42

The Fall Of Konoha: Jiraiya's Story (1/4)

Despite one of the strongest shinobi in the history of Konoha standing at the gate guarding it personally, Junior ordered for his fleet of tanks to move forward. The loud sounds of machines kicking back into gear filled the area and he slowly floated off of the ground, "This is your last chance." He said to the toad sage who stared blankly in return at him and his tanks. "Fearless, I admire that," He turned his back on Jiraiya as if he were nothing more than a bystander and started moving back toward the tank that he came out of.

Jiraiya laughed to himself at the young alien's confidence. He lifted his hand and bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood, then slapped it on the ground, which caused an extremely large puff of smoke to appear. This was enough to gain Junior's attention, as he turned around to be making direct eye contact with none other than the boss toad: Gamabunta.

"You better have a good reason for summoning me, Jiraiya," The giant toad bellowed out as he continued smoking out of his pipe despite being summoned into a situation.

Jiraiya, who was safely situated on top of Bunta's head frowned, "Yeah, Konoha is being destroyed from the inside out. Is that a good enough reason?" He raised his brow while looking down on the giant toad, "I need you to protect the gate, starting with destroying those… things." The man didn't know the proper name for the giant war machines that were still rolling in his direction.

Without any further conversation, Gamabunta whipped his blade out of the sheath and smashed the first machine in his line of sight, but was surprised and a bit dissatisfied when the contraption didn't immediately explode like he intended to. His arm actually bounced back after trying to attack the strong layer of armor built onto the machine. He frowned slightly when he saw the cannon built onto the front aiming right at his face, surprising Junior and his fleet of war machines with his agility as he bounced out of the way of a large cannon ball.

Jiraiya turned his head for a brief second, his eyes following the path of the cannon ball, watching it crash into a building and then violently explode; destroying a portion of the village along with it. He wanted to be happy he avoided the massive explosion that followed, but thinking of the innocent lives that were probably hiding out made him cringe, "We can't let that happen again, Bunta." His attention was turned back to the task at hand, as he leapt off of the giant toad's head and instantly started charging at the first tank, holding his hand out as he gathered his chakra and a ball of energy came to life.

The same cannon that just destroyed a sector of the village was now aiming right at him, but he continued to charge. Now that he was close he could see it powering up and getting ready to blast, but still not refraining from jumping right at it and thrusting his arm forward with his fully charged Rasengan. The second cannon ball tried to shoot but clashed right against Jiraiya's ball of energy. The man let out a pained yell as he exerted more effort to push the cannon ball right back down the barrel, and it worked, winning the battle of supremacy, but was ultimately sent flying back right before it blew up and sent chunks of metal flying everywhere.

Gamabunta caught Jiraiya and threw him into the air so he wouldn't be caught in the explosion that ensued, while he protected his face and chest with his arms. Jiraiya flipped in mid air and landed perfectly on Gamabunta's head, "One down, five—" The sage was suddenly thrown off of Gamabunta's head after a fiery blur slammed into him and sent him into the actual village, he crashed against the ground and kicked up a lot of dust as he struggled to get up. He lifted his head and saw Junior's desert garb scorched, purple blood seeping through it as well. "You look like hell, gaki!" Jiraiya said with a hearty laugh as he finally came to a stand.

Junior had nothing to say in return, removing his shemagh and tossing it to the ground, as well as the desert garb that he wore over his purple gi. His eyes were fierce, and Jiraiya could clearly see he angered the adolescent alien. The extra-terrestrial shot forward with great speed and extended his arm forward. It stretched out and suddenly Jiraiya had a green hand wrapped firmly around his throat. The sage didn't get a chance to pry the boy's hands off of him because Junior slammed him on the ground repeatedly and let him go.

The alien quickly flew through hand signs and as he landed on the ground, slapping his hands against the pavement and manipulated it with his chakra. A platform rose underneath Jiraiya and started sliding toward Ma Junior, which prompted Jiraiya to jump into the air right before Junior smashed his fist where he would have been. His eyes widened when he saw the entire ground split where his fist connected with it, and the only other person he knew with that kind of strength was Tsunade. Much like her it seemed effortless too.

Before he could even hit the ground, Junior threw out his other hand and stretched his arm far enough to grab Jiraiya by his forearm and pull him in hard. The white haired sage wasted no time forming a Rasengan in his free hand in the blink of an eye, smashing it right in the center of Junior's chest. He didn't even cringe as bits of meat and his purple blood splattered all over his face. The adolescent was sent flying back, crashing through multiple buildings.

Something in the pit of his stomach told him to go confirm his kill, swiftly drawing a kunai from his equipment pouch as he strolled cautiously to where Junior landed. As he stepped through the newly created hole he heard everything he wanted to hear, pained groans, struggles to stand, and a piece of debris falling in his favor to pin Junior down. "Here's a little lesson for you, gaki," Jiraiya said as he walked up to the downed alien, "Unless you're a beautiful lady, pulling in the Great Toad Sage is deadly."

Junior had no words for Jiraiya, spitting out a wad of purple blood right onto his face and continued to breathe heavily.

Jiraiya wiped the blood off of his face and nodded solemnly, "I get it, I'd be mad too." He stood over the alien and exchanged glares for a moment before stabbing his kunai into Junior's neck to guarantee his death. Jiraiya took a deep breath and stumbled backward as he instantly started thinking about everything else going awry in the village. He turned his back on Junior and started walking out of the hole he created, but the moment he felt the entire building shaking he turned his head.

Before he could fully react, a piercing yellow beam hit his back and sent him flying, and eventually pierced through his back and out his chest. Jiraiya's vision got hazy, nearly blacking out, but a rush of adrenaline washed over him when his body was turned around and he was staring right at Ma Junior. He had a demonic smile on his face, blood still dripping from his neck onto Jiraiya's forehead, "Here's a little lesson for you, human," The boy said as he inched closer to Jiraiya's face, "Turning your back on the Demon King's son, Piccolo Jr., is deadly."

The alien stood up straight, laughing out loud since it seemed he just claimed victory on one of Konoha's most prestigious shinobi. His body was slowly regenerating itself back to normal as he cackled like a mad man, "The Great Toad Sage," He snickered to himself as he looked down on the heavily injured Jiraiya. "It was cute of you to defend your village, but it belongs to me now."

"You might want to look up."

Piccolo Jr. continued on, ignoring Jiraiya, "I don't see what my father wants with this village, but I must say it's been entertain—"

The pained toad sage repeated himself, "You might want to look up."

XxX

The tanks continued to roll forward and Jiraiya left Gamabunta to guard the gate. The giant toad couldn't say he was enjoying the way things were transpiring, but he had no choice. He adjusted his grip on his large tanto and leapt right into battle with the next five approaching tanks. They tried to swerve around him, but the chief toad pounced on the first one in line, and smashed his blade into the ground to disrupt the other four's path.

Despite him being a massive creature, it still wasn't enough to crush the machine. He looked to his right and saw that the remaining tanks were trying to circle him, which made him grin. With an impressive show of strength, he picked up the tank he was standing up off of the ground and lifted it over his head. He started to leap away from the gate so he could move the battle away from the village and ensure the safety of it's inhabitants, and so he wouldn't hear Jiraiya's mouth about later on.

Naturally the other four tanks followed since a part of their fleet was being spirited away by a giant toad. Gamabunta spun on his heel and when it seemed like he was far enough out; he spewed oil out from his mouth, covering the tanks and ground with the substance, and watching them slide out of control. He then chucked the giant war machine he was holding over his head at the remaining four, in hopes of causing a huge explosion once it crashed against the ground, but instead the tank rolled over a few times while sliding speedily through his oil trap, before coming to a stop. It spun back around robotically and now all five tanks were focused on him.

Gamabunta furrowed his brow, "So much for that." As he prepared his next attack, he was taken aback by what was transpiring in front of him. The tanks lined up along each other and started connecting. Each passing second the machine was getting taller, and starting to be structured like a humanoid figure. Two tanks were used as the feet, new parts sprouting out to create the legs from the core tank, and two more transforming into the arms. Finally a head rose out of the top of the core tank, and a pulsating capsule corps logo protruding from the 'chest' of it. It lifted its arm and a hand emerged, dropping a small item to the ground and it made a popping noise.

"Hmmm, don't just stand there froggy!"

Before Gambunta could figure out what exactly had been dropped on the ground, he leapt backwards and guarded his face once a sudden string of explosions rung out right in front of him. He slid on his heels and came to a stop, narrowing his eyes as he saw crows flocking out of the explosion, and the figure of a man wearing a cloak. The figure disappeared, but as the smoke cleared he saw what dropped on the ground.

A giant sword for the mecha had been summoned from the capsule, and it magnetically flew it into its hand once it opened its palm. It was about to charge forward and swing, but Gamabunta slid out of the way in the nick of time. He leapt away from the mecha and it rolled after him in pursuit.

"CATCH, FROGGY!"

Bunta's head swiveled quickly, nearly blindsided by his own tanto. He caught it out of the air and instantly parried a downward chop from the mecha with his blade, sparks flying everywhere. There was a brief power struggle, but the machine's strength started to show as Gamabunta started to slide across the ground. The giant toad heard the same voice from afar that nearly killed him with his own tanto growing closer by the second, only seeing a blur as he saw a figure crash into the center of the mecha's chest, sending it flying back, "What the hell are you made out of?"

The pale figure started to regain his color, grinning from cheek to cheek while looking up Gamabunta, "Some good st—"

"Focus," A voice sounded off from above Gamabunta, making him realize there was someone standing on his head.

"Ok, Itach-"

The mecha reappeared quicker than anticipated, stabbing its sword into the ground right where the pale man was standing. Gamabunta didn't budge an inch to avenge the little guy, instead seizing the moment to spring forward and drive his tanto right through the capsule corp logo on its chest, identifying it as its source of power, and also its weak point. Sparks of electricity were flying everywhere as Gamabunta twisted his tanto within the machine, but just as he was about to fully power it down; the machine lost its footing and his sword slipped right out of the machine's chest.

What caused it was Yeruslan lifting the giant mecha's sword and tossing the machine back. His smile never faded as he shot off of the ground once more and attached himself to the machine's chest. From the inside of his cloak, slithered out a pale white snake that went inside the machine, while Yeruslan himself crawled to the head and clenched his hands tightly on parts of the machine's neck. The head of the machine looked down and locked onto Yeruslan, it's eyes lighting up; getting ready to attack, but suddenly went dark when the sound of something being split from within entered the alien's ears.

Yeruslan grinned even harder, as he dug his hands into the machine's neck and pulled as hard as he could. He could hear wires and important bolts within the mechanism coming loose. The color was slowly draining from his face as he exerted even more effort, but finally pulled the head of the mecha off and threw it backwards to who knows where. Yeruslan climbed up the machine and dropped into the newly created hole.

Itachi watched from on top of Gamabunta as his partner threw out multiple men who were operating the tanks. He took note of the burgundy garbs and obvious Iwagakure insignia on their headbands and clothing, "Iwa is conspiring with the aliens to take over Konoha," he deduced, as he leapt off of the giant toad's head. He approached them slowly as more bodies were piled on top of each other like dirty laundry. His partners jumped out of the machine and landed on the opposite of the pile they created of knocked out shinobi. "Transfer them to the base."

"Why, there just some humans, Itachi-kun," Yeruslan said as he scratched his head.

"Trust me on this," The Uchiha said a bit more authority in his voice. The sounds of popping made Itachi turn around, seeing a large plume of smoke that signified Gamabunta had been called back to Mt. Myōboku, "We need to subdue the leader and push back this invasion, let's go."

XxX

The whistling sound of something moving fast through the sky filled Piccolo Jr's ears, causing him to shift his neck upward and stare in awe as the head of a mecha was about to drop right on top of him. He had no choice but to leap forward, lest he be crushed by his own machine. As he hit the ground he slid out of control, immediately noticing that his clothes were covered in a strange oil. He crashed into the wall of a building hard, shoulder first.

He pushed off the wall and dusted himself off aggressively, approaching the head of the mecha full of anger when he say his sibling climbing out of it bloodied and battered, "Can you not handle a TOAD, Tambourine!?"

Tambourine spat out blood on the ground, running his hands over the multiple wounds in his abdomen caused from the Mecha head nearly caving in on itself once Yeruslan threw it. He was fuming with anger, similar to Piccolo Jr, "It wasn't the toad, it was those damn humans!" He yelled back at Piccolo Jr.

"We are Namekians! The strongest race, I don't want to hear excuses," Piccolo Jr. replied quickly and roughly popped his shoulder back into place. He took a deep breath and re-centered himself, realizing he had bigger things to worry about other than his sorry sibling, "Enough. Where are the res-" The boy looked around, forgetting about his crew for a moment, and remembered the wily Toad Sage he was doing battle with.

Jiraiya watched from a higher point, behind the wall of a semi destroyed building as Piccolo Jr. and Tambourine instantly started scouting around the area for where he might have gone. It was hard to stay quiet, he had a serious wound he needed to tend to, and the most intelligent option would be to regroup with some of the higher ranking shinobi, so they could properly assess the threat.

The only problem with that was the chain of command had somehow been destroyed. Usually during an invasion; orders would be trickling down, but right now everything was out of whack.

Jiraiya took a deep breath, 'You can do this.'

His ears perked up when he heard wings flapping nearby, getting completely still so he wouldn't alert the Namekian. Very slowly, he reached into his pouch and rolled out a smoke bomb along the roof which went off. Naturally Tambourine went to investigate once smoking started to fill that area. Jiraiya moved as fast as he could across the roof and attempted to jump to the next one over, but a quick moving green blur interrupted him and tackled him out of the sky.

The white haired sage rolled across the Konoha streets roughly, but regained his bearings. He managed to jump up and slide to a stop, reaching into his pouch and throwing multiple shuriken in Piccolo Jr's direction. The Namekian avoided them swiftly and immediately rushed in toward the Sage, while his partner Tambourine suddenly swooped in from behind and tried to get the drop on the old man. Once they were in his proximity, Piccolo Jr. saw the man smirk, which made him want to stop, but momentum was already on the Sage's side.

Tendrils of white hair shot out in every direction, stabbing through both Namekian's in multiple points on their bodies. He was tightly protected by his hair wrapping around him, his arm suddenly sticking out with his palm open, and a blue ball of energy suddenly came to life. The needles stabbing through his enemy's bodies retracted and he immediately lunged at Piccolo Jr., ramming his Rasengan into his chest and sending him flying.

He spun on his heel and instantly gave Tambourine the same treatment, sending the winged namekian rolling down the street with his chest carved with the shape of a Rasengan. Jiraiya stumbled forth, the pain in his chest reminding him of the gaping hole created by Piccolo Jr. He couldn't stretch this fight on any longer, he needed medical attention desperately.

The sound of a powerful yell filling his ears made him turn around to see Piccolo Jr. with a strong aura radiating around him, "I'm sick of your games, human!"

Jiraiya grinned, entertained that he made the Namekian reach this point of anger. He beckoned the boy to come forth and finish the battle but a large overhead shadow flew over the area and it nearly went black where they were. Both of them looked up and Piccolo Jr. smiled, "Did you summon that?" He asked in awe as the immense shade still hadn't passed. Jiraiya immediately locked back on Piccolo Jr. when he saw the Namekian retreating, "Where the hell are you going!?"

The white haired sage was about to give chase, but the entire ground started to shake and threw him off balance. A green blur flew past him, but it stopped before it fully retreated. It was Tambourine, "You'll be dead soon enough, vermin!"

Jiraiya rolled over on the ground and tried to catch a glimpse of what exactly was flying over Konoha, "Is that a bird?"

XxX

Part II on the way.