Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.

AN: Chapter title: A Caesar's Power Unleashed!

Nothing.

It was all he knew at the moment. He didn't feel anything as his eyes opened minutely before just as swiftly closing.

He resisted the urge to shake his head to clear it of the cobwebs as he returned to consciousness. He was a Jonin. He was use to abruptly returning to consciousness, coming back from the darkness only to be thrown into a fresh hell.

This was slightly different.

He was being moved. By the way his arms were just thrown over a pair of shoulders, he was with an ally. He wasn't restrained at all from what he could gather when he moved his hands slightly. With the invasion likely in full swing by now, no one was stupid enough not to tie a Shinobi up when they managed to capture them alive. He could already think of a hundred ways to get away even with his exhausted and battered body.

He could get away despite his exhausted, battered, and strangely numb body.

"Ah…Hey Ibiki." Kakashi caught sight of the familiar scarred man, his trademark trenchcoat off and on whoever was carrying him on their back. He figured the person was a woman from what he could see of their build from his position but still wasn't too sure. He didn't recognize the hair but the smell was familiar. A bit off, a weird addition he couldn't quite place, but it was still familiar.

"Looks like you're awake." Ibiki kept pace with him and his mysterious carrier. He smelled again but still couldn't figure out who was holding him.

"Unless I'm dreaming I'm being carried like this." Kakashi didn't adjust his position. He was too tired to do little more than make sure he closed the eye that held the Sharingan. He had mistakenly opened it for a moment and immediately felt a drain on his Chakra reserves. They were already depleted and only experience let him close his eye in time.

If he didn't have it, he would probably already be unconscious again.

"You don't seem like one to dream much." Ibiki drew closer, Kakashi could tell he shifted closed without even having to look at his side. He didn't need to with how close the voice was, with how two sets of sandals landed closer to each other now.

"I always like my sleep uninterrupted." Kakashi leaned his head forward on the mysterious carrier's shoulder but couldn't exactly get a good luck at them.

The smoke around them, the fact that his left eye was out of the picture thanks to the Sharingan, the fact that keeping his right eye even half open was a struggle like no other, and a few more things like Chakra exhaustion and likely severe burns he was mentally blocking out at the moment, made uncovering the identity of his carrier a bit of a hassle. After the fight he had been through, he was fine not worrying about which Konoha Shinobi was getting him out of harm's way.

Their smell was still strange.

"Only you would be concerned with sleep now Kakashi." Ibiki moved ahead, engaging a pair of Sunagakure Shinobi that thought the three traveling Shinobi were easy targets. He killed one easy enough, a kunai slashing over their throat, while the other evaded the same fate. They were partway through the hand seals for a Wind Release technique, when a wire string finished wrapping around their neck. Ibiki caught the shuriken by the hole in the center and tugged on it.

Blood poured from the mouth of the Shinobi as the razor sharp wire cut through their neck. Ibiki didn't waste time and dashed past time, his kunai finishing the job the wire had started. He left them hanging from the rooftops, the shuriken thrown to wrap around the falling body of their comrade. The dead anchored the dead, let him hang from the rooftops as a message to the rest of the invaders.

Death waited for them all for daring to invade the Hidden Leaf.

"So…who are you?" Kakashi looked ahead again, resting his mask covered chin on the shoulder of the borrowed coat.

He didn't receive an answer. The clawed hands holding onto his legs made him believe his mysterious carrier was an Inuzuka but he immediately disregarded that idea. There wasn't a ninken nearby, not even the smell of one either on his mysterious carrier or nearby. Besides, he knew most of the Inuzuka and the ones he didn't know he was at least familiar enough with to recognize. She didn't smell anything like any of the ones he knew. She moved differently too, lacked the innate ferocity most Inuzuka carried with them with every step.

Inuzuka was definitely out. Aburame?

No.

He had worked with them enough, knew how strange their insects made things. Nearly eliminated their scent, suppressed it as they grew older and made them amazing trackers when paired with Inuzuka.

The clawed hands were tapping on his legs. The taps were following a pattern that his tired mind took more than a few second to properly remember. It was Morse code actually. Pressure based.

Press. Tap. Press. Tap. C.

Tap. Press. A.

Press. Tap. N.

Press. T.

Press. T.

Tap. Press. A.

Tap. Press. Tap. Tap. L.

Press. Tap. Tap. K.

"Sore throat then? That's a shame of a thing to have." Kakashi's question earned a nod from his mysterious carrier. "Ibiki keeps lozenges in his right pocket. At least I think. It's either that or the antidote to some poisons. He's never really care whenever someone asks about it."

The shoulders carrying him shook before tensing, a noise escaped the damaged throat that prevented them from speaking and Kakashi had more information to go on.

Her throat really was injured, enough to render her mute for likely the rest of the invasion and likely cause pain even with limited sounds. He didn't feel an increased in her pulse from panic, couldn't find any of the telltale signs, so he wasn't being carried by some inexperienced rookie who thought losing her voice was some major setback. He was with someone who knew a Shinobi had to discard their voice for days sometimes, force herself to be quiet or suffer death at the hands of the enemy. Whoever was carrying him knew how vital silence was.

He could narrow down the list.

He could further narrow down the list with one question: Who would Ibiki give his coat too?

"Anko, is that you?" His question received a sharp nod.

The tension building in his body ebbed away. He actually could relax on her back now. Anko could be trusted. She was more than strong enough to take down most of the Shinobi they came across with one hand tied behind her back and blindfolded.

She cou-

Everything came back to him.

He remembered seeing her beaten by the two elders from Sunagakure, seeing her body being shredded in the vortex, and seeing the lethal poisons of the aged puppeteer sinking into her flesh.

Anko was torn back and forth by the roaring vortex, her blood soon joining the poison as she found it was impossible to avoid the countless weapons within the vortex. She narrowly avoided the multiple passes of the bladed puppets. She avoided being torn to shreds but she could already feel the dozens of poisons now burning through her veins, her body going through a multitude of reactions, and the pain ripping apart her mind.

She couldn't help but scream as she slammed into the ground, more poisoned weapons cutting into her as the vortex ended. She tried to rise but the two puppets crashed into her, their blades further tearing into her skin and two actually impaling her through the stomach.

He remembered her saving his life, even when he was such a failure. She managed to save him, keep him from certain death when he had failed to see his opponent's growth.

"Shakuton: Gi-WHAT THE HELL!" She recoiled, pushing off of his arm and avoiding the leaping snake that emerged from his Flak Jacket. Kakashi's eye even widened at the sight of the deadly serpent that drew itself back into his collar. He hadn't sensed it just as much as Pakura hadn't.

'Anko?' Kakashi looked to the bleeding Tokubetsu Jonin. He wouldn't hide or deny it, he was shocked at the level of skill she had. He had thought he had been aware of everything in the battle, forced to be to keep himself alive against a Kunoichi as skilled as Pakura, but he was clearly wrong. The snake settled behind his collar and, even though he had just seen it, he didn't know it was there by his senses. 'Anko.' Resolution entered his eye even as smoke drifted up from his collar, marking the disappearance of the snake.

He needed to repay Anko for saving his life.

He needed to save her life to make sure he could.

He remembered failing to beat Pakura, failing to save her after she had done so much for him, saved him even when she was so close to death.

Kakashi's abrupt movement, what may even become his last act, had made his body refuse any future command from him. He was lucky he could remain upright and not collapse. His broken arm made him wince but he did his best to ignore it, focus on the battle he still had to win.

His eye drifted to Anko.

'Anko.' He needed to save her. He still had at least some time.

At least he hoped he still had time.

"Anko…"

He didn't feel pain.

Anko was here.

The world was a bit too hazy. It was too unclear.

He was dead.

Even now Anko was helping trash like him, carrying the failure who couldn't keep a single promise.

"I'm sorry." It was all he could say, all he could say was how sorry he was for failing. He had failed another comrade, failed to save another friend. He has failed and he couldn't even bother with remembering them, visit the Memorial Stone every chance he could.

He couldn't even ask her for forgiveness every day, ask her to-

"You're not dead." Ibiki pulled back at his side.

He had seen Anko's eyes widen, figured what Kakashi had said. He was no doubt half delusional from the beating he had taken. Anko and her sudden fierce protectiveness over the unconscious Shinobi had eased up enough to let the scarred man give Kakashi a minor injection, something to dull the pain he would certainly feel when he woke up. He had obviously overestimated the dosage because Kakashi wasn't feeling anything.

He would definitely be wincing at least with how mangled his arm was, with the burns that covered his body from his battle with Pakura.

His body was likely entirely numb.

With how morbid Kakashi tended to be, he no doubt thought he had died during his fight. It wasn't exactly out of the box to think his clash with Pakura of the Scorch Release had been too much for his body to handle with how he had ended up. It was a miracle he was still alive, that either of them had made it out of the fight alive. They hadn't exactly resorted to low level Ninjutsu. He had sensed the battle despite the power of the Ichibi washing over the stadium.

The two had been trying to kill each other by going nearly all out from the start.

He also knew Kakashi wouldn't believe him without proof.

So he flung a senbon into his arm, directly in sight of his one currently usable eye.

He didn't react even if he saw it go in, pierce the skin.

Ibiki snatched the needle out before Anko could move and see it at the sudden shift of Kakashi's weight. He was just fast enough to then throw it towards another Sunagakure Shinobi approaching, making them grunt before a pair of shuriken from Anko finished him off, the strange Chakra she had unleashed earlier wreathing the weapons in a purple glow. Ibiki steered clear of the purple snakes that ripped themselves out of the already falling corpse a second later.

Anko had completely stopped to retaliate and the snakes joined as one as they slithered across the air, unhindered by gravity or anything else that would keep the animal it was an image of moving along the ground.

Sound came from her broken throat, hisses that drew the snake to her. It wrapped around her extended hand before it simply faded from sight, Anko's body jolting upright as she was consumed in a dark aura for only a moment before it was gone.

It also seemed that whatever had taken her over was gone.

She blinked and the purple glow that had taken hold of her eyes was gone. She was fully back and seemed confused about the purple aura of Chakra around her hands, the raw power that was simply consuming her for the moment.

It was gone and she tensed before beginning her run again with renewed energy.

'I really hope Jiraiya-sama knows how to fix this.' It was all Ibiki could think as the transformed Anko easily caught up with him before slowing down again, lifting a now blue eyebrow in curiosity over what had just happened.

Later

It was absolutely all he would sign to her no matter how long she stared him down. No matter how much her golden eyes began to shine with irritation at his secretiveness concerning the latest blackout of many. He still absolutely refused to tell her anything about what she did, why she kept seeing the snakes, kept feeling a massive surge in whatever power had replaced her Chakra.

She still glared at him, tried to demand an answer despite how she was forced into silence by how much pain any sound passed through her throat caused. He wouldn't even tell her why she had woken up unable to talk or looking like she did now.

Looking like nothing but a monster.

Later

She wanted to growl at him but it would hurt too much. She settled for lifting one hand away from carrying Kakashi and flipping him off as she shot forward, putting some distance between the two of them as she tried to come up with her own solutions. So far she had nothing at all but she could figure it out.

Back at the stadium that had once hosted the finals of the Chunin Exams, Naruto cursed as the sand that made up his foe simply fell away, blew itself apart in a punishing sandstorm that would had shredded any other foe, the harsh grains would have torn the flesh from bone for any other foe. He was shielded by the red cloak that simply appeared, showed the might of a Caesar as he used Chakra to keep himself grounded even as he growled at the irritation the sand was.

"You do nothing but run and hide you dog!" He snarled those words as he pressed forward, one step after the other as he searched for where the beast had hidden itself now. It had already forgone its massive size in favor of one more adept at hiding among the few buildings remaining around them, found even less reason to remain in a battle it had quickly learned it could not prove victorious in. He had tried to flush it out of hiding with sweeping strikes that ploughed through all before them, ripped buildings apart in pursuit of his elusive prey, but it was hopeless.

His foe had fled and it was beyond clear now. It had fled in the storm that was already ebbing away, showing itself for the smokescreen it had always been.

"COWARD!" He roared the word as the crimson shroud that had appeared fizzled out, dispersed itself as crimson wisps akin to flame. "YOU RUN FROM ME!"

He threw his arms out, demanded the battle he had long desired.

"YOU RUN FROM YOUR CAESAR!"

He received no answer from his foe, no cowardly attack that attempted to take him unaware from where his eyes did not look. He presented himself as the perfect target, beckoned all those who would do battle with him, the cowardly and courageous alike, but none came. His challenge was not answered by any foe, he was refused any battle worthy of his time.

The few remaining lowly fighters fled at his challenge, as the sandstorm was thrown apart to show him standing tall. The Sound and Sand Shinobi that remained did not wish to fight Konoha's own monster, did not wish to fight a Caesar like himself like the cowardly lot they truly were.

His lips curled into a disgusted sneer as he saw them race away, run from their battles simply because of his presence.

"To think, my Legion must prove itself to this world at last against the strength of such lowly cretins as these." He wanted nothing but for his glorious Orange Legion to face a foe worthy of its time, worthy of meeting the full strength of a Caesar such as himself and all those who bore arms in his name, but he could not have such a thing. He was denied such a thing because the cretins he did battle were just that: cretins. "Do none of you possess a shred of courage? Do none of you see the honor of falling to my blade, of falling to the blade of my glorious Legion!" He called out to them as he swung his arms out, enticed all who would seek to strike him to do so now. "Are you all truly that soft of heart! Do none of you hold a shred of true conviction for the war you have sought to unleash!"

Seeing them run, seeing them flee from battle, it disgusted him.

Chakra enshrouded his arm as he brought it before him, curled each finger back into a fist before splaying them out.

"You deserve nothing but to die screaming for such cowardice!" Chakra ripped free around him, consumed him as a roaring vortex like no other before. "If you shall run, my Legion shall cut you down like the cretins you are!"

His army of 100 appeared before him. A hundred Praetorians was all that was needed to lay to waste such a foe as this.

"Advance with steel and shield in hand! Show these cretins what true conviction is, teach them to fear such a cowardly act as fleeing more than death! Chase them to the last, chase them down and cut them down like the dogs they are!" Chakra wrapped around his hand as spiraling strands as a small part of his magnificent Legion roared its approval to such a glorious order. His red eyes shined like a wrathful inferno as he allowed the power to the seal to go free, to unleash itself at last. "GO FORTH FOR YOUR CAESAR COMMANDS IT!"

A hundred red eyes gleamed with delight, a hundred sets of fangs were bared to the world as the Praetorians lifted their arms, brought sword and shield together with a thunderous clang and roared their loyalty to the order of their Caesar.

"HOO!"

Raw power made ever increasing space become nothing.

The blades of his Legion bit into the backs of his foe, plunged through hearts and lungs. Blood coated the blades of his glorious Legion, allowed them to purge the lands that would soon be his from the existence of such utter cowards as those that fled before him. Red eyes shined with glee as they laid to waste such fools, let them taste the death a coward deserved time and time again. They would not die without screaming out their repentance for such an act, to flee from their Caesar when he demanded battle. None would die until they had suffered death a thousand times.

Naruto watched as his Praetorians butchered those that had deemed their lives greater than their cause and smiled. His rage abated as the screams reached him, as the ends all cowards deserved was rendered unto those before him by his glorious Legion, by his ever loyal Praetorians.

Blue eyes returned in the blink of an eye and he dismissed his helmet and shield. He did not need them when battle was not to be waged. He needed naught but his blade to slaughter any fool who dared to come to him now.

"Legate, the foe I so eagerly awaited has fled from battle." He pressed a finger to his ear as he spoke. "If you see that dog, inform me and I shall tear it apart for disrespecting its better in such a way."

"I shall keep my eyes peeled for such trash Caesar." Sasuke paused in his rush after the swift Rock Lee and the handful of Legionnaires that followed him did the same. They all seemed to have heard what their Caesar had spoken but it needed repeating as he turned to them. "If any of you see Caesar's foe, inform me! The dog must still learn!"

"HOO!" They answered with the hilts of their blades striking their shields, grins upon their faces at a dog knowing its place before the might of Caesar. Blue eyes gleamed with anticipation for being the one to show Caesar where his foe had run to, to be the one to let Caesar begin his battle once again and tear apart such a weakling as the Ichibi.

Naruto chuckled as he heard the eagerness of his Legion to find the beast that had made such a cowardly flight from death at his hands. He chuckled as he jumped onto the side of the stadium, beginning a climb to the top that took him mere moments. He did not savor the view before him, of the village obscured by smoke, of the numerous battles that raged below like ever gluttonous flames in a forest lit aflame. He did not focus on such sights before he had greater concerns.

Personal pleasure could come after business.

"Hokage-jiji!" His voice carried so effortlessly over the stadium that his Legion had evacuated earlier, called to the Hokage that held a mental conference with the heads of the strongest Clans that called Konoha their home.

He landed after a mighty leap before the Hokage, ignored the trio of ANBU Black Ops that silently appeared at his back, blades poised to take his life at his sudden appearance. They were ignored because his Praetorians answered in kind, a trio appearing behind him with shields at the ready and pilum ready to plunge forward.

"Naruto…" Hiruzen stared at the boy that had appeared before him as he rose from his crouch, took in his gleaming armor and his blue eyes that burned so fiercely with a light he had never seen in eyes so young, not where another had once burned so bright. The aged Hokage merely looked on at the ghost of the smile that left his face as he met his eyes, as he inclined his head ever so slightly as he did so.

What he felt was discarded for now, tossed aside as he sought to preserve the village so many had already made the ultimate sacrifice for, that so many more waited for their only chance to give up all they had to see the tree leaves bud anew.

Naruto cast his blue eyes to the feet of the Hokage, where two masked ANBU Black Ops held the Kazekage's children in place.

"Ah, I see you have captured some of the spawn of the man responsible for all of this." Naruto's smile was a thing to fear as he looked down at the two captives. Fear they had once thought they held for only one was eclipsed by a new fear.

The eyes that looked upon them promised suffering.

Those sapphires promised to make them embrace the sweet nothing of the end.

The empty eyes of the ANBU were warmer than those eyes.

He looked away with a low chuckle as he saw the two Genin press themselves away from him, into the armor of the ANBU that would kill them without hesitation. They would be quick with rendering such a fate at least. Cold professionalism would embody such an act to replace the cruelty those eyes promised.

A Caesar turned his eyes to the Hokage.

"It appears Konoha has been besieged." He could not help himself it seemed as he laid a hand on the hilt of his blade, let the other sweep out and encompass the village that burned around them, that was the scene of countless battles for the lives held within. "The Chunin Exams was chosen as the moment the enemies that have long laid so enviously in the shadows of the village's might have decided to reveal themselves, to show themselves for the cretins they are when they launched an attack to catch the village unaware." He brought his arm back in, brought it across his chest as a closed fist as he offered a more honest bow this time, let it be noticeable as he dropped his head to the aged Hokage that held steel in his eyes even now. "My Legion is eager to slay these fools!"

It was the symbol the Centurion of the Fifth and the Sixth had long awaited.

Power ripped free of the twin seals that burned on their arms as they slammed their hands into the ground, brought forth their Cohorts at last with eager smiles upon their lips.

Twenty Centurion drew their blades as one.

It was the sign for two thousand to do the same.

"FORWARD!" Two voices cried out as one and a wave of steel descended upon the invaders at last. Two waves of steel at last pushed away from the stadium, the two waves that made up each swinging wider and wider as a relentless and all-consuming tide of death.

Naruto enjoyed the looks of surprise, of awe, of horror, that could not be concealed at the sight before them. It made the part of him that craved such a thing, craved such a response from those he would soon rule over, bring great joy to a Caesar.

His Fifth and Sixth Cohorts at last were unleashed upon the world, a greater portion of his unfathomable might was unleashed for all to see and be in awe of. He could once again show all who sought to challenge his right to rule as a Caesar, his right to claim dominion over them all, as nothing but fools seeking to deny an unassailable truth of the world.

He was its Caesar.

All would bow to him.

AN: So Kakashi is back for a minute. He isn't in any shape to actually fight anymore but he's being his normal self at least. The Orange Legion finally joins the battle for Konoha as well. After a suitable show by Naruto.

As for Anko: She's still transformed. She's still keeping Kakashi safe.