Stash of numerous good fics that I like have more that 100k word count and are completed . Fics here range from anime, marvel, dc , Potter verse, some tv series like GoT Or some books . You can look forward to fun crossovers too ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- list of fics :- 1. Wind Shear by Chilord (HP) 2.Blood, Sweat and Fire by Dhagon (GOT × Minecraft) 3.Harry Potter: Lost Son by psychopath556 ( HP ) 4.Deeds, not Words (SI) by Deimos124 (GOT) 5.From Beyond by Coeur Al'Aran ( RWBY) 6.Everyone has darkness by Darthemius ( Naruto ) 7.Overlord by otblock57(HP) 8.Never Cut Twice - Book 1 Butterfly Effect by thales85(GOT) 9.The Peverell Legacy by Sage1988 (Got × HP) 10 .Artificer by Deiru Tamashi (DxD) 11.So How Can I Weaponize This? by longherin ( HP ) 12 .Hero Rising by LoneWolf-O1 ( Young Justice × Naruto) 13.Harry Potter and the World that Waits by dellacouer ( X-Men × HP) 14. What We're Fighting For by James Spookie ( HP ) 15. Mind Games by Twisted Fate MK 2 ( RWBY ) 16. Crystalized Munchkinry by Syndrac (Worm SI ) 17. Red Thorn by moguera ( RWBY) 18 . The Sealed Kunai by Kenchi618 ( Naruto ) 19. Dreamer by Dante Kreisler ( Percy Jackson ) 20. The Empire of Titans by Drinor ( Attack on Titans ) 21. Tempered by Fire by Planeshunter ( Fate / Stay night ) 22 .RWBY, JNPR, & HAIL by DragonKingDragneel25 ( RWBY × HP ) 23. Reforged by SleeperAwakens (HP) 24. Less Than Zero by Kenchi618 (DC) 25. level up by Yojimbra (MHA) 26. Y'know Nothing Jon Snow! by Umodin ( Pokemon ) 27. Any Means Necessary by EiriFllyn ( Fate × Worm × Multiverse ) 28.The Power to Heal and Destroy by Phoenixsun ( Naruto ) 29.Force for Good by Jojoflow ( MHA) 30. Naruto: Shifts In Life by The Engulfing Silence (Naruto) 31. Naruto Chimera Effect by ZRAIARZ ( DxD × Naruto) 32. Iron Re-Write. By lindajenner (Marvel) 33. A Whole New Life By MadWritingBibliomaniac ( HP ) 34 . Restored by virginea (GOT ) 35 . I Am Lord Voldemort? By orphan_account ( HP) 36 .There goes sixty years of planning by Shinji117 (Fate Apocrypha) 37 . The Wings of a Butterfly by DecayedPac ( HP ) 38 . The War is Far From Over Now by Dont_call_me_Carrie ( Marvel ) 39 . Black Rose Blooms Silver by CyberQueen_Jolyne ( RWBY ) 40 . Cheat Code: Support Strategist by Clouds { myheadinthecoudsnotcomingdown } ( MHA) 41 .Hypno by ScarecrowGhostX ( MHA ) 42 . Happy Accidents by Rhino {RhinoMouse} ( Marvel ) 43 . Fox On the Run by Bow_Woww ( Naruto ) 44 . Time for Dragons: Fire by Sleepy_moon29 ( GoT) 45 . Intercession by VigoGrimborne ( HP × Taylor Herbert ) 46 . Flight of the Dragonfly by theantumbrae ( MHA ) 47 . Restored by virginea ( GOT ) 48 . An Essence of Silver and Steel by James D. Fawkes ( Worm × Heroic spirits ) 49 . Trump Card by ack1308 ( Worm) 50.Memories of Iron ( Worm & Iron man) 51. Tome of the Orange Sky (Naruto/MGLN) 52. A Dovahkiin without Dragon Souls to spend. (Worm/Skyrim/Gamer)(Complete) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [ If you have any completed fic u want me to upload you can suggest it through comments and as obvious as it is please note that , none of the fics above belong to me in any sense of the word . They belong to their respective authors you can find most of the originals on Fanfiction.net , spacebattles or ao3 with the same names ]
Chapter 66: Dead Wall Reverie
"Such a fool."
Hearing the words that he most recently heard a deadly, deadly enemy say to him, Naruto's eyes popped open only to get a hard blast of sunlight straight to the ocular orbs. And he hadn't turned the contact lens back on in his Sharingan eye, so he basically ate a solar flare to the face.
Squinting harshly and keeping his right eye shut in the brightness of the room he was in, Naruto realized that he was back in his house. His own bedroom to be exact. Well at least Tobi hadn't taken all of his roof off. He left enough for his bedroom to be covered from the elements.
Turning to his side with a hand on his head he saw the origin of the fool comment as he saw the uniformed Maki sitting with one leg crossed over the other. Her white porcelain mask sat in her lap and the cloak that she'd worn to better disguise her identity as a Root ANBU during the battle rested nearby on the floor.
"Maki-chan." Naruto greeted, keeping his right eye closed while he looked at her, "How's the village?"
"It's fine." Maki informed him with a small smile, "The battle is winding down, but there are still small remnants of the white plant men holding out and hiding in certain areas around Konoha. Don't worry, we'll find them and get rid of the rest."
In the meantime the village was still under heavy security, with constant, more vigilant patrols in addition to the active hunting parties, as well as extensive guard placements than normal at high-priority places that could have been potential targets to the remaining White Zetsus that might have wanted to go down fighting if they were really that obedient to the masked man that had led them into battle.
Even if they didn't know they'd just been diversions for him to get to what he really wanted. But he'd failed in both of his endeavors to obtain those things. At least that was what Maki had figured. There was no sign of the masked individual when the search party that brought Naruto back located the site of the battle's conclusion.
So now Naruto's battles in Hi no Kuni resulted in two landmark locations. The forest of bone, and yet-to-be-named gigantic, barren plain that had been blown into the middle of the forest due to one of the attacks dealt during the last fight.
When word about that got around Konoha, everyone was just glad that he'd been willing to take the battle as far away from the village as he did.
"So." Naruto said with a nervous look, "How pissed off is Tsunade-baachan?"
"At you? Very."
"But I won."
"But you were stupid and fought the masked man alone."
Okay, really? If anyone else had been out there with them they would have gotten blown away at one point or another. Tobi hadn't been screwing around and had finally realized that he had to fight to kill, even if he just wanted to capture him. The way he conducted himself in the battle with the techniques he used reflected that.
Naruto just stared at her with one eye before holding out his hand in her direction as if expecting her to have something for him. Maki just stared at him blankly with the most killer poker face he'd ever seen on a woman before she slowly reached over and dropped something into his hand; his contact lens that he proceeded to stick back into its proper place.
"Mission etiquette says that you cannot question the confirmed mission plan while the mission is in progress." Maki admitted, moving over to sit down on the side of Naruto's bed, "But since your fight wasn't really a mission, and since it most definitely is over now I feel I'm completely in the right on calling you a gigantic jackass."
"Yeah, I'd tolerate that if you were my wife." Naruto drawled, taking note of the way Maki's cheeks heated up even if her stony expression didn't change, "But you're not. You're just my sexy little junior." Winning solved everything. If you went about something the wrong way, as long as you won, what could anyone really say? "So what's up? Any news?"
Maki rolled her grey eyes, but felt the need to touch upon anything Naruto might have missed while taking his last mission to Kumo. Things were definitely afoot around the continent, "Northern Kaze no Kuni watch teams have reported something that could be either really good or really bad. Iwagakure is mobilizing along its southern border."
Naruto's eyes went wide at the possible implications of this fact, "You don't think-."
Never one to be suspenseful, Maki cut him off and nodded, "-There is probably a very good chance that Iwa has finally decided to make a move to try and conquer Suna. At this point they may figure that they can win even if we fight alongside Suna. But…"
"But what?"
"They're around the border of lands held by Amegakure."
Oh, that was a double-edged sword in of itself. If the Tsuchikage was reading the ebb and flow of the war correctly, he would know that the C.N.F. was reeling and on the ropes. 'The Great Fence-Sitter' probably wanted to get while the getting was good and take the constantly disputed lands of the minor villages for himself before the war's end.
There was also a chance that he could sweep to Kusagakure and take it over while Konoha was still battling for the great grass village. That would definitely give them a good foothold to launch a quick blitz out to the southwest, and with their Earth Release users they would have a great chance of negating Gaara's nearly automatic army-crippling control over sand, enough to use their numbers to bring down the depleted forces.
Damn it, why did things have to be so complicated in war? What would he do if he had control of the army? The only thing they could do was quickly finish up with Kusagakure and sit on it. Depending on who Iwa attacked first, the war could begin anew with a new enemy or continue with a third party to join the fighting as an enemy to the other two.
What would the Hokage do in a situation like this?
The door to the room then flew open and Naruto found himself thinking of something else after he was tackled down onto his bed by a busty silver-haired blur, "Master you're alive! You won!" She then pulled away enough to give him a curious look, "You did win didn't you? They didn't find another body when they found you."
"Uh yeah." Naruto said, looking over to Maki who was blank-facedly buffing her nails idly before he addressed Hamako again, "I kind of killed him in a separate dimension so I don't think anybody's ever going to see that body."
"My hero." Hamako said before leaning forward and giving Naruto a very deep kiss. It lingered on for quite some time until Maki cleared her throat, letting the Uzumaki Clan servant know that she was in the room also, "Oh." Embarrassed at being caught in so brazen an action, Hamako backed away demurely, face glowing red, "I am sorry Maki-san. I didn't notice you were there. Did you want to go first?" She offered.
It took a lot to make someone like Maki lose her composure, but being offered first dibs on the only man she had ever seen in any kind of sexual light was enough to throw her off, "W-What? We're at a red-level threat alert and you're talking about doing something like this with Naruto-senpai now?"
The seal master didn't answer with words at first, instead choosing to climb onto Naruto's lap while beginning to loosen the obi around her waist that held her kimono blouse shut. Maki held back a very un-Root-like squawk and turned around in her chair to avert her eyes.
This time, Hamako was much less apologetic about her 'affectionate' actions, "My master went off to war without any kind of incentive to return from what is supposed to be his loyal servant." She explained with fond eyes on said master, "A motivation like the kind I can give him could be the difference between life and death on the battlefield."
And Naruto was all for that. Just not in front of Maki. That was just insensitive. Also it was weird to have sex with someone in front of someone else that you had sex with already. He would have told Hamako to stop, but a massive, dominant chunk of him just didn't want to in the slightest and that was the portion of his mind in control.
The side that wanted to stop, or at least postpone her was his logical side, and that side had been duct-taped and hogtied in a corner somewhere since back when he decided that it would be a good idea to fight Suigetsu Hozuki in the ocean a few days ago. No one had freed it to resume its responsibilities of moderating his actions yet, hence why he dove headfirst into a geographically-warping battle with Tobi just one night prior.
So the Naruto sitting on that bed beginning to see the pretty porcelain skin of Hamako peek out from beneath her clothes was just A-ok with that, 'Oh, and she never wears chest bindings or a bra…'
POOF!
Before Hamako could open her shirt she was given the sight of Naruto disappearing right before her eyes in a puff of smoke, "…Did I break him?"
Maki turned back around only to find no sign of Root's true commander, "Kiyomizu-san, where did Naruto-senpai go?"
XxX
(Meanwhile – Mt. Myobuku)
POOF!
Naruto had felt the pull in his mind a split-second before his body was hurtled through time and space to be deposited in the dirt on the ground at the place of his most recent intensive training. Usually he wouldn't mind being reverse summoned, but right at this moment he wasn't feeling it in any way, shape, or form.
"No! No! No! No!" Naruto complained as he remained seated on the ground. Reaching a hand out he grabbed Fukasaku who was the closest toad to him at the moment, "Why? Why now? Couldn't you have waited for like thirty minutes or an hour or something?" Getting smacked over the head with an oversized walking stick put an end to that however, "…Right. I'm fine now."
"From the looks of your pants you don't look fine."
Naruto looked down at his 'growth' problem and crossed his legs before realizing just who had brought that point up, "Ero-kyofu? You were called here too?"
"Yeah." Jiraiya said with a small smile on his face, "How's the homefront kid? Got anything good for me to take back to the troops when we get sent back?"
"I just killed the masked guy that called himself Madara."
"That's good! Hell, that's great!" The creator of all of this insanity was finally down and out. And with him clearing out the root of all of the guerilla attacks going on behind the lines in the northeast front it was only a matter of time until that battlefront was settled.
Two of the eight minor villages that had banded together to fight in that part of the Elemental Nations had already surrendered to Kumo, who were not messing around when it came to cleaning the countryside out. Added on with that, and the fact that Jiraiya couldn't wait to say that he'd killed Kabuto and kept him from reanimating probably the most powerful person that ever lived and taking over his body, yeah things were going great!
"He attacked Konoha with a bunch of those plant guys we ran into in the northeast." Naruto continued in explaining what was going on recently from home, "A whole army of them."
"That's… not so good." Jiraiya said, visibly deflating from his previous emotional high, "How many?"
"I don't know." Naruto reported, getting more serious than ever now, "I got summoned back by Hamako and jumped straight into the fight with the masked guy. I only got a bit of a look at the village before things really got rolling, but the defenses were working. It wasn't as bad as the Oto-Suna Invasion… I think."
Well things could have been worse if nothing else.
Jiraiya pulled Naruto up to his feet and pulled him into a one-armed hug, "Good work brat. Alright, now I'm definitely confident in what I'm about to do." With that he moved aside and showed a toad, black and orange in color with a strange torso that seemed to have metal rings around it, "Meet Gerotora."
Naruto just looked down at the toad and waved, "S'up. How come I've never met you?"
"Because I didn't want to meet you." Gerotora stated bluntly, "I didn't want you to find out what my job was and have you clamoring to hand over my secrets to you. No matter what you think, it ain't yours to dictate what to do with it."
In return, Naruto gave him his best Root-trained stare for a full half-minute before turning back to Jiraiya, "Right. Who the hell is this?"
"Why you little-."
'Way to make a first impression both of you. Bravo.' Jiraiya thought to himself before launching into his explanation. The best way was to just get everything out into the open, front and center, "Gerotora possesses the key to your seal."
"Say what now?"
That clearly got Naruto's attention. Good, because Jiraiya did not want to have to repeat himself, "You heard me. When Minato created the overall formula for the Hakke Fuuin on your stomach he left the key to the jutsu with Gerotora and entrusted me as the only person that could open or see it. Well now it's your turn to have it."
"Why now?"
"Please. As if I'm more qualified to have it than you are at this point." Jiraiya said with a roll of his eyes, "Honestly, if she had been a ninja and if it wasn't so unpleasant to get the key I'd have given it to your little servant girlie a long time ago. I'm pretty sure if I wasn't able to get Tsunade to sidetrack her with the village defense projects she would have reverse-engineered a key of her own before too much longer."
Naruto's brain upon hearing that Gerotora was the one that had given Jiraiya the secret to screwing with the seal started backtracking in time, "…Wait, so way back when I was acting all pissy when you took me to Tsuki no Kuni to train and screw around with the seal, this guy was there?"
"I've always been there to an extent." Gerotora grumped out, arms crossed over his chest. When Naruto looked over to Jiraiya for a translation, Gerotora shot out his tongue to slap Naruto to get his attention again, "A scroll toad protects the secrets inscribed on them by residing in the belly of whomever they have a contract with. So technically I was there even if I was never outside."
Ew. So Jiraiya hung out with a toad in his stomach for years and years. And Gerotora just didn't seem to care too much about that fact. Naruto was completely willing to let the tongue-slap and the grouchy attitude slide. If you had a miserable existence like that one you had every right to be grumpy, "That's… really rough."
"Eh, what are you gonna do?"
And he didn't seem to care. Thus another notch could be added to how awesome toads were. Either that or one more thing could be added to how weird they were.
"So now it's my turn?"
"That's the idea kid. You need it to get full control over the Kyuubi."
At that thought, Naruto paused. Was that a good thing? Of course it was! But like with all good things, there was probably a price to pay, or something extensively dangerous about the entire concept of getting full control of his biju's abilities.
So he could only imagine just what it would take.
"What do I have to do?" Naruto asked, "To get control? I have to beat it in a fight, right?"
"Basically." Jiraiya admitted, "It'll be a battle of wills. Win and you get control. Lose and the Kyuubi goes free, you die, and too bad for anyone or anything around you when it does. Because it probably isn't going to survive either."
A comment hit Naruto in the back of his head at that moment, "We don't have to have our final battle now Naruto. You killed the masked man 'Madara'. You've done right by me thus far. Do you really want to risk dying before you've finished your business?"
'What business?'
"Bringing this war of yours to an end."
Wait, a biju actually cared about that sort of thing?
Naruto figured that the Kyuubi would have been chomping at the bit for him to go ahead and open up the gates so that they could get this whole thing settled up once and for all, the way they always said that they would.
Instead of taking the chance at the all-out fight for freedom, the Kyuubi wanted to wait and watch everything be settled, risking the painful death and respawn process that would occur if Naruto died, or worse, being captured if Naruto was defeated and all of his countermeasures to prevent extraction failed.
"I'm going to defeat you and break free." Kyuubi said confidently. Naruto could just see the toothy grin from the large fox inside of him, "But before I do, I'd like to see the end of this ride I've been on with you since day one. I've been waiting most of the century already for my freedom. I can wait a bit longer to devour you and take it."
'Kyuubi… I-.'
"Kurama."
'What?'
"If I'm going to be fighting you to the finish I at least want you to know the true name of the one that ended your life. My name is Kurama."
With that short mental conversation complete, Naruto smiled and looked at Jiraiya and the toads gathered around them, "Is there any way we can put that whole thing off until the war is over? Me using the key I mean."
Jiraiya just stared at Naruto strangely, "…Why?"
"Because until we finish Pein and end this war, I don't want to do something like that." Naruto said, his eyes closing in contemplation, "I at least want to tie all of my loose ends up before I let Kurama get a real shot at me once and for all."
"What's a Kurama?"
"The Kyuubi's real name. Go figure."
"Ah."
Fukasaku, Shima, and Gerotora all looked at Naruto in shock, the first two in quite a bit of concern, "Naruto-chan… the last time ya fought 'em…" Fukasaku said with a great touch of concern, "Those Six Paths a' his kinda tore ya up. And I know ya learned Sage Mode and ya took it further than we ever woulda dreamed ya would, but-."
"It'll be alright." Jiraiya said, voice full of confidence, "You said it yourself. The last time he didn't know Sage Mode. He was using that fool 'trigger' technique of his to force control over the Kyuubi's chakra for a boost." If they were handing out hidden names they were probably on good enough terms, and the workaround for gather the senjutsu chakra spoke volumes of whether or not they were on the same page, "He's stronger in Sage Mode and he's able to keep his head without destroying his skeletal structure."
Gerotora hopped between the two humans and glared between the two of them, "Jiraiya, you're saying that the boy is stronger than you?"
"He's stronger than me." The original toad sage asserted, "And the secret to Nagato's jutsu isn't exactly a secret anymore. Six separate bodies, but the real one isn't amongst them. He controls them from elsewhere somehow."
"Feh." Gerotora spat, "I'll be waiting for him to wisen up then. If Jiraiya couldn't win at his best, I don't see how the child can."
"He might be young, but he's no child." Jiraiya said, "Besides, I can't make him take the key, even if it is his." With a grin forming on his face, he rubbed Naruto's head, "Well that's what this was all about brat. And it's up to you."
Naruto didn't need to think twice, "Save it. I want something to do after the war ends." He felt Kurama smashing his tails against the bars of the cage inside of the seal at the sheer arrogance of the statement.
"Gah! You SUCK! I dare you to say that in front of someone that'd actually hit you for it because I can't!"
Jiraiya just stared at Naruto for several seconds, "Kid… that was the cockiest thing I've ever heard you say out loud, and you've given me some doozies in the past." He ran a hand through his own hair before holding his chin, "Part of me is proud of you, because that sounds like something I'd say. Another part of me wants to hit you, but the other part doesn't want to start a fight right now while I'm still in command of the northeastern front. I've got a war to finish up over there."
"So I'll see you back home when all of this is over yeah?"
"At some point or another. Don't worry about me. Worry about yourself and the village."
With that, the two toad summoners were sent back to their respective places of origin via cancellation of the reverse summoning.
XxX
(Konohagakure no Sato – Naruto's House)
In a puff of smoke, Naruto reappeared back on his bed following the informal meeting with Jiraiya and the toads, only now there was no Maki or Hamako in the vicinity.
So there would be no chance of continuing where he'd left off back before he'd been summoned.
Unfortunately, post-victory sex was not to be in his immediate future. It simply wasn't in the cards on this occasion
"…Damn it."
XxX
(Amegakure no Sato – Pein's Tower)
Konan walked her way out onto the ledge on the top floor to stand next to the Deva Path and overlook the village and the lake that surrounded it. Both of them were silent, as Konan had long since reported to him upon her return that Naruto Uzumaki had killed their benefactor 'Madara Uchiha'.
So they were finally free from all tethers to the bastardized vision of Akatsuki that everything became. They were the last members standing. Just the two of them. The way it had always been meant to be.
Itachi, Kisame, Sasori, Deidara, Hidan, Kakuzu; all dead. Only Zetsu was left aside from the two of them.
But that wasn't a problem at the moment. Nor was the fact that Kusagakure was one step short of falling to Konoha's onslaught. With the fall of Kusa, the road would be wide open to Amegakure, and the war would touch their lands.
But the war had already touched their lands.
The damned opportunistic Tsuchikage. He figured he could take Ame while they were fighting their battle to the north with Konoha in the wilds of the Kusa-held lands.
From the tower, they could see far and wide, and in the distance, on the horizon, they could see the dotted camps of the enemy. They were taunting, threatening, and the village was on lockdown. Nothing was getting across the lake to the village in the middle, no matter the cost.
But as far as Nagato was concerned, the enemy wasn't going to get that far.
Unless the Tsuchikage himself had come down to fight this battle, there wasn't anything they had that could stop him from enacting the wrath of God upon them. They thought their encampment was a safe distance away from Ame where they could observe the village without risking getting danger-close of numerous raids from the enemy before they were ready to make their attack.
"The Anima Path is already en route to the site of the battle, almost in position." The Deva Path said to Konan, despite the fact that Nagato himself was right in the next room. She knew why he did it. She loved Yahiko, and he felt that speaking through his body gave her some measure of comfort.
"Would you like me to accompany your paths and join in the battle?" Konan asked diligently. He had no need to comfort her. The only comfort she needed was knowing that Ame was safe and sound. Fighting for it would give her the peace he wanted to have her feel.
"No. Konan, I can destroy an entire hidden village full of ninja on my own. I can annihilate a camp. I want you to remain here in the village with me. While I use my chakra to fight, inform every citizen to get somewhere they can see the Iwa camp." The Deva Path's eyes didn't leave the direction of the enemy camp, "In case anyone has forgotten just how complete my power is, I want them to see it. To restore their faith in God."
Any loss of village morale due to the course of the war would need to be restored with a strong showing and minimal loss of life. This was something that he could easily do to make sure his followers did not lose their faith in his ideals. He needed the people behind him to change the world. This would be their time in the sun instead of in the clouds and the rain.
Konan nodded and watched the sun peek through the clouds that always seemed to be over Amegakure, if only for just a few seconds, before the Deva Path vanished in a puff of smoke, the way she'd reappeared in the tower via the Anima Path's summoning the night before.
Even with the numbers against him, if the enemy didn't understand the secret behind the Six Paths of Pein, there was no way any force could defeat Nagato.
XxX
(Moments Earlier – Iwagakure Camp – 10 Miles Outside of Amegakure)
When the world fell into full-scale war, the Sandaime Tsuchikage Onoki felt no need to take a side in the upcoming conflict. No matter who won in these little chains of alliances, there would always be at least one loser, even amongst the winners. The most powerful at the end of these wars, no matter what role they took in the overall effort were the real winners.
Why wouldn't Iwagakure try to swoop in and pick up the scraps of the effort? Konoha's ninjas fighting the Kusagakure campaign would be exhausted even if they were able to remobilize and reach Sunagakure by the time that Ame was conquered.
The way things shook out, Iwa could destroy Ame and Suna in one fell swoop and rewrite the maps for the countries that these villages sat within.
This was the moment that Iwa had waged entire wars for in the past, the sort of thing that it had even started the Third Shinobi World War for, and it had fallen into their laps without having to deal with any long, bloody campaigns to put them right at the door of the enemy.
This was a minor village, with their best out in the field dying in the killing wilderness of Kusa-held territory trying in vain to hold that doomed village. A quick strike force division of 1000, comparably small to conventional armed forces which would normally be three times as large at least to wage any kind of full-scale attack on a major hidden village.
No minor village could hold off any of the 'Big 5' if one of them were really motivated to take it down at all costs. This was a weakened minor village battered from the war effort that had been infiltrated and partially destroyed almost a year prior by Konoha's jinchuuriki, Jiraiya, and an unknown unit that had somehow gotten to the very limits of the main center portion of the island village.
Right now the plan was a rather rudimentary one. It boiled down to basically… forming a wide bridge with Earth Release specialists across the lake, just under the surface of the water to disguise it but allow them to use it to move across the water and use the moved earth to defend and fight back against distance attacks that would come from the center village.
It was more complicated than that, but this was what it boiled down to.
The land of the camp was easy for them to defend. It was barren and wide open to begin with, capable of allowing people to see far and wide in any direction. Some rudimentary earth jutsu was all it took to make a fortified stronghold.
So when the sentries saw a lone figure walking across the grounds, the entire camp was up in arms. Sensor ninjas couldn't feel anyone else around. Just one signature. But it was absolutely mammoth, dwarfing the majority of the invading strike force by itself.
"This is it." One of the red-clad Iwa shinobi said, waiting for the order to attack, "This is the guy isn't it? The one that called himself God?"
"I heard he destroyed Suna with one jutsu to start the war."
"No way. There had to be a trick to it. Someone that strong… can't exist."
"People don't get that strong. Those are just stories."
As the figure got closer and became easier to see everyone prepared themselves. An old man with shaggy orange dyed hair and an 'x' scar on his chin, eyes closed, and clad in a black robe with red clouds.
"…Is that Danzo Shimura?"
"It can't be. He disappeared months ago."
It was Danzo, or it used to be. Now it was just Nagato's Animal Path.
Through the Animal Path, Nagato spoke to the amassed enemies, "You hidden villages claim that you cherish peace, but every stretch of peace that has ever been brokered in the Elemental Nations has been nothing more than a mask. A mask for villages like yours to secretly build their strength, come up with new and more dangerous ways to fight, new strategies to use against the other villages or any other enemy you see as your next threat. All in anticipation of the next excuse to start another war."
Stepping out at the head of the force, A tall, brawny, bearded Iwa ninja that bore a strong resemblance to the Tsuchikage stood firm with his arms crossed. Mutterings of the man's name, Commander Kitsuchi, echoed out through the shinobi and kunoichi amassed.
"So you're the leader of Amegakure?" Kitsuchi said, not willing to let his guard down against this man for a second, "Who do you think you are, thinking you can fight 1000 shinobi singlehandedly? A kage?"
"No." The Animal Path said, opening its eyes to reveal the Rinnegan, "God. Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"
A large puff of smoke covered everyone's sight before three titanic orange and black centipedes with large piercings in their bodies stampeded out, crawling across the ground at a blinding pace, straight over the earthen ramparts constructed to protect the camp and right into slaughtering every Iwa ninja they rolled over.
From the same puff of smoke, a large ugly bird with three legs and a drill-like beak flew up into the air over the camp, holding the Animal Path on its back to survey everything from above.
"This is going to be easy." The Animal Path commented to itself. From the sky it was clear to see the carnage that the centipedes had created had been quick. The losses were piling up already, "I won't even need to take the risk of using the large-scale Shinra Tensei to destroy these fools."
Iwa had clustered together. They wanted to form up in that manner so that they could defend en masse to whatever Nagato wanted to try at the outset. They hadn't been expecting massive monster summons.
He hadn't even used a hand-seal, and he'd summoned four creatures at once.
Four creatures that they could see anyway.
"This is not going to be that easy you bastard!" Kitsuchi shouted angrily, "Form up your squadrons! The centipedes are too quick to pursue! Wait for the approach and counter! Corral them decently and I can kill them all in one move!"
With his strongest solo technique. The inspired Iwa troops did their best, trying to hit the centipedes with what they could without trying to let them get close enough to kill them. They had already lost almost 200 in the opening moments of the battle.
Projectiles with explosive tags, the ranged ninjutsu they had in their repertoire, anything they had up their sleeves that they thought would make a difference in hurting the monsters, or at least moving them into the appropriate position. They were fast bastards though, moving swiftly through the camp to hide their own movements.
But before they could truly start boxing them in for Kitsuchi to aim at, dozens were cut down in a matter of seconds, right from the middle of their groupings. The air shimmered and a giant chameleon with Rinnegan eyes and a snake tail appeared suddenly, the perpetrator of the bloody attack.
"Kill it!"
Springing to attack, they were caught entirely unaware when the chameleon opened its mouth to reveal within the brawny, mechanized Asura Path without its cloak, revealing its six arms. Every hand it had detached from the arms at the wrist, only hanging on by a covered in dozens of spine-like missiles that fired at the enemies that had chosen to attack before discovering the deadly Asura Path concealed within the chameleon.
Everyone else that was able to react to the attack did so in the most reasonable way that they could, "Doton: Doryuuheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall)!" The slaughter wasn't as horrible as it could have been. But those that survived behind the raised walls still saw, felt, and heard the impact of the explosions.
Some of walls weren't created by strong enough ninjas to hold up, collapsing behind the force of missiles that blew up too close.
Blood and body parts flew past the eyes of many. And then there were those that saw the horribly smiling face of the emotionless Asura Path, more machine than man, before it cut them down with a saw blade protruding from its torso, or crushing their bodies with the raw power of its taijutsu.
On the drill-beaked bird in the sky, the Animal Path had been joined via its summoning jutsu abilities by the Naraka Path and the Preta Path, so that if needed the Animal Path could summon any other injured Paths back to the bird to be healed by the Naraka's abilities, and the Preta's abilities could defend this mobile dispatch hub with its own.
Kitsuchi didn't know what to make of this battle. Almost half of the people that he had brought to attack Amegakure had been killed or wounded already.
He watched hatefully as two more Paths dropped from the sky after being summoned to the battlefield by the Animal Path; The Deva Path, and the Human Path. Despite the height they fell from, their landing was safely cushioned somehow, leaving them entirely unharmed.
The Deva Path looked at Kitsuchi's enraged scowl without blinking, "You're angry. Someone like you, you've experienced war, that much is clear. As the son of the Tsuchikage it's obvious, you're probably a decorated ninja from the last war. But, also being the Tsuchikage's son, you've probably never felt the true pain that war can bring. You should be thanking me."
"Thanking you?" Kitsuchi's voice held a dangerous edge to it, "Did you just say I should be thanking you?"
"Yes." The long-haired Human Path replied, "After experiencing just a little bit of my pain, you should be able to understand me a bit better. Be grateful. Most regular people like you, never come this close to understanding the will of God."
How arrogant could any person ever be? But this was the most dangerous ninja in the entire world and he needed to be killed, at all costs.
Kitsuchi internally built his chakra and slammed his hands into the ground, causing it to shake as if an earthquake was hitting the area, "Doton: Daichidoukaku (Earth Release: Great Moving Earth Core)!"
The Human and Deva Paths didn't budge as the immediate area that he and Kitsuchi stood on found itself deposited below as if it were a massive elevator platform, sending it two hundred feet below the rest of the battlefield's terrain.
This wasn't a trap. Kitsuchi just wanted to separate the Paths from each other. If he could kill two of their attackers himself to help the rest up top, they had a chance to win. But the ensuing battle would only put more at risk if he fought them up top.
'Just hold on.' Kitsuchi thought to himself with a grim smile on his face, 'I'll even up the odds a bit soon enough.'
Taking Amegakure was the order of the Tsuchikage, and every Iwagakure ninja followed their orders direct from the top to the letter, even if it meant death. Entire clans had been decimated in the past because of this.
"Just what do you think this is going to accomplish?" The Deva Path said, "It doesn't matter how you try to fight me. The outcome of this battle was decided the moment you stepped onto my lands." From underneath the sleeve of the Human Path's cloak, a black blade seemed to be produced from underneath the skin of the arm for emphasis, "All you can do is die."
'Well I can always take you with me you sons of bitches.' Three hand-seals and Kitsuchi slammed his palms onto the ground again, "Doton: Sando no Jutsu (Earth Release: Mountainous Earth Jutsu)!"
From the bottom of the pit, the ground folded up into two massive quarter-sphere rock formations that made to crush Kitsuchi and the two Paths with no space to avoid the jutsu. The resigned smile of Kitsuchi lasted until just before he would have crushed them, the Human and Deva Paths vanished in puffs of smoke.
"No!" Kitsuchi cancelled the sacrificial use of his jutsu by pulling them off of the ground and placing them against the walls before they could slam closed on him, but it still stopped just short, turning his body and pressing him awkwardly, face and back, to the walls, "You… bastard." He grunted to himself, as despite avoiding the crushing he was still stuck there tightly.
That was a summoning? Summoning humans? That was unfair. It was impossible.
Above he could still hear the sounds of the battle raging on, though the sounds of the fighting grew quieter and quieter. Less and less explosions, less sounds of orders, suggestions, and warnings being yelled. When it stopped altogether from what he could hear, Kitsuchi closed his eyes tightly in pain.
The silence was haunting. The battle had taken all of twenty minutes at the longest. Kitsuchi let out a yell of anguish as he couldn't even move to make hand-seals to try and escape. The scope of his jutsu was too large for him to even begin to budge the slightest bit of it with his own strength.
When you used your strongest jutsu in a suicide bid to destroy the enemy and failed, you couldn't expect to just be right back into the fight. But he could hardly move a muscle.
He heard the echo of the Deva Path's voice come through to him and went berserk trying to somehow jostle himself free, just to get at him, "It would be a shame, to kill you so soon after finally showing you just a bit of my pain. So I'll give you time to contemplate what you've just experienced. Rest assured you're still going to die though. Uramiame (Grudge Rain)."
The heavy rain created by the jutsu would gradually fill up the gap that Kitsuchi was stuck in. By the time it reached his ankles it would begin draining his chakra, making escape all but impossible as it would continue to rise until he died of chakra exhaustion or drowned.
That would give him plenty of time to think about the pain he felt from losing 1000 souls in a matter of a half-hour.
XxX
From Amegakure, the entire village turned out onto the rooftops of the skyscrapers to watch the quick obliteration of the enemy at their proverbial gates. Above them in the sky with an even better view of the fight, Konan didn't turn her eyes away from the base camp for a moment.
War coming to Ame hadn't been this real ever since the days the last great war had ended. The civil war, as deadly as it potentially could have been, wouldn't have resulted in Ame's destruction whether Akatsuki won or Hanzo did.
This had been the first sign of the sword being set at Ame's throat since the Second Shinobi World War, and even though Nagato had crushed them fairly easily without even having to use his chakra for any dangerous and forbidden jutsu, she had a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach.
In Nagato's bid to make the world feel his pain, he was choosing to bite off more than he could chew. Could he do this every single time an attack force came? What kind of war would that be for them?
He had lost sight of what the original plan was supposed to be. The original set of goals they were supposed to go after to really make the world understand the futility of fighting. The more he fought and dealt this sort of destruction to the rest of the world though, the more it seemed that Nagato liked inflicting that kind of devastation.
It was as if he enjoyed subjecting the denizens of the 'stronger' ninja villages to the complete feeling of helplessness and weakness that they had felt decades prior. The sense of accomplishment he exuded after destroying Sunagakure hadn't been like the one that he had after defeating Jiraiya or killing Hanzo; the view that he had done what he had to do.
That no longer seemed to be the case. His way was the right way, and his way was to hurt anyone he saw fit to turn his wrath towards.
This God had become one of vengeance.
XxX
(Days Later – Lands of Kusagakure)
After the breakout across the Tenchi Bridge that had allowed Konohagakure forces to collapse the Continental Ninja Federation defenses, Kusagakure and its numerous minor village allies did their best to try and reenact another defensive position to stop them and hold them back.
The C.N.F. quickly found that there was no natural position to take that was anywhere near as good as the river at the border that they had initially been able to hold Konoha back at, and found themselves stumbling over their own feet trying to fall back fast enough to take a defensive spot.
The following two weeks found Konoha tearing through the wild terrain of the countryside, sending the reeling C.N.F. closer and closer to the crown point of Kusagakure. Brutal constant combat was the name of the game from then on out.
Sleep for any longer than two or three hours was rare. The shinobi had to keep moving until it was clear that Konoha's push had stalled, but that never seemed to happen. Some of them were almost wishing that the C.N.F. got their crap back together and managed to defend so that they could take a step back themselves and get a breath.
They were running out of soldier pills for fuck's sake.
One of these moments of downtime for some was a time to be vigilant for the others, to watch over their tired comrades before the positions were switched and they would get their rest before the push continued. The line could never stop moving. The momentum had to be maintained.
"Fuck." Tayuya said, cursing at the nicks she had in her trusty demonic flute after prolonged combat in the jungle, "I hate close-range fighting. Can't this be over by now? No one's gotten any leave since Uzumaki took down the fortress behind the bridge."
Laying on the ground nearby, using her trench coat as a makeshift pillow, Anko rested her eyes, still trying to stay alert to their surroundings, "Sure. This can be over. Just teleport us into Kusa so we can sack the place from the inside out and that'll end it."
Smartass remark aside, Tayuya understood her mentor's point. She still flipped her off though, but Anko couldn't see it so the gesture was lost on her, "You know what I mean? But I think the Ame ninjas are the ones that want to keep fighting more than any of the others."
"You see that too huh?" Anko said, cracking a pupil-less brown eye to look over at the former Oto-ninja, "Yeah, even the ones from Kusa don't seem to want it that bad. They're the ones that are the first to enact a retreat."
The battles were almost formulaic at this point. The two sides would come across each other in pockets across the countryside and in the jungles and would do battle until the C.N.F. found themselves overmatched and would flee, setting traps and fires to cover their withdrawal.
Sitting nearby was the division commander Yamato, who found himself almost spearheading the advance with his Mokuton ability. An invaluable ability in the kind of setting that they found themselves fighting in.
He could hear the conversation between two of his tokubetsu jounin in Anko and Tayuya, and decided to chime in between cracking walnuts for him to enjoy in his 'leisure', "Remember, Amegakure's leader strong-armed the lesser villages around the continent into joining them or meeting the same fate as Sunagakure. These places didn't like the bigger villages that much to begin with either."
"Give them a few kicks in the teeth and they don't know which fate would be the worse." Anko commented, "They just want to go home and protect their own now. I can't say I really blame them."
"Commander Yamato!" Izumo Kamizuki, long-time chunin from Konoha barreled into the temporary rest position in the jungle that Yamato had been taking with a few other shinobi in his direct squad, "Sir, there's… I don't-. I mean, I've got to tell you-!"
"Calm down and spit it out." Yamato said, "What's the matter?"
"Nothing!" Izumo regained his composure to get his message across, "Kusa, they accepted the standing terms for surrender! Ame is cutting their losses and heading to the border right now to prepare for the move on their village!"
That was great news! Even if the other two small villages that had fallen in with Kusa and Ame in the war kept fighting, there wouldn't be that much they could do to hold them off. Hoshigakure wasn't that strong a force, even with their ninjas with odd chakra. Takigakure already surrendered not too long ago, leaving the western front open for the most part.
It was almost too good to be true. Maybe now they could move some people off of the line and send them back to Konoha to rest and restore parts of the village that had been destroyed during the attack from the plant men and the masked man posing as Madara Uchiha.
This war was almost over.
"Fuck yeah!" Tayuya exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air, "Can I finally go home for a spell? This war shit is for the birds."
"Not really." Yamato said, standing up from where he was sitting, "The most important part is still to come. Now we've got to turn Ame's way and set up for the end of all of this. We've also got to dispatch advance troops up farther northwest to watch Iwa and make sure they don't pull any sweeping moves before the dust clears."
At that, Izumo cleared his throat to get attention back, "About that. Iwa already tried it, on Ame. They were going to try and take Ame and flow over to take Kusa in one fell swoop before any of us knew what had happened. Apparently that's why Kusa surrendered now, so that if it happened they'd at least have Konoha covering for them somehow."
"So the war really is over?" One of the other nearby shinobi asked.
Izumo shook his head, "They didn't win. Ame destroyed the division sent their way."
Tayuya's face fell and she looked at the flute in her hand before muttering, "We're still not getting any leave are we?"
"Afraid not." Yamato said, "I'm sending word to the Hokage that we're about to leave a detachment around here to work around Kusa's surrender and the rest are heading south. Enjoy a few hours of rest, because then we're going to pick everything up and turn it to Ame."
"Aww…"
"Does anyone have a problem with that?" Yamato asked, giving the lot of them a ghoulish look that somehow frightened them into line. A man had to rule his division with fear every now and then, "Good."
XxX
(With Naruto – Konohagakure no Sato – Village Streets)
The battle had been over for a few days, but there were still pockets of White Zetsu soldiers that had hidden themselves in the village. Things were still on red alert, with constant patrols from vigilant shinobi. Civilians were kept out of certain areas of the village for safety, with a strict curfew enacted until further notice but things were way better than they should have been.
Funerals for the ninjas killed during the battle were to be held off until the alert died down for good. And the village was still being sifted through in areas where there had been heavy fighting, so bodies were still being discovered.
Naruto found himself walking through the village day after day looking around. A lot of people had died, but things could have been much worse. Compared to the amount that died during the Invasion of Konoha, this hadn't been as deadly a battle.
"I've seen a lot of people die." Naruto said to himself, hands in his pockets as he strolled through one of the worse areas in Konoha affected from the battle, "Why am I more pissed this time than I was during Oto and Suna's invasion?"
"Because when that happened, your head was full of scrambled brain hash from the unsealing." Kurama said without even being prompted, "You were mentally shot for a while after that. Moody, violent, and you were so out of it all you cared about for half of it was linking back up with Danzo. The only reason you didn't break is because Danzo Root-ed you when you were a brat so it wasn't the first time you had your head screwed with."
Yeah, Kurama kind of helped him keep his shit together back then. Maybe because he knew what it was like himself to be the recipient of a seal.
"Also, you might be seeing this as your village now."
"Huh?"
"The last few days when you walked around, what did you notice? It wasn't just the ninjas of this village acknowledging you. Everyone here knows something about the battles you've been fighting since this war started. Your reports that you've sent in since day one aren't sealed records. They're public domain, and they all know you killed the masked man."
Probably even further back than that. He hadn't been playing it very low-key since the mission to sack Oto bases throughout the lands that had lasted most of a year.
And even just from the war: stopping the Kazekage from going on a rampage and playing into Nagato's hands, opening up the western front by destroying the stronghold holding the enemy back, opening up the sea routes so that Kirigakure could finally send their own fresh ninjas to finish up the eastern front. And of course there was the battle inside of Konoha that led to Naruto killing the lead perpetrator in battle outside of the village.
"Fox, are you out of your mind?" Naruto said aloud, "What does that have to do with anything? I was the only one that could do those things, I kicked ass. That's what I'm supposed to do. That's what all of us are supposed to do."
"Yes, that's what you're supposed to aspire to do if it's possible as a ninja of Konoha. But who else actually did it?" Kurama queried rhetorically, "You killed four of the nine most dangerous terrorists in the world and the guy that backed them from the start. You've got two landmarks in Hi no Kuni as scars on the earth from battles you've had. If anyone can be marked as the strongest ninja underneath the Hokage, who else would it be?"
"Ero-sennin."
"If you still think he's stronger than you now you're the one that's out of your mind."
"Pssht."
As he walked, Naruto heard a voice clear off to the side somewhere before hearing Tsunade's voice, "If you're going to have a conversation with the Kyuubi you should keep it to yourself." She said, sitting on a bench on the side of the street, "If there were other people here they'd probably think you were crazy."
"What are you doing here Tsunade-baachan?" Naruto asked, walking over to sit down beside her. She'd been extremely busy since the battle, so it was surprising to even see her at all, let alone see her outside of the office or hospital, "This is supposed to be a danger zone."
Yes, she knew. She was the one that signed off on the big honking maps of Konoha set up in populated areas around town so that people could know where it was safe to head to, "If any of those plant men are really stupid enough to attack me just because I'm alone and think they can win, feel free. I want something to pound to paste to vent some stress anyway."
"No sake or anything?"
"I told myself I'd never drink during a war. Kami, it sucks." Tsunade said before looking over at Naruto, "Have I ever told you that Onoki is a senile old opportunistic jackass that doesn't understand the concept of screwing the goddamn pooch."
Naruto couldn't help but chuckle to himself at her stewing anger. At least it wasn't aimed at him for fighting the masked man any longer, "Really? I thought all of the kages were buddies."
"No, I'm serious. I can see that you'd probably accept anyone attacking Ame at this point, but the man completely misses the bigger picture that goes past Iwagakure and how things affect that village." Tsunade said with no small sense of annoyance, "Did you know that during the chunin exam in Suna that you went with me for, he was completely willing to act like he didn't know you were in a fight with two members of Akatsuki."
"I could handle it." With Gaara's help, but that was then and this was now, "Besides, you sicced me on them."
"He did that because if you'd gotten caught or killed it would have made us weaker." Tsunade continued, "And even with this war trying to stanch out every major hidden village in the war, he was willing to try and pick at the bones when he thought he had an opening. For once I've got to say, what Jiraiya's wayward brat did to them served the bastard right. If only it didn't have to come with him getting so many of his own people killed."
Naruto just nodded in understanding and agreement, "As much as I hate the guy, I think Nagato did it the right way, fighting them himself instead of having his people fight and draw it out." Of course it also helped that he was more than strong enough to get the job done, especially since no one in Iwa knew how to deal with his technique in the slightest.
At the topic of Nagato coming up, the blond/blonde pair went silent. Every so often they'd see patrolling ninjas hopping rooftops in the distance in the middle of the afternoon, but for the most part they just basked in the silence and tranquility of the day.
Tsunade looked over at Naruto and put an arm around him to hug the bastard. He didn't fight it. Why would he have? This was Tsunade, and even if they had a rocky start he loved that old lady.
"I don't even want to ask you, but I have to. You're going to Ame aren't you?"
"…If I don't, what happened to Iwa is going to happen to us when we move on them." Naruto looked over at her with a serious look in his eyes, "Send me when the time comes."
"I can send Jiraiya instead." She tried to reason in return, "Goddamn it Naruto, do you know how close you are to being a shoo-in for taking over when I finally drop the hat? I was about to groom you when this was all over. Five to ten years from now and that's it. You're the next one. Nobody else is even close right now to taking it."
"Ero-sennin isn't anywhere as strong as he was during the first fight." Even if he knew how Nagato's powers basically worked to fool opponents, he didn't have the power to do what was needed to take advantage of it with one arm, "You know it's got to be me. I'm the only one that can now."
Tsunade still wanted to choke him for running off and fighting the masked man, but the reality of that situation had been that he had been the only person in the village that could have won aside from her. He was the strongest ninja in Konoha with the biggest bag of tricks behind only Kakashi and Jiraiya, and more rabbits in his hat than a career magician.
She was needed in Konoha, because if she had gone off to fight, even if she hadn't gotten killed in the fight with the powerful bastard, many more people would have been killed without her there to heal them on the spot with her specialized medical jutsu.
So if Naruto was a kage-level ninja, but not the Hokage, it was his place to fight the strongest enemies. And with him spearheading the final push, their forces would be more than willing to fight.
Besides, a Hokage in the making needed that one thing to drive the point home to the people that he was the man or was going to be the man, and there wouldn't be anyone else better suited to be the focal point of the battle with the best Ame had left.
"Get your rest brat." Tsunade told him, planting a kiss on his cheek before getting up to go and work out the logistics of the upcoming final campaign. She needed to get Shikaku and his son and see what they could cook up with the land advantage that Konoha would have behind this offensive, "If you die after all of this you'll be disappointing more people than you know."
'If I die… I'm taking that bastard with me.' Naruto thought in immediate response, 'I owe him.'