Darkest Night Hidden in The Leaf (9)

"Looks pretty desolate without people, eh?" Nawaki smiles at Kakashi, both of them stationed within the Senju Compound. Everyone is evacuated from the area, revealing that the expected threat to Konoha is no laughing matter. The next Senju successor also realizes why Tsunade took a more significant part of the recent month to brutalize him to the inch of his life daily.

'She must have known it,' Nawaki narrows his eyes as he leans against the cylindrical tank on a rooftop with a masked Kakashi a few skips away, maintaining his silence. 'Is it the Hyuga Affair? It isn't a coincidence that the village evacuated the civilians on the same day of the meeting. Does the Hyuga Clan harbor traitors?'

He thinks little about it before dropping the issue altogether.

Since Tsunade is leading defense within the village, she isn't utilizing teams of three to carry out her task. After all, shinobi must spread in various spots within Konoha and in moderate numbers to deal with or stall the enemies. Putting strangers in teams for missions isn't really an issue as long as the administration decides on one leader. This time, however, Tsunade is the team leader of a significantly large group of shinobi and Anbu members.

Tsunade herself isn't in the Senju Compound. She's stationed herself near the Hospital to carry out emergency medical operations if need be upon essential personnel.

"Hmm?"

Nawaki and Kakashi look at the sky at almost the same time. Their senses screech at the back of their minds in a sharp alarm.

"Oh," Nawaki blinks at the sight of the hurtling mountain before regaining his calmness.

"What kind of reaction is that?" Kakashi finally questions as the young Chunin's lips wobble under his black mask.

"I've trained all I can," Nawaki scoffs with a bitter smirk. "So, instead of panicking and leaving our stations, we might as well figure out a way to survive if Konoha doesn't already have a plan for it."

"Ground Mole Jutsu?" Kakashi ventures an idea.

"The impact would likely tear us underground." Nawaki shakes his head. "Hmm, summoning a flying beast. That could work. The summoner can handle the shockwaves with a well-timed Fuiton."

"Do you have such a summon?" Kakashi questions.

"Oh, nah," Nawaki shrugs. "I don't have any summons yet. I thought of snakes when Orochi-sensei taught me, but his summon barely listened to him."

"So… we die?" Kakashi blanks out. He didn't plan for death after such a peaceful conversation as a mass of land hurls in Konoha's direction.

"Maybe Kushina can get a bijudama in," Nawaki crosses his arms, "Let's wait. I don't believe Konoha will fall in the initial attack. It would be a shame to my Grandfather's name."

Kakashi regains his silence as the duo watches the meteor getting devoured by lotus-like converging strings of seals, warping it out of Konoha. And not long after, they feel the trembling phase through them as another Bijudama explodes far behind Mount Kage.

And that's when shit hits the fan.

Several tens of, if not close to mid-hundreds, chakra signatures infiltrate the village, setting the highest of alarms as the battle starts from one corner of Konoha before expanding to other regions!

Nawaki and Kakashi get moving, too, as the battle reaches the gates of the Senju Compound.

*Shiing*

Kakashi slashes away multiple shurikens and engages a teen chunin on the roof of a toy store, while Nawaki's attack is startingly vicious after his relentless training. He sees no reason to match the enemy's strength and instead breaks the Kumo Shinobi's sword with his chakra-enhanced one!

"Wha—?!" The Kumo shinobi's eyes widen as Nawaki uses a well-placed Chakra-enhanced impact like Tsunade, his fist driving through the enemy's chainmail and bursting through his heart. Pulling his fist the next second, Nawaki lets out a soft snarl as he grabs the fidgeting enemy at death's door before chugging it to the sky instead of another Kumo shinobi facing Konoha's colors.

*Boooommmmm*

The corpse explodes aloud, striking momentary fear in other Konoha shinobi who are a step too late in killing their enemies. The Konoha shinobi instantly put some distance themselves from the enemy.

Kakashi meanwhile cleaves through his opponent in time and tosses the corpse high in the sky.

But—

*Splatter*

—the corpse lands on the ground with a wet splatter instead of exploding.

Yet this simple deceit does not deter the Konoha chunins and jonins.

"Kill them and toss 'em high!" Nawaki shouts an impromptu order as the battle regains its initial ferocity!

Fierce clashes of metal and jutsus rage the rooftops of the Senju Compound as thin alleys are an inconvenience to Konoha and Kumo shinobi all the same in such a fast-paced all-out conflict. Bodies from both side fall, and sometimes they explode!

Nawaki chooses to wield his chakra sword by channeling his wind-release chakra and using his chakra-enhanced taijutsu to deal with enemies and their Jutsu. But Genjutsu is always an issue. This aspect of chakra never fails to devour a fraction of the target's second, making their bodies sluggish for just a breath to create a sly window of opportunity!

Nawaki faces just that.

His sword comes in contact with a blindingly fast lightning-enhanced blade, but the lightning-release chakra falters in the wake of Nawaki's wind-release chakra. It does not matter, however.

The youth's expression blanks out for a second, and a team of five flickers around him at speeds no worse than elites!

Nawaki breaks the Genjutsu within that second, but his eyes briefly widen as seals are planted on him from five different directions, sealing his chakra and effectively paralyzing him in the spot!

"We got—" The short-haired redhead smirks when he turns around to grab a tiny figure by his neck. "You retarded punk!" The enemy slams Kakashi into the ground, his grip only a breath from breaking Kakashi's neck as his body explodes in a plume of smoke, revealing a shattered plank of wood!

C narrows his eyes as his team finds themselves surrounded by a squad of varied canine ninkens.

"Oh, Kakashi-kun," drawls the brown-furred pug with Konoha's forehead protector on his head as he sprawls on the young chunin's head, "They look mighty dangerous."

The other ninkens of various sizes and breeds growl at the surrounded enemy at once, their bodies crouching in a fierce position—ready to pounce.

"They are," Kakashi narrows his eyes, observing the hulking redhead before looking at the middle-aged blonde, holding a small pot—with a 'Seal' tag planted on its surface—in his hand, ready to seal Nawaki in a second.

"Kakashi Hatake," The blonde blinks and looks at the occupied shinobi by surging Kumo numbers targeting Senju Compound. The three Shinobi, other than the redhead, the supposed team leader, and the slated grey-haired dark-skinned shinobi, attack Kakashi and his summons the moment C targets their obstruction. The blonde shinobi seals Nawaki the next second inside the bronze pot.

*Ruff*

*Woof*

Loud barks fill the already noisy battlefield as the ninkens fare less than sufficiently against three Jonins working with extraordinary coordination. Kakashi can only move based on his summon—Pakkun's—enhanced senses and directions.

But that is not to say that his ninkens are dead.

'I just need to stall—' Kakashi belatedly realizes the remaining three have retreated from the battlefield long ago!

Nawaki is gone!

---

Mikoto huffs in exhaustion as she sharply swipes her chokuto mid-air to clean the layer of blood on her blade and sheathes it while her Sharingan-enhanced sensory skills take stock of her surroundings.

*Sniff*

She ignores the stifled sniff of wet nostrils and calmly crouches near a bleeding police chunin, an Inuzuka Clansman, she notes.

"Please-" the man gasps, a nasty, non-fatal gash on his face profusely bleeding as Mikoto presses her healing hands near his waist. "Please, not me!" He snarls, "My Nin- save her!"

"Your Ninken is dead," Mikoto informs, suppressing every bit of compassion and empathy in her voice. It's not compassion that will douse her patient's outburst but a shower of cold words. Knowing Inuzuka Clansmen through Tsume, Mikoto understands how much a Ninken means to their shinobi partner. But conflicts of this scale rarely speare others' feelings.

The Inuzuka's lone eye widens in despair before he silently plants his head back on the ground, his voice leaking briefly, "Don't save me."

"You may slice your neck with your kunai later if you're still up for it," Mikoto keeps it short, recognizing the man as one of the more prominent braggarts wanting to make things difficult for her after Mikoto had her initial team suspended for not following orders. That event wasn't anything permanent. It was more like a calm pond on the surface, finally enduring ripples from the stone Mikoto acted as.

The shinobi stares at Mikoto for a short while before closing his eyes, "Can you… bring Alolo to me? I can't feel my legs."

Mikoto calmly nods and gently picks up the nearby beige-furred Ninken's badly torn corpse without an ounce of disgust before bringing it near the paralyzed shinobi and moving on to heal someone else. She is only dealing with emergency treatment because she can, but these Shinobi will have to bear proper treatments in the hospital later on.

The numbers of Konoha survivors are high without a doubt, as there are other surviving Medical-Nins in Mikoto's known as Tsunade's disciples helping others out, and Mikoto returns to her only teammate after a minute or two.

She stands behind Kiri, who notices her presence and rubs his nose and eyes with the back of his arm before sealing the bodies of their other two teammates.

"They had no right saving me," Kiri sullenly mutters as he recalls with his head hanging low how Jozu and his wife saved him before a sneak attack from one of the two kumo Jonins almost ended him.

"It was their job to help out, right?" Mikoto looks at others starting to seal their Clansmen's corpses to be processed later. Most of them, like the Uchihas, will be burned to ashes alongside their eyes.

"No, it was my job as their leader to lead them!" Kiri snaps his head back in Mikoto's direction with a furious glare, his sharingan actively rotating as he glowers, "What kind of leader lets his follower die?!"

"The better question is," Mikoto's emotions leak a tiny bit, "What kind of leader is saved by his followers in the thick of it." A smile graces her face, a stunningly sad one. "A good leader."

Kiri's lips wobble, his nose prickling again, but he refuses to accept things as they are, "Of course, you would say that! You and Fugaku are trying to make me into your pawn!" He lashes out at the younger woman, "Stop trying to work me! Alright?!" His outburst attracts others' attention as they work with their heads lowered, as some of the surviving Uchiha members know Kiri and Mikoto all too well.

"If possible, I would have tried saving you three, too," Mikoto admits softly and adds, "But things are far from over. I cannot let you wallow in your anger and sadness. We all will have our time to mourn later."

Kiri grits his jaws as he quietly stands and pockets the scroll, "Save me? What a joke," he hisses. "You only care about your political agendas. I can't believe I… I looked up to you."

He stares at Mikoto harshly, who returns a quiet gaze.

"You will have time to mourn later," Mikoto conceals her emotions with a sharp intent as she turns around, "As will I. Now, follow me. We are going to assist in other points of the battle."

Kiri takes in a deep breath and clenches his fist as he follows after Mikoto silently.

---

To Kai's credit, despite not showing himself, he has tried helping on various battlefields by smacking the enemies at the back of their heads, low-ranked Genjutsu to stall the enemies for a second or two, and even throwing the enemies off-balance using cheap trips lick tripping them mid-battle. These tricks might be cheap, but these tricks have been supremely beneficial in the hands of his miniature wood clones.

Again, however, this is the conflict between the best of the two villages.

While Kai doubts Kumo went as far as exhausting their Jonins and elites in this attack, they certainly did not stinge on their quantity and quality.

Raising Shinobi is an expensive affair despite the Shinobi Villages specializing in this line of business. And this is saying a lot since Hiruzen consented to some early graduations from the academy with the intent of older Shinobi passing on their skills as soon as possible—The Third Hokage's fears realized today.

Kai couldn't risk getting caught while continuing his shenanigans, so he watches Nawaki getting captured, but the idea of informing Tsunade isn't lost on him. And that's what he does. After all, Tsunade is capable of forming five wood clones, too. She is more than capable of dealing with the enemies and handling the Hospital by herself.

What Kai cannot do, however, is witness his father-in-law getting killed by an assassin, whose ingenuity Kai has to appreciate. After all, Mikoto will be too busy taking care of Sarachi and consoling Kyo to give him the time of her day. Well, maybe there's also the fact that the assassination of his father-in-law is too personal to ignore. This situation cannot be compared to his future brother-in-law's captivity—apples and oranges right there.

Not to mention Yata is the only one with whom Kai shared his [Heavenly Blessing-Earthly Restriction] Seal.

So, Yata simply cannot die. But in light of keeping things close to his chest, Kai cannot stick around after blocking this attack, not if he understands the assassin's true identity.

Kai's clone instantly activates the same Jutsu as the enemy, finding his speed equal to the assassin as lightning zaps around his miniature form, blazing past the bounds of common sense and acting as a small bullet that strikes the man's temple only to find the power in his body lacking compared to the enemy's raw stats… and that's saying something!

---

[Summoning Jutsu: Monkey King's Parade]!

*Poof*

*Poof*

*Poof*

*Poof*

Plumes of smoke burst from hundreds of spots around the forest as several giggling, laughing, capping, and hooting monkey summons appear around Onoki in the woods above the Konoha Prison, not far from the raging battle between the Konoha Police and Kumo Shinobi.

The sight of all the monkey summons wearing Konoha forehead protectors made Onoki's gaze stern.

It's no secret that summons don't usually share allegiance to one specific Shinobi Village unless it's cases like Takigakure housing their summons within their perimeters. But some animal clans not found in the land of Five Elements pledge their allegiance to one Shinobi Village. Hiruzen's monkey summons is a prominent example of it. This clan only pledged its allegiance to Konoha once Hiruzen adopted the role of Hokage, and the Sarutobi Clan has been an ancient patron of the Monkey Clan.

But the Sarutobi Clan isn't the only clan with such ties to the Animal Kingdoms originating from unknown, nigh-legendary locations like the undiscovered Shikkotsu Forest.

[Summoning Jutsu: Stinger's Choice]!

Onoki summons hundreds of hornets, wasps, and bees as small as full-fledged dogs to as large as two-storied houses! The loud noise of buzzing bees and screeching monkeys instantly fills the section of the woods, but before Hiruzen and Onoki command an attack, their bodies still, and their heads whip in the same direction towards the spot where police members are battling Kumo shinobi.

'That chakra!' Onoki and Hiruzen reveal gloomy looks before Hiruzen hisses, "Let's end it here!"

Onoki chuckles darkly, more furious than ever. After all, he now realizes how THAT Kage made a fool out of him.

"No," Onoki waves his hand, "Just as well! I'll deal with the two of you today and ruin Konoha for good!"

The swarm of bugs instantly display their stingers and zip into their enemies while Enma's rough snarl echoes, "Get'em!"

"Houuuuuuuuuu!"

All the monkeys roar simultaneously and transform into various adamantine weapons as the nearby monkey hold their brethren and wield them, sometimes exchanging spots by turning into weapons themselves and letting the previous members wield them instead!

Meanwhile, the bugs use toxic gas, venomous spits, obviously dangerous stingers, and sharp steel-like wings!

---

Fugaku's kunai stabs through the enemy's skull and tears out from the back of the corpse's head, lightning still dancing around the metal, only to hit a well-timed shuriken that ricochets the kunai into another unsuspecting shinobi's throat.

The corpses of enemies and allies carpet the region around the police building. It's a horrible scene of carnage with blood splattered on destroyed walls, busted stores, and torn streets; Smoke rise from various spots after several attacks. The battle rages even now, and Fugaku can understand why Kumogakure would focus on the Uchihas.

The clan of crimson-eyed killers had cost Kumo a pretty dime in the last war: A threat Kumo won't sideline.

But one thing is clear to Fugaku as he evades another jutsu only to complete his hand-seals and let out a current of blue lightning shaped into a coiling serpent zapping past his enemy and leaving a charred corpse in its wake—An Uchiha is taking out three of the enemies of their level, at least!

And this number is for Chunins with one tomoe sharingan. There have only been four deaths in the case of Uchihas with fully-awakened Sharingan, and teammates of the fallen Uchiha promptly seal the corpses in fear of Sharingan falling into the wrong hands.

Yata is not far from Fugaku, his skillful swordplay striking fear in the hearts of the surviving elites—elites employed to target the Uchiha Patriarch specifically. But Fugaku can notice more.

He notices wisps of purplish chakra materializing around Yata like a phantom and disappearing that very second to disrupt the enemy's attacks, leading to a chain of trouble if Yata blocks or dodges using conventional means.

Fugaku turns to look at the other side as he finishes the enemy on his side, sensing Mikoto's chakra making its way in their direction to help, he assumes.

'She's already dealt with enemies on her side? Impressive speed—'

Fugaku's eyes widen as he feels a sense of death dancing over his head. His breathing turns sluggish momentarily as he hears the tiniest crackle of lightning whizzing past his ear. The thin arc of blue lightning is admittedly faster than the sound projected from the strange Jutsu, colliding with a phenomenally enormous beast of lightning suddenly transforming from one of the supposed corpses.

*Thuck*

The dull echo booms as a heart-chilling shockwave spreads from the collision, turning the pool of blood and gore into a massive tide of death as every other shinobi distance themselves from the region, including Yata, whom the immense concentration of chakra was aiming for.

*Piiter*

*Piiter*

*Piiter*

Chunks of gore and droplets of blood rain down on everyone in a bloody drizzle as a hunk of a man stands in the middle of the enemies and allies alike, surrounded by a crackling coat of blue chakra and lighting—a rather shocked look on his otherwise stony features.

Yata gulps quietly. The tinge of fear in his heart is quickly suppressed as he takes this chance to attack his nearest enemy, but the area in front of him shifts suddenly, and his blade breaks against the arm of the dark-skinned, lightning-coated beast.

"Still not fast enough," Yata groans under his breath, his body already distancing from the enemy. And to his fortune, the enemy doesn't give chase. Instead, he looks around as if trying to locate someone.

'The user of that smaller attack,' Fugaku realizes immediately and takes stock of his surroundings, too, not minding a few chunks of flesh in his hair.

***

Alternate Title: Capture the Senju; Kakashi With His Dawgs; Informing Tsunade; The Senju Countdown Begins; Losses on Both Sides; A Good Leader is Saved By The Followers; A Bad One Encounter Mutiny; Ninken's Death; Mikoto's Petty Grudges Fade Overtime; Coldness Beyond Compassion; The Loving Clan's Fury; Animal Kingdoms Collide; The Third Kage; Kai Avoiding Magekyo Bad End for Mikoto; Yata is Important… for Reasons; A Scene of Massacre; Logistics on this is Going to go Ballistics!; Fear-Evoking Elite; Yata Doesn't Play Fair; Helping Out Where One Can; Lightning Mode; Stopping a Beast; True Hard-Skinned Emerges!

***

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