NARUTO POV:
'there's not even that many of them, just go wild and kill them all'
'Yeah I'm going to do…not that.'
"They're going to reach the village before they're done evacuating." Shikamaru whispered.
Naruto had decided to go where Sasuke had pointed to see the approaching force of Mist Shinobi and to see if Hinata had gotten in any trouble, and figured grabbing Shika was probably a good idea, and now here they are.
"Judging by what I saw earlier, and their chakra types right now leads me to believe that most of these shinobi are close combat types." The Hyuga informed them, looking over the army "If we ambush them from ranged attacks, we should be fine."
"We'd need a crazy amount though" Shikamaru muttered "Even if we had Naruto make a 100 clones with Rasengans, it wouldn't make a big dent. There's also a chance that they'd leave some people to fight us off, and send the rest ahead."
Naruto had been about to suggest a bombardment of exploding clones, but paused when he heard the last part.
"We don't need to win" Naruto said "Just stall them for like an hour. And if there's one thing I can do, it's distract people"
Both his teammates looked at him when he said that.
"What…are you planning to do?" Hinata asked slowly.
"I'm going to walk up front and start kicking ass. Shika, you go and get the rest of the Hashira and then join in for the fun. Hinata, you're gonna slip in and shut down the leaders while I'm keeping the front busy."
"Right…" Shikamaru said dryly "And why exactly do you think that this is a good idea?"
"A good idea?" Naruto blinked "Who said anything about that? I'm just making the best of what we got."
"You can't just fight an army Naruto" Shikamaru said in a rare display of irritation.
"Sure I can."
Shikamaru stared at Naruto searchingly.
"…I'm going to make sure I get the rest here before you get yourself killed" Shikamaru finally said reluctantly.
"How come you're not this worried for Hinata" Naruto protested.
"Because I know that she's not insane like you." Shika said shortly.
'He's not wrong.'
'I don't remember Pineapple head being like this two years ago…'
'He decided to put follow Naruto two years ago, so seeing this idiot do crazy shit is probably making him rethink choices.'
'can I get like 5 minutes of silence please.'
'Right.'
'Call me when you need me.'
'Yeah, thanks.'
.
.
HINATA POV:
Hinata had been quiet during Naruto and Shikamaru's little argument.
She had her reservations about this 'plan', but she also understood that this might be the best way to buy time.
She repeated that to herself as her and Naruto made their way down towards the army, and received an odd look from her blonde friend.
"I might have said that we're just buying time, but I fully plan to shut down this army here and now." He said like he wasn't saying something insane. "hey, while you're taking down the leaders, can you try to bring back the most important looking one? Might be helpful for finding our traitor."
'Sure Naruto. While in the middle of a hostile army facing off with Jonins and other elites, I'll go person shopping for you as well.'
She didn't say that out loud of course, but it was tempting.
.
.
"Go left from here."
She turned to see Naruto stretching.
"…what?"
"I can sense a serious amount of malice from that guy with the wooden leg." He said as he finished stretching and pulled out his twin Katana. "It's an ability I got from the nine tailed furball. Anyway, see ya."
With that, he leapt out of their hiding spot and landed in front of the army.
She scrambled towards the man he had pointed at, using the dust Naruto had raised with his landing along with quick blasts of the 'Hiding in the mist Jutsu' she had learnt from Haku.
She didn't turn back to look when she heard Naruto scream something out, and could only pray to whatever god may be watching as she disabled the first leader's legs and knocked him out.
'Please, be safe Naruto.'
NARUTO POV:
"RASENGAN!"
That was the fourth Rasengan, and it had been less than 2 minutes.
Ducking under a wild swing, he threw out a kick that sent a random bald guy flying while grabbing two more people from his sides and slamming their heads together.
'Your left, and then from underground'
Kurama was being helpful too, telling him about attacks long before they came by sensing the feelings of the attackers.
That, with his fighting style that utilized Rasenton to an extreme level meant that he was practically dancing, weaving between attacks and throwing people away with minimal chakra use.
"Listen up kid!' Jiraiya sensei said 'You've got potential for crazy firepower, but that doesn't mean you ignore the small stuff!"
Naruto didn't know why he was remembering that specific lesson now, but it wasn't like he could just pause his brain.
"People like Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha had crazy firepower too, but that doesn't mean they weren't insane at hand-to-hand as well."
Naruto jumped into the air, kicking back a couple of water bullet Jutsus using Kushoton before spinning with his twin Katana for a quick Black hurricane.
"Someone like Madara could easily go up against an army with just Taijutsu you know?"
Naruto clapped his hands before pushing out, releasing a wave of wind chakra that forced the incoming Kunai and Shuriken to stab their throwers.
"Hey, couldn't Gai sensei and Tsunade-baachan do that too?" Naruto asked as he scratched his head.
"That's a different case." Jiraiya said as he shook his head "the way they fight relies on that strength of theirs. Tsunade's punches can create craters, so add that to her healing and you'd assume she can take down an army no problem right?"
"MULTI-SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"
The clones sprouted all around Naruto, catching the 50 or so shinobi that had been charging up a big Jutsu off guard.
"Grab his legs! You four, go for the-ACK!"
Their leader didn't even get to finish his sentence before his heart was hit by a strike from the Gentle Fist.
Neither Naruto nor Hinata spared each other as much as a glance, too focused on their next target to think about anything else.
"The difference is in how people like Me would approach an army vs how people like Lord first or Madara would."
"The hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Lord First himself said that if Madara was going up against an army of say, a thousand people. He wouldn't fight one against a thousand."
"Huh?"
"instead, he would do 1v1s, 1v2s or 1v3s 100 times instead. Do you understand what that means?"
'Let's go, Kurama!'
'YEAH!'
Naruto exploded in a burst of orange chakra.
The bodies near him were all blown away, mostly towards other Mist shinobi.
That gave him the one second needed to execute his next move.
"Rasen-Futon: Kyodaina Tatsumaki!"(Spiralling Wind style: giant tornado)
"Uh, it means he's focusing on one target at a time instead of the whole army at once?"
The tornado blew hard, towering over the army at a grand height of about 20 meters.
Already, he could see the Shinobi who were too late with chakra-sticking to the ground be sucked up, forced to spin around in a tornado of wind sharp enough to cut through steel like it was butter.
"So… you wanna make it so I can do a thousand 1v1s?" Naruto asked.
"Nah." Jiraiya said with a grin "I'm going to make you someone who can do a thousand 1v1s, and then one 1v1000 at the same time."
'Kurama, do we have enough yet?'
'It's ready. Do it now!'
With one half-ram seal, Naruto stopped the passive channeling of Kurama's corrosive chakra into the Tornado.
It had been steadily spinning till now; slowly turning into the same shade of Orange as Naruto's cloak, and as Naruto clapped his hands, it swelled like a balloon filling with water.
"BURST!"
SASUKE POV:
Sasuke, Sakura, Haku and Shikamaru ran through the forest, towards the sounds of screams and flashing lights.
"How long has he been fighting for?" Sakura asked beside him, spear already in hand.
"Can't have been more than half an hour." Shikamaru told her "Clearly, he's still alive and kicking if there's still that much noise."
Sasuke snorted.
"Like there was ever any doubt about that. That idiot's too stubborn to die to an army of no names."
"BURST!"
The team was forced to stop where they stood and raise their hands up to protect themselves from the sudden blast of wind from the battlefield.
"That voice was Naruto's" Haku muttered.
"Must have been his Jutsu." Sasuke said as he lowered his hand and started moving forward again. "Come on, let's go."
Less than a minute of running more, and the team came to a stop again when they saw the state of the battlefield.
Naruto was at the edge of the army, back facing the team as he cut through tens of shinobi at a time and using blasts of wind to blow away the 'Kirigakure no Jutsu'(Hiding in the Mist Jutsu) being used by god knows how many shinobi.
The reason the team had stopped wasn't that , but the fact that he was doing so while standing in a huge crater.
Also, he had a glowing orange cloak, but that wasn't anything new.
"More than half of them are already down…" Sakura muttered beside him.
"Bastard barely left any for us" Sasuke muttered as he pulled his own Katana out and flared fire chakra through his body "I'm not letting him have all the fun"
With a blast of fire, Sasuke leapt from the forest (which was now like a ledge over the battlefield because of the crater) and landed right beside a Mist Shinobi that had been about to fire off some sort of a water Jutsu.
"Katon: Kaen-Tai!"(Fire style: Flame Body)
.
.
It was a bit embarrassing to admit, but this move was totally inspired by Naruto's Chakra cloak.
The instant Sasuke laid his eyes on the blonde in that form; he had only one thought.
'I WANT THAT!'
So he worked hard, for 4 months straight, refining his Hiken(Fire Fist) and exerting his body to the limit to be able to handle the fire.
And then Kakashi-sensei taught him how to open the First Inner Gate.
It wasn't exactly the whole explosive green Aura Rock Lee had displayed, but he understood the significance of what the first gate did.
Removing his brain's natural limiter.
Sure, It sounded lame at first; but once he actually used it during a spar with Kakashi Sensei, he completely understood.
This changed everything.
Every single chakra point in his body felt like it was on fire with the rush he was feeling, and then it was literally on fire when he tried to blast fire chakra from his whole body.
Let it be said that while Sasuke was a genius, he wasn't…always smart when it came to new moves.
Either way, that was groundbreaking progress.
Fire Ryou through his whole body while using the first gate, equals super cool fire cloak Jutsu that could throw out Hiken (fire fists) with less than a second of charging.
"KATON: BOHAKI!"(FIRE STYLE: FIRE WALLS)
He swung wildly with his katana, releasing walls of flames with each slash that kept burning the battlefield while he himself rolled back, dodging a blow from a huge hammer.
The grunt didn't even get a chance to let out a gasp before being burned to a crisp.
Sasuke dashed forward, cutting through another group of mist shinobi before jumping up to make more hand seals.
"Katon: Kasai no Funka" (fire style: Fire eruption)
He made the last hand seal as he landed, and slammed his open palms on the ground, ignoring the barrage of shuriken coming his way.
The ground cracked, and a river of fire erupted from where his hands touched the surface, reaching out and sweeping through the legions of shinobi around him.
NARUTO POV:
"Well, that's that" Naruto said as he walked back up to his team, chakra cloak gone now.
"You just made us fight an entire army" Haku said, sounding tired "there's a lot more to say than just 'that's that'."
"We won though" Naruto pointed out, accepting the water Sakura handed to him.
"you're just…so troublesome" Shikamaru sighed as he sat down right there.
"whoa there, we still have to run back you know?" Naruto said with a grin, prodding at Shikamaru with his foot.
"…troublesome."