A/N: *throws hands in air* I give up! I have no idea how many more chapters this thing is going to run. It WON'T STAY SHORT! ...Ah, sorry. Anyway, the battle begins! Thank you to my reviewers: InARealPickle, iNsAnE nO bAkA, Auphora66, WhyMustIWrite, KawaiiIruka, and ChibiAliChan. You're all so cool!
Disclaimer: I own some school books. If you want to sue for those, you can have them.
As the alarm rang out in the streets of Konoha, there were many and varied reactions to the harsh sound.
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Sakura looked up, surprised and confused as Tsunade cursed and rushed from the room with the first wail.
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Asuma – along with Jounin all across Konoha – jumped to his feet, pausing only long enough to glance at his companion. Shikamaru reached back and snatched up a weapons pouch, speaking before his former teacher could get a word out. "Invasion, traitors. It is Rock, right?" A single dumbfounded blink, and then Asuma pulled himself together. Though he promised himself that he was going to have a long talk with the Nara prodigy when this was all over.
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Hyuuga Hiashi was spending the afternoon observing the eldest of his daughters, watching her train and noting to himself how much more smoothly the girl moved when she was unaware of his presence. He wondered idly if the girl would be even better if Hanabi were not watching her so closely. When the alarm went off, it did not particularly startle him. However, something else did. Weak, timid little Hinata did not freeze, or even pause to see which alarm code was being sent. She just jumped to her feet, grabbed her sister by the arm, and practically dragged the protesting eight year old into the House, away from the exposed courtyard. "Neji-niisan," she called. "It's time, they're here."
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Everyone had a responsibility when the alarms sounded. Jounin and all but the newest Chunin had their orders given to them long ago, making up the emergency protocols of Konoha. For Genin and brand new Chunin, those orders were to find the closest higher-ranked shinobi and do as they were told.
Lee glanced around – there was no one else near the remote training field he had been working in. But that was okay. Shikamaru was a higher rank, and he had given them all orders in case of something like this. Wrapping his confidence around himself like armor, the younger Green Beast pushed chakra into his legs to boost his speed as he ran for the closest civilian sector. There were innocents to evacuate, to save, and Lee would save them. If he didn't… there would be no penalty training. If he didn't save them, it would be because his body had not recovered to the extent that he thought it had. In other words, because he was dead.
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Iruka darted through the streets, quickly picking up a trail of fellow shinobi as if the others somehow realized he knew something that they didn't. And they were right. He had blurted out a quick explanation to Izumo, but the other Chunin hadn't had a way to broadcast the message yet. The best he could do was set it to repeat the code for 'evacuate' more often than the one for 'walls breached'.
'They would have had to use civilian children.' Iruka thought, clamping down on his instinctive panic. 'If little Aki-kun could spot the 'games' as a chakra building exercise, then there is no way that shinobi parents would miss it. I can't believe that I missed it! …Doesn't matter now. What matters is that we were all expecting them to come from the outside, so most of us will be heading for the walls, to keep them out of Konoha. But they're already in Konoha. They bypassed the walls altogether. They'll be coming from the civilian sectors. …They're already among the most vulnerable of our people. And if they did use civilians… the kids will be exhausted, chakra depleted. They won't even be able to run. So the bastards have human shields the moment they get here. Damn it, this is… this is a nightmare.'
But Iruka didn't have time to think on it long. As he rounded a corner, he was just in time to see a group of shinobi step off of a large wooden disk in the middle of a ring of children. And to see one of those shinobi reach for a child sprawled on the ground. All of Iruka's fear suddenly turned to a cold, calculating anger. With a wordless cry, Iruka – and all five of the shinobi behind him – hurled various sharp objects at the enemy, careful to aim high to avoid hitting the children. The battle had begun.
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In one of the circles, one child was not choking and looking around in confusion. Ishiko dropped the Jounin in charge of this particular group a short bow, and then spun about as she heard the alarms ring out. The girl laughed in delight, her blue eyes sparkling with excitement. "You're too la-ate!" she trilled, her high voice making a mockery of a child's singsong, turning it into something cold and cruel. Her face lit up with pride and joy when a familiar man strode into sight, and she waved exuberantly, completely ignoring the fact that the children around her were being either snatched up or killed.
The man gave her a quick smile, briefly laying a hand on his young partner's head. "You've done well" he murmured, dropping her Rock hitai-ate into her hands. "Now leave the battlefield."
She pouted a little, but not even an order to retreat could spoil her good mood today. "Yes, father."
And the Recruiter slipped off into the streets.
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In a room not far from the fighting, a blond teenager stood white-knuckled, staring blankly out of his window. Eri jerked about as the door to the room practically disintegrated, eyes wide as his numb mind finally registered the killing intent radiating from the woman who stormed into his room. Even the ANBU guard shrank back from the ferocity of the Hokage.
The woman strode quickly up to the Rock Chunin, planting one palm hard against the wall beside the young man. "What's the code?" Eri just stared. Tsunade growled low in her throat and snapped again. "You would be stupid not to have a way to tell the others to swap sides. You protect my people, we protect you. Now what. Is. THE. CODE?!"
Eri finally pulled his mind back into working order, quickly rattling off the information demanded of him. The instant he was finished speaking, Tsunade spun and strode out of the room. After a brief hesitation, Eri ran after her and was quickly integrated into a group of Konoha shinobi on their way out to the battlefield.
The time for negotiation was done. The time for action had come.
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In the Eastern residential district, chaos reigned. Aya staggered back, throwing out a quick side kick, choking on the thick smoke as she tried to draw enough breath to scream. The strange shinobi in front of her only grinned, effortlessly blocking the six year old's weak attack. Aya didn't hear the sirens change briefly; all she could hear was the low laughter of the man snatching hold of her throat.
And then his smile shifted to a look of shock, hand loosening around the child's neck. Pale faced and shaking, Aya hit the ground, her mind refusing to register the warm liquid that suddenly splashed over her. She numbly noted a rough gurgling sound coming from the man who had just dropped her, but she couldn't seem to think.
The spell was broken as another large hand grabbed hold of her arm. Wide brown eyes stared up at the new strange shinobi, a woman who glared and shoved the little girl. "Don't just stand there like an idiot, girl! Go hide! Find somewhere safe until one of your own shinobi can evacuate you." And with that the stranger vanished, leaving two bodies and six shocked, blood-splattered – but unharmed – children behind her.
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Kiba hesitated, glancing down as Akamaru whined softly. The Genin listened closely, and then called out to his teacher. "Kurenai-sensei."
The red eyed woman glanced back, slowing slightly as her student called for her. "What is it, Kiba? I have to go."
The boy got a slightly confused, but rather stubborn expression on his face. "Sensei, I know I'm supposed to evacuate civilians, and you're supposed to go to the walls. But Akamaru isn't scenting anything from the direction of the walls. No strangers, no steel and no blood. But he is picking up those scents, and pure terror, towards the west. I… I think that the enemy is already inside Konoha, sensei."
The Jounin hesitated, quickly debating with herself… and decided to trust in her student. "Alright, I'm coming with you."
And both Konoha shinobi veered off, heading straight for the enemy.
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A woman paced inside of a closed room, fists clenching and unclenching as she listened to the sirens with a pained expression. The woman threw an agonized look towards the door of the room, everything in her urging her to break it down and go. But she knew exactly how thick the steel was, and with the chakra-inhibiting manacles she wore, she would never be able to break it down.
Just when she was nearly at the point of slamming her fists into the wall, the door opened. The woman spun, wide eyed as a former comrade stepped in and tossed something at her. She caught the object on instinct, and then gaped at the white mask. "Come on, Mouse." the other said. "You're stable enough for this."
Without another word, both ANBU agents headed for the streets.
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Kakashi glared, shifting directions abruptly. Visible eye blazing, he hurled himself off of a rooftop – and directly into the path of a Rock shinobi's sword. Steel screamed along steel as he shoved against the enemy. When he spoke, Kakashi's voice was a low growl promising death to the three Rock shinobi in front of him. "You will not TOUCH those children, understood?"
One of the enemy snorted, snapping out a quick kick towards a little boy curled on the ground. The snort became a strangled scream as the foot was pierced by one of the Jounin's kunai. A quick meeting of gazes, and Kakashi murmured in the man's ear. "Too bad. They die fast. You die slow."
And the man could suddenly see his own destruction reflected in one black and one blood red eye.
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Outside of the city, a five man squad of Chunin moved at a quick but casual pace. After a week in Rain Country, the team was more than ready for a nice, relaxing weekend at home. Unfortunately, their daydreams were cut short as one of the more eager members of the group stopped suddenly. Satoshi spun back towards the group behind him, shouting at the top of his voice. "Signal flares in the sky! Something's going on – we've got to get back!" The group immediately picked up the pace, racing through the trees to lend whatever aid they could.
So much for relaxing.
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Neji hissed out a breath, stepping back quickly. Within the range of Byakugon, he noted six Rock shinobi. Chunin, judging from the way they moved. A familiar chakra in his blind zone told him that Hinata had finished gathering up the nearly unconscious children they had found on their way back from dropping off the Clan children at the evacuation shelter.
A quick glance confirmed that the younger Genin had taken up position a few feet away, with the children safely between them. They couldn't carry all of the children by themselves, and reinforcements had yet to arrive, so… Tensing his jaw slightly, Neji braced himself once more in the low fighting stance of the Gentle Fist style, knowing that his cousin behind him did the same.
Time to find out if he was strong enough to defend, rather than destroy.
A/N 2: Actual fighting next chapter, I promise! It's just... everyone wanted their scene in this one. XD