Opening - Love Deterrence by Nana Mizuki
X
Emerging from one's mindscape felt rather like waking from a dream, but off in a crucial way that Nawaki hadn't yet managed to put his finger on. It was an odd sensation, only made more so since neither he nor Ino had prompted the end of their time in that otherworldly silver forest.
Someone had called out into the room; it had been loud enough to rouse them but neither had resurfaced in time to hear what had actually been said. Judging solely from the looks of alarm on everyone else's faces, it could only be bad news.
"What's going on?" Ino asked, quick and to the point. "What'd we miss?"
"We're under attack," said Tsunade flatly.
The masked ANBU at the door to the room gave a shaky nod; behind him six more ninja wearing the same barrier armor and masks sprinted past. "A Wood Release user, much too strong to be a Zetsu. We're already evacuating, but he's tearing down the wall!"
Nawaki jumped to his feet, roughly shoving back the stone chair he'd been sitting on. With a flick of his wrist he produced a huge double-bladed wooden battleaxe that bit deep into the solid rock floor with the momentum of his swing.
Bare thin stems of newborn plants emerged through the plain cloth of his Konoha-nin uniform; he opted not to wear a flak jacket since it only got in the way. The plants grew thicker and darker, shifted form from stem to vine to stalk of bamboo. The final change was more sudden and bizarre; the strips of bamboo meshing over his entire body morphed into plates of smooth grey bark that gave the impression of being harder than steel.
Then he made for the door, only to see Tsunade already standing there with her arms crossed and a positively withering scowl on her face. "Not a chance in hell."
Nawaki opened his mouth to protest in a manner suiting a fifteen-year-old Chuunin, then stopped. The same dead-eyed look he'd faced Pain with settled over his features and he took a moment to think. She'll shut me down no matter what I say; I'll only be able to get a few words out so it's best if I say it as fast as possible... "Neechan, it has to be us."
She looked confused but only for a moment; he could see the shift in her expression as she decided he was probably trying to trick her. "That's ridiculous. It's almost definitely Kabuto out there; he has the exact same Wood Release as you and a whole bunch of other powers; he probably has a few we don't even know of yet! He has the edge over you in every way!"
"If we don't go," said Nawaki, "everyone in that chunk of the wall is gonna die." she hesitated, listened a moment longer and that was just what he needed. "The Alliance doesn't have any Earth Release users strong enough to repair the wall while it's still getting torn apart by a Wood Release user. Not even the Tsuchikage could do it on the fly, and that means the only ones who can stop the collapse are my team," he waved a hand to Danzou and Tenzou.
The former remained silent and stone-faced, but the latter raised an eyebrow at Nawaki's choice of words. Your team?
"If you wanna help, find Jiraiya," Nawaki finished. "Bring backup; we'll hold out until you do."
Ino wrung her hands and hesitated, but still spoke up. "He's right, Tsunade-sama. And for what it's worth, he hasn't been brainwashed. Unless he has all of his memories of ROOT hidden behind an S-rank seal or a Kage-level genjutsu in his mindscape, he's totally fine."
"The longer we sit here talking, the closer Kabuto gets to bringing down the wall. People will die." Nawaki raised his axe and made ready to throw it at the wall to Tsunade's left. "So you have to move, neechan."
She had never been one to back down from a staring contest and this case was no exception, but after a few moments her scowl was replaced by a look of despair instead. "...Nawaki... please. I don't want to lose you again. Please promise me."
He nodded. "Yeah, I promise." He withdrew the axe and rested it over his shoulder. The instant she stepped aside he blew past her with what looked like a Pulse Step; it didn't take long for Danzou and Tenzou to follow.
"I-I'm gonna call the boys," said Ino and closed her eyes. "Won't take more than a second!"
"Right." Tsunade steeled herself and turned to the ANBU bearing the bad news. "As for you... one less ANBU helping with the evacuation won't make as much of a difference as one more ANBU calling for backup. Get to the third wall, find Naruto and Hinata!"
"As ordered," the ANBU knelt and vanished as soon as his knee touched the floor.
Then Tsunade sprinted out of the room as well.
X
The Alliance had flocked to the mess halls periodically spaced throughout the wall; they were huge open rooms that made ideal spots to call and dispel Seal Summoning platforms. The extra room afforded larger platforms and therefore a faster deployment of a large army in fewer trips.
Sasuke had arrived in the hall nearest to the ongoing attack in an instant thanks to Yomotsu Hirasaka; he left the portal open in the air behind him so Taka could follow. At the same time he opened another much larger portal that covered the entire back wall of the room. Since it was impossible to see into the portal without first passing through it, he then layered a mirage genjutsu over it to show the empty mess hall on the other side.
"You can all jump through that... portal..." he frowned and fell silent since his voice wasn't nearly loud enough. Some of the gathered ninja had already started using Yomotsu Hirasaka as well as the Seal Summoning, but he still cast a second mirage genjutsu to make his voice seem louder to everyone in range. "Hn. You can all jump through that portal to reach the second wall! It's a few seconds faster than waiting for the next seal platform!"
He heard the footfalls of the rest of Taka as they emerged from the portal just behind him. "So... are we gonna evacuate with everyone else, or stay to fight Kabuto?"
It was Karin who replied first; she didn't waste any time. "It's not Kabuto. This chakra I'm feeling is above Kage-level, and it doesn't match Kabuto's at all."
Sasuke went completely still and said nothing for a moment. "...Edo Tensei, then?"
"Y-Yeah," she confirmed. "And like I said, it's a huge chakra signature."
"An Edo Tensei stronger than the average Kage, using the Wood Release." He turned his gaze back on the larger Yomotsu Hirasaka portal and the crowd of shinobi fleeing through it. "That means it's a member of the Senju Clan, and probably a famous one if it's that strong. You don't think it could be...?"
"Not the First Hokage," she confirmed. "At least I don't think so; it doesn't feel strong enough to create a Valley of the End..."
"Hn," said Sasuke. "We can't rule it out; the First was summoned by Orochimaru at least once before and he wasn't at full power then. It could be a weakened Hashirama Senju, or one of his ancestors at full power. But either way you need to send a clone to warn the response team. We know for sure that it's an Edo Tensei; tell them that."
"Right." she crossed her fingers and wordlessly spawned a cluster of five shadow clones. "You know what to do; move out!" the clones flitted away with a nod, again leaving Taka alone. "So what about us?"
"We'll stay here and help evacuate." he closed the portal behind Taka, leaving only the larger one in front of the Alliance. "Keep watching that chakra signature and see if you can learn anything more. We'll protect this room if the enemy comes this way, but I'll say it like it is... I don't think we can handle a fight like what you're describing."
"So we're just gonna stay out of the way?" Sakura demanded. "You and I have fought Kabuto before, and he's Kage-level. The whole team of us with Itachi included should be able to handle an even stronger opponent!"
"Yeah. I would've said the same thing two weeks ago, but then Pain nearly killed every single one of us. Maybe it's cowardly, but this time we're gonna make sure we know what we're up against before we fight it."
She thought for a moment, frowned, but nodded eventually. "Fine. We can save these people for sure if we stay here; I get that. But Sasuke, you have to remember that we've already gotten stronger since Pain. You have a new space-time jutsu, Juugo's getting better control of his senjutsu, Karin learned that new trick from Nagato... and I have this." she pointed to her White Strength Seal. "So we shouldn't underestimate ourselves!"
"Hn." he glanced back at Taka who collectively nodded. "Then we'll finish up here as quickly as we can."
X
The first thing Kiba noticed was the smell. It was the scent of a huge and thriving forest, but there was more to it. The scent of these woods in particular felt exactly like home. Kiba wasn't a genius on Shikamaru's level, but he was far from stupid and his instincts were keen. The feeling that something was wrong hit him almost instantly; Akamaru's ears slid back at the same time with the same dread.
Nawaki, Danzou and Tenzou all stood together at the edge of the wall, facing forward into the churning and thundering mass of trees that pushed and tore at the smooth cliff below. Nawaki seemed to be the one in control of the defending forest; his trees were longer and slightly thinner, with smoothed pale grey bark. He wielded them by the hundreds like tentacles of a gigantic sea monster, twined them around clusters of trees when they stayed still and whipped them aside when they swept forward.
Danzou and Tenzou both used their own Wood Release to repair the damage from any attacks Nawaki failed to block, huge lengths of walls and supports from several floors at a time were obliterated and had to be replaced altogether, else every floor of rock above would collapse and tear through those below to the very base of the wall. They were holding their ground, but pushing the enemy back was out of the question.
Shikamaru was the first to see why, to spot the figure perching within the shade of the forest and recognize the ancient armor he was wearing. He was the first, but Kiba and Ino weren't far behind.
"H-Holy shit," said Kiba, voice slightly muffled through his ANBU mask, "that's not Kabuto." Akamaru whimpered at his partner's side, took a step back and lowered his head close to the ground. "We're boned! We're completely boned!"
"It might be a little early to give up," Shikamaru argued, but his voice came out shaky as well.
"Well I'd love to see you put a positive spin on this!" Kiba barked.
Shikamaru looked back in the First Hokage's direction and idly clasped his fingers together. "...He's not fighting at full power. Look at that attack he's using; it's strong but not enough to create a Valley of the End." Kiba, Ino and Chouji all glanced at the forest, hopeful now. "And we have him outnumbered too... we might still be able to win this!"
The two Inuzuka exchanged looks, then turned back to Shikamaru. "We're not gonna hold back this time; you know what that means?"
"Yeah, but be careful. If the jutsu starts to feel weird, turn it off and take a break." Kiba shrugged dismissively and turned away from Shikamaru without another word; he sprinted toward the edge of the wall and threw himself along with Akamaru into the roiling forest.
Behind an ANBU mask adorned with vague black swirls, Shikamaru gave an irritated sigh. "Alright... Chouji, after him. Find Hokage-sama and hit him really, really hard." Chouji nodded, expanded to about thirty feet tall and took a running jump off the wall as had Kiba. "Ino, stay back here and pin him down if you get a shot. I'll do the same."
"No problem." she dropped into a crouch and removed her violet-painted mask to open up her peripheral vision.
Ahead of them Nawaki felt the forest shudder from the impact of some kind of explosion. It took a moment longer for him to see the scarlet flames working outward from the point Kiba had activated the final form of his Hellhound Mode. With Kiba in sight, he waved a hand to produce another limb for the wooden leviathan under his feet. The extra tentacle shot deep into the forest aimed at Hashirama, then went taut and still to provide a single solid path for Kiba.
The demented dog hit the surface of Nawaki's bridge and started sprinting along it immediately; its improbably long and thin limbs helped it run faster but also made its every move appear eerily off-model. Its claws, long and curved more like a cat's, dug deep flaming slices into the bark of the tree with every step.
It spat a fireball at Hashirama who dodged without thinking. The end of the wooden path carrying Kiba adjusted to follow the Hokage and fired off a few wooden stakes, but those were dismissed even more easily. He made a Snake seal and grasped the end of the offending tree with the limbs of two others, held it in place while he jumped up to a higher perch.
The Hellhound jumped up after him; its claws reached forward in midair and curled in to shred him apart. Still with his hands in the necessary position, Hashirama called up several more trees and bade them to shed their branches and sharpen the ends of their trunks to a single point each. He pushed forward and impaled the dog in far more places than were necessary.
It melted; split apart into two horrific globs of white clayish material alight with red flame, and then reconstituted into a dog and an ANBU with a scarlet snarl painted onto his mask. Without missing a beat, Kiba and Akamaru swirled and shot forward. "Fang Over Fang!"
They came closer to landing a hit this time, but still they only pulverized a freshly cut log instead of their opponent. Hashirama appeared a short distance behind them with a puff of smoke and prepared for another counterattack, cut short at the last possible second by a falling axe kick from a rather oversized foot. He leapt backward and watched the section of wood he'd been standing on reduce to little more than dust on impact.
The rest of the limb past that point began falling as did the attacker, but then Chouji's hand whipped out and grabbed the end of the remaining limb to spin up and around it. The entire tree creaked perilously but the Wood Release was strong; it held and Chouji landed in a crouch before the Hokage. He still had to aim considerably downward to aim his next punch, which Hashirama jumped back to escape from.
Chouji straightened and the tree swung with the movement; he stepped forward and swung a low kick that would've struck a normal person's center of mass hard enough to turn them into a spray of red paste. By contrast, Hashirama brought up his left elbow and caught the attack head-on. With his free hand he swung a punch into Chouji's ankle, enough to sting the giant but not enough to stop him from trying again.
He brought up the same foot and stomped down as hard as he could on the First Hokage, who brought up both forearms and tried to catch the blow overhead. His limbs held but the tree's did not; the length of wood under both of them shattered to pieces and they fell. Chouji raised his right fist and made to hammer it down on the Hokage's head as they fell; Hashirama countered by growing forth an egg-shaped hull of wood around himself to absorb the blow.
The egg hit the frost-packed dirt and crunched into it; the side facing Chouji opened and Hashirama shot forth a mass of branches that forked apart like lightning into countless sharp points. Chouji exploded into smoke before they could reach his center of mass; at his normal height he dropped out of the smoke cloud in time to dodge the sharpened stakes. He whipped a hand into the pouch behind his back, pulled forth a large green pill and shattered it audibly between his teeth.
A fireball shot out of the canopy above and struck the top of the Hokage's shield where it promptly exploded and set the entire egg on fire. Once more in his Hellhound form, Kiba dropped out of the sky and landed with his front paws on the wooden shield. He barked out another fireball and then curled his claws into the wood so he could lift the egg up and smash it down with Hashirama inside.
He tried that twice and got nowhere, so instead he switched tactics and bit the egg. With the Hokage pinned between his teeth, Kiba whipped his head to the side and struck the strongest tree he could see with the egg. It cracked loudly, then exploded and blew Kiba's face and jaw off entirely. Hashirama jumped away the instant he had a chance, but he could already see that this too wouldn't kill the creature. It simply split again into a man and dog, each whole if admittedly hesitant to attack again.
An uprooted tree slammed down onto the Hokage's head from behind, crushed him into the dirt but didn't turn him to ash. Getting hit in the face with a tree would've certainly been disconcerting to Hashirama Senju, but unfortunately he was unconscious and Kabuto didn't have the same reason to be bewildered. The tree's form shifted into a sculpture of similar dimensions, a dragon that reared up and snapped at Chouji who still had his hands locked around what was now its throat.
The giant made a pair of fists and the neck of the Wood Dragon turned to mulch. The head kept biting in his direction even as it fell, but he stepped on it and then that problem was solved as well. He hefted the body of the now-decapitated dragon, found it more flexible than the trunk it had been before. He swung it as a whip at the Hokage, but his target was replaced with a misshapen chunk of wood before the blow struck.
Hashirama reappeared atop the pile of oaken shards that had been the head of his dragon; he lashed out and wrapped both hands around Chouji's ankle. He picked up and threw his thirty-foot opponent; Chouji flew and smashed through dozens of trees before he hit Kiba and Akamaru. The two managed to reassemble and take the hit as a Hellhound, but still yelped as the giant crashed into them and carried them along for the ride.
Kabuto returned his attention to the forest around his puppet, and a few moments later it resumed its attack on the wall. After a moment he stopped again; something didn't feel right, the World of Trees weren't sliding forward as effortlessly as before.
The tentacles of the Wood Kraken, thousands of cords of lignum vitae by now, all twisted at once. The larger oak trees they were wrapped around exploded into sharp little oblong bits of wood. Kabuto blinked on the other side of the Land of Frost; the furthest reaches of his wooden forest were now much closer to the Hokage than the wall and advancing them again would take effort.
More importantly, Tobirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki were now exposed in their approach toward the wall. The eyes of the Alliance shinobi collectively went wide in horror.
Tobirama's red-on-black eyes narrowed by contrast; he spat out a Water Bullet that shot at an alarming speed toward the top of the wall, reached it before Nawaki could block it and then took the shape of a water clone. The real Tobirama appeared in a yellow flash with one hand on the clone's shoulder and the other on Mito's wrist.
She reached toward Nawaki first; he had just an instant to spot the lone black ring in each of her Uzumaki-blue eyes before they shifted and went purple.
He didn't blink, but somehow he still didn't see Tsunade come flying out of nowhere and smash her fist into her grandmother's cheek; Mito was simply standing there one second and then flying headfirst over Kabuto's forest the next. Tsunade had gone with her and Nawaki did at least see the second punch she delivered in midair; this one sent Mito straight down into the treetops.
Then came the two sonic booms shortly following one after another; one for each of Tsunade's attacks.
Jiraiya's entry wasn't quite so dynamic; he landed in front of Tobirama already in Sage Mode and with two small toads perched atop his shoulders, their squishy little hands clasped into seals. In each hand he held a huge broad-bladed sword of tremendously heavy stone, meant to deliver powerful blows with the strength of Sage Mode and not shatter under such force.
Tobirama hesitated, sized up his opponent and then vanished with another Hiraishin; this time he reappeared on the ground far below the wall and began stringing together a long sequence of hand seals. Tsunade popped into place next to Jiraiya with a Seal Summoning; Shikamaru guessed that she'd landed quite a distance away from Mito to have made that move.
Since he was still wearing his ANBU mask, he didn't bother keeping the panicked expression off his face. This is really bad... having two of the Sannin on our side helps a bit, but it definitely doesn't balance out. At this rate we're doomed. He heard an ungodly ripping sound a few yards behind Ino and himself and turned to look with a resigned expression. Great. What fresh hell is this?
He shuddered and flinched back from the pair of enormous, glowing yellow eyes that shone out through the rip in space-time, set into the slit of a twisted and jagged helm of purple chakra. He recognized it then but it was still terrifying. Susanoo's left arm reached out through the portal past him and produced a longbow for the right hand to draw back.
An arrow of black flame materialized on the string and Susanoo took aim. There was a deafening screech of Chidori lightning and then the arrow was covered in blue light instead; it looked like a solid shaft of glowing blue instead of ghostly black and flickering.
The arrow flew and arced downward; it landed a good distance short of Hashirama's remaining forest and exploded into a forward wave of shrieking blue and roaring black. It wasn't quite bright enough to force Shikamaru to look away, but it was enough to make him squint despite the instint to widen his eyes in awe. Sasuke's attack washed through the forest and reduced each tree to ash separately, stopping short of the two familiar chakras he could see in the forest before he let off his jutsu.
"H-Holy shit," Ino gasped. She whirled on Sasuke and raised a threatening fist despite her fear. "What the hell is wrong with you!? You could've killed Kiba and Chouji!"
"Could've, didn't. I saw them before I let off my jutsu." Shikamaru jumped; Sasuke was standing just outside of his slightly restricted field of vision. "I wouldn't have taken the shot if I wasn't sure I could keep them safe... But that's not Kabuto out there, is it?"
"...No," the so-called Black Knight composed himself quickly. "It's the First Hokage, and he brought backup." he pointed to Tobirama. "The Second and Mito Uzumaki."
Sasuke stayed quiet for a moment. "...It's a good thing we arrived when we did, then."
"Yeah. Things are looking up now." he peered over the edge of the wall and frowned down at Tobirama. "Then again, it must be one hell of a jutsu taking him this long to cast..."
"What a drag?" Ino offered with a grin. Since he was still wearing his ANBU mask there was no point in scowling at her, so instead he simply looked. The annoyance was all concentrated into his eyes.
"...He's not casting just one jutsu," Sasuke commented, glaring down into the distant ground with his doujutsu fully activated. "I can see it. It's a four-seal sequence; every time he repeats it another Water Dragon Horde pops up underground... He's gonna hit us with all of them at once!"
Near the back of the group, Itachi jumped into action and an orange haze of chakra lit up around him. "Sasuke, with me!" The aura began to grow down over the wall and solidify into plates of glistening armor. "Isou Susanoo!" Sasuke leapt into place beside his older brother and layered his own Susanoo over the wall as well.
But Shikamaru stayed where he stood and thought. No, this just... doesn't feel right... his eyes went wide. "It's not gonna work!" he turned to Karin. "The jutsu are spread out too far, aren't they!? Way further than Sasuke and Itachi can reach!"
"We can't save the whole wall," Sasuke called over his shoulder. "But we can't let this piece fall while we're all still on it!"
Then came a ripping sound from thousands of Water Dragon Bullets surging up from underground. They didn't fly far upward; instead they roared and slammed into the thick outer wall of stone at the ground floor. They didn't pierce through on the first attack; it took three cycles of smashing in, splashing apart and reassembling to do it again before they opened holes in the rock. Then they swam inside the wall and moved on to ripping down the inner walls, support beams and floors.
Sasuke and Itachi each curled their Susanoo inward, wrapped the armor around only the stretch of the wall they stood on. Itachi's Susanoo alone had proven capable of turning aside a Tailed Beast Ball; both brothers working together had little trouble holding out a collection of Water Dragon Bullets no matter how many there were.
The Alliance walls should've had strength to match, but they were unfinished. There were still stretches of all three that left the highest floors exposed to the wind and snow; the construction teams hadn't built all the way up. There were seals to be laid across the entirety of the building that would strengthen it all against ninjutsu, but it was too late now.
It was falling, all that hard work undone in the span of a few minutes. Everything outside the square of protection afforded by the two Susanoo had begun to crack away. Sasuke and Itachi in particular saw it all in slower motion than the others, how the ramparts at the top initially stayed in one piece as they descended. Then they gave way as well; there was dull brown dust everywhere and the shinobi saw no more beyond it.
It seemed to go on forever, the eruption of dust and the shaking of the earth and the noise of everything shattering. But eventually there was silence in its place, and there was a snowstorm on top of all the dust.
Nawaki turned away from the expanse of dead ground and rubble between them and Hashirama. "How many," he asked in a flat tone, "were still inside when you left?"
"We helped evacuate the nearest mess hall," Sakura answered. "We made sure it was empty before we left, and Karin used her sensing to make sure the rest of the wall was empty as far as she could see... but beyond that range, there's no way to know."
"...I see. That's better than I'd hoped for." he turned back to Tobirama. "Shikamaru, how should we deal with the enemy?"
"Sasuke and the Sannin need to call their summons," he replied immediately. "We have to split up our forces to split up the enemy, so have them attack the Second."
"The Three-Way Deadlock," said Sasuke. Jiraiya and Tsunade both perked up at that. "Manda's dead, but I don't see any reason why Aoda shouldn't be able to fill in for him. Let's do it."
"Remember that you're not gonna fight with them," Shikamaru added quickly. "You three need to help somewhere else!"
Sasuke, Jiraiya and Tsunade stepped off the edge of what remained of the wall and fell forward with gravity until their next step landed on the side of the wall where they stuck with chakra control. The Sannin bit their thumbs to draw blood, but Sasuke activated his Mangekyou and wiped a bit from his cheek instead. Another Yomotsu Hirasaka portal opened beneath them, large enough to let all three huge summons pass easily.
They formed the seals and crouched low to the wall, slammed their palms down on the sides and filled the air with smoke. "Summoning Jutsu!"
Gamabunta, Katsuyu and Aoda in all their glory appeared before their masters and fell through the portal immediately. They emerged just above the debris left in the wake of Tobirama's attack which shortened their fall a great deal.
The Sannin and Sasuke turned and took a single step back to the top of the wall, looking expectantly at Shikamaru. "Right then. Taka," he called and pointed into the forest. "You'll deal with Mito; you beat Pain after all and he had the same Rinnegan powers. But Sasuke, you need to leave a shadow clone here to control Susanoo and stick by Jiraiya."
"Hn."
"I'm not fighting too?" Jiraiya asked incredulously.
"You need to be ready to jump into any of the three fights once we have an Edo Tensei ready to be sealed," he explained. "Especially the First Hokage. I don't think sealing kunai are gonna cut it with any of them, but in his case I'm even more sure."
"So I'm guessing you want me to fight the First," said Tsunade.
"That's it. You'll have my team and Nawaki's to back you up, but you're the one we need to bring him down. Ino and I will back you up from here, and if the situation changes she'll be the one to let you all know."
Sasuke opened up two more Yomotsu Hirasaka wormholes, one for Tsunade and the other for Taka. "Let's not waste any more time. Taka, move out!"
Mito watched the other end of Taka's portal open up between a pair of trees ahead of her. She turned to properly face it but didn't make a move even once her opponents stepped through. The portal closed behind them and she sized up the threat patiently.
"...Two Uchiha," she cast a glance over Sasuke and Itachi. "An Uzumaki," she nodded to Karin, "One of Kiri's famous swordsmen and a user of senjutsu chakra... and..." she turned finally to Sakura. "That mark on your forehead... you must be a Jinchuuriki then. Probably Kushina's successor, isn't that right?"
Sakura blinked, confused. What the hell? She opened her mouth to reply but stopped short; there was no upside to explaining what her White Strength Seal actually was. She focused her attention on the similar mark Mito wore and she began to make sense of the misunderstanding. That must be the seal the Nine-Tails was held in. I guess it makes sense that it wouldn't look like Naruto's seal...
"Well it looks like I have my work cut out for me," said Mito. "I'll tell you right now that I don't have access to the Nine-Tails' chakra, aside from what I tucked away in this seal." she paused to gesture toward her forehead for just a moment. "That'll make things easier for you, but you shouldn't relax just yet. I still have my own chakra and the Rinnegan."
She didn't expect her opponents to take the time to reply, so she wasn't surprised when the two Uchiha activated their Mangekyou and covered her in black flame. She saw Sakura lunge forward with her fist raised, but the girl flickered out of view after the first few steps. The last Mito saw of her was the White Strength Seal unfurling across her entire body; its effects only visible under her jacket thanks to the Rinnegan.
With barely a thought she activated the Preta Path and sucked the black flames away; under them her face and the formal white kimono she'd been summoned in were both badly cracked and charred. There would be no dodging Sakura's attack at the speed she was moving; instead she used Shinra Tensei to soften the blow.
Sakura's punch tore through the Deva Path's resistance, but instead of turning Mito to ash it merely sent her flying headfirst into the distance.
Elsewhere, Tobirama had notably been much less polite and welcoming to his own opponents. In undeath as in life, he was a very blunt and to-the-point sort of man. While Mito had talked, he had cut right to the chase and began calling up massive geysers of water all around the battlefield between himself and the summons.
The water swept up into an enormous swirling wall between him and the enemy and he sent it forward. As the most mobile of the three, Gamabunta simply bounded up and over the wave to land behind it. With his comparatively huge tanto drawn in a reverse grip, the toad was first to cross the distance and aim an attack at Tobirama.
Katsuyu was less fortunate; she didn't have the agility needed to jump over the wave or slither around it to either side as Aoda intended. What she did have was a collection of unique abilities that made her almost impossible to damage, so she let the wave wash over her without a care in the world.
The wave was huge, but Aoda took pride in his speed for good reason. His eventual aim was to be fast enough to flicker in and out of sight the way smaller shinobi could with a movement jutsu, but this was vastly harder for a boss-sized summon than a human. He'd made progress however, enough to appear as a continuous blue streak from his starting point to his destination and more than enough to move aside of the wave.
He stopped and locked into position with his open maw aimed at the Second Hokage, then opened fire with an Echo Lightning Torrent. Gamabunta yanked back his tanto from its lock with the Hokage's sword; he was just in time to avoid getting shocked by Aoda's jutsu as well.
"Watch it, brat! If I'd been a second slower that jutsu would've hit me too!"
"I'm sorry!" Aoda snapped his head low to the ground in supplication. "I've never fought alongside another summon of my size before; this is all new to me."
Gamabunta blinked, then dodged a Water Dragon Bullet from Tobirama. Well he's nicer than Manda ever was; I'll give him that. I was expecting him to blame it on me... he glared down at the Second Hokage who'd been thrown a good distance by Aoda's jutsu; he took aim and fired a scaled-up Water Bullet into the jaws of the next Water Dragon. Both jutsu exploded into mist, but Tobirama gathered that mist into an even larger dragon without pause.
Aoda shot past Gamabunta and lit up the length of his body with a flash of lightning; he charged into the dragon head-on and zapped it into steam as he passed. He kept going toward Tobirama, but his target vanished with a Hiraishin and appeared near the edge of the decimated forest atop an enormous dome-shaped swell of water. It was a bit larger than the boss summons, closer in size to a Tailed Beast.
Katsuyu rejoined Aoda and Gamabunta, all keeping a watchful eye on Tobirama but unsure how to make the next move. "That's quite a water jutsu," she observed.
"He has endless chakra," Aoda paused and flicked his tongue with a thoughtful look. "It's not surprising that he can scale up his jutsu like this."
"It's not a problem," said a second female voice. Katsuyu and Gamabunta turned to Aoda with surprise; it took them a moment to spot the comparatively tiny pink snake atop his head. "As long as he's in contact with that water, I have a lightning jutsu that can turn it against him. Just get me in close and make him look away from Aoda for a second, then I'll jump in."
"...And... who are you?" Gamabunta leaned forward and peered down at her.
"I'm the Snake Clan boss. You know me as the White Snake Sage."
"But you're pink," he observed.
"And you're wasting time," she bit back. "Move it!"
Gamabunta jumped just slightly, surprised to be snapped at by a creature so vastly smaller than him. Normally he would at least think of crushing anyone who talked to him that way, but since Jakuzure was sitting atop the head of by far the least antagonistic Snake Clan ninja he'd ever encountered, that wasn't an option. He huffed and turned back to the battle.
But for all this time the battle between Hashirama, Kiba and Chouji had gone on almost without interruption. There had been a pause when Kabuto sent his opponents flying; he'd used that time to resume his attack on the wall but it had ended when Sasuke wiped out almost all that remained of his forest. Now there was only falling snow and ash between him and the two Konoha-nin and they didn't waste any time resuming their attack.
Kiba moved first; he was the faster of the two and it showed. He charged headfirst toward the Hokage and spun up into a seven-ton flaming drill. Hashirama held his ground and made ready a defensive jutsu instead of dodging; this time Kabuto chose the Houbi since both he and his puppet knew it particularly well. A carving of a dragon's snarling face grew up through the ash and snow, split by a seam through the middle.
The dragon's face folded forward; the two halves overlapped in front of Hashirama to take the drill attack and let him retreat backward. Vivid red flames washed up and over the shield and it cracked from the impact of Kiba's charge, but it at least stopped him.
A set of claws alight with red fire curled up over the edge of the Houbi, followed by the Hellhound and its permanently bared set of vicious teeth. Hashirama made another Snake seal and the burning Houbi grew forward at a few random points, meant to turn sharp and stab through the dog. Kiba sprang back with a snarl and vanished from Hashirama's sight before the spikes could cut him.
There was a burst of chakra smoke behind the Houbi; Chouji appeared once again at a height of thirty feet and vaulted over it with little trouble. He hit the ground running toward the Hokage.
Hashirama took a step forward and was lifted from the ground by a mesh of thin but growing trees that emerged from under his feet. Even as Chouji sprinted toward him the trees grew together and took the shape of a humanoid a few feet taller than Chouji. The Wood Golem met him head-on and caught the Titan's right fist on its left palm to buy a moment of time for a counterattack. It punched Chouji in the face hard enough to lift him off his feet and throw him back.
He tumbled to his feet and noted how odd it felt to look up at an opponent's face. He hesitated for a few moments, weighed his options and decided to pull out an ANBU tanto tucked horizontally behind his back. He paired it with a normal kunai in his off-hand and lunged back into the fight.
He was fast, shockingly so considering his size. He even managed to slash the Wood Golem's chest with the tanto, sliced deep into the thick oak toughened with chakra within his first few swings. But his fighting style was wrong for this; most of his attacks weren't from the blades but his feet. Chouji was used to fighting opponents vastly smaller than himself, and it was easier to strike them with a low kick than bend down to punch them.
He'd learned to properly use a blade to compensate for this; the standard-issue ANBU knife seemed a good choice at the time. But he was out of practice; there hardly ever came a time when he needed to use it against an opponent like this. Sheer muscle memory had him using kicks against the Hokage, granted they were kicks powerful enough to shatter the Wood Golem's shins and knees, but that damage could be repaired easily.
So in the end the First Hokage battered Chouji with a flurry of punches, twisted away the tanto and kunai, then picked him fully off his feet and threw him by one leg. In all fairness the outcome would've likely been the same even if Chouji had made full use of the blades; even with a third of his power stripped away this was still Hashirama Senju. He was called a God of Shinobi for a good reason.
Purely by chance, Chouji's gaze happened to be thrown in the direction of the Alliance wall as he tumbled end over end through the air. He hit the ground badly and felt the joints in his neck and back cracking. An ordinary person might've been knocked out completely, but a shinobi worthy of an ANBU mask wouldn't go down so easily.
He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could, produced two more kunai from his pouch and locked eyes with the Wood Golem again. When Hashirama didn't immediately press another attack he leaned his head back and rolled it to the left to crack it back into comfort.
He spared another glance toward the wall in time to see a huge swath of it falling, then turned back to Hashirama just as the First Hokage guided his puppet forward into a sprint. "Kiba!" He called and the Hellhound jumped to his side with no hesitation. "After me!" he charged his left-hand kunai with fire chakra and threw it with all his strength at Hashirama, but the enemy caught it and only suffered a seared wooden hand.
The Hokage continued his approach and dozens of stout oaks tore up from the earth as he passed, an impromptu Sea of Trees raised without hand seals. Chouji swung his right fist ahead still wielding the remaining kunai, then expanded it to the same mass as the rest of his entire body. This time when he lit the kunai aflame, it blasted through Hashirama's constructs evoking a world-ending meteor.
His hand returned to a proper scale and left a huge flaming hole in the grove between himself and the Hokage. Kiba jumped in, spun up a Passing Fang and aimed it to obliterate the Wood Golem's chest.
The trees promptly stitched the hole shut and brought Kiba's spin to a halt by running him through almost a dozen times. Naturally he and Akamaru split apart to undo the fatal damage, but by now this was only to be expected. The Wood Golem's fist struck them in their true forms and reduced the grove to splinters even as it sent the Inuzuka flying.
But Kiba and Akamaru had fought for and earned their ANBU rank; they shrugged off the pain and rose to face the enemy again. This time instead of reassembling into the form they called Barghest, each of the two took aim at the Hokage from a distance.
Hashirama abruptly went still as stone, and a moment later Ino's voice echoed through the minds of her teammates. Got him! It's Kabuto's mind; he's controlling the Edo Tensei directly!
The ground under the Wood Golem's feet went dark; at first it was only a circle of ordinary-looking shade but then it kept turning more intense until Hashirama looked to be standing on a hole in reality as deep as Yomotsu Hirasaka.
The void splashed up as a liquid, a tangible shadow that surged and swallowed the entire Wood Golem then went solid. It was the most potent shadow jutsu at Shikamaru's disposal, the only one he thought capable of binding the First Hokage in his current state.
Now bring him down!
Kiba raised a Tiger seal to his lips and roared, "Fire Release! Great Fire Annihilation!" Beside him Akamaru shot forth a breath of Ash Pile Burning, adding explosive fuel to the already impressive flame. The darkness of the Nara jutsu evaporated under Kiba's brilliant firelight, leaving it to strike and burn the Hokage and his puppet uninterrupted.
Then Chouji came in with a massively oversized right fist and shattered the scorched ruin that was left after Kiba's and Akamaru's attack. Pieces of charcoal, some still alight, flew away from Chouji and he retracted his hand to a size matching the rest of his body.
Cracked to shards and charred black, the First Hokage pulled himself from the rubble and stood to pierce his opponents with a shining gold glare.
Crap.
He took just one step forward before an incoming threat triggered the sixth sense his senjutsu granted him. It was enough time for him to realize there was an attack to be dodged, but not enough to actually dodge it. Tsunade suckerpunched her grandfather in the back of the head and vaporized it on impact; a cloud of white ash almost as fine as chakra smoke blew forward from the stump of his neck, which she then hammered down with her other fist.
The decapitated Hokage crumpled and she began stomping the rest of him into powder until Jiraiya appeared at her side through a Yomotsu Hirasaka window. His fingers were already alight with cold violet flame which he slammed unerringly into what was left of the Hokage. "Five Elements Seal!"
The Hokage's ashes were gone in an instant and replaced by a five-point seal carved and inked into the ground. A gust of vivid green chakra poured upward from the seal and the first of its points burst. Jiraiya resumed his work with a scowl. "Everyone get back! If I don't time this just right he's gonna get out!"
"What do you mean 'time it right?'" Kiba called, alarmed.
"I used the Five Elements on him to buy time for me to write the Eight Trigrams," he yelled back over the roar of wind in his ears. "But if I activate the Eight while the Five is still holding him, they'll interfere and they won't be strong enough to hold him in. I need to finish the Eight Trigrams then wait to set it off until the moment he breaks the Five Elements! If my reaction time is too slow he'll be unsealed!"
"Maybe the Sharingan could help with that," said the shadow clone Sasuke had left to open the way for Jiraiya. He crouched opposite the Toad Sage over the seal. "What am I looking for?"
"See these four kanji here?" Jiraiya pointed and Sasuke nodded. With his other hand he kept writing. "Every time he breaks a sealing point, it vanishes out here. But it won't take too long now; the load on the remaining points gets worse the fewer there are!" A second point vanished and the gust of green wind flared up for a moment, but then Jiraiya finished scribbling the Eight Trigrams. "When the next one goes, the last two won't be able to keep up and the whole thing'll break!"
"Get ready now..." he took Sasuke's wrist and clapped his hand down on one of the points of the Eight Trigrams Seal. "When the next one goes down, put all of your chakra here!"
Sasuke nodded. "Got it!"
The third seal point ruptured and vanished. In slow motion he saw the rest of the seal begin to unravel; the ink nearest the sealing points vaporized and it spiralled out from there. He focused his chakra to his hand and pushed.
"Eight Trigrams Seal!"
Tobirama felt his brother's chakra wink out and he turned to look with red eyes wide. He saw Sasuke's shadow clone vanish since it was out of chakra, but that information hardly did any good. He turned back toward Gamabunta in time to see the toad's huge tanto flying through the air at him. He fell straight down into the heart of the enormous whirlpool he stood on, and the thrown tanto splashed in a good distance past him.
There was a moment, just a bit short of a second where he thought he was safe.
Jakuzure threw herself headlong from Aoda's back, mouth wide to show the brilliant blue glow on her fangs. Like a javelin she shot into the water and brought all of her senjutsu chakra to bear for one move.
Gotcha.
The entire mass of Tobirama's water jutsu flashed blue resembling an Echo Lightning Torrent, then just as quickly it was gone, light and liquid all. Tobirama hit the ground limply and shattered.
Jakuzure landed with substantially more grace and cast a glance in Jiraiya's direction. He was looking back at her with obvious surprise, but without Sasuke's shadow clone he likely wouldn't reach the Second before he started to recover.
Fortunately she had an idea of her own. She slithered to Tobirama's side and up over his armor. It cracked and shifted under her weight like cracked porcelain rather than steel, but she ignored that and curled as comfortably as she could over his chest.
"Hey... you created this jutsu, right?"
For his part, Tobirama had never seen a snake truly grin before. The sight was a bit unsettling. "...Yes."
"And Edo Tensei have endless chakra, right?" she flicked out her tongue. "They can run out but more just comes straight from the Pure World?"
"That's right."
"Good... now hold still." she darted ahead and bit down into his neck where it was exposed past the armor. "Mm," she commented thoughtfully with his throat between her teeth. "Teal. Not a super-rare color, but there's so much here..." he felt a sharp pull on his chakra and almost all of it was whisked away in an instant. Fresh chakra began to trickle in from the beyond, but she simply drained him dry again and again.
With two of his three puppets down, Kabuto considered assuming direct control of the third but thought better of it when he took a look through her eyes. Taka had Mito surrounded and the powers she used to hold them back were alien to him, a total contrast to controlling the Wood Release through a body as familiar with it as he was. He left her to her own devices and sat back to watch.
Scarlet light and steam poured from the lines of fuinjutsu drawn across the upper half of her face; the lines themselves were smoldering orange like the flames of hell. Her Rinnegan had turned red like blood and the pupils had turned to slits. Her hair was still bound up in a pair of buns but now it was frayed and wild, adding even more to the demonic look she was borrowing from Kurama.
"Shinra Tensei," she called with her right hand held out in Sasuke's direction. He flew back and a Yomotsu Hirasaka door opened swiftly behind him. The other end of the wormhole lay flat against the ground and he shot up out of it. The surprise showed distinctly on Mito's face and she called her jutsu to a halt.
"Blaze Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
A rush of dark fire blew forward and down to fill Mito's vision; she reached out to catch the flames with the Preta Path but her line of sight to Sasuke was still broken. He fell back down toward his wormhole and had an idea.
He cracked a smirk as he fell, one foot extended firmly with the other held back. He passed through the portal and his momentum abruptly shifted from straight down to straight ahead.
"Dynamic Entry!"
His kick blasted Mito in the face and knocked her back in her surprise. She stumbled and Suigetsu appeared behind her with Samehada raised. She dodged his swipe and spun to catch him in the face with a reverse roundhouse, spawned a huge shuriken in her right hand with the Asura Path and whipped it past Suigetsu to Karin.
The younger Uzumaki caught it long before it reached her with a chakra chain; she tangled her jutsu around the weapon and flicked it aside without letting it touch her. She jumped mid-sprint toward Mito, sailed up over her head and formed a clone seal in the air. Six shadow clones appeared around the real Karin, each as fully armed as the original.
To fend off all twelve blades Mito was forced to use up her Shinra Tensei again; Karin's clones burst but the genuine article simply rode the wave of force skyward. Her plan was to haul herself back down with chakra chains in tandem with gravity, but then she felt Sasuke's chakra tear a hole in space above her.
She grinned and tightened her hold on her bone swords; when she emerged from the other end of the portal she swept them up and drew two parallel slices along the front of her opponent's chest. The white kimono covering it was heavy but made for poor armor nonetheless.
She landed and leapt away from a reeling Mito to give another of her allies a chance. Kimimaro lunged in and bashed Mito with his shield using the full strength of his Cursed |Seal; she fell back leaking ash and seared paper. Juugo appeared just above her with a chakra cannon sweeping down to shoot and punch her at the same time.
She just barely dodged the blast and took a long jump away from Taka as a whole, buying a moment of time for her wounds to close. Of all three Edo Tensei Kabuto had sent, she was the one most weakened since the Nine-Tails was gone from the seal on her back. She was left with the smaller reserve she'd locked away in the mark on her forehead, but also the Rinnegan and the full scope of its powers.
These young Konoha-nin were dealing with that much remarkably well, in all fairness. They wouldn't have lasted long against her in Tailed Beast Mode, but that only made her grateful that it wasn't at her disposal.
...Oh my. She looked around and found she was being surrounded by an increasing collection of jagged black portals. The Uchiha again... he seems to be getting more creative with this jutsu. What's he thinking this time?
With the Sword of Totsuka in hand Sasuke jumped out of a seemingly random portal to Mito's right, only to immediately disappear into another. He emerged well past the edges of her vision from a third portal and repeated the process. His sword lit up with the scream of a powerful lightning jutsu, but he flitted so quickly around her that the sound seemed to be coming from multiple directions at once.
It wasn't long before the other Konoha-nin all joined in; it was impossible to track all seven of them and trying only made Mito dizzy.
I've never seen a space-time jutsu used quite like this before; not even Tobirama would use his Hiraishin for this kind of tactic, but-
"Chidori Katana!" She curled forward with the impact of Sasuke's electrified sword stabbing through her belly.
"Stream!" lightning arced through the rest of her body; she was already numb thanks to the Edo Tensei but she could tell that she'd been paralyzed by the move.
"Spear!" Where before there was only one blade lancing through her abdomen, now a dozen more split off from the sword's hilt and twisted to emerge from all sides of her body.
"Chidori Transmission!" The tips of the blades stabbing out of her chest lit up with more lightning that connected them all in a clear blue web. Plenty of the new beams arced harmlessly through the air around her, but those died down and the few piercing through Mito grew stronger and sharper.
Then all that lightning winked out and the birds screaming in her ears went silent. She started to fall without it to hold her body rigidly upright; she'd lost control of her limbs with the first or second phase of the boy's attack. But he caught her shoulder with his empty hand; it seemed an oddly friendly gesture and she found herself mildly confused.
"Hn," he glanced past her. Her hands twitched; she would be able to move them again soon and then she'd be obliged to reach for him with the Human Path. "We should make this a regular thing."
"Well it is pretty..." Mito felt a pair of hands wedge themselves into the main exit wound on her back, the one from the sword itself, "...effective!" the hands gave a sharp tug and Mito's chest split down the middle with her head and neck attached to the left half. Sasuke's hand left her right shoulder and dipped behind his back for a kunai; he flicked it forward and stabbed her and then everything went black. Sakura sealed away the other half of the Edo Tensei with a kunai of her own at the same time.
Taka emerged from the Yomotsu Hirasaka portals and they all closed as one. Sasuke dropped the kunai, deactivated his Eternal Mangekyou and rubbed his eyes with a soft groan. The blood streaming down his cheeks was smeared a bit by the gesture.
"Is it bad?" she asked.
"Not too bad," he admitted. "It's not like I'm getting stabbed in the face... it's somewhere more between a headache and a broken nose. I guess it would've been a lot worse if I still had my own eyes..." he took a look around without the aid of his Sharingan to confirm Hashirama and Tobirama were both still down. "...Looks like we made it."
"We did," said Itachi as he took a step toward what little was left of the Alliance wall. "But this isn't something to celebrate. We don't know if anyone was still in there, but if there were victims then there could be survivors. Let's go."
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