When the shinobi in the stadium heard the crashing of the wall, they all turned and made to leave to help their comrades. However, a giant snake crashing through the thick outer walls of Konoha was just the first part of the plan. Soft white flowers began to descend from the sky and the people in the arena began to drift to sleep. Even some of the less experienced shinobi fell victim to Nehan Shoja no Jutsu. (Temple of Nirvana technique) The jounin in the crowd, however, did not. Neither did Sasuke, Gaara, Haku, Hinata, and Naruto. When they heard the explosion, Naruto and Sasuke activated their sharingan and Hinata, her byakugan. Haku, being the genjutsu specialist-in-training that she is, easily recognized the effects of a genjutsu and dispelled it before it could affect her.
Gaara had immediately tried to get to the Kazekage in the box by disappearing in a swirl of sand. He was stopped by a small contingent of Sand shinobi who felt it would be beneficial to `take care of the demon'. In another two minutes, Gaara was racing up the side of a building only to meet a large purple shield and four Konoha ANBU kneeled in front of it.
“I wouldn't try and get past.” Their captain said, distinguished by his tan robes that covered all of his body. “It will burn you alive.”
Gaara nodded, not liking the fact that he was useless. “Who is inside?”
“The Sandaime, Orochimaru, who was impersonating the Kazekage, and Jiraiya-sama.” The captain replied.
So he had been right, the Kazekage was dead. Gaara disappeared in another cloud of sand. He had some sound ninja to hunt.
Back in the arena there was much more action going on than with the sannin and their former teacher. Kakashi, Gai, Kurenai, and Asuma were taking apart the many sound shinobi that were occupying their time and taking up their concentration. To save their chakra the jounin were using kunai to their fullest, or in Gai's case, pure taijutsu.
“Yosh! My eternal rival, that makes fourteen enemies that I have defeated!” The overly loud, overly green clad man yelled at Kakashi, who had exposed his sharingan to help interpret the moves of his opponents, as well as to catch any techniques the enemies might use.
“I'm sorry Gai.” Kakashi said, as his kunai crashed into the skull of a random ninja. “Did you say something?”
Tears began to well in the eyes of the `Prideful Green Beast of Konoha'. `Oh, it is that hip attitude of yours that makes you my eternal rival!' He mentally declared, before delivering youthful justice to his fifteenth victim of the day.
Meanwhile, the rookies who had weren't in the care of medic ninja were making their way to their injured comrades so that they could defend them if necessary. Shino and Lee would be very helpful in a situation like this, but with the injuries that both sustained during their fight, they would be very easy prey for even the weakest of sound ninja. The Konoha genin arrived at the medical tent in time to watch as nondescript sound shinobi drove a kunai into the bodies of Lee and Shino.
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Haku was quickly becoming annoyed. Her first instinct was to join the group of rookies and move with them to the medical shelter, but she was stopped by five sand shinobi. These were obviously the larger threat when compared to the sound, but they were just chuunin, so she had a respectable chance at defeating them. Doing some one handed seals, Haku created a multitude of ice needles and launched them, along with some real senbon at her attackers. Two of the shinobi fell quickly to her needles, but three managed to get out of the way. While two of the sand shinobi were making seals, the third attacked her with taijutsu. Using her superior speed, Haku was able to block his incoming attack easily enough, but his strength began to push her back. Forming another one handed seal, Haku locked eyes with her opponent, who immediately fell into her trap. He though that she was performing another sensatsu shishou, but really she was creating her Makyou Hyoushou (Demonic Ice Mirrors).
Stepping into the closest mirror, and creating a Koori no yaiba, she made quick work of the remaining shinobi. But for all her effort, the group of genin she was going to follow had already disappeared. So she decided to do the next best thing. She made her way around the stadium and woke up as many shinobi as she could find. Taking stock of the situation and the size of the stadium, Haku gave out an annoyed huff. This would take a while.
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The Konoha shinobi were mortified as two of their own were murdered in front of them, kunai plunging into their hearts. Yet when the black steel implements were removed from the bodies, no blood came from the wound. In fact, nothing came from their wounds, but their flesh seemed to chip and crack away. The two corpses grabbed their attackers and the click of spring loaded traps could be heard before both enemy shinobi screamed as their blood flowed to the ground.
“Weaklings.” Kankuro's voice materialized form inside the cabinet that was placed between the two beds. “Don't worry; my sister got your friends out of here earlier. They're fine.”
The assembled Konoha ninja breathed a sigh of relief, before heading back out to the battle. They quickly noticed that the Suna and Oto shinobi were much weaker compared to the Konoha ninja. While Konoha had taken some losses, no one recognized any of the ninja they saw.
Suddenly they came across Gaara battling with someone that the Konoha ninja didn't recognize, the remnants of a wooden box lay shattered on the ground, as if they had fallen from the roof where the large purple barrier rose above the skyline of the village.
Kankuro gasped as he recognized the figure fighting with his youngest brother: their father, the Yondaime Kazekage.
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Things were not looking great for Orochimaru. First of all, his sensei was still pretty sharp for such an old man, and Jiraiya's assistance wasn't any help either. The two of his former acquaintances were foiling everything he had done. His Sound Four had performed perfectly, erecting the Shishienjin (Four Violet Flames Battle Encampment) barrier to trap the Hokage and both of his former pupils. However, the snake sannin's opponents were able to act together to avoid and counter all of his attacks. So, like any genius, he moved to his already prepared back up plan. Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei (Summoning: Impure World Resurrection) was a technique that required a sacrifice of life in order to bring the souls of the dead back to life as obedient slaves to the summoner. Since he was fighting Konoha shinobi he would resurrect the three deceased Hokages to fight for him. How ironic, the Professor defeated by the two men who trained him and Jiraiya humiliated by his own prized pupil. Jiraiya…between him and the Sandaime they were easily two kage level opponents…he would need more fire power. As the technique began to take effect, the coffin of the Shodaime began to rise up from the rooftop, followed quickly by the coffin of the Nidaime, designated by the kanji for First and second carved into the wood of their caskets.
`No! The fourth's coffin must not rise!' Student and teacher came to the same conclusion and immediately began to counter the technique. A coffin with the kanji for Fouth began to rise from the rooftops, but stopped about half way up before receding back to whence it came. The two ninja breathed a sigh of relief, before they saw another casket rise from the ground. It too had the kanji for Fourth emblazoned on it, but this one was much newer.
All at once the lids of the caskets opened up and fell down. Out stepped the Shodaime and Nidaime of Konoha, as well as the Yondaime Kazekage.
“Sarutobi…we are sorry.” The Shodaime spoke for his brother as Orochimaru inserted the tagged kunai into their bodies. This would be a very tough battle. Once `that snake bastard' as Jiraiya referred to him, had implanted his kunai, all three shinobi attacked their targets. But about half way between the two groups, something happened that would help Konoha immensely. Spikes made of sand rocketed up through the roof, impaling all three Kage's through the heart. All eyes that were attached to a living body looked to the outside of the barrier, where a certain red head was staring at the form of his father with hate rolling off of him. The sand receded and to the horror of the Konoha shinobi, the bodies of the Kages began to reform.
Once again they were impaled by Gaara, and once more when the sand was removed they reformed. This cycle repeated itself a number of times before Orochimaru changed his tactic.
“Enough! Take care of that brat!” He ordered the Kazekage. Had any Suna shinobi been present, they would have noticed that a sick smile crept across Gaara's face. The Yondaime approached the barrier and simply walked through. His body caught fire, but once it smoldered out, the form started to reform.
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When the giant snake Kyodaija was summoned and began to wreak havoc on Konoha, Tsunade moved to handle it, since Jiraiya and Sarutobi would be busy with Orochimaru. With one demonstration of her monstrous strength, the snake fell into a deep crack before it was beset by a number of various fire techniques, effectively destroying it. She quickly ducked behind the lines to help the wounded before they could gather more injuries. A medic was supposed to heal wounds, not risk their lives inflicting them. She momentarily worried about the family that she had become a part of, Orochimaru would stop at nothing to have them, and if this plan didn't work he would simply come up with another. Her thoughts were interrupted by the next case of an injured shinobi that came to her. Suddenly three figures caught her attention. Aburame Shino and Rock Lee were being supported by a blonde kunoichi she didn't recognize, but the Suna emblem gave it away.
“Where can I put `em?” Temari asked bluntly.
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Gaara, despite his ambition to destroy the Kazekage, was not having a great time. Despite being a terrible father, for various and numerous reasons, he was a skilled shinobi, and while he might not have been as strong as the Sandaime Kazekage, it was still enough to hold his own against his son.
It was a stalemate physically, but with all the experience he possessed, the Kazekage was winning the battle. Gaara was forced to seal himself inside of a cocoon of sand that would attempt to spear the man with spears of sand, only to have no effect when he hit. The normal, calculating Gaara was gone, replaced by the homicidal manic that so many people knew the young boy as. Deep inside, Gaara was beginning to think that he might not be able to defeat his father, but under the influence of Shukaku, he thought himself invincible.
Neither combatant noticed the contingent of ninja that were watching the fight. The contingent, however, was far from clueless. Shikamaru was planning all the possible plans of attack to help the red head. Hinata was worried that she would get in the way; Kankuro was just watching the fight, mouth agape. Sasuke and Naruto were also plotting, but since they didn't have IQ's over 200, they were slightly behind Shikamaru.
“Does anyone have any idea what technique he's using to be able to regenerate like that?” The lazy Nara asked.
The silence sounded like a negative answer to everyone present.
“Can I assume that it's not a blood limit?” He probed again.
This time Kankuro nodded. If this were a blood limit, than Suna wouldn't be in the shape it is financially or socially.
“Kaa-chan would tell stories…about a technique that Orochimaru was working on…it animated the dead. She said it needed a special tag to work.” Naruto supplied after a moment of silence and another regrouping of a limb on the part of the Kazekage.
“Hinata, can you find that tag?” Shikamaru asked quickly. Gaara was being pushed back against the side of a building and was threatening to collapse it if he wasn't able to move away from the failing structure. Activating her bloodline limit, Hinata looked at the chakra pathways to look for a tag that would animate the dead. She couldn't find anything at first.
`Naruto-kun's friend needs me…that's like Naruto-kun needing me!' She thought as she carefully added more chakra to her eyes, trying to see more, trying to see smaller.
“Th-there! It's in his neck at the base!” She exclaimed quickly, almost going too fast to hear. Sasuke quickly leapt into action, charging the Kazekage with kunai. The older man felt the attack coming and dodged. Sasuke overshot, but was able to catch himself and turn around to see Naruto leap into the fray. Naruto also attacked with a kunai, and once again the Kazekage dodged the first strike, but Naruto didn't overshoot like his brother. He was able to launch a second attack, but the second was off balance and the blade wouldn't reach the talisman. However, in a flash of light, the head of the Kazekage fell of as ice spread over the surface of the knife, extending its range considerably. The ice, however, wasn't the usual cloudy mess that ice cubes always turn out to be, but it was perfectly clear.
As the Kazekage was trying to reform his head, Gaara took the opportunity to crush the rest of his body with his sand. A dark liquid rushed from the mass of sand that compressed the body of the Kazekage into a very tiny ball.
However, Gaara wasn't finished, despite killing the man that had made his life a living hell. The maniacal glint in his eye only grew bigger and Kankuro involuntarily stepped back a number of steps, while the other shinobi were caught off guard at the killer intent that the genin was producing. The only two who recognized what was happening was Kankuro and Naruto, and the former was making sure he wouldn't have to do anything about it.
Naruto on the other hand saw what would happen if Gaara was to use too much of Shukaku's chakra inside the village.
“Gaara!” He yelled at the red head. “You said we'd fight in the third round, let's do it now, but we need to change venues.”
Gaara's blood lust filled eyes looked at the demon carrier like Akamaru looks at a steak, but nodded and the two boys disappeared to do battle in a less occupied location.
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The battle inside the barrier was going better, considering that it was two kage level ninja versus two former kages. Sarutobi was working on the Shodiame and Jiraiya the Nidaime. After seeing the regenerative powers of their opponents, the two knew that the best way to finish the fights was to seal the souls away into something. The problem was that Sarutobi only knew one soul sealing technique, the Shiki FÅ«jin. (Dead Demon consuming seal) It required the life and soul of the user, but to the Sandaime he would do it to save his village. Luckily for his friends and family, Jiraiya had an alternative way.
Creating a kage bunshin, the toad hermit bit his thumb and pulled out a scroll. As his clone succeeded in capturing the Shodaime, he swiped his blood over a seal and summoned a very ornate katana. He unsheathed the blade and quickly stabbed it through the body of the Shodaime before turning his attention to the second Hokage. Meanwhile, Sarutobi was distracting Orochimaru so that Jiraiya could do whatever it was he had planned. Seeing Jiraiya stab the First Hokage, Orochimaru smirked. That would never work; the puppets of the Edo Tensei were practically invincible. To his shock, the body of the first, instead of reforming, crumbled into sand and the body of his sacrifice, Kin he believed her name was, tumbled to the ground.
Jiraiya's sword made short work of the Nidaime, without his Raijin sword, the second Hokage didn't have a good way to counter the toad hermit. Jiraiya couldn't have been happier. Noting quickly that the seals that were so delicately etched into the steel of his sword were holding, he plunged the tip of his sword into the tile of the roof and began to seal the souls that his sword had stolen.
“Kihakuhitoya…fuuin!” (Soul Prison…seal!) This was a technique that Jiraiya had theorized after Naruto had shown him the transcripts he had on sealing. The Fourth was a true seal master, one that made all others seem pale by comparison. This technique used two different set of seals, one performed by the shinobi and another carved into a weapon of their choosing. The hand seals allowed the shinobi to forcefully remove the soul of their target. The seals on the weapon attracted the souls and kept it or them bonded to the weapon that split soul and body, for a short time. From there a number of possible moves arise. First would be to seal the soul or souls into something else. This would then allow for the vessel to be destroyed, returning the souls from whence they came. The second option would be to seal the souls into the weapon, if the weapon had the sufficient seals etched into the surface. This would grant the weapon certain abilities of the souls trapped within. Guess which option Jiraiya took?
With the sword implanted in the rooftop, all he had to do was channel a bit of chakra through it and…presto, instant forest.
“Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai KÅtan (Wood secret technique: Birth of Dense Woodland). A forest of trees rose up from the roof and forced Orochimaru to leap up and fight on tree branches. The trees kept growing and forcing the snake higher and higher, until he was in trouble of being burned by his own barrier technique. Seeing this, the Sound four dropped the roof of the technique, which allowed the trees to grow out, but kept the ANBU in. Orochimaru dropped back towards the ground and his henchmen reactivated the barrier. Sarutobi and Jiraiya met him half way down. Orochimaru summoned his Kusanagi (Grass Cutter sword) to parry Jiraiya, while Sarutobi had summoned the monkey king Enma and had him transform into the Kongou Nyoi. (Adamantine Staff) With Jiraiya mostly drained of chakra after using the sealing technique, it would be up to the Sandaime to win this fight.
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Naruto and Gaara were having a fight of their own to remember. Gaara was using more of Shukaku's chakra than anyone had ever seen him use, and Naruto was forced to tap into the Kyuubi's chakra to help even things out.
Things had started out simply enough, Gaara's sand made many attempts to capture Naruto, who used shunshin (body flicker) to move around until he was positioned to strike the boy. He couldn't bring himself to kill the boy, after all the reason he was acting like he was wasn't his fault. Naruto was forced to resort to pressure points, in order to finish this fight without damaging Gaara too much. Using a burst of red chakra, Naruto shot himself forward toward the red head in an attempt to lodge a pair of senbon in the boy's neck. However, instead of the sand defending Gaara like normal, the sand engulfed him inside of a sphere, like when he was fighting the Kazekage.
`I need something that can pierce that wall!' Naruto thought. `Sand won't dissolve, so I can't easily wash it away, but maybe I can still remove it!' He flashed through the few hand seals necessary for an elementary water technique, mizu kaishuuno jutsu (Water collection technique) By pouring chakra out into the surrounding area, Naruto is able to condense the water molecules in the air as well as bring water from near by streams or from underground, up to the surface. This is thanks to Haku's bloodline, allowing him to control water in any form. Water began to surround the cocoon, the eye that adorns the top took everything in with detail, relaying it to Gaara, who wondered what was happening, but didn't worry too much, soon the blonde's blood would be his.
The water that Naruto had gathered created a large cylinder to hold the sand cocoon hostage. He then proceeded to form the cylinder into a suirou no jutsu (Water prison). Then, he began to swirl chakra through the arm he had embedded inside of the prison. Jiraiya had begun to teach his great grandson the rasengan, but due to the training that was required to help him against his opponents in the exams, he had only worked on the technique of the Yondaime for a few days. As the chakra swirled in his hand, so did the water. In short order, the water began to spin violently, until it grew so fast, that the sand of the cocoon began to spin off into the water, leaving Gaara exposed. Naruto froze the water around the outside, trapping the sand, before he melded himself into the ice and made his way towards Gaara. Gaara was dizzy from the spin cycle he had gone through, which was why he didn't resist when Naruto was able to prick a point on his body that sent him to sleep. In his worry over his friend, Naruto forgot that Shukaku would emerge if Gaara were to fall asleep. Naruto froze when he felt the large amount of killer intent that Gaara began to give off.
Cursing to himself for forgetting such an important detail, Naruto tried to wake the boy up. He created a small ball of water and threw it at Gaara, but the boy wouldn't wake up, and the sand was beginning to break through the ice. Naruto ran to his side and tried to shake Gaara awake, but this once again failed. Realizing the trouble he would be in if he couldn't figure out what to do next. The demonic chakra was beginning to break through to the sand which was already overpowering his ice cube. Not to mention, the curse seal on his neck throbbed as he was thinking, throwing him off his rhythm.
`Damn you Orochimaru, I was thinking!' He yelled in his mind as panic began to set in. If worst came to worst, he could always call on more of the Kyuubi's chakra, but he didn't want to after the way he acted under its influences on the bridge in Wave country. That's when an epiphany came to him. Orochimaru's GogyÅ FÅ«in! (Five Element seal) When the snake freak had used it on him to stop the Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto's sharingan had been active and was able to copy the way the chakra was molded, despite the lack of hand seals. One of the first things that Naruto and Sasuke had done once they activated their sharingan, was memorize the way each different hand seal affected the way that chakra was molded inside the body. By deciphering the movements of the chakra inside Orochimaru when he did the seal, Naruto could, in theory, copy the seal!
Naruto had a good memory, but it wasn't photographic. One small mistake could end up killing Gaara, not to mention that the Gogyo Fuin is only good to place over even numbered seals. Now, where was Gaara's seal? Ripping off the Suna nins shirt, Naruto quickly found that the seal, a dark thick band of loops and twists that circled Gaara's chest and back. The focus of the seal was directly over Gaara's heart, and if this didn't work, he would almost certainly die. He was in luck, it was a two point seal, barely capable of sealing a lesser demon, it definitely wasn't meant to hold back the awesome power of a biju. Naruto took a deep breath and poured what little excess chakra he could spare to hold his ice prison together just a bit longer. He closed his eyes and began to perform hand seals. He had to get this correct; if he didn't…he would kill his friend. Naruto felt the chakra flow to his finger tips, and stabilize. He heard his ice creak and moan as it began to break under the assault of the sand inside.
`Here goes nothing.' Naruto couldn't do anything else but hope for the best as he drove his right hand into Gaara's chest, right over his heart.
The sudden decrease of demonic chakra was a welcome sign that everything went well. The last thought that Naruto had went along this line.
`I hope someone finds us.' He then blacked out due to physical and chakra exhaustion.
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Blood dripped from wounds and began to pool on the tiles that made the floor of the arena for the battle between sensei and student. However, the blood didn't belong to the oldest of the combatants. Orochimaru held back a howl of pain as he clutched his shoulder where his left arm once was. The aforementioned appendage was held in the clutches of Enma, king of the Ape summons. No longer able to perform techniques with the speed required to ensure survival in this fight, the snake sannin had no other option but to retreat, his Sound four keeping any ANBU from following. The battle for Konoha had ended with the defeat of the invading forces, which retreated in utter humiliation.
Thanks to Tsunade and Shizune, the number of wounded and dead Konoha shinobi were minimized. Konoha had survived, in large part to the efforts of every shinobi, from gennin to jounin. Anko had left the arena and immediately reported to the wall to help protect it. She was of course worried about her sons, but she knew that they could protect themselves. The Konoha genin that had found Gaara fighting the Kazekage helped the ANBU clear out any hiding enemy ninja from the streets, often chasing the ninja into the ANBU forces.
About two hours after the retreat of Orochimaru, Naruto and Gaara were found by a small contingent of Genin, lead by Hinata and Neji. Both were admitted to the hospital and were treated for various physical injuries. The two would be unconscious for almost three days, a record for both, and as a result, missed the massive rebuilding effort that the village was going through. The village would be back to normal in about three months, and Konoha had solidified their reputation as being amongst the elites in the Shinobi world.
A mere two week's travel from Konoha, two figures dressed in black cloaks with red clouds on them headed for the village. These two would be the harbingers of a new dawn, and Konoha wouldn't like the day that their sun rose, and the village of Konoha fell into perpetual night fall.
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(A/N:Sorry for those of you who were angry for the cliff hanger…it was just a good place to stop. Once again, please continue to review, I don't get any better without your wonderful reviews. Also thanks goes out to my wonderful beta Matt, he's been nothing but amazing and deserves some recognition for his work. A very special thanks goes out to Usagi-no-Kasai, for her input on some of my techniques, I really appreciate it.
Oh, and now for a shameless plug! I posted a new story at the end of November called True Hyuuga Genius, it's been getting some pretty good reviews, but if you wouldn't mind, please check it out and let me know what you think, for those of you who are already following it, I posted chapter 3 a little while ago.
