Chapter 21: Clash of the Dark Ones
Everything was chaos; everyone running about, no one knowing what anyone else was doing. Things were happening too quickly to keep track. All anyone seemed to be doing was fighting to stay alive; no real plan of action or cooperation, just survival. It had gotten worse since that horde of new ….. things had shown up. The Nydus worm transporting them might have died fairly quickly, but enough of those things had emerged that by then it was too late. The horde had swarmed the Shinobi HQ before anyone could react. Where they were now was the question to be asking.
Hinata found herself fighting alongside her former teacher Iruka, as well as the Suna general Baki. She could see Kiba and Akamaru fighting inside a building nearby with her Byakugan, but she had to shorten her sight's range to keep herself from being overwhelmed by all the fighting around and above her. A few sharp jabs cut blood flow from a hydralisk's brain, and a few more to another froze all communication up and down its spine. If there was one thing Hinata could pride herself in, it was definitely her swift adaptation of her fighting style to combatting opponents that weren't even human. Blasting a leaping zergling away with a Vacuum palm, she paused to gauge the situation around her.
Iruka and Baki were fighting just down the road from her; the pair of jōnin held the road by themselves against all comers. Iruka had somehow gotten ahold of a hydralisk's blade, and was in the process of finishing of a zergling with it. Baki only a few feet away was using his wind blades against a roach, but the roach's armor was visibly giving him trouble. Again and again the roach was hit, and again and again the zerg's armor repelled the attack. Iruka noticed, and threw his makeshift weapon, hitting the roach in the jaw. Baki stabbed the roach in the mouth, then caused his wind blade to expand and explode, practically blasting the roach's head apart. Iruka walked over, grimacing in disgust.
"Surely there could have been a less messy way to kill that thing," he commented to the Suna shinobi.
Baki wiped the alien's blood off his hand, "Probably, but it had been giving me a bit of trouble, so I got frustrated."
Iruka just shook his head in amusement. Only a few moments later a trio of Kiri shinobi dropped from the rooftop above them.
"Have any of you seen any of the Kages?" one asked them.
"No, we haven't. We were nowhere near HQ when the attack started. Why, has something happened?" Iruka answered.
"Not long after the start of the attack, a Nydus worm surfaced near the HQ, and it had unleashed a horde before we could kill it. It released a new strain, a strain we were not ready for, and the building was quickly overrun. The Mizukage and the Kazekage both fought against this new strain until the building was evacuated, but we haven't seen them since."
"What? You just left them?!" Baki had a mix of incredulity and fury on his face, "How could you just abandon the Kages like that!? Who was with them, did they at least have their bodyguards with them?"
"The Kage's personal guards were among those battling, but many fell when the majority of their attacks proved to be largely ineffective," another Kiri shinobi explained, "In the chaos of the fighting, the supports for one of the upper floors collapsed, separating us from the Kages and their guard. We went around trying to find a way to join them, but by the time we found a way in all that survived were already gone."
"What about Naruto? Where is the Hokage?" Hinata asked.
"We don't know. He wasn't inside HQ when it was hit."
Even well hidden, Iruka noticed the worry in Hinata's eyes and face. "He's fine and we both know it," he assured her, "Naruto is too strong to be killed by any of these things. We'll find him."
"What about this new strain though? If they're strong enough to give even the Kages pause, we need to know as much as we can about these new creatures in case we have an encounter with them," Baki inquired.
"They looked kind of human, like they were some type of infested shinobi, but definitely not the same. They were a lot taller, maybe 7 feet or so, and they had some kind of tail or another appendage of that sort. They were also fast. Faster than most of us. The worst part though, was they had something deflecting our attacks; something that kind of resembled the Protoss's shields."
"If they're that dangerous, we'll need to be careful. Hinata, are you able to use your Byakugan to make sure we don't get caught off-guard by them if we run into their midst?" Iruka asked.
Hinata nodded, "Of course."
Somewhere amongst the ruined buildings, Naruto made his way through the burning rubble. Bodies of all 3 races were strewn about in the wreckage. No time to do anything about that though; he needed to find Gaara and Mei as quickly as possible. He ducked under an overhang as a small flock of mutalisks flew directly overhead. Judging by the markings on the ravens pursuing them, they were part of Kankurō's Raptor Squadron. He watched as one of the ravens launched missiles at their targets, blasting them apart.
Sounds of fighting up ahead inside the buildings nearby caught his attention. A small group of shinobi from all three villages were surrounded by Zerg in the middle of the building. The group had dragged a bunch of debris and furniture into a circle as cover, but that was rapidly failing under the barrage of spines and acid. Acting quickly Naruto smashed a Rasengan into the nearest alien and sent it flying into two of its friends. Wind needles took out another two before something hit him from the side. A zergling had pounced on him and he found himself struggling as the alien tried desperately to bite and claw him. Naruto was strong, but the zergling's mindless bloodlust was a very difficult thing to contain as the alien used its full weight to try and kill him. With a yell, he kicked the alien off and sent it flying into a broken support beam. He rolled over and got up, watching the zergling scratch at the wooden beam that impaled it through the neck.
"Thanks for that," one of the shinobi walked over to him, "Thought we were dead for sure for a minute there."
Naruto nodded, "What's the situation? Where's the rest of your unit?"
"We were separated during the initial assault. Ultralisk came ripping right through us, and we scattered. We were going to go look for them when the Zerg trapped us in here. I don't know what happened to the others."
"I don't think many of them made it," another one continued, "It didn't sound good out there."
"Alright, well then we're leaving," Naruto told them, "We have a battle to win, and it's not going to be won by staying here."
Sasuke and Sakura had been fighting for what seemed like days. Street by street, avoiding the giant plasma cannons and particle disruptors of the Gantrithor, and battling endless waves of zerg minions. More than once already their entire group had nearly been eradicated by an unlucky shot from the carrier; each time the shot only missing by a meter or two, or blocked by a building.
"The Gantrithor used to be raking this whole area with heavy gunfire, now it's been completely absent for a while," Sakura observed, "Why did it stop?"
"Don't know, don't have time to care," Sasuke responded, "It's hard enough staying alive let alone worry about things that are happening all over the place."
The pair led their group of shinobi down through one of the pathways, towards the sounds of the battle. A sudden noise made them all jump. Through the building came a group of 6 shinobi.
"Hinata, you're okay!" Sakura was delighted to see her friend, "Iruka sensei, Baki, it's good to see you as well. Are you all okay?"
"We're fine Sakura. Nothing we can't handle," Iruka assured her, "What about you? You're coming from an area that's been hit pretty heavily."
"We've had a couple of close calls, but for the most part we've been pretty fortunate," Sasuke told them, "Do you know where anybody is?"
"No we've been able to find small pockets of our people, but that's it. No sign of any of the Kages," Baki replied.
"We might as well search together in that case," Iruka suggested, "The whole place is in chaos, but it sounds like the main bulk of the fighting is coming from down the road, towards the armory. If we follow it, we may be able to locate the others."
Unbeknownst to them, Naruto and his allies were only a few streets away, picking their way through the buildings. The fighting had demolished a good deal of the area, making travel through it more difficult. The body of an ultralisk blocked the street, obscuring everything on the other side. Naruto leaped up on top to get a better view. In front of them, Gaara and Mei, alongside their bodyguards, Kiba, Shino, and Kakashi were fighting a desperate battle against a strain of Zerg Naruto had never seen before.
They were humanoid; they were shinobi, but none of their humanity was left now. The Zerg had mutated and twisted them almost completely beyond recognition. Limbs elongated and stretched making them at least seven feet tall, and arm lengths longer than could ever be natural, with hands that ended in vicious serrated claws. A tail that looked more like a spiked uncovered spine kept their balance. And then there were the faces. Those were not shinobi faces anymore. They were twisted, the mouths of a hydralisk, sunken faces devoid of life, and pure black eyes from which nothing shone forth.
Naruto was horrified at the sight of these horrid abominations; as if the normal infested shinobi weren't bad enough! It was only to get worse though. He watched as Shino's bugs began to overtake one of the new infested, but another one turned and breathed fire upon the swarm of insects, roasting them all to a crisp. Shino yelled at the sight of his beloved bugs being burned before his eyes. Another one of the infested stiffly made hand seals, and caused a huge stone spike to stab up through the ground at the shinobi. Kakashi rolled towards the offending infested and put a chidori through its chest. The infested didn't die though. Naruto and his followers rushed to their aid, but just not fast enough. The infested had grabbed Kakashi and thrown him straight through a pile of stone rubble with speed that didn't seem possible by their stiff movements.
With a yell of anger, Naruto shoved a wind needle bomb into the hole Kakashi's chidori had made, and caused it to explode inside the infested's chest. This time the monster was definitely dead. A sound caused him to turn, and Naruto saw another gout of flames rushing towards him. A wall of sand rose up in between them, protecting Naruto. When the sand wall sank back down, Naruto started to rush the other infested with a Rasengan, but stopped short; the infested was beginning to crumple on its own. Before his eyes, the infested was somehow being torn apart from the inside out.
To the left, Kiba and Akamaru were taking down another, and Mei had just thrown a spear made of lava through a third.
Gaara walked over with his arms folded, "I think that's the last of them for now. Thanks for the assist."
Naruto nodded, as he moved to aid his sensei. Mei was already there, helping him up. Kakashi nodded his thanks.
"Is everyone okay?" Naruto asked.
"Those things were tougher than I expected, but I think we're fine. They aren't as scary when they don't have the advantage of surprise," Mei answered him.
"We were about to aid the main body of the alliance when the Nydus worm surfaced and spat those ….. things out at us," Gaara explained.
"We had things under control for a while, but then they started uses jutsus against us," Kakashi added, "They took us by surprise, and their additional firepower was no help."
"The worst part is their usage of jutsus seems to be completely unpredictable," Gaara continued, "Each one uses jutsus from a variety of elements; at least three each. The only true drawback they have is they can't use jutsus very quickly, or very often."
Kiba and Akamaru ran up, "Another large group of those things broke off and headed straight for the main battle. Those people have no idea what's coming for them."
No words were needed, as the Kages and their allies rushed towards yet another large battle. They were too late to warn the rest of their people; when they arrived there were 3 nydus worms spewing out a constant stream of these new zerg. Near the edge fought Hinata, Iruka, Baki, Sakura, and Sasuke. The Kages wasted no time jumping into the fight.
"You guys keep the rest of the Zerg distracted, we'll take care of the worms," Gaara instructed.
Each of the three Kages made a beeline for one of the worms, cutting down anything in their path. Gaara created a huge cocoon of sand around the entire worm before crushing it. Naruto had gone into Tailed Beast Mode, and used the raw power of the Kyuubi to punch a hole through his worm's head. Across the road, Mei had created an axe made of lava and had been cleaving her way through the zerg that got in her way. Finally reaching her worm, she created a large cloud of acid mist and shoved it down the giant creature's throat. The worm thrashed and screeched before collapsing and sinking back beneath the earth.
"Spit that back up."
For a moment, everything was still as the last of the zerg were brought down. Almost a whole minute passed, and nothing happened. Believing things to be over, a few began to cheer. Those cheers were quickly stifled as the ground shook again, worse than ever. Over a dozen new Nydus worms burst from the ground all at once, and fresh waves of zerg swarmed the unwary. Mei used a lava wave to stem the tide, only to find her attack blocked by an equally strong wave of water and wind combined. Ice clashed with lava in a huge wall that was pushed higher and higher. Gaara and all the other shinobi found their attacks to be similarly blocked by the jutsus of the new zerg strain.
Rampaging through the middle, a group of these new zerg tore through the alliance's lines, causing massive chaos and damage. One of Lee's tanks was bodily flipped over in the assault; tossed about like a ragdoll in a rage when one of the new zerg realized it could not actually damage the vehicle. Sakura attempted to intervene, taking one out with a brutal uppercut, but a second retaliated with a powerful swipe of its bony tail, sending her flying. She got up, punching another one, only to be hit in the stomach by a bolt of lightning. A second bolt to the chest sent her flying again.
Sasuke took off another zerg's head, but a blade of ice found its way underneath his collarbone and out the back. Naruto caught his friend before he hit the ground as the new zerg bore down on them. The air beside Naruto shimmered, and suddenly the new zerg were either down or stopped dead. The air shimmered again, and a Protoss warrior suddenly became visible. This one was darker than the Protoss Naruto knew, and unlike the Protoss he was familiar with, these had psionic tendrils that seemed to be cut short. This one did not have the gold armor of the zealots either, no, this one wore armor that appeared to be made of …. Zerg bones. This new protoss yanked a double-bladed scythe made of a green energy out of the new zerg, and watched it collapse at his feet. Nearby, protoss like the first were becoming visible.
"Adun Toridas, human," the new protoss addressed Naruto, "We are Nerazim; the Dark Templar. We have come to aid our Khalai brethren and your people in your fight against the Zerg."
At that moment, huge beams of light and energy struck the worms, incinerating them with ease. The beams also cut huge swaths through the zerg lines, burning everything they touched to ash. A handful of smaller ships zipped overhead as well, cutting through the remaining zerg with green lasers. Naruto looked up to see the Gantrithor flanked by these new ships as they rained death from above. Only those closest to the worms were fast enough to retreat and escape the burning death that was all around them, leaving the rest to die. Before long, all that remained was the surviving soldiers of the alliance surrounded by a huge ring of ash and smoking remains.
Naruto and the others looked around; more than half of Antioch was in ruins and fires still burned all across the base. Between a hundred and fifty to two hundred dead, and more than three times that were wounded. Sasuke was critically injured, and Sakura was not in the best condition either. Several ravens had crashed inside the base too, adding to the destruction, as well as several destroyed tanks. Thanks to these new Dark Templars, the alliance was saved – but at a price almost too high to bear. Naruto shook his head. How long would this go on? How many more was he going to lose? From where he stood, an end was nowhere in sight.
Author's Note: Hi. Just want to give a big thank you to adune23 for many of the ideas that have either just been implemented or will be implemented in the story soon! Hope to see you all soon!