The month before the finals was a long one.
Not the least because I spotted neither hide nor hair of Orochimaru, but also because I spent most of it keeping an eye on Anko and Sasuke.
Both of whom still haven't gained tanned skin, yellow eyes and a tendency to spout about The Power Of Darkness(TM).
Which is great.
It was surprisingly loud in the stadium.
Not that I was paying any attention to that.
I was busy, far, far too busy, staring at the Kazekage.
Or, rather, Orochimaru.
If the Kazekage was dead, then that means the invasion is still going to be a thing.
"Don't react," I spoke, letting absolutely nobody else hear me. "Nobody else can hear me. Hiruzen, the man next to you is not the Kazekage, but Orochimaru in disguise."
I saw the bloom of realisation and anger in his Heart, which was shortly followed by a cold determination.
I quickly checked Orochimaru's Heart- nothing. He hadn't been alerted.
"Should I alert Shikaku and Jiraiya?"
A flare of... satisfaction?
"I'll take that emotion as a yes."
Quietly, I sunk into the shadows and vanished.
"Shikaku, we have a problem."
"I'm really not going to like this conversation, am I?"
"I sincerely doubt it."
"Jiraiya, your snakish former teammate is masquerading as the Kazekage."
"You're joking, right?"
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
"What the hell is he doing?" Jiraiya asked. "Orochimaru isn't nearly arrogant enough to think he can assassinate a kage, take their place, and just waltz into a village and expect to get away if he gets discovered."
"He's not alone." My head turned to the south where, far, far into the distance, I could feel Hearts gathering. "Unless that group of people isn't with him."
"How many?" An ANBU -Ryu- asked.
I looked. "Thousands." There were many. Too many to just be Sand and Sound, unless both had devoted considerably large portions of their militaries to this, and, in doing so, severely cut into the number of ninja protecting their village.
Even Konoha only maintained a few thousand Ninja.
"An army." Shikaku noted. "Invasion."
Everybody in the room shifted. Of which, I was no exception.
"Probably. There's a lot of anticipation, and bloodlust." I turned back to them. "But they're over a hundred kilometers away. Ninja or not, they'll take some time to get here."
"We have time to prepare." Shikaku stated. "Right. First, we need to alert as many as possible. The more our ninja are prepared, the better."
"Just going to cut in for a moment here," Jiraiya stated. "Knowing Orochimaru, he's probably going to try and isolate Sensei."
"Which should be irrelevant." I spoke. "Unless whatever method he intends to use can block space-time manipulation, I should still be able to get in. And even if it does, I still have another way."
Jiraiya 'hmm'ed.
"You can take people with you on both methods?" Ryu asked.
I nodded. "Yes, though only the former is completely safe. Still, if I have to resort to the second, a quick exposure shouldn't be too dangerous."
I hoped.
Playing around with Darkness is never a good idea, but an exposure measured in less than a few seconds...
"Hopefully, it won't come to that."
"Can you tell us when they start moving?" Shikaku asked.
"I'll keep an eye on them."
Spreading the word was easy.
The tricky part was in making sure that nobody spilled the beans.
ANBU spoke to ANBU, who spoke to more ANBU, who spoke to more ANBU. From there, the ANBU made sure that the Jounin of the village found out about the coming invasion, subtly.
After that, it drifted down to the Chunin, who made up the bulk of the numbers in Konoha's military. That, in turn, meant that 95% of the ninja in the village were prepared for the coming invasion. The only ones who didn't were the ones who weren't in the village itself, or the Genin of the village.
But even the Genin knew what to do in the case of Konoha being invaded. The possibility was simply too real for them to not be trained for such a thing.
But, tricky or not, the news spread, and nobody who wasn't meant to know about it found out.
And that made all the difference.
The invasion force was expecting to catch Konoha unprepared, so they would have a much harder time consolidating their forces and protecting the civilians.
But instead, the majority of Konoha was prepared, its forces already consolidated.
There'd be casualties, yes, but there'd be much less than there would otherwise be.
My head snapped up.
Three things happened near simultaneously.
First, I felt a burst of rage, hate, bloodlust and malevolence.
From the Ichibi.
Second, Orochimaru moved to attack Hiruzen.
And third, the invasion force began to rush at the village.
"It's begun."
Ryu vanished, gone in a smoke-less Shunshin.
Jiraiya and Shikaku grabbed my shoulders, and an instant later, I made a pair of teleports.
Shikaku, I dropped near Inoichi and Chouza, while Jiraiya and I appeared next to Orochimaru.
Although it seemed that we weren't needed.
Hiruzen was trading blows with Orochimaru, moving far faster than his age would otherwise suggest that he'd be capable of.
So fast, in fact, that Orochimaru was having trouble keeping up, desperately trying to avoid be skewered by the Kunai that Hiruzen wielded.
The visage of the Sandaime was utterly terrifying, despite, or perhaps because of, seeming calm and pleasant. There was just something chilling in his gaze, a cold, malevolent look that reminded everybody that this was the man who once was and still is called 'The God of Shinobi'.
Pointedly, the Sound Four were currently being stomped onengaged by the ANBU, and thus prevented from using that barrier of theirs.
Three massive surges of Chakra quickly caught my attention, and I looked into the distance, instantly noting the giant puffs of smoke that quickly dispersed to reveal three gigantic snakes.
Right.
Those.
Thankfully, they're not inside the village just yet.
I reached out, and touched Jiraiya's coat.
"Think fast, Jiraiya."
There wasn't nearly enough time to prepare a particularly strong Haste, and the potency of the spell would be further reduced by the fact that I didn't have my Keyblade amplifying it, but on a Ninja of Jiraiya's calibur, the boost would still be more than enough to be utterly devastating.
I caught sight of Jiraiya fist smashing into Orochimaru's face just before I teleported away.
I appeared in the air above the three snakes, instantly sending out three spikes of Darkness at them, hoping to knock all three out of play before they could breach the village walls and threaten the civilians.
Two of them were moving to the village, and thus didn't notice me until it was far too late, my spikes promptly and violently penetrating the skulls, spearing the brains and eventually exiting the other side their heads, going straight through.
The third, however, was looking upwards when I'd launched the attack, and had dived to the left to avoid being spiked through, thus managing to not suffer instantaneous death.
It did not escape death entirely, however, as an explosion of Chakra and a sudden shadow caught its attention, leaving it with just enough time to watch Chouza's foot collide with its face, and ride its head all the way to the ground.
A sickening crack and a nauseating squish were both clearly audible to me, even despite the fact that I was several dozen meters in the air.
I imagine that the smell would have been quite bad too, but all three snakes burst into smoke only a few moments later, preventing me from finding out.
Great.
I retracted my spikes, then promptly teleported over to Chouza's shoulder.
Three major threats down, an entire fucking army, a Sannin and one Bijuu to go.
Speaking of-
A large burst of smoke came to our right, attracting the attention of both Chouza and I.
I didn't need to wait for it to clear to know what it was.
Gaara had brought out Shukaku's full form.
"Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto..." It growled in a warped, deeper rendition of Gaara's voice- which meant that Gaara was still awake and the Ichibi wasn't in control yet. Good.
"You will prove my existence!" It shouted. For a moment, it didn't mo-
An ocean of malevolence crashed into me, Hatred and Rage bubbling up to the surface, even as Gaara's own Heart became muted, dull with sleep.
"I'M FREE!" The Ichibi screamed, roaring up at the skies.
It's head came down, glaring at the ground with a look that was somewhere between psychosis and bloodlust.
"AND LOOK! THINGS TO KILL!"
It breathed in.
"AIR BULLET!" It screamed, its massive fist rising into the air, preparing to hit its own stomach and violently expel the air it had built up.
I looked down, trying to find what it was target-
Sasuke!
I could see the panic and fear rising in his Heart, even as he himself tried to get out of the way.
But he couldn't.
Sasuke was good for his age, but he was far, far too young to be able to take on a Bijuu, and far, far too slow to be able to dodge an air bullet at point-blank range. There wasn't anything he could do to prevent himself from dying.
No.
I moved.
My Darkness burst out of my body, quickly expanding, even as I appeared in front of the Ichibi.
I pushed all of My Darkness out, frantically taking on as large a form as I could. It wouldn't be enough, some part of me knew, not nearly enough to take on a Bijuu on its own scale.
Unacceptable.
Sasuke would die if I couldn't do this.
I turned outwards.
The Darkness was there. Waiting, not doing anything.
There could be consequences for this, I knew.
But no consequences were worth Sasuke's life.
I pulled.
Darkness rushed into me, utterly intoxicating.
I ignored the feeling entirely.
My fist slammed into its chin at the same time as its hand slammed into its stomach.
It's jaw slammed shut, the air rushing up its throat, blowing away the front of its mouth as the pressure forced the air out. But that wasn't the point.
The point was the fact that it had forced Shukaku's head to pointupwards, instead of pointing at Sasuke.
"Get away from him!" I yelled, pushing the Ichibi back.
It recovered worryingly quickly, looking down at me with a smirk. "Aww, is someone angry?" It gave a sinister chuckle.
My form writhed.
"Angry?! You think I'm angry?!" I shouted at it.
Shukaku stopped smirking.
"I am completely fucking FURIOUS!"
My Darkness churned, my rage making it nearly impossible to keep a hold on my form.
So I stopped trying.