56

Chapter 55: Up in Smoke

It had only taken one more day for the Suna party out to collect Gaara, including Kankuro and Temari, to make it back to Sunagakure itself. With his own role in stopping Gaara from rushing off to try and rip Amegakure into ruins, Naruto was along for the ride and thus he bore witness to the devastation that Pein was capable of.

Buildings were rubble, not a single thing in the valley that the village sat in was untouched. Many shinobi, chunin rank and higher, had been killed with Pein's one Shinra Tensei. Luckily many civilians were able to reach safe points in the valley walls before the catastrophic attack was launched. There were still a great number that hadn't made it however, and the death toll had reached upwards of seven thousand and was still climbing as more bodies were being discovered even then.

Naruto himself had been helping with the unearthing process and had seen his share of disturbing sights in Root, but the sight of several dead children and one Suna genin probably on their way to an evacuation safety point was what that stuck with him for the three days he had been in Suna trying to do what he could for the time being.

It hadn't taken too much longer than one day for Konoha to mobilize a relief group to head to their ally's aid to try and assist any way they could. Copious amounts of medic-nin were sent along with a few doton ninjutsu specialists and a lot of genin to assist in trying to bolster what they could of Suna's defenses in the meantime while things were being sorted out.

It had also come with a message for Naruto himself; to get his ass back to Konoha at the earliest convenience so that they could begin preparing for the war appropriately. He would head out in the morning as it was then sundown in the ruined desert village and he hadn't received his marching orders until that afternoon.

He was currently sitting on a crate outside of one of the medical tent that had been set up as a makeshift hospital until the grounds could be cleared and another hospital could be built soon. Inside he could see all of the medics from both Suna and Konoha, including Sakura and Shizune, both of whom were sent and had been invaluable for their skills in healing injured survivors.

Barely paying attention to the footsteps coming his way, Naruto turned his head to see Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon walking up to him, all three of them frowning deeply and looking rather haggard from the work they had been doing since being dispatched to help, "What kind of person could do this Boss?" Konohamaru asked, "I heard it was done by one guy."

Udon chose to follow up on his teammate's statement, "From the sky… he squashed everything down here with just his chakra. How are there people like that in the world?" They had been around for two days and had borne witness to exactly what certain people were capable of. It seemed more like the work of monsters or a sort of divine punishment than the acts of a man. Of course the fact that they had never personally seen exactly what lengths a ninja's skill could reach also added to this.

The fact of the matter was; with enough chakra, the right hand-seals, and the appropriate blood running through one's veins… pretty much anything was possible.

"I wish I could tell you." What was Naruto supposed to say to a bunch of kids about what they were observing firsthand? They weren't him. This was the first any of them were seeing of the actual destruction that could be wrought by a man that was powerful enough. Hearing the stories and seeing them firsthand let them know that most stories of shinobi legends were not exaggeration, "Some of us can cut through a bolt of lightning with our jutsu, some of us can create an entire forest with a single move, and then there's things like this."

The sorrow on Moegi's face, he wished that he didn't have to see it. But he knew that she wasn't the only one and she wasn't the worst off at all. There were kids her age all over Suna that had one hundred times the anguish that she did, "What's the point? What did Sunagakure ever do to Amegakure?"

"I wish I could say…" Naruto said, his blue eyes gazing straight ahead into the tent in front of him with a thousand-yard stare, "…I wish I could say that that you're never going to see anything like this again. But I'd be lying to you if I did. You all know that we're going to war right?" All three genin nodded, "Unless you get promoted you're probably not going to see the frontlines, but you're going to see battle aftermaths just like this. Worse than this actually."

Genin would not be openly used in engagements. It was commonplace because in an actual conflict most genin would be little more than cannon fodder and would cause more deaths then their presence would prevent. Thus those that weren't used to keep things on the homefront settled and actually saw the fields of battle were stuck with jobs like rear echelon work unless the line broke and then all bets were off.

At least that was what had been gleamed from Danzo's teachings… maybe protocol changed since the last war, but he doubted it. For all of the advancements in ninja life over the last twenty years, pitched combat in general didn't change much at all; still following the same blueprint that had been lain down in the times of the clan wars from centuries past.

Konohamaru's eyes panned down before he looked back up at Naruto who was still staring listlessly into the medical tents, "I want the guy that did this to pay Boss." He said lowly, "People can't be allowed to do this for no reason. What about peace? What's so wrong with that?"

"The fact that there's really no such thing." The matter-of-fact, deadpan tone of speech that Naruto used got the kids to stare at him in shock, "We're ninja. Our entire job is to fight. It's what we're all taught and trained to do. If there was ever true peace where everyone got along then where would that leave us? Taking down bandits and random criminals? The entire system is based on war."

He had been thinking about it for a long, long time. Ever since he learned of Jiraiya's desire to bring peace to the world and since he had heard of Pein's ultimate goal of doing the same with his own massively destructive goal. Actual peace would be the end of their way of life. Everything that the ninja world was based on was the prospect of eventual conflict with another village, every breakthrough meant to give one village a leg-up over the other.

It was actually funny in a morbid kind of way, the thought of ninja being against actual fighting. He didn't crave combat, but he was far from a pacifist and that much he had always been aware of.

If peace came and all of the shinobi wound up getting along that would just create a void that would be filled by another enemy. Probably the samurai of Tetsu no Kuni, or maybe all of the daimyo of the nations? Hell there were other continents out there somewhere and they would definitely have some kind of standing armed force, maybe they'd go and fight them?

The point was, there was no clean ending. Not as long as the ninja existed.

He turned his gaze towards Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon and saw them looking at him in shock, "But… maybe I'm just rambling. This whole thing is probably just all in my head." Being cynical around the kids before the battles ever even began wasn't going to do anyone any good. He stood up from his place on his crate and gave Konohamaru a pat in the head, "Just make sure that you're ready when you have to fight, alright runt?"

All Konohamaru could do was nod dumbly, getting Naruto to take his hand off of his head and walk away from the scene. Naruto felt he had to go as he had nothing reassuring to say or anything inspiring to put into their heads. All he could do at the moment was tell them the truth as he saw it, and that wasn't going to drive anyone with their mindset to believe in the war about to be waged.

Ever since getting to Suna he had not seen Gaara, Kankuro, or Temari at all, due to all three of them working feverishly to do what they could from the moment they arrived in Suna. He didn't even think they had been sleeping, not that he blamed them for that in the least.

Well for the time being he needed to link up with his escort back to Konoha and let them know that he'd be ready to leave at first light in the morning. In the end there was nothing else he could do for Suna, which was really a whole lot of nothing in the first place.

One thing was certain though. While Pein may have had a rather big stick in the form of his Rinnegan and all of his powers, he was going to be stopped one way or another. If Naruto had to fight an entire war to get to him that was all well and good, because he didn't start it.

Pein started it, but the alliance would finish it.

Naruto proceeded to find Sakura sitting by herself on a supply crate outside of one of the other medical tents, taking her time to rest up and get some water to regain some energy after working nonstop for most of the day helping to heal the injuries of the Suna ninja and citizenry.

He hadn't really spoken to her since telling her that he had been responsible for killing Sasuke what with everything that had transpired since; the meeting with the Mizu-, Rai-, and Kazekage and the attack on Suna for instance.

Well then was as good a time as any since neither of them were going anywhere anytime soon, and who knew when or if they would meet up again, "Hey Sakura." Naruto said as he walked over to her.

The pink-haired medic-nin had her hair put up in a work ponytail and wore a white garb over her usual clothes. Naruto had called her name while she had been taking a sip from a water bottle and turned her eyes towards him, swallowing her drink as he got close, "Naruto… how's it going?"

Not feeling like trying to make a joke or anything with the circumstances they both wound up meeting in Suna in, Naruto just took a seat next to his old teammate since she didn't outright seem to want to gouge his heart out for taking Sasuke's life, "Honestly… it feels like every time something good happens, there's always something bad to balance it out."

Just as recent examples; he beat Deidara, he lost an eye. Sasuke was finally brought forward for deserting and he brokered a deal to ally with Kiri by giving them Kubikiribouchou back, but Sasuke was killed in the battle and afterwards Danzo went missing in the desert. He learned Sage Mode and seemed to have Akatsuki reeling, with the alliance setting up to drive the stake through the criminal organization's heart once and for all, then Suna got attacked by the only person to decisively defeat him in a true battle in eight years and a whole war was now set to begin.

Sakura nodded, understanding the sentiment in her own way, "I'm sorry." He looked towards her in confusion, getting her to explain further, "On the mission to help you get Kiri's sword back, I hyperfocused on Sasuke and got myself and Tayuya hurt… almost killed. I think… if I had been able to support her better we could have stopped him, or at least lasted long enough for your clone to get to us and maybe help."

All Naruto could do was shake his head, "Don't apologize for stuff that people are already over. As long as you don't let anything like that ever happen again then it's okay. Tayuya-chan's okay with it and I got over it too. So are you still upset with me?"

"No." Sakura said, clasping her hands together in her lap as she looked down, "I was never angry to begin with… just shocked. I never wanted anything like that to happen, but he was a missing-nin and you weren't… and it was either you or him in the end. You said you didn't try to kill him but things just kept escalating, you showed remorse, and you told us yourself what had happened. If I had really gotten stronger then it wouldn't have even had to happen in the first place so I'm taking responsibility for it too."

The two just sat in silence for a while. After Naruto's unsealing they had become estranged for a while and had only begun to seem to repair a part of their acquaintance after Sakura began training with Tsunade.

Things had finally seemed to be fine just before their mission to Yuki no Kuni when Naruto had just become a jounin, with them hanging out with the other ninja of their generation and having a good time. Despite all of that the Sasuke episode was supposed to be what had broken it once and for all, and Naruto was fully expecting just that, but Sakura was proving to be stronger than she herself gave her credit for. She wasn't getting into some whole kick on getting him back for Sasuke's sake, and she wasn't making any arguments for why he would have been in the wrong for taking his life.

"So are we okay?" Naruto finally decided to just flat-out ask, sick of the tension that neither of them could pinpoint between them, "You and me?"

Upon hearing his question, Sakura gave him a light smile and nudged his side with her elbow, "Yeah. I thought that you were the one that might have had a problem with me, but if you don't then yes, we're fine."

"Good." Naruto heaved a sigh and ran one of his black-gloved hands through his spiky locks, "Because it would suck if I was on one of Tsunade-baachan's apprentices' bad sides when we're about to go to war. I need a medic-nin or two as my best friend right about now." He tried to joke now that the tension had broken.

"Oh please…" Sakura said as she rolled her eyes at the melodramatic statement, "If I had a bone to pick with you and tried to kick your ass Tsunade-shishou would murder me in public and Shizune-senpai would probably reanimate me just to do it again herself… and then there would be Tayuya…" Come to think of it, Hamako wasn't a ninja but she'd probably do some pretty evil shit to her in response for maiming Naruto too, "Ugh, I'm going to get back to work."

Both Naruto and Sakura stood up with her break time almost over, "I'll see you Sakura." Naruto said as said girl started stretching out to prepare for more medical labor, "Help them out okay? You can do more here than I can."

Sakura nodded with a smile and put a hand on Naruto's shoulder in good faith, "I will. Just be safe on the way home alright?"

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato – Meeting Room)

"Why am I here?" Shikamaru whispered to himself, sitting next to his father in the room full of upper level shinobi set to listen to a briefing with Tsunade on the current situation, "I must be out of my mind for wanting to show up here. I could be doing something else right now."

"Like sleeping?" Shikamaru's father Shikaku said, knowing his son's tendencies, "Listen, I don't know why you decided to come either. The summons was for me, not you. I think you're too young to be sitting in on a meeting like this when you haven't even experienced an actual war yourself."

So the invasion that occurred three years ago didn't count as a war?

"Yeah I know, I'm just a brat to all of you old people." Shikamaru said, not really caring who else in the room heard him and possibly took offense to the 'old people' remark, "But if we don't try and take things over for ourselves what will that leave for the future? We can't have you all fighting our battles for us forever like we're still kids. That's why I'm here I guess."

Nearby from his own seat in the room, Shikamaru's sensei Asuma smiled at hearing Shikamaru declare in his own way that he was going to try and take some sort of responsibility and initiative in the coming days, 'Way to go kid. I knew your lazy ass had it in you.'

At that point the doors to the room opened and Tsunade walked in followed by Jiraiya, and the elders Koharu and Homura. Taking a seat at the head of the room she gave time for silence to settle over the room and the chattering of those in attendance to fade out before beginning to speak, "As you all have heard by now, Sunagakure has been attacked by the leader of Amegakure. The village was destroyed and reports since the event revealed that Suna lost over 30% of their active force from the incident."

"That's not all though." Jiraiya said, following up with a grim look on his face as he began to explain the situation, "We've got trouble on all sides here. It's not just Ame even though that would be bad enough. Now we've got Kusagakure, Takigakure, Tanigakure, Hoshigakure, Getsugakure just to name a few… and dozens more bordering us seeing this as their chance. I've gotten word that the same is going on in places all over the map. Mizu no Kuni is probably the safest from any kind of attack due to being out on the ocean, but them getting forces to the mainland to assist is going to be a problem in itself."

One of the jounin in attendance decided to speak up on what everyone else had been thinking at the moment, "So we've got the two villages that were just a breath away from being one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages against us and pretty much every smaller village in the entire region ready to jump on us like wolves."

Another ninja spoke up, "Damn it, Did any of our old allies decided to actually stick around with us?"

"It doesn't seem like it." Asuma said fighting his own urge to grab a cigarette at the unnerving situation.

Not one to sugarcoat seemingly grave situations, Jiraiya decided to follow up that initial hit with another one, "Well Suna's going to have their share of troubles too. Villages that border Kaze no Kuni and Tsuchi no Kuni are going to jump all over this opening."

"What about Iwagakure?"

"What about them?" Shikaku said in an 'are-you-stupid' tone of voice, "They're not with us, they aren't even bothering to answer back even now. The smaller villages aren't going to try and provoke one of the villages that don't think they have a stake in this. That would be asinine."

Tsunade herself could feel her own ire for the Tsuchikage's indecisive bullshit increase with every thought she had on the matter, "That old fence-sitting bastard is probably going to let things run their course until there's definitely little left of Suna to defend. Then he'll just march his merry ass south and mop up whatever's left for the spoils. On either side, both ours and theirs… he'll just take it all after Suna and the smaller villages sitting between Suna and Iwa tear each other apart."

It was an obvious plan of action, and yet there wasn't much anyone could do to stop it other than to divert a significant fighting force to that battlefront, and that would leave Konoha lacking in manpower for their own situation. Surrounded on all sides was not the time you wanted to try and send a relief force to assist a separate nation.

Kumo for the most part could handle themselves because they had been the most ready for war to break out, and if that failed then it would be easier for Kiri to assist them than anything else. Still, Kumo decided to keep a delegate in Konoha to keep a voice of sorts in the military affairs of their ally just in case something came up on one front or another.

"We're going to be stretched thin…" Hiruzen's old kunoichi teammate Koharu said informatively, "With Suna reeling Konoha is the dominating power in not only this region, but theirs as well. This is more complicated than the last war… where the other villages lack our direct ability to deal with the threat we pose they are defensively dangerous. The terrain will be chosen mostly on their terms and the villages themselves are highly defensible.

In the case of villages like Takigakure the exact location of the village itself was still unknown. Several of the enemy villages gearing up for war had this advantage and would not be sloppy with how they dispatched their forces for combat. Still though…

Tsunade had a contingency plan for situations like this however, one she was fairly confident in after a recent meeting.

"What about Naruto Uzumaki?"

Many eyes in the room turned towards the person who had asked the question, "What about Naruto?" Tsunade said in a way that told the ninja to explain what they meant by bringing up Naruto.

"Well isn't he the goal of the Akatsuki… just like the Kazekage or even the delegate that Kumogakure left here? We can't just be thinking of sending him out into the field to fight with that knowledge are we?"

Instead of Tsunade speaking up, this time it was Jiraiya, "That boy is stronger than me even if he doesn't acknowledge it yet. Each member of Akatsuki that stepped forward to face him hasn't been able to defeat him, and I doubt any of the smaller villages have any other ninja strong enough to face him one-on-one and defeat him. That means that only another member of Akatsuki would be able to defeat him. That or a ninja of that level."

And with Pein and Konan as exceptions there weren't any ninja that Jiraiya knew of from any smaller village that could beat Naruto. Yeah he was definitely going to fight. Other than that, if Kumo was going to keep Yugito with them as delegate in a gesture of good faith then they couldn't keep Naruto off of the battlefield or else it would look terrible and would more than likely cause a rift in the alliance, something that couldn't be allowed to happen with what was currently taking place.

"What's the first course of action Hokage-sama?"

Hearing another question that seemed more prudent at the moment, Tsunade immediately answered it, "While we properly mobilize we are going to need to send a force to watch as much of Hi no Kuni's borders as we can. This means that we need a lot of tracking specialists prepared to embark in a hurry. Hyuuga, Aburame, and Inuzuka clans should be prepared to send quite of few of their ninja to bolster the rest of the border force."

It was foolish to think that there were no enemies already inside of Hi no Kuni. There were scouts and small squads already on the land from the moment the treacherous bastards knew war would be declared, but they wouldn't be large bodies of troops at first. While they could send information on weak spots in the patrol from behind Hi no Kuni's border line this simply meant that Konoha needed to get their defense and counter-offensive prepared to go.

XxX

(Ta no Kuni – Otogakure Base)

Kabuto walked through the place as if he hadn't just run out on them a while back after Orochimaru's death. Every ninja that managed to catch sight of him could do nothing but stare at the smirking hooded man as he walked through their halls.

He had not planned on coming back, but at the request of Madara he chose to return, the prospect of having his own role to play in the interesting days that lay ahead too much for him to try and ignore. The scattered forces of Otogakure needed to be consolidated in some way, and he was more than dominant to assert his control over the situation.

He was the second-in-command after all, which meant that he was now the official number one of all of them.

As he walked past a few men, a pair of them brandished kunai in the dark of the corridor and leapt out to strike at Kabuto for his past transgressions, but faster than any observer of the incident could see, they were cut down with Kabuto appearing to not even turn back to face them as he kept walking.

Instead of addressing the fact that he had just been attacked, Kabuto eventually stopped in the hall and turned to face the packed base with copious amounts of Oto shinobi looking at him, "Sorry for that unannounced sabbatical of mine. But with Orochimaru-sama gone you all know that I'm the one who's in charge… right?"

With that statement, Kabuto pumped enough killing intent into the room to bring those closest to him to the point of fainting and collapse. He felt quite a measure of satisfaction watching some of the masked Oto ninja hit the ground and begin convulsing just from his presence alone.

Needless to say, there was no one that disputed his claim as the remainder all bowed to him, "That's good…" Even though things had gone pretty much the same for the other several countries he had visited bases in to let them know that he was still in charge he was slightly dreading one base in particular, 'Guren's probably going to try and cut a piece out of me for letting Sasuke kill Orochimaru-sama… oh well. She's necessary for this ship to run right.'

XxX

(Umi no Kuni)

"Well, well, well…" Suigetsu said, sitting in the sand on a beach near a hut as Madara appeared in front of him from his space-time migration technique, "I knew you'd come knocking sooner rather than later. So what do you need now?"

"Just a bit of a side mission." Madara said as he saw Karin and Juugo heading outside from the hut upon getting sight of him, "By the way how goes your training with the three swords you have?"

A grin came over Suigetsu's face, showing off his shark-like teeth, "I already had training with Kubikiribouchou and Hiramekarei… it was Samehada that most of us never got to touch. And the training is going good… very good."

"Then you can take some more work." Was the succinct reply from the masked man as he turned to gaze out at the ocean, "The good news is that you can stay here for as long as you feel you need to. But I'm going to need you to do something for me." He turned back towards them as he continued to speak, "War is here."

A war? Karin didn't exactly see what that had to do with them in particular, "Between who?"

"Everyone."

That answer put looks of shock on the faces of all three members of the cell, "What do you mean 'everyone?'" Juugo asked, "How could everyone be fighting?"

"Because that idiot Pein has decided that now is the time for the downtrodden hidden villages to rise up against the other great villages." The disdain for Pein's little crusade was evident in Madara's sarcastic way of identifying Pein's side of things, "Now he's gone and picked a fight with the alliance of four of the five. All except Iwagakure." That little notion that Pein had of being God was going to come back and bite him in the ass with a vengeance… but not yet.

There was still something that could be gained from such a war. There was quite a bit that could be gained indeed. All it would take was a little nudge in the appropriate direction.

Suigetsu didn't really care one way or the other though. He simply wanted to get back to the task at hand, "What do you want from us?"

"Nothing more than to keep an eye on the seas." Madara said matter-of-factly, "I want you to attack any ship that Karin can sense coming from the direction of Mizu no Kuni. I will procure you some help in this of course, you will not be doing this alone, but the bulk of the work will be done by you three." He decided to add something to the pot in case Suigetsu didn't care to partake in the mission, "You can consider it more training with your weapons and new techniques."

With what Suigetsu now knew as a strength of Samehada, and his own abilities that made aquatic combat ideal that was all he needed, an excuse to use his skills that he had been training for the past few weeks with in actual combat.

Being locked in that tank by Kabuto for so long made him cherish being able to be out and fight to his heart's content, and he hadn't been getting enough of that for his tastes lately. It had also been a while since Juugo had killed anyone as well and his homicidal side would be overdue sooner rather than later.

Suigetsu grinned and pointed at Madara, making a gun-like motion with his finger, "If that's all you want then you've got it."

XxX

(One Day Later – Kawa no Kuni)

The escorts for Naruto to head back to Konoha were Neji and Kiba plus Akamaru, something Naruto was grateful for at a time like that one, some familiar faces in a rather trying time. The three fell into a silence as they travelled through Kaze no Kuni and Kawa no Kuni, fully expecting to be blindsided at any moment by an enemy ambush. A part of Kiba actually wanted to use the opportunity to scout the country and locate one of the well-hidden ninja villages in the country on the way back but Neji proceeded to smack him one and the two jounin, one chunin and ninja hound proceeded to travel home.

"Naruto." Kiba finally said, getting the blonde's attention as they continued to move in formation, Naruto in front, Kiba and Akamaru in the middle, and Neji at the back, "That Pein guy that destroyed Suna… do you think you can really beat that? I mean, I've heard how you want to fight him again. He beat you once and you want a rematch?"

The blonde frontrunner didn't risk looking back, knowing that Kiba's hearing was good enough to hear him even if he wasn't facing him, "Yeah I do. Ero-sennin can't beat him, we already proved that and now he's crippled. If I don't try then who's going to? I can beat that guy, I know I can. It won't be like last time, not even close."

"He smashed a whole village Naruto." Kiba stated firmly, with Akamaru whimpering at wondering how powerful a person that could do that really was, "How are you going to beat that?"

"He didn't get everyone did he? It wasn't even close to killing everyone in Suna." Neji said before Naruto could give his own answer, "Not even all of the shinobi out to actively fight the threat directly died in the attack. There is a chance Kiba. There's always a chance."

The abilities of the enemy were getting more and more powerful. In his last four real opponents Naruto found Deidara who could destroy an entire hidden village with his explosions, Itachi with the ability to burn down an entire forest with unquenchable black flames that he could conjure with the blink of an eye, Sasuke with the ability to destroy an entire massive hill and sturdy fortress meant to endure years of combat with a single bolt of lightning, and Pein with the ability to flatten an entire village in one move.

But Naruto's own skills weren't exactly lacking these days with the Rasenshuriken that could penetrate nearly any defense (not even counting the improvements he had made on it since perfecting Sage Mode) and Rasenriseki, which could vibrate intensely enough to grind and reduce anything to rubble and subsequently dust. And those were just a few of his attacks. So he was very confident that in a second engagement with Pein he could take him down.

Especially knowing what he now knew of the man's abilities from Jiraiya's deduction. Jiraiya had even managed to take down one of his bodies so he was down one already.

"There's a town nearby."

Naruto's thoughts were disrupted by Neji's report by way of his Byakugan keeping an eye on their surroundings over a distance, "It's not the hidden village Tanigakure is it?" Naruto asked, taking note of the excited expression that Kiba had. He'd probably insist on trying to spy on the place if it was.

Looking at a map that he had pulled out to determine where they were, Neji shook his head, "No, we're close to the border. This is a mining town." Neji's bloodline activated eyes then narrowed at seeing something else, "And they have sensors because they know we're coming. Half a mile out."

"They already have villages set up for border patrol stations?" Kiba said in disbelief, "How fast did they mobilize for this war?" He then switched gears as he had another thought, "Wait, are we actually going to fight the first battle in this thing?" The prospect of firing the first shot put a grin on Kiba's face despite himself. He might wind up being a part of a question on an Academy exam if that were the case.

"Not if we can get away." Neji replied, his eye twitching at Kiba's groan of disappointment but other than that he kept his cool, "They outnumber us twelve to three and the number is still growing."

"They are not going to outrun us and catch up." Naruto said rather heatedly. All three of them were the fastest out of the Konoha 11 and the comparison wasn't even close with the exception of Rock Lee. While stopping and fighting was an option, there would be no point in getting into a fight. He remembered the last time he was chased to the border by someone… it wound up with the Sound Four catching him and engaging him, ending with Kimimaro scarring his eye with his bone attacks and the tainted chakra of the cursed seal.

The trio kicked up their travel speed towards the border and wound up leaving the attempts of the enemy sentries to flank them in the dust. As far as stamina went though, they couldn't keep the quickened pace up for too long due to the fact that Kiba and Neji didn't have Naruto's nigh-infinite gas tank and would tire moving at the advanced speed sooner.

But before they even got close to reaching the friendly grounds of Hi no Kuni, Neji got sight of more ninja moving directly towards them from the border, "They were able to get a communication with a forward team that turned around to face us and cut us off!" The Branch House Hyuuga said as he began to sweat at the situation.

"Are we seriously pinned down behind enemy lines here?" Kiba asked as the trio brought themselves to a stop on a tree branch, "The damn war isn't even on yet and we're going to be KIA right off the bat." Akamaru then proceeded to bite Kiba's hand for being so negative, "Ow! Damn it boy!"

"Thank you Akamaru." Neji said with a smirk and the dog let go, wagging his tail and panting happily. The moment now done, Neji's face turned grave once more, "What is the move we make here? We can keep going and run headlong into a squad seven deep that will be ready for us or we can sit here and prepare the area for battle with said squad but risk the team behind us catching up and joining them."

So the options were to either jump into an ambush and hope for the best or to sit and set their own ambush but risk it being overpowered by significant manpower.

"Both of those options suck so bad I can't pick which one I want." Naruto chimed in, pulling his hitae-ate tightly on his forehead in case it would fall off during the forthcoming skirmish, "It's like choosing to be drowned or strangled."

A growl came from Kiba's throat as the scents of both sides crashed into his senses unmercifully, "We are about to get fucked with no lube here. Please pick one or the other before the choice is taken from us. Flip a coin for fuck's sake!"

Naruto and Neji both looked at each other before the blonde jounin of the pair spoke up, "Best defense is a good offense?" He said questioningly, getting a shrug from Neji before all three took off towards the border and the squad meant to cut them off again, "This would be a lot more useful if we knew which fucking village we were about to fight."

"How many are in this country anyway?" Kiba asked as he began to mould his chakra for his Shikyaku no Jutsu (Four Legs Jutsu), curious at exactly how many hidden villages could coexist within the same borders.

"Three." Neji said, tensing and flexing his fingers out to prepare to use his clan taijutsu in combat, "Tanigakure (Village Hidden in the Valleys), Hayasegakure (Village Hidden in the Rapids), and Ashigakure (Village Hidden in the Reeds)."

"Never heard of 'em." Kiba said with Akamaru barking in agreement.

"That's because they're minor and they're not allies." Naruto said, debating the merits of drawing his heirloom blade for the battle or not. The only reason he knew of the villages was because Root had done a lot of work in Kawa no Kuni due to the country being more rough and tumble than most others. He and Maki had a run-in with Ashigakure once, "Ashi ninja have weird, indirect ninjutsu so watch out for that if it's them."

"Incoming!" Neji said, as he had the exact locale of the advancing enemy down.

Kiba had been ready to go for quite some time and was the first to spring into action, "I'm on it! Come on Akamaru! Gatsuuga (Fang Passing Fang)!" Kiba channeled chakra for both himself and his dog as they both leapt at the several enemies ahead.

The enemy ninja saw this coming and planned to evade Kiba and Akamaru's attack, but the attacks weren't aimed for them directly. Kiba and Akamaru slammed into the trees they were jumping on hard enough to break out significant pieces of the trunks, felling the trees and forcing the enemy to misstep and fall to the ground below.

Three of the seven attacking enemy ninja fell to the ground, one of them badly injuring their leg during the fall. The two that had fallen as well slogged back to their feet and jumped to their injured comrade's defense as the other four waged an attempt to attack Naruto and Neji, two per Konoha ninja.

Neji's sharp eyes took notice of the headband that their attackers were wearing, the insignia on the metal plates had a 'V' with horizontal lines heading out from the peaks of the letters, making it look like a valley, "They're from Tanigakure!"

"Good eyes Hyuuga." One of Neji's opponents said as he and his partner brandished a very large and flexible saw between them that they had aiming to cut through Neji.

"The best." Neji replied as he jumped over the long saw and landed right on the flat of it, driving it into the ground before thrusting both of his hands out in opposite directions at his opponents, "Hakke Kuushou (Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm)!" From Neji's hands he fired an invisible blast that hit both men and blew them off of their feet away from him.

The two Tani ninja flew away from Neji, reeling from the internal damage dealt, but not done yet as their saw detached at the middle and became a pair of saw-blades, one per ninja. With their new weaponry in hand they attacked Neji again only to get a smirk out of him, "What are you smiling at you-?"

"Hakkeshou Kaiten (Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven)!"

Neji spun around, releasing chakra in a blue swirling dome that defended him from the two-pronged attack and threw the Tani ninja away violently, both of them bouncing bonelessly off of nearby trees with sickening thuds.

With Naruto, his opponents pelted him with kunai and shuriken only for his body to turn into a log signifying a Kawarimi. The two enemy ninja looked around for him only to eventually look up and see two Naruto's falling from the sky with their swords brandished. They jumped apart as the two Narutos stabbed into the ground and missed them, both detonating in relatively tame explosions to signify an attempted Bunshin Daibakuha.

"You see that!" The ninja with the injured leg said as two others tended to him and his wound, "We can win even without the God of Ame! Konoha isn't as good as they think they are!"

"God of Ame? You're actually calling that jackass Pein God?"

Naruto's voice echoed out from all around the combat area with no indication of his exact location being given, "Come out and fight you Konoha coward! I thought you were supposed to be the strongest village of the Five Great Shinobi Nations, but I guess that's an overrated standing!"

"You're the ones that make a big deal out of that title and live and die by it."

While Naruto distracted the five remaining living Tanigakure ninja by talking and causing noise in the trees, Kiba took advantage of the distraction and he and Akamaru made the most of their opening as they too had been skulking around since their first move in the battle. The ground beneath the injured shinobi and the two men assisting him began to give way and they picked him up to jump away towards the other two men as Kiba drilled through the topsoil with the Tsuuga.

Once he surfaced, Kiba glared at the enemy with a growl, holding on to a pair of smoke bombs in his hand, "So if you want it so bad, why don't you just come and take it?" He let the two smoke bombs fly and covered all five of the men that had moved closer together due to being corralled by both himself and Naruto.

With a smirk, Neji and his active Byakugan charged directly into the smoke cloud with his ability to see that just had him hammering chakra and vital points with mere taps of his fingers, taking three lives until the other remaining two realized that there was a force in the smoke cutting them down, "They're leaving the smoke!" Neji shouted in warning to his teammates as witnessed it happening,

Of the two remaining Tani ninja, one was the man that had injured his knee in the beginning being helped with his arm over his remaining partner's shoulder, "We've got to hook up with the pursuit team! They're still headed this way!"

In their haste to escape the onslaught of attack that they hadn't expected from three ninja, even if they had expected the three Konoha ninja to be stronger than chunin, they were caught unaware by one figure dashing down from the trees behind them, apparently zig-zagging on air until it was too late for any kind of appropriate reaction, "Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!" Naruto drove the Rasengan downward and smashed the sphere into the back up the mobile Tanigakure ninja, sending him into the ground with authority.

There wasn't any walking away from that attack. Blood flew up from the point of impact and Naruto knew that his enemy was dead, or at least he hoped he was for mercy's sake. He had severed that unfortunate bastard's spine with the Rasengan, and that only left the original wounded man alive.

Neji and Kiba walked over to Naruto as he turned his head towards the final ninja. Seeing that he was the last man standing (so to speak), the final Tani ninja drew a kunai and hurriedly tried to wrap an exploding tag around the weapon, but this only ended up with Naruto using the Sen'nenki no Ken to cleave the hand holding the weapon off.

A yell of pain obviously followed as the man clutched the bleeding stump that his hand used to sit at the end of. Naruto grabbed the collar of the man's village flak jacket and jerked him up eye-to-eye to just glare at him, "You just heard my friend say it, and no one else is going to say it any better. Tell your friends if they want our spot, or anyone in the alliance's spot they can come and get it."

XxX

(A Short Ways Behind)

The dozen or so pursuit troops weren't about to give up in their pursuit of the intruders that had managed to break the line on the Suna side of things. It hadn't been perceived as vital to build up that side of the border so there were still gaping holes in areas of more difficult crossing, places where Kawa no Kuni's natural barriers such as wide, rapid rivers craggy plain areas sat to slow people down.

The reason they weren't giving up on the pursuit of the obviously far faster squad that had been leaving them in the dust from the outset was because an advance team meant to watch the border had sent out a response group to try and head them off. That would beget a battle and would provide more than adequate time to catch up.

Or at least they had figured until the saw the site of the very short conflict that had just transpired, complete with the bodies of their deceased comrades. The large squad landed and stopped to survey the scene only to see one survivor among them; one man sitting against a tree with his arm bleeding through a few bandages hastily tied around the stump that was his forearm.

His head was low, but they could still see life in his eyes as they all ran over to figure out just what happened, "They got through you that fast?" The first man to reach his injured comrade said as he dropped down to his knees and began checking him over. His knee was dislocated in addition to his missing right hand, "Which way did they go?"

"The blonde kid said…" The injured man said softly and sounding slightly confused, "…If I saw any of you to say; if you want it come and get it." His eyes turned up towards them full of concern and fear as he reached to slowly unzip his flak jacket, revealing a trio of exploding tags pinned to the inside of it, the kanji for 'explode' staring them all right in the face, "Please get them off." He whispered in a shaky voice.

Shock and horror rolled through the eyes of the amassed Tanigakure ninja as all they could do at that time was try to scatter away from the blast radius of the obviously forthcoming explosion.

XxX

(With Naruto, Neji, and Kiba)

BOOM!

Kiba's ears picked up the explosion from behind them loud and clear when the tags Naruto planted went off. He had told the man that any move to touch the tags or any loud, abrasive sounds would trigger the explosion prematurely. If it had been Kiba stuck with a scenario like that he would have just triggered the blast and been done with it instead of holding on to hoping that someone could come and help him. From the amount of time it took for the explosion to go off he had clearly let the timer of the tag run down to the end, and he had probably taken a few others with him by making that choice.

"That should slow them down even more." Neji said as they continued to put distance between themselves and the battle site.

With the trouble over for now, Kiba let a grin slip onto his face, "That was so easy! If the rest of the war is like this we'll stomp their asses in no time! Maybe if I kick enough ass I'll get sent straight to the Hokage seat?" He said hopefully.

Unfortunately there was a chance for Naruto to burst Kiba's bubble, "It's not going to be like this for the rest of the war Kiba." Yeah, that battle was easy because all three of them were talented in direct combat. It was usually how Konoha fought their wars, thus it was a very important thing that was stressed during a young ninja's development in the village, "A lot of others aren't like us to get out of being boxed in like that. They're not stupid enough to take us head-to-head so ambushes like that are going to happen a lot."

Smaller villages didn't go to war nearly as much, nor did they find themselves in battle with other major village shinobi to the extent that Konoha ninja did. They specialized in other focuses. Each village had their own strength to bring to the table, and the war wouldn't be fought in pitched battlefields for the most part, that kind of a war was for the powerhouses like Konoha, Iwa, or Kumo.

There would be a lot more skulking about. A lot more strikes behind Konoha's lines, a lot more sabotage, a lot more indirect conflict until one side was worn down enough to go for a knockout.

That wasn't to say that the little villages didn't have heavy-hitters. Amegakure, Kusagakure, and Takigakure would more than likely be the direct combatants out on the battlefield in bulk to fight head-on whenever it was set to do so. Other villages would provide fighters to do so as well and there were a few minor villages that were well-known for their powerful direct fighters, but they would be the general shinobi of the conflict in open fighting since they were the closest to breaking through the glass ceiling separating the minor villages from the five strongest.

Fighting on so many different fronts would be a pain in the neck to say the very least, and the portion where they would have to divert forces to keep Sunagakure settled until they could work out their problems enough to watch their own perimeters freely would make this war an all new challenge for Konoha.

Kumo had the easiest part as they could begin their own combat processes whenever ready, especially since most of Kumo's enemies would either have to inevitably march through the isthmus (a land mass surrounded on two sides by water) that was Shimo no Kuni. Or they would attack from sea, and Kiri would have their backs in case of a seafaring attack from the east which meant they only had to look out for the west.

Kiri had it somewhat worse off as well as they would have to ship troops over and land them ashore before they could even take part in the fighting. Though this also meant that they wouldn't be obligated to send as many in the early-going and expend so many resources right off the bat transporting bodies and supplies, and all naval battles would be dealt with by them.

"To hell with that!" Kiba protested vehemently. He was not about to believe that there was an actual chance this war would be anything more than a walkthrough and he didn't believe that someone else like his sister or mother couldn't handle what they had just dealt with themselves, "Why don't we just walk right up to these fuckers and pop 'em in the mouth one good time? That'll handle it."

Neji rolled his eyes at the brash Inuzuka, but his question warranted an answer and Neji gave him one in a quite sarcastic manner, "Yes… because we certainly know where Takigakure's village is and how to get inside, or where Tani is. And let's not forget that getting an attack force into Amegakure with the man that can flatten a village with one jutsu is going to be simple." Kiba had the good grace to look embarrassed at that, "Stop believing in our own hype. Yes we're good, but war is war and we're going to have to take this seriously. When we get home we have to crack down harder than ever before."

At that moment Naruto wondered how Neji would have done in Root. Then he tossed that thought aside, because Neji might have ended up like Fuu or Torune; being one of Danzo's elite pets. Still, he had a good outlook on the whole thing. He didn't believe they would lose for a moment, but he knew he and many others would have to work hard.

If he and Neji weren't both jounin and therefore on the same level of the totem pole he'd have definitely been requesting him for whatever force Naruto ended up with once he got assigned a duty during the war, "Neji and me are probably going to end up leading missions, probably to a bunch of different fronts, and Kiba you and Akamaru are probably going to be ending up getting posted at one of our defensive borders. We've all got our jobs to do… because other people won't have a Hyuuga and an Inuzuka in their teams to watch out for ambushes like that one."

The thought of someone without an Inuzuka's hearing and smell or a Hyuuga's eyes to warn them of an impending sandwich of death from an enemy attack squad brought a scowl back to Kiba's face, "Definitely…" Because that meant that in the end he'd have his own huge responsibilities to the whoever was stationed with him and he wouldn't let them down, "What happened to Suna isn't going to happen to anywhere else again."

XxX

(Iwagakure no Sato – Tsuchikage's Office)

The old Tsuchikage Onoki, diminutive in stature, sat in his own office going over reports that he had received of tensions in the region, most specifically the affairs going down south of Tsuchi no Kuni altogether towards Kaze no Kuni and Sunagakure.

His thoughts on the matter were cut short as his eyes suddenly darted upwards to see a body come out of an orange swirl that turned out to be a man's mask. The orange-swirl masked man had on a black cloak with red clouds and simply stood with his hands sunken into his pockets, "Ah, Iwagakure. I don't think I've been in this village for quite some time."

Onoki didn't move to immediately smash the intruder, because if he were an assassin he wouldn't have let himself be seen or used his teleportation jutsu right in front of him where it was easy to sense and react accordingly to, "And you are?"

"Madara Uchiha, but this is not important." Madara said succinctly.

Of course it was important that the man was Madara Uchiha. But something felt wrong to Onoki. He had fought Madara Uchiha before in the past, something that still terrified him when thinking of the man's power. He would never forget it, and this man did not carry himself with the same air that Madara had. Even so, the man was someone to be wary of if he had no fear of reprisal for infiltrating his village and his office.

"Very well then." Onoki said, keeping his head level for the time being until all of the chips were on the table, "What is it that you want? I should warn you that it had better be good, or else your efforts to get here were quite foolish." He said with a threatening tint, "Especially wearing that Akatsuki cloak. You have quite a bit of nerve showing yourself here after taking Han and Roshi."

Madara began to pace around the room before making a flippant hand gesture, "Well Akatsuki… I guess you could say it is fractured. The one you should blame for that isn't me… but that's something else altogether. I trust you are aware of the events taking place all over the Elemental Nations?"

"War." Onoki said, having not had to talk about such a topic in almost twenty years, "A war that Iwa has nothing to do with and no reason to take part."

"Even with Konoha being involved?"

What kind of game was this man running? Trying to influence him to enter the fray of the other villages. He had to think he was dealing with some kind of prideful fool, "An eye for an eye in this case is not our concern. The best revenge Iwa could take was the refusal to even hear out the alliance of the tree-huggers trying to save their own asses and that of their Uzumaki-jinchuuriki. Let them burn and lose their own blasted jinchuuriki if they can't hold on to him for themselves, just like our own."

"I don't think you should so readily dismiss the prospect." Madara said in a chiding tone of voice that could have been taken as condescending, speaking again before Onoki could take offense, "The whole world is at odds and ignoring poor old Iwagakure. An opportunity in my opinion."

"An opportunity to what?" Onoki spat, drumming his fingers on his deck, feeling more and more in the right to try and turn that masked fool Madara into dust.

Madara turned back towards Onoki and slowly pulled his fingers of his left hand into a fist, "An opportunity to take… everything. Everything south of Tsuchi no Kuni… and beyond." He could see Onoki's eye widen at the thought and felt a sense of satisfaction that one got when a seed of thought was firmly planted and taking root, "I'd personally rather see Iwa stand above the rest… it would certainly make the world more interesting than just seeing the meatheads in Kumo or boring old Konoha do it again just like always. So just think on it Tsuchikage-sama. All you have to do is just play every card right… and the entire western region will belong to Iwa and then some."

The eyehole of his mask then proceeded to apparently suck his entire body into it, last taking the swirl mask and once again leaving Onoki alone in his office. The look on Onoki's face seemed to be wrestling with just dismissing Madara and thinking about the fact that there just might be an opportunity at hand here to just as Madara said… take everything.