Chapter 82

Chapter 82

The Fifth Hokage was running for his life. The mountainous terrain was quite difficult to traverse, even for a shinobi of his caliber. Most importantly, he didn't know these mountains, so it was easy to get lost in them, as they looked similar from every direction. And the Iwa shinobi weren't going to let him escape. They were persistent.

"Earth Release: Earth Wall."

A path before him was suddenly closed off. Behind him was a squad of shinobi, and more probably were coming. The Fifth Hokage sighed as he took his bow and aimed at the enemy. With agility that couldn't be easily rivaled, he dodged earth spears flying at him and shot down the shinobi with his arrows. But as expected, before he could finish them all, more came.

"Earth Release: Fist Rock Jutsu."

A shinobi came from above, his fist covered in a thick layer of stone, trying to smash the Fifth Hokage. He only managed to hit the ground as the Fifth Hokage dodged the attack. The Iwa shinobi weren't playing, though, and as one attack failed, another soon followed. He was, after all, alone and tired in an unfamiliar place. Everything was against him.

"Earth Release: Moving Earth Core"

"Earth Release: Earth Mausoleum Dumpling"

As the ground below him rose into the air, taking him with it, a giant, sky-covering boulder fell at him. His arrows couldn't do anything against the giant boulder, as his chakra was almost non-existent. He could only run and try to jump off the pillar of earth he was on. His speed was lowered because of his low stamina, but he still managed to jump off before the boulder crushed him.

As the pillar and the boulder met, the earth shook. The pillar collapsed first, breaking into thousands of stones that fell on the Fifth Hokage, bringing him down. And then the boulder tipped over and wedged itself behind him. Almost crushing him, but even so, it completely blocked the Fifth Hokage's escape. He was trapped and surrounded by Iwa Shinobi.

"Finally, we caught him," They were celebratory as they saw the Fifth Hokage under all the rubble. "Don't stop it. Kill him!"

"But our orders were to capture him alive," Another said, stopping the others from killing the Fifth Hokage.

"That bastard almost destroyed the village," The Iwa shinobi weren't satisfied just by capturing the Fifth Hokage. "He could have killed thousands of our people. He doesn't deserve our courtesy."

"He is done for it," Still, there were some level-headed ones who knew better. "Let's not forget our orders. The information he has could save countless lives."

"Hahaha," The Fifth Hokage laughed as he coughed up the dust from his lungs. "After fifteen hours of a chase, you finally got me, but can't even kill me. It must eat you alive. The thought that I would survive even after I almost destroyed your village. Common, you know I won't say even a bit of information regarding Konoha. Just kill me and be done with it. After all, you wouldn't want me to escape. Would you?"

"Laugh as much as you want," a big guy with the voice of reason said. "You lost. Soon, our shinobi will strike all the countries surrounding the Land of Fire, isolating Konoha. Your Daimyo will surrender before the battle even begins. And we will have your Sharingan. I will personally rip them off your head."

"Thanks for the information, nya."

"Nya?" The shinobi tilted their heads at the Fifth Hokage in confusion.

"Well, I guess I will be going, then, nya."

With a puff of smoke, the Fifth Hokage was gone. Only then did they realize that for fifteen hours, they were chasing a summon and not the real Fifth Hokage. The mountains shook as they let out their anger at the surroundings for being played at. But they couldn't stay and had to find Kaen Uchiha wherever he was hiding.

…

In a dark enclosure, Kaen opened his eyes. He stopped meditating and resting as he felt the ground and walls around him shake. Bakeneko was probably done for. He bought Kaen enough time, even though he hadn't fully recovered, and he wouldn't be able to use his external chakra network; he was rested enough to return to Konoha.

Setting his hands onto the wall, the earth moved out of the way, making an opening for Kaen to walk out of the enclosure. He was extremely close to Iwa, but no shinobi was able to find him. It was because he used Bakeneko as bait, and nobody would expect him to stay so close to the enemy village. And it seemed that it worked; the area was clear of any shinobi, letting Kaen silently take a direction and run.

While Kaen had time and leisure, he considered the situation of his village and himself. He never expected the future he knew would shift so drastically. He knew that he had changed a few things, and even his existence must have put some people under pressure. But never did he expect two great Villages to form an alliance and attack the rest of the world.

Nobody was prepared for that, and that would mean that they would have an advantage at the beginning. Kumo and Iwa have already probably started their attacks. And even thought Kaen managed to stop them from capturing Konoha clan heirs and himself, it wasn't that big of a win. He only managed to push back Iwa's aggression a bit. Or he might even give them more motivation to attack the other villages.

Before Kaen was even close to returning to Konoha, he was already starting to strategize. He started counting the forces his village had and if it was enough to counter Iwa and Kumo. The short answer was no. As they said, over the peaceful decade and so, Konoha, like other villages, experienced losses, while Kumo and Iwa only got stronger.

Alone, Konoha didn't have enough numbers, even if they had quite a few powerful shinobi. Maybe it wasn't that bad. They had given Kaen an opportunity to form a strong alliance with other villages. He was wracking his head about whether he should do it when he was going to face the Akatsuki, as they weren't warranted that kind of alliance.

But now, with Iwa and Kumo attacking, he could unite the other villages, fight back against them, and, at the same time, prepare for whatever the Akatsuki were preparing to do. Kaen still couldn't rule out the possibility that Onoki and A were put under a genjutsu, even if it was unlikely. Even if they were it wouldn't change things much.

Kaen suddenly stopped in his tracks. He heard faint sounds of fighting not far from where he was. Even though it was dark, Kaen still noticed something flying over the mountains while Iwa shinobi tried to capture them. Kaen was halfway out of the mountains already. Sticking his nose there would slow his progress, but he suspected that he had to intervene here.

Slowing his pace, Kaen approached the shinobi silently. As he had expected, he saw Fuu flying in the air, trying to escape the six shinobi chasing after her. She was too tired to fly in a straight line and couldn't avoid the attacks coming at her. Fuu was pretty badly injured, as Kaen saw blood fall from her side and shoulder. It wasn't life-threatening, but these injuries slowed her down. And it didn't seem that her tailed beast chakra was healing her up fast enough.

Too bad for Iwa, Kaen couldn't have them capturing the Seven Tails. And maybe it was better this way. He could use Fuu to make contact with Takigakure and inform them of what was happening and what his plans were to stop Iwa and Kumo. The sooner Konoha got allied with the other villages, the sooner they could end this pointless war.

"Be careful. She is already injured. Keep the pressure on, and don't let her escape."

Kaen waited for the Iwa shinobi to finish speaking before his arms wrapped around his neck; with a soundless crack, the Iwa shinobi fell to the ground. It was his fault for falling behind the others and being distracted by Fuu. In the darkness of the night, Kaen moved like a shadow, getting behind the distracted shinobi and taking them out one by one.

The last three quickly realized that the pressure on Fuu had lessened because the rest of the group was gone. But by that point, they were already doomed. Kaen didn't need to extend too much strength to kill them. One died with a shuriken in his eye, the second had his throat cut by a kunai, and the last got put to sleep by genjutsu.

Kaen needed at least one he could interrogate to find out what Iwa had planned further. Any bit of intelligence could help him. But he had no time to interrogate them here, so Kaen would have to take them. Since he would already be helping Fuu, he could feasibly only take one of them with him; otherwise, he would only be slowed down.

"You!?" Fuu turned to look at Kaen since she felt the absence of stone spears flying at her. "Don't come any closer."

"Relax," Kaen could tell that Fuu was on her last breath, but she still pushed herself to a bitter end. "I am not going to hurt you."

"it is your fault," The girl said, probably wanting to shout in anger but knowing better. "Why have you attacked them and made them hunt me down? They think I am with you now. That's why they were attacking me. It is all your fault."

"Calm down and think carefully," Kaen could see that the girl was exhausted and on the verge of tears.

"You attacked Kurotsuchi and then put me under genjutsu," Well, that was true, and from her perspective, it all started because Kaen made the first move. "Don't come any closer."

"You are injured and tired," Kaen told her. "You can't do anything to me even if I approached you. So, how about you just listen to me before making more conclusions?"

"No!"

Kaen sighed and put her in genjutsu since she wouldn't listen to him. As she fell to the ground, Kaen caught her. Quickly used Mystic Palm jutsu to close her wounds and stop the bleeding, he put her on his shoulder. And after cleaning up the area from the dead Iwa shinobi. Kaen left with Fuu on one shoulder and with Iwa shinobi on another shoulder.

…

"Urgh," Kaen felt Fuu waking up.

They were close to the end of the mountain range, but Kaen couldn't move further as the mountain range was surrounded by Iwa shinobi. He could break through them, but not with Fuu to take care of at the same time. So, he found a nice hiding place. Or, more precisely, he created a hiding place by using fuinjutsu to create an illusion that would redirect anyone who came near them.

"You finally are awake," Kaen handed Fuu some water as she rose from the ground. "You were more tired than you have realized. Don't worry, your wounds are healed now, and with some rest, you will be as good as new."

Fuu didn't answer. The little girl looked scared and quickly backed away from Kaen, but probably feeling extremely thirsty, she snatched the canteen of water. She stared at him and slowly drank the water. Even after that, she stayed silent and looked at Kaen and the Iwa shinobi next to him. Kaen knew that he couldn't get her to believe him with only words, so he kicked the shinobi next to him and woke him up.

"Please," The shinobi groaned and pleaded. "I told you everything. Stop the illusion, I can't take it anymore."

"Tell me again what Onoki and A have ordered you to do."

The shinobi knew little, but he told everything he knew about how Iwa had joined hands with Kumo and was using the Chunin Exams to capture Konoha clan heirs and Seven Tails jinchuriki. But since Kaen found out the plan and obstructed them from achieving their goals, he and others were sent to capture the Jinchuriki since she was an easier target than the Konoha heirs.

"Now, do you believe me?" Kaen asked.

"You could made him say those things," Fuu replied, still having defenses against him.

"Listen, girl. You might be naïve and sheltered, but you have realized who I am," Kaen stared down at her. "The only reason I am helping you is because my enemies are your enemies. If I wanted to do something to you, you couldn't defend yourself against me. Now accept the situation you are in and think what will happen to your village."

"What will happen to them?"

"Once Iwa know they have lost you, they will attack your village first," Kaen explained. "It is too small and weak to defend against Iwa's and Kumo's forces. It will be destroyed. So, we need to get to them first and warn them. They wouldn't believe me, but with your help, we can prepare them for defense before it is too late."

"Why is this happening?"

"Many reasons," Kaen replied. "Too many to count, and most of them boil down to greed and fear. You don't need to trust me. But believe me when I say that I only want to help you. So, how about we work together and get you home?"

"Do I have any other choice?"

Kaen smiled as the girl finally realized her situation. With her ability to fly and his strength, there wasn't much that would stop them from escaping. And they probably wouldn't expect Kaen to be with Fuu. Even he didn't expect to find her when he sent her away. So, they won't be prepared for him to come to Tagikagure. Firstly, Kaen sent Kuro, his summon, to inform Konoha of his plan, and then he left with Fuu.