The Best Laid Plans
Chapter 19: The Birth of Legends
Arun
Disclaimer: The cheating whore of Troy!
xxxxx
The man with the spiky hair in the one-eyed mask paced before his associates with his hands clasped behind his back. His three colleagues in the room formed the inner circle of their organization and he'd called them together to discuss strategy. As things stood, their original plans could not be executed and they needed a new one.
The mask-wearer himself was angry, for his plans for accursed Konoha had been stymied. Yet again. Like his predecessor/successor before him – depending on how you looked at things – that insignificant worm Sarutobi had thrown a monkey wrench in his plans three years back during the Sound-Sand raid on Konoha. Since then, Leaf had turned the entire Shinobi world on its head and its retired Hokage had disappeared the One Tailed demon off the face of the Earth. The tailed beasts needed to be sealed in a specific order and breaking the sequence would result in disaster. And for three long years, the Akatsuki had searched for the demons whereabouts in vain only to come up empty handed.
"This is intolerable," the man growled, stopping in the middle of the room and turning to face his friends.
"Please, Madara, calm yourself," the lone woman in the group said.
"Calm?" Madara spat the word aloud. "Konan, perhaps you've forgotten this little fact, but the purpose of Akatsuki is to capture the tailed beasts. Our long-term goals are contingent on our ability to execute that part of the plan successfully. And yet, here we stand, three years into the investigation to uncover the Shukaku and we still don't know where Monkey-brains hid it."
The man in white and black with the Venus flytrap on his shoulders nodded.
"Granted our efforts so far have failed, but that's only because everyone who knows the secret of the One Tail are high visibility targets in the highest echelons of power in Leaf and Fire and we couldn't touch them without setting alarm bells off across the elemental countries. But, Madara, war is afoot again and the time is nearly upon us when we needn't be so circumspect about our actions and their ramifications. Pretty soon, we'll send for Sarutobi and get the measure of the man."
The man stepped two paces closer to his seated conspirators and subordinates.
"Konoha's been victorious in every war fought since its foundation."
Konan nodded.
"Perhaps, but this one is different. They had allies to help them and numerous legends in their ranks before. What they have today are a bunch of has-beens who are too old to take the field anymore."
"Legends are forged in the heat of battle. Let's not forget that," Madara reminded her.
"They are beset from three directions at once," Konan retorted.
"Perhaps. But we will not underestimate Konoha like so many have to their detriment before. Leaf has a way of throwing surprises as I can well attest."
The others remained silent. Shinobi legends and bogeymen made the rank and file of Akatsuki, but Madara was a monster even by those standards. Any man who survived a fight with the Yellow Flash unscathed was.
"Pain, when the time comes to fetch Sarutobi, you will handle it personally. I'm not ready to trust anyone else with a task of this magnitude."
The man who'd remained quiet until then nodded.
"It'll be done once the war starts."
"Good."
xxxx
Brigadier Mamoru, the commander of the Fire garrison guarding the main highway to Grass country, dismissed the ninja messenger. Then he wound the communiqué that the recently departed shinobi had delivered and slapped it against his left palm thoughtfully. He did not think for more than a minute.
"Rei," he addressed his aide, "please summon the staff for a meeting."
Rei acknowledged the order and retired to carry it out. The Brigadier fetched himself a cup of herbal tea and sat down, scratching his chin. Wind had found allies and was maneuvering for war with Hi no Kuni. Fire was truly caught with their pants down with their betrayal and now, the country was scampering to mobilize for war that was in all probability only a few weeks away. And if Cloud was involved, then his brigade was looking at some very interesting times ahead.
xxxx
General Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at the missive hand-delivered by messenger summon only a few minutes back. Fire's enemies had managed to hoodwink Hi no Kuni's intelligence apparatus rather well and hidden their preparations for war until it was almost too late to react, but he wasn't surprised too much. Fire and Leaf alone did not have a monopoly on competent people, after all.
Sarutobi reflected that it was a good thing that Fire had been preparing for a hot war in the near future as well because it was clear from the evidence at hand that they were about to be hammered by their enemies, probably from multiple axis at once. He was confident of Fire's chances in the long run, but he had his doubts about the first few months. The first blows were going to be the hardest because not only were they going to have to fight on multiple fronts, but they'd have to do it while being outnumbered as well. Hopefully, Hi no Kuni's preparations were enough to weather the initial onslaught.
In Fire's favor, they had a good blue water navy – thanks to the conquest of Tea – to defend their shipping and they were blessed with internal lines of communication and excellent logistics. It'd be a simple thing to use their navy to threaten the enemies' seaborne merchant traffic and to blockade their ports. Plus, there was the new unit that Konoha had secretly built over the last three years. And there were the new volunteer formations raised by the Daimyo to consider.
Sarutobi picked up his quill. The insurgency in Tea was in its last gasps and no longer needed as many nin to fight as had been the case earlier and he knew just the right unit to sent to reinforce Konoha's frontline units.
xxxx
Everyone knew the old man raised pigeons as a hobby. He lived by himself, and sold cheap breakfast and lunch to laborers who worked on the rice fields. On the side, he delivered pigs to the nearby Grass country garrison's quartermaster once a week. He etched a meager living, but he was amiable and possessed a generous heart. He'd moved into the area only a decade back, but he'd helped so many people and made so many friends that he was accepted as a part of the community. No one suspected him of being a spy and certainly, no one kept tabs on him.
In truth, the old man was a sleeper agent. Fire had planted him for the express purpose of watching the only road that was good enough for moving a sizeable body of troops between Tsuchi no Kuni and Hi no Kuni through Kusa no Kuni. Grass had long been Fire's ally, but alliances had always been fluid things in the world of shinobi, and as he watched four battalions of Earth infantry march by his home without being challenged by their Grass counterparts, the old man thought to himself that it looked like this one had just about run its course.
That afternoon, at the end of the lunch-hour rush, the old man spent a few minutes chatting with his friends from the village. Then, he headed to the roof to tend to his pigeons. He picked a very special one – the one he'd bought off a merchant passing through the village and which he'd always kept locked in its cage – and after feeding the bird its best meal ever, released it from its cage. The feed was also its most expensive treat ever as it contained three little pips of gold. Minutes later, the homing pigeon was on its way to Hi no Kuni.
xxxxx
With Suna nin behind them and to either side, Teams 7 and 8 knowingly advanced towards another force of unknown strength that had a jinchuuriki in its ranks. The poor Sand shinobi thought they had the intruders trapped, but Naruto knew the fools were seeing things ass-backwards. He and his teammates were the hunters in this silly drama and not the hunted. The stupid Suna sods did not know it yet, but he had them right where he wanted.
"Hinata, report?" Naruto barked as they crested a dune and finally, the low hill that was their objective came into view.
"The position is undefended," the byakugan user replied, briefly activating her far-seeing eyes. "Enemy dispositions on the flanks and the rear remain the same relative to ours. There is no sign of the jinchuuriki as of yet on our van."
"Excellent work, Hinata," the blonde praised as they continued in the easy lopping jog they'd been using throughout the day up the hill. He turned to Kiba and Shino next. "Do either of you sense anything that Hinata's missed?"
"None at this time," Shino replied easily.
"Good," Sakura nodded. "We will stick to the plan. Hinata, Shino and Kiba, you're our medical party, observer section and our operational reserve. Naruto, you're in charge of command and communication. You're also in charge of security in our rear and our flanks. Keep the Suna nin on our tail and our sides away from Sasuke and I at all cost. The two of us are responsible for the jinchuuriki and that's going to be a bitch and a half by itself with us fresh and rested."
Everyone repeated their tasking verbatim so that everyone's responsibility was clear. Once they reached the top of the hill, Naruto unsealed the huge canteens of water they'd appropriated from the overrun Suna observation post as well as a tent and short range encrypted radios for communication. Sasuke produced energy rations, and Hinata and Sakura distributed blood and chakra pills. Kiba tended to Akamaru, removing the dog's feather shoes for the first time in days and Shino began mining the area with explosive tags on kunai. There were a great many of both and his kikai bugs would detonate the tags whenever someone other than his allies approached them. As Shino went about this business, Naruto used earth techniques to demolish boulders that obstructed the line of fire in a rough circle with a radius of several hundred yards from the top of the hill while the others took care of nature. Finally, they raised a canopy to give them shade.
Everything was set.
xxxxx
Danzo glared balefully at the open expanse of Wind country from his position atop the rampart of his little fort. He was angry because Kakashi's bastard children had gone missing and Ishimatsu had disappeared with them. The latter, he knew, was almost certainly one with his ancestors. The ex-Root commander wasn't concerned about the fate of his subordinate, but he was worried that he wouldn't get his hands on the unnamed jinchuuriki.
"Any news from the hunters?" he asked his aide, knowing the answer well. Kakashi couldn't be allowed to get his hands on yet another jinchuuriki.
"Nothing positive so far, Danzo-sama. They haven't made contact with the enemy still."
Danzo nodded calmly, though he felt otherwise. The hunt for the jinchuuriki and its cohorts had been on for weeks now and the results had been depressing. Hopefully, Kakashi's darlings would have the same trouble as his Root.
"Let's get out of this heat. Events will unfold as they will and there's precious little we can do from here. The day is young yet and we have yet another meeting with that prick of a diplomat, what's-his-name Koiso. I wonder what new threats the bastard will make today."
xxxxx
"I hate this fucking desert," the kunoichi groused as she and her team jogged towards their destination.
Her nearest companion – their Suna liaison – chuckled.
"Complaining doesn't suit you, Yugito," he replied, flashing her a smile.
"Some of us aren't attuned to this abominable desert heat, thank you," Yugito replied. "Tell me again why the hell we are breaking OpSec by racing across the fucking desert in broad daylight with stealth thrown to the winds like this."
"A post close to Suna was overrun by an unknown force. The enemy massacred the units sent to retake it before they retreated. The council thinks Danzo's involved, but even if he isn't, they want the belligerents killed as an abject lesson to Sand's enemies. Teams of Suna nin are herding the bastards towards us and we're to execute them when they run into us."
"So why aren't we preparing an ambush?" she asked.
"Because our opponents are powerful and this sandy expanse isn't good ground for a drawn out battle. We'll be out of the dunes and into the badlands ten minutes from now and there are plenty of spots there to set up a good ambush."
"And this powerful enemy is going to walk into a trap… Tell me, Kuribayashi, wouldn't the enemy know they're being herded in this direction for some reason? What if they do something else?"
"Each of the herding parties is more than fifty member strong. The enemy has no choice but to run towards us and we have you."
"Yes, we have me," she murmured with a frown in reply. She wasn't happy with the current situation at all. Her Suna compatriots seemed to think that just because she was a jinchuuriki, the outcome of any battle was written in stone. But she hosted only the Two Tail and if Konoha was involved somehow – and she thought Sand's council was right on that point – then there were all those rumors of Konoha's Nine Tail jinchuuriki to worry about…
xxxxx
"Contact," Hinata announced brusquely. "Two man party of scouts at 6 o'clock."
Naruto straightened in his seat, rolled his shoulders and cracked his knuckles.
"Well, it's time to rock and roll," he said cheekily, pulling a swig of water. "Sit back and enjoy the show, guys. You're going to see something special."
Kiba and Sasuke guffawed. Naruto grinned at the two and whispered a few instructions to one of his kage bunshin henged as a pebble on the command desk and dismissed it.
xxxxx
"Well, shit," the Suna scout cursed aloud. "Better call it in, Suk-won. We're going to have to dig these bastards out."
Suk-won nodded, lowering his telescope. The gutsy fuckers were making themselves at home on top of the hill. They even had a motherfucking tent raised to give them shade. He bristled. The least the assholes could do was act like their lives were in peril, which from the pedestal and other assorted accoutrements under their canopy, they were not.
"Let's hope they don't see us before the main force arrives," he muttered back in reply, "or we're all for it."
xxxxx
"Shit," Kuribayashi cursed and threw up his right hand in the air, signaling an impromptu halt.
"Problems?" Yugito asked.
"Yeah," he nodded, drawing out a map and spreading it on the ground as the other members of the team gathered around him. "The enemy has taken command of Toshinari hill and is apparently enjoying a siesta."
Yugito couldn't contain herself and burst into laughter.
The Suna liaison glared at her.
"Well, fuck if that don't take the cake," she shot at him with a shake of her head. Then, in a serious tone, "The enemy screws up your plans. That's why he is the enemy. Now, what are we going to do about it?"
"We set up our ambush while the other teams dig them out."
"How far are we from this hill? And do we have a positive ID?" Yugito asked.
"Thirty minutes. Thereabouts. And no, they're wearing masks, though there's a dog in their little clique. That's another probable indicator that Konoha's involved."
"Then forget the ambush. Let the others try to dig them out. If they do, well and good. We'll catch the enemy in the open when he's tired, beaten and running for his life. If they don't, we'll hit them just as they and your teams are running out of steam. They'll be exhausted defending their position - if they aren't overrun - and we'll make short work of them."
Kuribayashi looked at the others. They nodded.
"Sounds like a plan," he said, calling in their movement over the command channel.
xxxxx
"Well, look who's coming to the party," Naruto quipped jovially, standing up.
The main body of one of the flanking teams had finally shown up. It's leaders were assembling the men in preparation for an assault on their hill.
"Ain't that cute?" the blonde observed. There was only one area on that flank to assemble a reasonably large body men for an assault. He'd hoped that this particular group would show up first and prepared a surprise for them just in case.
Naruto flashed through a bunch of handseals and smiled at his friends.
"Bunshin daibakuha is an unforgiving bitch," he stated aloud.
xxxxx
The XO of the Suna group on the flank of the Konoha nin was in the middle of issuing a command when the world went mad with explosions. Earth, chunks of flesh and sundry items flew tried to reach stable Low Earth Orbits as a piece of hell dawned on the badlands of Kaze no Kuni. As the explosions died and the debris rained down, thirty nine Suna nin lay wounded and seventeen lay dead. Miraculously, three shinobi escaped the holocaust unscathed.
They survived for three seconds before being skewered by chidori wielding kage bunshin. The clones attacked from less than twenty yards – point blank range for chidori assassinations – and gave their victims no chance to defend themselves. The couple of walking wounded staggering around in disorientation and shell shock died in fiery explosions as more clones manifested themselves. Naruto was naturally inclined to execute the rest of the bastards as well, but with observers watching, he didn't want to expose Konoha to accusations of war crimes.
xxxxx
"Fuck," Suk-won cursed even as his teammate radioed in their comrades' fate to the other teams.
He wasn't surprised that there were survivors of the initial attack, but he'd never seen so many people killed in such a short span in his decade long experience as a ninja.
"You got that right. That was the chidori," his partner stated. The technique put paid to the question of the identity of the foreign shinobi. No one outside Konoha knew it. Then, in an angrier voice, "And those bastards are executing the wounded."
Suk-won cast a glance at his partner. It was a de facto law of war that clones did not accept surrenders. Ever. Anyone unlucky enough to find themselves in such a circumstance with a clone were executed for their troubles. But the animosity and the hatred the majority of Suna shinobi held for their Leaf counterparts had grown so much in the last three years that they were all too willing to believe the worst of the latter. The state of affairs wasn't entirely Suna's fault with Danzo's men accounting for their fair share with their brutality.
"I think it's that kid that did in Gaara during the chuunin exams three years back, Goro," he commented, hoping to derail his partner's rant.
Goro got a thoughtful look on his face. Finally, he nodded in assent, his face pale. Only a few Suna survivors of that attack were ever repatriated back to Sand, but the stadium had been stacked full of civilians that day and they'd all talked about it. Hell, that one fight had done as much to enhance Konoha's reputation as their infamous victory over Orochimaru that they'd become the hidden village of choice for civilian business magnates who wanted a little wet work done on their behalf.
"Shit, I think you're right. We'd better call this in. That bastard took out Gaara in one hit. I think we're about to get first row seats on how powerful he's grown in the last three years."
Suk-won nodded. The day just kept on getting better and better.
xxxxx
"What's the matter?" Yugito asked, sidling up to Kuribayashi as the look on the liaison's face turned grim.
"Just got word that one of the flanking teams got taken out."
"How did that happen? I thought they had orders to wait until they could link up with the others before launching an attack."
"They walked into a trap. Apparently, the ground they were assembling on was a giant trap rigged with exploding clones."
"Fuck. Any survivors?"
Kuribayashi shook his head. Then he held up a finger in a gesture of silence and pressed the thumb of his other hand against his earplug to hear better.
"We think we have a positive ID on at least one of the targets."
"Shoot."
"You remember that Uzumaki boy who defeated the Yondaime Kazekage's youngest during the ill-fated chuunin exams three years back."
"That kid?" Yugito asked. "I'd always wondered if things happened as that legend goes."
"We have multiple first hand accounts of that fight. And not just from Fire civilians who were encouraged by Konoha to spread the story. The nobles were particularly enthusiastic in their descriptions. And yes, that kid. They've already sent someone back to Suna to report this news."
"He's probably with his teammates then."
Kuribayashi nodded.
"One of them is an Uchiha," he observed.
"Then we really do have our task cut out for us. What are the other teams doing?"
"They're linking up beyond line of sight and are going to attack en masse."
"Have them wait for our signal. We'll scrape the previous plan, and hit the Leaf ninja from their rear while they're defending themselves against the combined assault."
xxxxx
"We'll be there in five minutes," Kuribayashi barked into his microphone. "Execute."
He nodded at his allies and continued at the present pace. There was no point in reaching the battlefield too early and out of breath. Such stupidity got your throat slit at the end of the day.
xxxxx
"Contact inbound from 5 o'clock. ETA three minutes. Strength upwards of a hundred," Hinata announced, downing a chakra pill to restore her reserves.
"Looks like this is the big one," Sakura muttered, sliding out of her seat.
Kiba had been tracking the scent of the jinchuuriki for close to five minutes now. It did not take a genius to figure out that their enemies planned to stagger their attacks so as to hit the Leaf ninja from the rear while the latter were decisively engaged defending their position from the assaulting Sand shinobi.
Naruto grunted and murmured another set of commands to a kage bunshin disguised as yet another pebble before dismissing it. Then, he turned to his teammates.
"You know your responsibilities. Try to stay alive."
"To victory," Sasuke enthused.
"And excellent booty thereafter," Kiba appended. Akamaru barked in agreement.
Everyone smiled at the Inuzuka scion's words. Naruto met their eyes and nodded.
"Let's do this."
xxxxx
Suk-won heard the order for general assault on his earplug and heaved a small sigh of relief. He and Goro'd managed to avoid detection so far, which meant they'd probably live to see sunset today.
"About time," Goro whispered. He was glad to hear the news as well. Anyone powerful enough to take out that demon Gaara when they were still only twelve years old wasn't someone he ever wanted to tangle with. Ever.
"Yeah," a youngish voice assented from their rear. "This infernal desert heat is unbelievable."
Goro jumped to the side as the threat registered, but Suk-won was already dead with a kunai through the back of his skull. Grateful to have evaded the killing strike aimed at his neck, he cursed his misfortune at being forced to take on the Konoha nin without support.
"And what are you trying to do?" his opponent asked, eyeing the ninjato in Goro's hand speculatively.
Goro opened his mouth to retort and sprayed blood. The chirping of birds filled the air all of a sudden and his last thoughts were to curse himself for forgetting to account for the fact that his enemy was a master of kage bunshin.
xxxxx
The charging Suna nin crested the last dune five hundred meters from Naruto's hill in a straight line, making liberal use of smoke bombs to hide their approach. But smoke was no hindrance to a byakugan user and Hinata rattled off their dispositions in a monotone voice. The first wave consisted of about fifteen teams of two shinobi working together with good separation between the teams. The equally strong second wave trailed the first by sixty yards. The rest of the Sand nin were nowhere in sight.
Naruto nodded at the sight. There was no point in throwing a hundred nin at six targets. Better to overwhelm them in waves using your numerical advantage ruthlessly.
Kiba whistled as Naruto drew a massive dose of the Kyuubi's chakra and formed two clones. At Kiba's signal, a line of kage bunshin two hundred yards from the charging Sand shinobi dropped their henge and in a pitiful demonstration of their lack of skill in archery, shot a staggered bunch of arrows aimed at the first wave into the air.
The first wave of the Suna nin sped up to get under the flight of arrows and the second wave slowed down just a mite for the same reason.
While the attention of the Suna nin were focused on the arrows, Naruto held his hand in front of him and formed a rasengan. He pumped all the chakra he'd borrowed from the kyuubi while his clones manipulated the swirling ball, adding fire and wind elements directed inwards to it. He'd practiced this technique plenty of times at the Frog mountain that it took only six seconds to push the massive quantity of chakra into the sphere. It took another second to exercise the control needed to shrink the ball and then he shot it at his enemies.
xxxxx
Chakra-sensitive nin among the Sand shinobi had already sensed the massive amount of chakra being gathered on the top of the hill and began to increase their separation. Whoever was manipulating the chakra wouldn't have more than a single chance to use such a powerful technique and while none of them had the chakra to block it, they meant to do everything in their power to reduce the casualties it'd inflict on them.
Problem was, Naruto's attack wasn't directed at their ranks. It shot over their heads almost faster than their eyes could track and hit the sand dune behind which lay hidden the rest of the Suna nin.
The blast was a flesh-searing pulse of heat that vaporized several dozen tons of desert sand. It was powerful enough to destroy the top half of the sand dune and knocked the seven members of the second wave closest to it senseless. A dozen more were thrown forcefully against the ground.
As the resultant mushroom cloud rose into the air and debris rained in a rough ovoid a thousand yards long along its semimajor axis, sixty-seven Suna nin who'd lain in wait behind the sand dune lay dead or dying. Many were torn to bits and burned to a crisp by hypersonic sand and plasma, but most were knocked senseless and buried, smothering to death under tons of sand with no hope of escape or rescue. The crack of explosion was the loudest noise the survivors had ever heard and the survivors of the reserve force were pounded hard enough that many of them were going to be worthless for the remainder of that battle.
xxxxx
"What the fuck was that?" Kuribayashi shouted as the loud crack of a distant explosion rang through the air. He looked at the sky in time to see a mushroom cloud scale the sparse clouds above.
Yugito stared at the cloud and whistled appreciatively. Whoever was behind that explosion had just expended a shitload of chakra on one massive attack that equaled the best the Nekomata could throw. It was probably that Uzumaki brat and hopefully, he'd shot his wad off with that stunt.
"I'm unable to get through to anyone on the command channel. I'm going to try the squad communications channel now," the Suna liaison announced.
"Sounds as if those bastards stuck their dicks into a meat-grinder. Damn, this sucks!" one of the others commented.
Yugito did not reply. She was a past master at big explosions and if that Uzumaki brat thought he was the biggest fish in the pond, she meant to teach him better.
xxxxx
The second flight of arrows was in mid air when the blast wave hit them. One hundred and thirty of the roughly two hundred kage bunshin disguised as arrows bought it in the fiery cataclysm and thirty more were wounded. The injured clones dismissed themselves and the survivors transformed back to their real selves and hit the ground rolling. The members of the first flight who were battle worthy joined them. Simultaneously, the wannabe archers dropped their bows - which were transformed kage bunshin as well - and launched a straight up mass charge at high speed.
Disoriented by the explosion and beset from the front and their rear or flanks by ninjato wielding suicidal clones, a dozen Suna nin went down under the press. Ten more stayed behind to engage the clones and the twenty-odd shinobi that broke through the wave of kage bunshin charged up the hill.
They were all that survived of the two waves. Some clones acting on their own initiative had already executed the Suna nin knocked flat by the explosion while others mounted that reckless counter-charge at the Sand shinobi.
The surviving assault force maintained fairly reasonable order for an unit that'd experienced the kind of casualties they had. They were less than steady at this point, but were motivated by hatred for Konoha and knew that all they had to do was hold their enemy's attention for a couple of minutes before their relieving force hit the Lead ninja from the rear.
But there was a problem. To cross the remaining two hundred yards of open land that stood between them and their objective at the top of the hill, they had to cover the impromptu mine field that Shino had rigged with exploding seals. And Shino's kikai bugs were like bees in the manner they thought nothing of sacrificing their lives to protect the hive – the hive being Shino, his clan and finally Konoha in this case.
A dozen explosions rocked the air within the space of three seconds. Only two Suna nin were hurt and killed by the blasts, but this was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
The Suna survivors had seen seventy percent of their strength reduced to well cooked morsels, witnessed more of their number buy the farm under a mass wave of suicidal clones, and seen ten of their comrades throw away their lives as a sacrificial rearguard so that the remainder could fulfill the mission. Well, their mission was to hold the attention of the Konoha nin on the top of the hill so that the composite team of their compatriots from Sand as well as their Kumo allies could hit the Leaf shinobi from the rear. They'd endured more than any sane man could to complete it, but their allies hadn't shown up and that promised attack from the rear had yet to materialize. There is only so much even the toughest veterans can bear and they were far past their limits.
And so, the surviving Suna nin turned tail and broke into a rout. In the end, none of them came any closer than fifty yards of their objective.
Naruto's clones weren't done, however, and they took after the fleeing shinobi.
xxxxx
"That's the end of that," Kiba said wonderingly, shaking his head.
They'd been outnumbered at better than thirty to one, but Naruto alone had been enough to stop the attack cold and beat back the attack. It'd surprise the hell out of Kiba if more than a hundred nin hadn't died in that attack. Which was one hell of a number. True, they'd had the advantage of the terrain and had fought behind prepared defenses, but the scale of the victory was simply staggering.
"Contact," Sasuke and Hinata announced simultaneously.
The announcement left Kiba chagrined. Naruto's lone battle against the Suna nin had been so engaging that the chuunin scout had forgotten that it was only a sideshow. True, if they'd been overrun in the assault, they would have ended up just as dead, but a jinchuuriki was on the main course and…
"Scram," Sasuke shouted in warning. He followed his own advice by shunshining away from the hill.
Naruto and Sakura knew their teammate well enough to follow his advice without question, but Kiba and Shino looked askance at Hinata. She did not reply, but her pallid face, the terrified look on her widened eyes and the fact that she executed a shunshin herself told them all they needed to know. Akamaru and Kiba stampeded down the hill away from the whatever was approaching them, and Shino shunshined away himself.
The world went white.
xxxxx
By the time the damned hill was in view, Yugito felt as if she was going to burst with all the chakra she'd drawn from the Two Tail. She'd also started transforming into the tailed beast, which was probably all that kept her from blowing sky high. So, she unleashed her attack the second she saw their objective. Then, she transformed fully into her jailed demon.
xxxxx
The Nekomata was a master of fire and the explosion from Yugito's attack easily rivaled the one Naruto'd thrown at his Suna assailants. Kiba, who was halfway down the hill, was picked up and thrown into the air. He landed hard and immediately lost consciousness from a broken and concussed head. It was a small mercy as a boulder weighing several hundred kilos bounced off his right hand a fraction of a second later. As the rain of debris stopped, Akamaru crawled to its master with two broken legs, numerous broken ribs and a broken tail, whining piteously. The dog licked its master, but the young chuunin was lost to the world in a coma.
"Fuck," Sasuke swore landing next to Naruto. He'd been prepared to fight an earth element using jinchuuriki against which his lightning would be effective and not a fire wielding one. "It's the Two Tail and it's using fire."
"No shit, Uke. You're buggered for sure," Naruto replied, forming clones. He was down to half his chakra, but he had plenty of fight left in him. And there were also the kyuubi or the Sage techniques to fall back on if the worst came to pass.
The Nekomata launched another huge ball of fire at their position and the two Konoha nin split.
"Team 8," Naruto keyed in his radio, "this is way over your heads. Try to stay alive and engage the rest of the jinchuuriki's team. Stay away from the Two Tail at all cost. Repeat, stay away from the Two Tail at all cost."
"We hear and comply," Shino's voice came back in reply. "Kiba's WIA and Hinata's stabilizing him. I'm moving to engage the enemy."
"Roger," the blonde replied. "Sasuke, Sakura, the Nekomata is all yours. I'll join in the party after I neutralize her support."
xxxxx
As Naruto left to take care of the support, Sasuke cursed his luck, dodging yet another ball of fire. He knew from confidential reports filed by survivors of close encounters of the Nekomata kind in the previous wars that the damn cat was a one trick pony like the Shukaku. It could throw fire, and lots of it – practically a wall, from what he was seeing – and it had the reflexes of a cat on steroids, but that was about it.
Simply put, the raven-haired sharingan user faced a fire-breathing cat monstrosity with a human intellect holding its reins. Problem from his end was that he was a lightning adept with fire as his second element. True, he knew tons of water element techniques, but he simply did not have the monstrous reserves to waste like Naruto and his water techniques were inefficient.
But this much was certain. He wasn't going to win this battle by being on the defensive.
"Where the fuck is that pink-haired wench when you need her?" he muttered as he immersed himself in his Seal of Power and darted in towards the Two Tail.
The beast nimbly jumped several hundred yards out of the way and threw a veritable storm of fireballs in his direction. Abandoning offense for the nonce, the Uchiha scion used a kawarimi to get the hell out of dodge and cut down an enemy nin who stood at arms length and who had his back turned to the sharingan user.
Another terrifyingly large ball of flame zeroed unerringly on his position and Sasuke obligingly used kawarimi to snag another nin into the path of the fireball and escaped death once more. He heaved a sigh of relief as Sakura finally announced her presence with a monstrous punch to the Nekomata's torso that sent the beast skittering against the ground. Then she disappeared in a crowd of bunshins that went scampering in every direction.
The giant cat yowled in pain as it regained its legs and opened its mouth wide in the direction where it thought its tormentor hidden. A huge ball of incandescent flame grew between its jaws, and friend and foe alike scampered aside as the tailed beast unleashed another monstrous explosion.
"Fuck," Sasuke muttered as he shunshined next to the beast. He charged his ninjato with chidori and used the lightning he'd guided over the blade to slice the cat's tendon in two.
The Nekomata howled again, but as Sasuke charged between its legs, he noted that the wound healed almost as fast as he made it. That was better than Naruto's healing ability and it did not bode well for his health in the short run. And true to his fears, the Two Tail jumped high into the air and breathed fire at his position again.
Sasuke shunshined out of the way of the cataclysmic wall of flames fractions of a second before it reached him. The air filled with the stench of hair and he patted the flames out. He'd almost lost his head there.
The Two Tail came down perfectly poised for a perfect ten-point landing and then, suddenly it was sailing up into the air with its head knocked back. Sakura landed hard on the ground and swatted at the nin who charged her with glowing hands. The man slumped dead, his aorta cut.
"What the fuck is Naruto doing? These bastards are everywhere," she complained.
Sasuke watched the beast fly away with an appreciative smile and chuckled at her comment.
"I'm sure he's doing his best. How many more shots have you got?" he asked. Sakura had learned from Tsunade the use of seals to store chakra and and using them to power the punches like she was to pummel the monster cat drained the reserves exceedingly fast.
"Five, maybe six punches. After that, I can give you ranged support with genjutsu, but that's it."
The giant cat had landed by this time and regained its bearings. It bounded at the two Konoha nin and they split in separate directions. Sakura used her bunshin once again to lose herself in the crowd before she shunshined out of the line of fire and used a henge on herself to transform into an ordinary looking rock. Sasuke broke left, then turned and counter-charged the Nekomata. Once again, he slid between its legs easily and used raikiri to carve it from sternum to cervix. The wound was fatal to any living being, but this was a tailed beast and it wasn't even phased.
Sasuke shunshined thrice as the beast went berserk once more.
"We should stop meeting like this," he told Sakura as the smoke and dust of explosions obscured the battlefield.
"That fucking cat is throwing explosions like crazy," Sakura groused, ignoring the comment as the ground shook from yet another huge explosion. "Doesn't the stupid bitch ever run out of juice?"
A pebble bounced off her head in reply and more dirt fell on them.
"Problem is we're not making an impression. We need to get at the jinchuuriki. Or you can try coldcocking the beast senseless," Sasuke suggested.
"Interesting idea. We'll try yours first. Where is the host inside all that flesh?"
Another fireball came flying in finally and Sasuke shunshined away, his sharingan blazing. He headed straight at the cat, scanning it with his eyes and shunshined away again. The Nekomata was once again fooled into focusing solely on him and paid dearly for its oversight as Sakura appeared at its side and punched its foreleg. The leg bent at an unnatural angle and the beast crashed down hard. Unfortunately, its fall put Sakura in line of its mouth as she ran away and the Two Tail spat another massive ball of fire at her. The flames engulfed the kunoichi before she could shunshin away and was thrown away by the explosion, a smoking wreck.
Sasuke saw his teammate's fate as he came charging in, his whole body shrouded in lightning. His face hardened a tad as he slammed into the Two Tail's chest and tore through the flesh to its precious cargo. He reached Yugito with plenty of energy to spare and rammed the gogyo fuin into her stomach. The beast vanished as its chakra supply failed and he collapsed next to Kumo jinchuuriki. Sakura was dead, but at least they had the Two Tail sealed.
The Uchiha scion sat there, unmindful of the goings on in the battlefield around him for he did not know how long.
"Hey, hero," a familiar voice broke him out of his despondency, "you defeated the Two Tail."
"But I'm sealing it," Naruto appended with a chuckle. "Get up, you lazy ass. We got work and Kiba needs medical attention."
Sasuke turned to his friends and stared.
"I thought you'd died," he told Sakura.
"I used up the last of my stored chakra, but I weathered the blast."
"How?" he asked.
"Used all of my reserves as a crude shield. Didn't think it'd work, but here I am, so I guess it did."
Sasuke smiled and rose to his feet. He dragged his pink-haired teammate into a great big hug, laughing all the while.
Naruto grinned and turned to Team 8.
"Ready?" he asked.
They nodded.
"Good," he said, "I'm sending Kiba and Akamaru directly to Konoha along with the jinchuuriki. Tsunade-sama will probably be able to help the former and the Godaime must have custody of the latter."
"Will he be okay?" Sasuke asked. "What happened?"
"He got caught in the first blast," Hinata replied. "He's hurt pretty bad."
The Uchiha scion nodded and turned to Naruto as the latter summoned the two toads Kosuke and Gama-chan.
"Kosuke, you're carrying the five of us to Danzo's camp," the blonde said, using ninjutsu to create a pool of water. "And don't give me any lip like last time about how you can't carry so many people."
"I won't," Kosuke replied obediently. He'd get his own back for being ordered around later.
"Gama-chan, please carry Kiba-kun and Akamaru to Konoha. They need urgent medical attention. Also, deliver this scroll to Godaime-sama. It contains the Two Tail jinchuuriki and I needn't stress the importance of this assignment."
Gama-chan nodded and departed with her precious cargo.
Naruto turned to Kosuke and shot a cheeky smile.
"Let's pay the venerable Danzo-sama a visit now, shall we?"
xxxxx
Koiso, the Kaze no Kuni diplomat, was being his usual hateful self and was in the middle of yet another diatribe when a smallish toad jumped out of the bowl of water placed in one corner of the room.
"What's that beast doing here?" he screeched, abandoning his rant midway.
Danzo waved away the guards who'd moved to assault the intruder and turned a benign gaze at the diplomat.
"I believe we're about to find out, Koiso-san," he said, watching the diplomat's reaction bemusedly as the toad regurgitated five of the vanished Konoha nin. He reflected mildly that they looked much the worse for wear and that the Inuzuka boy, his mutt and Shintani were missing. As the five nin saluted him, he nodded acknowledgement.
"It behooves a host to ensure sufficient privacy during diplomatic meetings with a representative of another state," Koiso needled. "Surely, Hi no Kuni is not so far gone into barbarianism that you've forgotten your manners, Brigadier Danzo?"
Danzo ignored the blithering fool and raised an eyebrow at the five nin before him. Scenarios ran through his mind as to what might have happened, but his mind came up empty in its quest for a possible explanation. There were simply too many solutions to guess with any reasonable degree of certainity.
"Our investigation is successfully concluded, Danzo-sama," Sakura reported.
"Oh? I see that liaison Shintani is not with you and that you're missing one of your members," he asked somberly. To the diplomat, he said, "These are the investigators appointed by Konoha to probe the murders of my men, Koiso-san."
"And what have they discovered?" the official asked querulously.
Sakura stepped forward with a smile.
"That Sunagakure is preparing to wage war with Konoha once again. This time under the orders of Kaze no Kuni from prima facie evidence," she accused. "Sand have enlisted Kumo's help in this regard and have been using Kumo nin to ambush patrols from Danzo-sama's command."
"Rubbish," the diplomat replied hotly. "You have no evidence to support your unfounded and ill-advised malicious accusations."
"On the contrary," Naruto stepped forward, unfurling a sealing scroll and releasing its contents, "we have captured Kumo and Suna nin who were working on that mission. You'll have to explain to your neutral Kumo allies that Konoha has taken custody of the Nibi no Nekomata."
"Nibi no Nekomata?" the diplomat repeated slowly.
"Yes. Have fun explaining to Kumo how you lost the jinchuuriki they'd lent you."
Danzo smiled predatorially.
"I think this meeting's over and you suddenly have more pressing concerns, don't you, Koiso-san?
xxxxx
Author's notes:
Team 7 were trained by Jiraiya and Kakashi, advised by Tsunade and guided by Sarutobi. They are this powerful. They have to be to confront the likes of S-rank criminals and jinchuuriki, who are what they were to trained to kill or capture. I'm not sure if the Sasuke-Sakura-Two Tail battle is a good read or not. I hope it is, but I'm not sure how one should go about writing a battle with a manifested tailed beast. I hope you liked it.
I know the chapter's been delayed some, but the muse was being a bitch earlier. I was inspired today, however and wrote roughly 6.8k words (yeah, that's how bad the slump was before today.) I got out of it briefly a couple of weeks back, but then a TFF-er named Zeebee1 made a comment that I'm not sure was pointed at me or not. He said something about spelling mistakes and it motivated me to go back and correct the ones that I could spot. I'm sure there are more, but I've never been good with proofing my own chapters. Anyways, I guess what I mean to say is, I've edited all previous chapters. If you're so minded, do go back and read from the prologue to this chapter. There is only one big change, however, and it's on chapter 2 or 3. You have Pagan Thunderlord to thank for it. He pointed out a rather huge hole in the logic and I have corrected it.
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