One Summer's Day

Chapter Fourteen: The End

Enjoy

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Genma turned, spraying another handful of senbon at the enemy, distracting and slowing them down in one move. He quickly formed seals.

"Wind Style: Senbon Speed Trap!"

As soon as his enemies were defeated it seemed like another wave was ready to take their place. The more frustrating point was not the sheer number of the enemy but the way they seemed to be fighting. Genma had expected to face Sound-nin who possessed the cursed seal of Orochimaru, as he and Raido had in the past. However not a single enemy shinobi had released a cursed mark seal during the vanguard's battle.

Genma was beginning to suspect that the low level fodder they were fighting was being used for a purpose more subtle than battle.

Genma cursed not being able to properly imbue the leaf forces with the blood poison that he and Kakashi had been trying to resurrect from the war with Rock. It would have given them an edge in a battle that Genma suspected was going to require every edge they had.

To his left Raidou seemed to be thinking much the same. "I think we should send a missive back to HQ!" the scarred shinobi shouted over the battle noise.

"And tell them what?" Genma shouted back, "That we've been very efficient at eliminating all of Sound's genin?"

"Urge Shikaku-taichou to issue the vanguard a retreat. You know as well as I that these can't be Sound's main forces!"

Genma nodded grimly. He knew that. Turning around to launch a wave of senbon at the enemy in front of him in order to give himself more room to maneuver Genma prepared a scroll missive. He looked around for a chunin to run the message back.

Dashing past Raidou, Genma headed towards the trees. Before he could reach them, however, a leaf-nin's teleportation jutsu appeared in front of him, the nin falling to his knees the moment he appeared.

"Choza-san!" Genma exclaimed, shocked. One of the last people he expected to see at the front was the Akimichi clan head. He expected the man to be on the walls, preparing the village for a second attack.

What was more surprising than the gasping, doubled over form of the great ninja was that in his hands he was gripping an unconscious snow white ferret. Genma's senbon twitched between his lips.

"The Hokage needs to be alerted immediately," gasped Choza, struggling to his feet and putting a hand to the gaping wound in his abdomen. "Orochimaru leads his main force under cover of an alarming jutsu. It shields them, and they travel through ground. They appear only when they want to."

"Genjutsu?" Genma asked, alarmed. He hurried forward to put an arm under the Akimichi and help him stand but the other man shook him off.

Instead, Choza thrust the unconscious ferret into Genma's arms. "Take this creature to the Hokage, it can sniff out its master within Orochimaru's forces. We don't have much time."

Genma nodded. "Raidou! Iwashi! I need you over here!"

To Choza he asked, "I'll get someone to transport you back for medical treatment-?"

The older man waved a large hand. "I can make the way back on my own, and we'll soon need every shinobi for the battle coming. Order the vanguard back to the village; quickly."

"Shikaku-taichou will-"

"Understand," said Choza, calmly. "My friend would make the same choice. You're an honored guard of the Hokage, Genma, don't be afraid of the leadership that comes with that."

Needing no more encouragement Genma turned to the battlefield behind him. "BACK TO THE VILLAGE!" he roared "WE'RE RETREATING TO THE VILLAGE!"

"What's going on?" Raidou asked in shock, he and Iwashi landing next to Genma, no worse for wear than they had been when he left them.

Genma tucked the ferret into his vest, sending one last look at Choza. He held his hands out to Raidou and Iwashi. "Flying Thunder God Formation Technique."

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Tsunade felt chakra pull and gather in the air to her left before she felt the faint twinge of the seal that had been concealed on her years ago. With weary eyes Tsunade watched her great-uncle's jutsu come to life before her, and three of her most trusted guards materialize before her and Jiraiya.

"What's this?" Jiraiya asked.

Tsunade cut him off with a hand, hurriedly she demanded "Genma! Raidou! Iwashi! Report!"

Genma didn't waste time and stepped forward immediately. "Akimichi Choza appeared at the front, Hokage-sama. He bore a message for you and urged me to give the call to retreat."

Tsunade nodded, fists forming at her side. "Is the condition that bad?"

"No," Raidou shook her head, "That's the thing. All these nin we're facing are like genin. They rush forward more to die than to fight."

"What?" Jiraiya gasped. "You've encountered no resistance?"

"Please," Genma interrupted, pulling the white ferret from his vest. "Choza-san was gravely wounded and the message that he gave me is enough to make me worry."

"Go ahead, Genma," Tsunade ordered. Around them the normally quiet forests of Konoha were echoing with distant sounds of battle and of the front's retreat.

Iwashi and Raidou were curious about what Choza could have told Genma, but the urgency in the normally dry witted and sarcastic shinobi's voice had been enough to supersede their curiosity. Now, they listened to Genma explain with rapt attention. Raidou began to worry that Konoha was being drawn into a battle that none of them were ready for.

"Choza-san says that Orochimaru leads the real force under the cover of a jutsu that allows them to travel quickly and undetected through the Earth. Choza-san seemed certain that Orochimaru was in the process of heading to the village, and that this summon could be used to track the group. I believe that Choza made contact with the group and was wounded in the process."

Jiraiya turned to Tsunade. "What do you want to do? Have everyone retreat behind the walls? Waiting to see what his play is might be the more prudent move."

Tsunade shook her head slowly. "In Sand their siege was broken with little effort, their walls and defenses practically useless. I won't do the same to Konoha. If that bastard is here for our blood than we'll meet him on the battlefield. We'll spare our civilians, or at least give them time to run."

Tsunade held her hand out for the ferret. Genma handed it to her and she held it in front of her, distastefully. "I can see Choza but a barrier seal on it, probably to keep it from returning to it'=s own realm. Well, if it's going to lead us to Orochimaru then maybe it's time to wake it up."

"Looks like a rat," Jiraiya muttered. "Would have preferred a mongoose if we're going after a snake."

"Iwashi," Tsunade ignored her fellow sage "Send one of your summons ahead, we need to gather at the village properly before we reawaken this summon."

Iwashi bowed slightly. "Of course, Tsunade-sama."

Underneath Genma's feet the ground shook ominously.

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Naruto and the others had caught up to the vanguard just as the platoons of shinobi were darting their way through the trees and back towards the village.

"Hey! What's going on?" Naruto shouted as a group of chunin ran past them.

A chunin of Rock Lee's age group, a talented fire user, dropped down next to them. "A retreat back to the village has been ordered. If you guys don't want to be up here on your own I'd suggest you turn right around."

"Good," Shikamaru declared, relieved. "They realized after all."

"Realized what?" Sakura asked. The chunin that had stopped to talk to them left without another word. He glanced back at them, seemingly confused about why they weren't joining the rush back to the village.

Shikamaru nodded towards the direction the retreating shinobi were coming from. "That battle was most likely supposed to be a distraction, some pain in the ass show designed to distract us."

"You think that snake-bastard is tricking us?" Naruto asked serious.

Shikamaru nodded, though he was barred a further explanation as a voice was mentally projected into all their minds.

Behind them Neji, Hinata, and Choji landed. Shikamaru jerked his head at everyone and with a simple motion had them leaping into the trees and heading back towards the village.

"Is that your old man?" Naruto asked Shikamaru, gritting his teeth as a repeat of the retreat was given to all the nin spread across the northern forest.

Shikamaru nodded.

We are now aware that Orochimaru and his main force are heading towards the village from the East and are using an advanced combination of ninjutsu and genjutsu to hide their progress. All shinobi are asked to return the village. The squads of genjutsu leaders are asked to reassemble with their captains at the East Gate. You will help reveal Orochimaru's forces.

Shikamaru swore. "It's got something to do with the ground!" he shouted to the others. "The Sand reports said that the enemy appeared without notice, and the first reports from the walls said that enemies were able to appear suddenly from behind. They're coming from the air or the Earth and I'm betting it's the Earth!"

Uzumaki Naruto, Shikaku's voice continued, filling their mind. Naruto was shocked hard enough that he stumbled and had to catch himself on a branch. From behind them Ino, Kiba, and Rock Lee joined them. Sakura thought she saw Sai's ink bird flying above them.

Naruto, I want you and your team to head to the East Gate as well. This is the role that you and the others have been put forward for. You'll meet the Hokage and take orders from her.

"What d'ya mean?" Naruto asked. He shouted out loud instead of asking the question mentally. Naruto had probably never seen wide spread battle communications before, not the kind that Shikaku and Inoichi used. "Is granny going to fight?"

Shikamaru knew the answer. It was most likely that the Hokage had determined that a fight waged too closely to the village could cost them greatly. That, and Shikamaru estimated that the Hokage was the type of person who would want to meet this particularly enemy on the battle field and put him down herself.

Shikamaru looked at Ino and Choji and wondered if it came down to it, if they were ever in the situation of Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru, if he would be strong enough to do the same.

Shikaku didn't reply and Shikamaru hadn't expected him to.

"We don't have too much time, Naruto, let's hurry."

Neji and Hinata activated their Byakugan and took positions on either flank. Shikamaru nodded with approval as their group organized into a more-or-less proper formation, Rock Lee with vocal excitement.

Naruto, as per usual and to Shikamaru's satisfaction, was taking the lead.

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The East Gate was like nothing those of Naruto's generation had ever seen before. Some of them had heard horrific tales of the last ninja war from their parents or their teachers. Some of them had seen the way eyes glazed over when a person spoke of war time atrocities; others knew names of relatives that they would never meet because of it. The East Gate was alive with the formation of a shinobi army.

Small but efficient; forceful and deadly. Shinobi were receiving orders and giving them. They were organizing into squads and passing along information and weapons. Their movements were graceful, and war to a shinobi army was the ultimate declaration of skill and honor. Each movement, each jutsu—it would all be to one end only.

More noticeable than ever before, the Hokage was positioned in a circle of her highest ranked captains. Jiraiya stood to her side. The Godaime Hokage looked more serious than many could remember her being. There was now barely a single nin that could remember the jokes about her drinking and her gambling; more impressive now was her calm head and her precise focus.

Konoha was going to war.

Konoha was in war.

Naruto and his group approached, Sakura greeting the Hokage first. Shikamaru saw the eyes of her captains turn towards them but instead of thinly veiled derision like he expected he saw solemn nods in greeting. They, a group praised for being remarkable but nonetheless younger than most, were being accepted as equals by war hardened shinobi their parents age.

Shikamaru hoped that he and his teammates had enough strength within themselves to make these comrades of theirs proud.

Tsunade sent her captains off and turned to Naruto, appraising. "Are you ready, Naruto?"

Naruto nodded, and swallowed. "You better believe I'm ready for anything that snake-bastard can dish out."

"Is the Kyuubi ready?"

Many eyes slanted sideways towards Naruto at Tsunade's question. Doubt and suspicion were the simple bedfellows of a shinobi but all of those gathered around Naruto straightened up at the question. They would be quick to defend him if his position became questionable due to his status as a jinchuuriki. He had proved himself to them, and before the end all of them—from Sakura to Neji and from Choji to Hinata and all the rest—they were all determined to help Naruto prove himself to everyone else as well.

"His name's Kurama!" Naruto threw a hand out, fisting it determinedly a moment later. "And he's with me."

If Tsunade was taken aback she didn't show it, although Jiraiya looked surprised and impressed at her side.

"Shall I join the medic-nin, Tsunade-shisou?" Sakura asked, standing forward.

"No, you'll remain in this squad, Sakura. You all have fought hard together, and your teamwork and friendship may be the very thing that gives this village a promising future."

"Squad leader?" Neji asked stoically, positioned calmly beside Rock Lee.

"And formation," Shikamaru added, slouching his weight onto a hip.

"There will be five squads in my immediate vicinity to lead the rush. Among them the squad leaders will be Jiraiya, the Kazekage, Anko, Kakashi, and…"

"Me," the Yondaime flickered into being by Naruto's right shoulder. He skidded into position, kicking up dust. He was grinning as wide as was possible. "And all you brats are with me."

Tsunade chuckled, but didn't waste time. The ground was trembling underneath their feet, and it had little to do with the squads organizing themselves around the Hokage. A sensor-nin, a Yamanaka, landed at the feet of the Hokage a white ferret sealed with barrier jutsu clunched in their hand.

"We've confirmed their location with the animal. Life signatures detected three clicks north by north-east, heading fast from the direction of guard post eleven. They seem to be moving through the ground."

Tsunade nodded, the information expected. She dismissed the scout and motioned them into formation.

When the order finally came for them to head out, to begin the rush and meet the enemy on an open field of battle they all did so readily.

Naruto put a hand to his stomach, remembering Yamato-taichou's training and also the words of the fox who had promised to help him. "This is it," he said aloud, as much to himself as anyone who was listening.

"Together, Naruto," Sakura promised from his side. "Team 7, whole or not."

There was a shout and the squads began running as one.

"We'll make our village proud, and we'll protect everyone. We won't leave a comrade behind or an enemy undefeated," Naruto closed his eyes briefly, feeling his will snap into tangible being around him in the form of the Kyuubi's cloak. "Whatever we come up against we're Konoha shinobi and that means something."

Unaware or maybe simply uncaring, Naruto's voice was growing steadily louder. Many people surrounding them were voicing support or agreement with the Uzumaki, Rock Lee being the loudest.

"We can do this, Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted ahead.

Shikamaru couldn't help the satisfied agreement that left his lips either. Even heading into the hardest battle of his life—perhaps the last battle—he could feel the type of passion and dedication that Naruto seemed to invoke in those around him naturally. He could feel his mind, always racing two hundred steps ahead, focus even more sharply on the battle ahead.

Minato, running horizontal to the Hokage and the other squad leaders could hear Naruto as well. Every moment of pride he had ever felt in his life, the moment he won his first fight, the moment he became a jonin, the moment he became a father, it all swelled together in one voluminous feeling as he echoed his sons words back in his own mind.

With a blink of his eyes he was hearing Kushina whisper an endless list of promises to an unborn child still in her stomach. At six months pregnant Minato had arrived home in time to hear and see what she was saying and it's that one moment, that single moment of perfection that he wants to hold onto throughout the entire battle. He doesn't want to forget the sound of a mother's pride.

"Orochimaru will regret whatever he did to bring me here. He won't have the test subject he had wanted to win for his twisted experiments." Minato vowed to himself. His eyes ghosted left and dozens of yards away his eyes connected with Kakashi's. A lifetime of understanding flickered between them and Minato felt unbidden moisture rise to his eyes.

Minato turned to shout over his shoulder as they ran; he was beginning to sense the formerly masked chakra signatures of their enemies becoming fiery beacons dotting the field ahead of them.

"This is the most important battle that any of you will ever participate in," flashes of the past and flashes of what he suspected were times to come darted in front of his eyes. "You may lose comrades or parents, you may lose the closest person you have or you may find yourself being lifted by the God of Death himself. The honor of these most precious of sacrifices will not matter if our village falls!"

In Minato's head he saw swirling red Sharingan's and the purple madness of Rinnegan's. He saw the village's enemies come back to life in a horrid macabre fight. He saw the tailed beasts gathered together in a horrid monolith of ill-gotten insanity. He saw shinobi and kunoichi he knew dearly fall; he saw his son's own friends skim the bosom of death. He saw horrors of his past return to face his son. Minato saw past, present and future become one; the strings that had linked all things in the world sewed themselves together into one before his eyes.

"Any pain that you feel is not real until you believe it is! Any defeat you may think is greeting you is not true until you taste it as blood on your lips! I have never been prouder to be a shinobi of his village, and today is the day that I and all of you can prove the Will of Fire!"

Cheers erupted from Minato's own squad and the squads around them. Ahead, Minato saw a giant snake rear its massive head. The man standing on its brow focused on the approaching shinobi with hunger. The Yondaime could hear summoning around him, and at once the giant forms of Gamabunta and Katsuyu joined the battlefield.

The shinobi forces of Konoha stopped their approach and squad leaders began issuing offensive and defensive commands. Just for a moment, Minato turned quickly, his eyes searching for his son's. A brief moment of fear willed itself away as Naruto's confidence molded and shaped Minato's own.

Sakura breathed out heavily and Naruto nodded. He too could see one very unmistakable form in Orochimaru's forces. Sharingan eyes glared back at Naruto but he didn't take his own gaze away. Naruto knew without a shadow of a doubt that Sasuke's place wasn't next to the snake sage. Naruto knew that he and Sakura would succeed, that all his comrades would succeed, and that he would bring Sasuke back to Konoha.

They would succeed in this. The Will of Fire whispered its assurances to him in the form of his friends' presence.

Naruto found the Yondaime's eyes again.

"Tou-san…believe it!"

The End

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One Summer's day is complete. Over eight years of sparse updates and varying interest and the finish is finally here. It has been a heck of a ride; especially this last month as for the first time I became fully up to date with Naruto, and that, certainly, is the only thing that inspired me to finish this fic. It is entirely different than it was when I set out to write it. For one, all the chapters have been severely overhauled and old content has been deleted and new content added as new canon information became available. Secondly, I've aged eight years in that time as well and my writing has changed to reflect that. Some things I couldn't change or find a way to sound better to me, this is because they were scenes or ideas that had originated in a fourteen year old me and I had no way to change them in a version of me that was much older. It's this reason that makes me feel like I can move on and write more serious and well-written Naruto fic with my re-found interest now that this fic is finished. My initial idea had been for a one-shot and I had bowed to pressure to make a half attempt at a long fic out of it. That was a mistake as Naruto was racing ahead of me in both manga and anime and I had no chance to catch up. For that I apologize, it shouldn't have taken me this long.

A heartfelt thanks to Kishimoto for bringing Naruto alive and giving us the chance to love all these characters as we all do. In standard disclaimer: I don't own them or use them for profit. But, I am sincerely glad to have gotten the opportunity to meet them.

I'm on manga chapter 683 right now and I've already spoiled myself for the end so I do want to say to any Naruto readers that stuck with me this far and have finished Kishimoto's masterpiece—I get it; I can't believe it either. This is on par with when Harry Potter ended and we had to adjust our life goals accordingly.

Please, with best wishes and warmest gratitude, thank you readers and fandom for existing and fueling the delight of fanfiction. Truly, kudos to Naruto fans everywhere, you guys are some of the best.

-AnimeSiren