The sounds of explosions shook the hospital, causing Kakashi's attention to immediately switch to the large explosions popping up on the horizon around Konoha. His jaw almost dropped at seeing the surprise attack, but his ninja training kicked in far faster than normal human emotion. Something terribly wrong was happening in Konoha and he had to find out what exactly it was and fast. Kakashi had a very bad feeling, that many explosions couldn't just be an accident. Looking between his two students, both of whom who were staring out the window in shock, Kakashi knew he had to make a hard choice.
"Kiba," Kakashi started, looking towards his student. "You need to listen to me carefully and remain calm, understand?" he asked.
The Inazuka looked over at his Sensei as though he just noticed Kakashi had even been in the room, He nodded slowly, looking his teacher in the eye.
"Good. Stay here and guard Sasuke, I'll be back soon, okay?" Kakashi spoke slowly, staring his student in the eyes.
Kiba looked taken aback, replying, "Stay here? But – what the hell is going on?! Are we under attack?"
"We don't know that. That's why I have to go find out. And if we are, you remember your training correct?" Kakashi asked, keeping his tone as even and calm as he could.
Kiba nodded, remembering the drills that they had to run back in the academy. They had been taught that in case of an invasion, all genin were supposed to meet their Jonin-sensei's or report to the nearest evacuation gathering spot to receive orders on what they were to guard. As most Chunin or higher level ninja were called to fight at the front lines, genin were used as defense for vital civilian areas or escape routes away from the fighting. The hospital being one such area, given that it wasn't currently a warzone.
"So we're to stay here and guard the Hospital?" Kiba asked, remembering his training.
Kakashi nodded, with a ghost of a smile. "Stay here and guard Sasuke and don't let him out of his restraints. He's still recovering and unstable at the moment." Kakashi continued, aware that he was talking about Sasuke as if he wasn't in the room. It wasn't something he liked doing, but Sasuke would be doing far more harm than good if he was able to move around. Not counting his current state of mind, the fact he had used the curse mark meant that his seal had been broken and could now easily influence him.
"What?!" Sasuke roared, burning a hole in his teachers back from how intense his glare was. He fought his restraints even harder, rubbing his skin raw in the process where the straps kept him in place. He had already tried to attempt a substitution jutsu, but the cuffs holding his wrists down had engravings all along them, some form of fuinjutsu used to seal chakra off.
Kakashi suppressed a sigh, looking towards the conflicted Kiba, who seemed to be switching between
loyalty to his teammate or his orders. "Kiba, it's for his own safety. If he goes berserk and charges out to fight, he would get overwhelmed by far more experienced ninja and killed." He spoke, though to be honest he wasn't sure how much of that was true. While experience counted for much in the ninja world, natural genius and advantages in jutsu could easily turn the tides. The Curse Mark, while dangerous, did indeed bestow awesome power and an increased chakra pool to it's user.
This seemed to bring it home to Kiba, who took a glance over at Sasuke, hoping to see a pleading look or anything of the like. All he saw though was a boy possessed by his rage and obviously in no shape to think rationally, much less fight. "All right." Kiba finally spoke, "I'll make sure nothing bad happens to Sasuke."
Kakashi smiled under his mask and nodded, disappearing in a flash.
XXXX
Above the carnage in the stadium, Sarutobi and Jiraiya steeled their glares, keeping watch on Orochimaru's every movement. Both were worried about the village below, and with having a birds eye view of almost the entire village they could see the enemy troops beginning to fly over the walls and infiltrate the village almost freely, the wall guards and the first responding ninja doing their best to slow their progress.
"Kukuku," Orochimaru chuckled, looking over at the wanton destruction with almost perverse and erotic features on his face, clearly taking extreme pleasure out of seeing the events unfold below.
"Damn you Orochimaru! You've gone way too far this time!" Jiraiya shouted, his anger clear to see. Even though he thought himself a pacifist and tried all he could to ensure such a road could be taken in any situation, his old teammate proved that method didn't always work.
"Oh? You haven't seen anything yet, but I promise you will get to see every agonizing final moment of the village." Orochimaru replied, looking back towards his infuriated ex-teammate.
Sarutobi who had been quiet, took a step forward. "You intend to keep us locked here to only see to it that we have no choice but to witness your craven plans be wrought upon the village?"
Orochimaru answered by giving a cocky smirk.
"And what would make you think that we would just sit by and let that occur?" Sarutobi continued.
"You're more than welcome to try and break out." Orochimaru replied, crossing his arms.
Jiraiya laughed and cracked his knuckles. "You really think you can take the both of us on? You've always been egotistical, but this is just insanity."
Orochimaru, his smirk still plastered onto his face, only shook his head. "Oh I know I would loose rather quickly if I attempted to fight the both of you. My only goal is to keep you both preoccupied." As Orochimaru finished his reply, several clones appeared around Jiraiya and Sarutobi.
"Let's begin shall we, my dearest friends?" Orochimaru chuckled, as his clones charged in to attack.
XXXX
Shino watched as the smoke began to clear from the blast area, keeping a keen eye out for any signs of life. Looking within the small crater formed by the blast, no trace of human life had been left.
Switching his attention away from his defeated opponent, he caught a glimpse of his Sensei who was currently fighting off an enemy with a kunai, along with Asuma who stood at her back with his own hands full fighting off enemies.
As Shino began to head towards them to assist, he sensed killing intent flying towards him from his back. Turning quickly, he raised his arm, encasing it in a special type of beetle which possessed shells almost as hard as steel. And when used in conjunction with many other beetles, allowed for a powerful defense.
Flying towards him was an Oto ninja, ready to kill Shino and avenge his fallen comrade. Before he could reach the genin however, a flash of steel appeared in front of him and severed his head before he had time to even think.
Shino looked over and saw Hayate standing firm with his katana outstretched, the enemy ninja's body falling harmlessly to the ground, his blood already quenching the soil. "Are you alright Shino-san?" Hayate asked, his coughing seemingly repressed by sheer will.
Shino nodded, before yelling out a warning and pointing towards more enemy ninja who were charging down to fight. Hayate re-formed his stance, but in an instant, all three were hit by a blinding blur, blood exploding from fatal wounds as they fell to the ground in pieces.
Hayate smiled as he saw a familiar ANBU land in front of him, her sword bloody. "Hayate, are you alright?" The ANBU asked, concern apparent in her tone as she stepped closer.
Hayate smiled, "I'm fine Yugao. Is everything okay in the village?"
Yugao shook her head. "It's. . . not good. They took us by complete surprise and the village is in chaos. We're doing all we can to control the situation but the fire attacks were placed in areas where it could spread quickly. Beyond that, we just have our hands full trying to keep the civilians protected as they retreat, the enemy is focusing on doing as much damage as they can to the village and are massacring any villagers they run into."
"How many?" Hayate asked, leaving the question hanging in the air.
"Many." Yugao replied, the grim tone of her voice making it clear.
Shino frowned, clenching his fist as he began to worry about his family and clan, hoping they were alright. "Thank you again Hayate-san," Shino began, trying to push his worry from his mind. This wasn't the place for that. "I'm going to join my Sensei."
Hayate nodded and Shino jumped off towards the stands, already summoning his insects. Turning back towards Yugao, she nodded and turned, Hayate moving up alongside her. Each gave the other a subtle look, one that only lovers could communicate with. They each leaped in unison towards the enemy.
XXXX
Kurenai lashed out with her weapon, slicing open the throat of her enemy. She sidestepped the blood spray from the open artery and took a quick look to check on Shino again, only to see him approaching her with his insects buzzing loudly, as they waited for the first order to fight.
Two more enemy ninja fell, as she heard the familiar sound of Asuma's chakra enhanced trench knives cutting through the air and carving into flesh. Giving Asuma a small tap on the side, he nodded, understanding the touch as telling him she was breaking away from their formation.
"Shino! Are you okay?" Kurenai called out as she met her student halfway, keeping an eye out for any enemy ninja. For the most part the fighting had become more organized with all combatants too focused on their current opponents and no new reinforcements for either side had arrived yet.
Seeing her student give a quick nod in reply, Kurenai scanned the area quickly, trying to spot her other two students. "Have you seen Naruto or Hinata?" Kurenai asked, she knew that Naruto had taken Hinata to the medics himself, but hadn't seen either since.
"Not since Naruto carried Hinata to the medic. We should -" Shino started, before glancing over towards the entrance to the inner arena and saw Naruto come into view with Hinata carried by a clone bridal style, she didn't seem to be conscious. "There they are!"
Kurenai sprung forward, concern for Hinata urging her on as she saw what state she was in.
"Naruto!"
XXXX
Shortly after Naruto had pulled Hinata from her father, she passed out. Naruto gently laid her down and made sure she hadn't received any wounds from the fight earlier. Finding nothing new except for the partially healed wounds from her fight with Sasuke, he knew she had to have passed out from emotional stress. Summoning a shadow clone, he instructed it to carry her while he led the way. He needed both hands free if he came across any enemy ninja.
None had shown though by the time he reached outside, the sounds of fighting and death echoing through as he climbed the final set of stairs.
"Naruto!" he heard. Naruto turned, seeing the rest of Team Eight hurrying towards him.
Kurenai immediately rushed to the clone holding Hinata and looked over her in worry, the clone version of Naruto seeming a bit flustered.
Naruto watched her with a bitter smile, glad to see that she cared so for the kunoichi, but he found it hard to find joy in anything at the moment.
"Naruto, are you alright?" Shino asked, walking up to the boy.
Naruto nodded once, not making eye contact with the other boy. He couldn't find himself able to talk, he could barely contain his sheer rage as he watched the contained fighting within the arena. Seeing the wounded Konoha ninja continue to fight valiantly against his enemy. Dead shinobi and civilian alike littered the seats and floor, neither woman nor child had been spared. Blood ran from the upper seats of the stadium to flow down on some spots of the wall, into the sandy pit of the arena below.
"Naruto, are you okay? What happened to Hinata?"
Naruto moved his head to his right, hearing the voice of his sensei. He was rather glad that he couldn't make eye contact with her right now. "I'm fine. Hinata, she. . ." Naruto trailed off, as images of the events previous came to him with perfect clarity. He would never be able to erase from his mind the look of despair he saw from Hinata. "Her father died protecting her." He finally was able to say, keeping his glare forward.
Kurenai gasped, looking back down towards her student. Kurenai felt painful memories resurge, ones of her own father and the final night she had spoken to him when he died fighting the Kyuubi. She had always felt a strong connection with her female student, but she never wished her to know all the pain Kurenai had faced.
"Sensei," Naruto started, "What are our orders?"
Kurenai looked up towards the youth, understanding just what he was asking. After thinking for a moment, Kurenai stood. "With Hinata out of commission for the time being, you're going to retreat to the defensive network within the Hokage Monument and help secure the civilians and wounded."
Naruto frowned, not liking the idea of being away from the fighting, but knew his job was just as important as any other. That, and he was glad he could see Hinata there safely himself. Looking over towards Shino, who'd been standing by quietly with an intense gaze, they shared a nod.
"Both of you be careful, avoid any fighting. Especially with you carrying a wounded comrade, you can't risk a fight. Understood?" Kurenai spoke, looking at both her students in turn. She knew that it was going to be more than dangerous, but the Hokage Monument wasn't too far away.
"Yes, Sensei!" Both yelled out, leaving with a quick leap towards the open roof, Naruto's clone in tow with Hinata.
Kurenai watched them disappear out of sight, unable to shake the feeling of dread she couldn't help. Naruto, Shino, Hinata. She thought, Please be okay after all this. I don't want to lose anyone precious ever again.
XXXX
Kiba stood at the window of Sasuke's hospital room, looking out over the village. The initial explosions and fires had gotten worse and were spreading through to the village, the sky now almost fully covered in black smoke and fire could be seen dancing along the horizon. The hospital had yet been touched, due to how far in the village it was, but evidence of the war had already shown as Kiba saw far too many wounded or worse ninja get carried into the Hospital entrance a few floors below.
He heard Akamaru whimper, his grip on the Inazuka's head tight. "I know boy." Kiba replied to the dog's whimpering, as he reached up to pet the dog, "I'm worried about the clan too." He looked over towards where his clan compound was, black smoke covering the area, and he prayed that his family was okay.
"Kiba, let me out of this thing already. If we get attacked I'm a sitting duck!" Sasuke pleaded from under his restraints.
Kiba sighed, Sasuke had been non-stop trying to break free from his restraints and constantly tried to talk him into letting him out. In truth, he did want to let his teammate free, trusting in him not to go crazy like Kakashi said. But. . . There was something that Kiba couldn't help but feel off about ever since Sasuke had first used the curse mark to fight off the Oto team in the Forest of Death. The boy had been sadistic in how he defeated his opponents and the look on his face spoke of a sort of pleasure he had been delighting in when he slowly tortured Zaku and eventually dislocated his shoulders. The creepiest part to Kiba had been that he couldn't tell if it was the Curse Mark's influence or something Sasuke had within him all along, but had been able to unleash when placed in a position of power far higher than his opponent.
"Kiba!" Sasuke shouted again.
Kiba ignored the boy, feeling his heart sink at having to do this to someone he considered a good friend. Then, his attention was drawn to the door, as it opened slowly.
Kiba reached into his shuriken pouch quickly, reacting to the sudden movement, but relaxed as he saw five Konoha ninja, all looking to be Chunin walk into the room. "Damn," Kiba sighed out with a small laugh, releasing the shuriken he had grabbed. "You guys scared the crap out of me."
One of the Konoha ninja stepped forward an apologetic smile on his face. "Sorry about that."
Kiba began to walk forward himself, until he felt that Akamaru had gone dead still on his head. Kiba turned his senses up towards his companion and felt the puppy growling quietly at the ninja who had walked into the room.
"So. . . why are you here then?" Kiba asked slowly, stopping his advance. Inazuka clan members were taught that their companions were far more in-tune to certain things than humans ever could. And what Akamaru was doing was basically screaming danger! At the top of his lungs.
The Konoha ninja who had stepped forward lost his grin, and it was replaced by a serious look. "We're here for the Uchiha, your sensei told us we needed to escort the last member of the Uchiha clan to a safe place."
"Is that so?" Kiba replied, now knowing for sure that there was something bad about these ninja that walked in. Feeling the kunai holstered in a secret holster within his jacket, he took a small step back.
It had been enough of a telegraph for the Konoha ninja, as he saw Akamaru giving off the same warning signs of attack. He smirked with a silent scoff, and pulled out a kunai. "Looks like we can't fool you."
The 'Konoha' ninja and the rest all dropped the henge they had been wearing, all transforming into Oto ninja. "We're here on orders from Orochimaru-sama. We'll be taking the Uchiha with us."
Kiba snarled, knowing he only had one chance at this. He was way outnumbered, and needed to get both him and Sasuke out of there quick. Before the other ninja could react, he launched his kunai from his hidden sheathe, straight for the first Oto ninja. "Akamaru, transform and undo Sasuke's bonds! Quickly!" he whispered harshly, reaching into his shuriken pouch and throwing a volley. "Hey! Enemies!" Kiba yelled out, hoping there were friendly ninja nearby.
Akamaru barked a reply and jumped down, transforming into a clone of Kiba and began to quickly undo Sasuke's bonds.
The Oto ninja all drew weapons themselves, and deflected the first volley of shuriken that had been thrown haphazardly in their direction. Kiba yelled out as he continued to throw volley after volley, eventually running out of shuriken. Grabbing another kunai from his pouch, he jumped in front of Sasuke's bed, wishing he had brought more tools than this, but he hadn't left his house expecting a war to break out. He would of killed for a smoke bomb!
Akamaru barked, informing Kiba that Sasuke was finally free. "Great job Akamaru! Sasuke reach into my pouch and grab a kunai, we're -" Kiba stopped short as he felt a sharp object stab into his midsection, causing him to scream out.
"No. We're not." Sasuke spoke.
Kiba dropped his kunai, feeling it slip out of his hand as his mind froze and all he could feel was the terrible pain and warm blood that exploded from his back. Falling to his knees, he felt the object that had been shoved into his back slip out and he fell to his side. Looking up, trying to keep his mind focused, he saw Sasuke standing, his face splattered with blood and the kunai he had taken from his pouch held firmly in his hand.
Akamaru barked out in rage and threw a punch at Sasuke, who avoided it swiftly and slashed the kunai into his side. Akamaru's henge disappeared, a deep gash running from his shoulder to stomach, staining his fur with blood. The dog let out a yelp, then a silent whimper as Sasuke followed it up with a kick to the dog's skull that sent Akamaru flying into the nearby corner.
"A-Aka-maru. ." Kiba was able to get out, looking towards the corner that was obscured by the bed. He looked back up, and felt his blood run cold as he stared into Sasuke's eyes. His Sharingan seeming to glow red in the room, looking down upon him with such cruelty.
The Oto ninja stood by confused, looking at the Uchiha, who stepped over Kiba as if he was an unimportant twig. "You said you would take me to Orochimaru, correct?" Sasuke asked.
The lead Oto ninja nodded, his gaze wary as he stared at the crazed looking youth. "Yes. . . he had ordered us to take you with us back to Otogakure."
Sasuke grinned, looking down to his hand, where he already could see the curse mark beginning to spread as he called upon it's power. "Good. I want more power. Take me to him!" he couldn't believe just how amazing the curse mark's power felt. He didn't need this worthless village or anyone in it. He would take advantage of Orochimaru's power and become stronger. He would never lose again, not to his brother or anyone!
The Oto ninja looked between each other confused for a moment, but the lead ninja nodded and reformed his henge. "Follow us then."
"S-Sasuke. . . y-you. . Why?!" Kiba choked out from the floor below, where his blood began to pool around his midsection. He stared up at his friend with desperation in his eyes, praying this was all some kind of sick joke. He had just been protecting him not ten seconds ago, so why?!
Sasuke scoffed, his grin somehow made malevolent from the spreading black flame marks going across his face. "I'm going to avenge my clan. It's clear to me that I'll never succeed if I stay here with
you losers. Losers who deny true strength and try and keep me down and not allow me to reach my full potential."
Kiba watched as Sasuke gave him a final smirk and turned walking off with the other ninja. Kiba reached out feebly, grasping towards Sasuke with his bloody hand. "S-Sasuke-!" he managed to groan out. He knew that wasn't his friend. It couldn't be! It had to do something with the curse mark, it had to! As Kiba's vision began to go black, he tried to move, but couldn't feel his body want to respond anymore.
The last thing he could remember was seeing a pair of feet in front of him and hearing a muffled voice yelling. "Hey! Are you okay?! MEDIC!"
XXXX
Naruto thought he knew what Hell was when he had woken up in that cold, bloody riverside. The feeling of waking up from a nightmare only to be plunged into a darker one. One where his team was dead, and he had been all alone.
But now he knew that was nothing compared to the inferno that had overtaken Konoha. Black smoke and hellish fires made it impossible to travel from roof, and civilians stampeded through the streets screaming and running as fast as they could. Enemy ninja were hot on their tail unleashing horrible jutsu to burn, flay or outright obliterate anyone they could. Blood mingled with black ash and coated the ground and fallen corpses, giving the streets a nightmarish tinge of red.
Naruto did the best he could to deflect any attacks he could, but the number of ninja in pursuit of himself and the pack of villagers he had found fleeing the carnage from the front lines were too great. For every kunai he deflected with a swing of his sword, two more would soar past and he would hear the blood coated screams of dying villagers.
Shortly after the initial attack, Suna ninja attacked from the other side of Konoha, catching the defenders in a pincer attack that caused widespread confusion and made battle lines reform, allowing the enemy alliance to gain a foot hold along the walls where they had made the initial invasion. It also allowed for more ninja to slip past the defenders.
The ninja who were currently chasing after them though, were no older than Naruto himself. It was clear that the Suna-Oto Alliance was going all out, they had even brought their genin. Naruto remembered one of Iruka's more serious lectures about how in the past genin had been used for warfare, especially in invasions. While more skilled ninja were trusted with fighting on the front, genin would be used to attack lighter targets, or for mass murder. It didn't take a jonin to kill a helpless civilian, after all.
Naruto growled, feeling a sense of helplessness take him as he saw just how many enemies they were up against. He heard a whistling sound come barreling through the air, and saw a small boulder aiming for a civilian teenaged girl. Naruto cursed and jumped forward, catching the boulder with his sword and destroyed it.
Landing next to the terrified girl who had crouched down, he grabbed her by the shoulder, "Hey! You're okay!" he yelled.
The girl, not much older than Naruto, looked towards him, her blue eyes misted over with tears, and her brown hair covered in soot. She let out a shaky breath and nodded, "T-Thank yo-!"
Naruto couldn't react in time as he heard a whistling sound of metal soar through the air and slice his ear. The kunai continued forward and slammed into the girl's right eye socket. Naruto gasped, as blood began spurting from the wound. The girl began mouthing incoherent words, and her arm raised up momentarily, staring into Naruto's eyes pleading for help, before her body collapsed to the side.
Naruto stared down at the lifeless girl, her tears from being saved mingling with the blood flowing down and covering her face. His hand moved towards her, shock taking him over for a moment.
What the hell. . . Naruto thought, as he watched her lifeless corpse. Why. . . what the fuck is happening?! Naruto's right fist clenched hard around his sword, the mighty zanbato that once belonged to the Demon of the Mist. He could feel the corrupted chakra of the Kyuubi awaken, as if responding to his uncontrollable rage and sorrow. From his right hand, a visible red chakra began to creep over the sword, coating it entirely and tinting the steel red and black, as if the sword itself changed into a hellish void.
No more. . . Naruto thought slowly, as he noticed the red chakra change his weapon. He knew the Kyuubi was doing something to it, but he couldn't careless at the moment. He stared into the dead eye of the girl who thought she had been saved. No one else is going to die. I WON'T LET THEM KILL ANYONE ELSE!
"Naruto!" he heard Shino yell from in front of him.
Naruto slowly stood, his blond bangs covering his face.
"Naruto we have to move! C'mon!" Shino yelled again, as he watched the horde of pursuing ninja get closer.
"No." Naruto replied. Before Shino could argue he saw an enemy jump up, cocking his arm back to throw a kunai at Naruto. Before the Aburame could blink, Naruto disappeared, reappearing directly in front of the shocked ninja.
Naruto stared dead on in the eyes of his enemy, a boy no older than he and he chopped down with his sword violently.
Naruto landed in a kneeling position, a falling rain of blood following, coating him red. Two halves of the dead genin fell in heaps to either side of him with a sickening squelch. The pursuing ninja stopped, all looking towards Naruto.
"Shino." Naruto started. He reached up towards his eye patch, feeling his body shake with indescribable rage and tore it off. All the enemy ninja took a small step back, as through the smoke and firelight that illuminated the area, they could clearly made out the red glare of Naruto's eye shining through and focused on them. "Go on without me. Get Hinata to safety."
"But-!" Shino started to argue.
Naruto threw his head to the right, his black eye and red iris glaring at Shino, causing his blood to freeze for a moment, not knowing that was what had been behind the eyepatch. "Go." Naruto interrupted, his tone not leaving any room for an argument.
Shino hesitated for a moment, but knew what his teammate was going to do. "Don't you dare die Uzumaki! Hinata would never forgive me!" Shino yelled, jumping away quickly to catch up with the civilians.
Naruto turned his intense glare back towards the genin, all whom still stood with their weapons drawn and looking like they were trying to figure out a way around him and to continue with their mission.
Naruto stepped forward, his blood coated sword gleaming in the fire light, and his eye seeming to contain terrible ferocity behind it that froze the ninja in place. "You fuckers want to kill? To see some blood and hear screams of people who can't even fight back?!" Naruto spoke in a low menacing tone, as he stepped forward.
The Suna and Oto genin all took a step back, looking as if they were trying to decide to fight or flee.
"You're not running away." Naruto spoke, looking towards his opponents. "No way." He could feel the Kyuubi's chakra almost vibrate in utter joy as the tailed beast began to salivate within it's cage, begging for carnage.
Before they could react, Naruto disappeared in puff of smoke, a rock taking his place. One genin was unfortunate enough to look behind him, and the last thing he saw was a blood red eye.
With a powerful swing, Naruto cleaved through three of the genin, causing entrails, limbs, blood and body parts to go flying into the air. The other genin screamed out in fear, and Naruto spun around, coated in blood and gore and burst forward with a rage filled roar that sounded half-human and half-demonic.
"Hell awaits you all!" Naruto screamed out as he swung his sword. From within him, the Kyuubi grinned, his evil smile visible in the darkness of his cage.
XXXX
Back in the stadium, the last of the enemy ninja had been neutralized and a quick yell of victory had been sounded before the Konoha ninja convened.
Kurenai wiped the blood from her kunai, still keeping it ready in case there was a sneak attack. Looking around, she saw most of the jonin from her generation. She saw Gai staring up towards the Hokage's seat, and she felt as though she was hit by a train, realizing that she hadn't even considered if the Hokage had been safe. Looking up, she was awestruck beholding the purplish chakra cage that encased the entire roof.
"Is the Hokage in there!?" She exclaimed, looking down towards Gai.
Gai looked over at Kurenai, his usual cheery face replaced with a grim expression. He nodded. "Not just Hokage-sama. I saw Orochimaru with him."
Kurenai bit back a shocked gasp, looking back up towards the roof with worry. "We need to get him out of there."
"We've tried." She heard come from her side. Looking over, Kurenai saw three ANBU, one of which that held his arm gingerly, looking as if it had been burned. "There's some type of barrier around them that will incinerate anything that attempts to touch it. It's completely solid."
"There has to be some way to get in there! The Hokage is in danger!" Asuma spoke, stepping forward. It wasn't just the Hokage in there to Asuma, his father was in danger.
The ANBU looked down for a moment, trying to think of something, when a loud voice joined in. "What, you really can't think of a good reason? C'mon now I thought you guys were black ops or something!"
Stepping forward, in her usual state of dangerous dress though her trenchcoat was splattered with blood here and there, was Anko. She had a rather uncomfortable grin on her face, a dango skewer hanging out of her mouth.
"Anko, do you really think this is a time for a joke?" Gai asked, staring at her.
"Tch." Anko replied, obviously annoyed. "What the hell makes you think I'm joking!? Look I know Orochimaru better than any of you. Wanna know his weakness?" She gave a pause for anyone to reply, "He thinks he's so damn smart and that no one could outwit him. The stupid bastard made one mistake though when he chose where to put his field." Grabbing the dango skewer she pointed forward with it and straight at the cage.
"I don't understand, how does that help getting the Hokage out of there?" The ANBU asked.
Anko grinned, and lowered her skewer towards the base of the stadium where the Hokage's seat was.. "It's easy! We're just gonna blow the bitch up!"
XXXX
"No, wait-!" The genin was cut off as Naruto's sword found it's mark at the girl's shoulder blade and savagely cut through to her waist. The sword glowed ever so slightly as the strange enchantment the Kyuubi had spread onto it caused the blood that came into contact with the zanbato was absorbed into it.
Naruto didn't notice this, however, as he wasted no time in charging forward to the next opponent who he caught mid attempt to throw a kunai at him. Naruto interrupted the throw, lashing out with his sword and severing his arm. The genin barely had time to scream before Naruto caught the falling kunai with his left hand and rammed it down into the stunned genin's skull.
Two more jumped forward, trying to catch the blond off guard, but he spun around, avoiding one attack and catching the other genin mid-air and decapitated him. The other tried to back up but his back was against a wall. Before he could react, Naruto moved with inhuman speed and stabbed him, his sword cutting through his lower abdomen and breaking through the wall. As the genin felt his life leave him, Naruto let go of his sword and used his right hand to grab the youth's skull and tear him off his sword by pulling up and threw his corpse at a charging opponent, knocking him down. Continuing his arm's arc, he grabbed onto his sword and tore it out of the wall, leaping forward and slamming it down on the genin who had his comrade's corpse pinning him, cutting through them both.
"Son of a bitch!" One of the Suna genin cried out as he tried to stab Naruto, but the other boy was faster and lashed out, severing his legs at the knee. As the Suna-nin felt his whole body turn mid-air from the force of the cut, he barely had time to register the pain as Naruto followed up with two more rapid slashes, cutting his torso in an X shape.
Naruto's breathing was hard and ragged, as his eyes darted back and forth rapidly. Blood coated his entire body, and all he could see was red. Corpses littered the ground and blood ran like a river through the streets from both slain enemies and civilians alike. The remaining genin all looked between each other, and made a few hand signals. With a quiet prayer shared between them, they all jumped forward.
Naruto saw the closest one jump forward, a Suna ninja, with another trying to flank him from behind. At the same time, two Oto genin threw a volley of shuriken towards Naruto. Naruto thrust his sword out, impaling the Suna nin causing her to scream out as she grasped onto the sword that skewered her from breast to her belly. Naruto jumped forward, avoiding the shurikens and turned towards the screaming Suna ninja who was almost within arms reach of Naruto. Naruto slammed his sword down with the half-dead female genin still impaled on it and cut the other Suna genin from the crown of his skull to the middle of his chest, as far as he could cut with how close he had been.
Planting his foot on the Suna genin, he kicked off and yanked on his sword, tearing it free from both corpses. As he felt his sword become free, he heard two yells in unison, "Doton: Earth Wave!" Two separate rocky pillars shot forward towards Naruto. Running forward, Naruto jumped and kicked off one of the spires and threw his sword with a yell, straight for the Suna genin to his left.
The sword caught the genin and stuck him to the ground with a small yell from him as he died instantly from the attack. The other looked up, only to see Naruto already forming hand seals. "Katon: Great Fireball Jutsu!" He barely had time to scream as the large fireball engulfed him, incinerating his body. Naruto landed in front of the genin he had thrown his sword at, and quickly ripped it out of the ground and the corpse to deflect another wave of shuriken from the final two.
Seeing their combined attacks fail, the two Oto nin began to run screaming. The one on the right only had a moment to recognize that Naruto had substituted himself with a nearby broke vase, and cut him in half at the waist.
The final Oto ninja looked behind him, seeing his teammate's legs stumble forward without the top half of the torso and collapse in a heap as the dying genin had begun absentmindedly grasping at his spilled innards as he began to quickly pass out from blood loss.
The Oto ninja fell down, staring in horror as Naruto slowly advanced towards him, his face encased in shadow except for the glaring red demonic eye that focused onto him, fully open and unblinking. The Oto ninja began to mumble incoherently as he lost control of his bladder.
"P-Please. . . I don't want to-" he began.
"You don't want to what? Die?!" Naruto yelled out, cutting him off.
The Oto genin cried out in terror, as tears ran down his cheeks.
"How nice it must be." Naruto spoke, his tone violent and cold. "You can go from slaughtering innocent people to a quivering mass of shit begging for his pathetic life." Naruto moved his sword into his left hand as he continued to walk forward.
The Oto genin tried to backpedal on the ground feebly using his legs to push away as he felt himself entranced by the burning red demonic eye.
"I-I-I-!" The Oto genin began to stammer out, before being cut off by Naruto who snapped his right arm out and grasped the Oto genin by his face and lifted him off the ground. Dangling from the inhuman grip the Oto genin cried out in terror as he clawed at the blond's hand.
Naruto stared at the boy, his muffled screams of sheer terror somehow feeling like a rewarding sound. "I'll ask you. Do you want to live?" He could hear the genin scream yes through his hand.
"And I wonder how many of the villagers begged for their lives before you killed them."
The Oto-nin screamed out once more before Naruto clenched his right hand as hard as he could, completely caving in the front part of the genin's skull. The body fell to the ground with a sickening thud, as Naruto stared at the gore that was dripping from his clenched fist.
Then, from behind him, he heard a high pitched maniacal scream of laughter. Turning around to get ready for another fight, Naruto almost dropped his sword.
"VERY GOOD! It was exquisite! You are truly a master of murder and death Naruto Uzumaki! Bwhahahaha!"
Across him, standing in the corpse littered, blood drenched road, was Gaara.
Over half his body had strange scaled sand armor around him, and half his face was in the shape of some kind of demonic looking raccoon, the other half his human face, though looking as though it was nothing more than dead flesh that remained neutral when he spoke.
"Wha-?!" Naruto started, staring ahead at the boy. "You should be dead!"
'Gaara' smiled, only the raccoon half showing any facial movement. "And I thank you for that! Though I can't leave this dammed body just yet due to the rather irritating seal that was placed upon this child, thanks to you killing him I had enough time to repair the damage and make this vessel my own!"
Naruto gasped, as he could feel the scar on his chest almost pulsate at the memory of when Zabuza had dealt a killing blow to him. Why the hell hadn't I thought about that?!
"Allow me to formally introduce myself Murderer-sama! I am Shukaku the Ichibi! And though I very much enjoy the way you turn humans into hamburger, I'm going to kill you!"
XXXX
OH SHIT. AND YOU THOUGHT GAARA WAS DEAD. Well, he technically IS but you get the point.
I will be explaining this new turn of events in a later chapter, so don't worry this does have a perfectly logical reasoning behind it. And Kiba is alive, don't fret. Everyone's favorite doggone ninja will be around a bit longer.
Huehue, dog pun. Also ten points if anyone catches the pun I made with Sasuke.
I hope to hear good things from you reviewers, and don't worry this ain't over by a long shot yet! Next chapter will be out SOON.
Shinobi no Ryu