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.
.
Chapter Seventy-Two
Strike
.
"Chidori!"
Sasuke's strike managed to pierce the shoulder of his adversary, causing the severed arm to drop to the ground. However, his target was barely slowed by the injury and Sasuke barely managed to kawarimi out before a sword blade slashed through the log that had replaced him.
"Gatsuga!"
Two spinning drills of destruction slammed into the front ranks of the advancing army…
…and ricocheted off doing barely any damage.
"Fall back!" Kakashi shouted as he used a chidori of his own to behead an enemy. "There are too many of them! We can't stop them!"
"If only we had more lightning users!" Sasuke shouted as he reshaped his chidori into a blade in order to stab another advancing stone warrior.
Kakashi nodded in agreement, then he leapt back and rejoined his third genin, who had picked up the head that Kakashi had severed and was examining it.
"Sensei, I believe that we are fighting forces loyal to Uchiha Madara. Why, do you ask? Because the eyes of this statue contain what appears to be a Sharingan."
Kakashi craned slightly to look over Shino's shoulder at the head. Sure enough, the eye in the cracked face had a bas-relief of a Sharingan.
"Might be how he's controlling them." He mused. "Someone take out one of the statues eyes!"
"Yosh!"
Kakashi flinched as Gai thrust his fingers into the eyes of one of the attacking statues. The face seemed to crumple slightly, but the statue continued to fight.
"You were right, my eternal rival!" Gai called. "By striking at the eyes, they can no longer see their enemies and instead rely on sweeping attacks that are easy to dodge!"
A barrage of kunai scythed through the air at the statues, only to bounce off the hastily-raised arms.
"Shit, they're learning!" Tenten shouted in horror as she readied another double-handful of kunai.
"At this rate, they'll hit Konoha by dawn tomorrow!" Kakashi called. "We need backup!"
"Ask and you shall receive!" Hinata shouted as she swooped down from behind them.
"Those are the soldiers created by Moryo!" Shion gasped from Hinata's right. "Someone must have found them and worked out how to activate them!"
"Then we shall de-activate them." Ino stated as she took position on Hinata's left.
"Fu has seen them all, they are coming from that valley." Fu supplied as she zoomed in above the three Guyver-users, eight Bijudama-rasengans forming in her hands and at the end of Chomei's arms.
As if rehearsed, all three Guyvers raised their hands to their chests and peeled open their breastplates, revealing that the lenses underneath were already accumulating energy. Fu hurled her spheres at the front ranks, slowing them even as the Konoha ninja fell back, then six beams of destructive light slammed into the stone glacier.
"Fuck!" Kiba shouted as the wave of fragmented stone and flying gravel exploded towards them, even as he grabbed Akamaru and dropped to the ground, curling up around his ninken. The other ninja followed suit, diving to the ground to avoid the worst of the debris that had been sent flying by the overpowered attacks.
As the dust settled, the area that had once been where the stone army had been advancing through was revealed to be a superheated-trench with molten rock lining the base.
"Oops. I think we over-did it." Ino finally stated, then the ground behind them started to shift, bulging until a hand punched out of the layer of gravel, a hand followed by a familiar haircut.
"Maito Gai-san?" Hinata asked in confusion. "What happened?"
.
Madara snarled as he stared at the riven landscape that had once held his army of stone. Although they had proven less capable than he had hoped from all the legends he had researched, he had expected them to do more damage before they were stopped.
"Damn you, Uzumakis, but next time I'll be ready." He hissed even as he vanished in a swirling vortex.
.
The last of the defense force emerged from the ground, coughing and shaking dust from her hair and Kakashi glanced around.
"Looks like everyone is accounted for, although we'll need to send at least a quarter back for medical treatment."
"Those were most unyouthful enemies." Gai declaimed. "It is my hope that our enemies do not have many more of them."
"Youthful or not, they managed to break the line." Kakashi sighed. "We've lost six kilometers to them and… yep, they're following up with those plant-things again. I need a message sent, all forces to fall back to line five, line four cannot be held!"
"I'm sorry that we were…" Hinata began, only for Kakashi to shake his head.
"This was a fighting retreat. They hit us without warning, even if you'd been ready to fly immediately from Konoha, it would have been too late and you can't be everywhere at once."
"…thanks."
Kakashi patted Hinata on her shoulder reassuringly. "I know how it is, you've got great power, so you feel the responsibility to use it well. But no matter how much power you have, there are always limits. You just need to learn what those limits are and whether or not they are fixed. Gai believes that there are no limits and so far, he hasn't hit any… which is actually quite irritating at times."
Hinata couldn't stop herself from breaking out in giggles at the dryness of Kakashi's voice as he finished his impromptu mini-speech.
"This was part of that vision I mentioned when we first met!" Shion exclaimed. "Four in armor destroying the stone soldiers! I thought that it wasn't going to come true once Moryo was destroyed but… but it did."
"Everyone start falling back, wounded first!" Kakashi shouted, then he turned back. "We could use some air support to slow the Zetsus down a bit."
Hinata nodded and rose into the air, turning to face the approaching enemy.
.
.
Onoki growled as the latest reports came in, then he looked up as a swirl of space-time deposited one of the most aggravating people he had ever encountered into his office.
"Madara."
"Onoki." The Uchiha responded. "We are beginning to move in on Konoha now. We could use the reinforcements you promised."
"And if I do, the damned Samurai'll conquer us!" Onoki snarled, causing Madara to raise an inquisitive eyebrow. "I don't even know what set those damned honor-maniacs off! I've sent both of my Jinchuuriki to try and hold the border, but those sword-swinging lunatics keep on pushing! Some of them are even using ninjutsu now! I've barely got enough ninja to hold Wind a the moment, I'll have to pull them out within a week unless you give me some of those plant-ninja I've heard so much about."
"Unfortunately, they are currently all needed where they are." Madara ground out. "Nevertheless, thank you for informing me of the problem. Once Konoha is destroyed, we will be able to reinforce you."
Onoki opened his mouth, only to pause as Madara vanished in a swirl of darkness.
"I hate it when he does that."
"Sir!" A shinobi shouted as he burst into the office. "Flash dispatch from the border, Han has advanced to halt the samurai advance!"
Onoki's eyes widened.
.
The huge man in the red armour growled as the squad of Samurai paused in front of him.
"Only four of you?" He grunted, steam leaking out through the small gaps between his armor plates. "This will be easy… Futton: Kairiki Muso!"
The thin whisps of steam turned into howling streams as he lunged forwards, his jet-enhanced fist slamming forwards and straight through the chestplate of one of the samurai. Without slowing, he spun round, sending the now-limp form into a second Samurai, dropping them both, then he leapt into the air and stamped down hard on the third, crushing the helmet to less than a quarter of its height. The fourth Samurai stepped back as Han landed on the ground, leaving two small circles of scorched earth where his feet had impacted.
"So much for… your…" Han trailed off as the three downed Samurai rose, despite their lethal injuries. "…what the hell?"
Han stepped back, then suddenly found that he couldn't move as the four Samurai, moving with perfect co-ordination, surrounded him.
"I don't like doing this, but… DIE!"
The steam from his armor howled as it erupted outwards, catching the four samurai and superheating their armor to far beyond what any human could withstand, but the four figures didn't waver as they extended their swords to his neck, then a massive blast of wind carried Han's steam away. As he turned his head to see where the wind had originated, Han's armor suddenly fragmented and flew away, leaving him clad only in sandals, hat and fundoshi.
"Heh, that was easy." A voice said and Han's eyes widened as three new samurai appreared, one of them twitching his hands in a way that he found worryingly familiar.
"Samurai puppets?" Han asked in shock and the puppeteer-samurai nodded even as Han's armor landed in a neat pile in front of the newcomers.
"Temari removed your steam and Gaara took your armor." He said, his voice echoing through his helmet and Han's jaw dropped in recognition of the names.
"You're the Sand Siblings?"
Gaara's helmet flowed open to reveal his smirk.
"Yes."
Han considered his situation for a long moment, then he slumped.
"Well… shit."
.
.
"DOUBLE LARIAT!"
The ninja in the watchtower screamed as the entire doton-raised structure was suddenly sundered from its foundations and sent toppling backwards. As he fell, his last sight was a giant cat made from blue fire attacking the ready-response platoon.
"Hah!" The Raikage gloated as he flexed his shoulders. "Not bad for an old warrior, huh?"
"You got it, bro." Bee agreed as he looked round. "Hey, look! Over there, some sparring partners!"
A followed his brothers gaze and gave a thin smile at the sight of a platoon of Zetsus approaching.
"Let's take things up a notch!" He laughed as streamers of black lightning started to arc across his skin. Bee unsheathed his seven swords by flipping them into the air and caught them in his unique kenjutsu stance, balancing on one leg while the hilts were held in his joints.
"Time to mow the field!" Bee joked as he hurled himself forwards, spinning so that his swords seemed to blur into a rotating ball of death.
"Power elbow!" A yelled as he sprinted forwards and slammed his elbow straight through the chest of the leading Zetsu before ripping its head off.
.
"What?"
"My forces are being attacked by Kumo." Orochimaru repeated. "They've punched through the fortifications I had installed and are hunting down my reserves."
"Can this day get any worse?" Madara groaned.
.
.
"Welcome to Konoha, Temujin." Itachi said as the armored teen looked the office round curiously, ignoring the large shinobi who was escorting him.
"Thank you."
"You said that you had information that we needed to know?" Itachi prompted, waving for Temijin to take a seat.
"Once again, thank you." Temujin said as he sat down. Closing his eyes, he took several deep breaths before he re-opened them. "With your permission, I will explain some of my history before I get to why I contacted you."
"Of course." Itachi said as one of the ANBU placed a cup of water in front of the warrior boy before vanishing again.
"My home village was destroyed in the constant warfare that ravaged my homeland, the Land of Mystical Stones, named after the gems that once gave the Royal Family great power." Temujin began. "I was trapped in the wreckage of my home, until I was rescued by the man who would become my master…
"…and Madara simply chopped his head off without even blinking!" Temujin growled. "I barely survived and swore to avenge my master, but I cannot do so alone."
Itachi nodded slowly.
"Your story explains quite a bit of what has puzzled us." He said slowly. "We had heard rumors that Madara had returned, but to have it confirmed beyond all doubt… I am suddenly grateful for the Uzumakis in our ranks. To defeat Madara will be no easy task."
"Yeah, I remember that armor." The tall shinobi groused and Itachi smiled.
"I heard about that misadventure, Zabuza-san." Itachi said, laughter lurking in his voice and Zabuza scowled. "By the way, I have authorised payment for C-class for you, since you encountered Temujin and escorted him here."
"We were coming anyway." Zabuza shrugged, pulling out a scroll and placing it on the desk. "Sure, we had to come via Wave to avoid those damned Sound ships, but we're here now."
"Indeed you are." Itachi smiled. "Indeed you are."