"What is going on, master Asuma?" Asked Ino while staring in shock at the scene that was unfolding right in front of her.
She, the genin and the jounin sitting behind them had all released themselves from the genjutsu. However, there was very little they could do to counter the chilling image of the immense monster that had just emerged from an explosion that destroyed half of the stadium.
Resembling a tanuki, the beast had several purple veins all throughout its body, almost as tattoos following a certain pattern. Its claws were of the same color, and its eyes shone with a bright yellow light. It roared after its appearance, and it was almost as intense as the sound of the explosion. Distinctively, it had a single, very long tail.
"I'm afraid that…" Kakashi began, but his words were interrupted by the shock.
It was not a good look that even a shinobi like him, a member of the jounin elite, was just as shocked as the kids at the sight of the creature.
Guy gulped, but managed to finish his rival's words.
"The One-Tail has been released."
Tanzo turned around swiftly, revealing that his eyes were as wide open as they could. "The One-Tail?! As in… One of the legendary tailed beasts?!"
Kurenai nodded in response, while trying to grab the shoulders of the genin to put them behind her and the other jounin.
"But there's no way we can possibly handle this…" Added Chouji. "Not without the Fourth Hokage."
The jounin were left speechless for several seconds. They really did not have an answer or reply for that. Even them had serious concerns for Konoha's ability to deal with such a threat.
"Perhaps…" Ken tried to speak, but not a single name came to mind.
Kakashi, though, did have an idea. "Lord Third is busy, but…"
"But?" Pressed the blonde girl.
"Maybe Jiraiya can pull it off."
A barrage of kunai were then thrown at the group from one of the corners of the viewing tower. Ken immediately reacted and threw a smoke bomb, which covered them in no time.
The jounin took the genin and emerged on the opposite side of the smoke. This had now become a battlefield, and it was no place for genin like them to be in. For such, Kakashi turned to them, already having a set of instructions very clear.
"Leave, now. No questions asked." Said the man of the silver hair. "Go back to the village and help civilians if they're in danger. There are probably ongoing evacuations, so you can help with that. But this is war, and it's better if you avoid trying to fight someone out of your league."
The man then lowered the palm of his hand and summoned his trusty pug.
"Pakkun, guide them. Seek civilians in trouble."
The dog did not seem impressed, but he nodded reluctantly. He then turned to the kids, and the frown on his face got even worse.
"Hurry up, follow me."
In the blink of an eye, the dog vanished into thin air. However, the genin were able to tell where he had gone as a hole was opened through the concrete wall of the tower. From there, they jumped down into the village.
With the explosion, Neji and Lee had been launched backwards with great force. The latter was able to land without major injury, but the already hurt Hyuga crashed directly onto the ground of the arena. He audibly broke several of his bones, and lost consciousness the moment he landed.
Lee and Tenten rushed to him, but he was non-responsive. As the beast roared, it became evident that whatever it was, it was simply on an entirely different level.
The brown-haired girl grabbed the unconscious Hyuga and swiftly began to run towards the exit of the arena. However, the boy in the green spandex did not follow her. Instead, he slowly walked towards the immense beast.
"Lee, what the hell are you doing?!"
As she ran away, she noticed that someone else was approaching the beast. The black hair tied into a ponytail made it obvious who it was.
Shikamaru sighed before making a complex combination of hand seals. "You've completely lost your mind. And so have I."
Lee smirked before an invisible aura covered his body, raising its temperature and pushing his hair upwards. His skin turned to a completely red tone, while instead of sweat, his body began to liberate steam. Several veins all throughout his body became so visible that it seemed painful. His eyes went blank, and finally, his nose bled.
"Third gate, opened!"
Nara frowned before releasing his technique. His shadow sneakily extended to that of the still creature, which seemed to not notice what was going on right underneath it. He turned his head upwards, to check just how tall it was.
His eyes widened when he realized that it easily towered over the main viewing tower of the stadium. Said building only reached its neck.
His shadow finally connected with that of the beast. However, almost instantly, massive amounts of chakra were channeled through the recently connected shadows. Steam accumulated right underneath Shikamaru before the floor exploded and sent him flying against a nearby tree.
As he stood up after the crash, he coughed up some blood.
"What the hell?!"
Lee's body flickered and only reappeared for a few milliseconds on his way to the creature's head. Several small expansive waves formed on the spots where he either punched or kicked. However, his final objective was the creature's face. More specifically, its eyes.
"We need to get him out of there!" Yelled Tenten while she carefully left Neji on the ground right next to the exit.
She took the scroll she usually carried on her back and swiftly summoned a kusarigama. She nailed the scythe on the creature's skin, and noticed that it was made out of sand.
The skin slowly absorbed the weapon, and the girl had to eventually let go of it. She then turned to look at Nara, who was slowly walking towards her. His hand was carefully placed over his own ribs, some of which had been broken upon impact.
"I don't think there's much we can do." Admitted Shikamaru, before once again looking up.
Lee had finally reached the head of the creature, and was about to land a straight kick into its eyes. Steam was coming out of his skin to such an extent that it blocked a lot of the view.
However, all of a sudden Lee was nowhere to be seen, and in his place there was only a sort of pillar of sand. The structure slowly lowered, returning to normal. And finally, the creature took its first step.
The step itself was like over fifty explosive seals going off, and left a massive crater on the ground of the arena.
Both Tenten's and Shikamaru's eyes widened like plates, but their shock acted against them. They found themselves paralyzed.
"Run, now!"
Lee's voice was finally heard by the genin, who turned to look behind them. The boy with bushy eyebrows had landed on one of the trees of the arena, but his skin had returned to normal. He was visibly exhausted and his body was completely dampened by sweat.
"Take Neji and let's go. That thing… There's nothing we can do."
Both Shikamaru and Tenten nodded before rushing to the exit. This time, the boy wearing the green spandex followed. His speed was far greater, but he made sure to not lose them as he knew they would probably need help given their injuries and exhaustion.
"We should take him to the hospital, he's very badly injured." Said Tenten as Lee punched through the walls of the tunnels to escape more hastily. "Both Nara and Neji."
It had been a normal day in the Forest of Death. If anything, it was only unusually sunny, which made it a little less deadly.
However, said day was interrupted by the massive explosion in the middle of the arena of the stadium. Not only was it heard all throughout Konoha, but it caused the ground to shake quite heavily. Birds flew away and terrestrial animals ran in the opposite direction.
Naruto was breathing heavily from his training in the water, while Jiraiya climbed one of the taller trees that were next to the river. What he saw was certainly unpleasant to him.
"Fuck."
The blonde boy got out of the water and let himself fall to the floor. He waited patiently for his new teacher to come down the tree, even if it took a couple of minutes. He even took the chance to drink some of the water of the river, and eat one of the pieces of bread his master had left on the ground after the explosion.
The Sannin finally touched down. However, he ignored his new pupil. He dived into his thoughts while summoning a set of scrolls. He swiftly looked through them and eventually selected two, which he tied up to a belt.
"What the hell was that, pervy sage?" Asked the tired boy.
Jiraiya was reminded of his existence, so he gasped a little. "Ah, right, you."
Naruto fell on his back in reaction to his new master forgetting about him so quickly.
"Well, things got a little complicated, is all."
"That explosion, earthquake, whatever, was very strong." The boy squinted at his new master. "I'm not stupid! What the hell is going on?!"
The tall man sighed as he was forced to tell the truth. "Konoha is under attack, kid."
Naruto's angry facial expression dropped. It softened to more of a concerned one, almost a shocked one. For him, and for many more, the thought of the village being invaded was simply inconceivable.
"But you stay here. Keep trying that exercise." He turned his back on the boy. "It's not safe for you to go out there, and I'll be back soon anyway."
"No, wait…!"
Naruto's attempt to stop the man was futile, as he vanished into a cloud of smoke and disappeared without a trace. But he would not just sit back and watch.
He climbed the same tree as his new master, and tried his best to look past the forest. He identified several massive clouds of smoke emerging from what seemed to be the village. It took him a while, but after a few seconds he finally saw it.
The Shukaku's head sticking out of the stadium, towering over it. His eyes widened, before shaking his head. In the place of shock, he forced determination onto his face.
What would Sasuke think if he just sat back and did nothing? He would totally be pissed about it.
"No way I let that happen!" He grabbed his orange jumpsuit and put it back on, and then did the same with his hitai-ate. "I cannot become the Hokage if I can't protect the village! So it's time to show 'em!"
A cloaked ANBU was being escorted by two oto-nin while heading for the Academy. The man wearing the porcelain mask had been responsible for casting the genjutsu on the stadium, but after that, he no longer had a part to play in there. For such, he figured he could help elsewhere.
They jumped across the wall of Konoha's Shinobi Academy, and swiftly made their way through the schoolyard. It was mostly empty and, unlike what was planned, the building had not blown up like the other relevant locations of the village.
The cloaked man beckoned the oto-nin to stand back before placing an explosive seal on the closed main doors of the building. Then, he jumped back while the doors succumbed to the explosion. He rushed inside and his two subordinates followed.
It did not take him very long to realize that they were unable to move past classroom number 105. He stopped seemingly out of nowhere, and turned around.
"I know this one." Said the man as he removed his porcelain mask.
A pair of circular glasses were revealed, as well as very long gray hair tied into a ponytail.
"You can come out, Anko." Said Kabuto while a smirk formed on his face. "I'll allow you to entertain me while my friends here destroy this place and everyone inside it."
The ceiling above him then collapsed, as something was falling from the second floor. The man barely managed to dodge the falling debris by jumping away.
As the rubble and dust finally cleared a little, a familiar violet-haired woman was revealed to indeed be the one behind the sudden collapse of the ceiling.
"Nice to finally meet you, Kabuto." Greeted the jounin while showing off her teeth with a wide smile.
"Lord Orochimaru has spoken a lot about you." He finally threw the mask away, causing it to break when it impacted against the wall. "So I'm afraid you will be unable to surprise me."
"We shall see."
She quickly pointed her right arm at Kabuto, launching four snakes straight at him. The man vanished into a small cloud of smoke, replaced by a simple piece of concrete. The woman then pushed three needles from the sleeve of her left arm, and launched them as hard as she could at the other two oto-nin.
The needles hit the wall at the end of the hallway, but failed to catch the masked shinobi as they managed to continue their way to the next floor. She knew it would take them time to find the students and teachers though, so there was margin for her.
Kabuto reappeared behind her, with a chakra scalpel formed on his right hand. The woman felt the heat approaching her shoulder.
Another snake emerged from the neck of her overcoat, jumping into the gray-haired man and biting his nose.
The traitor yelled in pain and stepped back as he used his blade to cut the snake in half. As he finally removed the still biting head of the animal, he received a kick straight to his face. In response, he tried to slash back at the woman, but only managed to cut off a strand of hair.
Anko pulled herself back with the chakra threads she had attached to the needles, and gained some healthy distance.
The man's chakra blade dissipated from his hand while the two elite shinobi stared down at each other.
They began making complex combinations of hand seals. Anko began to breathe in a big amount of air, which indicated what she was about to do. The man finished his own combination with the inu seal before water began to break through the floor of the hallway.
A little bit of smoke began to emerge from the violet-haired woman's mouth before releasing a massive flame with the shape of an arrow. It approached the traitor at unbelievable speed, but what previously was a little water turned into almost a geyser that raised around him and blocked the flames.
As the water turned to steam after absorbing the heat of the flames, Kabuto's confident smirk became visible to the jounin.
"Don't you think it's a little bit dangerous to play with fire with kids around?" He giggled a little.
His hands were still holding the inu seal, but then he shifted to the tatsu one, and the water that remained in a liquid state began to gather around him once again. It quickly adopted the shape of a dragon, before being launched back at the woman.
Anko replaced herself with one of the lockers and then bounced on the wall towards Kabuto. The water dragon turned around, chasing the woman.
She swiftly made a new combination of hand seals while approaching the man. His giggles turned into cackles, as his water technique was about to hit her. However, on the last second, she spit out a small ball of thick saliva before jumping into the second floor, right through the same hole she had created when she revealed herself.
The dragon tried to turn upwards, but the ball of saliva began to let out a sound of burning. Kabuto's eyes widened in shock as it suddenly released a massive explosion powerful enough to turn his water dragon completely into steam.
The force of the explosion sent the man out of the academy through the main entrance. He dragged through the ground of the yard before finally hitting a tree that stopped his trajectory.
When he opened his eyes, his glasses were not in place. They were lying on the ground next to him, broken. He ignored the detail and slowly stood up, before removing what remained of the cloak he had been using.
"Seems like you had more surprises than Orochimaru said." He shook some of the dirt off his clothes before holding both forearms right in front of his chest, parallel to the other. "Just so happens that I also have some left."
Both of his forearms became embedded with pure blue chakra that was visible.
Another fire arrow was shot from one of the windows of the second floor, but Kabuto ignored it and rushed straight towards the main entrance. At great speed, he crossed the hallway and jumped into the same hole as Anko.
There, he found no one but dozens of snakes ready to attack him. Several spit venom at him, while others hurried to climb up his legs. He placed his hand on the ceiling, attaching himself to it so he would not fall into the swarm of snakes. He used his other hand to grab a pair of kunai with explosive seals attached to them, which he threw straight at the animals.
The explosions caused the rest of the floor to collapse, and soon both shinobi found themselves in the very same place where their battle had begun. As the violet-haired woman revealed herself, Kabuto adopted a simple fighting stance.
She ran at him and threw a barrage of punches and kicks, all of which the man blocked without much complications. Anko finally tried to low-kick her opponent, but he simply jumped and took advantage of the height to kick her straight in the jaw.
The jounin was pushed backwards, but before she fell she disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Several kunai then fell from the ceiling, and soon exploded as Kabuto noticed they were attached to explosive seals.
However, as the smoke caused by the explosions dissipated, the man was nowhere to be seen. Anko jumped out of one of the lockers, trying to find the traitor. However, two hands emerged from the ground beneath her and pulled the rest of his body out by holding onto her legs.
As Kabuto emerged from the ground, he began to punch the woman in the back with his chakra-embedded fists. Then, he grabbed her by the shoulder and forcibly turned her around, before hitting with an open palm straight at her chest.
The jounin was forced to her knees, and she began to cough up blood. It certainly was not the gentle fist, but he had used medical ninjutsu in a very similar manner to the style of the Hyuga.
"This is it, Anko!" The chakra from his hands disappeared as he raised them up. "This is why Orochimaru abandoned you and chose me in your place!"