Ch. 26
Naruto had already dropped off the rest of the teams at the different villages and was now almost at the Hidden Sand Village. He was no longer using a Kurama avatar since it was just him traveling. As he reached the border, he was greeted by two Sand ninja. They looked very shocked to see him, so he just said in a voice that conveyed urgency, "I need to speak to the Kazekage. It's a matter of great urgency." The two Sand nin were still a little shocked but managed to nod at Naruto as they motioned for him to follow them.
As they reached the Kazekage's office, they didn't even have time to open the door as Gaara stepped out. He was accompanied by Temari and Kankuro. Naruto looked a little shocked, but he was definitely happy to see him.
Gaara smiled as he reached out for a handshake, but his smile slightly faded as he realized how tired Naruto was. He was breathing pretty hard and he was sweating heavily as well. Gaara said in a slightly concerned voice, "Are you ok, Naruto?..." Naruto gave a small nod. "Yeah, I'll be fine." Before Gaara could say anything else, Naruto continued in a grave voice. "As much as I wish this was a social call, I've come to bring urgent intel." Gaara nodded and said, "I can see that…" Naruto squinted then looked at himself and noticed he was still in his SoSP mode. He let out a small chuckle and said, "Oh yeah. Sorry about that…" The aura disappeared and Naruto went back to looking how he normally looked.
He said in a dire voice, "The reason I came here is because we have intel confirming an attack against your village-" he looked over to a clock that was hanging on the wall. 3:17 PM. "Less than 15 minutes from now…" Gaara's expression quickly changed to one of confusion and shock. Temari and Kankuro had similar reactions.
Gaara turned to Temari and Kankuro. "Go prepare our shinobi. Immediately." The two nodded then jogged out of the room.
Gaara turned to Naruto and said, "The Sand is grateful for the intel, and I am as well." Naruto nodded then said, "You know we've got your back."
Gaara nodded, then asked in an inquisitive voice, "Who would want to attack the Sand? And why?..."
Naruto replied, "All we know is that the attack will be carried out on six villages simultaneously." Gaara's eyes widened at the news as Naruto continued. "It's Hikan who's orchestrating the attack." Gaara tilted his head to the side and said, "Who's Hikan?..." Naruto paused then said, "Oh right. You guys only use hawks so you don't know yet... Hikan is the new leader of Amegakure." Gaara let out a shocked "What?..." Naruto nodded and said, "Yeah. He sent out an email today."
As Gaara thought about the new information, Naruto turned to him and said, "We wouldn't even know he was planning on attacking all of these villages if it wasn't for your intel." Gaara turned to him and gave him a semi-confused look. "What intel?" Naruto replied, "I'm talking about when you sent us the location of the plans for a future offensive against the Leaf and the Sand." Gaara paused for a second, then said in a wary voice, "I never sent Konoha any intel… We never got any new information regarding that future offensive…"
Naruto froze as he started to think about the implications of what Gaara had just said. He put a hand on his chin, then said in a low voice, "If you didn't give us the location, then who did?..." Gaara looked as confused as Naruto.
After a moment of thinking to himself, Naruto said in a angry voice, "It must've been Hikan…" As he realized Hikan must be behind the false info, his eyes widened in shock as he turned to Gaara, "If he gave us that false intel, he wanted us to steal that information from his computer…"
He paused for a second then said in a soft voice, "It was all a lie…" Gaara turned to him and said, "But why go to all this trouble. Why make you guys think he was going to launch an assault on all of these villages?..." Naruto couldn't think of an answer.
While Naruto was still thinking, Gaara said in a nervous voice, "Who is currently at the Hidden Leaf Village..." Naruto thought about it then said, "Well our strongest shinobi are providing aid so-..." It was at that moment that Naruto realized the village had been left open to attack. He turned to Gaara and said in a silent voice, "He just wanted us gone….."
Gaara looked at Naruto with an obvious concern, then said, "You need to go… now." Naruto nodded, then jetted out of the office and went into his SoSP mode as soon as he got outside.
Temari and Kankuro were standing outside and watched as he folded his hands and flew off the ground, cracking it in the process.
Soon after, Gaara ran out of the building and watched as Naruto faded out of sight. Temari turned to him. "What was that about?..." Gaara continued to look out into the distance as he spoke. "Naruto just realized that the Leaf got some false intel." After a short pause, Gaara continued. "The Rain has a new leader." Temari and Kankuro's eyebrows raised in shock as Gaara continued. "His name is Hikan. It seems like he gave them false intel so that he could be attack while they were weak."
As Temari and Kankuro took in the information, Gaara said in a firm voice, "Prepare the shinobi just in case there's an assault…although I doubt there will be…" The two nodded, then headed over to an adjacent building.
As Naruto rushed back towards Konoha he felt nothing but rage as he thought about how Hikan had set them up. He was hoping against hope that he would find the Hidden Leaf untouched.
Naruto was sweating profusely as he arrived at Konoha. He felt a wave of dread and sadness hit him all at once as he saw the huge crater of destruction. He could see the people below along with some of Tsunade's slugs. He could hear the sounds of the people digging through the rubble. The air was filled with the smell of wooden ashes, torn metal and dust.
He looked into the huge crater of destruction and slowly descended into it. As soon as he landed, his SoSP mode wore off.
He noticed Tsunade standing by a wrecked signpost. 'Konoha P.D.' He looked to her left and saw a family of three. Two kids and a mom. He watched as an endless stream of tears ran down their cheeks. The dad must not have made it.
He slowly walked to Tsunade as he agonized over the destruction and said in a sad voice, "How many?..."
Tsunade sighed and replied in a solemn voice, "307 dead. 102 seriously injured… Everyone's been cleared out from under the rubble. Most of the injured have already been brought to the hospital. Right now we're just performing a secondary sweep…" Naruto dropped his head and let out a long sigh. How could they have let this happen. The people of the village counted on them, trusted them, believed in them… and they let them down.
After a few seconds, Naruto looked out into the crater and asked, "Hikan?..." Tsunade slowly nodded. "He arrived a little while after you guys left..." Naruto already knew the answer, but for some reason, he needed to hear Tsunade say it.
Naruto couldn't think straight at the moment, so he just put his head into his hands and sat in the rubble. With all of his power, there was nothing he could do.
Sasuke turned to the Tsuchikage, "What time is it?" Onoki looked at a small watch he had on his wrist. "Way past time for this assault to have taken place…" Sasuke remained serious as he asked again, "What time is it?..." Onoki paused, then said, "3:40."
Sasuke looked down as he started thinking. This was strange. It was now 10 minutes past the time that the attack was supposed have taken place.
After a few moments of thought, he turned to Onoki and said, "Something's wrong. I'm going back to Konoha." Onoki thought about it, then said, "I agree. This is very strange. Our scouts see no sign of an approaching enemy. You all may have gotten some bad intel…"
Sasuke looked out into an open space as his Rinnegan started glowing a vibrant purple. A purple swirl started forming, and before long, a full portal had been opened. Sasuke turned to Onoki, "Sorry if we wasted your time." Onoki quickly replied, "If I had intel similar to what you guys had, I'd have done the same thing." Sasuke nodded, then jumped through the portal.
Naruto was still sitting down when he saw Sasuke's portal start forming near where the main gate used to be. He quickly stood up as he watched Sasuke jumped out of the portal. His eye was missing their tomoe and he looked liked he was out of breath. The constant traveling had definitely taken its toll. He looked as tired as Naruto was feeling.
As Sasuke jumped out of the portal, his eyes widened as he looked around at the destruction. He looked over to his left and saw Naruto and Tsunade standing near some rubble. He walked over to the two and asked in a quiet voice, "What happened?..."
Tsunade let out a sigh before replying. "That intel we got from Gaara… Hikan altered it. He led us to that intel on his computer so that Konoha would be left undefended, then he launched an attack a little while after you guys left."
After a short pause, Sasuke shook his head and said, "He knew we'd try to help the other villages…" Tsunade looked out into the rubble then said in a low voice, "He counted on it…" Sasuke looked out into the crater once more as he thought about how they had all been deceived.
As he took in the info, he looked over to Naruto who was just standing there. He looked not only dejected, but also physically drained. He was looking down into the ground and sweating a lot more than Sasuke was accustomed to. Sasuke felt a little sorry for him because he knew that he always felt like he was responsible whenever something happened to the village. He wasn't even the Hokage, but it was obvious how much he cared about the village and its people.
After a few moments, Sasuke looked out into the crater pensively. He cast a glance to Tsunade, then to Naruto. After a few seconds, he looked down into the ground, then lifted his head with a look of pure determination.
He rapidly put his hands into a ram hand sign, then quickly changed to a serpent hand sign. The King of Hell erupted from the middle of the crater as Sasuke yelled out, "Gedo Art of Rinne Rebirth!"
Naruto's head swiveled over to Sasuke as he yelled, "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Tsunade was also now looking at Sasuke with an intense stare. Sasuke looked forward with a determination in his eyes and replied, "The only thing I can do…"
As Naruto looked at the King of Hell in the middle of the crater, he turned to Sasuke and yelled, "I won't let you do this! You don't even have a lot of chakra right now!" He started running towards Sasuke, but before he could do anything, a flurry of green souls started flying out of the King of Hell's mouth. Naruto stopped a few feet away from Sasuke as he saw that the jutsu had already begun.
Sasuke was struggling to keep the serpent hand sign as he replied. "A little too late to stop me now... Besides, I have to do this..." Naruto replied with a quick, "Why?!" Sasuke looked out into the crater. "This is my shot at redemption...I'm taking it..." Naruto paused, then looked over to Sasuke and said in a softer voice, "I won't let you trade your life..."
After a short pause, Sasuke smirked and said through heavy breathing, "If it were you, you'd do the same… Even though you're fighting me on this, I know you understand..." Naruto clenched his jaw. He did understand, but even though Sasuke was right, he couldn't let things end like this. As he started thinking about what to do, his expression turned to one of dread. Sasuke's hair was now turning white starting at his scalp.
As the souls left the King of Hell's mouth, Sasuke felt a sharp pain and brought his left hand up to his Rinnegan. He let out a grunt of pain and fell to the ground. "Sasuke!" Naruto ran over to Sasuke while the King of Hell's mouth immediately closed and the statue started receding back into the ground.
Naruto stood there in shock as Sasuke laid on the ground gasping for air. Just then, Naruto got an idea and said, "I'll give you some of my chakra again…" Sasuke let out a pained chuckle. "You barely have any…" Naruto clenched his fist, then it started glowing a faint orange. "For a friend... I have enough..." Sasuke looked at him for a few seconds with a stare of respect, then gave an agreeing nod. As Naruto started concentrating to transfer the chakra, Sasuke said in a hushed voice, "If I don't make it... just know that you were more than a brother to me..." Naruto refused to look at him and said in a firm voice, "You'll make it." Sasuke gave one last smirk then said, "Still the optimist.." before slipping into unconsciousness.
Naruto tried to stay calm despite the circumstances. After he was ready, he turned to Tsunade. "I'm gonna give him just about everything I have left, so after I give him this, I'll fall asleep… Take care of him…" Tsunade nodded, then Naruto placed his hand on Sasuke's chest. After a few seconds, Naruto let his eyes close as he hoped that his last effort to save Sasuke's life wasn't in vain.
Author's Note
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