Sasuke's thoughts roiled with fury. He stood on the highest branch of a tree near the border of Uzushiogakure and glared down at the ruined village. His team had tracked the fake-shinobi in the direction of Whirlpool for miles, following the path of destruction through Konoha's trees made by several hundred running feet. But the trail had gone cold before Team Taka could catch up and rescue Karin and the Kurosaki twins. It didn't take a genius to realize there had been a space-time jutsu involved in the mass arrival and departure. Sasuke had never heard of a fuinjutsu capable of transporting an army before—the chakra requirement should have been astronomical—but he had never met a shinobi made of ink before this mess started either.
Team Taka had kept traveling toward Uzu anyway. Everyone in Konoha knew where the kidnapped Uzumaki were being taken now after the fakes had shouted their challenge to the sky in one massive voice. The fools had invaded Konoha, stolen Karin out of the Uchiha district, and threatened Naruto. Sasuke intended to burn each and every one of the blasted fakes, Hantokei, and any other real shinobi backing them to a crisp. If it were up to him, he would have invaded the village by himself. But Sasuke and his team had orders to wait.
Rokudaime Hatake Kakashi had hunted Sasuke down before the dust had settled behind the retreating invaders. There was blood on his hands and rage in his eyes as he ordered Sasuke and his teammates to pursue the attackers as fast and as far as they could. But they weren't to engage until reinforcements from Konoha and the Kage Summit arrived, not unless Hantokei made a move to harm the captives. This was an enemy that insulted all of Konoha and the memory of Uzushio. All of Leaf deserved a chance to fight this enemy.
A large part of Sasuke wanted to go ahead anyway. He wasn't an Uzumaki, whose chakra coils would seize-up if got too close to the kidnappers. Following Kurosaki Ichigo's example in Suna, Sasuke had used the largest most destructive techniques he could without damaging the village and found the results acceptable. The fakes were more stable than shadow-clones, and had access to an ever increasing variety of jutsu, but they collapsed when more than fifty percent of their bodies were damaged, and Sasuke was very good at fire jutsu.
But Sasuke had spent most of the last decade reminding himself that he was a shinobi of Konoha and loyal to the Hokage. He could wait a few hours for reinforcements. He hated to admit it, but he might even need them. Hantokei was capable of send thousands of fakes against Konoha and Suna. Sasuke was a monster by most standards, even if no one dared say it to his face, but he wasn't sure he could stand up against that many shinobi, artificial or not.
Then there was the information that Tsunade had sent back with Garuko. The grandfather that Sasuke's team had rescued had been right on the money with his creepy nursery rhyme. The Hantokei, whoever they were, were responsible for the kidnappings, and they had access to a version of Edo Tensei, which they were using to revive deceased Uzumaki. Sasuke had thought that jutsu died with Kabuto and Orochimaru. Tsunade's message mentioned that the Kazekage's siblings had been kidnapped too, but Sasuke hadn't need her to tell him that.
From his elevated position, Sasuke could use a spyglass to look directly into the center of Uzushio. Karin, the twins, Temari, and Kankuro were bound and unconscious in the village square. A single man, as plain and dead-eyed as the fake shinobi made in his image, was carefully inking seals on their exposed skin.
The sight only added to his fury. It hurt his heart to wait and watch, but Sasuke wouldn't avert his gaze. If something happened to one of the captives, Sasuke would see it and would make Hantokei pay the price tenfold. And if that man made a move toward Karin, Sasuke would move-in, backup be damned, and the Hokage could punish him later.
Sasuke stood alone at his post for hours. Suigetsu and Jugo waited on the ground below, ready to move at Sasuke's word. Every so often, Suigetsu would walk off in a rage and Jugo would pace around the tree-trunk until Suigetsu returned, but neither of them act without Sasuke. They were just as upset about Karin, but they recognized that they couldn't rescue her on their own.
Finally, the contingent from Konoha arrived. Sasuke casually located Kakashi's chakra, Yamato, Sai, and Team Gai. But they weren't the only shinobi to come. He thought that perhaps two-thirds of the village's active jounin were there, and nearly half of the chunin. A dense pack of shinobi led by Anko and Ibiki made Sasuke realize T&I had probably stripped itself to the bone for this assault. Even if the only forces to come from Kage Summit were the Hokage and Kazekage, they had nearly the entire strength of the Village HIdden in the Leaves ready to make war.
A green-clad figure separated itself from the larger group of shinobi and bounded up the tree to interrupt Sasuke's vigil.
"Friend Sasuke," said Lee. "Neji is keeping an eye on our friends with his Byakugan should you wish to join us below."
"Has he seen anyone else in the village?" asked Sasuke. His spyglass revealed no one but the five still figures and the dead-eyed man, and Sasuke's chakra sensing ability couldn't stretch that far.
"Only the one we suspect to be Hantokei and our stolen comrades," confirmed Lee. "Will you join us?"
For a minute, Sasuke was sorely tempted. He knew Neji would inform them the instant something happened. But the gathering shinobi were too far from the village to do something in that event. From the treetop, Sasuke could at least see Karin. He looked at the waiting Lee, whose face was uncharacteristically solemn.
"Are you making attack plans yet?" he asked.
Lee shook his head. "We are discussing possible strategies but waiting to see who will join us from the Summit before anything is decided."
"Then I'll wait," said Sasuke returning his attention to the village below.
"Of course," said Lee accepting his decision easily. He vanished as quickly as he had arrived. His lack of properly formed chakra coils was no hindrance to him in such a familiar setting as a tree.
Sasuke let the thoughtfulness of his friends soothe the fires of his rage for a brief moment before he resumed his watch. Strong emotions were the greatest weakness and the greatest strength of every Uchiha, and he would not fail to give this rescue his all but he wouldn't rush in without thinking either.
The sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon when the shinobi from the emergency Kage Summit arrived. Sasuke felt Naruto and Kyuubi's unmistakable chakra approach first, followed by the equally massive chakra of Ichibi, and along with them the weaker but still impressive chakra signatures of the Kages. All five had come to lend their strength to Konoha as had the samurai general, Mifune. With them, just strong enough to be distinct beneath the larger chakra presences, was Kurosaki Ichigo's wild, untrained chakra lashing out in every direction like a cornered animal.
Karin had liked Ichigo and his sisters the few times they had opportunity to talk. She thought her newfound cousins' chakra felt nice, prickly but not harmful. Sasuke knew Karin was intimidated by having people who might be family after all this time on her own, especially people who didn't care about what she had done as a Sound-nin and who didn't mind that she still looked up to Orochimaru even now. Karin hid that fear with the occasional speculation on what Ichigo or the twins would look like on an exam table. (Sasuke had to work surprisingly hard to not find her behavior adorable.)
Sasuke had done his own investigation into the Kurosakis, and he knew that Ichigo would do anything to protect his family, which now included Karin. Sasuke found himself relieved that if he couldn't save rescue Karin himself, then there was someone other than Team Taka and Naruto, who would go out of his way to help her.
Sasuke dropped out of the tree just as the shinobi from the summit entered visual range. Naruto caught his attention first, bold and bright and angry. His whisker-marks had deepened and his eyes flashed with red. It was easy to see why everyone was leaving a wide space around him.
"Team Taka, report," barked Tsunade as soon as she was within earshot.
Sasuke took a calming breath, or at least he tried to, then explained how Taka had pursued the kidnappers out of Konoha until all sign of them disappeared.
"The hostages are unconscious and bound in the middle of the village with one guard," finished Sasuke. "There has been no sign of any additional shinobi, real or otherwise, since we arrived."
"I can confirm the same in all of the buildings and below ground," said Neji.
Tsunade nodded. "Naruto has analysed the seals that compose the false shinobi. He believes that there is one fake that is the master copy. If it is destroyed, then the others will fall apart. Shikamaru has specific assignments for all of you."
Sasuke and Team Taka merged into the hastily assembled alliance of shinobi and samurai, which was quickly broken up into teams to launch an assault on Uzushiogakure. After Shikamaru listed their initial positions, it was clear Naruto, Tsunade, Gaara, and Ichigo had been left out of the plan.
Sasuke shot Naruto a questioning look. He hadn't expected Naruto or Ichigo to be willing to sit back for something like this.
"Granny, Gaara, and me are liabilities," growled Naruto as Shikamaru broke down the responsibilities and entry points of the various teams. "I couldn't figure out a way to counter the Uzumaki-neutralizing seal, so we're stuck back here. Ichigo is our last line of defense, since he we know he's affected too but can throw it off."
Sasuke raised a brow incredulity filtering through the heat in his blood. "That sounds unusually sensible on Ichigo's part and yours."
"We had a fight about it," admitted Naruto looking like a scolded pet with his whiskers drooping sadly. "It was kind of intense. Not like, stab you in the gut intense. But nobody except Gaara and Kon would even come close to us. Or even could! Sakura and Hinata both tried really, really hard."
Sasuke sucked in a breath. He wasn't sure that Naruto had meant to casually toss out a reference to their fight at the Valley of the End, but Sasuke heard it all the same. The guilt of almost killing Naruto when they were children still overwhelmed him at times. It was a distraction he really didn't need right now.
"Anyway, me and Kurama think we can throw off the chakra thing if we have too. We did it before in Suna when there was just one. And Gaara's got Shukaku if something goes really wrong," continued Naruto obliviously. "But Granny is just Granny, so she needs looking after."
"You need looking after, idiot," muttered Sasuke quietly still unsettled.
Naruto looked at him steadily. His red gaze wasn't the same as an active Sharingan, but a tiny of Sasuke's brain screamed family, brother, and protect. It wasn't a voice he listened to often, but it wasn't one he tried to silence anymore either.
"We were both idiots back then," said Naruto quietly but intently. "Young with too much power and not enough sense. And it took me a long time to realize that I was more upset with you for leaving than for trying to kill me. But I was able to forgive both of those things the second you came home. Were you ever able to forgive me?"
Sasuke was bewildered. "Of course, I am. I did! A long time ago. But why are we talking about this now?"
Naruto crossed his arms. "Well, with the way this whole thing has been going, it sounds like the Hantokei are vicious and plan for the long term, and might actually have a chance of killing all of the Uzumaki. So I just wanted to make sure we were absolutely clear before everything happened."
"Yes, we're fine!" hissed Sasuke, furious at Naruto for even thinking he might die at the hand of this loser haunting a ruined village. "Idiot!"
"—alive, if possible, so we can find the resurrected Uzumaki. Are there any questions?" finished Shikamaru. Silence answered his words, and he nodded grimly. "Very well. Move out."
Between Jugo, Suigetsu, and Sasuke, Team Taka was a powerhouse even for a frontline assault team. They would be heading straight through the town to the square. The non-Uzumaki Kages and General Mifune were all approaching from different angles hoping to split the attention of the man directing the army of fake shinobi. His team's assignment pleased Sasuke. They were certain to reach the square first, and he could take his time searing off bits of Hantokei for daring to touch Karin. Then when everyone was safe in Konoha, he could yell at Naruto about his terrible, terrible timing.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Hanabi and Konohamaru slipped from shadow to shadow among the ruins of Uzushiogakure. She and the half dozen members of the Hyuuga Clan who had come from Konohagakure were trying to locate the master copy, the one false shinobi that issued orders to rest of the army. As the Hyuuga searched, the rest of their forces were trying to draw attention to themselves by eradicating the fakes and charging toward the kidnapped Sand and Konoha shinobi in the middle of the abandoned village. Unfortunately, the allied fighters were making slow progress.
When one fake shinobi disappeared, another replaced it almost instantly. A few of the stronger fighters had made serious inroads toward the village center, but there were hundreds, possibly thousands, of shinobi in the way. It didn't matter that the army was made of fakes. The fakes could use any jutsu they had seen, except those that required kekkei genkai to work, and while they weren't as durable as an actual person, the paper-and-ink shinobi were harder to damage than a shadow clone.
The hunt for the master copy wasn't going well either. Naruto had shown all of them the backwards mirror seal connecting the army and explained the master copy would look similar but with a slight variation. Only Naruto hadn't been able to tell them what the variation would like. The backwards seals had such a different design structure, he couldn't even guess what the master seal would look like. It didn't help that every fake shinobi had two mirror seals already.
The bomb of spiritual energy Ichigo had dropped into the middle of Uzushiogakure not too long ago hadn't done anything to improve her focus either. Hanabi wasn't sure exactly what he had done. But at least she knew Ichigo couldn't surprise her or Konohamaru with his weird reiryoku-based attacks anymore.
When she had roused completely following the strangest training session of her life, Hanabi was briefly afraid she had been blinded again and activated her Byakugan instinctively. Her new ability to sense reiatsu clicked into place in her brain, and suddenly she could see and feel energy pouring off Ichigo in angry waves.
For the first time Hanabi understood what Ichigo meant when he said, spiritual energy was different from chakra. Even Yin Release, which focused on the spiritual aspect of chakra rather than the physical was still chakra. Spiritual energy didn't assemble chakra at all. Though she could see that Ichigo's chakra was spiking too, as it did for any new genin who was struggling with strong emotions.
Ichigo's spiritual pressure was simply there, a clarion call issuing a challenge to the world. He was there, he was alive, and he intended to stay that way. The wall of energy Ichigo exuded was tied solely to him and was completely separate from the energy of the world around them.
Hanabi knew the only reason she hadn't been crushed again by Ichigo's overwhelming sense of self was because his anger was focused on some distant enemy. When Konohamaru woke up demanding if someone was trying to smother them, Ichigo's attention finally snapped back to the present and he pulled his reiatsu back with great effort.
When the press of Ichigo's reiatsu eased, the combined weight of the spiritual pressure of the shinobi and samurai around them nearly saw her passing out again. Hanabi could feel the reiatsu of everyone in range of her Byakugan. For a newly minted chunin who had seen few life or death struggles, the spiritual pressure of the Kages was hard for her to conceive. The strength of Naruto, Gaara, and the Tailed-Beasts made her spirit quail.
A tiny part of Hanabi wondered what Ichigo's real strength was. His chakra reservoir was impressive for a human but nothing compared to Tailed-Beast's. Spiritual energy was the power he had spent most of his life training to use. But Hanabi knew if she asked, she would regret the answer. That was how questioning Ichigo worked.
The trip from the Land of Iron to the Village Hidden in the Whirlpool had been a crash-course for Hanabi and Konohamaru in learning how to filter out large sources of reiatsu. Kon had been the one to help them with that since detecting spiritual pressure was still one Ichigo's weakest skills. Hanabi had the technique halfway to mastered by the time they reached Uzu. Her newfound ability to see spiritual pressure with her dojutsu gave her an advantage over Konohamaru, but her teammate was no slouch. Konohamaru's dream of mastering all of the chakra elements had increased his sensitivity to chakra fluctuations. That sensitivity carried over to spiritual energy too. Konohamaru had ducked just as fast as Hanabi when Ichigo's spiritual pressure invaded the space above the village square.
Hanabi signaled a stop and the pair paused beneath what remained of a roof. She focused her Byakugan, her attention slipping from fake shinobi to fake shinobi trying to detect the subtle difference that indicated one was the master copy. She thought she had it once, only to have a dozen other fakes pounce on her the instant she destroyed the first. Konohamaru's skill at earth jutsu carried them away in nick of time. After seeing a few more seals with the same altered brush stroke, Hanabi realized their enemy must have made a large number of replacements. Ichigo's utter domination over the army at Suna was undoubtedly the cause.
At her side, Konohamaru readied another jutsu, a fire technique if the way his chakra shifted was any indication. Along with the subtle shift in chakra came a ghostly sense of gathered energy. This close to her partner, Hanabi couldn't miss Konohamaru's reiatsu building in reaction to his desire for them to live.
Hanabi nearly did miss the faint spark in one of the false shinobi heading toward the battle. A tiny flicker of energy clung to one seal like a dying ember on a candle flame—a tiny flicker of reiatsu.
Ichigo and Kon had been very clear. None of the fake shinobi were alive or had ever been alive, no matter how much chakra pumped through them. That was the reason Ichigo had eliminated the army so easily in Suna. There was no way for a being without spiritual power to withstand a spiritual attack.
Konohamaru felt her tense in excitement and glanced her way even as she focused her attention on studying the passing false shinobi. She flicked the hand signs for "ghost strawberry" at him, their own personal code for Ichigo and his weirdness, and examined the mirror seals in the various fake shinobi.
Most non-Hyuuga couldn't understand what it meant to see everything from every angle at once. Part of their dojutsu was the ability to process the information they saw, the same as the Sharingan. Only a Hyuuga would notice one mirror seal among the group was equally dark on both sides of the tag; that there was a hint of thickness when the tag was viewed above or from the side; and that the color of one seal wasn't quite as pure black as the others.
Hantokei had drawn another mirror seal in blood and attached it to back of an existing tag. (Hanabi thankfully didn't have to understand the difference between a mirror seal and reverse backward mirror seal. She only had to identify it.) The blood-based seal was still tied to its creator and its creator's spiritual energy. After being charged with chakra, it retained a granule of spiritual pressure.
Hanabi's eyes tracked the master-copy even as her hands flashed the signs for "blood" and "target acquired." The master copy was traveling in a pack. She watched it engage with a group of Leaf shinobi and Iron samurai. It fought as earnestly as the other fakes, but when a samurai came close to hitting it, a different copy stepped in and took the blow. The shinobi and samurai were attacked by another group of fakes, and the squad containing the master copy disengaged and moved on.
Hanabi started moving, following the master-copy as its unit prowled through the ruins. She and Konohamaru quickly exchanged a variety of possible strategies. They needed to isolate the master-copy from any possible back-up, or they would be overwhelmed. They couldn't request back-up for themselves either. The mirror seals meant all of the copies saw what their brethren did. A large group heading for the master-copy would be attacked, possibly by all of the other copies on the battlefield.
Finally, Konohamaru threw out the signs for "little leaf" and "distraction," followed by "demon cat, walls," and "little eye, assassination." Hanabi almost fell off the roof. Her shock at the thought of Tora following them here was that intense. That wasn't what Konohamaru had meant, but he did make sure to roll his eyes extra hard at her reaction.
Hanabi signaled her approval of the plan and identified the master-copy for Konohamaru. Then she readied a kunai and gave the signal to engage. Konohamaru jumped into the street below.
"Hey, assholes! Eat this!" he shouted and tossed a fireball at the closest shinobi.
A different fake batted it out of the way with a wind technique and all of them laughed in terrifying unison.
"What will one little shinobi do against us?" asked the fakes as one.
Hatred filled their otherwise flat, dead eyes. Hanabi would have shuddered if she had the luxury. Instead, she focused all of her energy on hiding her chakra and being ready to strike.
"I'm going to burn you to crisp for attacking Konoha!" yelled Konohamaru.
His hands formed the signs for a fireball even as Hanabi watched him shape energy for Earth Release internally. Two of the fakes formed shields of water while the rest started other long range attacks. None of them expected Konohamaru to drop to the ground and call up walls of dirt, cutting off the master-copy from most of its guards.
Before the fakes outside could turn their attacks against the walls or the two with shields could fling themselves at Konohamaru, Hanabi leapt off the edge of the roof. She flew toward the master-copy in a perfect, deadly arc. Her kunai pierced the mirror seal, located just below the skull of a real human, and split the tag perfectly in half before exiting through the other side of the fake's throat. The master-copy exploded into shreds of paper and ink so did every other fake shinobi in the village.
Konohamaru let out a whoop of glee. Hanabi felt a smile spread across her ink-stained face. She had just completed her first assassination and changed the tide of battle. They were going to win, and she was going to join ANBU. She could already see it.
-0-0-0-0-0-
Tsunade watched as the mixed shinobi and samurai forces passed out of view. As Hokage and the best medic-nin in the Elemental Countries, she rarely felt useless, but her hands were tied as long as those Uzumaki-nullifying seals were in place. She couldn't even get close enough to secure a structure for a field hospital. How much good could she do here? If she were back in Konoha, at least she could help with the wounded there. Maybe it was time to retire. Kakashi could take over for a few months for propriety's sake, then he could pass along the hat to Naruto.
"Tsunade-sama," said Gaara quietly breaking into her dark thoughts. He gestured at a floating platform of sand. "Would you like a lift?"
Naruto already sat cross-legged on the sand. His supposed-to-be-encouraging grin was made menacing by his sharpened teeth and angry red eyes. Ichigo was standing just behind his cousin. With Zangetsu strapped to his back, he couldn't sit down but didn't appear to care. His gaze was fixed forward. Every inch of him strained to join the assault, but Naruto had convinced him to wait just a little longer.
Tsunade hopped nimbly onto the sand and knelt next to Naruto. As Gaara settled next to her, they rose past the tree tops and into the dawning light. In the distance, the Village Hidden in the Whirlpool lay quiet and still as the assault teams broached the border.
The view was beautiful. Even now, decades after its destruction, the Uzushiogakure shone brilliantly in the light of a new day. Pink and orange shadows danced across tumbled white stones. Red roofs warmed from the dark color of spilled blood to the cheery hue of blooming poppies as the sky grew bright. The ocean carried sparkling light from the dawning sun on every wave.
Tsunade wished the others could have seen Whirlpool when it was full of people as she had done as a young child. However beautifully tragic the remains were now, an Uzushiogakure full of life had been glorious.
"It's too far away," said Ichigo with the faintest hint of a whine.
I can fix that, said a deep, rumbling voice.
Tsunade nearly jumped out of her skin to hear Ichibi speak. It wasn't natural for a voice that large to come out of a creature so small, and it was unsettling as always to remember that the Tailed-Beasts weren't truly beasts but thinking, intelligent people.
Shukaku raised his tail, gathering more sand in a wide, flat disc before them. With another twist, it spun the sand into a large glass lens, magnifying the distant battleground and focused on the village center. Tsunade felt her jaw drop in shock. Next to her, Gaara looked equally surprised.
"That's awesome," said Ichigo actually sounding impressed for a change. "Thanks."
Tsunade wondered what Ichigo saw when he looked at the Tailed-Beasts. Kurenai had been training him to control his own chakra internally, which went hand-in-hand with learning to sense chakra. He claimed he could stop the Two-Tails and Three-Tails if they threatened Konoha. But did he truly know how dangerous they were?
Ichibi chirred happily and curled around Gaara's shoulders. Its bright eyes focused on the scene as intently as Ichigo's. Tsunade and Gaara exchanged stunned glances. Naruto just grinned smugly at them. Tsunade knew he was inclined to believe the best of all the Tailed-Beasts.
Tsunade drug herself away from idle thoughts and refocused on the battle in front of them.
Leaf hadn't invaded another village in decades, but with the most recent attack on Konoha, three of their shinobi on the line, and the lives of three more at stake, they were leading the assault. Hyuuga, paired with one or two other shinobi, were using the Byakugan to locate the master-copy controlling the army of false shinobi. The rest of their forces were deployed in units to attack draw attention. Team Taka was aiming straight for the village square in the shortest line possible. Several weakened buildings were crumbling in their wake.
For roughly two streets, the attacking alliance met no resistance. Then the lone shinobi standing in the square activated several dozen seals. Hundreds of false shinobi popped into existence all over the village. Tsunade bit her tongue as the word impossible struggled to escape. It didn't matter that an active seal couldn't be transported through another without destroying them both. This enemy obviously didn't care about the established rules of fuinjutsu.
"Fools!" bellowed the man. He must have used another seal to amplify the sound of his voice. Tsunade could hear him clearly from miles away. "Even the foolish Uzumaki placed alarms around their village! Did you really think you could sneak up on Hantokei Jishin? My army will destroy all of you."
Even the best shinobi in the world had a limit on the number of opponents they could face at a time. All forward progress ground to a halt. Tsunade tried to pick out the isolated Hyuuga among the larger battles, but she couldn't see them moving. That was good. The longer they stayed hidden, the more time they had to search for the master seal.
"Counter-clockwise Hourhand? He's really dedicated to the clock theme, ya know?" said Naruto. He might have been trying for levity, but the angry growl in his voice betrayed his real feelings.
"Widdershins," muttered Ichigo. "An unlucky direction."
"I thought I made it clear that Uzumaki Naruto, Senju Tsunade, and Gaara of the Sand were to turn themselves over to me at dawn," announced Hantokei. "It seems like these shinobi mean nothing to you after all."
Hantokei produced a knife with so much gilt it had to be ceremonial and nicked the flat of his thumb. With exaggerated slowness, the man turned and walked toward the first of the bound shinobi, Kankuro.
"No!" cried Gaara.
The sand under them rippled and inched toward Uzushio. Tsunade put a restraining hand on his arm. She couldn't do anything to stop the sand from moving, but maybe Naruto could convince Shukaku to protect its former host.
"We have to trust our people," said Tsunade.
Gaara turned desperate eyes on her, ready to argue, then his gaze settled on something behind her. Tsunade felt a chill seep into her blood and glanced over her shoulder.
Ichigo raised an arm, palm facing the distant square, and started to chant. "Seeping crest of turbidity. Arrogant vessel of lunacy! Boil forth and deny! Grow numb and flicker! Disrupt sleep! Crawling queen of iron! Eternally self-destructing doll of mud! Unite! Repulse! Fill with soil and know your own powerlessness! Hado 90: Black Coffin!"
Hantokei froze in place mere steps away from Kankuro. With her own eyes, Tsunade saw a dark speck form high in the air. The speck dropped almost as soon as appeared aiming for the frozen seal master.
In the magnification lens provided by Ichibi, Tsunade saw a pale cedar coffin land with pinpoint precision on top of Hantokei. The wooden slats shuddered on impact with the ground and broke apart revealing a dark shape.
The thing inside the coffin was made of dark iron and looked vaguely like a human. There was a long cylindrical body banded by metal straps with the rough curve of shoulders and a bulbous knot on top that could pass for a head. Shaped out of metal, a woman's face stared at them through the magnifying lens, her eyes were accusing and her mouth locked in a scream of agony.
"What the hell is that thing?" demanded Naruto.
"An iron maiden, a kind of pseudo-mythological torture device," said Ichigo in a strangled voice.
Before he could explain what that meant, Ichigo suddenly doubled over and spat a mouthful of blood onto the sand. Naruto shouted wordlessly in alarm. Words of thanks froze on Gaara's lips. Tsunade surged forward, the green grow of mystic palms surrounding her hands, and searched for the worst of the damage.
Horror drained the blood from Tsunade's face. All of Ichigo's internal organs were in the last stages of necrosis. His body was dying beneath her fingers, and none of Tsunade's immense chakra or skill seemed to be working.
"What did you do?" she demanded.
"I'll be fine in a minute," protested Ichigo weakly.
"What did you do?" she repeated.
Kon peered at her over the top of Ichigo's head. His round face rising up like the sun. "I'll tell you what the idiot did! He used a high level kido in his human body!"
Ichigo grimaced. "I've used high level kido in my body before."
"Not a level 90 spell! Not with the full incantation! And not over that distance!" yelled Kon.
"Kido are designed for long-range attacks," said Ichigo. Then he coughed up another mouth full of blood.
Kon pounded on the top of Ichigo's head. His fuzzy little fists did no damage whatsoever. Not that Ichigo could stand to take any more damage given his total organ failure.
"You know that's throwing distance, not kilometers!" yelled Kon. "The further the distance, the more energy it needs to work. This is worse than activating your shikai for too long."
Kakashi had mentioned Ichigo activating shikai during his ANBU hazing. He had used the released form of Zangetsu past the recommended time then too. How much damage had he suffered then that had gone unnoticed? His risks at the Chunin Exam, leaving Zangetsu to guard Kurenai during his first C-rank mission, launching himself into the middle of an army without back up, the ANBU hazing ritual, and now this travesty spoke of a casual disregard for Ichigo's own life that was unacceptable in an active shinobi of Konohagakure.
"You won't be doing this again," ordered Tsunade coldly.
Her mystic palm technique was still searching for something inside of Ichigo that would respond to healing chakra. His condition hadn't worsened, but since his condition was dying, Tsunade wasn't reassured.
"You can't stop me from using my power," said Ichigo.
His voice was as cold and as hard as her own, but there was a touch of fear beneath the coldness. In his old life, Ichigo had had power and lost it, and with the loss of his power, came the inability to protect his sisters, Ichigo's most important people. He was afraid that Tsunade would order him to stand down, to strip away his authority as genin, and metaphorically, his power.
In the course of Ichigo's many visits to her office, Tsunade had developed a certain impression about Ichigo. He was reserved emotionally. Nothing much phased him except threats to his family and a slowly growing net of friends. He was a hard worker, the same as every Uzumaki Tsunade had ever met, but he had no passion or real interest in the shinobi arts beyond being required to learn them. He didn't trust Tsunade and was distant with her, even if he was respectful of her position, because someone in a position of military authority had betrayed him before, possibly more than once.
Until now, Tsunade was willing to keep that distance. Most of her relationships with the shinobi of Konoha were distant, working relationships. Other than any potential threat he might pose, Ichigo didn't need to be special to her. But he had signed a contract. He was one of her shinobi now. And she expected him to act like it.
"I am your Hokage, Kurosaki Ichigo," said Tsunade. "I am forbidding you from risking your life when there is any other option open to you."
Ichigo gestured at Uzushiogakure in the distance, the fights still raging in the streets, and the foreign iron maiden trapping Hantokei mere steps from the last of their shared family. "I didn't see another option."
Tsunade hadn't seen any option at all but this wasn't the time to split hairs. She would not back down. "You are one of Konoha's guardians. It is not a life without risk. But it is not your place to throw your life away without need. Do you understand, genin?"
Despite a literal universe of difference separating them, Ichigo was enough like Naruto that Tsunade could see him start to roll his eyes. Likewise, she could tell the exact moment he realized she meant what she was saying. Tsunade had never fought Ichigo—Hokages did not go around challenging random genin to fights, that was the responsibility of the weaker shinobi—but she wondered if he would trust her more easily if had had the opportunity to read her intentions on the battlefield.
"Yes, Hokage-sama," he said quietly but earnestly.
Tsunade's healing jutsu abruptly started working, healing his internal injuries at an accelerated rate. Ichigo had been unconsciously repelling her chakra with his own. When he decided to trust her that last barrier fell away, and now his power was propelling hers forward. In less than a minute, all traces of internal damage were gone.
"Wow," said Ichigo in obvious surprise. "That healing chakra really works."
Tsunade resisted the urge to punch him. Though a little love tap, like sort she gave Naruto when her idiot trainee was acting especially stupid, didn't seem particularly out of line. Kon squeaked in alarm and ducked out of view, and Ichigo edged carefully away from her. Somehow they must have picked up on her irritation.
"Don't smack him, Granny! He just squashed the bad guy," said Naruto having decided their drama was successfully concluded.
"Thank you, Kurosaki," added Gaara softly.
"It's not permanent," warned Ichigo. "It's an attack spell not a binding one. Even if Hantokei can't disperse it on his own, it has a time limit."
Even as Ichigo spoke, the magnifying lens showed a vertical split bisecting the maiden. The two front halves swung open on invisible hinges. Tsunade saw spikes lining the inside of the device and recoiled from the bloody visual. The spikes were supposed to pierce the occupant and hold him in place, but Ichigo's iron maiden had dropped on top of Hantokei instead. The man had been ripped to pieces.
"Ugh, gross," said Naruto.
The iron maiden reached her time limit and the construct vanished. Hantokei's remains dropped to the ground with a messy splat. Tsunade choked down the urge to vomit.
"Is he dead?" asked Gaara.
"It's too hard to tell from here," grumbled Ichigo.
"His crappy minions are still moving," said Naruto.
From what Tsunade could see, Team Taka was closest to the village center but swamped by dozens of false shinobi and not more than halfway there. Her fellow Kages weren't far behind but were focused on surviving rather than moving forward in the face of overwhelming opposition. Clumps of shinobi and samurai were holding their own, but the sheer number of artificial shinobi meant that none of them could move more than a few feet before they were attacked again.
A flash of lightning followed by the sudden explosion of a building marked Kakashi and Sakura's position. If Tsunade remembered the battle plan correctly, then they were trying to zig-zag their way through the ruins to avoid being bogged down. But they weren't any closer to the village center than Team Taka.
Tsunade was struck by the horrible thought that maybe Naruto was wrong. Maybe Hantokei was hiding the master seal or had managed to attach it to himself and was controlling the army directly. Maybe there wasn't a master copy for the Hyuuga hunting through the village to find.
A rumble from a street previously empty of shinobi drew Tsunade's attention. A pale form arched over an earthen wall. Throughout the village, the army exploded in a shower of paper and ink instead of the typical black sludge. The master copy had been destroyed.
"Did you see that!" cheered Naruto. "That was Konohamaru and Hanabi. Believe it!"
Ichigo glanced at Tsunade. "Can we go in now, Hokage-sama?"
Tsunade doubted she'd ever heard a Leaf-nin infuse her title with so much sarcasm, and she wasn't entirely certain she wanted to reward that sort of attitude. But she was sure that Ichigo would revolt then and there if she said told him to wait, so Tsunade pretended to think about it for appearance's sake then nodded her assent.
"Naruto identified the clones as carrying the Uzumaki-freezing jutsu, so it's probably safe," acknowledge Tsunade. "Gaara, if you'd take us down?"
Ichibi dismissed the magnifying lens with another flick of its tail, and Gaara started lowering the sand platform to the ground. Ichigo didn't bother to wait. He jumped from the platform into the air. A white disc formed beneath his feet and carried Ichigo away at high speed.
"What was that?" asked Gaara.
Naruto smirked. "My cousin can fly. Can your sand thingy keep up?"
Gaara narrowed his eyes. The platform started moving forward instead of down. Tsunade wasn't entirely pleased with the decision. There might be other seals affecting the Uzumaki that weren't attached to the clones. But the army was gone and her forces occupied the ground. If something happened to Gaara's sand, someone would probably catch her.
The sand platform built up enough speed that, while they weren't quite fast enough to catch up to Ichigo, they still reached the center of the village ahead of Team Taka. Ichigo hadn't crossed to the poles where his sisters tied were just yet and had instead drawn Zangetsu.
Kon had disappeared, and for a moment Tsunade thought perhaps Ichigo had shifted into his soul form. But Ichigo's uniform didn't reflect such a change, and she realized the doll must have fallen off somewhere along the way.
To Tsunade's dismay, it became obvious why Ichigo hadn't approached his sisters. The bloody mess that was Hantokei Jinshi was slowly reassembling its missing pieces. As soon as his lungs were functional, Hantokei started laughing.
"Did you think something like that could kill me?" he demanded. Puddles of blood raced backward across the ground seeped into his veins. His muscles and skin wove back together, and he rose easily to his feet. "I am immortal!"
"Ah, shit, I hate it when they do that," said Ichigo.
Tsunade found that a little hypocritical of someone who had been suffering from necrosis of the everything less than ten minutes earlier, but clearly it was not the time to bring it up.
"It's too bad you destroyed my army before they could kill more of your allies. I'll have to add that to my to-do list," said Hantokei. "But since you're finally here, we can get started."
Hantokei flared his chakra, and the ground beneath his feet began to glow in a pre-assigned pattern. The light quickly spread beyond Tsunade's line of sight, but she had the terrible feeling the seal covered the entire village. It was a trap after all.
Tsunade was frozen in place. The Uzumaki-nullifying seal meant Gaara and Naruto were stuck too. With the army gone, the alliance should be picking up speed. She expected an attack to come from Sasuke or Suigetsu. She would even welcome a mad rush from Juugo. Ichigo should be shaking this off soon. It looked like Kyuubi wasn't doing much good from inside Naruto, but maybe Ichibi…
Gaara was standing at the very edge of Tsunade's peripheral vision with the tiny Ichibi spread across his shoulders. The Tailed-Beasts were proud and possessive and quick to anger. If it could move, then Hantokei would be buried in sand.
"Do you like it?" asked Hantokei. "This is a special seal designed to stymie the chakra of anyone caught in its web. It isn't limited to Uzumaki." He pulled down the collar of his tattered shirt revealing an inked array. "I'm afraid this is the only counterseal. And as a bonus, without your chakra flowing through your body, it will eventually kill you all off!"
Hantokei threw back his head and laughed. "Of course, you Uzumaki won't even last that long. One of you will be a sympathetic container for the last Headman of Uzu. Once I summon him and have him release the rest of my kin sealed beneath the village, there won't be anyone left alive who can seal us away again. We will rule this world forever!"
Tsunade honestly had no clue what he was talking about. Her grandmother, Uzumaki Mito, had never breathed a word of anything like an immortal clan of insane shinobi sealed beneath Uzushiogakure. Of course, when Tsunade allowed herself to think about it, the idea sounded crazy. But Uzumaki Kushina hadn't mentioned anything either, even after Uzushio was destroyed! Surely it should be in some report, somewhere.
"I really should thank the other Kages before I kill them," mused Hantokei. "You see the first Headman of Uzushiogakure sealed us in this spot and then built the village on top of it, so no chakra could filter into the seal. After Kiri and Kumo destroyed Uzu, the destruction exposed the seal, and I was able to start gathering chakra again. And then, lucky me, a massive genjutsu flooded the entire world with chakra. That sped up my escape by centuries. I've spent these last few years collecting Uzumaki trying to find one that would resonate with the last Uzumaki Headman. It has to be one of you."
If Tsunade could have moved a muscle, she would have slapped herself for her stupidity. The massive genjutsu had to have been Infinite Tsukuyomi. They should have expected a jutsu that affected the entire world to have hidden consequences, but no one knew to look for them here. Were there other forgotten evils waking up? A problem to address after they dealt with the current situation.
"None of my attempts to summon Uzushio's Headman have been successful so far," admitted Hantokei. "Maybe one more directly related will work better."
Hantokei moved away from Kankuro and stopped in front of Kurosaki Karin. "This one arrived from another world. We saw them land. We saw Shinigami come to greet them and stayed hidden ourselves. We'll try her first."
Hantokei raised the knife. Tsunade strained to free herself but it was useless. She could think, but she couldn't move. She couldn't turn her head away. She couldn't even blink. She was going to watch her student's student be killed, and she could do nothing.
Metal crashed against metal. There was a blade between Karin and Hantokei, a large white blade with a black edge. The person holding it was terrifyingly familiar. White Zetsu had returned to save Karin. Were Ichigo and his sisters allied with the Rabbit Goddess? Was that how Ichigo's sword earned the name Moon Fang?
Clarity descended on Tsunade, washing away the surge of panic. The sword protecting Karin was Zangetsu, even if its colors were inverted. The person holding it wasn't White Zetsu but a near-perfect copy Ichigo in his shinigami uniform. His colors were inverted, a common mistake in malformed clones. Tsunade doubted she knew a tenth of Ichigo's real abilities. It was possible he had made something like a shadow clone using a skill he learned in Soul Society.
"I can't let you do that. The King would lose it. There'd be nothing but rain forever," said Karin's rescuer.
"What?" roared Hantokei. He looked from the copy to Ichigo noting the similarities. "You can't be a shadow clone. Nothing can use chakra while under the seal. It's impossible."
"Who the fuck needs chakra to stop a freak like you," said the other Ichigo. He casually swung Zangetsu away from Karin forcing Hantokei away.
Hantokei stumbled beneath the strength of the blow. "Who are you? What are you? Explain yourself!"
"The name's Zangetsu," he said with a pleased grin. When he opened his mouth, Tsunade caught a glimpse of a vivid blue tongue. "And you're going to fight me for a while."
Tsunade was dismayed. A number of reports had crossed her desk saying that Ichigo talked like the sword was a person and attributed it a personality distinct from his own. Nothing she had heard indicated that the sword could wield itself to fight people!
"A demon?" murmured Hantokei. "A servant of Shinigami sent to end me, perhaps? It always was jealous of my immortality. Is it even an Uzumaki? There's an easy way to tell."
He threw the sealing knife at Ichigo. Zangetsu moved with a booming buzz to knock the weapon away.
"Killing the King is my job! Hands off!" roared Zangetsu. He launched himself at Hantokei beginning one of the strangest fights Tsunade had ever seen.
Zangetsu and Hantokei were both Kage-level fighters. Hantokei's skill with seals rivaled any Uzumaki fuinjutsu master and Zangetsu's kenjutsu surpassed that of General Mifune. They were able to counter or avoid most of their opponents attacks with ease, and when they couldn't, the damage they sustained was devastating.
But physical damage didn't do much to either fighter except to briefly hinder their movements. Unlike Hantokei, Zangetsu didn't even bleed when he was cut. His skin parted beneath a kunai or was burned away by chakra then the missing bits filled back in from nothing.
Zangetsu did have one weakness though. If he let up on the attack, Hantokei would target either Ichigo or one of the twins. Zangetsu was fast enough to stop the blows, but the sneak attacks gave Hantokei time to recover.
During the final exchange, Hantokei released a seal filled with sticky glue that trapped Zangetsu in place. Zangetsu screamed in frustration, a terrible sound that made Tsunade's soul shiver. She couldn't have moved, even if she weren't frozen in place by the seal. The sudden surge of instinct to hunker down and hide from a predator was that strong. Even Hantokei stilled for one critical instant.
"Fuck you!" roared Zangetsu. "Bala!"
He bombarded Hantokei with a series of quick explosions that trapped the madman in place. The immortal shinobi was quickly reduced to smaller and smaller pieces. In midst of the barrage, Zangetsu turned his head and craned his neck to peer around Tsunade.
"Old man, tell me you found the damn doll!" demanded Zangetsu.
A tall figure wrapped in a black cloak appeared in the corner of Tsunade's eye. From the brief glimpse she saw of his profile, she thought he resembled Ichigo, if a much older and rougher version of Ichigo. He had another copy of Zangetsu strapped to his back. And in one hand, he held Kon.
"I have it here," said the old man.
"I have a name you know," protested Kon. "And I would have been on my way if that Sasuke guy hadn't grabbed hold of me before he got frozen!"
The man said nothing in response but approached Ichigo and pulled a small green pill out of the lion. Kon stilled instantly. Tsunade couldn't see what the man did from her angle, but Hinata had described what happened the last time Ichigo swallowed the little pill. Another copy of Ichigo burst from the young man's body landing in the empty space between his body and Hantokei.
"Finally!" yelled Zangetsu ending his attack. "This guy is really starting to piss me off. I hate it when they don't die."
"What will you do, Ichigo?" asked the old man.
Ichigo was wearing a dark uniform typical of low-level shinigami. He held another copy of Zangetsu in his hand, bringing the total up to...still three. This was the same sword his body had held just moments before. If Tsunade survived this, she was going make Ichigo write the longest, most detailed report in the history of mission reports..
Ichigo nodded at Hantokei. "He says he can't die, and let's be honest, my bakudo sucks. But I bet somebody here can seal him again, if we can set them free."
"The chakra-freezing seal encompasses the entire village and is strong enough to trap several captain-level shinobi and the Tailed Beasts," said the old man. "You will need an incredible amount of force will to break it."
Tsunade didn't know who the old man was or where he had learned about seals, but she knew he was right. Most seals could be destroyed by breaking the edge or altering the symbols. A seal large enough to cover a village would be resistant to damage and self-repairing. Kyuubi might have been able to land a shattering blow on such a seal. Tsunade wasn't convinced that Ichigo could do the same.
"I'm ready, are you?" countered Ichigo.
"Hell, yes!" said Zangetsu as the old man nodded.
The white copy of Ichigo broke into pieces that floated toward the sword in Ichigo's hands and so did the old man. Ichigo was left alone with one, unified Zangetsu.
Hantokei recovered enough to speak. "To break to the seal, you'd have destroy Whirlpool. If you do that, it won't matter if I can't revive the Headman, my kin will free themselves."
"I can live with that," said Ichigo.
Tsunade's vision was starting to grey at the edges. It was becoming harder and harder to think, but she still knew that releasing a clan of immortal shinobi was never the smart move. Someone was going to have to train Ichigo in strategy when this was over.
"Abandon your fear!" declared Ichigo. "Look forward! Retreat and you will age! Hesitate and you will die! Go forward and never stop, Zangetsu!"
There was a small, localized explosion around Ichigo. A shockwave of energy stirred the dust at his feet. When the air cleared, Ichigo's uniform had changed again, and instead of one sword, he held two very different blades.
Ichigo slowly raised both swords to chest-height and angled them toward Hantokei. The madman struggled to back away on not-quite assembled legs. There was an ominous sense of weight in the air. Tsunade couldn't shake the feeling that a very heavy rock was about to fall on her head.
"Bankai!"