Chapter 3 Fighting the Wind

He stared in shock for a moment. Surely it could have been someone bumping into his table. That was what he told himself. But when he looked up at Kakashi, he met two eyes instead of one. A fight was to begin. And at that moment, the strike began.

A massive earthquake tore apart the city. Trees fell into houses that had already been toppled, and the number of dead grew exponentially with every passing second. Screams shredded the landscape, buildings crashed to the ground with sickening crunches and bangs, and fire was everywhere. And it continued for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, after nearly twenty minutes of hell, the quake ended.

Naruto and Hinata found themselves near the building where Naruto had first stolen the forbidden scrolls, which had amazingly little damage to it. From there, they had a commanding view of the decimated front gates and their surroundings. They were the first to see the enemy.

The Earth-nins came like a flood. Not through the gate, though. Under it. They had created a new jutsu allowing them to move under the earth. It was called the subterranean strike method. But Naruto didn't know that. Al he knew was that nearly a thousand ninja had risen from the ground like the dead, and he had not waited to se who they were. There were a thousand more Narutos that the enemy had to face, and they attacked without warning. But the real one was running with Hinata, and they ran long and hard.

Kakashi found himself with both Sasuke and Sakura, inside a house that had only the roof caved in at certain points. They waited a long time, just listening to the sounds of chaos outside those walls. Suddenly, Kakashi jumped out the window, and then reappeared moments later with two teenagers, one in each arm.

"Sensei, let me down!" Sakura nearly fell over. Even now, Naruto was his loudmouth self.

"Alright." He set the blonde shinobi and his girlfriend over by the remenants of a kitchen table. Sasuke sat on the counter, looking out the small window, and Sakura was against the opposite wall.

"What is going on," asked Sakura, just mumbling to herself.

"Earth ninjas," wheezed Naruto. The running was starting to catch up to him. Kakashi's eyes went wide. He quickly walked over to the young shinobi and gently lifted him off the ground, setting him on his feet.

"You mean that they triggered the earthquake?"

"Yeah, but…then they came out of the ground. I sent out a bunch of doppelgangers and we ran." The teacher stared blankly at his student for a moment. Then he sat down.

"Shit." While this sunk in to everyone, Sasuke looked back out of the window. He pulled his head back just in time to dodge a barrage of shuriken. "Shit," he mumbled.

"Let's GO! NOW!" yelled Kakashi as a ninja knocked down the front door. He died instantly from a kunai being embedded in his throat. More spilled in, and the group ran towards the back door. Kakshi pointed out where to go, and the rest just ran. Hinata made it to the street first, and paid for it. She never had time to notice the shuriken whiz by. She never saw Naruto run over to her.

"Hinata!" he screamed.

"Naruto, get BACK HERE!" but Kakshi grabbed Sakura, dragging her the other direction, and the last she saw of the blonde-haired teen was swallowed by an explosion of golden-red chakra.

The blast was like a sonic boom that razed everything within a hundred feet of where the boy had stood. With Sakura watching, the bot had disappeared.

The group now made their way to the center of town, where the Hokage was. Amazingly, his house had withstood the entire earthquake plus all attempts made by enemies to topple it. War was everywhere, but Kakashi cut a straight path through the chaos, and the two chunin followed. They arrived inside the residence without incidence. Kakashi was soaked in blood, but it wasn't clear who's blood it was.

Inside the office were nearly forty jounin and a few chunin, Sasuke and Sakura being among them.

"I'm here, sir," said Kakashi, and the Hokage looked up.

"I know."

"What should we do. I heard that these are earth ninja, and that they triggered the earthquake, and to top that they have a new jutsu that allows them to travel underground. So should we kill them or spare them?"

"This is no time for games, Kakashi. You know as well as I do how hopeless our situation is. Are you willing to risk everything we have left in a headlong battle?" The jounin looked on silently. Then the building gave way. Glass and wood just shattered as the structure fell, and the occupants were flung around like leaves on the wind.

Sakura and Sasuke crawled from the wreckage with no major injuries. They looked around and saw that Kakashi was already fighting alongside the Hokage. The two had somehow managed to get swords and were carving circles in the ranks of the enemy. Both of the chunin knew they were of no use there. The enemy was closing in, and soon they would be trapped. So they ran.

The two remaining members of team 7 fled into the forest with the enemy ninjas following closely. All of a sudden, Sakura was not there. Neither were the earth ninjas that had been in pursuit. Sasuke was alone in the forest that he had so often wandered. But they were now empty. He turned to see where the enemy had gone, but there was no trace. They had used their new jutsu. But Sakura hadn't, and now he could see where she was. One of her shoes was next to the river that she had trained near earlier that day. But it was not the same river. Now it was raging with floodwaters poured in by the earthquake. In the blink of an eye, everyone was gone.