Hello everyone,
Just as a reminder, this story is being put on a schedule. At least twice a month like my other stories but I plan on over delivering!
Massive authors note at the bottom of the chapter for explanations.
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It was miraculous that I managed to get any sleep.
I attributed it to the fact that I had long since forced myself to sleep. After all, I had clones sleeping constantly throughout the day and night. Even still, with the pressure I now felt resting on my shoulders, and the anxiety I had from my upcoming task, I only managed to grab about 5 hours in my real body.
My clones were working on the clothing and armor I was currently pulling onto my body throughout the night. The seals had been checked thousands of times before today, but that still wasn't enough for me.
First, I pulled on the traditional navy blue long sleeve shirt and shinobi pants. That was a staple of Konoha, and I would stick to that. The plated gloves were the exact same color, along with my steel toe boots. There were seals on the black metal of the boots and gloves. Basic protection and strengthening seals that only provided a slight edge against blades, but excelled with blunt damage.
After that, I pulled on my chest plate. It was designed like the anbu chest pieces, with chakra conductive metal inside of the stitching. There were both visible and functional differences. Mine was not gray, but the green color I was now expected to wear because of my rank. I had gotten lucky with the color.
I admit though, I didn't know if the anbu chest pieces were fuinjutsu enhanced. I actually expected that they were, so the functionality of the chest piece I was wearing could have been nearly the exact same. But my seal work was all custom, and keyed to my chakra network. Advanced stuff that meant other shinobi couldn't activate, or mess with the fuinjutsu inside. Something that I expected a seal master would be able to do at a glance if they could see the fuinjutsu. Also something I would strive to be able to manipulate, although it was beyond my skills for a while.
That seal work included elemental and blade protection. Along with storage seals on every piece of metal I had. On top of that, I had finally cracked the gravity seals that I was using on my wrists for weight training, and also applied that to every single piece of metal that I could. Essentially, my new outfit was the best protection in the shinobi world, along with a built in training and storage system. The only thing it was missing was barrier fuinjutsu that could act as a trump card in the future. A built in, smaller, Susanoo if you will.
You could bet your sweet ass I was working on that as well. Unfortunately, I was years away from that type of seal work. The complexity and chakra requirement was… astronomical.
In actuality, I was breaking the rules a little bit. Chunin had a dress code, and that included the vest that was issued after my promotion. But I didn't feel too bad about breaking that dress code. After all, the world would think of me as a genin for the next couple of hours. A chunin could not fight in the chunin exams, for example.
But we are a ninja village, and we dealt in deception on the daily.
Even with that being said, sending a brand new chunin who is definitely not on a jonin's level, to fight a jinchuriki with the chakra of a kage didn't seem fair any which way you swing it. The only thing I had going for me was my abnormal amounts of chakra and my physicality. Neither Gaara, nor I had massive amounts of experience to draw on so that was also a boon.
Luckily for me, I kept certain skills hidden during the exams. Skills that I would not hesitate to utilize.
When everything was pulled on to and strapped to my form, I finally reached down and grabbed my forehead protector before tying it as well. I stared at myself in the mirror and although I looked like a normal Konoha shinobi…
…I couldn't help but feel like a badass.
"Naruto Uzumaki. Gaara of the Sand. Take your place on the fields."
No less than five hands slapped my shoulders and back. I didn't have to turn to know that three of them were from my team and sensei. I was surprised to find Kiba and Sasuke as two more hands.
Kakashi's lingered on my shoulder for a moment, before he squeezed and his entire chakra network disappeared completely from my senses.
I was standing in the tunnel that led to the exam arena. I could already hear the cheering of the crowd in the stands above. There had to be close to ten thousand people in the structure. This was an event for the civilians as much as it was for shinobi and Daimyo. The vast majority of them did not know what was to come.
In a burst of chakra, I covered the distance between the tunnel and the fields to find myself in position. Gaara was already there. When I arrived, the crowd roared even louder. I definitely had home field advantage here. Not that it meant much when shinobi were involved. It was easy to die, either way.
I squatted down without looking at my opponent and grabbed some dirt before rubbing it on my hands. They were sweaty and I was nervous. I didn't know what else to do while I waited for the proctor, who just happened to be Asuma again.
"Let the first match of the elimination round…"
Gaara's chakra raced from his body to the ground beneath him. Then it spread underground right beneath my feet. I acted as if I was none the wiser. I looked up and met Gaara's eyes for the first time since stepping into the arena. He had a wicked smile on his face. He knew that he would be able to feed mother plenty today.
Only if I don't stop you first…
"...begin!"
My plan wasn't to attack immediately. I knew Gaara, and I knew that he would wait for me to come to him. Yet the primed chakra right underneath my boot told me that I was wrong in my assessment. Unlike Kiba, he apparently wanted to kill me. Or maybe it was the fact that this was a momentous day for him and he wanted to get it underway.
Either way, I let the sand grab my leg and steeled myself for what I was about to do. This universe was not the anime. I was not a fellow jinchuriki, and I was not the Naruto that Gaara needed to become a good person. I was a ninja of Konoha, and I had a mission to accomplish.
Since my promotion was already in the bag I didn't need to show off. That combined with a coming invasion and the need to preserve chakra led to a simple plan.
Kill him quickly and efficiently.
Four of my shadow clones appeared around Gaara, already going through hand seals. The sand around my leg vanished, as did Gaara's chakra beneath me. A dome of sand sprang up around my opponent, just as four massive balls of fire got close enough to make him feel the heat.
Unlike normal, where my clones would cut off the flow of chakra, they had orders to keep the stream of fire going, so as to distract his chakra. I wasted no time and rocketed towards Gaara as fast as I could, enhanced by chakra and my physical training over the past few months.
Just as I approached the dome of sand I pulled my arm back and summoned the black katana from the metal bracelet on my wrist.
When I was ten feet away, lightning chakra engulfed the black blade in a way that only a master could.
My plan was the exact same plan as Kakashi's and Sasuke's plan in the anime. Have him stand still, and preferably cover himself in a dome of sand. Use lightning, as the elemental superiority of the sand, to pierce through his sand protections and heart. And this time, I had a blade that was much longer than Sasuke's hand with higher piercing power.
When I reached the sand dome protecting my opponent, I thrust my katana forward.
I knew without a doubt in my heart that I completed my mission just before my sword pierced through the melting sand dome.
Sunagakure had other plans, however.
I couldn't react to what happened next. It was faster than even Jonin level, and I would argue rapidly approaching the speeds that Kage could move at.
I was hit by something that made pain lance down my right side, just beneath my ribs.
The world exploded.
Guy POV:
"...begin!"
I could feel Lee's anxiety from his position beside me. He was worried about Naruto and the current battle. Already Gaara's sand was rising from the ground, engulfing Naruto's leg up to the knee.
We hadn't calculated for that, but I had faith in Naruto's sensing abilities.
I was proven correct when four perfect copies of my student materialized around Gaara. I noticed the slight widening of the jinchuriki's eyes once realized he would have to abandon his attack. After all, Naruto's use of the Shadow Clone Jutsu was publicly documented. Gaara had no idea whether the person he had a hold of was the original or a clone. Just as we planned for.
His manipulation of lightning was not documented, and he had never showcased it. So when he sprinted across the field faster than any of his classmates were capable of, and at a speed he should be proud of, I prepared myself just as Kakashi had recommended.
I did not ignore Kakashi's advice. His genius was unmatched by even Itachi and the Hokage. Naruto's father was the only person capable of holding an intellectual candle to my friend.
I prepared myself to intervene because as fast as Naruto was, there were dangerous people here. People I would not dare to cross without Kakashi, the Hokage, or the remaining Sannin at my back. People that would not allow Gaara to die prematurely and wouldn't hesitate to interfere and kill my student before he ever had a chance to blossom in this world. The jinchuriki was too crucial to the invasion plans.
Unfortunately, Kakashi was correct.
Baki moved just as I felt something invade my chakra. I dispersed the genjutsu, and my own chakra exploded as I entered the first gate immediately. That moment I had to take to dispel the genjutsu, less than a tenth of a second difference was crucial and Naruto suffered for it.
All four of his clones were hit with a fatal blow, cutting off the flames spewing from their mouths. He moved to the last copy of Naruto and I stopped Baki's hand just as the blade made of wind attached to it pierced an inch into Naruto's side. The real Naruto's side.
Chakra exploded from multiple directions at once. I am not a sensor and I could feel it.
I allowed the Suna ninja to disengage from my hand and my student. He reached through Gaara's defenses and touched him before they both disappeared in a shunshin. I mimicked him and grabbed Naruto before muscling him up to where Sakura and Lee were still moving in slow motion.
The Invasion has begun.
Naruto POV:
Guy's chakra enveloped me just as the pain disappeared in my side, and then for a disorientating second I didn't know where I was.
It was hard to get control of my senses. I saw a railing in front of me, but my ears could barely make out the sounds of an explosion.
Was that the sound of an explosion, or chakra?
My chakra sense was going haywire. Guy was next to me and his chakra felt like a raging green forest. Yet not a hundred yards away five chakra chakra signatures were at the same level, and growing. They were growing so large it was hard for me to comprehend.
"Naruto!"
I felt the sensation of a slap on my cheek, and I opened my eyes to see my teammate Sakura standing above me. She had a cut on her shoulder, and her bottom lip was swollen already.
My eyes have been closed?
Finally it all fell into place and I jerked away from her before looking around. My arm reached out instinctively and put her behind me. Lee was engaging two oto ninjas twenty feet away from me at chunin level speeds.
He took a cut from a kunai to his left arm, and I burst into action. Lee's leg lashed out at the otogakure ninja to his left and buckled the man's knee. He would have followed it up with a debilitating kick but he was preoccupied with the ninja on his right.
My sword split the left ninja's neck open before he could react and the other suffered brain damage from Lee's limbs not two seconds later.
A kunai scraped against my chest, and I looked to find four more ninjas approaching at a slower speed than the two we just fought.
There was no time to think, only to react as my world devolved into chaos, pain, and death.
Kakashi POV:
The barrier is approximately 100 yards by 100 yards. Not nearly enough…
"Do you like my work Jiraiya-Kun?" The slithering voice of Orochimaru carried across the battlefield and my left leg ached from where Orochimaru had kicked it not four seconds ago. The last thirty seconds since the invasion commenced were hectic, to say the least.
"It'll do for now." Jiraiya responded with a tone that made my spine shiver. His normal cheery disposition was gone, and replaced by a war veteran that had seen more years of combat than 99.9% of the shinobi population.
"You will not succeed Orochimaru. This will only result in your death…" Hiruzen calmly told his ex-student before his tone and chakra turned deadly. "...And Rasa's."
The two Kage stared at each other then. Rasa was no longer wearing his ceremonial robes, but instead a plain black shirt and pants with fishnet underneath. He was not a man that normally fought in close combat. He bombarded his enemies with chakra from afar.
Orochimaru and Rasa vs myself, Jiraiya, and the Hokage. There is no contest, we will win. What am I missing?
My question was answered when everyone leapt into activity. The feeling of my fathers saber was a comforting weight in this battle of titans. My chakra obeyed, and yang flavored lightning danced across my chakra network before leaping to the neurons in my brain. The world slowed to a dangerous halt.
Time to reveal it, I suppose.
There was no better place, than in a war, to reveal that I had cracked one of the most terrifying jutsu's to haunt this world, and turned it into my own. Kumogakure would be pissed when they put two and two together.
Although it wasn't exactly the lightning armor, it was an aspect of it. I simply didn't have the chakra network to hold the armor over my skin for lengths of time. I didn't need it, however, I just needed the speed, and that was the least chakra intensive aspect of the jutsu. It would be just enough to catapult me to where I needed to be for the village.
I watched with a heightened perception Orochimaru bite his finger and race through hand seals. Jiraiya, Hiruzen, and my sharingan analyzed the hand seals and quickly realized he wasn't summoning Manda. My eyes widened, and I planted my feet once I saw the three coffins rise out of the ceiling tile beneath us.
"Stop him." Hiruzen said as he blurred through his own hand seals.
I was already halfway across the distance when he released his jutsu. Nevertheless, Rasa's famous gold sand erupted in front of me, causing me to stop and retreat or be swallowed up by it.
There was a highly condensed beam of red light that passed by my left side. The heat from the S-rank fire jutsu filled the area we were in. When it hit the gold sand protecting the coffins, I expected it to travel through and disperse Orochimaru's jutsu. Unfortunately, the sand prevailed against the Madara-created ninjutsu.
I found myself beside Jiraiya and Hiruzen once again. Yet this time I was not so confident in our ability to succeed in the battle. Because when the gold sand parted, it revealed the three out of the ten most powerful ninja's to ever live.
Tobirama Senju.
Hashirama Senju.
And Minato Namikaze.
Naruto POV:
I knew something was wrong when I felt the three new chakra signatures appear out of nowhere, inside of the barrier that the Kage's were battling.
This is not like canon at all! At least he has Jiraiya and Kakashi in there!
Wind chakra coated my katana and the torso of my next opponent practically split in two. His blood coated the blood that was already covering my entire body. I turned after that and hamstrung Sakura's opponent before she finished him off with a kunai to the jugular.
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, there were no more ninjas immediately attacking us. I looked around to find bodies scattered across the chairs, and floors of the stadium. Sakura, Lee, and I were some of the last fighters to still be inside of the stadium. A lot of civilians, and shinobi from all sides of this war were dead.
A roar rattled my bones, and the chakra signature spiked. I knew what it was immediately. Shukaku had arrived on the battlefield, and I could tell it was near the barrier where the Kage fight had just kicked off. The amount of chakra being tossed around inside that barrier was ten times the amount happening all around Konoha at the moment. That wasn't even an exaggeration.
I turned to Lee and Sakura. "Both of you, find civilians and get them to the shelters." I told them as I made to jump off in the direction of the One-Tails.
"Where are you going!?" Sakura asked, panicky.
"I was given a mission last night by the Hokage. I have to see it through." I told her as I primed my chakra and jumped.
Kakashi POV:
"Damn you and this cursed jutsu brother." Hashirama's voice was higher than I expected. I would have expected a voice that rattled mountains, by the way the older generation spoke of him.
"I admit, I never thought it would be used against my own village." Tobirama admitted in a somber tone of voice.
This is bad. I can hold sensei off from slaughtering us all, but can Jiraiya and Hiruzen take the others?
"You have gotten old, Hiruzen." Tobirama called out to his former student. His eyes scanned the current Hokage.
"I know. You would be proud of me, sensei…" The Sandaime answered him somberly. He had discarded his ceremonial robes and was wearing his normal battle armor. In his hands, Enma sat in his bo staff form.
"We always were little Sarutobi." Hashirama called out as he looked around the terrain. His eyes seemed to scan over Konoha, especially long.
"Kakashi…"
My chest ached as heard him call out to me. I locked eyes with my sensei and steeled my nerves. I would have to be the one to take him on. Even Jiraiya wouldn't be able to keep up with him.
"...how is he?" Minato asked.
I knew he was asking of Naruto, and the words poured from my mouth before I could think about them.
"He'll surpass us both, one day." I answered as genuinely as I could.
Minato turned and looked towards the stadium, where I knew Naruto was the last time I saw him. He had taken the cut from Baki, but Guy had heeded my warnings and saved him. It took everything in my power to trust my friend and not intervene myself.
Minato smiled. "I can feel him." He muttered, yet my enhanced senses picked up the words.
"I believe that is enough…"
I only saw what happened next because of my lightning enhanced senses. Orochimaru didn't finish his sentence. Minato disappeared from his position and reappeared behind Orochimaru with a Rasengan in his hands. The famous technique pulverized the snake Sannin and pushed him into the ceiling tiles beneath us, grinding through skin and muscle but not piercing through Orochimaru.
Rasa's sand, and wooden branches from the Shodai leapt out of the ground beneath Orochimaru and Minato at a speed that only Kage can possess. Yet, I watched Minato throw a tri-bladed kunai, covered in wind chakra, in Rasa's direction. It cut through the golden sand and branches it touched to pass beside Rasa's face.
Before Rasa's gold sand could touch Minato's body. Before Hashirama's wooden branches could grab my sensei, he disappeared.
When he reappeared, it was beside Rasa's head.
Nobody on the battlefield, besides myself at the moment, could have reacted fast enough to stop Minato from piercing Rasa's head.
The body of the Yondaime Kazekage fell to the ceiling tiles beneath us, dead. Courtesy of a man that he had once ruled alongside. Courtesy of a man that Orochimaru should have left inside the stomach of the Shinigami.
I have no doubt in my mind that Minato would have continued his rampage across the battlefield, but something began happening to his body and it started at his feet. Minato looked down at them, only to find that his form was disintegrating into paper, and disappearing in the wind.
Orochimaru had recovered. He was standing again, and he held his hands in the Ram hand sign. He was dismissing Minato's soul back into the Pure Realm. He was doing his best not to let Minato ruin his entire invasion, although it may have been too late.
"Did you really think I hadn't calculated for this eventuality, Orochimaru?" Minato-sensei asked as if he was talking to a child.
Then I noticed that there was a seal on his forehead that I had never seen before. I found that odd considering how long I had known the man, and how many times I had seen his forehead before. My sharingan memorized it, and I promised myself to decipher its meaning in the future.
Orochimaru didn't respond and eventually Minato faded into dust.
Like he had done so many times before, Minato left me speechless at his display of power, speed, and ruthlessness. In under a second and a half, he had debilitated one Kage level ninja, and killed another before Orochimaru could even summon the chakra to dispel his own jutsu.
Jiraiya was not speechless however.
"You should have known better than to fuck with the Yondaime."
A/N: REALLY LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE/EXPLANATION INCOMING!
Look don't blame me, you all knew this was AU!
The stakes in this story are higher! The battles are fast and brutal! And characters are going to develop and act in ways you haven't seen before. Let's unpack it a little bit at a time, yea?
Naruto would have killed Gaara had Baki not intervened. And since this is a much more coordinated Suna, and a much more competent invasion, Baki reacted and did his best to save the invasion. That is what his orders from Rasa were!
Ok now let's move past that one. Naruto didn't get to showcase a lot of his fights in this chapter and you guys know why. He's fighting through the invasion with his team. They are having fast fights that end in enemy genin and chunin dying. What we don't see is the Jonin in the village doing their thing. This is a situation where you find someone close to your level and try to kill them.
We all know the exciting stuff is happening inside the barrier and I'm going to let everyone see it.
First of all, Hiruzen is going to live up to his moniker 'God of Shinobi' in the coming chapters ok?
Secondly, Jiraiya is still a badass, no explanation there.
Thirdly, Kakashi's potential will be realized. In this story, he is going to be significantly stronger and develop a bit differently than in canon. I'm going to utilize his genius the way it should have been. This starts with his jutsu that puts him on Minato/A/Naruto level speeds.
I'll just come out and say it. He has reverse engineered A's(the fourth Raikage) lightning cloak armor, and remixed it. Instead of the armor, he is only using the speed and reflexes of the technique. It requires significantly less reserves than the armor. There I said it, you tell me what you think.
Now onto Orochimaru and party.
Orochimaru did not kill Rasa before the invasion. In fact, he needed him to secure the summoning of Hashirama, Tobirama, and Minato. The people he summoned, or tried to summon, is canon. Only this time Orochimaru thought ahead and realized that Minato's soul was inside the Shinigami's belly and got him out preemptively.
Boy was that a mistake! Minato fucked him and Rasa up!
When I think of canon Minato, and the things he did, there are only a couple of people that hold a candle to him. Like peak anime Naruto and Sasuke are the only ones that make sense as someone on his level. Maybe sage mode Hashirama, or at least full power Hashirama and Madara.
Now let's keep in mind that Hashirama and Tobirama are nerfed at the moment. Orochimaru hasn't perfected the jutsu like Kabuto did during the war arc.
But all of Minato's techniques do not require him throwing around fucking forests or oceans, and therefore cost less chakra. It's sheer physicality, speed, fuinjutsu, and a Rasengan. Jonin has enough reserves to accomplish that.
There, that is my explanation and thought process.
Love it or hate it? Tell me in the review s!