Chapter 17
The drain of his newfound Kekkei Genkai was greater than he had imagined. In the initial battle, the adrenaline had pushed him through, but the sheer volume of information that his mind was forced to process simply overwhelmed him.
It took him a week to reach a sustainable process of acclimating himself to this heavy burden. A month later, he could only utilize about five percent of his newfound abilities. The news of his retirement had already spread, and many within the village speculated over the reason for his hanging up his blade, but few realized the truth.
Officially, he was retiring due to injuries sustained during his fight with the clan killer, Itachi Uchiha. But a select few knew the truth that the real story was rather different.
Danzo and his ilk had been put under house arrest, but that did not matter to him. It irked him to see that man breathing in the same air as him, and so long as he drew breath, he would never fight for the village.
The old war hawk knew that his days were numbered, and so he was not yet ready to give up. He had decimated nearly half of his forces on that night, but he still had many covert operatives at his beck and call—including the one's tailing him right now.
"You should come out," he whispered as he stood tall in the forest, and for a few seconds there was only silence, but then a senbon cut through the air and Gojo caught it in between his fingers before the needle could pierce his neck.
He caught it in between his fingers and then sent it flying back, and one of the masked nin fell down to the ground, dead as the senbon cut into his skull. The others jumped down, and he found himself surrounded by four masked nin.
"Four," he whispered, and the fifth one was already dead, and he loosened his bandages a bit.
"That is not nearly enough...."
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0000
NARUTO UZUMAKI
Naruto did not exactly know what was going on. One second, he had walked onto the field to face the sand guy from Sunagakure, and then in the next second, the entire place was filled with explosions.
"..Air Tempest," and before he could react, he felt a storm reaching towards him when he felt someone appear in front of him.
"Doton: Earth Wall!" and an earth wall rose out of the ground and saved him from the attack as Sasuke appeared in front of him.
"What..." he gasped when Kakashi sensei suddenly appeared behind him, and parried away a few kunais aimed at his back.
"Sensei," he called out.
"What is going on?" Naruto asked, and it was Sasuke who answered.
"Can't you see, you moron!" he said, as the Sharingan appeared in his eyes.
"We are under attack," and he looked around and saw people fighting all around the arena, as a cocoon of sand surrounded his opponent.
"What! How?" he asked, and suddenly he watched as a massive purple barrier emerged and rose into the skies.
"Hokage-sama...," Kakashi-sensei whispered, and Naruto watched as the blonde girl and the puppet guy landed in front of Gaara, who was now surrounded by that cocoon of sand.
"He blocked my attack," and her name was Temari, from what he remembered.
"Of course he did," and it was their sensei who now landed in front of him, and half his face was covered by a white cloth that hung down from his cap.
"He is the Student of Kakashi Hatake after all," and now Kakashi sensei was facing the jounin from Suna.
"Do you have any idea what you have done?" Sensei snarled.
"You have been misled. Your kazekage is dead. The person sitting beside Lord Hokage was not the Kazekage, but Orochimaru," and he had heard that name before.
"You lie!" the Suna jounin countered.
"Why would I lie to you!" Kakashi sensei roared back.
"Because that is what your village does. It lies and steals, and today we will put an end to your thievery," and Kakashi sensei sighed as he put his hand on his hitai ate and pushed it up to reveal his Sharingan.
"Well, it seems like I will just have to convince you using force," and he drew his kunai.
"I will deal with Hatake," the Suna jounin added to the two genin behind him.
"You must protect Gaara until his transformation is complete," and with that, Kakashi sensei readied himself.
"That boy, the one inside that cocoon, is just like you, Naruto," and he stilled for a second as he heard that.
"What?" he asked, and Kakashi sensei nodded.
"If he is allowed to transform into his real form right here, it would devastate the entire village. You two must either stop him or at least push him out of the village," and that was all he could utter, as the Suna nin appeared in front of him.
"You have said enough," and then Kakashi sensei blocked the kunai aimed at Naruto's neck.
"I am your opponent," and the two of them vanished in a blur, leaving him alone with Sasuke and the two Suna genin guarding the red-haired teammate.
"We are not going to let you lay a hand on Gaara as long as we stand," the blonde girl declared, and Sasuke cracked his fingers.
"We will see about that," and his Sharingan began spinning, and Naruto noticed how his lips moved.
"Gate of Pain, open," and Sasuke was gone in the blink of an eye, and Naruto looked ahead and saw him appear beside the black-hooded guy.
"You are dead," and he aimed a kick at his face, and Naruto watched as the Suna-nin's head rolled off of his body.
But there was no blood, and suddenly his body disassembled itself, and tried to bind itself around Sasuke, who spun in the air, and then jumped back as the other guy revealed his powers.
"It seems like you are quite a fast one," he taunted, and he watched as the bandages around the casket behind him unraveled to reveal his true form, as all the disassembled pieces came together to reveal a puppet.
"But I should have expected nothing less from you, Sasuke Uchiha," and Sasuke wiped off the blood from his chin, as Naruto stepped forward and pushed forth his own chakra.
"Hey!" he roared as he brought together his hands.
"Don't you dare underestimate me," and then he shouted as he filled half the arena with his clones.
"Ninpo: Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu...."
0000
SHIKAKU NARA
They had anticipated Suna's teachery, but did not make it any easier to deal with. The combined might of Sunagakaure and Otogakure was enough trouble on its own, but their forces were hampered by their obligation as the host nation as well.
As the hosting nation, the safety and protection of all the guests in the village was their responsibility, and Suna and Oto were not afraid of using that to their advantage. But the greatest trouble for them was none other than Orochimaru.
They had underestimated the Snake Sanin's preparations. His forces were aware of all of their plans somehow, and so they were using that knowledge to exploit their weaknesses to the maximum extent possible.
"We need to hurry up the evacuation process," Shikaku ordered, and the ANBU commander nodded.
"We are doing all we can, but the enemy knows all of the major evacuation sites and routes. They are specifically targeting them to force us on the back foot," and he bit his lip at that
"Focus all of our forces on protecting the evacuation areas and routes," and the buildings and the infrastructure they could build up again. But the people.
They had to protect the people.
"Can we have Lord Jiraiya deal with this?" the ANBU commander asked, and he shook his head.
"He is already engaging the bulk of the force outside the gates. Without him, the village would have been flooded by enemy shinobi by now," and it was a blessing that he was here in the village for this, but the lack of pure S-ranked ninjas was never more apparent.
"What about Lord Hokage?" he asked, and the ANBU commander shook his head.
"I have the ANBU maintaining a perimeter around the sealing formation, but I am afraid it is not looking good. Orochimaru has somehow managed to summon Lord First and Lord Second from the dead," and he had heard rumors of such a kinjutsu, but he had simply thought it to be a fantasy.
"Lord First and Lord Second?" he asked again, and for the first time since the war the attack had begun, Shikaku found himself entertaining the possibility of failure.
"Yes," and the perimeter was to make sure that news of this does not spread out, for if information about such a jutsu were to come out. It could cause quite a reckoning.
"Sandaime-sama is keeping them at bay, but we must prepare ourselves for the worst," and their entire strategy was based on the premise of Lord Third dealing with Orochimaru.
But if he were to fail. No. It could unravel the entire strategy.
"There is also trouble along the Northern borders..."
"Forget about the borders," Shikaku countered quickly.
"We need to," but before he could finish, an ANBU appeared inside the room.
"The defensive line at the Hospital has fallen," and that was unexpected.
"But how?" he asked, and they had stationed quite a substantial force there.
"The enemy nins have the Hospital surrounded," and that was trouble.
"Reach out to Asuma and Gai. Have them head to the Hospital at once," and he was saying that, when suddenly a wave of chakra rippled through the village, and he instinctively turned his head and found himself staring at the skies in the southwest of the city.
"What the hell is that?" the ANBU commander asked, and up in the air, a giant purplish orb was floating in the sky.
"Is that a new enemy?" he asked, and Shikaku shook his head.
"It seems like he has finally decided to let loose," and then the orb hit the ground as a shockwave spread through the village.
"What the hell was that!" the ANBU commander gasped, as the explosion shook the entire building.
"We need to..."
"Do nothing," and this voice came from a newcomer, and Shikaku turned around in a snap to find the culprit for the explosion standing just behind him.
His blue-eyed looked ahead lazily, and his face was covered with caked blood, yet he seemed entirely unbothered by it.
"You...," the ANBU commander finally realized exactly what was happening, as Gojo Hatake stood in the Hokage office with a rather calm expression.
"You don't need to worry about the Hospital now. I have dealt with all of the enemies there," and it took a second for those words to register.
"But there were hundreds of them," the ANBU countered, and Gojo paid those words no heed.
BOOOOM!
Just then, another loud explosion came from the side of the arena, before a wave of corrosive and ancient chakra cut through the air.
"That chakra," Shikaku frowned, for he had sensed it before on that fateful night some ten years ago.
"RAAAAAA!" and he watched as sand began to rise into the air, as the One Tails began to take form near the arena.
"That is Suna's tailed beast," the ANBU commander whispered.
"We need to push it out of the village at once. If it fully forms while it is in the village premises, it would kill thousands...," but before the ANBU commander could finish, Gojo had already raised his hand.
"Ninpo: Techniqiue Reversal..." and he had one of his hands in his pockets while he aimed the other one in the direction of the tailed beast.
"Aka!" and a red orb formed in his hands, and the force of it pushed them all away as he flung his finger and sent it flying towards the Tailed Beast.
He saw it cut through the air, and hit the giant bijuu, and just with that one attack, the bijuu was pushed a mile out of the village as it roared in agony, while Gojo jumped towards the window.
"I will deal with him. Have all of your forces focus on the evacuation," and then he vanished, as Shikaku found himself reminiscing over his father.
"He reminds me so much of Sakumo-san...."
0000
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A/N: So, there was a little debate about Danzo's Izanagi. MC took Shisui's eye from the man during their first fight, and he took back all of the Uchiha eyes he had taken. Orochimaru did not work for Danzo as well, because of MC's presence, and reasons that will be touched on later.