Author's note – Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto while Guyver is written by Yoshiki Takaya.
I make no claim to either, I am merely playing in their sandboxes.
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Chapter Sixty-Four
Godaime
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The crowd roared with applause as Sarutobi Hiruzen limped forwards, his artificial leg concealed under the robes he was wearing. Coming to a stop at the edge of the balcony, he looked out at the assembled crowds with the civilians on the streets and the flatter rooftops while the ninja watched from the walls, trees and anywhere that wasn't horizontal.
Raising his hand, Hiruzen waited for the cheers to die down before he started to speak.
"Today, I do something that no other Kage has done before." He said, the seals in the shade-pillars picking up and magnifying his voice. "Today, I retire… for the second time."
Clad in almost identical robes but without the hat, Itachi stepped forwards to stand by Hiruzen's side.
"As before, my successor is one who is truly loyal to Konoha. He has proven himself in battle and in peace. Now, he stands ready to take his rightful place as leader of Konohagakure.
Hiruzen reached up and slowly removed the Hokage Hat he was wearing before turning to the younger ninja. Itachi bowed and Hiruzen placed the hat on his head, tweaking the fall of the veil before stepping back as Itachi straightened up once more.
"People of Konoha, I present the new Hokage, the Godaime Hokage, Itachi!"
The entire village seemed to explode with cheers, whistles and cries of approval, dying down only when Itachi held up a hand for silence.
"It is a great honor that has been bestowed upon me, one which I will do my utmost to prove myself worthy of." He said formally. "As my first act as Hokage, I have appointed new counsellors to aid me. Aburame Shibi and Inuzuka Tsume, please join me."
The two clan-leaders stepped forwards to flank Itachi.
"Should I not be available, both are authorized to act in my name." Itachi stated. "However, I will do my utmost to always be here.
"For you and for Konoha!"
The cheers made the previous ones seem quiet by comparison.
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"Fu is exhausted." The green-haired Jinchuriki declared as she flopped almost bonelessly onto the sofa, then she slumped sideways, measuring her length across the cushions.
"True, you actually need to use wings to fly." Naruto agreed as he settled onto the second sofa and let Hinata and Ino snuggle against him. "You're more agile than we are, but you have less staying power."
"How much staying power do you have?" Ino purred and Naruto glanced at her before blushing bright red.
"Is she always like that?" Shion asked as she entered carrying a tray of drinks and followed by Hoki who was carrying another tray.
"Sadly, yes." Hinata sighed, reaching out to snag one of the fruit-flavored waters from the proffered tray. Opposite her, Fu sat up and accepted a glass from Hoki.
"Hoki has a new hitai-ate." Fu commented and Hoki nodded, placing the tray on the table so that he could reach up to stroke the metal rectangle on his upper arm.
"I enlisted as soon as Tsunade-sama pronounced me healed." He said, picking up a glass even as he sat himself on a chair. Taking a sip, he continued. "I haven't been assigned a team yet and I'm still a genin, but… at least I'm not going to be turned into a weapon here."
Everyone gave him an odd look and he shrugged self-consciously. "The Taki Elders planned to seal the Nanabi into me, but when it seemed to die on them, they were too busy squabbling over whose fault it was to stop me escaping."
"Does that make you Fu's younger brother?"
Hoki gave a small smile, his eyes unfocused. "I don't know… but I'd have been happy to have had an older sister like you."
Fu turned to Naruto and gave him her best puppy-dog-eyes.
"Hoki, for the next month, you're staying with us to see if we can get along without too many problems." Naruto sighed. "If you pass, you'll be given the option to be adopted into the Uzumaki clan."
Hoki's grin almost negated the need for lights.
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"About time you came in here."
Naruto looked around, quickly spotting the familiar Guyver-enhanced cage and its occupant.
"Kurama, what is it?"
"I don't know." The Kyuubi grumped as he turned to stare at something behind him. Naruto walked round the cage until he stood between the two giant pillars that rose far above the roof of the cage.
"What am I looking at?"
"I don't know." Kurama repeated. "I only spotted it this morning."
Naruto looked at the large armoured mound that had forced its way up through the ground. Topped by a pair of control metals, the mound itself seemed rather uninspiring, consisting of red and blue armor sections that were in no discernible pattern.
"Red and blue?" Naruto said, shaking his head in confusion.
"Weird, huh?"
"Weird." Naruto agreed.
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The strike against Kusagakure was so total that there were no survivors.
The first sign that anyone had that things were about to go to hell was the first strike, launched from out of the cloudy night sky with the shout "Shinra Tensei!"
The gravitational hammer that slammed into the village flattened every single dwelling and building, flattening them and smashing the ground into a giant crater twice the width of the village.
The very few who survived did not do so for long as the wave of Ame shinobi swept across the ruins, using specialized jutsu to locate the survivors and ensure that they joined their families in death.
By the time the edge of the sun rose above the horizon, the entire village was no more, not a single person escaping to tell the tale of woe.
In the skies above the crater of death, Nagato smiled grimly.
The first step of the new path to world peace had been taken.
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"This is almost too easy." Orochimaru sighed as his army charged into the dawn-lit Yugakure. Beside him, the captured Daimyo made protesting noises through his gag.
"I mean, only a complete idiot would voluntarily disarm their entire nation." Orochimaru continued. "You claim to be pacifists, but pacifism only works behind the shield of those willing to fight for you. Do you know what many people refer to pacifists as? Not heroes, not brave, not admirable. Victims. Pacifists are victims whose only purpose is to gather resources and money for other people to take away.
"Only those willing to stand up for themselves can count on keeping what they have claimed."
The Daimyo continued in his futile protestations and Orochimaru sighed.
"I grow weary of his arrogant stupidity." He declared. "Someone demonstrate on him why being a pacifist in lands filled with shinobi is a bad idea."
Two of the Sound Five dragged the whimpering noble away and Orochimaru turned to look at Yugakure and the clouds of smoke showing that fires were already being started.
"I'm surrounded by idiots." He groaned. "How many times must I tell them, it's rape, pillage and then burn…"
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The watchers of Takigakure never stood a chance.
Takigakure was one of the smaller villages but one which thought of itself as being almost at the level of one of the Great Five due to three factors.
The first was that Takigakure had never been captured. Of course, the fact that it was one of the best-concealed villages may have helped with that.
The second was that they had previously owned a Jinchuuriki. While that was no longer the case, they had gone to great lengths to try and stop any of the other villages from finding that out, attempts that they thought had been successful.
The third was the substance known as Hero Water. Although never fully analyzed, its effect was to enhance the body's ability to produce chakra for a few hours with the amount of chakra enhancement being proportional to the amount of Hero Water drunk. It did not increase the amount of chakra a person could contain, however, which is why most of those who used the Hero Water in anything more than the smallest sips tended to die of chakra poisoning soon after, their chakra coils unable to hold the energy that their own body was generating.
The three factors combined had convinced several generations of Takigakure ninja that they would never be targeted.
And they were wrong.
The Zetsu army that silently flooded in with the dawn, led by a man in a purple mask, were natural masters of stealth, travelling underground until they almost exploded out of the ground and attacked their targets. A combination of surprise and the Zetsu's natural retractable spikes meant that almost all of the sentry ninja were slain instantly.
One was not.
Jonin Kego stared in shock as the Mizu Bunshin he had deployed as a decoy was destroyed by the sudden attack, the clone falling apart in a splash of water as two white humanoids stabbed it with shape-shifted arms.
Even as the water hit the ground, Kego vanished in a thin swirl of mist a bare instant before he would have been slain by the third attacker emerging from the wood behind him.
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The sound of the alarm echoed through the village.
"Situation report!" Suien demanded.
"We're under attack, multiple enemies." Kego said, releasing the rope that he had been using to sound the alert. "White humanoids, shape-shifting skills, probable Doton skills and possible Mokuton. Unknown numbers, but none of the other lookout posts are reporting in."
"Shit." Suien stated in a too-calm voice.
"Sir!" Yoro shouted as he appeared. "My Kage Bunshin report that we're under attack, at least three-hundred enemies of chunin-level or above! They've already broken in through the main entrance!"
"Gather all the shinobi." Suien growled. "Chunin and Jonin are to buy as much time as possible. Genin are to guard the civilians as they evacuate."
"Evacuate?" One of the Elders asked in shock and Suien nodded at the council that he had planned to depose.
"Evacuate." He repeated. "Head for Konoha and seek shelter. I'll lead the rearguard, but I'll need Hero Water for those of us holding the attackers back."
The Elder nodded. "You'll have it."
"Who knows, we may be able to force them back." Suien shrugged. 'And if we do, I can use the fame to become Takigakure's leader by acclamation.'
The Elder nodded before making several hand-signals to the surrounding ninja. "I have instigated plan Tsuri no Tachi Sagari, but I will stay and fight by your side."
"Let us hope the Tree is not truly falling." Suien said accepting a small beaker which had a familiar liquid in it. "Hero water?"
"We are using all of it for if we lose, we will not be able to harvest any more." The Elder stated as he looked at the main entrance with the ever-growing white crowd. "Let us forget our arguments and instead concentrate on destroying this threat, or at least weakening it enough that it may be defeated in turn. Drink up."
Matching action to words, the Elder drained the liquid in his beaker in a single gulp and Suien followed suit. The oddly-tasting water flowed down his throat and then Suien gasped as his body seemed to almost vibrate with power.
"Attack!"
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The sounds of combat echoed oddly through the escape tunnel and Shibuki glanced backwards before he felt his shoulder being grabbed.
"Come on." Yoromaru whispered harshly. "Don't let their sacrifice be in vain. We need to get everyone to Konoha as fast as possible!"
Shibuki nodded, awed by the drive and determination of the newly-promoted Chunin and the last member of the team that had participated in the Konoha exams.
"You're right." He sighed. "We need to get moving. Suien-sensei wouldn't want it any other way."
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Suien punched another of the white monstrosities, shattering it and sending the fragments hurtling into the mass of things that were moving to attack. Seeing another group closing in, Suien jumped next to the lake.
"Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba!"
A small geyser of water leapt from the lake and into his hand, where it formed a long blade. Spinning to build up speed, Suien used his first attack to bisect five of the inhuman enemies.
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"Clear!" Yoromaru stated and Shibuki closed his eyes, his hands flying through the secret set of seals that he had learned as part of his training to become the next leader of Takigakure, a position that he would now never achieve.
The boulder that had rolled aside to reveal the end of the tunnel slowly returned to its original position, then it jolted slightly, slamming into the hillside. The resulting shockwave triggered the concealed explosive tags in the escape tunnel, collapsing it beyond all hope of re-opening.
"Well done." Yoromaru said, clapping Shibuki on his shoulder. "Now let's get moving. Just because they can't follow us through the tunnel doesn't mean that they can't track us anyway."
Shibuki nodded.
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Suien gasped in pain as another blade stabbed through his torso. Although the attackers had no kunai or shuriken, their ability to reshape their limbs into weapons or fire thorns from their arms meant that they didn't need them.
A glance showed that he was one of only four Jonin still fighting and that the other three were in worse shape than him.
"I cannot rule, I cannot live… so I will end this." He whispered as he formed a hand-seal that no ninja from any other land would have recognized. "Takigakure-Ryū: Shi no Ki no Kage."
The branches of the tree that had for over a century protected Takigakure suddenly groaned as ancient fuuinjutsu arrays flared into life, illuminating the entire tree in a pattern of lines and swirls, then the light intensified and Suien smirked even as he felt himself begin to fall.
"…I win…"
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The harsh light faded, revealing no sign that a village had ever been there, nor that a battle had been fought. Not a single kunai lay on the rolling field of grass, not a single bone marred the perfection of the pastoral scene.
From the waterfall, a new wave of white figures entered, pausing at the sight before them, then they moved aside to let Uchiha Madara stride through.
"Almost a thousand of my Zetsu, gone." He growled as his eyes tracked across the landscape. "But now, the source of the Hero Water is mine… odd. That tree looks familiar, somehow, but I know that I have never seen it before…"
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Author's Afternote – Yes, three countries have fallen already to the forces led by Madara! Already, they control the arc of countries around the northern border of the Land of Fire, and things are just heating up!