Opening - Revolution Dualism by Nana Mizuki and TM Revolution

X

It took Oonoki a few moments to realize he was already awake and staring blankly at the cloudy evening sky. The ever-present annoyance of his back pain was completely gone at the moment, and although he was watching his breath turn to fog before his eyes, he himself was somehow still warm.

"Huh," he noted thoughtfully.

A lively green glow over his chest winked out, and it was only then that he realized it had been there in the first place. Sakura stood and took a step back from him, wearing a look that expressed satisfaction with her work.

The old man considered sitting up or taking to the air, but with his back pain soothed and the cold held at bay, the floor was just so comfortable that he couldn't be bothered to move. "...So we won, then?"

"It wasn't really a victory for us, now was it?" The Raikage pointed out gruffly, somewhere to Oonoki's left. "We got captured by the enemy and then beaten to a pulp in his place."

The Tsuchikage chuckled. "Well I seem to have slept through my arse-kicking, so I'm not that bothered. In fact, I feel twenty years younger now." This time he decided to sit up, stretching his arms high over his head with a somewhat stifled yawn. He was amazed to find that his back gave no protest to this whatsoever, and he turned to Sakura with nothing short of awe. "Kami, what did you do?"

"Well, let's see..." she hummed. "First I had to fix the kinks in your spine and your broken bones from today, but after that I took a look at the underlying problem in your back. You have a condition we call spinal stenosis, which means your vertebrae are growing inward around your spinal cord. Or they were, until about ten minutes ago."

"What."

Oonoki heard a snort of amusement from somewhere behind him, and he turned to see that it had come from Sasuke. The youngest of the Uchiha was leaning against what remained of a nearby wall with his cloak wrapped around his whole body for warmth, and he was openly chuckling at the Tsuchikage's dumbfounded expression.

After taking a moment to think, he turned back to Sakura and spoke up. "...Kid, take a wild guess as to how many medic-nin have tried to cure this thing over the years."

"...Um..." she blinked. "Hundreds, maybe?"

"Six."

"Six hundred..." Sakura mused. "Wow..."

"No, six," he repeated, irked. "I gave up after my six best medic-nin told me when I was fifty-nine that I would never be cured. I had absolutely no chance of getting Tsunade herself to look me over, so I accepted what I was stuck with and started flying around instead of walking."

The Tsuchikage climbed to his feet, brushed his clothes free of dust from the floor, and strode toward the six-sided table now positioned at the center of the Kage Summit room. The horseshoe-shaped piece that had previously occupied this spot had been smashed to bits at some point during the battle with Zetsu, Oonoki deduced as he sat between the Hokage and Mizukage.

"Twenty years," he sighed contently. "For the first time in twenty years, I feel like I could practice taijutsu again!"

Out of view, Sakura beamed and nodded with approval of her work, then started packing away the surprisingly small assortment of tools she made regular use of. Most medical ninjutsu was carried out with chakra alone, and at her level of skill Sakura could perform even the more difficult procedures without fuinjutsu and ninja tools to aid her.

"You know," Oonoki addressed Naruto casually, "You could've killed me while that thing was using me as a meat shield. You had a perfectly valid excuse."

"Pfft," Naruto cracked a smirk. "You already know I'm not gonna kill anyone here, and you also know I'm not stupid. Sure I'm inexperienced, but I still know that if I killed you Iwa would be at war with Konoha by the end of the day. So much for the Ninja Alliance, Akatsuki wins, everyone dies. 'Valid excuse,' my ass."

Oonoki laughed. "I don't get you, boy, but I'm starting to like you."

"He has that effect on people," Gaara noted. Tenten snorted and started laughing, but quickly stopped herself and blushed under her mask. The Kazekage let out a more subdued chuckle, then cast a glance around the table at his gathered fellow Kage. "Well then... we've dealt with all of that mess and we're gathered together again. Let's proceed with the Kage Summit."

"U-Uh, hold up," Naruto protested hesitantly. "We're still missing Mifune-jiji, aren't we?"

Everyone present looked around with wide, shocked eyes, then turned to stare at Naruto. A was the first to speak, bringing his fist down on the table for some extra emphasis on his words. "You don't know where he is!? You were the only Kage who stayed behind and fought in this room; you're saying he wasn't with you!?"

"I-I cleared out the room when Zetsu grabbed you guys," Naruto realized, "and he was already gone then! W-Where..." He turned to Hinata, eyes wide. "Can you find him, Hina-chan!?"

"Byakugan," she called quickly in response.

"Why would he leave?" A growled. "What reason could he possibly have to abandon us on the field? Unless it was an act of open betrayal, I can't think of any reason..." he gnashed his teeth and brought up his fist again, aiming to crack the table in half this time.

"We have to consider that possibility," Gaara nodded solemnly. The Raikage stopped with his fist still held high, momentarily postponing his tantrum to hear the Kazekage. "But on the other hand, if he meant to betray us then he could've done it far more effectively. He could've stayed to fight Zetsu with Naruto, for instance, and revealed his allegiance in the middle of the battle. We don't have the whole picture here, and we won't until we question him."

"He's already on his way back," Hinata noted and turned toward a hole in one of the walls, showing the overcast evening sky beyond. "He's almost here."

"Alright," Naruto stood and activated his Six Paths Sage Mode. "We don't know what his motives were so we can't trust him right now, but we also can't just hit him with everything we've got once he shows up. So get your weapons and jutsu ready but don't attack him!"

"Tch." Sasuke pulled away from the wall he was leaning on, producing the Sword of Totsuka from within his cloak. Tenten drew Umiyou and activated Kekkai Kokuei since Sasuhonou was sealed away in tatters within her other sword. Gaara unsheathed Kuroshi but remained seated at the table, while Naruto stood and shaped a Truth-Seeking Blade.

"He's here," Hinata announced. In full view of the gathered Five Kage and their teams, Mifune landed in a crouch just beyond a hole in the wall behind Sasuke. He glanced around the room, blinked, then raised his left hand toward his sheathed sword.

"Don't move," Naruto ordered just as the shogun laid his fingertips across the scabbard of his katana.

"I would like to offer my unconditional surrender," Mifune replied quickly, "in exchange for a chance to explain my actions."

"This chakra mode gives me the ability to read your emotions," the Hokage answered. "If you lie about anything, I'll know right away."

"I'll be able to see it as well," Hinata added with her doujutsu active.

"I realize that leaving you to face Zetsu without me was a great risk in multiple ways," the samurai began. "Obviously, one or more of you might've died in such a way that I could've prevented it, had I been present. I'm relieved to see that isn't the case, but it brings me to the next problem. I've renounced your trust completely now."

"It looks that way," Gaara answered calmly, resting his right hand and the wakizashi with it on the table.

"Still," Mifune went on, "I feel I did the right thing. This morning I witnessed a battle between two Kage-level shinobi who made use of none of their most powerful moves, none of a number of S-rank jutsu that might well be capable of levelling my city. Even with them both holding back, I saw that either one of them could dispatch me easily."

"So you turned and ran because you thought Zetsu would be able to kill you?" Oonoki barked a laugh. "You're a shrewd man, and that's coming from me."

"No." Mifune showed a trace of his anger at the slight on his honor. "I left because I felt I would be useless or nearly so here, while somewhere else in this city my forces could be dying to fend off a seperate attack from Akatsuki. They gave us no reason to believe they would confine their efforts to one room after slipping past the walls, and if anyone we know of is shrewd, it's them."

"I ask for your forgiveness, but given the choice I would do this again." Mifune took a step forward into the room, causing the ninja filling it to tense. "My priority is and will always be the defenseless civilians within these walls; innocents with no chakra or weapons to defend themselves from the threats we can face head-on! I and my samurai are the only protection they have!"

"Hn." All eyes turned to Sasuke, who had lowered his sword but hadn't sheathed it. "Let's just settle this already. Dobe, is he telling the truth or not?"

"Yeah." Naruto deactivated his chakra mode and sat back down. "Even though it really bugs me, what he's saying makes sense... Even if it didn't, I know he isn't lying and I didn't sense any negative emotions from him... at least not until you called him shrewd," he addressed Oonoki. "That pissed him off."

"Hm..." Gaara sighed softly, sheathing his wakizashi with an audible click. "We know now that Mifune-dono hasn't betrayed us and doesn't intend to. No matter how much we may disagree with his actions today, we should prioritize our plans for the future battle against Akatsuki. That's what we should be discussing now."

"Kazekage-dono has a point," the Raikage commented. "What are we gonna do now? We're up against an army of eighty thousand soldiers armed with the Wood Release, and we don't even know how good they are with it. Then factor in their two Edo Tensei users and the surviving members of Akatsuki itself."

"They have Oto-nin as well."

Now with the attention of the entire room, Sasuke took a step forward. "A year ago, I and my team attacked one of Orochimaru's old strongholds to retrieve a valuable prisoner from Kabuto. That facility should've been filled with hundreds or even thousands of ninja branded with Orochimaru's Cursed Seals." he pulled down his collar to bare the Heaven mark on his neck. "Only ten of them were there."

"So Akatsuki took the others," Mei realized, "to use them against us."

"Most likely," the Uchiha nodded quickly. "The seals give their wielders access to a pool of senjutsu chakra stored inside, much like Sage Mode. It reshapes their bodies and may give them extra appendages like the wings I have." he activated his Cursed Seal only briefly, since he was still drained from the battle with Kabuto. "They might be capable of attacking us from the sky."

"Great," Oonoki grumbled. "Hokage-dono, why didn't you bring this up?"

"I... I kinda forgot," Naruto admitted with a scarlet blush. "I think I was about to bring it up before Zetsu and Kabuto jumped us, but..." he shrugged sheepishly.

"Either way, it's out in the open now," Mei noted. "We have to deal with the eighty thousand Wood Release creatures, Oto's forces, any Edo Tensei the enemy deploys, and of course the surviving Akatsuki members themselves. We know they're growing the bulk of their army somewhere in the Land of Rain, and since Oto was burned down and caved in by Konoha's forces, we don't know where the Oto-nin will approach from. But we do know where they're all headed."

"Kumo," the Raikage growled.

"Since we know that, we know of an ideal location for us to stop them," the Mizukage went on. "If they want to reach Kumo by land, which they definitely do, they'll have to proceed through the Land of Frost. We can take control of the entire land bridge and fortify it with all of the Earth Release and fuinjutsu we have."

"We'll need the cooperation of the Frost Daimyou for that," Mifune commented, "Although I highly doubt he'll have any objections. He'll insist we help in the evacuation, of course, but other than that..."

"Kumo will provide shelter for the Frost's citizens," the Raikage offered. "We're putting all of our focus on keeping Akatsuki out of the Land of Lightning and away from the Jinchuuriki, so there's no reason for us not to protect the civilians the same way."

Naruto cleared his throat softly, buying a moment of pause. "Konoha has a few jutsu that can give us a major advantage in this battle..." he paused for a moment, weighing his next few words. "...I'd like to share them with the four of you."

"Oh come on!" Oonoki predictably exploded. "There's no way you're that stupid! There's no way you expect us to be that stupid!"

Naruto glanced over his shoulder at Hinata and sighed, "Saw that one coming."

The old man stood and pushed back his chair, turning to face Naruto. "You can't just hand out jutsu powerful enough to win this war for us; even you can see how easily we could use them against Konoha! We'd know how they work and how to counter your use of them! You're not even going to demand any of our secret jutsu in return!? A disadvantage like that could ruin you the next time any of us declare war!"

He plucked up the Hokage's hat and turned his back to its owner, putting on the headpiece and plastering a broad grin across his face. "'But Tsuchikage-dono, we're not gonna have any more wars after this! Believe it!'" he turned back to Naruto and took off the hat. "That's what you'd say, right!?" Biting back a laugh, Naruto nodded. "Well that's not how war works! If I or the Fourth Tsuchikage ever decide you're annoying enough to declare war on, your idiotic idealism isn't gonna stop it! I'll use your own jutsu against you and crush you!"

He spun back around, donning Naruto's hat and grin once more. "'Okay then, jiji! If that's how you feel, why're you arguing against me giving you Konoha's jutsu, ya know? Just sit down and gimme my hat back so we can get on with it!'"

He faced Naruto again and dumped the ceremonial headpiece back on the table in front of the Hokage. "Alright, I'll take you up on that. Let's see this incredible jutsu that's going to win the war for us."

"...You... you do realize you just talked yourself into..." Oonoki glared, and Naruto cut himself off. "...Okay..." he pushed back his chair and stood, taking a few steps away from the table and crouching over the floor with his hands in a Snake seal. "Here's the first one. Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"

The Raikage and Mizukage leaned forward in their seats for a better view of the small patch of mud that had replaced a section of the floor before Naruto. "This is one of my own favorite jutsu," the Hokage announced. "Hina-chan and I make use of it all the time; it restricts the opponent's movements while giving us even more angles of attack."

He stood and stepped forward onto the surface, using chakra control to stay afloat. "Anyone can use chakra to keep from falling in, but the mud pulls you in and sticks to you like glue... unless you provided the chakra to power the jutsu. If you did..."

He dropped straight down in an instant, disappearing into the depths of the swamp with a splash. The Kage blinked in open surprise, but remained in their seats. It was only when the floor behind them cracked and exploded upward that they jumped to their feet, sending the chairs behind them flying. The Raikage showed the fastest and most severe reaction, activating his lightning cloak and throwing a punch into the cloud of dirt and debris at what he assumed was a threat.

He saw a flicker of familiar orange light through the dust, and lessened the force behind the punch Naruto had already caught in his right palm. "...Okay, maybe I shouldn't have gone that far..." The Kage relaxed, and A turned away from Naruto with an annoyed grunt. Both of them deactivated their chakra cloaks, and Naruto went on, "My point is, if you helped power the jutsu then you can use the mud to carry yourself around down there. It's like flying, and you can move pretty damn fast with it."

The Five Kage all noted that Naruto's clothes were already completely free of mud, which he commented on a moment later. "With this jutsu, we have the full cooperation of the battlefield itself. If our entire army supplies a bit of chakra for it, they'll all be able to move around and the Zetsus won't. We should even be able to cover the whole Land of Frost with it!"

"Hm..." Mei glanced at the minature swamp Naruto had produced, interested. "Hokage-dono, is it possible to keep the ground from freezing with this jutsu?"

"I... don't really know," Naruto admitted. "No one's ever tried freezing it. Why do you ask?"

"The Land of Frost is naturally cold, and it's almost winter already. If the mud freezes solid, it's useless."

"Ah..." Naruto took back his seat and considered this. "I'm sure there's a Fire Release jutsu we could use to make sure it stays warm under the surface... but maybe not too warm. If we let some snow build up over the swamp, it'll catch Akatsuki completely off-guard. It won't stop any Oto-nin who can just fly over it, but the Zetsus won't know what hit 'em!"

"I like this plan so far," the Raikage threw in. "But we still need to actually knock down the enemy forces in order to catch them with this jutsu... we should have our Earth Release users collaborate to build and maintain walls that completely block off the land bridge, and put long-range ninjutsu users on top of those walls."

"Three should do it," Oonoki nodded, "but they have to be very thick. Ideally, we'll want them to be reinforced with fuinjutsu as well."

"We should pair together our Fire Release and Wind Release shinobi on the walls," Gaara interjected. "Their collaboration jutsu will be larger and more destructive for the same expense of chakra."

"If we're grouping together our forces according to nature affinity," A added, "That leaves Water and Lightning Release shinobi as a potential third group. It's an effective combo... and we should deploy them to guard the coastlines. If Akatsuki does send a chunk of their army over one of the bays, a Water-Lightning collaboration from an entire army of ninja would deal with that problem easily, and a Fire-Wind combo wouldn't be anywhere near as efficient over the open ocean."

"It would be effective, yes," Gaara noted. "But so far we've grouped the entirety of the Shinobi Alliance together based on their nature types with no exceptions. We have to exclude some of our forces from this plan... for instance, the ANBU."

"Also," Mifune spoke up, "My samurai don't use nature transformation."

"Alright, then let's reassign some special cases like that. The ANBU would be better off attacking the enemy at close range, rather than standing in a line and blasting 'em with elemental jutsu," the Hokage agreed. "And the samurai should be down on the ground with them instead of on top of the walls, obviously. But what other groups should we set up like this?"

"The Hyuuga Clan," Hinata realized. "Most of us don't use ninjutsu the way I do; we usually specialize in taijutsu. They should be sent to attack at close-range too."

"Right," Naruto nodded. "We'll have the ANBU from all five villages, the samurai from Iron, and the Hyuuga Clan on the battlefield itself, along with all of our Earth Release specialists maintaining our control of the terrain. On top of the walls, we'll have our Fire and Wind Release users blast the enemy with collaboration jutsu, and on the shores of the Haran and Gaikotsu Bays, our Water and Lightning Release users will do the same."

He pushed back his chair and stood once more. "It seems like it'll be a hassle to coordinate all of this, right?"

"Let me guess," Oonoki grumbled. "You're going to share another Konoha jutsu with us, right? What is it this time, Yamanaka hidenjutsu that'll let us all communicate telepathically?"

Naruto shook his head, crouching over the same spot on the floor that was still liquefied by his Swamp of the Underworld. He cancelled that jutsu shortly before beginning another sequence of seals, slapping his palms to the floor and producing a cloud of smoke large enough to conceal him from view.

It didn't take long for the cloud to fade, revealing a structure of grey stone between Naruto and the other four Kage. Rising from a square floor, four thin pillars rose up seven feet to support a ceiling of the same material. "This is the Seal Summoning Jutsu; I came up with it when I was a Genin."

"Well... what's the big deal about it?" The Raikage prompted, sizing up the small pavilion. "If you can use this to send objects back and forth, like scrolls with orders for the troops..."

"It's more than that," Naruto answered. "This jutsu is based off a simplified version of the Hiraishin, and that jutsu was meant to transport people." He strode across the room and laid his palm on the floor once more, spawning a network of black fuinjutsu script at his feet.

"If you know the jutsu, you can call a sealed object like that from anywhere you want..." he began walking back toward the other Kage, "...but you can only return it to a spot marked with a special seal like this. The real value of the jutsu is..." he stepped onto the platform, raising his hands in a Ram seal. "...when you send a chamber like this to a prepared location..."

The platform vanished, and Naruto went with it. They both reappeared atop the seal Naruto had placed, along with a fresh cloud of white smoke. "...anything or anyone inside gets carried along! We can use this to move entire armies around the battlefield, like from one earth wall to another!"

"...Hm..."

All eyes turned to Oonoki, who was eyeing the platform with a thoughtful expression. "What's wrong?" Naruto asked, confused.

"Honestly, I was expecting some kind of telepathy jutsu," the Tsuchikage noted. "This surprises me."

Naruto closed his eyes and thought, idly scratching the back of his head as he did. "Well, I do have something like that to show you guys, but it's not really for the war..."

It took Oonoki a moment to process this, but after that it didn't take him long to stand again and call, "Bullshmff!"

He blinked and glared down at Naruto's hand, clamped over his mouth to cut his next rant short. "Look, jiji. I'm giving you guys free access to a couple of Konoha's jutsu, and you're pointing out that Iwa could easily use 'em against Konoha... but that's not a reason for you to complain about us sharing jutsu with you, ya know!"

He let go of the Tsuchikage, who glared indignantly at him but remained silent. "Now... what I'm about to show you isn't even a ninjutsu, really," he admitted, "and it requires physical contact so we can't exactly use it to coordinate an army. But still, I want to share it with all of you." He leaned forward over the table and held out his loose right fist over the center of it. "All you've gotta do is bump fists with me; that's how it works."

The Mizukage shrugged and reached across the table, touching her knuckles to Naruto's. Gaara shortly followed suit, since he already knew what Naruto was about to do. The Raikage extended his hand next, and Oonoki grumbled once more before he did the same.

When the Five Kage opened their eyes, they were standing in a rough circle over a dark stone floor submerged in a thin layer of water. The sky above was lit a clear, cool blue, unbroken by clouds or even a sun. Scattered randomly over the floor were an assortment of dry stone platforms at a comfortable height to serve as seats.

An absurdly massive pedestal of the same design dominated the landscape, mostly because the Nine-Tails was curled up comfortably on it.

Mei was halfway through the seal sequence for a Lava Release jutsu when the mightiest and most feared of the Bijuu turned his blood-red gaze on her and remarked, "That's not gonna work."

The Raikage took this oppurtunity to fire a lightning-wreathed punch into the fox's right eye, but he found himself skidding along the curve of what should've been the squishiest, most vulnerable part of Kurama's body. He slipped past the fox entirely and crashed hard into the soaked floor.

"Told ya."

Oonoki seriously considered firing a Dust Release jutsu at the monster's head, even after seeing the Raikage's punch slide harmlessly away from its eye. However, he did hesitate long enough to note that it hadn't made a move to attack anyone or even rise from its seat.

Naruto cleared his throat, and the Tsuchikage and Mizukage almost turned to face him instinctively. Instead they kept their eyes trained on Kurama, who stared back with an amused, toothy grin. "This isn't a ninjutsu or genjutsu, everyone. You can't attack someone in here, which means you can't get attacked either. You're safe."

"This is ninshuu," Kurama went on. "This is what your ninjutsu was originally meant to be; a way for humans to connect rather than conflict. In this place, you can't hurt or lie to each other, and you can express your thoughts with more than just words. Words can be misunderstood, they can be confusing, but this..."

The empty plane of stone covered in water was replaced in its entirety, and the Kage found themselves in a huge circular field of trampled and singed grass. The field was surrounded all around by trees wearing their most vibrant greens in the height of summer, with the exception of one point at the edge of the clearing.

There stood a huge house of stone bricks, built in a style dating back at least a thousand years. The walls were worn and chipped, but far less than they should've been for its apparent age. There was an arch-shaped opening in the wall facing the clearing, easily broad enough to accomodate a summoned animal that would tower over a human.

"This is a more pure way to communicate. You're seeing this place exactly as I remember it... I grew up here, I and the other Bijuu."

"So anything we can visualize..." the Raikage closed his eyes and pictured the view from his office, overlooking the skyline of Kumo.

"...Can be made to appear here," Kurama finished. He relinquished his control of the landscape and allowed the Raikage's mental image to replace his own, placing all of them in the air high above the Hidden Cloud. "But it's more than that. All of us are feeling how proud you are of your village, your love for your people, and how you still hope they'll make it through this war alive."

Oonoki turned and looked up at Naruto, deciding to test this concept as well. Without saying a word, he expressed his frustration with and incomprehension of the Hokage's actions. He conveyed his certainty that Naruto's trust in the other Kage was a show of stupidity, and explained how his decades as Tsuchikage had taught him better than this.

He didn't have to wait long for Naruto's reply. It came to him in an instant, and Oonoki realized that Naruto had clearly been practicing with ninshuu to convey his emotions more directly. The concepts at the forefront of the Hokage's mind were sent to Oonoki, and only then did the Tsuchikage himself put them into words Naruto might've used.

'I trust you. The past wars are behind us; we're friends now and we should stay that way. We all just want to protect our precious people, and we can do that better standing together than fighting each other. So let's keep this world peace!'

"...I..." Oonoki sighed, looking down at the magnificent bird's-eye view of Kumo. "I still think this is all going to go horribly wrong, probably even before I retire." he chuckled and looked back up at the Hokage. "But I've already signed up for this Alliance, so I might as well take it seriously. Who knows; it might not be too good to be true after all!"

The Tsuchikage was the first to disconnect, opening his eyes in the real world. He pulled his hand back from the other four, and shortly after that he saw the Raikage do the same. The Kazekage and Mizukage opened their eyes at almost the same time, and Naruto was the last to resurface.

"So this makes three of Konoha's jutsu that you've just revealed to the world so casually, Hokage-dono," Mei remarked. Naruto opened his mouth to reply, but she was faster. "Yes, I'm sure you'll point out that this ninshuu is a special case, but even so..." she shrugged. "If any of the remaining four of us have jutsu that could offer a tactical advantage against Akatsuki, how can we not share them now?"

"N-No, that's not what I was trying to do..."

"Hm." The Raikage glowered down at the table, arms crossed. "No, but we already know that. Mizukage-dono is right though; we should share our jutsu as you have." he leaned his head back and glared at the ceiling next, exasperated. "At this point, all Kumo can provide are an array of large-scale lightning jutsu. We can train the Haran and Gaikotsu Bay divisions to fire them en masse at any naval attacks... It's frustrating, but that's all I can think of right now."

"...Iwa has the largest collection of Earth Release jutsu in the world," Oonoki threw in after a moment's hesitation. "We'll design and build the earth walls across the Land of Frost, and of course it'll be mostly my ninja in charge of maintaining it in battle."

"Kiri has fleet of ships," The Mizukage remarked coolly. "It's not a jutsu I can offer you all, but it'll still provide an advantage in battle."

Tenten tapped Gaara on the shoulder, surprising him. He turned to her with a look of confusion, but then he realized what she intended. He nodded quickly and turned back to the assembled Kage, all of whom had also noted Tenten's presence behind him. "Suna has two unique fuinjutsu to offer which may save thousands of lives in this war."

"Fuinjutsu? That's... odd," Mei noted. "Last I heard, Suna had a mediocre library of fuinjutsu."

"It was probably true at the time," Gaara agreed. "But things are different now. Tenten, show them whenever you're ready."

"Right," she nodded and took a few steps away from the gathered Kage. She pulled open the scroll mounted on her hip, holding up the seal-covered paper and pointing to one specific design on it. "This is a simpler version of the barrier ninjutsu I wear as armor. I designed it using Uzumaki fuinjutsu script, and because of that I was able to write it as a single layer of script."

"A single layer?" Oonoki peered at the symbol with mild interest. "It's a nice feature; I imagine it would make it much easier and faster to write... but why bring that up here?"

"Because I think I can mass-produce them now," she replied proudly. "It's just one layer and it's not a particularly large seal... so I could cast a stamp of the design, use it with fuinjutsu ink, and apply the seal in about five to ten seconds! By the time Akatsuki makes their move, we'd have enough of these suits to protect the ANBU from all five villages, and possibly the Jounin too."

"With this, all of the Alliance can protect themselves from the enemy's jutsu," she went on, then rewound the scroll on her hip and reached for Soujihonou. "But how do they hit back? Against the Zetsus and maybe the Oto-nin, they can use their normal ninjutsu and expect them to work, but..." she drew the sword and gave it a twirl, "Edo Tensei just regenerate, over and over again until you seal them."

"Theoretically, we could send out teams of fuinjutsu specialists to roam around the battlefield and seal away any Edo Tensei when they get the chance, but honestly I think I have a better idea here."

She abruptly stabbed her sword straight down into the table, taking care not to skewer anyone's legs beneath it. The table shrank into the blade piercing it, almost too fast to be seen with the naked eye. "Boom! With one of these, any one of our shinobi can seal away an Edo Tensei!"

"Well that was uncalled for," Mei gestured to where the table had been.

"It was still an effective demonstration," Mifune replied. "And the table wasn't worth much, truth be told. I was expecting furniture to get smashed and need replacing at some point today... Despite the circumstances, my prediction was technically correct."

"Well it's not gone, anyway," Tenten answered. She turned away from the Kage and held out her sword once more, unsealing the table once more. It landed with a loud crash before her, but it was intact save for the spot where she'd stabbed through it. "There. Problem solved."

Underneath the table, there was a small splash of black liquid stuck to the flat surface. Two unblinking, eerie yellow eyes stared out of it at the floor. The creature remained completely silent and motionless, unnoticed by anyone in the room.

Naruto shrugged. "Alright, so what do we do now?"

"We've split our forces into... seven divisions at this point," Gaara noted. "None of them have been assigned leaders except Mifune-dono's samurai... but then again, it's obvious who'll be in charge of the Earth Release division."

"The vast majority of them will be Iwa-nin," Oonoki replied. "They'll follow my orders readily. I should lead them, if for no other reason than that."

"I'd like to lead the Gaikotsu Bay division," Mei spoke up. "Any objections?"

No one argued, and after a few moments the Raikage answered, "That's fine... One of my best Jounin, Darui, specializes in lightning-water combination jutsu. I'm also training him as a potential Fifth Raikage... he'd do well in charge of the Haran Bay. As for myself... I'd like to lead the ANBU into battle."

The other four Kage exchanged glances, each looking to see if another would question this. When no one did Naruto shrugged and turned back to the Raikage. "Sounds like a good idea to me," he agreed. "So Hina-chan, do you want to lead the Hyuuga Clan into battle, or do you have someone else in mind?"

"Neji-niisan," she answered quickly. "He's one of our best Gentle Fist fighters and most of the clan trusts him, even likes him. He'll handle this well."

"And that just leaves the Fire and Wind Release division," Gaara noted. "To lead them, we'll want an experienced shinobi who uses the Fire Release frequently and effectively, well-known enough that shinobi from all five villages will follow him or her, and someone with a solid grasp of strategy."

Naruto silently turned to Sasuke and raised an eyebrow.

"Hn," he remarked. "Definitely not me... Itachi would be the ideal choice."

"Why not you?" Naruto asked curiously.

"I'm going to the front lines," the Uchiha answered. "If I'm put in charge of any group, it'll be Taka. I don't think I can handle leading an entire army at this point."

"Meh." Naruto turned back to the Kage. "Sasuke's right, Itachi does meet all of those criteria."

"Well I don't exactly have a problem with that," Mei began, "but I've noticed that neither you nor Kazekage-dono are in charge of a division. Hasn't that crossed your mind?"

Naruto and Gaara glanced at each other, then back to the Mizukage. "Speaking for myself here," the Hokage admitted, "I think I'd do better if I just ran in and fought Akatsuki head-on. I've only been Hokage for a year; I'm nowhere near as experienced as you guys are."

He chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "When I was a kid, my dream was always to be the greatest Hokage ever, ya know... but now that I'm actually the Sixth, I've noticed that I'm... well I think I'm doing pretty good; I've kept the village safe and running smoothly and all, but... that's it. I might be as strong as the First was, but I'm not as good a leader as he was. So I think I should play to my strengths and fight the Akatsuki myself, rather than lead someone else to fight them, ya know?"

"I concur with Naruto," Gaara went on. "At the moment, the two of us are better fighters than we are leaders."

"That said," Naruto spoke up again, "There's something else I'd like to bring up here. We know that Akatsuki is growing their army in a facility somewhere in the Land of Rain, and they have eighty thousand soldiers there right now. If we attack and destroy it before those soldiers march out, we might be able to wipe out the whole army before the war even starts. We still have Hidan, and he knows where it is specifically."

"The thing is... if we just march our army into the Land of Rain to attack it, then we start the war early and lose the chance to set up the battlefield in our favor. So my plan is to take a small team of ninja strong enough to destroy a facility of that size by themselves... and I'd like to have Kazekage-dono on that team," he finished.

Gaara blinked in unmasked surprise. "...How many of us would there be?"

"You and Tenten, me and Hinata, and maybe one or two more ninja. I haven't completely decided yet," the Hokage admitted. "So what do you think?"

"It could work," the Kazekage answered. "If we don't draw attention to our approach, that is. Five or six ninja should be able to reach the facility without drawing attention, although that does depend on where and how secure it is... so, I'm up for it."

"With that said, I think we're done here." The Raikage pushed back his seat and stood. "We have our initial battle plans laid out and we can begin acting on them. Iwa will begin terraforming the Land of Frost to defend against Akatsuki, and Kiri can bring their ships up to the Haran and Gaikotsu bays. We'll set our armies into position and wait for Akatsuki to march into our trap."

"Right," the Hokage nodded. With a sound like a harsh gust of wind, his hands moved far too fast to be seen and they came to a stop setting a pile of small scrolls in the table. "Here are the scrolls for the Swamp of the Underworld and Seal Summoning Jutsu."

"After this mission," Tenten added, "I'll start mass-producing barrier armor and sealing kunai. I'll have them shipped to the battlefield as soon as I can."

Naruto left the table and walked over to where his Seal Summoning pavilion still stood. "Guys, we can use this as a shortcut back to Konoha. We can plan out our attack there."

The Hokage and Kazekage stepped onto the platform with teams following behind, and Naruto waved to the remaining Kage shortly before they all went up in a cloud of smoke.

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