Chapter 85: The First Move.

Sunagakure was baked by the sun and scoured by the wind and stubbornly refusing to die. The buildings were sandstone and clay, rounded at the edges by decades of erosion, and the streets were narrow and shadowed and populated by people who moved about happily.

Shikamaru hated it.

He didn’t hate the village. The village was fine. The people were fine. The food was too spicy and the air was too dry and the sun was too bright and the sand got into everything, but those were complaints, not hatred. What Shikamaru hated was that he'd been making this trip every so often for the better part of a year and it never got any less troublesome.

He walked through the Kazekage's tower with his hands in his pockets and his flak jacket unbuttoned because the heat made professionalism feel like a punishment. Two Sand ANBU escorted him through corridors he could have navigated blindfolded by now. They brought him to the council chamber and left him at the door.

The chamber was circular, cut from the canyon rock, with a long stone table at its center. Baki sat at the head in the Kazekage's chair, his face half-covered as always, his one visible eye tracking Shikamaru as he entered. To his right, two of Sand's elder advisors, a man named Ebizo and a woman named Chiyo. To his left, Temari.

She was eighteen. Blonde hair in four ponytails. Fan across her back. Arms folded. Looking at Shikamaru with a cheeky smirk.

Shikamaru averted his gaze from those bright green eyes. For some reason after that mission with Lee, Shikamaru had been chosen as the best person to be a liaison between Leaf and Sand. And due to that he’s spent a lot of time with Sunagakure’s future Kazekage, her brother, and sometimes the current Kazekage. Mostly Temari… Who was a pain in the neck for an assortment of reasons…

Unfortunately for her, he actually had serious business this time around and could not indulge her. He looked at Baki.

"Thanks for seeing me, Lord Kazekage."

"You requested an emergency session." Baki's voice was even. "We don't get many of those from Konoha's liaison. Sit."

Shikamaru sat. He pulled a scroll from his vest and placed it on the table but didn't unroll it yet.

"Six months ago, Konoha's Hokage received intelligence that three hidden villages are coordinating an attack on Konoha. Stone from the northwest. Cloud from the east. Mist from the south. The intelligence has been confirmed through multiple channels over the following months. The attack is no longer a question of if. It's a question of when, and when is soon."

The chamber went quiet. Ebizo's hands, folded on the table, tightened slightly. Chiyo’s expression didn't change. Baki's eye narrowed.

Temari unfolded her arms.

"How reliable?" she asked.

"It’s confirmed. Cloud's diplomatic negotiations with Konoha have been a stall from the beginning. Their demands were never meant to be accepted."

"The demands regarding the captured jinchuriki?" Baki said.

"And Rock Lee." Shikamaru nodded. "They wanted Lee’s head. They knew we'd refuse. The refusal gives them a reason to point at when they need to justify the attack."

"And you are here because Konoha wants Sand to fight its war." Chiyo stated dryly.

"I'm here because this isn't just Konoha's war." Shikamaru unrolled the scroll. It was a map of the continent with the five great nations marked. "Three villages are about to redraw the map. If Konoha falls, the balance of power shifts permanently. Stone and Cloud become the two dominant villages with no counterweight. Sand, already weakened, becomes the next target. Not immediately. Maybe not for years. But eventually. Because a world where Stone and Cloud won a war together is a world where they don't need Sand butting in their market."

Temari studied the map. Shikamaru watched her think. He'd watched her think many times over the past year, during his visits, during the briefings, during the dinners that Temari insisted on having that always ran too long.

"What's Konoha asking for?" Temari asked.

"Reinforcements on the Mist front. Mist is coming from the south. We’d like if you could assist with that front. Konoha can handle Stone and Cloud if we don't have to split our entire remaining forces three ways."

"You want us to fight the Bloody Mist." Ebizo's eyebrows rose. "The village known for producing the most vicious shinobi in the continent's history."

"Would you rather have Stone or Cloud? Stone who has two jinchuriki and the legendary Tsuchikage or Cloud who has the Eight-Tails and the legendary Raikage." Shikamaru said. "As far as we know Mist is the weakest of the three with the whereabout of their tailed beast unknown and the strength of their Mizukage unknown. That's why we’re asking Sand to take them."

Baki leaned back in his chair. His eye moved from the map to Shikamaru to Temari and back.

"We'll do it."

Every head turned to Temari.

She was looking at the map. 

"Sand owes Konoha a debt. Konoha came when we couldn't handle an issue ourselves. I hated it then and I hate it now but it's true." She looked up. "And Shikamaru is right. If those three villages crush Konoha, we're next. Maybe not immediately but Sunagakure without allies is us waiting to die. I doubt they’ll give us enough time to recover to our previous heights."

Baki studied Temari's face for a long moment. Then he nodded once.

"We will mobilize," Baki said. "Temari will lead our forces." He looked at Shikamaru. "When?"

"Soon. Konoha is making the first move. When you receive word that it's started, march south and hit the Mist forces with our own before they reach Fire Country."

Shikamaru rolled the scroll and stood. He bowed to the council and turned to leave.

Temari caught him in the corridor outside.

"Shikamaru."

He stopped. She was leaning against the wall with her arms folded and her fan propped beside her. The corridor was empty. The escorts were gone.

"Are you really leaving so soon?" She asked.

"We got another war on our hands, Temari. Don’t really have time for dinner, don’t you think?"

"We could discuss strategies."

"We can do that over at the Mist front."

She exhaled air out of her nose, frustrated. “Whatever you lazy punk. I’ll see you then.”

“Mhmm…” Shikamaru put his hands in his pockets and sighed. Women were so troublesome.

He walked down the corridor and out into the sunlight and the sand and the dry heat that he hated, and behind him Temari watched him go and didn't unfold her arms until he'd turned the corner.

ANBU delivered the orders at midnight, in person, to every squad leader on every front, hand-delivered so that nothing could be intercepted and nothing could be misread and nothing could be delayed.

The message was the same on every front. Three words.

Begin at dawn.

Guy stood in the Hokage's office for the last time before the war. His hat was on his head. His outfit was pristine under his robes. Kakashi stood at his right. Shikaku sat behind the strategy table with maps spread across its surface, each one marked with positions and routes and contingencies layered three deep.

"Cloud's army crossed into the Land of Hot Water two days ago. They think they're ahead of schedule. They think we don't know they're coming." Shikaku said. "Stone moved their main force to the border passes northwest of the Land of Grass," he continued. "Mist is staging along the southern coastline. Their fleet puts them within a day's sail of the Land of Fire's southern ports."

Guy looked at the maps. He looked at the three arrows pointing at his home from three directions. His first year as Hokage and he already has to deal with a war… Did that say more about him or the state of the shinobi world itself?

"Hiashi’s force?" Guy asked.

"In position along the Stone border since yesterday. Awaiting the signal."

"Kakashi's force?"

"Departing within the hour for the southern coast."

"And Tsunade’s with me. We move for Cloud at first light." Guy said.

Shikaku nodded. "Communications through hawk relay and messengers. I'll coordinate from here. Danzo's informants are already behind all three lines feeding information back."

Guy turned to Kakashi. For a moment neither of them spoke. Then they both smiled at each other.

"Let’s go protect our home everyone!" Guy felt fired up.

"Do you think that’s appropriate at this time?" Kakashi didn’t feel that it was.

“Of course it is. We are about to put the lives of ourselves and our comrades and our loved ones at stake, as we defend everything that we stand for.” Guy smiled. "I'll see you back in Konoha when everything is over, Kakashi!" Guy gave him a thumbs up.

“See you soon.” Kakashi's eye curved. He turned and cooly walked out of the office and the door closed behind him.

The Stone border. Dawn.

Lee stood at the front of Konoha's force on a ridge overlooking the Land of Grass that separated the Land of Fire from the Land of Earth. Behind him, hundreds of shinobi. Genin, chunin, jonin, all of them silent, all of them watching the tree line across the valley where Stone's army was camped, thinking they had another week before the timetable called for them to march.

They didn't have another week.

Ami stood to Lee's left. Fuki to his right. Kasumi behind him. All three of them in combat gear, weights off, eyes forward. None of them had ever seen an army before. None of them had ever stood on the edge of something this big.

"Sensei," Ami said quietly. "How many of them are there?"

"A lot." Lee answered.

"Can you take them?" Fuki asked with a nervous smile.

Lee looked at the valley. At the fires from the Stone camp still burning in the early morning light. At the figures moving between tents, shinobi waking up, beginning their routines, preparing for a war that was supposed to start on their terms.

"I am going to hit them. When I do, the battle begins. Stay close to your squad. Protect each other. Remember everything I taught you." Lee said.

He looked at each of them. Ami, Fuki, Kasumi. His students. Three girls who had been written off as failures, who had been headed for the Genin Corps.

"I am proud of all of you. No matter what happens." Lee said.

Then he stepped off the ridge.

The First Gate opened. The Second. The Third. His skin flushed red. The Fourth. The Fifth. His veins bulged. The Sixth. His aura blazed green. The Seventh. His sweat turned blue and evaporated off his skin and the air around him bent and the shinobi on the ridge behind him shielded their eyes from the pressure.

Lee landed in the valley between the two armies and he planted his right foot and tapped the sole of his left against his right shin, and the air pressure around him erupted.

"Daytime Dragon!"

The compressed air took shape. A dragon, massive, coiling, screaming forward across the valley floor toward the Stone encampment. The dragon tore the earth apart beneath it as it traveled. Trees disintegrated. Boulders shattered. The sound it made was a wall of force that hit the Stone camp before the dragon itself did.

When it hit, the encampment ceased to exist.

The explosion flattened everything within three hundred meters. Tents, supplies, equipment, shinobi who had been sleeping seconds ago, all of it gone, erased by a single technique thrown by a single sixteen-year-old standing in a valley in a green suit.

The Stone army woke up to war and losses of thousands of shinobi.

The southern coast. Dawn.

Kakashi's force met the Mist fleet as it made landfall. The first ships were still unloading when the Konoha shinobi hit the beach from the tree line. Kakashi led the charge with his Sharingan uncovered.

Asuma's wind blades carved through the hull of the lead ship. Kurenai's genjutsu turned the beach into a killing field where Mist shinobi attacked each other instead of real enemies.

Yugao fought in the thick of it with a sword in each hand. Matatabi sat silent and hateful inside the seal and Yugao didn't ask for help. She didn't need it yet. She was ANBU. She had been killing people long before she decided to accept a monster inside her.

The Cloud border. Dawn.

Guy stood alone on a hilltop overlooking the advancing Cloud army. Tsunade stood behind him with her arms folded and her diamond seal visible on her forehead.

Guy took a breath. He let it out.

The Seventh Gate opened.

The hilltop disintegrated beneath his feet. The air turned to steam around his body. Guy raised one hand in front of his face, palm facing forward, fingers spread wide. His other hand curled into a fist and drove into the open palm. The collision of fist against palm blasted the air outward in a wave of pressure that shook the ground for a hundred meters in every direction. The atmosphere in front of Guy compressed into a churning mass, dense enough to distort the light passing through it.

Guy brought his hands together into a seal. A tiger seal. The shape of his fingers pressed into the wall of compressed air and carved it, stamped it, gave it form. The air pressure took the shape of a roaring tiger, massive, jaws wide, legs stretched mid-lunge.

"Daytime Tiger!"

The tiger launched forward. As it moved, the air pressure condensed, pulling inward, tightening from a shape the size of a building down into a single screaming point aimed at its target. It crossed the distance in less than a heartbeat and hit.

Guy detonated it.

The compressed air pocket launched forward and crossed the distance between the hilltop and the Cloud army in less than a second. The explosion when it landed was visible from three countries. The shockwave killed thousands of shinobi.

The war had officially begun.