Chapter 81 The Time has Come

The wind was almost unbearable as Naruto Namikaze crouched in a hidden trench located on top of one of the countless sand dunes which covered almost the entire southern half of the Land of Wind. Over his black aldhard armor, he like everyone else under his command was wearing a tan cloak, which covered his head; straps held it in place and covered his face from the nose down. Clear glasses covered his eyes and protected his eyes from the sand which was flying down from the North.

Down below him walking top of the cliff face was a patrol of Sand ninjas; they were dressed similar to him only they were not attempting to hid their location. Across a gap which was a quarter of a mile across was another group of sand ninjas walking across a similar cliff top. Between the two cliffs was the major road, which lead between Celin and the village hidden in the Sand. The pass was one of three roads which lead from the South North. While the other two where important in their own ways, they were not that special. The Western coastal road ran up and down the coast not even going inland to the ninja village. The central road was less traveled and weaved its way through the sand dunes in the center of the nation. This road called the stone way was the only road in the entire land of wind outside of the coast that was free of sand.

This was done because at some point in the distance past, there was a mountain range of some kind, which had once stood between the massive desert and the coast. Over the countless years, the unstoppable wind coming from the North had worn the mountains down, however parts of those ancient mountains remained. The wind had cut a path through the rock making a channel where the harder rocks on either side remained standing but leaving an almost perfectly smooth path between the two sides of what had once been a mountain. The howling wind coming down from the North was funneled into this channel and because of the speed, the sand never settled in large amounts. This made it perfect for a road since it was for the most part level and went through the dunes. It was soon going to be a death trap for the ninja army moving up the road.

"They still haven't spotted us." reported an aid to Naruto

"No, is the other group in position?" inquired Naruto as another man raised a small mirror and did a couple quick flashes of sunlight across the gap. They waited a few moments only to get a response back in a series of quick flashes back. The flashes formed a code, which allowed two groups of the four pronged attack in communication.

"Sir, they reports that they are position." said the aid next to Naruto.

"Alright, last reports had the Northern knights in position, so even if the Southern force isn't in place we have them trapped on three sides." said Naruto outload as he looked at his watch. "Send a message, we attack in fifteen minutes. Also send runners down the line and alert everyone that the time has come."

"Yes, sir." said the aid as they followed their orders.

Only a few hundred yards away from Naruto most of which involved a massive drop down to the road was his sister-in-law and leader of the Leaf village Hanabi Hyuuga. She along with most of the Kages where moving together near the center of the army as it followed the order of the Wind Daimyo to head back to the Sand village. It was the most logical move but it meant that the coastal city of Celin which had become the major launching points for attacks on the Land of Granite had to be abounded. While it was a set back to their goals with an Army under Naruto in position to come from the west and another army under Sasuke coming down from the North they would have been trapped. They had to fall back and the best option was to fall back to the village hidden in the sand. It was a side bounce that the Wind Daimyo had called and demanded that his ninja village forces return to defend against a possible attack by Naruto's army. It made the choice to move easier and so here, they were moving up the road toward the smallest of the great ninja nations.

Unlike the enemy, which tended to move on horseback, the ninjas and samurai moved on foot. This was because they had never used horses to great numbers in any of their wars and in most of the nations ninjas jumped from tree branch to tree branch as they moved. The only places in the land of wind to find trees in any great numbers was along the coast and the boarder with the land of rivers. In the center there was nothing but sand with the few oasis.

"So Lady Hokage," said the Samurai General Mifune the fifth as he moved up to walk beside the leader of the village hidden in the Leaves. "Is something wrong?"

"I just hate falling back," explained Hanabi as Mifune nodded his head.

"I agree, but this is the only tactical move we had open to us." countered Onoki "Besides this will all turn out for the best. When the demons take Celin they will have to deal with the small groups of ninjas we left behind."

"I don't like leaving so many of our ANBU behind there," countered the Raikage

"I don't either but it makes the most sense, the demons will never burn Celin like they did to so many other places. It is too valuable as a launching point for attacks on us, they will have to hold it." explained Mifune "When they try to hold it, the ANBU we left behind hiding among the local population will be able to carry out hit and run attacks. These attacks behind their lines will prove to be the key to us retaking the offensive."

"I understand but we lost so many of our best ninjas in our attacks it is hard to leave others behind the enemies lines." admitted Hanabi "When do you think we will be launching our counter attack?"

"Well we haven't heard of Naruto's army moving across the border yet, however we have lost contact with some of our scouts which means he likely is getting ready to do so." explained Mifune "We have reports that Sasuke's army is nearing the boarder of the Land of Demons and once across they will get resupplied. I would also expect them to take a short break maybe a day or two to rest up for the final push on Celin."

"They wouldn't have to wait, they don't need much to take an unguarded city." stated Hanabi as she checked herself. "Correction it isn't unguarded but the local police force wouldn't stand a chance against two armies. So it might as well be unguarded."

"That is so, but they will still move on it. They need it to run supplies to their armies." countered Mifune as he looked around at the tall red stone cliffs, which surrounded both sides of the road. He hated this road, it screamed death trap, luckily that was impossible. The massive sand dunes on either side of the cliffs would make it impossible to get any large force into position for a strike. The only issue was an army in front of them and behind them. They were moving into friendly land, so the threat to the front was almost none and any force attacking from behind could be stopped by a small force holding the narrow path. That is when he saw them, flying high to his west were a high number of vultures. It was normal to see a couple of the birds in the sky but there were a lot more than a couple.

"Lady Hokage do you see anything with your byakugan?" inquired General Mifune as fear began to build up in the samurai. All his military training told him that it was impossible to move a large force across the sand dunes, yes a small squad could move into position to attack but four ninjas would be overwhelmed by his force.

"With this wind using my Byakugan would do more harm to my eyes then anything else." explained Hanabi "Why?"

The answer came when screams filled the air, Hanabi, Mifune, Onoki, the Raikage and countless other people looked up toward the sidewalls just in time to see their scouts, which had been walking across the top of the cliffs fall with arrows in their bodies. Some of the guards fell off the cliffs; they landed with a splat on the hard stone ground of the pass. Within moments the top of both cliffs became covered with people dressed with sand colored cloaks, every other one had a bow and arrow in hand. The other ones had different weapons out, swords, kunai, axes and other stranger weapons where all on display.

"What the…" started Hanabi as a tall figure walked out into the opening. He quickly took off his own sand colored cloak to show that he wore another cloak under it. This one was black with orange flames around the bottom, in his hands was a pure white sword and above his blue eyes looked down at her. Above those eyes was the headband of the village hidden in Granite, Naruto Namikaze the first Onikage was standing only a few hundred yards away.

"There is no way he should be here." stated the Raikage Atsui as the radio came alive.

"We have enemy mounted forces to our front." yelled a voice over the radio. "They are knights!"

Before Mifune could even think of the situation, he found himself and the forces directly under his command. The radio came alive again this time with a different voice.

"We have enemy forces coming from our rear as well." yelled a different voice.

That is when it hit the samurai general; he had mounted soldiers, likely knights to his front and his back. He had archers and likely ninjas on raised positioned on his flanks; his army was spread out in a narrow pass, a pass with no natural cover and which was now surrounded. His one hope was that since Sasuke's army was from all reports still moving toward the land of demons Naruto's force would be smaller than his own. He would lose a lot of men but he could break out of this trap. His hopes were dashed as a figure rode up to the very edge of the cliff opposite of Naruto. This man was dressed in black with red highlights, his cloths where dirty from riding but he still gave off a wave of deadly intent as his dark eyes looked down.

"Shit, that is Sasuke." Cursed Hanabi

"How could he be here?" asked Atsui

"We are trapped." snapped Onoki as the elder Kage looked around.

"We are on death ground." Stated the Sand Commander "If Sasuke and his army have somehow gotten to our east and south, while Naruto's army got to our west and North then we are on death ground."

"Attention ninja nations and samurai of the Allied Ninja force." came Naruto's voice over all of their radios. "You are currently surrounded by the combined forces of the Land of Granite and the Land of Animals, place your weapons on the ground and place your hands on top of your head. You have no escape surrender now and you will live."

Hanabi's mind was racing they were surrounded on all sides, the enemy had the high ground and aldhard tipped arrows which made their armor all but useless. They could try to rush forward and attempt to break through the line on knights to their front, they would die. They could try to retreat back and break through the line of knights to their rear, they would die. They could try to climb the side of the cliffs and break through the line of archers and ninjas, they would die. Whatever offensive move they made ended with their deaths, they had only one choice surrender or die. She was about to say this to Mifune when she saw the young samurai general pull his sword.

"We will never surrender!" yelled Mifune

Up on the cliff Naruto looked down at the mass of ninjas gathered below him in the narrow valley. Naruto looked as the son of the man who he had respected pulled his clans sword. Naruto shook his head before raising one of his hands toward a single archer. The archer knew what to do as she fired an Aldhard tipped arrow out of her longbow, Naruto actually saw the moment the arrow ripped into the young man's throat, a wet thud could be heard as Mifune's blood began to flow down the front of his body staining the white shirt he was wearing red with his own blood. Mifune reached up and touched the arrow and to Naruto's amazement he actually pulled the arrow out of his body, he looked at it amazed for a moment. It was as if he could not process what it actually was, then the arrow slipped through his blood stained hand and fell to the stone ground. Seconds later Mifune joined the arrow on the ground, his blood began to fill the area between his body and the sword.

For a second everyone held their breath then the cry came up from the samurai.

"Attack!"

Naruto raised his hand up over his shoulder making sure that everyone could see it. He closed his eyes and gave one of the hardest order he had ever given, with a simple flick of the wrist he told all the archers to fire. The thong sound of their longbows firing filled the air, it took only a few milliseconds and then screamed filled the air. Before the victims could even scream, the archers already had two if not three arrows flying down at them. Naruto and Sasuke had placed their best archers on the front line, these men and women were expected to fire at least three arrows in 3 seconds, most did better. With Aldhard tipped arrows, almost each arrow was a deadly strike piercing armor and weapons.

Naruto watched in stunned amazement as a Leaf jonnin tried to cut an arrow with his kunia, normally this would not be much of a problem. The kunai was thicker steal then the arrow head, here however Aldhard proved its strength, the arrow cut through the kunai and impacted the man's jonnin jacket. True the arrow seemed to have lost it's killing power since only a small amount of blood came up from the impact but he had no defense as two more arrows hit him seconds later.

As a credit to their bravery or their stupidity they charged forward trying to get to the archers on the high ground. It was a massacre, no one got half way up the cliffs even with the help of Justus before getting strike down by the archers. Naruto's heart shank as he watched the men and women whom he would have one time gladly called his comrades die in mass in a pointless waste.

"Earth style rock wall justu!" yelled a voice as a group of ninjas used Justus to form a barrier around themselves to protect them against the falling arrows. A lot of arrows did stick to the stone walls they brought up into an open top box shape, however once the archers saw this some of them began to drop their arrows down the open top. A few of the smarter ninjas had used Justus to make makeshift cover for themselves from the stream of arrows falling down on them. Even they would have to either surrender or die, none would be making out of this today.

"What a pointless end." Said Naruto as he looked at the red sandstone which lined the pass, it was now stained a bright red with the blood of countless ninjas. All the way down the line the entire length of the army the archers where raining death. The only places the archers where not firing was at the front and rear of the ninja force, there the knights where having a field day cutting down anyone who moved. As the knights pushed forward the archers they passed moved forward as joining with the others still firing on the ninjas. A few where ordered to stay behind incase someone slipped through the wall of armored knights or a crafty ninja pretended to be dead and wait for the battle to pass. Either way it resulted in the same thing, a blood bath unlike any seen in the history of the ninja world.

Down in the valley it was a blood bath as Rock Lee used a narrow outcropping along one side of the wall to protect himself from the arrows. All around him people where dyeing from the incoming arrows, he occasional saw one of the archers fall from their position but for every one they brought down at least forty ninjas and samurai went down. There was a few explosions as explosive tag tipped arrows went off. The stones of the ground which was been worn smooth by countless centuries of wind was now slick with blood. Body parts where flying and a few people where actually stuck to stone cliff side by the arrows. Blood and body parts where actually falling like rain as people exploded all around him.

The Archers where placed perfectly the sun was directly above them causing anyone to trying to hit them with a kunai had to look into the sun. They were also beyond the range of most Justus and even if a ninjas aim was perfect they had Aldhard armor which protected them from harm. The sandstone soon became slick with blood, to the ninjas and samurai credit they fought some tried to make steps using earth style Justus, they died anyhow. Some tried to destroy the arrows with fire Justus but no fire they made was hot enough to destroy Aldhard and they couldn't keep the fire going if they could. They died as well. Others tried to form a barrier of some kind to protect themselves but the arrows pieced through the rock face and over time their defenses had so many holes in them that it wasn't funny. A group of ninjas did form a good defense line by putting their backs to the rock face like Lee and then together forming a large doom out of solid rock. It looked like a good idea until a few crossbow bolts hit the doom before exploding out. When the smoke cleared there was a large hole in the doom from which multiple dead bodies sat in a pool of blood.

"This is over." said Lee as he tried to press himself closer to the rock face. Suddenly he felt like Tsunade had punched him in the shoulder as an Aldhard crossbow bolt hit him on the side of the shoulder. The metal bolt passed through his shoulder before going into the rock face, Lee was pinned. Blood was pouring out of the wound staining his cloths a deep red as it moved down his arm and side. His screams of pain joined with so many others, he never heard the boom or saw the rock face give out a few hundred feet to his front.

Somehow a ninja had gotten lucky in a way no one could have predicted, a kunai with a paper bomb attached hit a break in the rock face. Just looking at it, the break wasn't anything to take note of but when the bomb went off it grew and caused a the ground under a group of archers to drop down.

Up on the cliff face the sound of falling stone caused Naruto's head to snap toward the sound, his eyes widened as he looked where a part of the cliff maybe 20 feet long by five feet deep had given away. All the archers who had been standing in that area had dropped down when the ground below them had given away. He looked down and through the dust which had been kicked up by the fallen rock he saw wounded soldiers, his soldiers. With a quick move of his hand he ordered all the archers to his left stop firing. He waited a few moments to make sure the arrows had stopped firing. Then with a single move he jumped the distance between himself and the site.

"Lord Onikage," said one of the men as he coughed from all the dust.

"Are you alright?" asked Naruto

"My leg." said the archer as he looked at his leg, one of the bones was sticking out of the flesh. "But my men they are trapped under all this."

"We will get them." assured Naruto as he hit his radio. "Sakura, we need a medical team forward, we have wounded."

"Lord Onikage!" yelled the archer as he pointed behind Naruto, with one smooth movement, Naruto spun around and brought his sword around in a deadly path. The Sand ANBU which had gotten through the storm of arrows which had restarted didn't stand a chance as the white blade cut through her from hip to shoulder.

"Nice one Naruto." said Sasuke as he appeared beside his leader.

"We need to get a team down here to move the rocks and get the people trapped under it." Ordered Naruto as arrows passed within feet of him. The archers where forming a deadly defense line of flying death around their kage and their ANBU Commander.

"Only way to do that is to clear the enemy out." Stated Sasuke as he pulled his twin black curved swords. "So shall we teach these fools how to really fight?"

"Alright." Said Naruto as the two former Leaf ninjas turned toward the bloodbath in front of them. Seeing enemy within range of their weapons some of the ninjas still alive had turned their weapons on Naruto and Sasuke.

It wasn't even a fair fight, those ninjas who were lucky enough to get passed the arrows which were striking everything within a ten feet of the two leaders then had to deal with the three swords wielded by Naruto and Sasuke. The Aldhard blades cut through armor as if it was paper. From the casual viewer it was a strange and somewhat beautiful dance, Naruto and Sasuke moved together as teammates should. They knew what the other was doing without even looking. Naruto would jump over Sasuke to strike at a ninja swinging his longer sword, Sasuke knew that the sword would swing right to left and would appear on Naruto's right so he wouldn't get hit by the downward swipe. Likewise Sasuke would do a fire justu and Naruto would do a wind justu and blow the fire justu deeper into what now passed as lines for the ninja force. There was so much blood on the ground that the two of them had to apply chakra to their feet so that they would not slip on the blood. To them it was as if they were fighting on a lake of blood.

Finally the two of them had cleared an area large enough for teams of ninjas to jump down and move to save the people who had fallen. Since they were already on the ground Naruto and Sasuke kept moving forward toward the location where the kages had taken cover using an dome made out of Earth Justus to protect them from the arrows. It did not take long as there was now only a few ninjas who were even capable of fight. As they reached the dome, Naruto raised his hand and almost as one the archers stopped firing, they all put another arrow out and got ready but for a moment the sound of arrows flying through the air had stopped.

A squishing sound filled the air as Naruto's shoe pressed extress blood out of the sand, he glanced down at the blood red sand which had become over statured with blood. He shook his head before turning toward the rock dome which protected his sister in law. It was covered with countless arrows so it kind of reminded him of a sea urgent.

"Lady Hokage, Lord Raikage and Lord Tsuchikage come on out." Ordered Naruto as he felt the ground move under him, he jumped back just as Hanabi came out of the ground with a kunai in hand. Naruto's fist hit his sister-in-law square in the chest sending her backwards, while his punch was no where the equal of Sakura's it was more then enough to send Hanabi to the ground yards away from where she had once been.

"Hanabi, Onoki, Atsui your beaten your army is surrounded, we hold the high ground and our weapons beat yours. Surrender and save who ever is left alive." ordered Naruto calmly as he used his free hand to show her all the death around her. "Only you three can end this order your forces to surrender."

Hanabi grinned as she stood back up and got into a stance. She was instantly surrounded by Onoki, Atsui and the Sand Commander. Naruto wouldn't say outload but he was glad Gaara wasn't standing across from him on the battlefield, he didn't think he could end his friend's life.

"This will never end, there are too many who want the demons gone." Explained Hanabi

"Well, I see a very good reason for them to stop trying." laughed Sasuke as he looked around at the blood and death.

"Yes, I know they may want use to die but the thing is after this war I don't think any of the ninja nations will be in a position to wage a war for a long time." countered Naruto "The truth is in any war, is if you kill enough of your enemy they will stop fighting."

"And we killed enough of yours today." added Sasuke

"The Daimyos will order us to keep fighting," countered Hanabi as Naruto shrugged.

"I believe the final count will be tens of thousands dead on your side for every person we loss. If that doesn't take the fight out of the Daimyos I am not sure what will." admitted Naruto "Even so it is hard to order someone to march to their deaths. The Daimyos may be fools but once enough people say no they will not follow they will get the picture and end this stupid war."

Hanabi laughed as she looked straight into Naruto's eyes.

"You call the Daimyo's foolish and yet you fail to see that this whole thing was a setup, the roit which helped force you all to leave the Leaf years ago was a set up." Laughed Hanabi the other kages and the commander looked at the Hokage not really believing what she was saying. "It was all set up by myself and…."

"Shino." Finished Naruto as Hanabi's eyes widened. "I knew."

"What?" asked Hanabi "You knew?"

"I told him, about two years ago. I was drunk." explained Sasuke as Hanabi's eyes became as wide as dinner plates.

"Trust me, I wanted to rip Shino's head off but our nation needed him for the war. He made himself too important for me to do anything to him until this war was over." explained Naruto "Also looking back I am not sure we could have stayed in the Leaf much longer and the Leaf was a lot better off than what our people where in other villages."

Rage built up in Hanabi but before she could make a move the Sand Commander ran though hand signed as he ran toward Naruto. Naruto's sword went straight through the commander's chest, however his hands stayed in together in a hand sign.

"Fire, style Inward Fireball!" yelled the Sand Commander as he tried to grab Naruto's hands to hold him in place. Instead Naruto let go of his Aldhard sword and jumped back, at the same moment Onoki ran through hand signs as a wall of solid rock shot up all around the three Kages. Seconds after the wall went up a powerful ball of fire engulfed the area.

"Fool." said Onoki as he shook his head. "A brave but foolish action, trying to take Naruto out by killing yourself is pointless."

"Not if he did it." countered Astui as Onoki lowered the cover to show a massive black scar which covered at least a fifty foot radius. Standing near the center was Naruto's white sword which was still perfectly intact even though it was surrounded by destruction. Standing on the far end of the blast zone was Naruto, he seemed as if he hadn't even been touched by the self-destruction of the Sand Commander. Slowly Naruto walked forward and with one quick move he pulled his sword out of the remains of the man who had tried to kill him.

"Well I guess we will have do this the hard way." Stated Naruto sadly as he spun his sword around in his hand.

"Three against one, shouldn't be a problem." said Astui

"Did you forget who you are fighting?" inquired Onoki as he got into a defensive stance, beside him Hanabi was doing the same. "This is Naruto Namikaze and Sasuke Uchiha, we will have to do our best to end him."

"You will fail." stated Sasuke before pointing at Naruto. "I have tried to kill him more times than I can count and it never works. I gave up trying it will never happen."

"Well I will end you both." said Astui as Sasuke rolled his eyes at the statement of the Raikage.

"Naruto can I please kill him?" inquired Sasuke

"Then after I kill you two I will make sure I kill all your demons die as well." said the Raikage, Naruto wanted to roll his eyes. This man was standing in blood of his own ninja force and was talking about killing all the demons. "I will make sure I start with your loved ones, your wives and children."

Naruto's eyes narrowed at the threat to his family and like that, he could not roll his eyes at the cocky Raikage. Naruto bolted forward as he brought his sword upward in a deadly cut that would separate the top and bottom half of the Raikage.

Astui grinned as he used his chakra covered hands to hold the Aldhard blade in his hand, he was about to open his mouth to tell the other kages to attack when he saw Naruto's none sword hand coming up toward his face. His eyes widened as he saw the glowing ball of chakra coming at him, his brain was rushing to find a way out of this deadly move. If he let go of the blade then he would die by that sword and if he didn't move Naruto's rasengan would hit him square in the face and there was no way he could live through that. His mind finally settled on the only thing he could do, he prayed for his soul.

Hanabi's eyes widened as Naruto's rasengan hit the young Raikage square in the head, the force of the blast sent Astui's brain matter all over the two remaining kages. Astui's body now missing the entire back half of his skull fell over and hit the ground with a thud.

"That didn't have to happen." stated Naruto as he looked at the last two Kages. "Yield now and save lives."

"I give up!" yelled a voice from behind the kages as Naruto looked over toward the source to see Lee standing about a hundred yards away. Blood was pouring from a crossbow bolt which had gone into his shoulder but he moved his good hand to drop his weapon pouch. Naruto smiled as he saw that behind Lee there were other ninjas and samurai raising their hands in surrender.

"Lee you are a traitor and so is all of you!" yelled Hanabi as she looked that everyone who was still alive either had their hands up or they were dropping their weapons.

"Lady Hokage this is over." Confirmed Onoki as she lowered her head in shame, "Lord Onikage I surrender all living ninjas under my command."

"Hanabi?" asked Naruto as he looked at his sister-in-law. "Do you want this to be your last day?"

Hanabi closed her eyes for a moment as she thought about it, then slowly she lowered her hands. She undid her weapon pouch and let it fall to the ground.

"I surrender, but first tell me how did you set this all up?" asked Hanabi as Naruto smiled.

"We planned this out well in advance the trick was making sure you got her. To do that, let's say the Daimyo of the Land of Wind would rather have a bunch of papers then have you live." explained Naruto as Hanabi and Onoki cursed under their breaths, the men who had sent them out to fight had betrayed them.

Thousands of miles to the South Ino Yamanaka Namikaze stood in her favorite blue Kimono as she waiting in her Daimyo video conference room above the indoor training field. In truth she would rather have been in the house helping her mom with the kids but she was needed here. She checked for watch for what seemed like the thousandth time. Finally, the phone beside her rang as she picked it her heart raced a little bit. For a moment, she heard nothing but static, finally she heard the voice of her best friend.

"Ino, it's Sakura." said her sister wife over a static filled broadcast. "We won, they were crushed, thousands of them are dead and the Kages are either taken or dead."

"Is everyone ok?" asked Ino

"Naruto-kun is fine so are all our friends, we lost twenty people mostly when a rock face gave way and they fell." Stated Sakura "On the other side it was a slaughter, there is a river of blood moving toward the coast."

"I see, well now it is up to me to end it." said Ino "Get the video system up and running as soon as possible, I want you all to see the look on those Daimyo asses when they realize that they lost this war."

"We will be ready." Confirmed Sakura as the line went dead. Ino closed her eyes and took a death breath, the war was now going to leave the battlefield and come to the peace table. She was the Daimyo of the Land of Granite it was in her court now, she won the peace or the war would go on with more lives lost.

Well I hope the wait was worth it and the bloodbath, which happened in the land of wind. Now until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75.