Tip Of The Spear

Chapter 23

For the tenth time in the last hour Sasuke cursed the Uzumaki name, it was his boss and for lack of a better word, best friend's fault that he was sitting in the dark with cold water up to his chin. He was comforted by the sight of his co-commander, Hyuga Neji, in the same situation. It would've been funny if it was happening to someone else but her he was with the rest of the teams waiting for the signal.

The ships had taken stations to provide the most effective angles for fire support as the smaller combat craft vessels began closing to the island that had been quarantined for the past month. As they teams waited a Shinobi formation made landfall and were positioning their mortars and other support gear in a small cove on the rugged back end of the island. The Sound ninja viewed it as impassible terrain and not worth the two or three genin they would normally have guarding it. Their mistake was Konoha's windfall. Over the past few days animal summons had been busy at work pacing out the ranges and locations of all targets they needed to either suppress or eliminate. As they looked out into the dark the team leader smiled, the devices that Naruto-dono had issued them gave a great advantage for seeing in the dark as well as picking out the aiming stakes that glowed in his lenses but stayed invisible to the naked eye.

As he sat in the cold Sasuke remembered the stories that he had heard and the videos he'd seen of Naruto's training and combat experiences. Sitting in water like this was a walk in the park compared to what he'd seen, hell, even Sakura had her share of water experiences to tell. So while he was unhappy to be where he was he felt excitement when the radios in his ship came to life. In the next few minutes they had received the go signal to retrieve Uzumaki Tayuya. Sai had personally taken the news to Karin and waited as she passed the news to her sister. According to her, her sister would be ready and waiting in the agreed spot, the snatch team would wait ten minutes after the operation began before declaring her an enemy target with shoot to kill orders.

As he waited the signal was given, two airburst rockets were fired from the Avenger. The charges were twenty pounds of RDX, a high explosive used mostly as the filler for bunker busting weapons. Forty pounds detonating high order one hundred and fifty feet from the ground sent pressure waves that popped or burst eardrums. Those caught under one of the twin blasts felt the air rush from their lungs as the blast waves rolled over them. Most were knocked out from the concussion but two jonin on lookout in the tree tops were killed outright as the pressure wave ruptured their internal organs and collapsed their lungs while stopping their hearts.

Sasuke and the others began to move as orders began to pour from their ear pieces. He smiled as the second earphone began to fuzz and crackle with static, Sound was jamming all the known chakra bands that Konoha was known to use with their older chakra broadcasters. Naruto's gift of radio communications to his village was a game change, the Uchiha clan head smiled wider as two squads of low level shinobi began to talk over those same jammed frequencies. Their panic was an act as they began to give out what seemed to be the plan of attack over an open channel.

That was another part of the plan, let Sound think that the raid was falling apart and that the Leaf ninja were clustering up in choke points. That was what Konoha's forces wanted them to think, the reality was much different which the sound ninja were to find out. It was a matter of timing but as the island's defenders rushed into the trails to meet their invaders they barely noticed the sound of three batteries of 107mm mortars being fired from the small fleet offshore that was tasked to isolate the outpost.

As the defenders rushed to the beaches the first of one-hundred and twenty rounds began landing in their midst. Each ship was fitted with 107mm tubes and their crews had put ten rounds each into the in the initial barrage. The mortar bomb's M734 fuzes had been set for one of three different fuze functions per tube. One salvo wa set to detonate at nine feet above ground, the second at two and a half feet and the last batch upon impact with the ground. Each kill zone was saturated with the projectiles that showered and scythed the are with shrapnel.

Tayuya smiled grimly as she watched the waves of Sound ninja being cut down by the flying shards of hot metal. In the island's control room she dispatched the reserve elements to meet the raiders. Sound didn't have any strategy other than attack with force thanks to Danzo's influence. He believed that one who mastered their emotions would be invincible. Sadly it was a tactic that Naruto and Sakura had seen the results of as they learned the military history of their old home's country and it's enemies. Ironically it was Japan, the country those two first set foot in, that had followed that failed ideal of constant attack regardless proved that an army that has no plan to defend is an army that can be defeated over time.

Courage and emotional control are no match for tactics and patience. Naruto and Sakura beat that into the heads of those they commanded, showed the results to the members of DRACO. Sasuke and Shikamaru stared in disbelief at the films and pictures of the aftermath of Banzai charges and the wasted effort of the Divine Wind. To see a nation laid low by it's own warrior code because it thought that it was spiritually superior, that to surrender, retreat or delay so that it's forces could fight another day was sickening. This was what Naruto didn't want his forces to become and Sasuke and his team was witnessing the foolishness first hand.

At five minutes into the assault the amount of bombs inbound had slackened. Each tube could fire a maximum of 15 rounds per minute, afterwards the rate of fire would slow to three rpm. That was for three of the four tubes each battery held, that fourth tube was now brought to bear as it's sisters cooled down. From now on the gunners aboard the small fleet would rotate their guns. Inside Tayuya now went to work to give access to the fortress.

Opening a small scroll she unsealed a set of demolition charges. As she did so a laminated card fell out, on it she saw instructions as to placement and activation of the charges. As she went to work she was watched from the shadows by a pair of unblinking eyes. Just as the grey and black snake dispelled it fell victim to a large feral cat. The feline bit down through the serpent's head stopping it from informing it's master as to the treachery of his subordinate.

Using a small fire jutsu the sole female of the Sound Five ignited the fuze train and calmly walked out of a back entrance and into the night, headed towards freedom. What she didn't expect to see was her leader, Kimimaro, standing before her, "So, it seems that Lord Orochimaru was correct in suspecting treason," as if to emphasize his point the demolition charges picked that time to explode.

"What...what do mean by treason? Tayuya asked trying to cover her shock at seeing him here, "If you've not noticed there's a raid happening and I'm trying to figure out how..."

"To meet up with your rescuers? Oh yes, we know all about the planning you and your sister did via the gift our Lord gave to you, you think that he wouldn't notice that the seal was tampered with?" Kimimaro stated as he took a step closer to his target, "I'm here to take you back to Orochimaru-san, Tayuya-chan, surrender and it'll over with very fast, if you make me fight you I'll make you suffer."

Pulling out her flute she hissed at him, "I'd rather die fighting than give you the satisfaction of taking me back," with that she began to summon her Golems ordering them to attack her former leader and somewhat friend. As she ran she dropped a canister that was also given to her, it was a special grenade that her cousin had ordered created, it was a smoke grenade that was infused with chakra courtesy of Kurama.

It would not only blind a person visually but one that was able to use sensor techniques as well. It also had one last surprise, a ring of eight stars were placed in the grenade's casing so that no matter how it landed as long as it was on it's side at least one to three orange stars would launch into the sky. As the device activated Tayuya ran down the trail towards the rendezvous point.

As the stars reached their zenith two groups began watching and making movements. The first group, the support squad with the 81mm mortars, swung their tubes to bear on the location of the star's origin. Each bomb had the same fuzes as their bigger sisters out to sea and were fuzed for six feet, three feet and point detonating as the round struck the ground. The teams were able to put fifteen rounds in the air in less that a minute for two minutes as to cover their target's retreat.

The second group was Team Nine, Sasuke, Kiba and Sai accompanied by Asuma . Hinata was ordered by her cousin to remain at sea and have the sick bay ready to go, he was sure that this would be costly to both sides. With a nod the six genin and one jonin crept out of the water and made their way to the RV point. As they drew closer they could hear yelling,

"I'm serious, I'm not going back Kimimaro. I can't go back, you know what he and that one eyed mummy will do to me!"

"It's not like that Tayuya, they want to trade you, use you as a bargaining chip with your clan head in Konoha. They want to make a deal that in return for them recognizing Sound they'll release you to his custody!" Kimimaro yelled back as he emerged from the smoke now covered in armor made of glistening bone.

Sasuke and his team were shocked to see the pale skinned teen draw a sword of the same bone as the armor from his thigh and continue to close on their target. Tayuya also saw the sword being drawn and had her golems charge her opponent, the constructs actually hitting and stunning Kimimaro giving the girl a chance to get close to her rescuers as she tried to reason with the young man,

"Dammit Kimimaro! You know that's not going to happen, I'll be killed the second you take me back!"

"And this is better? Running off with the same group of pirates that've been raiding our outposts? Why are you siding with them?"

"Because they promised to reunite me with Karin and take me to our new home, to our clan! Not only that the told me that they know how to remove this damn hickey that fucking snake put on my neck!"

"And you trust them? Just like that? They could turn you over to Konha without clan protection, you remember what Danzo-sama told us about what Sound ninja can expect to face!"

Just before Tayuya could answer the first of the 81mm battery's salvo struck, the rounds making a whistling whoosh as the passed overhead and fell. The detonations made a rippling wave of explosions that paused for a few seconds before the second wave struck. The noise was oddly muted by the smoke that lasted far longer than a normal grenade. As the noise fell off Tayuya heard the sounds of someone in pain, turning around she gasped as her friend emerged from the roiling clouds of black and grey smoke.

The male teen was bleeding in multiple places that were somehow healing as fast as a certain blond his armor doing it's job. Tayuya looked closer and noticed the reason for the fast recovery, Kimimaro had activated the first stage of his curse mark, "That..hurt you fucking bitch! What was that they hit me with? No matter, you're coming back with me!"

Tayuya backed up a bit trying to get her golems to attack the pale skinned teen once more. As she did she heard a group of people coming towards her, "Sorry Kimimaro, even if it's a trap I have to take the chance, I need this thing off of me. Come with me, maybe Tsunade of the Sanin can treat you. Please, I know you're not doing well, he never should've sent you here, let me try and get you the help you need!"

Kimimaro coughed and spat a gobbet of blood to the ground, "I can't, I've pledged my life to Orochimaru. What kind of man would I be if I can't uphold an oath?"

"A live one, please, they're coming, surrender to me and I'll do all I can so you live. I'm tired of watching you become more and more brainwashed by those bastards!"

Kimimaro grimaced as he saw the enemy squad rushing towards him and Tayuya, extending his arm and quietly called his technique, "Dead bone bullet pulse."

Four bullets made up of the teen's finger tips lanced through the air with two hitting Kiba in the left arm and chest, the latter traveling through the teen's lungs and out his back. The boy yelled out in pain as he dropped to the ground and rolled behind an outcrop of rocks. Neji was next to him in a flash dropping his medical pack and flaring his byakugan as he took a closer look at Kiba's wounds. Akamaru growled protectively over his master and partner but allowed Neji by Kiba's side.

Dragging the dog boy into heavier cover Neji looked at his patient, 'Hinata-sama isn't going to like this,' looking over the wounds he sighed in relief, both wounds were through and through. As he started to dress Kiba's chest wounds Asuma dropped next to them,

"Anything I can do?" he asked.

"Yes, see to his arm, we need to control that bleeding," Neji replied in full medic mode before he turned to Kiba, "Here's a sucker, you know what it's for so don't argue and just take it. Right, now this is going to hurt a bit but I need to sit you up and patch the holes in your chest," he told his future cousin in law.

Kiba nodded as he placed the fentanyl laced lollipop into his mouth. As he did that Neji began to treat him for a pair of sucking chest wounds. Propping Kiba up allowed the blood to pool at the bottom of his lungs taking pressure off of the left lung. Next came the sulfa powder to the teens chest and back ignoring Kiba's pained hiss, after that quick clot powder was applied. As the blood scabbed over Neji next applied a square of thin plastic wrap from Asuma's cigarette pack over the wound securing it with tape. He repeated the steps to Kiba's back and finished with a pair of bandages and ace wrap. Once done Neji called up a squad of Shinobi to take his comrade to the safety of the beach and the boats nearby with orders to get him to the Revenge

As Neji was finishing up Kimimaro sent another volley towards the raiders, this time one of the bone fragments found it's mark in the center of one of the support shinobi's face. The teen died without a sound before he hit the ground, as he did Sasuke swore an oath and raised his M4. The three round burst caught the pale teen in the chest and knocked him back a couple of feet. As Kimimaro regained his footing Tayuya had gotten closer to her rescuers.

Seeing that his mission was failing Kimimaro fired off more of the fingertip bullets only this time missing as his targets were now under cover. Looking at his chest for the first time he noticed the three wound in the center of his chest as he felt the pointed slugs embedding themselves into his sternum. Laughing like a madman he called out into the dark,

"That's all you got? You think those toys will kill me? Make me give up? If you think that then you're not only wrong but you're dead wrong!"

By then Tayuya had reached Sasuke and was passed back to Sai and Tenten. Looking over her shoulder she gasped in shock once again, "Oh fuck, he's going into the second stage of his seal!"

Hearing that Sasuke poked his head up and regretted that idea. Kimimaro was transforming into a thing of nightmares, remembering the fight with Mizuki he opened fire with his M4 letting loose three round bursts. Tenten followed suite with her own weapon. Following Sakura's example her choice of weapon was an M14EBR. After her initial magazine she pulled out the next one, this being loaded with black tip ammo, armor piercing, and continued firing. Neji added to the weight of fire with his own M4 as did Asuma.

As this was happening Haku, who had tagged along with the raiders rushed up and began using her bloodline techniques. The first thing Kimimaro knew he was encased by ice from the waist down. The next was that a hail of senbon struck him, lacerating his face arms and chest. All this was proving futile as long as he was under the influence of his curse mark. All the while Tayuya was yelling for him to stop and give himself up so that he had a chance to live.

Dropping his M4 Sasuke brought his M1911 to bear and as he fired the first round he yelled at Lee to "use it". By now Tayuya had been passed to Neji and Asuma and was safe behind the outcrop that had sheltered Kiba with Akamaru both guarding and protecting her. Sasuke then activated his sharingan and let time stand still, as he watched he saw his foe begin to level his arm and hand to fire more of his bullets. Just before the hand snapped level Sasuke fired.

The nearly half inch in diameter soft nose lead slug tore into the teens wrist almost severing the hand from the arm. The intense jolt of pain caused the boy to deactivate his curse mark as well as his blood line but it was too late. By then Lee had set up his .50 Beowulf support rifle. The heavy round tore into Kimimaro's right chest in a mirror image of his wound to Kiba. At that point Haku released her ice and allowed the boy to fall to the sand.

As Tayuya screamed Neji rushed up to help the boy but even without his byakugan saw that it was no use. Turning to Sasuke he spoke up so that everyone could hear him, "It's no use, Lee used a hollow point round, the damage is too great. I can make him comfortable but that's it, I'm sorry, but even Sakura-dono would have had difficulty out here."

Saying that he placed one of the pain killing suckers into the young man's mouth. He then nodded to Haku so she could use her senbons to control the pain via nerve and chakra clusters. Tayuya sat next to her friend and held his hand before taking out her flute and began playing a song. Neji, Haku and Sasuke noticed that it was placing the teen into a genjutsu. Once it had taken effect she held him once more,

"You stupid bastard, you had a chance to live. Why did you let yourself fall under that fucker's spell? What's Jugo going to do when he finds out you've died? Why Kimimaro? We could have been happy but you let yourself be brainwashed by those...those..."

"I'm...not brainwashed Tayuya. Lord Orochimaru is the only one that understood me that's all. You could never...understand...me. You didn't really try to know me...at...al..."

Looking around Asuma took command of the team, "Time to pull out and let the others finish up. Neji, seal that kids body, we'll take him back and give him a proper place to rest. Sasuke, carry out Naruto's orders. Let's get moving, you all did a good job this morning."

Sasuke nodded before approaching Tayuya, "Until we can deal with that seal we need to place this over it."

Tayuya looked at the dark haired teen and what he was holding, "Another seal? What's it do?"

"It's a containment seal, it prevents you from activating the thing, let's see your tongue," As she opened her mouth Sasuke used his sharingan to look for signs of the ROOT tattoo. Smiling he placed the containment seal over the curse mark.

"Why did you want to look at my mouth?" Tayuya asked him.

"Your soon to be former boss and his partner have a habit of placing a modified Hyuga Caged Bird seal on their agents to control or kill them should they get out of line. We've had to deal with Konoha civilians and Shinobi alike that were sleepers working under that seal. Now, the next thing I need you to do is go to sleep."

Tayuya was confused, how was she to sleep with all that was going on? "What do you mean go to sleep? How am"...HISSS... "going to...tha..." Just like her sister, Tayuya heard the propellant of the injector as the anesthetic hit her brain.

"That'll hold her until we reach the ship. Make sure the chakra suppressors are active," Sasuke said as he picked up the girl bridal fashion, "Give her the same as a first year student, that should keep her from panicking or causing trouble. I don't know what you went through in SERE but they slapped one of those on me that took me down to civilian levels," scowling at the memory as he saw the adjustment to the seal being made.

Naruto woke up feeling more tired than he did when he went to sleep. At four in the morning Shikamaru woke him up with a radio message that he was to take personally. At that moment Shikamaru was not gentle in waking his boss as he had the second to last watch on the comm set, another punishment for his lackluster performance during SERE training. The only good thing out of waking Naruto was that when he flung off the blankets Shika got a long glimpse of a nude Sakura on the bed.

Before his nose could bleed Sakura yawned and stretched like a cat. As she arched her back her breasts pushed out high and proud. Without opening her eyes she turned her head in his direction as her voice sounded like a contented purr, "Shika-kun, I hope you're enjoying the view because all you get to do is look. If you try to touch I'll tell Ino about this and you know how unhappy she'll be, got it?"

"Yeah...I...yeah, I got it."

Naruto walked over to the radio and put the headset on, keying the mic he began to speak, "Papa Bear to Goldilocks, Papa Bear to GolilockOOWWW!"

"What the hell Sakura-chan?"

"It's too early for Hogans Heroes baka. Just once can you not have a random moment?"

"Yeah but where's the fun in that?" Getting that look from his wife Naruto tried a again, "Straight Base this is Trident go ahead, over."

Sakura watched as her husbands face brightened for a couple of minutes before it fell. She hated it when they had to use the headsets but it was for security purposes as speakers could be overheard. After a few more moments Naruto signed off before he turned to his wife.

"Well, good news is that my cousin is safe and sound and on her way to Konoha."

"That's wonderful, what's the bad? How...how big is the butcher's bill?"

"We took about twenty Sound ninja prisoner and the rest were KIA, Konoha will have that tally in the next day or two," Naruto stated, "Intel wise Sasuke and the others are processing the base. It should be safe for us, Tayuya disabled the security measures and destroys the control room."

"I see, what about us, how many Naruto? What's our share in blood?"

"Three KIA, all from the Shinobi teams, ten wounded nine minor one serious borderline critical."

"That low? That's good I guess, do we know who the serious case is yet? Sakura asked with a heavy heart.

Slowly Naruto nodded his head causing her to frown, "One of the Sound ninja had a bloodline limit that allowed him to use use bones as weapons, swords, spikes and the like. He engaged our target first, probably because the Snake found out she was leaving. Anyway our people made contact and things changed."

"Changed? How?"

"Well once the guy saw Team Nine and Sasuke's mob coming near he aimed his hand at them and shot his fingertips at them like bullets. He did it one more time before he was taken down but the damage had been already done. In the second volley he killed a stretcher bearer, the bone fragment went through his head."

"And the one wounded? Naruto,who was injured? How bad and who was it? Answer me Goddammit!" as she yelled Naruto lowered his head as if in shame that his own ninja had been killed or wounded,

"The one injured was hit twice, once in the arm and once in the chest. It went through and through but the bullet itself and fragments from the ribs tore up the lung..."

"Naruto...I need to know, who was it?"

"Kiba, it was Kiba. Hinata is...she's..she isn't...isn't taking things well.," Shaking his head the blond leader walked out of the room without a final word he had to find another Hyuga princess to break the news to.

A/N:

Well, I'm back. Before I say anything else I would like to thank everyone for their kind words of encouragement and prayers. My wife and mother are doing well and it was my wife that threatened to kick my ass if I didn't get out of her hair and get back to writing. We're still looking for the root of my wife's troubles.

So, sorry for the short chapter but it's taken more time than I liked to get this out. This time around the chapter focuses on Tayuya getting pulled out of Sound's Southern base. Work on the next chapter is going to be slow going since the laptop PC that I normally use is kaput and sitting at my desk for long stretches of time hurts my back. That said for the foreseeable future chapters are going to be shorter than what I normally produce and will take a little more time to post. Not as much as this one but add one or two weeks.

That said I would like to point everyone to my other Naruto related project "Tip Of The Spear, Untold Stories." This will be a collection of one shots that deal with specific points that are mentioned in the main story but not expanded on. The first of these one shots is called "Hello, I Must Be Going". It tells the story of their lost daughter Haruhi and how she effected their lives the short time she was with them. It also expands their importance to the Japanese Imperial Court as well as the relationship between Naruto, Sakura and their friend Maria. I hope you all read and enjoy it.

Other than that take care, Seasons Beatings and Happy New!