Chapter 64 Reaction in Blood

It had been a short journey back down to ground level but not one Naruto was looking forward too, as he stepped off the elevator he turned toward one of three gates in which it was capable for a human to pass under the wall. There were in fact four gates, two train tunnels, a footpath and the last one was one for the small river, which naturally flowed through the valley, could go out of. The water tunnel was in truth multiple 18in wide pipes with mesh in the pipes to stop anyone from trying to come in that way. As Naruto neared the smallest gate, his heart lightened as he saw Sakura standing by the gate with a clipboard in hand.

She had her long pink hair pulled up into a bun and her white jonnin vest marked her as a medical ninja and by the costumes of war should have given her some protection but that was unlikely here. Behind her where multiple teams of people getting ready to move out.

"Sakura-chan." said Naruto as he walked up to the mother of one of his three children and his soon to be wife. He wanted to embrace her but both knew that they had to be an example to the less experienced fighting man and women, so they could not here.

"I know, we will be able to talk more tonight," said Sakura as the sound of opening gates caused both of them to look toward the tunnel. One by one, the three foot thick Aldhard doors where being lifted up into the ceiling. As they went up they where able to see the multiple holes in the ceiling from which the defenders could attack their enemies. There were arrow slits built into the walls, to anyone with half a brain it was clear that a frontal attack through the wall was next to impossible. Once the doors where open groups of heavily armed ninjas and warriors moved out to form a defense ring.

"So how are we doing?" inquired Naruto as the two of them sadly turned to the matter at hand.

"We have 20 people wounded but other than that nothing." Reported Sakura as Naruto blinked, he had not seen anyone go down with any injuries.

"They actually hit us way up there?" inquired Naruto as Sakura laughed a bit.

"Baka, no one can through a kunai or anything else 700 feet up." laughed Sakura as looked at the clipboard as the two of them walked down the tunnel pass the murder holes and arrow slits. "We have 5 people from the team who protected the first wall with bad bruising from where kunai hit their armor; we need to add more paddings to stop that. We had one man get vertigo from being so high and the most injuries came from people pulling fingernails out by accident when they were shooting the long bow, nothing life threatening."

"I see." noted Naruto as the final gate lifted up to show the scene before them.

"My God." whispered Sakura as she looked at the field of blood and body parts before them. Slowly the two of them followed by the medical and protection team moved out into the field, it had become so soaked with blood that the soil would not take any more. Arrows and crossbow bolts stuck out of the sea of blood their black aldhard shafts raised up above the pools of blood. Men and women, the ninjas that had been coming to kill them now covered the field so thick that it looked possible to walk across the field on top of them.

"This is unbelievable." said Naruto none of the ninjas got within a hundred yards of the wall but the amount of blood on the ground meant it came up to the base of the wall.

"I have to get to work," explained Sakura as she slipped on some Aldhard gloves and checked the first body she came to which was not shredded. She flipped over the man only to find that Aldhard ball bearings had peppered his whole face so they could not tell who he was.

Naruto was about to say something when the sound of a train car came from behind him, a large friegraded train car had been brought out. At the other train tunnel, another matching car had come out for the same reason.

"He's dead," said Sakura as she moved on to the next person. Behind her came a small three-person team who first checked for any ID but that too was blood soaked, he was a chunin so the likelihood of any information on him was remote but they checked anyway. Naruto wished they had not as they found a photo of a baby less than a year old in his vest pocket.

"Load him up." Ordered the leader as the placed the man and his personal belongings in a body bag and placed him on the train car. Teams of medics and body removers where going through the field of the dead which had been amassed outside the walls.

A few miles away from the massive amount of dead bodies two makeshift camps were being set up, one at the far end of the valley closer to the massive wall and the other in the shadow of the shorter wall which they had already taken. The camps where in a state of organized chaos as the wounded members of the vanguard force was being treated.

"What the fuck happened?" inquired Atsui as he stood before the other Kages in blood stained cloths; he had gotten through the battle without being hit.

"You walked into an ambush," stated Onoki as they young Atsui glared at him "However I must admit I may have done the same thing in your place. You had an enemy on the run, you had no idea you were heading into a trap."

"I warmed him about the possibility of a trap and that they planned to run." reported Hanabi as Onoki shook his head.

"Then it was totally your fault and all the men who died are on your hands." countered Onoki as Atsui pulled back.

"Do we know how many died?" inquired Hanabi

"Not sure yet, we don't have a count yet." reported the samurai general Mifune as he thought about it "We have a division and a half so 15,000 men when we left Celin, I believe Atsui took a quarter of the forces in the vanguard so he went forward with about 3,750 men in this attack. However we don't know how many came back alive."

Hanabi blinked as she looked at Mifune, he had ran off numbers as if the numbers did not mean the number of people who had died.

"Do we know what hit us?" inquired Gaara

"Don't know but it went through every bit of armor we had." stated Mifune "If I didn't know better I would say it was Aldhard but there is no way they can have that in the amount they sent flying at us."

"Aldhard?" inquired Hanabi

"Stronger and lighter than even diamonds and it absorbs chakra however the only source is in the Land of Iron and it costs more then it weight in gold." stated Mifune "It isn't possible."

"Alright so what are we dealing with?" inquired Gaara

"A massive wall at least 700 feet tall and with five levels with multiple weapon types ready to fire down on anything in the valley." reported Hanabi "Judging from their range of their weapons they seem to have at least half the valley totally cover."

"Maybe we can approach by night and find a weak spot?" inquired Atsui

"Possible but I would bet they have plans for dealing with a night attack," noted Onoki

"We need to find another way around," stated Mifune

"I have sent the Inuzuka clan out into the mountains to find a path but we need more than that." stated Hanabi "It is clear that this isn't going to be a short war, we need to get more divisions ready for combat. Some of us need to head back home to organize those divisions."

"So who stays and who goes?" inquired Mifune as an aid walked in.

"Sirs, we have the count of the wounded, missing and KIA." said the aid as all the kages looked down, the man's hand was shaking like a leaf.

It was a grim count as Naruto walked among the dead ninjas, as he passed by one of his body baggers he stopped and watched in a little bit of horror as he watched the man pull off a diamond ring from a limb which had been removed from its owner.

"Sir." said the man as he saw Naruto standing over him.

"Solider, are you married?" inquired Naruto as the man blinked

"Yes, sir." answered the man as he looked at the ring.

"I know the want for stuff like that may be great but think would you want that to happen to you? Don't you think your wife would want your ring back if you died," Inquired Naruto as the man slipped the ring back on the finger. "If you want a trophy then take something that isn't personal."

The man blinked as he picked up a kunai, which had been dropped by some unknown ninjas. Naruto nodded his head as the man slipped the kunai into his pack. Naruto kept moving as he looked around he saw the medics checking the dead and treating the few wounded they came across. The other teams which where bagging the dead were loading up a third train car with the body bags. Others teams where walking across the badly field collecting the Aldhard arrows, they did not need them they had more than enough and the ability to make more but they had to clear the battlefield. He saw Sakura knelling over a body; the woman had her hand up and had Sakura's hand in a death grip. Naruto turned to run in her direction but saw that there was no fear on Sakura's face.

"It is going to be alright," said Sakura in a calm voice as Naruto walked up, which is when he saw it. The woman seemed perfectly fine, from the belly button up it was. Below that, there was nothing but twisted meat. There was no legs, no waste of any kind and her organs where clear as day.

"I can't feel my legs…" said the woman as she gripped Sakura's hand.

"It is going to be alright." Said Sakura in a smooth calming voice, the same voice she used on calm down their son. Naruto watched as she pulled out a preloaded vile filed with some clear liquid. "This will help you."

With that, Sakura put the needle into the woman's neck. Instantly the woman breathing relaxed and after a few seconds, her hand let go of Sakura's. Finally, the breathing stopped and her eyes stopped blinking.

"Morphine?" inquired Naruto as Sakura nodded her head.

"Yes, two times the dose needed to kill." reported Sakura sadly "Not that she needed it to end her life. She had at most five minutes of nothing but pain left. You have never seen this have you Naruto-kun?"

"People die yes, but this no.," admitted Naruto as Sakura nodded her head.

"It is a dirty secret in the medical ninja field," admitted Sakura as she looked at the woman she had just killed. "Sometimes the only way to save their lives is by preventing pain and ending it. There was nothing anyone could have done to save her she was already dead. Sad thing is she wanted to see a photo of her boy but it was in her pants pocket, so she died without seeing her son."

"Sakura-chan." started Naruto, he wanted to take her in his arms to wrap her up in his protection but as he moved toward her, a cry came up.

"Doctor we got a live one!" yelled a man as Sakura turned to see them helping up a badly wounded man with five arrows sticking out of his body. "We need your help."

"A doctor's work is never done," said Sakura as she ran to help the wounded man who would have tried to kill them earlier.

Thousands of miles away in the Fire Daimyo were having an early afternoon meeting with the Wind Daimyo in his main house. The house was located in a small oasis surrounded by desert; the oasis provided clean fresh water, which the daimyo used for massive swimming pools, fountains and perfectly manicured lawns. It was too hot to sit outside by the pool so they retired to the massive underground wine cellar.

"So when do you think we will have news about the battle?" inquired the Fire Daimyo

"Battle, we are going to massacre them," laughed the Wind Daimyo as he took a drink of fine wine from a gold incrusted glass. Surrounding them in massive racks where almost 10,000 of the world's finest wines and liqueurs all for the enjoyment of the Daimyo and his family. "I would expect word from the battle soon."

"So how do you want to split up the holdings that the demons have?" inquired the Fire Daimyo

"Why are you limiting your goals to what the demons have, why not take the Land of Animals and Meteors?" stated the Wind Daimyo with a smile.

A knock at the door caused both of daimyos to look up as a butler walked in carrying a silver plate with a single piece of paper on it.

"Message from the front sir." said the butler as he bowed his head and presented the piece of paper to the Wind Daimyo. The Daimyo took the paper and unfolded it, he scanned it once and then scanned it again even more slowly.

"So how badly did we kick their ass?" inquired the Fire Daimyo as he took a drink, then he saw the look on his fellow Daimyo's face.

Little did they know that another Daimyo was getting the same message about the battle only this was good news in her view. The phone never even got past the first ring before Ino's hand grab it.

"Ino Yamamaka."

"Ino, it's me." said Naruto's voice over the phone line. "We won."

Ino let out a breath she known in her mind that there was no way for the ninjas to get around the wall, however in her heart she was still worried.

"Sakura-chan and I are both save along with everyone else." Said Naruto

"What about Hinata she should have been there?" inquired Ino, she had seen Hinata to the train station once she had come back to the village.

"Her train was delayed due to track repair," reported Naruto "She should arrive in a couple of hours, no one got hurt on our end. Well aside from some bad bruises and torn finger nails."

"And the other side?" inquired Ino

"We got 3,571 KIA and 1,313 captured." reported Naruto "We don't know how many of them got back to their lines but they are in the same state of the people we captured most can't fight anyone."

"And how many are left?" inquired Ino already knowing the basic answer.

"According to Shino information we still have at least a whole division here." explained Naruto sadly "So about 15,000 men and women."

"And how does Shino know about this?" inquired Ino

"I don't know for sure but so far all his information has been right," explained Naruto "How are things back home?"

"Good, my mom is helping with the kids but still wish you were all back here," admitted Ino "Sleeping alone sucks."

"Hopefully we can all come home soon and put this all behind us." said Naruto "How are the kids?"

"Trouble," laughed Ino "They are your children so that is a given."

A few hundred yards away from Naruto and on the other side of the wall the 1,313 ninjas which had captured had been lined up against the black Aldhard wall. Most of them had arrows in them which were being treated by the medical ninjas. Some even had missing limbs and one of them had lost both of his legs to the fire from the wall. Walking back and forth looking at all of them was Sasuke Uchiha, in his hands was a clip board with their prisoners names and ranks. Behind him were multiple train cars waiting.

"Let him go." ordered Sasuke as he pointed toward a young genin who was maybe nine years old. The genin stood up and with a heavy limp began moving toward a the train car, before he got onboard a ninja slapped a paper seal on his wrist.

"What the?" inquired the genin as the seal faded away.

"It's a release seal." reported the ninja who had slammed the seal on him "If you're not out of the land of Granite within 36 hours it will explode."

"What?" asked the genin as he wet himself in fear.

"Yes, and it also explodes if you come back." reported the ninja "Also if you do manage to take it off without it exploding, we have your name and if we capture you again…well let's just say it will not be good for you. Understand?"

"Understand." said the genin as he was helped into the train car.

One by one, Sasuke was going through the list of people they had taken, soon the 1,313 POW was finally cut down to 572. Those they were keeping where either jonnin, ANBU or related to major clans since their families would have the most weight in their villages. The ones they were releasing where either genin, Chunin, wounded beyond the ability to fight and only those who were not related to major clans. This was because they did not want to deal with a large amount of POW who might rise up in rebellion behind the lines.

The valley sides where not as step as they originally thought but it did not have the tree cover that Tsume and her group would have liked. They could see that the higher they went up the more trees they could see however most of them were pine trees making them unusable for jumping from.

"Remember our goals are to find a path through the mountains and around that wall," ordered Tsume as her nephew Katsuro lead the way into the tree line with his ninja dog Hibiki in front.

"No problem." laughed Katsuro as he led the group of ten of the most experience members of the Inuzuka clan into the woods along with their ninja hounds.

A cross the valley from them and above the snow line sat a figure dressed in silver with thick fur lined cloths. The silver allowed him to hide easier in the snow, which was very common in these high mountains. His eyes watched as the members of his pack from back in the Leaf headed into the woods at the far side of the valley.

"So it has come to this," said Kiba as he looked toward his right, only to see the massive dire wolf, which would key to carrying out his mission. He wished that his old teammate Akamaru could have been in the field with him but the pup was aging out of combat and if he went, it would have likely been his death.

"Inform the others, shadow them and we attack when we all are in place," ordered Kiba as the wolf behind him raised his head toward the sky and gave a howl. That howl echoed off the mountains as Kiba stood up and took out a small picture from his ninja pack. He looked the photo of his girls back home as he readies himself for what needed to be done. Then he grabbed out of the snow the handle of the weapon he had chosen for this task. The Aldhard had been colored so that it too looked as if it was snow however the sharpened edge of the tomahawk was capable of cutting a normal kunai with ease.

He put the tomahawk back into its place on his belt next to his two spare tomahawks, and then he took off through the snow with a pack of wolves behind him. He had spent many times in these mountains and the wolves had spent thousands of years here so they knew all the hidden paths. They knew the best route to head off the Inuzuka clan and their hounds.

It was early evening as team Lee stood on guard duty at the far front of the ninja camp. In front of them was a decent size rock which provided some concealment however even from this distance they could see the massive black wall at the far end of the valley.

"So what are we going to do to break that thing?" inquired Mirai Sarutobi as she sat behind the rock with her two other genin teammates keeping an eye on the road and train tracks. From here they could see some train cars on the rails but they had been there since after the battle and had not moved much.

"Just summon something and bust it down," said the red head Chiasa Inuzuka as she patted her young ninja dog head. "Summon that giant toad and have him bust it down, then it is a cake walk."

"Did you forget that their leader used to have the toad summons?" asked her second teammate Jun Nara as she looked at the wall with her binoculars "And my clan leader says his son may have designed this wall, so we have to expect the unexpected."

"How can we expect the unexpected?" asked Chiasa as she raised an eyebrow.

"You are an idiot," reported Jun as their sensei Rock Lee walked up to them.

"Sensei what is the plan?" inquired Chiasa "How are we going to beat these demons?"

Lee said nothing as he looked out toward the battlefield; suddenly the sound of rushing water could be heard as water began to pour out of different pipes built into the wall.

"What are they doing?" inquired Chiasa

"Washing the blood away," reported Lee as the young gunnin looked toward the small river which ran in the middle of the valley and their sensei was right. The river was now totaly red with blood, the sight of so much blood was frightening to anyone who saw it.

"Sir those train cars are moving!" yelled Chaisa as the cars came together and where being pulled by a small train. The train stopped maybe fifty yards away from their position as a man dressed in standard ninja gear only all black stepped off.

"Who is that?" inquired Jun

"Stay here." Ordered Lee as he stepped out and began walking toward the man.

"Sensei, get out of there it is a demon!" yelled Mirai as Lee walked up to the man.

"Shikamaru." greeted Lee to his old friend.

"Lee long time no see," said Shikamaru as the two old friends shock hands "You're looking good."

"Not compared to you, you don't seem to have age a day," reported Lee as Shikamaru laughed at the comment.

"Let me guess," inquired Lee, as he looked at the train cars "Our dead?"

"All 3,571 of them," reported Shikamaru "We also have 1,313 of your forces captured we are releasing all but 572 on patrol but if they are not out in time the seals on their arms explode."

"Damn all those dead." noted Lee "I would share how many people came back dead or wounded but my team is listening."

"Understandable but we will find out in time." Said Shikamaru as he took a deep breath "You already know how this will end, right Lee."

"Yes." admitted Lee "The question is how long will we kill each other before it comes to pass."

"Actually you haven't killed anyone on our side yet." Reported Shikamaru as Lee's eyes widened, they had lost over 6,000 men either KIA, wounded or captured and they had not even harmed them. "We have Aldhard armor and weapons, hell the whole wall behind me is made totally out of Aldhard."

"Why are you telling me this?" inquired Lee as Shikamaru looked at the train cars full of dead bodies.

"So that we can have a few less train cars full of dead bodies," explained Shikamaru as he extended his hand to his friend "Good luck….and Lee if you see lights on the wall, run."

"Lights on the wall?" inquired Lee confused.

"Just remember, run." Confirmed Shikamaru with a look in his eyes Lee had not seen in it since the dark days with the war with Madara.

Well I hope you liked this chapter, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and I ask that you keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.