A DAY BEFORE THE SEA BATTLE
Tsunade was taking a break, yesterday she had called all the trustworthy people into her office, which included most of the Clan heads since they would be very displeased with Danzo and his actions.
The Aburame and Yamanaka clans were especially interested in seeing Danzo punished, considering he had taken some of their members as Root agents.
And after a long talk about the things Danzo did, or rather, the things Danzo did that Orochimaru was aware of, every Clan was willing to declare him a traitor to Konohagakure and help prepare for a confrontation with the man.
Now it was the most boring and stressful part, waiting, they couldn't just march in on his headquarters and attack him.
So the long job of cataloguing potential Root members, assessing loyalties, finding Root bases and Danzo's sympathizers was being done.
Meanwhile, Tsunade was doing what she should be doing, acting like her normal self, she was most likely the one most watched by Danzo, so no point in helping with the groundwork.
And her normal self was currently taking a break, relaxing in her home, catching up on the last two decades of medical developments, she had expected that most of it would be stuff she already knew, but while there was no equal to her, it seemed people collaborating and focusing on a single issue could make quite a lot of progress.
But even though her attention was focused on the book she was reading, she picked up the sound of someone landing on her balcony quietly.
She sighed and quickly drained the rest of her Sake bottle, a day and a half of vacation was better than nothing.
"Come in." She called out, standing up to greet whoever decided to visit her.
The door opened quietly, and Boar walked in, if she remembered right, he was currently stationed as a guard at the Hokage Tower, which meant bad things for her relaxation.
"Hokage-Sama." The man greeted politely as he kneeled. "An emergency meeting has been declared, Shizune-Sama has asked me to inform you."
That made all the annoyance and exasperation leave Tsunade immediately.
Because there were few things that required an emergency meeting, and none of them were good.
She didn't waste time with words, she simply vanished in a swirl of leaves.
***
She quickly threw open the doors to the meeting room, finding the room already filled with people, Shizune, Jiraiya, most of the clan heads, Homura and Koharu were present, and even Ibiki had joined the group.
She walked to her seat and sat down, Shizune dutifully handing her the Hokage hat without her having to ask, she put it on her head as she glanced at everyone gathered.
"Who called this meeting, and why?" She asked loudly, getting everyone's attention.
Shikaku stood up silently, taking responsibility, he was the one handling general meetings today, so it tracked.
"Yamada, the envoy from The Order, has reported that Kirigakure has invaded Wave." He said calmly. "According to him, Kiri has sent various smaller squads to terrorize their citizens and two large forces, one by sea and one by land, are on their way to take the Capital of Wave."
Well, that was not ideal, she had feared that Wave's strength and new prosperity would upset the cold hostility between all five great nations, but she hadn't expected it to be this fast.
And this ill-conceived, what was Kiri expecting, this was not going to end well for them even if they won, the only way this move made sense would be if Kumo and Iwa supported Kiri and prevented Konoha and Suna from retaliating with a full invasion of their own.
So the best possible scenario for Kiri was that they looted Wave down to the bedrock and scurried back to the Land of Water while Kumo and Iwa prepared to invade Konoha and Suna, which... No, that plan was fucking stupid.
She knew from the little information she had that The Order was by no means weak, if that Crow Sage Jiraiya talked about was summoned and fired off a couple of his Tailed Beast Bombs, then Kiri was going to lose a good chunk of Shinobi, not to mention the rest of the Order's forces.
Either she was missing something, or Kiri was being run by idiots right now.
"Did Yamada say anything else?" She asked Shikaku after thinking for a moment.
"He reported that any assistance was welcome, but considering the distance and how unexpected this attack was, there is a good chance that any organized response will be too late." Shikaku replied calmly. "Our only option is fast response squads, if we decide to help."
The room stayed silent as she thought about their options, because honestly? She had none.
"We have to." Hiashi spoke up from his spot, cutting through the silence like a hot knife through butter. "The alliance was publicized days ago, if we do not help, then Konoha will be a laughingstock, no matter if The Order repels the attack or not."
He was right, politically, Konoha had to respond, even if they arrived late, they needed to prove that Konoha would stand by its allies.
She glanced around the room again, silently judging people's opinions, the faces were grim, they all remembered the last war, but they all understood that this was a necessary action.
The ones read in to the whole Danzo situation were probably cursing Kirigakure, because of all times for a war to break out, it was when they were trying to sort out an internal purge...
"I can go." Jiraiya offered calmly, she grimaced at that, because it was probably the best option.
"You and who?" She asked seriously, sending her Sannin comrade a judging look.
"Kakashi, Asuma, Gai, Kurenai, Genma, Raido and..." He paused for a moment. "...Naruto." He finished grimly.
That set off a chain of responses, many people arguing for or against bringing Naruto, Jiraiya gave her a look, she knew what he wanted without him saying anything.
She nodded at him.
"Naruto, as of this moment, is one of the strongest Shinobi in Konoha." Jiraiya declared, causing silence to fill the room once more. "He can manifest six-tails while maintaining control and has developed an S-ranked Kinjutsu capable of wounding even Tailed Beasts."
Silence reigned over the meeting room.
If she wasn't aware of the Time Travelling, she would have been just as shocked as everyone else, but knowing that Naruto had about 3 years of extra experience and training explained it well enough.
That thought caused her mind to pause, her life was so strange nowadays...
"How...?" Hiashi asked, voice sounding disbelieving. "He was a disaster during his Chunin Exam, barely Chunin-level in strength."
That was harsh, but fair, besides his Shadow Clones and Summoning, Naruto had not displayed anything that would indicate that he could reach this level in just a year and a half.
"That is classified, S-Rank secret." She cut off that line of discussion before it could begin. "But I can guarantee the veracity of Jiraiya's claim."
Everyone accepted that without question, even if they didn't like it, there were no grounds to disagree with her on the subject.
And now the discussion turned towards the actual force they were sending, arguing about who should be sent, how much the loss of key Shinobi would affect Konoha's defense, whether or not she should issue a village-wide alert for all active Shinobi, so on and so forth.
But in the end, it was decided that Jiraiya's suggestion was fine and he would lead Kakashi, Asuma, Gai, Kurenai, Genma, Raido, Naruto and lastly Sakura to reinforce Wave, she had decided that Sakura would join the group as well.
She was a good medic by this point, her role was going to be purely supportive, Tsunade had a feeling that if she didn't send Sakura to look after them all, then her apprentice would find out a way to join anyway.
Especially since both had been very vocal about going to Wave since they learned that Sasuke was there.
***
A FEW HOURS AFTER THE SEA BATTLE
Yatagarasu was flying high above the ground, one body observing the direction that Kiri would be coming from, and the other standing with the rest of The Orders commanders.
And his flying body spotted a few figures moving fast across the land, clearly approaching Wave's territory.
It seems the scouts had arrived, that meant the main invasion force was only hours away.
"They are about to arrive." He said seriously, the few people around him nodding. "Prepare everyone."
They all Body Flickered away, this would be his first time leading a large-scale battle, but he was confident in the strategy they came up with.
The plan was simple, from the information Zabuza had about the enemy, they would either try to overwhelm them or bait a large force into an ambush, depending on who was leading them.
So they would not move from their spot, the Bridge would be turned into an impregnable fortress, and if the enemies gathered in a single spot, then his Creator would be kind enough to remove them from existence.
If not, then they would be slowly grinding Kiri's forces down, the Templars and Star-Eaters would act as roaming killing machines while the bulk of The Orders forces focused on fighting defensively.
This battle would not be a quick one, the sheer number and open terrain made it near impossible to just surround and destroy the enemy, so it would probably take several days to finish.
But this would be a decisive victory, Yatagarasu would make sure of that.