Naruto and Sasuke are in a pitched battle in the Chunin Exams and it is not turning out well for Sasuke's pride. Naruto has the upper hand when something happens.
Chapter 22: Invasion and Loss – Part 1
The Kazekage had seen enough. He made a gesture to his bodyguard who spoke into a hidden microphone. Within seconds, white feathers began drifting down around the stadium. People all around the stadium began to pass out from the wide area genjutsu. A dozen explosions rocked various parts of Konoha.
On the arena floor, the fight continued unabated. Sasuke rose up holding his broken jaw. His rage oozed from him as killer intent at Naruto.
'The Uchiha is more than powerful enough. He has the ability to copy jutsu already but he lacks the sense to do so wisely. His mind is damaged, weak and uncontrolled. The boy has fallen prey to such childish taunting. So much the better. He will be easy enough to take over like this,' he thought.
The Kazekage jumped up behind Sarutobi and placed a kunai against the Hokage's throat. He jumped to the roof of the next section of the stands with his captive. The four bodyguards for the Kazekage threw off their robe revealing themselves as Sound ninja. All four leapt to the neighboring roof with him and formed a box around the pair. In synch, the four went through a series of hand signs and a barrier rose up around them, trapping the two Kages within.
"Ah, so the other foot drops. You are not the Kazekage. So then who are you?" Sarutobi asked in a strangely calm voice.
"Just a wayward ninja who has come home to see some loose ends tied off, Sarutobi-sensei," crooned a silky voice in his ear.
"Orochimaru. My greatest failure and biggest disappointment," Sarutobi replied. He saw several robed ANBU waiting outside the barrier. He could recognize the barrier's type and knew help would not be coming through that particular barrier. Best to stall for time. "So, what has happened to the true Kazekage?"
"Oh, he is just out communing with the desert. Becoming one with it so to speak." Orochimaru chuckled evilly.
At the city walls to Konoha, an enormous cloud of chakra smoke billowed up and a 3 headed snake the size of the Hokage Tower rose from it. The snake surged forward and shattered the wall in front of it. The snake moved into the city and crushed the mostly abandoned Uchiha district as it went. Sound ninja poured into the city through the breech. The Leaf ninja on guard duty in that area fell back taking their wounded with them. A few chunin stood their ground to protect their fellows and died where they stood. In their stand, more Sound ninja fell at the wall than Leaf ninja.
Sasuke roared and lunged at Naruto again. All that mattered to him now was the utter destruction of Naruto. The genin never noticed Hayate come up beside him and chop him across the neck knocking him out. Naruto looked at Hayate with a strange look on his face as he noticed people slumped over in the stands.
In various parts of the stadium there was fighting as Sound ninja abandoned their disguises and attacked anyone in sight. On first glace it did not appear things were going well. Most of the available ANBU had formed up around the daimyo's box and were preventing anyone from getting near the feudal lords. Within, the bodyguards all watched each other warily as they stood around their respective leaders. The Raikage and his own bodyguard, Yugito Nii stood watch over their leader.
"Naruto, report to your teacher for instruction. Konoha is under attack." Hayate looked up at the stands and grimaced. "But it seems the attack is not a total surprise after all."
During the Intermission before the Naruto / Sasuke fight.
Shikamaru took off running to find Asuma. He heard the announcement for a 15 minute intermission and smiled. He might have enough time. The genin practically flew up the stairs as he headed toward where he had seen his family and friends sitting.
Asuma was puzzled by the intermission announcement but like many of the spectators welcomed it. He was heading to take care of some business when Shikamaru came running up. He came to full alert because Shikamaru NEVER ran for anything.
"Sensei, something is going on here!"
Asuma narrowed his eyes at his student as his hand strayed towards his weapons. "Verify. I need your codeword."
Shikamaru sighed, "Troublesome. Rutabaga Pie. Sensei, something is going on with the Sand genin in the Exams. They are not behaving like people who are here to try for chunin. The puppet user was hiding way too much ability in his fight against Shino and when I fought the girl, she nearly panicked when I mentioned knocking her out for several hours. Something bigger is about to happen and the Sand is a part of it."
Asuma relaxed slightly at hearing the proper code word from Shikamaru but tensed up again at hearing his report. "This is bad. There are leaders from a dozen countries here. If even one gets hurt, Konoha will be blamed." Asuma looked around for an ANBU and spotted one nearby.
Walking quickly to the robed and masked elite ninja, Asuma spoke quietly. "My student has detected something amiss and I am worried about a possible threat to the daimyos." Asuma followed with an authentication code, which received a nod from the ANBU who quickly left.
In under a minute, Asuma heard the message hawk call out a Stage 1 alert. The hawk calls meant nothing to the general population. But to chunin level or higher it meant to be alert for suspicious activity and required all stations and patrols in the city to report status to headquarters. He nodded to Shikamaru who just shook his head, "Troublesome."
ANBU headquarters was receiving information from all patrols and stations on the walls. A chunin marked status on a large wall map of the city as messages arrived. Five minutes after the call to report status, a bad picture was forming. Several patrols outside the walls in the northeast and west areas had not reported in nor had the western gate. Quick response teams were being dispatched to the areas and to the main arena. The rumble of a sector of the northeastern wall being destroyed sounded across the city. Ibiki called out, "Sound the general evacuation alert. All civilians report to shelters at once. All ninja reserves activate and go to Stage 2 conditions in the village."
Hawks were sent out immediately to carry the message out to the village.
Sand ninja flooded through the captured western gate and fanned out. One team continued down the main street unopposed. Their objective was to head to the Hokage Tower and capture it intact if possible. The wealth and knowledge in the Konoha vaults would be a major prize. Other teams set out on search and destroy missions. Many did not like the idea of killing civilians so they engaged any ninja they saw instead. They merely drove the children and elderly before them to prevent Leaf counter attack from area effect jutsu.
ANBU squad 11 tore through the Sand ninja on the main street before them and headed to the western gate instead of engaging the enemy teams already in town. Their mission was to secure the gate. They saw teams from the nearby tower stations attempting to do the same but the chunin were being driven back.
The team leader spoke up, "We will secure and shut the gate first. Once we have accomplished that task we will aid our fellows. Stopping the enemy within the walls is important but useless if they get reinforcements."
The elite ninja made short work of the Sand ninja at the gate. The leader and two others stood in the gateway to hold back the enemies as the final two in their team worked the mechanism closing the gate. The pair then used fire jutsu to disable the workings. This kept nearly two thirds of the Sand forces outside of the village but those able to use chakra to climb up the outer walls began to do so in spite of seals built into the walls to make such a task difficult.
Naruto scrambled up the inner wall of the arena. He peered over the edge into the seating area to find it absolute mayhem. Many Konoha ninja had been warned by the original hawk to beware and this had served them well when the area genjutsu was cast. All the jonin and roughly half the chunin in attendance managed to shrug off the sleep technique. Some areas of the stands were kept safe while others with few ninja sitting there were slaughterhouses. Naruto spotted Anko, Tsunade, and Sakura with her family in a safe area with many other civilians. There were many slugs around them spitting acid at anyone who approached with a weapon in hand and not wearing a Leaf emblem. Naruto jumped over the edge and ran toward his team.
Tsunade yelled orders to her slugs. "Expand the perimeter" She turned to Naruto, "Help Sakura and her father and pull any unconscious civilians into the safe area. Leave them asleep for now. They will be less hassle that way. If you find any ninja, do whatever it takes to wake them up. Kick them, slap them, punch or cut them. Whatever it takes! We are being overrun."
Naruto nodded and made the cross seal and quietly spoke his favorite jutsu, "Shadow Clones" Several dozen copies of Naruto sprung into action pulling sleeping civilians through the line of slugs. Each person his clones pulled behind them gave the slugs more room to expand the safe zone and a wider field of fire. Soon, awakened genin and chunin were aiding the effort. Freed from rescue duty, Sakura began treating wounded civilians and ninja alike. Her father had somehow managed to remain awake and aided his daughter by standing protectively with his old knife in hand.
Baki growled at reports from the invasion force on the radio. "The damned Leaf ANBU retook the gate we were using to get in. Temari, Kankuro, Gaara, go to the western gate and force it back open."
"Mother wants blood. There are many victims here she can have," Gaara replied with an insane look in his eyes.
Baki just though and spoke quietly, "These are just cattle, Gaara. There are ninja who can justify your existence waiting at the gate. Better sport than killing the ones who don't resist."
Gaara turned his head as if listening to someone else before leaping off with Temari and Kankuro following behind.
Within minutes, many of the jonin in the arena area had grouped near the perimeter Tsunade had established and counterattacked the Sound forces in the stadium. The outmatched Sound ninja retreated and a strange silence filled the arena with distant fighting coming from multiple directions.
Hinata arrived just then with her younger sister and several branch family Hyuuga in tow. "My father instructed me to come here with the rest of the family below jonin rank. He is taking them to relieve the estate. It seems to be near the fighting in the clan districts. I spotted the Sand genin team heading west toward some other Sand forces. The forces in the northeast appear to be Sound ninja like the ones here. They are killing everyone in their path.
Anko looked at Tsunade, "I'll go help with the evacuation and fighting the Sound forces." She left with several jonin in tow.
Tsunade turned her attention to the large purple barrier on the roof of one of the seating areas. She could see Sarutobi and Orochimaru tossing jutsu at one another. 'Hold on, Sensei. Help is coming.' "Every genin who is free; go to that seating area below that barrier and evacuate the civilians! Chunin, go relieve the ANBU guarding the daimyos. Naruto, Hinata, Sakura; I want the three of you to pursue the Sand genin and stop them.
Iruka frowned as he herded the Academy students toward their assigned shelter. The new school building was a mass of flames behind him as the Sound ninja overran the place shortly after it was evacuated. That giant three-headed snake was really a pain. It had pushed nearly to the center of the village already and nothing the defenders could do was stopping it. Several teachers were fighting a rear guard action as the students fled. The teachers all suddenly fell screaming and clutching their heads in agony. Iruka felt the vibrations in the air even from a distance. Two squads of Sound ninja approached with leering faces at the easy pickings they saw before them. Iruka stood alone between the enemy and the children. He knew he would die doing his best to defend the future of Konoha.
The point Sound ninja rushed Iruka and was felled by a perfectly thrown kunai to the throat. The rest realized this scarred chunin was better than his uniformed rank showed. One raised up an arm similar to the one the dead genin from the Chunin Exams and swung it at Iruka. The teacher screamed as his eardrums broke under the assault and he fell to his knees vomiting. The leader of the Sound squad casually walked up to the kneeling teacher and pulled Iruka's head back by the ponytail, ready to slash his throat.
The Sound forces were shocked when senbon needles appeared in the neck of their leader before the barrage that followed left none of them standing. Iruka groggily lifted his head to see a teen leap down from a building to slash the throats of the Sound ninja before helping Iruka and the students to safety.
The Leaf forces fell back further from the three-headed snake. All they could do was retreat from it. Sound ninja flanked it and took advantage of the devastation it caused to break any resistance they found. The snake roared again as a loud voice was heard.
"Summoning Jutsu!" yelled Jiraiya as a huge orange frog landed on the snake dispelling it. "Thanks, Gamakoudai." The enormous toad swung to either side and killed squads of Sound ninja at once blunting the attack before dispelling himself in a cloud of chakra smoke. Jiraiya ran past the defenders toward the arena. He knew that he already going to be too late. He had needed to fight his way through Sound forces to even get into the city. Every second he took fighting these people was one more he could lose the few people he still held precious.
The Leaf chunin got to the daimyo box and relived the ANBU to deal with other threats. Yugito Nii noticed the 'next generation of Sannin' heading off to the west. Yugito bowed to Saito, "Master, the jinchuuriki from the Sand is moving off to the west and it seems the Leaf is sending a genin team in pursuit. Genin will not be able to stand up to him. If the Leaf loses this fight and the demon becomes uncontrolled, our Lord could die here in spite of the relative safety we now have."
The Raikage nodded. He knew that Yugito wanted to test herself against another jinchuuriki. He called out to the Dragon masked ANBU nearby, "ANBU-san. My bodyguard wishes to aid your village. The Sand has a demon vessel heading toward the western gate. She might be able to help."
The dragon masked ANBU considered for a moment. With chunin and genin preparing to evacuate the daimyos, he was free to aid other areas. His abilities would be useful in the event of a demon getting out of control but three jinchuuriki in one battle location had disaster written all over it. He shook his head. "It would be best for her to remain here at this time. We are about to move the daimyos to a place of greater safety. Her 'gifts' might be more useful to protect the daimyos if things get further out of hand. There are still some wary feelings towards your village. With this invasion in progress, Leaf ninja are attacking anyone without a Leaf headband."
Saito nodded briefly and looked at Yugito, "Wait for now. If needed, you will be permitted to go into the fray to defend our daimyo."
Ayame sat with her father and watched as Academy students filed into the shelter. Many of the older students were burdened with wounded teachers. Bringing up the rear she saw a young man half carrying Iruka. The waitress ran to help with the man she knew was a good friend of Naruto. Ayame gently lowered Iruka to the ground and thanked the young man. He smiled kindly and she found herself blushing as the teen was her age and very attractive.
The jonin in charge of the shelter looked down his list. Runners and block leaders had kept him informed of the progress of the evacuations in the eastern districts and how far the enemy had advanced there. Nearly all the areas in the region for this shelter were accounted for one way or the other. He knew he had little choice but to write off anyone behind the lines for the moment and pray to the gods for their survival or painless deaths. He turned to the runner at hand, "Report to headquarters, all northeastern sector blocks evacuated or overrun. Only the Hyuuga compound is unaccounted for in the shelter. Last reports had it cut off but holding. Northeastern sector prepared to go to Stage 3 when ordered."
Kin groggily opened her eyes and looked around. This was not her tent. She was supposed to be getting ready to invade Konoha and get her revenge for her embarrassing loss in the Chunin Exams. She could barely move her arms and a panel was mere inches from her face when she tried to sit up It was dark and enclosed and she was naked. Enough light penetrated from the edges of whatever she was in to give her enough light to see. As her eyes peered down at herself, she could make out ink seals written all over her bare skin.
"No," she whispered. Orochimaru had said that he cared about her. That she would have a special place in the attack and be important in their victory. The seals all began to glow and burn. She screamed as she felt her soul being consumed and pulled down into the darkness as another filled her body.
Tsunade could only watch as the battle between Orochimaru and the Hokage took an ugly turn. Orochimaru had performed some new jutsu and Sarutobi had only been able to stop part of it. Two coffins opened and out stepped people she knew. 'Grandpa," was all she was able to say. Jiraiya arrived just then. He quickly surveyed the situation and saw Orochimaru desecrate the bodies that resembled the First and Second Hokage. "We have to get in there somehow and aid Sensei."
"Several ANBU have been killed already trying to breech the barrier. None lived long enough to reach the people holding it up," Tsunade replied.
"Hime, have you forgotten everything Sensei taught us about barriers? They need three things; chakra, focus and a solid place to stand. These turkeys are standing on a roof."
"OF COURSE!" Tsunade yelled. "EVERYONE BACK OFF!" Tsunade jumped down one level and looked down the back of the building. The long back wall was the load bearing one.
She took a few steps back and ran at the corner, striking the masonry with her massive strength and chakra. The shock wave ran down the length of the wall destroying the masonry and cracking the metal supports. With a crash, the roof shattered to pieces as it collapsed. The Sound ninjas tried desperately to hold on but with no footing, the barrier collapsed as they fell with the roof.
Tsunade and Jiraiya leapt at Orochimaru to do battle.
Naruto, Hinata and Sakura were closing in on the gate area. They saw the crushed remains of many Leaf ninja who had tried to stop the Sand team. Temari and Kankuro were standing guard as Gaara was trying to force the gate open with his sand. The red head was covered in sand on his upper body. The head of a tanuki and two monstrous arms of sand looked out at the slowly opening gates. There was enough space already to let a single line of ninja through and Gaara kept forcing it wider.
"We need to get them away from the gate. Gaara is the only one able to force that thing. Even Tsunade-sensei would have trouble moving those things. They are almost as large as her breasts," Naruto joked.
Sakura lightly smacked Naruto. "Focus", she admonished him
"Shadow clones, ATTACK!" Naruto shouted as dozens of copies of Naruto fell upon Gaara. Hinata and Sakura attacked Temari and Kankuro. Temari managed to swing her fan at Hinata and drove her back for a moment. Sakura landed a solid blow on Kankuro's puppet and saw it shatter into a dozen pieces. The Sand genin jumped back wiggling his fingers as the separate limbs of his weapon all lifted into the air to attack Sakura dodged as blades flipped out of each limb.
Gaara was looking at all the Narutos when one just said "Boom" and paper bombs planted by all the clones detonated. Gaara roared in pain as the sand was blown away from his body only to reform seconds later. The increased cover now included a tail. The enraged Sand ninja jumped at Naruto who just fled, taunting Gaara. Naruto jumped up onto the wall and ran a short distance down. Gaara began following so Naruto kept running. Temari tried calling out to Gaara but Hinata attacked her again. The redhead ran down the wall after the fleeing but still taunting Naruto. After moving down the wall about 200 yards, Naruto leapt off into the forest around Konoha with Gaara in hot pursuit.
"What is that idiot doing?" Sakura asked Hinata.
"Gaara is the biggest danger right now. Naruto lured him away from the gates," Hinata replied. "We need to finish here and go help him."
Ibiki looked at the reports coming in. The arena area was secured but a Kage level battle was going on nearby. The daimyos were being evacuated to the southern part of the city with all the available genin and several dozen chunin in flanking guard positions. Once they reached the southern shelter, the chunin could be turned against the Sand ninja still in the city.
The western portion of the city was sustaining heavy casualties among the defenders but civilian casualties were light. ANBU squad 11 had been taken down at some point in their stand at the gate but reports from the badly injured sole survivor reported a 15 to 1 kill ratio. Sand forces within the village were hunting down ninja and some civilians earlier but now they were facing empty buildings. The Sand's jinchuuriki, Gaara, was reported moving to that area killing all in his path.
The northeastern area of the city was sustaining heavy damage to life and infrastructure. It was fortunate that the initial thrust had been in the Uchiha clan compound. The Hyuuga compound had been cut off early and many Hyuuga at the arena had cut through the battle lines to reach their families. Scouts from high positions on the Hokage Tower and the mountain could still see heavy fighting in that part of the city. Ibiki hoped they could hold out. It was fortunate that Jiraiya had blunted the Sound attack and Leaf forces had halted the rest of the advance. Anko and the majority of the jonin from the arena would be arriving there soon.
Ibiki looked up as a runner came in with a new message. The daimyos had reached the southern shelter. All shelters had reported secure at close to 90 percent capacity in all but the northeastern sector 'Finally. Now we can do something.' "Send the hawk up. Initiate Stage 3, Eliminate the invaders, at all costs."
Next Chapter Invasion and Loss – Part 2
Review Notes: I was stunned by the number of reviews for chapter 21. It was by far the most a single chapter has received. Only 1 purely negative one but it got auto-censored so I am not sure exactly what he meant.
A few people did get on me about my idea that Sasuke would win a jutsu fight. I still hold to that idea for several reasons. First, Sasuke knows more jutsu and most of Sasuke's jutsu are attacks. Naruto has few most notably his shadow clones but outside of me giving him a few elemental bullet ones, he is lacking in offense. Sasuke is familiar enough with Naruto and the use of shadow clones that he would not fall for the trick of being overloaded by it. Yes, Naruto could most definitely outlast Sasuke in terms of chakra. The only real deciding factor is the last one. Naruto is not trying to permanently damage his opponent. The same cannot be said for Sasuke. Naruto holds back too much in a fight in canon so he gets tossed around like a ball until he gets serious. If Naruto had been trying to merely kill Sasuke as opposed to stopping him in the VotE episodes of the anime, Sasuke would be dead. THAT is why Sasuke would win a jutsu battle.
A few reviews have addressed my use of the minor characters then leaving them out hanging. Hanabi was mentioned most recently. I do take some of them into consideration but see them as background with only their parts that directly affect the story included. Also, I wonder who noticed the return of a previous minor character.
Writing Notes: My variances from canon increase with the giant snake getting much further into Konoha than in the original since my Jiraiya was out of town and not quite back yet. I loved that critter so it got to stick around longer. It was like bringing a tank to a knife fight.
Gamakoudai literally means huge toad.
Yes, another cliffhanger but I figured one half update in one week with another half update a week later was better than the complete update in two weeks.
I looked over the stats for this story and I am truly humbled.
Nearly 100K words
169,000 page views
583 reviews
463 favorites
705 alerts
125 C2s
Thanks to everyone who has read and I hope will continue reading.
Parting Shot: I will never put down or cheapen my view on ANBU. They are the elite of the village ninja. The equivalent to Navy SEALs, Army Rangers or British SAS. People want to make ANBU seem like just another rank when it is actually so much more.