REBIRTH OF THE LEAF – THE GREAT AMULET CHASE
Outside the Village
Two bodies lay right next to one another. It is poetic, artistic how perfectly they have landed, facing one another, looking each other in the eye. These are the bodies of Uzumaki Boruto and Uchiha Sarada. Not a few moments ago, they had been discussing their true feelings for one another. In a place like this, for people as powerful as them, it is near impossible to put them down in an instant, even for Naruto. Only one man could hurt them in that moment and that person had acted.
The person responsible for their position, their ruined moment of happiness is the Kazekage clan's Shinki. During his tenure as Kazekage, Shinki had always believed, he had always followed the principals set down by Naruto and his father. That faith had taken years to fully develop and had been crushed in an instant. It goes to show just how fragile a relationship of trust is, even between family.
The Hokage and her Shadow Hokage are laying peacefully in the grass. The only noise to be heard is the wind scattering through the field, shaking the leaves from the trees. Disguised by this noise, someone makes a silent approach, not out of necessity but instead out of habit. The approaching man has great concern for both these people, one of them is his own student.
This man is Senju Hashirama.
The 1st Hokage is a medical expert, with his ability to administer treatment previously unrivalled throughout history. Unrivalled until another transmigrant of Asura showed up. Unrivalled until Uzumaki Naruto showed up. Using his masterful skills, he checks over both the downed Circle members.
'They will be fine' Hashirama notes before standing up and looking around. 'But, what was that strange chakra?'. Hashirama is amongst a very small group of people in this world who could defeat Boruto and Sarada. Amongst that group, only two could defeat them using chakra, himself and Naruto. As the two teachers of the injured, it would not make sense for either of them to injure Boruto or Sarada. He concludes that it must be the owner of this chakra, this unfamiliar chakra.
Absorbing nature chakra from the surroundings, Hashirama stretches his sensory abilities to the limit. While he cannot sense the attacker, he can sense that various chakras are currently acting unusually. Unfortunately, it is a very dangerous group that are suffering similar consequences to the two before him.
'The other Hokage are all down… Mirai too' he concludes as he looks over the recently rebuilt village.
Just as he finishes assessing the situation, a lot of options suddenly present themselves to him. A group of four shinobi emerge from the Hidden Leaf's gate, a group that likely represents the most powerful conscious shinobi, other than himself. First, a short distance in front of the others, is Shinki, who appears to be running away from them at a first glance. Trailing him is the Leaf's latest Ino-Shika-Cho formation, headed by Shikadai. From the way, he has positioned himself close to the ground, the elder Senju brother notices that this matches his previous observations, Shikadai is likely in pursuit of Shinki.
'This group must have something to do with this' Hashirama determines before running after them. He decides that for now it is best not to come to any hasty conclusions, for now he should just follow, who knows, the perfect opportunity may present itself to him.
The Pursuit
"Shikadai, what are we going to do?" Inojin asks, looking sideways to the leader of their group. The Hokage's assistant has always had fantastic judgement, he has always come up with flawless plans and he has led them to victory countless times, Inojin trusts him to do the same here.
"We have to get those amulets away from him and we have to do it now" Shikadai replies with a sense of urgency in his voice.
How can he not be urgent, knowing what he knows? Each of these amulets represents a life, each of them has the same power exhibited by the one his father used, the power to kill at a moment's notice. One of these amulets represents his mother's life. Even when thinking unselfishly, he realises that this could be a disaster for the village. If Shinki is to really kill the Hokage then the village will be entirely in the hands of Clyde and his men. This is an unprecedented danger, not just for the shinobi lives Shinki is holding in his hands but for the men and women of this entire world.
"We shouldn't rush, should we?" ChouChou asks, favouring the cautious approach against an opponent with the might of the Kazekage, "It's a long way to the place we found him".
"It took so long to come back because we were bringing civilians with us. Going at this speed it won't take us too long before we get there" Shikadai explains, his voice still filled with urgency as he focuses his attention on his cousin. "Plus, the temple may be closer to us than the point where we found him".
"We can't afford to waste time" he continues, "We have to act now".
Inojin doesn't argue, he knows better than to doubt the instincts of Shikadai. He simply nods, "Alright".
"Got it" ChouChou adds. All three of them are on the same page.
Inojin reaches behind his back, drawing the first few yards of his scroll out and preparing his brush. With speed trained into him by his father, he paints a trio of flying beasts. These beasts have superior speed and manoeuvrability, a perfect mount for the Leaf trio, the question is, do they have better speed than Shinki.
"Remember, don't destroy the amulets" Shikadai shouts to his teammates, "No matter what, we can't let them be damaged".
The trio fly around Shinki at altitude, each riding on the backs of these giant birds. They wait for the perfect moment, they wait for the ideal terrain. When that terrain happens upon them, it is Inojin who dives.
Atop his ink-bird, Inojin dives. He stretches out his hand and tries to do something which sounds so easy but is, in reality, so hard. He tries to take hold of one of the amulets, he tries to take a comrade's life into his own hands.
He is stopped.
Iron sand blocks him off, iron sand which is curved, representing a small fraction of the sphere it has the potential to make. This is the defence that he has forged through years of hard work and determination. This is his imitation of his father's perfect defence.
"NOW" Shikadai shouts to ChouChou.
The chubby shinobi takes her turn, using the ink-bird that Inojin created, she dives. Her reactions and speed are fantastic, perhaps even superior to those of her two teammates. Despite their recent lack of success, this is still a team containing three of the Leaf's strongest shinobi from the modern day.
Shinki splits his iron sand in half, creating an even more complete sphere to block ChouChou.
Now it is Shikadai's turn to dive.
Shinki almost laughs as he sees his cousin diving towards him. To attack from three sides, one after another, like they are doing at the moment is a naïve strategy. It is something only a fool would do. Then his temptation to laugh stops, he realises who is diving towards him.
He isn't fighting against an idiot with a terrible strategy.
He is fighting against Nara Shikadai.
He splits his iron sand into a third part, anticipating the arrival of the ink-bird and blocking it.
'Just according to plan' Shikadai shouts in his mind as he approaches the third direction Shinki has blocked. He rolls off the ink-bird, sliding on towards the amulets on his stomach, like a penguin along ice. Elegantly he approaches the opening in his cousin's perfect defence. Or, at least what he believes to be an opening.
In reality, there is no opening. That is the very meaning of a perfect defence. Once again, Shinki divides his iron sand, blocking off the approach. They have managed to use four different approach directions with three people, yet still they have found no opening.
Shinki throws his hands out to his sides. His iron sand explodes outwards a short way before re-concentrating around him. That moment of outwards thrust is enough to push all three Leaf shinobi off their balance.
Initially, they roll uncontrollably. Normally, they would regain their footing slowly, assuring their own health and wellbeing but there is no time for that here. Each of them leaps to their feet and returns to the pursuit.
"His defence is too strong" Inojin proclaims as he runs alongside his teammates, "Even when attacking from all angles, we can't take the amulets".
"No, we can" Shikadai defiantly shouts, encouraging not his teammates but himself. For the first-time since watching the Hokage battle, he is starting to believe in his own power.
"Every defence has a weakness, we are going to find his no matter what".
"But, it doesn't have a weakness, it's a perfect defence" ChouChou shouts back at Shikadai. She acts like she can return rational thought to him by raising her voice. "How are we supposed to find a weakness it doesn't have".
"It's based off the 5th Kazekage's perfect defence" Inojin concurs.
This statement sets off a lightbulb in the Nara's brain.
"I've got it" he says, instantly bringing smiles to the faces of those who doubted their chances less than ten seconds ago. "Uncle Gaara's defence was near perfect but it was automatic, Shinki has to control it manually. Inojin, get ready to attack, I need you to provide a distraction".
"I've got it" the Yamanaka clansmen replies. The scroll behind his back unrolls even faster than before and he exercises his pen control to the limit. Drawing as many things as he can as fast as he can. This is a power that has taken years to develop and always has room to improve. This is the power of Yamanaka Inojin.
"ChouChou, get in a position where you snatch the amulets at a moment's notice" Shikadai demands.
"Leave it to me". Taking the command to heart, ChouChou runs to her side, giving her a diagonal approach from Shinki's rear. It's an unconventional approach seldom used by shinobi, it is not an approach that history has encouraged, not one that has been developed by others. It also has its advantages though, there are fewer practiced shinobi in how to defend against it.
Shikadai speeds up his run, moving sideways slightly as he does so, he comes level with his cousin. They sprint through the fields of the Land of Fire parallel to one another, like youths playing in the summer.
As Shikadai comes level with Shinki, he gives a slight signal to his teammates. Inojin takes this as his cue, he lowers his hand, commanding a small army of ink-birds to dive towards Shinki. While none of them can get through his spherical defence, they force him to use its full coverage. The only thing connecting his air supply to the outside is a small gap between the sphere and the ground.
This gap, is large enough to exploit.
Shinki looks down and starts at what he sees.
As the iron sand around him returns to his gourd, he sees clearly that his initial suspicions were correct.
He is caught in the shadow imitation jutsu.
The shadow imitation jutsu cannot restrain like Shinki for too long, but it is just long enough for them to pull of their plan.
Covering his eyes with his hand, Shikadai forces Shinki to do the same, momentarily blinding him. "Now" he screams as the opening he created arrives.
ChouChou uses her expansion jutsu, optimising the size of her hand before reaching towards the formation around Shinki. She grabs at amulets, harvesting not one but multiple in one go before Shinki can react.
The Sand shinobi can feel in the air what must be happening. He cannot tell where ChouChou is and forcefully overcoming the shadow possession jutsu is proving difficult and time consuming. He resorts to his last option in this situation, he furiously circulates his sand with his sphere, hitting a hand as large as ChouChou's is inevitable and he is determined that when he does, he will cut it off.
ChouChou pulls her hand away as the iron sand is about to hit her. This is a success though, she has a large portion of the amulets. Likely, several Hokage's lives have been saved in this moment.
Shinki forcibly removes his hand from his eyes, using raw, overwhelming chakra to break free of his cousin's shadow imitation jutsu, a feat only a few shinobi are capable of.
The moment he removes his hand he blasts iron sand at Shikadai, causing the latter to dodge, before regrouping with his two comrades.
"ChouChou, how many?".
ChouChou opens her now normal sized hand to reveal a small collection of amulets, a significant number considering their importance.
"Good job" Inojin praises.
Shikadai is distracted while his friends complement one another. He is still focused on the chase, on the man in front of them, on the man who is still the greatest threat to the Leaf at this moment. 'Why isn't he reclaiming the ones we have taken from him'.
"Shikadai, we've got more than half the amulets" Inojin says with a wry smile, "If we keep pursuing him we are running a risk of…".
"No, keep on him" Shikadai interrupts Inojin with a roar, "We're going to take all of them and save everyone. We're the Ino-Shika-Cho, aren't we?"
"He won't fall for the same trick twice" ChouChou points out, "He will lookout for a shadow".
Shikadai smiles knowingly. "It doesn't matter".
ChouChou startles at this confident attitude her teammate is showing.
"I have one more method I can use" he reveals.
"ChouChou, get ready to attack from the top".
"What about the amulets" she asks, highlighting the importance that none of these puppets get injured. One of them could well represent the life of Temari or Mirai.
"Don't worry, he will stop your attack, he needs the amulets just as much as we do".
ChouChou, once again, is stunned for a moment. This is not the decision of someone doubting his own power. This is the tactical decision of someone truly confident, truly powerful, who trusts their intelligence enough to depend on the enemy to act. This is the Nara Shikadai who won many battles with his brain. This is the man who is famous throughout the village for winning with his head. He is back. At least, for now. "I've got it".
"Inojin, creates as many ink-birds as you can, have them attack all at once".
"OK but the creatures themselves won't be strong enough to puncture his defence, they will probably…".
"Just trust me" Shikadai reassuringly smiles towards his childhood friend, "I can do this".
"Alright, let's do this" ChouChou shouts as she enlarges her hand to its maximum size and brings it down on Shinki with force.
'Your size doesn't make you as strong as you think'. The Kazekage mocks ChouChou in his mind as he uses his iron sand to block her, fully confident that he will be able to form the rest of his sphere at an acceptable strength too.
BOOM!
Much to Shinki's surprise, a smoke bomb explodes next to him. A Nara special.
'I can't see beyond two meters but that's fine, I'll be able to see if a shadow is coming'.
Suddenly, he realises this is a golden opportunity. So, Shinki reaches into his pocket.
This is the moment chosen by Inojin, all of his ink-birds dive at once. His duty is simple, attack Shinki from all sides, force Shinki to maximise his concentration on defence.
Hashirama watches the Leaf shinobi from a distance, a smile on his face. From the shouts and screams he has managed to work out roughly what is happening.
'Shinki, you spared me from sharing the other Hokage's fate. You thought because I voted with you in The Circle, that you and I fight for the same reasons. But that's not true…'.
As Hashirama speaks in his mind, the ink-birds approach their target. The iron sand starts to lift, the fateful collision approaches.
'I am fighting to fulfil the will of the dead. To fulfil my wife's dying wishes. While you are chasing your own revenge'.
Shikadai starts his sprint towards Shinki.
'That is why you will lose this fight' Hashirama finishes.
Shinki spreads his iron sand out perfectly, an imitation of his father's perfect defence. An impenetrable sphere that covers all sides.
BANG!
Shikadai thrusts his hand straight through the sphere!
Shikadai takes hold of the remaining amulets.
'Impossible' Shinki screams in his head before Shikadai pulls his arm, along with the remaining amulets, out through the 'perfect' defence.
Shinki's formation of amulets, is finished.
The Ino-Shika-Cho reunite, running alongside one another.
"Did you get them all, Shikadai" Inojin asks anxiously. The three of them and Shinki have stopped running, so he assumes he knows the answer but he has to be sure, is the nightmare over?
"Yeah, I got them" Shikadai smiles, elating his two closest friends.
"But how did you do it?" ChouChou questions.
"He distributed the amulets to prevent you grabbing them all at once. Of course, if he kept them all in his gourd, we would have got them with the last trick".
"It was the way he was suspending them, he used iron sand".
"Knowing my cousin, that gourd would always be filled with the exact amount required for his perfect defence".
"However, he used up a little bit of that sand, he used it to create the formation of amulets. He didn't have enough left, so his perfect defence weakened".
"We forced him to distribute his iron sand evenly in a sphere, that's when it's at its weakest".
"I memorised the position of every amulet and did what I could never normally do. I broke through the barrier with sheer force".
Shikadai is not without wounds from this battle. He lifts his arm to show to his teammates. All along its length there are cuts. As if his arm has been assaulted by an army of knife-wielding ants, blood pours down the outside. It is worth it though, his mother, the Hokage, they have been saved.
Or so he thinks.
At that moment, Shinki destroys that assumption with one action.
He continues to run.
"Does he think he can escape now?" ChouChou mocks. There is little to no chance of Shinki being able to escape from the re-awakened Hokage.
"That fool" Inojin shakes his head, following the same line, "When the Hokage come around he won't be able to escape".
"After him!" Shikadai raises his voice again.
"Shikadai, what's wrong?".
The Nara clansmen's answer scares them both.
"This isn't over yet…".