A/N: Fall term final exams are finally over! Following this, I have absolutely nothing to do except entertain myself in any way possible until my ship date. That's good news for you, eh? You can thank your Gods for the upcoming chapters later.

Battle Chapter no Jutsu.

Chapter Seven: Front Line

The Cloud trio, led by their senior teammate, Kouhei, left the village quietly and without leaving a trace of themselves behind. Going through a clean—if somewhat dusty—tunnel created previously through rapid, forced wind erosion, they passed underneath the hastily-erected wall undetected, escaping into the craggy south. Under their captain's orders, they kept running until they had completely lost sight of the smoke rising from the town behind innumerable rocky spires and peaks.

Once well out of sight, Kouhei called a halt. Hikaru, being the youngest of the group and possessing the least stamina, promptly flopped onto the ground, panting. They hadn't run very far, as shinobi distances went, but the pace that Kouhei liked to set was far too quick for his liking. Ayaka, though less winded than her younger teammate, was obviously showing similar signs of fatigue. She leaned against a nearby rock formation and tossed back her dark hood, quietly sucking in oxygen to replace that which she had so quickly burned. Even she was unused to matching her sempai's speed.

Kouhei himself stood erect, a short distance from his comrades, allowing them time to recover themselves. Ayaka needed her breath to speak, and Hikaru, as much as Kouhei would rather have him remain quiet, was unlikely to be able to hear orders over the current wheezing noises that he was making. He knew much of the noise was faked in an effort to complain where non-verbal complaints had been outlawed, but said nothing to criticize the boy; his pace had, after all, been faster than usual.

It had to be, thought the wind master to himself, since it is not easy to ensure escape from one of Konoha's Sannin, even with the elements to ward us.

Ayaka finally caught her breath, pulling her hood back over her head and removing herself from the earthen spire. After a brief self-examination for injury or overexerted muscle tissue, she gathered herself and spoke up.

"Kouhei-sempai," she questioned, green eyes flashing with a hint of amazement, "I am surprised that you opted to retreat so quickly. With the strength that you possess, you are a match for almost any four or five skilled shinobi. We easily mastered the first two without using even a fraction of your power, so why did you choose to run when only two more appeared?"

"Yeah!" added Hikaru, spontaneously recovering from his wheezing. "I've been wondering about that, too! The countdown's not supposed to be up for another six minutes. You can't expect me to believe that some old man, two girls, and some human ant farm would have held us up that long!"

"I would not speak so lightly of the Aburame clan if I were you, Hikaru," said Ayaka.

The light-haired youth stared at the girl for a moment. A confusion was plain as day in his face. Kouhei raised an eyebrow at the exchange, curious to know what this was about. He allowed Hikaru to go on staring and Ayaka to continue glaring for the full three seconds before the boy spoke again.

"What's with you, Ayaka-chan?" he asked. "Ever since we first ran into these guys, you've been on my case about it. 'Must respect the Aburame,' or 'never underestimate the Aburame's ability.' What is it about this guy that has you so worked up? You got a grudge against him? When you were a kid, did a bug fly up your..."

Hikaru would have rambled on and on, but a length of vine suddenly tangled itself around his face, muffling him. His eyes went wide, and he began making garbled complaints through the leafy gag. His voice stopped, however, when he saw his teammate move to stand, dark and looming, directly over him, a look of murder in her eyes. More scared of her now than he had ever been of Kouhei, he sat perfectly still.

"My reasons are my own," she said. "Inquire again, and you will find yourself in an amount of pain that you never thought you were capable of feeling. Now you will sit quietly, patch the shuriken wound in your arm, and listen to Kouhei-sempai's orders. Understood?"

No argument passed the throat of Hikaru, and after a five seconds that seemed five years, the vines released themselves and retreated back underneath their mistress's cloak. As they left, they dropped a roll of medical tape and gauze into the white-clad boy's lap. He picked them up and began hastily to clean and bandage his wounded arm, shuddering at the memory of his near-death experience. He no longer wanted anything to do with the Aburame; he had another thought on his mind.

Ayaka-chan, you're a total beauty... but, damn! You're scarier than Kouhei and that crazy-strong medic chick combined!

Sensing that all relevant exchanges had transpired, the wind master adjusted his blue robe and took his turn to speak. The moon framed him like an angel's glow as he explained himself.

"The reason that I retreated," Kouhei said, "Was because of the older man, the frog summoner. He is known as Jiraiya, the Toad Hermit, and he is one of Konoha no Sato's renowned Sannin. As such, he is among the strongest shinobi known to the entire world. To defeat him alone would have required the combined efforts of all three of us, and it would have taken an immense amount of time. To try to pass him and retrieve our targets within the allotted time would have been an impossible mission."

Ayaka's eyebrows narrowed at this information. "Are you certain it was the Jiraiya, Sempai? He did not seem to me to be one of any great power, though he did arrive on a large frog."

Hikaru, still too much in shock to speak but not too much so to wonder, turned his head up from his work to look at his captain. He, too, was interested in hearing the response.

"It was the very same," replied Kouhei, "As the Jiraiya whom I fought before, when my previous attempt on my target failed. The burn scars on my fingers are the least of the injuries that he inflicted on me before, and I have no desire to repeat the experience."

"So," asked Hikaru, having recovered enough courage to speak, "What are we gonna do now? The targets will be a lot better protected."

Kouhei nodded. "This is the truth. We will need to exercise a great amount of care from now on. We will need to watch them carefully, and wait for the ideal opportunity."

"With such a strong opponent, the opportunity may never present itself," argued Ayaka. The girl's eyes betrayed a hint of disappointment. All present knew that she had little patience for impossible missions.

"Perhaps," said the wind master. "But, perhaps not. Even the legendary Jiraiya-sama is bound to have weaknesses that we can exploit..."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Jiraiya did indeed have weaknesses. To this date, the official record listed zero, but there were in actuality two of them, and they could be found in the section of his profile headed by "likes." These two unofficial weaknesses were sake and women, and when both were present in abundance, the Toad Sennin was at his most vulnerable, becoming nearly as harmless as a sheep.

However, neither one was present at this moment, and the sheep had turned into an unstoppable force that no Sound shinobi wanted to be near. He tossed his wild mane of white hair about him as he slammed his mighty arm into the chest of one enemy after another, felling each one with a single stroke.

At one point, a few of the mercenary soldiers that remained alive had manned a catapult, intending to fling flaming death at the shinobi in a last-ditch effort to stop the invasion. They began to fire indiscriminately, not caring whether they hit Sand, Sound, or Leaf. Their first shot arced high into the night air, following a steep parabola which terminated right on the illustrious Sannin's head.

Jiraiya, not having earned his title because of his endless womanizing and drinking, noticed it coming long before it was upon him. He formed a few rapid hand seals, and his hair immediately lengthened and took on the properties of a porcupine's hide. The Hare Jizou in effect, he whipped his head around, clearing the space nearby of all enemies. A few leaped out of the way in time. Most were not so fortunate, and came away bleeding from multiple puncture wounds.

Yet even as he was doing this, the Sannin had begun preparations for another jutsu. Power swirled in the palm of his hand, taking on the form of a sphere. It compacted and intensified until it was so bright and powerful that it could have brought all the supports of a stone fortress down in a single run. Coming out of his whirling motion and taking a step backwards, Jiraiya raised the sphere towards the sky. When the oncoming catapult shot came hurtling down, he thrust his arm forward, towards it.

"Rasengan!"

The shot was torn to shards by the swirling chakra, and the shrapnel that artfully pelted away from the outstretched hand struck down the enemies that had avoided the whirling hair. Witnessing so many of their comrades fall to this one man, a number of the surviving Sound shinobi turned and fled for their lives. Jiraiya stood tall over his dead enemies, a smile of grim satisfaction on his face. He knew that there would be no escape for these poor, misguided souls.

The ones who fled met no opposition for two blocks of street, and it seemed that they would be able to get away alive. However, these defeated ninja were unable to see the invisible seal that had embedded itself in the ground in the third block. By the time the white glow started up, signaling the trap's activation, they were already irrevocably caught. Naruto's voice rang out in the night, sounding out their doom.

"Reiude Ninpou: Chiri Bofuuwana!"

The trap seal went off, and a terrible dust devil rose up around the unfortunate Sound nin. The dirt kicked up into their eyes, blinding them even as they were lifted from their feet into the heart of the miniature maelstrom. Round and round they went, completely at the mercy of a fifteen year old blond kid.

"Okay! Go now, Hinata!" he yelled. Leaping down from his hiding place atop a roof, he began working his way towards the trap, clearing away stray enemies and debris around it.

Above him, Hinata jumped headfirst into the twister, Byakugan active and shielding her eyes with an artifact from years ago: an old pair of goggles that Naruto had kept in miraculously good shape, which he had used when he had first begun his regiment of training with wind jutsu. Thusly armed with protected, superior vision, she was able to spot one of the trapped enemies through the thick dust and grab onto a leg. The enemy fought her, of course, but prompt retaliation with well-placed Hakke strikes cut off his chakra and silenced his struggles. Now all she had to do was hold on.

Below, Naruto had finished plowing out a good space. He approached the edge of the whirlwind, hands outstretched, brow furrowed in concentration. This was a critical part; if he messed this up, Hinata might get seriously hurt. His gathered chakra pulsed around him, making his orange and black jacket ripple around him slightly, and his deep blue irises fixed upon the twister. He anchored himself to the ground with his nine chakra tails, and executed his maneuver.

Exercising chakra nature manipulation practiced over many days, the boy turned his chakra into a knifing blast of air. This he held steady, watching the whirlwind until he caught sight of his signal: a yellow smoke trail. With this flare he was able to see the path of Hinata and her captive as they whirled round and round, and time his move perfectly. When the smoke trail was on its way around towards him again and angled slightly upward, he shoved his air into the base of the tornado, disrupting the spin. Enemies flew out of the vortex as it dissipated, vaulting involuntarily to their doom.

Naruto didn't care about those others. Getting his own allies out alive was the priority. Luckily, his timing had been perfect, and Hinata, still holding onto her incapacitated prisoner, sailed in a neat upward arc, gravity slowly decelerating her. This was more than manageable enough, and far better than the paths of those who had been thrown straight down. Naruto created a multitude of shadow clones, and all of them leaped up to meet the Hyuuga girl just as she began to come down.

Adrenaline pumped full-throttle in his veins as he navigated upward. He could not jump anywhere near as high as Hinata had flown, of course, but thanks to his Kage Bunshins, he had plenty of stepping stones. He and several more of himself were grabbed and tossed up higher by those that were below them, and when this burst of upward velocity ran out, those that made it up this high paired off and threw again. The true Naruto's heart raced a mile per minute; it had been a crazy stunt to begin with, but he'd never expected to be this high in the air, ever!

Finally, after throwing three times, Naruto and his clones caught up with the girl. It had not been long since she had begun falling, and he and one bunshin were able to grab hold of both her and her prisoner fairly easily. She seemed to be okay, though her hair was windswept, her face was pallid with vertigo, and he could feel her pulse throbbing hard and heavy—not just from being held by him, either. If Naruto had time to talk, he would have told her that he understood; there was only one way to go now, and that was down... from a height of perhaps twenty stories. A shinobi was trained to cushion his or her fall and land lightly enough to avoid injury, but even these techniques wouldn't be able to spare them completely from that height.

Oh boy, Naruto thought to himself. Maybe I should have used a different trap. Some might have gotten away, but then we wouldn't be this freaking high...

They were fortunate; the Shadow Clones that had managed to come back down without puffing into smoke had recovered themselves and were now coming up again. Naruto and the clone that helped him carry the load used each successive one as a springboard, allowing the leapers to heave up on their feet and slow them down. It was nerve-wracking, because there was always the chance that a clone would pass by them accidentally without slowing them at all. However, for the first three waves, this didn't occur, and the falling party began to feel a bit safer.

On the fourth wave of leapers, Naruto managed to connect with one, but the bunshin holding the captive missed his mark, continuing to fall. Hinata let out a small gasp as they continued to plummet, despite the clones' mad scramble to pass him between one another. The real Naruto swore loudly as the captive slammed into a nearby rooftop with an audible crack. By the time he and Hinata hit the pavement, which greeted Naruto's legs roughly but not nearly as bad, the clone was making a slit-throat motion with his hand at them.

"Damn it!" Naruto swore again, putting Hinata down. "He's dead. All those flashy acrobatics for nothing."

Hinata, glad to be out of the air, said, "You shouldn't be worried, Naruto-kun. I'm sure there will be other chances. A-and... it's good that we're still alive."

Naruto had to agree with that last part. His heart still wouldn't slow down after an intense ride like that. Turning to look at his partner, he examined her up and down for unintended injuries—after all, his wind trap had become infinitely stronger since he'd begun practicing. He was glad to note, mentally, that her clothing and long hair had been rendered completely filthy by the dust storm, and that the goggles he had lent her had left a band of cleanliness around her eyes that looked ridiculously like a raccoon mask, but she was all in one piece. Satisfied, he gave a small nod to himself and turned toward the city walls.

"Okay," he said. "Let's go see if we can find us another batch before..."

"Sound forces in full retreat!" Came a loud yell from the direction he faced. "Guard forces neutralized! Town is now under the control of the Sand!"

A mighty cheer rose up among the shinobi who had survived. A few of them even began singing songs that were unfamiliar to Naruto and Hinata, but which sounded suspiciously like a Wind Country victory march. Fire and medical crews rushed forward to begin the cleanup in the wake of the Sound retreat. A few civilian heads poked out of their windows and doors, seeing for themselves whether the violence was truly over. These people were used to being captured; they knew when it was time to hide and when it was safe to come out again.

"Aw, great..." Naruto groaned. "How are we going to interrogate any of 'em now?"

Hinata stopped brushing herself off for a moment to try to answer him with reassurance. However, she was almost immediately interrupted by her rambunctious teammate, who landed on the side of her opposite from Naruto, clenching his fists and carrying a turbulent expression on his face. Akamaru crashed down shortly behind him, unbloodied but whimpering.

"Interrogate, my ass!" Kiba yelled loudly. "We've won already! Let's just get the hell out of here."

Everyone present found themselves recoiling in surprise. Kiba was normally a wild man, but the feral look of horror on his countenance and the way his voice cracked oddly signaled trouble. Hinata went into gentle peacekeeper-mode.

"Kiba-kun?" she asked softly, "What happened?"

"Nothing!" snapped the dog-boy. "Our job here is done, right? Let's go!"

"Hold it, Kiba!" said Naruto, stepping forward and grabbing the other boy's arm. Kiba looked toward him and snarled with bestial anger, snatching his hand back.

"Hey!" said the blond, raising his own voice. "No need to get so testy! Where are Neji and the guys we sent to find you? And on top of that, what's up with the weird act, anyway?"

"Kiba has had a bad experience, but the rest of us are fine," came a low voice from a nearby alley.

"As well off as I can be, being practically dragged across burning wreckage," complained another one from the same direction.

The owners of the two voices emerged. One of them was tall, sepia-haired, and clothed in dirty robes. The other was still bound up in his bag, with only his raven-crested head sticking out, wearing a nasty expression of distaste. Naruto recognized them as Neji and Sasuke, and behind them followed Sakura, who had apparently been the one to find them. Naruto rushed over.

"Glad to see you're still alive. Have a rough time?" Naruto asked, noting several smudges on the Jounin's face.

"We're fine," Neji repeated. "As for Kiba, he had a bad encounter with some of the locals. Akamaru knocked him over to save him from a flight of kunai, and his own aim went bad because of that. He..."

"Shut up!" yelled Kiba. "Don't remind me! Let's just get out of here..."

"...accidentally killed a civilian," Neji finished. Kiba's face screwed up in rage, but he couldn't strike his commander. So he waited there, seething and wishing he could undo the whole day.

Sakura looked down at her feet. She had tried to save the poor child, but the shuriken had embedded in her heart, and there had been no way to stop the internal bleeding in time. The death, and the aftermath that followed, brought inexplicable sadness to her. She couldn't imagine what it had done to the inside of Kiba. The mother had gone berserk, charging the wild boy and his dog with a hysterical grief and anger that he had only been able to stand and endure until Sakura and Neji had grabbed hold of him and hauled him away.

The other Leaf shinobi were quietly stunned. Naruto turned to gape at his friend with the red triangle face marks, both sorry for him and at the same time not quite believing that such an accident had actually happened. Hinata clasped her hands together in front of her, looking with sadness upon her troubled teammate and friend. They'd worked together a long time; she knew what the young Inuzuka must be thinking of himself.

Neji was still able-minded, however, and he did not allow his subordinates to grieve long. There were other matters to discuss and not much time to discuss them. Soon, they would have to be moving again, especially if they wanted to outrun the front lines of this war.

"Where are Haruka and Shino?" he asked. "Sakura told us that you sent them looking for us, but they should have had time to search the entire village by now. Have you found either of them, or are they with Jiraiya-sama?"

Naruto shook his head. "I haven't found 'em," he said. "But I don't know if Ero-Sennin's had any luck or not, so there might be some chance there."

"That's fine," said Neji, nodding. "We should find them easily. Once we do find them, though, we'll be moving out of here immediately, to put some distance between us and the main battle line. Our pace will have to be quicker from now on."

"You sure about that?" Naruto asked. "The Sand guys might still need us. We don't know if the Sound have something up their sleeves, and that 'countdown' thing we heard about still hasn't been figured out."

"The Suna Shinobi have the entire village and its fortifications under control," Neji told him. "We spoke to a passing Jounin about the 'countdown,' and they will have teams sweeping the area for traps or explosives. Also, soldiers and siege crews from the army of the Wind Country are on their way and will be here by morning, so the Sand will be well-reinforced. They have no need of us."

Naruto took this in, then gave a nod and a thumbs-up. With his fears dispelled, he had as little reason as the rest of them to be in this smashed-up, war-torn place. He went back to stand with Hinata, carefully avoiding Kiba's eyes; the brown-haired dog owner was keeping one angry eye on him, as though it were Naruto's fault for asking about it. Akamaru looked at Naruto also, but his doggy eyes were strangely apologetic. The blond chuunin fought the impulse to blink and stare—that mutt was getting more human in expression even as his master got wilder.

Neji gave the order to get moving, and the party took to the burning roofs, searching for the rest of their friends.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

It was dark underneath the shadows of the two houses. Both buildings had been collapsing toward each other, and though one would expect them to simply crumble to the ground from the collision, they had miraculously remained intact, each supporting the other's weight. Of course, the families within had promptly left the vicinity for fear that their homes wouldn't remain at rest. They were right to have done so; though they remained precariously balanced now, they creaked and groaned, giving the impression to passerby that they might topple at any moment. This effect added a sense of terror that the darkness alone never would have inspired.

This was precisely the reason why Haruka had chosen this spot to "chat" with her prisoner. She had caught him trying to sneak through a gap in one of the barricades, long before the enemy leaders had sounded the retreat horn. The Sadist had labeled him as a coward then, and therefore an ideal target. She had been right; the man practically reeked of fear.

A normal person might have taken pity on the poor soul, for there were stronger men than him who had caved to the white-eyed, demonic, genjutsu-altered face that grinned terribly before him now. But Haruka was not normal in this fashion. She enjoyed inhaling the fumes of terror that he gave off, knowing that it had been she herself who caused them.

Did that make her evil? Of course not; she would never do this to good people. They might get pranked in rude, ugly ways, but never were they subjected to this. Because they had been spared, however, Haruka's friends had no real conception of the monster that had truly earned her the name, "Sadist."

Faced with this monstrosity, coupled with the dark and the possibility of being crushed at any time the wind chose to pick up, there was nothing that the poor man would not say to have his life spared.

"Tell me." said the Sadist.

"Ah-ah-I-I-I..."

"The longer you delay, the more painful it will be!"

The captive Sound nin swallowed hard, trying desperately to get his fear under control. This was the most horrible monster he had ever met, even if it was only a genjutsu. Laboring to control his breathing, he tried once more to speak.

"We c-came here, you see, n-not knowing the Sand would follow. We were such a small f-force, and there are no others left, since there were so few to begin with and fewer still who survived the assault on K-Konoha..."

"Then you and the Sound that attacked here tonight are the last ones? Thinking to make a final stand in this fortress, were you?"

"Y-yes."

"And where is your snake of a master now, worm?"

This was a tough decision. Nobody really knew where Orochimaru went; he had spent the last three years moving around constantly, communicating his orders through shady elite agents that nobody dared to question or make demands of. But if he said he didn't know, would she buy it?

His indecision cost him. A hand lanced toward him, striking him in the chest. Chakra shot into his right lung, bringing immense pain and causing him to cough blood.

"Don't try my patience! I am not Morino Ibiki, who has the luxury of time."

In the end, he decided to simply tell the truth and hope for the best. Once he got his cough under control and was able to breathe with a sense of normalcy, he opened his mouth to the creature.

"I... don't kn-know..."

The hand came again, this time hitting him in the side. He howled as pain seared into his intestines.

"I told you not to waste my time!" bellowed the Sadist. "Your master, Orochimaru, has something of mine. If you won't help me find it, then you can drop off the face of the earth!"

The Sound ninja had absolutely no idea what the demon was talking about. Normally, when Orochimaru wanted something, the thing that had current possession of it usually died. Then again, stealing from this thing seemed so impossible to him as to actually be funny. The thought, combined with his terror giving way to insanity, caused him to grin a little, which made the Sadist grasp his throat tightly and growl menacingly at him.

Ah, he thought, completely off his rocker by now, I can hear death riding here now, in his black chariot...

Oddly enough, Haruka heard it, too. The Sadist's head lifted, eyes darting around the enclosure. The white irises appeared confused, concerned.

"What's that rumbling?" she asked, dropping the genjutsu. The noise she heard sounded like thunder, but it was much more rhythmic and constant than any normal thunderstorm would sound. It grew closer, and the earth began shaking. Fragments of the houses began falling down on them.

Haruka was on her feet in an instant, running to escape the final collapse of the two buildings above them. She dragged her prisoner with her, intending to finish her inquiry whether he was sane or not. Ducking and dodging her way around falling chunks of roof tile, wood, and stone, she was outside in open air within seconds. Her captive, however, was not so lucky, and was struck dead by the stone chimney that had shaken loose and tumbled down behind her.

"NO!" she yelled at whatever gods were listening. "Damn it, I wasn't finished yet! Is the word of a traitor all you're going to let me have?"

Her only answer was in the form of a final, booming crack of thundering noise, accompanied by the shattering of yet another section of the village barricades. Haruka was forced to duck behind a fallen pillar to avoid being struck by rock shrapnel.

"What the hell is that?" she asked as the noise died back down. Lifting her head over her sanctuary, she looked with an annoyed expression at where the section of wall used to be. What she saw made her expression of annoyance disappear.

"Oh."

An entire army stood within a hundred yards of her. An army wearing Cloud headbands.

OoOoOoOo "Oh, crap!" no jutsu! End of Chapter Seven oOoOoOoO

Next Chapter: A whole slew of new problems has erupted for our protagonists. In times like these, I like to add... (insert guesses at what I'm thinking here).