Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Chapter 7: Overthrown

The battle continues and the sky is growing darker every passing minute. Neither side is showing any sign of surrender, but for how long?

"Zi Yan, why? Why are you on the enemy's side, have you forgotten about Konoha, your home, about us, your friends, and have you forgotten about… about Shino?" Ino asked desperately as Sakura jumped to her side after dodging an attack from Ji Yen.

"How very ironic. Have you forgotten, it's you guys who left me!" stated Zi Yan with a look of despise on her face "And Shino… he, he betrayed me. I saw him--"

"What are you saying Zi Yan, Shino loves you, he loves you very much and we didn't, we came back--" Sakura tried to say.

"Lies! You're lying!" cried Zi Yan as tears started to fall from her eyes. She got a grip of herself and tried to stop crying "Now you pay for what you did!" she charged toward Ino and Sakura bringing out her fans.

-Inside the Palace-

Wei Yan had the upper hand, Tsunade had no chance to attack, all she could do was defend. Wei Yan suddenly stopped attacking "Okay, enough playing games, time to end this once and for all!" Wei Yan had a dark aura surrounding him, the sky grew even darker than before. "Take this!" he released a dark ball of dark energy that went to the direction of Shikamaru and Naruto.

"Run!" warned Tsunade, Naruto was able to run, carrying Hinata, however, it was too late for Shikamaru to run, instead, he pushed Tenten out of the way, so she won't get hit. "Shikamaru!" Shikamaru spat out blood, fell into the ground and lost consciousness.

Tenten and Hinata suddenly gained consciousness again "Oh no, Shikamaru!"

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'What's happening to the sky?' Sasuke thought as he stared at the darkening sky, and so did all of the Konoha warriors.

Han Fei sneered "That only signals our triumph, this kingdom that you're all protecting so much, it won't be long 'til it falls under our control."

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"Oh no, this is bad." stated Gai as he watched the sky getting darker.

"You got that right. Right now, our leader has probably killed your empress." Chin Chin sneered.

Kakashi jumped beside Gai trying to avoid an attack from Zei Shu "Oh, is that what you think, then you must be pretty darn stupid." this angered Chin Chin "The chances of him killing Empress Tsunade are the same with you defeating us, which would be very low."

"You'll regret saying that!" Chin Chin charged at Kakashi but Kakashi kicked her in the stomach before she could get near to him.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you that anger won't bring you anywhere, except maybe a fall on the ground?" Kakashi then looked at the sky 'Something's happening in the palace, and it's not a good thing, I have to admit.' he thought.

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"Wei Yan! Stop this right now!" ordered Tsunade. She received a lot of wounds from Wei Yan's attacks.

"What makes you think you can stop me! No one can stop me Tsunade, especially not you!" Wei Yan laughed "Now I'll kill you and I will finally get what was meant for me 15 years ago!"

'I have no other choice' thought Tsunade, she placed her hands together and chanted, as soon as she finished chanting "Litsen Wei Yan, you may have won now, but it won't be long, I will come back and regain my throne."

"Running away are you? Ha! Only a weak person like you would do that! Leaving your kingdom--"

Tsunade grinned "Who said anything about leaving my kingdom, I said I will come back and get it back, and plus, a good leader knows when it's time to retreat, so" Tsunade met Wei Yan's eyes "until next time." Tsunade disappeared into thin air.

"Empress Tsunade!" called Naruto when suddenly, he started glowing in white light, as well as Hinata and Tenten "What the hell is happening?" and just like Tsunade they disappeared as well.

"Empress Tsunade!" Kakashi looked at the palace from where he was and then looked at Gai, Gai nodded at him "It looks like we have to continue this battle at another time. I promise to kill you the next time." and with that Kakashi and Gai disappeared as well.

"What's this?" Kiba was glowing in the same white light when he suddenly disappeared, the same thing happened to Sasuke, Neji, Lee, Shino, Sakura, Ino and Chouji. They all found themselves inside an underground cave right under the palace. "Empress Tsunade! And all you other guys are here too! What just happened there? Hinata you're okay!"

"What's going on?" asked Ino.

All of them had their eyes on the empress who was wounded and was weakly sitting on the ground. Everyone else was badly injured as well "What I just did was transport you from where you were to here by connecting to your conscious minds, most of you didn't notice what I did."

Naruto was quite angry "Why did you do that, we should have fought him! We should have took revenge for what he did to Hinata and all the other warriors that he has injured!"

"And what do you want to happen? Die in the process?" Naruto fell silent "I know that some of you don't like this idea, but this is better than all of you dying and the dynasty totally falls under the hands of evil. Making them not know where we are buys us more time to prepare and come back to defeat him."

Ino was looking around, searching for a certain lazy bum, but couldn't find him "Hey, where's Shikamaru? He doesn't seem to be here."

"Oh yeah, I forgot, he was in the same room as we were." said Tenten "He fell unconscious after Wei Yan's attack."

"If that is so," Gai started "then I'm sorry to say Ino, but Shikamaru must have been left behind." Ino quickly looked at Gai, very surprised at what he had said.

"That can't be, how can he be left behind when all the rest f us are here?" Ino's eyes became teary.

Sakura went beside Ino to comfort her "Oh Ino."

"Like what the empress said, she had teleported you by connecting to your minds, your conscious minds to be exact. And, as Tenten has mentioned, Shikamaru happened to be unconscious at that time, so the empress couldn't reach his mind."

"Then we have to get him!" Ino argued.

"No, we can't risk going back there!" bellowed Kakashi "We are very little right now, and we need all of us who are here right now when we come back, and we don't know what will happen if we come go back there."

"But--"

Tsunade stopped her before she could argue "Litsen, I'm sure Shikamaru will be alright, I know that he'll use Shikamaru to his advantage, he also knows that we might go back for him, so he won't kill Shikamaru. But we will go back for him, just not now."

Ino gave up arguing, she sat down as Sakura tried comforting her.

Shino punched the wall in anger "Zi Yan, why? Why did you join the bad side?"

"Zi Yan?" Tsunade overheard what Shino said "You mean she's alive?"

"Yeah, but that's not the only thing, Gan Ning is also alive. And they're both fighting for the evil's side." Neji replied.

"How can that be?" Tsunade asked but nobody could answer.

"I don't know, but I promise that I'll bring her back if it's the last thing I do."

Sasuke sat on the ground, his face facing down his arm resting on one of his knees. Sakura sat beside Sasuke after comforting Ino. None of them talked but then Sasuke finally spoke "I'm going to kill Han Fei and avenge what he did to my brother. The next time we meet, I promise that I will defeat him."

Sakura did not have words to make Sasuke calm down or feel better "You're much wounded."

"I'm okay, don't worry." Sasuke knew the worry in Sakura's eyes, so he gave her a reassuring smile (which could actually be a grin).

Neji approached Tenten who was breathing quite heavily. She felt dizzy and weak, but tried her best not to make the others notice. "Tenten, why did you get up and fight? You know that you're badly injured."

"I'm okay Neji." Tenten tried standing up, but as soon as she has fully stood up, she felt weak and nearly fainted, but Neji was able to catch her.

"No you're not. You shouldn't have gone to the main hall!" Neji reasoned.

"I'm a warrior of the Konoha Dynasty, and it's my duty to protect it no matter the cause!" argued Tenten.

"Even then, that's only your pride taking over, something far worse could have happened to you!"

"Neji, it's not only my pride, it's my duty, not only as a warrior, it's not only the dynasty that I have to protect, but also my family, my friends, and everybody else I know, have you thought about that?"

Neji fell silent. "I'm sorry, it's just that, I'm worried about you, if something bad happened to you--"

"But nothing that serious did happen. And I understand you; it's just that there are some things that we have to do. If you were in my place I bet you would have done the same thing and try to fight." Tenten smiled at Neji, and Neji smiled back.

Hinata saw Naruto sitting in a corner, she decided to approach Naruto to make him feel better "Naruto, may I sit beside you?" she received no response but she sat anyway. Hinata decided not ton talk and wait for Naruto to open up.

"Hinata," Naruto finally spoke "I'm really sorry. I couldn't protect you, you were captured because I was weak."

"Naruto, it's not your fault, I don't blame you for anything." Hinata tried to make Naruto feel better.

"Yes it is, and now, I can't even do anything to protect the dynasty." Naruto didn't have any courage to face Hinata.

"Naruto, we'll come back, and we'll get it back, the next time we come here, we'll defeat them." no matter what Hinata said, it didn't make Naruto feel any better.

"I know you're just trying to make me feel better Hinata, and I appreciate that, but right now, I'd rather be alone." Naruto said not even giving a glance at Hinata, Hinata understood him very well and left him alone without saying a word.

Tsunade finally stood up "Look, we have to go, we can't stay here any longer, Wei Yan might sense us, and if he does, that'll only mean trouble for us, we have to leave."

"Where are we going?" asked Lee.

"I don't know, but we have to go to a village and buy food and materials, then we'll have to start training to get stronger. We have to remove our armor and try to look as ordinary as we can."

"What about the money to buy food and materials." asked Chouji.

"I have enough money with me to sustain us for a while, but as we prepare to return, we have to work to earn money." said Tsunade "Well then, shall we go?"

End of Chapter