Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. My powers grow every day, Kishimoto. Do you hear me? You can't keep it from me forever. I will get what I want! Even if I'm an old man when I get it, I will have those rights.
No one can stop me! I am Kenchi618!
Battle on any kind of major scale is the most frightening thing you can imagine. It's definitely the most frightening thing I have ever dealt with, personally. When the numbers are small, combat is perceived entirely different to the human mind. Even if the numbers are against you, even if your enemy is more powerful, there's always the chance that you can make it work.
When battles get large, when armies are involved, it is a completely different animal. So many things have to work in the favor of your side in order for you to come out on top, and rarely will everything be in your hands to work out.
For one, people are going to die. Someone you know is probably going to get hurt. You have to accept that going in. There is nothing you can do but try your best to protect yourself and the people you're grouped with. Even then, that's not enough.
You may get surrounded, forced to fight against impossible odds. The enemy may have an indefensible superweapon to use, and decide that the place where you're fighting is the perfect place to put it to use. You might get picked off from the other side of the battlefield without ever even getting a look at the person that did it.
A stray swing of a blade... an errant kunai... a random explosive tag going off nearby that you never see coming. Sometimes surviving conflicts of this nature are more a matter of luck than skill. More a matter of place and time instead of strategy and guts.
Between two evenly matched forces, losses are expected to be appalling. This is why large-scale warfare in the open field is an absolute last resort between any two or more clans of equal standing. There is simply too much you cannot hope to control in such a setting.
Sarutobi Hiruzen – 'End of Clan War Era Memoirs'
Chapter 23: The Burden Of Ideology
Fudou was a monster to Tenten. When he swung at her, it was clear that if he so much as touched her she would be in a very bad way. This was a problem, because the man was relentless. He kept coming at her, and she couldn't come up with a way to create the distance needed to keep herself safe.
With a forceful bellow, Fudou swung his fist her way once more. She stepped out of the way and gave him a sharp knock to his elbow with her staff before shooting the other end between his legs. Despite the groin shot's normal degree of effectiveness, in this case, all it seemed to do was anger the Guardian before her.
"Damned girl!" He trapped the staff between his legs, and with great fury in his eyes he reached up and backhanded the teenage girl to the ground. Despite previously holding onto the staff tightly, Tenten was hit hard enough to release her grip entirely. His slaps hurt more than most people's punches, "Trying to take a cheap shot are you? You'll pay for that ten times over."
'It didn't even hurt you,' Tenten thought to herself as she watched Fudou charge. She dropped a smoke bomb as he approached and used the opening to put some distance between them, 'Come on, girl! Think! Can't stab him. Can't beat him over the head with anything blunt. Guess I've got to get a little more creative.'
Either that, or die. Her options for how to proceed were very limited. Everyone always said that she was a smart kunoichi. Hopefully her brains were enough to overcome Fudou's overwhelming brawn.
Fudou barreled into the smokescreen, swinging wildly, intending to pulverize whatever his massive fists and arms came into contact with. What did he have to fear? It had been clear from the outset that Tenten lacked the stopping power in her attacks to adequately make him pay for such reckless abandon.
'I can't let him hit me like that again! Gotta make a move that counts! Now!' Tenten thought to herself, finally making some headway as Fudou had gone charging out of the smoke in the wrong direction in correlation to her. He was big and fast for his size, but not nearly as fast as some of her friends that she'd spent years training with. She took the large scroll from her back and began to unroll it before tossing it up into the air, "Sougu: Tensasai (Manipulated Tools: Heavenly Chain Disaster)!"
Dozens of weapons shot out of the scroll with the speed of artillery ammunition, aimed at the ground with white smoke trailing behind them. Once he was aware of what was happening, Fudou just stood in place and let the sharp instruments bounce off of his armored frame.
"Hahaha!" Fudou cackled as the bombardment of weaponry did him no harm. This was child's play to him, "Come on! More! More! If this is the best you've got, I can take this all day!" It was in the middle of this that he noticed Tenten taking refuge beneath a gigantic metal dome, "What the hell?"
"I figured you'd feel that way," Tenten said as she hid herself away, "Let's see how long that lasts."
As she tucked herself away, Fudou noticed a new danger that he had overlooked previously. Tied to the ends of all of the weapons sticking out of the ground around him were small explosive tags, a quarter of the size of the regular ones. His eyes went wide just as the first one burned down to the end and went off, triggering a chain reaction of explosions around him.
Fifteen full seconds of consecutive rapid-fire blasts followed, all in close proximity to Fudou as the man screamed in a mixture of worry and anger at being outfoxed.
Tenten emerged with a new giant scroll that she had kept on her person, 'Giant storage scrolls kept within a smaller storage scroll. There's gotta be some kind of irony there,' She thought to herself as she could still smell the smoke from her chain of explosions.
Overconfidence could be a man's downfall. At the very least, it could provide openings for a resourceful shinobi to take advantage of. Whatever helped keep Tenten alive was fine.
Unceremoniously, a pit formed in the ground a short distance away from Tenten's feet. Her eyes went wide as she tried to turn and run in vain once it began sucking everything around it inside.
She kept out of the pit by nimbly springing off of the significant pieces of debris that she could find until she made it out of range. Fallen trees and boulders served as her stepping stones until she could reach an elevated wall, out of range of the jutsu's effectiveness until it ran its course.
A sigh of relief turned to a gasp of horror when she realized that she had gone to the only logical safe place in the vicinity. She had been suckered in. This proved to be correct when a burly fist extended from the rock wall behind her, colliding with that back of her head. It sent her flying across the landscape, rolling about like a ragdoll until coming to a stop, motionless on the cold, muddy ground.
Fudou emerged from the rock wall, dropping down with a grin on his face as he surveyed the damage of his sneak attack. With a swagger in his step, he sauntered over, keeping an eye out for anymore shenanigans from his adversary. Nothing happened as he approached.
"You sneaky little wench," Fudou grabbed Tenten by the back of her shirt, picking her up with one hand, "You surprised me. I really didn't think an itty-bitty thing like you could come up with something that dangerous. Then again, I guess that old man told the daimyo to come after you for a reason."
He jiggled her limp form in his hand, amusing himself by toying with her. The rain and mud caking her clothes and skin did wonders for showing off her form. She was a very good looking young lady. Such a shame that he had his orders to get rid of all of the rogue contingent. He could have had some extracurricular use for her otherwise. Oh well.
With a flick of his wrist Fudou tossed Tenten away, prepared to execute her and move along to the rest of the targets set for the Guardian Ninja, "Kabuto, you useless dullard, get ready to bag this one! We're taking the corpses of the uprising back with us!" He shouted, pointing in Tenten's direction.
As pointed, he noticed a tag stuck to his forearm. Unlike the ones from before, it was full-sized, and it didn't burn down for detonation like an explosive tag. Was it defective? Even so, it was still a threat.
As he reached down to peel the tag off, it activated, making its presence felt, not with an explosion, but with electricity ripping through his body, "GUUUUUUAAAAAAAHHH!" His skin cracked and flaked before beginning to peel off, revealing another layer underneath.
After a few seconds, the current wore off, but the damage had been done. He fell to a knee, wracked with pain and again caught off-guard. Once it was clear he was feeling the effects, only then did Tenten stir.
Fudou watched her slowly recover, and wished he could make his way over to crush her, or make the proper hand-seals to skewer her with a jutsu from a distance, "What... the hell... was that?"
"My best friend is an expert on seals, and crazy enough to go with me when I have a weird idea for something new," Tenten said, wiping the blood away from her nose and mouth as Fudou struggled to so much as move, electricity periodically rippling through his body, "I have faith in my ninja tools."
Naruto and Tenten had come up with a seal for each of the five primary elements. Some were more useful than others, for instance, fire tags were weapons that were good for starting blazes without the mess and noise that came with explosive tags.
They had been through extensive testing, though Tenten had never put one on a human being before. However, it had worked.
"That's neat though," Tenten said, getting up slowly. And yet, it was still quicker than Fudou could muster, "I had to get close enough to see, to feel, but I get it now. You have armor made from earth chakra, don't you?"
She had to get close enough to find out just what it was that had been protecting him from harm for the entire battle, but getting close while the fighting was still going on was a risky proposition. She had to play possum in order to do so. Once she had gotten within touching distance, however, it had only taken a moment to discover enough about it to make a move.
Fudou stayed belligerent, despite the severe blow stricken against him. Everything on his body hurt, "Yeah? So what if you know about my Rock Armor? It doesn't change anything. I doubt you have a jutsu more powerful than that one, and it still couldn't scratch me!"
True enough, even if his body was damaged, he still had enough control to reestablish his defense. She wouldn't find it easy to place that sort of a weapon on him again.
Tenten wasn't so quick to approach. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, "Well, you have a point. I don't have anything stronger than that. Things that compare, maybe, but right now? Nothing stronger," She established calmly as she reached into the chest of her blouse to remove a metal pipe that extended into a staff. With the flick of a switch, a blade extended from the top end. A drill blade.
Fudou got both of his feet back underneath himself and stood, frothing at the mouth in anger, "Is that toothpick supposed to scare me!?" He bellowed, beating his chest defiantly.
Tenten looked between her wicked-looking weapon, and the man she intended to use it on, regarding Fudou's question for a moment before giving her answer, "You? Yes," She said resolutely. And then she charged.
Even in the best of times, Tenten would have been faster than Fudou, however, taking him head-on would have been suicide at the start of the battle. Now though, he was sufficiently worn down, his mobility suffered more than ever after having his muscles lock up from the nasty shock he had received. And most importantly, Tenten had found the weakness of his tank-like defense.
With a primal scream, Fudou lifted both of his hands overhead like a hammer to smash her into the mud. Tenten grinned viciously and channeled her chakra into the weapon, relishing the look of horrified surprise on his face when he saw and heard the electricity rippling through the blade aimed at his heart.
He had lost the elemental game of rock-paper-scissors the moment he had let her know just how heavily he relied on his Rock Armor.
Tenten punched through the Rock Armor, through flesh and bone, through vital organ, and out through the other side.
She felt his body go limp and begin to lean on her, even as he reached for her neck to wring the life out of it in his death throes, "I won't be beaten by bed-warming fodder like you!" He struggled to get out the insult due to the metal pole sticking through the gaping hole in his chest.
Tenten's brown eyes reflected coldly as she stared up at her larger enemy, "I'm sure your bed is already warm enough," she said, twisting the weapon in her hand deeper into the chest of her target, "I hear that's how they keep 'em in hell."
She pulled the weapon out and Fudou dropped to his knees powerless, giving one look down at his fatal wound, and then up at the perpetrator herself. He got a glimpse just in time to see her swing her mighty weapon.
The business end of the drill staff promptly removed Fudou's head from his shoulders with one clean stroke. His body remained on its knees, simply sinking its posterior down to the ground where it then remained still.
Tenten stared down at the cooling corpse as the blood from his chest and neck seeped out into the mud, mixing with the rainwater pouring down from the heavens. Before she could take any sort of solace in her victory, her eyes cut to the side, where the white-haired medic with glasses stood staring in complete shock and horror, a scroll in his hand.
This had been the person that Fudou had sent away at the start of the fight. The same one he had called to preserve her dead body when he thought he was moments away from ending her life.
Tenten nimbly kicked Fudou's head over to the young man, who jumped back at the sudden impact of the head splashing at his feet. He didn't seem to be a combatant, and there were still other friends Tenten had who were in danger. She couldn't bother lingering here when there was still danger afoot, thus, she walked away.
"Thank you."
Tenten stopped long enough to turn around and look back at Kabuto, who stood glaring down at Fudou's severed head, "...Why?" They were on the same team.
Kabuto looked up with no sorrow felt for Fudou's death, "None of the Guardian Ninja can heal, so I was forced to serve as their medic. They're not all bad, but many of them are. And he was the worst. I'm no fighter, so I can't tell you not to kill me. I just hope you destroy this unit."
Tenten, still holding onto her weapon, regarded Kabuto closely before collapsing it back to its basic form, "Seeing as how I don't think they'll give my friends a choice, that may happen," She said, "I'm not going to kill you. Just get out of here. Survive."
Kabuto watched the kunoichi leave, heading to the next battlefield to support her comrades, "Survive, huh?"
XxX
(With Jiraiya and Fuu – Inside Imitation World Creation)
The best part of being caught in a false world made of chakra that recomposed itself was that there was no need to hold oneself back. Naruto had really outdone himself, creating that trap to set up a battle in the perfect playground.
There, Jiraiya and Fuu could go next to all-out. There was no chance of friendly fire, no chance of collateral damage to the actual village, and no chance of word getting out about some of the more... clandestine things that either of them could do.
Jiraiya dropped the last expired body of the six Guardian Ninja that had been trapped and opposing them on the ground with the rest. Even with the extreme measures Jiraiya had taken to get ahead, they hadn't gone down easily.
Granted, he had dealt with bigger threats, but these lot had been nothing to scoff at. He had taken the lion's share, and even without the destructive power of their Limelight technique, as individual shinobi, they had been very talented. He had made the right decision taking most of them for himself.
'Had they been able to fight more of the kids and those Hyuuga, a lot more people would have been killed than probably were now,' Jiraiya thought to himself as he breathed a sigh of relief, 'Good plan, kid. Good plan,' He thought of Naruto.
It was extremely crude in the grand scheme of things, but not being complicated worked out for the best in this case. It was the execution that had been noteworthy – the setup. The brute force after the trap had been sprung hadn't been the most notable thing about it all.
"Jiraiya-sama!"
And speaking of brute force, Fuu landed from her last sweep of the area to see if there were any nasty surprises that their enemies had left for them during the battle.
"All clear?" He asked the pixie of a girl as she came to a less than graceful landing nearby, her chakra wings disappearing back into that odd red pack she wore.
"Yep, nothing here!" Fuu reported, "Fuu couldn't find the guy she knocked out of the jutsu at the start of the fight. Sorry," She apologized for the one Guardian Ninja left unaccounted for.
He wasn't really unaccounted for. Jiraiya knew how this jutsu worked. If he had been knocked out of this place, he wasn't coming back. More like he'd fall for eternity in the void between this false world and the real one. Unless he could cut through space-and-time, that was how it would end for him.
Fuu perked back up, which brought a smile to Jiraiya's face. Though she had been raised to be a weapon by Kakuzu, he had failed. There was still very much a girl in there, "By the way, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't go around spreading all of the things you saw me do here?" He thought to request of her after a moment, "I'd like to have a few cards kept close to the vest I can play if I need, you know?"
Fuu was confused by the request until she realized what he might have been talking about, "Oh! Don't worry, Jiraiya-sama! Fuu won't tell anyone about your weird were-toad thingy you turned into!"
She had been surprised when she'd seen him more or less transform in battle. Jiraiya wasn't a jinchuuriki, and even if he had been, she didn't know of any toad-based tailed beast to begin with. Even so, he had gotten much faster and stronger. He also had two elderly toads on his shoulders, which was another odd thing to mention about when he had been in that state.
"It wasn't a were-toad thing-," Jiraiya stopped himself from correcting her with a sigh. It was actually better if she couldn't explain what he had done to outright crush and bully nearly half of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, "Actually, that's fine. Thanks for not saying anything. I might need to do that again one day, and the less people who know about it, the less people who can be prepared for it."
"Like how people don't know Fuu has Chomei?" Fuu asked, getting a nod from the man, "Understood!" She said with a salute.
"Good girl," Jiraiya chuckled, standing up and giving her a pat on the head.
This didn't seem to offend Fuu in the slightest, neither the gesture, nor the praise, seeing as how she giggled and leaned into the contact, "So now what, Jiraiya-sama?"
Jiraiya looked up at the sky. It really was a good imitation. Naruto had done top-notch work. However, there was no way out until the user canceled the jutsu, or the user died, "Now? We wait for the others to finish up."
The heavy lifting was out of the way... Jiraiya hoped. He didn't know if he and Fuu had taken down the strongest of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, or the weakest. Either way, the rest was up to the kids.
XxX
Half. Over half of the team was out of commission. Sure, Fuuka was dead because she believed herself the superior of three incredibly talented young shinobi because of her damned special jutsu, but the rest of them had come in with a plan. How could that plan have been countered in one stroke?
The team set to destroy the village and their interloper shinobi guards with Limelight had been neutralized. Fuen didn't know where they were.
"No, no no!" She complained, biting her lip so hard her lipstick smeared across her mouth, "How could this have happened?"
It couldn't have possibly been her fault. She had done everything right. She had set the battlefield to the parameters that the others had requested and separated the possible fronts according to what she and Chiriku had scouted out.
A light prick hit Fuen in the neck. Wincing in pain, she reached down and pulled out a thin needle slathered in some kind of fluid aside from her own blood. Fear began to set in as she looked around frantically for the person that had attacked her, "Who's there! Come out!"
There was no way someone had been able to make it all the way there and traverse all of the traps she had set between her position and the village without setting anything off. Fuen should have known if there had been someone onto her.
She tried to stay on alert, until she felt the poison in her system setting in.
"Poor, unfortunate you," Anko said, appearing out of the woods, a grin on her face promising nothing but unpleasant times for the recipient, "I'm not much for direct combat. I'm more of a... specialist," She said, with a wishy-washy movement of her hand, "I track, infiltrate, and assassinate, just to name a few of the things I get up to more than anything else when I'm not observing."
She didn't get to do that last one enough for her tastes. Minato didn't have the taste for bloodshed that she expected men with such intrepid aims to have, which was a good thing in the grand scheme of things, but also kind of boring. There was nothing wrong with flat-lining a few fools to get what you wanted.
"How did you escape my barrier to even search for me in the first place!?" Fuuka demanded to know, despite her situation.
Anko raised an eyebrow in interest. She wasn't some kind of powerful force of nature. That was Naruto and Fuu's thing. The real answer was much simpler than that, "Because I was never in your barrier," She said. Fuen's jaw dropped, "I haven't been in the village since before nightfall yesterday."
Naruto's contingent had known there was a battle coming. They hadn't just sat back and waited for the enemy to attack at dawn. They had made preparations, as the enemy by now full well knew of.
In particular, Anko's entire job had been to ignore the actual battle at hand and make sure there was nothing waiting in the wings away from the battlefield to come in and follow up once everyone fighting was worn down. It was a simple task, but arguably more dangerous than standing out on the front lines with most of the others. There was a chance she could have run smack dab into the enemy's main fighting force, all by herself. There was a chance that she wouldn't have been able to deal with whatever she found, and would have been overwhelmed. That was, if she found anything at all. She also could have been wasted in this effort instead of serving as a viable combatant in the open fray.
But there was a reason that Minato had hired her and Fuu to survey land for them all over the Elemental Nations, even in potentially hostile environments. Because Anko was also a scout, one with tricks of her own to make her job easier. And she was a damn good one at that. If there was something, she would find it and disrupt it. Which was what she had done.
Fuen couldn't budge. Her body had locked up entirely from whatever had been in the senbon that Anko had hit her with.
"How did you find me?" Fuen asked, slowly collapsing down to a knee as the strength in her legs began to give out. Gritting her teeth, she tried her best to get back up and try to defend herself, but it was all for naught.
"I was able to see your neat little trick with the landscape. It was really good. You altered almost everything around here, surrounded the village and everything," Anko said, "And as I wandered around outside, wondering how the hell you managed to pull this off, I thought to myself, 'Self, why isn't the area affected as far on one end of the village as it is on the other?'"
Fuen wanted to shut her mouth. This woman was so aggravating, and yet, whatever she had done had left her subdued. Anko was talking because she knew she could talk. Everything in her body was shutting down. She had antidotes on her, but for her own poisons, not whatever the venomous bitch in front of her had dosed her with.
And so, Anko didn't stop, pacing around Fuen's base camp, getting a good look at her setup, "So I replied, 'You know what, self? That's a great point! Hey, I know what it is!'" She narrated animatedly, "'If this is the back end, whoever's causing this horsecrap is more concerned with protecting the direction they approached from.' From that point, it's not like it was hard to track your ass down. You can also stop trying to escape now. Unless you have some kind of immunity, you've got like ten seconds left."
Fuen's lungs grew tighter and tighter. It was harder to breathe, "Ten seconds until what?"
"Until you die," Anko replied succinctly before adding an afterthought, "Two seconds," And just like that, Fuen's chest ceased to rise and fall, "There we go."
Quick, clean, no injuries, and the enemy never saw her coming. Just the way Anko liked her battles to go.
After it was over, Anko continued to root around the camp, talking to her recently deceased adversary, "I'm kind of pissed. You see, I finally finish my big money mission for Namikaze; finding a good place for him to set up shop. No, scratch that – a great place. Everyone's getting something out of it. And here you lot come to fuck it all up," She complained aloud, "This isn't even in Hi no Kuni to begin with, so why is your daimyo poking his big fat nose into what we're doing here?"
Not that there was anyone alive to answer her question. After all, she had just killed the only person around her within earshot that might have been able to give her the information she sought. Maybe keeping her alive for a bit of interrogation would have been a better idea?
Oh well. No use crying over spilled milk. At least now the others could fight without having to worry about the battlefield shifting around on them like a labyrinth.
Anko stared off at the expanse of land as it continued to be pummeled by the rain and the signs of battle. The day had yet to be won, but a crippling blow had been struck to the enemy on her front.
XxX
(Meanwhile – With Naruto)
From the inn that Naruto, his friends, and his father's allies were staying at, Naruto watched what he could of the battlefield like a hawk. As he did, two lone figures made their way into the village limits, standing side-by-side as they approached.
Shino appeared behind Naruto, looking over his shoulder at what his friend was looking at, "They're here," He identified, "Naruto-san, I can-."
Naruto stopped him before he couled even start. He was not going down there to fight. Shino had done his part already and paid the physical price for it that he was still on the mend from, "Shino... stay with my little sister, would you?"
Kanako was inside, as far insulated away from the battle as possible, hopefully still sleeping in the early morning. If something happened, one of them would need to move her away or protect her. As loathe as Shino was to admit it, even if he fought alongside Naruto as opposed to instead of them, he would be a liability.
"Do not lose," Shino directed of the blond jinchuuriki, finally conceding to his place in the current conflict, "I don't think I have to tell you why I must ask this, do I?"
Naruto grinned at Shino. Though his mouth was hidden behind the rebreather that kept him from spreading the Five Elements Virus, it was all there in his eyes, "Hey, we've gotten this far, haven't we?"
Indeed they had. Their defense had lasted through dawn. Now it was time to move forward.
Naruto's body protested against him with jolts of pain when he went to leap from the inn to the village roofs below, but it was necessary. He had to go. Someone needed to. This was the plan all along.
If anyone made it this far, it didn't matter what kind of condition Naruto was in, he would have to meet them.
Landing on the ground with a splash, Naruto stood directly in the path of the two Guardian Ninja before him. Two-on-one, it didn't matter. The fight had to happen.
The only question now was, who was the weak link? As if it had to be asked. The smart money would have gone to the younger one that seemed to be chomping at the bit to get at Naruto, as if he had something to prove.
"I'm only gonna say this once. Leave," Naruto demanded, his eyes shining gold for a split-second to emphasize his point, "Otherwise, you're not getting the choice."
Sora brought a claw weapon on his right hand up to bare threateningly, "And who do you think you-?" His retort was cut off by Kazuma slowly stepping forward, placing a hand in front of him, "Father?"
"You're Naruto of the Nine-Tails... aren't you?" Kazuma asked. Naruto didn't answer, but the man pressed on, "You must be. The breathing mask threw me off for a moment, but you fit the full description. You're the spitting image of the Yellow Flash."
"This guy is Naruto of the Nine-Tails? He looks sick."
Kazuma laughed at the blunt observation of his son. Indeed, Naruto's eyes seemed bloodshot, with bags underneath them. His pale skin was evident, even in the rain, "Even jinchuuriki are human in the end, no matter what monsters and demons certain legends try to paint them as. We seem to have caught the biggest threat among our enemies at the most opportune time."
Naruto hadn't expected them to back down, even if he had been healthy. But now that they knew he was unwell they would be aggressive. They saw a weakness, and they would exploit it to the best of their ability.
He would have to make sure they realized that his weakness didn't necessarily make him weak, 'Kurama?'
The mostly unspoken request went answered. Naruto felt the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Fox rush through his body, and in an instant he had made his move.
"Do it," Kurama said.
At that moment, Kazama realized another thing that linked Naruto and his famously powerful father. While Minato was said to vanish in a flash of yellow, Naruto did so in a haze of it. Just as he realized what had occurred and his defenses went up, he realized that Sora had been left out of arm's reach, "Sora!"
Before he could even get his son's name out of his mouth, Naruto stood behind Sora with his back to him. Spinning on his heels and twisting at the hip he delivered a powerful back elbow to the side of Sora's head that sent him flying. His body bounced off of the side of a building's sloped roof, sending him flopping bonelessly to the ground on the other side.
It all seemed to happen in slow motion for Kazuma.
Naruto flinched at the feeling of his elbow striking Sora in the head. The force of a Kurama-powered hit was too much for most anyone to endure when they knew it was coming, and Naruto hadn't held back. He felt Sora's skull give way like porcelain and his neck snap like a tree branch. One blow decided his fate. There was no time to muck about.
Kazuma didn't want to go over and check on his child. He knew a killing blow when he saw one. All he wanted was to lash out in rage against the person responsible.
Monk's spade in hand, he launched a vicious assault. However, it was one that Naruto had been prepared to receive.
The moment Kazuma attacked, Kurama's burst of chakra faded. Naruto could see the faint traces of wind chakra coating the Guardian's weapon. Allowing it to make contact with him was like asking to be cut to ribbons. He knew as much, seeing as how it was his natural element. And so, he dodged, with reflexes akin to a young man that had spent years sparring with and taking beatings at the hands of someone that made him look like a snail.
Thanks, dad.
Limited movement. Every move he made, every effort his muscles made to carry him out of harm's way hurt in its own right.
The minimum movement necessary to avoid anything dangerous. However, Kazuma didn't plan on making things easily. Blindly attacking would do him no favors.
After missing a swing, Kazuma let Naruto get some distance away, using the time to spin his weapon over his head, "Fuuton: Shakujou Tatsumaki (Wind Release: Shakujou Twister)!"
A large tornado formed around his body that was quickly launched out at Naruto. The force of nature tore up the road, and destroyed a building behind where Naruto had been standing.
This couldn't get too far out of hand. Kazuma was strong enough to do some serious damage to the village they were in. It was why Naruto's original plan had been to sucker as many of the Guardians as possible into his seal trap.
Covering his face to keep from getting clipped by debris from the tornado and the devastated building, Naruto noticed a shimmering, clear figure approaching aggressively through the flying rubbish.
Naruto made a cross seal with his fingers and formed a Shadow Clone that bumped him out of the way to take a critical strike intended for the original. Even angered deeply, there had been plenty of thought behind that approach.
Kazuma would never attack in more of a passionate rage than he would right now. As furious as his onslaught was, such a skilled shinobi would never have more openings in his game than he had at that very moment. That meant that being more careful was off the table. Naruto had to take what was presented to him when he had it.
"Finish him, already," Kurama directed as Naruto continued to fight, "The longer you leave him standing, the more dangerous this is going to get. I already have a virus trying to kill me, I don't need to double up on that with a squishy human doing it too."
Naruto's eyes drifted over to the direction where he had sent Sora's lifeless body flying, 'I feel kind of bad. I mean, I did kill his son in front of him.'
Naruto's natural sentiment was easily balanced out by Kurama's general lack of concern for any human that wasn't directly connected to his container, "Yes, and keeping that in mind, when he wins, what do you think he'll do given what you did and the fact that your little sister is a stone's throw away from here?"
…Yeah, Kazama wasn't walking away from this to bite them on the backside later.
Naruto placed his right hand behind his back, a stony expression on his face. Through the smoke and rubble, Kazama glared at him, killing intent pulsating from him until he vanished in a tiny squall. Naruto sucked his teeth and followed suit.
What followed was a fight that none of the villagers taking cover inside of their homes could see. Every so often, the sound of a dull impact or hard steps in the mud could be heard, but that was all they got.
At least until a loud shout punctuated by a human body being smashed into the ground.
"Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"
A blue orb of spinning chakra in Naruto's hand ground into the back of Kazuma, drilling him into the wet dirt road. Kazuma struggled underneath Naruto's hand, as though he were trying to crawl away, claw his way back up to his feet. To no avail.
The shinobi known as Kazuma of the Twelve Guardian Ninja expired unceremoniously on the ground, hundreds of miles away from home... his son no more than one-hundred yards away.
Naruto stood up where he was bent down over the now dead Kazuma. He managed to hold together for a few minutes. Adrenaline had done a bit of a service for him in ignoring the pain affecting him because of the Five Elements Virus, but such a thing could only be ignored for so long with nothing else to take up his attention.
Even standing up straight was a chore. Fortunately, he didn't have to deal with that alone.
"I've got you," Neji was there to offer a shoulder to support Naruto before he could muster the composure to try and walk on his own, "I was on my way to assist. Sorry I didn't make it."
"Neji?" Naruto asked, looking over at his friend, "What are you doing here? Weren't you on the frontlines?"
Indeed, he had been, fighting his way through a litany of undead in order to escape The labyrinth he had been trapped in, "The formations around the village separated me from the others. I thought it would be better to return and make my next move from here."
"Well, I'm glad you're alright," Naruto grunted out as Neji shifted his weight to a more comfortable position, "We're winning, right?"
It was hard to be certain, but things seemed to be going their way, "I believe so," Neji said, "A good number of our shinobi were lost in the same trap I was caught in, but the land has stopped shifting."
Naruto chuckled weakly, "Yeah? Well they're not the only ones who can set a trap. I caught half of the Guardians with Ero-sennin and Fuu."
If there were any members of their outfit that could handle powerful enemies in those numbers, it was those two, "Outstanding," Neji smirked, "In that case, I believe the day is just about won."
Things certainly seemed to be going that way. The day had been difficult, but the clouds seemed to be clearing. Not literally, since it was still pouring rain. More figuratively.
Relief washed over Naruto at the thought that the worst was behind them. Kanako had said they were stronger than him. Now while Kazuma had been pretty good, stronger than him was a stretch at the very best.
Either his little sister's newly awakened sensor abilities weren't as accurate as anyone would have liked just yet, or they hadn't fought the strongest that the Twelve Guardian Ninja had to offer.
XxX
(With Hana and Hinata)
Between running into the Uchiha Clan squad that had decimated her team and her brother, and everything else that had happened since then, it always seemed to be one step forward and two steps back for Inuzuka Hana.
Successfully ambush an Uchiha Clan transport and make off with their deadly bioweapon? Get routed in retreat, nearly die and lose your brother's life in the process.
Actually find a group of people willing to help deal with the consequences of your mission? Get them and yourself infected with the aforementioned bioweapon.
Try to make amends working with that group of people you got infected with the aforementioned bioweapon by helping them get acquainted with the village they're looking to settle in? Wind up fighting Hi no Kuni's Twelve Ninja Guardians... and losing.
Hana's ninken whimpered as the stood back up on all fours next to their human partner who rested on one knee in the mud. Loose strands of hair flew free from her ponytail, caked with mud, much like her face and much of her attire, "This tour is just not going my way... is it?" She said, breathing heavily.
Hinata stood in front of her, propped in her Juuken fighting stance. While she was notably cleaner, she was just as fatigued. It took everything she had to defend both herself and Hana from the onslaught of the two men before her.
"Inuzuka-san, stay down and rest for a moment," She said, despite the fact that she also looked like she could use a breather just as much.
Hana chuckled and stood, pushing herself upright off of her own knee. Her ninken let out yaps of support as they stood right alongside her, "Heh, you're kidding right?"
"You can't attack them again!"
"You can't just sit back and defend against both of them either," "I know you're good, princess, but these guys are a cut above. You know what they say – to attack is safer than to defend."
The thought of Hana waging an attack against the two Guardians made Hinata shiver. Nothing they had tried so far had worked, which led to them falling back into a self-preservative pattern of Hinata-defend, Hana-attack.
Nothing had changed. Instead it just led to Asuma and Chiriku grinding them down at a slower rate. The tide had never come close to turning in their favor, but it was keeping them alive. For how long remained to be seen.
Even so, they were still alive, "I don't agree with attacking again. Even with just you..." Hinata said. Hana was indeed the superior attacker. Her ability to coordinate with her ninken had given them the best opportunities of the battle. But every attack that was rebuked left her hurt, "You don't have enough chakra to heal yourself or any of your ninken and still fight."
"We can't just turtle up now," Hana said, "They'll cut right through us," She felt a growl in the back of her throat at being taken out without giving it one last all-out go, "It's either die moving forward or die on the backfoot."
Claws bared, Hana prepared to make her next move against the tall, tan bearded Asuma, and the bald monk-robed Chiriku. Fortunately, it wasn't necessary.
Wet and annoyed and both the weather and being held up by the two young ladies before him, Asuma suddenly went stiff and looked around, trying to hear and see his surroundings, "Do you hear that?"
Chiriku turned his attention away from their opponents for a split-second to lend an ear to his partner's concerns, "...No, I don't hear anything."
Asuma's nose wrinkled distastefully. As he thought, "That's the problem," He said, stashing away his pair of deadly knuckle-dusters at his waist, "Come on. We're finished here."
Chiriku looked at the man in surprise, "Asuma, we're retreating?"
Asuma nodded. Chiriku had been hyper-focused on their opponents. The man was a monk, with clarity of purpose and all that noise. Granted, he had a point. They were a touch young, especially the Hyuuga girl, but they were quite good to hold out as well as they had; a good balance of offense and defense.
In the time it had taken to fight them, the battlefield had gone silent around them.
Asuma saw this, heard this. There was no point in continuing to fight such a battle, "Why not?" He said, "The attack has been defeated. Limelight never hit, the undead are all gone, and the terrain hasn't shifted in quite some time. You know what that means, right?"
The major techniques that marked the key aspects of their battle plan had been neutralized, "It's just us now. Damn," Chiriku lamented before taking a hard look at the situation before them, "Alright then. There's no choice now is there? I'm not exactly used to this."
A much lighter mood came from Asuma at the idea of a pending defeat, "You think I am? It's not like we can cry over it now. Let's get out of here before they regroup and come after us."
Stronger than Hana and Hinata though they may have been, they weren't the only ones they had to worry about dealing with. If the girls could hold them off much longer, help would come. There was nothing to gain by fighting them to annihilation. It wasn't as though they had some kind of ideological dedication to eradicating Namikaze Minato's village movement. It was a job.
Relief washed through Hinata's body as she saw the two men begin to leave. Hana's fighting spirit was too bright to simply accept such a thing with no questions asked, no matter how fortuitous it was, "Wait! You think you can just leave after all of this?"
Hinata almost snapped at her ally to be quiet. If they were going to leave, let them leave. It had already been accepted by the both of them that they couldn't defeat Asuma and Chiriku.
Both of them seemed somewhat nettled to stop and address her. Hinata's heart stopped for a moment until Asuma began to speak, "It was never anything personal. You know how it is."
"Yeah, I do know how it is," Hana spat, "Killing in the name of money, it seems."
Asuma rolled his eyes. He was tired, dirty, wet, most of his teammates were dead, and he couldn't smoke in the rain. He was not about to discuss ideology with a girl barely out of her teens, "You're old enough to know how this works by now. Shinobi are mercenaries, fighting for the highest bidder. Well, our highest bidder is the Fire Daimyo, and he told us to take you out."
That was one thing that Hinata didn't understand. As far as she knew through her clan's partnership with Namikaze-aligned forces, nothing had been done to offend such a figure, "But why?"
"It doesn't matter now," Chiriku said, as he and Asuma turned to depart once more, "Enjoy your victory. You kids have earned it."
As they left with a Body Flicker Jutsu to mask the direction of their departure. Hana yelled and went to pursue them before Hinata called her away, steel in her voice, "Inuzuka-san, no!" Hana came to an immediate stop, sliding in the to place in the mud, surprised at hearing Hinata raise her voice in such a commanding way, "...There's no point in pursuing them."
Hana calmed herself and visibly became less aggressive in her posture. She was tired. It had been a long day. The fighting had taken its toll, "After all this, we're just going to let them go?"
Despite what had amounted to a victory, she felt so defeated. To the victor went the spoils. If that had been the case, what did they get out of this in victory? Some warped territory decorated with a handful of Hyuuga Clan corpses.
Hinata smiled at Hana sadly, "You and I can't defeat the two of them, and this was never that sort of fight for us," She pressed her hands together fitfully. As bad as it was, she accepted the gravity of the day's combat, "I understand. I have clansmen that have... died fighting today. But no one else needs to do the same, do they?"
Her brave, brave clan members. They had come on an expedition. To observe and understand the land their people were about to put a stake into. They hadn't anticipated a full-scale battle with an awesome enemy. And yet, they had fought alongside Inuzuka, Aburame, Uzumaki, and clanless shinobi as though they were their own.
Ten of her personal guard had fallen on the field. She had seen most of them with the Byakugan, despite most of them being separated in the shifting landmass labyrinth. She had watched them eventually succumb to the never-ending slew of undead that clawed their way from the ground and the walls until they could find their way out.
And yet, this was what being a leader meant. No wonder her father was such a hard man. He was in command when things like this happened, and had been for decades. How many times had he seen this? How many times had he seen worse than this. It was why Hinata wouldn't cry. Not out in the open. They had protected the village and the people within it. Even if it had come at a cost.
Hana smacked Hinata on the back and began to lead her away, back to the village, "Come on. Let's head back."
XxX
(That Afternoon – With Kushina – Hi no Kuni – Grand Verdant Stretch)
Assassination attempts were something that you never quite got used to. Granted, Minato received many more of them than Kushina did, but she had gotten accustomed to them since reuniting with her husband years ago. Most of them had come when she had been pregnant with Kanako too, which was extra fun.
Either way, she was used to keeping her eyes open. Especially when she was in unfriendly territory, which was quite often given that she didn't really have a home. Especially when she was all by herself.
The bath. She had been attacked in the damn bath. The guy had come at her inside of the water of the onsen. For a people that enjoyed the easy-going life, she expected that an assassin from among them would have more respect for a lady's downtime.
"Can't believe this crap," Kushina muttered to herself, naked and dripping wet, dragging a similarly drenched Nara Clan man behind her, wrapped up in glowing yellow chakra chains emerging from her back, "Couldn't have gotten at me while I was changing, or when I was washing myself. No, it had to be after I'd gotten in and gotten comfortable."
She gave her chains a good shake and bounced her assassin off of the ground forcefully. It served him right. He'd snuck into her allotted time to wash and rest, had gotten a look at her goodies, and had tried to end her life. He was lucky she needed him alive in the condition to talk.
Having a dead Nara Clan member in the bath with her wouldn't have gone over well with the clan's upper brass, speaking of whom, burst into the bath just as she finished toweling herself off grumpily.
The heavily scarred clan head of the Nara, Shikaku, entered, flanked by three other members. Their weapons were drawn to protect their leader as he stared Kushina down, a stony expression on his face, "You have five seconds to tell me what's going on here," He said in a scratchy voice.
Kushina finished toweling off, caring little for her compromised modesty, "You tell me. I was the one who was attacked," She gestured back at the man, pelting him with her towel once she was finished, "Look. I kept him alive. I didn't even hurt him either, so you could figure this out for yourself. Wasn't that nice of me?" She said, tone laced with sarcasm.
The assassin shook his head to rid himself of the towel, scowling at the red-haired witch that had thwarted his attack, "It's not true. It's a lie."
It was a pathetic denial. There was no sign of Kushina instigating anything, "Sure. I attacked you in the bath, in the middle of your clan's territory, unarmed," She said as she got dressed, "I even waited to get my tits out first, just for you... random Nara Clan person I don't know."
"Get him out of here. We'll send a message to the Yamanaka Clan. If he doesn't talk, we'll have one of them to help us interrogate tomorrow," Everyone could feel the mood in the room change, "You'll stay until we get the whole truth?"
It was more of a statement than a request. Kushina wasn't worried about being held until things were straightened out. She had nothing to hide if everything was on the level. Besides, if there was a conspiracy against her and they held her captive... well, she and Minato had a deal that he would give her three days without contact before coming to get her himself. They would have her for a full day before he would show himself.
A calm, yet cruel smile crossed her face as she looked over at her would-be attacker, "Just don't order them to walk my mind until they do his, and you've got it."
She had secrets that she didn't want to put at risk if someone bothered poking around in her head for too long, but as long as the other one went first, it likely wouldn't come to her having to give anything up.
The assassin recognized this as well, and went into panic, "Shikaku-sama, she was planning-!"
Shikaku held up a hand to keep him from rambling, "You can save it. It's your word against hers. If you're telling the truth, you know the Yamanaka telepaths will prove it. Don't worry."
Kushina had to give the man credit. He knew how to come off as an intimidating presence without even trying to. So intimidating was Shikaku, that leaving the verdict in the hands of their allied clan could not be allowed.
The Nara assassin grit his teeth and worked his jaw until a loud 'crack' sound was heard, followed by a crunch. His mouth filled with foam as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. His mouth and down his throat seemed to melt before their eyes.
It lasted seconds. Kushina and the gathered Nara were both stunned into silence, at least until Kushina broke it, "...Well that was interesting."
One of Shikaku's guards moved over to check the now deceased assassin, "He had a poison capsule hidden on him. Cyanide."
Kushina cringed at the explanation. What a brutal way to kill oneself, "Yummy. So now what?" Her more pressing concern was still her own fate.
Shikaku had no grounds to keep her on. Not that such a thing mattered when they made their own rules. But it wasn't worth the trouble that would come with holding her when there wasn't a clear reason to, "You'll have your antidote in the morning," He eventually said, "The sooner we get you out of here, the better for my clan, you troublesome woman."
After all, Naruto got his sense of being helpful to people who needed it from somewhere – both of his parents, "...Not that I'm not thrilled about that, mind you," Kushina said, surprising Shikaku at her willingness to assist, "Are you sure? I know people don't like us, but normally when someone wants to kill us, it's more than one rogue element."
Shikaku didn't want her there any longer than possible. Wherever that family went, problems followed, "We'll handle this ourselves. It's a Nara Clan problem."
"If you say so," Kushina conceded with a frown.
She didn't like it. It didn't seem like a clan issue. No one went lone wolf like that by themselves when they lived and worked amongst others, many of whom shared the same ideas. If it was a clan problem, more than one person would have attacked her, and others would have supported them.
Her gut told her there was something eerier about this than simple distaste of what her husband stood for. But she wouldn't step on any toes to solve it. She would leave it behind for now and keep it in the back of her mind. It would come up again.
She wandered past Shikaku and the other Nara Clan members to fetch her clothes from the changing room, "If it's all the same to you, I'd like to leave tonight. I don't like the idea of sleeping in a place where someone tried to kill me with their shadow."
XxX
(Capital of Hi no Kuni – Fire Daimyo's Court)
Frustration. Embarrassment. Those were the words that described the Fire Daimyo's temperament. When the Twelve Guardian Ninja had returned from the mission near the borderlands outside of his country's limits, he expected good news, that a fringe threat to his power on the Elemental Nations continent had been destroyed.
What he got were two of the twelve men and women remaining that he had sent to accomplish the deed. What he got was a report from those two surviving warriors that they had been unsuccessful in their job.
The court, which was typically filled with conversation and frivolity had gone silent as the Fire Daimyo mulled over the recent turn of events.
The Senju and Uchiha Clans were incredibly problematic, but they were so involved with countering one another that they could often be pitted against each other. Any progress either could make was normally sabotaged by the other, leaving it unnecessary for him to cause anymore waves. They did it enough themselves.
But these ideological types. This... village comprised of combined ninja clans. They were the true dangerous ones. It was the sort of thing that could snowball into disputes over who held the most power in a country or beyond.
The wood of his fan bent and cracked underneath the pressure of his two hands. His longtime advisors didn't know what to do now. Open hostilities with shinobi had been avoided up until this point for years, and any problems that had arisen had been handled by his Guardian Ninja. After all, it was usually best for shinobi to face shinobi. While conscripted armies had numbers and skilled samurai officers, they were normally less than effective.
However, a new advisor was able to fill in where the others were unfamiliar, "You should not worry so much about the outcome, Daimyo-sama," Danzo said, leaning down next to the man's ear, "This was necessary. Now you see the capabilities of the unified village movement, and the danger it presents."
True. From reports of Asuma and Chiriku, several of the major players involved, including Namikaze Minato himself weren't even involved. His elite force of shinobi still weren't able to do them any real damage.
Danzo continued his measured, logical words. They put the Fire Daimyo more at ease by the syllable, "Now you are wiser, and your ability to make war has not been significantly damaged. After all, you can find freelancers to replenish the ranks of the Twelve Guardian Ninja."
The man was more knowledgeable on the subject of shinobi than anyone in the Fire Daimyo's inner circle. In such tumultuous times, having an expert on a volatile factor such as the ninja forces in the Elemental Nations was invaluable.
Sure, he was a ninja as well, but these people were mercenaries. Money talked, as far as the lot of them were concerned. Loyalty could be bought, and much like his Twelve Guardian Ninja it had been with Danzo.
"You shinobi are a headache with no comparison," The Fire Daimyo said, having noticeably calmed himself after hearing the confidence from his newest consultant.
"I cannot disagree to that point," Danzo said, "Do not worry. You are not alone in your opposition to the arrogant schemes of Namikaze. Should he try to reach too far, you will not be the only force in the Elemental Nations that moves to crush them."
The Fire Daimyo raised a well-manicured eyebrow in interest at what he was being told, "You're saying I should wait then?"
Danzo backed away, giving the daimyo his space. Making a show of leaving things up to him as far as final decisions say, "It would be in your best interest to sit and watch. Moments of opportunity arise quite often. The key is picking the one best suited for your success."
The Fire Daimyo thought carefully, waving Danzo over to stand in front of him before he addressed him once more, "Will you make these opportunities for me? Could I ask you to do this? I will of course reward you handsomely."
He had this new resource, and he still had the remnants of the Twelve Guardian Ninja. It made sense to pool these resources and make good use of them.
This was what the bandaged old man seemingly wanted to hear. He quickly bowed before the lord of Hi no Kuni, "Daimyo-sama... whatever makes you think I haven't begun already?" He asked rhetorically, relishing in the comfortable smile on the Fire Daimyo's face, "As the head of the Shimura Clan, it would be our honor."
Whoa. Man, your boy has been hellaciously busy since the last time you've heard from me (whether you read anything else I write or not). My apologies as it's been a while since I've updated this and a few other stories, but I've been focusing on some other things in the meantime.
If you knew it or not, I'm in the process of writing an original novel to try and make some damn legit money. I'm about a third of the way through and I like the way it's shaping up so far. Hey, maybe I can start a franchise? Pipedreams, people.
In addition to my actual job, I've also been focusing on some other stuff I'm getting more of an opportunity to take part in, leaving me with less free time than I used to have. But fan fiction is always a big interest of mine. I like this medium of interpreting and reworking the universe that creators have come up with, so I'm not sure if I'll ever stop. Just because I go silent doesn't mean I'm gone, guys.
Anyway, this chapter's for you. I hope you enjoyed, and I'll have more stuff in the future.
Kenchi out.