Capítulo 882: 59
Chapter 58: Unconditional Surrender
A new mission. This had been what Naruto had received barely one day following the fall of Tenchi Bridge. For once the Konoha forces were able to sleep easy knowing that as they slept their own side were pouring forces over that bridge and preparing for an all-out offensive on the traitorous Kusagakure to end their ambitions. While they would need to be prepared for brutal deep forest fighting in order to reach the village it was nothing that Konoha hadn't already anticipated.
Meanwhile Naruto himself would not be taking part. Much like he had been told would be his responsibility during his briefing with a select few shinobi in his shoes, Naruto would be shuttled from front to front, used where he was the most needed and where his presence wouldn't result in him effectively killing himself in the process of completing his mission.
Thus he was called away from the northwestern command post and back to Konoha for the specifics of his next mission.
The very peaceful trip back across the countryside of Hi no Kuni belied just how intense things were at each border of the nation. The only truly safe border of the country happened to be further towards the southern coast, as everywhere else the nation happened to be surrounded by enemies on all sides. Even the enemies between Hi no Kuni and Kaze no Kuni could focus their efforts all on Konoha, because Suna would certainly not be launching any offensives.
However the northwestern theater of the war seemed to be proceeding nicely. With the fall of the Tenchi Bridge the advance into the wilder territory of Kusagakure could begin. It would be a grueling campaign, but no matter how hard Kusa fought on their strange and various terrains they would eventually fall. This Naruto believed with all of his heart. With Yamato there, it was just too much of a benefit to the invading Konoha forces.
So he could sincerely focus on whatever his next mission was scheduled to be.
After a quick stop at home to replenish his wares and to check in on his lover/servant/former fuuinjutsu teacher of course. And he hadn't contacted her to his position through their shared communications seal because he wished to surprise her.
What he wasn't expecting upon walking into his Hokage Monument mountainside home was a guest. Actually, that wasn't it at all. It wasn't that he wasn't expecting a guest because Hamako had friends (of course she did, she was a wonderful young woman), it was that the person that was the guest in his home was greatly unexpected.
"Yugito?" Sitting on one of the couches of the living room the moment he walked down the chamber stairs entering the home was the jinchuuriki of the Nibi no Nekomata, Yugito Nii. She was also the representative of Kumo's stake in the alliance with Konoha and since those two villages were the two primary mainland forces of the Grand Shinobi Alliance they each had a rep in the other's village, "What are you doing here?"
Said young woman was simply calmly sipping a glass of milk and looking at the view of Konoha from Naruto's window. It really was magnificent scenery. How he managed to secure a home like this she would wonder for quite some time. In the meantime though she found nothing wrong with addressing him, "What am I doing here? And here I thought you would be happy to actually see me after your time in the field."
Naruto rolled his eyes and entered the living room choosing to take a seat on the couch next to the foreign kunoichi, "Don't even be like that. It's kind of weird that I get home for a bit before my next mission and you're right here. You'd be suspicious too wouldn't you?"
"Guilty." Yugito chimed in, continuing to drink the milk she had been provided free access to as a guest in this home, "But for now let's just catch up. So what have you been doing since you left Konoha?"
Turning towards her with a deadpan look on his face, Naruto's lips quirked only momentarily in amusement before he answered, "I've been dealing with people trying to kill me. It really isn't that different from any other time yet… except for the fact that I've got to fight more than usual and they usually know I'm coming."
"Smartass." Yugito remarked with a twitching eye before deciding to try and get one over on him, "And here I was going to tell you all you needed to know about your next mission. It looks like you're making that long, long walk to your Hokage's office to get your next assignment."
That put Naruto off a bit, but he then simply stood up and got directly into Yugito's face for effect, "Our villages are allies right now, and we're pretty close, but why in the world would you know what my next mission would be? If you want me to stop being all snarky you've got to try better than that pretty kitty." He then stopped when he felt something sharp directly underneath his chin and looked down to see an extended fingernail from Yugito pressing underneath his jaw, "…That's new."
"Not really." Yugito chirped calmly, satisfied at the thought that she had won that round, "Now… let me finish my drink, then I'm going with you to the tower to get your next mission."
She allowed him enough space underneath his chin to nod and then retracted the claw of a nail while Naruto rubbed the underside of his chin, glaring a bit at Yugito. He seriously didn't know she could do that, "Right. Well I'm going to check on Hamako-chan and see how she's doing. I kind of wanted to surprise her with my coming back."
"You can do that at the tower." Yugito said as he started to head towards the hallway that led to the other rooms of the house, stopping him in his tracks, "She's taken up a place in village defense so she goes for meetings every day now."
Naruto mumbled to himself about stupid Tsunade-baachan putting Hamako on village defense when she couldn't fight, but accepted this and decided to see if he could grab a bite to eat of something that wasn't rations while he was home. He might as well enjoy what luxuries he could get while not in the field since it seemed he was going right back there.
XxX
(Sunagakure no Sato)
Standing at the opening of the dome that surrounded the outside of his village entrance, Gaara simply stared off into the sands with his arms folded over his chest. He walked out into the desert and pressed his hand into the ground shutting his eyes. He had sent his own specialized sand out to monitor the area around Suna in preparation for the coming invasion he was told would be coming, "Suna no Kanchi (Sand Sensing)."
But he couldn't feel anything.
A frown was clearly visible on Gaara's face. He had been told an attack was coming, an entire squad was decimated for stumbling upon the attack force in the very direction he had sent the sand, and apparently they weren't close within meddling distance… yet
The attack had to be coming from the direction of Konoha though, because two messenger hawks were not able to reach through and relay this to Konoha.
This just meant that the enemy was smarter than most shinobi from the five major villages would give them credit for. Being smaller villages, separately they all had to tread lightly around the bigger ones to ensure that they did not step out of bounds and find themselves on the bad side of one of the dominant ones. Of course this would mean that they would know how to deal with a situation like this.
'They know better than to get close enough for me to see them.' Gaara thought to himself. If they were fool enough to camp within sight of the walls of Suna they were labeling themselves the ignorant fools out for nothing more than the glory of finishing off a wounded hidden village. If Gaara could see them throughout the endless rolling sands of his desert he could handle them accordingly.
A siege would backfire for this reason. They would be the ones being sieged upon by Gaara's sand, and over the years he had prepared enough of it to distribute around his village to shield it entirely and raise hell of the ninth level to any fool that was seeking to do it harm.
Because he was the damn Kazekage for a reason.
If that weren't enough, he always had the option of showing them why having a biju was ever so important in the growth of the five major villages when he would transform into the Shukaku to run roughshod over them.
But that was a last resort. His control over Shukaku had improved, but a full-on possession was always at risk when he did that, and Shukaku wouldn't distinguish friend from foe, because it had no 'friends' in Suna. It would probably trample over what was already being rebuilt just for shits and giggles and he knew this.
"Kazekage-sama."
Gaara, due to his use of his jutsu to sense through the sand didn't need to turn around to know who it was standing behind him, "Kakashi Hatake. I have a dilemma." He said as the masked man in question walked up to his side, "Attack or defend. That is my question. If I ventured out on my own I am quite certain that I could break the back of this invasion in one day. But it would kill me. I am not concerned with this however. However my death would leave the gates of Suna open to the enemy." He turned towards the man and stared into his single visible eye, "I do not wish to subject my people to more suffering."
"And the problem with simply defending?" Kakashi said, wanting to hear the young man's take on it. This was the Kazekage of course, but a part of him always liked seeing just how these younger shinobi saw things. He liked watching them develop and grow, "You are Gaara, the man with the absolute defense. I'm certain you've got counter-measures for this scenario."
"Of course." Gaara said with a nod, "But it would turn the invasion into a siege. A siege that would inevitably cost lives. Many lives. It has been proven in the past, even now with all of my improvements upon it, that my absolute defense is not as absolute as many believe. But of course you would know this." It would make an already miserable experience of having the village destroyed even more miserable when the citizens and surviving shinobi were faced with hiding and periodically dying off.
The older Konoha ninja merely listened intently. As Gaara was the leader of Suna he himself was the leader of the Konoha forces that had been sent to help Suna out. There were a few jounin about like Gai or Neji, and quite a few chunin as would come with any foreign assignment, however there were many, many genin. Genin with experience, but genin nonetheless, "Your village still has a force of around 6500 shinobi. With the 1000 that were sent from Konoha to assist that gives us over 7500 in all within the walls."
"2500 of which are genin."
"I know."
It was a far cry from the number that it used to be of over 10000, but it was still most definitely something.
Both of them merely stared at each other before turning back to look at the desert as the wind howled, "The weather will be on our side for now. This is good." Gaara commented, shutting his eyes and letting the strangely cool air hit his face. Normally it would have been harsh, but it was a cooler front moving their way, "A storm is coming."
"Won't rain make your sand techniques weaker?"
Gaara's lips quirked in amusement and he turned to begin walking back inside of the village. There was nothing more he needed see out there with the shift in the weather of Kaze no Kuni's deserts, "I never said it was a rain storm." Kakashi's single visible eye widened but then he nodded, understanding what Gaara was talking about, "Come. With the village the way it is we should retire to the fortifications until it's over. The desert is quite harsh during wind storms."
One does not merely invade Sunagakure.
XxX
(Konohagakure no Sato – Hokage Tower)
Naruto walked through the halls with Yugito and Hamako in tow after retrieving the white-haired fuuinjutsu expert from where she had been advising Konoha's defensive leaders… about what, Naruto had no idea, but when he was allowed into the chamber they seemed to have been listening to her very closely, "You could have told me you were a defense advisor." Naruto grumbled, only getting a bright smile from the chesty servant girl in return, "What are you advising them about anyway? You know how to defend a whole village?"
"No." Hamako admitted with no shame in doing so, "…But there are some things that I am good at. I did live through a previous invasion of a very strong hidden village… even if I didn't see most of it." She didn't really have anything to do with no Naruto to take care of at home so she needed to do something productive, "I'm not as helpless as I seem Naruto-sama."
Well he knew that much. But in a fight against an actual ninja she would be killed. Hamako didn't know anything about fighting outside of the application of fuuinjutsu. She wasn't fast, she wasn't strong, she wasn't combat knowledgeable. She was one step away from being a regular person, she wasn't any kind of soldier.
But he was just being paranoid. Even if Konoha was somehow overrun she wouldn't be on the battlefield. And if she was he would probably kill the person that allowed her to be there himself once he found out.
"Just let her do it if that's what she wants." Yugito said, coolly walking on one side of Naruto through the halls towards Tsunade's office, "You can't honestly expect to go off to fight a war and have her just sit on her hands to wait for you to come back."
"…I wasn't going to tell her to stop." Naruto defended weakly, panning his eyes between the two women on both sides of him, "Hamako's really my servant just because she wouldn't let me turn her down when I brought her to Konoha with me. She can really do whatever she wants."
Hamako nodded in agreement, "Master's so good to me." Even after the amount of time they had been living together Naruto still never got used to that.
Yugito simply looked amused though. Watching Naruto in his own home village was way more interesting than watching him walk on eggshells in Kumo the way she had been used to seeing him, "Naruto-kun's just a sucker for women."
No, he was a sucker for women that mothered him. He didn't bend his will for any women or anyone in general other than Tsunade, Shizune, and Hamako. The first one due to the fact that she was his kage and if that weren't the case she was still the closest thing to family he had in Konoha… and if that weren't the case she could throw him from the top of Hokage Monument straight over the village gates, the second because she was like an aunt or a sister and disappointing her made him feel terrible for some reason, the third because she had been taking care of him and his home for years and was his closest confidant.
There were other reasons that Hamako in particular could get him to do whatever she wanted. Physical reasons… loving reasons that didn't involve threatening him in any way… but that was an entirely different matter altogether that bringing up in the presence of another lady (as potentially violent as Yugito) would have been frowned upon.
Speaking of one of the female devils of his life, the mish-mashed trio entered the office of Naruto's mother figure and overseeing commanding officer Tsunade was sitting, seemingly waiting on him, "You know, I didn't expect you to get back so soon." She told him with a dry look on her face as he entered, "I gave you free reign to return at will because I was hoping you'd take a furlough in Shukuba Town." A shrug of Naruto's shoulders elicited a sigh from her, "...That's what I would have done, but then again you've got a few screws loose brat."
"Love you too Tsunade-baachan." Naruto remarked as he walked towards the desk and got professional, standing at attention, alertly staring straight ahead, "You have another mission for me Hokage-sama?" In the background Hamako giggled at how quickly he was able to switch over to business-mode. Yugito idly realized that this was more akin to the Naruto one would see when he was away from Konoha.
Tsunade herself quickly shifted herself to complete kage-mode as well and intertwined her fingers in front of her mouth as she fixed Naruto with a serious stare, "Your next mission is a very important escort assignment. I know it's not what you're expecting as far as a wartime mission, but this one is really important Naruto. A VIP escort, S-rank."
"If you picked me for it I can't turn it down no matter what it is. You know I wouldn't anyway if you think I'm the man for the job." Naruto replied, crossing his arms over his chest, "So who am I taking and where am I taking them?"
'Well… she did say he wouldn't turn it down. I guess that's why she waited for him to come back just so I could send him on this one.' Tsunade thought as her eyes bolted towards Yugito. She nodded to the Kumo jinchuuriki as if to give her free reign to take over the briefing.
Which she did, "You're taking me home Naruto-kun." Yugito said, sauntering into Naruto's line of sight between him and Tsunade to get her fellow blonde demon container's attention, "It's time for me to go back to Kumo. There's nothing more I can do here to forge the bond between our two villages anymore than the trial of battle can. I need to get back. I'm Kumo's strongest kunoichi."
"She wanted you for security." Tsunade added on, getting a nod from Yugito to confirm this to Naruto, "I figured it was a good enough idea. There aren't that many jounin in the village and you were to be used for missions of all sorts on many fronts. This one is especially dangerous though as you will have to go straight through the lines in Yu no Kuni held by the enemy. After returning Yugito-san to her people you'll take Konoha's representative home to Konoha."
Naruto frowned as he raised an eyebrow in a bit of concern, "That's the worst front right? The one with no way around except straight through?"
He had heard that the enemy hadn't even bothered to begin an offensive against Konoha, merely choosing to hold them off with their unflankable positioning as they terrorized Kumo on the other side. Being pincered in seemed to be working in this case because the land grew so narrow between the two bodies of water, there was no way for Konoha to advance past the choke point.
"Yes, that's the one." Tsunade said, knowing full well how horrible that place would be, "Are you choosing to reconsider accepting the mission?" She had been involved in war. She had seen her lover die in a rat's nest of a battlefield like that. A large part of her did not want to send Naruto off into that hell of a place. The same fate could befall him as well, just as it did Nawaki, just as it did Dan.
No she couldn't think like that. It was a clear insult to Naruto who had worked his body to the breaking point for the village to prove himself as capable of doing such missions. He wasn't Nawaki, nor was he Dan. Thinking like that was bad luck all around.
"No, I'm not dropping the mission." Naruto said, sharing a smile with Yugito who mouthed a 'thank you' to him, "But I don't know much about that place other than the rumors I heard at the northwestern front." And nothing he heard was good. Letter to others from the Northeast Division were never full of any good news, "If I'm taking Yugi-chan through there I'm gonna need a good briefing."
Nothing less could have been expected. Going through there blind would get a good shinobi killed. It had already more than enough times to feel comfortable with. Volunteers for that battlefront were only the most hardened ninja Konoha had to offer. Nothing less was accepted to be stationed there, enthusiasm of the recruit or not.
An enthusiastic rookie chunin would be an enthusiastic corpse by the end of the week.
"You'll get all the information on the lay of the land and the enemy at hand that is available considering who's the division commander." Tsunade said, handing Naruto his mission scroll out of formality, "When you get there tell Jiraiya to keep himself safe. I don't care if he's the leader or not. If he gets killed I'll bring him back just to wring his neck myself."
Naruto's eyes lit up upon hearing that Jiraiya was the man in charge, but his stomach also flipped a bit at thinking of his disabled sensei standing in the middle of a warzone. He then figured that if Jiraiya could hear his thoughts he'd kick his ass for thinking he was weak just because he was missing an arm, "I'll make sure to tell him."
Yugito shifted her shoulders and turned around to bow to Tsunade, "I think it's time to prepare to leave. Thank you for the hospitality your village showed me for the last few months. I appreciate it."
"It was no problem." Tsunade returned with an affable smile, "Give my regards to Raikage-dono upon your return. Naruto will get you home without a scratch on you." She turned towards the young man in question who was still standing ramrod straight, "Won't you Naruto?"
'I do not make promises I can't keep.' Naruto thought to himself immediately after before turning to Yugito and clearing his throat, "Yugi-chan…" He started, intending to be as straightforward as possible, something that got her full and undivided attention, "We are going to get scratches. We are going to get a lot of scratches and probably a lot worse than scratches."
A palm smacked off of Tsunade's forehead of her own volition, "Way to make the client feel safe before departure brat… I just now remembered why I stopped sending you on these." She then waved Naruto off with a dismissive hand gesture.
XxX
(Ta no Kuni – Otogakure Hideout)
"Kabuto-sama." A nameless Otogakure shinobi said from outside the shut and locked doors of a laboratory that had been taken over by the Konoha defector as his main office and place of work, "The Konoha forces at the Yuki no Kuni border are aware of our raids against their reinforcements and supply transports."
"It took them long enough." The hooded, snake-eyed ninja said to himself with a hint of amusement at the report, "How many prisoners have we taken just since they've stationed themselves at that border?" He mused aloud. Goodness it had to be around one hundred or so. The Konoha ninja came like clockwork to bolster the front line and his ambush squads were getting better and better.
"Orders?"
"Until they actually start reacting to our presence, nothing." Kabuto replied flippantly. He didn't care about his underlings. He merely needed them so that he could procure subjects to continue his research. By the time this war ended he would have achieved the most powerful, perfect ninjutsu that had ever existed. He would surpass Orochimaru's wildest expectations for what a shinobi was capable of and he would become a legend of the shadows.
No one had made a career out of staying out of the crosshairs of others the way Kabuto had. Even Danzo Shimura would have been jealous at the subtle and unannounced ways that Kabuto had gained his power, both politically and in the ninja arts.
Orochimaru had been going about this the wrong way entirely. He already had access to every jutsu ever created. No Sharingan was necessary to tediously run them all down and view them to copy them. No need for physical modifications to give one's body the advantage needed to perform certain jutsu. Yet still he could have had every ninjutsu in the world that had ever existed at his command.
Then he would never have made an enemy of Akatsuki by going after Itachi Uchiha. Then he never would have died at the hands of his 'apprentice' Sasuke Uchiha. He could have had it all years ago… and he still could have had his perfect immortal body.
And now all of those things would belong to Kabuto.
"Orochimaru-sama… for all your brilliance you yourself were too shortsighted to realize the answer to your own question." Kabuto said to himself, busy at work at his lab station, a dark grin spreading across his face as everything was seeming to come together, "You had the perfect ninjutsu to achieve both of your ambitions in one fell swoop. And now I do as well. Only I have the deduction skills to put the clues together."
Orochimaru was too obsessed with the individual jutsu itself. The merits and properties of each individual ninja technique. He never looked at the simple prospect of combining them, but Kabuto had the thought of using two of his most potent ninjutsu together in conjunction.
But there was still the matter of 'Madara Uchiha'.
Just thinking of that masked man got a laugh out of Kabuto. He believed that he had Kabuto under his thumb. That he had the upper hand in their 'partnership' to ruin the shinobi world. He believed that when the time came to act he could simply take what he wished and that Kabuto would be easy to dispose of. That fool. Kabuto didn't want to ruin the shinobi world. Nor did he want to make it his own.
He wanted to be the ultimate catalyst. The catalyst for whatever he wanted. Kabuto wanted to be the man that changed the eras at a whim, the man that brought about the winds of change whenever he felt. The man that could live a lifetime doing nothing more than playing chess using the shinobi of the Elemental Nations as his pieces, changing the rules of engagement whenever he saw fit.
The true orchestrator of chaos. The living embodiment of just what was so dreadfully beautiful and simultaneously atrocious about the shinobi arts. A figure that even Orochimaru himself would have bowed down to and begged to learn from.
While 'Madara' thought he was strong enough to keep the demented scientist shinobi in line in truth he had nothing. He figured that in straight combat if it came down to it he could exterminate Kabuto. Well Kabuto held a trump card over 'Madara'. A trump card he was willing to play if the man got too fresh before his ultimate plan was complete. It would be the trump card he used when his preparations were complete regardless because afterwards it would all be over even if no one realized it.
Because after that point… well the masked antagonist could try to do whatever he wished. It wouldn't matter at that point. Kabuto would have him and the entire ninja world in checkmate.
Because he finally had all the answers to every question. Even the ones he never dreamed of asking.
This northeastern front of the war between the Grand Shinobi Alliance and the Continental Ninja Federation would be the perfect testing ground for his new power. The proving area for his brilliance.
And much like in everything else he had ever done in his career, no one would know it was him until it was too late to do anything about it. Just the way that Kabuto liked it.
Because in war while glory can be found in battle it could also be found in complete and total victory. No showing of valor necessary, just cunning and the ability to finish your work.
XxX
(With Western C.N.F. Forces – Outside of Sunagakure no Sato)
Beneath the ground in Sunagakure lay many underground chambers meant to house the citizenry for safety in case of invasion, something that seemed to be inevitably forthcoming. At the moment it housed the majority of the genin rank shinobi as well, as only the best volunteers remained above in the few safehouses along the village's outer walls in the raging windstorm above to monitor the scene and keep the village as safe as could be.
The intensity of the sandstorm above could tear into flesh and rip right through any flimsy tent set up for temporary housing by the Konoha visitors. This was the reason that Sunagakure homes were comprised of such tough and hardened material, because twice a month random intense windstorms hit the village as something of a natural defense. It was a reason why this area in the desert was originally chosen for the site of the village, because it was extremely difficult to invade.
The enemy waiting out in the deserts of Kaze no Kuni were feeling nothing but hell at the moment. At least within the walls of Sunagakure the dome structure built around the entrance and the fact that the village sat inside of a valley provided very good protection from the harsh weather. There was no such reprieve in the middle of the desert around Suna.
However, this also forced their hand. Sitting out the sandstorm would only result in casualties and losses of valuable supplies. Suna already knew that they were coming, thus sitting on their hands and waiting would only hinder the invaders at this point.
The three villages that comprised the strike force were Ishigakure, Tanigakure, and Amegakure were not particularly short on manpower, even with the minor villages and the population problem of their shinobi forces compared to the larger ones that were their enemy on this day. Mostly because Ame had the population of one of the five major villages. Their overall force numbered out to be just under 8000, with 2000 of them being supplied by Tanigakure and Ishigakure and the rest being provided by Ame, thus they were in lead of the operation.
There was a stark contrast between Tanigakure and Ishigakure as compared to Ame. The latter had no nerves. As if this was what they had been waiting their entire lives for, and for many of the Amegakure ninja in attendance it was indeed the case. Decades of finding their families torn apart, caught in the crossfire of pitched battles fought between the major villages that seemed to have no concern for them.
Their God wouldn't allow them to lose. Not this battle.
With many of them using their sturdy weaponized umbrellas as shields against the harsh winds and sand, and their breathers on their faces they marched forward and led the way to the points they were meant to begin from. Even in the sandstorm that had wounded many of their foreign comrades who did not get ample preparation from their villages they stood confident.
"Comrades!" One of the Ame elites shouted before pointing in the direction of Suna. The dome of which could barely be seen through the sand whipping about, "There is the enemy! The job was left incomplete because the God of this new world wanted us to have the closure of walking into one of the five sources of our despair ourselves! To shape the world with our own hands! By the time this storm ends it'll be as clear as day that everything changes after today!"
The raucous and confident cheering from the Amegakure contingent actually managed to catch on with the others and in a matter of minutes the ranks were rocking and ready to go. Were it not for the howling desert winds drowning out their cries the sound would have reached Sunagakure for certain.
But as it stood no one within Suna's walls bore witness to the battle cries coming from just outside the view of their walls.
With the exception of course of the single very large all seeing eye hanging directly above the village. High in the air, able to look down through the sands that could not obscure its sight from above, it watched them get into position.
XxX
(Sunagakure no Sato – Gaara's Command Safehouse)
One entire battalion was about to get a very rude awakening to refresh their memories and remind them just where they were and who was leading the village they were trying to invade. Gaara had to choose wisely though. He would get one shot to cripple the attack force because once the attack began he would never get the chance to rid Suna of this many enemy ninja at once again for the duration of the battle.
They would scatter and become far more difficult to direct his attack against. This would lead to a direct battle, but of course he had people for that as well.
So in his quiet wartime quarters, Gaara sat calmly with one of his eyes shut, trying to maintain focus from his place as the main giver of orders on the battlefield. His ability to sense with his special sand distributed throughout the desert and his ability to see the battlefield from a bird's eye view even in the sandstorm via his use of Daisan no Me (Third Eye) would have made him a commander anyway even if he weren't the Kazekage.
"Do Kankuro and Chiyo-obaasama have the close-range squads in position?" Gaara asked aloud to the only other person in the room, his genin sensei Baki, "I fear that now is the best time to thin the enemy ranks in one fell swoop and when I do they will retaliate in kind." He felt that he needed to act now before they finished surrounding the village.
The man with a turban and a veil over half of his face nodded in response to his student and superior, "They've been in position for two hours now Kazekage-sama." Baki replied, "They're ready to react when the battle begins. Temari also has the long-range fighters prepared, and Hatake-san has the Konoha squad ready to act accordingly. We are all waiting on you."
Gaara nodded before speaking again to one of his closest village advisors, "Baki-sensei… do you believe I am handling this correctly?"
"The only other option is to surrender Gaara." A small smile came to Baki's face as Gaara's expression grimaced at the thought of surrender, "Yes. You know exactly what would happen if we surrendered. Even if you turned yourself over to Ame to deter the attack so that Shukaku could be extracted and we stood down the village would be massacred."
It had been clear for Gaara to see that their enemies had a lot of hatred for them. They wanted blood more than they wanted victory.
With his optic jutsu above the village Gaara could firmly see the targets he had chosen to attack first; the ones that had already stopped and were in position, simply waiting for the others to reach their own positions for the attack to begin.
"No that wasn't what I meant Baki-sensei." Gaara said as he began to use his hands to guide his personal sand around the target battalion that he had selected to attack first, "I meant, do you think I should ask for the terms of the enemy's surrender now to prevent so many of them from dying today?"
Wow… where did that come from? Baki blinked in surprise at a statement that could be perceived as pure confidence from the calm Kazekage, "I don't believe so. What would your terms have been?"
"They would have received no terms." Gaara said as stoically as ever, "Complete and total unconditional surrender or suffer total destruction for assaulting our home." While Konoha might have let Suna disengage without pursuit or risk of a rout during their attempted invasion of their village years ago, Suna could not and would not claim to be as merciful. Flattening the village wasn't enough for them, they wanted to come and destroy every other bit of it? That was all well and good.
But he'd wish them the best of luck trying to get away in one piece.
"…I don't think that would work too well Kazekage-sama." Baki said aloud.
A shrug came from Gaara before he returned to focusing on creeping his sand into position. Things were almost ready, just a few more moments, "How unfortunate." For them… because to be quite honest he was still stinging from what Pein did to his village over a month ago, and as petty as it was he was about to take it back out on a lot of people, "You know how much I despise needless violence." He said before clapping his hands together and beginning a chain of hand-seals.
Saying that five years ago would have been funny. Actually, saying it now was still funny… if there was something to laugh at.
"Remember if it comes to the point where I am needed on the battlefield itself Baki, you are in charge." Gaara's hand-seals ended with him clapping his hands together one more time to get his sand in position to make its move, "Ryuusa Bakuryuu (Quicksand Waterfall Flow)!"
XxX
(Outside the Walls of Sunagakure no Sato)
At first they assumed it was the sandstorm just getting more intense, until the more attentive shinobi in the battalion could feel the ground begin to move their way, and it wasn't the wind doing it.
"It's the Kazekage! It has to be!"
"He isn't even out here! He can't be! What kind of kage steps onto the battlefield first?"
"You know what to do! Don't stay stationary!"
The cries of instructions from the Amegakure ninja that were the de facto leaders of the entire attack force were heeded for the most part with the exception of a few Tanigakure and Ishigakure shinobi that weren't sure what was happening until they found themselves buried underneath what was a massive tidal wave of sand. Despite being prepared for it better than any others, quite the large amount of Amegakure ninja couldn't escape either.
The ones that were able to dodge then bore witness to their trapped comrades being lifted in the air in cocoons of sand by the dozens, by the hundreds. If Gaara's hands were touching the sand that they had been originally trapped in he could have ended it quicker with less pageantry than what he was about to do. He could have just crushed them beneath the sands of the desert and that would have been that for the caught enemies.
But for visual effect, nothing could really compare to, or scare the living daylights out of the enemy any better than having them watch their fellow shinobi be crushed in midair like grapes, their liquefied remains dropping back down to the ground in a literal rain of blood.
Talk about a morale killer.
And this was the fate of hundreds of captured ninja. Right before a rain of dozens of kunai spiked the ground and killed/wounded almost everything they hit as far as the distracted enemy went.
"Welcome to Suna!" Kankuro yelled over a distance with a smirk on his face as his puppet Karasu stood right by his side, "How are you liking the weather so far?" Despite the fact that he stood in front of around 2000 remaining ninja in this particular area of the battlefield he didn't seem to be intimidated at all, "I mean, it's probably pretty crazy with the sandstorms, the raining blood, and the kunai falling from the sky and everything. But you get used to it!"
From the dunes of sand came multiple puppets of all kinds of makes and kinds with all sorts of abilities that began rushing forward over the range between Kankuro and the enemy. It was as if the puppets were the soldiers because they came by the hundreds like a mechanical unit.
It was a part of the infamous Suna Puppet Brigade. And they weren't alone, as from dunes all over the defending Sunagakure shinobi that did not know any puppet ninjutsu came out to engage in the battle directly.
Metal flew and ninja of different nationalities leapt into battle against each other all over the sand-blasted desert grounds. Every so often to assist in the battle, from a distance Gaara who could still see everything happening would force his sand to act against any negligent Ame, Tani, or Ishi ninja that didn't find it prudent to adhere to the previous advice given to keep moving at all times.
It was as good a start to the battle in this vicinity as one could have hoped for on the Sunagakure side of things. Hopefully in Temari's section of the battlefield and in Chiyo's things were going similarly.
XxX
(With Naruto and Yugito – Hi no Kuni Countryside – En Route to Yu no Kuni/Shimo no Kuni Border)
At Hamako's behest and to Naruto and Yugito's quickest approval, both jinchuuriki left Konoha armed to the teeth. While neither of them knew much about the situation at the northeastern front because correspondence from there to the rear line was very sparse in comparison to the northwest, they could only imagine how grave the scenario could be.
The story of just how nasty the situation happened to be was the entire reason that Yugito was to go home in the first place. A summons was sent to Konoha via a very special technique to transfer objects over a very long distance quickly informing Kumo's allies of the situation on their side of the battlefront.
Kumo had managed to get into the country of Shimo no Kuni from their side, but from there it was a harsh scene. Instead of being held back at the line by natural land formations assisting the enemy the way Konoha happened to be, Kumo was allowed to enter and move through to a certain extent since they were unable to be prevented from doing so.
The enemy ninja villages of the C.N.F. in that region had another method of dealing with them. Disciplined, well thought out ambushes using their own knowledge of the terrain to do so. And invading one of the villages in the alliance was a total no-go. Even though they had borne down in the vicinity of the village of Hoshigakure in a side country called Kuma no Kuni (Land of Bears), they couldn't get near the village itself due to its surroundings of a canyon filled with poisonous gas.
Hit and run tactics to the Kumo ninja stationed nearby were the norm in that area.
Either way, Yugito needed to return, and with haste as she had only been willing to wait for five days after the request for her escort was sent out before setting out on her own. Luckily Naruto came back two days early and by her standards they were making fantastic time.
At the moment, the two very energetic shinobi were moving swiftly through the trees that populated the vast majority of Hi no Kuni's landscape, on the move towards the northwest, "How are we going to get through in the first place?" Yugito asked Naruto as the two of them kept hopping from branch to branch, "I want to get back to my comrades, but if we wind up getting killed trying to get me there it kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it?"
"Don't worry Yugi-chan." Naruto said, keeping his eyes on the woods around them. This deep within Hi no Kuni there wouldn't be any ambushes, but one could never be too paranoid during wartime conditions, "We just have to get to the camp and get briefed, then we can figure it out from there. There has to be something we can do to get past. There always is." No matter how inherently suicidal it would be.
"Any half-assed sensor could find you or me." Yugito replied. It was true though. Both she and Naruto were walking chakra beacons even when they controlled their chakra to suppress it. It was a big shock to find out that one of Naruto's specializations happened to be infiltration. Jinchuuriki did not sneak up on people, they bulldozed through them, "Even if we find a weak point how are we going to sneak through the line?"
"Let me worry about that." A smirk slipped onto Naruto's face, one of the sly variety if Yugito had learned his facial expressions by now. Those eyes of his could tell you exactly what he was feeling even if his face didn't, and his eyes were confident, "Trust me, it'll be okay."
"It's not like I'm scared Naruto-kun." Yugito stated with a deadpan look on her face, "My training might have been totally despicable, but it got me ready to handle anything I was needed to do. You don't need to protect me."
"Well that's why I'm here." Naruto replied turning his head towards her with a cheeky grin, "It's my mission to keep you safe and get you home Miss Yugito. Not just because I was told to, but because you're precious to me." Hearing him admit that got her dark eyes to widen substantially, "And I remember a certain pretty kitty telling me around a year ago that if you protect something you just don't let it die. So I'll protect you even if you don't want it."
Huh? Well who would have thought that a Konoha ninja would have gotten her heart to jump like that?
The bastard. He knew exactly what he was doing. Someone like him saying such sappy things like that. It was like some kind of talent or something. It was a strange way to rouse affection indeed, but damned if it didn't work on her.
Naruto himself had no idea that he had picked up Danzo's silver-tongue, and he also had no idea that it was good for more than simply coercing political action. He had yet to realize that girls liked the verbal influence as well.
Below, closer to the forest floor though while the two continued to move towards the hottest zone of the entire war, a plant-like figure emerged partially from the trunk of a tree, his body half black and half white, "Ooh, Tobi's really going to like this one." The white half of Zetsu said, quite amused, "Isn't that where he was planning to test out the-?"
"Shut up you idiot." Zetsu's black half interjected, heatedly cutting off his other personality, "But you have a point. He already had plans for that part of the continent, but maybe he can add something new to his plans with the two jinchuuriki heading that way?" The musing gave way to him sinking back into the tree to return to his masked leader.
XxX
(Northern Side of Outskirts of Sunagakure)
"Keep supporting the close-range fighters and do not fuck up and hit the wrong people!" Temari shouted as she swung her fan and kicked up a large amount of wind to cover the advance of the aforementioned close-range fighters. Along with her, spread out a good distance between each other were other fan-users like herself following her orders more directly than even the other Suna shinobi, "Kamaitachi no Jutsu (Sickle Weasel Jutsu)!"
Temari launched a cyclone of wind that swept up several enemy ninja inside of it and administered dozens of cuts, carving up their bodies, before they dropped to the ground no longer able to fight to say the very least.
A very large sphere with kunai welded into it and an explosive tag attached flew through the air towards the enemy forces, "A little help with that?"
Blinking at the request, Temari did as requested and carried it a bit further with the wind jutsu from her fan only to watch it detonate on the ground, exploding in a blast that sent out shrapnel and the embedded kunai to take out a good amount of ninja.
Next to Temari, Tenten kneeled down with a sigh as she wiped her brow, "Ugh. This sandstorm is murder on my aim." She said as she unsealed more of her unconventional weaponry to play distance support, "I can't see that far, and I keep getting sand in my eyes."
"Bet you never thought this would happen did you?" Temari said with a grin, "You're fighting with me instead of against me like in the exams. How's that feel?"
Tenten shrugged in confusion, not really knowing how to answer that question as she threw a quartet of kunai. The velocity of the weaponry was enhanced by a swing of Temari's fan that sent them out faster to bury them into the chests and heads of more enemies, "…Actually, I've got to say, it works a lot better for me this way."
"Konoha Gouriki Senpuu (Leaf Strong Whirlwind)!"
Like a shadowed green blur, Gai flew towards a group of shinobi and delivered a spinning back kick that took out five men with one move before he began laying out others using brutal bone-breaking taijutsu against those that tried to attack him after he finished the motion, thinking it to be a moment of weakness.
"Waah! 21!" Gai shouted as he punched an enemy in the chest with enough force to completely destroy his sternum and propel him backwards like a cannonball, "Where's Kakashi? I want to know his score! Today is the day I win yet another challenge between us!"
"Gai-sensei, focus!" Tenten scolded as she unsealed yet another piece of her weaponry; a bow and a quiver of arrows. Not the best in case anyone got close, but with who she had with her there wasn't a big chance of that unless they were overrun, "Count in your head! Hearing how many people you beat is going to make me tired!"
Hearing that from his sole female student, Gai pointed over not too far from where they were to where Lee was battering foes much in the same manner as Gai himself would have. It was like looking through a time machine at himself fifteen years ago. Not that Gai was saying that he was old or anything… because he wasn't.
He was still bursting with much youth.
"Tired?" Gai said questioningly as Lee seemed to be able to fight off four attempts of the enemy to overwhelm him at once, "Tenten if something like this tires you out so quickly I fear that I haven't done my job as your leader. Look at Lee! He could keep at this all day and night!"
"Good for him." Tenten muttered, taking aim at an easy target and picking him off with her bow and arrow, drilling him in the side and watching him fall, "Let's see how long he can keep it up when someone gets smart and uses a genjutsu on him." Then she'd have to run over there and break it just like she always did, "Crap, look up!"
Several umbrellas had been hurled into the air and began spinning rapidly to shoot countless senbon all over the battlefield at the Suna and Konoha ninja, "Jouro Senbon (Senbon Shower)!" Many of the ninja shouted as their ninjutsu began working.
Tenten quickly unsealed a very large metal shell to take cover underneath as Gai and Lee took refuge along with her. The quick acting wind fan users reduced casualties by blowing the senbon away and knocking the umbrellas from the sky, "Man, that is a seriously dangerous jutsu!" One of the fan users said aloud, relieved that they were able to get rid of the attack. Still, over a dozen ninja suffered from the wide-scale attack.
And this man would be the next to suffer as in the confusion and panic that the previous offensive strategy from the Amegakure ninja created he found himself cut down. The hum of the glowing yellow sword in his killer's hand went mostly unheard in the wild winds of the wind storm.
A man with chin-length green hair and a sleeveless grey and dark jumpsuit walked over the sands with a yellow, glowing sword in his right hand, the weapon letting out a low hum as it moved through the air, "Oh, I've been waiting for this for quite a long time."
"I'm sure you have."
The man stopped and turned towards where he saw perhaps the most famous Konoha ninja stationed at Suna standing in front of him with a hand on his hip in a somewhat nonchalant fashion, "Kakashi Hatake." The man spat a bit angrily at the sight of the cool, calm, and collected jounin, "What are you doing all the way out here rutting around with the sand rats?"
"Oh you know… this and that." Kakashi replied very casually before pointing at the sword in the man's hand, "Ah, the Raijin no Ken. You wouldn't mind giving that to me would you Aoi? You know, with it being something of a Konoha national treasure and all."
The man, Aoi, merely smirked and held the sword up for Kakashi to get a good look at it, "Sorry. But the Raijin no Ken is the property of Aoi Rokushou. Has been for a long time. Don't you know? I'm an unbeatable jounin of Amegakure with this weapon. It's invincible. I haven't been touched by an opponent in four years."
A nod came from Kakashi, "You know, I've got a 'lightning blade' of my own if you'd like to see it. I think it's pretty effective if I do say so myself." He said as he pulled his headband up and revealed his Sharingan eye.
XxX
(Above the Skies of the Battlefield)
A blue-haired figure with paper wings flew overseeing the battle at hand below. Despite being outnumbered, the Sunagakure ninja with their Konoha reinforcements were more than holding their own, actually taking control of the battle below. Amegakure had come prepared for anything, but the other two villages simply believed incorrectly that they had been ready for a war with one of the great villages. At this point they were really only good for decoys and shields.
Konan could only imagine what it was like down there. Just thinking about it was enough to almost make her cringe. Wasn't this what they had been trying to keep from happening all along? But Nagato didn't see it that way. He said it was all a means to an end. As long as it led to a world that was free of war, this pain was necessary for the time being.
What a contradictory way of thinking.
But she still had some faith in her oldest friend and ally. She still believed that Nagato knew what he was doing. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki that she had fought in Amegakure all those months ago had only been trying to speak philosophically in order to save his own behind from being sacrificed for the greater good. People would say anything to save their own skins.
As she continued to look down on the battle below she refrained from entering the battle. Not yet. Save that morale boost for when the true paradigm shift was near. She would be the omen to mark the end of Suna.
Nagato said he was finally back to full strength and now that his paths were finally back to six it was time to remind Suna just who was the most powerful man in the world.
What better way to do that then to appear and take their Kazekage and the jinchuuriki of Shukaku right in front of their faces?
Above her head a grey cloud started to form that looked full to bursting.
This meant that Nagato was on his way.
Status de energia semanal
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-- Pedra de
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