Chapter 80 From Konoha to the Sea Part 2
Fire and smoke rose up from the burning city as the Knights from the land of Animals and ninjas from the Land of Granite put the ninja village of Kusagakure in the Land of Grass to the torch. The civilian population which had called the village home where running for their lives, it was human nature for them to run into the tall grass which gave their country it's name. Most failed to notice that the force which had been attacking their village wasn't chasing them, instead they were turning their rage on the village itself. They threw torches through windows and took everything of value that they could find.
Sitting on her blood red mare outside the burning city was Karin Uchiha, she watched the city with a disinterest which surprised her.
"Well that is the third major village that we have burned." Said Karin as Shino pulled up beside her on his own horse. It was clear by how he held onto the reigns that he was unsure of himself on horseback.
"Fourth." Corrected Shino as Karin thought about it.
"What am I forgetting, we burned the Konoha to the ground in a single night. I really enjoyed watching that massive tree in Takigakure and this one here." Stated Karin "What am I forgetting?"
"The village of Hoshigakure." explained Shino as Karin thought about it.
"Yes, your correct but do we really consider that village a real village?" inquired Karin before shaking her head. She looked down at a map, with luck they should arrive at the boarder by tonight. Then they would have a brief attack into the land of rivers before entering the land of demons and their crossing into the Land of Wind. There they would not attack anyone instead; they would have supplies waiting for them. "Let's get going."
To the North sat the land of Sound and a very happy Kabuto Yakushi, things couldn't have gone better if he had done it himself. The demons had not only held out but from his point of view they were winning the war. That meant that the ninja nations were not making money because they could not send ninjas on missions so they would have to come to him. In time, he would have not only the greedy Daimyo's but the ninja nations themselves under his control all without raising a kunai.
"What if the Demons do win the war in the end?" asked Kabuto outload to himself, he paused for a moment and pondered the self-imposed question. At the outset of war it would have been unlikely but now the demons had knocked out the land of Water and burned the Leaf down before sweeping to the south west. "Even so they wouldn't have the force to occupy the North even if they wanted too. It may actually be better if they do win and take a share of the missions for themselves, less money for the nations means they have to borrow more from me."
Kabuto smiled at that idea as the sound of the metal detector at the front door of his bank caused him to look up and out through the tinted window toward the main lobby of the sound bank. From the outside the bank didn't look that impressive with only a single story with a simple colonnade around it. Inside however it screamed power with black marble floor inlayed with silver. The black stone columns had silver trim around the top and bottom and the ceiling itself was black titles with a mosaic of the sound symbol on the ceiling. There was a matching one on the floor, all the teller booths and desks where made of oak.
The guards all of whom where S ranked ninjas by the door moved toward the old man who had walked, Kabuto shook his head the detector where highly sensitive, the man likely had spenders. He was about to turn back toward the stack of papers on his desk when a scream filled the air. He looked back up to see that the old man had somehow grabbed the biggest and strongest of his guards arms and twisted it around his back forcing the much larger man to his knees. At the same moment, the old man pulled a sword out of what Kabuto had thought was his walking stick. With one quick movement he cut the heads of the other two guards. The forth guard had a second to react but only a second before the sword came back around and cut his throat causing his blood to join the pools of red on the black stone. By then the doors to the bank had opened up again as a multitude of man dressed in a mixture of ninja gear and heavy plate armor. They spread out and moved against the other guards as the tellers and other workers ran for their lives.
Kabuto reached for his weapons only to have sword pressed against his neck from behind.
"You're getting rusty Kabuto," said Sasuke's voice "Maybe it is all your time spent in an office instead of training but you were always kind of the paper man for Orochimaru."
"Well this is true Sasuke, but tell me why are you here? We are not at war?" asked Kabuto "Peace loving Naruto would never attack a neutral nation, it would harm any chance of getting a peace."
"Well that is where you are wrong, see it actually the other way around by attacking you we will gain peace." Laughed Sasuke "Also Naruto ordered an attack on the Leaf and every other nation in the path of my army has it marches South, do you really think something as small as neutral boarder would stand in our way."
"But when the Daimyo's hear this they will allow the ninja forces to attack the neutral nations which protect you." stated Kabuto
"You would be correct but in a few days this war will all but over and that will not matter." Stated Sasuke "In the end the events of today will hardly be remembered, next to burning down multiple villages robbing a bank is not going to stand out in the history books. Now I have work to do."
With that, Sasuke pulled his sword away from Kabuto's neck however instead he brought his second sword down on the muscles behind his knees. This caused Kabuto to fall to his knees, however before his knees even hit the ground Sasuke's swords came around and hit all his joints cutting off all his movement. Kabuto fell to the ground unable to move in any way.
"When did you learn all the muscles groups?" asked Kabuto "You never payed attition to that when Orochimaru was teaching you."
"Well Karin-chan has ways of teaching me which I am glad Orochimaru never attempted." explained Sasuke as he pulled out a cloth and whipped an oil like substance from his swords. "She also came up with this oil which will stop healing chakra from actually healing a wound. So you are stuck as you are for the moment. Now remain quiet, I have a phone call to make."
Like almost every day in the land of Wind it was blowing causing the people who called the village hidden in the Sand home to cover their faces from the flying sand. They moved through the streets carefully unaware that the man who owned most the land in their nation was currently watching them from the Kazakage's office window.
"You are trying me Gaara, your efforts to stay out of this war even as I order you to take part is making me consider removing you from your position." stated the Daimyo as he sat in front of Gaara in his own office. The Daimyo was one of the few people who could threaten a Kage in their own office and get away with it.
"I understand your point but I am trying to keep this village going," explained Gaara "I need ninjas here to run missions not sitting on the coast waiting to die in this struggle."
"You think this war is over don't you?" asked the Daimyo
"Don't you?" inquired Gaara "We have lost at every turn; we are talking tens of thousands of ninjas dead to no gain."
"We attacked their home." Countered the Daimyo
"And lost thousands of people for a nothing gained." countered Gaara as he leaned back in his chair.
"You are leaving me very little choice, either you move your ninjas down to join the main force of ninjas or I will remove you." threatened the Daimyo as suddenly a knock at the door caused both men to turn toward the door.
"Enter." Said Gaara as a woman dressed in the ninja gear of the land of granite with a massive fan on her back entered.
"You." said the Daimyo as he pointed at Temari Nara who walked into the room as if it was perfectly natural for her to enter the office of an enemy nation.
"Please no need to run out," said Temari as she sat down beside him across from her brother. "Besides if you run out, you will find yourself very poor very soon."
The threat of losing his wealth caused the Daimyo to stay in the room.
"Just as I thought." said Temari "Now as of a couple minutes ago, forces under Sasuke Uchiha has taken the Sound bank. I believe you have 60% of your wealth and a lot of paperwork which confirms your holdings in this land. I am sure you have seen what happened to the water Daimyo after his paperwork was destroyed."
"Yes." said the Daimyo "Those damn lower class don't know their place, they refuse to admit that they are living on that Daimyo's land and since he has no proof that they are wrong what passes for a government in the that nation will not harm them."
"Now you have two choices before you." Started Temari
"How can I trust you?" asked the Daimyo
"Do a video call, I'll wait." Confirmed Temari as the Daimyo quickly moved toward the video conference system located on the far wall. It took only a few minutes for the image of Sasuke Uchiha sitting behind Kabuto's desk to appear on the screen. The Daimyo simply blinked as he looked at imagine of Kabuto on the floor and through the window he could see other people loading up mounds of gold, silver and paperwork and sealing it up.
"Nice of you to finally call, I want to get to work," said Sasuke
"Well Mr. Daimyo will you do what we want or do you never want to see your gold or paperwork again?" inquired Temari
"I will never order the surrender of the Sand forces, the other Daimyos would never speak to me again and I would lose all my connections." Said the Daimyo
"We don't want you to surrender." said Temari "We want you to do something else, something that your military leaders are already thinking about doing infact."
Rock Lee could not believe the stories, which were moving through the massive camp, which had spread out over the area outside of Celin. The stories ranged from what had to be impossible to what couldn't be imagined without a twisted mind. The first reports coming down from the land of fire said that a small raiding party had hit a coastal city that while unexpected was not anything major to worry about. Now the story was that small raiding party had turned into an army, which had marched unseen taken the Leaf in a single night. That army had then turned west leaving the village nothing but ash.
"I heard that they tore down every single stone in the Leaf village," said a young Rock ninja as he Lee and a handful of others gathered around a fire cooking their breakfast over an open flame.
"Have you seen the walls of the Leaf village?" inquired a Lightening Ninja "It would take more than a night to bring them down."
"They are demons they can do almost anything." countered the Rock Ninja before looking at Rock Lee. "You're from the Leaf do you know any of the demons?"
"I know a lot of them," admitted Lee "Two of my teammates became demons and a lot of the others are close friends."
"Really and are they capable of mass murder and burning everything to the ground?" inquired the Lightening Ninja
"Mass murder, no they are not capable of that." Stated Lee with such force that he caused the other ninjas to look at him. "Burning everything to the ground, yes I could see them doing that to make us give up."
"Well if the other stories I heard are true then it is working." stated a samurai as he drank some tea "I heard that they caught a large group of ninjas from the Land of Grass tried to defect last night only to get caught."
"Why is that a big deal?" inquired a Sand ninja "They caught two from my own nation trying to leave a couple of days ago."
"True, but this was almost a quarter of the total Grass force." Stated Samurai as the ninjas eyes widened at the news.
"Damn how many man is that?" asked the sand ninja
"I don't know for sure, at least five hundred men," stated the Samurai
"We have lost this war." Stated Lee in a matter of fact tone which caused everyone to look at him.
"What are you saying that a small group of demons can defeat the greatest powers in the world?" inquired the Sand Ninja, he expected Lee to back down but instead he went the other way.
"Yes, we deluded ourselves into thinking that this would be a quick easy war and then we got punched in the jaw at their wall. Next came a body blow one the water where we lost the Mizukage and most of their fleet." stated Lee as everyone kept looking at him, but now the looks they gave was one of agreement not one of disagreement. "Then they went on the attack by knocking the Land of Water into a civil war which is still raging. We tried to gain the advantage by invading by sea and we actually got ashore only to pay for it in blood. They now have launched a counter attack which has burned the Leaf and they are now marching on us. They have killed thousands of ours in the field while we have killed only a handful."
"When you put it that way, we are screwed," laughed a sand ninja "Maybe I should run while I have the chance?"
"Maybe you should." admitted Lee "I wish I could but it would put my family in risk."
Suddenly a yell came through the camp.
"Get ready we are moving out in two hours!" yelled a voice "We are pulling back to the Sand village, we leave in two hours."
"Yet another sign that we have lost, we are falling back to the Sand village and giving this city over to the demons." laughed the Sand Ninja "But it will be good to go home."
To the west and across a small river sat the Knights of the Land of Animals and Ninjas from the land of Granite the camp which had stood for weeks was being broken down. Already three portable bridges had gone up across the river and another three where in the process of going up. Knights on horseback had already crossed and where heading straight North toward the village hidden in the Wind. Another group made up of ninjas and archers where heading North East across a much narrowoier path but if their plan was to work this had to be done.
Naruto was busy getting his own pack ready, he like everyone else in the second group wouldn't be on horseback they would be traveling on foot. The narrow sandy path they had to follow wouldn't be suitable for horses.
"Lord Onikage." said a voice behind Naruto as he turned to see Lord Drake Eastman sitting ontop of his own horse only yards away from him. "I came to say goodbye and to wish you luck."
"Same to you." Said Naruto as he moved forward and took the elder man's hand.
"Next time we meet, the war will all but over." Said Drake Eastman
"I hope that with all my heart, I don't want to fight another war once we end this one." Said Naruto
"That is the hope of everyone who has seen war." confirmed Drake as he took a breath. "I have to get going and so do you."
"Yes, Hinata-chan and multiple sand ninjas have the lead and Sakura-chan is coming up with the medical ninjas." Said Naruto as he put his pack over his own shoulder along with his sword and headed across the river.
To the North the armies that Karin was directing for her husband had made a move that the military planners for the allied ninja forces would not have expected. They turned away from the sea and the target rich area and turned down a less travel road, which hugged the massive sand dunes which formed the board of the land of Wind.
"We have to hurry but we also have to make sure we are not spotted," ordered Karin Uchiha as the three columns, which made up the army headed down their path. Two of the columns would head down the side road before they two would split up. The third column would keep heading south toward the sea following the path which was expected them to follow.
"Do you think Sasuke will make it in time?" inquired Kiba
"My husband will not miss the biggest battle in the history of the ninja world." said Karin "Even if he hates sand, he will not miss this fight."
"True." Admitted Kiba "This move Shikamaru and Temari came up with dividing our army up into five groups is a bit of a risk, if they find out that we did that they can destroy us one army at a time."
"Which is why speed, is key and if everything goes as plan we will have them surrounded and trapped and they will be the ones being slaughtered not us." Laughed Karin "It's time to end this war."
First I must apologized I have not been paying this story the attention it deserves, maybe because I have the plot finalized in my head and my thoughts have turned away from it. I am sorry and I hope you enjoy this chapter and the final chapters that are coming. Thanks Wilkins75.