Invasion and Loss: Part 3
Recap:
Sarutobi shook his head slowly as he saw the forms of the First and Second Hokage close in on his students. The First backhanded Tsunade through a pile of rubble, leaving her stunned and helpless. It walked over and began to strangle the woman. The Second had Jiraiya trapped in a sphere of water. The golems were speaking to the Sannin and telling them they did not wish this but neither one stopped.
'Damn, they cannot be destroyed by any means I can think of except one.' "Shadow Clone," Sarutobi whispered. A clone of Sarutobi appeared and in unison with the original began a long seal sequence, their hands blurring. "Shiki Fuijin, (Reaper Death Seal)"
The jutsu completed both Sarutobi and his clone leapt forward to grapple with the golems of the First and Second. A pale white form appeared behind Sarutobi as the golems were held. Then, a hush fell across the whole of Konoha as the presence of Death was felt.
In the southern shelter, the Raikage and Yugito both felt it strongly. "Raikage-sama, the Nibi can sense the power of a tailed beast nearby being released, and possibly of a second. With the feeling of death so close by, it will make the other beasts rage and possibly make the vessels lose all control. Since I am essentially the Nibi I can keep it under control and calm or subdue the others."
The Raikage nodded, "Then go do what you must to help the situation."
The Dragon masked ANBU that had remained near them stepped up, "I shall accompany her and insure she is not attacked by Leaf forces.
The Sand forces felt the presence of Death and flinched but held in place.
The Sound forces felt it, broke and ran.
Hiashi could barely stand he was so exhausted. Multiple cuts littered his forearms and a deep gash on his side revealed how close to dying he had come. He looked at the fleeing Sound ninja in amazement. The feeling of imminent death was wasted on Hiashi as he had already felt it for the past hour. He glanced about at the other 3 Hyuuga standing and nodded. One tore off the shirt from a dead Sound genin and bandaged Hiashi's wounded side. The other two checked the fallen Hyuuga for life signs and began to aid their clansmen as the relief force of Anko, the elder Ino – Shika – Cho trio, and ANBU squad 2 arrived.
Hiashi looked up at them in pain, "Welcome to the Hyuuga estate. I would invite you all in for tea but it seems that the uninvited guests have broken the cups."
The members of the relief force all gaped at Hiashi for a moment before they burst out in hysterical laughter. Hiashi chuckled a bit until the pain from his side forced him to stop. The relief at living and the fear that had been standing over all there broke. The spirit of Konoha would not fail today.
Cat composed herself quickly and told her squad, "Prepare to pursue the enemy. Kill those that resist. Accept surrender of those that wish to give up." The squad nodded as one and headed in pursuit of the fleeing Sound forces
Anko gathered what chakra she could and summoned a dozen horse sized snakes. "Go with the ANBU squad. Guard whatever prisoners they take." The snakes nodded and followed after ANBU. Anko turned and spoke to the three warriors, "Inoichi, have your team help the Hyuuga with their wounded and sweep the area afterwards. I'll go inform Ibiki and get some more relief out here and get some genin to police these bodies and get on search and rescue of the civilian areas."
Inoichi nodded. Anko did not really have superiority over him bit her commands made sense and were what needed doing. Anko ran off toward the nearest shelter to get in touch with Ibiki.
Naruto stood in anger as his blue charka flared around him. Flashes of purple appeared and disappeared in the blue as the Kyuubi's chakra mixed in with his own. Naruto made the cross seal for his favorite jutsu as the feeling from the presence of Death washed over them.
Somewhere inside Naruto:
The Kyuubi felt something it had felt before. The overwhelming dread. The feeling of impending doom. It shuddered in fear as it recalled how it came to be sealed into the boy.
"NO!! I will not be taken now! I will not go into death like this!
The Kyuubi flared its entire chakra in an attempt to break the seal. The seal itself was bolstered by Naruto's own flaring chakra in that moment and held. But massive amounts of demonic chakra flooded through the seal into Naruto
"Taiju Kage Bunshin! (Mass Shadow Clones) Naruto yelled. He had expected a couple hundred clones from the chakra he felt when the Kyuubi chakra flooded his system and supercharged the jutsu by a factor of 10.
Over two thousand clones stood around the clearing and into the tree branches around it.
Gaara looked at the sea of blondes around him and was stunned enough to drop Sakura to the ground. She gasped air in relief as she looked at all the Narutos.
The clones pulled out shuriken and began bombarding Gaara as a pair pulled Sakura to safety. Gaara was forced to protect himself with his sand from the onslaught. Most of the shuriken dispersed back into chakra after doing damage which prevented Gaara from hurling them back. A small amount of his sand lashed out and destroyed dozens of clones but the rest continued with the attack. Gaara pulled his sand into a sphere around himself in his ultimate defense.
Tsunade was looking through one barely open eye as the pressure on her throat was released. She gasped heavily as she forced her lungs to suck in precious air. After a few panting breaths, she looked up to see her grandfather being held back by Sarutobi. The feeling of death's presence was almost over-powering this close to the jutsu. "Sensei, No!" she cried out.
Sarutobi grimaced in pain as wooden spikes were driven into his legs as the First attempted escape. "I have no choice, Tsunade. They cannot be killed so their souls must be taken away from this place. There was no other way to stop them and save you and Jiraiya. Watch over Konoha and Minato's boy, Tsunade. He will be greater than all of us one day. Guide him on the right path. Farewell."
"Fuin!" (Seal)
Tsunade saw both golems of her relatives turn to dust on the grip of Sarutobi and his clone. The bodies of 2 Sound genin fell to the ground as the dust blew off into the wind. She laboriously crawled over the Sarutobi as the ANBU closed in to check on her and Jiraiya. The Old Man had a small smile on his face as he lay quietly in death, knowing he had saved his two most precious people remaining in this life.
The ANBU milled around for a moment as if unsure what to do next. Their Hokage was dead and no one was in charge. Jiraiya was unconscious but breathing. Tsunade cursed under her breath as they all looked at her. She did not want to lead anyone but they all were looking at her. She had loved the role of Sannin because of the respect it gave her in the eyes of others. Now that title was putting her in a position of leadership because there was no one else to turn to.
Coughing first, she croaked out from her abused throat, "What is the situation?"
"The Sound forces are retreating. The Sand forces are at the western wall but we hold the gate. They are holding in place as if waiting for something. There was a flash of demonic chakra that felt like the Kyuubi when Hokage-sama did his jutsu but that faded quickly. However, another different source is growing. Both came from a battle just south of the western gate outside the walls."
'Naruto and Gaara. Just wonderful. It sounds like the demons felt the Shiginami's presence and panicked and Naruto kept his contained but Gaara hasn't.' Tsunade looked over at the still unconscious Jiraiya. He was always the tactician of the Sannin. "Ok, send some jonin teams to harass the Sound into a full retreat. ANBU squads take defensive positions inside the walls and prepare to repel the Sand if they start to advance again. Pair up chunin teams and have them patrol the interior of the village to find any enemies within the walls. Genin on search and rescue in the parts the Sound over-ran." The ANBU nodded as one and flashed off to follow orders.
One frustrated clone leapt at the sphere and landed on it with both feet before jumping away. This inspired more clones to begin doing the same. The idea spread around quickly and soon clones were jumping high into the air to land on the sphere. The bombardment of the impacts dispersed some clones but the sphere was slowly being pushed into the ground of the clearing. A shout rose up form one. "Use you chakra in your feet as you land. It's like during tree climbing when you use too much. It does damage!" The rain of Narutos on the sphere continued. The top of the sphere was being deformed as the seconds passed. One pair of clones teamed up so one blonde was sent flying higher than ever to make a greater impact. More seconds crept by and the sphere cracked.
Gaara felt secure in his sphere at first. He was all alone with Mother. The tactic had served him well against more skilled enemies in the past. But this time something was wrong, In spite of his efforts the pounding on the sphere was doing damage. A sharp cracking noise sounded and a shard of sand compressed to sandstone cut along Gaara's arm.
Gaara winched in pain as he was cut by the sandstone. "Pain. I do not like paaaaaIIIIIIINNNNNNNN!" His soft whisper evolved into a shout as he flung his sand shield outward. Dozens of Naruto clones were dispelled as the sand flew outward. Several still fell from the sky to land on Gaara and begin pummeling the red head.
With a loud shout, Gaara exploded sand outward again destroying the clones attacking him. But this time the sand kept building up and filling the area with a monstrous shape.
Yugito and the dragon masked ANBU were closing in on the site of the battle just outside the city walls. They could see dozens of Naruto clones rising and falling above the trees. Yugito had felt the Kyuubi chakra flare quite clearly but it didn't continue past that flare. The other demonic chakra she felt was identified by the Nibi within her as being that of the Ichibi, Shukaku the Sand Demon.
The pair passed over the wall and approached a large clearing in the forest. Shattered trees surrounded the area. The growing pile of sand before them worried Yugito immensely. The Nibi within her was telling her a massive amount of demonic chakra was being released. Shukaku was being unleashed.
Dragon signed for a halt as a blonde carrying a punk haired girl headed out of the battle zone as the sand monster was destroying clones.
Yugito saw the blonde boy stop and sit the pink haired girl on a branch so Dragon and Yugito went to him.
"I'm fine, Naruto. It's just a cracked rib," Sakura was saying as the older pair moved closer.
"Uzumaki-san, what is your status?" Dragon asked.
Naruto looked up as Sakura made hand seals to generate healing chakra and press against her side.
"Um, deep trouble ANBU-san," Naruto told him. "There is no way I can take on that thing so I got Sakura out of trouble."
"Are you the original or a clone, Uzumaki-san?"
"Clone, the real deal is back there trying to figure out a way to beat this guy.
Yugito looked up at the giant sand tanuki and frowned. "Shukaku is almost out completely and nearly in charge of the boy's mind. Look, there on its forehead. The boy is about to use a forced sleep jutsu to let the demon take over. Once that happens it will take a bijou to fight against him and hope to win."
Sakura grunted, "We seem to be a tad in short supply of one of those."
Yugito looked at Naruto, "She is unaware of things like jinchuuriki?"
Dragon nodded to Yugito while Naruto looked scared.
Yugito just focused, "You are in luck, because I am one." The light haired Cloud jonin began emitting chakra from her body. The visible chakra formed around her body in the form of a large cat with 2 tails that stood about 10 ft. tall at the shoulder. Shukaku noticed the group now and turned to attack. It fired a blast of wind at them but the clone picked up Sakura and moved her again as Dragon and Yugito moved closer. The sand and air blast destroyed a half acre of trees.
Yugito continued closing in on Skukaku as the sand monster spat more chakra enhanced balls of air at her. Sakura and the clone landed near Dragon and filled him in on the fight so far.
Yugito closed to melee range of Shukaku and avoided a paw swipe. Yugito swung back and chakra talons cut off the sand demon's sand arm. The sand fell to the forest floor and dissipated once separated from the main mass. The sand flowed down and reformed the missing appendage. Yugito continued to dodge and slice to the amazement of the on looking Sand ninja.
Dragon looked at Sakura and the clone, "We need to find a way to wake the boy Gaara and then knock him out or seal the beast deeper inside of him. If we knock him out, I can bind him enough to keep the beast contained.
How the heck can we knock him out?" the clone cried out. "Gaara is over a hundred feet in the air!"
Dragon quickly outlined his plan then poked the clone in the forehead and dispersed it.
Naruto appeared within a minute as Sakura and Dragon waited. Dragon had out a simple pine cone which he now hurled under the Shukaku.
"Wood Style: Tree Growth."
The chakra infused pine cone reacted to Dragon's jutsu and from it a lodge pole pine sprouted and grew upward at an astonishing rate. The new tree impaled Shukaku's neck and kept the torso still for a few seconds.
Sakura stood ready with Naruto for the sand demon to be held in place. She funneled her chakra throughout her body to increase her strength then with a roar of effort that would impress a weightlifter hurled Naruto directly at the sleeping Gaara.
The shout alerted Shukaku to the incoming orange missile and its foreleg tried to intercept only to have Yugito slice off the sand limb once more. Naruto passed through the cloud of sand but lost most of his speed in the process. The punch that followed which would have likely killed Gaara only served to wake the red head.
'Kuso,' thought Naruto as he stood on the head of the Shukaku next to the now awake and enraged Gaara. The sand sprung up around Naruto's legs and trapped him.
"You disrupted my jutsu. You made me bleed. I am going to crush you a little bit at a time, Uzumaki Naruto. You will not take away my existence!" Gaara shouted.
The sand body of Shukaku shuddered as Yugito began to hack chunks of sand from it but Gaara did not care. His sand covered Naruto to the waist now and it began squeezing the blonde from the ankles up.
Naruto shouted in agony as the bones in his feet and shins were crushed by the sand. He grabbed Gaara by the neck but he knew the red head was just torturing him. He needed to do something that did not need signs to accomplish. His only thought, Rasengan.
Focusing past the pain, Naruto managed to pull out his incomplete jutsu. He had finished the second stage only days before with the help of Hiashi. 'Form the chakra. Make the Rotation. Pump up the power and hold it there.' Naruto almost lost focus as his femur cracked.
"Kuso, it's destabilizing already,' he thought as he pushed the blue white ball of chakra right at Gaara's face. The jutsu exploded right between the boys and hurled both off the now collapsing head of Skukaku. Both boys fell to the forest floor below with a sickening thump.
Gaara was too broken to move more than his head and looked over at Naruto. Naruto was crawling at the red head using his arms to drag his broken legs behind him. "No! Stay away from me!" Yugito landed next to the pair of genin as Naruto began to talk as he dragged himself forward.
"We are a lot alike Gaara. Both of us cursed. This lady is too. But when you threaten those precious to me, I will not stop. I will not surrender until I have won or I am dead. So I will stop you if you do not give up, even if I have to kill you."
"Why fight for precious ones? I have no one except myself. I fight only for myself. It's all I know. My brother and sister fear me. My own father tried to have me killed. My village sends assassins after me. Killing and proving myself strongest is all I know."
"That is the difference in us Gaara. I found people who accepted me as I am. I have friends who make me stronger with their help. A girl who knows everything I could tell her about me and all of my troubles. She cares for me anyhow. I think I love her but I don't know what love really is. That is why I will stop you. To keep her safe, I'll kill you if I have to."
Naruto's voice was a whisper now as his strength was fading fast. His head dropped to the forest floor as he finally succumbed to his injuries and passed out.
Yugito looked down at both boys. 'It would be so simple to get rid of both now. It would save my village a lot of trouble in the future but I think these two are more important than that somehow.' As Yugito mused, Dragon landed with Sakura and wood surrounded Gaara imprisoning him. Sakura ran to Naruto and flinched as she saw the state of his legs.
"ANBU-san, we will need a medic here. Naruto's legs are crushed."
Dragon used his jutsu to form a wooden stretcher under Naruto when he heard ninja behind him.
He turned to see dozens of Sand ninja ready to attack.
Tsunade had gotten to the city wall when the sand form of Shukaku reared up above the tree line. The pair and most of the ninja reserve from the stadium recoiled in horror as it fought the glowing demon cat. When the tree and orange missile attacked the head of the sand beast, a cheer rang out from the ninja there. The explosion of the incomplete Rasengan sent the boys to the ground in the midst of the Sand forces made everyone quiet.
"ANBU, with me," Tsunade cried out and leapt down the wall to race into the woods. The ANBU followed in behind Tsunade.
Dragon formed a hand sign and held himself ready for attack. Sakura stood over the broken form of Naruto to protect him. Yugito flexed her fingers and chakra claws extended outwards. The trio looked at the mass of Sand ninja and waited.
Tsunade and the majority of Konoha's ANBU appeared in the trees above as sakura finished speaking. The Sand forces looked up and the general of the Sand forces called out, "We can still defeat your ninja here."
Tsunade frowned, "Even if you defeat us, we would kill most of your army here. Your home would be defenseless and the Stone country would roll over it and destroy Suna. Without this army you have here, even Waterfall could destroy Suna. We have both lost our leaders today. This is only our ANBU here. Konoha will survive even if we fall. Our walls still stand. Our jonin and chunin stand to defend them. The choice is yours. Retreat now or fight and lose everything."
A weak voice called out, "Stop, don't attack." The Sand ninja looked at Gaara.
"We are done here. We've lost. We can't beat them. They're too strong for us," Gaara said in labored breaths.
After a pause the general replied, "We shall take Gaara with us as we leave. You take those four."
Tsunade nodded. Dragon and Sakura lifted Naruto on the stretcher and with Yugito backed away from Gaara. Dragon gestured and the wood binding Gaara fell away. A pair of Sand ninja lifted him between them and the Sand ninja melted back into the forest. Tsunade and the ANBU made their way back to the wall.
"Get Naruto to the hospital fast," Tsunade ordered.
Next Chapter: Invasion and Loss: Aftermath
End Notes: For those who do not like my 'feeling of death' as not being a canon thing I fall back on 3 items, 1) Orochimaru felt something before he saw the Shiginami in the anime, 2) The barrier was down in my story so any feeling from the Shiginami would be felt in the area and not be contained, 3) Its my story and I'll 'feeling of death' if I want to.
As I said in my previous notes, I had written myself into a corner and found myself deleting a lot of material. I was attempting to follow a few more canon points but when I got to the battle of Gaara and Naruto, oops, no Toad Contract so no Gamabunta. I needed to go back and take Yugito from simple red herring bystander status to actual combatant. In the end, I was more satisfied with my own original work as opposed to rehashing canon again.
Sorry if I disappointed on the big fight however. My fight scenes are never really that detailed. Visually they could be stretched to fill a few animated episodes of course. If I ever do a re-write on this story, the fight scenes would be expanded.
Of course, another cliffhanger with Naruto getting the worst of things. It is like I have in my summary; for every good deed there is a price to be paid.
Review Notes:The Sandaime dying has always been a direct effect of the Impure Ressurection jutsu of Orochimaru. The golems simply cannot be stopped without their souls being removed. Also, the Death God would not leave without Sarutobi's soul from his body so I couldn't use 2 kage bunshins to do the seal.
There will be more Naruto / Hinata fluff next episode for those needing their fix.
Never fear. Sasuke will receive everything he deserves.
Parting Shot: My story has now received more than 208,000 page views. I thank you all for sticking with me and enjoying my story. Nearly 700 reviews as well.
My only shot this time is to people who put in their summary, "Summary sucks but story is good" If you put that, no one is going to read your story. Write the main point of your plot and have faith in yourself. A good hook gets them in. A good story keeps them in. Get your hook out there.