Naruto - Warlord

AN:

Finally, back at it again with another chapter!

Again, i have literally no time to write the AN, so i'll be keeping it really short, i'm afraid. I'm hoping for a longer vaccation where i can work a bit more on the story however.

I had a blast reading your review in the last chapter; a lot of you were making a lot of intelligent guesses as to what is going to happen now later down the line. Some of those guesses will be proven right or wrong here. Only some though.

Again, i'm so grateful for all of your support, which makes it even worse for my conscience when i spend so long between releases, but life is really rough lately.

Chapter 28, ENJOY!

Chapter 28

The girl had collapsed from exhaustion and her wounds right after she'd uttered her words, but it had been enough to spur Naruto in action. As she fell, she was caught in Naruto's arms before she could hit the ground. En had glared at him for risking himself so, on the off chance that it was a ruse to draw him in, but Naruto didn't care.

For some reason, he knew in his heart that he had to help.

The medics, including their officer Yano Beni, had been waiting and ready in the treatment tent, immediately beginning their treatment of the girl. Several minutes passed where Naruto and his officers waited outside, beneath the gentle, eerie snowfall in front of one of the bonfires, until finally, Yano came outside to inform them.

"Bad news, Warlord.", Yano sighed tiredly, wiping blood from her hands as she walked over towards them. "Girl's lost a whole lot of blood; It's a wonder she made it here. She will live, but she won't be waking up any time soon."

"Shit.", Naruto cursed with frustration. Gritting his teeth as his mind started working, he gave Yano a thankful nod. "Thanks darling. Keep me posted, aye?"

"Aye.", Yano nodded back, turning right back to the tent from which she came.

The surrounding officers looked at each other warily as Naruto stood quietly with his own thoughts, considering their choice of action. The girl's headband was in his hands, clearly that of a shinobi, but he was unfamiliar with it's symbol; A star, shining bright in the night sky.

They had no idea who the girl was or who else needed help. For all they knew, they could be walking into a trap or straight into a conflict they would be on the wrong side of. No matter what they did, it would be a gamble.

They had no clues, no directions. Nothing.

"...This is bad news, Warlord.", Shou muttered to Naruto as the other officers discussed worriedly among themselves. "What are you thinking? What should we do? Seeing as we're not alone here as we thought, maybe we should...", Shou droned on, but Naruto wasn't listening. He was busy with his own deductions.

From their position on the hillside, they could easily see far inland. The middle of the island was covered by a mountain range, and it was the one place they had not yet sent any scouts, having seen it as adequate enough to keep the scouting to a minimum in the surrounding area.

Seeing as they had no clues, perhaps the best place to start would be the one area they had not yet checked out. If anything, the mountains would provide them with some much needed oversight over the surrounding island.

"Shou.", Naruto interrupted his second in command who had been droning on with his own ideas. "I want you to ready half our army; Archers in the middle, flanked protectively by our spearmen. Rangers will scout ahead in the front with half our medic capacities protected at our rear. I want us to be ready for march 5 minutes ago."

Shou opened his mouth, to protest or question Naruto knew not, but he sent Shou a glare none the less which spurred the man into action. As Shou began to bark orders at the rest of the officers, En came up at Naruto's side with an inquisitive look.

"So? We're off looking for trouble?"

"No.", Naruto drawled absentmindedly, distracted by his own thoughts still. "Just gonna have a look, see what we're dealing with."

'...As if that have ever worked out before...', the Kyuubi groused.

Naruto ignored it.

Naruto pushed hard through the dark forest and his forces struggled to keep up. It took them an hour of the night to reach the bottom of the mountain, where they quickly began to scale the mountainside.

It was not steep enough to be as dangerous as the mountains surrounding Kisara, but those who fell would still get badly hurt on their way down, as the mountain was filled with treacherous rubble and sharp stones. Nothing grew after they left the treeline, other than moss and other few robust plants. Nobody spoke with one another as they climbed and the only thing they could hear was the eerie wind that swept across the mountain along with the footsteps and heavy breathing of his men.

After another hour, Naruto finally reached the top, his Iron Guard close on his heels while the rest of their forces did their best to keep up. The way Naruto had come from was filled with a myriad of his men, desperately trying to keep up with the moving horde. Even his rangers had lost momentum and Naruto had to pass them by minutes earlier.

Naruto didn't feel winded at all so instead of waiting for the rest he began to move towards the other side of the mountain top with an absent thought of increasing their training regimen. The top was bare, stripped of life with jagged rocks which rose from the ground so his sight was unobstructed.

As his feet neared the edge, Naruto stopped, narrowing his eyes at something very, very peculiar.

In the distance, surrounded by a lush forest and rivers between the surrounding mountain ranges, one of which Naruto and his men currently climbed, laid a village. The village laid on top of 3 massive and steep hills which stood in a line, with the middle one being the biggest of the 3. Enormous bridges connected the 3 hills, with a walled off village on top of each. The village looked to be made completely out of stone, but it was hard to see through the lightly falling snow between their location.

But the city was burning. Despite it being made out of stone, the city burned with explosions and screams ringing out in the distance. All over the city, Naruto could see chakra techniques lighting up beneath the night sky; A lightning release there, a fire release over there...

A war between shinobi was happening right before them.

"Oh no...", Shou muttered as he walked up next to him. Glancing over his shoulder revealed their forces to have finally caught up, quickly following after Naruto and his Iron Guard who stood posted on the edge.

"With all due respect Warlord.", En rasped, narrowing his eyes at the village. "This ain't our fight. For all we know, we don't want to be on either side of whatever is going on down there."

Naruto narrowed his eyes in thought. It was true, it wasn't their fight; En had a point in that regard.

"...P-Please...Please h-help us..."

Naruto shuddered as he recalled the desperate plea of the girl, who with her final, fading strength, had moved all the way across the mountain and all the way over to their base, just to beg for their help.

It was worrying, because that meant that the shinobi in this village had known about their presence, yet left them to their own devices. Why? Every question he asked raised another.

However, as his eyes narrowed in on the village, something seemed to pluck at his heartstrings.

"En's right, Warlord.", Shou muttered, looking sadly at the village before them. "I mean, look; We're all seeing the fight from here. It's obviously shinobi business. It would be better for us to stay out of it."

Naruto gave a short laugh and closed his eyes as another memory came to the forefront of his mind. He reached for his helmet, removing it as he took a moment to enjoy the snow melting away on his face wherever it fell. The wind felt good on his skin as well, after their hard march.

The thoughts and doubts made him nearly panic, but Shou eventually managed to calm the crowd. As they quieted down, Shou walked closer to Naruto, worry in his eyes.

"What should we do?"

Naruto nearly snapped at him due to stress and the fact that yet another voice asked him to help them. It wasn't why he was there, he simply wanted to warn them!

As Naruto turned however, he saw the look in Shou's eyes as he stared at him.

Trust.

"I once met a boy, less than a year ago...", Naruto began, bemused and smiling. "...An innocent villager, who wanted nothing more than the right to fight and live a life that was free from the boot of the Daimyo. Today, that boy stands a man in command over the lives of hundreds of men and women." Naruto turned his head to Shou, giving him a meaningful gaze. "But he too, once lived in a village. And at that point, he could not fight with neither chakra nor weapons. And even in a Shinobi Village, there are those with a quiet sort of strength, who does not fight their battles the same way as us. No matter what grievances are at play here, their entire village is currently being destroyed. Does this not remind you of anyone?"

By the end of his speech, Shou had lowered his head with a wistful smile. Sighing, Shou nodded which seemed to be to himself as much as Naruto, before he raised his head again.

"Aye, Warlord.", Shou chuckled. Raising his fist to his chest, Shou saluted Naruto with a bright, confident grin. "You lead. I follow."

"Good.", Naruto grinned back, feeling his heart begin to beat at the expectation of battle. "Then try to keep up."

Slamming his helmet over his head again, Naruto made a leap high into the air with a surge of speed, before soaring down from the mountain towards the burning village. He couldn't help but laugh as he heard En's angry curses after him, angry that he went ahead of his Iron Guard.

Again.

As soon as he landed in the forest, Naruto released as many clones as he could who immediately spread out to flank the village. He'd go on ahead while the rest of his forces caught up to him; There was no time to waste as people were likely dying by the minute.

As he ran, he suddenly stopped as he heard the sound of a woman screaming bloody murder. He immediately dashed towards the sound, although he kept his posture low to use the vegetation to hide. His hands gripped the halberd tightly as his heart hammered at his ear.

In many ways, he realized that this would be a test, both for him but also for that of his army. Up until that point, they had not fought against shinobi, the masters of chakra manipulation, which would prove both a test and a potential milestone for his army. Their advantage laid in the element of surprise and the fact that the shinobi had likely fought for many, many hours already and were hopefully nearing the point of exhaustion. While chakra techniques was still a threat, Naruto assumed they'd likely be too exhausted to utilize it as they normally would against Naruto's superior numbers.

With ruthlessness and swift brutality was the key to their victory.

As he neared the location, Naruto slowed to a near crawl, moving onward in a crouched position to hide himself in the surrounding bushes and shrubbery. He eventually reached the edge of a clearing. Naruto moved as quietly as he could to get a better view, using the shadows of the forest that was impenetrable in the night to hide, when he saw a myriad of movement in the area.

"Did you get her!?"

Naruto flinched down into a prone position, hugging the dirt, as a shout came from somewhere way too close to comfort. From his position beneath the bushes at the edge of the clearing, he saw several men and women with a very distinctive headband.

'...A circle, surrounded by 4 smaller circles to form a snowflake...', Naruto thought with narrowed eyes as he observed their headbands. 'Hidden Frost Village? What the fuck are they doing here?'

'No clue.', the Kyuubi rumbled. 'They are obviously at war with whoever lives here.'

'But why here?', Naruto resonated, not really asking the beast in particular as he scouted the clearing, where hundreds of Frost Shinobi ran around. Wounded were streaming into the area, as sounds of combat and war rang in the distance. 'Their country and this island is separated by both the Kaizoku Sea and the Haran Bay, not to mention the proximity to Water; This can't be a border dispute.'

"Rrh, fucking cunt!", an extremely nasal and unpleasant voice swore. Looking about 20 meters to his left, into the clearing, Naruto saw a Frost shinobi that was hunched over a struggling kunoichi bound by her hands and feet.

Naruto's eyes darkened when the man hit the kunoichi across the face, the girl shrieking in a terrified manner as his hand connected.

"You alright?", another woman, a Frost kunoichi, asked as she ran over to the man who just beat at the prone girl.

"Yeah, bitch nearly escaped. Bit me when I grabbed hold of her."

His mind working overtime, he remained prone and gazed past the many shinobi who was treating one another, their medic's working overtime while some rested either despondently, or joyfully, as they conversed or ate their rations ravenously. Overall however, the shinobi looked exhausted and Naruto could see several of them having fallen asleep wherever they had been seated, covered in grime, dirt and blood.

For a warparty, their lack of discipline shocked him; These were shinobi from a Hidden Village! Where was their perimeter? They had no guards out, just a few rudimentary tents and awnings with, as far as Naruto could observe, absolutely no guards at all. They had let Naruto come to what looked like their main warcamp unhindered and unseen even. He supposed it was a fair point that they were shinobi; Assassins, not soldiers, so maybe it shouldn't have surprised him too much. Also, count to the fact that exhaustion makes it easy to fall victim for apathy, the result before him spoke for itself.

Finally, Naruto found what he was looking for. The girl who had recently been beaten down, was dragged over towards a couple of wooden posts that had been stuck to the ground in the middle of the camp, under the watchful eyes of several guards, the only of which he could see. Several kunoichi was bound to the posts, looking hateful, scared and angry about their imprisonment. They all wore the same headband of the girl who had come to Naruto's camp, wounded and desperate.

He supposed he'd already had his side picked for him.

With a breath of preparation, Naruto steeled his nerves. Moving to stand up, he slid out a small knife from his boot, having a clear target in mind for it.

Somewhere far off, a clone popped; Shou, En and the rest of his forces were close now. The news made him grin, a plan quickly forming in his head. As he was still standing in the darkness of the forest, Naruto reared his arm back, aiming carefully as his feet shuffled into a proper throwing stance. And then, he let his knife fly.

The man who had beat on the girl was still dragging her towards the posts with the rest of the prisoners. Naruto's knife pierced through the night air, slicing the man's neck open before continuing on it's way until it embedded itself deep into one of the wooden posts where the kunoichi was bound.

A panicked garble escaped the man as he collapsed, the majority of his throat severed with blood bursting out from his neck like a pulse to stain his armor and surrounding grass. The attention of his countrymen was immediately roused to his plight.

"Woah- Alarm!", someone screamed out after a moment of shock, Frost shinobi swarming to the location immediately. Whoever slept quickly woke and burst to their feet as the medics stopped their treatments of whoever they cared for, sensing a more immediate threat to their own.

They formed a defensive front towards Naruto as he emerged willingly from the dark of the forest. Acutely aware now of the weight of his armor along with that of his halberd, he walked slowly towards the shinobi, deliberately to prevent them from attacking him prematurely. Naruto came to a stop a good distance away, slamming the bottom of his halberd into the ground with a bang that seemed to reverberate throughout the entire camp.

The Frost shinobi were warily looking at him, unsure of what to make of the new arrival. Naruto's left hand, hanging freely at his side, twitched as the Kyuubi was growing increasingly restless. Naruto could feel it's chakra, poised to strike like a viper beneath his skin. It was as exhilarating as it was terrifying, seeing as how easy it had become to call upon it's powers.

Their leader, a man, stepped forward. He was dressed much like the rest of his peers; A dark, combat vest with a plated front, the neckline crowned with fur, as seemed to be the tradition of Frost shinobi as they all wore similar fur. The rest of his equipment seemed fairly standard in regards to a jonin uniform, sporting whiter colors rather than the black that Naruto remembered of Konoha's forces. The man wore a cowl and a facemask, leaving little to be revealed in regards to facial expressions. He was tall, probably reaching Naruto's chin and looked lean and fit in his uniform.

"Who are you!?", the man exclaimed, his voice strong and clear as it was supposed to be of any leader. "I do not recognize you nor that armor of yours! Are you with the Nadeshiko!?"

Naruto frowned, cocking his head.

"'Nadeshiko'?", Naruto mirrored, tasting the unfamiliar name on his tongue. "No. No, I am not. I am just someone who is very curious about why shinobi from Frost has bothered to come all the way out here, only to slaughter and pillage."

"What?", the enemy commander muttered, looking positively taken back at Naruto's response. Picking himself up again, the man flung his arm out, taking an aggressive step forward. "Whoever you are, this does not concern you! Leave now and we'll forget you were here!"

"Sir!", a Frost kunoichi next to him argued angrily. "He just killed Taro-"

"Quiet!", the commander barked, the kunoichi obeying instantly.

Eyeing the shinobi a moment longer, Naruto narrowed his eyes at them.

"Sorry.", Naruto muttered, yet his voice carried to each and every one of them. "That answer is not good enough."

"Tch!", the commander spat. "Have it your way; You're already dead."

Raising a brow at him, Naruto attempted to shuffle his feet into a stance, only to find his feet rooted in place. Snapping his gaze down with a sense of surprise, his eyes widened upon seeing his feet frozen to the ground, frost having crept up and locked around his ankles.

A rush of air was heard, steel unsheathing from its leathery confines. Naruto barely had the time to look up before a tanto blade slammed into his chest, piercing his armor easily as the commander grunted with exertion.

Seconds ticked by in tense silence, as everyone waited with baited breath to see Naruto fall.

"...That was clever.", Naruto drawled, amused by the effort. The commander's eyes widened in shock, seeing the completely lack of an effect in his target. "Distracting me with conversation while you froze my feet to the ground; As expected of shinobi from Frost."

The commander reared back, leaving his tanto blade stuck in Naruto's armor. While the knife had pierced his armor, his Iron Fist Technique had been waiting and ready for an attack and he was not about to let the commander off unscathed from his mistake.

His fist snapped up in a grip, grasping unto the commander's wrist as he let go. He ignored the blade in his chest armor for now, uncomfortably, yet harmlessly poking at his skin. The commander immediately stomped into Naruto's chest, his other foot digging it's heel into the ground in an effort to free himself.

Naruto was as unmoving as stone however, easily shattering the ice around his feet as he forced his feet apart. With a well aimed thrust and a burst of speed before anyone could react, he dragged the commander towards himself and stabbed the pointed axe of his halberd clean through the commander. It went through his stomach with a wet thud, a short gurgle of protest leaving his lips as the ground behind him was sprayed with blood.

"Commander!", the shinobi yelled, rushing forward to aid their leader. Before they could close in, Naruto kicked the mortally wounder commander off his halberd, brutally ripping the halberd out of him as he sent him straight into his rushing men who immediately caught him to form a protective circle around his body. Medics rushed in, but he was not going to give them the time.

"It's always more fun to fight when the people you slaughter don't have a fair chance, ain't it?", Naruto growled, filling his body with the Kyuubi's chakra in preparation for the coming battle. As soon as he'd finished speaking, his Iron Guard slammed into the ground around Naruto, immediately taking up a combative stance around their Warlord as they appeared from the dark. The thundering sound of his army's boots could be heard rushing towards them in the forest behind him. The Frost shinobi was shuffling and muttering uneasily in their spots, several of them stumbling backwards at the intimidating sound. "That's alright; I like to do the same myself. Time to switch the odds men! Spearwall!"

"OSU!", the thundering cry of spearmen called as they burst out of the thicket behind him. In a second, the spearmen closed rank around Naruto and the Iron Guard, forming an unbreakable wall of shields and spears which continued to spread along the edge of the clearing.

The Frost shinobi was now clearly panicking, unsure as to what to do and Naruto didn't intend to give them the time to make a decision.

"Hear me!", Naruto roared, his voice thundering across the forest. "Fight with the intention to kill anyone who is attacking the village! Those of the village shall not be harmed! Archers!"

"Archers at the ready!", a voice confirmed from somewhere in the back in the forest.

"Nock!", Naruto barked as loud as he could. The men around him tensed as they knew what was coming. "Draw! Loose!"

A storm of arrows whipped past them in a blur and Naruto shivered as several arrows whistled right past his ears. Death struck the Frost shinobi in a devastating wave that had most running in a panic, their wounded and their prisoners all forgotten as they rushed to retreat.

Ordering another volley, his archers had to freefire as several of the shinobi took to the trees, disappearing quickly into the forest around them.

"On me!", Naruto roared and began to walk forward, his step mirrored by the army as a single entity.

"Osu!"

"Shou!"

"Aye, Warlord?", Shou barked, appearing next to Naruto as quickly as he could.

"This will be our staging ground.", Naruto began, nodding at the clearing of which they'd just liberated from the Frost shinobi. "Take control of the wounded and take whoever's wounded or surrendered of the enemy as prisoners. Make sure our men know who to fight and who not to. I will be sending clones to inform the locals of our presence; Hopefully, we can prevent them from attacking us, just make sure our folks don't give them a reason to fight our presence."

"Aye, sir!"

"Good!", Naruto grunted, rolling his shoulders as he eyed the burning village on top of the hillside, less than a kilometer away from them. "Now, get the-"

"Frost Release: Ice Thr-!", an angry scream suddenly interrupted. With a flourish of his halberd, Naruto twirled it into a hold at his back, his left at his front to prepare for a counter technique. Snapping towards the assailant, Naruto observed the Frost shinobi, obviously having been one of the wounded as his upper body was bare and covered in bandages. With a grim expression, he was in the middle of several handsigns, glaring at Naruto with determination. He was obviously willing to die to take down the leader of the army that were attacking his own.

Suddenly, a hand grasping a rock as a make shift weapon smashed into the side of his head.

Naruto blinked in surprise as the Frost shinobi fell, giving sight to one of the previously captured kunoichi who had snuck up behind him. She was covered in blood and dirt, her hair a tangled mess, so Naruto couldn't really see much of her, but she was obviously furious as she immediately crouched down to smash the rock repeatedly into the Frost shinobi's head where it was smashed to paste, one strike at a time.

Casting a glance at the posts revealed the rest of the captured kunoichi to be releasing themselves, using the knife that Naruto had thrown at the beginning of their encounter.

"Shou.", Naruto said with a pointed look towards them and Shou immediately understood to secure and take control of the prisoners. It would be unfortunate if the kunoichi went off to fight the battle as they were, without being coordinated with Naruto's forces.

"Aye, Warlord!", Shou yelled at his side, immediately beginning to bark orders at the surrounded men which sent them into a burst of movement again.

Glancing back to the woman who killed the Frost shinobi who nearly attacked him, he saw her crouched above the corpse, breathing heavily as she looked at him with a narrowed, suspicious gaze. While he could not see much of her through the dark night, the grime, dirt, blood and frazzled hair he could see the fire, the barely restrained anger behind her eyes.

The will to fight.

With deliberate slowness, he approached the kneeling woman who tensed at his approach. While uneasy, she made no move to attack him as she'd obviously understood they were there to help, even if she did not trust them.

Smart, considering their situation.

As he came to a stop before her, the corpse of the Frost shinobi that had been beaten to a pulp between them, he took a sharp breath as he considered her. As he observed how her breathing had picked up, he realized the sight he must have been for her; His eyes alight under his helmet with the Kyuubi's chakra, wisps of energy coiling in the air around him. He knew the effect of the Kyuubi's power could feel oppressive to those who were not prepared for it.

Reaching for the tanto blade still stuck in his chest, he grasped the handle and pulled it out. The girl tensed up even more as she flinched away, lips drawing back in a viscous snarl. Her hand tightened around the rock in her hand, but Naruto ignored it; The girl, while ready and willing to fight, looked just about to fall over if he as much as breathed at her too hard.

Twirling the knife around to grasp it's blade, he slowly, gently offered the handle to her. Her expression softened, eyes widening as she realized his intent.

"Get up.", Naruto ordered simply, yet firmly, his voice reverberating through the clamor of the moving camp.

Glancing between the knife and Naruto's masked, burning eyes, a tense silence was left between them.

Slowly, the girl eventually reached forward.

And there we go. Sure most of you can see where this is heading and i hope you're looking forward to the meat grinder that's waiting!

MiNdZeRo here, signing out.