Ch. 7 The Leaf Isn't that weak!

Back in the village, the others still fought against the horde of hollows. With their new formations based on what Yoriichi said they were seeing progress now, but they had plenty of work to do to save the village.

"There's no end to them!" Inouchi, Choza and Shikaku's blonde haired partner exlaims.

"We have to hold them here. Minato has his hands full already." Choza replies.

"Easier said than done. These things are far from weak!" Shikaku says as a they dispatch another.

"Dark breathing first form: Midnight slash." Yami yells as his silhouette appears in the air with the shining moon at his back. The hollow blinded by the moonlight couldn't react to the blade coated in darkness as it cleaved off the top half of it's head with one powerful horizontal swing. The ninja it grasped drops down to the ground, but his body is already a mangled mess from the monster's powerful grip. "This isn't the time to be slowing down! The villagers, are depending on us to win! No one else is gonna come help, we gotta wipe our own asses! If you're not strong enough to hold out, then SURPASS YOUR LIMITS! HERE AND NOW!" The young Yami yells while releasing his reishi en masse to bear down on his surroundings as Yoriichi previously did. Then as quickly as he showed up, he dives back into the fighting. His dark release kekkei genkai combined with dark breathing is an inspiring sight to the ninja watching him cleave through hollow after hollow. He too was drenched in blood and sweat breathing heavily, but he showed no signs of stopping.

"Yeah!!! Look at him go! It's our turn to strike!" A jonin shouts.

"We're lead Shinobi! We can't let a few kids do all the heavy lifting, especially defending our home!" Another ninja exclaims.

"We'll crush these monsters!" Soon all of the scattered ninja were finding their second wind. They attacked the hollows with a newfound determination.

"The kid raised morale this much by himself! Impressive…" says Shikaku in awe of the boy's prowess, the new generation was showing some real promise. Maybe his own boy would grow to be some kind of genius as well. With an excited smile he puts those thoughts to the back of his mind as he knows this is no time to be standing around. He immediately gets back into gear commanding the nearby fighters as an organized unit.

.....

"Earth Style: mud wall!" Hiruzen spits out a great torrent of mud that rises into a giant wall blocking an oncoming cero. He blocked that cero, but several more of the beasts were charging up attacks and aiming at the village. The old former hokage had already made his mind up to give his life fighting those things to protect his village. However, the way it was looking he was just going to become another casualty almost solely because of their numbers. His squad of anbu were only able to do so much to help. He rushed to think of a way to stop all of them when…

"Fire style great fire annihilation!" Fugaku yells as he unleashed a sea of flame devouring three of the Gillian that were bunched up. He drops in with a barrage of explosive kunai all over another hollow's face before it's head is blown clean off. "Lord third! I've come to assist you! Yami is continuing to go fight alongside the others!" As the two elite ninja continue to cut the hollows down, a single gillian with a unique mask breaks off from the group and flees. Fugaku moves to stop it but a small hollow with all red skin and a ogre like mask, strikes at him with a spiked club. 'According to the notes Yami got from Yo, that one should be a higher grade of hollow. An aduchas.'

"Hahaha! You two look like the tastiest souls in the area. Once I devour you two, I'll make short work of the rest of this miserable place. My lord will definitely give me a promotion after this!"

"This one is capable of speech?!" Hiruzen asks, clearly stunned by this unique hollow.

"Damn! Lord third I'll handle this one, he's much stronger than the rest!" Fugaku had previously thought Yo was only a little bit stronger than Itachi, but from what he saw tonight his son may be weaker than the entirety of team Kushina. Those sword styles alone gave them an incredible edge, not to mention they all have unheard of kekkei genkai at their disposal. They mixed the two fluidly creating techniques with Elite Join to low kage level destructive power. "Please hurry and send someone after that straggler, it's heading towards one of the civilian hiding places!" When he said this to Hiruzen, he looked back with eyes showing his Mangekyo Sharingan. He was forced to reveal it in this battle, as the stakes continued to rise. "I will stop these Hollows here, you take your team and go ahead!" With that a black susano'o spreads out like flames, A skeletal hand forms and reaches out to stop the cero a distant Gillian's released.

"Oooh that's an interesting technique, lets see what it can do!" The aduchas motions the group of gillian forward, to test the limits of the avatar made of chakra.

"Hmmph, begone foul hollows! Amaterasu!" He gazes at the group of oncoming gillian as a stream of blood fell from his eyes like tears. Suddenly they all burst into black flames burning them badly, and they can't put it out no matter what they do. In their panicked frenzy they start to smash into each other, spreading it further as they writhe in pain. The higher level hollow seized this moment of chaos to attack, but he was repelled by a giant staff slamming across his face knocking him into the ground with a great impact.

"We'll take this last one together Fugaku! I sent the Anbu to the stop the one who fled. They should be more than enough for just the one." Hiruzen declares with the authority of the village's leader.

"Thank you Lord third." Fugaku sighs with relief, as he deactivates the susano'o and spins a kunai in his hand, staring down the hollow who climbs out of the rubble.

...

Back where the civilians are, Itachi has become a defunct leader, as most of the kids and a few adults were more than willing to follow him. Mikoto held Sasuke, and Izumi held Benimaru as they helped guide the group through hidden passageways to a safer place.

'I was under the impression this village was supposed to be safe?!? Will I get out of diapers before I die again dammit?!' Baby Benimaru thinks to himself getting more worked up with each explosion outside. As a baby there isn't much he can do to express himself and his frustration comes out as crying. There wasn't any wailing but constant flow of angry tears.

"Everything will be fine Benimaru. Your brother is out there fighting, and he's stronger than anyone knows." Itachi says from the side as he keeps a watchful eye on the group, never straying too far from Sasuke and Benimaru. If all else failed, he must protect those two. Should he save Sasuke alone, Yoriichi may very well kill them both. Itachi alone knows the true extent of the madness hiding behind that smile. As he was lost in thought he heard screams, only to look back to see one of those hollows known as a gillian smashing through a wall. It snatches up a genin who was aiding them, and devours him body and soul. The whole place immediately breaks into chaos as people stampede to get out of harms way. They had no regard for each other in that moment, a man bumps Izumi and Beni to the ground. Luckily, she turned while falling landing on her back leaving Benimaru unharmed.

'Come on Sage! If you want my life, you're taking your precious time going about it! These half-hearted attempts are getting old!' Thinks baby Beni to himself. At this point he has already accepted that he may die tonight. His elder brother isn't there, and no one here looks like they can kill this hollow. His fate is completely out of his control right now. 'If only I was a few years older, I could defeat this abominable thing…alas this is most likely the end…Is this brief life but a cosmic joke?!'

When Itachi sees Izumi and Benimaru almost squashed it finally ignites the fighting spirit within him. He just wants to protect his family, and to do so he wasn't going to be able to hold anything back. His Sharingan activates to show a single tomoe spinning adding another, but don't mistake that for being the end. He unfurls a scroll and releases it. With a puff of smoke, a sword appears, a sword made by Yo specifically for Itachi. A sword he never let anyone know he owned, not even Shisui his most dear friend. It was his most closely kept secret. Now the time to show its power has come.

'So chakra affects them but it doesn't seem to do real damage without high level jutsu. Yo's spirit attacks do much more damage to them, but I think natural energy may be a bane to these creatures. Their sword techniques seems to be the most effective form of attack so far. Those 'dances' Yoriichi would call them.' Itachi thinks trying to steel his nerves. The hollow doesn't even give Itachi any attention as it grabs another genin, and bites him in half. The fearful citizens trying to escape pour out into the streets. The hollow chasing after them was attacking wildly with no real target, just killing all it can.

Itachi uses the body flicker technique to appear near the hollow, he sees that it is distracted reaching for another genin. A girl he recognizes from the Inuzaka clan in their generation. The clan matriarch's daughter to be exact. She was one of Yo's many friends across the village, and she was among the children he'd frequently invite to play. She was trying to free someone from fallen rubble before the encroaching hollow reaches them. Her three tiny ninja wolves, pups really, growl and bark at the hollow ready to protect her, but they'd be slaughtered if it reached them. "Bakudo no. four: Hainawa," quickly gathering reishi in his hands Itachi creates and throws a rope that immobilizes the hollow. It struggles wildly to break free but it is too late. "Moon breathing: Sixth Form: Perpetual Night, Lonely Moon – Incessant," following a deep breath Itachi releases a wild storm of slashes in multiple directions. The hollow is shredded to pieces in the midst of a rain of blade lights that look like a storm of falling crescent moons.

"T-thanks Itachi… I wasn't sure if we were getting out of that one in one piece haha." She exhales a sigh of relief as her nin-dog trio bark their gratitude to Itachi. "It looks like you have a surefire way to kill those things. I'll help look after the injured, you go give em' hell!"

Itachi merely nodded approval. He was shocked at how effective the technique turned out to be, Itachi knew now he could help more so he begins his own hollow hunt never straying too far from the two infants.

'Hahahah This great Benimaru lives! Ha take that Sage if you want me to die come do it yourself! I see my family's talent is nothing to scoff at!' Benimaru gloats forgetting his nihilism from five minutes ago.