Strong and Strike: Tactics of war Part 2

OV: Continues where the first part left off… telling the story of the war and the players in it.

AN: x.Jamie-Chan.x the only request I will ever ask… Same as last time; let me know how these fighting scenes are. I have these vivid pictures in my head, but I don't know how it comes out on paper… Arigato!!!

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Naruto turned to face Kabuto, or should he call him Orochimaru. It seemed as if, just in the time this fight had been progressing, even more of Kabuto's features were being taken over by Oro's. The thin lavender lines around Oro's eyes had only been on one, now both were clearly visible. The face had been pale white on only the left half, now almost all of the flesh color had been drained. Naruto looked at the original site of transfer.

What had Kabuto been thinking? Was he that loyal to this monster that he would bring him back at any cost? He had said he wanted the ultimate fight against Orochimaru, the fight for his own body! Had he gone too far? Was he, even now in front of Naruto, losing that battle?

"Hey Kabuto, looks like you weren't that strong after all," Naruto sneered.

Kabuto stopped, "What do you mean," he hissed again. Even his voice was becoming snakelike.

"You told me you wanted to battle Orochimaru for your own body, but it looks like you're too weak, and he is taking over more and more. Even right now he is taking over. You are becoming lost and he is gaining control."

Kabuto screamed and rushed at Naruto. Naruto didn't move or even flinch. Instead he let the man come charging. When he was close enough, but too close to stop, Naruto pulled his hand out from behind his back revealing the large spiraling ball of chakra he had formed there. "Rasengun!" he cried and shoved it into Kabuto's chest.

Unlike the "great Sannin" battle, Kabuto hadn't seen this Rasengun coming. He had not had any time to react, and had not had any time to move his chakra to protect his chest. The Rasengun had also been filled with some Nature Manipulation Chakra.

Naruto had taken the training he had undergone with Kakashi and used it to his advantage. He had gone out for a few weeks and had created clones to train so he wouldn't get hurt. He had perfected adding just a little Wind chakra into his rasengun to make it a mini Fuuton Rasen-Shuriken. This way he directed the dangerous weapon to only his opponent and not himself. He could control how much wind chakra he added and thus control the strength of the weapon.

For Kabuto he had decided to add his maximum limit of wind chakra to the Rasen-shuriken. When he shoved it into the man's chest it didn't just cave in his chest it shredded it, nearly separating his ribcage in two.

Kabuto's face registered shock, then the pain hit him. He coughed up blood; a lot of blood. He raised his hand toward his chest and began to heal himself with his own medical chakra. He tried not to show Naruto how effective his Jutsu had been, as he assessed his own situation and realized it was a dire one. Did Naruto know that his Rasengun attacked on the cellular level? How could he know that!?

Kabuto was barely able to stop the bleeding and redirect some of his blood pathways through branching anastomoses and shutting down the damaged vessels. He stood and glared at Naruto.

Naruto looked at him impassively. Inwardly he was surprised to see that Orochimaru's features had receded a lot. Naruto got the idea to keep up this attack and maybe drive the Snake bastard further from Kabuto's body. Without Oro's influence, Kabuto might not be as power hungry or dangerous. Naruto remembered how Kabuto had looked lost and yet excited when he had met up with Naruto's group that fateful day that he had given them a notebook with information they couldn't get.

Naruto didn't want to have to kill Kabuto. It was Kabuto who had given him the information he had on Pein and Konan. Even what little he knew about Zetsu had come from that book. He looked at the man who was in obvious pain now, and tried to gauge how much he could take before it would be too much.

Suddenly from behind him he heard Gamakichi coughing and felt him begin to thrash about. Naruto and Kabuto both were distracted by the huge frog's movements, in part because a wrong move could crush them! When Naruto saw Kichi's eyes he understood his friend and fighting companion was dying. He still had his tongue wrapped around Zetsu, and even though Naruto surmised that was what was killing him he saw the red frog begin to reel his long tongue in and slowly swallow the plant man.

Naruto was suddenly pissed off. The cry of anguish he heard from behind him confirmed that his grief was shared by Jiraya who had been fighting Pein.

When the blonde knew he was losing someone near to him he began to lose a little of his control over the Kyuubi chakra. His eyes immediately turned red and his pupils formed into slits. His whisker marks widened and deepened and his canine teeth protruded past his lips.

When Naruto turned to face Kabuto the Medic-Nin blanched. This can't be good…I was hoping to get this over with before he could draw the Kyuubi chakra. I need to finish this quickly.

Naruto didn't have any compassion for Kabuto anymore. He didn't care that this once had been a Konoha Ninja. All he was thinking about was that Kichi was dying behind him, and it had to do with Kabuto. Kabuto could feel the intense killing intent rolling off Naruto in waves. Suddenly Kabuto yelled, "Retreat!" to Pein. Unfortunately for the two Akatsuki they were both grabbed by their foes just as they transported out of the fight.

Kabuto watched with horror as Naruto was transported with him. When Kabuto's feet touched down inside his hideout he couldn't shake Naruto's hold off. He looked over the blonde's shoulder and saw that it was worse, much worse. Jiraya had somehow managed to do the same thing to Pein.

This transportation Jutsu had been created specially to get them back to the hideout with Naruto. Kabuto had not expected that in training to transport with another person that someone could accidentally be brought along. He realized something else; inside their hideout a raging battle was taking place. They had been found.

Naruto hadn't let go of Kabuto's shirt. He didn't even seem to have noticed that they were in different surroundings. All he knew was that this man was going to pay. More and more of the demonic chakra began to flow into Naruto. He didn't even try to stop it now. Instead he allowed sweet relief to flow over his body as his rationalization slipped away.

Naruto's face began to shift as more chakra poured into him. His nose had grown longer and he had a sort of short snout. His teeth were all sharp now, and he had two tails whipping around behind him. His fingernails and even his hands were changing into paws and claws. He dug his sharp claws into Kabuto's flesh puncturing the thin repairs the Medic Nin had made.

He raised the body into the air and sent a wave of wind chakra laced Kyuubi chakra through it. Kabuto retched blood. The sight of the thick red metallic scented liquid sent Naruto even further over the edge. He leaned slowly toward the rapidly bleeding out body and opened his snout wide. Kabuto had enough conscience to realize what was coming. The last thing he hears in his head was Orochimaru's voice, "you really screwed up this time, Kabuto. This time there's no coming back for either of us."

Any reply Kabuto might have offered was rendered moot when the snout closed on his throat ripping his jugular vein and severing his carotid artery. Blood splashed onto Naruto's face and his now golden red hair. When he realized the body wasn't going to pour forth any more blood he released his death grip and allowed it to drop to the ground.

Now he became aware of his surroundings. He was too far into Kyuubi status to return to him self now, and his senses were so heightened. He knew that behind him Jiraya was waging a desperate battle with the one called Pein. However the scent he was getting wasn't right. Jiraya had a different scent. Naruto glanced at the man, only enough of Naruto in control not to go through and tear at every living thing that moved. Although, he was quickly losing that discernment.

Jiraya had formed some seals and had transformed into a bushy haired fighting powerhouse. He was spitting oil and setting it on fire trying to corner Pein. Naruto could see that Pein wasn't going down easily; in fact he had somehow called reinforcements.

Naruto could feel the power emanating off these others, and he didn't like the feeling. He ran on all fours having lost hands and feet to paws now. He easily captured one of the new arrivals and quickly tore it into ribbons of flesh and gore. Blood splattered over the walls and over several of the other summons. Jiraya took out three of them after a short battle and Naruto ended the existence of another. When he was through you couldn't tell what kind of creature the mass of carnage had been.

Jiraya was left to face Pein. From the strength Naruto could feel from Pein he was able to pull enough human emotion to feel concerned. When the bushy haired Sannin saw what had become of Naruto he was worried. If he didn't make it through this battle who would help Naruto find himself? Yamato and Kakashi both had the seal that would trap the Kyuubi chakra and force it to recede. Jiraya only hoped that if it came to it they would arrive in time.

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Sasuke was slicing through opponents as fast as they could rush towards him. He had his Sharingan activated and was in full battle mode. He was calling on everything he had learned while in Orochimaru's service. There seemed to be too many of the Sound Ninja for their four man group. Yamato was grievously wounded and had taken to trapping victims in chakra laced cages. Sasuke knew he couldn't maintain even this for much longer before his chakra levels were depleted.

Kakashi was fighting savagely, he was tearing through the enemy Nin without showing any signs of tiring. He didn't have his Sharingan out, but rather was relying on years of battle experience to lead him. Juugo seemed to be having the time of his life. It was as if the residue of the curse blood was being put to good use.

He was slashing and slicing through everything in his path. He would take a hit here and there, as was Sasuke and even Kakashi, but they were fighting on.

Suddenly there was a flood of killing intent racing toward them.

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Naruto raced through the hideout annihilating anything that moved. Even furniture that would be knocked over didn't escape his claws and teeth. He wasn't even trying; he was just mauling everything in his blind rage.

He had witnessed most of the battle between Jiraya and Pein, but his attention had been diverted by all the throbbing heartbeats that thundered in his ears, by the sweet tang of blood that filled his nostrils, by the sight of carnage that incited him to action. He had raced through the room with a grin of utter contentment on his snout as he would grab a warm body and dispel that heat with his teeth and claws. Once that bag of flesh was decimated he would chase down and grab another. It had become a game for him.

His feral snarls and yaps of excitement were beginning to cause tremors of fear to spread through the attacking Ninja. Naruto was too far gone to distinguish friend from foe, those who he met looked at him with fear and it caused him to hate them and want to remove them from the face of the earth.

He was still in the main cavern of the cave that Akatsuki had called their hideout and as such still in range to witness Jiraya's fight. So when Pein attacked Jiraya and Naruto saw the white haired man fall to the ground he couldn't take it. Naruto began to withdraw, happy to let the Kyuubi take over and deal with this while he descended into darkness. Somehow he managed to keep himself from falling into that respite. Jiraya wasn't dead, his keen senses told him that much.

Pein, on the other hand, would be soon. Naruto didn't think, he was able to form good enough seals to growl out, "Taijuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!!"

Before Pein could even turn around from where he had been gloating over his old Sensei and torturing him with his tales of how he would happily continue to reign and cause destruction at his discretion a shadow fell over him. He saw only a flash of blood red fur before his head was decapitated from his body. His brain hadn't yet realized he was dead and his sensory neurons were still firing trying to tell him that the room had suddenly become full of snarling writhing masses of crimson fur and fangs and claws. Then he knew no more as death caught up to him.

The river of Kyuubi Naruto's flowed out from the cavern where Jiraya lay clinging to life. They flooded the masses of fighting Ninja, Naruto had one thought on his mind and it was the only conscious thing he clung to in his grief and anger. The enemy wore grey and black. He attacked anything that was grey and black. If they had brown or green they were passed.

The clones made quick work of an entire battalion of Sound Ninja, and it wasn't long before everything began to be painted crimson with blood. Naruto led his river through the hideout and outside. The fresh air calmed him a little, but there was another scent in the air that called to his humanity to pull itself from the depths of his anger and oppressive sadness.

Naruto could smell the unmistakable scent of someone who he held dearest of all. He stopped and the surge of advancing Kyuruto's stopped with him. They sought whatever was causing that scent, a masculine scent of a green fields and trees after a rainstorm mingled with something woodsy and spicy. He sniffed and his head darted left, right, left, up, down, peering in every nook and cranny. Desperately seeking the source of that scent.

Somewhere deep within a bubble of conscious thought floated up, it could just be that he was here, sometime during this battle or before with Orochimaru. It doesn't mean he's here now.

This thought surfaced and broke over his conscious mind. Somehow it even made it through the haze of emotion driving the Kyuubi chakra that guided him more than reason right now. He kept searching, his sharp eyes looking for a familiar flash of ebony and ivory that was his coloring.

There, what was that? No, just another Sound Nin, no matter we won't mistake him any more…there's not enough of him left to mistake. There, what's that? The scent is stronger there.

The river of Kyuruto's picked up speed again and rushed over the field overpowering everything in the way. They knocked brown and green out of the way and disposed of grey and black. There, right there, what is that?

Ah, he's looking my way, is it what I think it is??

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In Konoha Shikamaru was strolling down the street toward the gate. Naruto had yet to show up at the office and he wasn't in his chambers either. Shika surmised that he might be chatting with the guards after seeing the team off. Suddenly he came upon the scene of an obvious fight.

Shikamaru stopped in his tracks. There was blood, and he instantly recognized the huge red frog that lay gasping desperately, more dead than alive. "Gamakichi!"

His cry alerted Sakura who was a block over and heading toward the hospital to make her daily rounds. She sprinted over to where she heard the voice. "Shikamaru! What's going on here?"

She too noticed the frog. She was acutely aware of his perilous state. "He's being poisoned," she surmised.

Gamakichi's tongue rolled out of his mouth and the once green plant man of Zetsu was curled within now brown and lifeless. His dying act had been to poison the huge frog. Sakura took a tube out of her bag and scraped the residue that was oozing from Zetsu's body.

"Shika, get water, try to rinse his mouth and tongue!" she ordered as she sped off toward the hospital lab to try to make a quick antidote. She reached the building in an instant and threw the door open. She nearly shouted with joy to see Tsunade standing there with an expression of confusion on her face.

"Tsunade-sama, Gamakichi has been poisoned. I have some of the poison here we need to get an antidote and fast. I left Shikamaru to rinse his mouth.." she trailed off.

"Give me that, you go tend to the frog, if naruto finds out he's going to snap!"

Sakura handed the tube over and rushed back to Kichi's side. She ordered Shika to get her tubs of water and used the Jutsu she had performed on Kankurou when he had been poisoned by Sasori to draw as much of the poison out of his body.

"Where's Naruto?" she asked Shika. She was dumbfounded when he replied that he didn't know.

They both worked, but assessed the area. They worked out that Naruto must have been there, and others as well. What they couldn't discern was where he was now!

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Kyubiruto rushed toward the source of his only consciousness. He annihilated everything in his path quickly turning the tide of the war and affecting the remaining Sound Nin to surrender.

When he sensed no more hostility he was able to calm down. He finally reached his destination and threw himself into the waiting arms of his lover.

Sasuke had watched in horror as Naruto, or what remained of him in that mostly Kyuubi form had surged out of the cavern. He had only been able to stare wordlessly as he had seen the depth of Naruto's anger and watched the bloodbath. But when he had known Naruto saw him, and had felt that shift in deadly intensity he had known it was no trick of his eyes.

He had waited for the man fox to make his way towards him. When he had gotten close enough Sasuke had held his arms out and Naruto had flown into them. Kakashi had calmly approached and had touched the fiery hot forehead with the seal causing the chakra to recede. Now Naruto lay in Sasuke's arms exhausted, covered in blood, and nearly naked.

"Naruto," Sasuke murmured. Then a realization hit him, "How did you get here?"

This brought Naruto out of his tired state and he pulled Sasuke after him toward the cavern. They reached Jiraya's still body and knelt down to check on him. Naruto broke into heart wrenching sobs, and he yelled at the Sannin, "You better not die, you old Pervert!!" He touched the bushy haired man's face and wiped a strand of hair out of his eyes.

"You hear me you damn Ero-Sennin! You do not have my permission to die!!" he ordered with tears in his eyes.

Jiraya who was very weak, yet barely alive offered a feeble grin, "Not…dead…yet…" he croaked out.

Sasuke dropped to his knees beside his love and held him tightly until he had cried all he could. Then Naruto set down and snuggled into Sasuke's warmth. He related the story as clearly as he could. The whole time he never took his eyes off Jiraya.

Before long a Medic Nin arrived to check on them, Naruto ordered her to check Jiraya first. She administered some herbal medicine and blood replenishing tablets. He still looked like porcelain and Naruto knew it was too soon to say if he would make it or not.

The two walked out next to the solemn form of Jiraya laid out on a stretcher and reached the makeshift medical hospital. Naruto and Sasuke left Jiraya's side only once to check on Yamato and Juugo.

Juugo wasn't in dire shape. His chakra levels were depleted, and he was dehydrated, but he would be fine. Yamato was unconscious and they weren't sure if he would wake up or not. His situation was touch and go. The medics insisted on treating Naruto and Sasuke who both were fatigued, scraped up, and battle weary. Naruto had sustained a few pretty good wounds during his melee, and Sasuke had received a gash to his cheek that would forever leave a crescent shaped scar among other lesser injuries.

Naruto informed Sasuke that he had dispatched Hinata, Kiba, Lee, and Sai that morning. They would arrive at this location in two days thanks to a summons from Kakashi's dogs who relayed a message.

Kakashi was exhausted, but in good shape. He had bandages on his arms, stomach, and head, but none of his wounds were life threatening.

For now the critical patients were Jiraya and Yamato, there was no guarantee either of them would make it.

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Naruto summoned a small frog and sent him to take a message to Shikamaru about the situation. He was glad to be able to put in that all Akatsuki here were dead, to put it mildly. He didn't go into a lot of detail, but he let them know where he was and when he would be home. Which was not until he knew the outcome of his men.

He was saddened that he would have to part company with Sasuke yet again, as his mission was not only to end the war, but to aide with rebuilding the Hidden Village of Rock.

For now he decided to await the arrival of the other team, and to know how Jiraya and Yamato were.

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Okay there it is. The end of the war. Thanks to Naruto. LOL.

Man I hope that came out half as well as I imagined it. Meh, I'm sure someone will let me know if it sucked big time! LOL

I'm submitting this again without proofing it. I want to get it up to make up for my busy schedule causing me to take so long on this fic. Finals reviews this week and actual finals next week and then I might have more free time to finish this!

Tenn omentielva enta!!!

-Kneise