The desert stretched endlessly beneath them, cracked and shimmering, but Naruto’s eyes were locked on the thing in the horizon — the thing that made the air feel heavier just by looking at it.
They’d read the message scrolls en route. A celestial object. A battle. Casualties. But the words hadn’t done it justice.
Now they could see it and even from this far away, it looked wrong.
A jagged crater ripped into the land like a wound in the earth itself, at least ten kilometers wide. And in the center, slouched and still steaming, lay a half-buried metal carcass — a ship, maybe, but twisted and hunched like a war machine that had died angry. Smoke bled from ruptures in its skin. Fungal masses bloomed across its surface like cancer. And around it, green mist drifted through the air, faintly pulsing.
“I was expecting something like with Haido's land ships, but that's way bigger and nowhere near as pretty” he said quietly.
Sakura hummed.
"Say what you want about that psycho, at least everything he made was beautiful." she said.
Naruto swallowed.
They moved faster after that. Whatever that thing was, they didn't want to be near it. It was noone by the time Suna's gates came into view, and it was sweltering.
When they reached Sunagakure’s gates, the guards barely said a word. They recognized the Leaf headbands and waved them through with urgency. The city beyond was eerily quiet — no merchants, no children, no idle chatter. Just squads of shinobi moving in perfect coordination, seals glowing on rooftops and hawks circling above.
They were taken straight to the central citadel, where an elite ANBU ushered them into the war tower.
Inside the lobby they met the other delagates from rival villages. That there was a trio from every major village spoke volumes.
Closest to the door stood a trio in stone-gray flak armor, jagged and blunt-edged. The shortest of them stepped forward, a boy about Naruto’s age with spiked hair and thick goggles perched over his forehead protector.
“I’m Kitsuchi,” he said with a stiff nod direted at Kakashi in particular. “Represening Stone. This is my daughter, Kurotsuchi, and Akatsuchi.”
He indicated a girl that looked like Sasuke if he were to use the sexy jutsu and a man that made Choji look svelt. The girl looked down wit ha slight nod and the Akatsuchi guy gave the biggest, warmest smile Naruto had ever seen in his life.
Next to him, an older woman with folded arms snorted. She was blonde wit ha short skirt. Her teammates were a dark skinned woman with red hair and a white-haired swordsman.
“Samui. These are my teammates, Karui and Omoi. Representing Lightning.”
The redhead waved friendily, eyeing Naruto and Kakashi's clothes.
"Karui." She said simply.
A third figure stepped beside her — a tall man with a sword strapped across his back and an easy grin.
“Omoi. Also Lightning. And yes, I’ve already imagined seventeen ways this meeting could go horribly wrong. I’m not sharing any of them yet.”
Naruto blinked at the man, who reminded Naruto somewhat of Shikamaru in a way he couldn't explain.
The last trio stood farther off and weren't a trio, but a duo. Their Mist headbands gleamed under the torchlight. One of them was a man with hair like a rhino's horn and an eye patch. He bowed slightly.
"Ao." He said simply.
His companion seemed more social.
“Chōjūrō. Team Mist. Acting representative of the Mizukage,” he said.
Naruto looked around scratched the back of his head.
“Wow, you guys all got here before us?” he asked.
“They were probably out on missions nearer Suna when Suna requested aid. Whereas we were in Konoha and requested by name.” Kakashi said, amused.
Before Naruto could ask more, another figure stepped into the room — tall, red-haired, and wrapped in Kazekage’s robes. He looked so much more at ease than last time Naruto had seen him.
“Welcome,” Gaara said, his voice even. “Thank you all for answering the summons. If you would please come with me.”
“Hey, Gaara!” Naruto grinned, raising a hand.
Gaara nodded, faintly. “Naruto. Sakura. Kakashi. You’re just in time. Jiraiya-sama is already inside.”
“Sensei is here?!” Naruto brightened.
They were led upstairs to a large room with a circular table. Half of it was already filled with elderly warhawks and advisors to rival the crouchiness of the elders in Konoha. And sure enough, Hiraiya was seated in the middle of the empty half.
He turned around when they came in and smiled at them, pulling out the chair next to him for Naruto to sit in, which he did.
Everyone else settled around the war table. Seals glowed on its surface, and above it, a scroll projector had already been activated — floating illusory diagrams of the crashed object, symbols, even rough sketches of the enemy. Naruto’s stomach churned at the sight of them.
“Let’s begin,” Gaara said. “Two nights ago, this object — possibly a ship, possibly a weapon — entered our atmosphere and landed near our city. It was not a meteor. It adjusted course mid-descent.”
An aide stepped forward, flipping scrolls to display crude field sketches of the creatures within.
Naruto leaned in.
The green-skinned monsters stared back at him with too-wide mouths and iron-filled fists. Their weapons looked like junk — scrap and pipes and motors welded together — but in the sketches, those weapons were shredding shinobi.
"We don't know what they are called. For now we are simply calling them the Aliens, for that is surely what they are.” Baki said, stepping to Gaara’s side. “We don’t know where they’re from, or how they got here, but they arrived ready for war.”
“They didn’t just fight,” Tamari said, frowning. “They enjoyed it. Laughed through it. Took wounds that should’ve killed them and kept going. We’ve dealt with berserkers before. These aren’t just insane. They’re… infected with it.”
Naruto tensed.
There was silence for a long moment.
“Can we kill them?” Omoi asked, almost too casually.
“Quite easily, actually,” Gaara said. “Even Genin can outpace them in speed, though their strength and toughness are far greater than any expected. Their tactics were equally unexpected."
Kankuro stepped in.
"Had we known to expect firearms, none of us would have died to them. Had we known how strong they were, none of us would have died from trying to block blows with too little chakra. Had we known they could take fatal blows and were immune to pain, none of us would have died from switching targets after killing one that didn't realize it was dead for another ten seconds." He explained.
Kakashi hummed.
"I have seen exceptional Jonin die to Genin due to overconfidence or misjuding the enemies abilities." He said.
"Exactly. And that is we lost so many good fighters." Gaara said. "So we tell you this, when you fight them be prepared for firearms, make certain to do enough damage that they cannot continue fighting instead of merely slicing a vital artery and assuming they'll go down. I also recommend foregoing blocks in favor of dodging, which is easy because of how slow they are."
Naruto, realizing there was blank paper and pens places in front of him, started writing this down. The others followed his lead.
“We’re requesting each village assign a forward team to our quarantine zone,” Baki said. “We need eyes, jutsu specialists, researchers, and backup. No one has entered the wreck yet, but we’re preparing for infiltration.”
Jiraiya nodded.
“Intel’s the top priority. Before we can win anything, we need to understand what just walked out of the stars.”
Then came the noise.
A thud of hurried footsteps. A gasp.
The doors burst open, and a sand-nin sprinted in, eyes wide with disbelief.
“Sir!” he shouted. “You need to see this—now!”
The council surged after Gaara to the citadel balcony.
Outside, the desert had changed.
It was cooler. Still.
Naruto stepped forward, and for a moment, he couldn’t tell what was falling from the sky. The flakes were drifting, like ash… but not ash.
Snow?
No — it was green.
Soft, glowing flakes fell through the air like shimmering pollen, settling on armor and rooftops. It melted on contact, leaving no moisture — only a faint tingle.
Sakura caught one on her glove and held it up.
“It’s alive,” she whispered.
Gaara stared at the sky, voice like stone. “It’s begun.”
Jiraiya muttered under his breath.
“This is either a biological weapon, or just a contageon they brought along, either way it is an emergency.” He said.
He turned to Sakura and she took her cue.
"Prepare antifungal washes and inhalants." She said as she removed her headband and wrapped it around her mouth. "Steroidal to be extra cautious.
Everyone else followed her lead in masking up.
After that, the world moved fast.
One moment, they stood on the citadel balcony beneath a sky snowing green. The next, Gaara’s sand surged beneath their feet, forming flat, rippling platforms that lifted everyone into the air. The desert wind roared around them as a dozen flying islands of sand carved a path eastward — fast and smooth, yet steady enough for each village’s representatives to remain standing.
Sakura held tight to Naruto’s sleeve.
Ahead, the massive outer wall of Sunagakure rose into view — fortified, covered in defense seals, and already crowded with shinobi. Gaara’s sand arced them over the battlements before gently depositing the delegation onto the highest tier.
Dozens of Suna ninja were already there, forming lines and rallying formations.
Then came the noise.
A deep crack — like a mountain snapping open.
Everyone turned east, looking towards the crash site.
The dunes several kilometers away began to tremble. A few moments later, they erupted like a volcano. Massive rents tore open in the sand like wounds, geysering dust and heat into the air.
From the craters poured monsters.
The first wave looked like shark mouths on legs — giant, jawed things waddling forward on stubby limbs, their maws filled with rows of crude metal teeth. Behind them swarmed hundreds of tiny, green-skinned humanoids barely the size of children. They carried jagged knives, clubs, and crude guns, screaming in impossibly high-pitched voices.
“They’re smaller than the last ones,” emari said.
“That doesn’t make them less dangerous,” Kakashi said grimly.
Gaara narrowed his eyes.
“They’re coming directly at the wall.” said the Kazekage.
He moved to leap off the battlement — his sand already forming into a lift — but Naruto stepped forward, hand outstretched.
“Wait!”
Everyone froze.
Naruto turned to Gaara.
“If it were me… and I could dig through the ground to attack a village…”
He pointed toward the approaching enemy.
“…I wouldn’t stop just outside the wall and let the enemy see where I stopped. Unless it was misdirection.”
Gaara’s eyes narrowed, following Naruto’s line of thinking.
“I’d make them think I stopped there… while I actually kept going…” Naruto slowly turned, keeping his finger pointed.
His finger stopped — not at the walls, but at the center of the village.
“Right… there.”
As the word left his mouth, the center of Sunagakure exploded.
A massive plume of earth and green flame erupted from beneath the city streets, showering rooftops in molten glass and debris. A horde of the creatures burst forth from the ground like a geyser — the same jawed monstrosities, followed by swarms of screaming gremlins.
Then another explosion tore through the market district.
And another near the aviary.
Then six more — all at once.
The city was under siege from within.
“They tunneled straight through,” Kakashi said in disbelief.
Naruto’s knuckles whitened.
Gaara stepped to the edge of the wall, sand swirling violently at his feet.
“They studied our defenses.”
“No,” Naruto said. “They sniffed them out.”
And behind them, Sunagakure burned.
The explosions were still echoing when the shinobi turned to each other on the battlements, eyes sharp, jaws set.
There was no argument. No formal strategy. Only instinct — and the need to avoid getting in each other’s way.
“I’ll make clones and rescue people,” Naruto said, already forming the hand sign.
“I’ll bandage up everyone you bring me,” Sakura replied, pulling her gloves tighter.
“I’ll go out there and deal with the ones still approaching the wall,” Gaara added, his sand rising beneath him like a living serpent. “Where no one will get in my way.”
“We’ll head to the crash site,” Karui of the Lightning Team said, unsheathing her blades. “If they’re prepping a second wave from there, we’ll shut it down.”
“Count on it,” Omoi muttered beside her, already chewing on the tip of a kunai.
“We’ll move to the underground entrances,” Kitsuchi from the Stone Team said, adjusting his goggles. “Cave in their tunnels from below.”
Mangetsu of the Mist gave a tight nod.
“We’ll join you — flood the tunnels before you collapse. Let’s drown the rats before they surface.”
Jiraiya was already flipping through a summoning scroll.
“I’ll start the evacuation. Civilians, academy kids, injured — get them to me so I can get them out.”
Kakashi’s eye narrowed.
“I’m heading to the streets. Wherever they’re thickest — that’s where I’ll be.”
He turned slightly, nodding to the Sand shinobi already arrayed behind him.
“They’ll be joining me.”
There was a pause.
One heartbeat.
Naruto clapped his hands together.
“Brrrreak!”
And just like that, they all vanished — scattering like fire across the city.
-
The city was chaos.
Explosions roared across the rooftops. Screams echoed down the alleyways. The smell of blood and fire clung to every stone.
Naruto stood at the heart of the whirlwind — and he moved.
“Shadow Clone Jutsu!”
A hundred Narutos exploded into existence across the rooftops in a golden flash, each one already in motion.
“Clear the west streets!”
“Form a human wall at the outer market!”
“Evac route B is blocked — reroute through the academy courtyard!”
Clones scattered in every direction, barking orders, grabbing civilians, and mostly avoiding the combat in favor of rescue. The city might have been in ruins, but Naruto’s will spread through it like wildfire.
One clone formed a Rasengan mid-run and drove it into the side of a horned squig as it charged down the street, its boar-thick skull already smoking with chakra heat. The impact sent ichor flying, but not before the beast’s jagged horn skewered the clone through the chest — it burst in a puff of smoke and gore.
Another clone caught sight of a civilian pinned beneath rubble, only to be tackled by a squat, oil-belching squig. The thing gurgled once — then spat a stream of black slime that ignited midair. The clone screamed as it vanished in flame, but not before another clone yanked the woman free and hauled her toward the triage line.
On the rooftops, several Narutos worked with sand shinobi redirecting their fire jutsu into the fungal towers erupting from chimneys and gardens. The towers screeched as they burned, splitting open and vomiting spores that clung like leeches to anything warm.
A Naruto clone spotted a cluster of Genin, covered in gook and blood from the dead enemies around them, trapped on a sagging footbridge — just as a bloated squig, balloon-like and pulsing, waddled into view below them.
It popped.
The explosion flattened two buildings and erased five clones mid-leap. The bridge collapsed. The real Naruto, breath tight, blurred forward and caught the first child out of the air before he hit the rubble.
Elsewhere, a clone was ripped apart by a saw-jawed squig that flailed on stubby legs and left a trail of shredded masonry in its wake. It was only brought down when a Kakashi hurled a lightning kunai through its bloated eye and a Naruto clone followed up with a Rasengan to its underbelly, splattering its acidic blood across the walls.
Still more clones worked rooftop by rooftop — shoving civilians ahead of them, blocking passageways, and coordinating tunnel evacuations. Every time one clone was destroyed, another reappeared somewhere else, running, shouting, saving.
Naruto’s chakra was thinning. He could feel it.
But his clones fought like they had one soul. Or more accurately, didn't fight, and for that they were felled. This was fine. They'd get theirs when the civilians were out of the way.
And even as they carved paths of salvation through the chaos, the squigs didn’t stop.
They just kept coming.
In the medical district, Sakura crouched beside a bloodied Chunin, hands glowing with chakra as she repaired a severed artery. Dust and screams filled the air.
“Pressure here!” she shouted to a Suna med-nin, who rushed to obey.
Dozens of makeshift cots had been set up in the remains of a stone plaza — now riddled with craters, half-sheltered by fallen statues and chunks of broken wall. The medical tent had already collapsed once and been propped up again.
A scream ripped through the tent’s far side.
Something massive moved between the craters — a full-grown green brute, easily eight feet tall and coated in rusted armor and fungal residue. Its yellow eyes locked onto Sakura.
It charged, screaming
Sakura stood, walked towards it and crouched low to ground herself.
“I’m working, you piece of shit!" She yelled.
Sakura let fury fill her bones and chakra flood her limbs. She punched forward with all her strength.
The monster evaporated. Its chest exploded into meat and vapor, its lower body folding like a dropped puppet.
Blood and viscera sprayed across the walls of the building — but Sakura didn’t flinch.
Within seconds, Sakura ws back with the wounded as shinobi reestablished the a safe zone just with fresh squads of Suna shinobi.
She didn’t stop moving. Not for a second.
“Stabilize this one — lung puncture,” she ordered, slapping gauze onto a torn chest. “Burn is second degree — rinse it now or the chakra’ll react wrong—next!”
As the fires began to die down, Naruto — the real one — stood atop a crumbling wall near the city’s heart. The wind blew ash across his face.
The streets still smoldered. Buildings were broken, some collapsing. The scent of spores lingered in the cracks. Another clone dispersed in a puff of smoke beside him.
He clenched his fists.
“We beat them… right?”
A shape landed beside him — Kakashi, one arm bloodied, the other wiping dust from his flak vest.
He didn’t look at Naruto.
“No,” Kakashi said softly. “We bought time.”
The battle raged for hours.
From one end of the city to the other, explosions lit the sky, smoke clogged the alleys, and green corpses littered the streets like discarded toys. Fires hissed against mist jutsu. Earth walls shattered under waves of tiny green invaders. The larger brutes had mostly fallen, but the smaller ones kept coming.
They didn’t stop.
They didn’t think.
They just charged.
Naruto wiped his forehead, panting. Even his clones were slowing now, dispersing faster than he could cast them.
A swirl of sand dropped onto the roof beside him, and Gaara collapsed to one knee, chest heaving.
“Every direction,” he said. “Tens of thousands. All weak. All easily killed. But… replenishing.”
He swayed. His eyes were bloodshot. His hands shook.
Naruto froze.
He’d gone out alone and fought like the world depended on it. And now…
“Gaara…” Naruto said quietly. “Don't tell me you were going all out? It's a marathon not a sprint!”
“I couldn’t stop,” Gaara murmured. “Not while they were spreading. And new ones grow from the corpses.”
The rest of them had noticed that too and took to burning the bodies, but they seldom had time to do so before new swarms came in.
A crash echoed across the rooftops as Kakashi landed beside them, dragging a wounded Suna shinobi over his shoulder.
“The shinobi can hold,” Kakashi snapped. “Hell, we could win. But the civilians? They're dying by the hundreds. We’re out of time.”
Gaara looked up.
“Go.”
“What?” Naruto asked.
“Evacuate the civilians. Gather the foreign delegates. Head west. Once everyone is gone, I’ll stay behind and finish the job. Without collateral.”
Naruto’s instincts screamed to argue — but the logic was airtight. It was the best plan. The only plan.
“…Okay,” he said. “We’ll come back for you.”
They ran.
Kakashi moved like a phantom, his Chidori carving through a line of the shark-mawed beasts and little green men with a screech of plasma. Naruto and his clones didn't bother with the mouths on legs, merely stomping on the small green men and avoiding the large enemies. They turned a corner to find a wall of the gremlin-sized ones forming an organized phalanx in front of a troup of spear and bolo users. The wall lunged from a side alley, he shattered them all with a rasengan that blew away the spears and stones before they could reach them. Of the surviors, he backhanded two, kicked a third into a wall, and flattened the fourth with a sweep of his heel.
“These things really are pathetic,” he muttered.
Naruto and his clones flanked him, flitting from one path to the next, dodging known tunnel openings and sending shadow clones down each to spread the word.
“Evacuate! All civilians! Evac route Bravo!”
“Medical tents to the storage zone!”
“Grab who you can and MOVE!”
From every alley, refugees emerged, ushered by clones and shinobi alike. Suna forces fell into step with them, shielding flanks, directing flow. They were tired. Bloodied. But alive.
They reached the central tower where the battle had first exploded — and found thousands of people already waiting, huddled in waves of fear and exhaustion.
Naruto’s eyes widened at the sight beyond them.
Jiraiya stood at the far end of the courtyard, arms folded, surrounded by dozens of massive bull-sized toads. They were pale bellied and marked with summoning seals, their backs bristling with spots and scroll-pouches.
Naruto recognized them immediately.
Storage toads.
Not fighters. Not scouts.
Tanks for filling.
Some of them could hold entire apartment buildings inside their bellies. Naruto knew the plan.
Around the plaza, Suna shinobi had formed a tight defensive ring. The outer streets burned, but this final checkpoint held fast.
They waited, tense.
The stone and Mist trios arrived moments later — bruised, tired, but intact. The Mist shinobi carried waterlogged scrolls and smelled of blood. The Stone ninja were covered in dust, eyes haunted but alive.
One of the younger Mist-nin, blood streaking his cheek, stopped short and frowned.
“Wait. Why are we retreating? These things are pushovers!” he said.
Heads turned.
Kakashi was in front of him before he realized it.
“It’s not about how strong they are,” Kakashi said, voice low but sharp. “It’s how many. You’re so caught up in the fight you can’t see the battlefield. We are overrun, and we are leaving.”
The young man paled, visibly shrinking back. Even Naruto winced. He’d rarely heard that tone from Kakashi.
There were no more questions.
Jiraiya stepped forward, raising one hand.
“Everyone brace yourselves,” he said. “This next part is gonna feel weird!”
Naruto noticed the bumps on his face, the horizontal slits on his irises, and the orange markings around his eyes. He'd only ever seen the man use that power once before.
He nodded to the storage toads.
And then it began.
The toads opened their mouths — wide — and began swallowing.
Like vacuums, they inhaled crowds of civilians, shinobi, even equipment. Screams echoed as people were pulled into slick gullets. The shinobi did not resist, but the civilians would be potentially more traumatized by this than the horros from the afternoon. This was salvation. Safety. Escape.
One after another, the toads swallowed group after group — rows of villagers, full squads of ninja, and entire carts of supplies.
Only Jiraiya and Naruto remained standing once the toads had finished.
The air was thick with smoke and silence.
Jiraiya glanced at Naruto.
“You ready?”
Naruto nodded once.
The toads all slammed their webbed hands into the ground and performed the signs in perfect unison.
"Reverse Summoning Jutsu!" They yelled as one.
In a burst of smoke, they all vanished — dozens of storage toads, and every soul inside them, teleported far from the battlefield.
Jiraiya and Naruto were left behind.
"So..." Naruto said. "Shall we get to work?"
Jiraiya chuckled at him as the barriers around them were overrun.
A sheer wall of the enemies, every type of the mouths on legs, little green men and the proper big ones, charged at them from every direction.
"Not right now kid. We need to get out of hte way for Gaara. We're leaving to." He said.
Naruto looked at him, utterly unconcerned with the club wielding maniac seconds away from splattering him.
"How..." he tried to ask, but the answer revealed itself a second later.
He felt himself cease to exist, like his entire body evaporated into a smoke. A second later, he rematerialized somewhere completely different.
It was a tropical place. Bright morning sunlight shone through croissant-shaped hills and giant versions of plants he knew to be small and to favor ponds.
-
Far to the south of Sunagakure, high atop a jagged sandstone outcropping, a lone figure stood beneath the darkening sky.
A breeze tugged at his cloak. Dust curled at his boots. War raged before him.
Obito’s lone Sharingan eye stared unblinking through the hole of his mask, tracking the distant plumes of smoke and flashes of combat that lit up the early night sky. The city still smoldered across the horizon. From this height and distance, Sunagakure looked like a broken sun — flickering, twitching, bleeding green.
He said nothing.
Behind him, a figure peeled out of the rock itself like flesh from bone.
The-chromed venus flytrap spoke.es.
“So,” the white half muttered, scratching his chin, “I don’t know what we were expecting…”
“I came here with no expectations,” Obito said. His voice was as dry as the wind. “And I am still… I don’t know what I feel right now.”
“Existential horror?” offered the black half.
“Completely and utterly baffled?” suggested the white.
Obito didn’t answer at first.
Then he exhaled, the breath barely audible behind the mask.
“Lost,” he said. “We now have to drop everything. As to what we’re going to do—”
A sound split the dusk.
A roar.
Low and primal. Ancient.
They turned back toward the dying light. From the heart of the desert, a mountain rose. But it was no mountain.
Shukaku erupted from the sands with a howl of incandescent rage, his form half-shifting and shaking with elemental fury. Sand twisted around him like a cyclone. His chakra boiled the sky.
He rampaged through the remains of the green tide, smashing twisted towers of fungal growth, devouring beasts whole, shattering the dunes with his claws. He didn’t roar at enemies. He roared at the world.
The three observers watched in silence.
“…I,” Obito said slowly, “have no. Idea.”