It sounds strange, but I've been scared of finishing this story. Mainly cuz of the memories attached to it. This fanfiction writing journey has been so amazing and rewarding, and I'm deeply grateful to you, my wonderful readers, for everything.
We're getting close to the end ;)
Enjoy…
CHAPTER 30
It was sunrise in Konoha by the time Tsunade relented and released Naruto from her care, barely two days after his return from Whirlpool Country. He had suffered catastrophic injuries from the mobbing attacks of Madara's wood clones, and since the sleep medications weren't working on him any longer, the Fifth Hokage spent those two days recovering and meeting with his Council on the current state of the war.
Naruto looked at his right hand, spotting a slight tremor. He closed his hand into a fist, squeezing it tight and keeping his face from shifting into a deep scowl.
He could feel wrath simmering under his skin, making his body tremble with a mixture of anxiety and eagerness.
Then there was the looming darkness sitting on his heart.
He laced his fingers together and bridged them in front of his nose, setting his elbows on the armrests of his wheelchair. He collected the wide-brimmed Hokage's hat from Tsunade and set it on his head, shuffling a little to arrange the ceremonial white Hokage's robe with red flame designs at the bottom that covered all of his torso and legs.
He was deep in thought as Tsunade loaded the pack attached to the back of his wheelchair with medicine; from antibiotics to pain medication, to shots of adrenaline.
Shizune was at the opening of the medical tent, every so often inching the flap open to peer outside before closing it and looking back at the incapacitated Hokage.
"Now, the important thing is that you let your legs heal. Stay in the chair," Tsunade said firmly, stepping before her grandson and getting down to her knees, forcing his dark eyes on her. "Naruto, do you understand?"
The teen looked at her. His eyes were coal black and his iris was red, and the red tear markings falling from his eyes to his chin were forever etched on his pale skin.
Tsunade sighed at the dark transformation her grandson had undergone, darker than before Rin was killed when Naruto was infamously called the Red Demon.
The only difference was that the Red Demon was a temporary cloak to intimidate enemies; now, Naruto had wholly become the Red Demon.
Tsunade sighed, wilting as her hands gently gripped the teen's knees. "I'm hurting too, Naruto," she confessed, and the boy's face softened a little, flicking his dark eyes up to Shizune. The medic's assistant looked away immediately, but the boy saw the glaze of tears in her eyes. "Konoha's hurting." The woman paused for a moment to purse her lips, reflecting on the sullen atmosphere of the village after the news had been released, under Naruto's authorisation. Tsunade shook her head and closed her eyes, saying, "But for some damn reason, everyone still wants to fight." She nodded to him. "And they want to fight with you." The Hokage looked at her, and the woman spoke with finality, "Against my better judgement, Lord Hokage, I want you to take the lead."
She got up and moved aside, walking behind Naruto's wheelchair but not yet pushing it.
Naruto mused, shutting his eyes and humming.
To put it lightly, his name and his moniker were rallying cries for everyone in Konoha.
Despite the state of mourning the village was in, the Hidden Leaf was rearing to fight. The stubborn resistance to defeat Naruto had seen in the eyes of his Council members and the shinobi that came to visit him in the medical tent was outstanding. Civilians, hiding in the safe underground bunkers and not yet permitted to go aboveground for their safety, had sent condolences and get-well cards to the injured Hokage. Scruffy and handwritten letters from children and adults alike, all fuelled Naruto's desire to return to the field.
And that was going to happen today.
Mikoto opened to the flap of the tent, poking her head inside and seeing her brother, before she stepped inside. She was no longer draped in her chakra cloak, but rather her normal shinobi clothes.
The effect of her rejuvenating chakra was widespread. The girl had been indispensable in the recovery and healing effort of the village's injured, including Naruto.
Naruto spared her an invisible smile, and the girl reciprocated with a sunny grin, jerking a thumb over her shoulder to the entrance of the tent. "Suna's medical relief has arrived with supplies. They started distributing it to our medics. There are more on the way." Tsunade acknowledged this with a nod, having received a letter ahead of time, and Naruto bobbed his head once to indicate that he was already aware; nothing happened in Konoha without him knowing or allowing. "Some other Suna ninjas want to see you."
The Hokage rolled his tongue in his mouth, closing his eyes again and nodding.
"Great." Mikoto dipped back to the entrance and opened it a little, allowing the Suna ninjas to enter.
Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro dropped to their knees before the Hokage, keeping their eyes down to the ground and greeting the Fifth in unison, "Lord Hokage."
Naruto regarded them with a sweeping gaze, saying in a clear tone, "Konoha appreciates Suna's support in this war." He looked down at them with a plain expression, the ceremonial hat on his head casting a shadow over his face, which made his red eyes all the more intimidating. His eerily calm, composed demeanour, given his current situation in the wheelchair and Konoha's situation in the fight, stiffened the Sand siblings' posture, forcing down the urge to shift away or look up. "My people tell me that you three fought well these past few days. You have my gratitude," he spoke in a neutral tone, but his appreciation oozed from his being as he slightly bowed his head. The three siblings relaxed a little, nodding their heads and muttering their gratitude to the Hokage. "Have you spoken with Hinata's family?"
Temari jumped to answer, flicking her eyes up, then promptly bringing her gaze back down. "Not yet sir." She glanced to her side at Gaara, whose droopy eyes stayed sullen and on the floor. He was wracked with blame, and everyone in the room saw it. He wasn't in the right state to speak, so the oldest sibling, Temari, did so on their behalf. "They have refused to meet us. Baki-sensei has separated many fights between our comrades and Hyuuga clan members."
Naruto made a low, grating noise from his chest, clenching and unclenching his teeth while still looking ever cool and collected. His breathing was quiet, exhaling through his nose onto his bridged fingers and shaking his head disapprovingly. "Unacceptable." His next words were smooth. "Both of our villages are in mourning, and both of our villages are at war; this is no time for in-fighting." The Hokage regarded the silent Sand siblings with a frosty look from his blood-red eyes. "It will be handled."
And they believed him.
Wholly and completely, the Sand siblings believed the Hokage.
It didn't matter if he was in a wheelchair or laid out on a hospital bed; the person before them commanded authority, power and utter respect.
The Fifth Hokage grunted and shut his eyes, nodding to himself and saying in a firmer, deeper voice, "It will be handled."
"Thank you, sir," Gaara whispered. His voice was so quiet, it sounded like a weary exhale.
Naruto hummed at the jinchuriki's thanks, saying, "Other than yourselves, did you bring any combative shinobi from Suna?"
"Yes, sir," Temari said, brimming with eagerness. "But…we can only spare more medics than combat shinobi; sixty or so."
The Fifth rolled his tongue in his mouth, releasing a breath from his nose.
Sixty combat shinobi was very small, especially compared to the one hundred Suna medics aiding Konoha's medics at that very moment. But Naruto wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, not when he wasn't fully briefed on Suna's defensive situation back at their home.
The plan of action unfurling in the Hokage's head fitted the Suna ninjas into the fold. Fortunately, there were still more reinforcements to come.
Hidden Waterfall, Hidden Marsh, and Hidden Chill were gearing up and ready to go, only that they were being blockaded by Iwa and Kumo. The channel between Konoha and Suna was not under any direct threat, only that trade routes for Konoha's trading allies were being blocked by the coalition. Suna couldn't provide Konoha with the volume of food the village needed daily, and the planetary attack Nagato unleashed had ripped apart several farmlands and other food industries.
The only thing sustaining Konoha were the years of canned food and rations it had stockpiled since the years after the Kyuubi attack. That too was rapidly running out. The nature of Hidden Leaf's economy was that of a wartime state, channelling everything but the basic life essentials into the war.
Iwa and Kumo wanted to starve Konoha into submission.
Naruto would sooner blind himself with a blunt butter knife than allow that to happen.
"The Suna reinforcements will do perfectly," Naruto mused. The last correspondence he received from the Leaders of Waterfall, Marsh, and Chill was that their villages were constantly under attack by the coalition; neighbouring nations like Grass Country, Hidden Waterfall, and River Country had fallen and were invaded, being used as home bases to choke put Konoha into a stranglehold. Iwa and Kumo didn't realise that Konoha wasn't at all considering those smaller nations as long-term targets. He mumbled to himself, "We'll see who starves first."
"Sir?" Temari asked, having not heard the Hokage's thoughts.
"Inform your people that they will receive their instructions soon." Naruto sat back in his wheelchair, dropping his arms on the armrests. "We begin an hour after sunrise."
A collective question was passed around the shinobi not in the know, namely the Sand siblings.
An attack in broad daylight?
Madness.
"You may leave." Naruto waved them away, and the siblings got to their feet and bowed, shuffling out of the tent. When they were gone, Naruto looked at his sister and the girl perked up, standing upright from her slouch. "Is everyone ready?"
"They're outside," she answered, standing aside and motioning to the entrance of the medical tent.
Naruto grunted and Tsunade pushed the wheelchair along. Mikoto held open one of the entrance flaps and Shizune held the other, allowing the Hokage to pass through out of the tent.
There weren't many buildings still standing in Konoha after Nagato's initial attack, so the village looked like a wasteland of broken buildings and fractured roads, populated by civilian contractors, civilian volunteers, and genin teams clearing up the wreckage, cleaning up the roads and recovering as many homes as they could.
The area the medical tent was set on used to be the Shimura clan compound.
The people clearing the rubble stopped and gawked, watching the Hokage being wheeled out of the medical tent; the wide-brimmed hat obscured Naruto's face, but the aura of power ebbing from the injured shinobi was unmistakable.
They haphazardly fell onto their knees.
Even the Uzumaki survivors who had been rescued from Whirlpool Country prostrated, making way as the Hokage was pushed out of the tent. The Uzumaki people, about fifty of them that had assembled on Whirlpool Country weeks before the war, had been assigned to reside in the vacant Shimura clan compound for however long they wanted until their ancestral home was restored; the decimation of Naruto's summons had rendered the island inhospitable.
The near-extinct clan of redheads dotted the assembly of Konoha citizens, amazed at the state of the most powerful shinobi in the village; a shadowy cripple in a wheelchair with red eyes that glowered from the shade of his ceremonial hat.
Slowly, the crowd increased as the news went around the people aboveground that their Hokage had finally made an appearance after two days in recovery. The compound became crowded with quietly murmuring people, kneeling respectfully to the unspeaking Fifth. Mikoto, Shizune, and a recently arrived Kakashi kept a wide berth around Naruto, making sure that the leader of the Leaf wasn't swarmed.
A few camera-carrying chunin scrambled to the front of the crowd, snapping pictures of the Hokage and recording videos. They held out microphones that were being directly transmitted underground to the radios in the subterranean hideouts temporarily housing thousands of Konoha citizens.
Amid the kneeling civilians were Naruto's Council, both shinobi and civilians.
A hush rippled across the multitude when Naruto held up the pointer and middle finger of his left hand, calling for quiet.
"Konoha," Naruto began, addressing the entire village. The population of the village, old and young, shinobi or civilian, citizen or Uzumaki, sealed their lips and listened carefully. Despite the state the Fifth was in, his voice and his expression were neutral, "it feels like every other day and in every other way, our home gets attacked. Conflict and adversity keep finding us, no matter how careful we are." He spat with disdain as a frown fractionally dropped the corners of his lips. The shoulders of the people listening fell with tiredness, realising that fact. "As cautious as we are with our relations, there have always been people plotting our destruction for whatever selfless reasons." The sarcasm rolled off his tongue like bile. He began to speak up, snapping with fire in his voice and wrath in his stare, looking around at the listening people, "They forget that Konoha was built on blood, death, dismay, and fire."
The Hokage slammed his fists down on the armrests of his wheelchair, injecting fire into the hearts of the people with his heated action.
"They forget that Konoha's foundations are steeped in war. That we as a people have been forged from conflict and burned by the Will of Fire." He clenched his fists, tight, and his face twisted into a deep snarl. "They forget that the people of this village, of whatever clan they are from or whatever home they come from, have clawed tooth and nail throughout our history for our place as the most powerful nation on the continent." Naruto declared, barking authoritatively, "Our diversity has always been our strongest trait. Conflict has only brought us closer."
The eyes of the people lit up. Flames danced in their stares and they grit their teeth.
"History taught us well, but our enemies have refused to learn; when you strike at a giant, make sure it's a killing blow."
A gnarly smirk crawled up Naruto's face, and he took off his wide-brimmed hat, showing the village his dark eyes and the red tear tracks running down his eyes to his chin. At the sight of Naruto's elated expression, the people's hearts sang and their chests bumped loudly, clenching their fists with barely restrained readiness.
"They didn't kill us. They couldn't kill us. Let's make them regret that."
Konoha roared, "Yes, sir!"
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
One hour later
Waterfall Country
Kakashi flicked through a few hand signs, signalling Yugao to go to the right with ten jounin and Tenzo to go left with seven jounin, while the Copy Ninja stayed where he was, hidden in a tree and perched weightlessly on a branch. Fire Country's side of the Waterfall-Fire border was choked full of trees and dense forests. At the same time, the majority of Waterfall Country was populated by several mighty waterfalls, making rancorous noise that masked the soundless running of the Konoha ninjas as they surrounded their targets.
They maintained radio silence since they all knew the plan.
They also stayed outside of an average sensory range, speeding under the thicket of Fire Country's side of the forest.
The two massive waterfalls close to the border bellowed, and the Iwa ninjas camping at the edge began putting out their fires. As the rays of the sun spread across the horizon, like the fingers of a great god stretching over the planet, the groggy Iwa ninjas rolled up their sleeping bags and stored them inside the tents, while the shinobi that had been the watch for the night crawled inside one of the tents to sleep.
Kakashi counted thirty Iwa ninjas; twenty-three chunin and seven jounin. The jounin among them converged around the extinguished fire, discussing in murmured tones, also capitalising on the noise of the waterfalls. As they did this, the chunin began patrolling the border, pushing into the forest in pairs.
The hidden Konoha ninjas retreated into the darkness, erasing their presence and observing.
Waiting.
This platoon of ninjas was further away from Iwa, but they weren't defenceless or forgotten; the Four Tails jinchuriki was the jounin-commander. The Iwa team were to slowly and steadily push into Fire Country, sending out scouts and patrols of chunin ninjas ahead, setting up camp when the chunin found an untouched space for their tents.
Roughly fifty more Iwa teams like this were steadily shrinking Fire Country and expanding Earth Country.
Kakashi came down on an Iwa chunin that passed under him, landing behind her and sliding his kunai across her throat before she could even gurgle out a cry for help, while an Inuzuka jounin violently dragged the other Iwa chunin, a male, into a bush. A resounding crunch sounded when the Inuzuka snapped the man's neck all the way around.
Kakashi searched the girl and retrieved a two-way radio from her chunin vest, tossing it to a different Inuzuka and dragging the dead kunoichi onto a bush. The Inuzuka with the Iwa radio tuned into the channel the Iwa platoon was using, reducing the volume till it could barely be heard.
Thirty seconds later, the Inuzuka woman gave Kakashi the okay signal.
Kakashi cupped his mouth, leaving a small opening between his fingers. Then he chirped, keeping the airy sound lower than the bellow of the waterfalls. Elsewhere with Yugao and Tenzo, the Inuzuka with them picked up the signal from Kakashi, and they descended on the Iwa ninjas in their sights as they pushed through the thicket in pairs, slaughtering them to the last person.
Yugao and Tenzo found radios on the dead bodies and tuned into Iwa's main channel, eavesdropping on the communication between each of the platoons shrinking Fire Country's borders.
The Iwa ninjas in the camp were still oblivious to the bloodshed.
Back with Kakashi, he looked at Mikoto and nodded his head to her.
Mikoto's function was simple; she was the battering ram.
She reached over her shoulder and grasped Samehada; the blade was wound in bandages and flattened, with its edge and tip lethally sharp. The girl wielded the sword like the claymores and head cleavers she was used to carrying.
She forced a burst of Otsutsuki chakra to her muscles, pulling back just enough for the chakra to not cloak her body.
Then she dove out of the forest in a blaze of speed, bypassing several chunin as she zigzagged between them. As she did so, Samehada's sharp edge cut into their sides and stomachs, leaving the bleeding ninjas powerless against her Konoha comrades as they poured out of the forest, numbering in the dozens.
The girl reached the Four Tails holder, who just managed to cloak himself in a boiling red cloak of demonic chakra as Mikoto plunged Samehada into his chest and out through his back, toppling both of them over the edge and into a waterfall in a mindbogglingly suicidal attack.
Kakashi wasn't worried about his reckless student.
Mikoto had a knack for not dying.
She was going to meet them at Hidden Waterfall.
The Konoha ninjas gained a foothold in that territory, as did many of the other ninjas coordinating the counterattack on Iwa; those that struggled against the multitude of Iwa ninjas were readily supported by Suna shinobi.
When they were all situated, they pushed further into Waterfall Country toward Hidden Waterfall with a goal in mind.
The sudden radio silence of the Iwa scouts raised alarm bells among the Tsuchikage's forces, though by that time they were long preoccupied with another attack.
The Hokage's forces had already injected themselves deep into Waterfall Country.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Naruto and his Council had come up with a plan to break apart their two main enemies and dominate the war, though it would require no Konoha ninja to hold back in the slightest.
Iwa was separated from Konoha by Waterfall Country to the east and Grass Country and Rain Country to the south.
Kakashi's unit of about sixty Konoha ninjas and twenty Suna shinobi would quietly punch into Waterfall Country, using periodic bursts of Mikoto's battering ram attacks to make noise but mainly invading stealthily. Mikoto was the one tasked with clearing away the Four and Five Tails jinchuriki when they made an appearance.
Naruto had to hold back the urge to increase their numbers for the sake of remaining under the radar, silencing Iwa scouts and camps.
He was also reserving a few thousand of his ninjas to fortify Konoha in his absence.
The goal of Kakashi's stealth unit was to break through Iwa's blockade into Hidden Waterfall and link up with their allies, pushing with them into Iwa's eastern side.
Meanwhile, in a louder and more brash attack, Naruto and five hundred and fifty of his forces were stampeding through Grass Country and striking at Iwa's southern underbelly. This attack would purposely attract Oonoki's attention from Kakashi's unit until it was too late, and Iwa would be bombarded from the east and south.
The severity and unreserved nature of the Konoha ninjas' attacks were concerning.
The Leaf ninjas invaded Grass Country under a cloud of praying mantises that blotted out the sky and sun, consuming any enemy shinobi they encountered as the foot soldiers blitzed down the battlefield to pick up the scraps.
Naruto had not forgotten about Kumo.
Not in the least.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Grass Country
It felt like the end of the world.
Grass Country was delved into darkness and the deafening noise of metal scraping against metal permeated the air as Naruto's apocalyptic summons raged across the sky. Their golden, metal wings vibrated, sweeping down in droves and consuming whoever they saw.
On the ground, Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha led a charge of ninjas against the startled Iwa invading force, rushing at them with red eyes and exhaling steam from their grit teeth. The Iwa ninjas could barely see in the darkness.
Some braced for impact and others charged, only a few were able to intercept the Konoha ninjas before they were either cut down by the insect summons or were crushed by the counter-invading force.
The numbers advantage the Iwa ninjas had meant nothing.
The roar of the surging Konoha ninjas mixed with the drone of the insects, and the violent hum in the air pushed against the sanity and resolve of the Iwa ninjas. Some turned tail and ran away, but we're inevitably mobbed by mantises. The insects left behind a few brittle bones and leapt at their next retreating targets.
Fugaku and Mikoto's unit finally smashed into Grass settlements, and kept pushing, brandishing bloodied blades and frothing with killer intent.
Naruto soared over the chaos on Temari's battlefan, still in his wheelchair, his sharingan cut through the blackness and marked all of the Iwa forces that hadn't yet fled. He could have easily materialised wings using his chakra to fly, but he didn't want to risk worsening his wounds.
He wanted to get back to his feet as soon as possible.
Instead, as he flew over Grass Country ahead of the ground forces, under the blanket of insects blocking out the sun, he manifested javelins with his chakra and flung them down to earth, impaling fleeing Iwa shinobi. He struck down many, most of whom didn't know where or how the blades were raining down from the heavens.
The Hokage rained spears and javelins from the black sky, supporting his ground forces.
The ground force was made up of ninjas with good sensory abilities that didn't require them to see with their eyes alone, although there were still many Uchiha and Hyuuga in the mix. A handful of Inuzuka and Aburame were present too, but Naruto didn't want to stretch their clans too thin, since the dog clan and insect clan were important members of Kakashi's unit.
On the ground, Fugaku Mangekyo gave him a clear view of the enemies' chakra networks. A quick Susanno skeleton lifted him off the ground, and he brought down the right fist of his ethereal creation down on a section of a town wall, collapsing it and letting his unit pour through without so much as slowing down their stride.
He deactivated his Susanno and fell on an Iwa shinobi, swinging his ninjato and cleaving the man's head clean off his shoulders, whipping around and throwing his blade into the chest of another Iwa chunin when he screamed down in an ambush, killing the man immediately.
Any Grass citizen that had sense remained indoors.
The streetlights and residential lights were the only things illuminating the town.
On another side of the town, Mikoto kicked open a door and stormed inside. The Grass family of three hiding in the room under the stairs screamed in terror as the red-eyed woman tore open the door, almost ripping it off its hinges and looming over the family with burning hatred in her eyes.
She snarled. "Don't make me ask."
"They're there. They're there," the father of the house pointed insistently to the kitchen, caving to the killer's intent. He, his wife, and their young daughter sagged in relief when the woman barrelled away. They heard a stampede of feet thundering into the house, some went upstairs and some entered the kitchen.
The wail of people followed those that went to the kitchen, then came a bloodied choking as necks were sliced open until the kitchen was completely silent.
Mikoto and the other ninjas left the house and raided the next house.
This went on for each house in each Grass settlement leading up to Iwa's border, clearing houses and erasing Iwa's presence in Grass Country. The attack took place in broad daylight but under the blackness of the Hokage's apocalyptic summons.
Grass Country's soil was soaked red with Iwa blood.
This was just a fraction of what was to come in Iwa.
Historians would later call this day, The Midnight Purge.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The Wave Strait
Itachi commandeered a fleet of ships powering towards Water Country.
Naruto had decided to link up with Crow's Feet and annex Kiri, bringing the entirety of Hidden Mist and Water Country under the administration of the Hokage, wiping away the title of Mizukage and whatever influence he had left.
After the events in Whirlpool Country, Yagura Karatachi, the Mizukage of Kiri, was still yet to be seen; it was widely believed that he was dead, consumed down to the bone by Naruto's summons, but there weren't any bones that matched Yagura's features that had been recovered from Whirlpool.
Even as the island home of the Uzumaki clan was cordoned off, essentially annexed by Konoha for the foreseeable future, an extensive search of the deceased was made; all of the bones were catalogued and identified as the brainwashed bloodline holders Yagura had used as meat shields and a handful of bloodline-hating loyalists.
Yagura was nowhere to be found.
The search was postponed till after the war.
Right now, Naruto had charged Itachi to take the two hundred Konoha ninjas with him to overrun Water Country, and Kiri, alongside Shisui—Crow's Feet.
The report the Hokage had received from his spy in Kiri was that the chemicals used to brainwash the bloodline holders were wearing off, for some unknown reason, but Yagura's loyalists were putting up fierce resistance, mobilising to launch a direct attack on Konoha in three days.
Since bloodline holders made up seventy percent of Kiri's ninja force, the mobilised Kiri force was already at a severe disadvantage since the formerly brainwashed bloodline holders weren't complying with orders any more. Add on the problem that ten percent of non-bloodline holders were against further antagonising Konoha.
It was Yagura's war, and when Yagura vanished, the reason to fight disappeared with him.
The ten percent that didn't want to fight Yagura's war were those that were secretly against his murderous and hateful program on bloodline holders.
They were Mei Terumi's rebels before the woman had been captured and chemically brainwashed as well.
With the Mizukage gone, the ten percent were more vocal in their opposition to Yagura.
A second civil war was brewing in Kiri.
Naruto wanted to prevent that since Kiri's stability was always an important matter for Konoha. Aside from the human and natural resources Kiri possessed, a stable Kiri kept Kumo and Snow Country in check. It was similar to how Konoha kept Iwa in check, maintaining military and trade superiority over the other hidden villages.
Mist was not allied to Konoha, rather Kiri was staunchly anti-Konoha, but the First and Second Mizukage knew how important Mist was to regional peace.
Before Yagura was a factor in Kiri, Hidden Mist held regional power, matching Kumo and stifling Snow from expanding over neighbouring nations. It was why Minato, and now Naruto, were adamant for Kiri to return to their previous strength and maintain regional stability.
Naruto long expected the twenty percent to resist, so he wanted Itachi to join up with Crow's Feet and the ten percent, and annex Yagura's territory.
The fleet of ships got closer to the chain of broken islands that was Water Country, and Itachi murmured into his radio into his radio. "Twenty minutes away. Lord Hokage doesn't mind if we're noisy, as long as we get it done." He sighted some fishing boats patrolling the chain of islands known as Water Country. Shisui's report had said that the ten percent had mounted defences on Water Country's borders and that there were no bloodline holders among them. So, Itachi didn't mind at all when he ordered, "Sink them. No survivors."
Five boats left the formation and converged on the fishing boats. Before the ships could collide with the much smaller vessels, a dozen or so Akimichi, Yamanaka, and Nara jumped from the Konoha ships and boarded the fishing boats, crushing the resistance into splinters, paving the way for Itachi's ship and the rest of the fleet to blast through the border.
The Konoha ships pressed deeper into Water Country, submerged in the thick mist that roiled around the nation of islands.
They didn't find any resistance on any of the smaller islands, only crude mines that floated on the water that briefly slowed down the momentum of Itachi's fleet.
"Teams Thirty and Thirty-One, disable those mines," Itachi ordered, irritated at the delay; he didn't expect to succeed in the invasion in one day. He just wanted to clear up the resistance so that the next stage of the Konoha-Kiri's recovery operation could begin. The general opinion Itachi could sense from the natives of each island his fleet passed was that they wanted the dark days to finally be over.
They wanted those who executed Yagura's commands to be held responsible, and Konoha wholeheartedly agreed.
Shisui was already in Hidden Mist causing trouble for Yagura's loyalists; it was going to take a lot of restraint to not cut all of the loyalists down.
Hidden Mist was going to be their last stand.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Hot Water Country
The third warfront Konoha battled on was in Hot Water Country against Kumo.
This side of the war was heavily reliant on Konoha's allies pulling their weight. The goal wasn't to overcome Kumo but to keep Kumo from reaching their Iwa allies as Naruto's forces invaded Hidden Rock, as well as to distract Kumo from Itachi's fleet invading Water Country, running over Yagura's loyalists in Kiri.
Once Itachi had done what he had been sent to do, Konoha would have a solid foothold in Water Country, which was close to Kumo, and when Naruto had taken over Iwa and all of Iwa's invaded territories were freed, then Kumo would be trapped between a rock and a hard place.
After that, it was only a matter of time before Naruto claimed the Tsuchikage and Raikage's heads.
Naruto didn't promise his people that the war would be over in a day.
It could take months for their plans to come together successfully.
Konoha and its allies were ready for the fight.
Their zeal was bearing fruit; the Tsuchikage was feeling the heat, gradually being boxed in by Konoha's pincer attack, Itachi's fleet had reported that the islanders in Water Country were urging them on to Hidden Mist without any struggle, and now the Hidden Marsh ninjas were liberated from Kumo's blockade.
Gaara, half-transformed into the One-Tailed beast, stretched out his arms to his left and widened his hands, covering Kankuro from a lightning bolt from a Kumo kunoichi, swinging one of his arms and backhanding the ninja away.
The Leader of Hidden Marsh, Kamina Tsuki, dove past Gaara as she twisted her fingers through hand seals, rolling under a katana stroke aimed to decapitate her and slamming her hands onto the ground.
"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"
Starting from under her hands, the earth rippled and shuddered, changing from solid to swampy in seconds and rapidly expanding around her. The attack trapped several Kumo ninjas, leaving them vulnerable to Marsh ninjas blazing effortlessly on the swamp and striking them down mercilessly.
The Marsh ninjas, Kamina not being exempted, looked ragged and tired, wearing chunin and jounin vests and uniforms that were torn or burned in several places; they had been actively resisting Kumo sieging their walls for the past three days since the Five Kage Summit, unable to reach their allies as their food supplies steadily ran out.
Gaara and the other ninjas had come in at the right time, breaking through Kumo's ranks and giving Marsh ninjas an open path to properly retaliate.
And they retaliated, resembling wild animals backed into a corner.
It didn't matter that Konoha had less than a hundred ninjas supporting the Suna ninjas; the Marsh ninjas made up for any shortage in spades.
The Kumo ninjas that had managed to dodge the swampy attack perched on the crumbled walls, not sure how to proceed from there.
Kamina slumped to one knee, panting through clenched teeth and trying to catch her breath. She maintained the swamp jutsu, giving her people ample time to execute any stragglers in the vicinity. The country was still filled with Kumo ninjas, but at least the area around Hidden Marsh would be free from the Raikage's people.
Kankuro came up to her, providing the Leader with a chakra pill and vitamin water.
"Lord Naruto wants us to maintain this position," Kankuro supplied, and Kamina grunted in acknowledgement, biting down on the pill and downing a mouthful of water. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, cancelling the jutsu as she got to her feet. He finished his message from the Hokage, telling the Leader of Hidden Marsh, "We can't let Kumo get past us."
"We can do that." The Leader nodded. She looked around the puppet master, at the jinchuriki huffing heatedly as he withdrew his sand back into his gourd. Without masking her words, she jutted her chin to Gaara, saying to Kankuro, "He's the one that killed that Hyuuga Princess?"
Gaara heard this, and his dark eyes flicked to her, heaving deep lungsful of air to bring down his yammering heart. He answered before Kankuro could defensively interject, "I am." His body was slouched, visibly bogged down by what he had done to Hinata for the sake of goading Mikoto to fight him. "And I'm sorry."
"I don't know the Hyuuga well, but what you did was completely messed up. Still," The woman half-smiled, walking up to the boy and setting her hands on his shoulders, "I can't judge you more than you're judging yourself." The ruffled lady tousled the boy's hair. "You're a good kid." Gaara's heavy eyes lifted a little, hopeful, and Kamina smirked. She took her hands off his shoulders and took a few steps to the right, dressing her hair back into a messy ponytail. She looked at the broken walls of her village that she and her ninjas had been stubbornly defending for the past three days, sighing and shaking her head. "What a mess."
Her ninjas gradually began rounding up the dead Kumo ninjas, piling them up and setting them ablaze at a safe distance from the marshy village.
The dead ninjas on Marsh's side of the conflict were taken back into the village.
Kamina's face turned grim and she frowned, telling her people and the allies that came to their aid. She clapped her hands for everyone's attention. "Lord Naruto's right; we can't let Kumo get past us. Let's fix these walls."
Authors note
The next chapter will be the last, then comes the epilogue.
Ya ready?
I'll see you when I see you.
Foy.