Naruto disappeared.
Then multiplied.
Twenty clones became forty.
Forty became eighty.
For once, Naruto wasn't thinking about overwhelming somebody with numbers.
He was thinking about information.
One clone landed beside him.
"South exit's clear!"
Another appeared from the opposite direction.
"West concourse is blocked!"
A third skidded across the stone.
"Medical-nin are setting up near the Academy route!"
Naruto stared at them.
Then something clicked.
He didn't need runners.
He didn't need radios.
He didn't even need the clones to come back.
"Hey."
Three clones looked at him.
"If you find something important—dispel."
POOF!
A clone somewhere near the eastern stadium entrance dispelled.
Memories slammed into Naruto instantly.
Enemy shinobi.
Twelve.
Moving toward the market district.
Naruto's head snapped left.
"Squad Four! Market district! Twelve enemies heading east!"
Six clones vanished over the wall.
Another clone dispelled.
POOF!
Collapsed building.
Trapped civilians.
No enemy nearby.
"Squad Six! Two streets north of the hospital! Building collapse! Search and Rescue!"
Four clones changed direction.
Naruto froze.
Then slowly looked around.
The stadium suddenly seemed smaller.
His clones didn't have to stay here.
They could go anywhere.
Naruto formed the cross seal again.
"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
POOF! POOF! POOF! POOF!
The arena filled with smoke.
Dozens more Narutos appeared.
Sakura stopped beside him.
"Naruto..."
Naruto pointed toward the stadium wall.
"Spread out."
The clones went quiet.
"Every district."
Naruto pointed toward different parts of Konoha.
"Teams of four. One scouts. Two fight or evacuate. One stays mobile."
His eyes sharpened.
"If the scout finds something important, dispel immediately."
One clone nodded.
Another Naruto crossed his arms.
"What if we die?"
Naruto stared at him.
"...Then I still get the memory."
The clone considered that.
"That's kinda messed up man."
"GO!"
The stadium erupted with Narutos.
Clones vaulted walls, raced across rooftops, disappeared through corridors and scattered into Konoha.
Some carried barrier tags.
Others carried kunai and wire.
Several simply ran.
Naruto closed his eyes for half a second.
Then the reports began.
POOF!
Sound shinobi near the eastern market.
POOF!
Sand ninja moving toward the communications district.
POOF!
Fire spreading through two civilian buildings.
POOF!
Konoha shinobi establishing a defensive line near the hospital.
POOF!
Enemy reinforcements—
Naruto's eyes opened.
"Reinforcements?"
A distant explosion answered him.
Not from the stadium.
From the village wall.
Everyone stopped for half a second.
Then came another.
BOOOOOOM!
Farther north.
A third followed.
Then a fourth.
Naruto's stomach dropped.
One of his clones dispelled.
Memories slammed into him.
The western gate.
A massive snake had smashed through the road outside it.
Its body was thicker than a house.
Sound shinobi poured around it.
Another clone vanished.
Northern gate.
Another snake.
Then east.
Then south.
Naruto's expression changed.
"This isn't just the stadium."
Sakura looked at him.
"What?"
Naruto stared toward Konoha's skyline.
"They're hitting every gate."
Another memory arrived.
Snake summons crashing into defensive positions.
Enemy shinobi entering behind them.
The stadium attack hadn't been the invasion.
It had been the distraction.
Naruto immediately created ten more clones.
"You five—find any senior konoha-nin you can."
They vanished.
Gone.
Sakura stared at him.
"What are you doing?"
Naruto looked toward the village.
"Doing what I do best, protecting our home!"
Across Konoha, Naruto became everywhere.
A clone landed beside a Chūnin defensive team.
"Twenty Sound ninja approaching from the west! Two blocks!"
Another dropped beside Hyūga shinobi.
"Three civilians trapped behind the southern market!"
Another appeared beside hospital personnel.
"Western road is compromised! Use the Academy route!"
PING
Konoha Native has activated! Greatly increased situational awareness of all geographic data throughout Konoha!
Then each Naruto moved again.
Information traveled faster than the enemy.
Shikaku stared at the Naruto standing before him, his past brief flooring the commander.
"Say that again."
"Every gate is under attack. Giant snake summons at all four. Sound and Sand units entering behind them. Hospital route is still clear from the east, but the western road is compromised."
Shikaku's eyes narrowed.
"How do you know all of that?"
The clone pointed at himself.
"There's like a hundred of me."
Shikaku stared.
Naruto stared back.
"...Right."
Shikaku's mind immediately started working.
"Can every clone report back to the original?"
"Instantly if we dispel."
"And the original can send new clones with updated information?"
"Yep."
Shikaku went silent for a pause, then grabbed his shoulder.
"Listen carefully."
The humor disappeared.
"Your clones are now runners for Konoha command."
Naruto blinked.
"Find every defensive sector. Report enemy numbers, civilian concentrations, blocked roads, medical stations, and breaches."
The clone nodded.
"Then return those reports to me every five minutes."
Naruto's grin returned.
"Got it."
Shikaku released him.
"And Naruto?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't waste this trying to be everywhere personally."
The clone vanished.
POOF!
The memory hit the original.
Naruto almost laughed.
Almost.
Then Gaara screamed.
The arena floor exploded.
Naruto turned.
Sasuke stood inside a crater.
His chest rose and fell violently.
Black curse markings crawled over nearly half his body now.
Lightning screamed in his hand.
Gaara stood across from him, more monster than boy.
Sand had swallowed one arm, half his torso, and most of his face.
Sasuke charged.
"CHIDORI!"
KRAAAAAAA!
Lightning tore through Gaara's defense.
Sasuke drove his hand deep into the sand armor.
Gaara screamed.
Sasuke ripped free.
Blood sprayed across the arena.
Gaara's eye widened.
Then Sasuke's other hand flashed through seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
Flames swallowed Gaara.
Sand hardened beneath the heat.
Sasuke immediately followed.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire!"
Dozens of smaller fireballs descended from above.
Gaara's sand defense rose.
Sasuke was already moving.
Lightning formed again.
Kakashi saw it from the stands.
His eye widened.
"Again?"
Gai kicked a Sound shinobi breaking necks and cashing checks without looking.
"Your student possesses incredible spirit!"
Kakashi didn't answer.
Because Sasuke had already used Chidori too many times.
"CHIDORI!"
The second strike shattered another layer of Gaara's defense.
Sasuke staggered after impact.
His chakra network screamed.
Normally that should have been enough.
The curse mark disagreed.
Power surged through him.
His exhaustion retreated beneath a wave of unnatural chakra.
Sasuke looked at his hands.
He felt incredible.
Too incredible.
The seal Naruto had placed around the curse mark burned against his skin.
A warning.
Not a restraint.
A reminder.
You decide.
Sasuke breathed.
Then attacked again.
Fire.
Lightning.
Taijutsu.
Fire again.
Sasuke moved so quickly that the Sharingan was barely enough to keep his own body organized.
Gaara's sand broke apart again and again.
Every time it rebuilt thicker.
Every time Sasuke hit harder.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Jutsu!" Sasuke's second trump card was unleashed.
A concentrated torrent of flame struck Gaara directly.
The arena became an oven.
Sasuke emerged through the flames.
Lightning screamed in his palm.
Naruto's eyes widened.
"How many freaking Chidori does he HAVE?!"
Sakura looked horrified.
"Too many!"
Sasuke struck.
BOOOOOOM!
The sand shell ruptured.
Gaara screamed in pain, sand rushed to cover the both of them in an eternal tomb. Sasuke kicked his opponent away, cartwheeling to safety at the last possible second.
Gaara's body smashed through the arena wall.
For several seconds, nothing moved.
Sasuke stood hunched over.
Smoke rose from his arm.
His curse mark pulsed, then finally receded.
PING
Your rival's curse mark has activated its withdrawal effects!
-35% Endurance for the next 48 hours
-25% Chakra control/increased expenditure
Sasuke's body heaved in labored breaths. He had managed to fight a monster for the past 15 minutes completely solo with limited space. His eyes ached as he continued to supply them with chakra. The fight was not over.
Then laughter came from the crater.
Low.
Broken.
Happy.
Sasuke looked up, readying whatever he had left. His hand crept to his equipment pouch where Naruto's barrier tags were located.
Sand exploded outward.
Something enormous rose behind Gaara.
An arm formed first.
Then a shoulder.
Then a head.
Sand poured upward in impossible quantities, pulling from Gaara's gourd, the arena, the broken stands and the ground beneath them.
Purple markings spread across a massive face.
A gigantic tail smashed through the stadium wall.
BOOOOOOOOM!
The entire structure shook.
Everyone throughout the village stared at the towering monstrosity in the heart of their home.
A monstrous tanuki reached towards the sky.
Gaara disappeared inside it.
Shukaku opened its mouth.
The roar shattered windows across the stadium, a wind storm erupted in the surrounding area.
Naruto covered his face with is sleeve, sticking to the ground with chakra.
One of his clones dispelled.
The memory arrived at exactly the wrong time.
South gate breached.
Naruto's eye twitched.
"Of course."
Shukaku raised one arm.
Sasuke looked very small beneath it.
The arm fell.
Sasuke slapped his hand to the ground, a barrier tag activating beneath his hand.
A translucent wall appeared.
BOOOOOOM!
The barrier shattered instantly.
But the fraction of a second was enough.
PING
Flash Anklet activated! +20% Move speed for the next minute!
Sasuke's teammate appeared at his side in an instant, moving faster than Sasuke had been while fighting Gaara.
The two vanished beneath a Phantom Dash, a Naruto afterimage being crushed in their wake.
The enormous paw cratered the arena behind them.
They landed on the outer stadium wall.
Sasuke shoved Naruto away.
"I had him."
Naruto looked at the hundred-foot demon behind them.
"You had WHAT?!"
Sasuke pointed.
"Him."
"THAT IS NOT A HIM ANYMORE!"
Shukaku swung again.
"MOVE!"
This time Sasuke tackled Naruto over the edge off the stadium wall, the two falling sixty or so feet to the ground. Both looked at each other before inverting their falling bodies, flashing through a series of handsigns. A blast of fire cushioned Sasuke's fall, the combustion creating a counter explosion to lessen his descent.
Naruto fared much better, his wind slowly lowering him to the ground as a softened gale pierce met the ground in a continuous stream.
Shukaku's attack broke the wall they'd just jumped off of, the towering beast lumbering its way through the hole.
Gaara's transformation had changed the battlefield.
Nobody could contain something that large inside the arena.
So the fight moved.
Konoha shinobi attacked from every direction.
Explosive tags struck Shukaku's side.
Hyūga relayed information about Gaara's exposed body on the Tanuki's head.
Akimichi enlarged to shove civilians away from collapsing structures.
Aburame insects covered evacuation routes.
Shukaku turned toward the village.
Naruto's face went pale.
"No."
He created another wave of clones.
"Make him chase us!"
The clones blinked.
"How?"
Naruto looked toward Sasuke.
Sasuke understood immediately. His tired eyes voicing his clear displeasure with no words.
"I'm using you as bait."
The real Naruto crouched down.
"Well come on! We dont have the time to argue!"
Sasuke reluctantly hopped onto Naruto's back, his knees wobbling leg jelly before finding relief on his teammates back.
A soft "No homo" was said into Naruto's ear.
"It's alright man, we're both wearing socks."
Naruto release gale pierces from his feet, catapulting himself into the tanuki's eyesight. Sasuke launched a weak fireball into Shukaku's face from Naruto's back catching the monsters attention.
Naruto clones followed with kunai, explosive tags and Wind Release attacks.
Shukaku roared.
Its head snapped toward them.
Sasuke pointed toward the open training fields beyond the northeastern district.
"THAT WAY!"
Dozens of clones scattered.
Shukaku followed.
Every attack was just irritating enough.
Every clone stayed barely within reach.
When one got crushed—
POOF!
Naruto learned exactly how Shukaku moved. His eyes never leaving the splotch of black that was Sasuke Uchiha on his back.
The next group adjusted.
The monster was being guided.
Shikamaru watched from another rooftop.
Naruto clones passed below him in waves.
Enemy positions.
Evacuation routes.
Medical locations.
Shukaku movement.
Shikamaru's eyes slowly widened.
"That idiot..."
Asuma glanced at him.
"What?"
Shikamaru watched another clone deliberately dispel after spotting an ambush.
"He's using himself as a communications network."
Asuma blinked.
"...Smart lil brat isn't he?"
A kunai struck the roof beside them.
Both turned.
A Sound shinobi landed opposite Shikamaru.
Asuma stepped forward.
Shikamaru raised one hand.
"I got him. We both know you're more useful elsewhere."
Asuma looked at his exhausted student.
"You're barely standing."
Shikamaru sighed.
"Then it'll be embarrassing if he loses."
The Sound shinobi charged.
Shikamaru's shadow moved, Asuma nodded grimly an ever present cigarrete leaving a trail of smoke as he disappeared to combat more enemies.
Across the district, Ino stopped beside a wounded civilian.
A Sand kunoichi dropped behind her.
Ino turned.
The woman raised a blade.
Ino's hands brought out a handful of senbon from her tool pouch.
Their eyes met.
The battle began.
Choji was carrying two civilians beneath one arm when a massive Sound shinobi landed in front of him.
The man cracked his neck.
Choji gently placed the civilians behind a wall.
"I was planning on having lunch after the tournament finished. You all ruined that."
His fist expanded.
Kiba and Akamaru raced through smoke.
A figure dropped from a rooftop.
Sand headband.
Twin blades.
Kiba skidded to a stop.
Akamaru growled.
Kiba smiled.
"Finally."
The enemy lunged.
Kiba flashed through a set of handsigns, him and Akamaru disappeared beneath the earth.
Hinata guided three civilians through a narrow street.
Her Byakugan caught movement behind the wall.
She turned.
A Sound kunoichi burst through it.
Hinata stepped forward.
The civilians kept running.
Her hands rose.
"I won't allow you to continue any further."
Shino stood alone at the entrance to an evacuation route.
Hundreds of insects crawled across the buildings around him.
Four masked Sound shinobi approached.
Then stopped.
The street was too quiet.
Shino adjusted his glasses.
"You entered my insects' territory seventeen seconds ago."
The group reached for weapons, one flashing through a set of hand seals.
Shino's swarm descended.
Sakura landed near the hospital route.
A Sand kunoichi stood over two injured Konoha Chūnin.
Sakura looked at the blood on her own hand.
Then remembered Anko.
Real fights aren't fair.
Sakura quietly pulled an explosive tag from her pouch.
The Sand kunoichi smiled.
"You going to fight me?"
Sakura smiled back.
"No."
She slapped the tag onto the wall beside her.
"I'm going to cheat."
BOOM!
The street disappeared beneath smoke.
Their fight began.
----------------------
In the direct path of the transformed Gaara blitzed a flash of blonde and black.
A gigantic paw slammed toward them.
Both disappeared yet again.
Shukaku continued northeast.
Away from the densest civilian districts.
Naruto smiled.
It was working.
Then—
POOF!
A clone near the Hokage monument dispelled.
Naruto stopped running.
The rooftop.
Purple barrier.
Orochimaru.
Jiraiya.
Hiruzen.
Something enormous had appeared between them.
Inside the barrier, Orochimaru smiled.
Jiraiya's fist missed his face by inches.
Orochimaru bent backward impossibly far.
Hiruzen attacked from the opposite side.
His staff cut through the air.
Orochimaru twisted.
The staff smashed through the roof.
Jiraiya's heel followed.
Orochimaru caught it.
Hiruzen's fist slammed into his ribs.
Orochimaru flew across the rooftop.
His hands blurred through seals before he landed.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A hurricane tore toward them.
Hiruzen answered instantly.
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
Stone erupted.
The wind smashed against it.
Jiraiya jumped over the wall.
"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"
A torrent of fire descended.
Orochimaru smiled.
"Water Release: Water Formation Wall!"
Water collided with flame.
Steam swallowed the rooftop.
Jiraiya entered it willingly.
His fist appeared through the mist.
Orochimaru blocked.
Hiruzen appeared behind him.
Staff.
The snake ducked.
Jiraiya's elbow struck his jaw.
Orochimaru skidded backward.
Blood touched his lip.
He stared at it.
Then laughed.
"It's been a long time."
Jiraiya's expression hardened.
"Not long enough."
Hiruzen lowered his stance.
"You chose the wrong village to return to."
Orochimaru's hands moved.
Hiruzen's eyes widened.
"Jiraiya!"
The ground shook.
Three enormous gates erupted upward.
Summoning Jutsu: Rashomon!
BOOM!
The first gate rose between them.
Then the second.
Then the third.
Massive demonic faces blocked their entire view.
Jiraiya jumped backward.
"What is he doing?!"
Hiruzen stared at the gates.
His face changed.
"No..."
Behind Rashomon, Orochimaru bit his thumb.
Blood crossed his fingers.
His hands slammed together.
Then onto the roof.
Black markings spread.
"Forbidden Jutsu..."
Three coffins began rising.
Orochimaru smiled.
"Impure World Reincarnation."
The first coffin surfaced.
FIRST
The second.
SECOND
Then the third.
Orochimaru's smile widened.
FOURTH
Outside the barrier, one Naruto clone stared from a nearby roof.
"What..."
He crept closer.
Purple flames burned between him and the battlefield.
He couldn't enter.
But he could see the tops of three coffins behind the Rashomon gates.
Then the lids fell.
The First Hokage stepped forward.
Hashirama Senju.
The Second followed.
Tobirama Senju.
Then the final figure emerged.
Blond hair.
Blue eyes.
White cloak.
Flames around the bottom.
Naruto's clone stopped breathing.
The cloak turned.
Two words were written down its back.
Fourth Hokage.
The clone stared.
Something about the man felt strange.
Familiar.
Not his face.
Not exactly.
Something else.
Rashomon crashed apart.
Jiraiya and Hiruzen charged through.
Then stopped.
Hiruzen's staff lowered.
Jiraiya froze completely.
Hashirama looked around.
Tobirama's eyes narrowed.
The blond man blinked.
Jiraiya whispered one word.
"Minato..."
Naruto's clone leaned forward.
Minato?
The Fourth Hokage looked at Jiraiya.
Recognition appeared immediately.
"Jiraiya-sensei?"
The clone's eyes widened.
Sensei?
Jiraiya had trained the Fourth Hokage?
Naruto knew Jiraiya was old.
Ancient, even.
But—
His teacher? The third hokage's hint from earlier before he'd met the pervy sage finally dawned on him. That clever old monkey.
The Fourth looked almost relieved for a moment.
"I wish we were meeting under better circumstances."
Jiraiya's fists tightened.
"Kid..."
Orochimaru laughed behind them.
Jiraiya's expression twisted.
"You bastard."
Minato looked down at his own hands.
Then toward Orochimaru.
"I assume this isn't voluntary."
"No."
Hiruzen's voice was heavy.
"None of this is."
Naruto's clone stared at Minato.
Blond hair.
Blue eyes.
Jiraiya-sensei.
His brain tried connecting things he didn't understand.
Why did Jiraiya look at him like that?
Not like an enemy.
Not even like an old student.
Like family.
Minato's gaze shifted.
For one impossible second, it seemed to land directly on the Naruto clone beyond the barrier.
The clone froze.
Minato's eyes widened.
Just slightly.
Jiraiya noticed.
He followed Minato's gaze.
And saw Naruto.
Nobody spoke.
Orochimaru smiled.
"Oh?"
Jiraiya's expression changed instantly. He released a torrent of high heat flames obscuring lines of sight. Not before the 4th Hokage got a good look at the blonde protagonist on the street below.
The clone flinched.
Minato stared, even as fire blocked his vision.
"Naruto?"
Hashirama moved.
Hiruzen barely blocked the punch.
BOOM!
The rooftop cratered.
Tobirama attacked Jiraiya.
Water erupted from empty air.
Minato's hand reached into his pouch.
A three-pronged kunai appeared.
Jiraiya's face went pale.
Naruto's clone stared one second longer as the battle between all of Konoha's kage and two of its sannin began.
Then dispelled.
POOF!
Miles away, the original Naruto nearly tripped.
Memories flooded him.
The coffins.
The First.
The Second.
The Fourth.
Minato.
Jiraiya-sensei.
Naruto's eyes widened.
"The Fourth Hokage..."
Sasuke glanced at him.
"What about him?"
Naruto kept running.
Jiraiya had trained him.
Jiraiya looked at him differently.
The Fourth had looked at Naruto differently too.
Why?
Naruto's INT worked furiously.
Connections formed.
Questions multiplied.
But Shukaku's roar destroyed the moment.
Naruto looked forward.
One crisis at a time.
The village had been breached at four gates.
The Rookie Nine were fighting across Konoha.
Sasuke had forced Gaara into becoming a monster.
Three dead Hokage had just returned.
And Jiraiya was apparently the Fourth Hokage's teacher.
Naruto's eye twitched.
"This day sucks."
PING!
A blue window appeared.
BATTLEFIELD NETWORK ESTABLISHED
Shadow Clone Command Network successfully deployed.
Active Functions:
Reconnaissance, Threat Reporting, Civilian Evacuation, Message Relay, Reinforcement Coordination, Battlefield Mapping etc.
New Tactical Application Recognized.
Naruto stared at it while running.
Then smiled.
Good.
If the enemy wanted the entire village—
They could fight the entire village.
And Naruto intended to make sure Konoha fought as one.