Chapter 41: War against Iwa

'He's fucking fast' was the first thing Mei thought the moment the fight started. Nary a second had passed since Ao dropped his hand to begin the battle, but in that time, he'd closed much of the distance between them, hand coming straight at her face in a closed jab. Taijutsu first. Of course, it was taijutsu first. They always thought themselves so clever. Oh, she's a ninjutsu specialist, let me close the distance so I can punch her in the face and end the fight quickly. Idiots. She leaned back, easily avoiding the jab while completing her jutsu at the same time. When her mouth opened, it was to release a storm of acidic steam, prepared to melt the skin off his bones. The boy jumped backwards the second my jutsu activated, but even that wasn't completely enough to save him, she noted. The skin around his fists had a reddish tint to them that they hadn't had before the fight began.

She smiled, a savage, smug thing. First blood was hers, and they both knew it. This time, the boy moved slowly. Slow enough that she could see his every action. The scroll on his waist was opened and he began by unsealing the very first of the swords. Himarakei, the Twinsword. She didn't need to rack her mind to figure out what exactly the sword did. Like every child that attended the Mist academy she could recite the names and functions of every single one of the Seven swords with ease. Himarakei's power, chakra storage. The ability to store vast amounts of chakra and unleash it by either increasing its size or changing its shape. The First Mizukage, seas keep his name, had famously used the sword to cut through the shell of the Three-tailed Turtle and gave it that famous scar across its eye.

Luckily for her, Mangetsu Hozuki was nowhere near as strong as that fabled weirder. The sword in his hands had a bright blue glow and when he slashed it at her, she had all the time in the world to dodge the arc of blue chakra that followed the blade's movements. Of course, it had been a feint. She'd seen it coming miles away. When he attempted to close the distance this time, he found himself to be just a hair's breadth too slow.

She completed her seals before he could take that crucial first step and she did not hesitate to bathe the ground between them with steaming lava. He was forced to jump backwards again, playing her game, and only hers.

Multiple balls of lava followed his path as he tried to do his best to block them by cutting across them with the Twinsword. He landed, placed a hand on each of the sword's handles and separated it into two separate blades. That was where the name, Twinsword, had come from after all. "Too little, too late" The Terumi heiress spoke before blanketing much of the field between them in mist.

"They call you the Second Coming of the demon" She said, disappearing into the mist.

"But do you even know who had the privilege of being on a team with Zabuza Momochi? I fought by his side more times than I can count, and he was a monster of a man. Dangerous with or without his blade. The Mist is lesser for his absence. But you? You are nowhere near that strong" Her voice sounded from every corner of the mist, boxing Mangetsu Hozuki in.

He felt it for perhaps the first time in years, that chaotic feeling. The feeling that made ones heart beat like a drum. The feeling that brought men to their knees. Fear. He clenched his fingers around the blades in his hands. He was the last of the Mist's swordsmen. The last of the Seven. Some Kekkei Genkai bitch that had everything handed to her would not be the one to beat him. Her stayed still and concentrated, using his hearing to try to pick out her approach.

There. He thought to himself as he caught a passing flicker. He jumped with all the force his body could generate and brought both blades down on the form of Mei Terumi, smiling in victory. It was not to be as the blades passed right through her before he landed on the ground. A strange sound caught his attention, and it was all he could do to jump backwards and cross the blades in front of him to block much of the force of the explosive tag on the floor. She was a crafty one, he thought to himself. But she wasn't winning. Sure, he hadn't killed her yet, but the only reason for that was this pesky mist. If she could have taken him head-on, she'd have done so.

He picked up the scroll and sealed the Twinsword while unsealing the Blastsword this time. The goal, use explosive force to get rid of the mist. If he knew some wind style, this would have been easy, but his only element was water. He could have sunk into the mist and challenged her in silent killing but she was Zabuza's teammate. No one was as good as the Demon when it came to silent killing and he wasn't going to risk it against her.

"Eight points: Larynx, spine, lungs" her voice began to echo all around Mangetsu, and he swept the blast sword in an arc, explosions drowning it out for a second as he cleared a bit of the mist around him.

It was pointless and the mist rushed back in again, " liver, jugular, subclavian artery" her voice returned with the mist. He could feel himself suddenly beginning to feel drained. What the hell was this? "kidneys, and heart" She finally said, her voice never changing pitch as she listed all the killing points to him like she was reading out from a list.

He swept around again, rotating his body and activating the blastsword as he did so. The explosions, just like before, sent the mist away, but it was quick to return. This time, however, he'd gotten a glimpse of her. He knew where she was. That was why he sealed the blastsword back before unsealing his latest acquisition, the Kiba blades. The lightning blades with jagged teeth hungered for his chakra, and he was more than happy to feed it to its fill, pointing the blades right at where he knew she was. "Dieeeee" He shouted.

Mei Terumi watched the boy flounder about with a smug smile on her face. He never even noticed her chakra enter his with the mist that scarred his hands. The Second Mizukage's notes had been extremely instructive on the matter. He controlled his mist based genjutsu like an artist, weaving it and tailoring it to the recipient while subtly altering their chakra with his own and making his way inside. Her way could not have been more different. Where he was cautious, she was bold. Where he was subtle, she was brash. She used her boil release to control the toxic mist that she wove with her chakra. Right from the beginning, when she burned his hands, she'd gotten in.

It was only a matter of time for her to skirt past whatever natural defences he had and begin to fool his senses. She'd done well in genjutsu classes in school, and even under her sensei, but what she just did would never have been possible without Genets Hozuki's help. That was why she was going to give his descendant some measure of dignity, even if the boy was a little piece of shit. When he sent the massive blast of lightning at the sky, he fell to his knees, surely almost drained of chakra.

That was when she removed her genjutsu. She could see his confusion as his view of the situation instantly changed. It took him nearly a m minute to figure out what had happened, and when he did, the scowl on his face was a sight to behold. He knew it was lost. He'd exhausted himself fighting an apparition. Nothing more than a ghost. While she was fresh and untouched. He'd had little chance against her when they were both fresh, but now he had to know it was impossible.

Credit to him, though, he didn't give up. He got to his feet again. He was finished. He had to know it, but he had to have this last act of defiance. Mei allowed him close the distance, swords raised above his head, all the form he'd learned forgotten in his present state. He brought the both of them down on her, and like the mist her people hid in, Mei Terumi slipped between his attacks before slapping one of the kiba blades out of his hand before punching him in the midsection, knocking the wind out him before slipping his legs out from under him in a quick leg movement and then placing her foot on his neck before he could stand.

"Yield" She asked, nay commanded.

"I yield"

XXXXX- UNRULY AY

"Faster than ever, Bruddaaaaa" Bee said, completing the rest of his transformation as he returned from human-tailed beast hybrid to the brother he knew and loved.

"Still not fast enough" Ay replied, knowing that he was right. He'd logically known that he wasn't the strongest ninja in the village since Bee mastered the beast within him, but he'd at least thought that the gap was smaller. The past few months had done nothing less than thoroughly remove that thought from his head. Every sparring session they had, Bee beat him into the ground. But it was getting better. He was getting stronger and faster. Before, Bee had been able to do it with just four tails. Now, he needed to go into the second version of the transformation and call upon six tails to put him down.

It was progress. Slower than he wanted, but still progress. Perhaps the worst part was that he knew that the difference between one tail and the next was not merely additive, it was exponential. The seventh tail would be orders of magnitude stronger than the sixth, and after that would come the full transformation. Would he ever be strong enough to contend against the entire Eight Tails in its full glory? His Father had done it, but his father was a Ninja beyond compare in virtually every respect. Sure, he wore the same lightning armour that his Father sported, but they were different in virtually every way.

His father adapted his for durability and power, while Ay's was focused on speed. There was a reason he bore the title of fastest ninja in the world. That was the goal now, get even faster. Level two of the lightning armor was powerful, but not absolute. It could not be his ceiling, surely there had to be more he could do.

"Look up brother, you are stronger than you've ever been. With the two of us together, there's nothing that will be our equal in the world. Kumo is safe. There's no need to overwork yourself like this." Bee said, for the first time in a while not even bothering to resort to his terrible raps. That was one way he could tell that he was being serious now.

"I'm fine Bee" He said, shrugging off the hand his younger brother placed on his shoulder. His brother was taller than him now. His little brother. This was how he knew he was aging. He'd seen one war from the beginning to the end, and now he was certainly about to see another one. Those he'd fought with on the front lines? Now most of them were either dead or retired to raise families. This war was not for his generation. It was for the next, and that scared him.

Almost like his thoughts had summoned him, a messenger came running up to him. "Raikage-sama" the man said as he covered the distance at snail's pace to Ay's eyes.

"What do you have?" He asked, voice gruff. He noticed from the corner of his eyes that Bee was similarly tense. Any news at this point was likely to be important.

"Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure has declared war on Iwagakure. He's sent it on messenger birds across the nations" He said. And so it begins, Ay grimly thought to himself. Once more the children of the storms would fight and bleed for the glory of Kumo.

XXXX- GAARA OF THE DESERT

I closed my eyes as I came to terms with what I was about to do. This was it. The beginning of everything. If there was anything that would ever have made me hesitate, it was the thought that I was about to become just the kind of person I'd have criticised in my past life. A warmonger. But I'd still much rather be a warmonger than the kind of man who failed in his duties, and that is what would happen if I failed to cripple Suna now. For some reason, Konoha was not attacking. And they also weren't going to be attacking anytime soon.

Our spies had been particularly useful in sussing that out. There was no mass mobilization indicative of a wide scale attack or invasion. And I'm sure what you wondered now was what I was going to do if they planned an attack like just the one I was doing now. Well, there was a reason most of Suna's greatest resources were contained in my inventory now. I was essentially leaving everyone behind to die if things went wrong, but I was confident in my senses. Even beyond that, the game had blessed this mission by giving me a quest. The game had never led me astray before, so it was the final piece of data I needed to take the risk.

I had safety measures in place, of course. Kankuro and Temari were here with me. Shira slept peacefully in my inventory, still recovering from the surgery, and Mebuki had orders in place to help her make a quick escape if anything went wrong. Even beyond that, I had seals littering the walls of Suna and much of the surrounding area. Any invading force would find out for themselves that Suna was no easy target. I'd even made the decision to make sensory barriers for Suna that extended well beyond the Village's walls to ensure they had ample fore-warning of any impending attack. The goal was to ensure that we were ready for whatever happened, and I'd done my best to make sure they were.

With that settled, I had to be in the here and now. The mission objectives were sevenfold;

1. Assassinate the Yondaime Tsuchikage to further throw them into chaos

2. Capture members of every bloodline clan in the village.

3. Steal their scroll of forbidden jutsu.

4. Steal their academy training regiment.

5. Destroy the hospitals and whatever recovery capacity they had.

6. Steal all their ninja records including mission statements and their ninja database.

7. Free whatever prisoners they had within the village walls.

The goal here was to strike hard, strike fast, and leave chaos in our wake. Luckily (or unluckily) for us, neither of their Jinchuriki were likely to be within the village. It was good because I'd get to avoid a large scale fight and being bogged down in combat with a person who was either my equal or close enough in ability. It was bad because I wouldn't get the chance to test myself against another Jinchuriki to see how I measured up. And I wouldn't even get the opportunity to kill one of them to toss a wrench into whatever plans Akatsuki had. A tailed beast, when its host was called, would take exactly as many years to reform as it had tails. So killing Son Goku or Kokuo could grant me anything from four to five years of extra time to prepare for the Akatsuki. It was moot at the end of the day.

We made good time to Iwa, only taking about four and a half hours to cover the distance. We couldn't move at full speed since I'd been forced to take the platform well beyond the cloud cover to ensure that we weren't spotted on the off chance that someone did actually decide to look upwards.

The downside for us at least was that we wouldn't be able to see or know when the time came for us to stop. We couldn't see through clouds after all. Not most of us, at least. I turned to the man I'd brought for precisely that purpose. "Yomi-san, please have a look" I said. Stepping a bit to the side for the man to take point. One of the first things I'd done after my return to the village was track down some of the people I'd known to have useful abilities from the anime.

One of them was Shira's teammate in the anime, Yome. Luckily for her, she had a father who was in border patrol who shared her abilities. If she hadn't, she'd have found herself conscripted into my service automatically. The ability was too useful to not have in the direct service of the Kazekage. It was one of the many ways my father dropped the ball when he held the role. Abilities like this should have been rewarded and studied. Like how I knew that what he and his daughter could do wasn't just a hidden jutsu but a full blown doujutsu. He'd explained it to me more times than I could count, how to manipulate the chakra and everything, but nothing I'd done allowed me replicate it. Even more interesting was the fact that I could isolate a clearly biological component of their abilities.

Work was being done to figure out his origins since he was an orphan who didn't know his parents, but I was willing to bet that there was a byakugan or two in his ancestry. Speaking of the great doujutsu, Kakashi's sharingan remained in stasis in my inventory while his body was now being actively studied back in the village. We'd removed the eye, but left him alive in the meantime. He'd barely survived Deidara's explosive death, but keeping in him in my inventory was enough to prolong his life long enough to get him medical attention. Now, he was still alive as his body revealed secret after secret under Chiyo's masterful knife skills.

"We're about ten kilometres away from being directly above the village's centres." He said to me, and I nodded. At present speeds, we'd be there in about five minutes. I nodded at him, and began the last preparations. From my inventory, I took out backpacks,. Each of them was lined with seals to act as a parachute. Not just that, but the rest of the features wouldn't matter if everything went well. "Do me a favour and hand these out, ey?" I asked him and he nodded before walking across the platform handing one bag to each person. When they'd all put theirs on, I turned to them to speak.

"We're about to go. Once I give the signal, we all jump. On your backs are what I'd like to call parachutes. They'll slow down your descent when you get close enough to the ground. Remember your teams and your individual objectives. Do not forget that all we do, we do for the glory and safety of Suna. May the Winds fare you well" I said to them.

"Winds fare you well" They all chorused. Most of them looked resolute, ready. Of course they did. These were the best ninja in Suna, after all. The strongest, sharpest, and most skilled of our Jounin. Well, with Kankuro and Temari, but they were with Ebizo so I'd leave their safety in his hands. A traitorous part of me whispered that it might even be better for me if I allowed them perish here. Whatever threat they presented to my reign could die here. I shut it up coldly and quickly. They were family.

The rest of the ride was agonisingly slow as I trembled with anticipation. I'd been training in between my efforts at wet tinkering, and I knew that this was going to be a fight I'd enjoy. Just me and a Kage level opponent. No pressure, no frills. Maybe he'd even be enough to get me to go all out. But the best part was that I was finally going to be doing something with my energy. I wasn't just sitting around waiting for the shoes to drop. That knowledge alone, was worth more than I'd ever expected.

"We're there" Yomi said to me and I stopped the platform's movement. "Let's go" I said to them as I jumped out of the platform, and I wasn't disappointed when they all followed. Down to Naraka, we go.

(End of Chapter)

Stat Sheet;

Name; Gaara of the Desert

Age; Twelve

Level; 15

Title; Kazekage of Sunagakure

Chakra Capacity; 5,500/7,000 (Regeneration; 250 cp per minute)

Ichibi Chakra Capacity; 45,000/45,000 (Regeneration; 750 cp per minute)

Strength; 37

Speed; 73

Agility; 81

Endurance; 75

Intelligence; 90

Durability; 36

Perception; 89

Charisma; 69

Stat Points; 0

Skills;

Gamer's Mind Mark Two- ON

Taijutsu; 74

Kenjutsu; 63

Ninjutsu; 88

Genjutsu; 2

Fuinjutsu; 88

Medical Ninjutsu; 83

Wet Tinkering; 59

Sand Control; 81

Pain tolerance; 31

Meditation; 3

Shape manipulation; 72

Chakra Sensing; 21

Chakra affinities;

Wind; 69

Earth; 55

Fire; 57