions easily enough. He wasn't hiding them at all.
Yagura shook his head, "For some of the things I did, I deserved what I got. She is a true leader of people, someone deserving of the position of the Mizukage."
"Sounds like a woman after my own heart," said Yugito with a sly grin. "And now she is being controlled like you were?"
"No, nothing like I was, otherwise the other shinobi of the village would suspect it immediately. I'm working on second-hand information for the most part, but I believe she was imprisoned and replaced with what amounts to a clone without the village noticing."
"Gaara said she was fairly regal at the Kage Summit," said Hinata. "Though in the battle that followed she was less than impressive."
"I don't know how he is doing it, but the man is manipulating the village again for his own purposes. I want to remove him from power more than anything, but what happens afterwards will be up to the shinobi of Kirigakure."
Yugito stared at the young-looking Tailed Beast container, "So we take out this person, reinstate the woman as Mizukage, and everything is sorted out?"
"It won't be that easy, but in a manner of speaking, yes."
"This is so boring!" said Fu, lying down on her back with a thump. "Why did you pick me for this group? I could have helped Utakata and that dull-looking one on the ocean. I can fly too, you know."
Yagura looked up at her with a frown; he disliked being questioned so carelessly. "There are four ANBU guards that escort the civilians, so I needed four people. You are a particularly skilled individual, and I believe your skills are more suited to infiltration than large scale combat."
Fu let out a loud sigh, "You could have just said that. Think you might be chasing skirts with this group though, young boy."
Hinata chuckled at the thought, while Yugito didn't seem to care at all. To his credit, Yagura didn't fluster or show any embarrassment, instead turning to the other two women in his group.
"Yugito, you are well known as the hunter of your village, and I believe your tracking skills will be very helpful here. If the man flees, we will need to track him down."
The Kumogakure shinobi shrugged, she was reserving judgement about the plan for the time being.
Their leader turned to Hinata, "I hadn't calculated on your appearance initially, but your Byakugan will likely be the most useful asset to our mission. With some luck, you might be able to find Mei and we can enlist her help to overthrow the man who has caused over a decade of suffering for my village."
The ex-Mizukage frowned for a moment, as if something was talking to him within his own head. Both Hinata and Yugito responded immediately, while Fu remained oblivious as she whistled to the empty sky above her head.
"Yugito, are there any other shinobi in this immediate area?" asked Yagura quickly.
The Kumogakure shinobi reached down and placed a single finger on the ground, closing her eyes. "The five hundred metre perimeter is still intact. We are clear, for the time being."
"Are we going?" asked Fu, flipping up onto her feet before jumping down to the group. "How do you know?"
Yagura tapped at the forehead protector on his waist, "When the village is under attack, a signal is sent to every Kirigakure shinobi through their forehead protector. I just got that signal, which means the others have been spotted. And that the defences haven't changed since I was killed."
"I hope they are okay," said Hinata, wary of the kind of madness her husband would get up to without her there. She trusted him explicitly, but he had a tendency to go overboard when it really wasn't necessary.
"They are there to keep a lid on the army, that's all." Yagura began leading them to the rock formation he had indicated to earlier, running through a long set of handseals. "Remember what I said, I'd prefer it if you didn't kill the people of my village."
Yugito flexed her hands in a habitual manner, "I'm not making any promises. If push comes to shove, I tend to shove fairly hard."
Despite herself, Hinata found herself echoing the Tailed Beast container's sentiment. "I'm not comfortable with it either, but even if they are misguided we can't promise anything in a combat situation."
Fu turned to her white-eyed companion with a surprised look on her face, "Wow. Wasn't expecting that from someone like you."
"Someone like me?"
The young girl cocked her head slightly, "Well you come off as the princess-caring type, someone who is intolerably kind and hesitant to take that final step."
Hinata smiled warmly at the young girl, "All true. But we all have dark sides and mine tends to be well-fed."
Fu barked out a laugh as Yagura pressed two hands on a large smooth rock and watched as it disappeared without a trace. "You are a scary woman, Hyuuga. We should go for a drink afterwards."
"It's a date."
Behind the rock that Yagura got rid of was a long tunnel with a set of stairs that looked like it went for nearly fifty metres underground. He turned to the women of his group with a frown, "I'm not expecting there not to be blood, but a measure of restrain would be preferred. Remember we need my people alive to fight the bigger battles. There is much more at stake."
They nodded their acknowledgement, and Yagura turned around to take a long breath. He wasn't sure what to expect within his home, it had been a long time since he'd been inside and there is all manner of bad things that could have happened.
He would save his village, even if it cost him his life to do so.
"They appear to have amassed some troops."
Gaara flicked his wrists to open up the tops of all five of his gourds, "It would appear so. Are you prepared?"
Utakata twirled his bubble blower between his fingers, "Even if I wasn't, it isn't like I would be able to get away from them."
"I doubt you could either."
The two of them floated on their respective techniques in the middle of the ocean separating the Land of Fire and the Land of Water, on a surprisingly clear day with no sign of any chance of the kind of violent weather that was typical of this part of the world.
Sailing towards them were five large ships armed to the teeth with Quiraji soldiers. Each ship was armed with side cannons and the Quiraji soldiers were stringing up bows as if preparing for war.
"Do you think they see us?" asked Utakata.
Gaara began drawing sand out of his two outer gourds, forming a large mist of sand above the two of them. "It doesn't matter. He, who hesitates, is lost."
Utakata brought his bubble blower up to his lips, "Sounds about right."
Gaara began to float towards the ships on his sand, while Utakata kept behind him and moulding chakra into his bubble blower. The two of them could see the Quiraji soldiers putting arrows into their bows, but neither of them was particularly concerned.
Resisting the urge to simply transform his limbs into the sand monster's within him, Gaara took aim at the closest ship and began forming his sand into dozens of long spears. He decided it was wiser to begin with a long range battle to see what kind of anti-shinobi measures the Quiraji were going to utilise, and while he had plenty of sand around him he didn't have an infinite amount of chakra. If he transformed, it was a one-time technique that would leave him fairly helpless afterwards.
Besides, Shukaku couldn't swim.
He unleashed the spears at the ship, watched as the Quiraji employed no defence against his aerial attack, the sand attacks slamming straight into the ship's hull. Several Quiraji soldiers were taken out as the spears pierced through their plated armour with barely any resistance, but the main damage was done to the hull of the ship, causing a number of large holes to appear close to the water.
Gaara watched as water began to seep into the ship, knowing that if they didn't fix those holes the ship would capsize at some point. However Gaara wasn't going to let them try as his sand automatically came up to defend him from a large number of arrows being shot at him from the ship. It was a strange sensation as Gaara could feel everything that happened with his sand, the places that were struck were losing integrity faster than what he would have expected.
That's strange…it's almost as if…
He went to attack the archers with sand from one of his extra gourds, but held back as he saw a strange trail of bubbles moved over the ship in front of his attackers.
Trusting in his sand to protect him from attacks, Gaara turned around to watch his companion continue to blow small bubbles towards the ship. He couldn't sense that much chakra in each individual bubble, but Utakata appeared confident so he turned around to see what the attacks would do.
One of the Quiraji soldiers got annoyed at the small bubbles getting too close and swiped at it with a free hand. Immediately upon contact the bubble exploded, taking out the soldier's arm above his elbow.
The scream of pain was almost haunting, though Utakata wasted no time in bringing up his free hand into a handseal.
"Kibakuhou." (Explosive Bubbles)
The moment he said the name of the ninjutsu each of the small bubbles speeding up to almost unperceivable level and attaching themselves to each soldier. Gaara did a small calculation and immediately flew backwards on his sand, trying to pull out the sand out of the water from the spears he had fired earlier.
He didn't have enough time to get more than a handful of sand back as the bubbles Utakata shot at the ship exploded all at once, melting together into a single explosion that obliterated the ship with a deafening roar. Gaara brought up his sand shield and hardened it as much as possible to stop the shockwave knocking him off his sand platform, while Utakata protected himself by standing within a thick-looking bubble.
"Was that really necessary?" he asked loudly, as his ears rang from the explosion.
Within his bubble, Utakata shrugged, "They didn't seem to be able to stop it. That tells us something, doesn't it?"
"Perhaps it does. You don't want to show your best techniques so early on, do you?"
The Six-Tails container let out a tsk and leapt out of his bubble shield to stand on top of it. "If this is it, then I don't see a point holding back. I don't like this anymore than you do."
Gaara tilted his head slightly as he saw the other four ships turning to sail towards the two of them, seemingly ignoring the charred remains of the first ship and the floating body parts that had been blown off by Utakata's technique.
"They haven't revealed their hand yet. Let's take these out quickly and recover our strength."
The kimono-wearing shinobi nodded his approval and floated towards the eastern two ships, while the Kazekage moved to towards the others. He was grateful he had assistance, as while he was confident in his battle capabilities as the leader of Sunagakure, there were too many unknown factors in this battle.
If Shouri was in charge of this invasion, he would have a number of ships skirting around the edges, to avoid the ocean defences and attack us from the rear. He'd test us with single ships then strike with a massive force to overwhelm us.
As Gaara watched the two ships in front of him coordinate their efforts and begin rolling out cannons from the lower decks, he was grateful that the old Shouri was dead and not commanding the invasion fleet. The new Shouri appeared to be more of a hunter than a general, while the Quiraji leader Kyoukou was not a military mind; his strengths lay in different areas all together.
I hope he isn't on one of those ships. Neither of us have the type of skills that could handle his kind of abilities. He's probably the one responsible for the starvation in the civilian settlements too.
Deciding that he wasn't going to allow the Quiraji soldiers to get the jump on him, Gaara collected two whole gourds worth of sand together to form a pair of giant claws that he looked similar to his occupant's.
Using his hands to direct the sand claws, Gaara moved in closer to the action and changed his approach to compensate for the increased speed of his sand. The Kazekage had fought many battles, but both his advisors and his own importance to the village had prevented him from taking the battlefield himself, and that had bothered Gaara for a number of years.
He had a lot to make up for, and every Quiraji soldier he took out here was one less that could attack his home or kill his people. It was his duty as the Kazekage, and as a shinobi.
They tried to defend their ship against his claws with bows and arrows as their cannons were not in position to attack him from below. Gaara could feel the strange sensation as the arrows struck at his sand claws, but paid no attention to them as he slammed both his claws into a single ship below him. Easily able to control the sand claws with pinpoint precision, Gaara used one to slam into the front of the ship and send the Quiraji archers scrambling over the edges of the ship to avoid being crushed. The other sand claw went straight for the three masts of the ship, tearing them off without much resistance and sending them crashing into the sides of the ship. To their credit, the Quiraji soldiers that weren't being destroyed by his sand claws did what they could to counterattack him, though Gaara defences weren't that easy to crack.
While Gaara quickly destroyed the ship with his sand claws, the other ship seemed unafraid of attacking their allies as they sent a hail of cannonballs towards the ship and Gaara's floating position.
It was only Gaara's sharp hearing that saved him, as nearly a dozen cannonballs were flying straight at his back. As confident as he was in his sand defence, Gaara pulled apart his sand platform and dropped down into the ocean below, missing the ship by a few metres. He kept his sand claws attacking the ship as water covered him, but Gaara was able to avoid being hit by the other ship's cannonballs, causing them to slam into their companion ship with devastating effect.
Underneath the ocean, Gaara crushed all four of his extra sand gourds into hard sand and began to swim underneath the ship.
Shukaku, a little control would be appreciated here.
To his surprise, the Tailed Beast obeyed his command without comment, using the sand claws on the ship above to clutch at the sides of the ship like he was picking up a bucket.
Holding his breath, Gaara moved all the sand he had available underneath the ship and grimaced as he summoned up as much physical power as he could through his sand.
Flying above the ocean above the other ships, Utakata watched his companion's battle with fascination. Below him the Quiraji soldiers on the two ships he had attacked screamed in silence as they melted to pieces within individual bubbles. It hadn't taken much effort to disable each of the soldiers, though Utakata was surprised to see that there were fewer soldiers on the ships than he had originally thought.
He said they had far more people than this. Something is wrong here.
However Gaara served to surprise him further, as he watched in amazement as one of the ships flew out of the ocean and slammed into the other one with devastating results. The ships shattered into thousands of pieces of wood, he couldn't even see the bodies of the Quiraji soldiers that would have been crushed into dust by the crashing ship.
Utakata shook his head, he could scarcely believe that the Kazekage had done something so reckless mere minutes after giving him grief for blowing up the first ship. He looked down to see Gaara slowly appear out of the water, floating up on a newly constructed sand platform with a giant amount of sand moving around him.
The Six-Tails container floated down to the Sunagakure leader, watching as his companion recreated his sand gourds and began squeezing out the water from his shinobi clothes.
"You don't think that was unnecessary?"
Gaara ran a hand through his red hair and flicked the water into the ocean.
It's a good thing she isn't here. She'd probably flip out.
He turned to his companion, "I was taken by surprise. I think there is something different about their weaponry."
"Well I haven't found anything like that," said Utakata, putting his bubble blower back into his shirt and rubbing his hands together to try and get them warmer.
The two of them took a few moments to recover their strength before they both remembered where they were.
"Is that all of them?"
Utakata watched from their high vantage point as the Quiraji soldiers struggled in the waters below. "Are they underestimating us? That was a pretty one-sided battle."
Gaara dropped down a pair of kunai with explosion notes wrapped around them into the water where the Quiraji soldiers were struggling to swim away, aware that if they left them lingering they could still attack them.
"They were only scouts," he said, using the sand around him to protect the two of them from the large explosion underneath. "It is likely they were sent to test our defences, force us to show our hands."
He indicated to the direction the ships had come from, as a large number of shadows began to appear on the horizon.
"The real battle is still to come."
"So what's it like being married?"
Hinata smiled at the green haired shinobi warmly, "It's…relaxing, actually. When we dating there was always this fear that something might come between us, but now…not so much."
Fu grinned back, "Sounds nice."
"Quiet, both of you," snapped Yugito.
The two girls shook their heads, but did as the older woman said. They walked in staggered formation through the dark tunnel underneath the ground, with Yagura walking at the front and the woman following up behind him. He'd given them images of Kirigakure shinobi to transform into, but he'd warned them that the village had defences against Henge transformations that required them to acquire another type of disguise.
"We've been walking for a long time," said Fu, putting her hands behind her head. "How long is this damn tunnel?"
Ignoring the girl's comment, Yagura turned his head slightly to regard the only non-Tailed Beast container in the group. "Can you use your Byakugan while transformed?"
Hinata nodded and put up her hands into a handseal, "Am I looking for anything in particular?"
"Up ahead there should be a large opening with the ANBU team setting up defences for the civilian evacuation. Can you confirm their presence, and whether one of them has a Byakugan?"
Instead of observing the area with her Byakugan, Hinata pulled up the group and forced Yagura to turn around to face her.
"You have a Hyuuga working in your village?"
The Three-Tails container shook his head quickly, "No, no. It was a relic from an old war, a man called Ao took it from a fallen Hyuuga shinobi. He's the one who discovered the man controlling me years ago."
Hinata frowned through her disguise, she didn't like the idea that an heirloom of her clan was a prize from war, but she wasn't as paranoid about it as her clan had been. "You should have warned me earlier. Byakugan users can detect when someone else is using the doujutsu within their range."
Yagura bowed his head slightly in apology, "Can you see if he is there? I'll have to change our plan if he is, since he knows my chakra better than anyone."
After a few seconds, Hinata put down her hands and rubbed the back of her neck sorely, "I couldn't see him in the area you were talking about. There are two women and two men setting up kunai traps near one of the tunnel entrances. They appear to be just above Jounin level."
"You can tell their strengths?" asked a surprised Yagura.
Their Hyuuga companion nodded as she deactivated her Byakugan to preserve chakra, "It's based on their chakra levels. I can't tell any more than that from here though."
"No, that's plenty," said Yagura. "There aren't any civilians, correct?"
Hinata confirmed his suspicion and the ex-Mizukage told them his plan for their attack.
oOoOoOo
"This better not be another drill," said one of the Kirigakure ANBU shinobi, tightening the wire trap with his teeth and activating it with a small amount of channelled chakra.
He grimaced as a female ANBU shinobi clapped him on the back with a bark of a laugh, "You're just happy to get away from the wife for a few hours, right?"
"Hey, keep that to yourself, you never know who is listening. The woman is psychotic, I swear."
"Then why did you marry her?"
The male ANBU shinobi sighed and stood up from his set trap. "She was really, really, attractive at the time."
Even behind her mask, he could tell she was rolling her eyes as she went to speak to the others of their squad.
One of the other ANBU shinobi stood at one of the entrances with her arms folded across her chest, ignoring the efforts of her companions.
"Something wrong?" asked the approaching female ANBU shinobi.
The female ANBU shinobi slowly drew the sword from her back and held it at her side, "Someone is coming from the western side."
The others of the team stopped what they were doing and immediately jumped to stand beside the two of them, each drawing their own respective weaponry.
After just over a minute a small figure appeared from the darkness. Wearing the skin of what she had looked like at such an age was a very child-like Fu. She had her characteristic green hair and orange pupils, though instead of her cheerful expression she had tears running down her face and was sobbing quietly.
Immediately upon seeing the child the ANBU shinobi lowered their weapons, though they were wary of sheathing them completely.
"Are you lost?" asked one of the female shinobi with a soft voice, trying not to scare Fu.
Looking at the four masked shinobi in front of her, Fu put on the waterworks as a small child would be expected to and put her tiny fists to her crying eyes. "I lost Mummy…where is my Mummy? The bad men came and Mummy got taken away…where is Mummy?"
"How did she get into the tunnel?" asked one of the male ANBU shinobi cautiously.
Her disguise seemed to work as the ANBU shinobi slowly put their weapons away and the woman who had spoken earlier walked forward and knelt to be at Fu's level.
"It'll be okay, honey. We can go look for your mother if you want."
Fu stopped sobbing and looked at the masked shinobi with a quivering lip, "I'm scared…"
Reaching up to her face, the woman removed her mask and smiled warmly at the child-like Fu through bright blue eyes. "My little girl is about your age. We can go now and look for your mother."
"Don't forget our mission," reminded one of the male ANBU shinobi.
The woman turned around and gave him a scowl, "It's probably just a drill, there is no reason we…"
Her sentence was cut off as the child-like Fu launched in her chest and sunk her teeth into her throat, causing her to seize up and freeze in place. Before the other ANBU could react, Fu was already pulling her teeth out to snarl at the remaining Kirigakure shinobi with long fangs that looked horrifying on the face of a child.
They didn't get a chance to get revenge for their companion however, as the other three of Fu's group appeared out of the darkness and struck at the defenceless ANBU shinobi.
Hinata took no time in disabling the male shinobi she had targeted, striking him in the throat and forehead to force him to unconsciousness. It was harder than she had thought it would be to strike with chakra once again, something she was decidedly out of practise with.
Yagura was nowhere near as clinical, tapping the other male shinobi in the mask with his staff, causing him to crumble to the ground without resistance. He looked down at the body with disappointment; the standard of ANBU had clearly fallen since his tenure as Mizukage. That would definitely have to change when they changed the leadership of the village.
Yugito, on the other hand, simply jumped in front of the final female ANBU shinobi and slashed across her chest with an open hand, using chakra to create a claw that rendered her shinobi armour obsolete as it tore through muscle and bone like it wasn't there. The Kirigakure shinobi coughed blood into her mask and fell to her knees before collapsing onto her back.
"What the hell are you doing?" demanded Yagura when he had seen what she had done, running to the fallen ANBU and giving the Kumogakure shinobi a dirty look. "What part of 'don't kill them' did you not understand?"
Yugito rolled her eyes and turned to Hinata, who was just as surprised as their leader was. "You are a healer right? Heal her up and be done with it."
Hinata didn't wait for confirmation from Yagura, dropping down to the ground and placing her hands on top of the ANBU shinobi's chest. Having spent years healing Naruto's wounds, something like this was nothing, but it bothered her that the Two-Tails container knew she was a healer without having informed her of such. She had told Yagura, but unless Yugito had eavesdropped on their conversation there wasn't any other way of her knowing.
Unless Naruto told her…which is fairly likely. He never did know what was good to say and what was better to keep to himself.
While Hinata healed the ANBU shinobi so that she didn't die from her wound, Yagura stepped in front of the blonde shinobi and clutched at his staff tightly.
"Whatever disputes you might have with my people, they end here. I am the leader of our group, and I expect you to follow orders."
Yugito stared down at the ex-Mizukage for few seconds before reluctantly nodding. "As you say."
Both Hinata and Fu watched the exchange with concern on their faces, though Hinata could tell why the Kumogakure Tailed Beast container had gone so far in their first battle together. She was testing their leader's virtues, seeing whether or not he could be defied or not.
This alliance hangs by a thread. One more wrong step and we'll be fighting each other rather than the enemy. This mission is more dangerous than we thought.
Looking to change the conversation, Fu transformed back into her normal shape and regarded the body of the woman she had bitten. Her eyes were darting from one side to the other, even as the Kirigakure shinobi was completely paralysed from the venom she had injected into her neck.
"That was easier than I thought. I'm surprised they fell for the crying child routine."
"Everyone has a weakness," said Hinata, taking her hands from the ANBU shinobi's body and standing up to wipe them on her pants. "A crying child is difficult to ignore, even for the hardest of shinobi."
"And what is yours?" asked Fu with a feigned innocent look on her face.
"Cinnamon rolls," said Hinata with a longing look in her eyes.
The Seven-Tails container grinned at the young woman before turning to the pair staring at each other intently. "So what's our next move?"
Yagura finally tore his eyes off of the insubordinate Yugito, and looked at the four bodies in between their group. "We have to take their masks and uniforms, and hide the bodies so they can't raise an alarm. All we need to do is get through the civilians and into the village proper, then we shouldn't be noticed as an ANBU squad moving around the village."
"Sounds simple enough," said Fu, reaching down to grab the mask of the ANBU she had taken out.
After a few minutes they had hidden the bodies in a dark crevice and Yagura had created a null zone of shadows with ninjutsu so they couldn't be noticed unless they were stepped on. They pulled on the uniforms of the ANBU shinobi and placed their masks on their faces.
Hinata struggled to pull the grey armour over her front, taking several tries before giving up and tossing it on top of the Kirigakure bodies. She straightened out her shirt and shrugged, there wasn't anything else she could do. She asked if some of the ANBU wore something other than the armour, but Yagura assured her that it wasn't unusual for woman of her shape to go without the grey plates.
Fu looked down at her own chest, having taken one of the male uniforms, noticing that hers fit rather loosely in comparison. She looked back up at Hinata with a slight twinge of jealousy, "How did you manage them?"
The Hyuuga woman laughed and rubbed at her hips sorely, "You wouldn't be happy if you had them, trust me. The back pains are awful and they hurt more often than not."
As she pulled on her own set of armour, Yugito found it was tighter than her liking, but still fit well enough to be serviceable. It was strange wearing the uniform of another village's ANBU, she had worked extremely hard to achieve her position in her home village and this almost felt like an insult to the Raikage.
I'll make this venture worthwhile, and bring back something that makes up for the delay in bringing back Bee.
Yagura placed the last ANBU mask on his face and turned to the others, noting that besides the odd looking composition of their group, they looked every bit like the people he used to command. He felt a pang of regret as he recognised what they were about to do. He might not have been the most liked person in his home village, but he still loved his people.
"Are we ready to go?" asked Hinata, finding herself wondering how the ANBU shinobi breathed through the masks they wore. "I can't imagine these will hold up under close inspection."
"We will be going to the prison first, to release Mei Terumi. Then we can move on to the Kage building and go from there."
"That's been bothering me, actually," said Yugito, flexing her fingers habitually. "If he replaced the Mizukage with a doppelganger, why go through the effort of keeping her alive?"
"I don't know," admitted Yagura. "She may not be alive at all. It's a risk we have to take."
"It's a punishment."
The three of them all turned to look at Hinata, their masks hiding their expressions.
Hinata put up a hand to clarify, "Whoever is in control of the village is looking to punish the shinobi. What better way to do so than to make you watch your village burn around you, helpless to do anything to stop it?"
"That's why we are here," said Yagura, grasping his staff tightly. He had changed the look of it so that it didn't resemble anything like it had previously been, though Hinata was right, they wouldn't hold us on close inspection.
That was up to the distraction team.
"How the hell did they find so many ships?"
"It's clear they've been planning this invasion for a long time."
Utakata stood up on his floating bubble, his legs having gone to sleep while waiting for the second wave to appear. "But if they are making a deal with the guy in charge of Kiri, why such an invasion force? Why go through the effort?"
The Kazekage didn't have to think about it too much as he counted the number of ships moving towards them, feeling his blood run cold after estimating how many soldiers were about to rain death on them.
"It's a safety measure. If the man reneges on their deal, or wants to change something, the Quiraji leader can threaten him with the destruction of his village by posting an army right outside it."
"How do you know that?"
Gaara took a slow deliberate breath; he still had plenty of chakra to fight with, though his reasonable relationship with Shukaku helped him recover quicker than most. "It's what I would do."
His companion shook his head and ran a hand through his dark hair, "Why can't anything ever be simple? Why can't people just trust each other?"
"Do you?"
Utakata thought about it for a moment before grinned and bringing up his bubble blower, "Fair point."
Gaara looked down at the ocean beneath them, wary that using his sand as he had earlier would take too long and too much chakra. "You said you were from the Hidden Water, correct?"
The Six-Tails container breathed out slowly, "I was. What's your point?"
"Are we not on your battlefield of choice?"
Utakata looked down before turning back to his companion and placing his hands together into a handseal. "Move back."
The Kazekage floated backwards and brought all of his gourds to within a metre. He placed his hands together and began hardening his sand in one gourd to a hard mass. While he continued his preparation, Utakata finished a long set of handseals and placed his hands outwards at the large Quiraji army sailing towards them.
"Suiton: Bakusui Shouha!" (Water Element: Exploding Water Colliding Wave)
The ocean underneath the two of them rumbled and caved in to turn into a giant wave that began to crash towards the Quiraji fleet. The ships looked like they were going to be overwhelmed by the water wave that reached almost a hundred metres tall.
As he sent the wave of water at the ships, Utakata couldn't help but pant softly. He hadn't intended to make the attack so large, but Saiken had pumped him full of chakra and overloaded his tenketsu points. It was probably done with the best intentions, but Saiken wasn't particularly well suited to long drawn-out battles.
From their high vantage point, it appeared as though the front elements of the Quiraji fleet would simply disappear under the pressure of the wave. However after a few seconds it became painfully obvious that something had happened.
The wave wasn't moving, its momentum had been cut short and it appeared to be falling back into the ocean.
Utakata snarled and put down his hands, there was no point in trying to push any more chakra into the technique. "You were right; they haven't shown all their tricks just yet."
The wave fell completely back into the ocean to reveal five ships in formation with four Quiraji soldiers on each ship having their hands up in a defensive motion.
Gaara frowned uncharacteristically upon their appearance; they wore pitch black robes and looked more like cultists, better suited to conducting rituals and sacrificing animals.
"How many tricks do they have up their sleeves?" he asked through his teeth.
"What was that?" asked a confused Utakata, having wasted a large amount of chakra on that attack.
The Kazekage shook his head, he wasn't sure. But they couldn't afford to waste chakra finding out, that wasn't their purpose here. Using a small amount of chakra he created a third eye and sent it towards the fleet, hoping that something so small wouldn't be noticed so that he could gather some intelligence for a later battle.
Summoning the sand from the gourd on his back, Gaara collapsed his defences inwards and turned to his companion as his element floated around him. "You focus on attacking. If we use our aerial speed to our advantage, they should struggle to keep up with us."
Utakata didn't respond, but blew a large amount of bubbles around him to slowly form into humanoid shapes.
Good plan, thought Gaara. If we use clones they won't be able to tell who the real ones are, while we can attack at a whim.
He pulled apart the sand from one whole gourd around him so that it was a fine mist before sending it towards one of the outlying ships. It was difficult to see it moving even if you were looking straight at it, and he knew that they would win by creating dozens of smaller battles rather than the large scale attacks they had performed earlier.
As if anticipating their machinations, three cannonballs came screaming towards Gaara's position. He brought up two gourds worth of sand to defend himself, and it was lucky that he had taken the precaution as the cannonballs exploded on impact and nearly broke through his sand defence.
They are breaking apart the chakra that binds my sand together. They seem to have created more ways to fight us on the battlefield.
For a strange reason it didn't bother Gaara as much as he thought it would, as he began flying away from the follow-up cannonball strikes. If they didn't have such measures, they wouldn't have put the shinobi world in such a precarious position.
And if Rock Lee is any representation of our struggles, we've grown to fight them as well. The only real advantage of war. I hope we never have to use such things against each other, though that is probably wishful thinking.
His third eye confirmed the arrival of his sand mist above one of Quiraji ships, Gaara putting out his hands as if moulding clay and compressed the mist down into a score of small balls that were harder than steel.
Without hesitation, Gaara sent the balls crashing down into the ship, tearing through the wood while ignoring the Quiraji soldiers all-together. His theory was they were far less threatening without their ships, and while his balls of sand destroyed ship by ship, he would present himself as a distraction for the Quiraji to concentrate their attacks on.
Utakata took a different approach to his attacks, having created five clones of himself with his bubbles which stood in the same way he did on top of floating bubbles. The advantage of his bubble techniques was that it didn't take much chakra and he could change the contents to suit his needs, but they were only as destructive as his opponent's defences were weak.
As dozens of cannon shots came screaming towards him, each Utakata split off to attack a separate ship. He wasn't a fool, he knew that neither of them had the stamina to take out every ship in front of them, but each one they took out was one less that would make shore in the Land of Water.
With the speed of his travelling bubbles, Utakata was able to easily avoid the slow cannonball shots from the larger ships, though he could see as he got closer that the Quiraji soldiers were putting arrows in their bows to defend their ships from attacks.
However they never got a chance to fire at the clone of Utakata as he floated just above the ship and exploded in a large mass of liquid. He used the wind against the enemy force as the liquid fell on the front of the ship without the Quiraji soldiers able to do anything about it. The moment it made contact with the wood of the ship and the Quiraji soldiers it began to make a loud sizzling sound. It then started to burn, but only for a second before the acidity kicked in and it melted straight through anything it touched.
The screams of the Quiraji who had been touched by the acid were lost with the loud crashing of the ocean, but they were also drowned out by the sound of the ship collapsing under its own weight as the bow of the ship melted into nothingness.
Utakata performed the same trick with two further clones to similar effect, but wary of how quickly their enemy could adapt their tactics he in turn changed his method of attack.
He used his bubble clones to create a fine mist around a cluster of five ships, while Utakata floated down to the ocean and placed his hand on the wavering water surface.
"Suiton: Shouaku Tsume." (Water Element: Grasping Claws)
With the mist as cover, the Quiraji were unable to see the large hands of water emerging from the ocean, though they certainly felt them as they began tearing the bows from the front of the ships.
His two clones were taken out by lucky bow shots which caused the mist to begin to dissipate, but Utakata was already on the move. The advantage of being on amicable terms with his occupant was that he could use the second consciousness to control the hands of water attacking the five ships while he concentrated his efforts on moving back to Gaara's position. It was that kind of attack and run manoeuvres that would win them the battle, though if they weren't careful would be overwhelmed as he saw the Quiraji ships closing ranks to avoid the outlying ships being taken out as they had.
Gaara moved out of the way of a stray cannonball, but was grateful that his sand defence was automatic as several of the Black Robes made obvious gestures towards his position. His sand defence held up, but several holes appeared as he could feel something scrapping against his cheek.
The Kazekage felt up at his face, pulling back his fingers to see small drops of blood on the tips of his fingers. He hadn't worn his sand armour because of how much it had weighed him down, but judging by how easily the blows had pierced through his first defence it was clear it wouldn't have helped.
Unlike when he was younger, the act of being injured didn't scare him anymore.
"That was some kind of wind chakra," observed a recently arrived Utakata.
Gaara shook his head and tightened his defences to cover both of them, "No, that was something else entirely. It was pure spiritual energy, stronger than chakra but not as easily manipulable."
"How do we fight against something like that?"
"We don't," said Gaara, moving his fingers like he was manoeuvring a puppet.
Behind a small cluster of Black Robes that had taken position on a single ship floated his third eye, which changed its composition in line with Gaara's orders, forming into a small blade that was sharp on both ends. Knowing that the specialist Quiraji soldiers would attack again and likely strike a better target than his cheek, Gaara wasted no time in attacking them without reserve.
The blade of sand cut through the Black Robes as if they weren't there, taking out the six that were standing on the deck of the ship before they even knew they were under attack.
"We need another plan of attack," said Gaara, forcing the sand blade that attacked the Black Robes to dissipate into a fine mist and move to another ship. They would be on the lookout for such an attack now, meaning once again he would have to change his method of attack.
"I have an idea," said Utakata, slowly drifting down towards the ocean surface. "Something they won't be able to defend themselves against."
"Wait! Where are you going?" demanded Gaara, not entirely trusting the Six-Tails container to flee a battle that could go either way. "What is your plan?"
Utakata looked up as his body began to slip into the ocean beneath Gaara's position, "I'm unleashing the monster."
The Kazekage swore under his breath and dodged a cannonball from one of the artillery ships in the back of the Quiraji fleet. If Utakata's transformation took as long as his did, he would have to be on the defensive for longer than he would have liked. In these kinds of situation he would normally turtle into a sand cocoon and plan out a strategy, but with the Black Robes appearing on the ships they still hadn't destroyed, he knew his perfect defence was nowhere near as effective as he would have liked.
If his strategy doesn't work, we are going to need reinforcements, sooner rather than later.
"I'm pretty sure he didn't tell us about that," said Roshi dryly, staring at the village in front of their group.
Standing behind him, Han made no comment in return, but he wasn't comfortable with his position in the group. He knew he had no place on the ocean battle, and his infiltration skills were not his speciality, but neither was his part in this particular mission.
His companions were hardly the type he would look to work with either.
Performing dramatic leg stretches was the young blonde Naruto, who seemed perfectly fine with his deployment to their current position, even though his wife had been taken to the more dangerous part of the village.
Beside the Nine Tails container was the rapping Tailed Beast container from Kumogakure, who didn't even seem bothered by the fact that they were going to be attacking another village.
And then, of course, there was Roshi, who seemed determined to keep an eye on him. He hadn't let up as to how he worked out the information about the civilians, but Roshi knew him well enough to venture a guess.
If Han would be able to continue the things he used to do, his Iwagakure accomplice would be quite the hindrance.
And he did not tolerate hindrances.
"Are we still going to attack?" asked Naruto, feeling a little bit out of place with the older Tailed Beast containers. "This'll be a lot harder with that there."
In front of the Village Hidden in the Mist, was a massive wall that rivalled the one that had surrounded Konoha, with a pair of gates with the symbol for the Mist Village written on them. Even at the reasonable distance, the four of them could tell that there were no Kirigakure within the vicinity; they likely sensed their approach and hide back within their village.
"They won't come out, we gotta fight 'em pound for pound…"
Naruto looked up at him with an amused grin, "That wasn't bad, Bee."
The tall Eight Tails container put up his hands in his usual rapping pose, "If you dig that, you ain't seen scat. Fool, ya fool, we gonna tear this down and bring them out of their town."
"That…was less impressive," commented Roshi dryly.
"Any suggestions on how we break these fools' wall?" asked Bee, ignoring Roshi's remark.
Han indicated to the wall with his free hand, his other still sitting in his vest. "There is a large group manning the wall, observing us closely."
"Preparing to counter-attack, no doubt," said Roshi, sighing loudly. "This is going to be such a hassle."
Naruto took a step forward and put his hands together in his most used handseal, "I got an idea that might be able to coax them out."
The others didn't say a word as a dozen clones of Naruto appeared in front of the group in a battle line. If they were surprised by the ease of his using the shadow clone technique they didn't say anything to such an effect.
Naruto reached into the pack on his back and removed a camouflage-coloured cap, placing it on his head before standing upright. The clones stood in front of him in rigid formation.
"Alright you snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings! We are on a mission, and these festering maggots are all that stand between us and glory! Are we going to let this perversion continue?!"
"NO WE WILL NOT!" yelled the clones, while the other three Tailed Beast containers could only look on in shock.
"That's what I want to hear!" roared the original clone, crossing his arms over his chest and spitting as he said each word.
"ABOUT...FACE!"
The clones spun around in a single motion so they were facing the original.
"PRESENT…ARMS!"
His companions all watched in horror, even the normally stoic Han, as Naruto enacted his brilliant and inspiring plan of attack.
"Aaannnndddd…MOON!"
Each clone of Naruto dropped their pants and bent over, flaunting their rears at the closed gates to the Hidden Mist Village. In a single motion they swayed from side to side, while the original Naruto nodded his approval and deepened his frown.
Killer Bee roared out in laughter and went to join the line of mooning clones, but the Eight Tails within him threatened to implode in a violent explosion if he took even one step forward.
Roshi just shook his head, unable to comprehend how this could possibly help coax the Kirigakure shinobi out of their village.
Han merely watched without any emotion evident on the exposed half of his face, though a part of him wondering what event would occur after such a thing.
After half a minute the Naruto clones pulled up their pants and saluted to the original clone of Naruto before disappearing into separate clouds of smoke. He nodded to himself in satisfaction and stepped towards the still-closed gate.
"Come on out you cowards! Fight us like shinobi!"
"Kid, they ain't going to come out just because you flashed them," said Roshi. "They know they are safer within their walls than outside of them."
Killer Bee cracked his knuckles loudly and stepped up to his shorter companion's side, "Then maybe we should tear their walls down and make them come out."
"We said we'd keep the village mostly intact," said Roshi, though considering the composition of their group he doubted that would actually happen.
"Nothing they can't repair with a bit of elbow grease," grinned Naruto.
Killer Bee chuckled and clapped Naruto on the back, "You got the right idea kid. Let's bring some noise!"
Before they could do anything however, the massive gate began to swing open. Before it got to even a third of the way it stopped, having opened far enough for the figures standing behind it to fit through.
"Now we are talking," said Naruto, cracking his neck loudly before hopping from one foot to the other.
"Don't get too excited," said Roshi, not amused by the youth's enthusiasm. "It isn't like their whole army is coming to greet us."
"In that, you are mistaken." Han took his hand out of his vest and made a single handseal. "They did bring the majority of their military power."
The four of them stood in a staggered formation, as seven Kirigakure shinobi began to walk slowly towards them.
"Well this just got interesting."
Author's Note:
Again, I must ask for your patience in terms of the next release. I need to spend next week writing for a competition, so it'll be a fortnight until the next chapter is released. I know that's kind of a dodgy move considering how this chapter ended, but that's how the cards fall unfortunately.
If anyone was concerned, the people coming for the distraction team are not Edo Tensei. I dislike the idea of it on the offset, purely because they can't be 'killed' properly. Besides, anyone who knew the technique is dead so no concerns there. There will be explanations, I don't like leaving things unexplained.
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.