FINALLY finished it. .-. Super crazy long 6-part chapter, that had to take at least fifty or so pages on MS word. o.o Oh, and sorry for stealing your font Keotsu. :| Just trying it out, may or may nor keep using it lol.
It started quietly at first. Everything was still as they walked through the canyon, barely having walked for a few minutes. The slight rumble of the ground was unnoticeable at first; could not be heard nor felt among the heavy drops of rain slamming down on the ground around them. The battle cry was merely an echoing whisper, bouncing off the high walls of the canyon. The charging group seemed no more than a few scattered specs on the ground, and in the air, that was lower into the canyon than where the group already was.
And then it grew.
A roaring sound so immense it could be heard far off in space.
A rumble so massive that it could be felt across the world.
An army so vast that it could be seen from miles away.
A battle so intense that it would be remembered for ages.
Kabuto’s army was truly a marvel to behold. Perhaps it could even be considered a stunning sight that displayed both the wonders and horrors of nature had it not been a group seeking to slaughter every one of them. Just this part of Kabuto’s group alone outnumbered the fearless group of Konoha and Akatsuki shinobi 50 to 1 maybe even more. But not one of them were afraid. Many of these creatures Kakashi remembered from the assault at Akatsuki’s tower: the disfigured lizards with two arms in addition to their four legs where their bodies rose up from the ground, giving them the ability to wield weapons, creatures that seemed like werewolves, and a few larger, figures; terribly disfigured humans who were at least thrice the size of a normal person, with scrunched faces and stomach, their skin completely paled, doubtlessly from the many chemicals that had been splashed over them. Others were ones that not even Tenzu recognized; creatures that seemed to have bat wings that stretched from their upper to lower legs but they were three or four times bigger than a normal bat, and their faces were almost cat-like, with black fur rimming their heads and large maws with rows of sharp teeth agape and snapping. When they ran, some of them running along the side of the canyon, they looked like one of the larger cats, their back legs going before their front legs at time, running in short leaps.
That entire group of what Kakashi referred to as ‘the most dreadful freaks of nature he had ever had the displeasure of looking at’ seemed to materialize within the ranks of the much smaller, though elite, group of ninja. Their speed was great enough to completely cut through the line of shinobi, though their control was so horrible that Tenzu couldn’t help but cut three of them down that had attempted to move pass him, and within a moment the group was surrounded.
Not one was afraid though.
Not one missed out on a moment of action.
Kunai and blades clash, punches and kicks flew, and all of the ninja on Konoha and Akastuki’s side spread out to give each other space, as the beasts were moving so close to each other that they stumbled over one another. The larger monstrosities were still quite a distance away from the fight, running as fast as their stubby legs, hardly in proportion with their massive bodies, could take them. There were only ten of these larger mutilated humans as far as Tenzu could see, but they were so large that, since they were moving in a straight line formation, their shoulders rubbed against one another and the two at the edges of the line already had cuts and skin peeling off of them from the sides of the canyon, which had more than a few ridges on it.
Although Tenzu made the first official blows, the three whom he had taken down before the true battle had even begun, and there were many strikes after that, it was Kakashi who made the first truly devastating attack. It was only fitting that he would, as considering that the leader of the Akatsuki had run off with a reluctant Reaver and Ryuu, Kakashi and Tenzu were considered the two leaders of the group. Lightning built up in his right hand, his Sharingan eye already uncovered by his headband, as he used his free hand to grip the other arm, containing the lightning that flowed through it. The sound of chirping birds emanated from the mist of the raging battle, and suddenly, the seventh hokage of Konoha darted left and right. He moved with amazing speed; quickness that only the greatest and most elite of ninja could ever hope to attain without losing control over themselves. He cut through the ranks of Kabuto’s force with ease, slicing cleanly through each and every beast that opposed him with his lightning coated hand. Those that he didn’t cut through were still shocked by lightning as it jumped from his hand, as well as creatures that he had directly hit, to those that had not been injured. Perhaps even more amazing, though, was that not a single ally of his was even slightly injured, not a single spark flew to a place that he didn’t wish for it to go. His speed was deadly; his control and usage, impeccable; his sheer ability, brilliant.
The use of the Raikiri alone already had dozens of them down, but Kakashi’s assault was not yet done. He continued dashing through the ranks of the hostile, and now extremely afraid, army until he finally came to an area in the middle of many of them, a place where he was sure that no members of Konoha nor Akatsuki, though he had a feeling that Tenzu was likely somewhere nearby, were within the next two hundred meters of him, and then stopped abruptly. His hand, though, was still cloaked in bright lightning. Quickly, the Hokage slammed his hand into the ground, his arm burrowed deep into the earth until his entire hand was no longer visible. The creatures around him were astonished for a moment to long, because as soon as they finally got the sense to attack him before his move was complete, it was, indeed, complete. The entire ground for at least a hundred meters around him became the same light blue that the Lightning Blade was. Suddenly, large pillars of lightning came up in numerous places wherever the ground was that color, taking out at least twenty of the beasts at a time. The lightning pillars came up from the ground like giant blades, and as they stabbed upwards through the ground and Kakashi’s targets, those same targets seemed to disintegrate; the lightning was apparently so powerful that it completely burned and incinerated any unfortunate soul that was even close to it. The blades came up quickly and then went back into the ground, about five of them coming up from the ground simultaneously, and then disappearing, and then five more at different spots, and so on for what seemed like hours.
None of the ninja had ceased fighting, but none could help but acknowledge the genius that was Kakashi Hatake. Many gave him astonished looks for at least a few seconds, some even forgot that they were in battle for a moment at the brilliant display, others, upon witnessing that, were sure that Kakashi alone could handle this entire war himself and still come back with his constantly mellow attitude. All watched at least part of the excellent show.
All but Tenzu, who, as Kakashi expected, was working on a move of his own.
Being careful not to get in Kakashi’s way, Tenzu made his way through the oncoming army, dipping and dodging through them with as much speed as Kakashi moved with his Raikiri, more, in fact. He moved like a ghost through the battle, cutting down and stabbing several enemies as he moved past them. He decided that he would go for the bigger fish in this ocean of adversity. The ten giant abominations. Up close they looked even worse. Their arms were all different sizes, some were the right size—large and well-built—but most of them had fat, stubby arms and there was one that Tenzu had spotted without any arms at all; instead there were two giant, blades that extended out of its shoulders. Most of them had all kinds of cuts and bruises covering them.
There was an area that showed how much they were truly behind the rest of the fight; as even the group that Kakashi was now devastating, which had still been making their way into battle, was far ahead of them. An entire area between them and the larger fight, where Tenzu, after jumping up and running on the side of the canyon both to avoid Kakashi’s ruthless lightning and to take down a few of the bat-like monsters, ran toward them without a single encounter until he was too close for comfort. The one with the sword-arms swiped at him once, though he was nowhere to be found, having teleported out of the way just before the attack struck. When he reappeared among the giants, all of them now having stopped in confusion, he was standing on the side of the canyon, knees bent to put him in a crouched position, and then jumped off of the wall. When he had reappeared, he made sure that he came to an area so that when he jumped off he would go straight through the sides of the giants’ chests, and some of their stomachs. He slashed his sword from left to right, jumping from the side of the canyon he was now on to the opposite one, going in a straight line through the giants.
Literally.
Cutting through every one of them as he rushed along the line, when Tenzu landed on the other side of the canyon wall, only a second after he had jumped off in the first place, all of the giants’ lower bodies had been severed from their upper counterparts. From the waist above, they had all been cut in half.
But none were dead.
The way that the lower and upper halves of the giants had fallen made it so that they were still positioned as they would be had Tenzu not halved them, though lying on the floor. But Tenzu Uchiha watched with utter disgust as these… these horrendous beasts reassembled themselves. They seemed to just reattach themselves right there within a matter of seconds, as if they had just been stitched back together. All of them got up slowly, and the one closest to Tenzu leaned on its right arm, still not even completely up with its knees on the ground, and then slammed its left hand on the wall, as if swatting a fly
Tenzu immediately dropped down from the wall, and then mumbled something to himself, “Regeneration abilities, eh? Guess I’ll just have to cut you into so many pieces you can’t restore yourself!” with the last word, the sound of his voice increasing into a yell as he spoke, he rushed forward.
He was moving even more quickly this time. No one could even see where he was the moment after he landed, but when he reappeared, standing calmly in front of the line of monsters, several meters back from them, in the middle of the canyon, they were all covered in cuts and scars all over. And then they all collapsed.
It was a gruesome, bloody sight, really. It was as if he had cut them in half, and then their halves’ in half, and then their halves’ halves’ and half, and so on until there were a thousand, perhaps inch long remnants scattered across the ground.
Tenzu almost retched when he realized that he had failed again.
They were taking far longer to regenerate this time, though, and Tenzu didn’t plan to let them finish. Going into a quick series of hand seals, he roared, “Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!” as he snapped his neck forward, a raging fireball going towards the area where a few of the giants were.
Had Tenzu known it was as simple as a fire jutsu, the giants would have been dead within milliseconds.
They didn’t just seem to burn, they seemed to disintegrate; completely fade from existence within the roaring flames. They were like trolls that one may read of from fairy tale storybooks—simple to kill with a bit of fire. Another fireball built up into Tenzu’s mouth, and he shot that one forward as well, erasing the rest of those that remained from existence.
Making another one-handed seal, Tenzu dispelled the fire, and absolutely nothing remained where the creatures once stood. He looked over his shoulder. The battle behind him was still going on in full, perhaps halfway through if that. Kakashi was standing a little closer to Tenzu than he had been when he used the jutsu, but still had to yell, both to exceed the sound of the battle and to make up for the distance between them, to communicate.
“Shall we rejoin the rest?” Tenzu called over.
Kakashi, at first, was immediately going to give the obvious answer of ‘of course’ but then upon looking back at the battle, he noticed about eight Narutos jumping around with Rasengans in their hands, taking out their enemies by the dozens, and then he saw an enthusiastic Lee throwing kicks and punches one after another with an even more eccentric Gai next to him.
Taking all of that in, he shook his head with a slight laugh, “No… I think they can handle it from here. We’d be better off scouting up ahead.”
~
Riku jumped quickly through the thick forest, quite far away from Shinru’s home, where he had been only a few minutes ago. He looked back several times. Shinru was nowhere to be found, but there was no doubt in his mind that his old sensei wasn’t too far, in fact, Riku wouldn’t be surprised if Shinru knew of some sort of shortcut and was already there.
Riku figured he’d make it in another hour or so if he hurried, that would probably be in enough time to see half the remaining bit of the war through, but considering that he was running on little more than half his chakra supply, that transformation having taken much out of him, he didn’t exactly expect to be able to do much when he made it, and the fact that most of his cloak was blown off and that he was covered in scars would tell anyone that saw him that he was pretty badly injured.
Riku made one last great leap, launching him far forward and high into the sky, and then two quick hand seals. The jutsu delayed itself for a second or two, and then from his upper back two wings of ice seemed to burst right out of his skin, he allowed himself to fall down close to the top of some of the trees below him, and then flapped the wings once, sending him blasting forward. He had, at first, decided not to use too many jutsu, but he figured that running for an hour and flying with speed-enhancing wings for somewhere between fifteen and thirty minutes would reduce his chakra amount about equally. Besides, from here on out he would be going overseas anyway, and the chakra that he would have to use to run across water would reduce his supply as well. He had decided that, as opposed to making a sort of U-turn through the Lightning, Fire, and the Sound countries he would cut right through over the ocean, cutting the time that it would take in about half.
Dismissing all other thoughts, Riku decided he would focus only on moving, and so he flew in silence, physical and mental silence, for the rest of the way to the Sound Country.
~
Kabuto wasn’t exactly difficult to find. As they had guessed, the leading trio was at the very end of the canyon. Sitting. Waiting. The canyon didn’t open up and rise upwards at this side, though, it was just a giant wall; the entire canyon was a dead-end with one way out—the way that they had came. That was an upside, the ever-tactical Ryuu thought, less ways for anyone to escape.
They were at a standstill; the leader of Akatsuki, Ryuu on his right side, and Reaver on his left side facing the other three. It was as if Kabuto had carved out a little comfortable waiting spot for him. There was one giant chair jutting out from the back wall of the canyon, and sitting in it, of course, was Kabuto. The chair had to be twenty meters high—distance enough to force all in attendance to yell to be heard. Kabuto had a wide grin on his face, his hair matted There were two smaller chairs beside it, about ten meters tall each. Sitting in these chairs, as expected, were May and Argo, on Kabuto’s left and right sides respectively. Kabuto watched them as they dropped down from the side of the canyon and then in front of him, slouched forward with his elbows on his thighs and hands clasped together, and his chin resting where those two hands met.
“I didn’t think that you would make yourself so simple to find,” the leader of Akatsuki yelled up, as Ryuu locked eyes with Argo and Reaver, simply because Ryuu and Argo seemed destined to fight and it was only extremely obvious that their leader and Kabuto would do the same, leaving him with only one opponent, watched May closely.
Kabuto sat up straight, still smirking, “Not many places to hide in such a barren land.”
The captain of Akatsuki put his right arm out to the side, and as soon as he did that, Kabuto interrupted him, knowing that he was preparing to call forth his weapon, “Wait… perhaps we should take these battles one step at a time.”
Raising an eyebrow and putting his arm back to his side, Akatsuki’s now-curious leader gave a curious, “Huh?”
“Why rush things?” Kabuto said, that irking grin still on his face, “Besides, prolonging this war will be better for you than me. Greater possibility of having that Tenzu of yours and whoever else is with him when we finish this up.”
All three members of Akatsuki furrowed their eyebrows almost simultaneously. Obviously enough, Kabuto was planning something, something big, something that he needed to stall for. He wanted them each to fight three separate one-on-one battles as opposed to three-on-three, which would clearly take a longer amount of time. But perhaps that was the exact reason why they agreed to the terms. Akatsuki members are known both for arrogant attitudes and consistent curiosity, all of them interested in what exactly Kabuto had in store for them that he wished to stall for.
After agreeing to Kabuto’s terms, Argo jumped off of the chair, and when he landed he took the giant sword slung over his back out so quickly that it seemed as though it appeared in his hand magically. He held it with two hands, though it was very possible that he could hold it with one hand if necessary. Argo was wearing a large, dark green overcoat, too, somewhat like a military thing, something that one would see a general wear. It was buttoned down the middle, only about five or six large buttons, and went down to his knees. The top part of it was close-fitting, putting a lot of emphasis on his muscles. He wore a belt over it, and so the bottom part of it stuck out slightly more loosely. His pants were black, only visible from the knees below, though, and large boots. He truly looked like an over-dressed military general, even having a dark green hat and even his facial features seemed to fit—clean shaved except for two sideburns with white hair going down both sides of his face. The rest of his hair was not visible, due to the hat, though Ryuu guessed that it was fairly short. Ryuu guessed that he had several other weapons strapped onto his person, most of them probably under the overcoat, maybe a dagger on the back of each boot, and Ryuu wouldn’t be surprised if he was carrying another small blade under that hat. There was a visible sword at his side, a normal-looking straight, one-handed rapier, like a type that you might see a pirate using. It was strapped onto his belt.
Ryuu smiled, “I guess I’m up first then?” he asked, taking out one of the large swords strapped over his back without waiting for an answer, holding it casually to his side.
Argo let out a loud roar, spreading both arms wide out to his sides, and then pointed his large sword towards his opponent accusingly, still growling.
The first true clash between two skilled opponents was between these two. They both ran towards each other, dragging their swords on the ground, and began the first real battle of the war—the battle of the swordsmen.
The rest of the battle back at the entrance of the canyon was over a few minutes after Kakashi and Tenzu’s rampages. The main group caught up with Tenzu and Kakashi shortly after that, and they were astounded by what they saw.
They had all come here expecting Kabuto to have some massive army… but this… was incredible.
The way that the canyon was formed here made it a dead drop straight down, so the Konoha and Akatsuki forces were standing on a ledge, overlooking the massive group below. Well, a dead drop for the most part, it wasn’t completely that steep, but someone running down that would undoubtedly gain just enough momentum to lose control and slam into a wall hard enough to knock them out.
But that hardly concerned any of them. The fact that the canyon was that steep at this part only gave them a good look at what astonished them. The army was so vast, so large… it almost filled them all with a sense of hopelessness. The group was crowded, and all of them were just standing there, waiting for their enemies restlessly, looking up at them. They were so close that they were difficult to tell apart, from the position that they were at, it all just looked like a million dots, scattered across the area below. And they all were well-aware that this couldn’t be it, they weren’t even halfway through the canyon yet, there were definitely more up ahead.
How long had Kabuto been planning this? How long had he been planning to betray Akatsuki and declare such a war? Long enough, apparently.
Kakashi turned to the wary group, about to say something, but stopped when he noticed Naruto, a more determined look on his face than Kakashi had seen on him for quite some time, walk past him; standing at the very edge of the ledge. He looked down at the group for quite some time, eyes narrowed, scanning over them as if he was looking to determine something.
Without a word, he jumped over the edge.
He landed before the slope ended though, around the midway point of it, in a sliding position, going down and gaining unimaginable amounts of speed just from the sheer momentum of the fall. As he was sliding, he managed to make a single hand seal, and nine clones of him were created, five on one side and four on his other side, all of them sliding down in a straight line.
Suddenly, the ten Narutos jumped off of the side of the incline, legs and arms moving in flailing motions in the air. All of them brought one arm up backwards into the air, and a giant Rasengan began to form.
Like, really giant.
They started off small, but within a second they had all expanded greatly, all of them spiraling rapidly with life, not just threatening to kill any that they come in contact with, but threatening to shred them into pieces, threatening to destroy them completely and utterly.
And that’s just what they did.
Each one took out what seemed to be hundreds of the creatures, all of them slamming down in a different general area, destroying uncountable amounts of the beasts that were nearby. The impact of the Rasengans hitting the ground were enough to delay the time that the Narutos hit the ground, and when they did, the area was cleared.
There were still millions of Kabuto’s beasts around.
They were still terribly outnumbered.
There was still so much more ground to cover between here and where Kabuto was.
But when the spirits of Konoha’s ninja are bolstered, none of that matters. When the Will of Fire is awakened within the souls of ninja dedicated in life and death to the Hidden Leaf Village, there is no force great enough to stop a single one of those ninja.
They all charged down, the members of Konoha taking lead, sliding down the slope with battle cries to their village, kunai in hands, and no fears accompanying them. The members of Akatsuki looked towards each other, smiling contentedly and deciding to stay out of this fight.It was surely under control. This battle had been won as soon as the bold Naruto jumped off of the ledge.
But the war was a different story entirely.
The Sounds of Battle Part 1 – Into the Canyon
It started quietly at first. Everything was still as they walked through the canyon, barely having walked for a few minutes. The slight rumble of the ground was unnoticeable at first; could not be heard nor felt among the heavy drops of rain slamming down on the ground around them. The battle cry was merely an echoing whisper, bouncing off the high walls of the canyon. The charging group seemed no more than a few scattered specs on the ground, and in the air, that was lower into the canyon than where the group already was.
And then it grew.
A roaring sound so immense it could be heard far off in space.
A rumble so massive that it could be felt across the world.
An army so vast that it could be seen from miles away.
A battle so intense that it would be remembered for ages.
Kabuto’s army was truly a marvel to behold. Perhaps it could even be considered a stunning sight that displayed both the wonders and horrors of nature had it not been a group seeking to slaughter every one of them. Just this part of Kabuto’s group alone outnumbered the fearless group of Konoha and Akatsuki shinobi 50 to 1 maybe even more. But not one of them were afraid. Many of these creatures Kakashi remembered from the assault at Akatsuki’s tower: the disfigured lizards with two arms in addition to their four legs where their bodies rose up from the ground, giving them the ability to wield weapons, creatures that seemed like werewolves, and a few larger, figures; terribly disfigured humans who were at least thrice the size of a normal person, with scrunched faces and stomach, their skin completely paled, doubtlessly from the many chemicals that had been splashed over them. Others were ones that not even Tenzu recognized; creatures that seemed to have bat wings that stretched from their upper to lower legs but they were three or four times bigger than a normal bat, and their faces were almost cat-like, with black fur rimming their heads and large maws with rows of sharp teeth agape and snapping. When they ran, some of them running along the side of the canyon, they looked like one of the larger cats, their back legs going before their front legs at time, running in short leaps.
That entire group of what Kakashi referred to as ‘the most dreadful freaks of nature he had ever had the displeasure of looking at’ seemed to materialize within the ranks of the much smaller, though elite, group of ninja. Their speed was great enough to completely cut through the line of shinobi, though their control was so horrible that Tenzu couldn’t help but cut three of them down that had attempted to move pass him, and within a moment the group was surrounded.
Not one was afraid though.
Not one missed out on a moment of action.
Kunai and blades clash, punches and kicks flew, and all of the ninja on Konoha and Akastuki’s side spread out to give each other space, as the beasts were moving so close to each other that they stumbled over one another. The larger monstrosities were still quite a distance away from the fight, running as fast as their stubby legs, hardly in proportion with their massive bodies, could take them. There were only ten of these larger mutilated humans as far as Tenzu could see, but they were so large that, since they were moving in a straight line formation, their shoulders rubbed against one another and the two at the edges of the line already had cuts and skin peeling off of them from the sides of the canyon, which had more than a few ridges on it.
Although Tenzu made the first official blows, the three whom he had taken down before the true battle had even begun, and there were many strikes after that, it was Kakashi who made the first truly devastating attack. It was only fitting that he would, as considering that the leader of the Akatsuki had run off with a reluctant Reaver and Ryuu, Kakashi and Tenzu were considered the two leaders of the group. Lightning built up in his right hand, his Sharingan eye already uncovered by his headband, as he used his free hand to grip the other arm, containing the lightning that flowed through it. The sound of chirping birds emanated from the mist of the raging battle, and suddenly, the seventh hokage of Konoha darted left and right. He moved with amazing speed; quickness that only the greatest and most elite of ninja could ever hope to attain without losing control over themselves. He cut through the ranks of Kabuto’s force with ease, slicing cleanly through each and every beast that opposed him with his lightning coated hand. Those that he didn’t cut through were still shocked by lightning as it jumped from his hand, as well as creatures that he had directly hit, to those that had not been injured. Perhaps even more amazing, though, was that not a single ally of his was even slightly injured, not a single spark flew to a place that he didn’t wish for it to go. His speed was deadly; his control and usage, impeccable; his sheer ability, brilliant.
The use of the Raikiri alone already had dozens of them down, but Kakashi’s assault was not yet done. He continued dashing through the ranks of the hostile, and now extremely afraid, army until he finally came to an area in the middle of many of them, a place where he was sure that no members of Konoha nor Akatsuki, though he had a feeling that Tenzu was likely somewhere nearby, were within the next two hundred meters of him, and then stopped abruptly. His hand, though, was still cloaked in bright lightning. Quickly, the Hokage slammed his hand into the ground, his arm burrowed deep into the earth until his entire hand was no longer visible. The creatures around him were astonished for a moment to long, because as soon as they finally got the sense to attack him before his move was complete, it was, indeed, complete. The entire ground for at least a hundred meters around him became the same light blue that the Lightning Blade was. Suddenly, large pillars of lightning came up in numerous places wherever the ground was that color, taking out at least twenty of the beasts at a time. The lightning pillars came up from the ground like giant blades, and as they stabbed upwards through the ground and Kakashi’s targets, those same targets seemed to disintegrate; the lightning was apparently so powerful that it completely burned and incinerated any unfortunate soul that was even close to it. The blades came up quickly and then went back into the ground, about five of them coming up from the ground simultaneously, and then disappearing, and then five more at different spots, and so on for what seemed like hours.
None of the ninja had ceased fighting, but none could help but acknowledge the genius that was Kakashi Hatake. Many gave him astonished looks for at least a few seconds, some even forgot that they were in battle for a moment at the brilliant display, others, upon witnessing that, were sure that Kakashi alone could handle this entire war himself and still come back with his constantly mellow attitude. All watched at least part of the excellent show.
All but Tenzu, who, as Kakashi expected, was working on a move of his own.
Being careful not to get in Kakashi’s way, Tenzu made his way through the oncoming army, dipping and dodging through them with as much speed as Kakashi moved with his Raikiri, more, in fact. He moved like a ghost through the battle, cutting down and stabbing several enemies as he moved past them. He decided that he would go for the bigger fish in this ocean of adversity. The ten giant abominations. Up close they looked even worse. Their arms were all different sizes, some were the right size—large and well-built—but most of them had fat, stubby arms and there was one that Tenzu had spotted without any arms at all; instead there were two giant, blades that extended out of its shoulders. Most of them had all kinds of cuts and bruises covering them.
There was an area that showed how much they were truly behind the rest of the fight; as even the group that Kakashi was now devastating, which had still been making their way into battle, was far ahead of them. An entire area between them and the larger fight, where Tenzu, after jumping up and running on the side of the canyon both to avoid Kakashi’s ruthless lightning and to take down a few of the bat-like monsters, ran toward them without a single encounter until he was too close for comfort. The one with the sword-arms swiped at him once, though he was nowhere to be found, having teleported out of the way just before the attack struck. When he reappeared among the giants, all of them now having stopped in confusion, he was standing on the side of the canyon, knees bent to put him in a crouched position, and then jumped off of the wall. When he had reappeared, he made sure that he came to an area so that when he jumped off he would go straight through the sides of the giants’ chests, and some of their stomachs. He slashed his sword from left to right, jumping from the side of the canyon he was now on to the opposite one, going in a straight line through the giants.
Literally.
Cutting through every one of them as he rushed along the line, when Tenzu landed on the other side of the canyon wall, only a second after he had jumped off in the first place, all of the giants’ lower bodies had been severed from their upper counterparts. From the waist above, they had all been cut in half.
But none were dead.
The way that the lower and upper halves of the giants had fallen made it so that they were still positioned as they would be had Tenzu not halved them, though lying on the floor. But Tenzu Uchiha watched with utter disgust as these… these horrendous beasts reassembled themselves. They seemed to just reattach themselves right there within a matter of seconds, as if they had just been stitched back together. All of them got up slowly, and the one closest to Tenzu leaned on its right arm, still not even completely up with its knees on the ground, and then slammed its left hand on the wall, as if swatting a fly
Tenzu immediately dropped down from the wall, and then mumbled something to himself, “Regeneration abilities, eh? Guess I’ll just have to cut you into so many pieces you can’t restore yourself!” with the last word, the sound of his voice increasing into a yell as he spoke, he rushed forward.
He was moving even more quickly this time. No one could even see where he was the moment after he landed, but when he reappeared, standing calmly in front of the line of monsters, several meters back from them, in the middle of the canyon, they were all covered in cuts and scars all over. And then they all collapsed.
It was a gruesome, bloody sight, really. It was as if he had cut them in half, and then their halves’ in half, and then their halves’ halves’ and half, and so on until there were a thousand, perhaps inch long remnants scattered across the ground.
Tenzu almost retched when he realized that he had failed again.
They were taking far longer to regenerate this time, though, and Tenzu didn’t plan to let them finish. Going into a quick series of hand seals, he roared, “Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!” as he snapped his neck forward, a raging fireball going towards the area where a few of the giants were.
Had Tenzu known it was as simple as a fire jutsu, the giants would have been dead within milliseconds.
They didn’t just seem to burn, they seemed to disintegrate; completely fade from existence within the roaring flames. They were like trolls that one may read of from fairy tale storybooks—simple to kill with a bit of fire. Another fireball built up into Tenzu’s mouth, and he shot that one forward as well, erasing the rest of those that remained from existence.
Making another one-handed seal, Tenzu dispelled the fire, and absolutely nothing remained where the creatures once stood. He looked over his shoulder. The battle behind him was still going on in full, perhaps halfway through if that. Kakashi was standing a little closer to Tenzu than he had been when he used the jutsu, but still had to yell, both to exceed the sound of the battle and to make up for the distance between them, to communicate.
“Shall we rejoin the rest?” Tenzu called over.
Kakashi, at first, was immediately going to give the obvious answer of ‘of course’ but then upon looking back at the battle, he noticed about eight Narutos jumping around with Rasengans in their hands, taking out their enemies by the dozens, and then he saw an enthusiastic Lee throwing kicks and punches one after another with an even more eccentric Gai next to him.
Taking all of that in, he shook his head with a slight laugh, “No… I think they can handle it from here. We’d be better off scouting up ahead.”
~
Riku jumped quickly through the thick forest, quite far away from Shinru’s home, where he had been only a few minutes ago. He looked back several times. Shinru was nowhere to be found, but there was no doubt in his mind that his old sensei wasn’t too far, in fact, Riku wouldn’t be surprised if Shinru knew of some sort of shortcut and was already there.
Riku figured he’d make it in another hour or so if he hurried, that would probably be in enough time to see half the remaining bit of the war through, but considering that he was running on little more than half his chakra supply, that transformation having taken much out of him, he didn’t exactly expect to be able to do much when he made it, and the fact that most of his cloak was blown off and that he was covered in scars would tell anyone that saw him that he was pretty badly injured.
Riku made one last great leap, launching him far forward and high into the sky, and then two quick hand seals. The jutsu delayed itself for a second or two, and then from his upper back two wings of ice seemed to burst right out of his skin, he allowed himself to fall down close to the top of some of the trees below him, and then flapped the wings once, sending him blasting forward. He had, at first, decided not to use too many jutsu, but he figured that running for an hour and flying with speed-enhancing wings for somewhere between fifteen and thirty minutes would reduce his chakra amount about equally. Besides, from here on out he would be going overseas anyway, and the chakra that he would have to use to run across water would reduce his supply as well. He had decided that, as opposed to making a sort of U-turn through the Lightning, Fire, and the Sound countries he would cut right through over the ocean, cutting the time that it would take in about half.
Dismissing all other thoughts, Riku decided he would focus only on moving, and so he flew in silence, physical and mental silence, for the rest of the way to the Sound Country.
~
Kabuto wasn’t exactly difficult to find. As they had guessed, the leading trio was at the very end of the canyon. Sitting. Waiting. The canyon didn’t open up and rise upwards at this side, though, it was just a giant wall; the entire canyon was a dead-end with one way out—the way that they had came. That was an upside, the ever-tactical Ryuu thought, less ways for anyone to escape.
They were at a standstill; the leader of Akatsuki, Ryuu on his right side, and Reaver on his left side facing the other three. It was as if Kabuto had carved out a little comfortable waiting spot for him. There was one giant chair jutting out from the back wall of the canyon, and sitting in it, of course, was Kabuto. The chair had to be twenty meters high—distance enough to force all in attendance to yell to be heard. Kabuto had a wide grin on his face, his hair matted There were two smaller chairs beside it, about ten meters tall each. Sitting in these chairs, as expected, were May and Argo, on Kabuto’s left and right sides respectively. Kabuto watched them as they dropped down from the side of the canyon and then in front of him, slouched forward with his elbows on his thighs and hands clasped together, and his chin resting where those two hands met.
“I didn’t think that you would make yourself so simple to find,” the leader of Akatsuki yelled up, as Ryuu locked eyes with Argo and Reaver, simply because Ryuu and Argo seemed destined to fight and it was only extremely obvious that their leader and Kabuto would do the same, leaving him with only one opponent, watched May closely.
Kabuto sat up straight, still smirking, “Not many places to hide in such a barren land.”
The captain of Akatsuki put his right arm out to the side, and as soon as he did that, Kabuto interrupted him, knowing that he was preparing to call forth his weapon, “Wait… perhaps we should take these battles one step at a time.”
Raising an eyebrow and putting his arm back to his side, Akatsuki’s now-curious leader gave a curious, “Huh?”
“Why rush things?” Kabuto said, that irking grin still on his face, “Besides, prolonging this war will be better for you than me. Greater possibility of having that Tenzu of yours and whoever else is with him when we finish this up.”
All three members of Akatsuki furrowed their eyebrows almost simultaneously. Obviously enough, Kabuto was planning something, something big, something that he needed to stall for. He wanted them each to fight three separate one-on-one battles as opposed to three-on-three, which would clearly take a longer amount of time. But perhaps that was the exact reason why they agreed to the terms. Akatsuki members are known both for arrogant attitudes and consistent curiosity, all of them interested in what exactly Kabuto had in store for them that he wished to stall for.
After agreeing to Kabuto’s terms, Argo jumped off of the chair, and when he landed he took the giant sword slung over his back out so quickly that it seemed as though it appeared in his hand magically. He held it with two hands, though it was very possible that he could hold it with one hand if necessary. Argo was wearing a large, dark green overcoat, too, somewhat like a military thing, something that one would see a general wear. It was buttoned down the middle, only about five or six large buttons, and went down to his knees. The top part of it was close-fitting, putting a lot of emphasis on his muscles. He wore a belt over it, and so the bottom part of it stuck out slightly more loosely. His pants were black, only visible from the knees below, though, and large boots. He truly looked like an over-dressed military general, even having a dark green hat and even his facial features seemed to fit—clean shaved except for two sideburns with white hair going down both sides of his face. The rest of his hair was not visible, due to the hat, though Ryuu guessed that it was fairly short. Ryuu guessed that he had several other weapons strapped onto his person, most of them probably under the overcoat, maybe a dagger on the back of each boot, and Ryuu wouldn’t be surprised if he was carrying another small blade under that hat. There was a visible sword at his side, a normal-looking straight, one-handed rapier, like a type that you might see a pirate using. It was strapped onto his belt.
Ryuu smiled, “I guess I’m up first then?” he asked, taking out one of the large swords strapped over his back without waiting for an answer, holding it casually to his side.
Argo let out a loud roar, spreading both arms wide out to his sides, and then pointed his large sword towards his opponent accusingly, still growling.
The first true clash between two skilled opponents was between these two. They both ran towards each other, dragging their swords on the ground, and began the first real battle of the war—the battle of the swordsmen.
~
The rest of the battle back at the entrance of the canyon was over a few minutes after Kakashi and Tenzu’s rampages. The main group caught up with Tenzu and Kakashi shortly after that, and they were astounded by what they saw.
They had all come here expecting Kabuto to have some massive army… but this… was incredible.
The way that the canyon was formed here made it a dead drop straight down, so the Konoha and Akatsuki forces were standing on a ledge, overlooking the massive group below. Well, a dead drop for the most part, it wasn’t completely that steep, but someone running down that would undoubtedly gain just enough momentum to lose control and slam into a wall hard enough to knock them out.
But that hardly concerned any of them. The fact that the canyon was that steep at this part only gave them a good look at what astonished them. The army was so vast, so large… it almost filled them all with a sense of hopelessness. The group was crowded, and all of them were just standing there, waiting for their enemies restlessly, looking up at them. They were so close that they were difficult to tell apart, from the position that they were at, it all just looked like a million dots, scattered across the area below. And they all were well-aware that this couldn’t be it, they weren’t even halfway through the canyon yet, there were definitely more up ahead.
How long had Kabuto been planning this? How long had he been planning to betray Akatsuki and declare such a war? Long enough, apparently.
Kakashi turned to the wary group, about to say something, but stopped when he noticed Naruto, a more determined look on his face than Kakashi had seen on him for quite some time, walk past him; standing at the very edge of the ledge. He looked down at the group for quite some time, eyes narrowed, scanning over them as if he was looking to determine something.
Without a word, he jumped over the edge.
He landed before the slope ended though, around the midway point of it, in a sliding position, going down and gaining unimaginable amounts of speed just from the sheer momentum of the fall. As he was sliding, he managed to make a single hand seal, and nine clones of him were created, five on one side and four on his other side, all of them sliding down in a straight line.
Suddenly, the ten Narutos jumped off of the side of the incline, legs and arms moving in flailing motions in the air. All of them brought one arm up backwards into the air, and a giant Rasengan began to form.
Like, really giant.
They started off small, but within a second they had all expanded greatly, all of them spiraling rapidly with life, not just threatening to kill any that they come in contact with, but threatening to shred them into pieces, threatening to destroy them completely and utterly.
And that’s just what they did.
Each one took out what seemed to be hundreds of the creatures, all of them slamming down in a different general area, destroying uncountable amounts of the beasts that were nearby. The impact of the Rasengans hitting the ground were enough to delay the time that the Narutos hit the ground, and when they did, the area was cleared.
There were still millions of Kabuto’s beasts around.
They were still terribly outnumbered.
There was still so much more ground to cover between here and where Kabuto was.
But when the spirits of Konoha’s ninja are bolstered, none of that matters. When the Will of Fire is awakened within the souls of ninja dedicated in life and death to the Hidden Leaf Village, there is no force great enough to stop a single one of those ninja.
They all charged down, the members of Konoha taking lead, sliding down the slope with battle cries to their village, kunai in hands, and no fears accompanying them. The members of Akatsuki looked towards each other, smiling contentedly and deciding to stay out of this fight.It was surely under control. This battle had been won as soon as the bold Naruto jumped off of the ledge.
But the war was a different story entirely.
