The Son of Two Heroes

Chapter 29

The sun shone brightly through the window beside Naruto's bed, stirring the blond from his sleep. He sat up, and groggily looked over at the sleeping form of his wife. A grin split his face, as he remembered that after a quick one day visit with the Daimyo, he and Rikka had gone on a date. With the operation to take back Takigakure soon, they decided it would be good to spend time together. That said, in the throws of passion, they had broken in the new bed sheets the bluenette had recently purchased.

The jounin made his way out of bed, and formed a shadow clone to prep his gear. He and Rikka had been lucky to get time together, as the operation was pushed back a day to account for more Konoha shinobi coming back to the village to stand guard while the strike force was gone. The strike force consisted of four battalions, which in total was around two thousand shinobi. The battalions were made up of mostly chunin, with a fair number of jounin throughout to lead them.

He was pleased when he found out that not only would Rikka be in Kakashi's battalion, she was actually in his squad as well. This put to rest any worries he had about his wife being wounded in the battle. This was not to say Naruto wasn't confident in his wife's abilities, he just worried either way. She was a frontline fighter after all, her skill in Fire Style ninjutsu was staggering. Kakashi himself said she may have the strongest fire chakra affinity he'd ever seen.

The Nine Tails' jinchuriki sighed as he began making breakfast. He wouldn't be fighting with the main force. He would be leading a platoon of ANBU, but he would not be donning a mask, not that one could even hide his bright blond hair. His objective was to reach the main village, and garrison the mission center. (Pretty much a Hokage tower, but not for a kage.) while this took place, the strike force would battle the enemy throughout the country. Sasuke would also be leading a platoon of ANBU, and would be linking up with his own at some point.

Before the invasion, some of Takigakure's ninja killed a rogue Konoha nin by the name of Rokusho Aoi. This man had stolen an important weapon from the village: the Raijin no Ken, or the Sword of the Thunder God. It was sealed away, but before it could be returned to Konohagakure, Iwa had attacked. Once Naruto's ANBU had secured the mission center, Naruto would retrieve the sword, and return it to Konohagakure. The sword that had once belonged to Senju Tobirama was not something they wanted to possibly make its way from Iwa to Kumo.

Luckily for the people of Takigakure, many of their shinobi had fought a retreating battle as they left the village. By doing this, they managed to keep most of the fighting outside of their village. It was Naruto's platoons' job to clear the village with minimal damage and civilian casualties. To top things off, the jounin commander of Taki (the leader of a minor village) had survived and managed to retreat to Fire Country with his forces.

All in all, if things went in Konohagakure's favor, Taki would quickly be rid of Iwa forces. Worse case scenario, Han and Roshi would show up, in which case Naruto was to immediately meet up and engage them. If it came down to it the rest of his original genin team would join him.

The minute this operation began, the war would be on. Thus, Konohagakure had sent plenty of shinobi to the border of the Land of Hot Water. In the last wars, Kumo had made use of boats and water walking to transport their nin and supplies into the Land of Bones. (Country where the mountain graveyard sits.) This time, while the Land of Frost had always been allies with Kumo, it seemed they would invade the Land of Hot Water. Considering Iwa's move to grab up land, and the fact that Kumo had already been poking around, it could be argued that they would start by invading the minor nation. They would most likely march straight through their allies' country, and into the Land of Hot Water.

Konohagakure would be fighting a multi front war, just like the last ones. Kumo had been rapidly increasing its forces since the Hyuga incident, and that meant that they could very well have quite a manpower advantage. That said, they may even come through the Land of Bones just to get two entry points into the Land of Fire.