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.
Reminder: Rosuto Juushu = Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto
Note #1: Rosuto is the family/clan name of Juushu, but when referring to the clan itself (the ruling clan of Rosuto) it is refered to as Juushu.
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Lost
Chapter 22
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Plans were being formulated even as Juushu and company were making their way back to the capital of Rosuto no Kuni. All the members of the Rosuto contingent found themselves sitting on some part of the nine-tailed kitsune golem which their leader had created when his rage exploded out of him. He had used the greatest fear of the land to ensure that the extraction and escape of himself and his loved ones was as quick and hassle free as possible.
Most people have a tendency to fear, and eventually hate, those that they do not understand. People are stupid that way. But some people are smart, these are the ones to look out for, either they will help in making a better and brighter tomorrow or they will seriously force the world into becoming a drearier and darker place.
One of these people to look out for was Danzo, him and his Ne ANBU corps. This guy had a misguided concept of how to best protect Konohagakure no Sato, along with the rest of Hi no Kuni. But just like a number of other decisions in his past, his choice of trying to blackmail or threaten Rosuto Juushu was one of the biggest mistakes of his life.
Blackmailing or threatening someone into doing one's own bidding when the world was aware of the individual's capabilities was one thing, but threatening or blackmailing someone whose country's statistics was a big question mark was on a whole other level of stupid.
When Tsunade found out who specifically it was that had ordered the kidnapping, which wasn't all that hard, she almost killed the one armed and one eyed war veteran, but due having war on the horizon, she had no choice but to enlist the veteran's help in making sure that the country did not suffer too much. As much as the village, excluding a select few, deserved to burn in the depths of hell, the rest of the country did not.
Due to the widespread display that the whole of Fire Country bore witness to, the Fire Daimyou immediately had his representative in Konoha speak with Tsunade to get all the details of the situation that the country was facing.
Details were sketchy at best, even with the history of Rosuto no Kuni being known to the blonde Hokage, estimating the size of the invading army was nigh impossible.
With the scant few information that Tsunade could provide the Daimyou with, the country's armies were immediately put on alert, all reserves were called to active duty, there wasn't an able civilian that would not be fighting to protect his or her homeland.
Even though Konoha had yet to fully recuperate from the Kyuubi attack, the Uchiha Massacre, and the Sound and Sand invasion, they would be doing an Iwa and be popping out genin from the ninja academies like mad, it was a race against time, and Konoha would be relying on quantity over quality. The quality of the warriors that the village would be pumping out could be refined further on the battlefield. It was world war time, not just a great shinobi war, but an actual world war.
Jiraiya was forced into making his spy network work overtime in their information gathering, every little bit of information could help in making sure that Hi no Kuni survived to see the next day. Every missed piece of information could lead to the total annihilation of the most powerful country in all of elemental, or what was once the most powerful of the known lands.
Once Juushu and company were all finally back in their capital, Juushu made haste to his war room, with the rest of his party tagging along, since they were all not only family and friends but also his highest officials. All the military officers were also called to the meeting that was being held in that specific room.
In order to avoid attacking the other nations, since it was not yet time for that, the Rosuto armies would be moving peacefully through the lands west of Tsuchi no Kuni and eventually through Tsuchi no Kuni. Those that would be taking this particular route would be the Dragon Flights lead by the Kuraku clan in the air, along with the armies of the Three Sakana Generals, Naruto, Emiko, and Toru. Instead of attacking Kusa which was an ally of Hi no Kuni, Rosuto would breaking through Ame no Kuni and make their way to the border of Ame and Hi.
Juushu was aware that one of the leaders of Akatsuki resided in Ame, and therefore would also send a secondary force to take care of the Akatsuki in that minor country. The secondary army that would be taking good care of the Ame and Akatsuki forces would be lead by the Genri and Tabou Elders, Tamotsu and Tama. Tamotsu would be leading the samurai and regular soldiers, while Tama would be leading the monks and the Shinobi forces. Ame did not have much of anything other than shinobi, therefore Juushu was sure that the country would be unprepared for an attack of such magnitude. Juushu had nothing against Ame itself, just the leaders and the idiots that followed said self proclaimed god. Genocide was not the goal.
A third army would be sent through Tsuchi, but instead of heading for the border of Hi no Kuni, the army would be making its way via the waters to the north of the Land of Rice Fields. Orochimaru was going to have his hands full with the Rosuto Navy, consisting of ships as well as super crocs. The generals that would be leading the attack on the country that hosted Orochimaru would be the Tokage clan Elder and Head, Tsukiko and Yoshiko, freaks like Orochimaru were a no-no in their book. Their time in Tetsu would serve them well. The wolves would be their allies, along with the rocs. This army would force Rice Field to engage Fire, it would be a battle on two fronts.
The bulk of the Rosuto armies would be passing through Kaze no Kuni, and would attack Hi no Kuni from the southern end of Fire. The Rosuto forces would avoid passing through the Land of Rivers, and would commence attack from the waters to the south of Hi no Kuni and east of River. This force would be lead by Juushu himself.
If the Kaze forces attacked the Rosuto forces, then Rosuto would retaliate, but if not then Rosuto would not pay them any mind. Suna was a no go zone, due to the friendship between Juushu and the Kazekage. The Suna forces could aid their ally, but their home would not be attacked. Any refugees from Fire were free game, the onigumo and the scorpions would see to their deaths, of course they would also make sure that there would be survivors, after all genocide was not the goal of the military exercise, just retribution and a dash of revenge.
The Hyakume clan and Chikamatsu Monzaemon would be travelling through Kaze with Juushu, and would split their forces between the south and Ame. Monzaemon being the one who would deal with Akasuna no Sasori.
Even though the armies would be travelling with the aid of Time warping and time bending, they would not arrive at their destinations right away, it wouldn't do to reveal all the capabilities of Rosuto from the get go, they would allow the Hi no Kuni forces to mount a defense, a visible one that would gain the attention of the other nations, but not before the Rosuto forces would enter Tsuchi and Kaze.
Hi no Kuni was a proud nation, one which didn't believe that it would ever need any walls to protect itself, well it was wrong on that account. As soon as the order to prepare for war was given engineers and construction crews swiftly carries out that task that was to build a formidable two layered wall around the country, they enlisted the help of many Konoha-nin. Especially those with the ability to use Mokuton.
Mikio opted to help in the fighting, not that he believed wholeheartedly in the cause, but his fiance was part of it, so he might as well do his part. Haru, Ikkaku, and Chang'e left with the Rosuto group, since Haru was a member of the Shokon clan, and Ikkaku and his wife really did not have anything to do with the war so they would travel to Kyonshi's fortress from Rosuto.
During the defense planning and contruction and preparation for war, Mikio had been contacted by Karasu, who had offered to host any and all refugees that Hi no Kuni would send their way. Yami no Kuni dared not side with Hi no Kuni since they were aware of just how powerful Rosuto no Kuni was.
The armies left the Land of the Lost one by one. One by one each army made its way out, beyond the borders of their homeland. The first three armies swiftly made their way through the lands to the west of Tsuchi no Kuni. Once they entered the Land of Earth their movement slowed down slightly. It was an intimidation tactic, that would make sure that the forces of Earth Country would know not to attack the passing army, lest they be flattened, crushed beneath the boots of the Rosuto forces.
Even the Tsuchikage was intimidated by the sheer number of soldiers that were marching on the soil of Earth. Even with the numbers that Earth country had, it would not be enough to repell such a large force. The ground literally trembled as the beheamoth of a war machine trudged through the Land of Earth. But what frightened the forces of Earth were the dragons that flew overhead, at first it was the fact that the army had control over such beasts, then when they realized the sheer number of the beasts, that was when they realized that should Rosuto turn their ire and army on Earth, all would be lost and the kami that fought the Kaibyaku no Sankami would have won, since then Tsuchi no Kuni would have crumbled to dust.
The forces of Earth were only able to see the visible soldiers of Rosuto, none, not even the shinobi could see anyone that reseblem them, they were unable to see or even sense any of those that move in the shadows. For that was precisely what the Shokon lead shinobi forces of Rosuto were doing, they were walking through the shadow realm towards their target, the forests around Konohagakure no Sato, where a small dragon flight lay in wait.
The armies that were sailing on the sea of sands known as Kaze no Kuni were travelling at the fastest pace, the entire attack plan depended on Juushu's main force to commence the attack. Once their leader started the attack all the other armies would already be in place and ready to begin their assult at a moments notice. The Naval force of Rosuto no Kuni heavily relied on ship that were mass produced in Juushu's private dimension, when any of the forces hit water, sea water that is, the ship would make their way out of the depths of the sea that were connected to the waters in the lakes in Juushu's private dimension. The ships ranged from small tug boats to large airship like ships, each of the small boats being able to carry up to ten people at once including crew, while the airship or aquatic dragon's nests or ADNs would be able to handle up to five hundred fully grown dragons, everything bigger than a tug boat to the ADNs were fully equipped with space expansion seals, which in turn allowed each of them to hold more people that they should, which was in he thousands.
The main army made it through Kaze no Kuni without delay, but Juushu did make a pitstop in Sunagakure no Sato to share a quick drink with his friend, Suna would not actively be joining the war, but they would be accepting refugees, there was a mile wide perimeter around Suna which would be a kill free zone, meaning the onigumo and scorpions would not be permitted to kill any refugees that made it into the zone. Suna was more or less declared as the safest place in the known lands of elemental, the rest of the cities and villages in Kaze no Kuni could not boast such a thing.
The puppet army of Tsuneo and Monzaemon swiftly flew over the sea of sands, in a manner similar to the puppets that they both enjoyed to control, the army at their back made up of puppeteers and puppets doing the same. The puppeteer corps passed by Suna, Monzaemon bringing to life the puppets that he had gifted to one of his students in the past. He brought them to life and had them walk out of the village to pay him their respect, all of them gave him a deep bow before returning to their current master, the Suna elder Chiyo. One of the puppets before slumping to the ground handed the old woman a note stating: Akasuna no Sasori will cease to exist, I Chikamatsu Monzaemon will see to it.
All armies arrived at the designated places from which they would all commence their attack roughly six months after the declaration of war. But Juushu would not commence the operation for another six months, he would give Hi no Kuni time to prepare themselves for the onslaught. Juushu would be using those six months to create bases of operations for his little war. His forces would be constructing outposts which they would use as the bases of operations for their attacks. All the armies would have a place to call HQ, except for the Rosuto-nins, since they would be relying heavily on the shadow realm to be their base of operations.
A number of ANBU teams had been deployed to patrol the borders of Hi no Kuni, these teams were to look out for any sign of the Rosuto forces beginning the attack. These nin were also given the job of capturing or kidnapping anyone from the Rosuto camp that may possibly shed some light on the plans of the attackers. This task was assigned to them due to the fact that it was appaerent that the Rosuto forces were waiting for something, some kind of signal to attack. Tsunade and the Daimyou knew that the reason that the Rosuto forces had not commenced their attack was because they really were waiting for something to happen, if the Fire forces could capture and interrogate someone from the enemy camp, they may get an insight on the strategies of their enemy, as well as find out what to look out for as the signal for the attack. That way they could prepare for it, and possibly stall it, or even make sure it never happens.
The jounin and chunin spent their days busily training the genin, who were fresh out of the academy, as well as the militia on how to fight, chakra use and control, jutsu, you name it, they were training in it, anything related to fighting that is. Even the medic-nins were working over time, in war one of the things that could ensure survival was is there were enough medics available to treat all the wounded that the leaders of the country were sure there would be.
One of the things that Konoha was busily working on was gathering information about the numbers and capabilities of the enemy. Especially on the enemy's leader. If they were to succeed in defending their country they would need to make sure that they were prepared for everything that their enemy could dish out.
One little piece of information that was helpful to Fire country was that the enemy was stationed in only two points, the south and the west, the sea to the south and the borders of Ame. This left Fire country free to attack from other sides, they were not boxed in. But due to not knowning that exact numbers of the enemy they could not act on the advantage that they saw they had. Another problem was that if they were to try and attack the enemy from behind, they would have to move through some countries that they did not really have a friendly relationship with.
With three months remaining before the attacks were to begin, Jiraiya's spies were able to forward information to the Gama Sennin that was a separate army stationed in Ame no Kuni that wasn't going to or planning to attack Hi no Kuni, their target was Ame no Kuni herself. This was good news for Jiraiya since it appeared that Akatsuki's plans were going to be muddled a bit. He would also later learn that the members of Akatsuki were called back to Ame by whomever their leader was, due to the fact that the country or base of Akatsuki operations was being threatened by an increase in the number of hostiles.
Information had been leaked to Akatsuki, that the other army in their domain was planning on attacking the country itself, and that the forces were also targetting the Akatsuki members themselves. Who exactly leaked the information was unknown, but by just knowing that Amegakure no Sato, along the rest of Ame no Kuni prepared themselves for another war. One which was with a foreign power.
At the exact moment that the sixth month was over, Juushu struck the first of many blows.
He ordered his ships to form a line, stretching from the border of River country to the border of tea, all ships were facing the coast of Fire country. These ships held on their decks massive cannon, he planned on showering the Fire coastline with elemental chakra charged canonballs. As well as let loose a volley of other elemental attacks on the coastline, ranging from fireballs the size of a Gokakyu no Jutsu to ones the size of a roc, as well as a number of other atttacks. The canons were aimed at nothing specific, as long as they hit land it was fine.
Closer to the shore were three rows worth of people on the surface of the water. These people were archers, all their arrows were ready to be ignited, they would release enough arrows to once again blot out the sun.
From his flagship he could see the meager defenses that the Land of Fire had prepared. Meager in the sense that they were not yet prepared for naval battle. The defenders that were there were made up solely of Konoha-nin. Ranging from genin to ANBU. They were all prepared to defend their home. They hid amongst the rocks, in the trees, and a few of them were hidden in the water. None of them suspected that Juushu could see them all. His focus was on this battle alone, meaning that his other forces were more of less on their own, unless they specifically asked for his help.
In the skies were hundreds of dragons ready and waiting for the signal to begin their descent. Their job was to dive bomb the defenders, the archers and mages on their backs would be taking care of all the long range fighting.
Below the surface of the water the supercrocs waited for the signal, once it was given they would scramble for the shore and make their way inland as well as to the juices delights that were the defenders. Those shinobi in the water would stand no chance against the gaping maws of the supercrocs. They wouldn't dare attempt to fry the reptiles for fear of frying themselves in the process. Accompanying the crocs underwater were a multitude of snakes and serpents, as well as a number of basilisks, all of which were prepared to make it seem like Orochimaru was in on the attack, which would promt the Konoha forces, along with some of the rest of the Fire country forces, to attack Rice Field country with more force than they had originally planned on doing.
The rocs were also ready and waiting to attack, they would be incharge of retrieval, search and rescue, as well as medical aid. They were the pick up crew, all equipped with helmets and boy armor to prevent zero damage to be sustained.
Stepping onto the deck of his flagship, and after surveying his forces, Juushu gave the signal.
"FIRE!" Juushu shouted in a voice heard by all of his forces, but none of the defenders.
Simultaneously the canons roared with the release of their respective loads. The archers' arrows filled the sky in a fiery blaze, blotting out the sun, but at the same time providing a light source of their own. Fireballs, water dragons, fire dragons, earth dragons, wind dragons, lightning balls, and so on and so forth raced toward the shore and the cliffs of the coastline of fire country.
Once all the projectiles were let loose, the crocs, and snakes made their way to shore, biting off limbs of the underwater nin that were in the way. They weren't going to outright kill the opposition, but they were going to cripple them.
The flaming arrows had their work cut out for them, even though salvo after salvo or volley after volley was released into the air, the trees of the forest of fire was a formidable enemy, they were old, and not that easy to burn. So the archers resorted to the next best thing, they sniped the hidden defenders. They knew that the defenders would not come out of hiding, due to the fact tha if they came out of hiding they would be shot down, or worse killed. The defenders would wait for the attackers to come ashore and only then would they retaliate. But that didn't mean that they wouldn't let a few long range jutsu fly out of the safety of the forest.
The archers took pity on the genins and only targetted the chunins and the jounin, it was easy to tell which was which for some reason. But that didn't mean that they would not spook the genin, they fired at the genin as well, but it was obvious that the shots were not meant to seriously injure the greenhorns. They did this by not firing flaming arrows at the genin, while firing wave upon wave of flaming arrows at the higher ranked nins. The ANBU had it worst, since the archers and mages on the dragons' backs were targetting them with their arrows and spells, the arrows were coated in poison, some with a bunch of other chemicals.
The defenders stood no chance against the sheer number of things that were heading their way. Once the crocs and snakes finally made their way on land, they viciously attacked all the hidden nin that they could find, tearning limbs off, and still not outright killing them. Although if the nins did not manage to find medical help, they would surely die of bloodloss. Or at least that was what the crocs were doing, the snakes on the other hand decided to stop playing nice and just have a few snacks. Konoha-nin yum.
The cliffs were smashed to pieces and part of the upper lands came crashing down into the sea. The canonballs did the trick. They created more beach for the crocs and snakes to battle on. The next salvo after it was apparent that the beach was large enough for the crocs to comfortably bask in the sun, the canons aimed for the trees that the shinobi were still hiding in. They may have been a bit farther inland, but the canons were strong enough to reach even there. The shinobi chose not to reveal their locations since there were no actual people that were on land for them to interact violently with, and seeing how their comrades on the cliff, beach, hidden among the rocks, and underwater had fared against the beasts, they did not dare engage those specific units. As much as they wished to run out and aid their potentially dying comrades they could not. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
"Dragons! Secure the beach! The shore line is to be ours!" Juushu ordered his flight of dragons.
The dragons and their riders coplied with the orders. On some parts of the shore were a few port town and fishing villages, these were not spared from the onslaught that the attacks brought about. All structured were flattened, but not that many lives were lost, seeing as these places had already been evacuated prior to the attack. But the defenders that hid within were crushed when these places were leveled to the ground.
"Rocs! Once the dragons are done with securing the beach, drop our supplies and troops, as many at a time as you can carry!" Juushu addressed the rocs.
The rocs did as commanded and started their delivery job as soon as the first stretch of beach was secured. The soldiers that were dropped on land were too far for the shinobi to attack, there was also the fact that there now hundred of dragons that littered the beach, which were protecting the soldiers that were on dry land. These soldiers quickly set up camp in preparation for the days to come.
"Once half of the force has successfully landed, move the rest to the eastern coast and start over, that portion of the country will be the least protected. So make use of the advantage," Juushu instructed the captains of his ships. He heard the affirmatives from the captains, the only ship that was not to leave was the flagship, which would serve as the main supply ship for the army stationed in this part of the country, as well as the mobile base of operations.
"Kira, give the go signal to the other armies," Juushu instructed his Human Resource and Development Head, who was also serving as the communication head of the whole operation, he and his clan were in charge of keeping in contact with all the armies.
"Hai!" Kira answered.
Kira ran to the communications room and had his clansmen spread the word that the invasion could commence. At each desk there was a mirror, unlike a regular mirror these ones had key holes in the center of the reflective glass. Once the keys were inserted and twisted, the communication mirrors were activated, and the other Noufu clansmen who were with the other armies answered the call. The order to commence was then relayed to all the generals.
The Konoha-nins that were on the southern coast sent messengers back to Konoha, in order to inform the leaders of the country about the battle that had taken place, while not really a battle it was still something worth reporting. Along with the messengers that were sent, the injured were also sent back, at least those that were within reach of their allies. The ones in the water had little chance of surviving. But the Konoha-nins had to try and rescue them.
Mitarashi Anko was one of the tokubetsu jounin that were hidden in the trees. She really was of the impatient and bloodthirsty sort, and seeing all the snakes and serpents, she chose to attack. Retaliate, following her were a number of others, they decided that waiting was not going to do them any good. It did not appear that the enemy was going to move forwards for a while. Well if the enemy was not going to advance then the Konoha forces would try and get their comrades out, while at the same time deal some needed damage on the invaders.
Summoning a giant serpent of her own, Anko made her way down to the beach to engage the larger snakes that were slithering up and down the shore, and in and out of the water. Her allies, the ones that had decided to not follow orders dashed down into the water and onto the beach and everywhere else in search of their fallen friends and compatriots. They expected the soldiers that were on the beach to not be as fast as they were, but contrary to what they believed, the soldiers sprang into action.
While the basilisks were taking on the summoned serpent and Anko, the soldiers that had landed ran at the dashing Konoha-nin, they ran at the defenders swords drawn, spearmen and pikemen held their weapons and tried to skewer the Konoha-nin where they stood.
Seeing as the Konoha-nin had revealed their locations and were actively battling the Rosuto forcecs, the dragons in the air began their dive bomb tactics, while their riders shot out projectiles at the scurrying Konoha-nin. The rocs hastened their transportation duties, the more the merrier.
Some of the impatient samurai opted to jump into the water and run on the water's surface in order to do battle with the shinobi. Some of whom brought their horses with them as well, the samurai trained horses were somehow trained into being able to walk and run on water. This turn of events surprised the Konoha-nin, allowing some of them to be taken down.
Other jounin and some chunin remembered that they had summon contracts with other animals and decided that screw orders, they would engage the enemy with all the firepower that they could muster. Summoning bears, different types of cats, a few kinds of birds, the summoners directed half of their summons to attack the enemy, and the other half to take their injured allies back to Konoha.
The crocs saw the summons as things that they could swallow, so they focused their attacks on those. Some of the dragons opting to aid the crocs in that endeavor, by roasting some of them.
By this time jutsu from the shinobi were flying everywhere. Bushins of all kinds aided their creators left and right, while some nin opted to multiplying their weapons.
Leaving the rescuing of the injured to the summoned animals, the shinobi focused on attacking the invaders. They spewed out mudballs, water balls, fireballs, and other things directed at the enemy. But the enemy having trained extensively had some basic knowledge on those techniques and how to avoid them.
The soldiers did not rely heavily on their weapons of choice, they had other things included in their arsenals of attack. Some of the soldiers took it upon themselves to engage the konoha-nin in taijutsu while also using what ninjutus they knew how to use. Which was another thing that surprised the konoha-nin.
Maito Gai was one of the senior jounin that were present in the southern border, he used jutsu to complement his taijutsu and was busy being mobbed by samurai. Hand to hand combat was his forte, but against people that were able to seemingly stand toe to toe with him, he was nearing the level at which he would have to resort to using the gates. Before he could even access the first one a katana pierced him through both his hands. One of the samurai had finally managed to hit him. After the first successful hit, he was subjected to being pierced in a number of other places. With a sudden rush of adrenaline, Gai was able to push away his attackers, and force them to remove their blades from his body.
Once his attackers had been forced back, he openned the first gate as quickly as he could, a visible aura of power sprung forth around him. The samurais wasted no time and immediately returned to incapacitate him. Due to his full concentration in openning the gates, Gai was unable to notice that he was once again being attacked. After the fifth gate was open that he realized that the samurais did not halt their relentless attacks. Even with the advanced healing rate that one of the gates provided, he sported a few wounds on his person, while some of the samurai had dents and cracks on their armor thank to Gai's aura.
With renewed strength the spandex wearing nin viciously attacked the samurai, he may not be one who hides in shadow, but he sure was fast. He plunged a chakra covered fist through the gut of one of the attacking samurai, ensuring that the man never saw the light of day again. Following that attack, he spun around to decapitate another one with a kick to the man's neck. He followed this up with an elbow to another samurai's solar plexus, resulting in not only knocking the air out of the man's lungs, but due to the power behind the blow, was able to snap the man's spine in two. Jumping away from the now slightly dazed samurai, Gai jumped into the air, and went through a seal sequence and spat out a burning how Gokakyu no Jutsu, frying his remaining attackers to ashes. When he noticed that his attackers were all dead, he rushed away to the next fight, which was engaging another group of samurai and soldiers that had surrounded some genin, the fresh kind. Still in his super powered up state, he being a speedfreak, dealt as many blows to the surriunding attackers as possible, all the while breaking bones and outright killing them. Once they were put out of their misery he turned to the genin and ordered them to find and secure any injured konoha-nin that they could find.
Gai knew that he was nearing his limit in remaining in the state which he was in, any longer and he would start to endanger his life, which would not be beneficial, as there were many more of the enemy in the vicinity, and many more were arriving by the second. He quickly disengaged his power up technique and cloesd all the gates, but as he was about to run over to help one of his other comrades, he felt pain race down both of his arms as well as both of his legs. He then fell to the ground in a heap, standing over him was a single man, he was niether samurai nor soldier, but was a battle monk that specialized in medicine. On the man's face was a tatoo of the kanji for the number two.
"Death is too good for a fool like you. You killed my comrades, now feel the pain of having broken limbs, I hope to one day get to fight you again, for now is not the time for you to die," the monk said.
After saying his piece, the monk threw Gai to the trees in the direction that he knew that one of the chunin that were facilitating the beginning of the tactical retreat was. The chunin was surprised when the form of Maito Gai slammed into his person, he was also surprised to find the man screaming and shouting in pain. Moving quickly he motioned for two of the available ANBU to carry the injured taijutsu specalist to Konoha. When he looked back at the battlefield his eyes were caught by the gaze of the monk, as their eyes met the chunin gripped his chest, the space and above his heart, and died of a heart attack. One of the other nin near his position saw what had happened in disbelief, and rushed to his comrade with the hope that the man was still reviveable, but alas the chunin was dead.
'They are pulling back Rosuto-sama, what are your orders?' the monk asked his master via mental link.
'Allow them to take their injured, we still need nin to fight in the future,' was the reply that the monk received.
"Let 'em retreat! We have more important things to do!" the monk bellowed out to his comrades in his immediate area.
The officers that were in visual range of him noticed the tatoo, and quickly complied with the orders, and sent out runners to inform the others on the stretch of beach.
All across the shore line, ever few hundred meters there was a monk similar to the one that had injured Gai, all of them had relayed the same message to the men on the beach, all of them also sported the tatoo on their face of the kanji for the number two.
The Konoha-nin realized that they were being let go, and since they were given the chance to leave, they took it, there was a very small chance that they would be allowed to do so again. Swallowing their pride the shinobi left the battlefield, those that were still alive that is. All the dead were collected by the crocs and piled up.
Half way through the fight the giant snakes that Anko had managed to summon were dispelled and she was forced to retreat lest she become a bite sized snack for one of the basilisks. The basilisks had ordered their lesser cousins to pursue the snake mistress. They were curious about the summoning contract. The overwhelming number of snakes was more than enough to catch up to the fleeing kunoichi, but they were no match for appearance of Gamabunta and Jiraiya who had combined their attacks to produce a massive ball of fire that roasted more than half the snakes, which wasn't much of a loss to the Rosuto forces. But it did cause the snakes to retreat back to the beach. Jiraiya had raced toward the border after he heard from his spies that it was possible for Orochimaru to have allied himself with the Rosuto forces, while it was not likely, he still needed to make sure, so he summoned Gamabunta to bring him to the southern border. It was a good thing that he arrived when he did since he was able to save the snake mistress from who knows what fate from the snakes that were pursuing her. The sight of so many snakes had, for him, confirmed that indeed Orochimaru was allied with the new enemies of Hi no Kuni, and by relation Konohagakure no Sato.
Jiraiya and Gamabunta turned around and travelled back to Konoha with as many injured nin as the Toad boss could carry, most especially those that were in critical condition. Once they reached the village the medic teams quickly went to work on patching up the injured nin. The village thinking that they were safe from attack being so far in the country, as well as being protected on the outside by not only shinobi but by one of the armies of the Fire Daimyou who was also staying in the village, were more lax in their patrols of the perimeter of the village.
The village was unprepared for what happened after all the injured nin had been entered into the village and the gates were securely closed. The first sign of trouble came when one of the ANBU patrolling outside the village returned battered, bloody and alone. The ANBU was escorted by medics to the Hokage Tower where he gave his resport to the daimyou and the Hokage.
The squad that he was a part of had been attacked while they were returning to the village by the shadows themselves, the attack was very similar to the way the jutsu of the Nara clan worked. The shadows attacked the ANBU squad. But unlike regular shadows these ones flew away from the surfaces on which they were normally tied to, and lashed out at the nin. The nin were then forced to defend themselves from the razor sharp edges of the shadows that had by then become black blades of shadow. The shadows slashed at the ANBU aiming to kill them, when the first of the nin fell to the ground, her entire body covered in cuts and her head lying motionless away from her body, that was when the rest of the squad began to panic. But due to their training they did not show their outright panic, but they did order one of their number to escape to the village and report the attack. It seemed as if that was what the shadows, or at least the ones that were controlling the shadows had wanted, because just as the sole survivor had gotten away from visual range of his comrades, the screams of pain and agony echoed throughout that part of the forest. The ANBU did not slow down but sped up, when the screams had finally died down, the shadows pursued the escaping nin and managed to severely wound him, which for some reason he had not been able to notice until he collapsed on the floor of the Hokage's office on death's door after ending his report.
The medics that were accompanying the ANBU and the Hokage immediately went into action, but once the condition of the nin was stabilized, Tsunade left the office with the daimyou to talk tactics, along with them were the master tacticians of the land, Nara Shikaku and the Samurai's version of the man. The monks had declined in transfering to Konoha due to their obligation in protecting the relics that were kept in their temple.
While the leaders were coming up with plans on how to defend the village against the unkown attacker, the army outside were have a really bad day. The sun had set well over an hour ago, which meant that the land ws covered in darkness. The men at the endges of the army as well as the sentries were the first ones to notice that all was not right in the world. The first sign that made them realize that all was not right in the world was that there were some people in the moving around the trees around them. The army had situated itself in a number of clearings, they were all spread out around the village. In the dense forest surrounding the camps the sentries and the soldiers that were at the edges of the camp could see the shapes in the forest were moving around, seemingly forming a circle. But when some light was shone on the places where the shapes had been seen moving the soldiers saw nothing, there was no evidence of anyone ever being there. When the light moved onto another place, the shapes in the dark started to appear again. Some of the soldiers that were at the edges of the camp decided to investigate and entered the forest, bring torches with them to light the way. When the soldiers that had gone into the forest decided that they were just seeing things, they decided to walk back to camp, but before they could take another step back, they found out that they could not move for some reason, each of them also felt like something was physically holding them in place. Looking down the soldiers saw that there were black hands holding onto their legs, and holding them in place. Before they could unsheathe their swords and try and cut the hands off none of them could move their arms, that was when they realized that their arms were no longer attached to them. There was an illusion around them that made it possible for them not to feel the pain of losing their limbs. Instead of the soldiers holding onto the torches the soldiers could see that the shapes that they saw in the darkness were actually people that were covered head to toe in black clothes, some of which were holding onto the torches.
"We hope that your souls will be able to move on, nothing personal. Goodbye," was what was said to the soldiers before their muffled screams anguish and death filled cries rang out in silence for no one to hear.
The shadows around the Rosuto-nin devoured all evidence of the soldiers being there. After all the evidence had vanished the Rosuto-nins put out the torches and made their way to the camps to get rid of the soldiers that stood between them and Konoha. The ANBU patrols had already been nuetralized long before they let that one ANBU return to Konoha. Their remains would never be found.
When all the Rosuto-nin were at the edge of the forest, some of their frontliners took out the sentries using a combination of Kage Mane no Jutsu and Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu. Half of the Rosuto Naras ensnared the sentries with the surrounding darkness, while the other half moved their shadow and made it snap the necks of the sentries. Once all the sentries were taken out, the Naras then shadow walked to where the sentries were stationed and used Henge to look like them, in order for the rest of the camp to not get suspicious. Once that was done all the other Rosuto-nin used Henge to look like the other soldiers that had already died, these nin then infiltrated the camps, and mingled with the soldiers. Come midnight, the real attack would commence for them. They were going to take out all the soldiers in one night. Then come morning they would take the place of the army, using different kind of bushin to solve the problem of numbers. They would not attack the village yet, they had to wait for the village to send out the nins that were going to protect the eastern borders. It would not do if their armies did not find any resistance. They all just wanted a fair fight.
When the sun finally arose over the horizon basking the land in all its glory, Konoha had received word from the sentries that Fire country had posted along the eastern border stating that there was a fleet that was preparing to deploy forces and enter the country over there. After going over the information of the initial attack on the southern border Tsunade decided to send out some of the shinobi that she knew that could fight just as well on land as well as on water over to the eastern border. As well as send some other nin back to the southern border, there were a few fortresses scattered all over the country, a number of which could be found near the southern border. The daimyou had ordered some messengers to travel to those fortresses to inform the soldiers that were there to prepare for any possible attacks since the southern border had already been breached. It was bad not being able to form any form of wall to defend the country on that border. The daimyou also sent messengers back to the main camp of all his armies to send send out some troops to the eastern border to defend that undefended border from the invaders that were making their way there. It would take time, but they had time. In the meantime the Konoha-nin would stall the invaders while the armies made their way to the eastern border.
The messengers were allowed to pass by the disguised Rosuto-nin, they were also able to gleam some information from the passing messengers, which they passed on via the Noufu clansmen that were among them. They also allowed the Konoha-nin to travel to the eastern border, they did not want to reveal their presence and intentions too early in the game.
Not all the people in Hi no Kuni wanted to fight for their country, these people were labeled as traitors, but instead of being excecuted they were sent to the many prisons that littered the land. Not all of these people were civilians some of them were soldiers, some of them were even shinobi of Konoha. Information about hthe whereabouts of these people had been gathered by the Rosuto-nins. They wouldn't begin their official attack until after all the innocentrs in the war had been removed from Konoha, they didn't need any unescessary casualties in the game. One of the notable traitors was a cause of many problems for the Nara of Konoha, since it was the wife of the Konoha Master Tacticians that was one of the traitors. Yoshino refused to go against her adoptive father Tsuneo, even though he wasn't or hadn't yet been seen to be participating in the fighting, but it was highly likely that he was somewhere, at one border preparing to storm the country with his horde of puppets. Another member of Konoha that did not want to have anything to do with the war was Hyuuga Hinata, her devotion to her crush, or love, or obsession was so great that even with all the mental help that her family had gotten her she refused to go against him. Even though she was labelled as a traitor, she was not forced into prison, rather she was forced to live in the psychiatric ward of he Konoha hospital. There were a few others that refused to participate in the war, all of them were thrown into prison. These traitors took up the space left by the former criminals that were willing to fight in the war. It was fight for the country in exchange for a full pardon. They chose to fight, for it was better to die on a battlefield rather than in a cell. Mizuki was one of these people.
The impostor army waited for the end of the week to commence the liberation operation. They would be breaking out the prisoners, both innocent and not, our of the Konoha prison. While doing so they would be taking out a few people and things that once gone would allow the attacks that they had planned to go more smoothly.
Breaking into the village was easier said than done. They were not their daimyou, so they could not simply walk through the wall of the village, they also could not use the shadows for transportation, since for some reason the shadows refused to cooperate that much with them. The Shokon clan were no longer with them, since they were busy spying on the rest of the continent seeking information for future use.
The Rosuto-nins were aware of the bubble that surrounded the village that informed the ANBU if anyone entered the village through anywhere that was not the gate. They knew that by even just touching the walls the ANBU would be alerted. The only thing that they could think of doing was infiltrating the one means of entry that Konoha didn't think anyone would use, the sewers. Konoha's security bubble was like the kaiten, the only way in was either from the top or from below.
The Rosuto-nin dug holes in the ground well beyond the bubble, they then tunnelled their way to the village until they hit the sewers. They entered the village from different directions in groups of twenty five, so as not to arouse suspicion. The campfires were kept lit, and the camps alive with activity, so as to give the illusion that the camps were still on Hi no Kuni's side, and that the inhabitants of the camps were not plotting against the country.
The nins in the sewers hastily made their way towards the Konoha prison, they passed through the twists and turns of the roots of the great tree that was konoha, it took them an hour to navigate their way to the underground prison. Once there each group had five of their number cast a genjutsu to silence the prisoners in order for them not to alert the guards to their presence. Ten from each group then sought out the guards and snuffed out their lives, then after the shadows devoured the bodies, those assassins took the places of the guards. Once the situation had been explained to the prisoners, they let out the prisoners using the keys that the guards had on their persons, and led them to the sewers. The nins in Henge looked around the passage ways that lead to the surface, making note of all the entrances and exits as well as security measures that were in place. The information was then handed over to the Rosuto-nins that were leaving with the escapees, the genjutsu casters then layered a couple illusions over one another to give the illusion that there were people in the cells. Before heading back out to the campsites, the nins and their charges made their way to under the different houses that had children in them, the shadows were cooperative enough to inform then of the whereabouts of the children in the village. Once under one of the homes the nin attacked a seal tag right below the home of the child, then moved on. Once all the places had seal tags attached to them, the groups made haste to the campsites. The espcapees were then forced to walk through shadow gates that opened up in Yami no Kuni, so that they would have nothing to do with the war, and would be safe. It was their out and they all were forced to take it. Among the traitors of fire country there was at least one member from each clan that had children that were not part of the fighting force, these clansmen would look after the children when they were all in Yami no Kuni, the seal tags would be used by the Rosuto mages stationed in Yami no Kuni, the seal tags allowed the mages to force teleport the children to where they were. Prisonbreak and mass kidnappings all in one night. The Rosuto forces tried to make their way into the Konoha hospital but there were more security measures around that place for them to handle in such a short time, they were also too complex for the infiltrators to breakdown and reform without getting caught in one night. They lacked the centuries worth of knowledge and experience to do that.
Once dawn once again arrived, the village was oblivious to the events that transpired during the night. But once afternoon struck the village leaders knew that something was wrong since that was when the reports of missing children came in. Genin teams were sent out in the village to search for the missing children. But to no avail they could not be found. In their homes there didn't appear to be any sign that pointed to the children being kidnapped, but there were also no signs that pointed to the children leaving of their own accord. There were also reports of missing mothers, and pregnant women. The genin teams that were available were working overtime. Some chunins were also enlisted to aid in finding these missing people. Konoha was big for a place that was called a village, but the cities that littered the land were a lot bigger. In actuality the village should have been called a city, but due to it being the center of all shinobi related things in the country it remained as a village.
The daimyou sent out messengers to the camps to ask each if they had encountered anything out of the ordinary during the night, as well as the previous days. He had also noticed that the ANBU that were supposed to report in from the patrols were all long overdue, and needed to know if any of his troops had encountered anything unusual, or encountered any of the missing ANBU. But all the messengers that returned reported that the camps all had not encountered anything out of the ordinary. The daimyou then sent out new orders, the camps were to move closer to the village, he feared an attack, so it would be best if the defense was a lot closer to the village, that way the village would have a greater defensive strength. Unfortunately he just ordered the enemy to come closer to the village.
Due to a direct order from the daimyou to canel the bubble that surrounded, she ordered the ANBU to do such a thing. The order was made in order for the nins that were assigned to that task to better prepare the village defenses. He believed that there was no way for their enemy to make it through an entire military encampment, as well as the number of shinobi that were patrolling the walls of Konoha. Little did he know that he was not in complete control of his self. There was another infiltator in the village, some of the puppets of Tsuneo had been left behind when the group left the village during the declaration of war. The puppet was programmed with the task of making sure that the Rosuto-nin would have an easier time making it inside the village, and wreacking as much havoc as they could. Tsuneo's puppets were able to control other puppets, and since humans could be turned into puppets, the puppets could control the movements and to a certain extent the thoughts of those individuals as well.
When the impostor army was confortable waiting outside the walls of the village, they had some of their number enter the village at random intervals, as not to appear suspicious to the defenders. Due to the dropping of the bubble, their identities were kept secret, and their movements were not tracked. It took two more whole days for all the preparations for the attack to be finished. Once all the infiltrators were in position, and made it known to their comrades outside the walls via chakra burst morse code, which seemed so erratic that the Konoha-nin paid it no mind, the signal for the commencement of the attack was given. The signal being an exagerated amount of ninja smoke from the release of the Henge of the impostor army. The bushins were left as they were, it was like a play, all the bushins acted like they were the real soldiers and engaged their creators, they even sent word to the village about the infiltration into the camp. Konoha-nin were sent out to the army camp to assist the soldiers, once the gates to the village were left open and a certain number of nin joined the battle in the camp, the bushins showed their true colors and attacked the Konoha-nins, allowing half of their creators to make their way to the semi-undefended village. The infiltrators inside the village released their Henges and, using explosive notes and seal tags, blew up parts of the village.
Since the puppets couldn't fully control the actions of the daimyou they released their hold on him and joined the battle, their goal being to bypass all the fighters and make their way back to their creator before they ran out of chakra and returned to being useless pieces of natural resources. The daimyou having gained back full control of his body, immediately ordered his troops to initiate all countermeasures to the attack. The Hokage was already ahead of him, and ordered as many of the remaining nin to engage the enemy, and make sure as much of their beloved village was intact after they had repelled the enemy. She believed that it was entirely possible for them to repel the attack.
Personally Tsunade did not want to have any part in the war, but due to her being Hokage it was her duty to lead the forces of Konoha during war, and she couldn't for the life of her allow someone like Danzo control of Konoha. After Mikio had helped with the preparation of the defenses of the country, she had ordered him to retreat to Yami no Kuni with the few people that she could smuggle out, so that they would not be a part of the war. Mikio had intriduced himself as being a member of the Juushu clan, therefore he was a liability that the war council would not allow to stick around, much more live while at war with the head of the Juushu clan.
Near the main Ninja Academy one of the infiltrators, a member of the Kasui clan, was laying waste to the area surrounding him. The Kasui clan specialized in flinging spikes that protruded from their body, they were a clan whose members could made all the hairs on their bodies sharper than any kunai, when they used this kekkai genkai, they were like humanoid porcupines. This particular nin was filling the area with exploding spikes, he flung his spike like hairs around him, all of them were covered in chakra that made the hairs not only pierce through the surrounding but also act like explosive notes. The projectiles were thinner than senbon, and were causing the defending chunin in the area problems. All the attacks were very random, seeing as the Kasui clan member was dancing around seemingly without a care in the world all the while laying waste to his surroundings. The konoha-nins had tried to throw their own explosive notes in his direction, but he spikes detonated all the tags prematurely, which in some cases was when the tags or notes had yet to leave the hands of several chunin. Several chunin had tried to hit him by making use of a combined attack consisting of several medium sized earth dragons missles. But due to his explosive defense, the Kasui clansman was able to avoid being rammed by such a combined effort, also due to his constantly moving, the next group of chunin that attempted to do it again were unable to pinpoint his exact location.
Over in the forests behind the Aburame clan compound a group of Tentoumushi clansmen were engaged in combat with the Aburame clan. Both bug users didn't seem to find any way to subdue their opponent, it was almost a stalemate. While the Aburame were relying heavily on their destruction bugs, the Tentoumushi clansmen were relying on their ladybugs just as much as they were relying on their Fuuton and Katon jutsu, of course what made the battle so even was that the Aburame's bugs' numbers were simply overwhelming. The ladybugs weren't that many, but they had a high resistance to fire and ice for some reason. One of the Ladybug users grew impatient at the staleamate and decided to summon up the clan's summons, grabbing away five others of his clan, they all went through the special summon seal sequence and slammed their palms on the ground at the same time. But instead of a bug appearing out of the smoke, there was a gate that resembled a rashoumon gate. The rest of their clan moved behind the gate, while the Aburame clan temporailiy halted their assult opting to stare at the gate not knowing the plan of the enemy. Instead of merely staying in place and being used as some kind of defensive barrier, the gate was flung open, and out of the gate with its swirling mists and such flew out nine giant ladybugs, each one the size of Gamabunta. Once the giants were out the gate closed and vanished. If the Aburame once had more bugs that their opponent they now faced something that mere numbers could not hope to beat. The nine ladybugs, after landing and flattening a few trees, closed their wings and allowed the Tentoumushi clansmen to ride on their backs on the space before the wings openings. Before the Aburame could renew their attacks the giants opened their armored backs, and instead of wings coming out to lift the bugs into the air, millinos upon millions of ladybugs flew out from under the armor. All of which converged upon the Aburame and their destruction bugs.
"You think they were all wiped out! Well think again!" one of the Tentoumushi clansmen shouted from atop one of the giants. He was referring to the giants that for a time roamed and ruled the world. The destruction bugs literally shivered upon hearing and understanding the information.
Fearing for their very existence some of the destruction bugs turned on their hosts, and started to attack their allies. The ladybugs did not bother attacking those that were helping them. Luckily for some of the Aburame, some of them knew some defensive Doton Jutsu that they used to hide themselves from the onslaught brought about by the Tentoumushi clan. Even with the nine giants the clan did not make a move on Konoha, their target were only the Aburame clan.
Some of the braver members of the Aburame clan decided that they would have to stick together and possibly try and drain the chakra from the summons, and possibly force them to return to their realm. Aburame Shibi and Shino both of whom had the largest amount of bugs at their disposal sent all that they could to the closest giant, and tried to drain it of chaka. In doing so the Aburame realized that the giants were not real, and that they were an intimidation tactic used to force allies to battle one another. The truth was that the giants were nothing more than containers for the swarms of ladybugs that were assulting them from all sides. So the Aburame really had nothing to worry about from the giant constructs. The only thing they had to worry about were the bugs that were immune to fire that were swarming around them.
While the Aburame were having their little bug war, the Hyuuga found themselves in a predicament which they didn't think they'd ever find themselves in. Half of the branch house of the clan, which consisted of one third of the Hyuuga clan, were revolting, the reason behind their boldness was that the Rosuto-nins that had assulted their compound were Hyuuga as well, all of whom did not sport any kind of restrictive seal. The only way to tell the difference from main and branch was an earing, the main had one with a blue spiral design, and the branch a red one of the same design. Main and Branch of the Rosuto Hyuuga clan worked as one cohesive unit. All of them were showing more teamwork compared to the Konoha Hyuuga clan. There was another thing that the Konoha Hyuugas did not think that they would ever have to encounter, this was a Hyuuga using not only the Jyuuken but ninjutsu as well, some of the Rosuto-Hyuuga were using other taijutsu styles as well. The Konoha-Hyuuga-Main were tempted to use the Cage Bird Seal to eliminate the traitors, but chose not to due to them losing the whole Branch house, both the traitors and the loyal ones.
The sealed members of the Konoha-Hyuuga were ststegiacally moved to the back of the Rosuto-Hyuuga group, in order for them not to have to fight their family, since they knew that they did not want to have to harm their Branch bretheren, just the main ones.
Suiton and Doton clashed with Kaiten. But overall the two sides were equal, neither one seeming to have any other trump cards up their sleeves, and what long sleeves they were. If someone from another clan, or simply put a civilian could see the Hyuuga battle from a bird's eye view, they would notice that the fight looked like some incredibly elaborate dance. Even though some of the Rosuto-Hyuuga used different taijutsu styles, it all seemed to mesh perfectly together, resulting in all of them seeming to be dancing instead of fighting. It was a deadly dance that they were a part of. For some reason, none of the attacks of either side kept meeting blocks or some sort of defensive move, none of the attacks were making any clean hits. Some of the Rosuto-Hyuuga were actually finding the fight to the death quite enjoyable, some of those ones were actvively smiling and others were outright laughing, which just made the Konoha-Hyuuga more infuriated thinking that their cousins were mocking them, which some of them were.
Before the Konoha-nins could get anymore infuriated, all the nins had to jump away from each other since another fight had spilled into the compound. This one concerned the Akimichi clan, who were fighting a clan that were similar to them, the difference being that the clan was limited in only being able to expand their limbs, but they were also able to add more power to their punches without having to expend any chakra. The clan that the Akimichi were battling was the Hourensou clan. One of them had punched an enlarged Akimichi Chouza right into the Hyuuga clan compound.
The battle between the fat men and the muscle men was nuttier than the Hyuuga dancers. These big boned men and women, were having a hard time pinning the other down. While the Akimichi tried to crush their opponents, the Hourensou just punched away the Akimichi like they were just some punching bag, one of which had just happened to be hit with enough force to fling him all the way to the Hyuuga compound. One of the problems that the Akimichi were facing was that the Hourensou clansmen had figured out how to remove the elastic and enlargable quality of the clothing and armor of the Akimichi, which caused some of the members to avoid super sizing themselves, but still enlarging their limbs in attempts to fight fire with fire. But alas their little tactic did not work, apparently their short tempers when called fat ran in the family, when in this enraged state the Akimichi clan did not really think straight, which caused some of them to fight one another and a few of their fellow Konoha-nin. But some of the members were able to control this urge to bash the insulter to smitherins, unfortunately the Akimichi were mad enough not to care at this point in time, and it was Hyuuga Hiashi's mistake to call Chouza fat, which resulted in the Hyuuga having to not only deal with their fellows, but also with some enraged Akimichi.
Luckily or unlucky depending how one were to look at it, one of the Hyuuga that were unfortunate or fortunate enough to have their legs broken due to the wieght of one of the Akimichi was Hinata, she was allowed to visit her family the day of the attack, she had arrived at the compound right before the attack began, and had been forced to hide somewhere, since she was not of the mind to help her family, village, and country.
Since there were more than enough ladybugs to deal with the Aburame some of the Tentoumushi clansmen decided that it would be okay to send their bugs to go help their allies. That was what met the Yamanaka clan, a large group of Mushi Bushin made out of ladybugs, but the Yamanaka didn't know that. Once they tried to posses the ladybugs, they ended up screaming their lungs out, some literally, due to the complexty of the minds of the little insects. When they realized that that tactic was not working, Inoichi ordered his clansmen to try and force their opponents to die by attacking their minds and not by entering the mind, the bugs had yet to show their true form. They walked as if they were zombies, and for some reason, the Yamanaka noticed, they were being avoided by the other invaders. The attacks that were excecuted by the Yamanaka were successful, the one mind that they attacked resulted in the owner of the mind's death, but unfortunately that was only one bug, but with hundreds more to replace it, it didn't really do much. Once the Yamanaka clansmen were backed up in a corner, the Yamanakas decided that it was time to use some elemental jutsu, so they let out streams of water and fire, when this didn't seem to affectthe zombie like opponents, the Yamanaka decided that it was time to engage the enemy physically. That was the worst thing that they could do, when the first punch hit home, the bugs released their transformation and covered the Yamanaka, then a split second later the bugs along with their victim exploded in a shower of blood and gore. After the first death more and more of the Yamanaka fell to the same fate. Ten Yamanaka at a time lost their lives to the bugs. The bugs didn't mind that they were commiting suicide, but as long as they took one of the ir opponents down with them it was all worth it.
The Nara were fairing the worst out of all the clans that Konoha was home to. Their opponents were the Rosuto-Nara along with the shadows themselves. The Konoha-Nara could not use any of their clan jutsu, as one of their number had attempted to do so, but was killed by his own technique, and it wasn't even a harmful jutsu. The Nara were then left with only their weapons and taijutsu, for even their genjutsu were reliant on the shadows. The Nara were also forced to avoid any and all shadows that weren't their own. The Rosuto-Naras moved here and there, the shadows decided to be cooperative. Using both shadows and kunai to cut down the Konoha-Nara clansmen. The only members that they weren't targetting and were avoiding entirely was the head family, due to Shikau being married to one of them, as well as being in-laws of the Hyakume Elder. The Konoha-Nara clan once boasted having more than two thousand members, but due to the actions of the Rosuto-Nara, their number was significantly lowered. Half the number would not live to see another day.
The Nara were having a hard time dodging and trying to block all the attacks that were coming their way, some of the members had to resort to using flash bombs to not only blind their enemy, but also push away the shadows. What those members didn't count on was that the shadows were determined to take out as many of the abusive and conceited Konoha-Nara. These Nara who thought that they could freely control the shadows were paying for years of thinking that the shadows were nothing but tools.
A little while later the Nara were aided by some members of Ne, these members were able to create ink creatures to do their being, these things resembled the shadows when they took on a more solid form, some of the shadows and some of the Rosuto-Nara mistook the ink beasts for shadow constructs and paid them no mind til it was too late. But once they knew that the ink beasts were not their allies the Rosuto-Nara split their focus between the Konoha-Nara and the new arrivals.
It was fortunate for the Nara that the Ne forces arrived when they did, but it was not so fortunate for the Ne forces that they did arrive when they did. They may have taken out some of the invaders, but a few of their number made the mistake of exposing their tatoos, which indicated that they were members of Ne. The Rosuto-nins were ordered that should they ever encounter a Konoha-nin that sported a tatoo of the kanji for root, they were to disengage any other target and focus solely on the Ne operative. Upon seeing the tatoo on the creators of the ink beasts the Rosuto-Nara and the shadows started to give off a deadly feel, the air around them grew heavy for some reason. Along with the orders that they were given, they were given the reason behind the importance of ridding the world of Ne. If there was one thing that the Rosuto citizens despised above all things was soemone harming, or even wishing harm, on the members of the Rosuto Royal Family. Kidnapping and planning to use Tokage Yoshiko as a hostage constituted as harming a member of the Rosuto Royal Family, she being the step-daughter of their daimyou. The underhanded means that she was kidnapped didn't help their case either.
The Konoha-Nara witnessed what could have happened to them if the Rosuto-Nara actually went all out on them. The Rosuto-nins sank into the shadows, once fully inside the shadow realm, they let their intentions guide the shadows, the shadows adding more darkness to those dark plans and thoughts. The thirty members of Ne that had come to aid the Nara, along with their more than three hundred ink beasts stood no chance to sheer ferocity of the attacks employed by the Rosuto-nins. Shadow beasts jumped out of the shadows and tore out pieces of flesh from the bodies of the Ne-nins. None of the beast outright killed the nins, but all the attackers made sure that the Ne operatives died incredibly slow and pain filled deaths. Whenever a limb was torm off the shadows or possibly the Rosuto-nin made sure to cauterize the wound ensureing that the Ne operative did not die of bloodloss. The Elite of the Elite were helpless against the viciousness and relentless attacks of the Rosuto-nin. The Konoha-Nara were unable to move due to what they were seeing, and even if they did move there was absolutely nothing they could do to help the suffering men and women, the only thing that they would do was kill them, but even if they tried to the shadows would block any of the attempts.
The Kurama clan was the premier clan when it came to the art of genjutsu, there were very few clans in all of elemental that could rival them. But the Rosuto-nin that were assigned to keeping that clan occupied was one of the few clans that could give them a run for their money. The Meimu clan specialized in using genjutsu as both their offensive and defensive weapons. Their attacks were all focused on killing their opponents by attacking the mind, but in a more creative way as compared to the Yamanaka. The Meimu and Kurama clans faced off creating genjutsu after genjutsu, the Kurama did not only rely on their illusions but also physically attacked their opponents. The Meimu knew this, which was why the Meimu had created a few basic bushin to fool the Kurama into thinking that they were within their grasps, when in fact the Meimu were sending out their illusions from the safety of a number of places that were far from the Kurama clan district. The Meimu also had the advantage of having the Kame clan defending them. The Kame clan took care of turtles, and used the specially treated and modified turtle shells as both their offensive and defensive weapons. The Kame clan used almost every part of a turtle as one of their tools. Kame clan lore even stated that their a few of their ancestors were actually turtles at one point in their lives, but were granted instant reincarnation by one of the Enlightened Ones.
The Kurama clan weren't much of a challenge once the Meimu figured out their weakness of greatest fear. What the Kurama feared the most was that their illusions having no effect on their target. That was another reason for the creation of the simple bushins, being illusions themselves, they would not be affected by illusions created by the Kurama, which would give the illusion that the Meimu were immune to illsions. While the Kurama were busy trying to trick something that was not itself real, the Meimu would be creating layered genjutsu and layering them over the kurama district, this was part of the illusion that the bushins were a part of. It wouldn't do to just scare the Kurama a little bit, if there were no attacks one of the Kurama might tryto physically confront one of the bushin. The Meimu divided the task of keeping the bushins alive, and the creation of the illusions amongst themselves.
Not all of the illusions created by the Meimu were geared toward killing or just turning their victims insane, some of their illusions were geared towards just plain confusing and possibly even entertaining their victims, slowly turning their minds to mush. Showing non-harmful things dulled the mind, relaxed it, and when the Meimu thought that the minds were relaxed and dulled enough they would attack with more offensive things, like showing the village burning to the ground, and the blood of the innocent spilled and covering the hands of the killers, the Kurama themselves. The illusions would show the Kurama, or make them think that their illusions had finally taken over their minds and created or gained a life of their own, the illusions also suggesting that they had gained a more violent personality, that they sufered from a severe case of violent MPD. The chakra found within the illusions and that were keeping the illusions active would aso find the cracka and spaces in the in the mind which are visible when the mind is dulled or relaxed, the chakra would then be controlled and made to enter the mind, then move the illusions to the subconscious, once that was done, the illusions on the outside would somehow cause the Kurama to collapse into unconsciousness, and when in he land of dakrness, the things that go bump in the night would be made real via the subconscious, this would cause further damage to the minds of the Kurama, and possibly kill a few of them.
Luckily for the Kurama, another clan came to their rescue, and prevented many of the Kurama from dying, the Nuru clan was a clan that had a Kakkai Gankai with the ability to disrupt genjutsu, the disruption was automatic and could not really be suppressed unless the Nuru clansman used seals to supress the ability. The Nuru were able to get the Kurama out of their genjutsu induced trances, which resulted in fewer of them being knocked unconscious and suffering from premature death.
To stop the meddling of the Nuru clan, the Mori clan, while no originally a shinobi clan, had decided to attack the Nuru. The Mori clan was one of the noble clans of Rosuto as well as one of the formerly ruling clans of one of the nine lands, one of the Elders of the Clan being the daughter of their daimyou. The clan's speciality was just plain fighting, the clan was not considered as a shinobi clan but half of its members were shinobi. They retained the ferocity and viciousness of their ancestors, the same fearsome behavior that made the former Tetsu no Kuni people respect them. They tore into the Nuru clan allowing the Meimu to continue their work. The Nuru clan were all around shinobi, meaning they used everything at their disposal, which included ninjutsu and genjutsu, while the Mori were weapon masters and used those and taijutsu as their weapons and means of offense.
Several hundred Ne operatives were deployed and assigned to searching for the ones responsible for the vulnerability of the Kurama clan. These operatives were lucky enough to find the Meimu, but were unlucky enough to expose their identity to the Kame clan. This unfortunate, for them, event resulted in a bloodbath facilitated by the Kame clan. The Kame used their shell shields to bash in the heads of the unsuspecting Ne operatives, even thought the operatives answered the attacks with jutsu and sword strikes they were no match for the Kame clan. Before one of the Kame were to be hit with an attack from a Ne operative, the Kame clansmen would hide behide his shell shield, then from somewhere around his shield he would attack his opponent using a blade fashioned out of specially tempered turtle bones. The coup de grace employed by the Kame clan would then be the summoning of one of their bigger turtles that would fall down out of the sky and crush the Ne operatives, along with any of the surrounding structures.
In the Inuzuka district the dog using clan were pelted with attack after attack from a clan that for some reason used kitsune as their partners, the clan was known as the Hige clan. While the Inuzuka clan were physically stronger than the Hige, the Hige were faster, and while the Inuzuka were more prone to having an affinity for earth, while the Hige were more in tune with fire than the Uchiha clan ever were. Fireballs, streams of fire, and gouts of flame met mud balls, streams of mud, and earth projectiles in mid air, the nins using the attacks never staying in the same place, always constantly moving. Their partners didn't bothering transforming and simply went at it like during the time of their ancient rivalry dictated. While the humans fought with jutsu, fists, feet, and metal, the foxes and the dogs tore into one another with their teeth and claws.
Various other shinobi clans and other fighters all within and around Konoha were clashing with one another. The village and its populace of more than a million individuals, was being reduced to three fourths of that number, and going down fast. Half of the village was already reduced to rubble by the time that Danzo released half of his Ne force onto the invaders. Once it was known that the reinforcements were Ne operatives the Rosuto forces started to get more serious. They disregarded the other Konoha-nin and focused on the Ne forces. But instead of wiping out the Ne like the other times that some of the Rosuto forces encountered small groups of them, this time it was more like they were stalling the Ne forces for some reason.
A single chakra wave was released and felt within and around the village, upon feeling it hit them, all of the Rosuto forces began their withdrawal from the battlefield. Once the Konoha forces noticed that the Rosuto-nins were falling back and retreating a cheer rang throughout the village. The villagers rejoicing at what they perceived to be a victory for them. Even Danzo looked to be visibly pleased. Even though many had died in the initial attack, they still thought that they had won, and that they had done something to scare off the invaders. But what they couldn't figure out was who or what had actually caused the invaders to up and run.
Even the daimyou, knowing that he had lost a considerable number of men was rejoicing along with his officers.
Tsunade and a few Konoha-nin did not join in on the impromptu celebration. She along with those few nin thought it odd that the Rosuto forces would call for a retreat when they were clearly winning. She was a top the Hokage mountain as were all the other officers, most of whom were cheering. She was looking out toward the horizon, where there was a visible line of shapes in the sky that did not look anything like clouds. These little splotches or spots in the sky seemed to be growing bigger and bigger every second that ticked by. A few minutes later it clicked in Tsunade's mind what they were.
"Attention this is your Hokage speaking!" Tsunade spoke through the village wide PA system, "Gather all the injured, get everyone in the hospital to the evacuation tunnels as quickly as possible! I repeat, get everyone to the evacuation tunnels as quickly as possible!"
This announcement grabbed the attention of all the party people, they all wondered why, but since it was a direct order from the Hokage, and they did not hear any counter order from their daimyou all the villagers complied, but they didn't do it as quickly as they possibly could, thinking that there was any impending or approaching danger.
It was during the impromptu evacuation annoucement that Tsume remembere that she and Kuromaru had fought a dragon. She then looked to the sky hoping not to see what she thought might be the cause of the evacuation order. To her dismay, they were there, there looked to be well over a hundred to them, and they were closing in on the village fast.
"Inuzukas pick up the pace! The enemy are sending in an aerial strike! Pick up the pace!" Tsume barked out to her kinsmen, "Someone get the word out to pick up the pace!"
Her kinsmen rushed to do as ordered. They spread the word many of the ones that heard them, at first did not believe what was being said about an aerial attack, but when the dragons in the sky were pointed out they did as they were told. More and more of the village were told about the impending attack. More and more people picked up the pace. It was a good thing that Konoha was a shinobi village, they were able to get all the injured, as well as the hospital patients to the evacuation tunnels that ran and reached another city within the country.
"Get everyone that can't fight to safety!" Tsunade's voice rang throughout the village.
Within minutes of second order, the ones that were unable to continue to fight the good fight were safely in the tunnels, and were being moved to the city on the other end of the tunnel. While more and more people entered the tunnel. But there were those that refused to leave the village. These people decided to hide, and wait out the coming storm. One of these people was Danzo who decided to hide out in the underground complex of the village, among the roots of the great tree.
Tsunade and a few of her more loyal ANBU waited on top of the Hokage Mountain for the strike to commence. She didn't have to wait long, as soon as the last person who wished to leave, made it into the tunnels, the dragons were above Konoha, breathing down jets of flame, the mages on their backs hurling fireballs at the village below, the archers attempted to snipe the shinobi hidden around the village. The archers on the backs of the dragons tried to snipe the hiding nin. They paid no mind to the Hokage and the few nins on the Hokage Mountain. The daimyou was one of the people that had chosen to evacuate, and live to fight another day. It was not only the village that the dragons and mages were setting on fire, the surrounding forest too was being cooked, the forests of fire were being turned into literal forests of fire. The aerial strike came at around dusk, so the sky was filled with smoke, and the smell of sulfur permeated the air. Instead of the darkness that came with the setting of the sun, the night was filled with the light from the flames that burned on the surface of the Land of Fire.
Some of the nin decided that they did not enjoy seeing their beloved home burned to the ground, so some tried to douse the flames with suiton jutsus, others attempted to attack the dragons and their riders with long range attacks. The flames could not be doused due to them being hotter than the water that was being poured or thorwn or spat on them, and the dragons were either to far or were to fast for the jutsu to hit. Some of the retaliating nins suffered more than those that had fought with the initial invasionary force. Many of the retaliating nin were turned into snacks for the dragons. A few of the dragons would roast them, then one of their number would swoop down and eat the unfortunate individual. The burning of the great tree lasted well into the night, and ended four hours before the dawn, the dragons having spent their reserves, the mages their mana, and the archers their arrows.
Once the dragons had finally left the village, the final attack on the village occurred, out of the burning night thousand of flapping wings could be heard. These wings belonged to bats. The bats were coming from all over, from everywhere. The remaining surviving nin were unprepared for the black death that rained down upon them. The bats weren't meant to kill the remaining nin, but to try and possibly drive them insane, or lead them to the road of instability and insanity. An hour before the dawn the bats left the village, leaving behind a village of warriors who knew to fear the night.
To be continued...
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