Anthology of the holy war

Chapter three: The killing fields

A/N: here's chapter three, hope it's to your liking.

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Naruto and the man set their cards on the table, neither giving a hint as to their hands' quality.

"I'll start."

Y set a coin on the table.

Naruto nodded confidently.

"I'll raise."

Setting a second coin on the first, they both flipped their cards.

Naruto won with a pair of tens and two jacks.

The man Y lost with only a 4 and three 2's in his hand.

Taking both coins Naruto rolled them between his fingers.

The man gave him an impassive glance from over his hands.

"So, how does a monk learn to play?"

Naruto chuckled, drawing from his waist and setting a field knife on the table.

"I'm not that kind of monk."

Y gave no reaction simply nodding at his cards.

"I see."

Naruto drew four cards at random as did the orange haired man.

"You're too composed to be a simple civilian, are you a mercenary perhaps?"

Naruto gave the man a once over, taking in his posture which revealed no insights.

Y chuckled cooly.

"You and I both know that if I were a mercenary I would not disclose such a fact so casually."

Naruto nodded.

"You're right of course."

Naruto placed two coins, per the rules of high hat each round the amount bet or "Bounty" as it was known had to be successively higher on both sides.

"I stay."

The man placed his cards but added only one coin to the pile.

According to the rules, you could raise and double the bounty while remaining in the round, stay and place half the bounty amount while remaining in the round, or fold to concede the round.

Both flipped their cards and Naruto smirked.

"Looks like I win, again."

Naruto's hand was two queens, an Ace, and a 1; Y's hand was three 4's and a Jack.

Naruto tapped the coin pile with two fingers flipping the coins from the table into his hand.

Y placed a gold coin on the table.

Naruto pocketed the silver coins and set a single gold coin on the table.

Both drew their cards and Naruto analyzed the man.

His fingers were tapping the cards, which seemed to be a tell that something had changed.

Both placed their cards and flipped them.

Naruto had drawn two 2's, a 1, and a 5; Y had drawn a King, an Ace, and two fives.

"Looks like I won this round."

Y grabbed the coins from the table.

Naruto nodded.

Beginning the next round Naruto pulled two gold coins from his pocket, setting them on the table.

Y nodded setting a single gold coin on the pile.

"I stay."

Both set and flipped their cards and Naruto won with two Queens and two 8's.

Naruto took the coins and set four gold coins down as the bounty.

As they drew their cards, he noticed the man tap his cards.

'So his hand is good.'

"I fold."

Y took the pile of coins smirking and flipping his hand.

Naruto paled as he saw a series of 2's and one 1 hardly a good hand by any measure.

'He got me.'

Naruto chuckled.

"Very sneaky, You got me there."

Y smirked with cool confidence.

"That trick will only work once though, of course."

Naruto nodded in agreement with the man's assessment.

"I'm no fool."

Y placed down a platinum coin.

Naruto responded, placing a twin coin atop the first.

"I raise."

Both drew their hands and set them down.

They flipped their hands, and Naruto won with a pair of kings, a 6, and a 1.

Naruto placed two platinum coins.

"Final round."

Per the rules of High-hat each game would rise to a max bounty of four platinum.

Y nodded placing a third platinum coin atop the third two.

"I stay."

Naruto smirked confidently, placing his cards down.

Y placed his cards down completely neutrally and they flipped.

Naruto recoiled as he realized he had lost the round.

Y had three kings and a queen while Naruto only had a pair of sixes, a four, and a five.

"But how?"

Y chuckled darkly.

"You didn't notice did you."

Naruto looked at him confused.

"Notice what?"

Y pocketed the coins shuffling all the cards back into a pile.

"Everytime I had a good hand I would raise, the rest of the time I would stay; but I never folded,"

He tossed the cards back into the box closing the top.

"I conditioned you to expect that a stay meant my hand was bad, and I used the fake tell trick to throw your attention off of the subtle conditioning you were under."

Naruto felt a chill go down his spine.

"That whole time, you were working me over from the very beginning."

Y nodded.

"You Paladins are powerful, sure, but your blind confidence leads you to overlook things most of us would never fall for."

Y tossed the deck back into his jacket kicking the table leg lightly.

The field knife flew from the surface and he caught it, pushing the edge against Naruto's throat in a split second motion.

"You have to be more cautious if you want to succeed in this world gaki, keep that in mind the next time you drop your guard, in life, or in cards."

Naruto paled as he felt the cold steel of his own blade kiss his neck.

The man gave him an uncharacteristic smile dropping the knife onto his lap.

"Good luck reaching whatever goal they've set for you gaki, hopefully you find purpose of your own before your inevitable death."

Turning the man pushed his hands into his pockets and left the tavern.

Naruto shuddered for a second, still shaken.

'Is that… a shinobi?'

In his time as a paladin he had only ever been sent to fight paladins, or bandits;

He had heard tales of shinobi, cruel as wolves and crafty as foxes, but he had never encountered one firsthand.

Standing up he shakily grabbed his knife returning it to his hip.

He made his way out of the tavern and still on edge surveyed the area with his eyes.

When he was confident no-one would get the drop on him he continued down the road to his destination.

As night began to fall he arrived at the edge of the grasslands where Tanzaku gai was located, a mighty castle with a modest village surrounding.

He could see the castle off in the distance, but it would be another day's travel at least to reach it.

Though the castle had been contested for years, ever since it's Senju inhabitants had been driven out by the various Crusades, currently the Uzumaki clan held it, and it was well fortified.

No doubt, whoever was behind the Shinobi attacks, aimed to undercut the area and weaken their defenses in preparation of a siege.

Naruto groaned.

'This is going to be a mess, I can sense it.'

Suddenly he fell to his knees grasping his head as his thoughts were assaulted by a vision of fire.

'Ningen, I demand your presence at my temple, just south of your current position.'

Naruto nodded.

'Yes, at once Kurama-Sama.'

The presence faded as soon as it arrived.

Though Kurama was mighty, he was limited by distance and could only form fully at his temples where his power was greatest.

Naruto sighed.

"It's always something."

Turning on the fork in the road he began to head south towards a secret temple located half a days off in the fields of grass.

The journey took him well into the early hours of morning with the sun rising just under the horizon.

He walked through the rows of grass tall as his head, wary of snakes and other predators until he came across the low stone tunnel.

Crouching down to pull loose the lightly buried hatch, he entered into the tunnel which torches began to light themselves to note of his presence.

At the end of the stone hallway was a crude fox altar made of old stone with rubies for eyes.

"I'm here."

Naruto got on one knee folding his arm across his chest.

The ruby eyes began to glow with light as the foxhead statue shook.

"Ningen, welcome, come sit before my altar, we need to have words."

Naruto nodded dutifully sitting cross legged on the altar's large ledge.

"Kurama-sama, it's unusual for you to call me directly, are you displeased?"

"No, ningen, I am not, not with you least of all, but there is one who seeks to undermine my authority, a traitorous whelp who hides among my flock."

Naruto paled at the prospect of a heretic within the clan.

"Who is it?"

The fox growled as the altar rumbled.

"One with whom the clan holds much favor, currently he seeks to dispose of you and ingratiate himself within the main branch."

Naruto's eyes looked up with shock.

"You don't mean?"

"Yes, ningen, the one you know as Banri, he has lost my favor and desires power, you must kill him, this is my command, do as I ask and all shall be right."

The fox altar began to fade and the rubies lost their burning light.

"While you are here, feast upon the fruit of my power, you have need of more yet if you wish to be worthy."

Naruto bowed gratefully, taking in the orange spiral chakra which burned his core and filled his every sense with power.

When it had receded into him, the statue went dark and he turned to leave the chamber.

Stepping back he walked back to the entrance and left the tunnel behind him.

The boy sighed tired from the journey.

"I guess I'll head to Tanzaku-gai before crashing."

Checking his orange plated armor he adjusted the long blade across his back as he stepped through the grass field.

It took him a number of hours to cross the rest of the grassland to the base of the hill upon which Tanzaku Gai crested.

When he arrived at the dirt path which led up to the outer perimeter he was approached by a group of armored Uzumaki soldiers.

"Naruto-sama, you were expected hours ago, what took you?"

The blonde boy brushed his spiky hair back tiredly.

"Kurama-sama called me to his temple, I apologize for the delay."

The guards nodded.

"Come, Kanami-Taichou will want to speak with you."

Naruto followed the soldiers into the fortified castle.

Arriving at the parapet a man with long flowing red hair stood stroking his beard.

He turned to face the new arrivals.

"Ah, Naruto-sama, how nice of you to grace us with your esteemed presence."

The man spoke with more than a hint of sarcasm.

"Thanks, it's been a warm welcome."

The man stepped over adjusting his blue armor which had black fur around the neck.

"I'm sure you've been informed of the situation?"

Naruto leaned against a stone wall, nodding to the man.

"Shinobi, rebels, anything else I'm missing?"

Kanami shook his head.

"No, that's more or less the gist of it, you look like hell gaki, go rest up in the barracks till sunrise."

He pulled a pipe from his side and began to fill it with tobacco, from rolled paper.

"I'll send someone to fetch you at muster."

Naruto nodded gratefully to the captain, heading to the nearby barracks to sleep.

The boy laid his bed on the soft cloth bundle, his back sinking into the simple cot.

Within moments he faded into a deep rest.

He awoke to the sounds of footfall and armor shuffling.

He sat up and yawned into his hand.

"W-what's all this?"

A soldier turned to look at him.

"Garrison troops like us don't have the luxury of sleeping in, we need to get the castle ready to counter enemies at a moment's notice."

The man hastily walked off carrying a handful of swords which were starting to rust or dull.

Naruto stood up, his limbs waking up as he stretched.

Grabbing the orange plated acolyte armor he lifted it over his head sliding it over his plain black long sleeved shirt and latched it on.

Making his way around the troops careful not to interrupt their work he stepped out of the barracks and saw the early morning light.

The captain stood in almost the exact same position clutching his burning pipe as if he had been there the whole night.

"Ah, he's awake, come Naruto-sama."

Naruto bowed, stepping up to the castle commander.

"Kanami-san, I trust we can begin the mission soon."

The older man nodded.

"Actually your timing is impeccable, our scouts which have been tracking the rebels returned, come with me to the debrief."

Naruto followed the man to the lower level of the castle interior where tired looking men in minimalist armor sat drinking water from their waterskins.

"Report."

One of the messengers sat up attentively and looked up to the man.

"The enemy seems to be in midst of preparations, we were able to spot a series of war tents, the rebels were sparely armored, but we did sight at least two shinobi in the area."

The grizzled captain sighed, scratching his beard.

"What were they doing, exactly?"

The messenger took another swig of water from his canteen.

"Training sir, the shinobi were teaching them some form of Ninshu."

Kanami gritted his teeth.

"No doubt it was 'Ninjutsu', these shinobi scum have been stealing our sacred clan techniques and passing them off as tools of war."

Naruto looked away paling as he imagined the outcome of civilians having the ability to manipulate chakra freely.

The Uzumaki captain turned to him.

"Naruto-sama, we can't afford them the time to pass off anymore secrets to the common rebels, I'm going to deploy you with a team of my best men,"

The man nestled his pipe between his weathered lips, inhaling some of the aromatic smoke and blowing it out the side of his mouth.

"-I expect no quarter, crush them, all of them."

Naruto nodded dutifully.

"It shall be so."

The man snapped his fingers and a soldier came on command.

"Sir?"

Kanami turned to them.

"Fetch Iwabe, Tanosuke, and Kunori; and tell them to bring the new weapons."

The nameless soldier bowed.

"At once taichou."

He ran off to fetch the soldiers.

A few minutes later, the soldier returned with three Uzumaki soldiers.

The first was a large muscular man with close cropped red hair and a heavily scarred left eye;

The second a tall but lanky handsome man with swooped red hair and icy blue eyes.

The last was a woman with a lithe and curvy build, long side swept red hair with the right side of her head shaved with an intricate wave pattern.

All wore grey plated armor kimonos and carried the air of skilled killers.

The handsome man kneeled before the commander.

"You called, taichou?"

Kanami nodded.

"Hai, Tanosuke, you three are to accompany Naruto-sama of the paladins to halt opposition rooting in the area."

They all turned and saw the blonde boy, his fiery orange eyes were like molten gold staring back at them.

"Naruto-sama, truly, it's an honor to meet you."

The warrior three bowed to him and he sighed.

"Please, don't bow to me, it grows tiresome."

They resumed standing.

Kanami looked at them still clutching his pipe with three fingers.

"I trust you brought the weapons?"

The large man, Iwabe pulled and unfurled a large scroll of paper tags from his bag.

"These are all I could gather, production is still slow, since the main branch has yet to approve mass use of the sealing weapons, apparently Mizuhiro-sama views them as underhanded."

Kanami grunted with mild irritation.

"I understand… Mizuhiro-sama is from a different generation, shinobi were almost unheard of then, things were... much simpler;"

The man took a strong puff from his pipe.

"- but in today's battlefield if we want to avoid obsolescence we need to adapt, take as many as you need, I won't risk this aberrance developing into a threat."

The large man unpeeled the tags from the scroll, passing them to the other two shinobi.

He looked at Naruto with a hand of tags extended.

"Naruto-sama, are you familiar?"

The blonde boy shook his head.

"I can't say that I am."

Iwabe turned to face the castle captain.

"Kanami-taichou, permission to demonstrate?"

He nodded.

"Have at it, I'll step away from the wall just to be safe."

The castle captain whistled loudly with his fingers, yelling loudly so that the barracks could hear him.

"THIS IS A DEMONSTRATION, WE ARE NOT UNDER ATTACK, CONTINUE YOUR TASKS!"

With the soldiers readied, the large man pulled a tag off, rolling it around a bolt from his back.

Pulling a crossbow he loaded the bolt into the arrow track, and pulled the bow string onto the retention pin.

He stepped up the steps to the top of the parapet and aimed the crossbow over the wall towards a distant forest, pulling the trigger, the bolt was loosed and flew through the air.

A moment later they heard a loud explosion in the distance.

The shockwave, chipped stone from the very edge of the parapet and caused the large man to step back a bit.

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the front edge of the forest engulfed in a fireball, and felt the hot wind brush his cheek from 80 yards away.

"Woah…"

The soldiers all smirked.

"Welcome to the modern battlefield, Naruto-sama, with explosive tags, a single cross bolt can rival even the most formidable ninshu."

Naruto felt a tinge of horror.

"Humans should not possess this kind of power, if shinobi were to acquire this…"

Kanami chuckled at him.

"Only the Uzumaki know how to make seals, shinobi dogs will never get their hands on our schematics as long as we live, now get out there and give em hell."

Naruto swallowed his protests, accepting his share of the tags, he placed them in his hip pouch at the side of his blue rope obi, adjusting his orange plated armor.

The grey-armored elite shinobi bowed to him with adheration and reverence.

"Naruto-sama, lead us to victory."

The boy brushed his spiky blonde hair wearily.

"Let's head out."


The squad of Uzumaki warriors, led by their acolyte arrived at an intersection in the grasslands, where a large war camp could be sighted just in the distance.

Naruto's vision was scarce as smoke rose from the campfires throughout, but he could see men training with clubs, and blades.

A few of them wore armor, but most wore simple tunics, and their form was rudimentary at best.

In his vision he saw a large intimidating bald man with dark skin, and golden-brown eyes, in a long black Haori, he gestured passionately as he gave directions to the training men.

The man carried himself lightly on his toes, graceful and poised like a tiger, on his back was a long bokken, and Naruto could read from his presence that he was a shinobi.

"So the rumours were true, shinobi are training the rebels."

Naruto grasped his hair in his hands.

"Let's begin the attack, we have the element of surprise."

The leader of the three man squad nodded.

"Iwabe, Kunori, ready to loose."

The Uzumaki soldiers pulled their crossbows, loading sealed bolts into them and took aim.

The man raised his arm.

"Ready, take aim, fire!"

He swiped his arm down violently.

The soldiers released their fire, and bolts loosed into the camp, one ripping through a tent and exploding within it; the second crashed into the center where the rebels were training.

A moment later the colossal explosion burst out within the tent, mixed screams could be heard before the linen was torn open by the fireball.

A second explosion in the open sent bodies flying in every direction.

The shinobi with his cat-like reflexes formed a single seal and disappeared in a poof of smoke the moment before immolation.

Naruto's eyes briefly glanced over the resulting carnage, but he was ill to describe it.

Steeling himself, Naruto drew his blade and rushed into the fray, as enemies began to gather themselves to arms.

The fire which spread from the initial explosions, was moving from tent to tent, forcing their residents out in a frenzy.

He charged into the enemy ranks, dodging and parrying attacks, and cutting down the unarmored and weakly trained rebels with ease.

Forcing himself to dehumanize the enemy, he viewed them as targets, as they approached him in a weak defense.

He was vaguely aware of the slaughter happening around him as the three elite Uzumaki soldiers cut their way through the rebels with speed and precision.

What caused him to freeze was the high cry of a child.

His movements stopped completely as he saw a little girl with short black hair no more than five in a ragged tunic crying into her hands.

She sat over the body of a man who resembled her; a man Naruto had killed thoughtlessly moments earlier with a simple stab through the heart.

This moment of shock cost him, as a club struck him hard in the temple and he fell over feeling warm blood rush down his face.

Before he could gather himself from the pain and dizziness in his head, he heard shouting all around him, and felt his armor begin to cave and crack as multiple clubs were slammed into it.

He coughed as the blows pushed into his chest breaking his ribs, and he felt blades pierce through his armor, a series of sharp wet impacts filling his chest.

'A-am I being killed?'

He paled and sweat, as he felt the sharp pain and was moved roughly by the multiple stabs into his body.

Warm blood pooled under him but he was too shocked to do anything.

All he could do was focus his eyes on the girl, as a woman ran over wrapping her in her arms and cried with her over the body of the man.

What snapped him from his paralysis was the fastly approaching man behind them.

'T-tanosuke... don't...'

He cried out silently as he saw the taller Uzumaki man approaching with a fierce look in his eyes, sword drawn.

He raised the blade to the unarmed woman's throat, picking the child up roughly by her hair and addressed the men standing over Naruto.

"Let him go, or they die."

The rebels around Naruto all paled and began to back away, the child's fearful cries acting as a deterrent.

One of the men raised his hands pleefully stepping closer to the man with pain in his eyes.

"P-please they're not fighters, they're my brother's family please… don't hurt them!"

Tanosuke moved his blade closer, drawing a line of blood faintly on the mother's neck.

"I said get back!"

Naruto was helpless to watch, but felt arms lace around him as he was lifted to a near standing position, and bandages were wrapped around him.

He heard a woman's voice in his ear, Kunori lifted him from behind, pulling a hand-made med kit from her back.

"It's okay Naruto-sama, Kurama-sama won't let you die here, I'll get you patched up."

The rebels were frozen as they watched the Uzumaki man hold the family hostage.

"Ah, Iwabe good… kill them."

Naruto heard wet thunking noises behind him as the frozen men cried out.

He turned his head and saw three men fall over with bolts in their backs, two more were currently being stabbed from behind.

The larger Uzumaki killed the last man, snapping his neck in his hand, and tossing him hapless to the ground.

"The shinobi aren't here, they must have turned tail and ran."

Tanosuke nodded.

"You heard Kanami-taichou's orders, to the last."

He moved his arm and Naruto's eyes widened.

Blood fell to the ground with the drop of two figures.

"Y-you…"

Tanosuke walked over to him wiping blood from his blade into his hand and sheathing it.

He offered Naruto a bloodied hand up.

"You're fine now Naruto-sama, that was almost bad."

Naruto shook, raising his hand unconsciously.

The man wrapped his hand over the boys and lifted him to a standing position.

Naruto felt the warm blood flow from the man's hand into his own.

Looking down he saw his palm painted red.

'I- N- mghm…'

He began to tear up, shaking subtly

The Uzumaki soldiers failed to notice this.

Kunori spoke softly analyzing his form.

"He's pale from shock, but he should be fine, due to his special chakra."

Tanosuke smiled, folding his arm leisurely over the boy's shoulder.

"That's a successful mission, Tanzaku-gai should be clear from threat now."

He looked down at him fraternally.

"Come on Naruto-sama, we need to report back."

Naruto looked up at the friendly face of the man.

Not a care in the world, he was cool and unaffected as his features twisted in a genial smile.

Naruto noted the bloody handprint on his shoulder, still shaken.

'T-this… is the face of a monster.'

He felt himself led by the hand, as he walked behind the soldiers.

Walked, near unconsciously, back to the castle, leaving the smoldering ruins of a battlefield behind them.

X END X