Chapter 24 : Assault on Kumogakure

The rays of light from the setting sun were just barely seen over the mountain tops of Kaminari no Kuni. What rays could be seen created an intense halo effect around the mountain peaks before they ended up hitting the dense cloud covering that hovered around the mountain peaks, the light refracting off the thick particles of condensed water and changing their generally white coloring to stark oranges and pinks.

It was a very beautiful sight as one Ōko Yushima could attest to.

Ōko Yushima was an average, chunin level shinobi. He had chin-length dark green hair and brown eyes. His outfit consisted of the standard Kumogakura attire of a chunin; a long, gray top that gathered at the waist to give it a sash-like appearance with matching colored pants. Over this was his one-strap chunin flak jacket along with a set of arm guards and shin guards. Attached to his waist was a plain-looking katana.

Like all Kumogakura shinobi, Ōko was trained in the use of kenjutsu and raiton jutsu. He was not the best at either of those, especially ration since his elemental affinity was for suiton ninjutsu, but he got by. He was good enough that he made chunin, though he had not advanced beyond that despite having been a shinobi of Kumogakure for the past sixteen years.

This was fine with him. He did not really care to advance in rank. Ōko had a decently comfortable life as a member of squad sixteen, whose job it was to patrol the south-eastern border, the only way to enter Kaminari no Kuni on land.

That was one of the reasons Kumo was nearly impossible to invade, and one of the reasons they did not need a very large amount of shinobi assigned to border patrol. With only one land route capable of being used to enter Kaminari no Kuni, it meant any invading forces would be funneled through that single fifteen-kilometer space. And while that was still a significant portion of land, it was nothing compared to the likes of Hi no Kuni, which had nearly seven times that amount that needed to be patrolled.

Along with squad sixteen, there were only eight other squads assigned to border patrol. The nine squads were not necessarily a close-knit bunch, nothing like those tree huggers from Konoha, but they got along well enough. It was necessary for them to at least be capable of working together in order to set their patrols up in a net formation that would ensure no one made it past the rivers and valleys that formed the vast majority of the country.

Ōko's squad was currently patrolling closer to the border. It was their job to set up the first 'net' within their formation. The group of four were traveling through the mixed terrain several meters from each other and moving in a crossing formation that had them weaving in and out of each other's view every few seconds.

Being so close to the borders that separated Kaminari no Kuni from Shimo no Kuni (Land of Frost) meant the terrain was a combination of mist-filled valleys and several rivers that would eventually lead into the mountain-covered terrain their country was so well known for.

"Squad sixteen," the crackle of his earpiece came to life in a burst of static and the voice of the captain in charge of the border patrol was heard through it. That she was speaking now alerted him to the fact that the rest of the squads would be coming once they received the all-clear. "Anything to report? Over."

There was a moment of silence before another crackle of static came over the earpiece and his jonin squad leader voice was heard over the line. "Nothing unusual to report. Everything looks normal. Standard protocol. Over."

The standard protocol called for the normal web formation that would have the nine squads set up their patrols in a sweeping pattern. It wasn't as tight as some of the 'nets' they formed when chasing down a suspicious person or missing-nin, but then, for something like a simple border patrol the more advanced formations designed to hem in and capture possible enemies wasn't needed.

"Roger that. Squads six and seven will rendezvous with you at alpha point. Over and out."

His jonin squad leader acknowledged the orders of her superiors before ordering the members of squad sixteen to alpha point.

The alpha point was a small underground bunker exactly fifty-two meters from its current location. It was nearly impossible for anyone without authorization to notice due to the genjutsu that was woven around the bunker, making it look like a small hill. Only members of Kumogakure's shinobi force or a doujutsu like the Sharingan or the Byakugan would be capable of recognizing and seeing the illusion for what it was.

Ōko formed up behind his squad leader, Mai, a jonin with raven-haired that had two small buns tied on her head while the rest was let down to run over the front of her shoulders and down her chest. She had light brown eyes that were set in an apathetic expression that bordered on looking bored. It was a look she always wore. Like Ōko and everyone else, her outfit consisted of standard jonin attire. The only difference between her and most of those in her squad was that she did not have a katana at her side, but several dozen stilletos strapped along her waist and thighs.

As the group reached the alpha point they were forced to stop when they caught sight of someone who shouldn't be there. Landing on the ground, the squad of four saw a man with spiky orange hair and several piercings on his nose and ears, and two more piercings under his lower lip.

His eyes were the strangest pair any of them had ever seen. Both the iris and sclera were purple, and there were four concentric rings surrounding the pupil. They looked like some kind of doujutsu, but they didn't look like any doujutsu Ōko had ever heard of.

However, while the eyes were unusual, it was not what caught his squad leader's attention.

"That cloak..."

It was the cloak. Wrapped around the man, covering his entire frame from their view was a black cloak that had red clouds on it. It was an unusually flashy piece of clothing for anyone to wear, very easy for people to take notice of. It was almost like he wanted people to see him.

So busy was Ōko observing the man that he became completely shocked when the strange orange-haired figure disappeared. Not just moved but vanished entirely. At least, that's what it looked like to him.

The slicing sound of fabric and flesh being sliced into followed by a pained gasp had Ōko turning his attention towards one of his teammates. He was shocked when he saw the man who vanished was standing before one of his squad members, a strange metal rod in his left hand.

Said rod was also stabbed through the chest of his teammate, penetrating all the way through the man's torso and sticking out of his back. As his squadmate gave a death shudder, the orange-haired male pulled the rod out of the now-dead chunin and let the corpse fall to the ground with a dull thud.

"It's Akatsuki!" Mai shouted in shock, and Ōko felt surprised by his own coursing through him. He knew of Akatsuki, everyone did. A group of powerful missing ninja that were apparently after the Bijuu. They had even been forced to step up their patrols on the off chance one of its members tried to sneak into Kaminari no Kuni to take Kirabi-sama and Yugito-sama.

While his own shock at seeing a member of Akatsuki here kept him rooted to the spot, the orange-haired man with the strange eyes managed to disappear in another burst of speed. He appeared in front of the last member of their squad, a drinking buddy of his, and just like last time the man impaled the chunin in the chest with that strange rod.

"Ōko!" Mai snapped as she whipped two stilettos off her and spun them in her hands. "Don't just stand there like an idiot! Form up!"

With her piece said, Mai began channeling lightning chakra through her stilettos. A part of the reason she was a jonin despite not having much in the way of solid close-range skills was due to her accuracy with throwing weapons, and her talent in lightning manipulation. She was one of the more skilled ninjas in the village when it came to manipulating the raiton element and was on par with some of the more powerful ninja of their village.

"Raiton: Pasu no Kiba (Lightning Release: Piercing Fang)!" With the two stilettos in her hand now covered in wreathing arcs of blue lightning, Mai threw the sharp knives at the orange-haired man with incredible speed. The weapons were so fast all that Ōko could see was a sharp, blue streak as they traveled straight towards the Akatsuki member who had just attacked and killed two of his squadmates. They looked like two bolts of lightning rather than a pair of throwing knives.

The stilettos, which looked like they would pierce right through the man with ease at the speed they were traveling, never touched the man. Ōko couldn't even begin to guess what happened. One second, the lightning-wreathed weapons were sailing towards their enemy at speeds most jonin would be unable to keep up with, the next the two blades were blown away with some kind of invisible force.

The next instant happened too fast for Ōko's eyes to follow. Mai had been preparing to throw more lightning-covered kunai when she was suddenly lifted off her feet and sent soaring towards the Akatsuki member.

Before Ōko could even blink, Mai was impaled by the black metal rod, her mouth opening in a gasp as blood leaked out of it. As the lights in her eyes dimmed, the man wearing the black cloak with red clouds pulled her off the rod and tossed her cooling corpse onto the ground.

And then the man was in front of Ōko.

The last thing the chunin with little aspirations saw was purple eyes with concentric rings staring at him before his world erupted into pain.

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Pein stared at the corpse of the green-haired man he had just tossed to the ground before lifting his eyes to his surroundings. He did not bother to turn his head to see the six other figures walking out from the surrounding rock-covered terrain. He did not need to bother, for he already knew they were coming. He was them, just as they were him. They were all one. They were all Pein.

Six sets of identical Rinnegan eyes stared ahead into the misted valley. Beyond this border lay Kaminari no Kuni, the country where Kumogakure was. The shinobi village where the Hachibi Jinchurikki lived.

"Squad sixteen, have you reached Alpha point yet? Squad sixteen! Report!"

Pein glanced down at the earbud on the chunin he had just killed as a voice came across it, getting louder and louder as it asked for squad sixteen to report to them.

It looked like he had a few more small-time shinobi to deal with before he could reach Kumogakure and secure his target.

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It was a fairly peaceful day in Kumo.

Of course, the term peaceful is always very subjective when it comes to a shinobi village, and even more so when talking about a village like Kumogakure. As a ninja village that is heavily militarized there is always something going on; ninja hopping along the roofs, both ANBU and normal squads, ninja walking along the street, and mixing in with the few civilian families that lived in Kumo. Ninja training in one of the many hundreds of training grounds that dotted the village.

In fact, the training grounds were almost always crowded with numerous shinobi training to sharpen their skills. It wasn't unusual for the sounds of explosion and large arcs of lightning to be seen and heard coming from the many training grounds on an almost twenty-four-hour basis. The Yondaime Raikage was very big on training and mandated that all ninja regardless of age or rank must train for several hours each day to keep their skills sharp. And so hundreds of shinobi were currently outside at one of the many training grounds practicing their jutsu or polishing their skills with a blade.

Still, despite the day being busy, peaceful was a term that could be contributed to the village. If nothing else, the day could claim to be peaceful because there were no large-scale battles happening, no situations where someone might die at any second. There was nothing to indicate that this day would be different than any other day.

Perhaps this was why no one had noticed the group of six orange-haired figures standing several meters away from Kumogakure. The six paths of Pein stood on a bluff overlooking the whole of Kumo. Laying at the feet of the Deva path in an expanding pool of blood was the corpse of a former ANBU, the last of the village's defense perimeter in this particular sector of the village outskirts.

Deva subtly narrowed his eyes as he looked at the large village. According to reports Akatsuki had managed to receive, Kumo's Jinchurikki rarely ever visited the village, especially since Akatsuki's failed attempt to acquire the Nibi Jinchurikki.

It was both a fortunate and unfortunate circumstance. That the Hachibi's Jinchurikki was not here meant Pein not only had to acquire information on his whereabouts but also travel elsewhere after annihilating the village was bothersome. At the same time, he did not want to fight against the Hachibi Jinchurikki, the Yondaime Raikage, and the rest of the village at the same time. He had no doubts of who would win such a fight, but Pein also knew he would not walk away from that battle unscathed.

Yes. It was probably for the best that the Hachibi Jinchurikki was not here. No sense in fighting the perfect host along with an entire village at the same time.

Time to get started.

The Preta Path, a large man with slicked-back hair, a sharp-looking piercing on each cheek, two running vertically down his nose, five more jutting out from under his bottom lip, and another two long piercings sticking out of his ear moved to the fore of the group. The second animal path, a young girl with a chakra receiver above her nose, two on either side of her neck, a row of four running vertically down each cheek, and two studs on each forearm, walked over to Preta as the other reanimated corpse crouched down and laced it's hands together. She stepped onto the Preta's hands, which were pointed towards Kumo, then crouched down in preparation.

Soon enough, Animal was launched through the air at impressive speeds. Her body straightened as she dove towards the shinobi village head first, heedless of any possible danger she may face. There was no need for her to worry. Unlike Konoha, Kumo did not have a barrier surrounding it that would alert anyone to her presence. This was likely due to how many shinobi they had, nearly three times that of Konoha.

As Animal got closer, she quickly flipped herself around, landing on her feet on top of a roof. At the same time her hands flipped through several seals so that as soon as she landed on the ground, she was ready to summon the other five paths to her.

There was a large puff of smoke as the five paths appeared. It dispersed very quickly, however, as the six paths took off as soon as they were summoned, already preparing to cause as much damage as possible before anyone could realize they were there.

XXXXXXXXXX

It had not taken Animal long to make it to the center of the village. Most of the ninja patrolling Kumo's interior were Chunin, and they were far too slow to see her as anything more than a blur. By the time she reached the heart of Kumo, her hands had already flown through all the needed seals to summon a powerful creature of her choosing.

The cloud of smoke that the summoning created was far larger than when she had summoned the other paths, and far more noticeable because of it. Not that this mattered much. Before the smoke had even dispersed fully, a three-storied three-headed dog jumped forth and descended upon the hapless village before the village's forces could even begin to realize what had happened much less set up a timely response.

Several buildings were decimated as the large three-headed beast smashed into them with reckless abandon. A number of ninjas that were hopping the roofs were violently flung through the air, a number of them hitting the ground and an even larger number hitting the surrounding buildings. Judging from the sickening crunch that could be heard from several of them, the ones that hit the building in particular, many of these shinobi were not injured but outright killed, the force they hit the wall with ending their lives.

The Animal path looked on as she summoned beast began rampaging through the village. This would set up a nice distraction for the others to begin slaughtering this village's shinobi much more easily.

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Asura was perhaps the most unusual-looking of the six paths. Aside from being completely bald with four spiked chakra receivers sticking out of his head, Asura also happened to possess three faces. Each face look generally the same and even had the same piercings, two running vertically down each cheek, a loop ring that ran vertically down the bridge of his nose, and one large receiver embedded into his chin. Yes, just looking at Asura's face was enough to inform anyone that this was not a normal person.

Landing on the ground, Asura skidded across the dirt surface. As he slid across the abandoned alley, his left hand grabbed the wrist of his right hand, twisted, then pulled. Oil poured forth from Asura's forearm as it was pulled off. As he pulled his arm out further, a long, one-inch thick metal wire with several dozen missiles attached to it became more and more visible as the wrist got farther from the rest of the arm.

Coming to an abrupt halt, Asura lifted his arm, now loaded with high-tech mechanical weaponry, above his head. Less than a second later, two dozen missiles were launched into the air.

Many shinobi and civilians who were in the general vicinity of Asura looked up when they saw these strange-looking machines with flaming plumage like those of a comet behind them. They didn't have much time to gawk and wonder about these unusual devices, however, as the first one soon hit a nearby building.

One after another the missiles struck buildings and roadways, exploding with enough force that the entire building hit was blown sky-high. Many of the buildings that were hit were reduced to rubble, and large chunks of debris created by the destroyed buildings were sent flying. The debris would either hit another building, toppling the walls it struck or flew into a street crowded with civilians and shinobi, killing many of those it hit and leaving just as many broken.

Those missiles that hit the street often managed to do so in a busy intersection or bustling marketplace, sending those that were not in its blast radius flying. Those who weren't fortunate enough to not get a full blast of the missile's destructive force were destroyed outright, their bodies exploding in a spray of blood and gore as pieces of their anatomy were sent flying across the street and splattering all over the walls.

With any luck, not only would the amount of destruction generated from the explosives cause enough death and mayhem to keep every in a panic, Asura hoped that the way the destruction from the explosives had spread out would keep people from getting a fix on his general location so he could continue causing as much long-range damage as possible.

In either event, it was time to move to another location anyways. Ill begotten was the ninja who stayed still for too long while in enemy territory.

XXXXXXXXXX

Preta counted at least ten shinobi surrounding him on the ground, and another five on the rooftops. Their flak jackets and the way they carried themselves showed him that many of them were chunin, but he could spot a few jonin amongst the large group of ninja looking to take his head off.

Most people would probably be worried about being surrounded by so many enemy shinobi. Preta was not, and not just because he was only a reanimated corpse. There was simply no need for him to worry about the trash currently facing him. What could a meager ninja such as the rabble around him do when they were confronting a god?

"Raiton: Bakurai (Lightning Release: Depth Charge)!"

Several of the ninjas were enveloped in a layer of lightning after going through a set of hand signs. It looked like they were going to collaborate their jutsu by combining the same jutsu in order to make the attack bigger and more powerful. It was similar to the way collaboration jutsus worked, in which one elemental attack would be used to boost another such as with fire and wind. This was a bit different as there was only one jutsu being used and multiple people launching it at the same time, but the effect was the same, not that it mattered.

While the six large bolts of electricity combined in midair to increase greatly in both size and power, the rest of the ninja pulled out their swords and prepared to rush in should he manage to dodge the attack.

Not that he had any need to dodge.

Holding out his hands just as the combined jutsu was about to hit, Preta began absorbing the chakra that had been used to fuel the attack. Slowly, little by little, the large lightning jutsu began to decrease in both size and power. To those looking on from afar, it looked like the jutsu was being sucked into a distortion centered around Preta's palm.

"What the hell!?"

"The jutsu had no effect!"

Surprise emanated from the Kumo ninja surrounding Preta. What was going on here? Why wasn't this strange man nothing more than a charred corpse? Had the jutsu failed? Or had this orange-haired weirdo found some other means of surviving what should have been an unsurvivable combination jutsu?

If they weren't in the middle of a battle against a ninja who had actually had the gall to attack their home there was little doubt that many of them would have been scratching their heads in confusion. As it was they did not have time to be confused. Their enemy was still alive, unharmed, and that meant they still had work to do.

Since the jutsu had failed in a most spectacular manner, the surrounding ninja that had their weapons out were quick to charge in. They rushed forward at varying speeds, their weapons raised or prepared in their preferred styles. The Kumo ninja had Preta surrounded on all sides. He was boxed in, trapped, and they had no intention of letting him get out of this trap alive.

Too bad for them Preta didn't need their permission to get out of this predicament alive.

Something interesting about the Paths of Pein. Each path has only a single particular ability given to them from the Rinnegan, one of six abilities that were techniques only those who bore the Samsara Eye could use. Because of this, each path was actually very limited in what they could do. The Preta Path could only ever block and absorb ninjutsu, the Animal Path could only summon, the Human Path could read the mind of his target and yank out their soul, etc., etc. However, you would never find a path that could do more than the power they were given.

A good example was elemental ninjutsu. No path would ever be able to use Elemental Ninjutsu, because it wasn't a Rinnegan specific ability.

The Path's inability to use more than a single technique limited the Paths of Pein in many ways. Together they were a nearly unstoppable force but divided they were weakened significantly, their overall abilities nowhere near as powerful as the total summation of their parts.

So how can one eliminate the inherent weakness in dividing Rinnegan's techniques through six reanimated corpses?

The answer is simple.

Taijutsu.

Moving at speeds none of the shinobi around him could follow, Preta charged his first target, a younger ninja who had a bit more speed than the rest of them and was the one who would reach him the soonest. Preta appeared right in front of the younger male and before anyone could even begin registering that Preta had changed position, he rammed a crushing fist into the other ninja's chest.

If the sound of explosives from Asura and the roar and noise of buildings being crushed underfoot by Animal's summoned monster not drown it out, the crunching sound of the young shinobi's bones breaking as they caved inwards towards his organs would have been overpoweringly loud. The young shinobi did not even get a chance to scream as the blow not only killed him instantly by having one particularly unlucky bone fragment stab him in the heart, but the blow was powerful enough that it also sent the Kumo Chunin flying backward.

Preta did not wait around to watch as the now dead corpse smashed against a wall with a sickening crack. He was already moving.

By now, the other ninja had realized that he was no longer in his original position. They had halted in their tracks, though a few he noticed had spotted him and were adjusting their charge accordingly.

They would not get the chance to attack him. Once more, Preta moved forward, lashing out with a powerful kick that connected with a ninja's solar plexus.

As the younger man went down with his ribs broken, Preta twisted his body to the left. His right hand shot out, latching onto a wrist whose hand contained a sword that had been descending towards his hi. Continuing his spin, Preta soon found himself back to back with the shinobi that had just attacked him, his own hand still firmly gripping his enemy's wrist. With nary a sound, Preta proceeded to toss the enemy ninja over his back and into a group of other ninja charging at him.

Several of the charging ninjas went down, but most of them managed to avoid being tossed to the ground by jumping either to the side or over the Judo tossed man. They were the less fortunate of the group, as Preta decided to take them out first. Appearing in between two ninjas who had jumped along the same general path, the large reanimated corpse launched his fist into the face of both enemies with enough force that their faces caved in as they were sent on a flight path similar to the one Preta's first up-close victim received.

"What the fuck is this guy!"

"He's a monster!"

No. Not a monster, Pein thought to himself as Preta began decimating the rest of the ninja trying to destroy him. A god.

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The ever-present grin was still on the Human Path's face as he held his hand on the head of a ninja he had managed to capture while everyone else had been distracted by the fireworks and mass destruction occurring throughout the village. It had not been that difficult to find this man. He had already been walking down a deserted alley near a bar, likely he had had one too many drinks, and all Human had to do was swoop down and place a hand on his head before the man could recover from his shock at seeing the numerous explosions happening within his village.

Human was one of the more normal-looking paths. A slightly effeminate male with long, orange hair and Rinnegan eyes. Like all the Paths of Pein, he had several chakra receivers embedded in his body. The ones on his face were located on his cheeks, with two running vertically down each cheek, which seemed to be par the course for chakra receivers, and one going straight through the bridge of his nose.

With his hand in contact with the appendage containing the other man's brain, Human quickly and thoroughly scoured the mind for any information the guy might have on the Hachibi Jinchurikki's whereabouts.

It was not surprising that the location for the Hachibi Jinchurikki was a well-kept secret when one took into account that the eight-tails host was the younger brother of the Raikage. While a lot of people seemed to know that the Jinchurikki known as Kirabi was rarely in the village these days, few actually knew where he was being kept.

Like all the others, this man did not know where the Hachibi's Jinchurikki was being kept either. It seemed the Yondaime Raikage had upped the security on his Jinchurikki, or at least his brother.

Then again, he did not really need to worry about the Nibi's Jinchurikki, as the young woman was well known for being one of the Kyuubi Jinchurikki's lovers. With the Namikaze's Hiraishin seal likely located somewhere on her person, and a Hiraishin Kunai for her to use in case she was ambushed and needed back up, the Nibi Jinchurikki was currently out of Pein's reach anyways.

At the very least he could not go after her until Akatsuki had acquired some of the other Jinchurikki they needed. The Nanabi and Rokubi Jinchurikkis were still at large.

Seeing how this man did not have any useful information to give him, Human decided that he had outlived his usefulness. Pulling his hand up as if he were yanking on something, Human watched as a blue, ghostly object was pried from the shinobi's head. His on-the-spot interrogate quickly went slack as his soul was pulled from his body, slumping to the ground like a Sunagakure puppet with its chakra strings cut off.

Human looked up just in time to see several explosions from the head-mounted canon located within Asura's skull. The blue lights from what looked distinctly like some kind of high-tech laser beam hit a number of buildings, merely damaging some and outright annihilating others. As Human watched on, one of the buildings nearest him was hit. The laser-like blast took out a large portion of the wall and several support pillars.

As the building began to crumble like a stack of cards that had been hit by an angry child having a temper tantrum, Human decided to find another victim he could extract information from while Asura and the others kept them distracted. Hopefully, the next fool in his grasp would give him the knowledge he wanted to know.

XXXXXXXXXXX

(A few minutes before the assault...)

"Dammit, Omoi! Do you always have to overthink shit? I'm trying to drink in peace here!"

Samui was just barely able to keep up her cool persona and contain the irritated sigh that wanted to escape her. She had gone to the bar today with the hopes that she could get a nice drink and relax in peace.

Being a jonin squad leader was tough work, especially when the said leader had ninja under them that couldn't get along if their lives depended on it as she did. Day in and day out the two Chunin ninja of Team Samui would argue over the most trivial and uncool things. Omoi would overanalyze and overthink everything, and Karui would respond with violent words and just plain violence. It got tiring listening to them bickering constantly. Samui felt she deserved a little downtime. They had just gotten back from their latest mission, escorting Yugito to Kirigakure, and she was tired.

"Look, all I'm saying is that we were really lucky that Courier ninja wasn't carrying top-secret documents that could have destabilized the entire country. Not only that, but if someone could actually steal documents from us it means our village isn't as secure as it should be. Who knows what other countries and villages would –"

"Gah! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Why won't you get it!? I don't know care! The situation was already dealt with anyways! Why are you so fucking big on what-ifs!?"

Unfortunately for Samui, it seemed like her teammates had the same idea she did. She could go to another bar of course, but there was only one shinobi only bar within Kumogakure. The Raikage did not approve of indulging in alcohol, but couldn't ban it unless he wanted to cut into one of the most profitable ventures in the entire Elemental Nations. So instead he simply stated that only one bar would be a shinobi-only bar in the hopes it would keep his ninja forces from overindulging since most didn't like the mingle with the civilians.

The rest of the bars were civilian bars, which she most definitely did not want to go to. While having to suffer through listening to Omoi and Karui argue was bad, the feeling of several dozen eyes stripping you was worse, much worse.

It was times like these Samui cursed her large chest. Sure, her breasts were big. She had even had people compare her breast size with Senju Tsunade's. And they were useful for distracting male ninjas. But beyond that, they were nothing but a mere annoyance. They sometimes got in the way of her kenjutsu, they were so large they didn't fit her small frame and often gave her back problems, and she couldn't go anywhere without having every male and even a number of females ogling her chest.

It was so uncool.

"You should care. What if something like this happens again. Only instead of something useless like the number of handbooks being published getting stolen, they steal a map with the entire layout of the village, including all of our secret entry points."

Speaking of uncool.

"That would never happen!"

Her eyes traveled over to the insufferably uncool duo that were her teammates. Omoi was looking contemplative and slightly paranoid as always. Meanwhile, Karui was red-faced and angry and looked one second away from shoving a kunai into Omoi's spleen. In other words, she also looked the same way she always did. Her wanting to kill Omoi was just par the course.

Naturally, the reason for her teammate's various expressions was because they were fighting... again. Over what, she didn't know, they had changed subjects so many times in the past hour that she wasn't paying attention anymore. For all she knew they could have been arguing about whether or not the Samurai came before the Shinobi.

Times like these made her wish she had different teammates. When she had first come into the bar she had been able to claim a seat by herself. Her reputation as a cold and aloof bitch worked in her favor and made it so that none of the average run-of-mill shinobi would ever bother her. There were only a few ninjas in the entire village who would actually come up and speak with her.

Her teammates were two such people. Yugito was another one. Kirabi-sensei would probably be one as well, but since he had never been to a bar because he didn't drink it was a moot point.

"My respect for you has really gone up."

Samui tore her cold gaze away from her arguing teammates to look at the only other person sitting at her table. The man on her left was a fairly tall, dark-skinned man with a slightly bulbous nose and lazy, half-lidded eyes. To top off his general lazy boy look, his posture was slouched while his left arm was hanging behind his chair.

His hair was a mess of shaggy white locks with a thick bed of his hair covering his left eye. He was wearing a high collared, sleeveless uniform with loose-fitting pants, bandages on his wrists, and the standard white one-strap-over-one shoulder flak jacket of Kumogakure. He also had the kanji for water and lightning tattooed onto his left and right arm respectively, signifying the two elemental affinities he possessed.

When Samui raised her eyebrow at him, Darui gestured to the pair of still arguing Chunin. "Dealing with them day in and day out must be tiring. I'm impressed that you can handle them as well as you do."

"I had Kirabi-sensei as my sensei, same as these two." Samui shrugged her shoulders, which did very pleasant things to her chest as Darui could testify. "Having to deal with their constant arguing as well as Kirabi-sensei's rapping on a daily basis made it easier for me to remain cool when they get like this." Though that didn't mean she actually enjoyed listening to them bicker, or that she could necessarily block them out. She had just grown so used to them constantly arguing like an old married couple that she was able to act like she was ignoring them.

"That's still pretty damn impressive," Darui continued with an easy-going smile. "I don't think I would have the patience to deal with this," he gestured to Omoi and Karui, who were still arguing. "On a daily basis."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Samui replied in the same cold tone she always spoke. "I would like to ask that you not hit on me, Darui-san. It's not cool."

"Ouch," Darui over exaggerated a flinch and effected a mock hurt expression. "I see those rumors about how cold you are weren't an exaggeration." He tilted his head back as he knocked back the sake in his saucer, allowing the warm liquid to burn down his throat. With a content sigh, he set the saucer back down and poured himself another glass. "Though I did hear a rumor that you've gotten pretty cozy to the Namikaze boy Yugito is so taken in with."

"That's because Naruto-san is cool. He can at least look at me without looking below my face," Samui replied. "And besides, he is already taken by Yugito-sama and, from what I understand, several other women."

"I did hear Bosu saying something about that after the Chunin Exams a few months back," Darui hummed in thought as he remembered the Yondaime Raikage muttering something about lucky blond bastards. "He sounded jealous."

"I wouldn't know," Samui said in a cool voice. "I'm not as close to Raikage-Sama as you are."

"True, true."

Before anything else could be said, the loud 'boom' of multiple explosions and what sounded like something crashing into a number of buildings reached their ears. This was followed by the earth rumbling and shaking underneath them.

"What the hell is going on!?" shouted Karui as she was knocked off her chair and onto the floor, an angry expression marring her face.

"Maybe some new techniques went out of control," Omoi suggested, right before he began suggesting more theories. "Or maybe there's some kind of large-scale earthquake that's managed to reach up here. Or maybe someone's attacking the village!"

"Who would be stupid enough to attack the village?" asked Karui as she stood up with a growl. The thought that someone would attack their village so blatantly was absurd. They were the most militarized village out of all the hidden villages. No one would be dumb enough to assault their village with anything short of an army, and they would have been alerted long before now if that were the case.

Samui ignored them both as she and Darui dashed towards the doors and quickly exited the bar. The two Kumo Jounin hopped onto the roof in order to assess the situation.

What they saw was enough to shock even Samui into losing her cool demeanor.

Smoke and fire filled the air. Samui could smell the scent of ash in the wind. Everywhere she looked dozens if not hundreds of fires were liberally dotting the village. Dozens of buildings were destroyed, their remains, cement corpses on the ground, lay on the ground as nothing more than large mounds of rubble. And a number of corpses, both shinobi, and civilians lay unmoving on the streets.

Beyond all that was the large three-headed dog towering over many of the buildings in the village as it tore its way through buildings and people with equal impunity. It roared and snarled at anything and everything, attacking whatever it laid eyes on with the single-mindedness of a beast.

It was a scene out of a nightmare, something Samui could have never imagined happening. Kumogakure was under attack. But who could be attacking? To assault Kumo directly was akin to suicide without an army, and there was no way an army could have attacked the village without Kumo having been alerted far in advance.

That was another thing. She could clearly see that this was not an army attacking. There were no hoards of enemy shinobi, no mass amounts of hostile forces conveying on the city like a plague of locusts. In fact, from her point of view, it was easy to see that there were only six areas of Kumo being attacked at any given time.

An infiltration assault then? That was the only thing she could think up at this point. But to infiltrate the village with only six people was the height of stupidity. Six people against the most heavily militarized village in the entire Elemental Nations was like an anthill trying to take down a dragon. All the dragon needed to do was breathe fire into the anthill and it would be gone.

'Could it be Akatsuki...?'

There really wasn't any other explanation as to who could be attacking them. Out of all the groups Kumo had made an enemy of, Akatsuki was the only group that was not only brazen enough to do something like lead a direct assault on their village, but also the ones with enough power to cause serious damage before they were taken down.

Did that mean they were here for Kirabi-sensei? Samui shook her head. Of course, that's why they would be here. Akatsuki was after the Bijuu, and of the two ninjas of their village, Kirabi was the only one possessing a Bijuu that was still within Kaminari no Kuni.

But they were attacking the village. Did that mean they didn't know that Kirabi-sensei wasn't actually in the village? She supposed that was a good thing in some ways, except for the fact that their lack of knowledge meant they had decided to lead an assault on the village. There was always good and bad to any situation. That they did not know where Kirabi-sensei was meant they could not capture him and take the Hachibi. That they did not know where he was also meant they had decided to attack Kumo directly, leading to much death and destruction. Samui would just have to take things as they were and do her best to defend her village.

"Is that a giant three-headed dog?" asked Darui, looking at the large monster with a frown. Samui nodded her head.

"Yes."

"Ah, ok. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't seeing things."

"What the hell is going on here!?" Karui had just come up onto the roof where Samui and Darui were standing to see the sight of her village being attacked by the largest dog she had ever seen, never mind the fact that it had three heads. Beside her, Omoi also landed on the roof and stood in stunned silence at the event he was witnessing. "Who's attacking us?"

"Could it be...?" Omoi gasped. "It must be!" Samui looked over at the Chunin under her command. She was not surprised he had figured out who was attacking so soon, what with his propensity for overthinking. "Aliens! Extraterrestrial life forms are attacking our village so they can capture our people and anal probe us!"

Even Samui's eyes twitched at his words. Karui's reaction was much more violent.

"IDIOT!" She landed a powerful punch on his face, not enough to send him flying like she normally would, but certainly enough to leave a large, red imprint that looked exactly like her fist on his left cheek. "There's no such thing as aliens! Stop overthinking everything!"

"It's obvious that the people attacking are Akatsuki," Darui added, Samui nodding her agreement, having come to the same conclusion. The man given the title Raikage's Second Right Hand turned to look at the blond woman whose cool demeanor was finally back in place. "I am going to inform Raikage-Sama about this. I'm sure he already knows but..."

"Go do what you need to," Samui told him. "Omoi, Karui, and I will see what we can do to help defend Kumo." Darui nodded and, turning on a dime, began to jump across the roofs of Kumo towards the Raikage's mansion.

"I don't know if we can do anything about that dog," Omoi said thoughtfully. "We're not really a unit made for mass destruction, and it will take something big to get rid of that thing."

"Where there is a summons there is a summoner," Samui informed him coolly. "If we can find the summoner, we may be able to force them to reverse the summoning. At the very least we can keep them occupied so they can't summon anything else."

"Right," Karui slammed the fist of her left hand into the open palm of her right. "All we need to do is find this summoner and kill them before they can summon anything else. Don't worry. When I get my hands on that bastard his ass is grass!"

Samui sighed but did not say anything to dispute her subordinate's words. "Let's go."

XXXXXXXXXX

When the first set of explosions rocked Kumogakure, the Yondaime Raikage had been in the middle of his workout. Since he works out all the time this does not really mean much. The attack could have happened several hours ago or several hours later and he would still have been in the middle of his workout. That did not change the fact that he had been exercising while the attack started, interrupting his training.

He hated it when people interrupted his training.

"Mabui!" A yelled out, his voice both harsh and angry. At the sound of it, the door to his office opened, allowing an attractive young woman with dark skin, green eyes, and light gray hair pulled back into a bun with only two bangs framing either side of her face, to enter the room.

"Raikage-sama," Mabui began, already knowing what he wanted to hear. "I have just gotten several reports claiming that six people wearing black cloaks with red clouds have infiltrated the village." Even as she said this, another series of explosions rocked the village.

"Akatsuki!" A growled. He should have known they would be the ones behind this. There was no one else who would be stupid enough to attack his village. If those idiots thought they could get away with harming his village and his people like this then they had another thing coming!

"Alert all of our reserve shinobi that are not already on the scene!" A ordered. "Tell them they are to help evacuate the civilians first, and then prepare to help annihilate the Akatsuki!"

"Hai, Raikage-sama!" Mabui gave him a crisp bow before hurrying towards the door. A saw this and was about to head out himself when Darui entered the room.

"I guess you already know what's going on," Darui commented, his lazy posture now gone. "Where do you want me?"

"Find C and get over to the damned three-headed monstrosity and take it down!" A ordered. "When you do that, find me! I'm going to be going after the leader of these idiots!"

"Ah, Bosu," Darui raised a hand to stop the Raikage from doing what he knew the man would do too late. "Why don't you –"

SMASH!

" – use the door instead," Darui sighed as he looked at the remains of the window the Yondaime Raikage had just busted through in his haste to face the enemy. He scratched the back of his head for a moment, feeling a tad sheepish at what his Raikage had just done. "At least everyone is probably too busy panicking to notice any damage Bosu is likely going to cause."

With a final shrug, he began making his own way out of the tower. He had more important things to do than worry about the mass amount of property damage his Raikage would likely cause before the man even reached his enemy, like finding his partner C for one.

"Meh, I'll apologize to the people whose stalls Bosu destroys later."