章 883: 60
Chapter 59: World Up in Arms
In the desert outside of Sunagakure no Sato, the battle between the G.S.A. (Grand Shinobi Alliance) Suna forces combined with the Konoha relief teams against the C.N.F. (Continental Ninja Federation) invaders, led by Amegakure, continued to rage across the sands.
And currently, one of the more advanced Konoha representatives in the fight found himself going head-to-head with an old acquaintance.
The open space for both Kakashi Hatake and Aoi Rokushou wasn't very roomy for the dance number that the two of them were cutting, but with the dangerous electric sword in Aoi's hand everyone on both sides were giving them a wide berth; Aoi's comrades because they knew he had no problems with cutting them down if they were in his way, Kakashi's comrades because this was Kakashi Hatake they were talking about. He was the very last person that needed help against any opponent.
After seeing him thus far in the battle, Suna observers would have to say that for once it was grand to have him on their side instead of against them.
"Use your famous Sharingan already Kakashi!" Aoi taunted as he slashed away at a dodging Kakashi who didn't even bother having a kunai out to defend himself. If it were hit it would only serve to electrocute him in some way, "If you don't you won't last even five minutes against me!"
Swaying out of the range of the Raijin no Ken's tip and ducking swings aimed at his head, Kakashi returned verbal fire, "You're sort of right about that… because this fight isn't going to last five minutes either way." He didn't want to risk breaking out his Sharingan for no reason in that environment either. Savvy combatants like Aoi could play very dirty and take advantage of their environment to gain an advantage.
Aside from that, the sandy composition of the area was a liability. Grains of sand could fly into his eye without warning and handicap him. It was just an unnecessary risk all around at the moment. Until it was deemed necessary he wasn't taking the risk.
Having felt as if he had backed up enough from Aoi's assault, Kakashi lashed out with the throwing of several shuriken. Much like he had anticipated, Aoi blocked them with a wave of his sword, "I'm insulted Kakashi. You think that something so simple would beat me while I'm wielding the strongest weapon in the world?"
"A weapon's only as good as the person using it." Kakashi commented before he saw Aoi stab the sword into the sand and unleash a shockwave of electricity along the ground, "Get away from him now!" He yelled for the benefit of everyone around, not just his own Suna allies if he had to be honest.
It mattered not for more than a few on both sides as Aoi's reckless attack took down more than a few from both sides, something Kakashi found despicable. The silver-haired ninja narrowed his visible eye at Aoi before pulling up his hitae-ate to reveal his Sharingan eye.
If he wanted to be a nuisance that wouldn't just use precise attacks and would thoughtlessly use wide-range ninjutsu at the cost of even his own shinobi it was high time Kakashi just put him down before he injured more people that weren't even fighting him.
A quick motion of three hand-seals built powerful white lightning chakra in Kakashi's right hand as Aoi was still pumping electrical chakra into the ground, grinning at the mayhem he was causing. He looked up and dropped his grin in exchange for a determined look once he saw Kakashi forming his signature jutsu and beckoned him forward confidently, brandishing the Raijin no Ken once more.
Without warning Kakashi dashed forward, and likewise Aoi timed him and swung his weapon. However he hadn't accounted for the fact that Kakashi's Sharingan let him see this coming in well enough time to react. Not only did the swing of his sword not work, it ended with Kakashi driving his hand straight through his chest, "Raikiri (Lightning Cutter)!"
Aoi's face twisted in pain as his grip on the Raijin no Ken slipped from his weak and deceased hand. The arc of it flying through the air took longer to hit the ground than Aoi's body did. By the time the hilt of the sword stuck upright in the sand, his blood was already staining it not too far away.
The battle continued to rage around it until a feminine hand reached down to pick it up in between drifting towards another fracas. Tenten lifted up the hilt and looked at it curiously before unknowingly activating the yellow glowing blade from it. Her eyes lit up and she quickly put it to work, using it to block two C.N.F. attackers that tried to attack her with kunai. A bad move as they were shocked by the electric blade, allowing Tenten to finish them off, "Who in the world dropped this?" She asked as she moved towards another fight, "Whatever. It doesn't matter because it's mine now!"
XxX
(Western C.N.F. Forces Rear Line)
It was something of a madhouse a ways away from the front lines of the ongoing battle at hand. What happened to Suna being crippled, depleted, and tired? At first things seemed like it would only be a matter of time until the lessened number of defenders would have given up hope after the destruction of their village and the mounting invasion, but not only had the Sunagakure will to fight not faded in the slightest, they were standing strong.
And then there was the fact that at random times the ground itself would seem to shift and take down dozens of C.N.F. ninja with extreme prejudice. There wasn't even any time to save those that got caught by the 'living sand'. Thus was the power of one deemed to be a kage it seemed. Sabaku no Gaara's epithet wasn't just hyperbole. In the desert it seemed that there was none greater, even without him being on the battlefield at all.
"The med tents are running out of room!"
"What? We brought so many tents though! Are you seriously telling me we can't find and space for our wounded at all?"
"The sandstorm destroyed most of the others that we could have used! Even the ones meant for troop barracks got torn to shreds!"
An invasion of Suna was a logistical nightmare even before the fighting came into play. The desert was vast. Too vast for supplies to be easily funneled out from the partaking villages. It wasn't that they had wasted their supplies like food and medicine, it was that things like clothing and the shelter of tents… things like that, they wound up being shredded by Kaze no Kuni's intense seasonal sandstorms.
The very cold desert nights and the blazing hot desert days screwed with many a ninja's head even though they all knew most of what to expect (freak sandstorms notwithstanding). But knowing what to expect from a briefing and knowing what to expect from experience were two totally different things, and most of the villages had never partaken in a war. The ones that had done so had only fought within their own borders before. A battle in Sunagakure held territory was like nothing anywhere else in the Elemental Nations.
It was a big reason why holding the chunin exams there was never really popular in the past.
Losses were of course mounting no matter which side of the battle one looked at, but while the whole thing was for survival on the Suna side of things, thus there was no choice, the invasion didn't seem to be worth the payoff even if the C.N.F. side won. From that point how would they manage to turn their attention to Konoha after it was over with such a broken fighting force, victorious though they may or may not be by the end of things.
This was the way it was starting to be seen as the fight had raged for hours by this point. The only ones with morale that hadn't shaken an inch from where it had been at the rallying outset of the conflict were the Amegakure ninja, diligent in how they sent in more and more of their force, leading by example, assured that they would somehow win.
Their reason for never losing heart; they had 'God' on their side.
Their 'God'. The same reason that the dozens of villages had all united to begin with.
A shadow began passing over the heads of the people at the rear line and some looked up. Upon doing so, those of Ame origin dropped to the ground in a bow, much to the confusion of the others. Many of them stopped their frantic pace altogether just to bow.
The unasked question went answered very quickly by the mumblings of Ame ninja, as if their ongoing confidence was finally being returned by this figure flying above them, "Angel… she's here. It's finally our time to end this battle."
"What?"
"Pein-sama is coming."
The jaws of many dropped at that declaration, because they all knew exactly who was being referred to. The man himself that was spearheading this whole anti-Five Great Shinobi Villages movement. He was actually coming to the battlefield?
As the speculation began, the paper angel Konan herself landed amongst them, looking around at the ragged masses of the embattled fighters with an impassive look in her eyes, "Do not falter yet. Keep the pressure going forward. Pein will deliver the blow that will break the backs of the opposition. This I can say with certainty." Her form then burst into many sheets of paper that scattered off around the area.
With that, the Ame listeners stood up, revitalized that their glorious leader was coming to end everything. With renewed vigor everyone returned to their tasks, be it moving supplies closer to the front, to moving the wounded and dead, to preparing to reinforce their comrades.
Everyone wanted to be a part of their soon-to-be monumental victory.
XxX
(Gates of Sunagakure)
No one knew where these things came from. First a gigantic orange and black centipede with a large piercing through its head came out of absolutely nowhere and was currently terrorizing the Suna and Konoha forces, and then it was soon followed with a massive giant ox with piercings in it as well.
"How did these get this far through the line?" An embattled Suna ninja yelled in concern as he narrowly avoided being smashed beneath the skittering centipede. Not only was it massive, it could crawl extremely quickly, making it doubly dangerous with its sharp legs and large mandibles.
"I don't know!" Another ninja pointed out the charging advance of the huge ox that was barreling towards the protective dome of Suna, "How are we going to stop that thing?"
"Lee!"
"I am with you Gai-sensei!"
"Konoha Tsumuji Senpuu (Tree Leaf Coiling Whirlwind)!"
A pair of swiftly moving green-clad figures rushed towards the ox, dodging the lowering of its head and the plowing of its horns through the sand before getting underneath it and kicking its front legs out from beneath it, stopping it as it crashed face-first into a dune. Many people breathed a sigh of relief, even as the beast bellowed and tried to stand back up with the multiple defenders of Suna surrounding it and preparing to subdue it for good, holding it down with dozens of uses of Cloth Binding Jutsu.
As this was occurring, the sharpest and most attentive set of eyes in Konoha were perusing the visible battlefield from his place keeping watch over his portion of the gate.
"How were out lines almost broken?" Neji wondered aloud as he took a moment to activate his Byakugan to see if the defense faltered anywhere else due to the multiple strange and very large pierced summon creatures that came out of nowhere. Enemy forces were nowhere near the location of the gate, but he did see a shimmering lifeforce that had actually not only gotten past the lines, it had not engaged in battle at all, "Damn it! How could I have missed that? Come with me!"
It could have been nothing really, but the chances of that were slim to none and he knew it. Thus he took a small unit of Suna ninja left under his temporary jounin command as they ran back through the gap in Suna's protective dome to follow the fast moving figure that Neji's eyes had spotted, crawling along the walls of the massive structure, "What do you see sir?" One of the Suna ninja asked him.
"…I'm not sure." Neji responded in kind. But he definitely knew that it was nothing good. Nothing heading back into the village was good. That was only for the wounded that needed to be ferried away for emergency treatment. Well this invisible creature didn't look anything like a ninja, but it had instincts like one apparently, because it knew it was being pursued and abruptly turned an about face to lash out with something from it, "Move!"
The barking of his order saved the Suna ninja with him along for the ride, but Neji himself got snatched up by an exceedingly long and fast pink tongue that picked him up off of the ground and reeled him in. Neji found himself bound tightly, unable to move as he was held up off of the ground.
"Sir!"
Neji heard the worried cries of his men but tried to keep a cool head as he was able to get a good look at the creature that had a hold of him. Like the other creatures outside it had piercings in it and strange ripple-pattern eyes. It was a very large chameleon with a snake for a tail. Now that was an interesting summon. It would be even more interesting if it didn't look like it was about to kill him.
"Hm. If I had known that Konoha had been willing to dispatch Hyuuga Clan members, especially one as talented as yourself, I may have planned my approach differently." That voice sounded somewhat familiar to Neji. But it wasn't one he was inherently familiar with.
From within the mouth of the large chameleon, an older-looking man emerged wearing a black cloak with red clouds adorning it. Much like the chameleon he had ripple pattern eyes and piercings all over his face, but this man had shaggy orange hair and an Amegakure headband that was slashed out. The most noticeable trait aside from the eyes and the clothing happened to be an 'x' scar on the man's chin.
Now Neji knew full well that Rinnegan meant that this was Pein. He also knew that this was just one of six bodies that Pein possessed as it went hand in hand with the information that Jiraiya returned home with after the mission in Ame that nearly killed him, but he never forgot a face, and Neji had seen this man before. He was actually a very powerful Konoha ninja back before his disappearance, which hadn't been too long ago as a matter of fact. Ironically he had also disappeared on the way to Sunagakure on a mission of diplomacy.
"Danzo Shimura?" Neji ventured to say as the tongue of the chameleon squeezed him tightly, "Pein took your body and used it for one of his paths…" He mused rhetorically. It wasn't like Danzo could actually answer the question for himself. He was a reanimated corpse. At least they knew what happened to the man's body now.
"You know of my abilities." Pein said through the reanimated Danzo's body, "Well… you know of a few of them anyway. Jiraiya-sensei managed to make a bit of a victory even in his defeat. I'm really regretting not being able to finish him off."
"That creature is how you got in the first time isn't it?" Neji questioned, still trying to struggle, "How you slipped past sentries and got within the limits of the village to wage your attack." Reports said that it was a different body of Pein that managed to deal the damage to Suna though.
"Animal Path is a very versatile and powerful aspect of my abilities." Pein said. It was still so creepy to hear the man speak through the body of someone that he actually knew, "But I'm through talking with you."
"As am I." Neji said before channeling chakra to his body, expelling it forcefully in one great burst, "Juukenpo Ichigekishin (Gentle Fist Art One Blow Body)!" It was powerful enough to break the tongue's grip on him, allowing Neji to free himself and fall away.
Not willing to get into a fight at this moment apparently, at Pein's direction the chameleon continued to skitter off into the limits of Sunagakure as Neji and his troops continued to pursue until there was no more dome left to run through.
They were back at the village itself. What had been rebuilt of it anyway. And even then Pein had to muse that despite anything else these were very determined people to keep going and rebuild after what he had done just over a month and a half ago.
But he wasn't here to destroy it directly again anyway, he was here for something more important. Something he needed more firepower for. After jumping off of the chameleon and sending it to deal with the Suna contingent and Neji to keep them from interfering for just a moment longer, a few hand-seals later, and the former body of Danzo slammed his hand directly on the ground, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"
Neji dodged a few lashes of the chameleon's tongue before getting sight of Pein's summoning jutsu, and a cold shiver rolled down his back as through the smoke he was able to see not just one, but six figures similarly dressed but different in appearance. All with piercings and all with Rinnegan, "All Six Paths of Pein…" If Jiraiya couldn't beat them how could he? Especially on his own.
He had to try though. With that, Neji allowed his comrades to deal with the summoned chameleon while he brazenly set himself in his clan taijutsu stance in order to do his best to deal with Pein, 'All six of them can share each other's vision between them, and they all have strange powers that come with the Rinnegan.' He thought to himself, trying to drudge up the briefings that had taken place on the most dangerous ninja in the world since the war had begun.
The first option given when put in such a situation was to run. Not even to fight. Just to get away, away, away. Not to even think about fighting back. Well that wasn't a choice when public enemy number one was right in the middle of the village of their allies. The same village he had already destroyed once.
"Well this is interesting." Pein said from his Deva Path, "You're still choosing to stand against me even though you know who I am. Is this bravery, or is it just more of the misplaced bravado from Konoha?" His tone was one of sarcasm laced with disdain for the idea of facing an enemy from the most hated of villages in his point of view.
With that, the large and imposing smiling Asura Path, the body with the strange mechanical attachments, the one that had done the crippling damage to Jiraiya who was one of the finest ninja ever to hold a kunai in his hands stepped forward to deal with the taijutsu specialist. The Asura Path quickly cast away its black cloak to show six arms instead of just two, two different faces on the sides of its head (one impassive and one angry) and a serrated blade around its waist peeking up over its back as a weapon.
This inherent danger was not the first threat to Neji's person however, as the long haired Human Path got itself past the Asura Path and launched a direct attack against him that he backed out of the way of, slipping a punch and getting himself back out of range as the Asura path launched a strain of missiles from an extension of its arm.
"Hakkeshou Kaiten (Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven)!" Neji spun around rapidly, simultaneously releasing chakra from his body in a protective dome around his body, defending himself from the explosions that erupted off of the chakra shield. He came to a stop in a small crater that had been carved with the intensity of his chakra spin, "You may be able to see me from six different perspectives, but there isn't a single angle you can come at me from that I can't see. Hyuuga Clan members are meant to fight multiple enemies at once."
The cry of the Suna fighters that he had with him being felled by the chameleon directed Neji's attention back to the creature as it made to attack him once more as well, its previous job being complete. It charged directly at him and snapped its tongue out to harm him, though he was able to see it clearly despite its invisibility with his Byakugan and jumped over it on top of the creature's head.
Its snake of a tail struck at him but missed and bit the top of its head. Things seemed to be going just swimmingly for the genius of his clan, but Pein was sick of letting Neji struggle. Futile though it may have been, it wasn't amusing to see him fight as though he had some hope. The Animal Path dispelled the summon and the Deva Path made his presence known with one move.
"I do not have the time to waste to deal with you Hyuuga." Pein said before reaching a grabbing hand out at Neji, "Bansho Ten'in (Heavenly Attraction of All of Creation!" Neji abruptly shot towards the Deva Path that had the destructive Asura Path standing in front of him waiting for the incoming enemy with the deadly saw blade poised to run him through and kill him.
Before he ever reached the end of the line however, a plume of sand came between them, catching Neji and preventing the attractive properties of the Deva Path from signaling the end of his life at the hands of the Six Paths of Pein.
While a face full of sand wasn't the most pleasant thing to receive, it was taken as a godsend by Neji as he was lifted over from the part of the village around the entrance where he had been fighting, over to where Gaara was, standing on the roof of the tallest reconstructed building in the village. It was quite the sight as the sky was pretty shaded with the ranging wind and sandstorm that the village dome protected Sunagakure from.
Being set on the ground safely, Neji stood up and stared back over at all of Pein's bodies, something that he could clearly see from where he was with his Byakugan, "Thank you Kazekage-sama." Neji said in regards to being protected, "Shouldn't you be at your safehouse?"
"The enemy isn't at the gates any longer." Gaara stated with his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't have a discernable look on his face, but he was wishing nothing but death on the man that had destroyed his village and had the audacity to come right back in, "This is officially my problem to handle personally."
"This is good then." Neji said, still fixing Pein with a scrutinizing glance, "We can fight them together. I have my misgivings on dealing with the large one with six arms, but with you fighting from a range and me engaging them up close I believe I can be of quite a bit of help to you."
A nod came from Gaara, "Agreed." With that seeming endorsement Neji prepared for another run-in, until Gaara spoke again, "But you won't be helping me." Ignoring the look of surprise on the Konoha jounin's face, Gaara kept making his point, "You're going to go to where the medics, the genin, and the villagers are, and you're going to make sure they know of this and are prepared for what is about to happen. It's going to be very loud."
Now Neji was well aware that Gaara was the Kazekage, but he still had his doubts that Gaara could handle all six bodies of Pein. While he would never say it aloud to the redhead, he saw Jiraiya as a more powerful ninja than the leader of Sunagakure, and even Jiraiya was unable to do anything more than defeat one body before succumbing to Pein's overwhelming might that also crushed the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, the good friend of both of them and an exceedingly powerful ninja as well; Naruto Uzumaki.
But this was an order from the top, as far from the top as he was going to get an order from without being back in Konoha, and Neji was not going to engage in insubordination during a pitched battle. He could otherwise feel that Gaara was in no mood to joke about or to mess around. He was deadly serious.
And he left in a manner that Neji could not follow, "No one is to fight this battle but me. It's too dangerous for anyone else." Using his sand as a platform, Gaara levitated himself away to quickly confront Pein without ever touching the ground. Quietly gnashing his teeth, Neji left to adhere to his order and chose to trust in Gaara's judgment to battle Pein alone.
XxX
(With Naruto and Yugito – Yu no Kuni Countryside)
After hours and hours of travel, the jinchuuriki pair crossed the border from Hi no Kuni into the last bastion of calm that one could say there would be heading northward from that point. There wouldn't be any stopping in the hot spring resort that was formerly a hidden village of Yugakure. Not with things the way they were.
At the rate they were going they would reach the lines by tomorrow morning at the latest. From there they would prepare their approach to get through and return Yugito to her comrades in Kumo per the instructions of Naruto's mission.
"Getting tired yet?" Naruto asked Yugito as they continued to jump through the trees. The feline biju-containing blonde woman had been silent for quite a while. It was making an already tense trip all the more stress-inducing.
Yugito's eyes flicked towards him before giving Naruto a smirk, "Not a chance. We don't need to stop at all, you should know that. No rest until we reach the camps. I've got to get home in a hurry." She then decided that a chance of topics was in order because she didn't want to think about how nasty the situation was that they were about to walk into, "So that training you did with your sensei… did it help you to improve your control over the Kyuubi any?"
"It was for something else…" Naruto admitted, as he actually hadn't improved any in regards to his biju control during the time he had spent learning Sage Mode, "But it's something that Kyuubi can help me with in battle. It's a pretty good setup actually… and it makes me way stronger." In Naruto's opinion, Sage Mode was a better option for battle than his potentially unstable chakra connection with the Kyuubi. Too much of that and he could lose control. To use Sage Mode all he needed to do was maintain a balance that the Kyuubi generated the natural energy for.
"For a jinchuuriki you really try fighting as if you aren't one." Yugito commented. She had seen it even back during the fight with Hidan and Kakuzu. He only really used the Kyuubi's chakra to help him power his stronger ninjutsu that needed some extra kick to them, "If it works for you then it works. I'm just saying that it's weird."
It wasn't his fault either. The Kyuubi's chakra was too strong for him to safely train with as a child, otherwise it would have hurt him before a physical tail of chakra had even formed. He only got to use it when he was in physical dire straits in combat. So Danzo forced him to work his basics and his conventional ninja arts to death until he got old enough to use the bare minimum of Kyuubi's chakra. From then he was able to train it, but he didn't have much time to before his sealing.
So yes, he was used to fighting straight up even when using the Kyuubi's chakra, allowing it to merely enhance his fighting style's speed and strength. It was just how he was. But it wasn't that simple. Using more than his share of it would make him more barbarous in battle and would cloud his judgment, especially when he used his transformation. Amegakure could attest to that. So there had always been a give and take, for he would need to sacrifice finesse for force and vice-versa.
No longer with Sage Mode though. It was his new chosen method of enhancing himself in battle and would be for the foreseeable future. His perfected Sage Mode was devastating. Even Jiraiya said it was better than his own. That was some serious praise.
"Why do I have to fight like every other jinchuuriki?" Naruto asked Yugito, "I like to think that the reason I haven't been caught yet is because I don't fight like other jinchuuriki. The only ones left are you, me, Gaara, and Kirabi. And we're all weird except for you… mostly."
Between the insomnia, former homicidal tendencies, and sand control in Gaara, the rapping in everyday speech and the eight swords from Kirabi, and all of the things wrong with Naruto not even counting the Sharingan eye (not that any more than a select few knew about that), yeah… they were all weird. Yugito was normal in comparison.
For some reason that didn't feel like much of a compliment. Who would have thought it? Not being called weird could have been taken as a compliment.
But Yugito ignored it with a frown, the only thing showing the comment had irked her a little bit. She was plenty weird. Eventually though, her eyes caught figures from where they were running through the trees, "Naruto-kun, look."
Both of them came to a stop before feeling a touch of relief at what they saw, making their way in that direction as they caught sight of a squad of two dozen Konoha ninja on the road through the forests, "Hey!" Naruto called out to them, getting their attention as he and Yugito landed on the ground behind them, "You guys wouldn't happen to be heading up towards the line would you?"
The Konoha ninja looked amongst each other before nodding and shrugging nonchalantly, "Sure. Come with us. That's where we're going right now as a few squads of reinforcements." This sat very well with Naruto and Yugito, as travelling in a group kept them feeling more secure than moving on their own. The two of them were noted high-priority targets as jinchuuriki and that was the way it was.
With that, the blonde duo fell into step, running with their new escorts towards the Yu no Kuni and Shimo no Kuni border where their destinations lay. Naruto and Yugito were unable to see the smirks of some of the ninja that were out of their fields of vision as they looked at each other smugly.
XxX
(Sunagakure no Sato – Gaara vs. Pein)
"How brave of you to face me outright." Pein commented, his bodies in their battle positions as Gaara stood a distance away from them on flat ground, "I take it you know who I am, what I plan to do with you, and you're still here to fight me yourself instead of fleeing. Thus comes with the title of Kazekage…"
"No." Gaara replied emotionlessly in return, "This isn't about me being the Kazekage and you threatening my village here today. Look around you. There isn't anything left to destroy. This is about me, and my anger towards you. A friend of mine kept me from foolishly storming straight to Amegakure to try and end your life, and here you bring yourself right to me. I'd thank you if I weren't about to end your life."
Without warning, the Asura Path raised a hand and fired off its fist like a rocket, complete with propulsion from behind, "Kaiwan no Hiya (Flaming Arrow of Amazing Ability)!"
Like clockwork, Gaara's ever-strengthening sand defense got up and blocked the fist, keeping it from ever getting through to harm him. In return, Gaara sent out a testing wave of sand directly at the Deva Path which seemed to be the main body since it was the one that Pein spoke through most of the time. Instead, the burly-looking Preta Path jumped in the way and seemingly absorbed the chakra from the sand, rendering it useless.
Gaara wordlessly clicked his teeth in exasperation, 'So that's the one that can negate all chakra techniques.' What a terrifying ability. It turned his sand useless whenever it touched the Preta Path, 'This is not good.' No hand-seals or anything were required. When anything chakra-related touched it, the chakra was absorbed. What in the world was he going to do? His entire battle style centered around using his sand control.
Without missing a beat, the other Paths of Pein were not about to give Gaara any time to analyze his situation and think of a plan, attacking the stationary ninja. The Human, Asura, and Animal Paths began trying to plow their way through Gaara's defense, but the sand was simply too fast. Gaara's ultimate defense was alive, well, and had never been stronger. Threatening away the Human Path and swatting back the Asura Path, Gaara noticed the Animal Path trying to summon within the confines of his defenses and did not allow this to happen by snatching the man formerly known as Danzo up.
His only hope was to hit them hard and fast. Picking off any weakness left open for him to take advantage of, and that was just what he did, "Sabaku Sousou (Sand Waterfall Funeral)!" The Animal path was crushed by the sand and tossed aside as useless as Gaara turned his attention to the Asura Path that was charging him again, ever dangerous with its destructive power.
It was a feint though as the Deva Path was able to sneak a good peek at Gaara's adjustments to try and do his best to ignore the Preta Path that would merely shrug off anything he could do to it with his sand. Picking off the other Paths first was not a bad idea at all, but he couldn't let him just do as he pleased, futile though it may have been.
In a rather gutsy approach, the Deva Path stormed forward directly towards Gaara's range of sand protection and allowed it to cloud his view and surround him just close enough for him to make his move, "Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)!" The sand was suddenly forced away and this left Gaara clear and open for an attack before the Deva Path stopped short, "Nice try with the replacement technique, but I can see anything that you do."
Three other paths, the Human, Asura, and the Preta Paths, bore witness to Gaara switching himself out with a sand clone when the Deva Path had blown his sand away. Showing no holes in their overpowering attack, they went right for Gaara, with the Preta Path leading the way and negating all of the sand swarming at the two of them with its mere presence.
Gaara focused intensely on their approach before reaching his hands up into a ram seal, "Gokusa Maisou (Prison Sand Burial)!" A sinkhole instantly appeared beneath the two paths, and despite the Preta Path and the ability to negate chakra that came with it, at that point it didn't matter as they still fell into it, it was a long way down, and even if Gaara couldn't crush them underground to finish them thereafter. They were nonfactors in the battle as far as he could see. Perfect. Three down.
"So young and so skilled." The Deva Path of Pein commented after watching Gaara handle the conundrum of the Preta Path's ability in his own way, "You managed to defend yourself even with the abilities of the Preta Path renting space in your mind, and then you put that plan into action."
"I don't need your praise." Gaara replied, swirling sand all about his body. Without the Preta Path to block any offense he tried there was no need to hold back any longer. From what he had seen from the Deva Path, it had been the body that had pulverized Sunagakure with one move. He needed to take great care as he focused his fury on it. Like a snake coiling to strike, Gaara's sand formed a band in front of his body before it began firing dozens of shots of sand, rapid-fire at the Deva Path, "Rendan: Suna Shigure (Successive Shots: Sand Drizzle)!"
The Deva Path's instant reaction was clear, "Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)!" Another force of repulsion sent the sand projectiles flying away, but Gaara refused to let up, continuing on with his barrage to try and force Pein into dire straits.
This forced Pein to actively dodge the attacks once the Shinra Tensei faded. As he observed Pein avoid his best attempts to peg him with a shot or several, Gaara idly wondered why he didn't try another Shinra Tensei again to rid himself of the attacks.
"Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)!"
There went another one. But why didn't he do it any sooner? Why then? He didn't maneuver himself into a better position to try it. He hadn't gotten any closer to chance hitting Gaara with it. He was just dodging until he decided to try it again, and he waited for a few seconds to do so, not willing to follow up immediately with another to protect himself.
"Bansho Ten'in (Heavenly Attraction of All of Creation!" Again, he waited for more time to pass instead of following up immediately with his attraction jutsu. Gaara was pulled off of the ground and started to move towards him until his sand caught him like a glove and blocked the jutsu well enough so that when he was pulled through the thick wall of grains he landed on his feet as it had faded by then.
Again, no follow up.
Gaara didn't have that problem.
But before he could even finish his chain of hand-seals to literally try to bury his opposition, he heard something that he thought he had put a stop to earlier in the battle, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" Gaara turned towards the sound of the jutsu call to see not only a fully functional Animal Path, but the only Path that he hadn't engaged in battle, the Naraka Path, and a large, demonic-looking head that was sinking into the ground, its job apparently finished.
It was healed? But he had crushed it like a grape and now it looked as fresh as it had at the start of the fight. And the newly revitalized Animal Path had just summoned the Asura Path, the Human Path, and the vaunted Preta Path from where he had buried them, as if he had never submerged them underneath the ground with that tactical sinkhole.
"Do you see now that you can't defeat God?" The Deva Path stated as the Six Paths of Pein got themselves back into their standard battle formation, "You can destroy my bodies, but they can always be resurrected in the end."
"Restoration ability doesn't make you God." Gaara said, sweat caking his brow as this battle was testing him in multiple ways. He knew without a doubt now that if he had attacked in Amegakure he would have been defeated. The rain would have only made things so much more difficult on him. But now he was learning so much more. No wonder the Naraka Path hadn't fought him thus far; the healers in a battle didn't ever fight directly. That was day one stuff.
The Asura Path stepped forward and proverbially flexed its muscles again as its head opened up to reveal a cannon that blasted pure chakra at Gaara.
His sand defense held up in a smoky explosion that Gaara slipped out of swiftly, his sand armor singed and pieces flaking off of him. The Preta Path used that opportunity to try and grab him, but instead of allowing his sand defense to kick in, which would have been useless in stopping the Preta Path, Gaara took to the air with a platform of sand beneath him.
Distance was what he needed. To get as far away as possible; out of the range of the Deva Path and his attractive and repulsive capabilities, and the other incredible abilities of Pein. But Pein didn't seem to be willing to let him go so easily. The summoning of a large and odd looking bird with a drill of a beak was used to carry the Animal Path and the Asura Path into the air.
A brutal assault of the Asura Path, being ferried by the Animal Path, occurred with him firing blast after blast of chakra through the air at the Kazekage. It was hard for Gaara to focus on his countermove, flying and trying to coordinate his attack efforts while dodging his enemy's ranged aggression.
Eventually though, he felt the pull that he needed and lifted and moved his arms around accordingly in the motions that he needed to make things work. With the viewpoints of the other Paths from the ground, Pein was able to see that Gaara had managed to bring up an extraordinary amount of sand from the ground and had maneuvered the Animal Path and the Asura Path so that he could encase them on all sides with no room for escape as it closed in, airtight, "Sabaku Rou (Sand Binding Prison)!"
Keeping a wary eye on the ground and the other Paths as he secured his capture, Gaara saw the Preta Path disappear in a puff of smoke. The Animal Path had summoned it within the prison. He would never crush them within now. Any sand that got within enough range of the Preta Path to do so would be rendered useless. So he did the next best thing.
With all of the might that Gaara could muster with his control, he turned and swung his arms, violently casting the sand prison over the valley walls of Sunagakure and out of his domain before the Preta Path could allow them to escape.
Breathing heavily at the effort exerted in hurling the large sand prison away, Gaara directed his attention back down to the Deva, Human, and Naraka Paths. Three against one seemed like a dream compared to the six against one conflict he had started with, "Next…"
Without warning, two of the Paths dropped to the ground as they seemingly deactivated before vanishing in puffs of smoke, summoned away to wherever the Animal Path had landed with the others, leaving the Deva Path as the remaining entity to face Gaara, "How clever of you… it seems Jiraiya-sensei's information was useful enough to allow you to work out even more on my abilities."
"Like I said… you won't take Shukaku from me today." Gaara stated firmly, "And Sunagakure will not fall. No matter if you destroy the buildings. No matter if you take some of our lives. Our village is like the land that surrounds it itself; harsh when it is supposed to be, yet unconquerable by those that do not understand its nature. Trying to deplete our forces is like trying to take each grain of sand from the desert."
The Deva Path narrowed its eyes at Gaara from its place on the ground, "This is far from over. Do not consider this to be your victory. I will be back." Pein threatened, "Sunagakure's sands will be stained red once more. You haven't felt true pain yet."
Gaara simply stared down at him, unshaken by the attempt to intimidate or infuriate him further, "Get out of my village, get out of my lands, and take your army with you… what's left of it that you can retreat with that is."
Glaring at Gaara with those chilling Rinnegan eyes, the Deva Path finally vanished in a puff of smoke as well.
That fight, while exceedingly difficult was not as cataclysmic as Gaara thought it would turn out to be. He was exhausted because of the huge amounts of chakra that he had expended to eject the massive sand prison far outside of his village, and that wasn't counting his constant interference in the real battle going on outside of his village's walls. Speaking of which, it was still going on. He might have been feeling the strain of combat, but now was the best excuse possible to interject himself directly alongside his comrades.
He hoped that Baki could deal with running the battlefield for a bit longer, because he wasn't going back until the invasion was repelled.
XxX
(Pein's Temporary Battle HQ)
A massive tower comprised of Konan's paper ninjutsu that resembled his control tower in Amegakure housed Pein for the time being as his forces attacked Sunagakure. Damn Gaara. He couldn't use excessive force and kill him or else he would lose Shukaku until it reformed elsewhere, and who knew how long that would take? He had almost made the mistake of killing Naruto back during his intrusion into Ame.
It was actually lucky that the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was infamously absurdly difficult to beat down or else he would have ended his life and his plans would have been set back for years.
"Konan." From his mechanical chair in the tower where he could clearly see Suna and the battle going on in the distance. The tide had steadily been turning. Had he been able to capture Gaara and make a show of exiting Sunagakure with the Kazekage visibly in hand, the spirit to fight would have been lost. When the Sandaime Kazekage had disappeared at the secretive hands of Sasori almost two decades ago Suna had notoriously almost fallen apart. That was not going to happen here though, not today, "Signal for the retreat."
Well aware of the fact that Nagato was in no mood to converse at the moment whatsoever, a simple nod came from the blue-haired woman as she formed a set of origami birds that took to the skies all over before bursting in large, bright red colors; the signal to withdraw.
Nagato formed the ram seal from where he was sitting in his chair to allow him to build up chakra as the astral projection outline of the Deva Path and his Rinnegan eyes appeared across the sky wide and large, "This is not over Sunagakure. You and the other villages like you will pay for the pain you've inflicted upon the smaller of your ilk for decades. We outnumber the 'Five Great Shinobi Villages' ten-to-one, and unlike our comrades who stand beside us as brothers in our cause… you are all about to face the true wrath of God." With that the image fizzled out of existence.
It took a moment before figures from the rear line were spilling back across the desert in full retreat mode as the front line tried to hold them back and move away as well, trying to avoid as much of a rout as possible. This was made all the more difficult when a gigantic colossus comprised of sand in the form of Gaara rose up and began stomping forward, terrorizing the retreating C.N.F. ninja.
Konan prepared to go down and assist in helping out with the retreat by destroying the Gaara colossus if nothing else, but Nagato's calling out to her kept her from doing so, "No. Let's return to Ame immediately. There's no time to waste and this war isn't close to being over yet. Suna is still weak and won't attack anytime soon if at all. We should be more worried about Konoha's force in Kusa held grounds. Prepare to dedicate a division to help them deal with that."
How much had Nagato really changed over the years? Did he even see what was occurring anymore? What was the eventual goal worth if they were so far gone from their original values that they seemed like completely different people? So much so that he was unwilling to allow her to assist in helping their own shinobi retreat safely? He would rather let them leave on their own so that he could have more time to plan his next move, even if it would only delay that planning by mere minutes that could have saved dozens if not hundreds of lives.
Still, he was the leader. And she broke the paper tower down into multiple sheets of paper as she created a large paper bird that proceeded to carry them both off into the distance back north towards their lands through the sandstorm that in a way despite its harsh nature covered their retreat.
Battle-weary and emotionally strained to their limits after the last few weeks, it was like a valve was released and emotion spilled out freely as Suna was allowed the time to cheer and shout and cry. There was still much work to do in regards to their home, but for the moment the knowledge that they had held strong alongside their Konoha comrades was more important to them than anything else.
XxX
(Later That Night – Wilderness of Yu no Kuni)
Travelling with the Konoha contingent to the Yu no Kuni/Shimo no Kuni slowed them down despite the added security it provided. Naruto and Yugito were forced to pretty much stop with them for the night as they didn't share the speed and the stamina of the two blonde demon containers, that and they already had a beaten route they were taking instead of trying a straight shot through the forest the way they had been doing. Apparently ambushes occurred because of that easy to predict method of travel which was why the squads had been taking roundabout routes.
It ground their gears, but ridiculous stamina wasn't commonplace amongst most of the ninja in the world. Thus they stopped and made camp for the evening.
With Yugito being Naruto's client for the duration of his mission she stayed in his tent along with him, for security's sake of course.
Said young woman sat on her side of the tent rubbing her neck as she tried to calm down and relax. There were over thirty Konoha shinobi outside and others were keeping guard of the premises along with Naruto's clones that were secretly created and distributed about. If anything went wrong she'd know about it in well enough time to react accordingly and get herself back into emergency battle mode.
"We made such good time on the first day… even if we did get slowed down when we found your Konoha comrades. Do you know any of them very well?" Yugito asked, trying to spark some conversation to alleviate some boredom.
Naruto shook his head as he perused the seals that adorned his arms and torso through his open Root top, each with their own uses and purposes for being on his body, "I don't know any of them actually. We've never met until today. It's really hard to realize just how many people in hidden villages are or used to be ninja."
Yugito let out a hum of agreement before smirking as she made a comment to try and raise his hackles, "Kumo has more shinobi than Konoha." She teased, trying to spark a debate or a mindless argument as she took off her headband and let her hair out of its bandaged bindings for the evening.
"Do you know how many Kumo ninja I've kicked the crap out of?"
"Do you know how many Konoha ninja I've kicked the crap out of?" She returned, grinning at getting the better of him thus far, "I'm older than you, remember dear?" She didn't get another verbal rise out of him and chuckled silently to herself as she sidled up behind him, setting her chin on his shoulder as she noticed him taking stock of the seals on his body, "What do all of those do?" Applying fuuinjutsu to oneself was incredibly dangerous.
Relaxing himself around Yugito, Naruto set his head against hers as he continued to more or less run inventory on himself, "Some of this and that. Storage, one for communication." Those were just the ones that everyone knew about though.
He had one for storing the Amaterasu he had sealed away during his battle with Itachi and Sasuke Uchiha, one worked into a contact lens that covered his Sharingan eye from anyone's view… oh, and he had a dead man's switch somewhere on his body to activate in case he was captured and was conscious to do something about it. Nobody needed to know about that one though, because they would just bitch him out over it and try to get him to remove it.
Yugito found it rather interesting to use her fingers in order to trace the seals that were actually visible for her to see on his arms and chest, trying to deduce what they could be with what limited information she knew about sealing techniques for fun. It seemed to calm Naruto down too, so that was an added bonus. She seemed to have a bit of a knack for that apparently.
Back when he was freaking out over how prepared he may or may not have been in regards to truly battling against Akatsuki, she was the one that actually got him to settle down and ease his mind better than even Jiraiya's advice happened to. They got along very well, even before the war started or Akatsuki became an issue to them both, "Matatabi thinks you're a weird kid, but it respects you for some reason."
"Matatabi?" Naruto said questioningly, finding himself feeling more and more peaceful in Yugito's presence, "Who's that?"
"Oh, that's the Nibi's name; Matatabi." Yugito explained casually with a shrug, "Nibi's just easier to say." That made some sense to Naruto. The Ichibi was called Shukaku interchangeably because one wasn't any more difficult to say than the other. Wait, something about that didn't make sense. They both had names? But then Yugito continued, "Yeah… I can only imagine what the Kyuubi's name could be if you'd rather call it Kyuubi instead of its name."
"Kyuubi has a name?" Naruto asked with his eyes jolting back to being wide awake, "Kyuubi doesn't have a name." 'You don't have another name… do you?' He asked inwardly, hoping that the Kyuubi was not asleep from the boring run from Konoha.
Yugito wasn't aware of the questioning thoughts going on in Naruto's head though, finding more satisfaction in making herself comfortable with her bodyguard, "Of course Kyuubi has a name dummy. Do you really think the Rikudou Sennin was that much of a lazy-ass that he didn't name them when he made them?" She finished with a yawn, "Calling all of them by their number of tails is a terrible way to address them directly."
"I thought he was dying when he broke up the Juubi and made them." Naruto returned verbally as he let Yugito snuggle against him, allowing her to do so as he mentally called out to his chakra beast of a life partner, 'You have a name? Why the fuck didn't you tell me you had a name? I thought we were at least partners.'
"You never asked genius! In eleven years of knowing of me you never asked, so I assumed you didn't care. And I was right… because you never asked." Just like every other human he'd been saddled with or had come into contact with since the Rikudou Sennin died. Aside from the people trying to capture it and use it, after people realized that the nine biju were all related they just labeled them by tails more often than not. Very few people took to care about their names. No one knew the Kyuubi's name at all.
'Because I thought I knew your name already you big orange jackass! You never said your name once! Ever! How is that even possible?' There were all of those times when it knowingly referred to itself by its title instead of this name that he was just now hearing about, so that made the Kyuubi a facilitator, 'So what's your name?'
"Screw off kid… I'm going back to sleep."
'Don't ignore me goddamn you, we aren't done with this yet!'
"What are you going to do, Sharingan it out of me?"
'You know I don't know how! Besides… I told you I wouldn't ever do that even if I found out how I did it.' He didn't hear any response from the Kyuubi except for intentionally exaggerated obnoxious snoring which pretty much told him that conversation was for all intents and purposes over. And it was timely too, because Yugito started pulling on his cheek from behind, "Ow. What Yugi-chan?"
"You were spaced out and ignoring me." Yugito deadpanned, still draped around Naruto's back, "I asked you how bad you think the battlefront will be when we get there. I've heard some things about it… nothing nice either. I don't understand how this could have happened."
"Pein did it." Naruto said, glaring a bit at recalling the man in question, "Everyone is scared of those eyes of his, and the powers they've heard he can use. For the minor villages they could either fight us together or fight him alone. And after what they've heard that he did to Suna… and me and Ero-kyofu at the same time when we fought him."
A frown crossed Yugito's face at hearing Naruto's tone of speaking change, "You're not afraid to fight this guy again are you? We've been through this already back when you were stressed about Akatsuki the first time."
"I'm not afraid to fight anyone anymore." Naruto assured, keeping her from fretting over him or admonishing him, one or the other, "I want to fight him again. That guy really pisses me off, talking out of both sides of his mouth like some kind of divine hypocrite. I'll show him God if that's what he really wants. Cult-leading piece of-."
Yugito's hand covered his mouth before he could finish calmly cursing Pein out from hundreds of miles away, "Shush already. Pein's not here. I'm here. Focus on me. I'm your mission right? You're supposed to be keeping me safe until you get me back with my own village."
With a roll of his eyes, Naruto pulled Yugito's hand from his mouth so that he could speak, "I am focused on you." He then found that Yugito had maneuvered herself from sitting behind him to sitting directly in his lap.
"You are huh?" She was teasing him again. The look on her face was an absolute dead giveaway; playfully predatory in its manner, "You're not as focused as I want you to be. So if you don't mind Mr. Big-Bad-Jounin-Man… I'll ask you again. Focus. All. On. Me." With each of the last four words she said she edged her head closer to his until their noses touched, "…Don't get me killed tomorrow either."
"Right back at you." Naruto returned fire in the little verbal spar before finding his face moving forward of his own volition towards Yugito's lips. He could actually feel her grinning through the kiss. It didn't take too much longer for Naruto to shift the little impromptu make-out session with his fellow jinchuuriki to laying her down on the ground covering of the tent as they continued to duel tongues.
Yugito had a hand running through Naruto's hair as she held him down on top of her and shifted herself beneath him to anticipate things going further. She started guiding him to grope her, but before things could progress any further Naruto abruptly jumped up onto his knees, looking around suspiciously.
A very confused and flustered Yugito simply remained laying on the ground, blinking in surprise before tilting her head towards Naruto who had a grave look on his face, "W-What's the matter?" Was it her? They'd done something like that before, but they'd been interrupted the last time before anything more could happen (thankfully because it was in a hospital). Maybe he was having second thoughts this time?
It wasn't her at all though. It was something his clones keeping watch in hiding picked up on going on outside of his tent. And he had just received another one. Naruto suddenly covered Yugito flat with his body, pressing her to the ground as many light green spikes stabbed through the sides and the top of the tent, intending to cause great harm to the two of them if not to kill them.
"Tobi said not to kill them!"
Outside of the tents, what looked to be a multitude of Zetsus stood around the thoroughly punctured canvas structure as it fell to the ground, its foundations destroyed from the attack, "If you kill the jinchuuriki then its biju dies with it. It takes time for them to resurface in this plane of existence so take them alive!" They rushed the tent that they saw fall on Naruto and Yugito only to find a pair of wooden dummies in their place from use of a Kawarimi.
Having been unseen the entire time, Naruto's shadowy clones in the branches and leaves above dropped down with their swords held in downward stabs, mercilessly running those that had attacked the original Naruto and Yugito through from sky. The threat ended for now, the clones dispelled in puffs of smoke as Naruto and Yugito appeared from where they had been hiding.
The Kumo kunoichi kneeled down by one of the dead Zetsus that happened to be solid light green in color instead of half and half. They had never seen Zetsu though, so they wouldn't have recognized this as being important, "What the hell… What are these things, plants or humans?"
"They bleed like humans." Naruto observed as their life fluid stained the ground. Maybe if they hadn't been bickering about having to capture him and Yugito one of the several around would have noticed that they weren't alone, "…I had a clone dispel when he saw them drop some kind of transformation jutsu. These are the Konoha ninja that were with us today. They were going to slip into Konoha's camp behind the lines and terrorize us once we got there. Then they saw us and went to capture us."
So that's why they weren't around at that moment. In the heat of the ambush there was no time for Yugito to really think about that. But now that there was, she had something to point out, "But no one's Henge is that good. Even if they got that far, any half-baked sensor ninja in your ranks or anyone that knew the real person that they transformed into would know that they were fakes."
Unless there was something different about the transformation, something more advanced than a Henge that wouldn't register to a sensor. Otherwise those plant men were just going to get themselves turned into salad.
That still lent curiosity to the question of what the fuck these things were.
There wasn't any time to deal with that at the moment though, as there was still the fact that the entire squad was comprised of plant-men bodysnatchers of some sort and they were still in danger, "Alright, remember we need one of them alive to interrogate." Naruto said as he drew his own heirloom ninjato from his back. They could hear more coming their way as he continued to speak, "This whole thing really stinks."
"Uh huh." Yugito's fingernails grew into long and dangerous-looking claws for her use in melee combat, "You capture one. I'm not really the capturing type." She was the pissed off type. They couldn't have waited a few minutes to try and kill them?
Naruto chose to edge a few more steps away from the angry Miss Yugito Nii as he could feel that she was rather angry, and he could imagine why. It was kind of ironic that the only mercy any of these plant-men were going to see on this night was going to be from someone originally trained in Root.
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