Capítulo 880: 57
Chapter 56: Lucid Haze
Things began falling in place as far as the Grand Shinobi Alliance (Konoha, Kumo, Kiri, and Suna) went when it came to the opening days and weeks of the international war against the Continental Ninja Federation (Ame, Kusa, Taki, and the other minor villages).
As the days dragged forward, waking up in his own bed did not have the same calming effect that it usually would have for Naruto. It had been a week since his return along with Kiba and Neji and it had been a little over two weeks since the destruction of the desert village altogether.
Since then he had been stuck at home, and while being Kumo dignitary/jounin/jinchuuriki Yugito Nii's personal contact for things she needed in Konoha for the duration of her stay was an easy-going responsibility and allowed him to hang out with one of his closest and loveliest friends he was not particularly considering himself good-fortuned. He felt guiltier than anything else.
Konoha had already sent out shinobi to begin keeping the borders locked down tight and to also begin setting traps and choke points in case of an attempt to invade or infiltrate and there was still the matter of the large task force that already sat in Suna to help them until further notice. Now it was just a matter of a waiting game for him. Every time he woke up he imagined furious knocking on his door or window prior to someone informing him of an emergency window or a message when he went into the village telling him that someone had died in the field.
He had yet to truly deal with that yet despite the death of Danzo and the fact that Sasuke had died after battle with him. Now it was only a matter of time until it actually did happen. For all he knew it could be him whose life ended miles away from home, away from anyone that would know or care.
No way. Not a chance while he had anything to say about it, and as long as he was around none of his friends would die on his watch either. But he didn't have much of a watch as he was.
A knock came onto his door. Damn, how did she know he was awake? He hadn't made a single move since opening his eyes.
"Naruto-sama, breakfast is ready."
Well there was no need to lay there and act like he wasn't already up, and if he didn't get up then Jiraiya would just eat all of the food and then taunt him for being too slow, and then they'd both get to fighting and tear part of the house up, and then Hamako would somehow slap a chakra sealing tag on both of them and then hit them (how she managed to get that close to the both of them without them feeling it they would never know). He didn't need that drama that early in the morning. He had things to do today.
So with that, he hopped out of bed and threw on a pair of pants and a shirt before exiting the room to head to the kitchen. Once there he found his food set out with Jiraiya and Hamako already eating their share, "Good morning Naruto-sama." Hamako said with a smile after swallowing her bite as he took his seat.
"Good morning Hamako-chan, and thanks." Naruto returned with a grateful smile that the white-haired girl nodded to. After eating for a bit in silence, Naruto turned towards Jiraiya, 'It's only a matter of time before Ero-kyofu has to do something in the field again.' He knew Jiraiya was powerful, but he had to think back to when they fought after he mastered Sage Mode. If Jiraiya had both arms available to him he doubted he would have fought to a draw with him, the hellified beatings lain upon him for years before reaching that point were evidence of that.
Jiraiya noticed Naruto's eyes locked onto him and grinned wryly at the young man, "Hey, I know I'm sexy and I'm your awe-inspiring hero and all gaki but you might as well have that special eye of yours active if you're going to be looking at me that hard. Apparently Naruto hadn't known how hard he was staring because he blinked and turned his gaze down to his food at that point, "You know you're going to be dispatched any day now don't you?"
"What about you?" Naruto asked. He had in fact known that it was only a matter of time. Kiba was already gone with the rest of Team 8 to watch over the northern border of Hi no Kuni, sans Kurenai for some reason. It wasn't particularly Naruto's business… and if it really came down to it he supposed he could find her and ask since she was still in the village. As a matter of fact he hadn't seen her in a while, but that was neither here nor there, "There's no way Tsunade-baachan is sending you out like you are… or is she?"
Jiraiya frowned and lifted his single remaining arm as a method of showing, "Even with one arm I'm still enough to whip you kid. You know that. And I'm going out by my own choice." Tsunade actually tried to coerce him into staying and Jiraiya said he would under one condition; the condition wound up with him getting kicked halfway across the village. But that was by design. Even if Tsunade told him to stay in reserve he still wouldn't have. He wasn't some damn genin that needed to be protected, and there really wasn't anyone in the entire village that could honestly force Jiraiya to do anything he didn't want to.
But he was not going to deliberately piss off his Tsunade-hime in such a blatant manner. He would stay… he'd stay until it was prudent that he leave to reinforce somewhere. There wasn't a need to let Naruto know that though. The kid worked better when he didn't think he had a safety net in waiting.
"What about Hamako-chan? Are you really going to leave her here alone? I'm depending on you Ero-kyofu." Naruto said in an effort to justify Jiraiya staying. A very weak attempt at justification in his opinion. It must have been because he had just woken up that he came up with such a lame reason.
And Hamako herself didn't seem to care one way or the other, "I will be fine by myself. Really. I have many important things to do around the village anyway so I won't be too terribly bored or lonely at all."
"There you go." Jiraiya said with an air of victory about him after getting Naruto's flimsy excuse shot right down out of the sky, "And that settles that."
"You should worry more about yourself at the moment Naruto-sama." Hamako said, sitting her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands, "You've never fought a war before have you?" She herself had lived in wartime conditions in the past, but she wasn't a shinobi so she wasn't able to give him any actual advice, not like Jiraiya could, "You should enjoy the time you have because once it begins in earnest you won't know when you'll get to rest again."
It was a good point she made though. Despite the fact that he was no stranger to conflicts of all kind he had never engaged in open warfare before. It was something that had been avoided for the entirety of his generation.
As he thought about that he wondered just how Root was preparing for the coming days, 'Maybe I should check in with Sai or Maki when I get the chance again. I know they'll have everything in order. Sai knows how to handle things.' Since Sai had been groomed for just this moment to take over the day-to-day running of Root there probably wasn't that Naruto could do that Sai wouldn't be able to do more efficiently.
Naruto's attention was returned to Jiraiya when a piece of food was flicked at him and bounced off of his forehead, eliciting a growl from Naruto as he prepared to wing his entire plate at Jiraiya's head in retaliation. That was until he saw the look of seriousness of Jiraiya's face, "I do have a little sliver of advice for you that I don't think I have to tell you. When you do find yourself in a fight, make sure you end it as fast as you possibly can. It might be redundant to say to someone like you, but if there's no need to waste chakra don't do it. These battles can go long. I'm not sure just what'll change from the last time though."
It went without saying that Jiraiya didn't have to tell him not to prolong his fights, but that gave way to another question from Naruto, "How will Ame fight?" He asked before he began to quickly eat again.
"A lot of genjutsu… a lot of ambushes… especially around minuscule bodies of water." Jiraiya said, digging through his own memories from the Second Shinobi World War to come up with a good answer, "Don't ever take a river crossing, a stream… hell, don't even take crossing a fresh puddle after a rain for granted. They can wait there for days without having to move, and they all know that damn technique that lets them blend into water. As a matter of fact if you see a dog's dish filled with water in any village you come across I want you to kick the shit out of it just in case." A joke to end with… or was it? He couldn't even tell anymore.
"It's not just Amegakure that there is to worry about." Hamako said with a slightly worried expression on her face, "Konoha's forces will be spread thin as it is… and we don't even know all of the villages that are prepared to fight this war against us."
Jiraiya chewed his food angrily before responding to that, "It's even more now. There are five more villages that my network dredged up as mobilizing for war while you were away in Suna. They aren't located anywhere near Konoha or Hi no Kuni in general though, so that would be a silver lining around this particular cloud."
So it was four, or three if one were to count out Sunagakure, against dozens. It was like a bunch of hyenas fighting against a lion. Of course the lions were better equipped for combat and would tear through the hyenas when going one on one or even two on one, but eventually with a numbers advantage the way it was the hyenas had an advantage that could not be overlooked. Dangerous enough to do damage on their own however unable to finish the lion, but with enough numbers they could overcome the superpower.
Naruto looked down at his plate to find that he had absently finished his food while thinking things through as best he could. He didn't know why he was thinking about his potential orders and whatnot. He wasn't going to be a general when he fought even if he was going to be leading missions so he didn't have much of a place trying to rationalize orders of even try coming up with them. His job was to take whatever mission he was given and finish it. That was it.
"Shouldn't you get going by now?"
He had been staring down at his empty plate for long enough to make it weird for the others sitting there. It got to the point where Jiraiya had to prod him verbally to snap him out of things. How long had he been sitting there?
All he had in the manner of response was a nod as he got up from his place at the table and started walking back towards his room to get ready for the day. He seemed to be moving like a ghost, and it didn't necessarily sit well with the other two denizens of the house, "I don't think I've ever seen Naruto-sama like this. Is he just overthinking this whole scenario again like he did a few months ago?" Hamako asked.
Jiraiya shook his head. This whole thing wasn't anything like when he was stressing out over how to fight the Akatsuki members. War was a whole different animal and if nothing else it was clear that Naruto seemed to be aware of that, "No, he's fine. It's normal to feel that way when things are calm and he's expecting insanity… it's like the calm before the storm. He's just walking around in a dull fog. He'll snap out of it once he actually fights again or gets a mission. Everyone does."
"That doesn't sound like such a good thing to be honest."
XxX
(Later That Day)
Tayuya had been dispatched to one of the mounting fronts in the northwest, as had Neji and the rest of Team Gai. All of Team 8 was out. Sakura was still in Suna as a part of the relief team. Kakashi had been sent to the obvious hotspot of the western borders of Hi no Kuni where the bulk of the fighting was expected to take place, either to the border of Kusa or Ame. Team 10 was in the village because of Shikamaru's mounting responsibilities to wait on base intelligence, he was to later be dispatched with Ino and Chouji to one of the established fronts once things had been set as to how the war was going to go.
So why the hell was he still sitting in the jounin standby station for hours on end waiting for some kind of order? He didn't want to be 'that guy' that wound up sitting back doing nothing except for specialty missions. He didn't want to say he was necessarily bloodthirsty, but he was getting stir crazy knowing that his friends could all be fighting at that very moment. It just didn't sit well with him.
A tap came on his shoulder from his spot on a couch and Naruto turned to find Sai smiling at him, "Sai?" He looked around the room only seeing two other jounin in the room before returning his attention to his partner, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm technically an ANBU ranked shinobi Naruto-senpai." Sai said informatively, "I can go anywhere I want to." He motioned for Naruto to get up and leave the building with him which they both did, getting a distance away before he then reached somewhere and grabbed a scroll, handing it to Naruto, "Your first war assignment; handed to me by Hokage-sama directly."
Naruto raised an eyebrow and received the parcel from Sai, slightly confused, "Why didn't she just call me in to give it to me herself?" He opened the scroll and looked at it before quickly shutting it with wide eyes and looking at Sai again, alarmed at what he had just read, "Are you telling me she knows about-?"
Sai nodded, "I felt it was a prudent first step to inform Hokage-sama of the subsistence of our group. She will have an eye on me to make sure our actions are for the benefit of Konoha but other than that it is business as usual. There's more if you were to just look at it."
A deadpan look came over Naruto's face at Sai's urging to keep reading. Just reading that Tsunade knew of his continued relationship with Root wasn't exactly a marching order and he had just been alarmed by the first portion of the scroll, "Smartass…" He muttered before doing as Sai suggested, "Okay, it looks like I leave tomorrow to… the border with Kusa. No team, and I'm supposed to meet up with the shinobi in charge there for my actual mission." A frown came over his face, "No team? Huh, I usually don't run solo."
"Do you want reinforcements?" Sai asked as they continued through the generally deserted streets, "There are always one or two operatives that can be spared if you would like."
"No, it's fine." Naruto assured Sai casually, "Keep them for when they need to be sent out. Don't bother wasting manpower on me just to get to the border." There was a very small chance of him being attacked this deeply within the country and Root were not meant to be bodyguards. That was misappropriation of force. It seemed to be more of an offer for personal reasons other than logical professional reasons, "Sai… are you worried I'm going to get killed or something?"
"Not me, it's more for Maki-san than anything else. You know that I don't have any feelings like that." Sai's response got Naruto to roll his eyes. He could only keep on using that tired old excuse for so long. He couldn't keep using Maki as a scapegoat even if it was true, "I do see us as friends though, and it would be unlucky if you did die in the field."
Wow, what a friendly thing to say. Unlucky for who exactly, and why? Unlucky for himself obviously since he would be dead, but other than that…
"How would it have been for Maki-chan?" Naruto decided to ask next as they seemed to be making their way back towards Naruto's home. He hadn't even noticed that Sai had been directing them that way, "I haven't even seen her in a while. What's going on with her, is she doing okay?"
Now that question from Naruto actually elicited a minute laugh from Sai, "I believe it isn't my place to say." Ever since stumbling upon Danzo's microfilm detailing his plan for all three of them, Maki had been acting strange whenever Naruto was brought up. He'd even suggested going to see him at his home since there was nothing keeping her from doing it, but she was skittish over doing so. And Naruto didn't even know why, "She's fine though. You might see her sooner than later."
Naruto nodded, "Good. I need to prepare to leave for my mission and tell Yugi-chan I'm going to be gone for a while, but when I come back, definitely." In the back of his head, he was chomping at the bit to get out and into the action and he was confident of his chances after the extreme amounts of training he and Jiraiya had been doing since his last big fight, "It won't take long for me to get back. Count on it."
"And if there is ever a time when you need help, remember that we're still there Naruto-senpai."
"…Hopefully it won't come to that too often."
XxX
(Amegakure no Sato – Pein's Tower)
A rare time of rain not pouring down in the village and there wasn't even any time to enjoy the happening. Pein had just finished using an astral projection of himself to inform the higher-level Amegakure shinobi of how forces would be distributed across the lands for future combat efforts.
This was the chance of Ame to get a semblance of payback from villages like Konoha with no chance of later reprisal somewhere down the line. All he needed were the last four jinchuuriki. He had the Rinnegan, he had the Gedou Mazou statue with the currently captured biju trapped within. Once the war ended, and he didn't even need it to end for his final plan to come to fruition, there wouldn't be any more retaliatory warfare. His ultimate ninjutsu created from the nine biju and their combined chakra would see to that.
The Deva Path and Konan stood in front of a light projection of a map of the Elemental Nations to survey the scene, "Suna is of no consequence to us. The smaller opportunistic villages will use this as their chance to finish them off for good to take control of the region. Our focus will be mainly on Konoha, and we have several villages not including Kusagakure in the same frame of mind."
"Perhaps a joint operation of some sort?" Konan ventured as to how Ame would go about dealing with that. It was something to think about if nothing else. As much as she didn't want to contribute to this entire situation it was still her village and Konan was still going to go to bat for her people when it came to it, "What about when Kirigakure begins landing ninja to take part in the battle?"
"They will assist Kumo first due to proximity. I have a feeling that will come with issues of its own."
Konan nodded in somewhat agreement. Kirigakure had been isolated for decades and had not fought in any of the previous great wars since its inception. It mostly had to deal with its own domestic incidents from island to island even before the civil war that had befallen them in the past. Then there was the fact that they would be vulnerable during their landing period. That was a completely different major problem altogether.
"Our village is the most secure in the Elemental Nations." Pein said confidently. The fact that the village was surrounded by a massive lake on all sides and had skyscrapers to get a good view of anyone trying to cross would have been daunting enough, but Pein's rain had the ability to find any intruders once he found their chakra signature, "And your trump card jutsu is set as well, correct?"
"Yes. In case it is needed my most powerful technique is prepared." Confirmed Konan. It was something she was rather proud of and would have prevented the village from being invaded by a massive force. Her own way to protect the village she pledged herself to bring peace to… although now it would probably be used for full-fledged war.
How ironic.
The Deva Path of Pein simply accepted what Konan had told him, knowing that as his most trusted and closest confidant she was perhaps the only person he could know without a doubt was on the ball, "Until a moment arises we will keep annexing territory around Ame to shore up our defensive borders. Traps and team ambushes should be the bulk of our combat until an opening is found."
"Kusa will be more aggressive with their approach." They were among the most self-assured that they could compete against the larger villages and had a body of work over the last twenty years to stack up to that thought.
"Let them." Pein said with finality as he walked towards the balcony to look out on his village, "Perhaps they will be the ones to bring about the opening we are looking for." It was sunny outside for once… if only for a moment or so.
XxX
(Two Days Later – Northwest Border of Hi no Kuni)
This was the nicest base camp that Naruto could have ever figured he'd see. It looked like a whole miniature village on its own. A little bustling town thrown up at the border with wooden homes that looked like they belonged there. The only thing that would have let him know that it was the base of operations was that the guards had Konoha hitae-ate on their foreheads and Konoha flak jackets on.
It reminded Naruto that he had yet to put his on. Maybe later if he felt the need for it.
His curiosity of where the hell all of the buildings came from gave way to a bit of joy when he spotted a familiar face stationed at the desk of the armory, issuing basic weapons to those that did not have their full supply, "Tayuya-chan!"
The redhead's bored brown eyes panned in the direction of Naruto's voice, thinking that she finally found something to do in the form of her verbally tearing into one of the meatheads running around the base for using her name with such a suffix. She didn't know them. But she did indeed know the person that she saw walking over to her desk, "Uzumaki? Well what do you know? I thought they were going to keep you on lockdown in the village until the shit hit the fan. You're stationed here too?" She said with a toothy grin.
"For now until my mission is done." Naruto said with a shrug as he made it over to the desk and leaned against it, "When I'm done with whatever mission I have here I have to stay here as if I were a part of the division until I get assigned something else."
That was how quite a few ninja would be operating. Not many in the grand scheme, but Naruto's situation wasn't that different from others so it wasn't outlandish.
"Well due to being bored as hell because I'm doing a job that doesn't need four people working the fucking supply desk while everyone's fully furnished, I'm taking it upon myself to show you around the northwest command post." Tayuya hopped over the desk and smoothed her purple skirt out. She wore her full-body mesh suit, hat, and skirt like the last time he had seen her, but she had on her flak jacket instead of her tan top, "Let's roll then. Where are you looking for exactly?"
"Wherever the division commander is." As Tayuya began leading him around, Naruto fell in step with the shorter girl. His eyes panned about and saw a lot of tension on the faces of the shinobi he could see outside of the buildings, "So how are things around here? Anything gone wrong yet?"
Tayuya shook her head with a frown adorning it, "It's one of those fucking 'glass-half-full/half-empty' things. There's a river not too much further west of here. That's basically no man's land; nothing much ever happens as far as attacks go over here, but if you set one foot in view of the other side then you're fucked. That's where the forest that we're used to ends and where the weird forests begin."
"Weird forests?"
"Yep." Tayuya said, intentionally popping her lips for added effect, "Weird as hell. Different from anything you see in Hi no Kuni, ever. Forests made completely of bamboo and mushrooms… shit like that. Then there are ones made of tall grass that are completely impassable. You can't see shit in those fucking things. Those are the worst. They're fucking death traps."
Naruto raised an eyebrow, "All those are just across the river? That sounds like a whole country full of terrain to me."
That point being given, Tayuya stopped walking and blushed as she rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, "Oh, well it is. I kind of know the rest of them because Oto had a base in this country back in the day. The only one that's right across the ravine and the river is one made of bamboo. You can see it as clear as day if you go to the cliffside of the ravine. I wouldn't get that close though."
"So we can't even get a force across the river?"
"I think we can." Tayuya continued as they kept walking through the base camp, "But it is just not worth it. They have sensors… awesome sensors. Any time we tried to get an expedition force across they were repelled with big losses before they could even get up the other side of the ravine, no matter how we tried to cover them. Anything that gets across would be totally ineffective and wiped out altogether. We just stopped trying and are holding the line here for now. Stalemate style. Everyone's pissed."
There was a good reason for being pissed. Kusa wasn't trying to fight them directly, they just had the border covered well. So there would be no direct approach, but the border was mostly comprised of the ravine and river that cut through it. It was deep all the way through and there were only two good bridges that had ever been constructed to cross. One of them had been destroyed during the last war.
Eventually Tayuya led him to one of the smallest buildings around and began to lead him up to the guards at the door, "Here's the place that you want. The commander's inside. Come on." The guards let Tayuya past and Naruto as well without any hassle.
There was only one room in the small place and at a desk was the man that Naruto perceived to be the commander, "Tenzo?" Naruto said questioningly as he and Tayuya walked up to the desk.
"I told you to call me Yamato from now on Naruto." The wood-manipulating shinobi said as he looked up from the multiple maps on his desk, "So you finally made it out here I see. Welcome to deadlocked hell."
Both Naruto and Tayuya pulled up a chair to Yamato's desk and took a seat, "You called for me to come out here?" Naruto asked, getting a firm nod from Yamato, "So that means that you think you needed me. What's up?"
Yamato beckoned both Naruto and Tayuya forward to get a better look at the map on the table that had his main attention before they had come in, "The river and the ravine. We can't cross that thing. No one can. We've tried in multiple places and we just can't. I can't even construct a bridge across. Anytime I try they bombard the hell of our side once they find us."
Tayuya felt it prudent to point out one particular time for illustration purposes, "You did get close that one time. Remember when you set up that little one that let us try to get a few across to hold the area until you had time to make a bigger bridge?"
"I'd rather not remember that incident." Yamato said with a grimace before explaining to Naruto, "They blew up my smaller bridge and trapped the force on the other side of the ravine. It was like a school of piranha… twenty-five men died that night." He narrowed his eyes angrily before sighing and rubbing his temple, "And they have control of the only constructed bridge that would readily be available for use. Tenchi Bridge." He then pointed that spot out on the map, "And at the other end of that bridge they have a fortress close enough to retaliate against any crossing attempts."
Tayuya smirked at that point though, "They can't blow it up to cut us off though. We won't let the fuckers get a demolition team near it and we just keep fighting over it. No one has any claim over it at the moment."
Yamato stroked his chin and pointed at a different border a little further north, "They'll probably look to head through the land held by Takigakure to try and flank us and rush us from the north. It's pretty obvious, but they have a chance at getting us and dealing some damage. And then their force over the bridge could attack us from there and we'd have double trouble to deal with."
Naruto looked between the map and Yamato and scratched his cheek, "Now what do you want from me?"
Placing his finger on the point where the camp was, Yamato dragged his finger to the northern border held by Takigakure, "I want you to get into Kusa's land holdings through the three way border shared by us, them, and Takigakure. From there I want you to move back southwest towards the bridge and the fortress. Take it down and we can cross the bridge to get a foothold into their ground."
"Walk back behind enemy lines and take down the fortress by himself?" Tayuya said with a dry look on her face, "Is that all you want from him or do you want him to march straight to Kusa and make the higher-ups surrender as well? How about a souvenir?" She then blinked and remembered who she was talking to, "…Um, sir."
Yamato blocked a quirk of his lips that would have made an amused smile and instead glowered at Tayuya with a creepy expression on his face, "Is that a touch of insubordination I hear from you Tayuya?" He felt a touch of satisfaction when he saw both Tayuya and Naruto both stiffen in alarm. Tayuya shook her head rapidly and readjusted her disheveled hat back onto her head properly, "Good. And Naruto can handle it. Trust me, I've seen him walk into total rat's nests and get out. He has an entire border to work with now."
The entire final reason that he was promoted earlier in the year to jounin came due to the long-term mission he had been dispatched on to assist in the location and eradication of as many Otogakure bases as possible. This was just like that only there would be way tighter security around the fortress. If he screwed it up he was going to have one hell of a time getting himself out.
"I can do it." Naruto said with conviction, "Let me go for it. I'll get in, blow it up, and get out. That'll get rid of the fortifications around the Tenchi Bridge keeping us from getting across it, right?"
Tayuya gave Naruto an incredulous look that he seemed to be okay with such a mission, "Are you out of your fucking gourd? It would take you four days to get up and around travelling at normal speed, and now you have to be careful of getting caught up in patrols and not to mention the fucking three way border to boot. You need a whole goddamned squad just to have a fighting chance at getting to the other side."
"Are you volunteering?"
That got Tayuya to blink suddenly for the second time in the conversation, this time in confusion, "Huh?"
Unlike the first time, this time Yamato's amusement couldn't really be hidden as he managed to crack a small smile, "You heard me. Are you volunteering to assist Naruto on this mission?"
"W-Well not really." Tayuya responded, not knowing exactly how to respond to that. She turned towards Naruto in a demure manner that was unlike her usual guise, "Do you actually want the help Uzumaki?"
Naruto looked at Tayuya and thought on it. He hadn't planned on getting help and she didn't sound 100% convinced that the mission was worth taking with such a small group (namely him). Before he could finish thinking on it the voice in his head chimed in, "She's scared." The Kyuubi seemed to sound amused at the fact, "Isn't this the same girl that stormed into Konoha and left with the Uchiha, only having her other three teammates to help him?"
But that was after the invasion when Konoha was relatively weakened. Sasuke came with them willingly, and it wasn't a wartime state around the countryside. This was nothing like that, and even then she had experience with terrible things befalling her when the mission went to hell; she was the only one that survived that clusterfuck.
He wasn't going to take her since he wasn't even sure how things would go. No, he was enough to accomplish the objective. Just because he felt comfortable playing with his own life didn't mean he felt alright with doing it using his friends' lives.
Naruto shook his head and put a hand on Tayuya's shoulder, "I don't need the help Tayuya-chan. You don't have to go. I can pull this off just fine."
"I wasn't going to let her go anyway." Yamato suddenly chimed in, letting the two have their little moment so that he could possibly tease one or the other later. He had to take what he could get as far as amusement at a time like this. He ignored the incredulous looks on both Naruto and Tayuya's faces at that revelation, "Tayuya is the leading genjutsu specialist of the division, both in casting and breaking them. She's stopped several night raids from the bridge area basically on her own because of this already."
Tayuya grit her teeth and glared at Yamato heavily, "Then why'd you just let us go through all of the beating around the bush bullshit we just going through doing about the whole giving him backup thing?"
"Well, because I need something to mess with you both about later Little Miss Smitten."
Naruto tightening his grip on Tayuya's shoulder to hold her back kept her from trying to do something hotheaded to their division commander, 'Jeez, I might as well be sitting in front of Kakashi-sensei if this is what Yamato-taichou's going to do.' "Right… well I guess I'll head out tonight if it'll take four days to get up and around to the other side."
Yamato nodded, "Good. You should get some sleep if you're going to be travelling at night. Head to the barracks and grab an empty space to rest up until sundown. That's when I'll give you the lay of the land along our side of the line." Naruto stood up and proceeded to leave the office, Tayuya following him on the way out, "Good luck."
XxX
(Seas between Kaminari no Kuni and Mizu no Kuni)
"Incoming vessels sir!"
Onboard one of a series of ships carrying the first of the Kirigakure forces towards the mainland to assist their allies in the war, a man in the crow's nest yelled down to his captain once said vessels came into his sight.
The lead shinobi of that ship took a pair of binoculars and looked out towards the horizon where the ships were coming towards them, "Which village's colors are they flying?" He wanted to know which particular village was planning on trying to cut them off with a naval battle. There were quite a few villages on smaller islands between Mizu no Kuni and the main continent of the Elemental Nations.
"They don't have any village markings on the ship anywhere at all!"
That got the main ninja's attention as he looked up to the crow's nest in disbelief prior to looking back out through his binoculars, "Are you telling me that we're getting attacked by pirates?" What kind of pirates would be attacking them outright, and why? As a matter of fact, how did they even find their exact location with enough warning to prepare a fleet of ships?
XxX
(Onboard a Pirate Ship)
An evil looking man with a goatee dark messy hair that could be seen under a red captain's hat and three red markings on his face, one under each eye and one going down the bridge of his nose, stood out observing the forthcoming Kiri ships with a grin on his face. He wore a red captain's coat, brown pants, grey gloves, and had a rapier tucked into the sash around his waist, "So what's to stop me from taking all of the money that masked person paid me with and killing the three of you right here?"
Suigetsu sat on the deck of the ship leaning against a crate while Karin sat on the very same crate and Juugo stood off to the side, "The fact that we'll just kill you instead if you try it and destroy all of your ships except one… or do I need to give you more of a demonstration like we did on Battleship Island?" He stood up and cracked his neck, "Listen up Gataro. You can take the money and whatever loot you can salvage from what's left of the ships. I just want the practice." Before he made his move he turned towards Karin, "Are those ships all that are coming?"
Karin nodded and adjusted her glasses on her face, "Yeah. Those are the only ones on their way at the moment."
"Good." Suigetsu said as he unsealed Samehada from its scroll and held the violent weapon in his hands, "Juugo, stay with Karin and if any of these idiots even look at her wrong you can kill everyone on the ship. I'll be right back." With that, he jumped over the side of the ship and into the water.
The ship's pirate captain Gataro watched Suigetsu jump into the water and shook his head, "What's that fool doing? We were about to prepare for battle and he just jumps overboard."
"You don't know that much about what ninja are capable of do you?" Karin commented in a bored manner with her hand in her cheek before pointing out at the Kiri ships that were coming closer, "This is the worst place possible for anyone to try and fight someone like Suigetsu."
"Suiton: Oni Sakana (Water Release: Demon Fish)!"
A titanic tidal wave rose up from the water in front of Gataro's fleet of ships and pushed them backwards as it rose high up over the surface of the water and took the form of a demonic fish with an open mouth and sharp teeth. The wall of water was enough to encompass the entire width of the path the Kiri ships were on.
It then proceeded to smash the smaller vessels into scraps in one forceful crash that carried the debris and the men that had been onboard away, allowing the water to calm once more as if nothing had ever happened. The only signs of the swift violence that had occurred was the wreckage of the ships and the motionless bodies floating on top of the water.
As the entire pirate crew looked on in shock and horror at the entire group of Kiri ships being taken down in one move, Suigetsu scared the living hell out of them by blasting right out of the water and landing back on the deck, "So how'd that look?" He asked Karin and Juugo as he grinned with his sharp, shark-like teeth.
Karin chuckled slightly before answering, "Samehada is bolstering your chakra reserves after not even two months. It's amazing." It made her wonder just how deep were Kisame's reserves before his death, having hauled that blade around for well over a decade, "Are you even tired yet?"
"Not even close." Suigetsu said, laughing to himself as he held Samehada in the air, "Three of the swords made me this strong… I can't wait until I get the other four. I'll be the strongest sword-using shinobi that ever lived."
"And then we kill Naruto Uzumaki, right?" Karin's voice sounded dark and hateful as she referenced Naruto. A person she had never met or even seen before elicited such anger and hate from her. It was inconceivable.
"Sure." Suigetsu said in order to appease her, though he was indeed going to help her achieve her goal. He would never admit it out loud, but Juugo's bouts of insanity and Karin's bossy personality had grown on him, "The masked boss-man will come and get us soon enough when we're ready. Until then we keep these waterways good and shaken up. It's just damn good training too."
XxX
(Northwest Border of Hi no Kuni – Konohagakure Northwestern Front Command Post – Nightfall)
"Are you all ready to go?" Tayuya asked him, her hands adjusting his Root top as they both stood outside of the security fence around the camp. She hadn't particularly left his side all day since he had shown up, and she seemed to be fussing nervously over him. She even slept with him in his bedroll and scared off anyone that would have bothered waking him up just to chat with the jinchuuriki of Konoha while he was in the field with them, "You've got everything, you're not hungry, and you're sure you can do this by yourself, right?"
It was kind of funny to see her mothering him. Maybe being in an active war for the second time since the invasion of Konoha scared her more than she originally let on. It wasn't like it was a one and done attack the way that one was. There were plenty of chances of someone close to her getting killed. All it took was a sliver of dumb luck in this sort of situation, and Tayuya actually had friends and people to care for now.
"Yes. I'm as ready as I'm going to get." Naruto, grabbed Tayuya's wrists to keep her from messing with his clothes or equipment any more, a smile on his face when he saw the lost look she gave him, "It's going to be fine. I'll be back here before anyone even misses me."
A wry look came over the flute-wielding kunoichi's face, "I'm thinking about the experience that I have with you sneaking into bases and into enemy lines eight years ago. You fucking got caught and chased to the border. You can't get away with that shit this time."
"It wasn't my fault and I was there for months before I got caught." Naruto defended prior to just standing there, leaning against the fence with the closest friend he had at that base.
The seemingly comfortable silence that sat between the two came when Tayuya turned her eyes towards him, "I really, really don't trust this bullshit mission Uzumaki. Why would Yamato-taichou call for just you to do this?"
There was just something about this whole thing that Tayuya did not like. It was like she spent the entire day trying to wrap her head around the whole situation. He didn't like seeing her like that, "I can do it Tayuya-chan, just trust me." Naruto said, not getting much of a reaction before he continued to speak, "Well how about this? It'll take four days for me to get up and around to the other side with the route I'm taking. Give me five days. If you don't see or hear about me running across that bridge from the other side back towards our camp then you have permission to beat the crap out of me when you see me again."
"If you die I'm going to find a way to bring you back just to make sure you make good on that and let me kick the shit out of you." It hadn't escaped Naruto's notice that when he had let go of Tayuya's wrists she hadn't let go of him and had been holding both of his hands. She eventually sighed and let go of him, "Yeah, yeah… get the fuck out of here already."
"You're going to stop all of that cursing around me one day."
"Bite me."
"Already did."
Tayuya gave him a hard punch in the shoulder and took a step back to let Naruto begin to walk away. Once he moved past her though, she grabbed a hold of his forearm and quickly turned him around. Before he could even register a question to ask her as to what else was up, Tayuya grabbed his collar and pulled him into a rather rough kiss.
A sober Tayuya had never initiated a kiss with him, and the only time Naruto had ever felt comfortable doing so himself were the few times when he and the girl had sex. It was just what he did to assure her that he cared and that his attention was firmly on her and her alone and she never seemed like she enjoyed them.
But now she had attacked his mouth with her own with complete abandon and her tongue was pushing his around in a rather one-sided duel. He was too stunned to kiss her back for the ten seconds that it managed to last when she roughly shoved him back and gave him a look that showed she was quite pleased with herself once she saw his stunned look, "Well did you see that coming?"
Naruto opened and closed his mouth repeatedly trying to think of something to retort with but came up with nothing, "I… didn't. I thought you hated kissing."
"I did. I still kind of do actually." Tayuya said with a shrug, "But I used to hate you too. Do you think I still do now?" A smile broke out between the two of them before she then shooed him away, "Now go on and get moving jackass, you're burning moonlight."
Giving her one last wave, Naruto turned and took off heading away from the base to his northern destination to reach the three way border.
Still feeling quite pleased at throwing Naruto off with her actions, Tayuya leaned against the gate and stayed there until she couldn't feel his presence in the area any longer.
Once she actually started to make her way back into the camp she heard the sound of slow clapping and saw a cheerful looking Anko sitting nearby on top of the fence lining the outside of the base, "Ooh how cute. Just wait until I tell everyone how adorable little Tayuya was out here having her little romantic moment with her hero." She then rolled backwards off of the fence to dodge projectile snakes that were sent flying at her from Tayuya's mesh sleeve.
"You're so dead bitch!" Tayuya jumped over the fence, forgoing the usual method of entering through the gate so that she could pursue the madly cackling Anko angrily, "And just who the fuck told you it was cool to watch?"
"But I like to watch!"
XxX
(One Day Later – Kaseki no Mori Landmark)
After one full night and morning of travelling, sleeping during the light afternoon hours and beginning again at sundown, Naruto made it to the place that marked the triple border of Hi no Kuni and the lands held by Kusa and Taki respectively. The Kaseki no Mori (Petrified Forest) that served as the natural barrier between the three would be Naruto's point of infiltration.
Large and fossilized trees and other assorted plants stood over the landscape and would have made passing through difficult during the day due to the astute guards, but due to the fact that it was wartime, and even in peace the place was watched over by all three hidden villages that held a claim of some sort over the land things didn't change much at all. It was actually projected to be the mellowest front due to the fact that armed hostility was the status quo for the region and the sentries were like hawks anyway. Now things had changed since Taki and Kusa were working towards the same goal of winning the war, so instead of watching each other they could both look in the same direction towards Hi no Kuni and any moves made by Konoha.
Nothing was supposed to be able to get through. Not a significant attack force anyway.
A significant attack force did not mean one person, it meant an entire platoon or even a company intent on taking that particular land.
There was a catch when it came to Kusa and Taki's defensive measures. They could keep an eye out for an attack force or an ambush easily enough, but looking for one person within that forest was like looking for a gnat flying around in one's kitchen, especially when you had no idea that the person was even there.
This was what Naruto was taking advantage of when he slipped through this place in the dead of night and began heading back south, this time on Kusagakure's side of the borderline.
'That was way too easy.' Naruto thought to himself as he ran using the branchless petrified trees as points to move to and from to obscure his movements from anyone that might have somehow spotted him, 'But that kind of system is supposed to be able to stop groups of ninja though, not one person.'
For one person to try moving and surviving behind enemy lines in wartime was suicide. Henge was useless for trying infiltration or sabotage missions in villages and towns due to the fact that any half-decent sensor could detect a transformation. But this was simply Naruto making tracks to the Tenchi Bridge as fast as he could and blowing it up. It was no real infiltration. There would be no espionage here. It was a hurried demolition mission and he needed to finish it before his trail could be picked up on.
And someone was already suspicious. Naruto had not been discovered, but there was some suspicion. He could feel the stillness of the dead forest broken by not only his movements but by the movements of others coming his way. He wished he had a sensor ninja of some kind with him because he may have picked up on such a thing sooner.
'Okay, let's fight and get this over with.' With that thought, Naruto stopped and drew his sword, anticipating the time it would take for the enemy to catch up with him. It turned out to be far faster than he thought, 'I need to make this fast. I don't care if these people see it. None of them are surviving this to tell the story anyway.' Channeling chakra to his right eye, Naruto activated his implanted Sharingan to see dozens of shuriken flying his way from directly in front of himself.
With the ability of the eye to slow down what Naruto was seeing, he was able to use his sword to block all of the shuriken with his sword before jumping into action in the direction they came from. Quick as a flash, Naruto cut down one of the attacking shinobi, a man larger than him with a blade head, a strange light purple flak jacket, and a purple hitae-ate with a star on it, 'Hoshigakure… what the hell? Is anyone not going to try and take us down?' With a glare, Naruto turned to face the nine other remaining ninja in the vicinity.
"It's a Konoha ninja! Take him down!" At the shout of one of the men all of the ninja made the bird hand-seal and initiated their jutsu, "Kujaku Myouhou (Mystical Peacock Method)!"
Naruto didn't wait to see what the jutsu did, not even allowing three of the nine Hoshigakure ninja to begin their technique as he formed eight Kage Bunshin to help him kill them before they could even finish the jutsu and take advantage of it. Of the eight remaining, only five were able to finish the jutsu fast enough to defend themselves from Naruto's clones, dispelling the ones they fought against.
All five remaining Hoshi adversaries had purple chakra emitting from their body, with the appearance of peacock feathers billowing from behind them, "He can't take us all down… we're all jounin here."
Naruto's three clones returned to his side as they all faced off with their opponents, "So am I. But that's the thing. All jounin aren't created equal!" Naruto antagonized them all into attacking his clone force head-on while he jumped out of the fray to observe as best he could. With his eye he could see clearly just what constituted their strange chakra, 'That is not natural in any way.'
"Kujaku Myouhou: Kemono (Mysterious Peacock Method: Beast)!"
The purple chakra radiating off of their bodies all formed some sort of four-legged animal that dispelled Naruto's clones. They tried to cut through the chakra beasts but there was nothing doing on that front for the clones, "Surrender or die here Konoha ninja!"
"Better idea." Naruto said, making a series of hand-seals ending in the half-tiger seal, "Let's test a little something out. Fuuka Houin: Kai (Fire Sealing Method: Release)!" As the black flames of Amaterasu came from his glowing seal tattoo and covered his left forearm, 'Kyuubi, turn it on.' At Naruto's behest, the great chakra beast began drawing upon nature chakra and Naruto siphoned it to enter Sage Mode, "Let's finish this."
"Gladly! Kujaku Myouhou: Gou (Mysterious Peacock Method: Join)!"
All of the five chakra beasts that had been created by the Hoshigakure ninja joined into one demi-summon looking creature that was the size of a house. Still Naruto merely narrowed his orange-pigmented eyes and did not cower or falter in his own belief of his chances.
He then shut his eyes and took a deep breath before setting himself in a stance and making a half-tiger seal with his right hand, cocking his left flame-covered one back for a strike, "Senpou: Yami-En no Ryuu (Sage Art: Dragon of the Darkness Flame)!" Naruto heaved a haymaker of a punch and used his control over his entire body's chakra and anything chakra-related that was in contact with him to form a massive dragon from the Amaterasu flames.
Naruto's first successful result of training with what he had managed to absorb from Itachi Uchiha's attack on him, it took Sage Mode and the malleability of nature chakra for him to be able to mould the flames in the ways he needed them to for any kind of ranged attack.
It was smaller than the conjoined chakra beast ninjutsu of his enemies, but Naruto's dragon was absurdly stronger as it punched right through the center of it and forced the purple chakra to burn into nothing. The jutsu continued on and hit the stunned, frightened, and screaming Hoshigakure ninja, incinerating them in a matter of thirty seconds as the immediate petrified forest was engulfed in black flames.
"That… was… awesome!" Naruto yelled, though his voice didn't get any louder than the crackling and harshly burning black flames. He then quickly formed his hand-seals and retook the Amaterasu fire into his left arm, "Fuuka Houin (Fire Sealing Method)!" Once all of the flames had been taken from the petrified trees, Naruto was glad that the wood was so tough and that he could take Amaterasu back into himself or else it would be the charcoal forest.
He figured that the battle was quick and low-key enough for him to leave since there weren't even corpses remaining of his enemies on the dead forest floor. No harm no foul since nobody would know which way he went by the time they discovered the scene of the battle, at morning by the earliest.
"It was rather impressive Naruto-senpai."
Before Naruto began to run off again, he heard the familiar voice and in a swirl of leaves appeared his raven-haired, grey-eyed childhood partner Maki, kneeling on the ground with a smirk on her face, "Maki?"
Maki touched the ashes of the Hoshigakure ninja on the ground and let them fall between her gloved fingers before standing up as she dusted her hands off, "You can control the fire you sealed into your arm now. You must have been training hard when you were in Kumo."
Naruto looked around in the now quiet night before settling on Maki as his Sage Mode faded, "Not that it's not good to see you here… or anyone that won't kill me for that matter, but what are you doing all the way out here?"
"I came to back you up." Maki said, shifting the tanto that she had on her back to a more comfortable position, "Neither Sai or I were really comfortable with what this mission entailed. So I came to catch up with you. I've been following you since you left the northwestern front command post."
Naruto nodded before thinking about something, "Wait, that means you were around when I was sleeping? Why didn't you show yourself then?"
Maki was not about to tell him that she had also seen Tayuya kiss him and that she was angry at it, which was why she did not reveal herself sooner, instead choosing to follow him until she managed to cool down. Watching him fight and handle the Hoshigakure ninja without even needing her help did just that to calm her down, "It's not like I'm supposed to be here at all. Root may be known of by Hokage-sama, but if we're actually caught in progress with our black op missions then she can and will deny any knowledge of us or our activities; we're not sanctioned. You stopped at three different Konoha encampments on the way to your sneak point."
Naruto gave her a deadpan stare before letting out a sigh, "Okay, you've got a point. But now you don't have to worry about being seen by any Konoha ninja anymore… because the next people that would see us will be from Kusa or some other C.N.F. village." He then pointed in the direction they were to be moving in as he began running deeper into enemy territory.
As Naruto ran off to continue moving before the sun came up, Maki looked after him with a twitching eye due to his last comment and took off running after him to follow, "That isn't a very reassuring point at all Naruto-senpai." She said as she began tailing him.
Jutsu List
Senpou: Yami-En no Ryuu (Sage Art: Dragon of the Darkness Flame). Ninjutsu, offensive. Using Sage Mode and its properties that can enhance Naruto's own useable chakra as well as the fire restraining Fuuka Houin (Fire Sealing Method) he is able to manipulate the shape, form, and sheer amount of Amaterasu flames available to him for ranged attacks. In this technique the flames take the shape of a dragon, engulfing anything it makes contact with in the unquenchable black inferno. Unlike Amaterasu, it cannot appear anywhere within the user's sight in an instant due to how it is stored and used. This makes its attack slower in nature than the default Amaterasu jutsu. The destructive force the dragon provides however can allow it to smash into and damage what it hits as well as burning it to ashes.
Status de energia semanal
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