Konoha's streets had become battlefields.
Not one.
Dozens.
Every district carried its own screaming, fire, steel, and chakra.
And everywhere—
Naruto watched.
A clone stood on a rooftop over the eastern market.
Another crouched beside a medical station.
Another ran messages between defensive lines.
Another was currently getting punched through a wall.
POOF!
Naruto flinched mid-stride.
"Ow."
Sasuke looked at him from his back.
"What?"
"Clone died."
"Good."
Naruto twisted his head.
"You're literally riding me."
"Keep running."
Another memory arrived.
Shikamaru.
Trouble.
The Sound Chūnin moved faster than Shikamaru expected.
A kunai grazed his cheek.
Shikamaru ducked another strike and backed toward the edge of the rooftop.
His shadow stretched.
The Chūnin saw it.
And jumped.
"Too slow."
He landed beyond the reach of the technique.
Shikamaru clicked his tongue.
His chakra was still wrecked from Dosu.
His legs were heavy.
His head hurt.
And this guy knew what the Nara did.
Troublesome.
The Chūnin charged again.
Shikamaru pulled a kunai.
Steel met steel.
Once.
Twice.
The third strike knocked Shikamaru's weapon free.
The fourth caught him in the ribs.
He flew backward.
The roof edge disappeared beneath his feet.
Shikamaru fell.
His eyes widened.
Then he remembered.
Naruto.
His hand slapped his equipment pouch.
A tag came free.
Shikamaru threw it beneath himself.
"Activate."
A barrier formed vertically between two buildings.
Shikamaru slammed into it instead of falling four stories.
"Ow."
He slid downward.
"...Still better."
The Sound Chūnin looked over the edge.
Shikamaru smiled up at him.
His shadow stretched across the barrier's surface.
The man froze.
Shikamaru's grin widened.
"You looked down."
The shadow climbed.
The Chūnin strained.
Shikamaru pulled himself onto a window ledge.
His chakra shook.
He couldn't hold him long.
So he didn't try.
He formed another seal.
The enemy mimicked him helplessly.
Then Shikamaru stepped backward.
The Sound ninja followed.
Straight off the roof.
His eyes widened.
Shikamaru released the technique.
The man dropped.
The proctor of the chuunin exam finals appeared below.
One senbon flashed through the air into the sound ninja's temple.
The foreign attacker hit the ground, dead.
Shikamaru sat on the ledge.
"Thanks?"
The two nonchalant kings stared at each other for a moment. Genma nodded before diasppearing in a flash.
Shikamaru looked at Naruto's cracked barrier tag. He sighed before pushing himself up and limping off. If his knuckleaded classmate could do this much for him, the least he owed him was a little more effort.
Elsewhere—
Ino was losing.
Badly.
The Sand kunoichi had already cut her twice.
Ino threw poison coated senbon.
The woman deflected all of them.
"Yamanaka."
She smiled.
"You need someone standing still."
Ino's eyes narrowed.
"Usually."
The Sand ninja rushed.
Ino retreated through an alley.
One step.
Two.
Three.
Ino threw a barrier tag onto the wall.
The Sand kunoichi laughed.
"Missed."
"No."
The barrier activated sideways.
A translucent wall snapped across the alley.
The kunoichi stopped abruptly.
Ino's hands launched countless poisoned ninja tools through the alley. Ten-Ten would be proud.
The woman's eyes widened as 4 senbon pierced her forearms, torso, and thighs respectively.
"Mind Body Switch Jutsu!"
Ino had already formed the seals while the foreign ninja realized she'd been poisoned. The blondes consciousness launched.
The enemy froze.
Ino waited patiently, the burning spreading through her invaded hosts blood.
"Ino!"
Inoichi landed beside his daughter's seemingly unconscious body.
"Dad?!" Said the Sand kunoichi.
Ino snapped back into herself.
"Ino!"
He looked at the collapsing Sand ninja, not even able to stay on her feet after the release of Ino's technique.
Inoichi grinned.
"Good job sweety."
Choji was having a worse time.
The Sound Chūnin was enormous.
Not Akimichi enormous.
Just annoyingly huge.
Every punch felt like a battering ram.
Choji blocked one.
His arms went numb.
The Sound ninja laughed.
"You're soft."
Choji looked down.
A bag of chips lay crushed beneath one foot.
His eye twitched.
"You stepped on those."
The man looked confused.
Choji's chakra surged.
"That was a mistake."
"Partial Expansion Jutsu!"
Choji's arm became gigantic.
The punch missed.
The Sound Chūnin ducked underneath.
Then drove a knee into Choji's stomach.
Choji folded.
The next blow sent him into a storefront.
Wood collapsed around him.
The Sound ninja approached.
Choji coughed.
Then saw the barrier tag Naruto had given him.
He remembered Lee's speed training and tips for maneuvering
Choji readied chakra into his feet, increasing his stability across the ground.
The Sound ninja charged.
Choji slapped the tag onto the floor.
"Activate!"
The barrier formed at an angle.
The man's foot hit it.
His momentum carried the rest of him forward.
His body flipped.
Choji dashed forward, growing to his full expanded ball form.
"Human Boulder!"
He rolled forward, the enemy shinobi launching himself laterally to avoid the boulder.
BOOM!
Choji flattened him into the street, his form suddenly weaving to the enemy at the last possible second in a controled zig zag.
The Sound Chūnin tried standing.
A huge shadow fell over him.
Chōza landed.
He looked at his son.
Then at the crater.
Then at the barrier.
Choji smiled.
"I had it."
Chōza smiled wider.
"I know."
Kiba's fight was uglier.
He and Akamaru burst from underground beneath the Sand Chūnin.
"Fang Over Fang!"
They struck from opposite sides.
The enemy blocked one.
The second hit his shoulder.
Kiba smiled.
Then the man's blade caught him across the chest.
Kiba hit the road.
Akamaru yelped.
Kiba's face changed instantly.
The Sand ninja raised his twin blades.
"Animals shouldn't fight shinobi."
Kiba growled.
"Say that again."
Akamaru transformed.
Smoke erupted.
Two Kibas stood.
The Sand Chūnin attacked.
They disappeared underground again.
The man watched the ground.
That was the mistake.
Kiba emerged behind him.
Not attacking.
Throwing.
Naruto's barrier tag stuck to the man's back.
The Sand ninja blinked.
"What—"
"Activate!"
A barrier exploded outward behind him.
The sudden force shoved the man forward.
Straight into Akamaru.
"FANG OVER FANG!"
The spinning attack hit center mass.
The Sand ninja flew through two walls.
Kiba dropped to one knee.
Blood ran down his shirt.
Akamaru collapsed beside him.
Then Kurenai appeared.
Her eyes glowed red.
The Sand Chūnin stumbled from the rubble.
Then froze.
Trees suddenly grew around him.
Branches wrapped his body.
He screamed.
Kurenai stepped from behind one.
"Sleep."
The illusion collapsed.
So did he.
Kiba grinned weakly.
"Had him."
Kurenai looked at his chest.
"Sure."
Akamaru barked.
Kiba pointed at him.
"Traitor."
Hinata was being pushed harder than anyone expected.
The Sound kunoichi fought with wires.
Thin.
Fast.
Nearly invisible.
Hinata's Byakugan saw them.
That didn't mean she could avoid all of them.
One cut her cheek.
Another wrapped her wrist.
Hinata twisted.
The kunoichi pulled.
Hinata stumbled forward.
A kick hit her ribs.
She crashed into a wall.
"You're too passive."
The Sound ninja pulled the wires tighter.
Hinata's hands shook.
Naruto's voice surfaced from weeks earlier.
You see everything. Stop fighting like you need permission.
Her eyes hardened.
The kunoichi attacked.
Hinata stepped inside the wires.
Not away.
Closer.
Her palms struck.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Chakra points closed.
The woman's right arm went limp.
She snarled and whipped the remaining wire around Hinata's throat.
Hinata's fingers found Naruto's tag.
She slapped it against her own chest.
"Activate."
A barrier burst outward around her.
The wire snapped away.
The Sound kunoichi was thrown backward.
Hinata inhaled.
Then moved.
"Eight Trigrams..."
The woman tried retreating.
Too late.
"Thirty-Two Palms!"
Hinata's hands blurred.
The final strike landed in her opponents chest. The invader dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Hinata's knees buckled about to follow suit.
Hiashi caught her before she hit the ground.
She looked up.
"Father..."
Hiashi stared at the unconscious enemy.
Then at the barrier tag.
Then at Hinata.
"You stood your ground."
Hinata breathed heavily.
"Yes."
Hiashi nodded.
"You've made the Hyuuga proud today."
Shino's fight had become four against one.
The Sound shinobi had realized the insects were the problem.
So they started burning them.
Fire spread across the street.
Thousands of kikaichū died.
Shino watched silently.
One enemy smiled.
"Still confident?"
Shino adjusted his glasses.
"Yes."
The Sound shinobi attacked from four directions.
Shino moved once.
Not away.
Toward the center.
All four followed.
Then he dropped Naruto's barrier tag at his feet.
"Activate."
The barrier formed as a dome.
Four attackers slammed against the outside.
Shino stood safely within.
The Sound ninja laughed.
"You trapped yourself!"
Shino looked down.
"So did you."
The ground beneath them moved.
Insects erupted from cracks in the street.
Not the ones they'd burned.
The ones Shino had sent underground before the battle.
They crawled over all four shinobi.
Chakra disappeared.
The attackers panicked.
Shino lowered the barrier.
Shibi Aburame appeared behind him.
The four Sound shinobi collapsed.
Shino looked toward his father.
"They destroyed approximately thirty-seven percent of my initial swarm."
Shibi nodded.
"You compensated."
"Yes."
"Acceptable."
Shino paused.
"Thank you."
Sakura's fight was vicious.
The Sand kunoichi was faster.
Stronger.
More experienced.
Sakura knew it immediately.
So she cheated.
Explosive tags.
Wire.
Loose bricks.
Smoke.
Broken glass.
Every object in the street became part of the fight.
The Sand kunoichi stepped through all of it.
Then punched Sakura hard enough to crack the wall behind her.
Sakura slid down.
Blood entered her mouth.
The enemy approached.
"You aren't strong enough."
Sakura coughed.
"Probably."
She looked toward the barrier tag in her hand.
"But you keep standing where I want."
The Sand kunoichi frowned.
Sakura activated the tag.
Not in front of herself.
Behind the enemy.
The barrier blocked the alley.
The Sand ninja turned.
Sakura threw three kunai.
She dodged.
Exactly left.
A wire tightened around her ankle.
Sakura yanked.
The kunoichi fell.
Sakura charged.
The woman rolled.
A kick struck Sakura's stomach.
Sakura nearly vomited.
Still moving.
Anko appeared upside down from a rooftop.
Her tongue clicked.
"You look terrible."
Sakura spat blood.
"I was winning."
The Sand kunoichi charged them both.
Anko smiled.
"Sure you were."
Snakes erupted from her sleeve.
Neji stood near the Hyūga defensive sector.
Three Sound Chūnin surrounded him.
His breathing remained steady.
He had already defeated one.
The others had adjusted.
They refused to enter his range.
Kunai came from three directions.
Neji rotated.
"Rotation!"
The projectiles vanished.
The moment it stopped—
Explosive tags.
Neji's eyes widened.
He couldn't rotate again quickly enough.
His hand reached into his pouch.
Naruto's barrier tag.
He slapped it onto the ground.
"Activate!"
The barrier formed above him.
The explosion struck.
BOOM!
The barrier fractured.
Neji emerged through the smoke.
One Sound shinobi stepped too close.
Neji's palm hit his chest.
The man collapsed.
The remaining two retreated.
Hiashi appeared behind one.
A Vacuum Palm blasted him through a wall.
Another Hyūga struck the final attacker.
Neji looked at the cracked tag.
Naruto's voice echoed.
Giving it to you before I beat you would've been stupid.
Neji almost smiled.
Lee couldn't properly fight.
His leg was still damaged.
His arm remained wrapped.
That didn't stop a Sound Chūnin from targeting him.
The attacker probably thought Lee was helpless.
He learned otherwise.
Lee dodged on one leg.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Every movement came from balance training.
Hip rotation.
Upper-body positioning.
Minimal wasted motion.
The month of watching Naruto change how people trained had affected Lee too.
The Sound Chūnin kicked.
Lee leaned backward.
The foot missed by inches.
Lee planted his good leg.
His wrapped arm stayed protected.
His other fist moved.
"Leaf Rising Wind!"
The kick struck the man's jaw.
Lee landed badly.
Pain shot through his injured leg.
He collapsed.
The enemy didn't.
The Sound ninja stumbled upright.
Lee reached for Naruto's barrier tag.
He placed it beside himself.
Not as a shield.
As a wall.
The Sound ninja rushed.
Lee rolled aside.
The man hit the barrier at full speed.
His head bounced off it.
Gai descended from the sky.
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"
The Sound Chūnin disappeared through a storefront.
Lee's eyes sparkled.
"Gai-sensei!"
Gai gave him a thumbs-up.
"Magnificent adaptation, Lee!"
Lee cried immediately.
Gai cried harder.
Across the village, Naruto received all of it.
Fragments.
Shikamaru surviving.
Hinata standing.
Kiba bleeding.
Choji winning.
Shino adapting.
Sakura cheating.
Neji using the tag.
Lee refusing to stay down.
His clones kept sending everything.
Naruto smiled.
"They're okay."
Sasuke's voice came weakly from his back.
"Who?"
"Everybody."
A roar shook the trees ahead.
Shukaku was still following.
Sasuke sighed.
"Great."
Then another clone dispelled.
This memory was different.
Purple flames.
The rooftop.
Jiraiya.
Hiruzen.
Three dead Hokage.
And something changing.
Inside the Four Violet Flames Formation—
Jiraiya blocked Tobirama's kick.
Barely.
The impact launched him across the roof.
He twisted in midair and landed.
Hashirama attacked Hiruzen simultaneously.
Wood erupted from the tiles.
Hiruzen's staff expanded.
"Enma!"
The Adamantine Staff smashed through the incoming branches.
Hashirama was already inside his guard.
Punch.
Hiruzen blocked.
Knee.
He twisted.
Elbow.
Hiruzen's forearm caught it.
The old Hokage slid backward.
Orochimaru smiled from behind his resurrected weapons.
"Sensei."
Hiruzen breathed slowly.
"This is your answer?"
"My answer?"
Orochimaru laughed.
"This is my masterpiece."
Minato vanished.
Jiraiya's eyes widened.
A three-pronged kunai appeared beside his head.
Jiraiya ducked.
Minato materialized.
His kick struck Jiraiya's shoulder.
Jiraiya rolled.
"Still fast."
Minato's face showed frustration.
"My body is moving without me."
"I know."
Jiraiya blocked another strike.
"Don't worry."
His expression hardened.
"I'll fix it."
Tobirama formed a seal.
Water exploded across the rooftop.
A dragon rose from it.
Jiraiya leapt.
"Fire Release: Flame Bullet!"
Flame collided with water.
Steam covered everything.
Hashirama's wood grew through the mist.
Hiruzen's eyes narrowed.
This wasn't sustainable.
Not against all three.
Not with Orochimaru still fresh.
His fingers slowly came together.
A sequence of seals began.
Jiraiya saw them.
His eyes widened.
"Old man."
Hiruzen didn't stop.
Jiraiya grabbed his wrist.
"I know those seals."
Hiruzen looked at him.
"You know what must be done."
"No."
Jiraiya's voice hardened.
"Not yet."
Orochimaru's smile widened.
"You would sacrifice yourself?"
Hiruzen's eyes sharpened.
"For this village?"
"Without hesitation."
Jiraiya shoved his hands together.
"Then give me time."
He bit both thumbs.
Blood crossed his palms.
His hands struck the rooftop.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
Smoke exploded.
Two small toads appeared.
One stood with her hands on her hips.
The other carried a small staff.
Ma looked around.
Then at Jiraiya.
Then at three dead Hokage.
Then Orochimaru.
Then Hiruzen.
"Jiraiya-boy."
"Yeah?"
"What in the hell did you get into?"
Jiraiya pointed.
"Orochimaru."
Pa sighed.
"Of course."
Jiraiya crouched.
"I need Sage Mode."
Ma's expression changed.
"This isn't practice."
"I know."
Pa looked toward Hashirama.
Then Tobirama.
Then Minato.
"...Definitely not."
They jumped onto Jiraiya's shoulders.
"Then stop moving."
Jiraiya stared at the three enemies.
"That's gonna be difficult."
Ma slapped his head.
"Figure it out."
Jiraiya grinned despite everything.
"Yes, ma'am."
He began gathering natural energy.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Ma and Pa stabilized him.
His chakra changed.
Orochimaru noticed.
The smile vanished.
"Sage chakra."
Hiruzen continued forming seals.
His movements were slower now.
Deliberate.
The Shiki Fūin waited at the end.
Jiraiya needed time.
Hiruzen would give it.
Even if the cost was himself.
Outside the barrier—
Kakashi stopped.
Gai stopped beside him.
Both stared upward.
The chakra coming from the roof was monstrous.
Three signatures felt wrong.
Dead.
Ancient.
Impossible.
Kakashi's Sharingan narrowed.
"The First."
Gai's face lost all humor.
"The Second."
Kakashi looked again.
Then froze.
"And the Fourth."
Silence.
Gai turned toward him.
"The barrier."
Kakashi studied it.
Four Sound shinobi maintained the formation from separate corners.
Direct attack would fail.
Touching the flames meant death.
Going through wasn't an option.
So Kakashi looked down.
"The barrier only surrounds the roof."
Gai followed his gaze.
The building beneath it.
Kakashi's eye sharpened.
"We don't go through."
Gai smiled.
"We go around."
They disappeared.
Two blurs moved down the Hokage Tower.
Sound shinobi tried intercepting them.
Gai punched through the first group.
Kakashi dropped another with lightning-coated kunai.
Neither slowed.
Their mission had changed.
The invasion could wait.
The Hokage couldn't.
Gai smashed through a lower window.
Kakashi followed.
They entered the tower beneath the barrier.
Then started climbing.
A Naruto clone saw them.
His eyes widened.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
Kakashi didn't stop.
"Naruto. Tell Shikaku we're attempting to enter the Kage battle from below."
The clone nodded.
Then looked at Gai.
"Can you actually do that?"
Gai gave him a thumbs-up.
"WITH THE POWER OF YOUTH—"
Kakashi grabbed his vest and pulled him onward.
"Don't encourage him."
The clone dispelled.
POOF!
The original Naruto received the memory.
Kakashi.
Gai.
Going after Jiraiya and Hiruzen.
His chest loosened slightly.
Good.
Then another memory arrived.
Hinata exhausted.
Kiba injured.
Shikamaru barely conscious.
Choji panting.
Sakura bleeding.
Lee unable to stand.
Shino's swarm depleted.
Ino drained.
Neji surrounded by broken stone.
All alive.
All still fighting.
Naruto looked toward the distant village.
He had spent the month trying to make them stronger.
Giving advice.
Giving tags.
Pushing them.
Annoying them.
Apparently that counted as training too.
PING!
HIDDEN OBJECTIVE UPDATED
Rookie Nine Survival Network
Barrier Tags Successfully Activated: 8
Adaptive Combat Methods Observed: 9
All Tracked Rookie Nine Members: ALIVE
Naruto stared.
Eight?
He counted mentally.
Shikamaru.
Ino.
Choji.
Kiba.
Hinata.
Shino.
Sakura.
Sasuke.
He had used his differently.
Not because he couldn't.
Because he hadn't needed it until the end.
The System flickered.
Group Growth Condition Detected
Your guidance has altered allied combat behavior.
Additional evaluation pending.
Naruto dismissed it.
Later.
There was always later.
He hoped.
Ahead of them, Shukaku stopped.
Naruto's smile vanished.
The giant tanuki turned.
Its enormous eyes focused on the village behind them.
Sasuke lifted his head.
"That's bad."
Naruto stared.
"Very."
Shukaku inhaled.
Wind gathered.
Chakra condensed.
A massive sphere began forming before its mouth.
Naruto's eyes widened.
Every clone across Konoha felt his panic the instant new orders began spreading.
"EVERYONE CLEAR THE LINE!"
Hundreds of Narutos started shouting across the village.
On the rooftop—
Jiraiya's face changed.
Red markings spread around his eyes.
His nose broadened slightly.
Ma and Pa remained on his shoulders.
Natural energy flooded his body.
His eyes opened.
Horizontal pupils.
Sage Mode.
Hiruzen finished another hand seal.
Behind him—
Something enormous and spectral began taking shape.
Jiraiya felt it.
He turned.
The smile vanished from his face.
"Old man."
Hiruzen stared at Orochimaru.
"Protect the village after I'm gone."
The staff Hiruzen was holding POOF'd in a blast of smoke.
A hair palm slapped away the final seals the the 3rd Hokages prepared technique. Enma, the king of apes stood facing his summoner.
"No."
Hiruzen looked at him, brows knit in anger.
I will fight with you old friend. You will not throw your life away so carelessly. Not yet.
Jiraiya's Sage eyes burned, thankful for the monkey king.
"We're all walking off this roof, except for that treacherous snake."
Below them—
Kakashi and Gai reached the highest internal floor.
Above their heads burned four walls of purple fire.
Somewhere beyond them fought five Hokage-level shinobi and two Sannin.
Gai cracked his knuckles.
Kakashi formed Chidori.
Lightning filled the hallway.
"We make a hole."
Gai grinned.
"We make a hole."
And above them—
The dead attacked again.