N/A: I apologize for the delay of this chapter.

Chapter 27

Their torches lighting the darkness, Kurenai and Gai led the band of villagers through the labyrinth of tunnels. Following the orders of their Hokage, they were guiding the villagers into the depths of the mountain where they would be safe.

The Hokage mountains served both as a monument to the past Konoha leaders and as a safe haven for the non-combatants of the Konoha village. Traditionally, whenever a battle broke out within the Leaf walls, the common folk would be lead into the mountains, where the labyrinth of tunnels served as a protection from attackers. Also, there was a secret passage that led to miles outside the village, which provided a route for escape should it became necessary, though most Leaf villagers and their shinobis had little idea of its existence. Most of them only knew of the rooms that lay below where they were.

A light ignited the tunnel around the corner in front, and a rotten face appeared.

Kurenai stopped in surprise, spreading her arms out to stop others from passing her.

The zombie turned around and saw the party crowded in the tunnel. It snarled, and was joined by more Undead.

"Shi...shimata!" Gai yelled out. "How the hell did they..."

The tunnel then lit up with a sudden explosion from beyond the corner. A black figure darted out. With two quick strokes, the heads of the zombies flew of their shoulders and rolled onto the ground. From underneath the large grass hat, two red eyes looked intensely at Kurenai.

Kurenai gasped when she saw that it was Uchiha Itachi.

---

"What the..." Atossa muttered.

As they approached the Undead army and the Leaf Village, it became apparent that the black cloud of figures were swirling above the zombies, attacking them with rain after rain of arrows and bolts. Then it seemed that there was infighting amongst the Undead on the grounds as well, as the zombies seemed to be attacking those that were in tight, line formations that had them entirely trapped. When they noticed that the formations were bristled with long spears, with which the soldiers were using to keep the other zombies at bay, they realized that these were two armies fighting against each other. They finally saw that the spear wielders were not zombies at all, but people in black armour.

The Nathmenids, Naruto and Jiraiya all stared at the mayhem, puzzled.

"Look!" Atossa pointed.

There, amongst those linear formations, were black banners with a symbol consisting of a crucifix with a winged triangle behind it.

"No, I can't believe it," Mardonius muttered, his voice tensing with excitement. He pointed. "That is the emblem of the Immortals!"

---

From his viewpoint at the top of a small hill, Kakashi could only stare at the battle at his village raged on, with the Nathmenid army marching to war. Kakashi had never seen a battle like this before.

The Nathmenid soldiers were deployed in a long line of a dozen or so deep. Packing themselves tightly together, their round shield, which was tied up to their right arm, formed a formidable wall at the front. Their spears, so long that they had to be held by two hands, were held up or, in the case of the front rows, forwards, forming a wall of bristling spearheads at the front and above. As the Undead threw themselves to the Nathmenids, they impaled themselves onto the spears, and those who made it to the formation were stopped by the wall of shields, and were impaled by the shorter spears of those in the front most rows.

What amazed the ninja was that they were able to march forwards without breaking such a formation, which Roxana called a "phalanx". The phalanx trapped the zombies with their shields and spears, while the flying Nathmenids, armed with crossbows and bags of explosives, bombarded the trapped Undead. Should any of the soldiers in the frontline fall, the column would push forwards and thus, the one who was the second in line would become the first. It was cooperation on the highest scale.

As a ninja, Kakashi valued team cooperation more over than individual skills in a battle, but never had he seen such cooperation as such a level. While ninja teams were coordinated in some ways, it was mostly "each team to its own". Marching forth in a tight, straight line was something Kakashi had never dreamt of, let alone witness.

The ninja did not know what would happen if the Leaf had to face such an army.

"Enjoying the scene, Kakashi?"

Kakashi turned towards the source of that voice. Standing there, amongst several other Nathmenids, was Roxana.

"Er. Yes, Roxana-sama," replied Kakashi. "The Nathmenid army is... certainly impressive."

"Good, I'm glad that you find it so," Roxana smiled slyly. "Come, there's something I need to show you."

---

Flying through the skies of Konoha was something that Tsunade had never experienced before.

The Hokage looked up again at the black-armoured Nathmenid that was now holding her by her belt and the back of her shirt. The helmet had obscured most of the facial features, but the horns still protruded from under the frontal rim.

All around her, the Nathmenids were aiming and firing their strange weapons at the Undead below. Having no ranged weapons, the zombies were basically sitting ducks. A few tried to jump up to reach their enemies, but they never reached the height that the Nathmenids were flying in. Most of them ended up looking like porcupines, with their bodies bristling with arrow ends.

However, she began to notice that the Nathmenids were not particularly aiming at the zombies at all. They were aiming at those skeletons that dotted here and there amongst the Undead army. Once one of those skeletons fell, Tsunade saw several zombies fall along with it.

They quickly flew over the Konoha walls, outside which the zombies were trying to break through those lines bristling with long pike heads. Behind the lines were a small group of people, and that was where they landed.

Sakura let out a surprised gasp.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Sakura! Tsunade-sama," Kakashi replied. "Nice to see you again."

Standing with Kakashi were several Nathmenids, their black armour of a different design from the rest of the Nathmenid army. Tsunade did not like the look the female one had when her red eyes squinted at her and Sakura.

"What happened? What are you doing here?" Sakura asked as her Nathmenid gently put her down onto the ground.

"Well..." Kakashi turned to the Nathmenid woman. She turned to Tsunade and smiled.

"He is here at my invitation," she clutched her fists on her chest and bowed in a Nathmenid greeting, her voice a bit too deep for a woman. "I am Roxana Dohaman, High General of the Kastunisa division of the Army of the Immortals."

"Immortals?" Tsunade asked.

"Let's just say we're the army of the Dawn Empire and leave it at that."

"Dawn Empire? But..."

"Roxana-sama!" a voice called out from behind the Hokage. Tsunade turned around, and gasped in shock.

Standing there in front of her was a black haired man in a black robe patterned with red clouds.

"Uchiha… Itachi?

Sakura turned around and stared at her sensei intensely, disbelief filling her eyes.

Itachi, however, seemed to have ignored them both.

"The last of the Leaf has been evacuated out, Roxana-sama," the Akatsuki bowed. "Orders?"

The High General looked at somewhere beyond Itachi. "The Immortals can use a hand."

"Yes, Roxana-sama." Itachi bowed and disappeared in a buff of smoke.

Tsunade could not help but to stare at the Nathmenid. What did she have to do with the Akatsuki?

Roxana took a glace at the Hokage, and only smirked.

---

Gaara literally smirked as he crushed the skeletons with his sand. Nearby, Kuri sent her cyclones to another group of skeletons, disrupting their spells that allowed them to raise Undead.

After seeing the zombies falling down for each skeleton destroyed the Nathmenids, the sand master quickly figured it out that these skeletons were the weakness of the Undead. Gaara never knew that they were crucial to raising the dead: his encounters with the Undead always ended up him trying to defend himself from the front most zombies, while the skeletons were always several lines behind the front.

With that knowledge, the Undead would not last long.

A sudden explosion on his left broke Gaara's revere. He turned around, and at the street corner to his left was a large dome-shape, covered by a black robe with a pattern of red clouds. At the top of the dome was a straw hat, hiding who half of his masked face.

The robe gave Gaara a clue.

"What?" Gaara muttered. "Akatsuki?"

A bony tail struck out from under the robe, cutting through several Undead before retracting back underneath. The movement moved the hat a little, and Gaara could see the stony eyes staring underneath.

Those eyes met Gaara's for a second. Then, as if realizing who he was, the Akatsuki started to fight its way through the Undead, towards him.

---

Sasori casually twisted a handle inside his puppet, and its tail struck across the close line of Undead, brushing them aside.

This was not much of a fight. Despite the fact that the Undead were difficult to "kill", their claws and teeth could not penetrate the thick armour of the puppet. Sasori could simply march through lines after lines of Undead without much risk to himself.

Not that he was going to take that risk however. Sasori kept himself back, not plunging himself into the sea of Undead. He had instructions to hold the Undead back, while the Immortals from above bomb the enclosed zombies. Roxana liked to do things systematically, and Sasori had nothing against that.

That did not stop the battle becoming a little bit repetitive and boring, however. While shinobis were well known for their team-work, a four-man team usually meant that everyone had to perform several task at once. With an army of thousands of soldiers, however, each man had only a single, specific task. The infantry were to hold the enemy together, while the air force bombarded them.

It was an effective tactic, the result of industrialized warfare, division of labour being exploited to the full. However, as effective was it was, it was also far less satisfying for the individual. Sasori felt, more than ever, as if he was just a part of a huge military machine. It was as if it really did not matter much if he was there or not, though Roxana insisted that his presence was important.

Sasori looked around at the battlefield. Apart from him, there was not many holding the Undead back. All the other shinobis seemed to be busy with evacuating the villagers into the caves: just as Roxana had predicted that they would do. Nearby, a pair of sand shinobis was combating the Undead with sand and wind. Not surprisingly the Sand, or what remained of it, came to the Leaf.

Despite the fact that the Sand was his former home, Sasori felt little when he learnt that it had been obliterated. Ever since his parents died of cancer, Sasori had been obsessed with puppetry. With the tutorage of his grandmother Chiyo, he became an undisputed puppet master within a couple of years. In fact, several of the best puppets used by the Sand were built by him. In the end, Sasori became so powerful that the Kazekage, fearing another Gaara, drove him out of the village. Had it not been Roxana, Sasori reckoned that he would end up destroying the village himself.

However, he had orders of the highest priority to evacuate anyone within the Village. Thus Sasori ended up fighting his way through the Undead towards the two Sand shinobis.

They stared at him in surprise as Sasori approached them.

"Hi," Sasori said.

---

Hinata could not stop herself from biting her teeth as she saw the Nathmenids surrounding the Undead army. She felt the darkness that controlled her body issuing mental commands towards the zombies, ordering them to take new formations to engage their new enemies. She could feel the surge of wild rage as whatever it was that went into her maddened with anger.

It felt weird and frightening. She was imprisoned inside herself, while the darkness dominated her body and her brain. Strangely enough, Hinata's conscious was still intact, which made the experience even worse since she was fully aware what that darkness was doing. She could not resist, could not stop while the darkness dominated her body entirely.

Her wings gave a strong flap, and she was lifted into the air. Several Nathmenids aimed their crossbows- for some reason she recognized what they were, despite the fact that she never seen one before- at her, but Hinata's hands, moving faster than she knew them to be, deflected all of the bolts that were coming towards her.

Before she knew it, Hinata found herself behind the Nathmenids, her palms pressed onto their backs. Her Chakra poured out through her palms into the bodies of the demons.

The Nathmenid soldiers were only pushed forward, however, though it was enough for Hinata to spread her wings and got away, over the lines of Nathmenid soldiers with their bristling spears.

---