Chater 4, all! Sorry for the long wait, but chapter five will come soon. I hope you like the lightning tigers!

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Chapter 4

And so the Lightning Tigers Come

Recap:

Attempting to sit up, the man dubbed 'Vils' tried to grab their attention, "It doesn't matter, leave me here! You have to run to the next base! The Chaos is following me and…and…" He had to stop, as he leaned over and coughed up blood

Trying to be comforting, Whitman knelt next to his comrade, "Shh…take it easy, Vils. Now, what were you trying to say? And what?"

The dying man turned to look at him with scared eyes, "It's the lieutenant, sir. He's dead."

End Recap:

The three rebels have been in shock for the past half hour, running on pure ingrained memory and instinct alone. The three, Whitman, Vanderson, and Dilram, were apparently all very close to the deceased as well as their leader. They reached a nearby factory warehouse which had long been abandoned, cleared of all raw materials and whatever they made there.

The building was old, with many holes in the thin roof and mold ingrained on the concrete walls. The group hunkered down, trying to fit in whatever scarce hours of sleep they could grab before they were in danger of being discovered and were forced to move once more. Being hungry, the ninja started to gather what they could to start a fire and cook some rations. The ghosts, noticing this, warned them not to do that, as they would be discovered all the sooner.

"Hn, who do you think we are?" Sasuke replied, "As ninja of the leaf, our fires are as undetectable as our assassinations." Unbelieving, but curious, the ghosts sat back and watched them do their work.

They quite easily succeeded in making a smokeless, but blazingly hot fire in a hastily dug pit. The eight ninja wordlessly gathered around both to hide their fire from prying eyes and to cook all they food they respectively brought (in sealing scrolls).

The ghosts, seeing their success eagerly ditched their ration bars and went to ask them for real food. The local faction, however, were already asleep, used to going days without food already. While everyone else packed light and only brought a few pieces of sushi, meat, or whatever their preferred food was, Naruto, as was his custom, packed in as many cups of instant ramen as would fit in three scrolls, and was happy to share with them in hopes of inviting people to 'the craze'.

Not even listening to Naruto's rants about the greatness of ramen (which the other ninja have learned to tune out by now, though Hinata did listen in once in a while, just to hear his voice), the stealth specialists all dug in to the delicious hot food at their own pace. However, Gaunt, having both officer's rations and his pride as an aloof commander on the line, contented himself with sitting in the outer ring of the fire, listening in on bits and scraps of quiet conversation while enjoying the heat of the ninja's skillfully made fire.

A few hours later, the sun was rising, and the group was done putting away all their equipment and were just about to open the door when they heard voices. Looking out through one of the holes in the wall, they saw a small battalion's worth of human soldiers in red garb and crude demonic masks, with symbols stitched all over them that the ninjas didn't recognize, but somehow invoked an instinct inside of them that was a foul mixture of wanting to throw up and run at the same time.

Of course, the other two parts of the infiltration group were there, too. The ghost's eyes widened, "Blood Pact!" Whispered Caffran, "Sacred Feth! How did they get in here! I thought we were finally rid of them!"

Gaunt shushed them, "What are they doing there, anyway?"

He was answered by Vanderson, "They're planning to search this block next. Apparently, they didn't finish last night."

"Shit, then we can expect at least some of them to head up here, too."

"Yeah, but be happy it'll only be some of them," said Whitman, "Let's just wait till they split up, kill the few that come here before they can radio, and then leave while their guard is low."

And that was just what they did. The ghosts climbed up onto the rafters in the roof, attaching themselves using bits of wire and hooks. Naruto and the others, however, used their cloaks and blended in with the walls, so that they were completely invisible to the normal eye.

The rebels, however, having no means of hiding or getting away, had to sit inside the pit, hoping they weren't detected immediately, or otherwise acting as bait to distract the Blood Pact soldiery while the others struck.

Of course, when the battalion split up, the biggest faction went straight towards the warehouse they were in. The twelve soldiers burst in through the sliding double doors, performing a quick preliminary sweep of the area. Not seeing anything from first glance (Luckily, the fire pit the ninjas built last night was deep), they spread out deeper into the compound.

From there, with their backs turned to the door, they didn't notice Tenten closing the doors behind them until it was too late, and the place was cut off of its main source of light. At that point, the ghosts began to lay into the blood pact, blasting them from their positions in the ceiling with concentrated blasts from their lasrifles.

When the ghosts saw fit to stop their fire, the ninja killed any survivors with quick strokes of their kunai. Leaving quickly, the group fled down the side of the paved slope, past a wide main road, and continued along their path only stopping in small storage sheds or silos for minutes at a time.

------?------

Pheguth. That was what she was called, that was what she was known as, and that was all she knows. She is a pheguth.

Pheguth, meaning filthy outsider in the language used by her jailors. A very derogatory term was her calling name.

She had just returned from that days torture, managing to live through another one of those grueling 'interview' sessions. Whenever she couldn't answer questions (due to the amnesia she had acquired somehow), they whipped her, beat her, and sometimes they would even bring the Savage Morticians, gruesome beings more machine than flesh, whose sole purpose was to feed their need for mortal skin to cover themselves with as long as they were alive. Just as skilled as Dark Eldar flesh doctors, they would slice her apart, pull out and stretch her organs, play with her bones, and play around with blood as if it were water.

It was excruciatingly painful, so much so that she would often black out, only to wake up hours later in her cell, hastily thrown in there after they found her useless for the day. All this pain and torture was almost unbearable, and the pheguth would give anything to stop it. However, not even the torture could rip the cloud of amnesia out of her mind.

Sighing, she looked to the wall where she imagined a window would be, for she was not even allowed a window, and imagined a bright sky filled with white birds flying south for the winter through clean air. Her thoughts drifted to a scene of a city with large stone spires, built small inside a large forest that seemed to cover the very planet. These forests moved and swayed with the wind, and seemed enchanted with a sentience that allowed them autonomy, unique from any other forest in the universe.

She went on to dream (for the pheguth could only find comfort in her dreams) of a small planet, with a single small continent of land. This land was wooded, mountainous, swampy, and a desert world all at the same time. This land, mostly untouched by the ravaging hands of time and development, seemed under much chaos and war, that possibly stretched for centuries. Yet, her real solace lay in the wooded area, in a single village where peace seemed not just a dream, but a reality as well.

At that point, she stopped being conscious in her dreams, and slipped into sleep, exhausted by the pain that she was put through that day.

------Infiltration group------

Naruto and his allies were making their way across the city to the capitol tower (the whole world was veritably one large city), of course, that was made difficult from constantly having to hide and the fact that the tower was almost on the other side of the planet. It had already been close to two hours, and the hastily disposed of bodies must surely have been discovered by now.

------?------

And discovered it was. The sweep of the block was quick and efficient and was carried out in just under thirty minutes. However, when they convened together again in front of the broken warehouse, not only were a good number of them missing, but the stench of blood and cooked flesh was clearly smelled in the air.

Four of the twenty-four men left were given an APC to go back to headquarters and inform their commander while the rest of them pursued the renegades that surely must not have gotten far.

Meanwhile, the four men had reached the small tavern that that section of the city's guard was based in and informed his commander. Or, they would have if their commander was not already dead at the hands of a thousand sons chaos marine.

The small troop of infantry were instantly rooted to the floor in fear and anticipation, wary of the ancient and arcane magicks of the warp that could be wrought by the mere whim of these champions of chaos.

The marine, who was the leader (judging by the helmet's dressings) of the five battle-brothers behind him, strode ponderously in front of the cowering Blood Pact footsloggers, "What is it you want?" it (for it was surely no longer human) spoke in a deep, cruel, hollow voice, "You seem to have something on your mind. Be sure that if it is trivial, I will have your head for the use of my time."

"M-m-m-my lord" one of the men began, his voice quivering in unhidden instinctual fear, "T-t-there are…i-i-infiltrators, sir. K-killed twelve of us w-within m-minutes, they did."

"Nothing more than a rat." The marine spoke, "Though rats do tend to infest and bother. Alright," it turned to its followers, "my marines! We hunt!"

The other marines cheered and disappeared, probably to start up their transport Land Raider. The leader turned to the troopers who informed him, "As for you four…I must give my gratitude. You have given us something with which to cure our boredom." At that, through their bill-hooked masks, their eyes shined with hope at the possibility of living, "So, as a reward, I will give you a quick death, as punishment for not bringing something more worthy of sport." Before the four could even open their mouths to scream, streaking energies of the warp had already rent their heads from their torso.

Naruto's group, the ghosts, and their guides had been running so long that they forgot how long. The ghosts were tired, their guides especially, but most of the ninja (especially Naruto) had energy to spare, especially at the excruciatingly slow pace (by the ninja's standards) that they had been running on. Of course, they all had to take a stop and rest inside a nearby pillbox (built for PDF use). This rest, however, signed their fate, as after no more than ten minutes, the Blood Pact's APC had rumbled into their vicinity, immediately noticing the enemy presence inside the bunker.

Pulling out tank-busting equipment (grenades, portable missile launchers, high caliber turrets such as autocannons or stub-guns, etc), the remaining twenty Blood Pact prepared to crack open the pillbox sheltering the obviously tired intruders.

The ghosts responded brilliantly, though, immediately manning the three autocannons on the lip of the pillbox opening, spraying cover fire into the enemy ranks and downing (probably killing) five in the first salvo.

The rest of them, managing to dive into cover, soon found it no safe haven as none other than Kakashi, Tenten, and Naruto appeared behind them, revealing themselves from behind their stealth cloaks. Before the men could even return cover fire, three of them had their throats slit and were already falling to the ground, gurgling in their death throes.

Right then, a small buzzer sounded, signaling the start of the work day for the civilians of the planet. All at once, scores of people walked out of the buildings, looking completely unaware (or at least uncaring) of the battle around them, probably completely desensitized the shows of military might by this time. This allowed the chaos soldiers to slip into the crowd, who, when one looked closer, were incredible pale, with hollowed eyes that screamed of despair and hopelessness, just waiting for death to come to them and release them into the arms of their perceived god-emperor.

Of course, the three ninja wouldn't allow the enemy to leave unscathed to call for reinforcements. So, calling the rest of the shinobi contingent, they pursued the enemy with gusto.

The enemy trail was easily found, the only thing covering it being the civilians themselves. The soldiers knew they were found, and so, in their desperation, started shooting randomly behind them, cutting down many civilians in their fervor.

Naruto, already shaken by the death of their guide's commander, as well as the looks in the eyes of the captured civilians, was now in shock at the sheer brutality and lack of respect for life displayed by the people he was fighting. What are they doing! They're killing all those innocent people! How can they just involve people like that, killing them like they're nothing? Naruto thought Is this…is this what is to be expected of war? Every war, from now until I die, will I see these people dieing every time just because they were unlucky enough to be caught in the crossfire?

At this point, Naruto could literally smell the burnt flesh of the dead that were shot down by lasfire. What was worse were the single autocannon and stub-gun they had managed to save, each with multiple drums of ammunition. These heavy weapons literally blew apart people, cleaving open wide gouges of flesh and leaving their ribcages and ruined innards for all to see. The ninja reared back in disgust at the way these weapons killed. Was there no compassion left to these people, to use such weapons of killing?

Suddenly, Naruto was flaring his chakra, alerting the ninja with all the power he was giving off as well as the Blood Pact by the ethereal blue light that represented his chakra. "No…more…" the blonde muttered.

Kakashi, who was the only nin hidden next to the boy, looked at him in sympathy. He sighed, Poor kid, first time he's seen death and war. First time for many of these genin. But Naruto's different, he's probably relating it to all the death and hurt and hatred in his past. Must be hard, to experience all that. With that thought in mind, Kakashi didn't stop him when he charged forward with at least fifty kage bunshin at his side.

---(a few seconds earlier)---

Currently, the blonde was in his own world, all the horrible, cruel, meaningless killing had overloaded his mind, which had long ago set up moral barriers to help keep his sanity, refusing to perceive anything outside that narrow, naïve view. But this, now, was far beyond the boundaries that his mind set for itself, thus shattering its barriers in the attempt to understand, breaking the fragile peace and stability that he had established all those years of his life.

So, now, all he new was a lack of hope for anything better, that all through this, this would be happening again and again, each time horrible, each time he would be helpless, and each time, he would have to move on until the next time it happened. And so, his subconscious, in a last attempt to save sanity, pulled together the shattered pieces of its barrier in the form of a promise. A promise that he would never have to experience this again, that he would die before he let this happen again, a promise that this would happen- "No more…" the boy found himself muttering."

"No more…" he said once again, more firmly this time, as if solidifying this promise inside his mind.

"No…" Naruto started again, before sucking in air, to prepare a kiai that would shatter the heavens with its resonation, "MORE!" At this, he charged, making upwards fifty kage bunshin to help defend himself from the incoming fire. He was only vaguely aware of his fellow rookie nine breaking cover to help defend his charge, yelling his name in hopes of snapping him back into cover.

Naruto was charging, a righteous feeling that he was protecting his self made promise, nestled invincibly in his heart, steeling his resolve against all danger. In the same fashion, he felt things beginning to slow down for him, as his hearing and smell shut down, and his sight focused into its tunnel vision, focusing only on the group of enemies that were killing those he had (indirectly) promised to protect. He saw dozens of kunai plow into two or three of the men, smashing through their facemasks to pierce their eyes, throat, and whatever else they could reach, killing the men instantly. Then, one of them fell back, an impression in his chest as he coughed blood that splattered across his visor. He hit the ground before two more followed in his wake. Probably the work of Tenten's weapons and Neji's kuushou, Naruto thought dimly.

However, with the help of the two heavy rapid fire weapons, all but one of Naruto's bunshin were destroyed by the time his charge reached the group, now only six strong. His bunshin had already made a rasengan in his hand and he was slamming it straight through the stub gun, disintegrating it and the gunner manning it, as well as the person feeding the gun with a belt of ammo. At the same time, his bunshin threw a kunai with an explosive note into the midst of the team manning the autocannon, exploding and not only killing the two manning the gun, but also setting off the extra ammo with the explosion's heat, killing another one of the Blood Pact who was raising his gun to shoot one of the Naruto's in the head.

Naruto was already advancing on the last soldier when Kakashi appeared behind him, stabbing the man through with a chidori. When everyone stared at the Jounin, wondering why he used it on an already weakened opponent, he answered, "Revenge."

With that one word, everyone understood.

Coming back to the pillbox where they left their allies and partners, the ninja helped patch any minor injuries and made sure they were all ready to go before once again, journeying towards their target. There had been a time during the battle, where a lucky shot arced fast and straight towards Tenten, who mistakenly tried to deflect the lasbolt with a kunai. Unfortunately, large amounts of concentrated energy are not easily diverted, and so the kunoichi's kunai was simply knocked away as the lasbolt rent its way through her shoulder. Luckily for her, the wound was cauterized by the shot's heat, and so other than the loss of one arm's use, she could continue to battle and afford to wait on patching up the wound until after.

Half an hour in, Gaunt turned towards their senior guide, Whitman, and asked, "Where's our next stop?"

"Well, pretty much every rebel in this section of the city has either been killed or captured in the fire two nights ago, so instead we're going to head towards the local graveyard, where they have a larger vox set and keep some of the prisoners."

Gaunt nodded and said no more.

------(Thousand sons, inside the Land Raider)------

The chaos marines were currently in the holding area of their squad Land Raider. All of them were discussing on where the target would be, how to track it, and what its next move would most likely be.

The Leader-priest, who was named Abannen, looked at his subordinates: Lebannen, Khorthus, Milthsy, Csiurrus, and Iunnibaris. "Now," he spoke, "The bodies have been found at this factory warehouse here (he pointed). If we suppose their target is the tower of holding, then they will most likely be going through this route (he traced the route with his gauntleted finger). If we also take into account the probability that the rest of the patrol battalion have already made contact, but lost, where do you think they will be? What do you think they will do?"

Csiurrus spoke, "As it is, I seriously doubt their forces are strong enough to siege the tower of holding themselves, so they will be expected to gather more forces. That being said, they are probably walking to this graveyard/detainment camp here to free the captured and rally them to their cause."

Abannen nodded, accepting the input, "Anyone else?" he asked.

The rest of the squad, seeing truth in Csiurrus' statement and unable to think of a better course for the ones they hunted, they agreed to set an ambush for them at the nearby detainment camp.

------(Gaunt's Ghosts, Konoha Ninja, and Local Rebels)------

They were close to the graveyard now, and the men were all nervous, committing their time to last minute equipment checks, looking to see if they needed something, were missing anything, or had something that needed to be repaired.

When all was said and done, the ghosts and ninja snuck their way inside, leaving the rebels to play lookout (and to secure a route of escape should the need arise). Approaching the guards, they all revealed themselves suddenly, as to surprise the sentries. The door sentries were quickly dispatched of by way of kunai. The graveyard sentries, however, were more alert and were only defeated after a quick gunfight.

The guards downstairs had by now heard the snap-crack of unsilenced lasgun discharge, and, like pigs to a slaughter, all of them ran up to witness what was happening.

There were 42 of the Blood Pact in all. Normally very disadvantageous numbers compared to the infiltration team's 18. However, with two people in the team with the ability to make hundreds of clones at will, a number difference of 24 was not actually much of an advantage at all.

With only a few minor and/or slightly debilitating wounds suffered by the ghosts in the skirmish, the team were already halfway inside and down the stairs when the sound of treads rumbled into the scene.

The six thousand sons chaos marines that leapt out of the land raider, evil and menacing as avatar of change itself, completely surprised the ghosts and caught them off guard. Although it was close, all of them managed to duck into cover with somewhat minor injuries by the time the marines opened fire on their position. Shoggy Domor, once again the unlucky one (due to a slight lag in his bionic optics caused by the sheer amount of warp energy surrounding the thousand sons), had both the middle and ring finger of his left hand blow straight off before he found himself safe.

Naruto, noticing this, reacted with anger, unknowingly letting a bit of red chakra show, turning his eyes slitted for all to see. This was an obvious sign to Kakashi that he was going to attack, and so he prepared the seals for a second raikiri to help support his charge should the need be.

Sure enough, the blonde charged straight through their fire, dodging and weaving this way and that, and by then Kakashi had just finished the seals to his jutsu. The Jounin sensei had finished charging his jutsu just in time to look up and see Naruto ram his Rasengan into the heart of one of those foul armoured beings. All the ninja were soon gaping in surprise however, after the chaos marine sat up so casually after having his heart pulped. None of them new of the auxiliary heart hidden between his intestines.

Naruto could only stare in shock as his jutsu failed, only able to watch as the marine raised a combat knife to stab the boy clean through the head. The chuunin closed his eyes.

The blow never came. When Naruto looked up, all he saw was Kakashi's hand, having this time pierced through the head with his own raikiri. Sighing in relief, the two turned towards the other thousand sons.

Wordlessly, the marines gathered around their leader. Cowards! Naruto thought, mind filled with the rage of being cheated. Unbeknownst to him, the leader was actually chanting a spell. Meanwhile, the others, shocked into inaction by the sheer power as displayed by the chaos marines, who were natural predators of the imperial guard, finally sprang into action as they realized the danger the two in front were potentially in, they all sprang out of their hiding places running towards the two in hopes of pulling them back before whatever the leader marine was up to was finished.

Offering up his body, the chief and his subjects actually floated into the air, and came back down looking, feeling, and something miraculous. All five of the remaining chaos marines' armor glowed an electric blue as lightning linked them one by one. The armor plates of their power mail extended and distended, trying but failing to cover its new host. What had gone into the transformation were five humans. What came out of it were five beasts, looking like pure lightning bound by power armor, their helmets little more than pieces of metal bent to look like an animal's face.

These new beasts, called lightning tigers wasted no time, Pouncing, they landed on the first and fastest of the people who were trying to help their friends, Lee. Naruto was already springing forward to help, but sprung too late, and could only watch Lee's abnormally large eyes grow larger in pure horror at what was happening to him. The boy's steps slowly stopped as he fell into shock to the sound of Lee's screams as the lightning tigers tore him apart, piece by piece. By the time the beasts were done, the unfortunate ninja's once proud limbs were strewn all about his body, stripped of any muscle it may have once had, and as for his torso, it was pulled apart as well, the ribcage torn open so that his innards were exposed to air as they were bitten, dragged around by the ravenous beasts.

While all this was happening, Naruto watched with glassy, dead eyes. Not long ago, his faith in the morality of man was broken, only to miraculously resurface as an undying promise and a prerogative for everything he would do in the future. Then, even if only slightly, he failed to protect his promise for the first time, shaking his resolve and his belief in what he did, but only angering him ultimately.

But now, now…not only did he fail to uphold his self-made promise for a second time, this time the victim was one of his most precious people, one of the few he really respected as a man of principle and one that he felt a certain kinship with, and he died in the most painful way possible, completely undeserving in his mind of someone who had only ever worked hard to fulfill his dreams.

Dreams…something that was taken away from Lee forcefully, before he could ever know the joy of achieving them. How many dreams of how many people: men, women, and children, had these monsters ripped away in their filthy hands in a single day? How many times did they laugh in revelation, not a single amount of regret in their tainted souls? How many times did brave people stand for their dreams, only to be ruthlessly killed, their dreams ended as well? And exactly, how many times, have they gotten away with this?

Why? Naruto wondered. Why must people suffer, die without knowing their greatest joy, just because of the whims of the privileged few? It just wasn't fair! He screamed in his mind. He screamed it once, twice, three times. Many times in that moment did he scream this question, and many times he was left completely unanswered by the heavens.

Finally, Naruto returned to the present, seeing a dead moment that looked to last forever in time. He did not stay silent for long however, his mind still in overdrive, it eventually burnt out. Letting out one last, malevolent burst of red chakra, Naruto screamed his final question unto the heavens.

"WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?"

At this point, his mind and body ceased to function, and Naruto collapsed on the ground in a heap. The moment broken, Kakashi and the rest of the team in hiding sprung into action, the ghosts shooting with all they had at the lightning tigers in hopes of drawing their attention while the ninja retrieved Naruto from his spot on the ground.

Upon seeing what had happened to Lee earlier, it was an unspoken decision that close combat was a no-go. So the ninja were forced into a support role, pathetically tossing their kunai and shuriken (along with the occasional explosive note) and casting a few long range jutsu.

The ghost's fire didn't stand a chance, however, to the armor and strength of the beasts that they faced. Not predicting the presence of anything stronger than a regular trooper, all the ghosts were outfitted only with a standard issue lasrifle or laspistol, which were honestly pathetic against the might of the lightning tigers in which they faced.

Which was why all the men found themselves in a tight spot when the lightning tigers charged, fully intent on wreaking bloody havoc on them.

: For those who couldn't tell, PDF stands for Planetary Defense Force.

Wow, cliffhanger, no? Well, don't worry or whatever it is you do, because chapter five will be coming within the week, I swear.

Like it? Hate it? Please review and help me improve!