606Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Rurouni Kenshin. You all know that though.
"Talk" Character talking.
'Think' Character thinking.
"I present to you the Godaime Hoshikage!"
Sumaru sat on his dad's strong shoulders as they announced their village leader. Like many others he had no idea what happened to Akahoshi, or the shinobi he took with him on a secret mission that was apparently classified to the point it would be considered national security. His loss was a huge blow to the village, along with the elites he picked to follow him, but today the village was finally moving past their darkest hour and stepping into the light.
And that light was his mother. Stepping into the light she was wearing the traditional purple Kage robes and the ceremonial hat, she looked proud, regal, and powerful. She smiled at the people and approached the podium.
"Dad, I know mom is one of the best in the village, but so are you. Why didn't you want to be Hoshikage?" Sumaru asked.
Hotarubi smiled as he watched his wife shuffled through some papers, the new laws and ideals the both of them worked on for years in secret. "I am not the person for the position, son. I would rather help your mother as her right hand, to do the things she cannot due to her position."
"I don't understand what you mean." Sumaru said.
"You will one day." Hotarubi said. "You're a good boy. You're strong like your mother, you inherited all her best traits, one day you will become a strong shinobi like her and take up the mantle when it's time for her to pass it on."
"But I'm strong like you too! You're loyal and smart, you work hard and have mastered the Kujaku method beyond anything the village has seen. I want to be like you too!"
Hotarubi couldn't help but smile, it was big and wide. He ignored the burning feeling in his chest from the drawbacks of the meteor that damaged his body, now was not the time to be weak.
"I know you will Sumaru. I hope I'll be there when the time comes."
"Of course you will be! You're my dad, you're going to live forever!" Sumaru ignorantly protested.
"Sumaru…"
"Sumaru…"
"Sumaru!"
A harsh smack jerked his head to the side, and Sumaru broke from his trance. The sting to his right cheek hurt, and the tears falling from his eyes were not from the physical pain. Slowly he looked around and saw his surroundings, when did he get to the forest? Why were there so many people here?
"Ah…what?" He dumbly asked.
"Snap out of it, we still need to be on high alert with all that's going on!" Naruto ordered him.
"Naruto, take it easy on him!" Sakura admonished her teammate. Shoving him to the side her hands began to glow green as she began scanning the Star Chunin. "He's in shock right now. For God's sake he just lost his dad!"
"Sakura…everyone has lost someone tonight." Sasuke spoke to his pink-haired teammate. His voice wasn't cold, it was just blunt. His charcoal-colored eyes roamed the couple of dozen people he could see in the dark, many of them in a disheveled state. "We don't exactly have the time to coddle anyone."
"But-!"
"No, they're right." Sumaru placed his hands on Sakura's forearms and slowly pushed them away from him. "I can't mourn. Not right now, dad gave his life to give us a chance to escape, and we can't let it go to waste."
Slowly he got to his feet and felt the extent of his injuries. He was hurt, but not crippled, he could move all his limbs and he still had a lot of blood in him. He could still fight, and he would until the night was done and over with.
"Everyone, I need a headcount! Gather the wounded and start tending to them. If any of you have information, report it immediately, we may have been forced to retreat but that isn't going to happen for long." He approached the survivors of the coup d'etat and stopped in front of one of them. "You! How many people are here?"
The shinobi in question was twice his age, and twice his height, but he immediately answered the son of their village leader. "Last we counted we have a hundred and thirty people who escaped. Ten are civilians, we got many injured. Twelve are heavily injured and can't fight…two might not make it through the night."
Gritting his teeth Sumaru looked at the crowd of people. His people, the ones who followed his mom and dad and not the traitors of the village. "And my mom. Where is she?"
"We haven't seen her yet. Sorry."
"What about our sensei? You know the silver-haired man." Sakura asked.
"Sorry, we haven't seen him either."
"But I have." The very familiar voice of their village leader caused many heads to snap in the direction of Natsuhi approaching from the darkness with ten other shinobi flanking her. The mood in the group immediately changed from stressed to relieved. "When the attack happened, he left our home to scout and cause some mischief. I personally have dealt with several traitors in the village. Everyone, it's good to see you here alive and well."
A frown soon formed on her face; she didn't see her husband anywhere. "Sumaru…where is your father?"
The silence was deafening, and a pit of dread formed in her stomach. Natsuhi felt like a part of her died right there and then. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "How did it happen?"
"He used this jutsu…I don't know what it was called." Naruto answered.
"I saw three wolves forming and it combined into one." Sasuke spoke up.
Sumaru put two and two together, he knew what happened, with how ravished his dad's body was he knew the man gave it his all. "It was Synthesis. We were being chased by that traitor Shiso and too many others to count…he took them all down."
"I see." The pain was still there, Natsuhi knew that in their line of work and with the damage done to his body, Hotarubi's life was always on a razor's edge between life and death. The knowledge he died protecting their son was hollow, but even then, she was filled with pride and sadness that he went out his way and not from the side effects of the Star Training like all their friends did.
She wiped a stray tear from her eye. Now wasn't the time to cry, the time to mourn would come later. "We will mourn and honor our dead later. Right now we need to create a plan of attack."
"Hoshikage-sama." One of her kunoichi stepped forward. She was battered and bruised, the blood on the right side of her head showed she suffered the loss of one of her ears. She was definitely in pain but was still ready to report.
"You may speak, hurry."
"Before coming here, I saw our enemy." She grimaced. "They were rounding up the villagers, so far I saw perhaps three-hundred civilians, and maybe a hundred of our shinobi. Almost all of them are Genin. I fear they might be used as hostages."
"We were never a big village to begin with. Whoever is being rounded up will be considered an ally, the rest will be our enemies." Natsuhi closed her eyes and to the surprise of everyone she removed her headband bearing their village symbol. "Keeping that in mind I'm ordering you to do something I hope will never happen again. Remove your headbands bearing our village symbol."
"Mom…" Sumaru felt his heart drop into his stomach.
"Until our village is rid of Akahoshi's influence down to the last man, we will never be united. Until that happens remove them, I would rather us never wear it than allow the traitors to think we are equals."
Sakura's eyes widened; it was a simple but brilliant strategy. To raise the morale of her shinobi she basically told them that they were in the right while Akahoshi's followers were in the wrong, that they were different and just in their way of life. She also saw that it prevented any friendly fire for when they made their counterattack.
But even with that the people looked hesitant to do so. Their Hitai-ate was a symbol of pride, it showed that they were not only shinobi who took pride in their village, but also loyalty. Even rogue shinobi who cut ties with their village and slashed through their village symbol still had some pride from where they came from, but to abandon it all together was like abandoning everything it stood for entirely.
That was until Sumaru untied his headband and tossed it onto the ground. His eyes, while filled with unshed tears, were also burning with desire. "By the end of the night I will proudly display this on my forehead again."
"Gutsy thinking this will be done by the end of the night." Naruto said.
"It will be." Sumaru turned towards the blonde and gave him a challenging look. "The question is, are you going to sit there like a coward or help us?"
"I think you already know my answer. This kind of thing has become a habit of ours." Naruto fingered the hilt of the Mugenjin.
"Wave Country, Snow Country, Vegetable Country, and now Bear Country." Sasuke listed off the four countries his blonde teammate had been involved in that caused a tyrant, dictator or rogue shinobi to wind up dead. As Sakura healed his wounds, he sighed at the ridiculousness of it all. "I need some supplies, after that I'll be ready to fight."
"Same here. Let me tend to the wounded and I'll help out." Sakura barely sounded nervous. It was a far cry from her inexperience from their C turned A-rank mission in Wave Country, whether she was getting used to being a kunoichi, or she was in a state of shock from killing her first person on this mission.
Either way it was better than being useless and sitting on the sidelines.
Natsuhi gave the four shinobi a proud smile and dropped her headband onto the ground. And then one by one the small force of loyalists followed through and removed their own.
Once the last headband clattered onto the ground, her eyes turned hard and cold. "Here is the plan, everyone if we do this correctly this village will live to see another sunrise."
Hokushin looked at the downed form of a male civilian he killed, as usual he felt absolutely nothing from the latest victim that was bleeding out in the dirt.
Shura's orders were simple: They were to help with the insurrection, and when it either succeeded or failed they were to steal the meteorite and flee the village. There were to be no witnesses, no survivors, Hoshigakure was going to be erased and lost to the pages of history. Officially he, and his companions were ordered to help round up any stragglers or those who fled into the woods.
Unofficially, they were to cut them down. The latest victim was his tenth civilian, the one after him was his fourth shinobi, some Star Chunin that no one would ever remember. He smiled and put his hand in the tiger seal once more. "Chameleon Jutsu."
In a span of two seconds his entire body disappeared and blended in with his surroundings. Hokushin might have been a one trick pony, but he knew the ins and outs of this jutsu and used it in the many jobs he was hired to do in the past. No one could smell, see, and he trained so no one could hear him, he viewed himself as one of the perfect assassins in the Elemental Nations.
That was why he was surprised when he had to use his sword to block a kunai from lodging into his throat. His dark eye widened in alarm when a blur appeared in front of him, and he barely had time to raise his weapon to block the vicious strikes of a tanto.
'What the hell? My jutsu allows me to blend in perfectly…how?' Hokushin's eyes widened when he saw the lone Sharingan eye furiously spinning. 'Sharingan? Shit I forgot that eye-'
His thoughts were interrupted when a vicious knee strike hit him in the gut. He keeled over and wound up with a deep wound to the side of his face that cut through half his ear and trailed up to his temple, and through his very thin headband. Before he could even attempt to flee, he received a brutal kick to his right knee that shattered not only his kneecap and his concentration.
His assailant, Kakashi Hatake covered his mouth and harshly slammed him backwards into the ground. The impact not only caused him to lose his sword but see stars from the back of his head hitting the hard ground.
"You are definitely not from Hoshigakure." Kakashi coldly spoke to the crippled man. Forcing him to look into his Sharingan eye he cast a genjutsu over him. "I want information. Who sent you and what is your objective?"
Instead of getting an answer, all Kakashi got was a muffled scream before Hokushin's body began to violently convulse. Blood began to rapidly escape from his tear ducts, his nose, and Kakashi felt a great amount of it coating his glove.
"Damn." Kakashi pulled his gloved hand away and wiped it on Hokushin's shirt. He tilted his deceased opponent's head to the side to let the remaining blood spill out and began checking the inside of his mouth, he pulled his tongue and saw no seal.
"I don't see a suicide seal anywhere. I don't have the time to examine it any further, I'll have to take him back to the village for a closer look." Kakashi pulled out a scroll from his hip pouch and unrolled it. He literally pulled Hokushin over the parchment and sealed his body inside it.
"One down, who knows how many to go. This mission has gotten more complicated."
That was an understatement. Kakashi was not even thirty and had been through more things in his shinobi career than most of his peers, he was not afraid to say that he was extremely cynical, apathetic and coldhearted when he needed to be. He was not afraid to die, if anything he welcomed death, after all he was the last of his family and minus a handful of people he considered friends not many would mourn his death.
Of course, he now had a team of Genin who needed guidance. A girl who came from a civilian family who had a lot of potential, the last Uchiha who needed all the guidance he could get, and the only child of his sensei he spent years searching for. All of them had been through life-or-death situations in many missions since becoming a team, so far he failed them during their mission in Wave Country, he was not going to let it happen again.
"Another one…great." Kakashi felt something was off, he was soon engulfed by gray rock powder.
"Assimilation Sand Coffin!" From his hidden location Nagare glared at the Copy-cat Ninja. "Assimilation Sand Burial!" The rock dust exploded inwards, but instead of blood spraying everywhere it was pieces of wood.
"Damn, a substitution jutsu." Nagare cursed. His small black eyes narrowed in anger from discovering that Hokushin was killed by his opponent. He knew that in their line of work death was around every corner, but still losing someone he worked with for years honestly made his blood boil.
"Indeed." Nagare felt a presence behind him, he barely managed to move to the side to avoid a fatal stab through his lower back. It unfortunately was not fast enough for him to escape without an injury. White-hot pain tore through his right side, and he felt hot blood flowing down his wound.
"Sharingan Kakashi, I should have known." He glared at his opponent, his Sharingan spinning, and a kunai clutched in his right hand covered in a small amount of lightning chakra.
"You seem to have me at a disadvantage." Kakashi drowned seeing his larger opponent. "I haven't looked at the Bingo Book in a long time. And I'm afraid your face isn't ringing any bells."
"I'm Nagare of the Watari Ninja clan!" Nagare growled from the absolute disrespect.
"Watari…Watari…Watari…" Kakashi rolled the name in his mind in a mocking manner. He then had a false eureka moment and snapped his fingers. "Oh yes, I remember you. Gai and his Genin team confronted your little group a year ago and you all got your collective butts kicked by them."
"That's not what happened!"
"But it is, you took over Bird Country by killing its Daimyo and his heir, but you missed the heiress who took on the guise of her brother. Your group of copycats caused a lot of trouble before Gai took on a mission to investigate a so-called Cursed Warrior." Kakashi rubbed his chin through his mask. "He told me you were all defeated, but your leader escaped with two subordinates in the middle of transit. The rest, not so much."
Kakashi's mocking voice ceased and was replaced by a cold, unfeeling monotone. Sharingan Kakashi decided to pass on the mission to Anbu Kakashi. "You three are in the miscellaneous section of the Bingo Book, Bird Country has you all marked for death. I will gladly hand over your heads to them after getting my answers from you."
"Just try it, Hatake!" Nagare thrust up his arms, and from the ground gray rock dust exploded outwards. "I'm in my element and with my abilities I will crush you!"
"Shame that earth is weak to lightning." Channeling his lightning natured chakra to his right wrist, the crackling of a thousand birds began to echo in the clearing.
(Hoshigakure village Square)
"I can't believe Shiso is gone." Yotaka said to himself amongst the crowd of people, no not people. He looked his remaining forces over, there were barely a hundred left if he was counting right, the rest were hostages. The civilians and the shinobi they captured during their surprise attack.
He was not pleased at all. Shiso was one of the few people he trusted in the entire village after Akahoshi disappeared. His closest confidant, his closest friend, and now he was gone…
Light purple chakra exploded from his body. It alerted all the nearby captives and his own allies. "Every single one of you are traitors!" He shouted at the prisoners. "We were given a gift from the heavens itself! We were given the right to become the Sixth Great Shinobi Nation and we were so close to achieving it until the Sandaime Hoshikage banned us from using the star."
"That's because the radiation from the Star Training was killing us!" Hokuto protested. Even on her knees and bound she looked at her captors in defiance. "Mizura is still suffering from the side effects from the radiation poisoning, Sumaru's own father is even suffering from it. All of us…all of you are suffering from it. Please see reason and stop this madness!"
"Sorry girl, it's too late." One of the shinobi near her said. "I already lost my wife and daughter; I have nothing left but to see this through and our nation rising to greatness."
"Exactly! We all lost someone, with progress comes sacrifice. The generations before us sacrificed everything to get us this far, and we must risk our own well-being to stand atop of the Five Great Shinobi Nations." Yotaka threw his arms out and continued to preach. "If you're not willing to sacrifice yourself for the glory of our village then you are better off dead!"
"Sacrificing yourself for your village is one thing, but pointlessly dying for it is another!" Mizura began coughing. "I love my village with all my heart, it's why I did the Star Training even though it made me sick. I…I can't let you get away with this."
"You won't let me get away with it? You won't let me get away with it!?" Yotaka picked the young man up by his collar and snarled.
"Stop it! Please let him go! If he gets too close to the star it'll exasperate his condition!"
The chakra from the Meteorite was freely flowing out of it and lashing out in multiple directions. Yotaka watched as Mizura began panting heavily, sweat coating his body from being too close to the chakra that was slowly killing him.
"Then I will cull the chaff from the wheat!" Yotaka pulled out a kunai and stabbed Mizura through the chest.
"Mizura! Noooo!" Hokuto fell to her side, she tried to crawl to her friend but found a harsh sandal on her back preventing her from moving any further.
"This is what weakness gets you. Dead and forgotten!" Flinging the Genin to the ground, Yotaka watched as the corpse smacked harshly on the surface and began to bleed out onto the village he loved. "Everyone, I want half of you to stay here and guard the prisoners. The rest of us will go into the forest and hunt down the remaining traitors!"
He looked at the faces of his shinobi. Without Akahoshi or Shiso he was the leader now; he saw brief hesitation on their faces. It just further enraged him. "We've come too far now! You all threw in with me knowing what needed to be done, it's far too late to back out now. We're all damned will be judged together when the time comes, so don't you dare try to play innocent."
Yotaka pointed at them. "Each and every one of you has killed someone on this night. If we don't do what needs to be done, then we won't live to see the next evening. Do what needs to be done!"
It was out of zealot acceptance, reluctance, or fully knowing that they made their bed and now had to lie in it. The group of one-hundred something Star shinobi began to follow Yotaka's orders.
And that was when the counterattack from Natsuhi's loyal forces commenced. Kunai and shuriken struck standing targets followed by various forms of the Kujaku techniques.
Yotaka clashed his kunai with one of the shinobi he was forced to work with once upon a time ago. He snarled in his face and flared his star chakra until it morphed into two solid ropes and pierced through the sides of his opponent's head. Shoving the body off he whirled around and met the face of a snarling Sumaru.
"The Hoshikage's brat. Killing you will tear your mother apart!"
Sumaru didn't answer, he looked at the body of Mizura and Hokuto lying on her stomach with tears falling from her eyes. He didn't need to know what happened; it was already right there in front of him.
"I'm going to kill you for what you've done." Sumaru coldly said.
"You're a hundred years too early to kill me, boy! Ninja Art: Kujaku - Beast!" Yotaka's star chakra formed into the familiar form of a purple-colored dog. With a mental command he sent it towards the son of the Godaime.
"Ninja Art: Kujaku - Beast!" Sumaru's own chakra beast formed from the peacock feathers on his back and grew to a much larger size. Just like in the fight Sumaru had with Naruto a week and a half ago, it was five times larger than the usual technique and snarled.
Both Star shinobi attacked each other with their beasts and like in some twisted nature documentary they clawed and bit at each other. Sumaru's own technique lost a small chunk in its right leg, but Yotaka's lost half its face.
Gritting his teeth the bald shinobi looked to the side, the villagers and shinobi they captured earlier had either escaped or began fighting in earnest. Light purple star chakra surrounded the area to an almost blinding degree.
For him it was perfect.
"Ninja Art: Kujaku - Chakra Predation!" With the Meteorite powering him, Yotaka used a technique that was meant to support and aid their comrades, it was considered the ultimate sign of trust in their village. His own light purple star chakra lashed out and attached to enemy and ally alike, he devoured their star chakra to strengthen his own, it was the ultimate betrayal, firmly cementing his name as a traitor to the village.
The result was instantaneous, ally and enemy alike felt their star chakra being stolen. It was a terrible, violating experience like a leech latching on their skin and sucking out their blood. With each second that passed Yotaka's chakra beast grew in size.
"You despicable monster…" Sumaru's reddish-brown eyes glared at the traitor in fury. Sweat began to pour down his forehead as his technique was slowly beaten back.
"The victors write history, boy." Yotaka sneered.
A smirk formed on his face. Sumaru's star chakra dissipated and surrounded his body like a suit of armor. Yotaka honestly never felt more powerful in his entire life! With the meteorite close to his body, he flew through the hand seals he practically grew up with.
"Ninja Art: Kujaku - Destroy!" The peacock feathers that formed behind him multiplied by the dozens, they soon sharpened into blades and Yotaka lashed out with them. The enemies, the traitors who sought to deny Akahoshi's vision of their village, they all would die by his hand!
"Ninja Art: Kujaku - Dragon!"
A female voice broke over the sound of battle, and a spectral dragon made of dark purple star chakra soared over the battlefield. It seemed to look over the enemies as if they were insects and opened its jaw. Pure beams of purple star chakra flew from its mouth and impacted a small group of treasonous shinobi.
They were obliterated. Limbs went flying along with chunks of ground. And at the forefront with her hands in a unique hand seal Natsuhi glared at the traitors to her village. Her body was completely covered in dark purple star chakra, and she forced the technique to create a continuous beam to tear through the ground.
Her targets? It was the people that were wearing the symbol of her village. She released her hands from the unique seal and began sweeping the beam of destruction at the traitors to her village.
"Spread out! Grab hostages!" One of the Star traitors screamed. He barely made it two steps before the beam tore him in half at the waist, all that was left was his upper torso and calves. The rest were just obliterated.
"Cowards!" Sumaru fought through his exhaustion and flew through several hand seals. "Ninja Art: Kujaku - Destroy!"
"No you don't you brat!" Yotaku battered away the blades of star chakra from Sumaru. He snarled and redirected his own blades towards his mother, if he could cut the head off their morale would falter and they would win.
It was supposed to be that simple. He could practically see himself piercing through the Godaime Hoshikage, then wiping out her bloodline after killing Sumaru. He would take up the mantle and then everything would be set.
Instead, his purple chakra blades were held back. Sumaru's own technique was wrapped around his own and the young Chunin threw out his left hand and a rope of separate purple star chakra hit Yotaku, wrapping around his left arm and throwing it outwards to disrupt his technique.
"Mom hit him now!" Sumaru screamed at the top of his lungs.
Natsuhi turned her attention towards the last direct subordinate of Akahoshi and directed her attack towards him. The pure beam of star chakra cut through the earth, it stuck down several more traitors, some used hostages, but they didn't help.
With complete mastery of her star chakra Natsuhi controlled the beam of her dragon, narrowing it to the point it was near microscopic and tore through the cravens who dared to use her people as human shields. The beam would widen again causing an untold amount of destruction before finally arriving at Yotaka's position.
The bald shinobi released as much star chakra as he could to try and repel the attack. His Destroy technique impacted with the chakra beam from the dragon, the two techniques struggled briefly before Yakuta's technique was overpowered and impacted him.
A lot of smoke and dust was kicked up when the man was hit head on. The aftermath was obscured, and it honestly broke morale. The remaining treasonous Star shinobi broke off from the fight and began running towards the surrounding forest.
Many of them didn't get far, from underneath the ground a pair of hands grabbed their ankles and pulled them down until they were up to their necks in dirt.
"Move! Regroup in the-" The shouting shinobi was cut short when a pair of shuriken caught him in the throat. He barely caught a flash of pink before falling to the ground.
Several more of his comrades were attacked after the lifeblood gushed from his body. Pairs of hands burst from the ground and trapped them up to their necks, shuriken pelted them from the sides, and when they were deflected kunai took them out.
In the end only a couple dozen managed to escape into the forest, and when the dust cleared Yotaka was nowhere to be seen. There wasn't a body, but there was a blood trail that showed he fled through the chaos.
"Damn it…damn it!" Sumaru raged after the dust settled. He was so mad that he was beginning to see red. "That son of a bitch. He's not getting away from me. I'm going to tear his spine out and beat him to death with it!"
"Sumaru…" Hokuto's voice broke through his red haze. "Sumaru…please stop."
A cold sweat broke through his body. Sumaru looked to see his girlfriend looking at him with tears in her eyes, her eyes locked onto his and he made his way over to her.
"I'm sorry Hokuto." He apologized as he cut her bonds. "I'm sorry…" He apologized again as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and buried her face into his damaged flak jacket. He looked over to see the body of their friend, Mizura; his eyes wide open and glassy from the lack of life in them. "I'm so sorry…"
Natsuhi watched her son comfort his girlfriend and let them be. She knew what it was like to lose a friend, she had seen it plenty of times in her life as a kunoichi. And on this night she was going to bury her best friend and husband.
Three figures soon approached her, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were still clad in their raggy pajamas, dirty, but still armed to the teeth thanks to their borrowed weaponry. She regarded them with a small nod.
"Good work you three. We didn't lose as many as I feared we would." She said.
"A lot more got away. I'm not proud of it." Naruto said.
"We'll hunt them down once everything is secured here." Sasuke looked over the devastated area. He hated to admit it, but the star chakra was impressive. It wasn't bad for some one-trick ponies.
"Yeah…of course." Sakura slowly breathed out. Her green eyes looked over the devastation and carnage, and she felt her stomach churning in disgust.
The pinkette was not a stranger to these sights. She had been there for the slaughter of the bridge in Wave Country, she took care of the survivors when Sandayu made their suicide run down the hill in Snow Country and again when the capital in Yukigakure when Doto Kazahana launched his terrorist attack.
But it didn't make it any easier. The blood, the smell of death, the moans of the wounded and dying was not something she was used to. It wasn't something she wanted to get used to. Especially knowing she was going to have to deal with the fact she had the blood of her enemies on her hands now.
"You did what I told you to do. No plan is perfect, I fully expected there to be stragglers that need to be hunted down. And now it is time for the hunt to begin." Natsuhi's eyes held a deadly gleam. Snapping towards a group of shinobi, she barked at them. "You head into the forest and hunt down Yotaka. I want to see his body in front of me yesterday!"
"Yes, Hoshikage-sama!" Her loyal shinobi saluted her. They wasted no more time and sprinted into the forest.
"You three…" Natsuhi's eyes softened. The Leaf Genin were dirty and bloodied like her son, they needed a few minutes to recuperate. "I want you to follow them. But first, get your wounds looked at and…" She shook her head at the absurdity of what she was about to say next. "Let's get you some proper clothing. You look ridiculous."
Naruto looked at himself, then Sasuke and finally Sakura. "Do we really look that bad?"
"Yes. Yes, we do." Sakura immediately answered. She immediately flashed through several hand seals and her hands began glowing green. "Hold still, I'll handle your wounds."
"You handle Sasuke, I can handle myself." The blonde replied. He went through the same hand seals and his own hands began to green with the healing chakra. He was not as good as Yumi, and definitely not as good as Sakura. But he could work on himself for a few seconds. "I'll get you in a few moments, okay?"
"Good enough, now Sakura…please take a look at my back. I think there is a massive puncture, I can feel it, but I don't know how bad it is." Sasuke took a knee and took a deep breath. "This night isn't over yet."
Indeed, it wasn't it was barely even half over.
(The Forest)
"Damn…bitch…" Yotaka snarled. He looked down at the stump of what used to be his right arm. It was severed, nay, obliterated below the elbow, cauterized by the intense heat of Natsuhi's dragon technique. He felt several burns littering his body, his flesh lacerated, and he knew a few ribs were broken.
He needed to regroup. They needed to alter their plans and figure out a way to strike back at their enemies. Leaning against a tree to catch his breath he felt his arm throbbing in white-hot agony.
"We were so close…I need to find that group. They need to help us." He said to himself. Shura was the one who lit an inferno in their bodies to do this and offered his assistance. He was going to uphold his end of this takeover come hell or high water!
"Need to help you? That's honestly hilarious." Yotaka heard Shura's voice to the left. He turned towards the source and saw no one.
"Hilarious? Listen here! Natsuhi's forces have been gained an advantage over us. We need to…I need you to use your men to kill that bitch. Without her everything falls apart."
"What happened to killing her with your bare hands, huh? I remember you frothing at the mouth. Swearing that you would kill her."
"I don't have both hands to do it anymore! And what does it matter if she dies from you or me now?" Yotaka demanded. "Listen here, if you're really part of that organization Akahoshi was a member of, then you must help us with-"
A sharp pain shot through Yotaka's lower back, and he felt his legs give out. Falling to his knees he looked down to see a blade protruding from his stomach. Hot blood coated his lap and thighs, but he couldn't feel it.
"Akahoshi was a part of the old council…covenant…figure something…" Shura walked out from behind Yotaka and twirled his umbrella. "Ah, it doesn't matter. I took one of the empty seats after getting an offer I couldn't refuse after Gantetsu betrayed me in Forest Country. It was either that or face execution…and trust me I like myself more than death."
Bringing the tip of his umbrella to his throat, Shura smirked and toyed with the button on the handle. "Besides, while I like a coup d'etat as much as the next sword for hire. My mission wasn't to help you become the next Hoshikage or the Sixth Great Shinobi Nation."
Pressing the button a blade emerged from the tip of his umbrella and pierced through Yokuta's throat. Shura smirked seeing the bald shinobi's eyes widen. "No, my mission was to get your precious meteorite and have you idiots kill each other. Whoever won we would wipe out; at this moment my men are killing anyone running into the forest. We'll take care of everyone else before the night is over."
Kicking the dying Star shinobi off his weapon, Shura took a knee and watched as the blood spurted from the fatal wound. Yotaka tried to move his good arm and clutch the wound, but it was futile, he found himself literally drowning in his own blood. Shura threw open his vest and found what he was looking for.
"I'll take that. Thank you for your patronage, Yutaka, I'd say that it was a pleasure but that would be a lie." Tossing the meteorite like it was a ball, Shura walked away from the dying shinobi. "The final phase is now in effect."
Yutaka didn't have any last words to say. No grand gestures, no rants, no suicide jutsu. He died as a nobody in the woods all alone.
"You all look weird in those clothes." Sumaru said after the members of Team Seven had their wounds patched up, and their pajamas replaced with actual clothing.
Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke looked at their borrowed clothing. It was nothing special, they lacked the flak jackets of their village, and mainly wore a pair of black long-sleeved shirts and a pair of beige pants with borrowed sandals.
The store they used for shinobi gear was unharmed. It honestly made sense they wouldn't destroy a building that held much needed gear that they would need for future missions. Team Seven was given permission to get what they needed; they didn't hesitate to do so.
"Don't get used to it. As soon as this is over I'm getting back my clothes from my pack." Sasuke scoffed.
"Not unless it was destroyed in that explosion." Naruto commented. He looked down at his attire and shrugged at it, he wore much worse before.
"We were taught to not bring things on a mission we weren't prepared to lose." Sakura said after rubbing the back of her head. "I hate the fact my clothes are gone, but clothes and supplies can be replaced, our lives can't."
"Hmn."
That was the response everyone expected to hear from the last Uchiha.
Sakura looked over Sumaru and saw the unconscious clenching of his jaw. "Sumaru, are you going to be okay. I know you volunteered to come with us, but after…well…"
"I will grieve with Hokuto later. I can't break down now, not until it's done." Sumaru said with narrowed eyes. "We will get the meteorite back."
Nothing else needed to be said, the four of them knew what needed to be done and began running towards the forest. The stars began to shine brightly overhead, making it lighter than what it should be.
Sakura then looked up at the sky and one particular star caught her eye. "I have never seen stars like this before. That red one is really beautiful." She said.
"Natsuhiboshi; The star that always watches over me." Sumaru said with sadness in his voice. "My dad always said that."
"That is very nice." She said, a small wince following soon after. It seemed she accidentally poked the already raw wound he was suffering from.
(Unknown location)
Six Genin from the village could be seen rushing through the forest area at rapid shinobi speed with each person intended to locate not only the traitors but the meteorite. They had been at this for the last half hour and were not getting much of a hint of the meteor's unique chakra signature.
One of the Genin ushered his comrades to follow his lead towards a large rock that was able to have all six of them standing on it at the same time.
They all landed in a small mini circle around each other as the de facto leader looked over his team and nodded to himself as each person was accounted for.
"Everyone we link hands. Maybe the power of our combined chakra signatures will help us get the location." He said with the others nodding as they got closer to one another and took hold of each other's hands.
The space grew silent again as the Genin all bowed their heads with eyes shut; all of them concentrating on the same goal at hand.
"Detect a signature similar to ours yet not the same as ours." He instructed as purple star chakra then began to appear around the group of six in a unified flow of energy as the harmonious mood helped the kids towards their goals. In unison all six chakra patterns began to go towards the same direction that led to the west.
This remained for a few moments until the leader opened his eyes. "Let's go."
The order was given, him and his comrades sprinted towards the direction that resulted in them appearing before another canyon filled with the poisonous gas that was supposed to keep their village safe. But before them was not the meteorite that they expected, it wasn't even the shinobi they were even looking for.
And what they definitely didn't expect were the multiple bodies littering in front of him.
"It appears that my opposition caught up with me, again. You lot are worse than cockroaches, I literally just finished with the last batch." Sura said with annoyance as he twirled his umbrella again.
"Ninja Art: Kujaku – Rope." The six Genin called out as multiple strings shot out of their palms while wrapping itself around Shura and held him down.
"You have nowhere to run, you can't cut through our rope that is woven with our special chakra." The de facto leader of the Genin squad said as he gripped the rope to pull their enemy slightly closer.
"That's our life you stole from us earlier; give it back to us now!" A second Genin demanded.
Shura answered them with a chuckle, it was one full of amusement. "Kids, the last group had three Chunin and a Jonin." While his arms were bound the stupid kids didn't go for his umbrella. With a quick flip he pointed it at the de facto leader. "What makes you think you can stand up to my assassination techniques when they couldn't?"
With a press of a button a stream of fire engulfed the Genin.
That was the sight the group of four witnessed when they came upon the scene. The screams of the Genin filled their ears as the flames stuck to their bodies, they didn't even go out even as they dropped to the ground and rolled in the dirt. They just died like that, screaming and on fire.
"Oh God…" Sakura covered her mouth in horror.
Sasuke and Naruto set their lips into a hard line. They were not strangers when it came to setting people on fire, when it was an enemy, they didn't care. But those six were allies, nameless allies, but still allies.
Sumaru just saw red. He knew those six, he wasn't as close to them like Mizura or Hokuto, but they were allies and friends. Now he had six less of them.
"Another group? This meteor is becoming a pain in the butt to carry around now." Shura said in irritation as Sumaru placed his hand into a seal that summoned his purple star chakra veil again.
Shouldering his umbrella, Shura gave them a smirk. "It's a good thing I have my own allies."
The four felt a subtle change, pits forming in their bellies, and they scattered to the sides. A trench was created from where they were standing and actually tore a chunk out of the area that led into the ravine that held all the poisonous gas.
Toki emerged from behind their newest enemies and scoffed. "Sorry Shura, it seems these brats are more alert than I thought."
While Toki failed to get them, pairs of wires ensnared Sakura and Sumaru. They didn't see them coming, nor feel them until it was too late. They felt the wires bite into their skin before they were yanked into the forest.
"Don't worry about it. Monju, has it covered for now." Shura smirked.
"Shit! Sasuke, go and get them!" Naruto yelled an order at his raven-haired teammate.
Sasuke turned his attention to the blonde. It was well known that he and Naruto didn't agree on much when it came to leadership, but he agreed with whatever Naruto directed him to do…sometimes at least. This time was definitely one of them.
"Alright, take these two down quick and don't create a new landmark." He teased.
Naruto couldn't help but smirk. An Uchiha cracking jokes with him, Shishio would be rolling in his grave if he had one. "I can't promise that."
Sasuke used the Body Flicker Jutsu to increase his speed to follow Sakura and Sumaru. Toki and Shura let it happen because they made no effort to chase after him.
"You two seem very cocky." Naruto calmly said as he thumbed the hilt of the Mugenjin. "Sasuke is not a pushover."
"Neither is Monju, you twerp." Toki leveled the strangest gauntlet Naruto had ever seen; the hand of the device consists of a mildly conical-shaped palm with five long fingers. It began to rotate with a mechanical whirring noise coming from it.
"The Shinobazu will be your final opponents of your life. Sorry kid, it's nothing personal." Shura said as he readied his umbrella at his opponent.
"Funny…" Naruto unsheathed the Mugenjin, scraping the end of the scabbard the blade itself ignited into the inferno it was infamous for. He leveled it at his opponents.
"I was about to say the same thing."
Armageddon: Hello faithful viewers, I honestly hope that this chapter was to your liking after waiting so long. For me it honestly was not my greatest, it's definitely my shortest in a long while, but I'm honestly trying to get two or three chapters out a month now. It's...not off to the best start, but it's a start. Hope to see you in the next one!