Inheritance

Danzou

Screams and shouts rang through Naruto's ears as the carnage unfolded around him, the war cries and death throes of the soon-to-be dead. His eyes had somehow picked out Kakashi-sensei in the melee, never fighting fewer than three enemy combatants at a time, and he found himself numbly counting the number of wide-eyed, terrified bodies the man left in his wake. He tried to remind himself that any of those corpses would have cut his, or any of his friends' throats given half a chance; but it was difficult to look into empty eyes, no matter who they had belonged to, and justify the act of stealing the life from them.

An explosion rocked their balcony, a wayward fireball the cause, and Naruto was ripped from the shock straight into pure panic as he remembered the Suna shinobi that were in the box with them. He span on the balls of his feet, and saw quickly that Kankuro and Temari were stood as he had been - stock still, and watching the unfolding horror unable to shake themselves from it.

He should kill them, he knew. A kunai for each of their hearts, before they had the chance to join the fray. He had promised himself that he wouldn't hesitate again... Empty, lifeless eyes flashed before his own.

"Hana, Ino!" He barked, turning his back on Gaara's siblings. The pair started and looked at him, both as wild-eyed as he knew he was. They were all in shock - only Hana's partners stayed alert and at the ready, hackles raised, to defend her. He needed to keep his composure - so much relied on him doing his duty today. "Hana, you're a medic so make sure to stay out of the actual fighting as best you can - if possible, try and start evacuating some of the civilians until a Jonin finds you and tells you otherwise - treat whoever you can but you know better than I do, try not to get hung up on lost causes." However much it might hurt you, because I know it will. "Beyond that, you know the plan we made with Jiraiya-sensei"

"Ino." He followed on firmly, and he could see that she was starting to calm, starting to regain her mental footing. "If you can, find your squad or your sensei and report to them. If you can't, find any other Jonin you can. They should order you away to an evac point - Genin aren't supposed to be on the frontline, we guard the evac points."

Both nodded, focused and began to move, and Naruto himself hopped up onto the balcony railing to better survey the battlefield. It was pure, unadulterated chaos. Neither side had managed to form battle lines, and the fighting was a mess of Shinobi of different allegiances stumbling into each other. Konoha ninja were outnumbered though. The Sandaime had only stationed a particular selection of their forces here. A selection of the elite that would take the bulk of the initial attack here at the stadium in order to give the Genin and civilians a chance to evacuate.

True enough, the likes of Kakashi and Might Guy were too high profile of a target for many to ignore - there were very few enemy combatants who would turn up the opportunity to go down in history as the one who managed to take down the legendary Sharingan no Kakashi. The other Genin had already gotten moving as well. Shikamaru was staying close to Asuma, using his shadows to strategically slow down those attacking the Jonin. Kiba had recognised that his brand of fighting wasn't useful here where so many of the enemies were stronger than they were, and instead was systematically waking civilians with Shino and guiding them away from the chaos. The Aburame for his part was acting as Kiba's guard. Presumably, he was using his kikai insects as an early warning system to stop enemies from getting too close. Naruto would have bet money that he also had a considerable number of his colony searching for enemies to subtly rain the chakra from. Every little helps, after all.

Finally, his eyes made their way to his own target. Baki stood between the Jonin proctor and Gaara. The Suna Jinchuuriki had left his protective cocoon and was gripping his head, shuddering in pain as though the Ichibi was literally trying to escape through his skull. As it was, his right arm had mutated, and was now a monstrously large, inhuman arm of sand, lined with blue markings. If it wasn't obvious by sight, it'd be made so by the demonic chakra irradiating from the boy. He had begun to let his control slip, begun to allow a full transformation into a bijuu.