Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter. Next four chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXXX- MINATO NAMIKAZE
Yaga accepted the plan they had with surprisingly little pushback. With the briefing he had received from Uraume-san in the lead-up to the mission being assigned, he expected that they would have to throw their metaphorical weight around a lot more, but the second he had confirmed that they would be the tips of the spear, he seemed to have no issue with the prospect of rushing the walls.
And so they left the command tent to the Leaf tent while Yaga gathered his own command structure and made the necessary moves for an attack to begin within the hour.
"Is the Hokage aware of this plan?" Toad asked the second they reached the Leaf tent and the flap was closed behind them.
"We were given free rein to choose our approach," Mikoto responded, meeting the masked gaze of the Anbu agent with an unflappable look of her own.
"And you chose the one approach where Konoha lives would be placed on the line to win that man a village," she huffed.
"Our lives," Minato specified.
"No. All of ours. Why do you think he accepted so easily? Where you three go, the rest of us go. We have no choice about that. This charge for the gates, we will be there running by your sides. And we will die for it. Not all of us, but some. Perhaps one or more of you three even. And when that happens, we can either win or lose. If we lose, all is wasted and lost. If we win, but with losses to our force here, we find ourselves in an uncomfortable position. I am sure you know what happens when a shinobi alliance has served its purpose," she said, not mincing her words. Minato was struck by them for a second, but his reply came easily.
"We are shinobi. Our lives mean nothing. The Hokage has declared that he wants Ame. He wants it before the next moon, and we will deliver. It matters naught if all of us here lay dead in that swamped field outside her walls. All that matters is victory. We are shinobi of Konoha. Has your will of fire been so doused by this rain that you have forgotten that basic fact?" he queried.
"And when we win, if the Beheader chooses to be stupid and betray us, then I will kill him myself. I swear it as a student of Shorirama Senju, Fourth Hokage of Konoha, custodian of the Will of Fire. My team and I will make that charge. Perhaps we will die. I think not, but perhaps we do. It is a risk we take as shinobi of Konoha. That sacred flame is guarded within our hearts. Where is your will of fire, Anbu?" he asked, not even noticing until he was done that he had begun raising his voice.
The Anbu, silent until now, as one began to thump their fists against their chests. Their hearts. Where the will of fire dwelled. He did the same and could hear his teammates do the same behind him.
"So we go as one. To Naraka, or to victory," he proclaimed.
----
Buzzed as they all were after his speech, it was perhaps for the best that Yaga had managed to gather his people so quickly. The camp was abandoned in short order—at least for the most part, as the Beheader's army lined up right outside the walls of Ame.
Just barely close enough for them to see the faces of the men and women who manned said walls. Close enough that they who would die and they who would kill them could look at each other, but far enough that none dared to make the first move. At least for a breath.
And then Kushina began to walk forwards. It was a slow walk, more like a trot. The men and women guarding the walls took longer than they should have to decide to attack her. One of the turrets whirled to life. The spear moved so quickly that it was like a blur to most. Kushina could have dodged, or blocked, or done a million things to avoid it.
She did none of them. The spear tore through her stomach, stabbing its edge into the ground behind her. The Ame nin began to whisper among themselves in shock. And then the chakra of Gyuki crashed down on the battlefield. The air itself began to solidify. Few dared to move. Even fewer could. It held them in its thrall for a second, and then it stopped.
But that was just the calm before the storm. Kushina's form began to warp before their eyes. Tentacles began to shoot out from her body as the Eight Tails freed itself from its shell for a while. It was massive, its bulk easily letting it bridge the gap between wall and army. The army atop the walls could do nothing but watch as it began to gather chakra in its mouth.
Minato knew what was coming, and for a second said a brief prayer for those unsuspecting souls. He believed in no gods, but those men and women there would soon come to find themselves as believers. The tailed beast bomb was formed in less than a minute, telling him it would be a low-powered one. Good.
Gyuki brought his head back down from where he had lifted it to the heavens and aimed at the gates.
Silence. And then... boom.
Droplets of water splashed at Minato from in front. When the smoke cleared, there was a massive hole where the gates of Ame had once been. That was the case with part of the walls as well.
"Charge," Gyuki screamed and began to rush forwards, heading into the village.
"Follow," Minato echoed, and he and Mikoto began to follow their teammate into the breach. The easiest part was over now.
The Ame nin within the village were too shocked to do much to react to the charge as the shinobi behind Minato began to scream their war cries. The ground beneath Gyuki's rushing form exploded in places as he set off a few of the mines. Minato increased his speed and sensed Mikoto do the same by his side. It was the right choice to make as several explosions sounded behind him. He did not turn around to look, but he knew that they were probably going to lose dozens in just this rush.
And this was without the walls doing anything to fight their charge. Without Kushina, this charge would have been a slaughter. It took a few more seconds for Kushina to crash through where the gate had once been, and into the village proper. Minato and Mikoto followed. Stage one, complete.
Ame stretched out to the skies over them and for the first time, Minato was in the shade of a village that was not his own. The gate led into a wide street that stopped a few meters into the city, blocked off by one of the city's massive skyscrapers. Several streets branched out from there, leading in every which way. Kushina in Gyuki's form rushed forward before reaching the skyscraper and then began to transform back to her own form. Gyuki had gotten them into the village. The rest of it was going to be theirs to deal with. Fighting in the cramped streets of Ame would not suit the bulk of the tailed beast unless they wanted to destroy most of the city in taking it. Sensei had not explicitly ordered against it, but Minato could see how that would affect the wider strategic objectives of the campaign and knew that refraining was the better move.
All three of them came to a halt in the shadow of the steel behemoth. Kushina was human again, the wound where a spear had torn through her was gone, leaving just a tear in the fabric of her stealth suit to show for it.
Around them, the Beheader's army trooped in. The shinobi silent, and the Samurai yelling war cries as they swarmed the streets of Ame. They had managed to get the upper hand on the coalition force thanks to the element of surprise and Kushina dealing with the gates the way she did, but that advantage would only last for so long. Even with his mediocre sensing range, he could feel the city stirring and begin to fight off the incursion. Their progress into the streets was beginning to stall as traps were triggered and more and more men died.
"Good?" he asked Kushina when she looked over at him. Shifting to Gyuki's form and back again did have a way of taking its toll on her.
"Good. Let's just get this over with," she said, and they began to race up the steel building.
Breaching the walls was only one part of taking a city. The next part—the harder part—was to commit to dozens of small battles in crowded and tight alleyways where the difference between life and death would be only a couple of seconds and having the right combination of luck and reflexes during those seconds. It was the kind of fighting where their power would make a difference, yes, but only so much of one. There were only so many places they could be at a time and until any of them managed to reach Sensei's level where even their shadow clones would be able to deal with jounin-level threats, they could only really deal with one street or alley at a time.
A better use of their time would be making it easier for their allies across all the fronts. A disorganised enemy was not necessarily a defeated one, but they were a much easier foe to face in engagements like this. Without a central command telling them where to pull back, where to reinforce, and which fights were worth fighting or not, they would fall all the easier.
Minato and his team were going to remove that central command from the playing field. Cut off the head of the snake, if you would.
By the time they reached the top of the building, Minato had already begun manipulating the air around them to make it easier for them to breathe. They were so close to the clouds now that they could jump and touch them. The air here was thinner, colder, less friendly. Winds battered the edges of his manipulation, almost seeming to be enraged by their presence this high up and seeking to reclaim the realm of the gods for the gods alone.
"Kushina?" he prompted.
She formed a tiger seal and closed her eyes.
"Three powerful chakra signatures in that big tower due south from here. The one two buildings away from the largest tower," she said.
"How powerful?" he asked.
"S-ranked."
"Three?"
"One feels ice cold. It's near caustic to my senses, like an acid. Another is simmering like a volcano. Just waiting for something to set it off so it can erupt. The third isn't giving anything away. It's carefully controlled. Too carefully controlled. They have better control than any of us. Better than Shori-nii even. It's like not a single drop of their chakra is out of place," she said.
He stilled. Better than Sensei. When it came to the ninja arts, there were few people better than Shorirama Senju at any one thing. Even in the arts he cared little for, like genjutsu, he was still one of the best in the world simply by virtue of his genius. So for someone to be better than Sensei at chakra control, something he practiced relentlessly and had the Byakugan to help with... it didn't compute.
"You're sure?" Mikoto asked, doubtful.
"I can feel it. I've felt Sensei, and even he is never this in control. Maybe when he's meditating, but only for bursts. Chakra isn't supposed to work like this," she said.
"Nothing for it, then. The third is probably a medical nin or a genjutsu specialist. Mikoto, you deal with them. The other two will be up to Kushina and I. Let's go," he said, and they leaned forward as one before pushing off the skyscraper and straight into the air. Their path set, their fates decided.
XXXXX- TOSHIRO TAKEHADA
Fuck. Moving now would mean that their target would be warned. They either had to deal with this Anbu agent quickly and quietly enough that neither the Jinchuriki nor the member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen who was supervising his training would notice. With how much speed he had shown in catching the shuriken tossed at him, as well as the fact that Fumikage's attempts to control the metal on his body were just failing, that seemed unlikely.
That meant a change of plans.
He signed in the chosen code at the rest of his team as quickly as he could while the Anbu agent just seemed to sit there, back leaning against the tree whose branch he sat on, waiting for them to be done.
Isagi moved first, body expanding at the speed of lightning. His staff tore through the tree but the man was gone before he had even gone halfway through his swing. That didn't matter though. It was part of the plan. The Jinchuriki and his sensei turned in their direction, their attention drawn by the sound, but it did not give them enough forewarning as Isagi spun around with the swing of his staff, dropping said staff at the end of the motion and spinning like a ball.
It reminded him so much of Choni, it hurt. But Isagi Akimichi was quicker than his cousin ever was. In a second, he was grinding the Jinchuriki into the ground, sure to do as much damage as possible short of just killing him.
Fumikage body flickered towards the sensei, Suiren Hozuki. He blocked her kunai thrust with the flat of the massive broadsword he wielded. She took the chance to tap it with a finger, and made the motion of retreating, jumping half a step backwards to force him to open his body up so he could maintain vision.
She followed her half step back with a sharp full one forward, blade already raised to deliver maximum damage. Credit to him, he managed to get his sword in the way once more, but this time Kageru Fumikage showed just why she was the Konoha shinobi with the highest mission completion rate. She formed a ram seal with her off hand and the swordsman's blade betrayed him, moving out of the way under her control.
There was no chance for him to react in time. Even Shori would have fallen to a trick like this one. He managed a half step, but that only prevented her blade from burying itself in his neck, having it go straight through the upper part of his chest instead.
She was not much bothered by the miss, taking it out, and then stabbing it again through his side, and then one final time through his waist before leaving the blade there as he finally managed to jump away.
He was bleeding deeply from three wounds as she sprinted at him to end the fight.
But then the Anbu returned, appearing between them so quickly, Toshiro had no idea from whence he'd come. The chakra he brought to bear now was suffocating.
But they were shinobi. He had so much chakra that it felt like to face him was to court death, but to be a shinobi was to dance with death and these were some of the best dancers that Konoha had to offer. Fugaku moved in first, his kunai lashing out for a neck to end the fight quickly. The Anbu moved, grabbing his wrist and killing his momentum, only to have to jump backwards as a storm of shuriken from Fumikage tore through where he had just been standing. Uzumaki had body flickered towards the Jinchuriki already, beginning to work on sealing the body away.
And now it was Toshiro's turn to move. He inhaled. By the time the breath came out of him, his katana was slicing through the tree behind which the Anbu agent had retreated. He formed a seal, his chakra spiking as he tried to use the one ninja art that he most likely had them beat at now. But Toshiro would not let that happen.
The hum from his blade was the only warning before it lit up like a sun in his hands, startling the man and robbing him of his vision. Toshiro's chakra used that avenue, needling its way in as he began to work his...
He hadn't even seen what hit him. Only felt the tree he'd been slammed into shatter behind him as he landed on the ground. He looked up, catching a glimpse of red hair and Anbu mask as the man moved again. Fugaku was the one to suffer now. He blocked a punch and then took another one to his side faster than even the Sharingan could let him react to.
And then the Anbu's foot was slamming into his chest, sending him flying as well. That sound. At least a few ribs had been broken there.
The Anbu spun, catching Isagi's giant fist with one hand before wrapping said hand around the better part of a finger. Somehow he used that and no leverage to lift the Akimichi from the floor and toss him into the forest.
It was like an earthquake when he landed and began to spin into the distance, shattering trees as he went. This Anbu agent was dangerous. Far too dangerous.
Toshiro felt for the kunai in his vest before stopping himself. Was this his worth as a shinobi now? Giving up and expecting his teammate to come bail him out at the first sign of adversity?
He had been handed a dangerous team. A team of masters of their crafts. He would not lose. Not here. Not to this. If they ended up having half of Kiri on their arses when this was over, then he could call Shori. But not now. Not when he faced a single man. A single man was beatable. Whether it was the Mizukage himself. This team could win.
Toshiro pushed himself upwards, hand tightening around his katana's hilt.
"Oh?" the Anbu asked, turning towards him now.
"I thought you would lay there till you died. Despair did look good on you," he said, tone just verging on the edge of mocking.
"Fuck off. Fumikage, get the others. Uzumaki, guard it with your life," he said.
A/N: The fight begins, ey? We get some fighting in Kiri, some fighting in Ame, and then whatever the fuck Orochimaru gets up to in the Land of Earth all in the same arc. Discount on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) for those interested. Next chapter comes on here on Sunday night/Monday morning (depending on your timezone). Next four chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.