Disclaimer – Kishimoto owns Naruto and the characters therein.
This chapter is concurrent with the latter part of the previous one.
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Memories Of Others
Chapter 43
Perspectives Of Battle
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Kin used a dispel to counter the effects of the genjutsu being placed on the entire stadium and grinned as she saw the other genin start to sag.
"Heh, guess I'll be winning all the rest of the matches." She sneered as she pulled out a handful of poisoned senbon, then she was sent staggering by a wave of chakra that wiped out the genjutsu as if it had never been there in the first place.
"The fuck was that?" She gasped, then she felt her wrist being grabbed by the pink-haired kunoichi.
"Poisoned senbon? And just what were you planning on doing with those?"
Kin gulped as she met the furious green eyes. "Ummm, I can explain?"
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"Attack!" The Jonin in charge of the Oto Assault Groups shouted into his radio and the task forces secretly emplaced within Konoha burst out of their hiding places to begin wreaking havoc throughout the unsuspecting city.
As the specially-trained Chunin used the summoning circles to call forth three of the larger Summon Snakes to break down the wall surrounding Konoha to open it up for the second wave of attacks, the Jonin was shocked to feel a kunai plunging into his upper back, severing his spine.
"…why…" He croaked and the Suna Shinobi who had inflicted the mortal wound glared down at him.
"Did you really think we didn't know about the betrayal you planned?"
The Oto-nin died in confusion, failing to understand what the Suna-nin was talking about.
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Activating her byakugan, Hinata caught sight of three Oto Shinobi descending on a group of children outside the arena. Without hesitation, she used shunshin to reach the top of the outer wall, then another to land in the middle of the attaching Shinobi, striking them down with chakra-laced strikes.
"Thanks, Hinata." The man herding the children said gratefully and Hinata blinked as she realized that it was Iruka. "Can you help me get them to safety?"
Hinata nodded.
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"Urgh!" Kin managed as she was back-handed into the wall by Sakura, then pinned into place by a barrage of Senbon through her clothing, a barrage launched by Haku. "But… you're not from Konoha…"
Haku shrugged. "Kiri seeks an alliance with Konoha. What better way to prove our good intentions than by helping defend Konoha against those who wish to attack? Now, if you will pardon me…"
Haku dived off the platform and landed atop the water in the arena. A quick move caused a wave of water to engulf the raging Gaara, a wave that promptly froze, leaving only his head free.
"And that should hold him for now." Haku stated, ignoring the screaming of the red-head, then from outside the arena, a new voice sounded.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
The shapes of several giant toads loomed up against the skyline.
"Well, well, well." The largest of them mused as he looked at the three giant snakes beginning to smash their way through the village's walls. "Looks like I'll get that snake-skin wallet after all."
"…the fuck?" Kin gasped.
"Hey, you forgetting something?" Sakura asked and Kin looked back, just in time to see Sakura's fist heading towards her.
"Oh cr…"
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The first two Oto Shinobi to appear didn't even have time to finish unsheathing their weapons before their heads were seperated from their bodies.
"Chojuro, circle left! Suigetsu, to the right!" Zabuza roared as he used his sword to block an attack by an Oto Jonin who had seen what had happened to his team-mates. "And Suigetsu, no tags! Too much chance of civilian casualties!"
"But they're not our civilians…" Suigetsu protested, earning a glare from his Sensei. "Okay, fine. No tags… dammit."
Zabuza spun his sword, taking off the hand of the shinobi trying to attack him, then frowned at Suigetsu.
"Why the hell are you still standing here? Go!"
"Hai, Sensei!" Suigetsu yelped as he dashed off.
"Still got it." Zabuza smirked as he negligently decapitated the screaming Oto-nin.
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Baki palmed a Kunai as he glanced round, then he rolled away from an Oto Shinobi who landed almost exactly where he had been standing. The newcomer turned, brandishing a large sword and Baki's hand twitched, sending the kunai plunging into his eye and killing him.
As the attacker collapsed, Baki rolled to his feet, a second kunai seeming to materialize in his hand.
"Dammit!" He snarled. "I hope to hell my message got through."
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"This isn't good." Haruno Kizashi mused as he almost negligently knifed an attacking shinobi while he and his wife covered one of the exits that the panicked civilians were using.
CLANG!
Kizashi looked round at Mebuki, who had a dented frying pan in her hand and a concussed shinobi at her feet.
"Dear," He commented, "Isn't that the pan that you inherited from your mother?"
"So?" Mebuki asked as she blocked a shuriken with the aforementioned utensil. "You know that she never approved of me choosing to not become a Shinobi…"
"You would have made an excellent one." Kizashi pointed out and Mebuki growled.
"You know that I don't-" CLANG "-Like violence."
"Yes dear." Kizashi smirked. "Oh, look, our daughter just punched someone through a wall."
CLANGWHAMCRASH!
Kizashi looked at the new hole and the pair of sandals sticking out from the pile of rubble, then at his wife, who was still holding her (even more dented than before) frying pan.
"Ah, it's that time of the month, is it?"
"AND JUST WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?"
"Nothing, dear…"
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"Yosh! I have defeated thirty-five of these most unyouthful Oto shinobi!" Gai exulted as he spun through a complex series of kicks and strikes that ended with his fist protruding from the back of another Oto-nin. "Make that thirty-six! How many have you defeated, my eternal rival?"
"Did you say something?" Kakashi asked as he stamped down hard, sending a rock spike lunging upwards and through the chest of one of the attackers. "Hmmm, I do believe that this makes thirty-nine kills."
"And this makes us even!" Gai called as a spinning kick caved in the chest of another assailant.
"Really?" Kakashi asked, cutting off a lightning technique. "You're up to forty-three as well?"
"Curse your hip and too cool attitude, Kakashi!"
"Did you say something?"
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Danzo stared in confusion at his ROOT operative.
"Did you just say that Suna has turned against Oto? What is going on up there?"
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Orochimaru didn't even have the breath to spare cursing as he frantically rolled and dodged the half-dozen staffs wielded by the clones of his former teacher, creating and switching with mud-clones almost reflexively as his survival instincts screamed at him almost continuously. In the corners of the far-too-small enclosure, his two resurrected minions were losing ground against the other clones and he caught a glimpse of Hashirama falling, his head destroyed by the impact of two staffs, thus ending his resurrection.
Orochimaru avoided a vertical strike by switching with another clone, then he rolled to avoid a strike that would have decapitated him only to find himself trapped in a horizontal cylinder of six enlarged staffs, a cylinder whose ends had been blocked by the ends of two more staffs and whose nature as transformed summons prevented him from kawarimi-ing to safety.
"Oh, bloody…" Orochimaru started to sigh before the end-caps of the staffs slammed inwards.
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"What the hell is going on?" Baki shouted in frustration as he watched Kakashi shove a lightning-coated hand through the spine of an Oto ninja. "Wasn't this an attempt to wipe out Suna?"
"Nope, it's an attack on Konoha." Kakashi replied as the corpse slumped to the ground. "Thanks for killing that Oto-nin earlier, he could have caused quite a bit of trouble had he reached the civilians."
Baki nodded, his mind frantically churning as he fought to understand the situation. The Kazekage was obviously dead with Orochimaru replacing him, but Konoha was strong enough that it could probably have fought off Suna and Oto, had he not sent orders to his men to ambush the second wave of Oto shinobi before retreating, thus denying Konoha the excuse it would need to flatten Suna.
Yet it would seem that Konoha hadn't actually known about the invasion until it started, which meant…
"Kamis above, this is so fucking screwed up." He grumbled.
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Hiruzen didn't even twitch as blood started seeping out between the lower staffs forming the cylinder. Instead, he motioned for the two clones at the ends to repeat the attack.
With Orochimaru, you had to make certain.
The snake had escaped too many times for any other course of action.
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"Heh, just a couple of old people." The Jonin leading the squad of six sneered as he saw the duo stading in front of the Hokage tower. "Kill them!"
Mitokada Homora adjusted his glasses slightly, then pulled at the scroll he was wearing over his chest. The scroll unrolled, revealing lines of fuuinjutsu as beside him, Ututane Koharu shifted into a defensive stance, raising her right arm to reveal that it was encased in a metal gauntlet.
"Screw this, we need to get out of here!"
The Jonin half-turned to glare at the chunin who had spoken. "What the hell are you talking about, traitor?"
"Hey, just look at them." The chunin protested. "They're old shinobi who are ready to fight! No way they'd be standing like that if they didn't have a ton of experience to draw on and you remember that old saying? Experience and trickery will defeat youth and skill. We need to fall back."
"You might want to listen to the young man." Koharu offered and the Jonin shook his head as he unsheathed his sword.
"Kill them, then burn the tower to the ground!"
"Well, he tried to warn you." Homora shrugged, his hands moving to the storage seals on his scroll. "Time to see if my old skills are still sharp enough…"
The Jonin lunged, only to come to a sudden stop as Koharu grabbed his blade, locking it with her metal-encased fingers.
"My turn, young boy." She said with an icy smile.
"…ohshit…"
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The chakra barrier vanished as the quartet holding it up reacted to the loss of their leader and fought to escape. All around Konoha, the Oto Shinobi noted the change in circumstances. The most intelligent of them tried to retreat while those who only sought combat pressed their attack, uncaring that they were surrounded and outnumbered.
Only a small fraction of those trying to escape succeeded.
None of those who continued to attack lasted more than a few minutes.
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"Well, it looks like it's all done." Hiruzen mused as he stood on the ridgeline of the Stadium's roof.
"If this is how it's normally like, I need to visit more often. Mei will be sorry she had to re-recruit that Jinchuuriki rather than attend." Zabuza said as he stood beside the Hokage, his sword covered in blood that was slowly being absorbed into the blade.
"It'll be interesting to find out just what Orochimaru intended to happen." Hiruzen continued, glancing at the scroll in his hand, the scroll that held the mangled remains of the Snake Sannin. "While all battles are somewhat chaotic by their very nature, this one was… the wrong sort of chaos."
"Yeah." Zabuza agreed. "Those Oto idiots were acting as if they had more backup than they actually did and most of the Suna shinobi who popped up at the start seem to have vanished."
"Strange." Hiruzen mused.
"It was rather weird." Zabuza agreed, then he turned to face the older man. "So, you given thought as to Terumi's request for an alliance?"
"I have, and I think that it is a good idea." Hiruzen said, then he turned to face an ANBU who had appeared behind him, kneeling as he awaited orders.
"I need Uzumaki Naruto here."
"Hai, Hokage-dono." The ANBU replied before he vanished and Zabuza gave Hiruzen a curious glance.
"I happen to know that there's a certain trophy in the Mizukage's office." Hiruzen smirked. "Would you care to take back my acceptance of the treaty?"
"Sure." Zabuza shrugged. "But I'll take my team with me, if you don't mind."
"That shouldn't be a problem." Hiruzen replied as Naruto appeared before them. "Ah, Naruto, just the person I wanted. Are you able to make clones again?"
Three clones appeared in a puff of smoke and Zabuza raised one non-existant brow.
"No hand-seals… not bad, kid."
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"Gaara, stand down!" Baki commanded and the red-haired genin growled at him. "I mean it, Gaara. Stand. Down. One Konoha genin took you down with ease and Konoha has dozens of suiton users."
The Jinchuuriki of the Ichibi finally stopped snarling even as the ice holding him immobile (and separated from his sand) melted with unnatural speed.
"Can someone please get rid of all this water?" Baki half-yelled and a moment later, the water started vanishing into a series of grates set around the base of the arena walls.
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A cloaked man with an ANBU mask picked up a small, white snake that was wriggling its way to the walls surrounding Konoha. Holding it up, he looked at it for a moment before tucking it into a pocket and walking away, leaving no trace that he had ever been there.