Here is Chapter 21, hope you all enjoy it
and here is my responses to my reviewers
RSfan - lol well your name is being mentioned :P and thanks for the review, hope you like this new chapter
Ymere - Thanks for the review, and yeah, see, i hate to see things where you can predict exactly whats going to happen, whats the fun if your hero is so powerful that he can win without to much trouble? :P i like for them to have a hard time, the harder time they have, the more exciting it gets, take bleach for example "if you read the manga :P" the current chapters have ichigo pretty much screwed, there is NO WAY for him to win, however there must be a way, and that's what makes it fun to read :) so no matter how bad it looks, don't lose hope ;)
crsstlk - indeed, if you guys are stuck wondering how are they going to pull out of this, then i have done my job, as i said to Ymere, knowing the outcome of the battle is boring ;) so thanks for the review and keep reading
Well that's all of them for this time, was kind of surprise to only see 3 reviews, i normally get more lol but its all good keep reading guys and keep those reviews coming
This chapter was revised on May 26th 2017. Most grammar errors should have been addressed (Hopefully :P) I did a few enhancements and changed a few things around but the story remained unchanged
Saving old bonds
Chapter 21 (Revised)
The day was nearing its end as the sun had begun setting, the ninja's of Konoha were on high alert and Naruto was looking out his office window. Sakura was standing by with a team of ninja's to evacuate the people, the only reason they had not begun yet was in the event it was a false alarm, hours passed and the sun had turned red as it got lower and lower, a group of ANBU ninja came running from the forest screaming they were coming as they ran pass the gates
"Sound the alarm and begin the evacuation, shut all gates, have all defenders get ready" Naruto ordered without losing anytime
One of the Ninja's began hitting a large bell continuously indicating to begin the evacuation; the ninja's at the entrance began shutting the large gates as multiple ninja's began filling the top of the walls, ready to defend their homes and loved ones
Sakura and her team had begun helping the people evacuate to safety, everything was going smoothly. Naruto overlooked from the top of the fire tower giving out his orders, suddenly they could see the dust rising in the distance indicating something big was coming
"Hokage Sama, the evacuation is just about over, most of the citizens are safely making their way into the mountains" Shikamaru said calmly
"Good, Shikamaru, what do you think our odds are of fighting them off?" He asked him
"Honestly, there are too many unknowns, the only people who have seen them fight and survive are Yamato and Shizune, but if I had to make a guess from a numbers point of view, the odds are not good sir, the only thing we have going for us it the fact that we have our defences"
"Then we have to find a way to survive long enough for Gaara and the sand re-enforcements to arrive, how far away are they?"
"They are a few hours away; I estimate they will arrive in just over six hour's sir"
"Then we have to hold out for six hours, I think we can manage that" he said with confidence
"But our death toll will be high" Shikamaru said sadly "It will be hard to recover if we are able to fight them off"
Suddenly a Ninja joined them making Naruto smile slightly "Ero-Sanin!" Naruto simply said
"I wish you would stop calling me that" he said slightly annoyed, but it only made Naruto's smile grow wider "This is for you Naruto" he said handing Naruto a Katana, Naruto was puzzled
"For me?" He asked
"This is the sword your father used when he was younger to train, he never adopted the sword as his weapon, but during my time training him, I taught him that he should be able to fight with any weapon as if it was his own, so if he was ever in a situation where he couldn't pick his weapon of choice, he could still fight, and so now this is yours" he said with a smile "I know you haven't done a lot of training with Katana's but I know you will find a way to use it at your advantage, their leader has a rather large Katana of his own, and you will have a better chance at defending yourself with this rather then a simple Kunai" he said
Naruto could only stare at the sword, he couldn't believe he was holding something his father held before him, and trained with "Thank you Ero-Sanin" he said simply as he attached the Katana to his back
three more ninja's joined them on the tower "Team Naruto, reporting for duty Sensei" Yuki said
"Naruto Nii-San, what can we do to help?" Konohamaru asked
"I thought I told you guys to stay with the villagers!"
"Naruto Sensei, we want to do our part to protect the village" Hanabi said
"Yeah, you know we can fight, we are chunin after all, and we are Team Naruto!" Yuki said with pride
"You have a fine team there Naruto, don't underestimate their power, remember how you were at their age" Jiraiya said with a smile
"He isn't that much older than us anyway" Konohamaru said with a grin
"Fine, fine I get it, but you have to promise me, you will stay away from anyone wearing a white cloaks, or the armbands, those people are too strong for you guys, do you understand?" he said seriously
They all nodded knowing better then to disagree with him, even if Yuki thought she could take these so called captains
"I can see them!" Shikamaru suddenly said, Naruto looked at the horizon and he could see the first line of attackers clear the forest
"So it begins" Naruto said calmly
Ichigo was at the head of his forces with a huge grin on his face as Konoha came into view, he raised his hand in the air and dropped it giving his men the signal to get in position
Naruto was watching them from the top of the tower "What are they doing?" he wondered
"They are not going with their plan!" Shikamaru suddenly realized and spoke up "they are surrounding us; they are going to make a major assault from all sides!"
"What? They must have decided it would be too risky to stick with their plan, Shikamaru can you devise a new strategy?" Shikamaru was already ahead of Naruto as he was deep in thought
"How can we defeat such a major attack from all sides with the forces we have? We may have the advantage of our defences and home field, but they have much greater numbers, victory is almost impossible, but we aren't really trying to get a victory are we? All we want is to hold them off for as long as we can until the sand forces arrive, taking that into consideration, we can afford to stretch our forces thin and keep the defences all around, this way, there is no way of us winning, but at least it should be able to hold them off long enough" he thought to himself "Hokage Sama, I believe the best solution is the simplest one, if we use our forces and protect every side, every inch of the wall, we stand a chance"
"But won't that make our forces thin?" Konohamaru asked
"I see what you're saying, you don't want us to win this battle, very clever" Naruto said while the rest of Team Naruto were in shock
"Naruto Sensei, how can you say or think such a thing! We cannot lose!" Hanabi said
Naruto smiled at them "Because, the plan is to hold them off, not win, once the sand gets here, we will be able to push them back" Naruto gave the order to begin spreading around the wall, and to do it as fast as they could
Meanwhile Ichigo was observing, wanting to see what they would do "Kurokage Sama, they are spreading across the wall"
"So they are trying to cover any holes in their defences huh? Very cleaver, but ultimately, stupid, it will only prolong the battle, the end result will be the same" he said with a grin "Namikaze Naruto, I look forward to our battle, I can only hope that you are stronger than your predecessor" he thought to himself with a grin, he looked at the moon that had just come out, it was still low in the sky, he turned to his forces "This is a big day for us, the day we take out the mighty leaf village, we are warriors of the night, let us bestow them with fear!" they all cheered and raised their weapons in the air
Sakura was standing guard near the entrance, they had blocked, sealed and concealed it so no one would be able to find it, but they still had to be on their guards, with her was a squad of ANBU, that's all the villagers had to defend them, a little boy came up to Sakura and tugged on her clothing gaining her attention "Hey there little one, you shouldn't be here, you should be with your family"
The boy was crying, he couldn't have been more then 4 or 5 years old "I don't know where my mommy went" he cried
She picked him up and wiped his tears with a cloth, he had blue eyes and blonde hair, he looked slightly like Naruto she thought "Don't worry, we will find her together" she said with a smile on her face, the boy stopped crying and tried to smile a bit
"Thank you, you're very nice" he said
Sakura put him down and took his hand as they walked towards a group of villagers and she inquired about who the boy's parents were, they were able to help her locate the boy's parents
"Thank you so much for finding our son" The mother said "He has a habit of wondering off"
"Not a problem, just keep an eye on him, these are dangerous times"
"Yes of course, thank you again, Rito, thank the nice lady"
"Thank you pretty lady" the young boy said with a smile, Sakura bent down and looked at him and returned his smile before returning to her post, but before she could return, a women called out to Sakura
"Sakura hunny!" the women said
"Mom?" Sakura said
"Yes dear, I have been searching for you, I haven't been able to talk or see you in the past few weeks, you are always busy with something or searching for that dammed Uchiha, I was hoping to be able to see you more once he was caught, but I found myself not even seeing you once!" She said with a slight hint of sadness in her voice
"Sorry mom, it's just, I have been busy"
"I know dear, you're a very important and high ranking ninja, and I am very proud of you, but it would be nice if you could visit your old mother every once in a while"
"Yeah, after this is all over with, I will spend some time with you mom I promise"
"Just tell me, are the rumours true?" she suddenly asked
"What rumours?" Sakura asked confused, what kind of rumours was there about her?
"About you and the demon kid" she simply said
"What did you just call him?" She asked stunned that her mom had just called Naruto a demon, even after everything he had done for the village AND being the Hokage
"I heard horrible rumours that you were dating the demon boy"
Sakura snapped "Don't you EVER call him that EVER again, you will refer to him as Lord Hokage or Hokage Sama, you know NOTHING about him NOTHING! And for your information, he DOESN'T EVEN CARRY THE NINE TAILS INSIDE HIM ANYMORE! And if you must know, YES we are dating, and you know what mom? He makes me happy, he loves me and I love him, one last thing, I have changed my mind about what I just said, I won't be visiting you until you learn to respect others who deserve your respect" she simply said while turning her back to her mother and walked away leaving her mom in shock
Both sides were staring at each other, Naruto had joined the defenders, all along the wall there were arrows, spears, boxes full of Kunais, anything they could use as projectile weapons Kakashi walked up to Naruto, he had a box in his hands and gave it to Naruto "This is for you, I had it made a few years ago... On the day you convinced me you would become the Hokage"
Naruto opened the box, he was surprised, it was a replica of the Hokage's hat, except it was not red and white, it was orange and black "Kakashi Sensei…" Naruto said as he was speechless
"I figured I should give it to you now, you know, in case I am unable to give it to you latter if anything happened to me"
Naruto put the hat on his head, it went perfectly with the rest of his attire "Thank you Kakashi Sensei, and you will get through this, I know you will, you have too much life ahead of you" he said with a grin, but his smile didn't stay for long as he heard something, it was a battle cry
Ichigo had given the signal to attack as the men screamed as loud as they could, there battle cries could be heard from all over the city, the defenders got ready, they aimed their weapons, everyone was tense, the battle was about to begin, the only though on their mind, protecting their homes
End Chapter 21
Well the battle has finally begun, chapter 22 should be very eventful, as will the next few chapters, so keep reading, the major plot that i was talking about coming soon ;) still a few chapters away but i can't wait to use it, anyway, read, rave, review