Chapter 8: Operation Blue
AN: There are some considerable spoilers for Chapter 356 and afterwards of the Naruto Manga. You are forewarned.
The first rays of the rising sun streamed over the horizon and peered through the thick foliage of the forest. Dawn approached as Team Kakashi continued their sprint through the canopies of the forest towards the ruins. They were groggy and exhausted, but they had almost reached their destination. They found the determination to continue their pace unabated, and pushed on through the hinterland.
They soon came to the edge of a clearing. Upon reaching sight of it, they dropped from the tree canopy, and slipped into the underbrush, and began creeping up to the edge of the forest slowly, hiding themselves in the dense foliage. Peering out into the clearing, they caught sight of their objective: a massive stone step pyramid.
It was approximately a hundred-fifty meters tall and three hundred meters wide at the base. The stone step levels of the megalith were covered with vines and blossoming vegetation, providing a thin veneer of life to what was otherwise a monument of death. What could not be doubted was the fact that the pyramid was old, if nothing else; older than present history, and seemingly as old as time itself.
The air was electric with tension. This ground had its own ancient magic to it; the entirety of the clearing seems devoted to the channeling of some primeval force. What immediately caught Sakura's attention was the fact that the clearing seemed to be a perfect square, with perfect right angle corners each marked with a twelve meter tall stone totem. Right angles simply do not exist in nature. The sight of the temple complex sent shivers down Sakura's spine. She turned to Naruto, who now was standing right beside her, and whispered, "This place gives me the chills…I've never seen anything quite as creepy as this."
Naruto reassuringly wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and pulled her body close to his, soothing, "It's okay, this place gives me the creeps too, but it can't harm us."
She nodded, and wrapped her arm around his waist, tugging his body tighter to hers. Kakashi signaled for the team to advance, and they cautiously approached the pyramid. A figure soon came into view on the top of the pyramid, waving his arm at the team below. Kakashi cried "Phase two complete, all clear," as everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Throwing tact to the wind, Naruto broke into sprint, and ran towards the figure sitting atop the pyramid. When he was half-way up the pyramid, a second, more rotund figure came into view on the summit. "There's only two people that it could be: Shikamaru and Chouji" Naruto said to himself.
Sakura sighed at Naruto's impatience, and darted after him, followed closely by Sai. Kakashi followed slowly, reading his copy of IchaIcha Tactics, hoping to finish the chapter while he had the chance.
Naruto soon reached the top of the pyramid, where Shikamaru waited, smiling slyly at Naruto as he approached. "Tch, took you guys long enough. I'm not too keen on danger, but this waiting is even worse."
"Long time no see, Shikamaru," Naruto cried. He slapped Shikamaru on the back heartily, earning an angry glare.
"How was the trip, Naruto?" Chouji inquired politely.
"Long, but it couldn't be helped."
Sakura soon joined the three young males on the summit. "Took you long enough," Naruto teased, earning a sharp punch to the arm. "Oww! Not so hard, Sakura-chan! That hurts!" he whimpered.
"I see you're keeping Naruto on a short leash, Sakura," Ino jabbed, her head peering out the entrance to the pyramid temple.
Sakura blushed, as tiny little dominatrix fantasies involving Naruto and leashes bubbled up to the front of her mind. Ino cocked an eyebrow upon seeing this and muttered "I see…"
Sakura shrugged, as if to say "Why Ino, whatever could you be talking about?"
Ino was thoroughly unconvinced, but she had more pressing matters to attend to. "Well, the time for chit-chat is later, guys. Everyone needs to report to the main hall a-sap. Guy-senpai and Gaara-sama would like to begin coordinating phase three immediately. Make sure Kakashi-senpai gets the message." With that, she slipped back into the maw of the temple.
Chouji, Shikamaru and Naruto quickly finished catching up, and followed Ino into the temple. Sakura waited for Sai and Kakashi to catch up before slipping into the temple.
A large stone staircase led them down into the structure, straight into the main hall of the temple. The main hall was a large rectangular room, approximately ten by twenty meters, with an arched ceiling. A line of massive stone support pillars ran down the center of the room's long axis. Each pillar was decorated with strange indecipherable glyphs. Each pillar bore two torches on either side. The dim light the torches provided bathed the dark room with a dull orange glow, illuminating the small makeshift encampment that the Konoha nin had made waiting for the rendezvous.
Gaara, Kankuro and Temari sat in a corner at the far end of the room, their supply packs littered around them. Maito Guy and Rock Lee were sparring in the other far corner, keeping active to stem the boredom. Neji sat in mediation at the middle pillar while Tenten sat next to him, lazily sharpening the blade of a kunai.
Upon seeing Ino lead the group into the main hall, Gaara quickly rose, and walked to greet the new arrivals. "It is good to see you again, Naruto-sama," he said, extending his hand in greeting.
Naruto took his arm firmly. "I just wish we would meet under more pleasant circumstances. Last time we met, you were dead!" he beamed.
"That is true, Naruto," Gaara chuckled, "I wish it was not matters of life and death that caused our paths to cross. I'd love to catch up with you about everything, but right now we must begin phase three of our operation."
"I understand. There will be plenty of time to catch up after we get Sasuke back. I'm just as anxious to get under way as you are."
Gaara greeted Sakura and Kakashi curtly before introducing himself to Sai. Sai bowed politely, giving Gaara the most genuine smile he could muster. Gaara soon ushered the group to follow him to the center of the hall, where he called the rest of the expeditionary force into assembly.
When everyone was settled in, Gaara spoke in calm, authoritative tone: "Now that our comrades from Team Kakashi have finished the intelligence gathering phase of Operation Blue, we can begin coordinating the next phase of our join expedition. Though Tsunade-sama has designated me to serve as her proxy for the purposes of this mission, I've have taken my prerogative to name Hatake Kakashi, the most senior Jonin, as field commander. So, if you will, Kakashi-taishō, a briefing is in order."
Kakashi nodded respectfully, and rose from his seat to join Gaara in the center of the hall. He pulled some markers and some chalk from his pack, and quickly sketched an operational map on the smooth stone floor. After noting the topography, and placing a few assorted books, tools and weapons to mark key landmarks, he sketched out a number of arrow markers following the river he had just drawn. "This," he said, pointing to the arrows, "is Orochimaru's confirmed axis of advance. He and an entourage of approximately fifty Oto-nin will be escorting Sasuke to one of his more secure hideouts. There he will begin the FushiTensei transformation, and take control of Uchiha Sasuke's body."
Kakashi paused to allow everyone to study and memorize the details of the map. He soon continued: "We were only able to obtain this information because of Kabuto's lapse in judgment during the last retrieval operation. Kabuto provided valuable information about Oto's organization after integrating Orochimaru's remains into himself. Since then, Orochimaru's soul seems to have overpowered Kabuto's will, and returned to dominance. While this Orochimaru/Kabuto gestalt does not have the same strength as Orochimaru originally did, he is nonetheless a potent foe and should be avoided at all costs during the operation. Under no circumstances will you engage Orochimaru without my permission."
The room became as still and grave as death itself. "From what I've been informed by our intelligence sources, there is an added complication that makes the success of this mission all the more critical. It seems that Uchiha Sasuke absorbed part of Orochimaru's essence as well after he killed Orochimaru."
Naruto's mouth hung wide open in shock. The room was soon filled with whispered comments of disbelief and shock. Finally, Naruto summoned the will to speak "Wait, so that means Sasuke is part Orochimaru?" he cried.
"Precisely, Naruto. Precisely," Kakashi replied, "While our source was certain that Sasuke's will remains firmly his own, this new development complicates things greatly. If Orochimaru and Sasuke merge, Orochimaru not only gains Sasuke's kekkai genki and powers permanently, he also gains back all of his old strength. With Jiraiya killed in action, this outcome will be disastrous. This is why we must rescue Sasuke at all costs."
"This new development is most troubling, Kakashi-taishō," Gaara interrupted, "Nevertheless, I have faith in our abilities. We will return Uchiha Sasuke and we will stop Orochimaru from consolidating his power."
"Thank you for the vote of confidence, Gaara-sama. I have outlined an order of battle and an operational plan for phase three of Operation Blue. Sakura will distribute copies of the plan to each of you for your own reference, but I must stress that these must not fall into enemy plans. Memorize the plan, and burn the copy before we begin the operation."
Sakura quickly distributed copies of the operational plan to the rest of the team while Kakashi pulled some markers out of his pack. He placed a sandy brown marker on the north side of the river on the map, in the vicinity of a small stone monolith he had noted earlier. "This," he explained, pointing to the marker, "is Team Suna. It will consist of Gaara, Kankuro and Temari. You will be our diversionary skirmish force." He drew an arrow on the map leading from Team Suna towards the river, terminating just upstream of the river rapids on the map. "You will begin your assault as soon as the enemy van passes the rapids. Divert as much of their attention as possible, but avoid a pitched battle."
Gaara nodded with approval. "So we will pull their main van towards us, eh? Kankuro's puppets will make our attack seem more substantial than it really is, and our abilities should allow us to die down their forces."
"Precisely. After you have made contact with the enemy, and they have reoriented their forces to deal with you, send an acknowledgement signal to me. When you do, Team Ten, Team Guy and my team will begin our assault." He paused, placing three markers on the south side of the river. "The green marker is Team Guy, the blue marker is Team Ten, and the red marker is Team Kakashi. So, when we get the signal, we will begin our assault…" he paused momentarily, drawing an arrow from the three markers right through the middle the enemy's main body. "…right into the enemy van's now exposed flank. We'll over run them, separating the enemy vanguard from the van. With these rocky outcroppings here, we should be able to create an air tight sack around the main body."
Kakashi moved the Konoha-nin markers into their new positions. "Sasuke should be in the vanguard," he continued, "separated from the main body of reinforcements. Team Kakashi will now separate from the main body, and capture Sasuke. Once we have him, I'll give the signal, we'll retreat, and regroup at this temple. If all goes as planned, there should be a sizable number of reinforcements at the temple by the time we regroup. Any questions?"
No one raised their hands. "Good. Then go get some rest and build some small unit plans with your teams. The operation begins at nightfall."
Everyone soon dispersed to their own areas of the hall, and began preparing for the operation in their own individual way. It didn't take Sakura, Sai and Naruto long to finish their preparations, so they devoted the rest of their time to catching up on lost sleep. Sakura and Naruto comforted each other about the stress of the coming operation, whispered sweet nothing to each other, and soon fell asleep, leaning against each other in a quiet corner of the room.
Endnotes: This chapter was fairly complicated, so if you have any questions feel free to ask in a review. The operational planning is complicated and one could get lost fairly easy, but I feel that it is important to understanding the next chapters.