He cupped the cool water in his hand bringing it up and splashing it onto his face as best he could, then bringing it over and onto his back. Winter was here but Suna's mid-day sun could still be brutal on anyone traveling the dunes.
He dipped his hand down again, bringing it to his lips this time and drinking gratefully. Water that didn't taste like the plastic of their canteens was a craving he'd had for the last few hours.
He scratched at his forehead, he knew that it didn't really itch. It was just in his head. The seal there was as smooth as his own skin, the ink having dried weeks ago.
It didn't stop him from rubbing it every now and again.
Kiba stood as he heard the last of the enemy scouting band have their throat slit behind him.
The Inuzuka turned, watching as Uraki kicked the drying man to the floor, his blood washing over the sands "Another useless bunch." his subordinate said, wiping his blade before throwing the cloth on the floor.
Kiba looked down on the bleeding leaf ninja as he thought, taking note of Shuzen coming back from disposing of the last one they'd killed. You couldn't let your guard down with these men, not with any of them. Even after weeks of fighting together across the dunes, he had little doubt they'd each kill him if they had half a chance.
Three had tried during the first few days. Those had been the first and last attempts.
Two others had tried to escape. They had, perhaps gotten an hour headstart before he'd discovered their absence. He used the seal to subsequently to locate them, and kill them. He made sure the others found the bodies.
"This is getting bad." He said, more to himself than anyone else.
"Yea it is." Kurai, the only woman left in his squad, spoke up to his right, sitting on a stone, her booted feet next to the water "Just two weeks ago we'd be lucky if we saw two scouting bands every couple of days. Now they're coming out of the woodwork like roaches, we can't even get a full night's sleep before we have to set up an ambush again."
"We would be able to sleep, and rest if our fearless leader didn't insist that we camp in the only Oasis for twenty miles. We're seeing so many of them because they're practically flocking here." Shuzen put in, damn near growling at him.
Kiba glared right back. "Our orders, are to deny the enemy the water they need to move forward, to report back if we discover heavy troop movement, and to scout this area."
Shuzen snorted. Sitting down. "Right, because we're all still good little soldiers."
"He does have a point though." Uraki chimed in his two cents. "We may be fine now, but soon enough we're gonna get sloppy with no sleep. And I'm too handsome to die just yet. We may want to move camp."
"That, and I'm pretty sure that these missing guys are gonna get noticed sooner or later. If not by them, well...missing, then smell will lead the bigger, stronger ninja here soon enough. Kurai added.
"We're not moving, period. The devil king himself is gonna have to haul his sorry carcass over here before we leave."
"Hey, don't jinx us with bad-luck by mentioning that guy. Lets just wait till Guro gets back with the others from the patrol and we can discuss-"
"The discussion-" Kiba snarled, flexing the clawed fingers of his prosthetic arm. "Is over." Guro was the only ninja here that was anywhere near his strength level. And Kiba made sure that the first thing he did was see to it that he was gone as much as possible. Normally he sent him off alone, hoping somewhere in his mind that the criminal would get killed off by some leaf jounin. But he always came back. He was covered in grit or blood...but he always came back.
Today was an exception however, these attacks were growing too frequent to be anything other than an advance into Suna. The others disagreed, what with the winter's freezing cold nights already on them but Kiba could feel it.
Something big was going down and the Devil King wouldn't give three good shits if it got colder than the frozen wastes to the far north.
The others became quiet and contrite, and Kiba was all the more glad for it. These people were not exactly one's he wanted to get overly close with.
It was an hour or so later when Guro finally arrived, Zhang, Tsuka and Kizuk with him. Kiba was going to open his mouth when the man cut him off and Kiba could see real, genuine fear on his face. "Come here, you need to see this."
Guro was a stout man, broad shouldered, his face was stern with a jaw like an anvil, with a thin, surprisingly well groomed mustache on his upper lip. The top of his head was clean shaven with the rest tied into a well cared for knot at the back of his skull.
Kiba narrowed his eyes, listening as the others questioned and Guro just told them to come along before he turned and began running. The Inuzuka followed, warily, ready to use the seal if he had to.
The Inuzuka soon found himself making his way over the edge of a dune, sand going down his shirt and his pants as he crawled on his stomach to reach the top without being seen. Guro and the others doing the same.
As soon as he was able to see past the sheet of sand, Kiba's mouth fell wide open, his lungs hitching in his chest as though his air didn't know whether to go in or out of his chest.
"Holy shit."
Guro's nod went unseen beside him. "I know."
"There's thousands of them!" He exclaimed to the other man.
"And not a single one is a sell-sword, unlike that disaster on the Jian-Ling, every single one of those men is a ninja. Trained and ready to fight."
Kiba felt himself shaking his head. "This...Suna will never survive this."
After a minute or so, Kiba found his voice again. "We need to report back to the Kazekage."
"Agreed. Though it would be better to get a more precise count first."
Kiba looked to the man, meeting his eyes and thinking for a moment "Alright, we'll stick around for a while. See if we can narrow it down a bit more but no one do anything stupid. They find one of us this close their people are gonna go crazy and you're gonna put us all at risk.
They all nodded, then, they each began quietly moving across the ocean of sand, their eyes following the massive army below.
When the sun began to fall, and the winds began to carry more cold than sand, he ordered the camp to be set up.
He stood on the crest of a dune, watching, his blue eyes traveling this way and that way he looked down to the men pitching up their tents or getting ready to set up a patrol around the established perimeter.
It wasn't very long before he saw Yoshihiro waddling up the dune to speak to him, his weight making it more difficult than it perhaps should have been.
When he was finally within speaking distance the Tsuchikage spoke up. "You know, every damn scout within a mile from this place must have reported back that we're coming."
"No." He answered with a shake of his head. "I have taken...steps."
Yoshihiro shrugged as he finally reached the top to stand beside him. "They'll know soon enough wont they? It'll be hard to miss when we're breaking down their gate and climbing their walls."
He didn't really have much of an answer to that. So he kept quiet.
Finally the Tsuchikage spoke up again. "I notice you didn't bring miss Sabaku along."
"No I didn't." He was somewhat ashamed to notice the vaguest hint of defensiveness in his voice.
Yoshihiro stared at him for a good while before he decided to talk again. "So...I guess that means negotiation is out of the consideration list, eh?"
"You knew it would be." He said, knowing that it was true.
"Man can still hope, can't he?"
Naruto shrugged. "Hope all you like. It will not change anything."
Yoshihiro's lips tightened before he reached into his clothing and pulled out some papers, holding them in his hand "The reports of the enemy ambush teams we've been able to kill that are guarding the oases. Thirty eight killed by my count, we lost perhaps at least twice that."
Naruto nodded, not even bothering to take the papers "It is fine. Go see to your other duties, and to your men."
With the blatant dismissal Yoshihiro stuffed the papers in his clothing pocket again before he turned and began walking away.
Just before the Tsuchikage was out of earshot the Godaime shouted down to him. "Yoshihiro." He waited for him to turn before finishing. "Inform the sound four to come here along with Jiraiya."
When Kiba had rejoined his team he spoke to each one at a time.
"What'd you learn?" He asked Shuzen first.
"The leafs have have a sizable force of Kiri ninja, other villages are there too, but Kiri is the biggest chunk I think."
Uraki shook his head beside them. "No, no, you got it all wrong. Rock guys are the biggest besides Leafs. They have to be taking up at least one fourth of that damn camp."
"Doesn't matter-" Kiba quickly interrupted. "Whichever one's biggest we know that Kiri and Iwa are their best supporting troops now, anyone else have anything to add."
"Judging by the amount of tents they're pitching down there alone-" Kurai began. "I'd have to say that there's got to be at least, three and a half, maybe even four thousand ninja here."
Kiba felt the breath get knocked out of him. He'd expected a vanguard force to secure a beachhead in the winter first. Never something like this. Never this soon. Four thousand...Suna didn't even have a fourth of that number.
Before he could get too much farther into his deliberation, Guro spoke up, his voice as scratchy and gritty as gravel. "The Devil King." He said, making everyone heart's shudder with a jolt of fear. "He's here, eastern end of the camp."
His heart hammered beneath his chest. Was it all fear? Or could he detect the faintest hint of anticipation in his thoughts? "You're sure?"
The others began murmuring amongst themselves, as quiet as they dared. Guro nodded once, meeting Kiba's eyes unflinchingly. "Yes. He's here."
Kiba licked his dry lips. He wanted to fight, to see that bastard with his own eyes. But he restrained himself, if only just. There was more at stake here now than just him. Suna would burn if word did not reach them of this attack force. Maybe other teams got away and already sent word. But he wasn't about to trust any other teams with this. They may be dead, or they may not have seen this yet and he would get there before them. Every minute counted here.
He nodded to himself. "Alright, we have what we need. Lets head back to Suna, tell them what's coming."
He moved to stand when Guro caught his wrist. "Wait." He said.
Kiba looked at the older man, his serious eyes, the firm set of his jaw. He knew that look.
"Don't you see what this is?" At his silence the veteran ninja continued. "We can end this here?"
When Zhang, the shortest member of their group, spoke up with- "Wait? Us fight the Devil King? Are you nuts?" it basically summed up the rest of the groups general thoughts.
Guro shook his head, though he kept looking straight at Kiba. "Face it boy. We were broken out of prison to do black ops raid missions against enemy scouts. Even if we survive this, Suna may be destroyed and even if it isn't its highly unlikely that the Kazekage will pardon us since he doesn't even know we're out here. Eight men can't make much of a difference against four thousand, especially not in a protracted siege. But right here, right now, we cut off the head of the snake and the body dies. I may not have been a paragon of virtue in my life but I do still love my home. And against this...against him. I think I'm willing to die if there's even the smallest chance that we might win.
"Even if half his army turned on him right now, and we all managed to fight him we won't win." Someone said, Kiba didn't even bother to identify who. "He can't be killed!"
"I'd like to test that for myself." Guro answered. "He burned Kumo to the ground. If he makes it to Suna, he will do no less. The Kazekage will die, everyone we've ever known will die. We die."
The others were about to continue arguing when Kiba stood, pulling himself free of the older mans grip.
If he were honest with himself, he could admit that he truly had been looking for an excuse.
"Well that makes thing's simple then." He finally said and saw Guro smile.
None of them took any real note of the small snake that slithered nearby.
"I have a task for the five of you." He confessed looking at them. "Something you must do in the battle."
"Shouldn't we discuss this in the war-council meeting then?" Jiraiya asked, curious.
"The fewer know of this the better." Naruto explained, shaking his head. What I'm going to ask you to do is arguably the most important aspect of this attack."
"Alright so out with it already!" Naruto glared at Tayuya. "Please." She decided to ask after a moment or two, sufficiently unnerved after his extended glaring.
Seemingly satisfied he extended his hand to the ground at their feet, with a muttered word, wind chakra carved a precise sketch of Sunagakure in the sand. "You, will be deployed here." He knelt, and pressed his finger at a spot that was very near the center of the village. "Once I've personally breached the villages eastern gate, you three will move here and begin, Kiri will attack the northern gate so you should find little resistance if you're careful. I expect you to be there by the time our Iwa forces circle to the south. Once you've arrived there, you four will guard Jiraiya while he works."
"On what?" The Toad Sannin asked skeptical.
"A seal" Naruto answered simply. "One I designed myself. You must learn it, and be able to duplicate it in seven days time, that is when we will attack."
Jiraiya nodded. "Ok and what does-"
They stopped, all but Naruto going tense for half a heartbeat before Jiraiya continued. "-that the seal do? I need specifics if I'm going to make it quickly."
As he spoke Naruto whispered to the others. "Leave. They are after me and will not attack with you present. Tell no one in the camp, the assassins can't be alerted" In a normal volume he continued. "I will inform you of the specifics at the war council. Return to your duties for now."
They all turned, acting as normal as they ever would, giving little to no hint of their awareness.
Naruto remained at the dune, smiling to himself. 'Did you hear enough little dog?'
When wooden puppets surged from the sand around he had his answer. 'Yes. I think you did.'
Wasting no more time he turned, too fast for the eyes of the men he was fighting against, three of the six puppets were cut in to hundreds of pieces with a wide backhand movement.
The Devil King continued with his momentum, spinning in place, he ducked fluidly beneath the blades of the other puppets, rising with an uppercut that shattered the main chassis of a fourth puppet.
Finally, as the other two puppets that had passed him turned for a second pass he swiveled around to face them, releasing twin streams of searingly hot flames that reduced them to so much ash and half melted pieces of metal.
Naruto craned his neck, turning his head sideways to avoid the shuriken that would otherwise have carved straight through the back of his skull.
Turning on his heel, his foot shot out, and with a gut churning crunch, one ninja's head was twisted until his neck was snapped off his spine.
When he fell his head landed...awkwardly.
He blinked, the Genjutsu dispelled just in time for him to hear the last part of his assailant's words. "-astard!"
He raised his hand, blocking the savage swing that would have driven the ninja's kunai into his ear before he elbowed him in the chest and turned with a backhand that may have shattered his jaw.
The man fell to the sands choking on blood.
Taking a back step, the Hokage deftly avoided a kunoichi's downward sword-swing, three more were closing in behind him. He caught her follow up swing with his palm, the edge of her sword barely cutting into his skin before he snapped the thing in half. He grabbed the young woman by the face with his other hand.
"Fuuton Sho-ha" The concussive force sent her skidding across the dunes over what must have been a hundred feet of sand. She was most likely dead, her brain hemorrhaging with the forces. If she wasn't...then he was fairly certain she was not going to get back into the fight any time soon.
Turning around, he drove the broken sword still held in his hand up through the bottom of his next opponent's mouth and straight through the skull, the tip of the sword just peeking up from the very top of the man's hair.
Pushing him away, Naruto turned and drove his fist head on into the stone projectile of his enemy, shattering the rock and using the dust to obscure his disappearance.
Guro felt the world go dark as something struck the back of his head, hard.
He fell to the sand with a dull thud, and when Naruto turned, it was only to catch Kiba's claw tipped prosthetic arm with one hand and grip his throat with another, cutting off whatever was about to leave his mouth.
"Ahh." He remarked, smiling thinly. "Inuzuka. I should have guessed by the smell. How is your sister faring these days."
He tightened his grip on Kiba's throat when the dog tried to lash out at him.
The leaf turned Suna ninja fumbled in his holster, reaching for a blade.
"That's not going to work." Naruto remarked as he finally found one. He began to raise it, only for the weapon to become so hot it burned his flesh, forcing him to drop it.
Despite his lack of air, Kiba mannaged to force out the words. "Just...die...damn you."
"Before that can happen. Wouldn't you have to...i don't know, actually hurt me."
"How's this?"
The prosthetic hand Naruto was holding suddenly lost all strength, going slack as he saw Kiba pull his arm free of the hand as though pulling out of a glove, revealing another, gleaming blade, hidden within the clawed hand itself, attached to the prosthetic's wrist.
Kiba drove it forward, aiming for Naruto's chest.
And with the same, limp claw tipped hand still in his grip, Naruto caught the knife between two of its fingers, stopping the weapon inches from his flesh and snapping it like he'd done the sword earlier.
He was not so effective at stopping the one that was driven straight through the back of his knee however.
Naruto roared, pushing Kiba so hard the Inuzuka found himself flying as Naruto turned to face whoever had hit him.
It was Guro, his eyes glazed with a concussion. "Run!" He shouted! "Run and tell them! You can't win now!" That was all Naruto let him get out before he punched down on the top of the man's head, very likely killing him if the crunch of bone was any clue
The Hokage turned to face Kiba again, only to be forced to dodge a hail of shuriken being thrown from the last two ninja in Kiba's little band, the puppeteers, offering cover as Kiba ran to his escape.
Naruto heard a groan behind him, he spared a glance, finding the ninja who's jaw he shattered getting back to his feet. Then the man got an arrow through the neck for his trouble, courtesy of Kimimaro as the sound four rushed up the dune again with others, drawn by the commotion. He saw Hanabi there, Jiraiya, Kakashi, Yoshihiro.
'Run little dog.'
Turning back to face his 'escaping' enemy, Naruto caught a kunai between his fingers and tossed it aside as the three ran for their lives. 'Let's not make it too easy.'
Kiba panted, listening to Zhang and Uraki running next to him. He could barely hear Uraki's repeated mutters of "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!" over the crunching of sand beneath his boots and the rapid staccato of his own heart.
They were outright sprinting across the dunes, Kiba wasn't sure how fast the Devil King could be with his leg like that, but he wasn't going to take any chances.
Finally, after crossing what must have been a hundred yards, the last three Suna ninja stopped for a breath.
"Holy shit." Uraki repeated again. "Did we just escape the Devil King?" He asked, looking back and finding no one.
Kiba was about to nod when suddenly, erupting from the earth like some wyrm from ancient legends, a massive snake shot out and slammed into Zhang. The Suna nin barely had time to scream before he was buried beneath the sand.
"Run!" Kiba yelled and both took off again, their panicked eyes scanning the dark sands for movement.
The snakes emerged with such force, with such unbelievable stealth Kiba felt himself beginning to fall into the realm that spelled death for any ninja.
Panic.
They came out of shadows where none existed, the sands became an ocean that hid a hundred million of them. With every step they were nipping at his heels, fangs dripping with venom, half again as large as any building in Suna, they would swallow him whole.
He didn't even see when Uraki was caught. He just heard the scream. A sound that was so quickly silenced he wondered if he'd heard it at all.
He kept on running.
When the sound four, Jiraiya, Hanabi and several other Konoha ninja finally crested the dune and joined him Naruto had already pulled out the kunai from the back of his knee, and was standing tall, staring at the foolish dog as he ran back to his masters with his tail between his legs.
Kidomaru already had an arrow notched into his bow. "I got him." He said, already transforming so his sight could extend across the expanse of night.
He watched unblinking, adjusting his aim. It was an insane shot, but Naruto had little doubt he'd be able to hit him, even from here.
The Hokage's eyes flashed for the briefest of instants.
Kidomaru released his arrow.
The force that struck Kiba's prosthetic shoulder sent him tumbling forward, it was only muscle memory and instinct that allowed him to roll with the powerful blow, regain his legs and keep on sprinting.
"Son of a bitch!" The spider ninja roared ready to notch another arrow before Naruto raised his hand. "Enough, the fool will die soon."
The arachnid ninja looked displeased, his curse seal form only adding to the severity of his expression. "I don't miss." He growled, his breath fogging in the freezing night air.
"This time you did." Naruto said simply before looking to the others, the camp was beginning to stir, restless from the commotion. "Go calm the men down, then I want all of you to gather everyone of import to meet. Its time for a war council."
The sound four, Hanabi and the others bowed, As they turned to leave Naruto gave Jiraiya a look which told him to stay.
"Now that that's over with." The sannin drawled once the others were out of earshot.. "Where's that seal you mentioned? I need to get to a fire before I freeze to death out here."
Naruto reached into his coat, pulling a scroll free and handed it too him.
The Sannin's eyes scanned over the thing as he unrolled it, raising an eyebrow. "A chakra channeling scroll?"
"In essence." Naruto conceded. "Though it is a bit more complicated than that. You will first use this seal. Once you have fulfilled your part, then I will do the rest."
Jiraiya looked down at it and shrugged. "Okay, so what exactly is my part?"
She was shivering so bad Kisame may have thought the woman was going through some kind of seizure if he didn't know any better.
"How the hell are you cold?" He asked, throwing another stick in the fire. "You're a damn container for the Kyuubi. It's chakra's hot as hell."
She shivered more as she glared at him. "H-h-how the hell are you not?" She stuttered out trying to wrap the cloak tighter around herself, her feet all but placed over the flames of the firepit.
The Monster of Kiri shrugged. "I can take cold just fine. Heat is what'll annoy the hell outa' me."
Akina groaned, falling onto her side and all but curling her body around the heat of the fire. "How the hell can Naruto do this to his own men? This cold is brutal!"
Kisame smiled. "And we're only carrying equipment for two people, and hunting for our food. Those guys in his army have to carry a surplus of food, equipment, weaponry. Anything and everything, even the kitchen sink. Things get damaged and lost in armies. So they need lots of spares. The most surplus we're carrying are your damn blankets."
Akina opened her eyes looking at him from across the fire. "Stop the dramatics already make your point."
Kisame barked out a quick laugh as he shook his head. "I'm saying that just this march alone, let alone the fighting ahead is going to exhaust his men. I wouldn't be surprised if half of them are practically keeling over before the first Jutsu are exchanged."
"You're saying that Suna has a chance then?"
She was sure now, that Kisame's constant, ever present, annoying 'I know something you don't.' smiles, were the most absolutely infuriating thing about the man.
"A small one." He said. "Damn near non existent, but its there, they could win, if that Kazekage of yours really tries, and the Demon King really doesn't."
Akina sighed tucking her head down to her chest, scooting just an inch or two closer to the fire. "And you're enjoying every second of this aren't you?" She asked, her voice a mix of sadness and distaste.
Kisame shrugged. "I am what I am."
They remained quiet for a few more moments before Kisame spoke up again.
"I don't want to kill you girl."
She raised her head to look at him. "I kinda figured that...seeing as how we've been traveling together for a month or two now."
"Don't act stupid." He said. No smile adorned his face this time. "You know what I'm talking about."
She sat up, ignoring the cold with the severity their conversation had taken on. To Kisame's surprise, the young woman didn't become angry, her face only grew more somber as she looked at him.
"I don't want to loose any more friends Kisame."
"I'm going there to fight." He shot back, more serious than she'd ever heard him before. "I ain't fighting for Sand's dirt, and I'm not fighting for Leaf's peace. I'm going there to fight and die if they can kill me. If your friends get in my way. It makes little difference, I will kill them. You can try to fight me now; You might just win, then again, you might not. As important as those friends of yours in Suna might be to you, I know that stopping your brother is higher on your list of priorities. And if we fight and I do kill you, I sure as hell won't go out of my way to try to stop him the way you plan to"
Akina stared into the fire for a moment, bowing her head, her hair shadowed her eyes, though he could faintly see the glimmer of tears trailing down her cheeks. "You're a real bastard you know that." When she shivered, Kisame wasn't completely sure it was from the cold this time.
He shrugged.
"I am, what I am."
"Good, Good." Baki found himself repeating as he watched Gaara hold his meditative stance. "Good...keep your focus, remember, its not about force, its all about control. Your channeling the attack, you're not just hurling it free."
Gaara kept his eyes closed, listening to Baki's words as he concentrated on his task. The technique did work, that was the good news. The Bad news was that he wasn't sure if it would truly work in the heat of combat. In this serene environment, with sand beneath his feet, the shade of the mountain over his head, the Kazekage was more than capable of keeping the level of focus necessary to maintain this.
When the fight was joined though, and he was left with his adrenaline high, and he heard the screaming and the shouting, when Uzumaki's fire attacks were all but melting his skin off, could he keep his focus then? He wasn't sure. And to rely on a "maybe" when fighting the Devil King was nigh tantamount to a suicide.
The worst news was that he couldn't really test it out. This wasn't a skill he would ever ever ever even dream of using on an ally. It was a kill technique, plain and simple.
He could test its defensive properties, and how it would hold up against other types of attacks, but Baki's jutsu were nowhere near on the level of Konoha's Hokage. It would be like comparing his sand coffin technique to his fully transformed Shukaku state.
All'n'all, this thing worked on theory, and Gaara's first real test run of it was going to be when he fought Naruto again.
He began to move, striking with the practiced ease of his Taijutsu style. It wasn't impressive by any real stretch imagination, he was no taijutsu master, but it gave him practice at keeping the flow of his chakra even and precise while moving. He picked up his speed with every strike, trying to move as fast as he would be moving in a real fight.
All the while Baki stood by, nodding as he tried to detect some flaw, some hiccup that wouldn't make this thing work.
"Dodge!" He shouted, launching a small fireball attack at the Gazekage's feet. Gaara, and felt the technique fluctuate for the briefest of instants with the sudden movement, but soon enough he was able to regain my focus.
Never the less Baki felt it, and the red head could tell his sensei was frowning by the tone of his voice as he shouted. "Again." Barely giving Gaara enough time to land before he had to jump again.
They both stopped, sensing Shikamaru's approach before they ever saw him. Gaara's mind was wandering to every worst case scenario he'd ever thought of. And he'd mannaged to think of quite an impressive number these last few weeks.
When the shadow user finally did reach their training grounds, Gaara wasted no time. "What happened?"
Shikamaru's face was grim. "Follow me."
They walked in one by one less than two hours later. He could see their faces as they each took a seat. Normally they met in his office, or even, informally out of it.
He never called them into the towers war room before.
He'd never had a reason to use it really.
They were all thinking something different, some were still hopeful, that this room, and the implications it brought, didn't necessary go hand in hand, that it wouldn't come as a full package. Others were curious, wondering just how grave things could have gotten and how quickly, for him to just call a meeting like this. But either way, he could see that everyone who walked into this room had one thing in common:
They were afraid.
It wasn't an obvious thing really. But it was there, that little, black snake at the back of their minds. They were all afraid. They could all just see the storm gathering at the very edge of the horizon. It wasn't a question anymore of 'will it reach us', but rather a question of when.
These people probably thought they still had at least another month, maybe even three, when Spring would be here.
And Gaara hated to say that he'd thought so too.
He expected retribution, but not this quickly. Not in the dead of winter, and nothing this massive.
The last of them arrived, took their seats, and he spoke. "We have seven days...at best. Then we're going to have an army of four-thousand Shinobi tearing down our walls."
Their reactions were as varied as their expressions had been. Some shouted, others demanded answers, others remained stoic, others more were simply shocked into silence, some murmured and others spoke with an aide, or a neighbor.
"My lord-" Old Fuzu stood, his beard white and reaching down to his shirt. His position at the ripe old age of ninety-four was advisory at best, a platitude at worst, held there only because of so many long years of good service that it'd be in bad taste, almost a disgrace to remove him at this stage. "-this, this is unexpected, it was not meant to be this soon-"
"But it is this soon-" He interrupted a bit more harshly than he intended. "-Fuzu." He continued, gentler. "And there's nothing that can change that now."
More murmuring, voices that were quickly escalating in volume.
"Enough!" He shouted after a moment or two, silencing the room now full of grim faces more than anything else. "We all knew this was coming. There are plans in place those of you who have your orders go and see that they get done. Quickly, there is too little time as it is. Ninja commanders, remain here."
More than half of the people filed out, some going off to secure the villages holdings, its supplies, to make certain everything was ready when the enemy hit and the civilians were taken to the caves that honeycombed the mountains to the west of the village.
It would be Suna's last, possible escape route. Its tight spaces and labyrinthine passageways formed bizarre dizzying network that no one could traverse without being lost for hours. Should the worst come to pass, the last of the villages ninja would hold off the enemy there with traps and ambushes, giving the gennin, that had been trained thoroughly and repeatedly in the use of the passages, time enough to escort the civilians through.
They would emerge miles westward far away from the village, their enemies, and damn near everything else.
It wouldn't give them a guaranteed chance of survival. But it would be a chance none the less.
The lives saved, not the enemies killed, would determine if they won or lost in his mind.
Finally, when all the ones who initially stood, filed out, he was left with his commanders.
He focused on the defenses, of the eastern wall first, that's where the enemy was coming from and it was most likely where the brunt of the enemy force would hit.
"The heaviest fighting is going to take place there." Shikamaru spoke up from where he sat. "Kiba said that he overheard Konoha's Kage say he would break through the eastern wall, personally."
"Kiba?" it was Ino who spoke up this time. "I thought he was on leave for...you know"
"He was." Gaara bit out, glaring at Shikamaru. He'd had words with the shadow user after he'd learned just why Kiba was out there. He was scheduled for the removal of the cage bird seal tomorrow morning.
Knowing well enough to drop a subject when a tone like that was brought up, Ino deftly continued.
"Well either way, I don't recommend putting our heaviest hitters there. The Hokage is too strong, you don't want to waste your elites trying to bring him down and leave everything else defenseless."
"It wouldn't matter." Daisuke, one of Gaara's Anbu captains, one who'd personally supervised Akina while she'd been here, if he recalled. "If that number is accurate, then Konoha, at the very least, outnumbers us four to one. We are ninja, not infantry spearmen. When our Chakra begins to run dry, we will die. And with each one of us needing to fight four we will die quickly."
"Most of those men he has will be little more than chuunin." Another captain argued back.
"Does it matter?" How many Shinobi ranked A or higher do we have, two, perhaps, three hundred, if all goes well and those we call back from the field return in time, if they return at all. How many does Konoha have marching down on us? Eight hundred? A thousand? We cannot match them blow for blow."
Daisuke turned his masked eyes to Gaara. "I say we hit the Devil King with everything we've got. Every single Shinobi B rank or higher at the eastern gate ready to throw a Jutsu at him. It's the only chance we have.
"To cut off the head of the snake doesn't mean the body is gonna die." Tsunade - the head medical ninja of Suna - replied, her cheek resting on her fist. She seemed either bored or amused by Daisuke's words. Say you kill him, half of Suna's manpower dead, what makes you think Konoha is just going to retreat?"
"Everyone knows that all Konoha is will fall to pieces the moment the Devil King stops breathing. He is literally the mortar between the stones. Without him Iwa goes back to being mountain dwellers, Kiri goes on fighting for the scrap on their islands and Konoha will probably be attacked by anyone and everyone with half a grude or a mind for spoils. This war does't last a day, after he is killed."
"You, can't kill this one though can you?" The slug princess smiled.
"I'll at least try."
Tsunade looked like she was about to say something else before Shikamaru decided to interrupt.
"Trying to spread our forces out evenly-" He began, standing up and pulling a piece of paper from the side of his chair. "Or trying to beat Konoha's Devil King outright will have us dead in an hour and our people half slaughtered by the morning. If we're lucky."
He walked over to Gaara, reaching out and placing the folded sheet of paper on his desk. "I trust we all remember Zhuge-Liang."
Gaara's eyes narrowed and his fist tightened on the cloth at his knee, hidden to all others by the desk as he leaved forward, nodding slowly.
"I'm taking a page from his book here." The Nara continued. "We can't match them for numbers, even with our walls and fall back points, and we sure as hell can't just off the head of the snake as lady Tsunade put it...so; traps. We booby trap everything. Every back alley, every rooftop every shingle."
"I am not blowing up my village." Gaara deadpanned.
"We're not blowing it up, I just mean everything we can possibly bring, kunai traps, explosive note traps, razor wire, hell drop a caltrop under their shoes for all I care, just do everything and anything you can to slow down the fodder."
"See-" He turned around now addressing the whole room. The problem with your recommendation is-" He pointed to Ino. "We're eventually just gonna be overwhelmed, even if we kill two people for every one of theirs we still don't have enough manpower to fight a war of attrition, and conversely, throwing your entire army at a guy that's known to level enemy forces single-handedly, is more a tactic of desperation. It fits, really, but I rather not condone active suicide.
The shadow user saw that he had their attention so he continued. "With my plan, everything below jounin will either be killed, or at the very least slowed down. Meaning that their elites fight our elites while our guys are still fresh, and when we need to fall back, since we will know our way around the traps we'll be able to get around them while the enemy has to pass through the gauntlet, this gives our men a chance to rest, disorganizes enemy ranks, and overall works better in our favor, especially if we put the heaviest traps along the north and south."
"Why there?" Chouji asked.
"I don't think traps are gonna do much against the devil king, putting traps along the east is just going to be like spitting at a house and hoping to bring it down.
He extended his shadow, contorting and conforming it until it resembled the general layout of the village. He threw threw six kunai, on both the northern, and southern districts, "Our traps. They'll slow down north and south, the eastern front-" Here a shadowy blob, in the shape of the leaf insignia made its way slowly forward. "Over extends itself. Here-" More blobs appeared, taking the shape of the Suna insignia, two to the north, two to the south and one large one in the center, each of these moved forward, with the north and southern ones abandoning their positions along the traps and advancing on the leaf. "We surround them on three sides, right there we concentrate our forces as much as possible until the northern and southern enemies, here Kiri and Iwa symbols appeared on their respective sides. "break through the traps, then we fall back to the main courtyard bazaar, also heavily trapped."
"And after the enemy suffers heavy losses we can engage in a war of attrition." Sakura piped up nodding to herself. "And to go with the traps, the puppet users will be at a huge advantage. We could design entire traps that would go off when they say so, rather than just using tripwire or something else as fallible. They can make them go off when they want rather than when an enemy triggers them making them twice as deadly. You're essentially combining both types of strategies first stage we attack, second stage we purely defend."
Shikamaru nodded. "An arrow without a bow is useless, as is the bow without the arrow. Combine them both however-" He trailed off.
Gaara looked to the rest of the assembled Anbu and Jounin. "Does anyone have any disagreements?"
At the ensuing silence he spoke again. "If this is to be carried out, then the civilians will have to be evacuated-"
"Today." Shikamaru interrupted. "It'll take teams at least two days working round the clock to get these traps up and cataloging them. We have no more time to waste on holding the hands of the non-combatants."
Gaara nodded and was about to continue when a voice spoke up from the upper rafters. "Nara-san, Kazekage-sama."
He looked up, bringing his eyes to Yue-Ying.
She looked at him dead in the eye as she spoke, as serious as he'd ever seen her. "I request that you leave the northern front to me."
"You do not have command of my men." He dismissed her, ready to keep discussing things with Shikamaru when she spoke up again, a little louder to cut him off.
"I did not say to leave the defense to me and some men. I said, leave it to me."
He paused, raising an eyebrow. He saw others do the same as they craned their heads to look up at her. "To you? Alone?"
"Yes." She answered, as though it was the simplest thing in the world. "You will have the time that you need."
"One ninja can't just hold off an army by themselves." Someone said.
"I will succeed. You will have the time you need."
Shikamaru, snorted. "You want us to entrust the entire northern side to one kunoichi?"
She shrugged. "Can you afford not to? I will need only the assistance of two, to three pupeteers, as many as can give me control of ten puppets, after that they can leave to other fronts and fight there. Kiri is attacking from the north, Iwa from the south and the bulk of Konoha from the east. Who does Kiri have of note, since the death of Guan, his apprentice, and Ginchiyo Tachibana? No one. Lesser names to those who came before, barely worthy of being listed as A ranking ninja. Iwa however still has the Devil Shimazu to say the least. Konoha itself has legends like the Mistress of Genjutsu, the Green beast, Copy ninja, The Devil King. You'll be hard pressed to face any one of these people let alone all of them. Withdraw your troops from the northern sector, devote more of your traps to the south, the bazaar's fallback point, and the center line, Those who you wish to attack the Konoha ninja from the north can be divided. One group will circle around from the north, another will continue fighting on the southern line, stalling Iwa's forces exponentially more if they work in conjunction with the traps."
"What guarantee do we have that you can accomplish what you say?" Gaara asked.
"There are no guarantees in war." She answered. "But I promise, that I will, at the very least, cut Kiri's forces in half."
It was a bold claim, and he didn't really believe it. Still, the truth was she was right. They didn't have the manpower. Even with Shikamaru's plan they would be stretched thin.
"Before I agree to any of this, you're going to tell me 'exactly' what it is you're planning."
She nodded. "In private."
Gaara then stood and walked over to Shikamaru, looking down at the shadow map. "There's only one thing about this I don't like-"
Shika shrugged when he stayed quiet. "I can use shadows not read minds."
He tapped his foot at the village center, where the leaf insignia still was. "This. Kiba said he overheard Jiraiya planning to use some kind of seal in the village center. If we let them in-"
"Then they're going to charge right for the goal. That is the bait to make them over extend themselves."
"How do we stop them after they've taken the bait?"
Shikamaru took a deep breath, then let it out as a sigh. "Well...here...we're just gonna have to rely on a bit of good luck to be on our side to be honest."
"We haven't had a lot of good luck recently."
The Nara shrugged "Then pray that they have some very bad luck instead"
She hated this room.
She hated everything in it. The bed, the desk, the chakra absorbing walls. It wasn't a room, it was a damn cell.
Most of all she hated that door.
She remembered when he said she would be staying here when he left. She struggled and cursed, doing everything she could to avoid it...save for attacking him physically. She didn't do that.
In the end...he put her to sleep, some Genjutsu or other. He'd carried her here...and when she woke up she was locked in some room that had its own bathroom and bedroom; her chakra levels barely above that of a gennin. She was brought food every morning. Though she was always asleep for it, with her chakra levels as they were, she was suceptible to the Anbu's genjutsu.
When she first woke up...she'd beaten her hands bloody against that damn door, cursing him, Konoha, all of his soldiers and damn near everything else. She'd called him a coward, a blood thirsty monster even. She'd shouted that day until she damn near felt her throat bleeding.
She'd cried too. She still couldn't say what brought that on. Frustration. Hurt maybe. All she knew was that she'd shouted and cried until she finally fell asleep naturally.
'I cannot have you with me.' He said
But it wasn't what he said, its what he didn't say.
'You can convince me to stop.'
'You can convince your brother to stop'
'You can make it so that this never happens.'
All these things she heard as she remembered. Recalling it now, she thinks she can see just how sad he was...maybe. Or maybe its just her imagination trying to soften the blow
No matter what though, that door remained firmly shut, and there was nothing she could do.
So she slept, she slept as much as she could, hoping the days would go by quicker, she wasn't sure how long she'd been in here. She would read every now and again, the dozen or so books he'd left here...two were her favorites, the others were ones she'd bookmarked to read through.
She had to wonder when he'd noticed.
Or was it a servant who'd placed these here for her? Taking note of the prisoner's preferences as she cleaned.
She moved to reach one of the books now when a resounding 'click' rang through her room. Temari never would have believed the sound of an opening lock could ever be quite so beautiful, or that it would make her heart stop, but it was, and it did.
The door opened, and a man tossed something. It landed at her feet. It was night outside, and the cold wind felt blissful as it kissed her cheek.
"Come on." He said, hissing out a whisper. "We don't have much time."
She reached down, grasping shuriken, kunai holsters, and a change of clothes. She looked back up at the man. "Who-" She began before looking more closely at his face. "Wait...I know yo-"
"We don't have the time." Her rescuer hissed. "I promise I'll explain everything on the way but we must get to Suna now! You're the only one that might be able to stop this!"