Tsunade could easily feel the intrusion of the foreign chakra entering her system. With a roll of her eyes, she effortlessly dispelled the genjutsu. Just as Tsunade felt the foreign chakra, so too did Shizune. With the same ease as Tsunade, Shizune dispelled the genjutsu. Shizune even made sure to free Tonton. Even though the small piglet had some ability to use chakra, she didn't have enough control to dispel genjutsu herself.
The two plus piglet stayed in their seats, acting as civilians placed under the genjutsu to maintain their cover. This did not however mean they were oblivious to their surroundings. They noticed the emergence of Suna and Oto shinobi and their attack on the Konoha shinobi and civilians but that is not where their focus was. It was here when they sat up but not yet stood. Tsunade's attention was drawn to the arena floor, where Naruto was last known to be.
When she saw the Suna Jonin attack Naruto, her heart nearly sank through her chest and rage bubbled within her. How dare this person attack Naruto. How dare he strike at one of her two most beloved people. Tsunade immediately stood from her seat and tried to rush forward to protect Naruto however her path was blocked. She cared not for who tried to get in her way. She struck the opposing shinobi that got in her way in very hard, caving in their chest. Before she could continue forward, another person charged her. This time however, this combatant wasn't alone. He had a partner that went after Shizune. Despite the ease with which they were dispatched, many more were still preventing her from reaching Naruto.
She then saw something that made her heart stop. Naruto was struck by a blast of wind that sent him flying. Panic enveloped her whole being to the point where she froze in her movements. If not for Shizune's intervention she may have died this day to. Since they were already foregoing the pretense of being disguised by openly fighting in the stands, Shizue called out to her master "Tsunade-sama! Snap out of it! Naruto is fine, see!" Indeed he was fine as Shizune pointed out. Tsunade saw Naruto recovering from the wind blast as he was back on his feet. Her relief was short lived as terror once again enveloped her being as she saw the Suna Jonin once again try to kill Naruto.
Luckily his sensei, Kakashi, was there to save him. It was at this point that Tsunade saw red. In her anger she failed to notice Naruto and Sasuke leave the arena in pursuit of Gaara. She rounded harshly in the section of the stands she was in and grabbed onto the seat now in front of her. Using her prodigious strength, she slowly pulled the seat out of the stone it was carved into. The stone strained and cracked from the force she exerted upon it. When she successfully removed the seat from the stone, she quickly rounded in place, once again facing the arena, and threw the seat with all her might at the stationary Suna Jonin that was staring down Kakashi and Genma.
Kakashi was staring down three Oto Shinobi and a Suna Jonin with his Genin facing off against two Suna Genin. He had an idea of what was going on, Suna and Oto were invading Konoha but why were they after this kid that Naruto has wrapped up in the Kango Fusa. That was another thing, Naruto has the Kango Fusa. 'Since when did Naruto have the Kango Fusa? How does he have it?' were some of the thoughts running through Kakashi's mind. The foreign Shinobi attacked the Konoha contingent. The first to move was the puppeteer but his Genin were not deterred. Two of the Oto shinobi rushed to face him while the Suna Jonin and the remaining Oto shinobi moved to fight Genma.
Kakashi felt a little insulted by the skill being demonstrated by his foes. Since his confrontation with Zabuza in Nami no Kuni, he had put himself through intense training while trying to teach his Genin either new skills or refine the skills he deemed they needed work on. Okay so maybe he only refined skills with Naruto. But what was he supposed to do? He wasn't a teacher in anyway and Naruto has a history of not being the most studious of individuals. If there was another way to teach, he didn't know it. For Sasuke all he had to do was show Sasuke the hand seals for a jutsu, go over the basics of a nature transformation and Sasuke managed to decipher the rest on his own. For Sakura, she was eager to learn especially on an academic level. She took to leaning from books like a fish takes to water. He had begun her training in genjutsu before the exams but her physical training was something to be desired. This however he couldn't fix. A person has to push themselves to train. If you aren't willing to put in the work you will never see the results you want. For Naruto … he wasn't sure that to do for the blonde.
Yugao was the better teacher between the two of them. Why was she not chosen to be a Jonin sensei over him? Was it because he needed more bonds than what he had in Anbu? Was it because he could relate to Sasuke as the loner genius that didn't want friends? If that was the case then people forgot how he made bonds as a young Jonin. It was thanks to Obito that he began to make friends at that age and Minato-sensei being the kind man he was as well as Kushina-san often times forcing him to open up. Sure, Naruto could act like Obito at times…. Okay a lot like Obito but the other people were missing to allow Sasuke to come out of his shell. There were no adult figures in Sasuke's life to help draw him out, and he doesn't have the same kind of personality as his deceased sensei.
So distracted by his thoughts, he didn't notice he had lazily slain the two Oto shinobi that he "fought" against. Something that did catch his eye however was the attack the Suna Jonin used that cut into Genma's flak jacket. It seemed to be a blade made of wind. Before arriving at the arena, he ran into a saddened Yugao and her Anbu squad Ro. Worried for her, he had stopped Sasuke so he could talk to her. He had learned from team Ro that Hayate Gekko was killed in his absence by some kind of blade while he was doing his duty. Kakashi knew that this meant that he was killed while on an assignment and since Hayate was a proctor that meant that he was killed in Konoha.
Yugao had taken the loss of her friend rather hard. In Kakashi's mind, what made it worse was that he was not there to comfort her. Kakashi had placed a comforting hand on the Neko masked Anbu's shoulder. He wanted to do more but the Anbu had an image to maintain, and with a Genin around it would ruin the visage of the stalwart warrior that could take on any mission. He knew of her friendship with the Tokubetsu Jonin as they had bonded over the skill of kenjutsu.
Seeing the wind attack that cut like that of a sword, Kakashi grew suspicious of the Suna Jonin. It wasn't until he saw the palm of his left hand that Kakashi locked onto the Suna Jonin with an intense fervor. On his left palm was a scar. Now scars are commonplace for individuals of a high rank amongst Shinobi however there was also a discoloration in the right shoulder of the Jonin's flak jacket. That wouldn't be there if the man wasn't in a prior confrontation to today.
Genma had been able to easily dispatch the Oto shinobi. The person was cocky, rushing ahead of his ally believing he was an easy kill. Genma merely spat the senbon in his mouth into the person's eye, killing them instantly. The Suna Jonin was handling things differently. While he still rushed forward, he was aware of the instant kill weapon in the Tokubetsu Jonin's mouth. Once it was expended, he pushed forward with no haste. Though the projectile was now spent, Genma was far from defenseless. Using the skills he learned under Choza Akamichi, Choji's father, he paced his resources. What nearly cost him his life was when the Suna Jonin seemed to attack him with some kind of melee wind attack. The strike cut deep into his flak jacket. It was here that Kakashi joined the fight, causing the Suna Jonin to retreat.
Once his Genin had left, Kakashi's demeanor seemed to change. The air around him seemed to be laced with death. "You know" Kakashi said getting the attention of the two. "A very precious friend of mine lost someone very important to her while I was away." He slowly moved his left hand to his hitai-ate. "It hurt me to know that I wasn't there for her due to me training one of my students. But … I was told something rather interesting." Baki stayed silent, wanting to see where the infamous Copy Nin was going with his speech. "I was informed that her friend was killed by something like that of a blade. I noticed that you have some new features on you that weren't there during the preliminaries, like that discoloration in your flak jacket. So, something must have happened between then and now for you to patch the armor instead of getting a new one."
Baki began to curse internally. Of course, someone with Kakashi's record would notice the small things like the repairs to his armor. "You attack one of my cute little Genin. Then I find out that you killed a friend to someone precious to me. I think it's time you see why I was feared for so long" stated Kakashi as he uncovered his hidden Sharingan eye. What happened next was not something Genma or Kakashi would have predicted. Kakashi was staring down the Suna Jonin, prepared to kill the man hurt Yugao when he killed her best friend … only for the man to be taken out by a stone seat from the arena. The seat struck the Suna Jonin with so much force it pushed the man to the end of the arena as his feet left the ground. He was imbedded into the base of the arena wall, the seat still on top of him.
With the aid of his Sharingan, Kakashi could see the seat was imbued with Doton chakra but now a set of questions had arisen. Who threw it? Who could throw it so hard that it carried a Jonin from the near center of the arena to the wall? The Suna Jonin had collided with the ground that met the wall with a loud crash followed by small pieces of the wall falling on the seat. Kakashi and Genma cautiously made their way over to the down Suna Jonin. Kakashi was unable to see the man as there was so much Doton chakra in the seat to keep it solid it covered his foe.
Slowly, the pair moved the seat to see the Suna Jonin underneath it. There was blood leaking from his mouth, while his chest seemed to be thinner. It appears the chair and subsequent impact collapsed his chest, destroying his lungs and heart. Kakashi looked around the arena to see if he could see the person who threw the seat. Sadly, most of what her could see was a cloud of chakra surrounding the civilians of the stadium that were still under the genjutsu. Sure, there were deeper shades of blue but many of them were near other deep shades of blue so he wasn't going to be seeing the thrower from his current position. Genma also seemed to be looking around for the thrower. So, when he was sure that Genma wasn't looking, Kakashi threw a kunai into the man's skull to make sure he was dead, and to be able to tell Yugao he put a kunai into the man that may have killed Hayate.
Once Tsunade had seen she struck the Suna Jonin with the piece of the stands she looked around to see if Naruto was alright. Panic began to show on her lovely features when she could not find the young blonde. Sensing her master's distress Shizune put a hand on her shoulder while Tonton leaned against her owner's ankle. "Don't worry Tsunade-sama, he'll be alright. You did train him after all."
"Oink" chimed in Tonton. Tsunade took a shaky breath. "I hope you are right Shizune."
The moment was broken by the clash of steel that was ringing out in the stands. Going back to their disguised names Shizune asked, "Mito-san, do you think we should help fight off the invaders? Or at least provide aid to those who need it?" Once again Tsunade let out a sigh. She would have preferred to stay out of this but what would Naruto think of her if she did nothing and let people die, even if they were mean to him? He would be disappointed in her that's what. Rubbing her face with her hand, she nodded to her first apprentice before they moved to aid the wounded.
What none of the three noticed due to their own turmoil and discussion was an ominous purple barrier that was on top of the Kage booth.
Sakura was confused. She was just watching Naruto's match against Gaara, which he won which she was happy about. Then Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei showed up only for a foreign chakra attempt to place her under a genjutsu. Thankfully she was taught the basics of genjutsu by Kakashi-sensei sometime after their mission to Nami no Kuni.
Soon after the genjutsu ceased being casted, chaos broke out across the arena. This only add to her confusion, with fear. She had no ideas what was going on. Why were shinobi fighting in the stands? As she looked around, she saw that Neji and the Jonin sensei leapt into action. Of the Konoha Genin that had made it to the preliminaries of this year's Chunin Selection Exams, he was the only one that seemed to be fighting. Shikamaru was in the infirmary, Ino and Choji were under the effects of the genjutsu, Rock Lee was too injured to fight, and Tenten didn't seem to have her weapons on her. The bun haired kunoichi was forced to use any weapon she could scrounge up from any fallen shinobi.
Neji's proficiency with his Clans's fighting style, the Gentle Fist, was proving to be capable against single foes. However the moment he was faced with a greater number of foes, the young Hyuga began to struggle. Due to smaller stature and the methods the Huyga often use to train, Neji was struggling to fight his opponents. He was nowhere near as fast on his feet as his teammate Rock Lee and being shouter than fully grown adults made delivering killing blows difficult.
The Jonin had led the charge against the foreign shinobi, going on alert the moment they noticed the genjutsu. While it was not surprising to see Asuma and Guy dive into the fray as they had reputations for being close combat fighters, Guy with his mastery in taijutsu and Asuma with his trench knives he was able to channel the Futon element through. The one that surprised Sakura the most was Kurenai. The woman had drawn a kodachi from her red sleeve. 'Where did Kurenai-sensei get the sword from?' questioned Sakura.
The kodaci was a single edge, straight sword that is nearly three feet long. The scabbard an earthen brown while the wrappings around the handle was white. Known to many shinobi of Konoha was that the weapon she was using right now once belonged to her father who perished during the Kyuubi's assault on Konoha and that the weapon was stored in a storage seal that was stitched to the inside of her red sleeve so she was always carry it. Kurenai seemed to be rather skilled with her blade as she dispatched foe after foe with clean strikes. Some of the many strikes she unleashed were proceeded by catching her foe in one of her many genjutsu.
She wasn't able to muse on her observations any longer as an enemy shinobi appeared over her as he stood on the seats in front of her. He had a kunai held in a reverse grip above his head poised to strike Sakura down. Before the knifes could strike her, she was saved. She was saved by the red head that Naruto was familiar with as she appeared over her and punched her assailant, launching him somewhere Sakura couldn't see.
Sakura was in awe of the woman. Not only was she beautiful but she also appeared to be strong. 'Can I be strong like her?' thought Sakura to herself. "You okay?" the woman before her asked. Sakura could only nod her response. "Good" the woman continued, "Help wake the civilians and get them out of here. Instruct them to stay as low to the ground as possible to avoid being a target" the woman ordered. Sakura nodded again in understanding before moving to do what she was told with her first targets being the other Genin. What Sakura didn't notice, was that the woman left as soon as she went to wake the other Genin.
Despite his anger, Neji had noticed the genjutsu being used on him. As a member of the Hyuga Clan, even if he is a branch member, he was taught to have mastery over his chakra to allow him to utilize the Gentle Fist so he could protect his main house masters. One such skill that was taught to each Hyuga is the breaking of genjutsu. Afterall it would not do well for a main house member to die simply because the branch member guarding them was placed under a genjutsu with no way to break free. As such he broke the genjutsu with ease.
Due to this, he was privy to the start of a conflict that struck Konoha. However, this did not hold is attention. Instead, he was focused on Naruto and the fact that he had won all his matches with such ease. 'How is this possible? He was a deadlast in his year just as Lee but they are so much stronger? How? How can they be this strong?' he questioned. 'We are all controlled by the path that fate puts before us, and fate said they would be failures and never succeed. And yet ….' These were his thoughts as enemy shinobi attacked the stadium. Due to his thoughts, Neji's anger grew and he needed a method to vent his mounting frustration. Well, a perfect opportunity presented itself.
Letting his anger loose, Neji lunged into the fray letting his anger guide his strikes. The first few that attacked him fell as they underestimated his lethality due to his age. This allowed him to strike them down with ease. Sadly, the next to fight were not as naive as their fallen comrades. They used their superior stature to keep Neji at bay lest he risk taking a fatal blow. Sadly, this could not be circumvented as he was not fast on his feet like his injured teammate Lee. 'GRRRR! How am I struggling to beat these fools? I am the prodigy of the Hyuga! These insects should be falling before me!' he raged in his mind. Due to his anger he failed to take into account the reach advantage of his foe and their potential knowledge they may have had by facing a Hyuga previously.
While he did manage to defeat two more shinobi, he was tiring quickly. This was nothing like when he used to spar against Lee. This was more reminiscent of when Guy-sensei would be Team 9's opponent during spars, only a lot deadlier. Thanks to his anger clouding his senses, he failed to notice a foreign shinobi about to attack him from behind. Before the foreign shinobi could strike him, the woman fell to the ground dead with a kunai in her neck.
The sound of a body hitting the floor instantly got Neji's attention. When he turned, he saw Tenten holding weapons that were clearly below the quality she normally carries with her. Neji suspected that she doesn't have her usual shinobi tools and his using whatever she can get her hands on.
With a lull in the action, Neji was able to take stock of some of what was going on around him. He noticed that Naruto's kunoichi teammate was about to be struck down by an Oto shinobi. That was until something he wasn't expecting happened. The red headed woman Naruto had embraced after their match appeared before Sakura and struck the Oto shinobi that was going to slay the pinkette, launching them away with a single strike. Something he had only ever seen his sensei, Guy, do. However, she appeared to launch him farther than anything he had ever seen Guy preform. This terrified the Hyuga prodigy. 'Was that what Naruto was going to do to me?!' panicked Neji. Tenten on the other hand was seeing stars. She had only ever heard of one person pulling off such a feat, that being Tsunade Senju. And now here was another woman before her who could perform the same feat. Once this was over Tenten was going to seek this woman out and attempt to become her student.
The two could no longer take in the sight of such an experience as the sounds of fighting and the looming threat of being attacked by the invading shinobi stirred them back into action. They quickly made their way to what would be considered between the fighting high-ranking Konoha shinobi so they could act as support as the last few confrontations have shown they were not able to fight on an equal footing in this environment.
As the genjutsu set in, Guy's attention was immediately centered around the safety of his recovering student. In the current situation, the only one of the Genin around him that could protect themselves was Neji. The others were either under the effects of the genjutsu or, in the case of Sakura, too new to the world of the shinobi to be used to spontaneous conflicts or were not armed to be of use like his final student Tenten. However, he could rely on the other Jonin to aid Neji and as long as Tenten found a weapon she would not remain defenseless. Afterall no matter the rank of a shinobi, a kunai to a vital spot will still kill.
When Lee succumbed to the genjutsu, Guy was quick to catch his student, taking special care to make sure that his right arm and leg stayed straight and did not experience any additional stress as he set him down at the top of the stairs in the spectator's area. Some foreign shinobi thought they could use this as an opening and slay the Beautiful Blue Beast of Konoha. They were wrong.
As soon as Lee was placed on the ground, Guy spun to face those who would dare strike him in the back. Delivering a hook punch that jammed the faces of both of his attackers together before they were felled by the blow. Once he was sure Lee was safe, Guy leapt into the fray. From what he could tell, the high-ranking shinobi of Konoha within the arena only numbered around twelve shinobi while the enemy's forces were nearly four times that. He and his colleagues have quite the fight on their hands. He could only imagine what it was like beyond the stadium.
Asuma and Kurenai had drawn their weapons the moment the civilians put their heads down from the genjutsu's influence. That was when the foreign shinobi launched their attack. The Suna and Oto shinobi attacked with kunai in hand while Kurenai drew her kodachi as Asuma drew his trench knives. Asuma was more than willing to clash blades with his foes while Kurenai never allowed her blade to clash with the kunai of the foreign shinobi.
Due to the odds against them, every Konoha shinobi aimed for single strike kills. They couldn't allow themselves to be drawn into prolonged engagements, lest they risk their lives and the lives of their comrades. The enemy was also aware of this. They also had another strategy they could employ, pincer attacks. If they could distract the Konoha shinobi another could strike from an angle they least expected and kill the defenders.
Soon enough Kakashi and Genma would join their fellow Konoha shinobi in the stands. As Kakashi and Guy stood back-to-back Guy asked, "I take it you managed to kill the Suna Jonin in the arena?"
"Yeah, he wasn't all that tough" stated Kakashi. Guy gave a smirk, "Well then, how about a little competition. I bet I can take down more foreign shinobi than you." Hidden beneath his mask, Kakashi had a smirk of his own. "You're on" Kakashi replied. With that, the two moved to aid their comrades.
Asuma weaved through all those that challenged him, keeping his elbows tight to his body as he had his hands in front of his face. Using his size to his advantage, Asuma delivered powerful blows that many foolishly tried to block only to have their weapons cut through and the spikes of his trench knives piercing flesh while the force of the blows splintered bone. That was not to say he came out unscathed, far from it.
As Suna is known for its use of Futon jutsu, Asuma was on the receiving end of quite a few as many enemy shinobi realized it would be bad if he managed to get in close to them. This advantage didn't last long however, as Asuma was one of the best Futon users in the village so he was able to keep pace with the range game many of the Suna shinobi tried to take advantage of.
The Suna shinobi were once again preparing to hammer the Sarutobi with Futon jutsu. Asuma would not allow this. As the Suna shinobi launched there Futon: Renkudan Tsubute, Asuma countered with Futon: Supairaru indo Boru. The Supairaru indo Boru allowed Asuma to compress the air he was breathing out into a small sphere which he launched at the Suna shinobi. As soon as the four jutsu crossed paths, the Supairaru indo Boru exploded cancelling the Renkudan Tsubute while nocking the Suna shinobi back.
Taking advantage of the downed Suna shinobi, Asuma flipped the trench knife in his right hand so that the blade was pointed up. He then channeled a decent amount of Futon chakra through the weapon as he rushed forward, extending its blade to that of a katana and sliced into the three shinobi. One was sliced across the torso, the extended and incredibly sharp blade cutting through the shinobi and flak jacket with no resistance, the second was decapitated while the third was sliced at the waist. Once they were dead, he stopped channeling the chakra through his trench knife and flipped its orientation once again before attacking more standing foes.
Asuma was not the only one to find himself beset upon by multiple foes. As more and more enemy shinobi set upon the defenders Kurenai had been using small genjutsu's on those she fought, striking down the ones that resisted while running from the one she could catch. With the aid of his Sharingan, Kakashi could see the tactic that Kurenai was using. Kakashi quickly fought his way to his comrades to relay a new plan, they were to corral the enemy around Kurenai. This was done with baited retreats and throwing their foes in her general direction. When many were gathered around her, Kurenai demonstrated her mastery of genjutsu.
The remaining enemy shinobi all found themselves standing on an open lake with clouds above and no land insight being unable to move. They were all locked in the battle stances they were in before being caught in the genjutsu but they were all facing the center of the lake regardless of their orientation prior to being trapped. In the center of the lake was Kurenai. She had her eyes closed while her left hand was in a half ram seal and her right hand, which held her kodachi was pointed up toward the sky. She suddenly brought her sword down in an outward, diagonal slash, the motion of which caused all the enemy shinobi's necks to be slashed open and their blood escape like a rocket. The pain brought all of them back to reality only to find themselves dead.
Once they had cleared out most of the enemy shinobi with Kurenai's last attack, Kurenai let loose a pulse of chakra that encompassed the stands she was in which released those still under the genjutsu's influence. As soon as the pulse died down, the civilians all showed signs of grogginess, as if waking from an interrupted sleep.
Looking around Kakashi had noticed the Genin coming out from behind the bleachers. It appeared as though Sakura had managed to wake the other Genin while they were fighting the foreign shinobi, even going as far as to retrieve Shikamaru from the infirmary. Neji and Tenten also made their presence known, though Lee and Hinata seemed to be laying down as they were not in any condition to fight. They were covered in bruises, cuts and sweat while panting as if they had just run a marathon at Lee's pace. Kurenai, Guy, and Asuma gathered near Kakashi. The three took in the appearance of the two combat ready members of Guy's team. Tenten seemed to pillage a number of utility pouches and a belt from the fallen. It made sense as her skills were centered around throwing weapon into vital spots. They could only hope they were removed from foreign shinobi and not from Konoha shinobi.
"Alright everyone" spoke Kakashi, getting everyone's attention. "We need to evacuate the civilians to the fallout shelters. But we also need to join in the fighting beyond the stadium. I suspect the situation is far worse out there than in here." The other Jonin nodded in agreement with his deduction. "So how do we wish to divide the Genin?" asked Asuma. "There is still another set of civilians that need to be awoken and escorted out as well as the VIP area holding many wealthy individuals, including the Fire Daimyo" pointed out Kurenai.
"I'll guard the Fire Daimyo, and by extension the other VIP's" stated Asuma. "As a former member of the Guardian Shinobi Twelve, he should have no problem with my presence."
"What of the currently active Guardians?" asked Guy. "They are sure to be around him right now if not already evacuating him to a safer location, however their duty is to the Fire Daimyo so they don't need to protect the visiting Lords. For that we need to make sure they aren't caught up in this." The others nodded at this assessment. "Alright so looking at who we have available, who do you want to take with you?" asked Kurenai. Soon however she noticed someone was missing. "Has anyone seen Shino" asked a worried Kurenai. "I'm sure he's fine" said Asuma.
"I have not seen him with my Byakugan as we held the area surrounded by the other's" commented Neji. At this Kurenai got worried. Being unaware of her student's condition made her uneasy but she had to focus on the ongoing invasion and hope he was safe.
Asuma thought about who of the available Genin would be the best fit for this situation. "I'll take Kiba and Tenten with me. Kiba also brings with him Akamaru which allows us to be aware of any incoming threats while Tenten can keep them at a distance so we can keep them safe." The other Jonin nodded at the decision while Kiba's boisterous attitude seemed to be silenced by the fear of what he had seen of the fighting so far. The clashes he had seen the Jonin get into with the foreign shinobi were quick and resulted in someone dying. Despite the training he had undergone, Kiba had yet to fully bloody his claws on another person. With a gulp he nodded that he would follow Asuma, which Tenten also did. With that the three set off.
Here Kakashi turned to the remaining Genin. "Alright, the rest of you are going to protect the civilians on their way to the fallout shelters. Kurenai, you will escort them until you link them up with the Chunin that are leading the evacuation efforts. Once that is done, rejoin the frontlines." Kurenai nodded at her order.
"Alright let's moveout!" Kurenai ordered. The Genin nodded before they helped up Hinata and Lee so they could begin walking. They got the attention of the waking civilians, telling them that they are going to be evacuated to the shelters and that they need to follow them for their safety. Reluctantly, the citizens of Konoha followed the four Genin and one Jonin. They had to travel at a sedated pace to avoid getting seen and because Lee could not travel very quickly due to his injuries.
Kakashi and Guy watched the escort group leave with their charges. "They will be fine Guy" said Kakashi. Guy didn't say anything for a while. "I know … but I just worry for them. I didn't want any of my students to experience this like we did." Kakashi bowed his head as he responded, "I know what you mean."
As they turned around, they noticed a large purple rectangle on top of the Kage booth. Their eyes widened at what they were seeing. "Kakashi what is that?" questioned Guy. Kakashi was sure what to say. He could see it was a barrier of some sort but beyond that he had no clue. "I don't know Guy. It seems to be some kind of barrier but that is all I can tell."
"Do you think we should go help Hokage-sama?"
Kakashi shook his head. "Sadly, we can't even if we go, we have no means of getting through it. We can't go under it without potentially collapsing the roof so we would only be wasting time when we need to be defending the village." Guy had to concede those points. While Kakashi was known to have some experience in fuinjutsu, if he believes he can't get through the barrier then they didn't have a shot. Plus, if they collapse the roof by going through it, they could accidently kill Hokage-sama. With a sigh Guy conceded. "Okay. I guess we will have to put our faith in Hokage-same to come out of it alive" commented Guy. With that they left the arena to push back the invaders.
As they escorted the civilians to safety, the Genin couldn't help but be terrified of what they were seeing. Off in the distance was a large three headed snake that was demolishing everything before it. Explosions went off in the distance as the smoke clouds rose over the many buildings in the area. Fear gripped many of them. They were worried that the fighting would soon reach them and that they would need to fight for their survival. Despite their training, they were still children and showed fear of what may happen to them if they were not quick enough to reach the shelters.
After what felt like forever, the group from the arena managed to link up with an escort group of two Chunin and five genin. "I am Kurenai Yuhi, Jonin. We are coming from the arena that held the Chunin Exams."
The lead Chunin stepped forward. "I am Haru Kon, Chunin. I am one of the squad leaders searching for and directing the injured and civilians to the shelters through the fighting in the village." Kurenai nodded to the man. "As you can see, we have a rather large group. Can you provide aid to the Genin by helping escort this group to the shelters?" asked Kurenai. What went unnoticed to all was the entire time that Kurenai was talking with this group of Konoha shinobi, she was sending out short wave chakra pulses to dispel any henge the enemy may be using to deceive them. Luckily the group before them were indeed Konoha shinobi.
With a nod, Haru agreed to aid the group. "Okay, everyone listen-up" ordered Kurenai to the Genin. "I am leaving to aid the frontlines. With that Haru will take charge of the group. Once you are there, provided aid in the form of additional security for the shelters. Am I understood?" The Genin all responded with a "HAI!" With that Kurenai left to aid in the defense of her home.
Sitting on a ledge overlooking the Konoha hot springs was a long white-haired man. In his hands was a telescope he was using to peek into the women's side, all the while he was giggling like some kind of pervert. "Hehehe. There is nothing better than the sight of such beautiful women in the open" he said with a lecherous smile.
Suddenly something occurred to him. "Hmm, I wonder what today is? I should probably warn Sarutobi-sensei that the white snake is planning something against Konoha during the finals." With a shrug "Eh I probably have time to warn him later. For now, my research calls!" he cheered. Suddenly a loud crash rang throughout the village of Konoha. Turning to the source, his eyes went wide at what he saw. Coming through the western wall were three large brown snakes that were connected at the tail with each one being almost sixty meters tall. Around their necks were red rope collars along with three tomoe on their heads. They let out loud hisses as they demolished the walls, killing many civilians and shinobi as it burst through.
Recognizing the danger the village was in, as well as the fact the village had been caught flat footed, the man leapt from his current position and raced toward the walls to help defend the beautiful women and his home.
When the snakes had busted through the wall, almost five thousand Suna and Oto shinobi came through as well to aid in attacking Konoha. The defenders were quickly overwhelmed as they were unorganized and had far too many fighters that the shinobi of Konoha had to deal with. For now, all they could do is strike from afar as their home was being invaded.
It would take what seemed like an eternity before the white-haired man would arrive at his destination. By the time of his arrival on the scene, the snakes had pushed well into Konoha, destroying much of the village as it pushed to the village center.
Upon his arrival to the battle he leapt high into the air where he promptly summoned a large toad of a cyan color with two katanas with no guard tucked away on its back in and orange sash. The man would call this toad forth from its home, causing it to land on one of the snakes' head before introducing himself as Jiraiya to the two remaining snakes.
While preforming a wild kabuki dance, "BEHOLD YOU OTHER WORDLY CREATURES! IT IS I THE GREAT JIRAIYA! HERE TO BANISH YOU FROM THIS PLACE! FEAR ME IF YOU DARE!" he shouted from atop his mighty toad companion. Unknown to many, the Snake Clan and the Toad Clan have a long-standing rivalry. Before the Snakes was the summoner of their rival and he is said to be either more powerful or equally as powerful as their summoner. From this, the snakes did seem to shake in fear from his presence.
The presence of the giant toad and Jiraiya seemed to cause a stop in the fighting. Taking advantage of this Jiraiya yelled out words of inspiration for the Konoha shinobi. "YOU LOT THINK YOU CAN JUST INVADE OUR HOME?! WELL! YOU HAVE ANOTHER THING COMING! WE ARE SHINOBI OF KONOHA! WE WON'T BACKDOWN TO OR ANYONE! LET'S PUSH THEM BACK!" he bellowed, raising the morale of the Konoha shinobi.
The attention Jiraiya had gained from his entrance distracted the advancing Oto and Suna shinobi which the Konoha contingent were more than happy to take advantage of. With the giant beast taken care of, the other Konoha shinobi could focus on the Suna and Oto forces. The battles became a lot more fierce as the invaders no longer had a large beast to distract the defenders.
Suddenly the ground shook violently. Hoping to catch a glimpse of what caused it. It wouldn't be long before he saw a slug he knew all too well however she was much bigger. 'Katsuyu!' he shouted in his mind. 'When did she return? I thought Tsunade swore off returning to the village' Jiraiya thought, not rembering that Tsunade was the one that sent him flying through the sky a month ago.
He didn't have time to dwell on Tsunade being in the village at the moment. For now, he needed to focus on killing the summons before him and driving out the invaders. As he was about to move, he thought to himself 'I wonder where the Old Man is?'
Tsunade and Shizue, with Tonton close behind, rushed through the warzone of Konoha often killing any enemy shinobi that made it past the defenders. As they neared the western wall, they ended up finding many wounded shinobi. "Where are the medics?" asked Tsunade as she took in the scene of the many wounded. "I'm not sure Tsunade-sama" replied Shizune.
Tsunade was greatly disappointed. When she was Chief Medical Officer of Konoha, she had taught the Medical Corp that even if they were near and active warzone, they needed to preform search and rescue operations to make sure they saved as many lives as possible. It appears as if that has been disregarded since she was in charge. This is yet another reason that she had pushed to have trained Medic Nin in shinobi squads. Even though the wounded and fallen before her were not in squad formations, how many Medic Nin could have been in the area to aid Konoha's shinobi?
With a heavy sigh, Tsunade and Shizune rushed forward to save the lives of the wounded Konoha shinobi.
The first act they did was they performed triage on shinobi around them. Triage is the process of judging the severity of a person's injuries to determine the order of people receiving medical assistance in a crisis or warzone. They discovered that many of the injuries were done by bladed weapons meaning that they could repair the damage fairly easily. Their main goal was to stabilize as many of the fallen shinobi and civilians so they could receive proper medical care in a formal hospital.
Tonton helped out by calling out if she located any wounded Tsunade or Shizune could not see either being buried in debris or at an elevated location.
The more severe cases that they ran across consisted of perforated lungs, concussions, compound fractures, missing limbs or digits, or ruptured organs. Sadly, for many of these injured shinobi they would need to be marked as "unsavable" as they would not survive in a trip to the Konoha trauma center or there were easier injuries to stabilize. What was worse was that they also ran across many civilians who died due to the onslaught of the Suna and Oto shinobi that ran through the area.
Fallen shinobi, foreign and friendly, seemed to be scattered everywhere. On roof tops, the sides of buildings, in the streets and buried in ruble. Meanwhile, the civilians laid scattered throughout the streets and buried under the ruble that surrounded them.
There was the possibility of calling upon Katsuyu for aid but there was no time for that. She would need a dedicated guard detail to ensure her safety for both preparing the ritual circle and to guard her while inside it. Not to mention she would need to be in an area that was flat and would go undisturbed. The best place for this would probably be the Hokage tower. However given the current climate of the situation around her, she would have no one but Shizune to aid her and since it was barely known she was in the village she may be attacked as an enemy under a henge delaying her even more. With all the shinobi of Konoha that could aid her at the frontlines she would waste time when she could be aiding the fallen.
Since was just the two of them out near the warzone, Tsunade suspected that many would die as a result of the Medical Corps deficiencies to perform their duties. If Naruto was with them, then his Kage Bunshin could aid in the triage and gathering of the wounded. He could even handle many of the easier cases allowing Tsunade and Shizune to focus on the more severely injured fallen.
Thinking about her little ball of sunshine made her worry for his safety. She must have been wearing her worry on her face as Shizune commented on it. "Do not worry Tsunade-sama, he'll be alright. You did train him after all." Tsunade let out a weary sigh. She knew Shizune was trying to abate her worries but she couldn't help it. She had recently just given Naruto her Oji-san's necklace so he was in danger of dying to its curse. She wouldn't be alright until Naruto came back to her safely and healthy.
Suddenly a large rumbling was felt across the village. Shizune and Tsunade acted quickly to cover some of their patients from the crumbling dust. Once the rumbling had ceased, the two stopped what they were doing for their patients and quickly raced up the tallest structure near them, worried about what they may see. What they saw beyond the walls of Konoha stunned them. They saw Katsuyu but she was far larger than Shizune had ever seen her while Tsunade had only ever seen her that her true size when she went to Shikkotsu Forest. Based on the fact that two of the three active summoners of the Slug contract were standing next to each other the one that called her was the unaccounted-for member.
"It's Naruto!" cheered Shizune. Tsunade was stunned. Never would she believe that someone would manage to summon Katsuyu at her full size. It would seem that Naruto proved her wrong. With a soft smile, "Come on Shizune" Tsunade said as she turned away from Katsuyu. "We have patients we can't leave unattended if we want them to live to see the recovery teams." Shizune turned to follow her master with a "Hai Tsunade-sama."
