Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 99: The Repercussions of the Invasion
"I really thought you were going to let us hit the ground," Naruto told Gamabunta.
"I consider it for a moment…" The toad was in a very bad mood.
"The next time you call me… the first thing I want to see are those ten barrels you promised, or we are going to have a problem." After saying that, the Toad Lord disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving Naruto and Gaara in the middle of a burned forest.
"What a grumpy toad..." Naruto sighed. "Right?" He turned to look at the other boy.
"Cough, argg!" Gaara spat some more blood while laying on the ground.
"I suppose I have to get you some medical attention…" Naruto said. If he let the boy die now, it would have made all his work useless.
After all, killing him would have been so much easier, but that would just cause more problems.
He then heard the noises of several people approaching.
The first ones were the other two Sand Village genins, Kankuro and Temari.
"Gaara!" They both said at the same time when they spotted their brother laying on the ground, looking completely still.
Immediately after this, their pursuers finally caught up.
The first one was Sasuke, and quickly after, TenTen, Sakura, and Shikamaru arrived.
"You bastards made me run a lot…" Sasuke did not look happy at all.
"Naruto?...and…." Only then did he notice Gaara was also there, along with Naruto.
"Naruto!" Sakura and the others stared at him.
Temari tried to approach Gaara, but Naruto got in her way.
"Move away! What did you do to our brother?!" she shouted.
"He is alive… I just thrashed him up a bit. I was about to take him to a hospital," Naruto said.
"You defeated Gaara?..." Kankuro said in shock. He didn't think that was possible.
But judging by the appearance of the place they were in, it could not have been an easy fight. The forest was completely destroyed.
"Why is everything burned?..." TenTen asked.
"You beat him…." Sasuke glared at Naruto. Now he wanted to fight him even more.
"Can someone tell me what's going on in Konoha? I just saw a giant snake breaking through the main gates," Naruto said.
"Konoha is under attack." Shikamaru pointed at Temari and Kankuro.
"The Sand Village has broken the alliance and betrayed us. Or that is what it seems. We were sent to capture these two."
"So that's what happened…" Naruto looked at the two other genins from the Sand Village. "Then… what are you waiting for? Capture them."
Gaara coughed blood again. "Urggg …" He seemed ready to pass out at any moment.
"Gaara!" Temari was not allowed to get closer because Naruto was standing before her.
"Get out of my way!" She pulled her iron fan out. "I'm taking my brother and leaving this place."
Kankuro was also ready to fight. Although with his puppet broken, there wasn't much he could do.
"Do I have to do everything myself?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.
Sasuke, Temari, and Sakura jumped into action while Shikamaru prepared his shadows.
They were promptly captured without putting up much of a fight.
Sasuke alone would have been more than enough to handle the two of them, so with the help of three more genin, it was a very quick fight.
"Let us go!" Temari struggled against her restraints. "Just let us leave! We never wanted to take part in this war."
"Yes! We were just following orders!" Kankuro added.
"There is no way we can do that," TenTen said.
"We are also following orders," Shikamaru added.
"Noo! Let us goo!" Temari shouted.
"E-enough….." Gaara said with a weak voice. "We lost…." His eyes were barely open.
"Gaara…" Kankuro had never seen him looking so weak.
"Brother…" Temari said.
"Well then… let's go back to the village." Naruto was eager to see the state of the village.
"By the way, Naruto…" TenTen stared at him. "Was that giant toad your summon?"
<><><><><><><><>
When they returned to Konoha, the battle was already ending.
Most of the Sand invaders had been defeated, while the rest managed to retreat back to their country.
Their side had not suffered too many losses, as their forces were much bigger than the army brought here by the Kazekage.
However, they did suffer one very important loss. The Hokage had been killed by Orochimaru.
It wouldn't be until days later when Naruto learned that the rogue Sannin was the one behind the attack. And he never truly intended to win this war.
His objective had been to cause as much damage as possible and to kill the Third Hokage… his former Sensei, whom he still held a grudge against.
<><><><><><><><>
Several days passed and the funeral for the Hokage was held, to which most of the ninjas from the village attended. Only those holding important posts were missing from the cemetery.
Gaara and his siblings were captured and held separately.
Jiraiya was called to check on the boy's seal and made sure that no other incident occurred.
Their ultimate fate was yet to be decided, as both villages had been left without a leader and they still had not communicated with each other.
<><><><><><><><><>
On the seventh day after the attack, Naruto was walking through the streets of the village.
The reconstruction was still ongoing, and it was going to take a few more months before everything was back as it was before.
Naruto did notice that the villagers' attitude towards him was a bit different now.
Even though most of the civilians were not there at the arena, the stories about his fights with Neji and Gaara had been circulating around.
They moved their gazes away from him as he passed.
'They are scared now…' Naruto thought.
He did not enjoy being seen as a scary figure, as he had always considered himself a distant but somewhat social person, if that made any sense.
It was still much preferable compared to their previous attitude.
"Naruto! There you are."
He looked ahead and spotted two people a short distance away.
It was Ino and her father.
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