Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and any reference to any other thing owned by someone else.

Claimer: The OCs are mine. If any are sue-ish, well…they're still my sues.

Warning #1: Characters may sometimes be OOC. You have been warned.

Lost

Chapter 15

Previously on Lost...

After saying that, he felt his three friends transcend through the boundaries between world and went back home to report to Kyonshi and watch Juushu's progrees.

'I really hope they can get those armies to attack home...' Juushu thought as he continued his time warping trek back to Juushu Oujou.

*

*

The war had been progressing nicely, all the nine lands were suffering from the attacks of Juushu's armies. His nine generals immediately began their assults on the cities, town, villages, and armies of the daimyous of each of the nine lands. They each proclaimed that it was by the will of Rosuto Juushu that they would rid each of the nine lands of their present governments, unifying all the lands under one banner, that of Rosuto Juushu.

These proclamations, added to the fact that in each battle in which the daimyous' armies engaged in Juushu's armies triumphed, enraged the nine daimyous enough to force them into an alliance of sorts with one another. Their collective prides be damned, they would get rid of this new threat, and indeed Juushu was a threat, then return to the ways things were before the arrival of these invaders.

While Juushu's nine generals and the armies under their commands were harrassing the lands in which they were based in, Juushu too was kept busy with preparations for what he deemed as the final battle. The one fight to end all fights, or at least for the next thousand years.

Thats the thing with these people, they have a thing for the number nine, three, seven, and thousand. Well, Juushu was ready to implement his plan, all that he was waiting for was for the armies of the nine lands to have the bulk of the remainder of their main forces to attack the capital of the recently revealed Rosuto no Kuni, Juushu Oujou.

Juushu had a few thousand troops to march from Juushu Oujou and make their way to the nine lands to increase attacks on the resident daimyous. They were also tasked with spreading information that Juushu was in his city, that he was literally looking down on the other daimyous, he appeared like he could not be bothered to really worry about the other nine. His base of operations was so impenetrable that he did not need the bulk of his army to defend it, or even be anywhere near it.

Juushu needed the daimyous' prides to be burned, and be burned badly. They would be forced to believe that they too did not need to overly fortify their capitals and bases.

Juushu would then somehow implant the thought that the best way of ridding the lands of the threat of Rosuto no Kuni would be a decisive battle, one that the nine lands' armies would have around the walls of Juushu Oujou. If you take out the head, the body will fall apart. Of course, Juushu would also use this tactic. The egos of the nine lords were big enough for them to believe that their armies were all that were needed to defeat Juushu. They would leave their capitals undefended.

When that would happen, Juushu would strike. He would travel to all nine capitals and do battle with the daimyous, one on one, they would not expect that. They would at first feel a sense of security since Juushu would have his armies cease all attacks on the nine lands, and make it look like they were rushing back to Juushu Oujou once the inforamtion that the nine lands' armies were heading for their capital, and for the head of their daimyou.

With this false sense of security, Juushu would make his move, he would enact his surprise attack. When the attacks would happen, he would be in ten places at the exact same time. He would make sure that his battles were as visible as possible. He would finally get to let loose. His bases in the nine lands could serve as the capitals of his future nine provinces, the present capitals would be damaged to the point that they would not be fit to be capitals, the only city that wouldn't suffer that much damage would be Sakura no Kuni's capital, due to Juushu having a house there.

In Komugi no Kuni, Yuji was busy burning the wheat fields one after the other. The dragons of myth and legend helping him in his quest in making people believe that the gods were angry, and were siding with the Rosuto forces. Dragons, terrible beasts and creatures of legend. Yuji had his dragons, as well as the elemental constructs, not just burn fields but also eat people, virgins, children, and the like, most of which were just clones, but the locals of Komugi didn't need to know that. By following the daimyou they were dooming themselves to a life of death. To the daimyou it was a message that the Rosuto forces meant business, it didn't matter how the dragons came to be there, all that mattered was that there were dragons and they were terrorizing the countryside.

The elemental dragons were the worst of the lot, along with the wheat fields, the weather herself kept changing, the seasons were extremely irregular. Due to the influence any dragons had on the the weather it would rain cats and dogs one day, then be as dry as a desert the next. Supply routes were continously remapped, some were completely abandoned, labeled as dead lands, due to the earthquakes that some of the dragons induced.

Aside from the harrassing and whatnot that Yuji was incharge of, he was also given the privelage, like the other generals, of knowing some of Juushu's plans. Yuji was in charge of terraforming Komugi no kuni, as were the other eight generals with their own respective lands.

Juushu was having the nine lands reformed, it was going to literally be a rebirth. Like some of the phoenixes that Juushu had encountered in his training, his land, Rosuto no Kuni, would join with the nine lands, out of the ashes of war another greater country would rise, Rosuto no Kuni would be that country, one that was totally different from what it still was.

Juushu planned on having almost every kind of land mass or terrain in his country, as well as almost every and any body of water that he could fit into the counrty as well. The land would be a new world, as well as a lost world that would be sealed away from the rest of the world for a thousand years, only allowing minor glimpses of its splendor to be seen by the outside world.

While Yuji was busy laying the smackdown in Komugi with the tales of dragons in his vast arsenal of teeth claws and mystical and mythical might, Tamotsu was busy having the onigumo and the onisasori, otherwise known as Juushu's pet spiders and scorpions, swallowing the sands of Tenshi. There was just too much sand there, some of it would be transported somehow to other parts of the country during the rebirth, but for now it was just too much, also the sand connected the land of Kaze no Kuni, Juushu needed to separate the lands from the other lands that were not affected by the wars.

While Tamotsu was not overseeing the sand sucking and harrassment of the natives of Tenshi which Mugoi was usually overseeing, he was busy overseeing the defenses against the SandFish that had somehow found their way to the sea of sand. There weren't too many of them, but there were enough of them to be hazardous to the health of Rosuto and Tenshi residents alike. Tamotsu had been successful in obtaining a few carcasses of those monstrous things. But there were still a number of them out there.

Tamotsu had also noticed the gradual appearance of a number of creatures that he had never encountered or thought existed. When he consulted Mugoi, he was told that they were creatures from another time and place, that had decided to come up and make themselves known. If the lands were to experience a rebirth, the land would even gain some of these emerging creatures. Too bad that the battlecats loved hunting the smaller things.

Naruko and Mori were an inseprable duo, it didn't matter that they were married to one another, where one went the other would follow, most it was Mori doing all the following. Naruko was usually at the front of the army that was engaging the resident army. It was chaos reminiscent of Uzumaki Naruto during his pranking days. Her attacks weren't all that deadly, but the number of things that she could pull out of her magician's hat were quite frightening. While Mugoi had the forces just harrass, attack, and stuff. Naruko went out of her way to scare the living out of the Tenshi army. The devils of the battlefield had met their match in ferocity. Mori was just there to make sure that nothing bad happened to his wife, not that much could get near her.

Unlike his wife, Mori was the one who constantly found himself in trouble, always needing to be rescued, for one reason or another, he had a habit of finding his way into messes that he could not figure a way out of. He'd had his head nearly bitten off, it was only due to the timely intervention of Tamotsu and his SandFish hunting party that Mori's heads were still attacked to his body. His arms were nearly severed on a few occasions.

One time Mori had accidentally peeked at a hot spring somewhere in Tenshi, and due to the giggling of a another peeker, an intentional one, he was caught up in the mad stampede of women that wanted to take his heads off. A SandFish was one thing, but a horde of pervert hating women was another thing. After narrowly escaping certain doom. The other guy bribed Mori with an orange little book that was obviously not for children. The guy who gave it to him thought that he was a fellow skirt chaser. In memory of their meeting, the book was an autographed copy, there were also a number of preservation seals placed on it, so that Mori could make it some sort of family hierloom or something. Once Naruko found out about the book, Mori had to hide from his wife, he spent two weeks constantly being in the presence of Tamotsu, because for some reason Mugoi and his fellow sided with Naruko. Eventually the book was forgotten, but somehow Juushu found out about it and well, Tamotsu and Mori had more things to worry about. Juushu sent a chicken carrying chicken pox to the base. Most of the people there suffered a week's woth of pox due to Mori's little mishap. Naruko and the clones were the only ones saved from the ordeal due to certain immunities.

After that incident the men of the Tenshi base realized that their being perverts should be kept hidden and safe behind closed doors, as well as only seen by their wives. Who knew that Juushu could send a plague spawned from a cock of all things to torment perverts. The book was not confiscated, just that Mori was informed that should he ever encounter the guy that gave him the book again to somehow capture him so that Juushu could have his wicked ways with him, not in the pervertd sense mind you.

While Tamotsu dealt with the intricacies of placating monsters in the desert and with Yuji playing with mythological fire, Tsuneo was busy orchestrating massive plays, shows, and the like in Sakura no Kuni. His newfound mastery of Kugutsu no Jutsu was terrifying. The Puppet Corps was one of the most feared of all the Corps in the Rosuto Army. Sakura no Kuni had several smaller bases litering the whole of it, all of which were commanded by one puppet master.

Monzaemon had gifted his prized puppets to one of his pupils, one of the ones that had, after mastering puppetry to a more than acceptable level, chosen to return to their clan, and teach the art of puppetry to their relatives. With the pupil and her clansmen, the story of Chikamatsu Monzaemon and the destructive power of puppets would be brought to the dunes of Kaze no Kuni, where in the future Kugutsu no Jutsu would be one of the world's most coveted arts. That is of course until Juushu and Monzaemon reared their handsome back into the reality of the rest of the contient.

Tsuneo's forces had managed to infiltrate every single place in Sakura no Kuni. With the mastery over puppets, the puppet masters were also allowed to go about their terraforming at a much faster pace as compared to the other lands, save for Komugi.

Those were only a few of the things that were going on in the nine lands, most of the things that were occuring in the other lands were the same. Well, maybe except for Sakana no Kuni, where things were upside down and inside out, due to the chaos that swept through the land due to the actions and whims of Rosuto Naruto, who was always followed by his wife Emiko just to make sure that he didn't do anything that would endanger the people, or spook them into thinking that they were better off with their daimyou instead of with the forces of Rosuto Juushu.

Naruto was a sadistic madman, finding pleasure in scaring the living daylights out of his enemies, and his brother-in-law. Having Tama be sent to Juushu's location via croc was just one of the tamer things that he had done. Some of the more dangerous and sadistic things consisted of paint, paint, and lots of paint. Some of the Sakana soldiers had died due to being painted in too much orange. The color was just too bright forthem to handle. Some of the special water that was the predecessor of Hero Water, was kawarimi'd with blue paint. Naruto had an unhealthy obsession with paint. The only way to calm him down was with ten bowls of ramen, and the presence of his wife, any other time and he was as mad as the mad hatter. But of course there were times that he was all business. During the planning stages of attacks, the man was a complete stiff, the guy acted like one of those old army generals that had seen too many battles and such. It was creepy how the guy came up with stratwgies on the fly.

Toru was the complete opposite of his brother-in-law, he was all business during operations, but during planning and while not doing anything, the guy could literally be found doing nothing. Some of his best friends were guys from a branch of a clan that loved the phrase or word troublesom.

Among the three leaders of Sakana, Emiko was the most normal of the three, she kept the two males in line. She never encountered any dangerous situation that she couldn't get out of, and she made sure that everyone was ok. She was the Chief Medical Officer or Surgeon General of the Sakana bases. She would sometimes become a scarier and younger version of Tsunade, complete with super punching action.

Naruto made the plans, Toru implemented the plans, and Emiko made sure that the plans succeeded. That was how the Rosuto forces in Sakana worked. But when they did mess up, there was always a back up plan that would have already been prepared by Toru's troublesome friends.

Giman Ryuu and the Medical Corps of the Nasu group, were known far and wide as the damned best medical practitioners in the nine lands. Some soldiers defected from their countries in order to seek medical aid from Ryu and his group. The Komugi defectors and traitors worshipped the group upon which Ryuu walked on due to the fact that the Nasu base was in the mountains with hundreds of dragons, ranging from eggs to adults. The Komugi natives always brought wheat and other products of the earth whenever they visited the base aor even if they were assigned to the base, they offered these things to Ryuu who just added them to the stocks and stores of the Nasu group. The dragons didn't really care much for the wheat and stuff, they just found it amussing that so many humans found them quite frightening. Ryuu was the go-to general when there was a need for medics or medical supplies.

While his generals were busy with their daily activities, Juushu had his troops in the capital prepare for battle, he didn't know exactly when the battle was going to take place, but he would make sure that it would happen days before the anniversary.

He made sure that all the trebuchets, catapults, and ballistas were armed and ready for anything at any time, all the gears were oiled regulary to keep them in working condition.

The civilians and other citizens of Rosuto no Kuni could see their leader walking on the walls, and in nine other parts of the city at the same time, doing routine inspections and the like.

What the regular people didn't know was that there were clones of Juushu everywhere, doing this and that in preparation for the final defensive battle.

One of things that the people noticed that Juushu didn't seem to mind were those pranksters that ran around the city, pulling pranks left and right. While the reciepients of the pranks didn't find them all that funny, the other people were reminded that even though there was a war going on beyond the walls, the people should keep happy.

Juushu understood that even in times of war, there was always time for fun.

What the people didn't know, was nine times out of ten, the pranks were not pulled by the youth or someone like that, but by Juushu himself. Even their leader needed to cut loose.

One time Juushu painted his castle keep in rainbow colors, and the mountain in a clownish motiff. At first the people feared that the pranksters had gone too far, that is until they saw their leader fall off a wall laughing his ass off. The paint was easily removed. The cleanup was done by the troublemakers in the city, as well as some soldiers as a training exercise.

That big prank was blamed on a quartet of men that some had spotted running for their lives here and there on the mountain. Aside from the quartet, there were also sightings of a number of larger than life creatures that the clean up crew had never encountered, these things were spotted chasing the quartet.

When Juushu encountered the group, he sent them flying into a cave which housed some onigumo. That was the only time that the people of the clean up crew found their leader do something slightly sadistic, which was evident with the malicious glint in his eyes, and the maniacal laughter that escaped his lips as the shrieks of fear reached their ears and one by one died down, until there was silence.

The clean up crew actually thought that they were to become some kind of ritual sacrifice to the onigumo, but were relieved when their leader bunny hopped away while singing the happ birthday song to himself. The date of the incident was October ten.

While the Rosuto forces were experiencing success after success, and the leaders were able to enjoy themselves, the daimyous of the nine lands were not having a good time. Their resources were being depleted, their contacts in the black market were vanishing off of the face of the earth, and they were losing troops fast. They had to make an offensive move. They had been at war with one another but, for the first time they agreed that they would send their armies to attack Juushu Oujou, they knew that it could be found at the intersecting point of all of their lands, all their armies were to march and arrive at the exact same time. Their decision to go on this campaign was due to the inforamtion had been spread throughout the lands that the base of the Rosuto forces was only defended by walls, and a handful of soldiers.

It was finally time to decapitate the Rosuto threat. This meeting of lords happened within hearing range of Yahiko, in Naiya no Kuni.

After all the plans were made, and everything was confirmed to be true, Yahiko sent word to Juushu that the daimyous were making their move.

Once the news reached him, Juushu, informed all his forces that they were to gradually stop all their attacks. The final battle was approaching. He ordered his generals to spread out all troops in the lands, and prepare for something, what that something was they were not informed, not even Tsukiko who had stolen Juushu's heart.

It was one month before the anniversary of the wars of the nine lands, that the armies that participated in those wars arrived to the sight of the most heavily defended city that they had ever and would ever see.

The scouts of the armies reported that the walls were not only high, but were filled to the brim with soldiers, most of the ones that were seen were archers, on top of the walls there was a wall of archers standing shoulder to shoulder, with their bows and arrows at the ready.

The attackers had come somewhat prepared, they managed to copy the designs of the siege weapons that the Rosuto forces used to defend their bases, and sometimes attack. The attackers had cruder but working versions of the mounted defenses of Juushu Oujou's walls.

The defenders just stood still, waiting for the order to let their arrows fly. The mages, also waited for the signal to send out their attacks. On the northernmost part of the outer wall, ontop of the gate, facing the generals of the armies stood Rosuto Juushu. Standing defiantly, facing his foes.

Some of the troops in the armies of the nine lands thought that the leader of Rosuto no Kuni was a very cocky bastard, that deserved what they were sent there to do. The daimyous of their lands never went out of their way to be seen on the battlefield, and here was the leader of their enemy, mocking them.

The generals collectively saw Juushu's mere presence as an insult, they refused to believe that one man could stand up to the might of nine nations that had succeccsully gone to war with one another for almost a thousand years, with none of them getting the upper hand.

The generals assumed that the wall defenders were mostly civilians, only a few of which were actual soldiers. From the information that they were given the Rosuto capital city only had a handful of soldiers, but little did they know that their definition of a handful was waaaay different from Juushu's definition of a handful. None of the wall defenders were civilians. All the defenders were trained military personnel.

When the attackers decided to charge, the archers were ordered to hold their attacks. They attackers after entering the range of the arrows became even more aggressive, their pride and egos were boosted since they believed that the defenders feared for their lives and refused to attack due to that fear.

This was another sense of false security and victory that Juushu had planned on instilling in the heads of the attackers.

Once the attackers were able to clearly see the defenders, they were surprised at what they found, some of them tried to retreat, but the charging others that had not yet been able to witness the horror of what the walls had, forced all of them forward.

On the walls, the wall of archers made it known that there were actually three rows of them, or three tiers. The front row were crouched, the middle row were kneeling, and the back row were standing.

Once a third of the charging army had seen the sheer number of wall defenders, the rest of the charging soldiers witnessed the sky go dark due to the sheer number of arrows that filled the afternoon sky.

If that wasn't enough to scare the attackers, the wave upon wave of fireballs that impacted with soldier upon soldier should have. Aside from the Katon: Hosenka no Jutsus that were fired into the army via the Jutsu clones, the mages, both clones and people, summoned earth golems, which they controlled to attack the attackers closest to the walls.

Half of the charging troops managed to survive the onslaught. They used their fallen comrades as shields. No respect for the dead whatsoever. As soon as they returned to the rest of the armies, they along with the others witnessed the earth swallowing the dead bodies whole. The only evidence that a massacre had taken place was the scorched earth and the earth golems that had tumbled in on themselves.

The generals then decided to use their long range weapons, as well as the siege towers that they had at their disposal. The generals refused to acknowledge that the defenders were any good, they just assumed that what occurred was a fluke.

So they rolled out their towers, and long range weapons. Once they were within range of the walls, they just fired at the walls, throwing flaming rocks and regular rocks at the walls. What they didn't expect was for an invisible barrier to stop the rocks from damaging the walls, as well as stop the ballista bolts from harming the defenders. The attackers paid this no mind, they just continued with their attacking.

The defenders getting fed up with the pointless attacks, after waiting for hours for the attackers to tire, decided that it was time to retaliate. Without an order being issued from Juushu, the mounted defenses let loose their own vollies.

The attackers answered the attacks with more attacks on their part, as well as sending some more infantry to try and scale the walls with ladders and such.

The walls defenders stuck to their attacks. All of them believed that their defense was indestructible and impenetrable. Which Juushu knew that it wasn't, the weak points of the defensive barriers was the mana supply of the mages, the walls were weakest near the gates.

The defenders just kept defending, while the attackers just kept attacking.

The month had almost ended, and the anniversary was almost upon them. That was when Juushu made his move. He had been just observing his troops defend their home, his home, he had not participated in the defensive battle. But now that it was nearing the anniversary he was finally going to go on the offensive.

In full view of the people around him, he split himself into ten. These were not clone constructs, but actual duplicates of himself, he had literally divided himself into ten parts, nine of which wore an armband on their arms bearing the kanji of a number and shu, the numbers ranged from one to nine. The tenth one's armband had the kanji for Juu and shu, ten and master. Juushu was like Rokudou no Sennin, one soul many bodies.

Body number one jumped off the wall and became the earth, he would then come out outside the capital of Naiya no Kuni.

Body number two jumped off the wall and became the wind, he would then materialize outside the capital of Nasu no Kuni.

Body number three jumped off the wall and became water, he traveled as the vapor and moisture in the air, and would later condense outside of the capital of Tetsu.

Body number four jumped off the wall and became fire, he burst into flames and travelled undergroud veins of the world, and would later erupt like a volcano outside of the capital of Sakura no Kuni.

Body number five jumped off the wall and shimmered out of sight, he joined the sunlight and would shimmer back into solidity outside the capital of Tenshi no Kuni.

Body number six jumped off the wall and flew to the heavens via a sudden bolt of lightning, he would later scorch the earth outside the capital of Komugi no Kuni as a lighting ignites the spot that he would appear on.

Body number seven jumped off the wall and became one with the shadow, he would later walk out of the shadow of a tree outside the capital of Sakana no Kuni.

Body number eight jumped off the wall and poofed into smoke, as the smoke blew away on the ground a withered log would be found in place of the body, he instantly appeared outside the capital of Nairan no Kuni beside a fallen tree.

Body number nine walked off the wall and just vanished, he sealed away his body and detached his spirit, he would later reunite with his body outside the capital of Sakihin no Kuni.

Body number ten jumped off the wall and landed on the ground, he vanished his cloak, and removed his shirt, then he released the seals that lined his body, some of them glowing and looked like tattoos. He then drew his katana with one hand, then took held his enlarged kunai in the other. Then with a thounderous roar, that was echoed by the heavens, he charged the enemy.

The wall defenders were astonished at the feats that their leader had performed before their very eyes. But quickly their amazement and astonishment turned into shock, shock that their leader himself was running towards the enemy with only two blades to defend himself.

The armies of the nine lands thought that the man had lost his mind, so they readied themselves for the kill that was coming their way. But with the thought that he had turned into a mad man, the soldiers would have to be more cautious, because there was nothing more dangerous than one of the demented that fought with reckless abandon.

The soldiers on the walls began to panic, some of the ones nearest the gate were frantically openning the gates, some others didn't bother waiting for the gates to be fully opened. As soon as a small opening was formed some of the footsoldiers ran out after their leader to defend him, even though they thought that he had lost his mind, he was still their leader.

The clones that were among the wall defenders didn't even wait for the gates to open, they jumped or leapt off of the walls and ran in different directions to directly engage the enemy. This action surprised the people even more. The clones were distinguishable by the bands or patches that bore the kanji of one of the numbr one to nine.

The people in the city heard roars, greater in number and just as powerful as the first one. As they looked up they saw the flights of dragons and rocs flying over the city heading in the direction of the attackers.

As soon as the gates were fully opened, the cavalry made a break for it. Their leader was already half way to the attacking army, the running infantry was not even that close.

The attackers witnessed the skyline in the direction and surrounding the walled city grow dark, they could make out a number of shapes in the sky, some of the soldiers that had encountered the dragons and rocs instantly knew what they were. The terrors from the skies, the two things that they could barely defend against were heading their way.

The generals and officers immediately started barking out orders for the long range weapons to be armed and ready, the infantry to prepare. Their goal was to take out as many of the charging defenders as they could.

Just when they thought that it couldn't get any worse, some of the forward scouts sent word back to the rest of the army that the cavalry did not only consist of men on horses, but battlecats, direwolves, onisasori and onigumo, and a few other things that the men and women of Rosuto no Kuni had managed to tame.

As the dragons and rocs flew over the some of the scouting parties nearer to the wall, the scouts noticed a peculiar things, the dragons and rocs were moving at a slower pace than normal. It was as if they were delaying their attack for some reason, as if they were giving the nine lands a chance to prepare themselves for a slaughter. Another thing that they noticed was that every dragon was somwhow holding onto a croc, one of those supercrocs. Those crocs were known for having hides that were harder than diamonds, the dragons resembled bombers, their bombs being these supercrocs. The scouts swiftly sent word to the armies about the impending doom that was going to befall, them.

The slowly encroaching numbers were creeping the attackers out, some of them were thinking of surrendering or simply running away. But the number that chose to stay and fight were just as many. They all thought that it was better to fight, than run and be viewed as a coward, if they won, hooray, if they lost they lost, and would most likely be killed if they managed to survive the battle anyway. It was war. It wasn't like the Rosuto forces were just aiming to incapacitate or knock then out or something like that.

Beneath the walls were a number of sewer holes, most people thought that those holes were just so that the sewer water could escape to go wherever such waters went, the truth was what the wall defenders that didn't rush out witnessed. From out of the holes emerged snakes and serpents of all colors and sizes. The most prominent ones being basilisks.

The officers on the walls knew about the basilisks, not all the soldiers knew of them or anything about them for that matter, but the officers all knew.

The basilisks lined the walls waiting, while the other smaller snakes and serpents slithered their way towards the enemy. The officers ordered some of the archers to jump on the serpents' backs, they would provide long range support for their comrades. The officers handed out sachels of poison for the archers to use, the poison was not lethal but had paralyzing effects, some of the poisons that were handed out would knock the ones hit by the arrows unconscious. Oh, how wrong the attackers were, they wouldn't be killed if they lost, something much more would be taken from them. Their identities. Their identities as citizens of the nine lands would cease to be who they were, instead they would be citizens of Rosuto no Kuni and mere residents of the nine provinces.

Each basilisk had around fifteen archers on their backs, the serpents themselves using their own innate chakra to hold the archers onto their backs. The basilisks knew more about chakra than the rest of the populace.

It wasn't really all that fair, the sheer number of units that Juushu had deployed was more than enough to make half of the attackers to shit themselves. The living had been scared out of most of them, the others were waiting for the dead to be scared out of them.

Once the tenth body of Rosuto Juushu finally reached the attackers, he let out another roar, the thunderous echo of the heavens answering his call, the dragons and rocs heard it, and dived at the attackers, dropping those big ass hell crocs on the soldiers of the nine lands.

The crocs too had some basic understanding on how to use and manipulate their chakra, they used what control they had to make sure that the soldiers they landed on were not dead but just somewhat comatose, with the possibility of revival if one of Giman Ryuu's medical corps saw to them.

The dragons belched out hail stones and snow balls that flew into the ranks of the enemy, knocking over five or more people at a time.

The rocs and their riders darted in and out of the battlefield, picking up unconscious and otherwise incapacitated soldiers, and swiftly brought them to just outside the walls of the city, where medics had set up a kind of field hospital.

The Rosuto leader mowed his way into the attackers, slicing tendons, and whacking people into darkness left and right. The only people that would die were the generals, and some of the people who's hearts were as cold as or if not colder than ice, he knew this due to one of the powers that he had cultivated through training, his troops would know who to take out and who to just knock out, how, well they would just get this feeling in their gut.

The beasts were kinda more in tune with the world around them, so they more or less could sense these things, so Juushu didn't need to manipulate anything for them to follow the plan.

The Rosuto leader was laughing while he was doing the bloody work that he was doing. He was dancing on the battlefiel, utilizing his kenjutsu training and implementing non-lethal attacks.

The clones were a rabid bunch on pranksters on the battlefield, most of the things that those units were known for by the other soldiers were not apparent in the way that the clones were knocking people out, water balloons, paint bombs, smoke bombs, stink bombs, dung bombs, candy canes, dango, conffetti, and other such things were flying everywhere. The clones moved in groups of five, one was always on the look out for danger while the other four made a party out of the fighting.

The soldiers of the armies of the nine lands were even more frightened once they realized how the clones were fighting, they were pranking people on the battlefield with such ease, grace, and speed, that it was more than just creepy or scary.

The clones were on a literal and figurative sugar high. They were bouncing all over the place, on each other, on their human comrades, on the attackers. They were even somehow, to the astonishment to their allies, able to convince the crocs into playing baseball with them, bombs and balloons instead of balls.

The clones that were on the dragons were creeping out the human riders with them, due to the things that they were doing to the snowballs and hail balls that were flying out of the dragons' mouths. Ever seen a ranbow colored snowball, well those riders saw a lot of spherical rainbows.

Some of the dragon riders were helping the rocs and their riders in collecting the knocked out people, as well as any injured that they came across. The dragons did not swoop down, the clones bungee jumped off of the dragons' backs, and retreived these downed foes and friends.

The clones were literal loons. It wasn't a battle to them and their creator, it was a party. The only thing missing were the drinks, cake, and party hats.

The basilisks formed a perimeter around the city, with the archers on their backs knocking people out forwards, backwards, left, right, up, down. Upon seeing the clones and their antics, they just shook their head, or hissed in amusement. Some of the smaller snakes that were with them traded places with the poison tipped arrow and flew through the air, then impaling their fangs into the body parts of the enemy. The archers didn't really notice, that was until a small basilisk was loaded onto a ballista by a group of clones.

The footsoldiers that caught up with their leader were too tired to even lift their swords, but it would have been of no use, the man was just too fast for them to keep up. The chaos that the arrows, the dragons, crocs, and the rest were just too much for them to handle. So they just plopped on the ground watched the fireworks, fireworks that were flying into the night sky which were being set off by the riders of the scorpions and the spiders. A few minutes after the fireworks started someone dropped off a keg of beer and a drum of sake near them, along with some of the dango that weren't thrown hither and tither.

A few more minutes after the arrival of drinks and food, the soldiers saw some of the clones actually wearing party hats. When one approched they were given some hats to wear themselves. By that time some of the beasts were sporting hats of their own.

The battle was drawing to a close, this was evident, when Rosuto Juushu himself plopped down beside one soldier wearing a party hat. Their esteemed leader had a party hat of his own on.

It was a few hours til the anniversary hit. Lunch time was the exact time or hour in which he wars all started, but the citizens and soldiers of Rosuto no Kuni were already partying as if they had already won the war. The only thing that they were waiting for was word from the other lands of liberation from the rulers.

While the tenth body did his thing, the first body, had also engaged his enemy in battle. The daimyou of Naiya was a master swordsman in his own right, none of the daimyous were pushovers to begin with, each of them had a strength all their own.

Juushu's katana clashed with that of the Naiya daimyou. Sparks flew each time the two blades met. It was a battle to the death, one in which Juushu would not and could not lose.

The battle began in the bed chambers of the daimyou, just after he had had his morning rituals and such. It was a good thing that he had his katana nearby, else Juushu would not have had his really explosive fight.

The battle was long and drawn out. It wasn't as nuts as the large scale dfensive battle that the tenth body was fighting in, it was one filled with skill and precision. Serious expressions were on the faces of the two men.

The two men moved as one with their blades, their swords being just an extension of their arms, just another part of their bodies that were moved in certain ways and could be used to perform certain actions.

It was a battle not only of skills but also of wills. Juushu employed his chakra and Chi to power his attacks, while the daimyou used his Chi and Ki to the same effect.

The two fighters were nearly evenly matched in skill. Juushu did not want to mock his opponent, he wanted his oppenent to think that he had given it is all, and when he died he had died with all honor intact.

A similar battle had been going on in Nasu no Kuni, Komugi no Kuni, Sakana no Kuni, and Sakihin no Kuni. The battles were between two men, fighting for their continued existence, with all the honor that they held.

In Tetsu no Kuni, Juushu had to deal with, not a katana wielding daimyou but a battle hammer wielding one. The battle was not just one of skill, but one of strength and will as well.

Each hammer swing was blocked with the flat of the katana, each katana slash was blocked by the neck of the hammer. Aside from the weapons doing battle, there were some kicks and punches in there as well.

The daimyou's castle had been partially destroyed, when Juushu was finally able to fell his foe. The brute had given it his all, but he had made the one mistake that should not be made in a fight, he turned his back on the enemy, and Juushu having a shinobi background capitalized on this one opening.

Sakura no Kuni was somewhat similar in the battle situation to Tetsu, the difference being that the daimyou was more of a master of speed than anything else, and his weapon of choice was a spiked whip rather than a hammer or a blade.

The whip was made by an incredibly durable and fine material, that Juushu's blade was for some reason unable to cut. The weapons of the two combatants never made contact, there was a lot of dodging running, and jumping involved in the fight, as well as thrown and toppled objects. Just like the other castles, part of it would take a few years to repair.

The speed, agility, and reflexes aided the Sakura daimyou in fighting gracefully as if he was dancing in the air. Juushu too was dancing. Trough the different openings that the battle had blown open in the walls of the castle, sakura petal were brought in by the wind. No matter how anyone looked at it, the battle was both beautiful and still deadly.

The battle ended when Juushu decided that enough was enough, and ended the daimyou's life by suffocation. He mummafied the daimyou with sakura petals.

The battle in Tenshi no Kuni was also one of speed, but also of precision. The attacks, slashs, strikes, and the like that were delivered and employed by each fighter were lightning quick.

Sadame being a woman, was very graceful and agile, but so was one who once held a kitsune. Juushu met each attack with one of his own.

The two rivals for power attacked with such speed that power was not a factor that was needed, vacums in he air were formed after every attack, some of which were strong enough to rip up the surrounding area.

The two fighters, battled it out, on the roof, in rooms, in th kitchen, they just moved, and moved and moved. Sadame proved why the warriors of Tenshi were devils on the battlefield. Her lightning quick attacks showed off her ferocity, the vacums in the air were like the spells that devils and demons cast.

The two fought for supremacy in a battle akin to a chaos storm, the spectators of the fight, could not interfere, one thing their pride and honor would not let them, another thing was that they feared for their lives at how deadly the dance looked.

Mori looked on and watched as his mother became a devil, Tamotsu looked on as he watched his friend and lord join wind and lightning.

The end of the battle happened on one of the roofs of what was left of the castle, Sadame was not struck down in anyway by Juushu. She tripped and fell to her death, impaling herself with her own blade on the way down.

What set the battle in Nairan apart from the rest was that it was a two on one battle. The double daimyous against Juushu.

The descendants of the brothers that had plunged their land in war over some matter that was rarely discussed fought with two katanas each, while Juushu fought with his one katana and his kunai.

Tama looked on and watched the clash of the titans. The double daimyous were swordmasters to the degree that due to being extremely familiar with each others' styles they were able to work as one body and one mind against Juushu.

They had the strength, the speed, the agiliy, the reflexes, the precision, the skill, the control, and the will to fight on even footing with Juushu.

This was the only battle where Juushu had to force himself to heal slower, it wouldn't do if the whole world knew that he could instantly heal himself. He suffered many cuts due to the four blades that he was facing off against.

An insane battle of life and death, Juushu was unable to move behind the duo due to one guarding the other's back, Juushu also had to guard his own back. He couldn't summon up a clone to fight by his side, since it needed to look like he did it all by himself, not everyone knew about clones of any kind.

The world was still inhabited by shinobi clans that kept the secret of ninjutsu, genjutsu and chakra to themselves. Juushu couldn't bringout his aces in this battle. He had to fight with all that he could humanly possibly use.

The duo fought like brothers, like twins, like peas in a pod, they were born to battle side by side. Their blades even looked to have been made with the same fire, by the same smith. These were possibly the reason as to why each of their factions could never overpower the other.

The anniversary was nearing, Juushu knew that his other bodies had already ended their battles. He had to end his as soon as possible.

He decided to take a leaf out of the life of his old self's book. He did something entirely reckless and stupid. Something that would leave normal people lying on the ground dead. He let himself be impaled by the four blades. The shock of the action allowed an opening which, through the pain Juushu used and struck, his blades piercing the hearts of the two relatives.

Tama rushed to his side and slid the blades out, he was signalled one of his subordinates to inform the capital of the win. The people around were buzzing like bees talking about the fight. The wars had ended and Rosuto no Kuni had won.

Tama had the privelage of patching his lord up, bandaging him like a mummy, even though Juushu kept protesting that he was fine, in a bit of pain, but fine. Tama would have none of it and told his lord that if he kept complaining his mouth would fall of or some such drivel.

On the exact second it was announced that Rosuto no kuni was made up of the unification of the nine lands. Rosuto Juushu had won. The party hit an all time high. All over the ashes that once was nine, a phoenix rose and was born Rosuto no kuni.

The land itself had changed after the announcement. The barriers that would block out the rest of the world for a thousand years would not rise, until Juushu made it so. There was a lot of repopulating to be done. A lot of displaced and separated families to reunite. All of it would take place after the party, and things had settled down.

The celebration lasted for a month, and in some places even more. But the highlight of it all was when the ten bodies merged back into one.

The tenth body put on his shirt, and donned his cloak, then walked steadily back to the city. As he walked the people around him saw the different thing happen one after the other.

The first thing that happened was that the ninth body appeared out of nowhere and just melted into the walking form. A few meters later the seventh ody made its appearance via a shadow on the ground crept its way towards walking one, the shadow on the ground resembled a running man, that pounced suddenly on the walking one. A few more meters later the sixth body joined the tenth, the body did not eaxctly manifest, but like the shadow it just struck, literally like lightning from the blue. A few more meters a body shimmered into existence then just merged with the tenth body. Another few meters and another one, then another one. A fireball engulfed the tenth body, then a one spot torrential rain, followed by a tornado, then the earth rose up before him and swallowed him whole only to spit him back out.

The best of the these events was the last one. The people had counted the return of only eight bodies, where was the ninth one they all wondered.

Juushu's tenth body was a few feet from the gates when suddenly an elemental dragon made of earth rose up from the ground, with a fire dragon following in its wake. From the clouds above a lightning dragon shot out, followed by a water one. The last elemental dragon to appear was the wind one, another tornado made itself known, out of the whirling vortex came the fifth dragon.

These five elemental dragons flew on their own aided by some form of magic, then slammed into the tenth body, finally making it whole. The process of being accepted back into the whole took just enough time for Juushu to enter the gate of the city.