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
Lost
Chapter 23
Hi no Kuni had fortified its defenses as best as it could within the amount of time that it was given, which was a year. Even when they saw the army of Rosuto no Kuni they continued to prepare, somehow they instinctively knew that they still had time. An army of such magnitude wouldn't mind all that much if their target raised its defenses to a higher level, it was an army with the look that loved a challenge. If it was a challenge Rosuto wanted, who was Hi to refuse them. So they built up their walls, and prepared their own seige engines. Catapults and ballistas, as well as all other manner of long range fighters and armaments. The archers stood shoulder to shoulder on the wall that protected the Land of Fire, the wall that separated Hi from Ame. Hi did not really know what to expect, but they were going to great lengths to make sure that the enemy could not one-up them. Along with the regular army of soldiers and samurai the Fire Country forces had a number of Shinobi at its beck and call. Hi thought that they had the advantage of knowing the lay of the land better than the invaders, but what they didn't know was that the Rosuto forces didn't care. They were confident enough to be able to break through the defenses without worry.
The Rosuto forces had received additional orders asides from attack from where they were. The additional orders stated that they were to let Hi keep their pride, for a while, then slowly break it down, not smash their pride instantly, but gradually. It would not do to let such a great nation lose face so quickly in the game. That and Rosuto hadn't had a real battle in a thousand years, they needed to reenter the world with a bang, and what better way than by wittling away at the defenses of one of the greatest nations in all the continent.
The Dragon Flights had been ordered to arange themselves in a straight line, when they were ordered to attack they would go in fast and furious, then leave as quickly as they came. The dragons would get to fire a round of fire, they were to burn the forest behind the defenders. Their riders would all be quipped with arrows, that would be used to hinder the defenders from halting the rain of fire. The dragons would be the ones to force the Fire forces into having to fight as if their lives were on the line, since a dragon's flame worth of fire forest would be to hot for any reinforcements to get through. The first defensive line of Hi no Kuni would be forced into acting as if they were the last line of defense of the entire country.
But the dragons wouldn't be the first ones to perform on the battlefield. Once the order to attack was received by the Noufu clansmen, the order to attack was relayed to the Three Sakana Generals, who in turn ordered the catapults and ballistas to open fire on the walls. Thousands of flaming rocks were hurled into the air, alongside thousands of giant flaming arrows. Some hit the wall blowing gaping holes in them which were immediately repaired or reinforced by chakra contructs by the shinobi present. Many parts of the walls were skewered by the giant flaming arrows. But not all of the projectiles were successful in hitting their target, some of these things either went to far, and ended up crushing the supposedly protected forces on the othetside of the wall, and in some cases didn't manage to reach the wall. After the first salvo, another one was ordered to be fired. This time they were accompanied by a shower of flaming arrows, the regular sized kind. Even before the dragons were to begin their own attack, it was already raining down fire, but this time with sharp pointy ends that were meant to pierce all those unlucky enough to be between the arrows and the ground.
All the stroops of the Rosuto forces wore emotionless masks, it would not do to display one's emotions on the battlefield, as well as be controlled by them. Some of the soldiers, those that could see their generals noticed that they too wore emotionless masks, even the normally happy-go-lucky-and-sadistic Rosuto Naruto wore a passive face of indifference. They were all afterall the ones giving orders on as to how to end lives. It would not do to show remorse for their actions.
On the Hi no Kuni side, things were not going as planned, they were being bombarded by salvo after salvo of projectlies, all of which sported a burning quality. The shinobi were running hither and tither just to make sure that absolutely none of the fire remained burning, others were running about patching the holes in the walls, while others were trying to reinforce the walls, preparing them for the next salvo. The wall was being treated like a muscle, each time it broke, it was somehow made stronger after it healed. But even with all the strengthening that the wall underwent, the barrage continued, as if unperturbed by the apparent efforts of the defenders. The archers on the walls remained unmoving, even as they saw their comrades being blown off of the wall. When they were given he order to fire at will, they did with as much gusto as they could muster. The flaming arrows and the regular arrows clashed in mid air, stopping as many of the enemies arrows from even reaching the wall. The catapult and ballista bombardment were also being halted by the return fire of the defenders. When the wall wasn't being damaged as much as it was at the beginning, some of the shinobi left the safety of the walls and used what long range jutsu they had in their arsenal, while at the same time trying to rush the enemy. They were shinobi, they were faster than any projectile, speed was one of the things they were known for. But that didn't stop the attackers, when the Rosuto forces noticed the incoming shinobi Kuraku Yuji signalled for the dragon flights to begin their attack.
A few of the Konoha-nin had bird summons, some of these had summons large enough to carry people. Those with such summons took to the skies to try their hand at an aerial battle with the dragons and their riders, seeing as the summons were of the intelligent and not just sentient sort, they were able to combine jutsu with their summoners, while at the same time also use jutsu of their own. In the skies the bird summons and their summoners clashed with some of the dragons, since the number of sbird summons was very limited, they were unable to stop many of the dragons that were making their way into and past the border to complete their objective, which was to set the forests of fire on fire. The dragons that met with the summoned resistance gave into their primal urges and instincts and clashed with the birds, they didn't let the birds pull out any jutsu and just attacked like the beasts that they still considered themselves to be. Their riders were forced to abandon ship, and jump off of their back. Good thing that the riders all were equipped with hand gliders and crossbows, they let lose a downpour of crossbow bolts of their own on the way down. After successfully drenching the trees with fire the returning dragons joined the battle with the losing bird summons, which also resulted in their riders being forced to jump ship and tear into the defenders on their way down, which was the ground just inside the walls.
When these glidiers were close to the ground they disengaged their wings and landed on the ground still firing a constnt stream of bolts at the surrounding Hi forces. The disengaged gliders blew themselves up due to the automatic self destruct mechanism implanted in them, this would asure the Rosuto forces that none of their technology would be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. The riders then made their way through the wall and racing back towards their army. Some of them did not make it, those that were felled by the defenders' attacks burst into flames, like the soldiers of old. They had all agreed that if they were to fall in battle they would not let even their bodies be taken by the enemy.
The shinobi that were making their way towards the enemy lines realized too late that they had chosen the wrong action. They realized this when out of nowhere they were attacked by mounted cavalry, but instead of horses, the mounts were the battlecats, the sabertooths tore into the shinobi while their riders skewered the shinobi with their spears and pikes. Upon seeing some of their comrades die at the hands and teeth of the invaders the other shinobi did the sensible thing and retreated back to the safety of the walls, but they too were too late in recognizing their error, for what met them on their way back were the rapidly fired crossbow bolts of the enemy. Within only a few hours of the battle, Konoha had lost well over one fourth of its shinobi stationed at the west border. Luckily of the other fire forces, they didn't suffer as much since they were all attacking and defending from behind the walls. The shinobi were impatient and it caused their downfall.
After the dragons had disposed of the summons, they flew back behind their lines to prepare for whatever Yuju would have them do next. After all the dragons had returned, as well as their respective riders, all the attacks from the Rosuto side stopped, and any and all attacks from the Hi side that were still heading their way but were stopped thanks a protective barrier created by the mages in the army. When the defenders realized that their attacks were not having any effect they stopped their own barrage. They did't do anything other than repair their defenses and the like. They didn't dare be the ones to begin the next round, since they still didn't know enough about the invader's capabilities, if they initiated round two, who knew how many more lives would be lost, the shinobi agreed with the samurai and soldier generals on that aspect, they would have to wait for the invaders to make the next move, whatever it may be. They kenw that they were allowing the enemy to set the rules and the pace, but what could they do, they had next to no intelligence on the enemy. If information was the key to victory, then they had already lost, and they knew it.
Yuji and the Sakana trio were busy making plans on how they were going to proceed with their part of the invasion, they were given more or less free reign on what to do, even though one of their orders was to turn the land of fire into a sea of fire, they were still free to go about that as they saw fit.
"We should just continue the way we started it, find some kind of rhythm and go with that, lull the defenders into thinking that we're predictable as hell, then when they think they get us, we pound them into the ground," was the suggestion made by Rosuto Naruto.
"I disagree dear husband, I think it would be best if we send out the swiftest of our cavalry to the walls themselves, test the actual defenses, find the weak points, then after they have given their report, we exploit those weaknesses. We'll crack open the chinks in their armor," Rosuto Emiko said.
"I think we could go about using both of those ideas at the same time, don't you agree Yuji?" Musha Toru asked.
"Its possible," Yuji said.
"What is?" Naruto asked.
"How do we go about mixing the ideas?" Emiko asked.
"Simple, we marh on the walls, no need to have our swiftest go out there undefended," Toru stated, "We'll have the infantry take the lead, bringing mages to defend them from the defenders, the archers will take the rear and provide cover fire. Then we will have the infantry contruct siege towers near the walls."
"Yes, then we send in the cats to survey the defense. Once they report back where the walls are weakest we'll have the dragons take care of it, the infantry will scale the stronger points of the walls," Yuji continued.
"Ei, Yuji, I got one request though," Naruto said.
"What is it?" Yuji asked, curious.
"Let me go out first, I wanna test their mettle, I wanna see their resolve. If it is up to my standards we'll go with your plan, but if its not..well.." Naruto answered.
"Absolutely not! We follow the prescribed procedure provided to us by Juushu-sama," Yuji exclaimed.
"Fine, fine, but at least let me test their mettle, see their worth, their resolve," Naruto said.
"Just let 'im go Yuji, if you don't he might just do it anyways," Toru pleaded.
"Yeah Yuji, Naruto-koi is hard to control when he's bored, and we don't have the ramen supply to bribe him this time," Emiko reasoned.
"Fine, Naruto you can go. Just make sure that the plan can still be followed after your done, the war must be prolonged for as long as we can unless we receive the go signal to go all out," Yuji finally relented.
"Good," Naruto said, "Emi, you want anything?"
"Err, bring me a helmet if you can, leave the head though," Emi answered.
"Ok, well see ya," Naruto said just before he allowed himself to be blown into the wind, across the gap between the two armies.
He materialized a few feet beyond the walls. He stared up at the archers on the walls that were pointing their arrow in his direction, they were prepared to fire at a moments notice. He used one of his abilities called charm to catch the attention of all the rest that were within his range. Once they were all looking at him, some of the gayer ones had hearts in their eyes, some of the straighter ones did too. He couldn't help it that he was so beautiful. But enough about that. He appeared before them weaing a beige kimono, brown hakama pants, and wore brown slippers, he also had a red scarf around his shoulders. He had a katana strapped to one hip, and was presently leaning on a naginata that was the length of his body. The people just stared at him, after being affected by the charm ability, the archers were no longer able to hold onto their bows, some that were, were unable to hold onto the arrows instead.
"Yo!" Naruto greeted them.
"..."
"Guess you ain't a talkative lot are ya! Well now that I've seen tha lot 'o ya, I'll be taking my leave now!"
But before leaving Naruto walked up to the wall in front of him and slammed his palm on it, a seal pattern appeared on the wall, it was similar to the seal pattern that appeared when one was summoning a summon animal or something like that, the difference between those seals and the one that appeared on the wall was that it spread out until it covered well over one mile worth of wall in a matter of less than a minute. After which it vanished, and the vanishing act was followed by the sound of a gong that all the defenders heard. This sound surprised the defenders, they thought that it was some sort of signal for the enemy to charge or something, when the archers decided to look back at the spot where Naruto was, they saw that he was no longer there. He had vanished. That was the common thought of the archers near where the epicentre of the seal was. But before anyone could move on their own, one of their number fell off the wall screaming until he hit pay dirt with a thud as well as the sound of bones breaking. When the archers looked to where their comrade was stationed they saw Naruto standing in the archer's place.
"It seems..." Naruto paused, "That the Will of Fire does not burn brightly in any of you."
That was Naruto's observation of the determination of the Hi defenders. It was lacking in its entirety. He knew of their orders, and based his observation on the fact that they let their curiosity get the best of them. Had they attacked him when he first appeared before them, he would have respected them. They would have at that point proven that they were a worthy adversary, and that not all of them were at fault for creatng such monsters as Danzo and Uchiha Madara, who he knew was the true leader of the Akatsuki. He believed that they needed a reminder that they were at war, not some miniscule conflict within their borders. Sure he was aware that they would be playing by the Rosuto armies rules, but to go against orders to satisfy one's curiosity was absurd. He could have wiped them all out and they wouldn't have really cared. They were not worthy of his ire, but they needed to be taught their place. As prosperous and respected the Land of Fire was, apparently they were unable to really protect their borders, they did not appear to have what it takes to keep the title of be ing one of the Fve Greats. Once upon a time, as Naruto studied their history, Hi no Kuni truly was one of the five fiercest nations in all of elemental, they were able to defend their territory without the need to use such things as walls. Those days were long gone, the legends were reserved only for those who lived and fought in times of old. Back in the past before the rest of elemental had convened in a meeting and decided to draw up a map detailing the borders of the countries, it was easy to tell who ruled what and where, the armies that defended the lands were proof enough of ownership. But as the army of fire was as it was today, Naruto did not see or want to acknowledge the Fire Daimyou's right to rule such a large track of land. His army was pathetic, they had lost all the fire that their ancestors were known for. The only ones that probably still had a burning flame within them were the Konoha-nin, but even those flames were few and far between.
Naruto ran the length and bredth of the wall knocking off archers here and there. They were all weak, all of them displayed their fear as clear as day. He could even smell it in the air as he approached some of them. These archers had swords, yet they seemed to have forgotten how to wield them. How could they expect to defend their nation, if they could not even defend themselves. He didn't even bother to use his katana or his naginata, he just pushed people off the wall, knocked them on their backs, or just kicked them to the floor. The line of archers had fallen, and the soldiers on the ramparts and other places lower than where he was running about were looking on in fear, they feared that they would be his next targets. Sure the speed that he was moving was nigh untrackable by the untrained eyes, but he did occassionally appear before some of the braver looking ones in the hope that one of them would dare draw his blade on him, but so far none of them had. Even the shinobi were paralyzed in fear of him, since he was moving at speeds that they imagined only their Yondaime Hokage was able to travel at, minus the yellow flash. When Naruto was done with his patrol of the wall he jumped down to engage the soldiers and shinobi below, to see if anyone among them had it in them to get out of their frightened states and attack him. The shinobi and some of the samurai lashed out at him when he took a strike at them, but it wasn't like they were defending themselves on purpose, it seemed to be more like some kind of reflex, since he could still see the fear and helplessness in their eyes. None of the ones that he expected had the will of fire, or hell just the spirit of fire with them were stationed at the border.
After four hours of single handedly making his way up and down the wall Naruto returned to the first spot where he pushed off an archer. He stood there facing the Land of Fire. The archers around him stared at him with even more fear, since he did not appear to have a single scratch on his body, even his clothing was tear free.
"Pathetic," was the only word that escaped his lips before he vanished before their eyes and travelled on the winds back to camp.
Waiting for him back at camp were the three other generals. Each of them didn't look worried at all, but each of them had grown somewhat impatient.
"Well, seeing as there were no fireworks or anything of that sort in the direction of the walls, I would be correct in my assumption that they were not up to your standards," Toru said once he noticed that Naruto had returned to them.
"Emi, here's your helmet," Naruto said as he tossed a helmet to his wife, "Yea, they were pathetic, not worth the thrashing I had planned on giving them."
"Yuji, the floor is yours," Toru said.
"It's a good thing that I had spread the word two hours ago about our next move," Yuji said before walking off to his Dragon Flights, "You three go rest up or something, I'll send the troops on their way and oversee this round."
After Yuji made sure that all the preparations had been made, he jumped on the back of his personal dragon. Then he and the rest of the dragons took to te skies. Once he saw that all the rest of the army were in position and were ready to march, he gave the signal.
"Round three! FIGHT!" Yuji shouted for all his forces to hear.
After the signal was given the frontliners began their march. The ground shook with each step that the army took. The dragons overhead blew out blasts of fire, to further illuminate the sky. Below, with the marching soldiers, the mages erected their barriers and shields to stop any incoming projectiles from harming the soldiers around them. Taking up the rear were the archers, they provided cover for the troops in the front. The non-stop rain of arrows prevented the wall defenders from actually mounting or even just forming a defense. The constant rain of arrows from the sky was too much for the defenders to handle, they couldn't stand, much more aim and fire their arrows at the enemy.
But even though the archers couldn't do anything but cower, farther back the catapults were being armed and prepared to fire. The officers had been making the troops in charge of the seige machines ready their weapons. Seeing as the archers weren't doing much, the officers ordered the catapults to fire when ready, which they readily did.
The boulders and rocks that were thrown across the battlefield smashed into or just bounced of the barriers and the shields. A barrage of arrow the mages could handle, but someone had forgotten that the defenders had catapults in their arsenal. The mages were hard pressed to keep the barriers and shields up, having to take turns with one another, to make sure that they could regain some of their magic after a boulder would bash into their defense.
Yuji noticing that the mages were having a bit of a power problem ordered the dragons to join in the fight and intercept the rock projectiles. With the dragons joining the battle half of the large flying projectiles were stopped before they could fall back down to the ground and slam into the shields and barriers erected by the mages.
On the Hi side, some of the shinobi got it into their minds that they could help the archers by throwing rocks, shuriken, and kunai at the incoming arrows in order to stop them from harming the archers, and allow the archers to do their job. Which worked, even though some of the arrows made it through the shinobi defense, the archers were able to launch salvo and volleys of their own at the incoming invaders.
Even though the Rosuto soldiers were able to safely make it to their designated places and begin construction of the seige towers, Yuji could clearly see that there was a possibility that half of the soldiers would be cut down where they worked if nothing was done to help the mages in keeping their barriers up. Since they were so near to the walls as it were, the shinobi had decided to help the flying rocks by bombarding the magical defenses with jutsu, like the dragon missiles. For some reason the chakra of the jutsu were able to weaken the magic to such an extent that the mages had to work two at a time, instead of just one at a time in keeping the barriers in place.
Yuji dropped back down to the ground, but not before ordering his dragon to join in the interception of flying rocks. Once back on the ground he made his way over to where he knew the Sakana trio were.
"Naruto, Emiko, Toru, the mages are having problems, wanna go help them out?" Yuji asked the trio.
"Sure, it was getting boring here anyway," Naruto said.
"What he said," Emiko replied.
"I was wondering if you'd ever ask," Toru said.
"Well grab your stuff, so we can kick some shinobi ass," Yuji instructed.
After grabbing all their gear the four generals made their way to the battlefield. Naruto's were the katana strapped to his waist and the ninjato, Emiko's weapon of choice were twin battlefans, Yuji's were claws specifically dragon claws, and Toru's was a whip made out of what looked like barbed wire except more flexible. They each ran toward the walls, their weapons at the ready. When their soldiers saw them they drew strength from their leaders, the mages doubled their efforts, the soldiers worked faster in constructing the seige towers, the archers sped up their rate of fire, and the battlecats ran infront of the the walls, their riders throwing their spears and pikes at the defenders.
The defenders seeing that that one demon that had attacked them earlier return, and with reinforcements, panicked. Sure they didn't let up in their attack, but something in them snapped, they would attack with all they had, not to defend their country, but to try their hardest to survive. The shinobi once again left the safety of the walls and attempted to engage the incoming enemy. These four units were far too fast for the archers, and were also far too fast for the jutsu to hit, they were going to combat them using hand to hand combat.
Chakra powered fists and feet met chakra powered fist, feet, and weapons, the shinobi were being cut down one by one. Sure they had the number, but if fear had forced them into forgetting how to use teamwork, there was no way that they were going to win. When Emiko finally had enough with the weaklings trying to take her out, she jumped away from them and let loose with some Fuuton jutsu using her fans to provide the wind to make her jutsu work. With a wave of her fans she sent gusts of wind at the shinobi that had come to face her. The winds blew some of the shinobi away, and tore gouges in the bodies of the rest, but some managed to erect mud walls to lessen the damage just in time. Once their mud walls were dropped they tried to send some lightning and fire attacks Emiko's way, but she dodged them all and sent back some more cutting winds their way. The second batch of wind that were sent the Konoha-nins way was dodged instead of blocked, they also managed to surround Emiko due to her being preoccupied with her flinging gusts of wind their way. Once she was fully surrounded the shinobi let loose some of their own jutsu, this time some of them were able to hit home which sent her flying, and landing in a heap several feet away. Upon seeing their small victory the morale of the Hi forces rose, if they could take out the other three the battle would be a victory in their favor.
While they were busy celebrating their minor victory they failed to realize that their opponent was not down for the count, she was merely winded and was picking herself back up off of the gound. Her twin fans were attached to her arms via straps which made sure that she never lost them in a fight, while the shinobi were distracted with their minor celebration she unleashed another set of cutting winds their way, ending their lives in mid laugh. After she was sure that they were down for the count, never to see the light of day again, or breathe the fresh air of the world once more, she made haste in search of another group of shinobi that she could cut to ribbons using her deadly winds.
She made her way to a bunch of shinobi that were pounding on a barrier being held in place by four mages, these mages looked like if nothing were done to help them, they would run out of energy to keep the barrier up. Upon reaching the shinobi, she coated her fans with wind natured chakra and sliced up the shinobi with her fans, forgoing the use of jutsu or and wind entirely. Afte making sure that the mages were fine, she went off to the next group of shinobi that were harrassing another group of mages. As she ran some of the archers got it into their mind to try and snipe her, which was a bad thing to do. Upon noticing what the archers were attempting to do she diverted her attention temporarily to the archers and blew cutting winds in the direction of the archers, blowing away not only the arrow that had been let loose, but also blowing the archers off of the wall as well. When she was done with that and sure that the other archers would not follow in the footsteps of their fellows, she returned to her shinobi hunting. Running to another group of shinobi, the one that was harrassing another group of mages, she arrived and decapitated one of them, and sliced off the limbs of another, turning around in place she split the torso of a third from his lower half. The other shinobi jumped away to avoid any further injury and pelted her with fireballs, and a number of kunai and shuriken. All of them missing their mark. Thinking quickly Emiko lashed out at the shinobi that were hurling projectiles at her, she sent gusts of wind which they avoided, she then used the wind to propel her to the nearest shinobi and stabbed him through the heart with one of her fans. Springing away from that position just as one of the shinobi landed where she previously stood, the shinobi was an Akimichi which was obvious due to his use of the spiked meat tank technique. She landed right in front of one of the other nin, this one promptly grabbed her and held her in place, he used chakra to make sure that she could not escape. His allies did not waste any time in attacking her, they did not bother using any jutsu and just rushed her, fists and kunai would have impacted with her body had it not been for the arrival of several of the Rosuto pikemen. These men thought that since they were soldiers they might as well fight, there were more than enough to finish building the seige towers. These men skewered the rushing shinobi, and one even managed to decapitate the nin that had a firm hold on their general.
"Emiko-sama, you may be our general, but even you need help sometime," one of the pikemen said.
"Thanks for the help, help out the others while I do the same," Emiko said before rushing toward another group of shinobi.
"Hai!" was the reply of the pikemen, then they too rushed away in groups in order to subdue or just outright kill any enemy shinobi they could find.
While Emiko was having her fun running around helping the mages, Toru was having a blast, he lit his whip on fire and had it spin around in the air, this action caused a vortex of fire to appear around him as he ran around the battlefield, he incinerated any that were foolish enough to go near him, by the time that he had made his way to the wall, shinobi were not the only ones on the battlefield, there were a number of samurai there as well. Samurai and shinobi were able to use their energies to deliver destructive attacks, they just channeled their energies differently, some of the samurai that Toru had encountered fought in the same manner as Emiko, and sent cutting winds in his direction, the problem was that the wind just made the vortex stronger, the flames hotter, and made it spin faster. Using his own chakra to fuel the vortex, Toru stopped spinning his whip and lashed out at the nearest samurai, the whip wrapped around the man and with a pull cut him into pieces. Cracking the whip produced a sound so loud that some of the samurai in his vicinity found their ears bleeding, others were hit by the wave of fire that leapt off of the whip. Toru ran as near to the wall as he could get, then he spun his whip around again, and then in one motion used his whip to propel the the flaming tornado and made it travel the length of the wall. He then created another flaming tornado and whipped it in the opposite direction. The tower of power was not hot enough to burn through the walls, but it was hot enough to force the archers on the walls to jump off lest they wished to get burned. This bought the mages some time to recover.
Toru believed that Yuji and his sister could handle the battlefield, so he decided to jump up onto the walls and cause some death and destruction on the inside, after all they had no where to go, and one of the best opponents were those that were trapped between a rock and a hard place. Once he made it up on the wall, he noticed several things, one was that there were several arrows speeding towards his direction, two several samurai were heading his way with katanas drawn, and three his whip had gotten caught on a piece of the wall. Thinking quickly he decided to let his whip be for now, and moved to intercept the samurai, he paid the incoming arrow no mind, when he reached the first samurai, he plunged his chakra covered fist through the man's chest, then leapt over him and sent the man behind him crashing to the ground in two pieces thanks to a chakra covered and powered leg drop or heel stomp. Unlodging his fist from the first man's chest, he backfilpped back to his original position and pulled on the whip forcing it to cut through the piece of the wall that it was stuck on, the whip then moved and sent a wave of flame in the direction of the arrows and ended up wrapping itself around the neck of another samurai, quicking pulling the whip, the samurai was decapitated. While still moving the whip, Toru cracked it, which caused the men remaining samurai that were rushing him to fall to their knees, he then curled his whip, and attached it onto his waist in one motion, then he ran toward the remaining samurai and proceeded to kick their chins hard enough to send them flying, but not hard enough to kill them, after all he needed to have some people to fight in the future.
Toru went through the defenders like a hot knife through butter, he was quick, he was flaming hot, and he was a slice away from the seige engines, his hands acting like blades as they were coated in a thin layer of wind chakra. He sliced away at all the opponents that ran at him, killing some, maiming others, and simply leaving others too injured to continue but with some medical attention they would survive and live to fight another day, hopefully against him. Most of the ones that he had been leaving alive were the samurai who valued honor, and were very prideful even though they would never admit it. Toru had a thing for attacking the ego and the pride of his enemy, the lost honor was just too easy to do compared to those two other things. As he finally reached the first catapult, Toru let loose a few cracks of his flaming whip on the thing. He made sure to hit only the contraption and not the people manning it. Once he was done, he turned his attention to the four people manning it, dousing the flames with his chakra, he let loose a few hits on the four men, severing one limb each, the tip of his whip was covered in some healing chakra that made sure to create a stump instead of a gaping blood spewing wound. He then made his way over to the next catapult, on the way he met with much resistance, he cut them down the same way as he did with the still shell shocked catapult personnel. As he reached the second catapult he made minced meat out of it as well, then proceeded to cut off at least one limb off of its operators as well. Then he proceeded to the next and to the next and to the next.
After ridding the wall of a great number of catapults, Toru grew bored and decided to call it a day and head back to base. As he was about to jump up the wall he was abruptly stopped mid jump by a hand that grabbed onto his foot and threw him in the opposite direction of the wall. The hand belonged to a shinobi that stood at an even six feet tall. He had a muscular build, he didn't appear to be built for speed but for strength, he wore the standard Konoha jounin attire and in his other hand he carried a club, one that was as long as he was tall. He had a darker skin tone than most konoha shinobi, and was bald.
"Who in Hela's name are you?" Toru asked the man that threw him, after he regained his balance and footing after crashing into a number of crates, barrels, samurai, and one catapult that was being repaired.
"I care not to know your name, and you should care not to know mine demon, I wish not for your demonic soul to haunt me after I have sent you back to hell."
"What makes you say that I am a demon?"
"You have no honor, and I know for a fact that only a demon would find happiness and glee in ending the lives of many in as cruel a manner as you have in this battle"
"I am no different from you, shinobi, I am no different from you. I am a warrior, yet I care to know your name that when I have sent you to the afterlife, I may pray for you."
"I wont need the prayers of a lying heathen. I am not going to die this day filth, you are, you and those underlings of yours."
"Ignorance or indifference, it matters not to me which one you have chosen, but know this, I, Musha Toru, swear on the blood of all of those that I have sent to the afterlife that you will not leave this battle alive."
"It is the other way around demon, I will walk away, you will not."
"Arrogant to the bitter end eh, well then, have at you!" Toru shouted as he ran at the jounin, his hands alight with wind and fire chakra, the power to slice through nearly anything, and the power to burn nearly anything.
The jounin anticipated the charge, so at the precise moment that he knew Toru would be infront of him he swung his club onto where he knew the general to be, only for him to miss his target by a not so literal mile, more like by a centimeter. Toru knew that he had to borrow a few tactics from his brother-in-law, when facing someone like his opponent one would have to employ as much unpredictability as he could muster. Dodging to the left he struck, only for his hand to hit a fist. Spinning around on one heel he sent a kick aimed for the solar plexus of his opponent only for his opponent to send the club crashing down on his leg. The shinobi then drove an elbow down on Toru's exposed head. This action sent Toru crashing face first into the ground. The jounin then prepared to finish the general off, but was to slow, for in the time it took him to raise his massive club, Toru had somehow jumped back onto his feet, and healed some of his injuries. He then cut the flow of elemental chakra to his hands and uncurled him whip. By the time that the jounin realized that his downed target was not where his elbow left him, he looked around only to see a flaming whip heading in his direction, the aim being not to would, but to wrap around and brutall cut into bloody pieces. A quick analysis of the incoming attack, the jounin poured some chakra into his arm muscles to boost his swing speed and allowed his weapon to be the one to be captured by the flaming whip. With his superior strength he pulled his club in an attempt to pull Toru toward him. This tactic did not work since instead of Toru being pulled, the strength in the pull and the chakra powering the whip caused the club to be sliced into pieces. Realizing that his club would not help him in the fight, the jounin grabbed what little of the whip that was still within his reach, and pulled on that, he did not mind that pain that coursed through his hand and arm, he just pulled. Toru reacted by sending spasms of chakra to the tip that was being held inorder for the hand to be rendered useless, and the whip be let go and allowed to return to him.
Sensing that something was not right, the jounin let go of the whip at the last second, he then jumped back a few feet and flew through a seal set, after having finally remembering that he was a shinobi and not some brawler.
"Doton: Tsuchi Kairou!" the jounin shouted as he slammed his palms on the ground. This caused the earth around Toru to quickly rise up and entomb him in it, but also giving him only one way out.
'Katon: Ryuuka no Jutus!' the jounin shouted in his mind as he let out a stream of molten hot fire into the dome that held Toru. The dome would serve as an oven to cook the general.
But since Toru had experienced and come across many things in his long life, he knew that staying still and doing notihng would be the death of him. So while the dome formed around him he dove into the earth utilizing one of the Doton Jutsu that he knew. He surfaced outside the dome just as the jounin had blown out the molten flames. Toru then ran behind the jounin, wrapped the whip around the jounin that had just noticed his presence and garotted the man.
'What a waste, and I never got to know his name..' Toru thought to himself as he cleaned his whip using the flames that his chakra could produce.
Yuji was not having a good time, the shinobi that he had to fight on the battlefield were nothing like he had imagined them. He knew, fought, and saw, what shinobi were capable of, there were a few of the hostile sort that had somehow found their way into Rosuto no Kuni, those few had gotten it into their heads to try and kill him. Something about dragons and other such drivel. Well those ones actually stood a chance of beating him, had he not always been in the company of either one of his clansmen or one of his friends. But these insects that dared call him shinobi were nothing like those assassins. These were just glorified brawlers. They only had ninjutsu to their name. Most of which were too flashy to be of any use when trying to be stealthy. Yuji found it disappointing that all that he came across did not pose much of a threat to him. Sure some of them acted in what is known as Konoha's infamous teamwork potential, but still, having shinobi annouce their techniques was a bit stupid. That was a blatant display of idiocy, Yuji would not stand for such, so everytime he heard the name of a jutsu he drove his claws into the shinobi's mouth, killing him or her instantly.
As he was about to just call down the dragons to send down the Apocalypse, he met someone that looked to be worth killing, or at the very least ending the ninja career of. It was a kunoichi that Yuuhi Kurenai, the only difference being that she had spinning windmills in her eyes around her pupil. Her eyes resembled those of the sharingan, the only difference being that they were not tomoe, but three windmill blades spinning freely in each eye.
"And who might you be?" Yuji asked the woman who barred his way.
"If you want to know my name, you should first introduce yourself," the kunoichi said.
"Ahh yes, I apologize for not having reazlied that kunoichi have more brains than the average shinobi. I am Kuraku Yuji, Rosuto no Kuni's Dragon Master."
"Nice to meet you, I am Fuusha Mai, jounin. Shall we?"
"Let's," Yuji said as he bowed.
After the two warriors bowed, Mai began her attack, she didn't move from her spot, instead she thrust her arms forward, from around her the wind instantly picked and fuuma shurikens made out of wind were sent in Yuji's direction. Instead of dodging the attacks, Yuji coated his claws with chakra and sliced through all the shurikens that would have hit him had he done otherwise.
"How'd you know that if you moved my weapons would follow?" Mai asked.
"I've encountered your clan in the past," yuji answered.
Yuji then jumped into the air and surrounded himself with wind chakra of his own which propelled himself in Mai's direction. Controlling the wind around her, Mai formed a couple more fuuma shurikens and deflected Yuji.
"Who of my clan did you fight?" Mai asked once she saw that Yuji was back where he stood when their fight began.
"I battled Fuusha Marui," Yuji answered as he sliced a part several hundred regular sized fuuton shuriken, "although I did not kill him."
"Then who did?" Mai asked as she called down a tornado and directed it in Yuji's direction.
"Rosuto Naruto did!" Yuji shouted while he was flung here and there inside the tornado, he shielded himself from the cutting gale force winds by coating his body in his own whirlwind of chakra.
"Who's he?" Mai asked while she dodged the fireballs that were spat in her direction from the man spinning in her tornado.
"He's that nut job that went on that mini killing spree before round three!" Yuji shouted over the noise that the tornado that he was still in was making, he threw one of his claws at Mai, and controlled its movements with a chakra cable.
"I can believe that," Mai said as she dodged the dragon claws that were tailing her, all the while keeping the tornado alive, and sending fireballs back to the Yuji, hoping to roast him in the tornado, "So what makes you think that you can beat me?"
"My fight with Marui was over a hundred years ago," Yuji said from his place on the ground, the tornado had finally disipated after the chakra cable cut through it, while he controlled his claw to follow Mai.
"Impossible! He only disappeared a decade ago!" Mai said, as she prepared to call down another tornado, her eyes doing all the summoning, while her hands sent out wires of lightning racing across the ground heading for her opponent.
"Rosuto no Kuni is literally the Land of the Lost, most lost people and things end up there, lost in time too," Yuji stated as played hop scotch with the lightning wires.
"So, what are you saying?" Mai said as she dodged a few water bullets that flew in her direction, one of which hit one of her hands, electricuting her slightly, "Are you immortal of something?"
"Well, not immortal per se, just something like that is all," Yuji admitted, all the while throwing mud balls at the slightly spasming Konoha-nin.
"Since, I know you don't plan on killng me, drop off on the wall would you?" Mai asked as she slumped to the ground nearly unconscious.
"Maybe next time, you'll bring some soldier pills, ne?" Yuji said while he kneeled down beside the kunoichi.
"I'll try to, so.." she said before slipping into chakra exhaustion caused bliss.
"We'll finish our fight next time," Yuji said as he picked her up and brought her to the walls.
'There goes the idea of killing someone worthy, damn the fun of the fight. Damn!' Yuji thought, since he was unable to kill someone worthy of death by his claws, he had too much fun in the fight, and wanted to experience something like that again.
As the battle was finally drawing to a close, the defending side having more casualties than the invaders. Yuji, Emiko, and Toru called for a full retreat, all the while ordering the builders to drop what they were doing, since it was highly unlikely that the defenders would venture from behind what remained of their walls. The shinobi forces could run out and snatch some part of the yet to be finished seige towers, but there were just too many parts for all of it to be hauled back behind the walls. There was also the possibility that some of the mages had left some traps in case the Hi forces tried their hands at theft.
There were still shinobi on the battlefield while the invaders began their retreat. They were all ordered to just run back as fast as their legs could carry them, and in some cases wings, which is what they did. But in order to insure their safe return to their side of the playing field, Rosuto Naruto decided that it would be fun to play with the other pawn in the little war.
Naruto threw his ninjato and katana unsheathed into the air, he then created two Kage Bushin to grab hold of the two blades and mess up the pursuinig shinobi that were on the battlefield. After those two had bagun their job, Naruto created a hundred more, all of which were primed and ready to engage the pursuing shinobi.
The shinobi were shocked when they found out that the invaders knew one of their kinjutsus, and had enough chakra to use it to such a degree. But that did not convince them that retreating back behind the walls was a good idea. They just continued their path, thinking that they were somehow stronger, not counting all the lives that were lost, but still thinking that they were superior to the invaders, which wasn't true seeing as before Round Three, they were all scared shitless by the one guy that was barring them access from the retreating invaders.
"Konoha-nin, let's dance!" Naruto shouted, along with his clones.
They charged right into the enemy, meeting them head on, fist to fist, foot to foot, elbow to elbow, head to head. The force that fifty of the clones used in their charge was enough to force the Konoha-nin to fly back several feet. The other fifty belched out a few fire dragons, and fireballs, all of which flew at the on rushing Konoha-nin. The Konoha-nin in turn, due to being overexposed to the use of Katon Jutsus were somewhat prepared for the fiery onslaught, they raised up earth walls to defend themselves, some even countered with their own jutsu.
The retreat was swift, and the delaying and distraction tactics employed by Naruto were very effective. The Hi shinobi forces were down two hundred fifty people, they weren't dead, but they wouldn't be able to fight for a long while, say about half a year's worth of bed rest, then around another half a year of living like a civilian, then another year to get back to genin standards, and so on and so forth.
Back at the invaders side, the Rosuto forces were celebrating a well fought battle, there was singing, cheering, eating, and drinking going on all over the camp, and base structure. Even the four generals were celebrating, in their own little ways. Emiko had encountered a few close calls and went to bed earlier than her husband. The three men decided to play Monopoly for a few hours. They decided to allow the defenders some time to rebuild their defenses. Short battles are boring, they wanted there to still be some kind of challenge factor.
"I wonder what kaa-san is fairing up north.." Naruto wondered out loud, Tsukiko was his stepmother, and he really did wonder what went on over on that battlefield.
"They're fine, I'm sure," Yuji said, "Toru, roll the dice already!"
"Hai, hai, hai, patience is a virtue, you don't see Konsou complaining," Toru said referring to the Noufu communications operator that was playing with them.
"Toru-sama, its been ten minutes already, please roll the dice," Konsou said, finally letting his frustration and dwindling patience be known.
"Fine," Toru then rolled the dice, which resulted in his third double roll, "Crap!"
"Haha! See, your luck still sucks!" Naruto said.
"Not everyone's had the chance to be kissed by Benten!" Yuji said.
"So that's not a legend?" Konsou asked.
"What's not a legend?" Toru asked.
"Naruto-sama being kissed by Benten."
"Yeah, its true, imouto kicked forbade him from eating ramen for three weeks after it happened," Toru said.
"How'd it happen anyway? The real story?" Konsou asked curious.
"Naruto?" Yuji said.
"Fine, fine, I made a bet with tou-sama, about who had better luck, to see which of the two of us had better luck, tou-sama proposed that we each kiss a girl of his choosing, whoever gets a worse punishment afterwards is the loser. So tou-san had someone come over to be kissed, little did I know that I had already lost, since apparently tou-san has enough luck to seduce the goddess of luck herself, he'd apparently been sharing his luck with her for years, and well kaa-san had grown used to it, and well Emi-chan hadn't..so..yeah..never doing that again, I tried to trick tou-sama, but underestimating him is a BAAAAAAD idea."
"Didn't think it was like that, I thought that it had something to do with a challenge made by the gods themselves which culminated in having to kiss the goddess of luck to get back some lost luck or something like that," Konsou said.
"Konsou, you think too much, roll already, I wanna get outta jail sometime in the next hour!" Toru said.
"Sure, sure, but I gotta have a little bathroom break, so if you'll excure me for a moment," Konsou said as he left the playing area.
"Noooo! Konsou! Get back here!" Toru shouted, since a part of the game to make it more challenging was that if someoen landed in jail they would be forced to sit in a cramped box until they got out of jail.
"Relax Toru, you've been in there for what, ten times? You should've gotten used to it by the fifth time," Naruto said, while holding himself back from openly bursting out laughing at his friend's predicament.
Yuji had had enough and just burst out chuckling, Naruto couldn't take it and joined in, Emiko woke up from her sleep, saw Toru, and joined in on the laughing.
"I hate you guys," Toru said, just as Konsou returned from his bathroom break.
"What'd I miss?" Konsou asked.
"Nothing, nothing, don't mind them, just roll the dice," Toru said.
"Konsou, your one of his, so just roll the dice before he demotes you or something," Yuji said after calming down a little, "But..maybe a few more minutes of waiting will teach him some patience."
"So not funny Yuji, just roll the dice already Konsou," Toru said.
"Konsou, just roll the dice, its not like letting him out sooner rather than later will threaten your position," Emiko said after assessing her brother's assets.
"Hey Toru, if you stay in there longer, you'll get to keep what little money you still have longer," Naruto said.
"But if you really want out that badly, I'll sell you my get out of jail free card in exchange for Boardwalk," Yuji said.
"Never!" Toru declared.
"I'll roll, if you give me your one red lot," Konsou negotiated.
"..Fine..not like that'll hurt me any, no one lands there anyway," Toru agreed.
After getting out of jail the first spot that Toru landed on was the red lot that he had traded away.
"I hate you," Toru said grumbling, "One of you rigged the dice, I just know it. Naruto, I'm watching you."
"I can't help it, if you have no luck with these kinds of games," Naruto said.
"Onii-chan, just smile, and enjoy the game, its not like you've been in there a lot," Emiko said, since she was not aware that her brother always gets put in jail at least twenty times every time he played monopoly.
"Hmph, fine, fine, lets just play, I still have boardwalk," Toru said.
"Yeah, but I got the other one," Naruto said.
"I really hate you," Toru said.
He was greeted by laughter and giggles.