61

Chapter 60: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

The following morning found quite a sight for those stationed at the base that sat just a stone's throw away from the front lines of the Yu no Kuni/Shimo no Kuni border. A pair of rather disheveled looking, bloodstained young shinobi walked into camp dragging a captive just before dawn.

Now this by itself admittedly was not abnormal at all. They were after all sitting on the front line of the most dangerous battlefield of the ongoing war between the G.S.A. (Grand Shinobi Alliance) of four of the five major hidden villages and the C.N.F. (Continental Ninja Federation) comprised of every other upstart hidden village in the Elemental Nations. Every single day people came walking into their camp looking like crap.

The people that came slogging into camp looking like crap were never a pair of male and female jinchuuriki from both Konoha and Kumo respectively. Nor did most people walking into camp come walking in carrying a prisoner that looked like a cross between a plant and a human being.

Covered in blood that didn't look like it was his, Naruto dropped a heavily bound plant man right in the middle of camp amid the eyes of his late-watch Konoha comrades who much to their credit moved to take the hybrid creature into custody, "You went kind of nuts back there Yugi-chan." Naruto commented as they both continued to walk through the camp, "I said we needed to take one of them alive."

"I left one alive." Yugito said, pointing to the plant man that was being carried off as they spoke.

"I had to stop you from killing him by putting my own body in your way." Naruto replied dryly. Apparently the Nibi, or as Yugito said the name of the biju was Matatabi, wasn't one to let prey get away when Yugito was angry, or when the equivalent of a cold bucket of water was thrown on a potentially hot situation. Naruto had been put off by it too, but it didn't make him all homicidal either, "I don't like getting interrupted either but seriously."

Yugito just stuck her tongue out at Naruto in return before she looked down at herself, "I'm a total mess and we haven't even gotten started working yet. I'm going to find the barracks and clean up."

Nodding in consent to the idea, Naruto decided that then was as good a time as any to split off from her for the time being while they prepared for their eventual move to try and get her home, "Go ahead. I'm going to go try and find Ero-kyofu and let him know we're here. I'll catch up in a bit after I do." Yugito took his travel pack for him since they were at the base as she started looking for the temporary showers.

He and Yugito went their own separate ways and split up for their own reasons. But all the while as Naruto walked around the camp and looked at the embattled state of the people there he had to think back to the battle that he had fought the previous night with Yugito.

Where did those plant guys come from? They were all naked, so there was no way of identifying the village they were from by uniform. They didn't even seem human for the most part. But they were going to slip into the Konoha camp in their transformation disguises and tear it apart from the inside. So they had to work for one of the enemies of the alliance, but who?

That was why he captured one to begin with. The information was going to be pried out of him and that would be that. Until then he had to find Jiraiya and prepare a plan to slip past the watchful eyes of the enemy on the line.

It didn't take him long to find Jiraiya either, as he found his godfather standing on a bluff covered in thickets and trees looking out into the deeper forest with his telescope, probably trying to get a better point of view of the battlefield before the sun came up and it became dangerous to be exposed like that, "How's the eye?" Jiraiya jibed as he felt Naruto's presence come up from behind.

"How's the arm?" Naruto shot back in return. For some reason it was good to see Jiraiya in the thick of things again. For someone like him living out the rest of his days doing nothing because he was missing an arm just didn't seem right. The man was supposed to be a lion, and he wasn't meant to live like a mouse, "You look like crap. Don't you sleep?"

A sarcastic laugh left Jiraiya as he put down his telescope and allowed it to retract back to portable size, "I can sleep all I want when I'm dead. You're late brat." Jiraiya said gruffly as he looked over the darkened forests for any sign of movement.

"I brought you a present though." Naruto said as he stood up there next to his teacher in the late night/early morning darkness, "How do you feel about bipedal plant monster guys?"

"Indifferent, but that's because I've never seen one. Are you on drugs or something?"

"No. I just asked because there's one in lockup right now that tried to kill me and Yugito a few hours ago."

Ah, so he did manage to bring Yugito with him. That damn mission to get her back to Kumo was still on. Talk about a tough assignment. Jiraiya would only feel comfortable sending himself out to try and sneak past that line that the enemy had set. It was a damn rat's nest in there.

Getting in wasn't the real problem though. He had sent people in before. The problem was them getting out or proceeding forward any kind of real distance. Even when he sent sensors in with them to locate potential trouble there was just something about their enemy, and it couldn't have just been that they knew the terrain. No, there was something even more wrong going on in there and he knew it. The squeeze was somehow being put on them and for the life of him he couldn't deduce what the deal was.

And his godson was about to try his luck at getting through, "I really don't want to send you in there Naruto." Jiraiya flat out admitted, "I've been arguing back and forth with Tsunade-hime about letting you do this mission since I found out you were going to be assigned to it. She should know full well what I'm reporting back to her on our situation."

"Well talk to me about it then." Naruto asked, resting a hand on the older toad sage's shoulder, "I want to know what I'm getting into when I try to break out and sneak through. I'm surprised that you haven't found a way to do it yet."

"Don't rub it in kid." Jiraiya said as they both sat down on the ground and he pulled out a topographical map of the area with locations marked; places like the Konoha camp, the rough estimate of where the no man's land line lay, and hotspots behind that line where it had been reported that their forces had been hit from hard, "When it comes to moving just myself, that wouldn't be as big a problem comparatively. I'm moving a whole army here."

Naruto started looked at the areas on the map that had been marked. Apparently no attacks ever happened in the area where the line had been established. It was only behind the lines on the enemy side where ambushes began to occur and losses began to be incurred. From those that had gone in, it seemed that they hadn't been able to pinpoint the strong points in the defense.

"How is it possible that we don't even have an idea of where they're mostly stationed yet? We've got sensors."

"They solely target our sensors first during skirmishes and battles and then retreat when they injure or kill them. That's their goal in combat."

"So they can sense our sensors?" Naruto queried, trying out what he had just said in his mouth. There was probably a joke in there somewhere for later.

"Yes Naruto… sensors can do that; tell which shinobi in a group of them are sensors as well." Jiraiya said as if he were talking to a child, "I know that you're only a sensor off of a technicality with Sage Mode just like I am, but keep up. This is why we're here."

"Oh shush up." Naruto grumbled as he continued to scrutinize the map. Kumo was able to coordinate messages to Konoha to let them know how far within enemy turf they had managed to get on their side of things, so that at least Naruto would know where to go to take Yugito, "I need a soft spot, or I need to find the exact opposite. Both if you've got it."

Immediately, Jiraiya pointed out three different spots on the map, "That'd be here, here, and here. There's the softest place we've been able to find, and you can see why; river crossing. Not the best place to be discreet."

So instead of just being heavily defended by enemies staking out for ambushes it was a natural spot that would make him and Yugito easy to spot. That was why he wanted to know where the difficult areas were. He'd have to come up with a pretty good diversion to get himself and Yugito past the river. From there it was a matter of heading full speed through until they reached Kumo forces.

"Why can't we get people through there if we know this much?" Naruto asked, "That's a hell of a start."

"You're not listening." Jiraiya said, poking Naruto in the head much to his displeasure, "Getting in isn't the problem. It never has been. It's once we're in and get past the initial defenses there that the issue comes in. A deer couldn't have survived the crossfire we ran across the first time we sent an attack force in. They don't fight directly. They'll break off and regroup with an attack on three sides while backing off and leaving an avenue open for us to fall back. It's intentional. If they force a full on fight we'll beat them and they know it even if they take down a ton of us. That's not what they want. Even multi-pronged attacks don't net us any permanent ground."

That didn't sound right. How in the world would they be caught in any kind of three-sided attack? Konoha squads were not dumb enough for something like that to work more than once. Not a chance.

Think like a Root ANBU damn it. That was something that could be needed, "Burn the forest down. Smoke 'em out." Brutal, effective, simple, and he knew Jiraiya could amass a squadron of fire release users to do it.

"We tried that." Jiraiya burst that bubble fairly quickly though as he pointed at a burnt out spot from their ridge where the trees were bare and charred, "We attacked and put that move into action in the middle of the battle to catch them in it. They retreated like we thought, but the fire wasn't allowed to spread. They stopped the fire from spreading by taking down the trees in the path of the fire before it reached much further."

"Do you think they have a system of tunnels?" Naruto asked Jiraiya who seemed to be rather thoughtful at the idea, "Think about it; it's not like our sensors don't anticipate their counterattack right?"

"True…" Reports from the field showed that the counterstrikes had been anticipated, but no one ever got sight of the enemy until they were right on them, "Tunnels that we can't find?"

But then again, when did they have the chance to actually scour the battlefields for tunnels in the deep forested areas? And that would also explain why how on the other side of the country Kumo had driven quite a ways into the territory but couldn't find any actual field bases. Underground facilities.

Still, how much weigh did a suspicion like that hold?

Seeing this in Jiraiya's face, Naruto rolled his eyes. It was very possible. Root had set up tunnels for operatives to hide and rest in all over the place. Even in hostile places like Kaminari no Kuni. Naruto had used one while fighting against Kakuzu and Hidan. They weren't complicated to build in their most rudimentary forms and they weren't hard to hide either. The rougher the terrain that they were in the easier it was. And it wasn't like they hadn't had these set up well in advance.

Even if they hadn't existed before the war had begun, the time it took to mobilize properly gave the enemy more than enough time to start digging them out. Who knew how many branches there could be by now?

"Come on." Naruto said, tapping his fist on the ground, "Do you really think it's that hard to dig a good tunnel system?" He asked, "I can make a pretty good one with my bare hands by myself in one minute and I don't even use earth release." At the time he had also been twelve and only had a kunai to help dig with.

The tunnel thing seemed to be more and more likely as they both thought about it. Forget trenches. Eventually Konoha would still overrun them if they fought like that. Avoid direct battle at all costs and keep them back while preventing losses from direct combat. That was a basic way to antagonize a larger attack force. And they couldn't safely dig a quick branch of tunnels past the river so that explained why that was a 'soft spot'.

The moment they did and managed to reach underneath Konoha's camp they would probably launch the most damnable surprise raid ever seen. If they were really digging tunnels of course.

A grin then crossed Jiraiya's face as he rested his one hand on Naruto's shoulder, "I've got an idea on how to handle these idiots if you're right about this brat." The wily old toad sage said with a grin, "Don't worry about that though, let me handle that. Your mission is just to get through." Kami help those poor bastards if Jiraiya had an idea on how to defeat their tactics, "The next approach will send the whole watch on their side rolling our way to clear it out for you and Yugito."

That sounded like a big offensive was in the works, "Are you going to try and break the line?"

"Oh brat…" Jiraiya said with a laugh, "In order to break the line, a line has to exist to break. In a manner of speaking though, we are. It's time to make this into our kind of fight. Make sure you're ready by tonight to go. You're going to have to go fast because we're not putting this together to buy you time, that's just a side consequence."

So if it wasn't his aim to get caught up in the middle of the big battle that Konoha was trying to make out of the situation he needed to move ahead of it to avoid it.

His intended actions for that evening understood, Naruto nodded and stood back up to leave Jiraiya to his devious devices. Pity would have to come to those enemy ninja holding down the fort in the woods, because with the wheels currently turning inside of Jiraiya's head it would prove to be quite something.

The cunningly quiet laughter of the man would forebode that much.

XxX

(Interior of Shimo no Kuni – C.N.F. Base of Operations)

Shimogakure, Hoshigakure, Yumegakure. These were the villages that were assigned the task of waging their brand of warfare against Konoha, and they had their strengths when it came to doing so.

For Yumegakure it was the fact that these were their neck of the woods, and what they knew how to do was battle in their neighborhood with various techniques that were perfect for the locale of their village. They jumped the shark though in regards to their singular strength and went into poverty due to attempts to wage constant war against the other smaller villages in the region until recent decades.

Hoshigakure were the battlefield powerhouses that were given the directives of who to target whenever the time came to engage Konoha in their intended skirmishes. The powerful chakra granted to them by the radiation of the meteor in their village that also poisoned the surrounding area of their village enhanced their abilities through intense and dangerous chakra control training.

Shimogakure happened to be the village with no real discernable traits that set it apart. It was for the most part a no-factor village that had never raised any waves in the past. But out of the three manning the southern border of Shimo no Kuni they were the strongest. Not in battle, but from the fact that they had managed to expand their village's influence the most before the war began. They had never really run aground against any of the major villages nearby, and that let them continue growing.

They were also the ones that had come up with the base plan of action for how to deal with avoiding simply running into Konoha and fighting them.

The tunnels.

It took no time at all for them to create a working network of an underground system with points of exit all around the forest and places to spy on any movement hidden all over. There was a whole mess of completely able-bodied shinobi that would consider what they were digging the equivalent of a D-rank mission. The amount they managed to dig within a matter of three days of the alliance being finalized was incredible. From there it was just patrol and response.

Konoha never let them down with the tenacity of trying to get through, if only they knew that they had been running over what had been the C.N.F. defensive line the entire time they wouldn't have seemed so confused when the counterattacks were waged.

Still though. Konoha was adaptable and had become accustomed to the tooth-and-nail fighting, and with Kumo slowly bullying their way through with sheer manpower on the other side there needed to be some kind of equalizer or this theater of the war was going to get ugly very fast.

And like some kind of deity (or demon) a dealer of weaponry came to them with an offer that they simply couldn't refuse.

Shimogakure; the quiet village set in a valley of trees had been untouched by the war since it had begun, and it was also the stage of a business meeting.

Another day where the sun rose, another day where Konoha and Kumo were doing their best to storm through the lands and restore order by smacking down every single village that chose to consider them an enemy and side with the man that endeavored to kill and destroy them all.

Hence why the village leader was set to meet at outside of the moat and bridges that surrounded the village at the very outskirts of Shimo with everyone in the C.N.F.'s favorite new merchant of death… at least in the northeast.

"You're a very brave man." The leader of Shimogakure said to his weapon dealer of choice, "You come this close to my village during wartime as if you aren't concerned with any of our villages capturing you and trying to hold you to create your wares for them?"

The strange man wore a full head mask that was light purple and white in color with a ripple pattern with two eyeholes along with strange dark combat robes, a belt sash, gloves, and a large war fan on his back. Quite strange attire, and mysterious enough to suit someone that sold what he was peddling, "Oh, I'm not too terribly worried about being captured, trust me. Besides… I don't think kidnapping the community goose that lays the golden eggs would work too well in the midst of this alliance. So there's really no time I'll be safer in the presence of this region's villages than during wartime."

He had a point. If one village got greedy and tried to snatch him so that he could create weapons only for them or sell to others at heightened prices it would start bitter infighting. Strictly on the level business then, "I want another 250 sent north Tobi-san."

"A full company to deal with Kumo this time? So many?" 'Tobi' or 'Madara' said almost playfully, "Alright. I hope you found the last smaller platoon satisfactory."

"That we did." The Shimo village leader said, "The chaos slowed them down and actually let us launch a successful raid against their advance team. Let's spread the love out a bit further this time."

"75 million ryo." Tobi requested for his services, "Or do you think payment for a perfect stealth unit of troops should come with a discount?"

It could hardly be considered highballing, especially given how effective they were, so there was no choice other than to pay up. It was worth it with how they disrupted the Kumo war machine in the north, "Any directions on how to handle them better this time?" The village leader asked as he handed over a scroll containing his payment.

"I can't say that I care." Tobi said as he seemed to make the scroll vanish between his hands, "I'm not the one fighting the war here. Do whatever you like with them. Send them screaming off of a cliff for all I care." After all… he had plenty, plenty more where those came from. Fifty meant nothing when he had several thousand.

After all, selling the services of the White Zetsus was nothing more than a field test before he took them for what he really needed them for. A field test where he could make money on the side.

"They'll be with you within two hours." That was the assurance from Tobi as he turned his back to leave the village leader behind to walk into the forest surrounding the village, "But then again you know how fast my White Zetsus travel."

The Shimogakure leader nodded to himself, knowing full well how reliable they were. Otherwise the alliance wouldn't have pooled money to purchase them. It was because they worked.

He had one more question to give to Tobi, but when he turned around the man was gone.

Such a strange and dangerous individual. If he had access to such a force, it made sense that at a time like this he would dispatch them to the highest bidder. But Tobi didn't seem like the type that cared about money, nor did he seem to care about the White Zetsus as a mercenary force. It was as if they were expendable to him, as if everything was expendable to him.

It was better not to look a gift horse in the mouth like fully expendable soldiers that could complete perfect transformations. There was a war to fight.

Whatever it was with Tobi, no one had ever heard of him before in any corner of the ninja world… so really, how dangerous could he have been in the grand scheme of things?

XxX

(With Naruto – Konoha Northeastern Command Base Camp)

Not too long after his meeting with Jiraiya, the man called a meeting of his higher command to inform them of the current idea mulling around in his head. The formation of a new battle plan was coming. Man, Jiraiya got his shit together quickly. He was already calling together the top brass under his watch to come up with a method of approach.

Sometimes it was easy to forget just how incredible a ninja Jiraiya was if all that you chose to look at happened to be the borderline insanity and the perversion. But those were just quirks, and everyone had them. There was nothing wrong with that. Some guys wrote shitty rhymes for everything, some guys did human experimentation, some guys liked the ladies to an extreme degree. Whatever got you up in the morning man.

Either way, Naruto had his own marching orders to adhere to. He was to get Yugito Nii past the enemy and to her homeland Kumo comrades by any means necessary.

The sun had come up, so until word went out about the plan of attack they would have that much time to rest from their battle with the white plant/man things. Rest sounded so good right then, and it was a good thing he had gotten directions to the barracks. From the looks people gave him they could apparently tell that he needed a shower and a rest because he looked like he had just been in one hell of a fight despite the fact that it had occurred hours ago.

Upon walking into the barracks, Naruto rid himself of the bandages that covered the seals on his arms, his gloves, his heirloom sword, and his sandals to get some respite from the battlefield. Right then he had to rid himself of the crud on his body from fighting the strange plant-men in the forest. Outside on the sides of the living quarters buildings were temporary showers and if ever there was a time he needed one it was right then.

Luckily it was decently past sunrise and everyone at the base had work to do, thus no one was hanging out around the barracks. It allowed Naruto to take his time and get his things together before going into the showers where he heard one of them going. He could see the shapely female figure in the falling hot waters of the room and walked her way, "I thought cats didn't like being wet." Especially fire cats.

Her very long hair down and wet, just like the rest of her, Yugito just let out a quiet chuckle at the joke, "They don't, but considering the alternative was being covered in blood and grime this is kind of a no-contest." She could feel Naruto standing directly behind her, probably looking at the seal on her back… or he was probably just looking at her ass. She couldn't tell.

Eventually though, he moved directly next to her in an adjacent position to begin washing himself. Even before he started using soap, the substances from last night's battle fell from his hair and body thanks to the hot water. Taking a shower with the pretty Kumo jinchuuriki six inches away. How was he going to play this one cool? It was hard not to turn and catch a glimpse of her from the side, and she seemed to be smirking to herself that it seemed to be hard for him to come up with conversation that didn't revolve around sex.

"Did you forget how to talk?" Yugito asked with a rather large grin on her face, "I know we've been stopped before you've seen me naked a few times in the past but come on now Naruto-kun."

Naruto rolled his eyes at Yugito's attempt to assuage the situation and looked over at her again, not trying to look away this time, "Well the last time it happened was last night when I saw you cut down fifteen plant guys, so I was just wondering if you were still upset about that."

Lemon Start

"I was…" She admitted slyly before moving directly in front of him and pushing her back against his chest, "But then you came in here with me. I don't see a better opportunity to pick up where we left off last night than now since we won't have a chance later."

Yugito found Naruto's arms wrapped around her waist and chest protectively. Appropriate to his secondary element, Yugito felt something akin to electricity from Naruto even as she could feel his manhood harden to life. Her thighs parted to allow his length to slip between her legs and rub against her pussy. The gentle friction elicited a gasp from Yugito who looked over her shoulder at Naruto.

In return she got a strong and steely gaze from him up that close only served to rouse her instead of cause her to falter. Though she didn't speak loudly, her mouth was silently moving and saying 'come on'. Linking a hand behind Naruto's neck, Yugito pulled him down into a deep kiss with liberal use of her tongue.

A pair of jinchuuriki from different villages. There was a chance she'd get admonished by the Raikage should this ever come to his knowledge, but Yugito would be damned if she cared about that right then.

As they continued to kiss, Naruto pushed Yugito forward until she was pressed with her breasts against the wall. She hadn't perceived Naruto to be that forceful when lovemaking. Harping on Hamako for information on it while in Konoha, she had gotten the impression that he would be gentler. Not that she had a problem with the force mind it.

"Possessive aren't we?" She whispered up close to him as she worked her hips back and forth to slide his cock against her snatch. The steam from the shower wasn't doing much to disguise their actions. The danger of being caught there seemed to turn her on further.

"You weren't the only one put off when we got stopped last night Yugi-chan." Naruto muttered into her ear lowly, "And didn't you tell me that you wanted me to focus all on you?" He said before planting kisses against her neck, "You know you didn't mean like a bodyguard."

"I didn't mean like a bodyguard." Yugito agreed, tightening her thighs around Naruto's dick as her cunny continued to leak juices. Eventually with her mostly futile attempts to increase the resistance she was able to elicit a growl from him, resulting in Naruto placing a hand underneath one of her slickening thighs and inserting himself inside of the Nibi jinchuuriki, "Mmm… come on hero. Go ahead and fuck me."

Ignoring the hero remark, Naruto did exactly that. Placing his second hand on Yugito's hip, he started pistoning in and out of the girl intently. Her breathing grew heavier and heavier before she started dueling tongues with Naruto once again with more ferocity this time. It just wasn't enough for her though.

Naruto pressed Yugito's front against the wall of the shower and got a bit of a hiss out of her from the dominant action as she tried to push back just out of pride and principle. The feeling of her tits pressed against the comparatively cold wall got her nipples to tighten and she thoroughly enjoyed it despite her little show of disapproval.

"Don't give me that look." Naruto said as he just continued to work his cock inside of his lover, beating down any desire from her to show him who was supposed to be boss, "You're mine right now." She then let out a loud curse when she felt Naruto bite down on her shoulder.

"Oh, you bastard!" Yugito shouted, but she didn't mean it at all, "You love this don't you?" She tried to say seductively, but her voice was quaking as she tried to speak. He heard it and she could feel Naruto smirking against her neck, "Hah…"

Yugito lowered her leg back down and pushed her backside out for Naruto to hold onto with both hands, giving him full access to her behind. She had to bend forward and rest her arms against the wall for support. The young woman was quite certain that anyone close to those showers could hear her cry out in passion, but she wasn't shy at all about doing just that.

It spurred Naruto to get even more vocal reactions from his current partner, who was really starting to care not if they were caught either. Figuring that Yugito wasn't one for a gentle encounter, Naruto chose not to give her one, "Come on Yugi-chan, you look like you're about to fall out." He managed to grunt out while continuing to pound away at his pussy's pussy, "Don't quit on me now."

All she could do in return to the cheeky remark was just shake her head involuntarily and continue to moan. She hadn't expected the feeling of being penetrated so deeply, and she loved how it felt. Masturbating didn't provide her with half of the pleasure that Naruto was giving her, and this was just a quickie in the shower.

Yugito was apparently very sensitive down there, because Naruto could feel her shivering every so often from how he was holding on to her. Keeping up a hard pace, he was making his fellow blonde seriously reconsider going back to her village if only for a few more days. Just a bit longer away from home so she could see what else Naruto could do to her with his dick. Or maybe the way she stayed in Konoha as a liaison for the war effort he could stay in Kumo.

That was her selfish side speaking of course, but she didn't give a damn.

Another cry came from Yugito as Naruto continued to pound into her from behind, "I… I-. Naruto-kun I-." She wasn't able to get any coherent words out to tell him before she finally came and did so hard, letting him know with the harshest yell of pleasure that she could give him as she dug her very strong nails into the wall.

Her pussy clenched tightly around him, and Naruto let out a moan from the hot, wet tension and reached a hand a bit forward to pull Yugito's back against his chest and rub Yugito's sensitive snatch to get her to loosen up a touch while he quietly shushed her. He still needed to finish too after all.

The all-powerful jinchuuriki whimpered from her post-climax and gently moaned again when she felt Naruto still churning inside of her, "N-Not done yet?"

"You give me some powerful motivation Yugi-chan." Naruto said, continuing to thrust in and out of the young woman while she peppered his neck and face with kisses and guided his hands to grope her wet breasts. He felt her tense up again for another orgasm and this time it drained Naruto of his seed as well. Yugito let him blast her insides freely with cum and mewled softly as it felt like the fire inside of her had been put out or at the very least sated, "You alright?"

"Huh?" Yugito asked, still being held tightly by Naruto underneath the water of the shower they had been sharing after he had pulled out, "I'm fine. Why?" She asked through half-lidded and tired eyes, placing her arms over Naruto's that surrounded her.

"…Because you don't have any strength in your legs." Naruto pointed out, getting Yugito to look down at her quivering appendages. The products of both of their orgasms had run down her legs to be washed away by the shower, but her legs looked like they had no support to them.

End Lemon

An embarrassed blush spread across Yugito's face. Letting her 'bodyguard' have his way with her in a public shower was fine, but looking vulnerable after having done so was awkward to her. The look on her face almost got Naruto to snicker at her, but instead he just scooped her up in his arms and carried her out of the showers to get dressed prior to heading back into the barracks to rest.

Fun time was over and they had an objective to prepare to achieve… after a nap of course.

XxX

(Takigakure no Sato)

"It is done Sai-sama." One masked Root ANBU said as he and several others bowed to the leader of the cell who sat on a stump in the deep forests simply drawing idly to pass the time until the arrival of the underlings, "The path is clear and we will proceed at your orders."

At first Sai said nothing, continuing to draw in his notebook until he was at a place that he found satisfactory to stop. He closed it and placed it with his supplies before standing up and walking toward his group of ninja. Upon patting the first Root on the shoulder they all rose to their feet, "Very good. Maki-san has sent word that we've been given an opening. Takigakure is very sparse on manpower because of their attempts to reinforce Kusagakure before it falls."

There were only genin, wounded, and very few battle-ready elites inside of the waterfall village itself now for defense and security.

Root had moved a decent strike force within distance of the village in small units until they had amassed one-hundred and fifty to do their duty. The path taken had stuck closely to the route that Naruto and Maki had taken to slip past their lines barely a week prior, only it had split off north to head towards Taki instead of southwest to the Tenchi Bridge.

It was not to be a true battle to conqueror. That wasn't what they did. They were meant to sack the village, do as much damage as possible, and leave. That was all. They were to show their enemy just how in over their head they were and punish them for their conspiracy to eliminate Konoha.

Sai had his own job to do, and he would do it alone to put a serious wrench in the machine of the enemy's command. By 'wrench' he meant blade, and by 'machine' he meant heart, back, neck or generally just anywhere he could stab someone to kill them.

Kill the leaders inside of the village and throw their leadership out of whack. Deal major damage to the village itself so that when word reached the fighting shinobi out in the wilderness of Kusa lands being steadily driven back to Kusagakure itself they would give up on that futile campaign and go home. Maybe it would even broker an armistice with Konoha if not an outright negotiation for terms of surrender.

And Tsunade of course didn't need to know anything until after the fact when Takigakure came simpering up to the negotiation table. She had basically given the go-ahead for Root to do whatever they saw necessary with the war situation as long as none of it had anything to do with Konoha. They could do whatever they wanted, anywhere they wanted, they just couldn't directly work with conventional forces.

Root didn't work like that anyway, so it was fine.

With the loss of the Nanabi, they didn't have a powerhouse to protect the village. While it would be a stretch to say that there weren't any powerful ninja within Taki, they were all out in the field. That wouldn't do much good for them tonight.

"Rest and prepare until sundown. Send word." Sai ordered, getting affirmative responses from the others before they leapt off to do just that. It was just about time to earn some damn stripes with the Hokage. Root was an effective black ops force meant to be used when ANBU couldn't be risked in something so large-scale, and they were about to prove it.

XxX

(Later That Afternoon – Shimo no Kuni – Deep Forest Area)

Upon Jiraiya's direction, an expedition force was sent out across the lines into the woods once more to follow through on what he had managed to deduce earlier that morning. The only difference was that this time he was with them leading the venture.

As expected, when they had entered past the line of no return far enough, the C.N.F. forces began their usual attack from all sides, capitalizing on confusion and lack of vision to take apart the Konoha attackers. Instead of falling back this time, they stood and fought, mostly defensively as the focus of the Konoha fighters was set on simply avoiding weapons, getting cornered by opportunistic enemies, and keeping their comrades alive and as unhurt as possible.

"I'm so tired of this crap!" Kiba said as he fought close to his teammates. He, Hinata, and Akamaru were handling any enemies foolish enough to get in close while Shino handled distant targets subtly with his insects, "Walk in, fight, walk out. Same shit every damn day! We'd better pull it off and move forward this time, I'm tearing those damn villages apart myself for all of this!"

At least Naruto showing up for a few hours to hang out and shoot the damn breeze the way he did killed the monotony, but then he had to up and leave for his mission when the call went out that they'd be going back in. The upper echelon were confident this time, but Kiba was getting kind of skeptical on that and he'd believe it when he saw it.

Either way, he stopped talking long enough to duck a slash of an opponent's kama and chain, creating an opening for Akamaru to snap up the enemy in his jaws and shake him around violently before throwing him away violently. Good dog.

"Focus Kiba-kun!" Hinata insisted with her active Byakugan able to see everything as it happened, "We need to pay attention to the eventual order when it's called. What if we miss it?" Jiraiya was a master spy. His cue to spring into action had to be something subtle that the enemy wouldn't expect.

Bugs flowed from Shino's sleeves and took down foes in battle elsewhere before they even noticed that chakra was being sucked from them, "I would not be so certain of that Hinata." He said, as he checked the battlefield for someone else he could assist stealthily, "Why? Because my insects are aware of Jiraiya-sama's entrance onto the field."

Fighting reigned throughout the area. All the while one man walked through the middle of it seemingly uncaring of it all.

"Oh no." Jiraiya said in a false kind of dull monotone before he kicked a fame-seeking enemy ninja away with crushing force, "Another ambush. Damn it where are they coming from?" He continued to say as he made several single-armed hand-seals, "Off the ground now! Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld)!"

The moment Jiraiya barked his order, the ninjas under his command broke off from fighting their battle to just waste time and latched onto the trees closest to them without delay. The reason for this was simple. Because the ground quickly became a dark and muddy swamp that proved to be dangerous and lethal for those caught in it for at least an entire mile.

Many enemy shinobi were savvy enough to channel chakra to their feet and stay on top of it like water. Still though, too many of them were unable to, and sank helplessly into the chakra-infused bog that they were ensnared in.

In multiple places in the swamp, air bubbles popped up onto the surface and the horrified looks of many of the C.N.F. forces told a lot of the story that their words wouldn't. Just how many reinforcements waiting underground died from suffocation right at that moment?

Kiba could smell the shift in the atmosphere and all because of that one man, "Okay, when I'm that old I want to be that cool." He declared from where he and his teammates had attached themselves to trees for safety, "Did you all see that? Damn man."

Hinata, fortunately or unfortunately depending on one's point of view, saw everything. Jiraiya's jutsu disrupted the barrier ninjutsu that had been cast on the tunnels for security from sensors and she could see beneath the swamp, particularly at all of the bodies that were stuck inside of it.

It was pretty chilling once she thought about it, but did it work? Absolutely.

"Hm." Jiraiya said as he picked up on what effect his maneuver had on the enemy, "Damn Nagato… if I still had both of my arms this swamp would have been twice this size." He said in order to psyche out everyone that was left, "I'll just have to do better with the next one." He accentuated with a grin that radiated killing intent.

"Fall back." One of the C.N.F. forces said before fleeing back to where there was solid ground once more, "Fall back and regroup!" That couldn't be possible. The secret 'Frost Line' had been broken and had only lasted just over a month in warfare with one of the five major villages. Konoha was supposed to be fat and soft, supposed to be unable to adjust and react to tactics of other villages that lay outside of their wheelhouse of direct battle.

They had planned different trap points throughout the countryside just in case this occurred… but they never would have expected them to completely annihilate and focus on tunnels that they had no clue about. No Konoha ninja had ever seen them come into or leave from a tunnel. They had taken precautions so that even the mighty Byakugan hadn't spotted them. The tunnels had never been infiltrated, and unless they had leaks in their security there was no way they found anything out.

Jiraiya cackled loudly and fought the urge to break out into a posedown. Instead he gestured for one of the Konoha ninjas near him to take a bamboo launcher and shoot a firework into the air to signal the large amount of their comrades lying in wait to proceed and move forward. At this point they weren't going to allow them to form a defensive front again. It was going to be like a rolling wave if they had anything to say about it. A mobile war was Konoha's kind of fight.

XxX

(Meanwhile – With Naruto)

Naruto and Yugito got moving the minute Jiraiya had started calling for battalions to prepare for their roles in his battle strategy. By the time the fireworks were shot into the sky, both blonde jinchuuriki were over the river and into the territory of the enemy.

"Give me some coordinates to your village's closest team in Shimo no Kuni Yugi-chan." Naruto said as he led the way through the woods. He had created several clones to surround them on all sides further away just in case they were attacked so that they could be ready well in advance, "You're the one that should know where your people are."

"They pushed them back out of Kaminari no Kuni past the border into this country. One hundred miles east northeast." Yugito claimed as she followed behind Naruto closely, "Those were the last coordinates that Mabui sent to Konoha to tell me before we arrived here this morning." She informed him before working down the math in her head, "So that should mean… three hours at this pace if we don't get stopped?"

That sounded about right to Naruto with the pace they were cutting with their bounds through the branches of the trees, "We're not going to get stopped. Ero-kyofu and our guys are going to have that whole army falling over itself. They don't know how fast we can move as a whole army." The rear line was probably already moving forward into the boggy forest that Jiraiya had created as a matter of fact.

Yugito was honestly surprised by Konoha's tactics having never fought them in a warlike scenario herself. Her village fought differently. For large-scale international wars they would pierce directly past an enemy's defenses and then spread and branch out behind the line, separating the enemy into smaller pockets of resistance that they would then periodically crush. That was what they had started to do on the other side of the country and they were having trouble. Maybe now that the entire defensive tunnel secret had come to light they could change that once Konoha could ferry that info north. Hell, she could do it herself once Naruto got her there. Faster than a hawk that might get pinched on its way.

The Northeast contingent of the C.N.F. tried to get the jump on them and attacked first. Not a bad plan to try and take down a lumbering giant of a village, but their offensive against Kumo ran out of gas quickly and they were hit in return like it was a Lariat from the Raikage himself. Apparently they decimated their foes in the field and snatched up tons of land before running into the situation that they had met up with now. The chain of tunnels thing.

Still, Konoha had something of a rope-a-dope kind of way to work. Instead of blazing through the enemy at first touch with a crushing show of offensive force, they would play it more tentatively to avoid playing into the enemy's traps and plans, allowing them to keep their main force settled for when they eventually developed their own methods of dealing with the enemy.

Small-scale guerilla warfare followed by a monster offensive strike when a proverbial chink in the armor was found.

"Well help me get back to my comrades…" Yugito told Naruto with a smile, "…And we can smash these enemies and wrap things up here mister hero. Kiri is not needed here."

"Enough with the hero thing Yugi-chan." Naruto said with a groan. If he was a hero then his training with Root failed. Heroes died. Heroes were targets, "I'm not a hero. I've got a whole village of people in Ame that would call me a monster, and they're kind of right. More places than that too." If those places or groups that he had a hand in smashing existed any longer, "I saved you one time and that's it. I never saved anyone else from anything that wasn't my job."

Yugito just rolled her eyes with a sly look on her face, "Whatever helps you keep those eyes so blue Naruto-kun."

The two just kept rolling on through the forest with Naruto muttering at the girl at his back keeping those cat-like eyes glinting in mirth at him. Yep, because running around the tail end of a battle was just a wonderful time to banter.

XxX

(Hours Later – Nightfall – Takigakure no Sato)

No one had any idea how it happened.

One minute everything was quiet, with everything in the village that surrounded the mightiest tree on the continent being a peaceful opposite to the rest of the world at large. Then the fires were set and the explosions went off.

Every able-bodied ninja in the village of Takigakure sprang into action and began hunting down the perpetrators with extreme prejudice, but the majority of the inexperienced or untested genin were jumping at shadows.

Putting out fires was paramount, but in the panic, the Root forces found more things to sabotage, picking out the officers of the group (any ninja past the rank of genin) and taking them out. Anyone barking orders to otherwise frantic underlings caught stray weaponry to a vital area if the opportunity was present.

Still though, the battle was far from over for Taki. They had their trump hidden deep within the titanic tree that hid their village as well. If it came to that in order to win the battle, it was something that was merely going to have to be done.

With a hard look on his face, a young man with long dark brown hair wearing a Takigakure headband and the wartime uniform for his village led a trusted armed contingent of his fellow Taki shinobi and kunoichi to an altar surrounded by water that contained nothing more than a simple bottle of water.

"This is it." The young man said with a nervous sweat on his brow as he picked it up carefully in his hands, "The Hero Water."

One of the underlings moved forward to try and talk the young man down, "You're not planning on using it in a situation like this are you Shibuki-sama?"

The young man turned around abruptly with a hard look in his eyes, "I will if I have to!" He replied as he already knew the risks that came with the short-term benefits that the water gave, "The village is burning, and if it's an emergency of that caliber isn't it better to have it just in case. Just in case I or some others need to take it to fight them off? Don't you remember what happened to Fuu? No one fought, we just appeased Kakuzu and let him take her. This isn't a situation like that. There isn't any compromise here."

They looked as if they were going to argue against the water's use, but before anyone else could say anything they were all ensnared by vine-like roots from the ceiling. Some were wrapped around their waists and arms, some by their necks as if they were being hanged.

Shibuki moved to cut his leg free but when his kunai passed through nothing he placed his hands in the ram seal, "Kai!" The illusion of the killer roots faded, but the Hero Water no longer remained in his hands.

Instead it was in the hands of a pale-skinned, black-haired young man in strange black attire, accompanied by a petite, dark-haired young woman in a similar garb meant for females. From the look of her hands in a seal she was the source of the genjutsu that plagued his men. She must have also had cast a genjutsu over the two of them to follow them to that location because they were both soaked like everyone else. They had swam there to the hidden area.

Both of them were wearing plain white masks with a strange insignia on them that meant nothing to him, "Who are you? What village are you with?" Shibuki demanded to know. He needed to find a way to free his ninja, but the Hero Water was in the hands of the enemy.

That was the absolute worst case nightmare scenario for them.

"That's not important." Sai said calmly as he tucked the Hero Water safely on his person, "Just know that you conspired and made yourself enemies of a village that we are all rather fond of. Unfortunate for you."

This was not good for Takigakure. The enemy had their secret weapon, and Shibuki didn't even know who the enemy was. Setting aside the fact that outside of the great tree in the village itself it was in a state of panic. Who knew how many enemies there were?

"Maybe your successor will have the intelligence to take your village to negotiations with the G.S.A. while they still have a chance." Sai said in his ever calm voice as some of the people Maki held in her genjutsu went limp from the sensation of being strangled to death by what they thought were the ends of long, thin willow branches, "You won't be alive to find out though."

"Suiton: Suigadan (Water Release: Water Fang Bullet)!" Several spears of tightly compressed fluid erupted from the surrounding water that hid their section of the great tree from anyone else's view. Shibuki didn't need to hear any more to be spurred into fighting these strange attackers at any cost.

The aim was intended for both Maki and Sai, but both were able to evade the technique that pulverized some of the roots of the tough and massive tree that formed a floor for them to battle on. Water was a weakness of Sai's ink techniques unless he created very particular creatures, and that sort of left his hands tied.

Still though, it wasn't like between the two of them they were unable to defeat one man.

Both of them split apart and divided Shibuki's attention between the two of them. Sai had the Hero Water, thus he was deemed the more vital threat, only sparing glances at Maki to make sure she wasn't trying anything funny until he could deal with Sai first.

He hadn't noticed due to a second field cast genjutsu from Maki that his force of shinobi and kunoichi that had been with him at first were now dead. Even those with the aptitude for genjutsu to hold out eventually ran out of time and were killed by the progressively creeping branches of Maki's jutsu eventually robbing them of their air. And he also made a mistake in sparing Maki nothing more than passing glances. Even though he had two people to worry about, it was simply a battle he couldn't win.

The moment his eyes drifted towards Maki to gauge her distance and current threat level her hands flashed to a hand-seal that he got full sight of, "Juuryoku Satsujin (Gravity Killer)!" She timed him to make sure that he was in range and aim of the hand-seal so that she could link the illusion to his chakra supply.

Due to her technique, Shibuki's body felt twice as heavy as he had ever been in his life and it disrupted his movements. Sai nodded to himself and with a wave of his hand several large leeches comprised of ink launched from the water and latched onto the man before he could try and break the genjutsu.

With the weight of his arms and the leeches that weighed him down further, Shibuki struggled greatly but could not move, "Wait… my village."

"We don't care about destroying your village." Maki spat distastefully at the village leader, "As treacherous as the Akatsuki is and has been you still aligned with their leader. The same group that came and stole your jinchuuriki from you. At this point you might as well wear black with red clouds."

"-It was to bring down the five great villages to secure our own livelihoods!" Shibuki shouted back, "We've been stuck between two of them for years. Taki was at its closest relationship a buffer for Konoha against Iwa!

Sai just shook his head in turn, "Remember that Konoha is the only reason that Takigakure wound up with the Nanabi in its possession to begin with; as a show of goodwill after the failed attack on our Hokage by Kakuzu that we knew was orchestrated by you. Otherwise Konoha would have wound up with two jinchuuriki instead of one much like Kumo. I believe it's time to get our return back for that goodwill." He said as he held up the bottle.

Shibuki's eyes widened at that and he thrashed harded, but with the leeches on him and with Maki's genjutsu weighing him down he could do nothing, "You're from Konoha?"

"Sai-senpai." Maki started to say until Sai nodded and silenced her.

"At best it will be a bargaining chip to broker your village's surrender, at worst it will be something that we can study and try to turn into a more productive weapon for our own ninja force." Sai said in regards to the Hero Water before making a hand-seal, "I've said too much, but it's not like you're going to be around to tell anyone else." With that done, both he and Maki dropped back into the water and departed the way they had come.

A sound akin to a fuse burning down alerted Shibuki's attention to explosive tags attached to Sai's ink leeches, burning down to his demise alone in the depths of the tree.

XxX

(Shimo no Kuni – With Naruto and Yugito)

A rather familiar scene, as both Naruto and Yugito were together in the night running through the trees. Only this time there was no breaking for camp due to others or anything like that. It was to be a straight shot to wherever Yugito's comrades were.

An open clearing attracted their attention and they began to move toward it, only for Yugito to speed up when she realized that it was the kind of layout that was taught to be used by Kumo when in the field. Whether it was excitement or not that sped her up, Naruto couldn't tell, but he had to keep ahead of her.

And it was a good thing that he did, because upon arriving in the Kumo camp it looked terrible. Dozens of dead littered the ground, blood stained the sides of existing tents. There were remnants of fires all over, kunai, swords, and other weapons sticking out of the ground blade-first and other signs of battle all over.

"What the hell…" Yugito trailed off upon seeing it as she began to walk through the place, "What happened?" She asked rhetorically. It wasn't as if anyone could answer her. Did they camp in a bad position and get destroyed by the enemy?

No, it wasn't like that. Because there were no signs of battle in the woods surrounding the camp, it was all contained mostly within. Even if it had been an ambush, for the C.N.F. to get a good amount in they would have still had to deal with Kumo after their surprise attack had been launched. Even a perfect storm of an attack would have done so.

There was no sign of the enemy either to boot. Everyone on the ground dead happened to be a Kumo ninja. That was what was really unbelievable, that not a single enemy had been felled in the course of their attack? Absurd.

"Yugi-chan." Naruto said as they started scrutinizing the wounds that defeated their comrades, "Do you see that?"

Both of them got good looks at more than a few of the dead. A large amount of those that had been killed had been wounded from directly behind with fairly little notice of a struggle, "Yeah. A lot of our guys didn't even draw their swords before they went down." It was rather hard for her to see so many of them like that, but it wasn't like she hadn't expected to see something like it eventually as the war had begun.

"Yugito!"

Hearing her name called out, Yugito turned and breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a rather haggard-looking Kumo kunoichi limping her way toward them, "Oh, so there are survivors…" She said, sounding absolutely relieved, "What happened?"

"I don't know." The female Kumo ninja said as she walked closer, "One minute everything was calm and the next, bam. I've never seen anything like it."

Yugito frowned despite the vague explanation. Maybe if she had been there something could have been done to prevent such a thing from happening. The bodies that she had counted numbered far past one hundred and she hadn't even been all the way through the camp yet. Naruto was still checking out bodies for any sign of what happened to them in the mystery attack.

But if there was one survivor there could have been more. That was Yugito's mindset as she pasted a smile on her face to stay stronger for her injured comrade, "Well I'm just glad that Mabui was able to get a message through from Kumo to Konoha so I could come back home… now at least I can fight too."

The Kumo kunoichi looked stunned at what she had just heard, "She got a message through to Konoha? Wow. That's impressive to get correspondence through this hell of a mess."

Yugito raised an eyebrow at the strange response. Everyone in Kumo knew about Mabui's impressive jutsu that allowed her to send messages and materials at the speed of light. Something like that shouldn't have been surprising at all to anyone other than a genin, and the flak jacket that the girl in front of her wore showed that she was at least a chunin. She had seen that girl around Kumo before though, so she knew of her.

Still though, something didn't feel right.

Yugito turned around to get Naruto's attention, "Naruto-kun, I think we should keep mov-." Only to find that Naruto was no longer there. And once her back was turned her 'comrade' had drawn a weapon, intent on stabbing it into her back. Only to have her arm cut off by Naruto's descending heirloom sword before it could be accomplished.

A stunned Yugito jumped away as blood sprayed from the stump that used to be the kunoichi's arm and she let out a shriek of a pained cry, "What?" She had been attacked like that by her own village member? At that point she could only see red until the 'kunoichi' fell to her knees on the ground clutching the part of her arm that used to have something attached. At that point 'she' turned into one of those weird, white plant-humans that she and Naruto had fought the previous night, "These things again?"

That was not a normal Henge. When you got close enough to someone you could feel the disruption of their physical transformation as they bent physics and reality to execute it depending on how drastic a transformation the Henge created.

Not in the mood for any more games, Yugito's nails elongated into claws that she was prepared to use to slash the white plant man's head off, had Naruto not snatched up the strange being by the throat with one hand, "I know where I remember your description from now!" Naruto said as he choked the unfortunate creature, "It took months, but Konoha T&I pulled a description like yours out of the memories in Hidan's head and two of my friends saw you with someone else in Akatsuki some time back… you had a black half though, Zetsu."

"What are you talking about?" Yugito asked, letting her nails retract. At least until Naruto let that ugly fucker go. Then he was all hers to carve up like a scratching post.

"You're in Akatsuki." Naruto concluded with a stone-cold glare before turning to Yugito and pointing at the White Zetsu in his grip, "These things are from Akatsuki. They even talked about capturing us…"

But not for Pein, "…Who is Tobi?" Yugito asked, narrowing her eyes at the artificial soldier in Naruto's hand, "I remember them using that name that this person told them not to kill us. I don't think the 'God of Amegakure' would let himself be called something like that." She shot an amused glance Naruto's way at his snort towards Pein's epithet.

The White Zetsu in Naruto's grasp looked fearful before grinning at him despite being strangled, "I'm not Zetsu… I'm just a clone. A body double. And where there's one of me-." He tried to say, lifting his remaining arm up threateningly before Naruto's grip broke his neck.

Naruto tossed the dead White Zetsu to the ground in a heap just as many more of them started coming up from the ground as if they were spirits of the earth. Both Naruto and Yugito stood back-to-back to keep the enemy from getting behind either of them as Yugito wasted no time and started generating a chakra cloak around her body, "I think he was going to say something about how where there's one of him there's a bunch more."

And there were a bunch more. Hundreds more.

Without saying a word to each other internally, Naruto and the Kyuubi synched up and started collecting and controlling nature chakra for Sage Mode to make this as painlessly destructive as possible.

"Stop."

All of the White Zetsus froze at the order and backed away as a space was cleared and through them walked Tobi in all of his masked glory, accompanied by the original Zetsu with black and white sides.

He stopped intelligently a safe distance within his hordes of White Zetsus and looked over the jinchuurki pair, "Hello Yugito Nii… Naruto Uzumaki." Behind his mask his eyes passed over Naruto last, "I believe you have some things that should be my property."