A/N: This is my first try as an author so bear with me. English isn't my first language so don't hesitate to pm me with any fault you find, I am always eager to learn.
Alright, here we go for a new chapter, I may have made some mistakes with the plot or antagonize some people with my decisions but, as far as I'm concerned, it was one hell of a ride and I thank you all again for your participation to the construction of this first project of mine.
Now, I couldn't help but laugh as I took a look at the responses I got for the previous chapter. I can't really blame you guys since Sakura isn't exactly my favorite character either but what a consensus, everyone wanted the pink haired kunoichi to meet her end after the council meeting, some even provided means of doing so, quite painful and imaginative means I may add. I will concede the question about Sasuke's reaction to the whole losing the war thing was not really a question, as we all know how the emo king would behave in that situation.
Surprisingly, no one complained about how there was no Edo Tensei or the fact that the Alliance won too fast or too easily. I guess my author note with the warning about distancing the story from the canon development paid off. Thanks for your patience and I'll let you read how this goes on ...
Anyway, welcome to the next chapter of Kaze No Kami.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other manga for that matter.
Chapter 59 : The Final Siege
Fortified Command Center
Haruno Sakura could hear some people speaking around her but with the blindfold and the gag, she couldn't recognize the several occupants of the room she was currently being held in. She only managed to identify the voices of Tsunade, her former sensei and Naruto, her former classmate in the academy.
The kunoichi paled when she heard what they were speaking about, things were not looking good for her, she was charged with high treason and they even found a way to discriminate the people who really were under Sasuke's mind control doujutsu.
She couldn't believe how easy it was for her to be captured, by her former rival for Sasuke's affection no less, Yamanaka Ino. She was in the process of running away from Kusagakure before the Alliance could start its siege. Like many others in her case, she was intercepted by Naruto's armies before they could reach Amegakure. The blond quickly took out the several jonin that were escorting her while Ino used a strange genjutsu that caught her off guard.
The rest is history and when she finally woke up, her chakra was already sealed and her movements were restricted. The next thing she knows, she's brought here in a room where her former master and classmate are discussing her fate with other people she didn't even know of.
"There is but one fate for those who betrayed the trust of their comrades and village, Hokage-dono." The Raikage said as he saw Tsunade hesitating with her decision on how to deal with Sakura.
His words did not seem to wake Tsunade up though, seeing his Ba-chan in this state, Naruto decided to stand up next to her and say the words she knew she had to pronounce but couldn't bring herself to, considering her relation to the convicted kunoichi.
"Haruno Sakura, for your crimes against the Leaf you are hereby sentenced to death. You would have been granted a quick and painless death, were your crimes only limited to your act of treason against Konoha. However, for your participation in the systematic and organized genocide of the population from the several villages your master Uchiha Sasuke invaded, you will be executed in public as soon as the situation allows it. Hiashi, Inoichi, I want her chakra permanently sealed and her memory fully scanned for any information you may deem relevant to help us win this war against her master." Naruto announced.
The two clan heads were surprised by Naruto's presence and how the blond radiated authority in a room already full of leaders. Both nodded before taking away the prisoner, she would be escorted straight back to Konoha as soon as they could extract whatever they needed from her mind. Sakura was never allowed to speak for herself during all this, as unfair as it may seem, she was guilty, all knew and they had solid proof of it.
"Now, let's move on with this meeting, shall we ?" Naruto said as he went through hand signs and sealed the room. Given the enemy's recent abilities to infiltrate even the most secured places, they couldn't be too careful about this from now on.
For the next two hours, every Kage gave the assembly a precise report of all their battles against Otogakure's forces. As expected, Konoha had more casualties than any of the other villages, since they fought on more front lines and had specialized teams dispatched all over the continent with their medics, mind walkers and Byakugan users.
It was also decided during that time that the recent territories freed from the enemy's armies would be temporary placed under the Alliance's control, as protectorates, at least until all those nations could rule by themselves once again.
As such, for the time being Kiri had to oversee Hot Spring Country, Kumo had Rice Country, Iwa got Waterfall while Suna took Grass. With Konan and her ties to Rain Country, Naruto and Tsunade agreed to have Konoha take charge in Rain when the country would be free again from Sasuke's clutches.
"Now that all those things are out of the way, we have one final matter to discuss, Amegakure ..." Naruto said, gaining once again the attention of the entire room as the Alliance's Leader spoke about the last stronghold still under Sasuke's influence.
Amegakure – Kage Tower
Speaking of the devil, Uchiha Sasuke, said young man was currently pacing inside his office. He was furious, scrap that, he was livid at the blond and his friends for once again humiliating him. He thought that the enemy would for sure target him first, with him being the Kage and an Uchiha. But instead of that, they only went for the other secondary targets, completely disregarding Amegakure.
Now, he lost all communications with the other shinobi villages under his command. He also lost contact with Sakura, the kunoichi was pretty pathetic in terms of combat abilities but her healing skills would have been more than welcomed on this day, with the massive amount of injured they had. She was supposed to visit Kusagakure and its new poison research facility when all this mess started. The only thing he knew was that the village was attacked and they had to flee.
As a result he knew that all he had left was the fortified city of Amegakure, even Rain Country was out of his reach now, with the Alliance's armies were all around them, a huge siege was established and they were surrounded from all direction.
In terms of military power, from the once thirty thousand men under his command, only remained ten thousand of them and even then, a good quarter of them were injured. The rest were tired and under a great deal of pressure. His last resort was to trust in the project Kabuto and Tobi had been working on for the past several weeks. He was pulled out of his musing as his second in command entered his office.
"I'm here to report the success from the activation of the clones, my lord." Kabuto said with a smirk, as he stood before his leader.
"Finally some good news, how many of them were viable so far ?" Sasuke seemed satisfied and asked back.
"Seventy five thousands, my lord. Some of them are still in the underground lab but I took the liberty to deploy the rest all around the village." Kabuto replied, taking out a mini map and showing Sasuke the position of their new forces.
"You did well, now, where is Tobi ? Was he not working with you on this project ?" Sasuke said, noticing that the masked man was not there with Kabuto.
"He was, my lord, but he disappeared as soon as the clones were activated. You better than anyone else know how hard it is to track that man with his space / time jutsu." Kabuto said with a frown.
"I see, what of the prisoner Tobi brought that helped to speed up the project ?" Sasuke asked.
"Still locked within the underground lab, I've put him under with pretty strong drugs, he shouldn't wake up any soon." Kabuto reported.
"What about Suigetsu, Guren, Kimimaro and Juugo ? What are they all up to?" Sasuke didn't really keep in touch with his staff lately, ever since the Alliance's counterattack started, the Otokage just stayed locked inside his office, only meeting with Kabuto once in a while.
"Suigetsu is dealing with the remains of your army, Juugo and Kimimaro and restless ever since Sakura disappeared and I haven't seen Guren in a while, I'm afraid she discovered that Yukimaru is no more under our care and she plans or already did betrayed you." Kabuto replied.
"We'll deal with that woman later, for now I want you to go with Suigetsu and oversee the healing of the injured. I want them all ready to fight once the enemy attacks us once again." Sasuke gave Kabuto his new orders.
The silver haired scientist left immediately after that, leaving Sasuke alone in his office once more. Neither of them took the time to look out the window or they would have noticed that strange looking bird that flew in circle in the sky of their city. It would have taken a single glance at it with the Sharingan to see that instead of a bird, the creature was in fact a small sized dragon, summoned by Naruto in order to scout their defenses.
The dragon spy didn't stay that long though, it just took enough time to spot the city's main defenses and assess the number of soldiers defending it. There was a lot to report and Naruto needed to know what it found out immediately so the creature dispelled itself to return faster to its summoner.
Back in the Alliance's Command Center
Naruto and the five Kage were still discussing the details of their upcoming assault against the city of Amegakure when a puff of smoke disturbed their session. Out of the smoke appeared a small dragon and it immediately flew towards Naruto, its summoner, in order to give its report about the enemy's base.
"Naruto-sama, as per your wishes, I went to investigate the defenses of Amegakure. They have built up a large wall that goes all around the city, with multiple traps on its surface to avoid invaders climbing up.
In addition to this, they set up some kind of long-range anti-siege weaponry that allows them to launch large rocks over a great distance. These devices are placed on the rooftops of their very tall towers which allows them an even better range.
Finally, my first estimation of the total number of their army is eighty thousand men at least. There was something off about the most of them though, I felt something familiar from most of them but couldn't say what exactly." The dragon said, bowing down in front of Naruto.
The audience was stunned by the information they just got from Naruto's spy, overwhelmed by the details of what Sasuke still had at his disposal.
"We all knew it was a possibility before Operation Stormbringer was initialized. In exchange for taking back all the territories that Sasuke invaded, we would in return, at least temporary, turn our eyes away from him and allow him to fortify his position while we take out his outposts." A said.
"But to think he still had that much soldiers under his command, they greatly outnumber us and furthermore, they hold the defender's position and the higher grounds." Mei added.
"We won't be able to come that much closer to their walls with their long-range weapons." Gaara mused out loud.
"Even if we take those machines out of the equation, their walls are still on our way. We won't be able to climb them so easily if they are trapped and have guards shooting us down over them." Kurotsuchi commented.
"You're too quiet, Naruto. What are you thinking about ?" Tsunade asked the Alliance's Leader.
"We can't get any closer to the city without losing many men in the process, and even if we could, we'd still be outnumbered two to one with them having the higher grounds." Naruto said.
"We already know that, Gaki. What are you trying to say ?" A barked out.
"You all look at the battlefield with only a two-dimensional point of view, however, if we were to consider a three-dimensional view of that same battlefield, there are two other ways to get in there that none of you have considered yet.
We still surround them in all the directions, so unless they want to expose themselves by going out from behind their walls, it leaves us with all the time and space we need in order to prepare such an assault against them.
Many of us have summoning contracts that would help us with the upcoming plan, my dragons could prove very useful in getting us over their defenses by flying over them. So now, let's get to work ..." Naruto announced, missing the look of amazement from all the people inside the room.
"Ninpo : Kuchiyose no Jutsu !" Yelled the blond, as a small dragon creature was summoned into the human world.
Amegakure - One Week later ...
One agonizing week had passed ever since the alliance started the siege around the city of Amegakure. The soldiers were fine, given the fact that they either were the soulless drones programmed by Sasuke to do his bidding or Zetsu's clones that had no mind of their own either.
The ones under pressure were Sasuke and his staff, they couldn't sleep very well, knowing that their enemy was right there, just outside the walls of the city, ready to attack. Sasuke even started to wonder if the Alliance's plan was to just stand there and wait for them to starve to death while doing nothing more than block their escape routes.
However, on the dawn of seventh day of waiting the silence was finally broken by the alarm's sound, resonating all around the city. The already clouded sky of the city where it never stops to rain became even darker as thousands of creature were spotted in the sky above them.
"We're under attack, Uchiha-sama. It's the Alliance's armies, they are attacking us from above !" Yelled a jonin that barged into Sasuke's office.
"To the walls idiots, to the walls. Take position on the walls and shoot them down !" Sasuke replied as he got on top of his Kage Tower to get a better view of the battle. He was soon joined by the remaining of his staff, Kabuto, Kimimaro, Juugo and Suigetsu.
With Mei, Kurotsuchi and Gaara
Leading the assault from the sky were Mei, Kurotsuchi and Gaara. They had ten thousand men with them, riding summon creatures from all the summoners that could call forth flying animals. Naruto provided most of them by having Ryuoh, the Dragon King himself, reverse summoned all his kingdom with him to the human world.
Gaara was there as well, providing them with countermeasures against the defender's weapons with his sand shield. The Kazekage floated above the sky with his chakra controlled sand, where the enemy could not reach him.
Mei and Kurotsuchi were chosen to lead that attack due to their extensive mastery of Yoton ninjutsu, allowing them to bombard the city from above using their very effective lava attacks. The men and women with them used exploding tags to hit the city from their positions, doing less damage than the two Kage but still efficient.
It took Sasuke's men some precious minutes to reorganize themselves, allowing the Alliance's forces to hit many of their strategic defense systems. The long range artillery was hit first, it was their priority to destroy those targets if they wanted to succeed in this battle. The main doors were targeted next, their fall would allow the twenty thousand men waiting outside to infiltrate the city.
When Sasuke's men finally started to fire back against the aerial assault, Gaara used his radio transmitter to contact his allies.
With Naruto, A and Bee
"Phase one is clear, I repeat, Phase one is clear." Could be heard on the private channel used by the Alliance's commanders.
"That's Gaara's signal, the enemy is currently drawn to their walls, it's our chance to strike them in their back." Naruto said, getting nods from the Raikage and his brother.
They were currently in the same sewer system that allowed Naruto, Konan and Kurenai to infiltrate the city not that long ago. As expected, the passage they had used to get inside the first time had been sealed ever since but, with the time they had, new tunnels were dug and they were in the process of detonating a large number of exploding tags, right under the surface of Amegakure's town center.
Naruto, A and Bee were chosen to lead the underground assault since they were the heavy hitters of the Alliance. Naruto and Bee were Juggernaut, monsters of chakra and stamina while A was most likely the deadliest man alive in close contact. They too had ten thousand men with them, ready to jump out of the hole they were planing to create with the explosion of those tags.
With a single Ram hand sign, Naruto sent a silent command that activated all the exploding tags. A tremendous explosion followed and opened a gaping hole, right under the center of Amegakure.
"Let's go men, fight if you wanna live !" A shouted as their group jumped out of the giant hole they just created. The Raikage immediately activated his Raiton no Yoroi, making him a lot faster and stronger.
Bee and Naruto looked at each other, shrugging and then followed behind the hyperactive Kage, with Bee calling forth the Hachibi youki and transforming into his tailed beast form while Naruto activated his Ultimate Wind Form, the Ten'i Muho no Kiwami.
Once they reached the surface, they saw that the Raikage was already going wild with the first defenders he could get his electrically charged hands on. Naruto sighed and then took out a kunai with a strange looking tag attached to it. The blond threw it high in the sky and when the tag activated, it produced a deep red flash above their position.
With Tsunade, Yugito and Natsuki
Sounds of the explosion from Amegakure's town center were heard all the way to the Alliance's HQ and seconds later the red flash was seen as well.
"That's our sign to begin the ground frontal assault. Yugito, Natsuki you take the lead and I will organize our forces and see to the injured ones from behind." Tsunade said to the two kunoichi.
"Hai, Hokage-dono. You heard her, we move out. As soon as the gates fall we will charge right through them." Yugito said, standing ion front of the twenty thousand men in attention behind her.
Another explosion was heard, closer to them. It was a combined attack of both the Tsuchi and Mizu Kage that just vaporized Amegakure's main gates.
"Let's go, the gates have fallen !" Yelled Natsuki as they all charged forward.
A/N : What do you think ?
The final battle has started, with the Alliance's three step plan. So far everything goes well enough, will this last ?
This is still absolute chaos inside Amegakure, how will the defenders react, what will be Sasuke's strategy, if he got one ?
Tobi still has to make his appearance, what is he up to ?
Read the next issue to find out :)
As usual please Read and Review.