- Early Next Morning -
Kakashi woke at an early hour, even before the sun had lit the streets of Konoha, and prepared breakfast, as the group had all stayed over at Kakashi's house discussing the training of everyone and the events of Naruto and Jiraiya getting attacked, the future Sasuke, Boruto, and much more.
Roused by the smell of food, the teens walked into the kitchen just as Kakashi set the table with everything, everyone sitting around the table and eating silently.
"Why such an early breakfast, Sensei?"
Sakura asked after swallowing her food.
"A Messenger Hawk was spotted entering Konoha coming from the west."
Kakashi responded, putting down his bowl and looking out his living room window.
"I have a feeling that we'll be needed really soon, so finish your breakfast, but don't eat it too fast."
As Kakashi said, a summons in the form of an Anbu called their squad to the Hokage's office not long after, arriving to see Gai and his team there as well.
"Gai."
"Kakashi."
Gai's teeth gleamed, drawing out the name in his familiar, theatrical drawl: "Kaa-kashi."
Kakashi offered a brief nod to the members of Team Gai before shifting his gaze toward the door. Right on cue, Tsunade barged into the room, a heavy scroll gripped tightly in her hand. Marching past them, she took her seat behind the desk and tossed the scroll directly to Kakashi.
"The Akatsuki have infiltrated the Sand and captured the Kazekage after a brutal fight," Tsunade stated flatly. "Intel identifies the attacker as a man with long blonde hair who molds clay into explosives, matching the description of Deidara. Your teams will be responsible for—"
She cut herself off, noticing Kakashi and Naruto tense in perfect unison.
"What is it?" Tsunade demanded.
"The kunai I gave to Mei is going off erratically," Kakashi revealed, his voice dropping.
Before Tsunade could reply, Naruto spoke up, his expression uncharacteristically grim. "The kunai I gave Koyuki is calling for me, too."
Tsunade narrowed her eyes. Intertwining her fingers, she leaned forward across her desk. At the exact same time? That's too coincidental. Is this the Akatsuki's doing? She turned the possibilities over in her mind, rapidly trying to formulate a strategy.
"Lady Tsunade."
Gai spoke up. The room shifted its focus to him; the usual goofiness was completely gone, replaced by a deadly seriousness.
"Allow my team to get a head start," Gai proposed. "Naruto and Kakashi can give us their kunai. They can join us the moment they handle whatever is calling them."
Tsunade blinked, processing the tactic. Liking the efficiency of the plan, she gestured to the two ninjas to hand over the markers.
As they complied, Kakashi pulled out an extra scroll and a small vial of blood and handed them both to Gai. "This is the summoning scroll I use for my Fanged Pursuit jutsu. With my blood and your chakra, you can summon my pack. They'll be able to help you track."
Gai gave a firm, serious nod as he secured the scroll. Accepting the main mission scroll from Kakashi, he pivoted and bolted out of the office, his team already hot on his heels.
"Be careful," Tsunade warned the remaining group, her eyes lingering on the empty space they had just occupied. "This is highly likely a trap on one or both of your ends."
Before she could even finish her thought, Kakashi and Naruto disappeared in a simultaneous flash of white and yellow, leaving Tsunade alone to silently wish them well.
- With Kakashi and Sasuke -
Appearing over his Kunai, Kakashi looked around the dark space, unsheathing his blade in a seamless motion as he felt many signatures surrounding them. Sasuke silently unsheathing his blade as well.
"How many?"
Sasuke asked, Sharingan flaring, ready for anything, but the reply Kakashi gave made his eyes widen.
"One-Hundred Thousand."
Kakashi replied, expanding his Haki further.
"We're underground, and there's a sort of space-locking barrier; I can't teleport us away without dealing with the barrier first."
Kakashi kept his senses about him as he felt the enemies in the walls, the ground, and even the high ceiling above them that most wouldn't be able to even chakra jump to get to.
"Here they come!"
Kakashi shouted as sickly pale white figures poured out of everywhere at once.
'White Zetsu, but there's too much and far too soon to be this many.'
Kakashi didn't let the shock distract him. Flooding the surrounding area with blinding purple lightning, he fried the closest hundred enemies in a single, devastating burst.
"We'll be doing this for a while,"Stay on guard and don't let these things grab you," Kakashi commanded, dropping into a low stance.
"Right," Sasuke responded flatly.
In a seamless blur of motion, Sasuke downed seven of them with precise kunai and shuriken strikes straight to the head. He ducked under a desperate lunge from another creature, decapitating it with a clean, fluid sword slash before it could even hit the ground.
On his flank, Kakashi unleashed a barrage of Tempest Kicks left and right, carving through dozens of enemies at a time. Yet they kept swarming forward like endless waves of rats.
'I hope Mei is alright.'
Kakashi thought, forcing himself to suppress the mounting worry. It was a realistic fear; after all, this specific kunai belonged to Mei.
"Sasuke, use your eye's ability," Kakashi called out, using a Purple Lightning Spear to slice another seventy Zetsu into pieces. "Go crazy. We can't let them overwhelm us, and I feel like this is just the start."
Sasuke's Mangekyō flared to life. Fifty chakra-forged kunai materialized in the air ahead of him, whistling through the ranks to carve up wave after wave of the enemy while drawing out more and more chakra.
"Be careful with their chakra; don't absorb it," Kakashi warned sharply, his sword flashing silver-white as ten more Zetsu dropped dead.
Sasuke didn't bother replying; his chakra kunai darted erratically all over the battlefield like Gaara's sand, slaughtering the enemies the exact moment they emerged from the earth.
'This is going to take forever.'
Sasuke thought grimly.
- With Naruto, Sakura, and Karin -
Flashing directly into Koyuki's estate, Naruto immediately spotted her. She stood by the window, her face as pale as possible as she stared down at the chaos unfolding outside her home.
"Koyuki," Naruto called out, stepping quickly to her side.
He followed her horrified gaze out the window. Down below, the grounds were being torn apart by a terrifying sight: a fully transformed Tailed Beast.
'The Eight-Tails,' Naruto realized, his eyes narrowing as he watched the octopus bull hybrid destroy building after building, the sound of panic-filled reverberation off the snowy mountains.
He gently grabbed Koyuki's shoulders, shaking her out of her catatonic shock. She gasped, turning to see him, and burst into tears of absolute relief.
"P-Please, help my people," Koyuki sobbed, gripping his sleeve. "Ninja from Kumo showed up and demanded we hand over our technology. I disagreed, a-and it seemed like they were leaving before that thing appeared. It just started lashing out at the buildings!"
Naruto guided her to a nearby chair, offering a comforting squeeze before throwing a sharp look over his shoulder at Sakura.
Sakura understood instantly, giving a firm nod as she took over Koyuki's protection. Without wasting a single heartbeat, Karin and Naruto bolted out of the room and into the chaos.
"Yo! Koyuki Kazahana! Listen up, see! Is your tech worth the wreck of this whole city?
I asked you real nice, but you wouldn't comply. Now the Eight-Tails is wild, and the buildings gotta fly!
Fool, ya fool! You left me no choice, now you gotta listen to my destructive voice! Wheee!"
Killer Bee's distinct voice boomed, but to the ones who knew him best, they'd notice that Bee didn't really sound enthusiastic, a small tailed beast bomb forming over the Bull's mouth, growing bigger and bigger.
"Not good."
Naruto threw a Flying Raijin kunai out of the city with all his might. The blade whistled through the air, embedding itself deep into the peak of a distant mountain far beyond the borders. In a flash, he drew another kunai, gripping it tightly between both hands as his thumbs and index fingers met to anchor the space.
Killer Bee's colossal, transformed head reared back. With a deafening roar, he unleashed a Tailed Beast Bomb massive enough to level the entire city, the sphere of pure destruction rocketing straight for Koyuki's estate.
Leaping into the air, Naruto held the kunai firmly between both palms. A massive sealing matrix flared to life in the void ahead of him. The Tailed Beast Bomb slammed directly into the barrier, its terrifying momentum grinding to a halt before being slowly sucked into the seal.
A couple of moments later, a cataclysmic explosion echoed from the distant mountain. The redirected blast detonated at the peak, unleashing violent aftershocks that triggered massive avalanches down the slopes.
"The Yellow Flash?!"
Killer Bee exclaimed in shock at the memory of the time he and his brother had a run-in with the man, but calmed himself the next moment. The Yellow Flash was dead; this was the son who had been revealed years ago at the Chunin exams in Konoha, something that had caught his brother's interest.
"Scram, Little Flash! My business isn't with you, you hear? Kumo watched and waited, but our time is now here! Konoha and its allies are gearing up for a fight, preparing for a war with all of their might! We won't sit and wait for your army to appear, so get out of my way, 'cause the Eight-Tails is near! Wheee!"
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
"I don't know where you got that information, but neither Konoha nor its allies are preparing for any war involving any nation."
A Rasengan appeared in Naruto's left hand, kunai in his right.
"Had you come here seeking a deal, Koyuki would've obliged and honored any deal made. Why come here and demand things? Has Kumo not learned from the failed kidnap attempts of the previous Nine-Tails host and heiress of the Hyuga clan?"
Bee had no retort to that; he himself was only around 11 years old when his village tried to kidnap the host of the Nine-Tails, but he didn't agree with it, and especially didn't agree with the other attempt on the Hyuga girl, something he didn't like but never actively spoke up about.
"You make a good point, Little Flash, I see, but Kumo's orders are the law to me! I'll pack up my rhymin' and leave this country, if you got the speed to stop Killer Bee!"
Bee said before the figure of the Eight-Tails shrunk back into his regular form.
Naruto took a second to translate his odd way of speaking into normal words before leaping, landing in front of him, the city to his back.
"You seem like a genuine man; I hope you honor your word."
- With Kakashi and Sasuke -
Having wrapped fifty of them up in ninja wire and pinned them to the ground, Sasuke flashed through hand seals. He exhaled a massive fireball, burning them alive in a roaring blaze.
Glancing over, he saw Kakashi's figure blurring through a horde like a whirlwind. Kakashi's blade sliced them up faster than the Zetsu could even react.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, mind if I borrow some chakra?" Sasuke called out.
"I don't mind; send a katana over here," Kakashi replied smoothly.
He shish-kebabbed three Zetsu on his blade before tossing the corpses hard at two more. Landing gracefully, Kakashi delivered a swift stomp to each of their heads, crushing them instantly. He leaped up, snatching a chakra-forged katana out of the air, and got straight back to work with more slicing and dicing.
Kakashi kept his methodical slashes going, mixing wide-area jutsu with fluid swordplay while pouring chakra into the blade.
The relentless ambush raged on. Thirty minutes in, Kakashi and Sasuke had collectively slaughtered ten thousand Zetsu. The chakra sword in Kakashi's left hand now glowed a brilliant, blinding white, its raw power lighting up the dark underground cavern.
"Sasuke!"
With a sharp yell, Kakashi hurled the white chakra blade through the air. Sasuke directed his conjured kunai to clear the immediate threat around him before catching the spinning hilt. He drew the energy into himself, filling his reserves nearly to the brim.
Empowered by the massive surge of chakra, Sasuke focused his Mangekyō. Above him, chakra kunai materialized in increasing numbers: ten, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, until four thousand blades hovered in the air.
Kakashi leaped back instantly, covering Sasuke's flank to give him room to work. Sasuke unleashed the storm. The blades swept through the cavern, cutting down the Zetsu in massive, sweeping waves. One hundred, five hundred, a thousand dropped at a time. Anticipating their movements, Sasuke directed the kunai into the cavern walls, slaughtering the creatures before they could even crawl out of the earth.
- Chapter End -
I would have had this out sooner, but I seem to be the only one in my family capable of doing anything. I love them to death, wouldn't trade them for the world, but it's literally every five minutes every day lately. Hard to get any writing done when you're constantly called to do something. Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter, and you'll be confused; just give it a bit, and you'll see.