The captain looked back, to see two squads of Konoha Anbu standing before them, blades drawn and in battle stance; standing on the roofs of the buildings. But apart from that, something else also caught the Kumo ninja's eye, there were approximately eighty foreign warriors in front of them, blocking all the streets that led out. The enemy shinobi also prepared for battle, and the one holding Naruto stayed back.

"Seriously, this is the best Konoha can offer? Two squads of shinobi and a mob of civilians?" One of the masked shinobi scoffed, but he was proven wrong a moment later. Brutus, who was at the front of his men in his armor, ordered the men to charge. The Varangians, who till now were in a tight formation with their round shield walls, charged forward with lightning speed. They had been taught how to use chakra to enhance their physical capabilities greatly and used it to their full advantage. They rushed forward, their two-handed battle axes ready to strike, and in an instant had surrounded the shinobi.

The shinobi were surprised and shocked by this sudden and quick charge, as they had greatly underestimated these foreign warriors and their capabilities. Two of the enemy shinobi were then and there cut to pieces, but the rest managed to get together and climbed the rooftops of the building behind them and prepared for a counter maneuver. But the Anbu squads that were previously in front of them took advantage of the shock caused by the Varangians and got behind the Kumo shinobi; the axe-wielding foreigners also soon climbed the rooftops with chakra and surrounded the Kumo shinobi.

The fourteen remaining Kumo ninjas got into a tight circular formation, with the captain, the sensory-type ninja, and the hostage-held nine-tails in the middle.

"We must escape quickly, it will be impossible to fight off them and survive." The captain of the platoon murmured to his men, who were in a tense mood now. The shinobi must carve a path through the enemy forces to escape with their hostage, alive. Thus seeing the situation, the Kumo shinobi prepared for one big attack to escape. Seeing this, the Romans and Konoha Anbu also braced for an attack.

Two of the shinobi got down on one knee and joined their hands. Immediately, the earth began to deform as the shinobi raised a wall and pillars around them. Their foes also rushed forward to engage in combat. One of the Anbu bounced up in the air and sent a fireball jutsu down on the enemy platoon, which in turn covered itself with a dome using chakra. Four of the Anbu, who knew Lightning-style jutsus, surrounded the dome; after which they sent destructive lightning chakra flying towards the dome, creating large gaps in it. The gaps were quickly filled by the Varangians, who poured in to slay their foes.

They enhanced their stamina, the sharpness of their weapons, and the durability and toughness of their armor and shield using chakra. As they charged in, the shinobi attempted to fight them head-on with their blades, as using big jutsus in this enclosed space and in such proximity may backfire and cause a lot of friendly fire. The Kumo shinobi infused their blades with lightning chakra and fought back.

But their blades were unable to even pierce the armor of the Varangians, let alone wound them, and they had to use very powerful techniques with their swords to defeat them which drained their chakra quite a bit. This was because the Varangians already had top-class armor prior, better than any steel locally produced in the shinobi continent. Moreover, they had been taught by the Samurai of the Land of Iron how to strengthen their equipment beyond limits using chakra, in exchange for a hefty payment of course.

Seeing the situation, the captain ordered the Kumo shinobi to dismantle the dome and try to flee, but their attempts failed as the Varangians had them engaged while the Anbu squads made sure none escaped. The Kumo platoon was now stuck fighting in a tight circular formation, trying to escape, many of them already had their chakra reserves drained profoundly after taking part in the main attack, sneaking into Konoha, and the last fight with a Konoha squad. This made it impossible for them to use any large-scale ninjutsu or genjutsu.

While blood-spattered and the blades clanged, the captain of the platoon was lost in thought. The world went slow around him, as he tried to read the situation and create a strategy. His remaining seven men were fighting with all they had, vastly outnumbered but not ready to give up. The captain was taken back to reality after one of the axe-wielding Varangians cut clean through one of his men's neck, and the blood sputtered on his face. He suddenly turned to the sensory-type ninja, who was tightly holding Naruto and trying to ward off attacks at the same time, and commanded him,

"Kill the jinchuriki, release the nine-tails." The shinobi holding Naruto turned around and looked in disbelief, unsure of what he heard,

"Sir?" The captain repeated himself,

"I said kill the jinchuriki and release the nine-tails. There's no way we can escape with our hostage now, so it would be best to kill him and release as much carnage on the enemy as possible."

The shinobi looked doubtful and looked down at their hostage. But after thinking for a few seconds, he took out his kunai and held it with a tight hand. It was not like he was feeling guilty for killing a child, that was something he'd done countless times while fighting little genins. But the thing was that, if he killed this child a monster would be released, and that would seal their fate. But after this moment of hesitation, he got ready to slit the throat of this blonde kid.

But before he could proceed with the order, a sudden strike landed on his back, almost cutting through his ribcage. The shinobi let out a painful scream and fell on the ground. Behind him stood one of the Varangians, his battle-axe reddened with the blood of its most recent target. For a moment, both the captain and his enemy looked blankly into each other's eyes; but soon the Varangian quickly dragged the blonde child in front of him and pushed through the crowd of fighting men, getting out.

The captain of the platoon got hold of his blade, and he got into a battle stance with rage in his eyes. One by one, his men fell, but he stood till the last. And suddenly, as the enemy Anbu finally came down to fight him, lightning chakra began to cover his blade. In a flash he was in the sky, and from there he swung his blade in the air, in the direction of the enemy. Destructive Lightning chakra came out in a wave, and cut through anything in front of it, taking down several of the Varangians and an Anbu.

But this was the last great attack from him, he had been drained completely of his stamina, and just now his chakra. As he began to come down to the ground after his leap, an Anbu appeared behind; it appeared at such great speed that the captain had no time to respond. And in a flash, he dropped down to the ground, dead; Blood flowing from his chest. He had been impaled through the heart.

It was suddenly very quiet now, as the fighting ended with the final enemy shinobi dead. There was silence for a while, as the Anbu checked Naruto and the Varangians muttered amongst themselves in their tongue. Maximus and Naruko also came to the rooftop, scuffling through the cloud. There they saw Naruto among the Anbu, Naruko gripped her brother tightly, tears welling from her eyes.

After a while, however, one of the Anbu separated the siblings and directly spoke to them,

"Sorry, but we'll be taking him to the Anbu headquarters for the duration of this attack to make sure something like this doesn't happen again." Saying this, the Anbu politely got the blonde child on its back and jumped toward a large building near the Hokage tower.


On the other end of Konoha, another battle was taking place between a dozen Kumo shinobi, three Uchiha, and several Anbu. The fight had been going on for a while, and the Kumo shinobi were losing. Two of their summons had already been dispelled, and the third was struggling to maintain itself. The reason was that summons were also technically animals and could be wounded or even killed, but a Susanoo can be kept up as long as the user has chakra and the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

As the fight went on, the final summon was dispelled as well and the Kumo shinobi retreated. This time, it remained quiet for some time. But after a while, a figure appeared before the three Susanoo. It was a masked man, with a hunch that made him lower almost to the ground, as if he was on all fours. He had a bald head, keen eyes, and a masked face, and his entire body was covered with a cloak with red clouds on it.

The man came forward and seemed to smirk upon seeing his opponents. The man didn't say anything but merely raised his hands a little. Immediately, hundreds of wooden dolls appeared on the battlefield, all equipped with blades, darts, or weaponized machinery, and were creepily styled to resemble human faces. Seeing the horde of dolls and puppets, Hiruzen spoke while squinting his eyes,

"That's Sasori, the rogue puppet master from Suna." Shikaku also had his gaze fixed on the hunched figure, and agreed,

"Indeed it is, Sasori of the red sand. They say he destroyed an entire shinobi village using his puppets." Some of the Jonin gulped at hearing this, Hiruzen noticed,

"Don't be afraid, men. That village was nothing like ours, have faith in your strength, and that of our allies." Saying this Hiruzen looked back at the streets of Konoha inside, through which were arriving some eighty armed warriors alongside an Anbu squad. Shikaku drew the attention of Hiruzen and suggested,

"Perhaps it will be best if we deploy Yamato." Hearing this, the Hokage raised an eyebrow,

"You mean the Anbu who can use wood release?"

"Yes, although his abilities are nothing close to that of Lord First's, we can still trust them enough to earn us a victory." Hiruzen closed his eyes, thinking for a moment. But soon he ordered one of the Anbu beside him to call Yamato, who had been stationed at the other side of the village, alone, to deal with any unexpected maneuvers. But before he arrived, the Hokage and his advisor must trust the Sharingan-wielders, as the puppet master finally made his move.

In a split second, the puppets were almost flying toward the Uchiha; only Fugaku had his Susanoo partially activated while the two others had deactivated theirs due to chakra exhaustion and the strain on their bodies. The three Konoha ninjas prepared to face the puppets. The puppets rushed forward at great speed, but that was no problem with someone who possessed the Sharingan. Fugaku nodded at the other two beside him, who returned it.

The Uchiha clan head activated the torso of his Susanoo and covered the other two, while the latter weaved hand signs in quick succession. When the puppets got near, the two Uchiha used a giant fireball jutsu that charred the puppets, and even destroyed some. But it didn't make much difference, as the puppets' charge didn't stop; when they got near they suddenly halted, and each of them launched thousands of poisonous darts through weapons implemented in their design, but these were easily blocked by Fugaku's Susanoo, which he deactivated after this due to chakra exhaustion.

The puppets encircled their three enemies and attacked at once from all sides. They had some sort of weapon implemented in almost all of their body parts, from blades in the limbs and legs to poisonous darts in their mouths, to explosives on their backs. They leaped toward the Uchiha but were easily cut down by their blades. Soon, almost a dozen broken puppets had piled up around Fugaku and the two Uchiha, but suddenly the puppets disengaged and got away from them.

The Konoha ninja could now take a breath, but Fugaku's experience told him something was off. As he looked around with keen eyes, the cover plate at one of the puppet's backs fell off, and it revealed more than a dozen paper bombs stuffed inside and set to explode. Fugaku's eyes widened in shock and slight panic, he shouted to warn the others and tried to activate his Susanoo again. But it was too late, as only a split second later they exploded. Everything went blank for a moment, and loud sounds of an explosion hit Fugaku's eardrums, smoke covered his surroundings and blocked his side. But he was still in perfect condition and wasn't harmed.

As the smoke finally cleared, Fugaku could see giant wooden walls surrounding him and the other Uchiha. He looked behind him, to see a young lad in Anbu gear and hands joined on top of the wooden wall, he had odd-looking eyes, a sharp jawline, and wore a forehead protector that covered his forehead and the sides at the front of his head, like the second Hokage.

"You alright, Lord Uchiha?" Fugaku looked at Yamato and nodded. Funaki instructed,

"You cover us, boy." Yamato nods and gets ready. Fugaku performs several hand signs in quick succession, and a steady flow of what seems to be dark smoke begins leaving his mouth. The smoke is thick and clouds nearly all vision, it covers Fugaku's surroundings and the puppets. Sasori also makes a move, as mechanical tentacles appear from the back of several of his puppets, and move toward the Uchiha.

As the tentacles were near Fugaku, the latter shot out a small amount of fire chakra from his finger, that touched the black smoke. Immediately, the entire area burst up in flames, as the black smoke had caught fire and encompassed a large area. The flames stick to many of the puppets, burning some to ashes while deeming others unusable. The hunched Sasori looked with shock and surprise, this jutsu had taken out almost half of his puppets. Fugaku looked at him and smirked,

"Now it's your turn, puppeteer."


Author's notes

So yeah, I will drag this part of the story to another chapter. But don't worry, the attack will end in the next chapter, in about four days or so. Do review the chapter and provide suggestions if you have any :)