Author's Note:Welcome back, everyone!
Disclaimer: Naruto and Inuyasha belong to their respective owners.
Dialogue Legend:
"Unforgivable" – Normal dialogue
'Unforgivable' – character's thoughts/speaking to Inner Demon/Inner Spirit/Supernatural Being telepathically through a seal
"Unforgivable" – Jutsu name; Inner Demon/Inner Spirit/Supernatural Being speaking to someone directly.
'Unforgivable' – Inner Demon/Inner Spirit/Supernatural Being speaking to someone telepathically or through a seal
Chapter 40 – The Might of Iwa
Set's laughter boomed in Temari's and Gaara's minds for several seconds before the god's voice adopted a far more serious tone. 'Do not fault Arashi for her sudden flight. What has just transpired would unnerve any demigod cognizant of it.'
"What do you mean?" Gaara's brow furrowed as waved away the Konoha and Suna forces that were nearby. Asuma and Baki saw the gesture and moved their men away from the pair.
'The phenomenon I am about to describe has no proper designation and is exceedingly rare.' Set began. 'I have been on this world for near-countless eons, and I know of only one hundred instances of it before now. Fortunately, many of those hundred past examples were well-documented. The most consistent name ascribed to what was just set in motion is The Call. A rudimentary title but, for our purposes, it will serve. The Call manifests when two demigods descended from gods of differing pantheons – but with the same primary domain – fight on the same battlefield in close proximity. How much time must be spent before The Call will occur is fluid. In some cases, days passed before it happened; in other cases – like ours – it took only minutes.'
"What does this 'Call' do?" Temari's concern was audible.
'It compels the demigods who experience it to one of two actions: to kill the other recipient of The Call, or mate with them.' Set replied gravely. 'The circumstances of a battle that births a Call determines the action it will compel. Demigods who meet the requirements are compelled to mate if they fight on the same side; demigods on opposing sides are compelled to kill.'
Gaara turned pale. "H-How long does this compulsion expect such a relationship to last?"
'Til Death do you part.' Set quoted. 'Some demigod couples forcibly matched by The Call have attempted to part ways after what they considered to be an acceptable amount of time. This has always resulted in The Call's return."
"So that's why Arashi-san ran away," Temari realized, "does distance from the other demigod weaken the effects of The Call?"
'No. It is a song in the blood, a chorus in the soul. Only the fulfillment of the action compelled will silence it.' Set replied.
"It doesn't seem to affect me very much." Gaara rebuked. "Thinking of Arashi now brings feelings of warmth, of comradery, but nothing else."
'You have Shukaku to thank for that. He's been clawing at your mind for years, his voice chipping away at your sanity. Now, your mind is fully your own again, but Shukaku's efforts have desensitized you to The Call.' Set explained. 'The Call grows stronger the longer it is ignored, but there are limits to its potency. It can never become powerful enough to completely drown out other thoughts and emotions, nor can it truly force those affected by it to act against their will. Given the current state of your mind, you will likely be able to ignore it without much effort. A luxury that poor Arashi will not have.'
"Wait a minute!" Temari's eyes snapped wide open. "You said that The Call only occurs between demigods that have godly parents that share the same primary domain. Given the difference between our powers, I highly doubt Arashi-san's divine ancestor has the desert or evil as a primary domain!"
'You are correct, which is why I did not anticipate this.' Set acknowledged. 'Poseidon is the Grecian God of the Oceans and Storms, among other things. I, too, am a storm god, but that is not one of my primary domains. To my knowledge, this is the first time that The Call has manifested when the primary domains of the demigods' divine parents differ. You are a trailblazer, Gaara.'
"You're also the god of foreigners, could that have something to do with it?" Temari hypothesized.
'Perhaps; no precedent exists to draw wisdom from. Your theory holds as much weight as any answer I could suggest.' Set agreed.
"What will this mean for Arashi-san?" The future Kazekage asked.
'Unless her mind has been traumatized in a similar manner to yours, or she has immense mental discipline, every waking moment will be torture for her.' Set answered.
Gaara felt an enormous swell of pity for the Kiri Genin. He knew all too well what it was like to have your mind defiled by foreign compulsions. The urges to slaughter Shukaku filled him with were bad enough, but to be forced to love another was cruelty beyond anything he could imagine. Wait.
Gaara closed his eyes in thought for several minutes contemplating the decision he just arrived at. It felt wrong, so very wrong, but if the alternative was agony unending . . .
"Set-sama, what acts of lust does The Call consider as 'mating'?" The Jinchuriki asked.
'Hah! That's my grandson; I knew you'd think of the workaround. Only by fully embracing the relationship forced upon you can The Call be silenced permanently, but lesser expressions of love – or lust – will diminish its potency for considerable amounts of time.'
"Unbelievable, who'd have ever thought that such a curse could exist?!" Temari yelled.
'The distinction between a curse and a gift is often as thin as a kunai's edge.' Set said adamantly. Many of those afflicted by The Call led tragic lives beforehand. I know not the Cosmos' reason for allowing such a thing to exist, but I cannot view the more benign variant of The Call as anything less than a reward for those who have persevered through immense personal loss.'
Temari looked sadly at her brother. Nearly all of Suna was still terrified of him. Those he worked closely with were slowly shifting away from fear and toward respect, but that was likely as far as he'd ever get with most of the village's citizens. The adoration many rulers took for granted would be forever denied him. Set was right; to be shunned regardless of your achievements is no way to live. If The Call offered solace from that fate, even if it was artificial, wasn't it worth trying at the very least?
Temari certainly thought so, but Gaara wouldn't be easily convinced. He'd lived nearly his whole life doing everything he could to keep Shukaku's madness at bay. Some days were better than others, but it was a losing war until Naruto nearly killed the Tailed Beast. No, Gaara's offer to soothe The Call's effects on Arashi was a business transaction. She was his bodyguard and he would do what was necessary to ensure she could perform her duty. Gaara wouldn't see this bond as anything more. As Gaara Shunshined away in a swirl of sand, the Suna princess wept for her little brother.
Arashi was pacing on the roof of the Kazekage's office. With each step taken, she shoved a little more of the lust she now felt for Gaara into a box located in the darkest reaches of her mind. It allowed her to think her own thoughts without that Poseidon-damned song blasting through her head. For now.
After several minutes, the Call diminished in volume from a near-all-consuming roar to a barely perceivable whisper. "Finally!" Arashi howled in triumph.
"Impressive, but, from what I have been told, you only delay the inevitable." Gaara emerged from the staircase leading down from the roof.
"Stay away!" Arashi's water claws manifested in an instant. She would not be taken in a fit of Call-fueled lust!
If anyone else had noticed that Arashi had bared her claws against the very person she was assigned to protect, there would've been hell to pay. But on his way to the rooftop Gaara had "suggested" that all Shinobi and civilians in the area find somewhere else to be. Near-universal fear had its benefits.
Tendrils of sand wrapped around Arashi's hands faster than she could react and retreated almost as quickly, taking her claws with them.
"Despite both of us being demigods, the laws of Chakra remain unchanged. Doton bests Suiton." Gaara mused as he sent more sand tendrils to immobilize the granddaughter of Poseidon. A large tendril wrapped around her legs while two smaller ones rose from the ground and ensnared her wrists. "Or maybe it's because both of our Chakras enjoy divine properties."
'Bingo!' Set chimed in.
Another sand tendril covered the lower half of Arashi's face, gagging her mouth. Gaara did not need the girl screaming after he damaged his already precarious reputation to empty the area. No civilian would lurk in the area after Gaara's earlier veiled threats, but a shout from the roof of Suna's seat of government would demand an investigation.
Arashi thrashed wildly against her chains of sand, but her efforts were futile. The Call's volume was exploding in her mind despite her best efforts to mute it. Rage was replaced by terror as Gaara moved closer. The Call attempted to transmute the fear into lust, but Arashi refused to be aroused by what she was sure would soon occur.
The dreaded assault never came. Gaara simply interlaced the fingers of his left hand with those of Arashi's right hand. A quintessential expression of love. The Call's volume diminished by several orders of magnitude, and Arashi visibly relaxed.
"My progenitor was right; The Call has a very broad interpretation of what constitutes a 'mating ritual', so it can be appeased by minor displays of affection." Gaara smiled as his tendrils collapsed to the ground.
"Only for a time. Just as the human body develops a tolerance for poison and disease, so too does The Call adapt to half measures and sophistry." Arashi warned. "The reprieve gained from their use will diminish, requiring increasingly potent displays to achieve the same result. Ultimately, only the act demanded by The Call will remain effective against it."
"You are in love with Shikamaru-san. What effect does that have on your end of The Call?" Gaara remained by Arashi's side.
"None, which – in our case – is a good thing." Arashi said sadly. "At best, I am infatuated with Shikamaru-san. If my feelings for him ran deeper, I had known him for longer, then The Call would be exponentially louder within my mind. Whatever agency governs it despises the notion of competition."
Gaara took this knowledge in, stared into the sky, and – after several minutes – turned to face Arashi again. "Shukaku has been poisoning my mind for years. The madness he inflicted has been purged, but it left me near-deafened to The Call. I will never take from you what you are unwilling to give, nor will I inflict upon you anything that you are unwilling to receive." The Suna prince let go of Arashi's hand. "However, to be drowned in thoughts and feelings not your own for all your days is hell. If The Call will not cease and cannot be thwarted indefinitely by half measures, then I can only suggest that we strive to make this false bond a genuine one."
Utter silence greeted Gaara's proposal, but a war raged across Arashi's face. Indignation clashed with logic. Gratitude battled shock. The rejection of lust contested the first spark of true love.
With a herculean effort, the descendant of Poseidon reigned in her rampant emotions. "You can't be serious!" She gasped.
Gaara looked into Arashi's eyes. Pale green met dark blue. "Beyond selling your dignity to preserve your sanity, what other option do we have?" He countered calmly.
None. The Call's unending song was wordless, but its presence alone mocked Arashi with the answer she dared not speak aloud. "You, you have given me much to consider. Please, excuse me." The young woman Shunshined away in a swirl of water.
'You handled that very well. A substantial portion of those compelled by The Call have killed themselves to escape the urge. Though Arashi does not strike me as the type, your suggestion may have stopped any thoughts of suicide before they could begin.' Set praised.
Gaara turned his gaze upon the sky once more, contemplating a future that was now even more uncertain than before.
10:00 AM, Iwa's Southeastern Border
"JIRAIYA!" Tsunade roared. "You have the best spy network in the Elemental Nations, so WHY THE HELL didn't we know about this wall?!"
Konoha and Kumo's armies had arrived shortly after Kiri's. The Allied Shinobi Forces were currently stationed a hundred miles away from the wall and were glaring at the gargantuan barricade standing between them and Tsuchi no Kuni. Several Shinobi who had contracts with bird summons had used their avian allies to survey the wall from the sky. Most were shot down by the Iwa forces atop the wall, and the few who managed to return to their summoners reported dire news.
The wall protected the entirety of Tsuchi no Kuni's southeastern border, starting from the sea at its northernmost point and curving southwest to shield Iwa from invasion. It blocked entry from Takigakure, Kusagakure, and even Amagakure. It proceeded for miles past the village concealed by rain to thwart invasions from Suna as well.
Far more troublesome than the length of the wall, however, was its depth. The wall was at least a hundred feet thick in most areas with some sections being more than twice as thick. The number of defenders who could man the wall was astronomical, and Iwa's quantity-over-quality approach to Shinobi training enabled them to fill the wall's immense dimensions with ease.
"Cut me some slack, Tsunade. Danzo's agents have been feeding Iwa intel for years and a good chunk of that intel involved my network's infiltration and operating methods." The Toad Sannin grumbled. "To prevent the whole network from being exposed, I had to order most of my Iwa spy rings to go dark years ago. The limited info they have managed to gather since then hinted at some grand defense plan, but it was too risky to reactivate enough of the network to investigate further."
"The wall's Fuinjutsu arrays are what concern me the most. Onoki has to know that we have people on our side who can blast a fortification like this to smithereens. He wouldn't have wasted the time and resources needed to build it unless it could withstand our most destructive Jutsu!" Ay looked grimly at the near-countless seals etched into the wall. He didn't know most of them, and the few he did recognize drastically enhanced the durability of whatever they were applied to. Some of them even repaired moderate amounts of damage inflicted on the object in question.
"Our total forces are 120,000: forty thousand from Konoha, fifty thousand from Kumo, and thirty thousand from Kiri. From what our bird summoners reported, at least triple our number is stationed atop the wall in our immediate area. Most of them are probably Genin, but between their number advantage and whatever the wall itself can do I really don't like our odds." Shikaku grimaced. "We can't commit to an all-out attack without knowing what we're in for, but you'll never know the tune of a bell until you ring it. No choice; we have to throw one or two of our strongest pieces at it to see what it can do."
"Looks like I'm up." Jiraiya volunteered.
"Hell yeah, Jiraiya! With you an' me, that wall will soon be bye-ah~" Bee stepped up.
"No heroics, you two. Assess the wall's properties, then retreat." Ay ordered. The chain of command had been established shortly after the conclusion Kage Summit which birthed the Allied Shinobi Forces. Ay was Commander-in-Chief, Tsunade was second-in-command, and Mei was third-in-command. In the field, Ay's authority was absolute, but the three Kage frequently held counsel to discuss the details and ramifications of their alliance. In these meetings, Ay's decisions could be overruled if both Tsunade and Mei disagreed with him. The Kage had already designated their successors; if any of them died, their replacements would be ranked underneath the surviving Kage. If all three current Kage perished, their successors would have to decide among themselves who was best qualified to lead.
Jiraiya nodded gravely in affirmation of Ay's command, while Bee nonchalantly gave a thumbs-up. The pair left the Allied Shinobi Force's encampment and stopped once they were a mile away from the wall.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Jiraiya wasted no time in summoning Gamabunta.
"So, we're finally making a move against Iwa, eh Jiraiya?" The toad chieftain narrowed his eyes at the massive wall.
"You got it!" Jiraiya flashed through a set of hand seals. His long-time friend didn't need to be told to spew a torrent of oil at the wall.
"Katon: Gamayu Endan!" (Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet) Jiraiya's flames transformed the oil into to a tremendous river of fire. Moments before the fire blast hit the wall, a large amount of the seals carved into the section about to be hit glowed a bright blue. The entire section was bathed in Suiton Chakra. When Jiraiya and Gamabunta's collaborative Jutsu made contact, it was blocked almost entirely. The small amount of flames that pierced the wall's aquatic countermeasure killed hundreds of Iwa soldiers but caused no damage to the wall itself.
"Where'd all that water come from?! As a toad, I can naturally sense the presence of water and Suiton Chakra and there was none in that wall before our attack hit!" Gamabunta gawked at the wall.
"Then the wall's Fuinjutsu must produce a Chakra barrier that alters its properties in accordance to the Jutsu about to hit it." Jiraiya surmised.
"You're crazy, no one can make a seal array that complex!" Gamabunta denied.
"The Uzumaki Clan could; that's one of the reasons it took three villages to wipe them out." Jiraiya countered. "The barriers protecting Uzushiogakure could only be broken if at least two Nature Transformations hit the barrier at once. Even then, it took tremendous amounts of Chakra to break through each one. Damn it all, Iwa was one of those villages! I should have known they'd take prisoners to brainwash into loyal seal masters!"
"Don't blame yourself. Aside from Kushina-chan, Naruto-kun, and that Nagato kid you trained a couple wars ago, how many Uzumaki survivors have you seen?" Gamabunta tried to calm his old friend down.
"None, but I've heard of one more. When Orochimaru was first forming Otogakure, I managed to slip a few of my spies into his forces. They were discovered and killed not long after – thank Kami that Orochimaru wasn't confident enough in using Edo Tensei to revive them at the time – but before getting exposed they managed to tell me of an Uzumaki orphan who had been found and retrieved by Orochimaru's agents. The poor kid's parents must have been out of the village when the Uzumaki Clan was destroyed. I should have accounted for the possibility that they weren't the only case!" Jiraiya screamed.
"All the world's blame won't make an ounce of change, we need a blast now to send the wall straight to the past!" Yellow Chakra began surging out of Bee. "If an elemental attack can't make the cut, I'll shove a Bijuu-dama through its gut!" With a huge flash of light and a localized earthquake, he transformed into Gyuuki. The presence of the Tailed Beast's Chakra triggered a reaction on the wall. A much more elaborate set of seals glowed purple as Bee's final Jinchuriki form began charging its most devastating attack. A massive yellow orb formed above his mouth and soon erupted into a titanic Chakra wave that made Jiraiya and Gamabunta's fire blast seem pitiful in comparison.
The seals that had glowed purple earlier now shifted in color to a bright red. When the Bijuu-dama reached the halfway point between Bee and the wall, its size suddenly diminished by half. As it came closer to the wall, a red Chakra wave of equal size erupted from the top of the wall and slammed into it. The two attacks struggled against each other for several seconds before dissipating. Once the near-blinding light produced by the Chakra blasts faded, Jiraiya could see a giant, red-furred gorilla with spike-like protrusions on each of its four tails standing alone on one of the larger portions of the wall.
"Of course Onoki would put one of his strongest assets in charge of protecting his precious wall!" Jiraiya cursed. Some of the red seals deactivated after the Bijuu-dama clash ended, but the vast majority of them remained active.
"Roushi! Haven't seen you since the Third Shinobi World War, how ya been?" Bee bellowed.
"Life's been good to me, Bee-san. You and Jiraiya-dono should leave while you have the chance. You've seen that Tsuchikage-sama's wall is capable of halving any opposing Jinchuriki's power. I assure you, that is not the only danger that awaits."
"Hmm, how 'bout no?" Bee charged the wall, expecting to dodge any number of his attacks. To his surprise, Roushi leaped to the ground and rushed to meet the challenge head-on.
"As much a hard-head as your Kage! Can't feel bad if I send ya flyin'!" Bee threw a lariat at Roushi, but the Yonbi Jinchuriki caught the blow!
"I told you that the wall halves your power; did you honestly believe that truth applied only to your Chakra and not your physical attributes?" Roushi wrapped his tails around the dumbstruck Bee and fired over twenty lava balls at him. At point-blank range, Bee had no time to dodge and was hit by ten of them before he managed to escape Roushi's grasp by creating an ink clone and substituting with it.
Roushi pressed his advantage by charging a Bijuu-dama at the now-stationary Bee but was interrupted by another fire blast from Jiraiya.
"Useless." Roushi grunted before converting his incomplete Bijuu-dama into a beam that overpowered Jiraiya's attack and severely injured Gamabunta. The toad chieftain vanished in an enormous plume of smoke, which Jiraiya and Bee took advantage of to Shunshin back to the safety of the encampment.
His task complete, Roushi leaped back to the top of the wall and shifted back to his human form.
'Why didn't you chase after them? The Toad Sannin is no threat to you and my big brother's vessel is severely injured!' Son Goku demanded.
'My orders are to defend the wall. No more, no less.' Roushi replied coldly.
'Stubborn to a fault, that'll get you killed one day!' Son Goku yelled. 'You're lucky Hiruzen-kun wasn't out there. Anyone else is fair game, but I won't give you a scrap of my Chakra if you fight my kin!'
Roushi didn't respond as he gazed stoically at the enemy encampment.
"Medic team, prepare a room for Bee-san STAT!" Jiraiya ordered as he carried Bee through the heart of the encampment. The Hachibi Jinchuriki's body was covered in third-degree burns. One of the nearby tents was soon filled with several Medical Ninja, including Shizune. Jiraiya laid his comrade on an operating table and stood back as Shizune's team went to work.
"What happened?" Ay barely resisted the urge to shout once he saw his brother's pitiful state.
"The wall had Fuinjutsu that can cut a Jinchuriki's Chakra and physical parameters in half. Bee fought Roushi-san and didn't realize that his Tailed Beast Mode's strength was suppressed until it was too late." Jiraiya reported. "I can't believe Bee-san took so much damage. Shouldn't his Tailed Beast Mode have tanked most of it?"
"That's the biggest drawback to Tailed Beast Mode; your durability increases exponentially, but any damage that form incurs is transferred directly to the Jinchuriki once they exit the form. Normally that weakness is mitigated by the Tailed Beast's healing factor, so the Yonbi's Youton must be resistant to it. Come with me, the other Kage need to hear your full report." Ay growled and led Jiraiya to a large tent. To prevent Iwa from assassinating the Kage, the tent they held council in changed several times per day. On their way, Ay waved down a messenger who relayed an order for Darui to attend him. The Kumo Jonin joined the pair within minutes. Once the trio entered the current command tent, Ay took his seat at the center of a large table. Tsunade sat to his left and was attended by Shikaku; Mei sat to his right and was guarded by Yama.
"That wall is even more troublesome than I feared!" Shikaku moaned. "How did Iwa manage to develop a Fuinjutsu that suppresses Jinchuriki and Tailed Beast Chakra?"
"It must be another Uzumaki technique Iwa stole from Uzushiogakure's corpse!" Tsunade slammed a fist on the table.
"With all respect, Hokage-sama, I find that hard to believe." Darui interjected. "The adaptive anti-elemental Jutsu barrier is known to us but the only Uzumaki Fuinjutsu capable of suppressing the Tailed Beasts is Kongou Fusa. Jiraiya-sama's report holds nothing in common with that technique."
"It doesn't need to. We all know of a person whose Chakra inherently possessed the power to stifle the Tailed Beasts: Hashirama Senju-sama." Mei rebuked.
"What does my late grandfather have to do this?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"The Senju and Uzumaki Clans share a common ancestor." Mei explained.
"Right, Asura Otsutsuki, son of the – OH SHIT!" Jiraiya blanched after connecting the dots.
"Correct; if one of Hagoromo-sama's descendants can be born with Chakra capable of casually stemming the might of the Tailed Beasts, then we cannot discount the possibility that others wielding the same trait could come to exist in time. And if our hypothetical descendant was born into the Uzumaki Clan, who were feared for their Fuinjutsu prowess?" Mei proposed.
"Then mass producing seals to neutralize Jinchuriki isn't just possible, it's inevitable!" Ay slammed a fist clean through his section of the table. "Even if Iwa only has one person with such Chakra, they'd only have to empower the seals, not draw them!"
"Too true. All Uzumaki have gigantic Chakra reserves, and they regenerate quickly!" Tsunade said through clenched teeth.
"The one silver lining in all this is that some of these seals lost their power after the Bijuu-dama clash ended. If we had more Jinchuriki to throw at the wall, we could force a contest of attrition." Yama mused.
"Well, we don't!" Ay spat. "Gaara-kun can't help us, Utakata-san refuses to help us, and both Fuu-san and Naruto-dono need much more training! The only Jinchuriki on our side left is my niece, Yugito-chan, and I need her defending Kumo while Bee and I are away!"
Before anyone else could speak, a gargantuan explosion brought their conversation to a halt.
HA-01, Head of the Haearuichi Clan and deputy-commander of the Sinister Eight's combined forces – second only to Tsuchikage-sama himself – smiled as he and his clansmen finished their hand seals. With total silence, ten thousand cannons emerged from their concealed places atop the wall. A matching number men and women placed a device resembling a mechanical mole into the breech of the cannon in front of them. To the left and slightly behind each cannon, ninety-nine identical machines lay in carefully arranged stacks retrieved from storage scrolls. This new weapon was HA-01's crowning achievement. His only regret was that he lacked the time and resources to stockpile more before the war began.
With all in readiness, HA-01 raised the curtain on the war's next massacre. The words uttered into his radio were barely audible, but the bloodlust within them was near-deafening. "All Haearuichi Clan members within range of the enemy camp: fire at will!"
There was no roaring cascade of cannon fire as the lethal barrage was launched. No immense smoke cloud to alert the enemies of Iwa. The only warning the Allied Shinobi Forces could receive was a swift pulse of Chakra easily masked by the cloaking seals adorning the wall.
The encampment's perimeter was guarded mostly by Kumo Shinobi and members of the Inuzuka and Hyuuga Clans. Kumo's ninja were a natural choice; Raiton has the advantage over Doton in most circumstances, so who better to guard against an assault be Iwa? The Inuzuka's superhuman sense of smell compensated for the anti-detection Jutsu seals Kakashi reported after Team 7's return from Nami no Kuni, and the Byakugan allows for detection beneath the ground. Even if their uniforms conceal their Chakra signatures, Iwa's troops couldn't hide the existence of any underground tunnels from the Hyuuga.
Kaoru Hyuuga, Jonin of Konoha, was renowned within her clan for having one of the highest records for long-distance detection in the history of the Hyuuga. She blinked when she thought she saw something move at the limit of her Byakugan's range. She narrowed her Doujutsu's range from omnidirectional to unidirectional, allowing her to see for a greater distance and in much more detail. She now saw hundreds of shapes with suppressed Chakra signatures that resembled some sort of animal tunneling beneath the ground toward the encampment at tremendous speed.
"ENEMY JUTSU INCOMING, TYPE UNKNOWN!" Kaoru screamed, channeling a vast amount of Chakra through her mouth to ensure her alert was heard across the entire camp. The Kumo perimeter guards unleashed their Raiton Jutsu, saturating the earth surrounding the encampment with enough lightning to make a supercell thunderstorm envious.
Kaoru narrowed her eyes, doing her best to see the incoming attack through the near-blinding sea of lightning. It took several seconds for her to discern that the animal-like constructs were unaffected by her Kumo allies' defense. Kaoru's eyes widened in terror; she had fought in the Third Shinobi World War and knew what a subterranean Jutsu impervious to Raiton Chakra meant. "EVERYONE, GET AWAY FROM THE PERIMETER! IT'S NOT DOTON IT'S BA – "
A synchronized explosion more potent than all but the mightiest Katon Jutsu devoured Kaoru's warning. As they got closer to their prey, the mole-shaped missiles grew faster as the Bakuton Jutsu contained within began to activate. Their mechanical limbs were overclocked, locking their trajectories in place but astronomically increasing their speed. At the moment of impact with their designated targets, the Bakuton warheads detonated and obliterated the fortifications guarding the perimeter along with every Shinobi stationed upon them. Eight thousand members of the Allied Shinobi Forces perished instantly.
Atop the wall, nearly a tenth of the Explosion Corps members manning the cannons collapsed. Maintaining the mental connection needed to guide a mole-missile to its target placed a heavy toll on the operator's brain. Jonin clan members and above had little difficulty weathering the strain for several dozen missiles, but Chuunin Haearuichi typically only lasted one dozen missiles and Genin were only good for four or five. The collapsed Shinobi were immediately attended to by the thirty thousand members of Iwa's Medical Corps stationed to counter this drawback.
HA-01 grinned wickedly as the medics got his soldiers back into the fight. Any reprieve his victims gained this day would be measured in minutes. He licked his lips before loading another missile into his cannon.
"We just lost the entire perimeter!" A Hyuuga Chunnin said after Shunshining into the Kage's command tent. "No enemies detected in the immediate area, but I detected thousands of Bakuton signatures just before the explosion!"
"Kami-damn it! The Explosion Corps biggest weakness has always been the limited range of their bombs. The Haearuichi Clan must have found a way to replicate Deidara-san's clay delivery system!" Jiraiya swore.
Tsunade looked like she'd just swallowed an entire bucket of lemons. "Then we have to retreat. As a composite Nature Transformation, Bakuton has no elemental weakness, and our defenses were never designed to withstand a fusillade like this. Ay-san, give the order!"
The Yondaime Raikage was livid, the people responsible for grievously injuring his brother were right in front of him and he couldn't do a damn thing to them! As much as he wanted to countermand Tsunade, he knew he couldn't. He had a duty. To his men. To Konoha and Kiri's Shinobi. To his brother. To himself.
"We withdraw to the remnants of Kusagakure." Ay decreed as a second wave of explosions ravaged the encampment. "Whoever or whatever depopulated that village left most of the buildings intact. Iwa will pursue, so at least we'll have a fortified position to retaliate from."
"A sound strategy. Given their proximity to Iwa, the structures of Kusagakure are likely designed with Bakuton in mind." Mei approved.
"We leave at once; anyone too injured to move will have to be left behind." Tsunade sobbed. To abandon the critically wounded to their fates was a betrayal of every medical oath she'd ever sworn, but Iwa's newest weapon was unlikely to leave any bodies in its wake to heal.
HA-01's grin all but tore his face in half. The Konoha, Kumo, and Kiri scum had run off with their tails between their legs, but not before nearly half their number was annihilated by the mole-missiles. A couple thousand or so Genin of his clan had died from a combination of Chakra exhaustion and irreversible brain damage and a few hundred of his Chuunin would never fully recover from the strain placed on them this day, but the Medical Corps had assured him that all of his Jonin who participated in the operation would fully recover with time and rest. His sadistic smirk shortened only slightly as he wrote a mass request for the mentally depleted Jonin to be granted full medical leave. Given the monumental success of this mission, HA-01 had no doubt that Tsuchikage-sama would approve the request.
After signing off on the mass request, he handed the scroll it was written upon to a nearby Anbu. The bearer of excellent news Shunshined off the wall. Soon after, twelve gates indistinguishable in appearance to the solid wall surrounding them opened and thousands of Sinister Eight clan members sortied out.
HA-01 sighed in bliss. For now, he'd had his fair share of carnage; he'd be a poor deputy commander if he denied his officers their own slice of the action! As the mass of Iwa's elite finished their exodus from behind the wall and organized into three regiments, HA-01 took stock. Today's slaughter had cost him one third of the mole-missiles. If, by some miracle, the broken army he bested today managed to survive the hell now chasing them, then he still had plenty of missiles left to use!
Half an hour had passed since the Allied Shinobi Forces retreated from Iwa's counterattack. The deathly silence that filled the camp was broken only by the soft, pleading moans of the dying and the severely injured. A blood-red mist manifested in the center of the camp and quickly condensed into a bubble. The bubble popped, revealing a lone woman wearing a crimson robe armed with a halberd. The robe's hood concealed most of her facial features, but her scarlet eyes gazed longingly at the carnage all around her. As much as she'd love to stroll through the camp and finish off each survivor one by one, there was no time. Iwa's dogs would be here soon.
The Cardinal of Jashin slammed her weapon into the ground and the same blood-mist that foretold her arrival manifested again; this time, it spread through the entire camp. Every survivor who breathed it in perished. Souls clinging to life in bodies on the brink of death were especially vulnerable to blood magic. Had her targets been hale, the mist would have been harmless.
Several minutes passed before the Cardinal pulled her weapon out of the earth. The blood-mist vanished instantly, and she turned her gaze to the direction in which the former occupants of the camp had fled. She considered ordering her underlings to finish what Iwa had started, but, upon hearing growls in the distance, she decided against it. A cornered animal fights fiercest. The souls she would claim this day would number far greater if Iwa was the animal's sole aggressor.
'It would be even better if said cornered animal had the chance to lick its wounds.' The Cardinal mused as she cut her right palm with a small knife before flashing through a set of hand seals. Hundreds of fireballs small enough to fit in the palm of her hand appeared. With a wave of her bloodied hand, the fireballs scattered all over the camp and sank into the ground. Nearly imperceptible seals appeared on the ground where they landed. Quite a few of them burned holes in the tents that survived Iwa's bombardment to land inside.
Now satisfied with her "generosity", the Cardinal slammed her weapon into the ground once more to claim all the lives Iwa had taken for Jashin-sama before vanishing in a flash of crimson fire. Her blood-magic-infused Fuinjutsu would ensure that any who stepped on her traps would meet the same fate.
As the sun's last rays dropped out of site, what remained of the Allied Shinobi Forces limped into Kusaga. Most Shinobi were nearly out of Chakra, having drained their reserves to get out of the mole-missiles' range as fast as possible. Whatever had caused the village's demise hadn't even left corpses behind. It was as if the village had never been home to humans. Structurally, the dead village was in near-perfect condition, and it was well-supplied to weather a siege. As the moon began to rise, Kusagakure's new occupants began adding their own fortifications. While their army regrouped, the three Kage leading them converted the office used by Kusagakure's leader into their command center.
"We were 120,000 Shinobi strong just this morning. Now, we number 70,000 thanks to the Haearuichi Clan's newest weapon!" Mei cursed.
"Thankfully, the reserve forces we have guarding all our villages substantially outnumber the force we put together for this assault but have no idea how many of those accursed things Iwa has at their disposal, so we can't afford to launch another assault with a massive army." Yama lamented.
"Too many soldiers make us sitting ducks for those Bakuton weapons, but too few soldiers make us vulnerable to Iwa's quantity-over-quality way of raising ninja. What a troublesome dilemma." Shikaku groaned.
Before more could be said, the door to the office opened and Hiashi and Tsume walked in.
"Kage-sama, with the exception of those on watch duty, all survivors are currently resting in the barracks stationed around the village." Hiashi could not keep the venom out of his voice. His blood seethed at the loss of so many of the Hyuuga's brightest.
"We've placed tons of traps in the forests surrounding Kusagakure. Iwa's dogs won't get within a hundred miles of the village without us knowing." Tsume slammed her left fist into her right palm.
"Very good. Now, both of you, get some rest." Tsunade ordered.
"I cannot do that, Hokage-sama." Hiashi refused. "The Hyuuga blood spilled this day demands retribution. I will not sleep until Iwa's army feels the fury of my Juuken!"
"Same here. The loss of so many Inuzuka has my blood boiling as well. The human death toll is bad enough, but on top of that I have the loss of our partners to consider!" Tsume growled. "Thank Kami that as many of our dogs as possible had puppies before we launched this campaign. Otherwise, some of our most promising breeds would have been wiped out today!"
"Fine, for now." Ay interjected before Tsunade could explode on the two Clan Heads. "We're expecting Iwa soon, so you'll be needed the second they arrive. But you both need to relax as much as possible to preserve your stamina and Chakra levels until then. If, by some miracle, we're not attacked within the next few hours I expect both of you to get some sleep!"
"As you command." Hiashi bowed before leaving the room.
"No promises." Tsume grunted as she also turned to leave the office.
"I normally don't tolerate insubordination, Tsume-san, but I'll let it slide today." Ay's words stopped Tsume in her tracks. "Next time, don't push your luck."
"I'll do my best to keep that in mind, sir." Tsume said acidly before slamming the office door behind her.
"Has Shizune-san finished healing up my brother?" Ay asked Tsunade.
"She has, but her report states that Ay used a lot of the Hachibi's Chakra to accelerate the healing process." Tsunade said as she read through the papers her apprentice had given her a few minutes before Hiashi and Tsume entered the office. "He's still in a lot of pain and is currently suffering from mental fatigue from channeling Chakra for a prolonged period. He's unconscious now, and Shizune doesn't expect him to regain consciousness for another day, at least."
"With our traps laid and the perimeter guards in place, all we can do now is await the coming storm. To that end, I suggest that we get some rest as well." Mei advised.
"Agreed; until Iwa comes knocking only I need to be awake." Tsunade volunteered.
"With your Uzumaki stamina, you're the best candidate." Ay concurred. "No need to find a bunk, this office has some very comfortable furniture." With those last words, Ay drifted off to sleep on the office's sofa.
"When we're done here, I'm taking this chair back to Kiri." Mei declared before laying her head down on the village leader's desk.
Tsunade gave her fellow Kage a knowing grin. "You're both lucky that my office has no shortage of comfy furniture. Even with me having broken Hiruzen-sensei's desk."
KM-01 – Head of the Kamizuru Clan, third-in-command of the Sinister Eight, and leader of the brigade now pursuing the Allied Shinobi Forces paced up and down in her command tent. Her army had been brought to a grinding halt twice. The first time was when they recklessly charged through what was left of the enemy's encampment near the wall. The Fuinjutsu mines that littered the camp had decimated her forces. Twenty thousand of her eighty thousand soldiers were now either dead or critically injured. It had taken two hours for the Medical Corps to patch up the survivors. Hours that she knew her prey would not waste. Any hope of catching the fleeing scum before they reached Kusagakure was now lost, and KM-01 was certain they would augment the dead village's defenses with their own immediately.
Upon reaching one of the huge forests surrounding the village proper, she was proved right. Hundreds of traps, maybe thousands, littered the woods in front of them. They were all simple traps: pitfalls, rigged logs, caltrops, and the like but the sheer number of them would take hours to disarm. Quantity becoming quality; the irony of her enemies adopting Iwa's favored military doctrine was not lost on the young commander. If her army was full intact, she could have charged through the trap-laden forest with acceptable casualties. As things stood now, discretion would need to be the better part of valor.
Her grim thoughts by a soft growl, an alert that a Kaigan Clan scout had arrived. "Enter." KM-01 ordered.
"The forests for at least fifty miles in all directions are filled with traps, KM-01-sama. I must confess to not understanding how the enemy could have raised such a defense in so short a time."
KM-01 looked closer at the scout. His uniform pegged him as a Chuunin, but he didn't have the demeanor of a veteran or even that of a soldier who'd lived through a few battles. Fresh from the Chuunin Exams, then. "You've never fought a Konoha Shinobi, have you boy?"
"N-No." The scout replied.
"Then you wouldn't know about their infamous Kage Bushin no Jutsu. As much as it pains me to admit, it's a superior version of our Iwa Bushin no Jutsu (Rock Clone Technique). It makes solid clones, and it does not have a set Chakra cost. Instead, the user's Chakra is evenly divided between the user and the clones they create."
The scout shivered. "W-Wouldn't that make the Kage Bushin extremely unstable?"
"Very much so, but they don't need much stability if all they're doing is laying traps." KM-01 explained. "Our foe numbers seventy thousand now. We can't be sure of how many Konoha Shinobi survived the mole-missiles, but if ten thousand did and each of them made ten clones the amount of traps decorating our surroundings becomes quite plausible, now doesn't it."
The scout gulped. "T-then we should recall our forces from the surrounding woods and push through with as much speed as possible!"
"We will do no such thing, for that is precisely what the enemy wants. They're fully expecting us to breach their defensive line as fast as possible so that we can hit them while they're still recovering. They'll have at least a dozen countermeasures in place for that tactic and any one of them is sure to be nasty enough to make us regret ever being born!" KM-01 licked her lips. "They think that by forcing us to go slow to prevent triggering said countermeasures they've bought themselves time to make themselves the winners of this game. But their strategy has a fatal flaw: it gives us time to prepare as well!"
A loud buzzing nearly caused the scout to cover his ears. He looked up and paled after seeing the source. A hornet nest larger than his entire body was spread across the tent's ceiling, and insects as long as his forefinger were now flying towards him.
"Patience, my pets. This one is not for eating." KM-01 chided. The hornets flew back into their hive, and the buzzing ceased.
"S-so these are the famous insects of the legendary Kamizuru Clan." The scout breathed.
"Is there more to your report or are you now here just to enjoy the scenery?" The buzzing returned.
"I-I need to rejoin my scouting team!" The boy replied.
The buzzing stopped again. "Good answer; run along, now."
The scout didn't need to be told twice. His snow leopard kicked up an impressive amount of dust as he fled the command tent.
Three Days Later
Alarm seals rang throughout Kusagakure and roused the entirety of the Allied Shinobi Forces.
"We're in trouble, probably a lot of it." Shikaku grimaced while looking through one of the command center's windows. "Even if they wanted to surround us and took it slow to minimize casualties, it still shouldn't have taken them more than two days to get through all our traps."
"Meaning they took an extra day to prepare." Tsunade surmised. "Our forces haven't been able to get a read on their Chakra at all, so the entire army must be wearing the anti-Detection Jutsu seals mentioned in Kakashi-san's report."
"Iwa's likely sent the Kaigan Clan after us since they're best for pursuit missions, just like my Inuzuka Clan." Tsume glared out another window. "My people haven't caught a single enemy scent coming from the forest, so they must be wearing seals that mask that as well."
"Lemme at 'em! I'm all healed up and set for battle!" Bee shouted with glee.
"Not a chance. I almost lost you once already, so you're not going into the field until we know exactly what we're dealing with!" Ay decreed.
"We won't have the luxury of keeping him off the front lines for long. I trust that his recent loss has reminded Bee-dono not to underestimate our foes, don't you?" Mei rebuked.
"My order stands." Ay snarled.
"This is no time to be bickering amongst ourselves!" Jiraiya shouted before summoning Gamakichi. He hadn't been able to summon for the last few days because the toads were all engaged in a collaborative Senjutsu meant to heal Gamabunta's injuries as quickly as possible. They had only finished a few hours ago, and all his go-to toads were still recovering.
"Hey Jiraiya-san, Otou-sama is almost ready to –" The eldest son of Gamabunta's greeting was cut short when he sensed what was lurking within the forest. He began trembling so much that it looked like he was having a seizure.
"Gamakichi-kun, what's wrong?!" Jiraiya blurted.
"B-B-B-BEES! WASPS! HORNETS MILLIONS OF THEM!" Gamakichi shrieked before banishing himself to his home realm. Jiraiya couldn't blame him. The Bee summons hated the Toad summons. In centuries gone by, the toads had hunted the bees, wasps, and hornets nearly to extinction. The Grand Nest of the Bees is located fairly close to Mount Myouboku, so Toads who stray too far from the mountain are at risk of being attacked by the Bees. For mature toads, this is rarely a problem, but even Gamabunta would struggle against a hive numbering in the millions if he didn't have help.
"So that's their game. Kusagakure's forests are filled with Chakra-infused plants, which are eaten by the herbivores residing there and then they get eaten by the forest's carnivores. The Bee summons are omnivorous, you couldn't ask for a better breeding ground!" Shikaku cursed.
"As summons, they use Natural Energy instead of Chakra so our sensor-types couldn't detect them. Well played, Iwa." Mei's mental applause for her enemy was drowned out by the buzzing of the gargantuan super-swarm that was now flying into the village. The Hymenopterans' descent was accompanied by an immense haze of glittering powder.
"Shit! That haze is their pollen!" Jiraiya had fought against Kamizuru clan members in the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars. "It attacks the Chakra Network; anyone who breathes it in will have their Chakra control shot to hell unless they're Jonin-level or higher!"
Kusagakure was fortified against all known tactics and Jutsu wielded by the Sinister Eight, and the foreign Shinobi now occupying it rapidly deployed the countermeasures meant for the Kamizuru Clan. Masked meant to filter out the insect's pollen, bee suits designed to block stingers, Chakra-infused insecticides, and flamethrowers that converted any Chakra channeled through them to Katon Chakra quickly found themselves in the hands of the defenders. They were effective, but against such an enormous enemy force such tools equated to mere drops in the ocean. Every insect killed was replaced by hundreds and their potent venom ensured that a few stings per victim was all it took; the bee suits could only withstand so much, and the defenders dropped dead in droves.
"Damn it all, I'm heading out, Tsunade! With Gamabunta healed, our Gamayu Endan can roast this whole hive in seconds." Jiraiya moved to open a window.
"You'd be roasting our soldiers as well, so no, you're not going anywhere! The seals on this building are keeping the bugs out, so we're safe in here for now." Tsunade grabbed her friend's shoulder. "Besides, you don't need to do anything. Shibi Aburame has things well in hand."
"This is the first time I'm hearing of it! Care to explain why you left your commanding officer out of the loop, Tsuande-hime?" Ay clenched his fists.
"I'm sorry, Ay-san, but I couldn't risk any chance of Iwa's forces knowing about what's about to happen." Tsunade apologized.
"Deceive your ally to defeat your enemy? An effective tactic, even a brilliant one at times, but repeat it without our knowledge and this alliance is over." Mei threatened.
"And I'll be the last friendly Kumo Shinobi you ever see." Ay promised.
"I assure you, it won't happen again!" Tsunade swore. "Now, please, enjoy the fireworks!"
Seconds after the Slug Sannin finished speaking, the earth began to tremble. Hundreds of fissures opened in the ground upon which Kusagakure stood. From these openings, Kikaichuu swarmed out in the hundreds of thousands. Within a minute, a mega-colony of the parasitic insects numbering in the tens of millions was upon the Hymenopteran super-swarm. As descendants of the divine beetle Khepri, the Kikaichuu boasted a resistance to Natural Energy. Consuming it in large quantities was still fatal to them, but they were able to survive long enough to ravage the enemy swarm. The next ten minutes saw a rain of dead insects, Kikaichuu and Hymenopteran alike, fall upon the village.
"SHIBI ABURAAMMEEEE! FACE ME, KM-01 OF THE SINISTER EIGHT!" The Iwa commander roared as she emerged from the forest upon the back of a hornet slightly larger than Gamabunta.
"I see you've been well since our last encounter in the Third Shinobi World War. Such a cold numerical designation does not suit a warrior as beautiful as you, Suzumebachi Kamizuru-san." Shibi held no physical attraction to the woman screaming at him, but he greatly admired her skill. The two had clashed several times in the previous war and Shibi's opinion of the Kamizuru Lord had never changed: she was an angel on the battlefield.
The Aburame Lord leaped from one of the larger fissures onto one of Kusagakure's largest buildings and stared down the leader of his clan's greatest enemy. "Your strategy was brilliant; you would have made an excellent Aburame."
"I'LL NOT BE TALKED DOWN TO BY ABURAME SCUM! HOW DID YOU BREED A COLONY OF YOUR ACCURSED PARASITES THIS MASSIVE IN SUCH A SMALL AMOUNT OF TIME?!" Suzumebachi shrieked.
"You overestimate me. Kusagakure and Konoha have been allies for decades, and Iwagakure's Sinister Eight have been harassing this village for almost as long." Shibi replied calmly. "Five years ago, the Aburame were given a mission to gift Kusagakure a Kikaichuu colony so that they could better defend against your clan. Several of our queens agreed, and the rest is history. Whoever depopulated this village only sought human lives; the mega-colony birthed by the gifted queens was untouched. Kikaichuu queens are unerringly loyal to their hosts once the bond is made. It took no small amount of effort on my clansmen and I's part to convince the mega-colony to fight for us, but the result of our actions is self-evident."
Suzumebachi seethed for several seconds after hearing this before she began howling in laughter. "HA-HA-HA-HAAA! You know what? It doesn't even matter. Your precious mega-colony is as good as dead after eating so much Natural Energy. My swarm is greatly diminished, but it still flies!" The Kamizuru Lord flashed through several hand seals, and over a hundred thousand Hymenopterans rallied to her side.
Shibi weaved his own set of hand seals, and the ground began trembling once more. The earth now quaked with far more intensity. "At birth, Kikaichuu queens are only slightly larger than their non-royal children at the same age. They mature rapidly and are ideally sealed into a human host just before reaching adulthood. You'll soon see why."
The ground exploded upwards as thirteen Kikaichuu queens erupted out of the catacombs beneath Kusagakure. Each of the golden parasite matriarchs was half the size of Suzumebachi's hornet.
"Though the bond to their human hosts had already been forged, this village was massacred before the queens before you could be sealed into their future partners." Shibi leaped onto one of the queens, and twelve of his most skilled and powerful Jonin did the same.
"THIS IS PERFECT, SHIBI-SAN!" Suzumebachi squealed. You, and twelve of your best against me and my best! The Kamizuru Lord whistled, and twelve hornets only slightly smaller than her own flew out from the forest and arranged themselves in front of her. Atop each one stood a Kamizuru Jonin. They all landed, dismissed their summons, and began weaving hand seals.
"Kuchiyose: Daisuzumebachi no Togyo!" (Summoning: Great Hornet's Imperial Procession)
A gigantic plume of smoke foretold the coming of several Great Boss-tier summons. When it cleared seconds later the thirteen Kamizuru were airborne again, but they were now seated upon far more impressive creatures.
Suzumebachi stood upon a female hornet who was five times larger than Gamabunta. The titanic insect had wings the color of gold and its thorax was royal purple. Her abdomen had alternating bands of the same colors and her legs, eyes, and antennae were all black. Her face was a more muted shade of purple. A blood-red stinger emerged from the bottom of her abdomen as she beheld her opposition.
Suzumebachi's twelve most elite Jonin hovered around her in a circular formation atop male hornets roughly twice the size of Gamabunta. These hornets had silver-colored wings and black thoraxes, and their abdomens had alternating black and silver bands. Their legs, eyes, and antennae were blood red, and their heads were ivory white. White stingers with gold tips erupted from their abdomens while they awaited their orders.
"Vespinae-heika – Empress of all hornets, wasps, and bees – and her Royal Guard." Shibi said reverently. "You honor us greatly, Suzumebachi-san; this act shall not be without cost."
"The Aburame lordling speaks truly, Suzumebachi. I shall take ten years of your lifespan for this intervention should it be worth my time. If not, I shall take fifty years from both yourself and your servants." Vespinae warned. The surviving members of Suzumebachi's super-swarm died soon after the Hornet Empress was summoned; they were not worthy of being in her presence.
"As you wish, Vespinae-sama." Suzumebachi knew the price for calling the ruler of the Bee summons would be high.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Another large plume of smoke behind Shibi soon cleared to reveal Jiraiya standing atop Gamabunta. To his left stood Gamaken brandishing his spear. On his right stood Gamahiro with both katana drawn.
"Sorry to drop in on a rivalry between Clans I'm not a part of, but it looks like you're in over your head, Shibi-san." Jiraiya grinned.
"Damn right, he is! Vespinae-dono over there could give Ougama Sennin (Great Toad Sage) a run for his money and her Royal Guards are all at least as tough as me! I can't believe you called us out to fight someone like her right after I finished healing up." Gamabunta yelled.
"At least he wasn't stupid enough to summon only you. I just hope someone as clumsy as me can be of help." Gamaken grumbled.
"How many times must I tell you that you're not clumsy? I hardly ever beat you in our spars anymore." Gamahiro chided.
"Thirteen big bugs are 'bout to be some very crunchy rugs!" Bee rapped before leaping from a nearby building and transforming into Gyuuki.
"ATTACK!" Vespinae and her guards charged at the Aburame queens, who responded in kind.
While the two insect-wielding clans' elite members clashed in the skies above Kusagakure, their less capable soldiers warred on the ground, and Kamizuru was losing. Badly. The bee-users had numbers on their side, but breeding the super-swarm had demanded a tremendous amount of their Chakra and they hadn't been able to recover before the battle began. Most members of the Kamizuru regiment had barely half of their reserves; some had even less. They were no match for their Aburame counterparts and their nearly full Chakra pools.
The Kamizuru were expecting the Chakra-disrupting pollen spread by their Hymenopterans to level the playing field but the tactic had been anticipated by the Aburame, and they were well prepared with air-filtering masks even more efficient than those stockpiled by Kusagakure. Worse, the Kikaichuu – like some other species of beetles – could secrete an oily substance to protect themselves. When dispersed into the air, this oil had a cleansing effect and trapped a wide variety of airborne particles.
Like the Hymenopteran's pollen. The oil had been spread by the mega-colony as it massacred the super-swarm. With their contingency neutralized, the Kamizuru dropped like flies. The Kikaichuu feasted well and long.
Unfortunately, by then the damage and been done. Thousands of Allied Shinobi had been slaughtered by the super-swarm before the Aburame counteroffensive was unleashed. The village walls were now pitifully manned and the surviving defenders could no longer keep a certain snow leopard-using clan at bay.
The Kaigan Clan surged over the walls and began butchering their prey. Despite no longer being in the air, the Kamizuru pollen was still very much a factor. The anti-Kamizuru equipment used by Kusagakure was never meant to outfit such a massive army. Even with its soldiers nearly halved, the Allied Shinobi Forces outnumbered Kusagakure's standing army by a huge margin. There was nowhere near enough of the precious gear to go around, and the defenders suffered greatly for it. All Genin in the Allied Shinobi Forces might as well have been civilians for how little control they had over their Chakra, and most Chuunin weren't faring much better. The Jonin were unaffected, but they were vastly outnumbered by a force who had refrained from entering the village until after the pollen had been dealt with.
The comparatively few Allied Shinobi who were still capable of using Ninjutsu found most of their attacks foiled by the Kaigan Clan's other specialty. Their ice-making Jutsu lowered the temperature of the surrounding air and served as a natural counter to Katon and Suiton Jutsu. The Kumo units' Raiton techniques were unaffected, but the Kaigan regiment had little difficulty avoiding them in favor of much easier prey.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Tsunade's voice rang like a vengeful bell through the war-torn village as she leaped out of the command center and summoned Katsuyu.
"Zesshi Kisousan!" (Tongue Tooth Gaseous Acid) The giant slug exhaled an acidic mist that rapidly blanketed the entire village. It had no effect on the invaders who breathed it in, but they were not its intended target. The defenders crippled by pollen were, and they noticed a tremendous difference. The acid was medicinal and dissolved only what was never intended to enter the human body.
"Kirigakure no Jutsu!" With their Chakra Networks returned to normal, the Kiri components of the Allied Shinobi Forces wasted no time in weaponizing the fog Katsuyu had created. The streets of Kusagakure were already a bloodbath, but now Iwa blood lay atop Allied blood by the gallon. The Kaigan Clan's snow leopards' superior sense of smell helped even the playing field to a degree, but most of their riders were too inexperienced to reap the benefits. It soon became difficult to move through Kusagakure's streets without tripping over a corpse.
Still concealed within the forest outside the blood-soaked village, YO-04, Jonin of the Yomi Clan, and the entire Yomi Clan regiment finished weaving the hand seals needed for mass Genjutsu that would easily tip the scales back in Iwa's favor and keep them there. The Kaigan and Kamizuru regiments had all fallen to nearly half-strength. He'd been ordered not to intervene until the enemy had revealed all their cards but, if he didn't act now, then the whole army was doomed.
The seals were weaved, the Chakra gathered but the Genjutsu never materialized. YO-04 didn't need long to find out why.
His clansmen were all writhing on the ground. Genjutsu typically didn't require much concentration to maintain once it took hold in the victim's mind, but a lot of focus was required to initialize the process. YO-04 attention was soon drawn to thousands of pairs of eyes peeking through the trees surrounding the huge clearing the Yomi clan had made in the forest to cast their collaborative Jutsu. These were no normal eyes though; they had red sclera, dark red irises, and white pupils shaped as horizontal rectangles. The Yomi barely had time to comprehend just how doomed he and his men were before a far more dangerous threat walked into view.
"You and your clan waited too long to cast your precious Genjutsu. My Chinoike Clan expected a stunt like this, so they left the village to hunt for you as soon as the Aburame dealt with that huge swarm." Ay's Raiton armor crackled and flashed around him. "Their Ketsuryuugan (Blood Dragon Eye) grants them power over the blood of their enemies."
YO-04's men were still dying as Ay decapitated him with a lightning lariat.
"Make sure we got all of them. I'm returning to help my brother fight those massive hornets!" Ay ordered a Chinoike Jonin before leaving the area in a flash of lightning.
"Damn it, where's the Yomi's Genjutsu!" KA-03 yelled as Mei slaughtered her way through thousands of her men. The Kaigan Regiment commander had initially dismissed the Godaime Mizukage as a threat. Her Youton and Futton couldn't be used in the village without killing her own men. She'd have to rely on Suiton, Katon, and Doton and KA-03 had counters for all of those. What she didn't have a counter for was the Chakra-absorbing spear that was slicing through her soldiers like butter!
The Suiton Jutsu the Kaigan used to generate their ice was fired back at them as precise lava streams or pockets of acidic vapor that didn't spread out far enough to jeopardize the Kiri Shinobi who had accompanied Mei. Especially not the giant of a man who used Doton to increase his own durability to the point that Mei's lava didn't even cause him to flinch.
"CHARGE!" KA-03 screamed defiantly. She would not die a dog's death today; if this was her end, a Kage would fall with her!
Every surviving Kaigan in that section of the village heeded their commander's call and swarmed Mei. None of them got close enough to so much as scratch her. Her Houzuki Clan escorts put their legendary aquatic bodies to use and formed a literal ocean around their Kage. Said ocean was accompanied by thousands of blades. The Houzuki was feared almost as much for their Kenjutsu as their bodies.
"M-Monsters!" KA-03 shivered, then shrieked in pain as her left arm was cut off.
"A high compliment coming from an elite member of the Sinister Eight; I'll be sure to give the Houzuki Clan Head your regards." Mei promised before shoving her spear through the Kaigan commander's neck. A shadow fell upon her, and she leaped out of the way as one of the Kikaichuu queens who birthed Kusagakure's mega-colony crashed into the ground. Both she and the Aburame Jonin who rode her were dead. Mei glared at the intense aerial battle unfolding in the distance and saw that Katsuyu was nearing the area.
"It wouldn't do to be left out of this battle's most decisive part. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Mei summoned a giant, blood-red owl and jumped on top of him.
"The Hornet Empress, eh? Thanks in advance for the feast, Mei-chan. I haven't had bugs for lunch in ages!" The owl's silver beak and golden eyes glistened as he chirped.
"I aim to please, Daikuchibashi-san." Mei smiled. "Yama-san, you're in command of Kiri's forces until I return. Move forward with the plan!"
"Get ready, my meals! Daikuchibashi-sama's coming!" The great owl took flight. Seconds after becoming airborne, a blood-red haze concealed his body and shifted in color to match the surrounding airspace, making him nearly invisible.
Shibi mentally shuddered after his mount barely managed to evade the charging Hornet Empress. He heard more than saw that most of his fellow Aburame had also survived the charge of her Royal Guard and vowed to honor the one who did not. Vespinae's charge just now had exceeded the speed of sound several times over. Given how massive she and her guards were, their hypersonic onslaught produced a shockwave of tornadic strength. Shibi was grateful they were high enough above the village to ensure the shockwave couldn't those fighting on the streets below.
His reprieve was short-lived, for Vespinae and her guards quickly corrected their course and charged again. Only the ancestral memories inherited by all Kikaichuu kept the mega-colony's queens alive. Vespinae and her guards were ancient and had the skills to match, but the Kikaichuu had existed far longer than even her. Even so, their advantage was a fragile one far too easily broken by fatigue. Jiraiya, his toads, and Bee did their best to hinder the majestic hornets but being unable to fly greatly impeded them in this fight. The imperial procession was too fast even for them. Had they been the targets of Vespinae's aggression, they could have countered as the hornets got close. As things were, however, their attack range was too limited. Jiraiya couldn't use his flaming oil torrent without obliterating the very army he was trying to protect. The same applied to Bee's Bijuu-dama.
Shibi's only solace was that Vespinae and her guards were refraining from using any ranged attacks they might have for the same reason, but he knew that wouldn't last if the battle turned against them. 'Though the probability of that happening now is exceeding low.' The Aburame Lord cringed as another of his men perished.
"Tenranton: Sakujo!" A blast of white lightning erupted from a nearby rooftop and pierced through the head of a Royal Guard.
"WHO DARES SLAUGHTER ONE OF MY ROYAL GUARD?!" Vespinae shrieked.
"Ay, Yondaime Raikage of Kumogakure and proud descendent of Thor-sama dares!" Ay bellowed.
"Brother!" Bee extended one of Gyuuki's tentacles toward Ay. Ay leaped onto the offered limb and rushed to the top of the transformed Jinchuriki's head.
"The Thunderer's brood commands respect from even me, but your insolence this day has doomed your village!" Vespinae decreed before opening her mandibles as far as possible. A sphere of royal purple Natural Energy formed between them.
"No way!" Bee blurted out.
'Way.' Gyuuki rebuked. 'Gaia-sama has gifted attacks similar to the Bijuu-dama to many of her creations over the eons.'
"Then we'll show her who's the best at blastin' fools, ya fool!" Bee began charging a Bijuu-dama, but Vespinae had a huge head start. Before her baleful attack could be unleashed, the head of the Royal Guard closest to her vanished in an explosion of blood and flesh. Vespinae's attack imploded as she roared in rage and began looking in all directions to find the one responsible. All she saw was a blood-red blur that quickly vanished from sight.
"Up here, your majesty!" Daikuchibashi mocked from his position a thousand feet above the Hornet Empress. "That hive mind you're so proud of is your greatest weakness! You feel the death of every last one of your subjects. Most of the time, it means nothing to you but when it's someone close – someone precious – the severed bond hurts like hell! Here's a thought: maybe don't make a harem out of soldiers expected to die for you!" The great owl licked his beak.
"IIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!" Vespinae flashed toward the camouflaged owl at a speed incomparable to her earlier charge, but her stinger pierced only air.
"An overgrown gnat thinks herself master of the skies, don't make me laugh!" Daikuchibashi raked his talons across Vespinae's abdomen but failed to leave a single scratch. "Hmm, guess your status as an insect monarch isn't just for show. Looks like even I'll need some help to finish this meal!" The great owl rocketed upward, his camouflage dispelling as he soared higher. Once he reached his target altitude he flapped his mighty wings with tremendous force, and hundreds of feathers rained down. Vespinae and her Royal Guard scattered.
Daikuchibashi smirked. 'Just as planned!' His feathers struck Bee the toads, and Katsuyu – who had just arrived. Contrary to their expectations, the sanguine feathers didn't harm them and exploded into blood on impact. Daikuchibashi's true targets were completely drenched. Once his "attack" hit home, he reapplied his camouflage.
'Listen up, boys and girls!' The great owl's voice hollered in their minds. 'My blood feathers grant the same camouflage used by yours truly! The overgrown gnat and her little harem have to squint real hard to even see you now, so go wild! You'll still be able to see each other, so don't be afraid to team up if you need to.'
"Don't have to tell me twice!" Gamabunta hopped toward the nearest Royal Guard. His tanto bit into the hornet's neck but the cut was not deep enough to kill. The Royal Guard reacted instantly by grabbing Gamabunta with its forelegs and heaving it upwards before charging in with its stinger. The deadly charge was halted when Gamahiro leaped to his chief's defense. The toad swordmaster's katana finished what Gamabunta had started and prompted another wrathful roar from Vespinae. Before she could even try locating the concealed toads, a Bijuu-dama from Bee forced her to evade and Daikuchibashi pecked a huge hole in one of her wings. Vespinae lashed out with her forelegs and nearly succeeded in eviscerating Daikuchibashi.
"You're getting too cocky, even for you!" Mei chastised. "Camouflage only works for so long against an opponent with great experience."
"And her antennae are a problem too. Let's hit those next!" Daikuchibashi swiped his talons at the offending appendages. Vespinae ducked and retaliated with her stinger. Daikuchibashi weaved around it and disengaged to get some much-needed space. Vespinae's pursuit was halted by a deluge of lava exhaled by Mei.
"Suzumebachi! Do you intend to lie on my back for the duration of the battle?! EARN YOUR KEEP!" Vespinae demanded.
"M-My deepest apologies, Vespinae-sama, but my elite Jonin and I had to consume a nearly lethal amount of food pills just to gain enough Chakra so summon you and your Royal Guard. Nearly all of the Chakra we gained was expended in the summoning, and the side effects have rendered us too exhausted to move. Staying on top of you is taking everything I have left!" Suzumebachi panted.
"WORTHLESS!" Vespinae corkscrewed through the air. The unexpected maneuver was enough to dislodge Suzumebachi. She didn't fall for long before Vespinae's mandibles crushed her into paste. Paste that Vespinae joyfully ate before mentally commanding her Royal Guard to do the same.
"Way too harsh! I don't care how mad you are at your summoner; some things, you just don't do!" Daikuchibashi denounced.
"She's coming back!" Mei warned not a second too late. The deadly dance between hornet and owl continued.
Gamaken hopped as high as he could and hurled his sasumata at a nearby Royal Guard. The forked spear struck the giant hornet on the neck and forced him to the earth, pinning the massive insect to the ground. The hornet needed only seconds to free himself, but that was plenty of time for the Kikaichuu queens to swarm in! Two fell to the hornet's forelegs but the other eight bit through its exoskeleton and drained its energy dry. Even when divided by eight, the Natural Energy coursing through the Royal Guard was too much for the queens to handle. They died shortly after killing their prey and enough residual Natural Energy remained to kill their riders.
An acid spray from Katsuyu felled another Royal Guard, and Tsunade leaped from atop her summon to punch another one's face in. Though she hadn't had much time to confront her grief, she had made some progress toward regaining the herculean strength she was feared for in her prime. Another Chakra-infused strike from her downed the hornet and had it wheezing death rattles. A third punch ended its misery.
With half their number now dead, the Royal Guard were extra cautious. Their antennae compensated for their foe's camouflage and allowed them to land several glancing blows.
Jiraiya glanced over at Tsunade, who returned the look with a knowing smirk. Ay caught the glance and flashed off of Bee.
"Katon: Gamayu Endan!" Gamabunta's ignited oil blazed through the sky in front of the Royal Guard.
"Zesshi Nensan!" (Tongue Tooth Sticky Acid) A torrent of acid erupted toward the Royal Guard from the left.
"CHEW ON THIS!" A Bijuu-dama wave rocketed at them from the right.
"Tenranton: Reizaa Saakasu!" (Divine Storm Release: Laser Circus) A halo of divine lightning behind the Royal Guard burst forth into dozens of bolts.
When the four attacks collided, the resulting explosion shook the heavens. 'Thank Kami we're far enough away from Kusagakure to prevent massive casualties.' Jiraiya praised.
Two of the Royal Guard had managed to fly upwards just in time to avoid the worst of the blast. They're severely burned, but could still fight. Unfortunately, the explosion had badly damaged their antennae so they had no warning for their impending doom!
"Suiton: Teppoudama!" Gamaken and Gamahiro croaked from their position far above the two still-living hornets. They'd left their weapons on the ground and used most of their remaining energy into their jump to ensure they'd be able to get the drop on their targets. Now, they poured everything they had left into their attacks. The water bullets hit home, and the final two Royal Guards were no more.
The death of her entire harem enraged Vespinae far past the point of speech. Even inarticulate roars and screeches were beyond her now. She fought without even a shadow of regard for her own body, and her attacks – while almost incomprehensibly fast – were full of holes. Holes that her enemies exploited ruthlessly. Over the next four minutes, her wings were shredded by talons, her antennae were melted by lava, one of her mandibles was corroded into near uselessness by acidic vapor, and three of her legs had been bitten off.
Even so, the Hornet Empress was a force of nature, and Daikuchibashi was tiring rapidly. Through a burst of instinctive will, Vespinae gathered enough Natural energy to heal her ruined wings. They weren't anywhere close to fully repaired but they didn't need to be. The mobility Vespinae recovered was more than enough to land a blow on the exhausted owl. Her stinger punctured his left wing before she flew upward, cruelly shearing the wing almost completely off. Daikuchibashi fell and landed hard on the ground. Though he still breathed, he lacked the strength to rise.
"VICTORY IS MINE!" The euphoria of seeing her now-visible foe so close to death calmed the Hornet Empress enough to allow for thought and speech. She descended to the ground as fast as she could, her blood-red stinger aimed straight for the owl's heart.
Mei was nearly out of Chakra, but she was willing to give her life to end the threat streaking toward her for good! As she flashed through the set of hand seals for one last Youton Jutsu, Shibi's hand grabbed hers!
Before she could demand an explanation, the Kikaichuu queen Shibi had been riding flew to intercept Vespinae. The giant hornet thought nothing of the parasite's action before swallowing her whole. The sacrificial act slowed Vespinae enough that she had to land; her wings were still too injured for sustained flight.
"I must correct your earlier statement: you have lost, Vespinae-heika." Shiki said solemnly.
"Arrogance words from a dead man walking." Vespinae scoffed. "You, the lava-spewing woman, and your other allies are drained of Chakra. Even the Jinchuriki is nearing his limit!" Vespinae limped toward her prey.
Mei looked around and saw that the Hornet Empress was right. Jiraiya's toads were gone, and the man himself was panting on a far away. The massive form of Gyuuki was nowhere to be seen, so Mei had to assume Bee was too drained of Chakra to maintain the form. Tsunade and Katsuyu were coming, but with how slowly the giant slug was moving she must be at her limit too.
Mei tightened her grip on Sanmeguyari, ready to make one last stand.
"Their presence is no longer needed." Shibi rebuked.
"I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR INSOLENCE!" Vespinae began charging her Natural Energy sphere again but it imploded soon afterward, and she shrieked in pain. Her body convulsed, and she collapsed.
"W-What h-h-have you done?!" Vespinae stuttered weakly.
"The Kikaichuu are not the only parasitic insect the Aburame have cultivated. They suffice for most purposes, but there are times when the Kidaichuu (Parasitic Giant Insects) are more suitable to the task at hand." Shibi answered. "They are exceedingly difficult to house within one's body because they will uncontrollably eat the flesh of their host if fed an improper amount of Chakra. This causes them to rapidly grow in size, consuming the victim from within."
Vespinae was in too much pain to even scream as her body bulged in size due to the flesh-eating insects.
"Incidentally, Kidaichuu boast the highest resistance to Natural Energy of all insects wielded by the Aburame. The queen you just consumed birthed thousands of them and used all of her stored Chakra to exponentially accelerate their aging process. Their lives are now measured in minutes, but you have far less time left."
Vespinae's legs burst off her body and her stinger fell from a socket too thoroughly devoured to hold it.
Shiki walked toward the dying empress and laid a hand on her shuddering head. "Goodbye, Vespinae-heika. I hope your successor is far more selective about who she chooses to contract with. Kidaichuu – Mushikui!" (Parasitic Giant Insect – Bug Bite)
Vespinae's body exploded in a mass of blood, flesh, and giant beetles. While the Kidaichuu ate what was left of the Hornet Empress, Katsuyu and Tsunade finally reached Daikuchibashi and healed his wing. The process took nearly an hour, but the result was flawless.
"Many thanks, Katsuyu-san. The owls owe the slugs one for this!" The great owl experimentally flapped his freshly-healed wing.
"They owe us two, Daikuchibashi-sama." Katsuyu insisted. "Tsunade-sama helped me heal you. As you are too proud to thank a human not contracted to you, I claim the reward for her assistance in Tsunade-sama's stead."
"Cheeky slug; alright, you got a deal!" Daikuchibashi chuckled before taking to the sky once more. He kept low to the ground and circled the Kidaichuu, who were already dying. Once they were all dead, he swooped down and ate them all one by one. "I can hardly blame these fellas for stealing my meal when I would've died otherwise, but I always get my fill when I'm summoned!" Daikuchibashi declared between bugs. Once all the parasitic insects were eaten, he meticulously devoured what was left of Vespinae's corpse before moving on to the members of her Royal Guard who hadn't been obliterated by the prior explosion.
The sun was setting by the time the siege of Kusagakure was over. The Iwa brigade had been killed to the last man, but the cost was astronomical. An exhausted trio of Kage convened in the command center.
"How many did we lose?" Ay said through clenched teeth.
"The reports are still being finalized, but Shizune and Shikaku tell me that everyone who survived the battle is expected to pull through. If no one else dies, the final death toll will be forty thousand." Tsunade answered grimly.
"Fifty thousand lost at the wall, and forty thousand lost today. We lost seventy-five percent of our forward army, that's far too high a cost for the knowledge gained in the bargain!" Mei cried.
"At least we killed the Hornet Empress. The surviving hornet summons will soon convene to choose a successor – if one wasn't already chosen – but the new Hornet Empress won't be bound by the contract the Kamizuru Clan signed. We've taken one of the Sinister Eight Clans out of commission entirely!" Ay cheered.
"They're still Iwa Shinobi and have any number of Doton Jutsu to fall back on, but you're right; their fall back Jutsu doesn't make them any more dangerous than the average Iwa soldier." Mei smiled.
"Regardless, it's foolish to stay here. Iwa will send another force sooner or later. Even if they don't we still have Jashin's cultists to worry about!" Tsunade looked out the window at the setting sun. "A mass grave will need to be dug outside the village to prevent a plague. Once that's done, I say we fall back to Konoha and plan our next move."
"No matter what else we come up with, there's one thing that's unavoidable now: the unit discussed at the Kage Summit is to be deployed as soon as possible!" Ay ordered.
"We can only hope the training they managed to get is enough to keep them alive." Tsunade lamented.
Chapter End
Been a while since I wrote a chapter this long, I normally like them a bit shorter but when it comes to epic fight scenes I really don't like breaking them up.
I'm sure what I did with Gaara and The Call pissed more than a few of you off. I think that – in most cases – the amount of bullshit a character goes through throughout a story should directly correlate with how happy an ending they get (unless they're the villain and either have no redeeming qualities or they are somewhat redeemable but no amount of good could make up for the evil they committed), so I was annoyed that Gaara didn't end up with anyone in canon. Especially since characters like Choji and Ino ended up with someone and they had far less screen time than Gaara.
On the other hand, Gaara's personality and characterization make it incredibly difficult to write an organic romance arc for him while keeping him in character. When he's not being driven insane by Shukaku, Gaara's a very stoic individual who puts the well-being of everyone Suna ahead of his own. Romance is the last thing on his mind - if it's even on his mind at all - and a gender-bent Naruto is likely the only person he would even consider being in love with given how much respect he has for Naruto.
Do I want Gaara to have his own happy ending? Fuck, yes. Am I willing to write him OOC to achieve that goal? Hell, no. So an inorganic romance arc induced by cosmic shenanigans it is. As one of his bodyguards, Arashi is now Gaara's subordinate and he has an obligation to ensure her well-being just like his Kazekage self does for any citizen of Suna. Given the properties of The Call and Arashi's inability to tune it out like Gaara can, "ensuring her well-being" means only one thing. Sorry, not sorry.
In case Daikuchibashi's position within the owl summon hierarchy wasn't made clear by him one-shotting a Royal Guard, being able to keep up with Vespinae for quite a while before getting too tired to fight, and making a declaration on behalf of the owls that they owe the slugs two favors I'll say here that he's the big boss of the owl summons and holds equivalent rank to the Great Toad Sage.
For those unfamiliar with the honorific Shibi used when addressing Vespinae, -heika is the most formal/respectful Japanese honorific. It's their way of saying "your Majesty" and is used to address the Emperor/Empress, Empress Dowager, and Grand Empress Dowager.
Thank you for reading!