The Suna Front — Land of Rivers
The wind over the dunes was eerily quiet. For the past five days, the Suna forces had ceased their harassment skirmishes.
Inside the main command tent, Tsunade Senju and Sakumo Hatake stood over a tactical map.
"It doesn't feel right," Tsunade muttered, her brow furrowed. "If they aren't attacking, they are preparing something massive."
Sakumo nodded, his hand resting instinctively on his tantō. "The men are on high alert. We have doubled the patrols, but the silence is gnawing at them."
BOOM!
A pillar of light struck the center of the Konoha camp, creating a shockwave that flattened the surrounding tents.
"Enemy attack! Inside the perimeter!" Sakumo shouted, rushing out of the tent with Tsunade close behind.
As the dust settled in the crater formed by the light, four figures stood revealed. They were mangled. Their skin was torn, bones were visible, and smoke rose from their bodies as if they had been dragged through the friction of the atmosphere itself.
"That's..." Tsunade's eyes widened. "The Third Kazekage!"
Beside the Kazekage stood a man and a woman—the son and daughter-in-law of Chiyo, renowned puppet masters. And behind them, a hunched, elderly figure wrapped in heavy robes.
They were heavily injured. But then, all four of them simultaneously slapped a blue piece of paper onto their chests.
HUMMM.
Blue light flooded their bodies. In a terrifying display of regeneration, skin knit together in seconds.
"Ren's Type-2 Tags," Tsunade whispered.
The Third Kazekage stepped forward, fully healed and radiating malice. "Konoha falls today."
Behind him, the hunched figure threw off his robes. It was Bunpuku. He clasped his hands.
"ROAAAAR!"
Sand exploded outward. Within moments, the frail old man was gone, replaced by the colossal form of the One-Tails.
"KILL THEM ALL!" the One-Tails screamed, sweeping its massive tail through the camp, crushing tents and shinobi alike.
At that exact moment, war cries erupted from the dunes surrounding the camp. The main Suna army, waiting for this signal, launched a full-scale assault on the outer perimeter.
The Kazekage rose on a cloud of Iron Sand, looking down.
The Iwa Front — Land of Grass
The Tsuchikage, Onoki, had launched a full assault, bringing the heavy hitters of Iwagakure to bear against Jiraiya's forces.
In a dense thicket of trees, a young team was fighting for their lives.
"Rin! Stay behind me!"
Obito Uchiha spun, a kunai in hand. Two Iwa Chunin lunged at him from the trees. Obito didn't flinch. His eyes were blood red, two tomoe spinning wildly in each iris. He tracked their movements in slow motion. He ducked under a sword slash, grabbed the attacker's wrist, and drove his kunai into the man's throat.
Splash.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
He spun and blasted the second attacker into ash before the man could land.
Obito was a blur of motion. Ever since he had awakened his two tome Sharingan a few days ago while saving Kakashi, his growth had been explosive. His perception, his reflexes—he was currently far superior to Kakashi.
"I won't let anyone touch Rin!" Obito roared, cutting down a third enemy.
Further up the battlefield, the earth shook violently. Kushina was fighting the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, Han.
High above, a beam of white light formed in the sky.
"Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu!"
Onoki fired a cube of pure destruction aimed directly at Jiraiya, who was in Sage Mode. He dodged it like he had precognition. Jiraiya had been dodging and avoiding Onoki's Particle Style with the help of Sage Mode's enhanced sensing ability.
Konoha Village — The Heart of the Crisis
The situation in the village was a nightmare.
Hiruzen Sarutobi stood on a rooftop, staring down at the devastation. The Four-Tails was not alone. Standing amidst the magma and ruin were twelve figures.
Nine were elite Jonin. One was a darker-skinned man wearing sunglasses and carrying seven swords—Killer B, the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki. Another was a man with blond hair and dark skin; it was A. Hiruzen recognized both as the A-B duo.
And leading them was a monster of a man with lightning crackling around his body. The Third Raikage.
"How..." Hiruzen gasped, clutching his staff.
"Let's finish this!" the Third Raikage roared.
The Four-Tails opened its mouth. A Tailed Beast Bomb began to form. It aimed upward, directly at the Hokage Rock.
"Stop!" Hiruzen yelled. "Enma! Extend!"
The Adamantine Staff shot forward, aiming to strike the Four-Tails under the jaw to deflect the aim.
ZAP.
A streak of blue lightning intercepted the staff.
"Too slow!"
The Third Raikage, shrouded in his Lightning Release Chakra Mode, appeared in front of Hiruzen. He used a single, lightning-enhanced punch.
"Gah!" Hiruzen coughed up a massive spray of blood. He was launched backward like a ragdoll, skipping across the rooftops, crashing through tiles and timber.
Without the interference, the Four-Tails finished its charge.
BOOM.
The Tailed Beast Bomb launched.
Hiruzen, lying in the rubble, could only watch helplessly as the sphere of destruction flew straight toward the Hokage Monument. The Tailed Beast Bomb, a sphere of compressed annihilation, was mere meters away from obliterating it. Hiruzen Sarutobi, broken and battered on the rooftops below, could only watch, his body too damaged to move.
ZZZT.
Suddenly, the air in front of the bomb distorted. A massive, intricate spatial barrier unfolded like a spiderweb in the sky. It was a seal formula written in mid-air.
"Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder!"
The massive black sphere slammed into the barrier—and vanished.
Silence hung over the village for a heartbeat. Then, miles away in the uninhabited forests behind the mountain range, a blinding flash turned the night into day. A shockwave ripped through the trees, the sound arriving seconds later with a deafening roar that rattled the teeth of every shinobi in the village.
A figure appeared instantly beside the fallen Hiruzen. He wore a standard Jonin flak jacket.
"Minato..." Hiruzen gasped, clutching his bruised ribs. "How long? How long will it take to retrieve Nawaki?"
Minato didn't reply. He simply closed his eyes.
WOOSH.
Golden flames erupted from his body. His flak jacket opened as a shroud of pure, yellow chakra enveloped him. The Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.
He formed a cross seal. A golden Shadow Clone appeared in a burst of light. The clone nodded once and vanished instantly.
Dozens of Konoha Jonin flickered onto the rooftops. Among them was a man in a green jumpsuit, his skin turning red as green steam poured from his body—Might Duy.
"YOUTH DOES NOT FADE!" Duy roared, stepping to the front line.
"Charge!"
Hiruzen, Minato, Duy, and the Konoha forces rushed toward the invaders. But the enemy was ready.
"ROAAAAR!"
The nine elite Kumo Jonin standing behind the Raikage suddenly convulsed. Red, boiling chakra exploded from their bodies. Their skin peeled away, replaced by the corrosive red cloaks of Version 1 Tailed Beast states. Kumo had sealed fragments of the Eight-Tails' chakra into them, turning them into unstable, mindless pseudo-Jinchuriki.
Possessed by beastly rage, the nine berserkers scattered, rushing toward the Konoha ninjas in different directions, tearing through buildings with reckless abandon.
"Stop them!" Minato shouted, flashing forward.
He aimed for the nearest berserker, but a bolt of black lightning intercepted him.
The Third Raikage, shrouded in his impenetrable Lightning Armor, blocked Minato's path with a Hell Chop.
Meanwhile, the Four-Tails, Son Gokū, recovered from the confusion. It opened its maw again, purple and black chakra gathering rapidly. Another Tailed Beast Bomb was ready to fire.
"I won't let you!" Hiruzen roared. He spun his Adamantine Staff. "Enma! Extend!"
The staff shot forward, expanding in girth and length. It slammed upward into the Four-Tails' jaw with bone-crushing force, snapping the beast's mouth shut and sending the forming bomb exploding harmlessly inside its own mouth, dazing the beast.
"Old man!" A, the future Fourth Raikage, charged at Hiruzen, his lightning-enhanced fist aimed at the Hokage's head.
BOOM.
A green blur intercepted the punch. Might Duy caught A's fist, the ground beneath them cracking from the impact.
"Your opponent is me!" Duy shouted.
The chaos was absolute. Killer B, standing in the center of the ruin, leaped into the air. Ink and chakra exploded outward.
POOF.
In an instant, the streets of Konoha were crushed under the weight of a second titan. The Eight-Tails—a massive ox-octopus hybrid—materialized next to the dazed Four-Tails.
"ROAR!"
The Eight-Tails opened its mouth. A Tailed Beast Bomb larger than the previous one began to form.
The village was doomed. Minato was occupied. Hiruzen was injured.
RUMBLE.
Suddenly, the earth beneath the Eight-Tails split open.
"Wood Style: Wood Dragon Jutsu!"
Two massive, serpentine wooden dragons erupted from the ground. One of the dragons lunged, biting deep into the Eight-Tails' neck, coiling around its torso. The Eight-Tails spun its tentacles, shattering the wooden dragon into splinters with brute force.
"Deep Forest Emergence!" a voice echoed from the dust.
CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.
The village streets erupted. Massive trees, thick as buildings, surged from the ground like a tidal wave of timber. The forest grew wildly, turning the battlefield into a jungle in seconds. The branches lashed out, wrapping around the nine pseudo-Jinchuriki, binding them tight.
But it wasn't enough.
The Four-Tails spewed a river of lava, setting the encroaching forest on fire. The Eight-Tails began to tear through the trees with its horns.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!"
Hiruzen didn't waste the opening. He spewed a massive dragon of water that crashed into the lava.
HSSSSSS!
Steam exploded, cooling the lava instantly into solid obsidian rock.
"Wood Style: Hotei Technique!"
Giant wooden hands erupted from the ground around the beasts. They slammed into the Four-Tails and Eight-Tails, grabbing their heads and tails, pinning them to the earth.
From the top of the newly grown forest, a figure stood tall. Nawaki Senju.
He clapped his hands together.
"Wood Style: Wood Golem Jutsu!"
A colossal wooden monster rose from the trees. It was an oni-faced golem, rivaling the Tailed Beasts in size. It stepped forward, its heavy footsteps shaking the village. The Golem extended its massive palm toward the Eight-Tails. On the palm, the kanji for "Sit" was carved.
The Golem slammed its hand onto the Eight-Tails' head.
The moment the wood touched the beast, the red chakra was forcibly quelled. The Eight-Tails' eyes rolled back. It let out a final groan before dissolving into smoke. Killer B fell to the ground, unconscious.
Before he could hit the floor, heavy wooden roots surged up, wrapping around his body. The wood hardened, sealing him completely into a tree trunk, leaving only his head exposed.
The Golem turned to the Four-Tails. It delivered a massive punch to the monkey's gut, knocking the wind out of it, before the wooden hands tightened. The Four-Tails dissolved, reverting to Roshi. The trees swarmed him instantly, binding him in a similar wooden prison, leaving only his head visible.
Silence fell over the battlefield.
In the center of the newly grown forest, Nawaki Senju stood atop his Wooden Golem, looking down at the captured Jinchuriki. The threat was neutralized.
Nawaki created ten wooden clones. Nine of them went to the struggling pseudo-Jinchuriki and held them tight before the clones turned into trees, effectively sealing them in the same way as the two Jinchuriki. It was a special sealing jutsu developed by Nawaki; the tree constantly sucked the chakra of the sealed person, leaving them with just enough to survive. The last clone went to the future Fourth Raikage and did the same to him, having also received help from Might Duy.
Then, Nawaki went to the Third Raikage, who was fighting Minato. Minato used a mini Tailed Beast Bomb and blasted the Third Raikage into the distance. It didn't damage him, but it stripped him of his Lightning Chakra Mode. Then, Nawaki appeared and said, "Raikage sama You better surrender."
Third Raikage looked around and realized The invasion failed just because of a wild card "Minato Namikaze"