Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I'm an opportunist at heart. Kishimoto! You'd better not leave me any openings! Just because you're pretty much done with the series does not mean I won't find some way to take it from you, you hear? This isn't over! Nothing is over, Kishimoto! You hear me? I'm talking to you!

I will have satisfaction!

Chapter 22: No Plan Survives First Contact

Jiraiya chewed on his own tongue in thought as he walked through the tiny village that hosted them. Dawn was still a few hours away from breaking. It was quiet and tranquil. He knew full well that things wouldn't stay that way for long. They were still on their guard and making their plans and preparations for the battle that was likely to come.

Normally, such things would be done as subtly as possible, but that would have only been of use if they planned on fighting in the village. That wasn't an option, as the tiny locale wouldn't have stood for very long if any of them engaged the enemy there.

That Hyuuga Clan girl didn't seem like much of a leader, at least until the time came to kick butt and get people into gear. At first, Jiraiya doubted she knew how to even give orders, but when she'd started directing traffic to get her clansmen into positions that could easily protect the village, he could see that she really had been groomed to take over in her father's stead one day. She was decisive when she needed to be. Good for her.

It also helped that they wouldn't have to worry about any of their enemies threatening the village itself to gain an advantage over the active combatants.

Minato would shit a brick if the place was leveled in the process of defending it.

'We need a good, long brainstorming session,' Jiraiya thought to himself, 'If these guys are as good as advertised, it doesn't matter if I'm here or not. They'll find a way to try and work around my being here.'

One Guardian was dead. Jiraiya was the type to think about the worse-case scenario and fully expected the other eleven to make up their own plan to come at them.

Jiraiya looked up and saw clouds beginning to move in. His face twisted up in thought as he tried to think of an approach to take in the upcoming battle.

All of his comrades were young, but hopefully they realized the serious nature of the situation.

He had faith. They were all an eccentric bunch, a hodge-podge of different ninja upbringings if there ever was one, but then again, he wasn't some straight-laced shinobi with a stick up his butt. He was a goofy sort in his own right, but he could get downright dangerous when the need arose, and he had personally had a hand in training one of the younger ninja he would be fighting alongside.

"They can do it," Jiraiya said to himself, "I know they can. This is doable. It's totally manageable."

How much of that was honest belief, and how much was an attempt to convince himself, Jiraiya didn't know. But that didn't change the fact that they had to make a stand. They had to pull this off. There was no retreating. Not unless they were willing to let the village they were in be razed to the ground.

That was not an option.

XxX

Laid out on a table in the primary suite of the inn was a map of the village Naruto and company had taken up lodgings in, as well as the immediate countryside around it. Naruto knew what to make of a topographical map. What he didn't know was how to plan a large-scale strategy based around the landscape's layout.

All of this was just so that they knew what to expect depending on how the battle began to unfold. Pretty much everyone was sure of one thing though. They had to head out to meet the enemy in some capacity. A siege situation would do nothing to give them the advantage. It would be worse for everyone, both them and the noncombatant villagers themselves.

While everyone had been sleeping and taking guard in shifts, Naruto had been up the entire time, thinking. It hadn't exactly been going well. Elaborate planning was not his strong suit, but Minato had put him in charge. Whatever happened there, it was all his responsibility.

If the Twelve Ninja Guardians were as powerful as their shadowy reputation lent them to be, enough so to leave Anko wary at the idea of facing them, there had to be something they could do to even up their odds.

Sometime during the night, after her sleep and guard shift, Tenten had gone to join him, having seen the light on in the inn's suite from where she had been throughout her patrol time. That was where she had remained, even as sunlight peeked up over the horizon and began to light the sky.

"What do you think they know so far?" Naruto asked as he and Tenten studied the markings they made on the map, representing the village and the important areas around it.

"They know how many people we have and probably who we are," Tenten said, "Hinata-chan saw their scout. They've already gotten a look at what we've got. A good look. We killed the only one of them we've confronted across so far, but that wasn't the one she saw."

Naruto knew that information from someone working for the Guardians would have been invaluable, but it hadn't been applicable to the situation their friends found themselves in, "Neji did what he had to do out there. That lady almost killed Shino. She would have done the same thing to Neji and Hana."

Tenten could see that much. She would have done the exact same thing if the shoe had been on her foot, "No, he was right. There really wasn't anything else he could do with someone that dangerous. I'm just saying, it sucks that we still have no idea what we're up against."

"Any ideas?"

"Nope. Not really."

Which was the problem.

Neither Naruto nor Tenten could call strategy their finest quality. Then again, everyone there was more the reactionary type. They adjusted to whatever was needed. Sitting in the pocket, waiting for the storm to come their way, and adapting accordingly wasn't the best option.

However, going hunting for their enemy wasn't an option at all.

Tenten frowned at the thought of a battle the scale of which was about to happen being waged around innocent people. That was how her parents were killed, as collateral damage, caught in the crossfire between the two greatest clans of the time. They were killed, and no one cared. Not even enough to properly bury them.

"I don't want to be responsible for getting this place destroyed," Tenten said quietly.

Naruto got up walked over to the balcony of his parents' suite and looked out at the villagers going about their lives. Everything was about to turn into pure pandemonium. Lives were going to be ruined and people were going to die if they didn't find some way to protect them.

If this was the place where his father was going to establish their village, they had to start thinking that way. They had to fight for these people the way they would fight for each other. Locking down the entire place was going to be impossible though. Even if the Hyuuga Clan had massive fields of vision, across the entire village, they would be spread too thin to muster a real defense.

As he stared out at the sight before him, a light bulb went off inside of his head. Difficult circumstances tended to breed inspiration, "I think I have an idea," Naruto finally said, getting Tenten to perk up, "...We need to gather up all of the villagers. Before anything else, we've got to get them the fuck out of here."

"Quietly?"

"If we can manage it."

Tenten looked across the room at her friend, "...Is this going to be complicated?"

"For me? Yeah. For everyone else? It depends," Naruto got out a piece of sealing parchment and began writing out complicated arrays with great speed, "Heh, I've never made one this big before. I wish I could have waited to try it when I was 100 percent, but we work with what we've got, right?"

He immediately headed out to begin getting to work. If his plan had any chance of working, he had to do this quickly.

XxX

There was a method the Twelve Guardian Ninja used whenever the order came down for complete eradication, and there were variations, depending on the defensive capabilities of their target. Their enemy would definitely fight back, rending the most basic version of their plan moot. But it was still serviceable, with a few adjustments that they had long since set up.

It had never failed them, ever since this incarnation of the team had formed in full. Whenever enough of them were around to enact it in full, there were no worries. It was just a matter of preparation and waiting.

Of course, as they moved into position, they had to be careful. Between the Hyuuga girl getting a look at Chiriku and Fuuka's impatience, the enemy was tipped off to their presence. The advantage still sat with them, however. They knew very much about who they were facing, while their adversary still had no idea what they were capable of or how they were going to attack.

It felt like rain. It looked like rain. The air smelled like rain. That was perfect. Rain would affect the ability of the Inuzuka Clan girl to sniff out. It would also make their finishing strike so much more effective. The operation would not begin until the ground was good and soaked.

Asuma, Chiriku, Sora, and another man traveled through the forests surrounding the very outer limits of the village territory. The man had simple brown clothes and brown hair held back out of his face with a red headband. Sora stayed close to him as he sat and checked over his equipment up in a tree, not quite at his side, hanging back slightly behind as though he deferred to this person directly.

By now, Asuma had stopped smoking. There was a time and a place to enjoy your certain vices. In the field with a particular kind of enemy wasn't the place, "Alright gentlemen, who's ready to get down to business?" He asked before looking to the man in the tree, "Kazuma? What say you?"

The man, Kazuma, smiled and stood up on the branch he was in, Sora following suit, "If everyone here is good to go, it's just a matter of waiting for the signal from the advance teams," Kazuma said, "We have the easy part this time. We're on cleanup duty. Anything that slips through the cracks, we go ahead and mop up."

Sora seemed disgruntled at the news that they were basically the backup team, "So we're not going in ourselves?" He complained, "I want to fight."

Chiriku shook his head at the youthful exuberance or ignorance of his comrade's son, "This won't be much of a battle after Limelight goes off."

"I know! That's the problem!" Sora exclaimed, "We came all this way, and we're not even going to see any action."

"Spoken like a kid who's never seen the inside of a real war," Asuma said, a bite to his tone at Sora's questioning of their method of operating, "It's not about action. It's about efficiency. Would you rather get your claws wet or would you rather go home in one piece?"

Sora glared at Asuma and looked ready to challenge him when Kazuma dragged him back by his arm and slapped him in the head. Sora switched his look over to his father, but faltered when he saw the steely serious gaze his father had leveled him with.

The message was clear. Act the way that you know you're supposed to act. The Twelve Guardian Ninja were professionals.

Having effectively admonished his son, Kazuma got back to official business, "Fudou and Fuen are almost finished preparing stage one of the attack plan," He told everyone, before turning his attention to Sora, "When that's underway, that means it's time to go. You're with me."

Sora brightened up a bit at being told he would be working with his dad, "Of course, father."

Asuma and Chiriku looked at each other with varying degrees of relief. Sora was indeed talented, but there had been a certain amount of nepotism that had gone into his getting a place on the team. His father Kazuma had performed admirably for the daimyo for quite some time, and had trained Sora himself. Granted, the boy had proven himself, but still hadn't gone through exactly what the rest of them had to reach that point.

He was still quite inexperienced. A few of them believed that Sora had never even gone on any real missions or fought in any truly difficult battles before joining the Twelve Guardian Ninja. If Kazuma was going to take him, that was fine. Any time the others had to work with him, it felt more like babysitting than partnering with an equal.

In the end, it didn't matter. While Sora could potentially be a liability, that would only be if something about their plan failed. Even with a target that was willing and able to fight back against them, their Limelight tactic had never failed, and no one had ever survived to tell any tales about it.

XxX

(Hi no Kuni – Grand Verdant Stretch)

Kushina did her best to hide her impatience at the slow pace that the Nara Clan seemed to move at. The walk back to their proper clan village was slow, reserved, and languid. Night had fallen in full by the time they had made it back, too late to hold any kind of proper meeting with anyone who could be considered influential.

She had planned to try and finagle a meeting at the crack of dawn the next morning, only to be told that the Nara Clan didn't really get moving without an urgent purpose until nine in the morning at the earliest. It was enough to make her scream.

They were willing to provide her lodgings for the night, under a guard of course. That had been good for a bit of a laugh. With everything else she had seen, it wouldn't have surprised her if she walked outside and caught her guard napping on the job.

By the time she was led to meet up with whoever the clan leader was, it was difficult for her to keep from gnashing her teeth, 'Be smooth,' She thought to herself, as she was led along a dirt road that she and her guard followed, 'Goddamn it, Minato is so much better at the whole diplomacy thing than I am. If only half the world didn't hate his guts.'

Kushina's guard led her to an area near the thick woods that was fenced off. There she found a man leaning against the barrier, overseeing a few of the younger clansmen work with the deer that were inside.

He wore his hair in the same ponytail that the rest of the men in the Nara Clan did. There were two long diagonal scars on his face and a goatee. His attire consisted of arm guards, dark trousers, a mesh shirt, and an open deer-skin coat.

When he noticed their approach, he stood up straight from what had been a careless slouch. Clearly, he hadn't been expecting to see her so soon in the morning, "You're up and about early," He said, looking to Kushina's guard for an explanation.

"I figured since she was up, I might as well bring her to see you now. This lady never sleeps," The guard said, sounding irritated with how his night and morning had gone.

"I did sleep," Kushina deadpanned, "I got six hours."

Both men looked at Kushina as though she were something other than human. She swore she caught one of them mutter something about how she could function with so little rest. Hadn't they ever heard that it was rude to talk about someone else when they were standing right there? Either way, she waited it out until they turned their attention back to her once again.

The man with the scars let out a sigh, showing his enthusiasm for the business side of his job, "So, you came all this way, alone, I might add," He said, "I guess we've kept you waiting long enough. What can I do for you?"

Kushina remembered her manners, believing them to be important as a representative for the ninja village initiative, and bowed respectfully, "My name is Uzumaki Kushina, and I have a request to ask of you. I'm willing to pay your normal fee for services rendered," She mentally patted herself on the back at her attempt to sound formal.

"We're not going to do any missions that would result in helping your clan unification idea go forward, unfortunately."

Of course. Backsides needed to be covered, and nobody was going to stick their neck out for them. Not with what they had up against them, even if they did happen to agree with the idea.

"I didn't come to convince you to join anything. You've got your thing with the Akimichi and Yamanaka. That's fine," Kushina said, dropping a good portion of her formality. Being direct seemed to be working out as the best option. She pulled out a scroll with a copy of what she needed on it, "I came to ask you if you can find a certain set of ingredients. It's for a medicine that we would like for you to make."

"That's agreeable," The scarred man said, gesturing for Kushina's guard to take the scroll and head off and begin preparing a specialist for the job to come, "Why didn't Namikaze-san come?"

Other than the fact that he was under the impression that he wasn't welcome there? "There are some things a mother has to take on for herself," Kushina told him, keeping her cards as close to her chest as possible, "That's all I'm going to say about that."

She was going to be honest, but there wasn't a need for those who weren't involved to know about everything happening on her end of things.

"Fair enough," The man said, returning his attention to the younger clan members working with the deer, "We'll get one of our pharmacists ready, then we'll see what you need made."

A weight fell off of Kushina's chest when she heard it. There was still a chance that they wouldn't have everything that was necessary, but it was better than that witch in Sora-ku who wanted to test Minato just to make a cure for them. All there was to do now was wait.

...God, waiting was always the worst.

Figuring that it wouldn't be too long until some kind of news came back to her, Kushina followed the lead Nara's example and relaxed against the gate, watching the younger clan members go about their assigned tasks. It brought her back to simpler times back on Uzu no Kuni. She did miss home. She missed the clan and the security that came with living there. Even so, for all the hardships that leaving had caused, she felt it had been and would be for the best.

"Is that your son?" She asked, pointing to one of the young teenagers that had been taking the lead over the other younger shinobi, doling out instructions and otherwise keeping watch over the lot of them. He seemed quite bored, but otherwise content with what was probably nothing work. Granted, he did also look more like the leader than any of the others, even if they were all related in some way.

"How could you tell?" The scarred Nara clan leader asked, turning a curious eye her way.

Kushina let out a soft laugh. His paranoia was unfounded. She was just pointing out something that was obvious to her, "You watch him more than the others," She said, "I'm a mother, Nara-san. I can see those kinds of things. Trust me."

He let out a snort of sorts in return, "You can call me Shikaku. And yes, that's my boy," He admitted with a faint smile. Just like that, it disappeared as a distant, hard look came over him, "I don't want any of the crap going on between the Senju, the Uchiha, or your struggles to touch him. It's not our concern, and I think a lot of bodybags are going to be filled before it's all said and done."

The situation of the Nara, the Akimichi, and the Yamanaka clans were not the same as the other groups that had felt a reason to join with Minato. What they had was comfortable compared to the rest of the world. Because the three were aligned, a fight with one meant a fight with all three, and the variety in their skills that was startlingly effective when they came together made that a dangerous proposition.

With that in mind, why would they put all of that at risk for an idea that had a long shot of working out? No one sane would, and if Kushina had learned anything in the short time she had been around them, the Nara Clan didn't do anything that they thought was unnecessary.

"I guess you and your two allied clans feel the same way," Kushina mused aloud. It all made sense to her, "If you don't want any part of what we're offering, that's fine. I'm sure Minato never lied to you and said that any of this would be easy. If you're not all in, it's not worth investing your resources into and putting your people at risk for."

"For something you're betting your life on, you're awfully realistic about your chances," Shikaku said, "I can't imagine there's any going back if you decided to give up at some point. Whether it's now, a year from now, even twenty years from now."

It had almost been funny, to think about going back to the way things were. There hadn't been any going back for Kushina since she had sent Naruto away.

Kushina shrugged, "When we prove it works, then people will come out of the woodwork to be a part of it," She reasoned casually, turning her violet eyes onto Shikaku, "The ones we can count on at first, when we're still working everything out, they're either the ones who really believe in what we're doing, or they're the ones who don't have anything left to lose the way things are now."

The desperate were usually the most dedicated. Desperation could bring together all kinds of strange folks. It was up to them from that point onward to find enough common ground to work together for something greater.

In that sense, Minato's plan was already a success. People from all sorts of walks of life had come together, when they would have never interacted in a positive manner otherwise. It was a thought that could give even the skeptics against the thought of clans and freelancers coming together peacefully en masse some hope that it was possible.

XxX

(Cha no Kuni)

Hana sniffed at the wet air and winced in pain. She was miserable, standing out in the rain alongside several members of the Hyuuga Clan. All of them were decked out in ponchos as the rain came down in buckets.

She had volunteered for keeping guard over the village with the Hyuuga Clan. Even though her ability to track by scent was hampered by her injuries, she still had her three ninken with noses just as good if not better than hers.

And they were equally as affected as she would have been by the rain.

Having done her rounds, she found Hinata with Neji standing watch over her. Much like the other members of their clan that she had come across that morning, they didn't seem too affected by the inclement weather.

"Huh. I didn't think your type was willing to get your hands dirty like this," Hana said, getting the attention of the two cousins, both of whom eyed her strangely, "Hey, no offense intended. I'm just saying."

Hinata was the first to break character and let out a tiny laugh, waving off Hana's apology, "It's fine. It's something we get quite often."

When you lived in a castle and carried yourself as a noble, the general idea was that you were lacking when it came time to get down to the actual heavy lifting. The fact remained that the Hyuuga Clan was still a ninja clan, and a damn good one. They didn't get there by taking purely high-comfort assignments. Political influence had been a factor in their rise, but at the end of the day, they had to produce in the field, and they did.

Rain and mud, while it wasn't the most pleasant of conditions to be out in, wouldn't stop them from doing what they had been raised their entire lives to do.

"Rest assured, Inuzuka-san, our clansmen are just as capable of excelling in these kinds of conditions as any other," Neji assured their temporary comrade, "The rain will not affect our performance."

Hana smiled at how they had received her after the blunt, uninformed statement she had approached them with, "Well, at least the weather won't be bothering one of us. My sense of smell is shot," She said, wrinkling her nose painfully, "Rain doesn't make it impossible for me to do my thing… just a lot harder. The range of my smell is cut down to almost nothing, not even accounting for the broken nose."

"How is that by the way?" Hinata asked out of concern for her condition.

Hana rubbed at the bandage still covering the bridge of her nose, "I wish I knew more about medic-nin stuff," She complained with a sigh, "I fix animals, not people. If it was one of my dogs that was hurt instead of me myself, I would have pretty much handled it by now. I'm a better vet than a doctor."

She had been trying to keep a stiff upper lip about her abilities being lessened by injury, but it was hard. She took pride in her talents. To lose them in any way, for any period of time, was annoying to say the least. She had worked hard for them.

It could have been worse though. She could have been hit with the Five Elements Virus. She owed Naruto for falling on that grenade for her. For that, and to his teammate for procuring the formula for a cure to the same illness that threatened her clan.

A Hyuuga Clan member rushed over to Hinata and Neji, whispering something to them that got them both to tense up. The clan member bowed and leapt off to return to what Hana assumed was his assigned patrol post, "What's the matter?" Hana asked.

Hinata activated her kekkei genkai and got a good look at what she had been informed of, "There are people approaching."

People? So the fight was finally starting, "How many?" Hana asked.

A frown marred Hinata's pretty face, presumably at what she was seeing, "...More than twelve," She informed her family member and her new friend, "A lot more. I would say we're looking at more than one-hundred," Because she had stopped counting. More were coming.

Hana bared her teeth at the thought of foot soldiers being called in to try and overwhelm them, "What, did the Guardians send back to the Fire Daimyo for actual troops to do this instead?" Hinata shook her head in the negative, "Huh? What are you seeing then?"

Hinata shook her head, trying to make sense of what was going on, "S-Something's wrong. No one approaching has a pulse."

From the woods, dozens of disheveled figures ambled out, nearly lifeless in their approach. They did nothing to hide their approach. They weren't making a rush for the village. The skin of each person shuffling toward them was pale and colorless. There was no life or focus in their eyes.

When they finally got close enough for Hana's nose to work in the rain, she caught the distinct scent of unearthed soil. Whatever was happening, these weren't living people.

Even with a numbers disadvantage for the defenders, there was a good chance that something like this would be manageable.

Hana cracked her knuckles as her three ninken began barking and growling in anticipation of a fight, "Well, as long as they're going to make this easy..."

She was prepared to get into the mix to begin culling their numbers when the land itself seemed to turn to the favor of the enemy.

Four giant gates emerged around the outskirts of the village, one for each cardinal direction.

"Tch," Neji scoffed, able to see the barrier this created around the area, "Well, I guess one of us had to say it, just to make things that much worse."

"Sorry," Hana said, having the good grace to look sheepish at her tempting of fate, "What's going on now?"

Neji pointed to the large gate that was the closest in view to them, "Those four gates have created a barrier. Not that it matters, since we weren't going anywhere to begin with, but we don't even have the option to leave now."

"Well, as long as they're burning the lifeboats, so to speak, let's make sure the whole ship doesn't go down, shall we?" Hana insisted, strengthening her determination to see things through until the end.

Hinata's mouth dropped open as she could see even more going on around them, "Everyone, look out!" Her tiny voice rang out as loudly as she could muster, however it was all but drowned out when the ground itself seemed to shift and morph right underneath their feet.

In a matter of seconds, not only had a barrier formed around the entire battlefield, the village included, the terrain of the field they had decided to make their stand on had been manipulated into a labyrinth of a canyon to turn the odds even more in the favor of the attackers.

Hinata found herself alone and fixated on making sure that she hadn't been injured first and foremost, "Is everyone alright?" She tried to call out, her voice failing to reach past the walls that surrounded her, "Neji-niisan! Inuzuka-san! Anyone!"

Much to her relief, Hana and her dogs came into view from not too far away, "I'm here," The animal taming shinobi said, looking around warily, "I think everyone else got pushed away though."

Unsurprising after what had just happened. What a dangerous and powerful technique. However, from the looks of how it worked, it wouldn't have crushed anyone. At most, an unprepared ninja would have taken a nasty spill, but most of the Hyuuga Clan could see that sort of thing coming with their Byakugan, and with Hinata's warning, Hana and her ninken were able to brace themselves.

With her Byakugan, Hinata could see through the rocky canyon that now separated her and Hana from the others. She took a quick headcount, and no one who had been with them had been killed or hurt too badly. That was good. Now it was just a matter of linking back up with more people and casting out the enemy.

"Someone had to know a lot about the terrain to do this," Hinata said, worriedly, "...Getting out won't be easy."

The question now stood, whoever was behind this, was their control of the environment complete, or was it just a one-time thing? Whichever it was, they would have to be very careful to avoid being further separated

"The enemy is still moving through the maze. Hunting," Hinata observed, "There are more in the walls, waiting to ambush us when we walk past."

Well now. Clearly, this strategy wasn't developed with people who could see through walls in mind. That thought gave Hana more hope, "So they trap us here with a bunch of walking corpses. That by itself won't do us in, even in this situation."

Hinata bit her lip in thought. Her tactical analysis wasn't quite on Neji's level, but she had been taught by her father, the leader of the entire clan, "I don't think it's meant to. This might kill an inexperienced shinobi, at best. Normally, one would hope for a distraction as a result of this."

Why would tiring them out and keeping them busy be a priority instead of just outright killing them first? A secondary attack on the village itself, perhaps? Were the Guardians after more than just them?

No. Even if sacking the village were the goal, it was full of nothing but civilians. Farmers, merchants, tailors... everyday people. What good would eradicating everyone living there do?

XxX

"This strategy would be a mess without me," The husky voice of a woman said as she closely perused the diagram of the nearby village's land area. It had been altered extensively from its original form. Topographical maps were a great help. Thankfully, working under the Fire Daimyo gave them everything they needed as far as resources were concerned.

It was simple. Once the village was surrounded by the barrier, there was no getting in or out. Not unless she was killed, or the people trying to infiltrate had a special scroll with them.

The woman behind corralling the targets had long, shiny brown hair with a high hairline. She had red lipstick and orange eye shadow and wore a magenta one-piece Chinese-style dress with black and tan stripes over purple stockings.

Her role in these battles was such a chore. The combat team would tell her what they wanted out of their battlefield, and after some time to study the terrain and with some samples of the earth in that area, she would make the changes requested.

And prevent their prey from being able to escape. She could control the battlefield without being on the front lines.

It was at least amusing watching the targets of the Twelve Guardian Ninja scurry around, trying to find some way to overcome their circumstances. It was like watching some kind of grand play unfold, and the ending was always the same, because the truth of the matter was that whatever plans they made to ensure their own survival were always rendered worthless.

"Keeping this chaos organized is such a thankless job," The woman told herself, "But if something weren't just right, I would never hear the end of it. 'Fuen, why wasn't that ledge higher? Fuen, that canyon was too narrow for the undead to surround the enemy in,'" She said, mimicking the complaints she would have heard from her coworkers, "Aren't we all professionals here? It's a good thing I'm too good to make mistakes like that."

It was fine. The village would be destroyed before noon. Anyone left on the battlefield would then be mopped up by the full force of the remaining Guardians. Fuuka was a fool. An impatient fool. She just wanted to drain the chakra of some of Namikaze Minato's ninja before all of them were killed by the Limelight strategy. What a poor decision that turned out to be.

It would not be repeated by any of them. They would stick to the plan, stick to their strengths.

XxX

Everything wasn't confusing terrain. When you made landmasses, unless you had somehow added more, you needed to take it from somewhere else. Instead of a maze of canyons and corridors, the other side of the village's land area was marred and torn asunder. Deep pockmarks existed in the earth, with uneven raises, dips, and ridges, disguising the crevices that marked the more treacherous parcel of land.

Many of the booby traps that Tenten had spent the last day painstakingly setting up had been rendered worthless after whatever the enemy had done to alter everything. In an annoyed rage, she had taken to her end of the village defense, assisting the four Hyuuga Clan members that had been set to protect that portion of the area.

Fallen trees and the new ups and downs made for good cover that she could move between as she traversed the battlefield.

She'd definitely earned a mess of fans in the Hyuuga Clan camp for certain with her performance in battle. She was able to cut down significantly on the number of undead that managed to make it within melee range of her allies, making it a lot easier for them to handle the oncoming horde.

In the grand scheme of things, the zombies weren't strong at all. What they had going for them was numbers and expendability. If too many got around you at once, that was where the real danger rested.

They didn't feel pain, so killshots were the only thing that could stop them. Disabling arms and legs didn't do anything but slow them down. They would keep coming, and eventually even the injured ones would join into the group that tried to pile onto you.

However, if you could circumvent the numbers advantage for a time, they weren't too hard to handle.

The game plan eventually became splitting the Hyuuga Clan members into separate pockets that they could manage, with Tenten doing her thing to thin the herd of undead, making things easier for the strictly melee-based defenders.

"There's are people heading this way with actual vitals!"

At the warning from one of the Hyuuga Clan members engaged in battle, Tenten took note of a man barreling across the battlefield, taking the closest thing to a flat path she had seen since the area had been warped by the enemy.

The man was large and burly with short, messy black hair and black angled triangle markings on his cheeks. He wore a sleeveless robe with striped patterns over simple grey clothes. A sash with the kanji for 'fire' on it billowed in the air from where it was wrapped around his waist.

As two Hyuuga Clan members weaved their way through the zombies to try and intercept him, Tenten could see a large grin beginning to form on his face.

He knew who they were before he had attacked, thanks to the one Hinata had discovered yesterday keeping tabs on them. He knew they were Hyuuga Clan, and therefore that they were strong in close quarters, and yet he still charged forward.

…That couldn't possibly bode well.

"Wait, don't just take him head-on!" Tenten shouted, trying to warn them. It was too late to turn back, however.

Before the Hyuuga Clan members could even get their footing to begin defending against his advance, he charged straight through them like a rhinoceros. Each of his massive hands grabbed one of the men by the face before slamming their heads together. The resulting crack was audible enough to echo out into the open air.

Tenten winced as the man tossed both bodies away, having killed both shinobi. Still, an opening was an opening. With bow in hand, she took a shot at the man's neck. It wasn't a difficult shot to make. Not for her.

The arrow hit him directly in the throat, sinking his head forward into his chest as he let out a gasp.

Served him right.

A young man with purple pants, a high-collared purple shirt, a white undershirt, and glasses ran to his side, his hands glowing green, "Ah, Fudou-san! Don't worry, I can-!"

Fudou swatted him away ungratefully, knocking him down to the ground a few feet away. He lifted his head and let Tenten's arrow fall to the ground from where it had been held, "Tch. Stupid boy. You should know better than to think something like that could hurt me."

"I-I'm sorry," The white-haired boy said, cowering, "It's just... it's my job."

"It's a complete waste for someone like you to follow me! You're just slowing me-," A second arrow sent their way was caught out of the air by the large man, causing the white-haired ninja with glasses to scoot away in surprise and fear.

It was then that Fudou noticed the lone girl facing him down from a safer distance than what his two victims had attempted.

The man grinned and broke the arrow in his grasp, throwing the splinters to the ground, "Kabuto! Go somewhere and get out of the way!" He demanded.

"But, Fudou... I-."

Fudou impatiently stomped his foot right by Kabuto, destroying the ground underneath it, "NOW!"

He was not going to spend the whole battle protecting him. If the girl decided to use him for target practice, Fudou would have had to intercept every single shot that went in his direction. If he let him die on the battlefield, he would have gotten admonished for it in the aftermath.

Stupid, squishy weakling. Fudou didn't even know why Kabuto had been chosen as one of the Twelve Guardian Ninja to begin with. He wasn't much for fighting.

Tenten regarded the large man warily for several seconds as Kabuto continued to scramble away. If he wasn't going to fight, he didn't have much consequence at the moment. She had to focus on the bigger threat at the moment, "So I'm guessing since you're the only enemy I've come across so far that doesn't have flesh rotting off of the bone, you're the guy who made all of the zombies."

Fudou laughed and wiped the blood from his victims onto the Twelve Ninja Guardians sash around his waist, "Got it in one, little girl. And the prize is getting pulverized firsthand by yours truly," He declared ominously, "Well, that's more of a prize for me than it is for you."

Tenten kept a watchful eye on the undead wandering around them. They weren't attacking her. Actually, they weren't going near her.

"Oh, don't worry about them," Fudou said, "You're all mine. Try and make it at least a little bit entertaining for me. That, or you could go and get Naruto of the Nine-Tails for me."

Arrogant bastard. Was it because she was a girl, or because he believed he was really that strong.

Tenten hadn't necessarily been spoiling for a fight with someone powerful, but she wasn't about to let the hard work she had put into her training be overlooked, "Sorry. Naruto has more important things to do than step on your neck. Unfortunately, you'll have to make do with me."

Naruto was right. Hell, even Orochimaru had a point when he had spoken to her. She was talented. If she wasn't, she would have been killed by now.

The Guardian member clearly saw no problem with handing out a beating to her in the middle of his mission, "It's your funeral. You were going to die anyway, but hey, why not?"

There was an advantage to his bluster that Tenten quickly picked up on. Discretion was not the word of the day in this man's book. He felt comfortable enough in fighting her to run his mouth.

Maybe she could find out just what this was all about? Either way, she won have to start fighting to get what she wanted.

Tenten quickly threw a kunai at Fudou to test his reflexes, only for him to stand still. The weapon bounced off of his chest, as though he were made of stone. His clothes weren't even nicked.

Well, at least that explained how he stopped the arrow the first time when it hit him square in the throat.

Fudou brushed off his robe, taking delight in the look on the girl's face, "Little brats just never understand until it's too late. Let me teach you the last lesson you'll ever get to learn. Come here!" He demanded, charging at Tenten with a burst of speed.

Tenten let out a surprised gasp as she tried to outmaneuver the punches of the large man. If he hit as hard as he likely would have, she couldn't let herself take a blow from him. The problem was, she couldn't deter him with any kind of physical threat if even her metal weapons wouldn't damage him.

His swings were full of bad intentions and were thrown with the confidence that any counter she attempted wouldn't do him any real harm.

A punch finally landed and sent Tenten's smaller body flying away, until it turned out to be a zombie that she had replaced herself with from nearby.

The man's eyes went wide until he realized what had happened, turning around to face the girl who had retreated to a safe distance away.

Tenten was grateful for the timely target to use a substitution on.

"Do you really keep this many dead bodies stored away?" She asked, dusting herself off from where several of the zombies had tried to claw away at her when she'd replaced herself with one from before.

The burly ninja laughed, cracking his knuckles as he slowly walked Tenten's way, "Clearly, seeing as how they're here. And there's no trouble if you destroy a bunch of them. Every time we wage an attack like this, we wind up making plenty of replacements."

Bragging about desecrating the dead to use in combat. There was no way that Tenten would ever let that happen to her, her friends, or any of the people in this village, "You're sick."

"Don't sound so disgusted. They're tools. Weapons. Just like we are," He said, proudly thumping his chest, "And besides, I'm not the one who keeps them maintained. That would be all thanks to our resident medic."

Tenten thought back and remembered Kabuto trying to heal Fudou earlier. She felt like hitting her own forehead, "That guy was a medic?"

And he was talented enough to keep corpses in good enough condition to be used in battle? Even with her not knowing much about medicine, it was still obvious that such a thing wasn't exactly easy.

Fudou nodded, "He isn't good for much else, but damned if he doesn't understand the human body. It's about the only impressive thing about him," He finished, derisively.

"In that case, you probably should have kept him around," Tenten threatened lowly, pulling a small sealing scroll from inside her shirt.

All her threat got was a chuckle in return from her opponent. She was still going to fight? It was just prolonging the inevitable, "And why is that?"

With a puff of smoke, Tenten unsealed a long grey staff that she spun in her hands to get warmed up with it, "Because you're going to need someone to put you back together after I'm done tearing you apart," She said, drawing a line in the dirt in front of her with the end of the weapon, "Last chance. Leave."

Fudou licked his lips in anticipation before charging Tenten again. If nothing else, the girl had guts. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on who was asking, he would be getting a good look at them when the battle was over.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Inside the Inn)

Naruto's hands tightly gripped the railing of the balcony hanging from his parents' suite. From his vantage point he couldn't see what was happening, but every so often he could hear something. So far, nothing had touched the village proper. If there was any kind of fortune on their side, that string of luck would continue.

He wanted to go out there so badly. His blood boiled at the idea of his friends struggling for their lives without him.

And yet... he could feel himself getting weaker. Even from how he was squeezing the railing. He couldn't even make the wood groan under the stress of his grip strength.

What he had done to try and prepare the village for the attack would have to do for now. Hopefully, it all worked out. For the time being, waiting for some kind of word was all he could do.

He walked back to the suite he shared with Shino for their stay. Kanako was sleeping on one of the couches. She had been a good girl and done as her older brother had told her, sticking closely to Shino for safety. The sounds of combat were still faint enough that they wouldn't outright wake her.

"Nothing's gonna touch you," Naruto said quietly as he stood over his young sister, "Nothing's gonna happen to anybody here."

This place didn't deserve to be targeted just because the rest of them were there. Naruto didn't know for certain if their presence was the reason for the attack from the Twelve Guardian Ninja, but he could assume as much without it being confirmed. Just because of what Minato wanted to do, they had plenty of enemies. This was the closest they had come to getting an honest-to-goodness foothold on making their goal a reality.

The village was willing to believe in them. They couldn't let anything bad happen.

"What is the situation?"

Naruto turned to the door of Shino's room to see the boy in question standing there. It was clear that he was still feeling the effects of his battle with one of the Guardians. His posture was more hunched than his normal, proper stance. He tried to hide it, but he was also leaning against the doorframe for leverage.

Shino didn't casually lean for comfort. He either stood or sat, both straight. He was nowhere near ready enough for any kind of conflict.

When faced with that, the next words out of Naruto's mouth came easily, "Don't worry about it. You aren't going out there, so it doesn't matter."

It was a no-brainer. Shino wasn't heading out there to get himself hurt even further, worse still – killed.

"I should be fighting," Shino insisted, limping his way forward to try and show that he could still contribute in combat. It only reaffirmed that he wasn't getting anywhere near the battlefield until he was truly better.

Hana and Hinata had done what they could to help him, but they couldn't just patch him up well enough to get him back to work. Their medical skills weren't that extensive. At least, Hana's weren't for humans. Animals were another story.

No one ever said that Shino didn't have loyalty and heart. He hated sitting on the sidelines when his friends were in danger, just as much as Naruto did. But even though their circumstances were slightly different, it still amounted to the same thing. They weren't setting foot on the front lines. Not today.

"Shino, you already fought," Naruto explained, "Trust me, I know how you feel, but if you're not at least… seventy percent, you shouldn't be fighting."

That wasn't a hard number, especially for Naruto. With him, thirty percent or less could be acceptable enough to go fight, at least when it was his health that was under discussion.

Shino went silent for a moment and listened to the sounds of battle he could hear in the distance. His insect hive swarmed inside, feeling his ire at not being a part of the direct defense teams. He then realized that Naruto being in front of him meant that he wasn't fighting either... which was a rarity. Naruto always fought.

"…Who made you stay back?" He eventually asked.

"That obvious?" Naruto asked, grinning behind his rebreather. He shrugged in response initially, "It would probably take less time to tell you who thought having me out there was a good idea."

Pretty much everyone with working brain cells shut him down from heading out to fight. His body was ravaged by the Five Elements Virus, and it got worse every hour. He would only be able to push through the debilitating illness for so long until his will wouldn't be enough and he would be a liability.

The way Naruto had already contributed by setting up the bulk of the bare bones strategy they were using would have to be enough.

XxX

"No," Kazuma said, staring at the village from his vantage point across the battlefield, "This is wrong."

Sora had always seen his father calm, cool, and collected. Someone who was always in control. To see him fretting over something, anything, generated a feeling of trepidation in the pit of his stomach, "Father, what's the matter?"

Kazuma's eyes darted to his progeny before he continued scanning the open space before him, "Limelight should have activated by now. The village should have been destroyed."

Kazuma didn't know what to think about what was happening. The four responsible for the jutsu that was meant to end the battle and the two bodyguards meant to watch over them, they should have performed the jutsu by now. With the battle transpiring, and the changes made to the land, they should have made it to their positions without a hitch.

Even if something seemed like it was going to happen to deter them, Fuen would have altered their route.

The village that they had all seen before moving back through the woods to hide before the proper attack was gone.

All there was now was a strange circular black marking set into the ground, roughly the size of the village. Nothing else.

Kazuma closed his eyes in stark resignation, "…I know."

XxX

All Jiraiya heard was a deafening boom before seeing a blinding flash of electricity and feeling the horrible shake of the earth. Thankfully, he had taken countermeasures to dig himself in defensively.

When the dust cleared enough for him to stumble out of his protection, he was stunned.

The entire village had been leveled. Eradicated. Turned entirely to rubble and ruins. For goodness sake, there had barely been any warning. No real charge time to the jutsu responsible at all.

It was an impressive display of strength. It also made his blood boil, that any group would endeavor to do such a thing to peaceful folks.

The village they were protecting did nothing to deserve this.

In the dust, Jiraiya made out five figures coming together and heading his way; four men, one woman.

"You destroyed it," Jiraiya said, glaring spitefully at the shinobi quintet, "Is this the most important thing the Fire Daimyo could send his Guardians to do? Slaughter civs?"

"That was always the plan," One of the Guardians said, "What this place was planning to do, colluding with you and yours, it's treason."

"I never expected this..." Jiraiya said gravely, before sighing. His demeanor the shifted abruptly, "You destroyed Naruto's construct. The whole thing. With one jutsu," He said, markedly more chipper about the scenario, "That was impressive."

"What are you talking about?"

Jiraiya's slowly growing grin left them all suspicious and anxious. What was he smiling about? Even if he could beat all five of them alone, they had still already achieved a key objective. He had to have recognized that. Things were not in his favor, even if he had somehow survived Limelight.

"Your strategist doesn't know much about this region, or this country at all, do they?" Jiraiya asked, "If they did, they would have known, or at least suspected that something was a bit off."

"Off about what?" There was no genjutsu active. Everything felt and looked as it should have, "Have you lost it?"

Yes, Jiraiya had lost it a long time ago, but that was irrelevant.

Jiraiya gestured to the ruined settlement around him, "The only map we could find marking this place covered way too much land. So huge that this place was barely a blip on it. It was the only one we could find that even listed this village. We had to have the Hyuugas make one we could actually use after we got here," He said, "I was a pessimist and figured you would have better maps, until I remembered that this wasn't really your country."

"Get to the point, old man!"

Impatient whelps. No appreciation for dramatic hesitation, "The village is so out of the way, and the maps of this area that you could find are so poor, we were hoping that you wouldn't notice if this one was... off by two or three miles or so."

The looks of realization on their faces when it slowly dawned on the Guardians that Jiraiya had been implying that they were in the wrong place – worth all of the acting it had taken to get to that point.

"You've got to be kidding," The woman Guardian said, "The Kyuubi jinchuuriki moved the village?"

Jiraiya scoffed at the squad derisively, "No. That would be stupid. He can't do that," He explained, "He just made an exact replica of the village, only made of chakra. Right here," He said, pointing down.

Because that was so much more reasonable.

"How is that even possible?"

Jiraiya wasn't entirely sure. It wasn't anything he had taught Naruto or helped him develop. If anyone was to be asked, Kushina or Minato would have probably been able to give a better answer than him, "Well, the jutsu can't copy other things that have chakra. That's a weakness. He couldn't duplicate the villagers, so anyone looking for people would be able to see that something was off."

"We saw people running away!"

Summoned toads were extremely useful. Not even the bigger ones either. Even the smaller ones that couldn't fight directly still had value, if you knew how to use them wisely.

The smaller ones were easy to summon and smart enough to take directions. Directions like transforming into humans and running inside the houses before dispelling back to Mt. Myoboku.

"Yeah... you thought you did. That was the point," Jiraiya said, as he refused to reveal the length of his own contribution to the ruse, "Unfortunately, since you're trying to kill us, I'm not exactly about to let you explore this place. So that means until the person who initiated the jutsu is killed, or he lets us out, we're all stuck here."

"Kitane!?" One of the Guardians asked, prompting the others to look to the man amongst them with a messy brown mohawk, dressed in long, baggy clothes underneath a long vest jacket.

The man identified as Kitane's eyes went wide in realization. He was just as stupefied as the rest of them.

That was why absolutely none of the defenders other than Jiraiya and Fuu had been within the limits of the village at all, because they had been told implicitly avoid doing so, lest they find themselves stuck inside of the jutsu. They had just figured that the shinobi working under the sentimental Namikaze Minato simply wanted to keep the battle from affecting the people living there.

How infuriating. To be thwarted, at least temporarily, by a boy who was half their age at best.

Namikaze Minato's son Naruto didn't even know the gist of what Limelight entailed, and yet he had managed to neutralize what was the main attack strategy of the Twelve Guardian Ninja without ever seeing them fight. It was either prodigious, or dumb luck. Either way, six of the team's heavy hitters were out of the running, at least until he was killed.

Well, the answer was in what they were already told. If the way out was dependent on someone who wasn't even there with them, all they could do was wait.

"If that's the case, we'll get out before too long. Even if this is impressive, making this had to waste all kinds of chakra." Kitane said, slowly calming his teammates down at hearing how grounded he was, despite what was going on, "The Yellow Flash's runt may be a monster, but he still breathes and bleeds like a human. He's got his limits."

Even if the Twelve Ninja Guardian's numbers had been cut in half, it wasn't as though they were always deployed all together. They were split into separate teams for multiple missions all over Hi no Kuni and beyond all the time. Six were more than enough to do the heavy lifting, at least until they could put Naruto down and free the rest of them. That thought filled a few of them with more confidence in their situation.

The only woman amongst the Guardians relaxed, slowly but surely. She had spiky black hair, and wore a sleeveless black shirt with black trousers, "Well, we don't get paid by the hour, but we were going to have to deal with Jiraiya at some point, weren't we? Now seems like as good a time as any."

A man with squinted eyes, short brown hair, and twin scars on both sides of his face began crackling with electricity, anticipating the fight soon to occur, "Now that Tou mentions it, killing off a living-legend does sound like a good way to waste a little time," He moved forward to attack, but in moving away from the safety of numbers, quickly learned what a mistake it was.

Unfortunately he didn't live long enough to benefit from that information.

A glowing green blur cut across the devastated village and plowed into him with an audible 'crack', sending him flying into the air, screaming. His body seemed to be hurtling outside of the village, when it smashed into the very edge of the fake environment that Naruto's jutsu had created.

The impact was hard enough to break through the 'wall' of the jutsu. Unfortunately for him, there was nothing outside of it. Just an empty void. An empty void where he would fall until the end of time, even after death... if he had survived in the first place.

"Nauma!" Tou shouted, having just watched her teammate be bulldozed, "No!"

Jiraiya watched appreciatively as the green blur flew around in the sky for a moment before saying anything else, "You knew that Naruto is a jinchuuriki. Good for you," He said, slowly turning his gaze back to the others, "…Did you know about the other one?"

The surprises just kept coming, and none of them had been pleasant.

A middle-aged man wearing dark kimono top, body wrapped in bandages underneath took several steps back in trepidation. It took a while to accept the fact that they would be dealing with one. But Limelight was supposed to handle most of the heavy lifting of the battle so that they could focus more energy on him. Now there were two to deal with?

"Seito, calm down," Kitane said, trying to keep the team together.

"T-There's another one?" Seito asked, heeding Kitane's words. Even so, bewilderment to such a degree didn't just go away. It took some time to adjust to, "How in God's name is there another one?"

Jiraiya shrugged in return as the green blur came to a stop just behind Jiraiya, showing herself to be a tan-skinned girl with light green hair. It was not what the others had been expecting, "I don't know. It's a long story, it's kind of sad, and involves a very scary man who is now very, very dead. Anyway, allow me to introduce you to the Nanabi jinchuurki! Her name is Fuu-."

Fuu waved happily from where she was hovering in the air, "Hiiiii! Nice to meet you!"

Such a nice girl, and so useful as well. A chakra thread cocoon from her biju's abilities had been durable enough to stand up to the gigantic lightning technique that the Guardians had used.

Sometimes, it was hard to believe that she was a remarkably effective shinobi, until she started hitting things and they started dying.

Jiraiya let Fuu greet their enemies before picking up where he left off, "The two of us are going to be taking turns kicking your asses all over this place until the kid gets here to let us out."

Jutsu List

Fuuinjutsu: Nisemono Sekainosouzou: (Sealing Technique: Imitation World Creation). A-rank fuuinjutsu, space-time ninjutsu. The user creates an exact copy of an environment within the limits of the real-life area in a separate dimension. It is normally used as a training ground that can be repeatedly destroyed without doing real damage to the intended landscape, but can also be used as a trap. Once triggered, all living things inside are transported to the copy dimension. Only someone who knows where to find the sealing formula either inside or outside of the jutsu can break the technique. Sufficient chakra must be used to recreate everything in the area, which means the larger the area copied and the more things inside of it, the more chakra is required.

It is on! On like Donkey Kong! Or Michelle Kwan! Or... or the movie Tron!

And... that's all I've got for this one. I'm out of here, guys. I hope you enjoyed.

Kenchi out.