Battle Train

Doto wasn't a happy man, actually he was downright furious. Somebody had infiltrated his main base and not only destroyed his whole stock of chakra armour there, but they also had debilitated seventy per cent of his security personnel. He didn't know who it was that had done it, but he would show them why it was a very bad idea to make him angry. Right now he was discussing the next steps with Nadare. He needed Koyuki and the hexagonal crystal for his plans.

"Your job, Nadare, is taking out these Konoha pests. There is no doubt that they are behind the sabotage. I don't know how they got in here, but I want the holes in security closed. We're too close to our goal to fail now," Doto declared.

"Yes, Lord Doto. Do you have any particular plans how to deal with the Konoha ninjas? And do we know more about their identities?" Nadare asked.

"I ordered the newest editions of the bingo books from all villages that we're in contact with. These came out just a week ago. Anybody of interest should be in there. I haven't looked through it yet. As you and your team encountered them, you should know most about them," Doto informed Nadare.

"I'll immediately go through the entries about them and brief my underlings. Some of their jutsus were also already shown to us and we'll use that to create strategies against them," Nadare assured him.

"Good. Inform me of the identities of those that you can identify, as I might encounter them in the future," Doto ordered and Nadare bowed, leaving to get to work.

Nadare, as the only one to escape the fight with the Konoha team, had to go through the bingo book by himself, though he had some others assist by taking out the pages of each bingo book and sort them by village affiliation. Finally he had some confirmations.

"Alright, listen," he called out to the ninjas that were under his command at the base, "I now know a few of the ninjas that were involved in the fight. It seems we are working against one genin team under jonin Gai Maito and two higher ranked ninjas. Gai is a taijutsu specialist and dangerous. His taijutsu style is the strong fist, which relies on speed and raw power. He's rumoured to have been a rival to the Godaime Hokage, Kakashi Hatake, in strength. Thankfully he's considered really stupid, but don't let your guard down when you encounter him. Gai is known to have mastered the lotus and the eight inner gates, so caution is needed. He's one of the fastest ninjas alive and you can be sure that he can outrun any of our fighters. We need to trap him somehow to take away his speed advantage. It might be a good idea to target the genins under his command to achieve that. Gai is an A-rank elite jonin.

"Next on the list is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. A specialist in fuinjutsu and ninjutsu. Recently promoted to special jonin, despite only being thirteen years old. He's the son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, who should be known to the older ninjas among us. The Yondaime Hokage's famous Flying Thundergod jutsu was confirmed to have been used by his son in the invasion of Konoha. He's also confirmed as a seal master, which makes him even more dangerous. It might be possible that he has the toad summoning contract, but thankfully in our climate he probably won't call upon a battle toad. Despite his youth, the boy is highly dangerous. According to the bingo book, Naruto has been involved in the fall of Gato in Wave Country and the defeat of a team of Iwa ninjas. He's already been given A-rank as a threat, mainly because of the Flying Thundergod jutsu.

"Last on the identified list is Tenten Jakonato, who's only got a mention in the book for having worked together with Naruto during the invasion of Konoha. She has essentially been the one to throw the kunais used for the flying Thundergod jutsus to exactly the right places for Naruto to profit from it. I would rank her as a C-rank threat on her own, higher when working in a team with Naruto. No matter what, don't underestimate her. If she's that proficient with kunai, we can assume that she probably knows how to handle other weapons as well and a sniper always bears the risk of having to deal with long-distance attacks via explosive tags.

"I can tell that one of the group is a Hyuga, thanks to recognising the byakugan. That clan specialises in taijutsu by injecting chakra into the body with a simple tap of a finger, called the gentle fist. If the boy is any good, close combat with him is to absolutely avoid. Even if our armour gives us some protection, he could as well simply tap somebody's head and have the brain shut up, killing that person as efficiently as a kunai to the head would do. We don't know his name and potential, so don't take him lightly and simply assume he's chunin level. That way we should be on the safe side.

"The next boy resembled Gai, so I would assume it is sure to say that he uses a similar taijutsu style, so careful engagement in battle is required, no matter if he's still a genin. As you know, taijutsu specialists are a weakness against our armour if they're fast and strong enough. I know that Kakashi Hatake knows about the models of the past, so he will have taken that into consideration when putting the team together. We have no information on the ice user, but he's certainly very capable of working with the landscape and he managed to capture his opponent. Among the group of six, I would place the order of danger to Gai, then Naruto, then the ice user, the Hyuga, Tenten and the other boy. We need to plan properly to not fail against them again, because we can be sure that they'll try to attack again in the near future, profiting from taking out a large part of the security force of the base," Nadare pointed out.

"From the covert attack, we can be sure that there are one or two infiltration specialists in the group, but we can't really say which of them. It could be the ice user, Naruto, the Hyuga or the girl. Taijutsu specialists normally don't really have the jutsus to pull infiltration off successfully. We need to be even more on our guard, as they already managed to get inside once. They can do it again. I want you to look out for anything out of the norm and I want you all to look for strange looking kunais with seals wrapped around the handle. Also look for seals that you don't recognise. It's highly possible that they hid some of the Flying Thundergod seals in the fortress in preparation for an attack."

"Understood!" the lower ranked ninjas replied.

The trip from the boat to the safe house was a risk, but they couldn't stay on the boat, as it was much too dangerous. They were easy targets there. The film crew was still going to accompany them on their journey, saying that this would be incredible material for the next Princess Gale movie. The ninjas had made sure to inform them that this was a highly dangerous mission now, but the director had assured them that they would be okay. Seemingly he thought that there was no better thing to happen than that a true princess being Princess Gale.

And the quest to free her kingdom from her tyrannical uncle was even better than the original script for the movie. Talk about taking opportunities. Neji and Haku stayed close to Koyuki at all times while Naruto had a battalion of shadow clones scout ahead. It was good that Neji stayed close to Koyuki, as she had tried to escape twice so far already. She really didn't want to be in Snow Country. The group was getting closer to their destination. Then they heard a loud noise coming closer to their position.

"There's a large thing moving towards us at high speed. It's something mechanical and there are about fifty ninjas in there," Neji informed the group.

"The train," Koyuki breathed out fearfully.

"Ah, the armed machine that Naruto reported about," Gai realised, "Team, you know your jobs. Haku, please be prepared to raise a thick wall of ice to protect us against attacks in high numbers. Neji, stick to Princess Koyuki, Naruto, take out as many of the weapon launchers as possible. Tenten, I want you to use the explosive tags with your kunai to help Naruto along. Lee, we will be taking out any opponents that leave the train and prevent that they can get close to our position," Gai quickly gave orders.

"Understood," was the common reply.

Soon the train appeared. When Naruto saw how large it really was, he was just glad that they had talked Sandayu out of attacking Doto at the first opportunity they got. This thing was nothing a ragtag army could take on. Even fifteen properly trained royal guards would be easy prey against this machine. You needed either a similar machine or ninjas with A-rank jutsus to make a dent into the metal.

He watched how the train came to a stop. It had several waggons behind the part that pulled it, the engine, as had stood on the blueprints. Koyuki seemed to panic.

"Keep your head down. Running now is doomed to failure," Neji told her.

Then a loud voice came from the train.

"It's been ten years, Koyuki. Don't be shy, let's see your face," it said.

"I knew it, that's Doto," Koyuki whimpered.

"He doesn't have you yet," Haku stated.

"And he won't get you. We will prevent that," Naruto added.

"So, you think such a small group can take my snow ninjas on? Ridiculous," Doto commented, "We have the clear technological advantage."

"You're just an unyouthful tyrant that has no right to call himself the daimyo of this country. Murder of Princess Koyuki's father, the rightful daimyo, is no legal justification to take over a country. The people will always know that you're just a usurper," Gai declared while giving Tenten and Naruto hand signs behind his back.

"We will see how long you can keep saying that. Annihilate that group. They have no chance," Doto ordered, "Nadare, get me Koyuki alive."

"Yes, sire," Nadare replied and the man vanished from his position, while the walls of the waggons were lifted up and hundreds of kunai launchers were revealed.

The barrage of kunai was in the hundreds within two seconds. Thankfully they had been prepared for something like this.

"Ice release: Ice wall," Haku said and slammed his hand onto the snow, raising a massive wall of ice in front of the group.

"Wind release: great breakthrough," Naruto added and sent a high number of kunai off course.

The fire was continued though. Then Tenten shot back and hit the waggon with kunai that had explosive tags hanging from them. Naruto had intentionally made them stronger than normal to have a chance to take out large targets. Tenten hit the four waggons in the middle perfectly and the tags blew them up, the shockwave also influencing the waggons in the back. Doto reacted by disconnecting them from the front part and having the engine pull the waggons in the front onwards on the track. Sadly Tenten's explosive tags to the bridge didn't do too much damage, as the train managed to pull all but one waggon forward.

Naruto shot into the air using his cloak and unleashed a tornado directly in front of the engine, which caused it to fall from the track. It cost a lot of chakra, as the engine was heavy, but he had more than enough chakra for this. Then he had to defend himself against a dragon made out of snow, which was controlled by Nadare.

"Insect," Nadare insulted him, "I'll make you pay. Snow release: snow prison."

Around Naruto pillars of hardened snow appeared. He avoided each of them and cut two apart to avoid getting trapped in the middle.

"Wind release: wind shuriken," Naruto countered and sent countless invisible shuriken at his opponent.

"Snow release: Snow uprising," Nadare called out and a mass of snow shot upwards to intercept the shuriken.

"Lightning release: Hunting wolf," Naruto used another jutsu, one that his sensei had taught him. A wolf made of lightning shot from his hand towards Nadare.

Nadare ran from the jutsu. Probably he realised that this jutsu was actually dangerous, as too much lightning fried any kind of machine, which his suit actually was. He barely got away and Naruto sent out twenty shadow clones to engage in taijutsu, knowing that ninjutsu was only indirectly useful. It had to have an effect on the environment or hit the few places on the body not covered by the suit to be really effective. That meant, his best bet was sneaking a flying Thundergod seal onto Nadare to take him out. He also made a second group of five clones that used the mirage jutsu to sneak up to Doto to get him if possible.

While Naruto was busy with Nadare, the rest of the group and the film crew, which was hidden higher up, using the chance to film the battle for their movie, were doing their best to protect Koyuki. She was not responsive and frightened by the attack. Even if currently there were no kunai flying towards her position. Then about ten ninjas suddenly appeared from the snow, attacking their group. Nobody had noticed them sneaking up to them. Gai and Lee sprang into action, while Neji and Haku were ready to protect Koyuki from any that got past them.

Tenten was locked in combat with a kunoichi that used a sword, countering her sword with one of her arsenal. Gai knocked two opponents out at once, knocking their heads together, while Lee's opponent had a painful meeting with a tree after a Konoha whirlwind kick to the head. Then Haku had ice shackles appear from the snow, surprising three of the group, slowing them down for a while. He immediately added more walls of ice around Koyuki to keep the thrown weapons from hitting her. Neji remembered what had been known about the suits and didn't bother aiming at the body of his opponents, which were protected, instead he aimed at their faces. He was easily able to dodge their attacks, mainly snow and ice-based jutsus. Haku was much better at using those jutsus. There was a clear difference between a bloodline limit for the element and simple manipulation of something that was there. Two fell for not being careful enough.

Two of the ones that Haku had caught got free, only to meet with Gai and Lee, who showed them that their taijutsu was far superior to anything the snow ninjas were capable of. And fighting on snow wasn't any disadvantage for them. Their team had trained to fight on any kind of surface, as Gai proclaimed that a good ninja had to be ready to fight at any time. One ninja unsealed a snow board from his backpack and tried getting past the protectors with speed, but Neji was too aware of his surroundings with his byakugan activated to fall for it. He got Koyuki out of the way and Haku then turned the snow into ice and had it throw the snowboarder into the air, where Tenten sent a barrage of kunai, having a moment of breathing space in her fight with the swordswoman. Amour or not, it took that ninja out of the fight, as it hit the man with the power of seven explosive tags that were attached to them. Even the armour couldn't take that kind of damage.

Naruto's clones finally managed to land a solid hit on Nadare and one attached a seal tag with the Flying Thundergod formula on the man's back. The group of five had been more successful and had already placed tags onto the waggon in which Doto was and on two of the ninjas that stayed close to him. It never hurt to place more tags than necessary.

"Prepare flight mode," Doto ordered one of the ninjas around him and the man left to do whatever flight mode activation included.

Thankfully nobody noticed him. It was clear that without the suits the snow ninjas were no real threat to the Konoha group. Only the annoying ability to cancel out any chakra based attacks made it hard to deal with them. And thankfully, they had a team that could work around that issue. Now they only needed to protect the Princess and keep her away from her bastard of an uncle. And then get her over her trauma to have a good daimyo in her for her country. But that could be dealt with later on.

When Nadare prepared his next jutsu against Naruto, the original disappeared from his position and quickly dealt with the leader of the snow ninjas by cutting his throat with a kunai the split second after flashing to the seal on his back. The remaining snow ninjas seemed to be in shock, seeing their leader being defeated by a teenager.

Gai and the others immediately took advantage of that and only three managed to escape using the body flicker. The others were either dead or unconscious. Doto's waggon then was turned into an airship and he looked down at the Konoha group and Koyuki. Suddenly a grappling hook shot out and took Koyuki, lifting her into the air. Before Neji and Haku could react to the manoeuvre.

"While you may have defeated my ninjas, I have the prize," Doto laughed, only for it turning into a frown when the rope holding the hook was cut by Naruto with a wind jutsu and he caught Koyuki in his arms, flying a little below the airship. Then he flashed away, only to reappear next to the rest of the Konoha group.

"I may have lost this round, but we now have more information. I will get that crystal and get the Kazahana treasure," Doto mumbled while the airship rose and took the group away, back to the fortress. He needed a new plan.

The Konoha group, the film team and Koyuki reached the safe house of the rebellion about an hour after the battle. Haku administered some medical treatment to those that needed it and Gai praised everybody for a youthful performance in protecting the princess. The film crew was very happy with the material that they had got during the battle and the director gushed how it would look fantastic in the movie.

"Well, tonight we will rest, but tomorrow we will launch an attack against the fortress when they don't expect it. We can't become too sure of ourselves. While we earned a deserved victory, the longer we wait, the more time Doto has to find an unyouthful way to counter us," Gai said.

"We will fight with the whole power of youth and free this country from its unyouthful leader," Lee shouted, pumping his fist into the air.

"You're right Lee, that's the spirit I want to see!" Gai shouted back.

"Gai sensei," Lee replied moved.

"Lee," Gai exclaimed.

"Gai sensei."

"Lee."

"Gai sensei."

Both ran towards another with manly tears in their eyes, hugging, unleashing the sunset genjutsu of youth. Tenten and Neji were already used to the madness and had closed their eyes and held their hands over their ears to be spared. Naruto was quick on the uptake and copied their actions. The one to not react quickly enough was Koyuki and thanks to treating her, Haku also got the full blast of the jutsu.

"Gah!" Both Koyuki and Haku screamed.

The scream of the Princess made the guards outside of the room come inside running, only to be caught as well. It ended with seven traumatised people, Lee and Gai having bumps on their heads complimentary of Tenten, who was reprimanding them of not unleashing that horrible genjutsu on innocent people and Haku freezing their green jumpsuits in revenge.

"Wow, that must be a really devastating jutsu," the film director said, "Can you repeat that for the camera so that we can use it as an attack against the main villain?"

"NO!" Tenten, Haku and surprisingly Neji all shouted.

"I fear if you had that in the movie, you wouldn't be able to let children watch it," Naruto stated, which made the film director relent, "But it bears potential of traumatising the enemy with it."

"Even they don't deserve that, Naruto," Haku declared, "Not even Zabuza would have been that cruel. And for your information, Ibiki and Anko have asked to use it for their work, but it traumatised the victims too much to be useful in T & I."

"Too bad," Naruto relented.

Lee and Gai pouted over the criticism for their showing of manly feelings.

Doto was furious. His plan to snatch Koyuki had been thwarted, mostly thanks to that boy, Naruto, being able to fly somehow. There was no device that he used, no sign of something like the wings that some of the chakra armour had, so how did he manage that? He wore normal clothes as well, so they couldn't be the secret. He didn't like it at all that somebody could undo one of his major advantages, being able to take any fight to the air and keeping out of range of most jutsus.

He also cursed that Nadare had been killed. Nadare had done well in his fight and normally the boy would never have been able to kill him, if it wasn't for that cursed jutsu of the Yellow Flash. The Flying Thundergod jutsu enabled the one using it to appear in any place where he left a seal from one split second to the next and the moment of surprise was too large for anybody to properly react. The Yellow Flash had been known as the fastest ninja alive and now his son had proven to have mastered the jutsu as well. No wonder that Iwa had put such a high bounty on his head. Even if, as far as he had found out, they didn't actively hunt the boy down.

Many others had also placed the boy as an A-rank threat, just because of that one jutsu. And then there were the power of his other jutsus and his quick wit in battle. That boy wasn't special jonin for nothing with just thirteen years of age. He needed to find a way to get one of their chakra suppressing devices onto him, or he would pose a bigger problem than Gai, the one full jonin on the team. The question was, how to do it.

He ordered all jonin of the snow village to be brought to him to discuss a plan to counter the abilities of the Konoha team, now that they knew more. Let's see if six Konoha ninjas could stand up against the full might of Snow Country's ninja force. You could defeat any opponent. You only needed to find the perfect opponent. This wasn't over by far and if the Konoha group believed that, they would get a rude awakening.

TO BE CONTINUED...