AN: I can't believe how much support this story has received. This was just a project for myself regardless if people liked it but now that I see people do, it inspires me not only to write for myself, but my viewers as well. So thank you again to everyone and enjoy.

…

Wasteland

Act 1:

Chapter 4

The morning following the meeting, the peaceful atmosphere of the sleepy complex was shattered by the wailing of the emergency sirens. They were currently under attack. The troops of the encampment were yanked from their slumbers and scrambled to assemble their defensives. A moment later, the Explosive Corps barged into their captain's quarters to retrieve him.

"Captain Katsu!" The highest ranking soldier of the platoon yelled as they entered but his screams fell on deaf ears as Domon had been roused by the alarms and was already suiting up as he shrugged on his vest.

"What's the situation? Is it Konohagakure? Do we have a visual? Injuries?" The blonde questioned without a breath as he secured his red forehead protector around his neck and replaced his glasses with a pair of perspiration googles.

"W-We're unsure, sir. The alarms were sounded but no fighting has been viewed or heard of." The second-in-command shuttered. "It might be a false alarm. Shirou might have fallen asleep on the button again." The man emitted an awkward laughter at the light joke but it was not responded to by his captain's own laughter and he quickly fell silent.

Domon's reply was merely a scowl. "Then let's find out, yes?" He groped for his satchel and draped it across his chest before escorting his squad from the guard tower.

Outside, the siren resumed its blaring, preventing any ability of hearing the supposed attack, whether it be shouting or the clashing of metal, but visually, all was calm and serene as the previous night's violent storm has relaxed into a casual rainfall. No explosions, people fleeing or dust flying. Just the same sight as with the guard tower, confusion, as around the camp, other teams had stepped outside, dressed and armed to the teeth though unable to predict where the battle currently was or there even was one. As Domon stepped outside, the remaining befuzzled teams migrated to join him and the Explosive Corps, awaiting their directions or explanation. One of these being Kakuzu, who had been awoken by the alarm the same as everyone else.

"The hell is happening?" The miser demanded, irritated his two hour rest after his all-nighter had been rudely interrupted.

"We haven't a clue." Domon replied simply, adding a shrug for extra measure to portray his own cluelessness on the situation. "Someone from the second guard tower sounded the siren which would mean we were under attack, yes? But nothing is to be seen. Usually, if it was Konohagakure, at least a few of their shinobi would have broken our defenses and would raiding the encampment."

"Maybe it's Kumogakure?" A random solider guessed aloud. Discussion erupted on the matter but was disturbed when a Genin was seen running toward them.

"Captain Katsu!" The boy gasped, skidding to a halt in the mud before the man and catching his breath. "Reporting."

"What's happening, Natsu? Do we have a visual?" Domon asked once the crier regained his lost breath.

"N-No we do not, sir. The a-alarm was sounded and Team 2 and 7 left to initiate the enemy but there was none! So they're securing Guard Tower 2 in case the enemy attacked them and I was told to report to you, sir!" The young shinobi rambled out to his superior. Domon scowled and clicked his tongue. By all the evidence, the whole fiasco had been indeed a false alarm. An absolutely waste of time and unneeded panic.

"Natsu, return to Guard Tower 2 and inform Shirou, or whoever signaled the alarm to report to me. Immediately."

"Yes sir!" Natsu saluted the man before turning and running back to rejoin his platoon assigned farther within the camp. Once the Genin was gone, Domon addressed the remaining flustered shinobi who were arguing aloud with each other if there was an enemy or not.

"Alright everyone, return to your posts. It was a false alarm, there is nothing t-" Suddenly, the very second those word's escaped the blonde's furry lips, the second guard tower on the opposite side of the camp erupted into a massive fireball.

Everyone were tossed to the ground from the deliberating shockwave which was amplified from the explosion, enough force being exerted that windows were shattered and bits of rumble were shaken free from the crumbling structures. Once the shockwave had passed them by and everyone had regained their footing, they had to quickly avoid the flaming debris which showered them including hefty chucks of rock like a meteor shower.

"Fuck me…" Domon seethed as he gazed towards the black smoke which billowed from the location the tower had once been, now just a smoldering shell of brick and glass. Such a thing had never happened before and something told him this invasion would be vastly different from the rest. The reek in the air which followed the explosion, confirmed his suspicions and his worse fears. Unlatching the binding on his satchel, he next yanked off one of gloves and dove his hand into the bag, scooping up the earthy contents within. Upon seeing this, Kakuzu suddenly remembered where he had heard the name of Katsu before.

Withdrawing his hand, he opened his moist palm to reveal five clay dog-like figures, the tongue extending from his hand finishing off a few minute designs. He tossed them to the ground and activated them with a single handsign, causing the creations to burst into a cloud of white smoke. A few seconds later, the smoke cleared to reveal the clay figures had expanded several times their original size and gained sentience as the featureless, pure white dogs shook their heads and stretched before gathering around their master for orders. All the present shinobi, minus Kakuzu, did so too.

"All right, obviously, I was wrong, and we are under attack, yes?" A few laughs were uttered at the captain's joking but were soon hushed as Domon resumed. "And obviously, these are not our normal Konohagakure foes. They've never launched such an assault such as this and I realize why that is. Everyone smells that, yes?" Instantly, the soldiers begin to intently sniff the smoggy air. Besides the smoke, it smelt of one other thing. Gas. Their reactions resulted closely the same. Horror. "Uchiha." Domon concluded, resisting the own anxiety which sprung up within him at the name. He had never encountered an Uchiha as an enemy, only heard the horror stories about the wielders of the master bloodline. That all changed today. He withdrew a cigarette and tucked it between his lips. After lighting it and taking a drag to soothe himself, he returned his attention to his spooked fleet.

"We're going to divide into four groups." He announced, his soft-spoken hardening to role of leader. "Team 1 and 10, you are taking the right, towards Guard Tower 2, see if you can find any survivors and back those Uchiha bastards off. Team 4, you are taking the left. Both you and Team 1 and 10 will be focused on pressing them back into a single space. Team 9 and 8, you will round the back, whilst the Explosive Corps and I charge them from the front. If we manage to box them in, then we can easily pick them off, yes?" A round of nodding answered his question. "Perfect, now go! And whatever you do, do not look into their eyes."

"Yes, sir!" And with that, the Iwagakure shinobi separated into their assigned teams and retreated to their appointed positions. Once they had departed, diverted his attention to Kakuzu who had been quietly viewing the entire speech. "This doesn't concern you. Its best you pack up and leave whilst you can. Need you alive to investigate that hospital, yes?"

Despite his loathing for being ordered about, Kakuzu begrudgingly agreed. "I'll agree to leave, if you agree not to go blow yourself up. I need you alive for my paycheck."

Domon laughed, taking the jab towards his kekkei genkai on the chin. "Yes, yes. Good luck."

Kakuzu only grunted, before retreating back inside the restaurant to retrieve his belongings and leave whilst the Iwagakure and Konohagakure torn each other apart. It was their war, not his. He was only here to collect a paycheck. Nothing more.

"Alright, Explosive Corps, march!"

"Yes, sir!"

With that, Domon led his platoon towards the smoldering wreckage on the farther side of the camp. The black smoke drifting from the crumbled tower obscured their vison of both friend or foe and Domon ordered the pack of Claymation hounds into the fog, the dogs barreling into the darkness to seek out the Konohagakure foe sneaking about under the safety of the smoke and drag them into the light. Meanwhile, the members of the Explosive Corps withdrew flashbangs and their own smoke bombs, waiting on their captain's orders to act. Domon glanced around and caught a glimpse of movement on either side of them, identifying the sandy brown colour of their vests as his men as they rounded the rotting buildings to flank from their respective side. Domon felt the anxiety return.

There had been no confrontation yet, not with his men nor his hounds and there wasn't a hint of foreign life. Either these enemies, Uchiha or not, were highly advanced in stealth, or there was nothing and the tower explosion had been a fatal error on one of his men. He wasn't sure which he feared more.

As the steady downfall extinguished the flames, the smoke thinned and Domon squinted his eyes to peer through. His blood ran ice cold. There was no army, not even a single squad. Just a figure. A sole large, muscled individual in the fog just standing there, unmoving, and undisturbed as Domon's artificial dogs shuffled around them. The creatures were blind, so instead they focused on detecting chakra signatures to guide them. But there were none, so the hounds wondered, aimlessly around the person. The person were perfectly cloaked. Then two blood red orbs pierced the grey and Domon realized how much he hated being right.

"Fire!"

The air swelled with the whistling of bombs of variety being thrown into the smoke and exploding into an array of white smoke and blinding light. The same moment, the teams which had been flanking the area of interest lep into the fray, flooding the sky with waves of kunai and shuriken which arced downward and riddled whoever the figure was with the sharp objects. Once their arterially was launched, the soldiers took their distance and Domon detonated his kekkai genkai.

"Katsu!" The dogs' clay flesh swelled and they ballooned twice their original size until they raptured into a combustion of white light and fire.

…

Kakuzu was dressing in his coat when the second explosion occurred. He swore aloud as the ensuring shockwaves rolled over the café, tossing him around and causing the brick structure to tremble threateningly, coming within inches of toppling over atop of the masked man but by luck, remained intact with only an entire wall tumbling inward, scattering the wood-rotten floor with dust and brick. Kakuzu brushed himself off and from the now expanded window, he saw a mushroom cloud bloom into the grey sky before being blown away by the wind.

"Bastard," He snarled, shoving the folder into his coat. "I told him not to blow himself up."

Without a moment more, he stomped outside, eager to leave the battlefield before he was involved when something peculiar caught his eye. A few meters away, the ground was swollen like an object of such had been smuggled under the crumbling paving. And it was moving. Kakuzu watched, intrigued as the area shifted and bobbed until finally, a shapeless, pale figure began to materialize from the ground, upwards until it stood the same approximate height as a human. Once freed, the blank features chiseled into muscles which extended into limbs and black locks which sprouted from a head and Kakuzu realized a man had just emerged from the ground. Then, he realized why the man had.

'God damnit…that bastard was onto something.' Was his only thought which came accompanied by a few unwanted war flashbacks.

The nearly formed man twisted his neck about, the bones emitting a soft cracking before he tossed his head about, ruffling his black locks into a messier appearance. Kakuzu stood, still, unsure of the events which would follow. Should he flee? Kill the man? Remain still and wait if he is noticed? He realized he couldn't do the first two however, because the man had already made the choice for him as he craned his head around, his crimson eyes making contact with Kakuzu's miscoloured ones, their wide, crazed stare highlighted by the black ink around his eyes. They were the eyes of man that had long ago vacated the depths of his sanity. His unnaturally hunched form straightened and cracked lips curled back into a lop-sided grin, uncovering his rows of sizable canines. Kakuzu narrowed his eyes, and flexed his shoulder blades, the porcelain animal masks stitched to his back shifting as threads crept from beneath them and carefully detached them from the skin. Seems this war had found its way to him.

Abruptly, the man's head snapped forward, eyes focusing on the remaining smoke which polluted the air and muffled voices ahead. Kakuzu awaited his attention to return to him, muscles bulging with extra threading as he prepared for a fight, but it did not as the man cracked his neck again and the bare flesh of his back began to bubble like a pot of hot water. The skin tore cleanly and a thick, red bulb peeked from between his shoulder blades, inching out until splitting open into five wide petals which rolled out like wagging tongues that extended half the length of the man's own body. Suddenly, Kakuzu was stricken with a foul stench which made his stomach heave and mouth water in anticipation of tossing last night's booze and he clenched his hand over his nose, clamping the dark fabric of his bandana safely over his nose from farther assault. It reminded him of a rotted corpse which had been left in direct sunlight for months and been used as a dumping site for local wilderness.

Regardless of his watering eyes, Kakuzu retained his attention on the trespasser, however, the other man had appeared to have lost all interest in Kakuzu as his concentration remained on the smoke and dust in the distance. With one last regarding glance, the man-plant hybrid began stalking away towards the commotion, each step taken sinking farther and farther into the ground until his body melted back into the sodden dust and he disappeared from sight and existence. Kakuzu swore at himself again. He had just allowed his paycheck to vanish, and worse enough, it was heading directly for his benefactor of said paycheck.

…

After several seconds, the dust finally settled from the detonation. The Iwagakure shinobi removed their goggles and brushed their hair free of debris, gazing in silent amazement at the hefty crater which remained from their captain's kekkai genkai. Domon, however, sniffed at the lack of gore or severed limbs in the pit. Not even a speck of blood. The person has escaped his jutsu. How? He haven't a clue but he did not place anything past the Uchiha. His only relief, it appeared there was only one attacker, but the relief with minimal. If they were not wary, one man would be all it took to eliminate them all.

He gestured towards the bedazzled soldiers. "Search for survivors." The men hastily reclaimed themselves and obeyed as they spread out to check the remnants of the second guard tower and surrounding buildings also, mindful of their unwelcomed guest which walked amongst them. Afterwards, Domon addressed his own fleet. "Guard the perimeter. I want every inch of it booby-trapped. Anyone in here with us, won't be leaving alive."

The members of the Explosive Corps nodded before each of them separated into four different directions to trap their settlement swiftly. Meanwhile, Domon found himself rather calm, despite their situation and credited his optimist attitude, or perhaps the ashy cigarette in his mouth. His wife and her father, which just so happened to be the current Tsuchikage, sassed him frequently for his smoking habit, especially with a child soon to arrive, and told him to stop smoking. Even was ordered to. But these were times of war, and the cigarettes in his pocket were his only comfort until he was safety home again. Today, he would smoke like a furnace, he concluded, as he flicked the spent cancer stick to the dirt before replacing it with another and lighting it, filling his dusty lungs with the placebo for euphoria and shifting his headband aside to release the spent fumes.

"Captain Katsu! We found a survivor!" One of the Jounin screamed as his two teammates proceeded to heave a battered body from the wreckage of the tower.

They dumped the person safely feet away before stumbling away, coughing and gagging. As Domon approached, he realized why they had suddenly been so overcome with asthma-este attacks as the reek of death and roasted flesh flooded his nostrils. He clamped his hand over his nose and took another drag to filter out the stench simmering in his throat. The obvious lone survivor had been singed initial explosion of the tower as his clothing and armor hung from his body in shreds though displayed no farther injuries as the blood staining his flesh was unoccupied by gaping wounds or cuts of equitable size. However, that didn't mean he was alive, as when the captain hovered over the convulsing man. He could see the whites of his eyes which were stained a distasteful yellow and mixture of saliva and vomit leaked from his nose and mouth. The obvious signs of severe poisoning. The medics arrived to care for the suffering man but Domon halted their assistance. The man was past the realm of help. All they could do now was gather as much information from him before he perished.

"Shirou," Domon spoke firmly, recognizing the former guard tower. "Shirou, you can speak, yes? What happened?"

Upon the mention of his name, Shirou's eyes rolled from within his head as his glazed orbs stared at the blonde. His tongue poked out between his lips, swiping the pink flesh over his caked lips but they parted to speak. "…A-Ambushed…dead all…" He whispered, weakly, and Domon hunched closer.

"Ambushed by who, Shirou? Who did this? Was it Uchiha?"

"O-O-One…" He gasped, coughing a mouthful of clear bile and chucks of the prior night's digested meal, his convulsing growing more terrible. "On-One…"

"One what, Shirou? One person? Did one person do this?" Domon pressed harder as he witnessed the life beginning to slow dim in the Chunnin's eyes.

"O-O-One…" Shirou merely repeated, inhaling deeply as though to yawn, and the liquid drowning his lungs could be heard. His eyes rolled back again as he exhaled shakily, and Domon began to stand upright again, presuming the man dead when Shirou suddenly jolted up and grasped his vest halting his ascent, yellowed grey orbs wide and quivering as they stared into the reflective surface of his leader's goggles. "D-D-Don't…breath the m-mist…d-don't…burn!"

And with that, the man shuttered violently, vomit spraying from his dry lips before he collapsed against the muddy roading, eyes dulling and jaw going slack, finally accepted by death's cold embrace. Domon sighed, brushing off the digestive matter from his clothing before standing. The medics clad the guard's body with a clean, white sheet before it was carried away to be later buried alongside their fallen brethren. His funeral would be delayed however, until his murderer was brought to justice.

Shortly after, the rest of Shirou's squad were recovered, all dead as he said. The heavy charring to their bodies and yellowed orbs made it difficult to predict how they had perished, whether it had been by the poisoning or being burned alive. Or both. They were laid alongside their teammate. The bodies were beginning pile, and they had yet to find the culprit. Worst case scenario, they had escaped which spelt disaster for them, especially if they had uncovered a chink in their armor. Best case scenario, they were still within the camp, though that was a hardly as until they were captured or killed, the remaining lot of them were in danger.

"Captain!"

Domon glanced in the direction of the call and blinked in surprise as their Akatsuki contact approached from behind, for an unknown reason to the blonde the hulking brunette having chosen to stay rather than leave as instructed.

"Akatsuki." Domon responded, lacking a name which to address the man by. "I thought you left, yes?"

"No." Kakuzu grunted. "I couldn't because this is the direction my paycheck went."

"Paycheck?"

A scream distracted Domon from his interrogation however, as he caught wind of one of his teammates fearfully shouting 'intruder!' before the camp was rocked again by another explosion. This time originating from the border of the encampment. One of the booby traps only set together seconds prior already having been set off. Several startled screams rung out and soldiers fled as in the midst of the raining dirt and knife-sized splinters, hefty portions of trees were catapulted towards them, crashing into the ground with enough force to crush a person into a bloodstain of blood and bone.

The section of tree line which had been blown apart by the explosion had been ignited and flames danced across the tree tops, rapidly spreading as it devoured leaves and branches. The downfall was too weak to smother the fire and due to the encampment being embraced by the overgrown thicket, the blaze threatened to lep onto rooftops and kindle the buildings into a massive unstoppable bonfire.

"Get water! Put out the flames!" Domon yelled. People scattered about to retrieve water to drown the swelling fire. Domon broke into a run towards the bomb site to discover if the teammate or teammates at the area had survived the incident when a hand clamped onto his shoulder and wrenched him backwards. He craned his neck around to see his contact had been the culprit. "The hell? Release me. This does not include you!"

Kakuzu did not reply, his eyes not even upon the blonde as he stared forward, blankly. Domon struggled against the man's ironclad grasp and when it proved fruitless, he glanced about to one of his men to assist him when he noticed something bizarre. Time apparently had frozen around him as his men stood around, perfectly still as statues and silent. The panic and urgency which gripped them a second ago having vanished as they all remained motionless, their eyes focused united towards the glow of the fire, the same as Kakuzu. Domon finally stared before him, curious what had caused everyone to pause in such a way, and instantly, he felt his blood freeze in his veins. He bit down onto his cigarette, warm ashes coating his tongue.

"Is that…the Mayfly?" Domon asked, voice barely scrapping past a whisper as he gazed upon the half-clad, pale man before them, lumbering figure illuminated in the grey by the blaze behind him. But Domon wasn't looking entirely at him. He was looking at the enormous flower which piggybacked him, its petals reflecting the reds and oranges of the flames and extending around him like groping tentacles.

"Yes." Kakuzu replied.

The Mayfly man smiled, his bleeding orbs and inhuman canines shining ominously with the flicker of the firestorm around him. The ink circling his eyes and crossing through his left reading '001'.

Domon realized he no longer hated when he was right. He loathed it.

…

AN: I just want to apologize. This chapter took longer than I would have liked. That was for two reasons. One, it is the largest chapter to date. And two, I had issues with my computer. So instead of writing, I was struggling to get it fixed and when it was fixed, I had to do homework. So sorry again. Hopefully this chapter made it worth the wait for you all.

The next chapter will be filler explaining the Mayfly.

Thank you for reading and reviews perhaps? Love to hear your thoughts, so long they are not flaming.