"Speech"
'Thought'
"Demonic Voice"
'Bijuu thoughts'
Justu
(A/N: Author Note)
Flashback
Disclaimer: All rights reserved by the original creator this is a fan production.
Chapter 12: Passing on the Torch
"I see the fighting is still going on, what a shame," spoke the figure in red armor.
"I'm sorry we had to meet again under these circumstances Hashirama-sensei."
"Hmph even death we get no rest brother," spoke the figure in blue armor.
"I am sorry my student has disturbed you Tobirama-sensei, I will rectify that problem soon enough."
"If you couldn't finish me back then what makes you think the outcome will be any different, sensei?" like a snake about to strike Orochimaru readied his sword. "You have always been too weak to do what is necessary."
"Weak…no my student it is you who are weak, your ambitions will end today!"
"Kukuku the only thing ending today is the leaf as it burns to the ground!"
"No it shall not," Sarutobi spoke reading his staff, "Just as the Shodaime and Nidaime did so before me so to have I passed on the will of fire to my people and it will not be snuffed out so easily, you should know better than to underestimate Konoha."
"Enough!" Orochimaru pulled out two kunai with tags on them and inserted them into the former kage's skulls, "Kill him!"
XXXXXXX
"Well looks like the brat is handling the situation pretty well," Ibiki said to Kakashi who was standing next to him.
"Yeah to think he could match a jinchurriki in control of her beast," Kakashi smiled underneath his mask then looked to the street beneath him where Sakura and Haku were fighting side by side, "and Sakura is coming into her own, these kids are really something...come on we can't let them show us up now can we?"
"Hmph, you're right, time for the counter attack."
XXXXXXX
"Shiiiiiiiiiit!"
THUNK
"Damn, (cough) that sand(cough) (cough) is really annoying," Naruto held his side and coughed out blood, he looked up to see Shukaku's arm coming down on him, "Your not taking me out that easily!" Forming a tiger seal Naruto watched as his Smiley Bombs went off.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
He smiled as the arm fell off completely and didn't reform, "She must getting tired if she can't pull herself together."
"you little shit stain I'll grind you into dust!"
Naruto heaved himself up and ran as Shukaku attempted to flatten him with its arm, "Enough screwing around sleeping beauty is going to wake the hell up, Kyuubi I need more power!"
"Using that are you, try not screw up this time I wouldn't live it down if that rat beat me!"
"Got it!"
Naruto ran into the stands hopping and leaping into the stands avoiding all the kill shots that Shukaku was firing at him. The once great stadium was slowing being reduced into rubble and once or twice naruto was almost feel through the crubling stands. Making a lat leap he was now standing on top of the kage's private box.
"Here it goes," Naruto fell to all fours a second tail forming behind him, then he gathered all his chakra into his stomach making it swell slightly, "Can't screw it up this time, finally have a good reason to keep this place standing."
"got ya now! Air bullet!"
"Shit I need more time!"
Across the village the Konoha forces are having trouble dealing with one of the giant snakes let loose into their village.
"Damn it," A chunin glared at the snake as it devoured one of her comrades, "You pice of shit!" She pulled out three kunai wrapped in explosive note and threw them at the snake. The kunai hit their mark and detonated with deadly force but the snake still kept moving foward, the attack not even hindering it slightly.
The jonin squad leader looked on angrily at the damn snake, "We need to bring that thing down!"
"How?!"
Just as the beast was about to lunge again he was stopped by large tree root rapping around its body.
"Don't worry Mei-chan is here to help," the squads looked to a roof top to see a green haired girl no older than eight hands clasped in a hand seal.
"What is that kid doing here?" Ibiki shouted at a subordinated, "Get her out of here."
Before the squad could move the snake broke free of the roots and lunged at the little girl. It mouth snapped open to eat the girl but reared its head back in pain as a large tree root pierced its mouth, "Mokuton: Forest Lance, you shouldn't eat to much snake-chan."
The Konoha shinobi looked on in awe looking at each other. "Ibiki-sempai d-did that girl just use Mokuton justu?"
"Well handle that later, right now attack that snake!"
The order was unnecessary as Mei acted before them, "Bad snake-chan Mokuton: Tree Leash." Mei slammed her palms into the ground. The snake roared as two tree roots erupted out of the ground and wrapped themselves around the snake's neck. The snake struggled against the roots until it lost the fight and was slammed into the ground.
"Time for the super finishing move!" yelled Mei as she hopped into the air, "Mokuton: Earth Mother's Judgement!" Mei's lower body transformed into a large wooded spike as she dived towards the snake's head.
With a sickening crunch the spike pieced the skull and brain. The snake's body twtiched and went still, the blood beginning to seep onto the street. Mei's body slowly rose out of the spike and turned to the shinobi. Panting from exertion, hand in a victory sign, she shouted happily, "Yeah Mei-chan is the best, bow before Mei-sama the great!"
The ninja looked at each other looking nonplussed. Finally Ibiki landed in front of the girl, "Who are you child, why are you here?"
"Hi Scar-chan, I am Mei-chan, Tomoko-chan said that I should help or else big brother would be mad at me," the little girl said clearly upset at the thought of her big brother being mad at her, missing the annoyance in Ibiki's eyes at the nickname
"Who is this big brother of yours?"
"Naruto Uzumaki, the coolest brother ever!"
A leaf ninja held his side as he bled from the wound inflicted by a suna puppet. He cursed as he stood in front of five suna ninja lined up like a firing sqaud.
"Leaf weakling get ready to die!" The puppeteer readied his deadly doll for the killing blow, then suddenly brought the puppet infront of him.
THUNK
SHUNK
THUNK
SHUNK
THUNK
The leader looked around for the attacker, two of his men had dodged the attacks the other two hadn't been so lucky. One was gurgling and clutching at her throat where an arrow shaft was sticking out her throat, the other had taken the arrow right to the lung and was gasping for breath as his heart pumped blood into his lungs basically drowning him.
Then his attention was drawn to the raven-haired girl that dropped down in front of him and his two subordinates. "I hope my intrusion doesn't bother you, but five against one is pretty unfair."
"Really and who might you be?" he asked as he signaled his squadmates to surround her.
"I am Tomoko of the Taka clan," Tomoko said as she held her bow in front of her, "and I will be your opponent."
Tomoko gazed at each opponent intensely looking for any signal of an attack. The ninja behind her coughed throwing everyone into action. The puppeteer sent his puppet forward while the squadmate to the left threw kunai and the one to the right rushed in.
Tomoko leapt into the air to avoid the kunai. This move left her open for the puppeteer and he took advantage of that.
Tomoko smirked as the puppeteer fell for the bait. Faster than the eye could see she notched an arrow and fired it, not at the puppet but at the cloak it wore, pinning it to the ground.
Landing on the ground she pulled out a dagger to defend against the oncoming enemy. Closing in on her the ninja began attacking her but was finding it difficult to land a blow on the nimble archer. A jab cost him dearly as Tomoko slipped in close and stabbed him in the gut. The suna ninja grunted in pain and leapt away, trying to stem the blood flow.
The puppet had escaped and leapt back to its user, "Try and dodge this you one-eyed bitch!" The puppets spread its cloak open revealing two columns of stacked bamboo.
Tomoko was perplexed but kept her guard up not sure what the suna puppeteer was up to.
"Puppet Art: Fireworks!" all ten bamboo rockets shot out of the puppet and headed straight for Tomoko. Tomoko barely had time to move as the first rocket exploded near her feet. She quickly ran from the remaining rockets that kept pursuing her.
"You won't be able to run from this attack I can control the direction of these rockets so there is no point in dodging," the suna leader grinned as directed the rockets right at Tomoko after another dodge.
"No more messing around," Tomoko said as she dodged once more. She quickly grabbed her eye patch and moved it from one eye to the other. That pause in movement however left her open for the rockets.
"It's over!"
What Tomoko did next put the suna ninja in awe. She leapt through the barrage of rockets. Moving in a way that would make any acrobat and contortionist envious Tomoko dodged each rocket.
Landing in a kneeling position Tomoko smirked at the dumfounded looks on her enemies faces, allowing them to see her face more specifically her eye. A yellow eye stared at them like a hawk eyeing its prey, her sclera and the area around her eye was an inky black making her appearence all the more intimadating.
"Count yourself unlucky," Tomoko said rising to her feet, "With this eye your nothing but mice to me."
"Keep running your mouth," the lead ninja said as he brought the rockets back around, "You won't escape this time."
Tomoko smiled as everything slowed down in front of her. Looking at the rockets behind her she was a bit surprised at how close they were. With her enhanced speed she ran right towards her enemies, too fast for them to keep up.
The rockets on the other hand could.
"That won't work, I can control the direction of the rockets!" shouted the puppeteer as Tomoko ran towards his injured comrade.
"I know," the rockets were hot on her tail as she slid between the feet of the first suna-nin, throwing a dagger at the puppeteer's hand. The puppeteer gritted his teeth and with one useless hand the puppeteer was only able to control half the rockets.
BOOM
All that remained of the poor suna ninja was foot the rest was nothing but chucks of burnt flesh.
"You bitch I'll kill you!" screamed the other suna shinobi rushing in with a tanto.
"Wait you fool!" the warning was too late however as Tomoko ducked under the swipe, pulled an arrow from her quiver and rammed it right through her enemies foot.
"AAARGHH!" the chunin grabbed her foot the pain distracting her from the rocket heading towards her.
"Not this time," the puppeteer spread his finger making the rockets scatter. Thinking his last team member was safe, relief quickly turned into dismay as Tomoko somersaulted backwards into the air above his teammate.
Before he could do anything Tomoko kicked a rocket towards his teammate. Like balloon hitting a needle the rockets exploded right on top of the woman's head.
The jonin looked at his teammate or what remained of her in anger. Everything above her stomach was gone, her legs still twitching as blood spurted out of the body.
"Damn you!" the jonin leader readied his puppet as he glared hatefully at Tomoko, as she pulled out her bow and shot the other rockets down in quick succession.
"As I said before, your nothing but a mouse in my eye," Tomoko said as she pulled out an arrow with seals on it, "Prey for the hawk."
"Shut your foucking mouth!" with a wave of his hand the jonin opened secret compartment and launched poison bombs at Tomoko making a large purple cloud. "That poison will shut down your lungs, that's for my comrades."
"As I said," shock filled his eyes as he looked up, "You are the mouse and I am the hawk," Tomoko said bow drawn.
"Taka Style: Falcon Hunt."
The seals glowed and the arrow began to change into a wooden hawk steel talons gleaming in the sunlight. The jonin brought his puppet in front of him for protection, a futile act.
The hawk screcched as it pierced both of its targets and struck the ground behind them. Gripped tightly in the hawk's talons was a beating heart. The puppet fell uselessly to the ground a hole through its chest. The jonin soon followed his tool to the ground with a similar hole as he felt an emptiness in his chest.
He looked up at the approching girl glaring weakly as he felt the life slowly drain out of him, "H-how."
"The Falcon Eyes," Tomoko began as she moved her eye patch back to its original place, "the bloodline power of the Taka clan, along with telescopic vision in my eye it also increases the frame rate at which my eye views the world slowing the world in my view, but my body cannot keep up with my eyes so I move just as slowly as everyone else, fortunately I have trained my body to move faster."
"D-Damn yo..."
Tomoko walked over to the injured chunin, "Are fine or do you need medical attention?"
"I'll be fine, its just a flesh wound it's mostly exhaustion thats affecting me," the chunin said as he took some deep breaths and popped a food pill into his mouth, "Thank you I thought I was dead for sure."
"No problem."
"Who are you?"
"Tomoko."
"Why are you here?"
"I am here to help my master."
"Master?"
"Yes."
"Does this 'master' of yours have a name?"
"Naruto Uzumaki."
"N-Na-Naruto?!"
"Yes do you know him?"
"You could say that," Iruka scratched his cheek as nervously, "Naruto what have you gotten yourself into?"
Sarutobi ducked another swipe of his students blade, then leapt backward to avoid the Shodaime crashing down on him. Going through handseals he spit mud onto the ground bringing up a wall of hardened earth to block the water dragon coming his way. Taking a quick breath Sarutobi began handseals but had to leap to the side as his wall was punctured by large branches heading straight for him. Bringing up his staff he knocked aside the Nidaime's kick with his staff. Then twirling his staff Sarutobi connected with a hard blow to Nidaime's head.
While preoccupied with his old teacher Sarutobi left an opening as the Shodaime came at him from behind ready to deliver a heavy blow. Which made it all the more surprising when a leg flew from the staff and winded the reaminated warrior with a quick blow. This was followed by Sarutobi's own vicious blow knocking him back.
"I see that I will not be able to defeat you at my current level Orochimaru, but you will not leave here alive."
"Don't you see how futile your actions are sensei, even as we speak that beast," Orochimaru pointed toward the shouting sand demom, " is tearing through your forces."
"You should know better than to underestimate me and to never underestimate this village!"
A red flare caught their attention and both looked up to see the a someone skyrocketing into the air.
"What the hell was that Kakashi?" Asuma looked up along with the other jonin, the fight in the arena taking a pause as enemy and ally looked up at the destroyed Kage box.
"Naruto."
"Your student is just full of surprises ain't he Kakashi," Anko said to her comrade pointing up at the sky where immediately to his relief Kakashi saw his student chakra cloak.
"Yeah, hopefully none of them turn out to be the bad kind," Kakashi looked on as his student reached the peak of his ascent.
Up in the air Naruto gather all his chakra into his stomach, focued it, and fired.
"TAILED BEAST BOMB!"
Kakashi along with everyone in the stadium looked on as a chakra ball blasted out of Naruto coming down upon the beast.
Outside the stadium everyone looked on at the large black ball as it struck the maw of the demon, the explosion leaving a cloud of smoke.
All looked on anxiously with baited breath wondering if the beast would be brought down. The smoke around the stadium was blown away by the roar of the sand demon.
"I'M STILL HERE!"
Every Konoha shinobi felt their heart sink as the watched the beast roar.
"How strong is that thing."
As everyone looked on in shock they did not see the red missle falling from the sky. Naruto tucked his arms in as dived right at the top of Shukaku's head, aiming striaght for Gaara.
"Got you now," as Naruto neared Gaara his cloak gave out, gritting his teeth he used the last bit of his strength and cocked his fist.
"Wake the fuck up!"
The blow slammed into Gaara like a hammer, knocking her back to the land of the conscious. "Wha-Where am I?"
"Finally awake," Naruto addressed her on his hands and knees, "Good...now I...can beat your ass..."
"NO I CAN'T GO BACK YET!"
Gaara looked around trying gain her barings. Her attention directed at the dirty and worn out blond, when it suddenly dawned on her who this was, "YOU! I FINALLY HAVE YOU UZUMAKI!" The sand ninja slammed her palms together drawing her sand forth, or at least she tried to.
"What's...the matter...princess...can't r-" the sand beneath them shook as the body of the beast began to fall apart without chakra to hold it together. Both Naruto and Gaara cursed as the ground under their feet fell apart and suddenly they were in a free fall.
Quickly the sand began to fall apart filling the stadium quickly. All the shinobi evacuated not wanting to be crushed or suffocated by the sand. Outside every Suna shinobi looked on awe. Not once had they ever thought that anyone beside a Kage would be able to put down the insane Shukaku.
Baki greeted his teeth as their secret weapon was defeated. Their entire operation had relied on the demon demolishing the village and demoralizing the enemy. Now their tactic had backfired and he could see it in the bodies of his troops as some of them began to look nervously at one another.
Baki's mind worked quickly deducing the best course action. They could try to continue the invasion but the best case scenario was taking heavy lossed with a minimal chance of victory.
Grittin his teeth, and cursing Orochimaru and Konoha, he turned to a chunin, "Give the order for a full retreat!"
"Y-Yes sir!"
Across the village the Konoha forces were pushing back the demoralized invading force. Their counter attack had caught the enemy off gaurd after facing minimal resistance into the village.
Then a green flare went up into the sky and the suna forces began to retreat. The The Oto forces on the other did not fall back and kept attacking but without the suna troops they were being overwhelmed.
The teacher and student were locked in a death struggle as Sarutobi attempted to pull out his student soul. Tired and bleeding profusely from the sword that had run him through he kept pulling with all his might.
Sarutobi smiled at his student as he saw the green flare go up familiar with Suna's wartime protocals. "Do you see Orochimaru the Leaf does not fall easily."
"No, I will see this village fall and you can't stop me, you weak old fossil!"
"True this body of mine is not strong enough to carry out my will," Sarutobi rasped as his shaking hands formed a seal, "but your ambition will end today, I will take away the thing you hold most dear!"
With one last might pull dragged more of his student's soul out of his body, "Goodbye my student."
"W-What are doing?!"
"Seal"
Orochimaru was filled with great fear he had not felt since a child as he saw the spectral figure of the God of Death appear before him. Staring eye to eye with the God felt like an eternity as it reached for the tanto in its mouth. The blade came down like a headsmen's axe and severed his soul in twain.
A searing pain like no other filled his arms as they began to wither and die, "Aaaargh what have you done?"
Sarutobi fell to his knees, his body growing heavier and heavier with each passing moment. He looked at his student who was shouting at him, he closed his eyes and opened them to be greeted with his student as he remembered him, a young boy with with so much potential.
"Orochimaru I am sorry this old man could not save you."
The his gaze turned to his beloved village, and to his people, to his family as they fought fiercely to protect their village.
"My village, even in shambles your are still beautiful."
The his eye caught a blond boy clawing his way out of the sand that now filled the stadium. A small smile formed on his face and tears began to escape his eyes.
"Naruto, my boy, always fighting," he laughed causing him to cough up more blood, "I am sorry that I will not see you become a fine ninja, but the will of fire burns brighter in you than anyone else."
Sarutobi looked on as Naruto struggled to stand on his feet.
"Never give up Naruto," slowly but surely Naruto began to rise, "Never give up!"
Sarutobi fell foward smiling proudly as he saw Naruto rise to his feet.
"It is good to know the village is in capable hands, time for this old man to get some well deserved rest."
"I wonder if Biwako will be waiting for me..." with that finally thought the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha passed from this world.
To lightningblade49: Thank you for the suggestion that was how I was planning to end it, except for the second tail part that was thanks to you.
Thanks to everyone who read my story despite not uploading for awhile.