Chapter Thirteen
My own little war arc~~
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does. If I did, we'd have got to watch Konoha beat the fuck out of Otogakure.
Tsunade had returned, with the Fifth Hokage now in place the village was once again running smoothly and was planning its war effort against Otogakure. Although skirmishes had taken place along the border of Fire Country, no battles had been fought.
The other nations had decided that, due to the fact that Konoha didn't lose any significant amount of shinobi nor anyone with particular skill, excluding their Kage, that it would not be smart to involve themselves in the war. Konoha was still strong, maybe not like it was during the short reign of the Fourth Hokage, but it was still strong.
Team Seven had gone on multiple sets of missions, having been a part of a few of the skirmishes with Oto nin so far. Sasuke had been having difficulties with the curse mark, but he was getting by. Well, that was until Orochimaru's four elite shinobi had come to visit him. They offered him a place in Otogakure, and gave him a week to decide. All of this after a battle where they had completely outclassed him.
All of these events led to this moment, where Sasuke sat atop the Fourth's head alongside the man's very legacy. "Naruto."
"Yeah?"
"I need to defect from the village so that I can have the opportunity to assassinate Orochimaru."
Naruto's head whipped to the Uchiha. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me, Naruto."
The blond sighed, and Sasuke began explaining it all to his friend. Once he felt the boy had a strong enough grasp on the situation, he waited patiently for his input.
"Alright."
"Wait, what?" The black haired boy asked. "You're just alright with it?"
"Yeah but it needs to be approved by Lady Tsunade. Listen S'ke I'm gonna go grab Jiraiya-Sensei. I'll explain it to him and then we will meet you in the Hokage's office. Okay?"
"Hn. Yeah."
"Tsunade….I hate to admit it but these brats are right. You and I both know Orochimaru is only sloppy when he is overconfident about something." Jiraiya said to his teammate.
"Lady Tsunade...with how bad he wants to take Sasuke's body, he'll train him well, but on top of that, he'll be careless enough to not take a new body until he can take Sasuke's." Naruto said, arguing for Sasuke's plan.
Sasuke now stepped up to the plate himself. "Ma'am, I believe if I go, not only will I eventually be able to rid Konohagakure of the scum that is Orochimaru, but I will also be able to bring many of his techniques and jutsu back to the village. If I was to guess as well, I would assume he will have me sign the snake summoning contract, which would also return to the village alongside me."
"You know all three of you Team Seven brats are a pain in my ass right? You, blondie. Made me come be Hokage, pinkie somehow managed to get me to start training her as my own apprentice, and now you Uchiha brat. You want me to let you fake defection from the village to train under the only other Sannin that doesn't have an apprentice, who is also the leader of the village we are at war with." She sighed loudly, folding her hands and resting her chin upon them. "Damnit Jiraiya, even you are in on this huh?"
"Sorry Tsunade, but even I cannot deny it is a brilliant idea." Jiraiya said laughing loudly.
"Alright. Fine. Uchiha Sasuke!"
"Yes Ma'am?"
"You are here by promoted to chunin and inducted into ANBU. Your first mission will be an S-Rank undercover mission to infiltrate Otogakure, and assassinate Orochimaru. You have six years tops. If he isn't dead in that time, you will be labeled as a missing nin, and I will have you hunted down and killed. Understood?"
"Yes Ma'am!" Sasuke smiled widely.
"Jiraiya! If this goes south I'm holding you responsible!" She gained a slightly angry look on her face and pointed an accusing finger at the Toad Sage.
"Wha-...!" Jiraiya jumped back eyes widening before being cut off.
"Shut up. Now, Uzumaki Naruto!"
"Yes Lord Hokage?"
"You will have a B-Rank mission. Sasuke will trick Sakura into thinking he has defected from the village. You will pick a few shinobi from your graduating class, they will "support" you on this mission. You will fight "tooth and nail" to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke, but in the end you will find a way to make sure he escapes, without the rest of your teammates on this finding out. Understood?" The Hokage laid out her plan to the three shinobi before her.
"Yes Ma'am, understood." Naruto replied completely serious.
"Good at the end of your deadline to leave, I will send Sakura to deliver a scroll to you at your compound. Make it believable Sasuke. This will be an S-Rank secret that does not leave the four of us, got it?" She asked, receiving three nods of confirmation she continued. "Good, you're all dismissed."
With that, the three shinobi left, and Naruto and Sasuke began planning.
"So these four nin that approached you, they're pretty strong, right?" The blond chunin asked.
"Yeah they had me beat from the start." Confirmed the last Uchiha.
"Good then I want to make sure all of them die during this retrieval mission."
"Wait what?" The black haired boy was perplexed.
"They are a threat to the village, and based off of your descriptions, they are likely the four nin who put up the barrier while Jiraiya-Sensei and Lord Third fought with Orochimaru."
"Ah I see. That does put them up there on the kill list huh?"
"Indeed it does. Well Sasuke. Tomorrow is the day. Let's make it believable huh?" Naruto held out his fist to the Uchiha.
"Yeah, let's." Replied the black haired nin, as he bumped his fist with Naruto's.
"Sakura...I'm leaving the village. Don't try to stop me." Sasuke said, disappearing before she could even move.
"Sasuke!" She cried out staring into the blank space he had just occupied. "I have to tell Lady Tsunade!" She thought, heading straight for the Hokage's office.
The pinkette practically kicked the door in, Tsunade quickly put on a surprised act. "Sakura!?" What are you doing?"
"Lady Tsunade! Sasuke left the village!"
"He what!?" Tsunade played along perfectly.
After a solid moment of explanation, Tsunade summoned Neko. "Neko! Bring me Uzumaki Naruto, and Nara Shikamaru right now."
"Yes Ma'am."
About an hour later Naruto, Shikamaru, Kiba, Neji, and Choji were all hot on Sasuke's trail. "Listen we can't let them take Sasuke from the village. He's one of our trusted comrades and we won't go back unless he is with us." Shikamaru said.
"Listen up. It's just us out here. The rest of our shinobi are out on missions supporting the war effort. There is no backup. Fight smart. Got it?" Naruto commanded, sprinkling a few lies in. The five shinobi continued through the trees pursuing the enemy shinobi. Finally Neji's eyes picked up one of them turning back around to face the Konoha nin. They engaged in a brief fight, before Choji told the others to go on. He would stay behind while they went ahead.
"Don't die Choji." Shikamaru said to his friend. Before the four remaining nin took off. This same pattern continued, dropping the numbers of the group down as they went on in pursuit of Sasuke. Eventually leaving Shikamaru in engagement with the red headed female sound nin, Naruto found himself alone.
Later he came upon Kimimaro, but before the fight could even fully begin, a drunken Lee showed up, and Naruto continued on.
He finally came upon the Valley of the End, where he met Uchiha Sasuke. "Oi Uchiha! I'm not gonna make this easy. We've never really had the chance to go all out on each other."
"I didn't think you would, Loser. And you're right, we haven't. So try to stop me."
The two boys immediately engaged in a match of taijutsu. Naruto slowly overwhelming Sasuke with his speed, before they went into an all out ninjutsu contest.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke called as he spit a massive ball of fire from his mouth.
Using a jutsu Jiraiya has seen fit to teach him on the way back with Tsunade in tow, Naruto countered Sasuke's jutsu. "Water Style: Water Wall!"
The fire slammed into the wall of water, causing a column of steam to rise from the spot Naruto had been. Out of the steam burst five Narutos, all throwing a hail of kunai at the Uchiha, the latter moving away having seen just how dangerous a kunai of the blond's was, many times before. The five clones moved in, engaging the black haired boy in taijutsu. Sasuke dispatched each one quickly, sliding into a spin kick to knock the last one out of commission. The last clone took the hit like it was nothing, only as Sasuke found himself impacting one of the cliff edges did he realize that Naruto had substituted with his clone. "Neat trick, Naruto." Said the Uchiha, fully matured Sharingan blazing to life.
Flickering next to the Uchiha landing in a handstand delivering a spin kick that would have broke the boy's neck had he not caught it, Naruto smiled. "Thanks. And learn the body flicker while your gone, it'll do wonders for your speed."
"I plan to, it pisses me off that you use it. I'm still mad I can't figure out how you just substitute with your kunai like that. And I'm really starting to regret the pact we made about me not copying your jutsu with my eyes." The black haired boy retorted, planting his foot in the jinchuriki's chest sending him flying. "Lightning Style: Lightning Pistol Jutsu!" Called Sasuke as he fired several bolts of electricity from his finger at his opponent.
"Wind Style: Gale Palm!" Called the blond nin, the wind nullifying the lightning jutsu. Four Naruto clones came to life beside him, the original grabbing their hands and hurling them at the other nin. Once again the boys went off in a battle of taijutsu. The two began beating on each other relentlessly. Punches and kicks connecting here and there, bones being broken only to be reset minutes later.
Sasuke suddenly planted his foot in Naruto's chin sending him into the air. Appearing behind him, the Uchiha got in two more hits before bringing the blond to the ground with a heel drop. "Lions barrage!" The impact of Naruto hitting the ground caused it to crater. Finally standing the two stared at each other. They had been at it for almost two hours now. Relentlessly beating on each other, and tossing jutsu around like candy. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
"Water Style: Water Wall!" Naruto walked out of the steam looking at Sasuke. "S'ke...Kakashi-Sensei is almost here. I can sense him. He'll try to chase you unless we give him a reason to not be able to." Naruto said almost solemnly.
"What are you suggesting….Naruto?"
"It's simple really. Run a Chidori through me."
"Excuse me?" The Uchiha's eyes went wide.
"Look S'ke. If I'm not in desperate need of medical care, Kakashi might still follow you. It has to be this way."
"Naruto I could kill you!"
"S'ke you have to do this dammit!"
"I can't! You're my best friend! You're more of a brother to me than Itachi ever was! You kept me from losing myself! How can I possibly try to kill you, even if I try not too it might still happen!"
"Sasuke. I'll be fine. I've got the fox to heal me and Kakashi is almost here. I trust you. You won't kill me. Now let's do it. Come on." Naruto said, holding his arms out and leaving himself wide open.
Lightning crackled to life around Sasuke's hand, the Chidori coming to full form. The Uchiha held his arm out in preparation and closed his eyes, he hesitated, while thinking to himself, "I can't there's just no way I ca-!" He was broken from his thoughts as the sound of ripping flesh filled the valley. His arm felt warm. As he peeled his eyes open he saw Naruto looking back at him, a smile on his face. His arm was buried through Naruto's chest, right above his heart.
The blond coughed, before laughing and giving a smile to his best friend. "Sasuke. You've got a mission to do. Get out of here." He withdrew a scroll from his pouch and handed it to the Uchiha. "Take this scroll I made. It's got a secret hidden summoning formula that will bring a toad to you, so that they can get my attention to have me come help if you need me after you kill Orochimaru." He then slid himself backwards off Sasuke's hand, taking a few steps back. Sasuke stared at the blond in horror, he had just possibly killed his best friend. "Go S'ke. It's time, Kakashi is almost here." With that Naruto fell backwards onto the ground, the black haired boy quickly checked for a pulse and after a few moments of hesitation, took off in the direction of Otogakure.
When the copy ninja arrived he almost cried out. Seeing his Sensei's son lying there in a pool of his own blood, damage done that would only be possible if it had been done by his very own jutsu. "Sasuke! How could you….?" He thought to himself as he checked Naruto for a pulse. Finding one he gathered the boy up in his arms "It'll be okay Naruto, I'll get you back in time." He shifted the boy onto his back, and took off for Konohagakure.
"Inu…" He heard the boy mumble.
Kakashi sighed lightly. "You recognize my chakra even in your sleep, eh Naruto?" He thought to himself, before doubling his efforts to get back to the village.
Naruto awoke in a hospital bed, he slowly recalled the events that transpired to put him here, and he smiled. "Good luck, Sasuke." He sat up, looking out the window into the morning sky. He then heard the door knob turn and in walked Shizune, who was startled when she saw him awake.
"Naruto! You're awake!"
"Seems I am. How long was I out for?"
"It's been about a week. The Chidori did a lot of damage to you, there's even a scar on your chest."
"Ah I see, the Nine Tails really can't heal everything can it?" He asked.
"Of course not! So stop trying to get yourself killed idiot." The woman said in a stern tone.
"Yes Ma'am." He replied dryly.
He snapped his head to the window before Jiraiya could even appear. "Dammit you really are a good sensor brat." The white haired man said with a smile.
"Of course I am."
"Alright brat, listen up. I've gotta leave the village for about seven months. I think it's going to be about four and a half years before the Akatsuki is ready to really make their move. I'm going to make sure that time limit doesn't change. However when I get back, we're going on a training trip got it?"
"Loud and clear Jiraiya-Sensei." The blond replied with a smile.
"Good, later kiddo. I think Kakashi is looking for you." With that the Toad Sage disappeared.
"Shizune, how long until I can be discharged?"
"Give me about and hour to sort some things out and check over you and you can leave." The medical nin replied with a smile.
Naruto later went on to find out how his teammates had faired during the mission, all had made it out alive, and that was good enough for Naruto. He was sad they got hurt. And he started to blame himself but after talking to them all, they reassured him they had made their own choices to stay behind. At least the Sound Five had been killed upon the arrival of Konoha's Suna allies.
"Chunin Uzumaki!" Tsunade said loudly.
"Yes Ma'am?" The blond nin responded.
"You are to take on a B-Rank mission alongside jounin Hatake Kakashi, genin Haruno Sakura, and genin Hyuga Neji. You will be establishing the basis for our first major attack into the Land of Sound. We will now be fully initiating our war with Otogakure, and the war is about to go off in full swing. There's a small outpost put in place by the Oto nin that we want under our control to start our full efforts. It is one of ten that will be taken by our shinobi. Your team will take over, and hold this outpost until a garrison force arrives to take over for you. Understood?"
"Yes Lady Tsunade."
"Good. Meet with Kakashi at the north gate tomorrow at eight in the morning. Dismissed."
"Alright let's get a move on." Kakashi said as the four nin gathered at the north gate.
"What's your plan for this Kaka-Sensei?" Naruto asked as the nin leapt through the trees toward the Land of Sound.
"Well I want to get close enough to do recon on the outpost. I'd like to get a force assessment and a battle plan going right away. Neji your eyes are going to be invaluable for this mission. Naruto, you and I will be doing most of the heavy lifting this time around, and Sakura I need you to be ready to put all that new medical ninjutsu to use."
"Why just you and Naruto, Sensei?" Asked Sakura.
"I'd like to eliminate as many enemy shinobi as we can from range before we engage in close combat. Naruto's shadow clones are capable of using jutsu so it shouldn't be too difficult."
"Ah I see. Naruto, when did you learn shadow clones?" Asked the pinkette her curiosity piqued.
"Ha, Well Jiraiya-Sensei taught me during our mission to locate Tsunade." Naruto chuckled at the memory of the trip.
"You know...even though Sasuke left the village, we're all training under a Sannin." Sakura voiced her thoughts aloud.
"That's true, I hadn't thought about it like that. Don't worry Sakura, we're gonna bring him back to the village. I promise."
The Oto nin's outpost was nothing special. A small walled compound, with four buildings. Neji had counted out fifteen enemy occupiers. From assessing their chakra levels, Neji determined that three of them were low jounin level. Eight were chunin, and four were genin. The four Konoha shinobi retreated back a distance away from the outpost to formulate a plan of attack.
"Alright, let's see. Naruto, you're still skilled with the water pistol jutsu I taught you, right?"
"Yes Sensei."
"Good. Now, you're gonna kill four genin before they even know what's about to happen. I know it's brutal, but are you okay with that?" Kakashi asked his student, slight concern evident in his eye.
"Sensei we're at war. I'll handle it." The boy said with resolve in his eyes.
"Alright, good. Now make four clones and have them prep to hit those genin on my signal." The copy nin ordered.
"Consider it done." Immediately four clones burst to life next to Naruto, all heading off to the predetermined positions.
"Alright now. Form another clone. Your clone and my clone will be performing a combo jutsu at the front gate. Neji, Sakura you two will deal with any chunin who don't fall at the gate. I will take the jounin and Naruto will back me up. Understood?"
"Yes sir!" Came the chorus of the three young shinobi.
"Alright let's get to work."
The shinobi spread out, Naruto's four clones were already in position, and his fifth clone was ready at the front gate with Kakashi's. Sakura and Neji prepared themselves at the rear of the compound, while the real Naruto and Kakashi got the high ground above the left side of the compound.
"Ready, Naruto?"
"Yes Sensei." Kakashi sparked a small amount of lightning in his hand three times, the signal to begin the assault. After this a few things happened in under a minute. First the four clones targeting the Oto genin fired off the Water Pistol Jutsu, watching the small bolts of water pierce the back of the genin's skulls before the clones dispelled.
The clones of Kakashi and Naruto at the front gate gathered chakra to begin their jutsu.
"Water Style: Raging Waves!" Called Naruto, blasting a large forceful rush of water through the front gate.
"Lightning Style: Electric Currents!" Kakashi slammed his hand into the massive flood of water, charging the liquid with high voltage electricity. The combo took down one of the jounin, and killed two of the chunin. As soon as the water cleared, Neji and Sakura lept in an engaged the remaining chunin. The last two jounin moved to assist their comrades only for one to have an arm coated in an glowing blade of lightning tear through his chest. The other stared in horror, only to feel his chest hit the dirt and his back be ground apart by a swirling ball of chakra as the blond landed atop him.
Neji and Sakura quickly dispatched the chunin, while Naruto and Kakashi secured the downed jounin. The man was now tied against a tree, and Kakashi got to work by placing a Sharingan genjutsu on the man, forcing every bit of information out of him he could. After which he was killed.
A few minutes later found Naruto leaning against the entrance to one of the buildings. "I finished searching with Neji for any documented information Kaka-Sensei. We didn't find anything." He said to the copy nin.
"Alright good work."
"Get anything useful from him?"
"Hmm?" The nin responded.
"From the jounin, did you get anything out of him?" The boy asked.
"Just patrol routes, base locations, and a small personnel list." The white haired man replied.
"Ah I see, so any idea if we're going back to the village after the garrison arrives, or are we going to redeploy?" The blond inquired.
"Hmm it's possible the Hokage may send new mission orders with the garrison. I suppose we'll have to wait to find out." Kakashi responded.
The blond simply hummed in response, leaning against the building a bit more, he closed his eyes and relaxed his body. He'd stay like this until the garrison force arrived.
A garrison force of about ten chunin and a dozen genin showed up the next morning, led by a single jounin. The female jounin approached Kakashi and Naruto with a smile on her face.
"Hey, I'm Sakuraba Mayu. Glad to see your team cleared this place with no injuries."
"It really wasn't much trouble." Kakashi replied with a lazy wave of his hand.
"Lady Hokage has new orders for you Kakashi, I don't know the details, they are in this scroll." Mayu said with a smile.
"Alright thanks." He said. Turning to the blond chunin he waved him over. "Naruto! Come here."
"What's up Sensei?"
"New orders. Gather up Neji and Sakura." The former ANBU replied.
"Yes sir."
Minutes later the four shinobi stood around in one of the buildings. "Alright listen up, I don't want to have to read this twice." He looked up to see the others all giving him their full attention before continuing. "Alright Neji, you are to escort Sakura to outpost four, they had some heavy injuries there and her skills are needed."
"Yes sir. When do we leave."
"Now. Be safe." Kakashi said.
"Will do, Sensei." Sakura said walking out the door.
"Neji, watch after my student." Kakashi said with a slightly more commanding tone.
"I will keep her safe, you have my word." The stoic Hyuga replied. He'd changed a lot since his and Naruto's fight, becoming quite the team player and showing more concern for his friends.
After the Hyuga left, Kakashi turned to Naruto. "Alright listen kiddo, there is some major fighting going on at the tenth outpost. Intel says they have actually managed to stall our forces. The Hokage has ordered our intervention in the battle, she wants the outpost destroyed. No point in trying to take it over anymore." Kakashi briefed the boy on their new orders.
"You got it Sensei. Lead the way." Wishing luck to the garrison forces, the two shinobi departed the outpost to support their comrades in a different sector.
The fighting was outrageous. When the attack had begun there had only been twenty or so Oto nin. But out of nowhere had come a whole platoon of enemy shinobi. The massive concrete bunker before the Konoha shinobi had kunai launchers mounted inside, as well as slots for the enemy to fire off jutsu from the safety of the bunker. And for chunin Yamaoka Matsu, she couldn't help but think this was the end for her. She was watching her comrades fall in high numbers. The first squad that had shown up to clear the outpost for the garrison force was almost wiped out. When the garrison force arrived, they were met with extreme resistance. She watched as three more of her comrades were cut down by the Oto nin's sound jutsu, as well as kunai from the launchers. "This is it, this is the end, I'm gonna die here…" she thought to herself only to hear a voice split the noise of battle.
"Summoning: Food Cart Destroyer!" Her curiosity got the best of her and she looked up from the fallen tree she had taken cover behind, only to see a massive toad land on top of the bunker crushing it under it's weight. She then noticed the young blond, dressed in a black standard Konoha uniform. Adorning his chest was a chunin flak jacket, unzipped, and lightly flapping in the wind.
"Gamahiro! Bring the oil!" Naruto yelled, the massive toad responded by spewing oil from it's mouth covering the entire outpost. "Thanks for teaching me this, Sasuke." Naruto thought to himself, although it was much more difficult to learn, perfect, and perform jutsu that weren't your chakra nature, it wasn't impossible. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" He called out spewing flames from his mouth, igniting the oil and burning the entire outpost to the ground. "Hopefully Kaka-Sensei gets those medical nin here quick, some of these wounded don't have long."
Dropping down beside the girl he had sensed closest to the bunker he looked down at her. "You okay?" He asked tilting his head slightly.
"Um...yes thank you for saving us." She said in return.
"Of course, I'm not just going to sit here and watch my comrades die." He chuckled lightly.
"You're Uzumaki Naruto, aren't you? I've heard of you, the boy who beat the One Tail solo?"
"Well yeah I beat him, but Gamabunta really helped me a lot." He said scratching the back of his head.
"Still it's very impressive." The girl said back, still in awe of just who stood before her. Though he might not know it, and most of the villagers and a lot of the shinobi would deny it. Amongst the Konoha shinobi who had been in the vicinity of the Shukaku's rampage, Naruto was regarded as the first hero of the sound war.
"Well thanks, but you should pull back to the rest of our forces or help collect the injured. I'm sorry but I have to go find my Sensei." He said to the older chunin.
"Right. Thanks again Sir Uzumaki."
"Please just call me Naruto." The blond said to the girl with a wide smile, before leaping off to find his sensei.
About thirty minutes later found Naruto speaking with the copycat ninja. "Jeez Naruto you were at least supposed to wait for me to get back before you attacked."
"Sorry Sensei, another one of our shinobi was going to die then and there if I didn't step in. And I wasn't about to stand and watch."
"I know, I know. I'm proud of you for it. And also I'm impressed Naruto. You do realize you just single handedly destroyed and enemy outpost? At this rate, you'll end up in the bingo book." Kakashi warned.
"Ah come on Sensei, the only people who are alive to know it was me that just destroyed that outpost are our shinobi. So I think I'll be alright." The boy countered
"Well I suppose." The white haired man replied.
"So now what?" The younger shinobi asked.
"We wait for new orders."
Whew, rough chapter, tons of events happened. Sorry it's so clustered. I skipped over what happened with the rest of the Sasuke retrieval team because that's all canon. Anyway that's all for now, leave a review or something. Also, for informations sake, the way I have structured the shinobi forces of a village, is that the largest number of shinobi of a single rank a village has, will be made up of chunin. If a village has let's say, 5000 shinobi. Maybe 500 would be jounin. Maybe 1500 would be genin leaving the last 3800 be chunin. In which the missing 200 shinobi would be made up of ANBU black ops. That would be for a smaller village, as I've decided based off canon, each of the larger villages will have a shinobi force of about 16000 shinobi. Anyways, later! Dope ass fight coming next chapter. Darling in the Fox out!