-WEEE BOLD TEXT! Disclaimer: I'm to lazy to own Naruto, and far to broke. Even if I wasn't broke, I wouldn't own it anyway. I'd be to busy using my money to cause world terror. Naruto, and it's entire franchise and whatnot, belongs to kishimoto. Except this story. This story is mine. Mine. My shiny. Anyway, onto the battles and whatnot! Before I get distracted by my tails... again. -_-
It had taken an hour or so, but Sasuke and Kakashi finally appeared via shunshin to the middle of the arena. Of course, if they had expected to be cheered for, they were mistaken. Many of the civilians were annoyed at having to wait, and most of the daimyo were to busy talking to Naruto when the two entered to even bother showing them a shred of attention.
Of course, neither Sasuke nor Kakashi noticed this. They were to absorbed within themselves and how awesome their entrance had to have been to notice someone as far below them as the daimyo. After a minute of basking in the imagined glory, Kakashi moved to the stands, and Sasuke stood prouder before Gaara, sure of his victory.
Upon Kakashi leaving the arena, the proctor teleported in from his break, starting the match quickly before moving off to the side, well out of the way of the sand. Gaara had been kind enough to inform the proctor of his sand's range during the wait, to insure he didn't get caught in the middle. After all, he could kill the proctor later, but he would want to focus all his power on Sasuke to kill him now.
The match began with Gaara sending sand forward, covertly keeping some around him to have it rise up as a shield. Sasuke leaped over the sand wave sent at him, before landing and dashing straight at Gaara, a smirk on his face. He reading a punch to Gaara's face, but was blocked by a wall of sand. His smirk fell away as he leaped back to avoid the quick retaliation of the sand.
"I order you to stop using sand!" Shouted Sasuke, using his most serious expression and tone of voice. He fully expected that Gaara would obey. After all, Sasuke was a Uchiha. A god. When the sand impacted his chin, Sasuke was understandably shocked. In the stands, so were Kakashi and Sakura. Ino just shook her head. The sand followed up by grabbing Sasuke's ankles, and twirling him around like a little doll. Sasuke met the wall face to stone soon after. Needless to say, he wasn't having a fun time.
While Sasuke was getting his butt kicked, Naruto was speaking calmly to the daimyo about resurrecting the Uzumaki clan in full. He was making deals with each daimyo, everything kept small. Kin was, of course, privy to the conversation. Being his Spoil of War, he kept her near at all times. He had found Kin had a unique perspective, and had good advice when asked for it.
"So, Naruto-san, when do you intend to reclaim Uzu no Kuni?" asked the Fire Daimyo. He was simple and plain man, though his eyes held a deviousness to them. Overall, he looked easily forgettable.
"Uzu no Kuni? You mean my clan had a country all it's own?" Naruto's confusion was evident on his face, even without him asking.
"But of course they did child!" Boomed the Earth Daimyo. "The Uzumaki were a fearsome clan in their day!" Like many from his country, he looked to be a dwarf. Except instead of being rotund, he was packed with muscle.
"And Rich too. The Uzumaki clan were able to use their seals to do almost anything, including boosting what their island had already to tremendous, and nigh limitless, amounts. Were you never informed of the Uzumaki clan?" explained the Lightning Daimyo, before asking his question. The Lightning Daimyo was a dark skinned man that had devious, but exuberant, eyes. He had a wiry frame, but seemed to know how to fight well.
"No, I hadn't even known the Uzumaki were a clan before today. I thank you for telling me though. I suppose I will have to look into it soon, preferably when the Hokage isn't looking. Where is Uzu no Kuni at, exactly?"
"Off the coast of what is now Wave Country. Barely a days travel by boat!" exclaimed the Wind Daimyo, a slender woman who could catch many an eye. Naruto had learned she was rather easy going, if foolish. Her crush on the Fire Daimyo was hurting her own country, something Naruto had moved to stop by asking her to look after her country instead. Subtly pointing out that doing so may make the fire daimyo look at her as someone more competent, instead of simple minded toy, might earn more of his affection.
"I may have to get a mission to wave sometime soon then. I'll be looking into it. I should also try to look into what I can find on the Uzumaki here in Konoha. All I know about the clan is that they were great allies of the leaf. And that they were apparently wiped out completely." As Naruto stood to leave, Kin followed suite. He bowed to each of the Daimyo in turn, before leaving the section of the stands for the fighter box.
The daimyo were pleased to have talked to the boy, and were confident that they were not in danger of becoming his ally anytime soon. They remembered what the Uzumaki clan had been like, and were completely willing to form a six way alliance if it meant getting a part of that wealth. The technology that could be invented through that countries resources would be fascinating, and would likely help their people survive for centuries to come. They would wait as long as needed in order to get access to that. Anything, for their people.
Sasuke was not having a good time. That much was clear to the jounin watching. Kakashi, for once, stared at the match completely lost. His book, held limply in his hand, was completely forgotten in favor of watching his student fight. Or rather, get thrown around. Sasuke couldn't even land a hit.
"I... I don't understand. Why isn't that sand nin dead by now?" Kakashi stuttered. His voice was kept low, almost a whisper, but the other jounin heard him. Gai frowned, disappointed in his rivals behavior. Asuma silently agreed with Kakashi. Sasuke was, after all, their strongest genin. Even if the Sand nin was a jinchuuriki, he shouldn't have been alive this long.
Kurenai and Anko however, laughed outright. They could see plainly why Sasuke was losing so badly, and therefor, why Gaara was still alive. Sasuke was a close range to mid fighter, while Gaara was a Long range to Mid range fighter. Gaara was also capable of both attacking and defending at the same time, leaving the prodigy Uchiha with no grounds in which to strike back.
Oh, Sasuke did try, usually via Fireball, but it was all pointless. Gaara's Sand Shield prevented him from coming to harm through such flimsy attacks. The Fireballs were now so weak, they didn't even melt his sand. Of course, Sasuke never noticed this, as he had to keep focusing on dodging the sand that was trying to trap him again. He never noticed that he was being led into a trap, but a few ninja in the audience doubted the Uchiha would even have the intelligence to care.
While all of this was going on, nobody but Orochimaru in his disguise noticed the Sandaime's gaze. It was focused completely on Gaara, processing how he was able to use his sand, and how he was using it. After all, he needed that information to be able to use his new power. Orochimaru only recognized that the Sandaime was studying Gaara intently, but not what the old mans actual thoughts were.
The Sandaime had taken a break during the month to go and take the power Gaara held covertly. It wasn't exactly easy, as the boy apparently never slept, but he had been able to do it. He had done so by taking Gaara's chakra and placing it into his special seal. Doing so allowed the seal to break down everything about Gaara, and replicate Gaara's ability. However, the Sandaime had come to learn that while he could now manipulate sand, he couldn't do so on a wide scale. Not like Gaara could. Nor did he have the automatic defense that Gaara seemed to have. This troubled the old man, but he didn't let it show. He would figure out Gaara's secret in due time after all. He the professor and God of Shinobi.
Or, at least, the Sandaime thought nobody noticed. But the Daimyo all had. They'd noticed his look, and could see the greed in the man's eyes. They dismissed it however, not considering it important at the time. They would, eventually, come to regret such a decision.
Sasuke was getting annoyed. Why wasn't this peasant dying? Didn't he realize he was against an Uchiha? Sasuke of course, knew that Gaara was a jinchuuriki, and knew it was the Ichibi that the boy contained. But for some reason, the boy refused to bow down before his Sharingan and accept Sasuke's godhood. Had Kakashi lied to him, or simply been mistaken?
Sasuke quickly shook these thoughts out of his head as he leapt up and back, avoiding a dangerous tendril of sand that had tried to grab his ankle. However, he found himself suddenly surrounded by sand on all sides the moment he landed. This made him raise an eyebrow. Did the demon really think that he, an Uchiha, was mortal?
Sasuke quickly flipped through the handseals for his favorite jutsu, pouring as much of his chakra in to as he could. The fireball was massive, and quickly melted all of the sand. This left Sasuke to use a soldier pill and a quick earth jutsu. Of course, he annoyed himself at having to announce it aloud.
"Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu!" The Earth Style: Hiding like a mole technique was quick enough to bury him beneath the earth before the rest of Gaara's offensive sand struck from above. Of course, Gaara did try to use the sand underground to solve that problem, but Sasuke burst up from underneath him with a rising kick. This bypassed his shield, and sent him into the air. Sasuke followed up with another fireball, but Gaara's sand armor saved his life. Gaara decided to show something knew, and gathered sand to him rapidly.
Sasuke moved away quickly, fearing retaliation. But when he turned around, Gaara stood atop a pillar of sand, several feet of the ground. Gaara looked down on Sasuke from above with a cold and passive look on his face. Sasuke was barely entertaining! This expression caused Sasuke to do something foolish, and lose his temper. He quickly flipped through some more handseals, once again preparing a fire jutsu. But, instead of a fire ball, this was more like a meteor. Sasuke had shoved his entire chakra pool into the jutsu, knocking himself out and nearly killing himself. Gaara raised the sand he had left up, burying the meteor like fireball in large amounts of sand, extinguishing it. Before he could crush the Uchiha however, the proctor intervened.
"Winner by forfeit, Sasuke Uchiha!" He bellowed out, smirking in the process. He quickly grabbed Sasuke and teleported to the medic bay. Of course, the announcement alone was enough to make the audience cheer. Well, almost the entire audience anyway. There were a select few that didn't. However, before Gaara could go to hunt down the backstabbing Konoha nin of a proctor, feathers started falling from the sky. He quickly moved to his siblings, signaling them to follow him so they could cover him while he securely transformed. He moved towards the forests, all three sand nin moving at rapid rates.
Kakashi assigned Naruto and Sakura to go after them, giving direct orders to Naruto to let his better team mate, Sakura, do the fighting. Naruto's orders were to retreat when the going got tough, as Kakashi didn't want him getting in the way. Naruto silently scoffed and he moved to follow the sand nin.
Few noticed the barrier erect as the invasion began in earnest. However, where Orochimaru was expecting the Sandaime to be slightly panicked or nervous, maybe even angry, the Sandaime was instead smirking. This wasn't a smirk of arrogance or malice though. No, this was a smirk that said 'I know something you don't!'. Orochimaru hated this smirk, and as a consequence, lost his temper. He engaged the Sandaime in rapid combat.
The invasion had begun alright, but nobody expected the consequence of it. Well, nobody except the invaders. And even then, they doubted on some level that it would happen at all.
This was fun to write. Battle is where I feel comfortable at, and having Sasuke thrown into shit makes me so much more happier. I feel a lot better now! This is where the story begins in earnest though, I think. Bear in mind that for this story, Danzo is a little different. He does possess his fanaticism, but he also knows who owns Konoha. He knows his place, and will do whatever is in his power from that place to ensure Konoha survives.