Never before had Sunagakure been in such a mobilization. Ninja of all ranks, all ages were running around, positioning themselves at different places around the village under their superiors' command, gathering whatever weapons they had, or even comforting the younger ones who hadn't had much fighting experience. No one could even crack a smile; they all knew that if they couldn't do it, it would be the end of one of the greatest Hidden Villages of the shinobi world.

"Kazekage-sama."

Gaara didn't look at the shinobi who had just landed at his right. His eyes were all deeply focused on the horizon, at the direction the invaders were coming from. "Report," he said.

"Our scouts have just reported. They said that even though they had searched everywhere, there was no sign of anything moving in a radius of ten kilometers around the village."

"So maybe you are just mistaken?" Temari asked hopefully. Kankuro, standing next to her, shook his head.

"No. Gaara's sand movement sensor is never wrong, and such a large force could not be something he imagined out. If there is nothing visible... then the only explanation possible is that they are moving underground."

Temari blinked. "But... isn't moving something as large as that army underground kinda impossible? I mean... you know that moving underground for such a long time under this desert is impossible even for one person, right? And yet they are moving a whole 10,000-troop army!"

"I don't know," Gaara answered. "And that's what makes them dangerous. Moving the army underground leaves us with no way to know what formation they are in, what level of ninja they have, what kinds of war equipment they are using... meaning, we, as the defenders, don't know anything about them, while they have more than enough in both element of surprise and number against us."

"...so basically, we are like cornered rats right."

"Basically, yes."

Silence for a few seconds. Then Temari asked.

"So what are we going to do?"

Gaara closed his eyes. Two seconds later, his eyes snapped open, and he commanded.

"Temari, you are one of the shinobi with the most powerful long range jutsu in the village. Gather more long range fighters with decent wind and fire jutsu and go up the west side of the wall and wait for my command to fire. Kankuro, you go get Elder Chiyo together with five jonin and bring them to the shelter. You will be in charge of protection there."

"What?!" the puppeteer protested. "I can't do that! I want to fight with you in the frontline!"

Gaara turned around and looked at his brother with a sharp glare. Kankuro flinched.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Gaara, I didn't mean to..."

"Kankuro."

The puppeteer blinked when he heard Gaara's voice. There was no sign of anger or anything in his tone.

"As Kazekage, the first duty I have to fulfil is to provide safety for the citizens. With almost every shinobi of the village at the frontline, our force to protect them would be thinned down. And you already know what our enemies can do. Protecting the citizens is the job I cannot entrust to anyone else except the ones I trust the most. You, my brother."

Kankuro was stunned for a while. Then, he nodded. "Understood. I will do what I was told. And..." he turned and leapt away, but not before saying, "be careful, Gaara."

When his siblings had already been away, Gaara said in his mind. 'Shukaku? Are you ready for the battle?'

'Hmph! Way ahead of you!' The Beast inside him answered. 'I'm itching to show those Akatsuki how not to mess with me!'

'All right. Then...!'

Chakra started flowing out of his body, into the sand under him and in the radius of five hundred meters around the village.

"Let's see if you have what it takes to get past this or not."

Naruto, together with the other members of Team 7 and Team 8, was standing in front of the huge gate leading out of Konoha, ready to depart.

"All right, let's review the mission we have," Kakashi announced. "Team 7... First, what we need to do is to get to Sunagakure as quickly as possible. Then, with everything we have, assist them in their resistance. Is that clear enough?"

"Very clear, sensei," Sakura answered. "But how can we get there fast enough? I mean, it's already been a day since Suna noticed the sudden attack, and if the words of that weasel were right, it should take at least that much time to get to Suna from here, right?"

Naruto raised his hand. "I think I can use my Flying Thunder God jutsu to get all of us there, but only if we're in range. My skill with the jutsu is nowhere near that of my dad... Oh, and by the way, I think you guys should have this."

He pulled out seven Flying Thunder God kunai from his pouch. "If you keep this with you, I can come to your aid at any time providing that you are in my range. I also gave one to Gaara at the time we stayed in Sunagakure during our training trip, so... I already gave these to jiji and other people in the Konoha 15 too," he added when Kurenai raised an eyebrow at him.

Each person stepped up and took a kunai from Naruto's hand. Kakashi continued. "Team 8... Kurenai, you know what you guys have to do already, right?"

The genjutsu mistress nodded. "Yes. We will go with Tatsumaki to rescue Baki-san, and after that, we will continue to provide assistance by sabotaging the formation of the enemies behind their back, if possible."

"Please depart quickly!" On her shoulder, the small weasel exclaimed. "When I parted with Baki-sama, he was already very weak! If you don't hurry up, he might die before you can even arrive!"

"Then we're going now, Kakashi," Kurenai nodded, stroking the head of the weasel, making her wince in annoyance. Naruto looked at Hinata, who was tightening up her backpack on her shoulders, ready to depart.

"Be careful, all right, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata turned back and gave him a smile. "Don't worry, Naruto-kun. I'll show you I'm not the weak Hinata you used to know."

Naruto grinned back at her. "I never thought of you as weak, believe it."

Kurenai nodded at her students, and the four shinobi disappeared with Body Flickers. Kakashi turned back to his own team.

"All right, come back to our problem. Sasuke?"

The Uchiha smirked. "I thought you didn't have to ask. Summoning Jutsu!"

A huge cloud of smoke filled the air, and when it dissipated, Naruto gasped.

"No way."

Appeared from the smoke were two huge hawks. One of them had dark red feather while the other one had yellowish brown, colors which were both quite unusual for hawks in general. Just a stretch of their wings made wind sweeping through the clearing.

Seeing Naruto's gaping mouth, Sasuke smirked.

"You don't have to be so surprised. But yes, Naruto. You are looking at the newest summoner of the Hawk Kingdom."

"Hawk..."

'...Kingdom?!'

Naruto blinked when he heard the Tailed Beasts' exclamation in his head. 'What's wrong guys? Does that Hawk Kingdom have something wrong with it?'

'It's not surprised you don't know about it,' Surprisingly, it was Shukaku who said. 'The Hawk, the Lion and the Dragon are the three summon creatures known as The Triumvirate of Summons; they are in a whole different level comparing to the Toad, the Snake and the Slug. Getting them as summons isn't simply signing their summoning contract; anyone who wants to has to go through extremely difficult and dangerous trials in order to just reach where they live, and even after that they might flat out refuse to form the contract, and even kill the wannabe summoner if they deem them unworthy. That's why in the history of humankind there are very few humans who managed to get them as their personal summon, and even fewer who could summon the three Kings of the Triumvirate; even us Tailed Beasts have to respect them.'

The piece of information from Shukaku made Naruto's brain numb from surprise and shock. "Wow..."

'Yeah,' Kurama added. 'That's why I was so shocked seeing him summon a hawk during the war. That Uchiha always seems to be able to pull things out of his ass whenever he wants to...'

Seeing Naruto's face, Sasuke smirked.

"If you feel that to be surprising, then I am not even the strangest one in Konoha when it comes to personal summon," he looked at Sakura. "Sakura here is the only one in the whole village to be able to sign summoning contracts with two different summoning creatures. Right now, she is having medical training with Tsunade-sama and the Slug, but her combat prowess is mostly from the teaching of the Wolf Tribe."

'Well, at least this time he's not the one with two summoning contracts; that would just be stupid,' Isobu snarked inside Naruto's head.

"...so basically I'm the worst when it comes to Summoning Jutsu in this team, huh," Naruto muttered. Kakashi sighed, and bopped him over his head.

"If you say that, then what am I, chopped liver? Now come on; we have an urgent mission to go on here. Sasuke?"

The Uchiha walked up to the two giant hawks. "Ulki, Janaff, I'm sorry for summoning you for something like this, but we need to go to Sunagakure as quickly as possible; can you two help us getting there? Konoha and Suna will treasure your help a lot."

The red hawk glared at his summoner. "You haven't summoned us for quite a long time already, and the first thing you do is making us carry other humans? You're so dead after this, Sasuke Uchiha. Don't ever think that just because you are favored by the King..."

"Look, can you please help us?" Sasuke said patiently. "The fate of Sunagakure, our ally, is lying in your wings right now, so if you can help us..."

The hawks glared at him imperiously for a moment. Then, they nodded.

"All right, but just this time only, understand?"

Everyone's faces brightened. "Thank you very much!"

After the four shinobi had settled themselves comfortably on the two hawks, Sasuke and Naruto on Janaff's back, and Kakashi and Sakura on Ulki's, Kakashi said.

"All right, let's go. Team 7, move out!"

Utter silence covered Sunagakure.

Completely contrasting the scene just one hour ago, no shinobi of Sunagakure could even move a single muscle at the moment. Their bodies were all tensed up, ready for the command which could be coming from their Kazekage any moment.

When that command was uttered, it would be war; there wouldn't be any other way for them to leave. But it's not like they were going to leave anyway; their duty was, after all, protecting the village until the very last of their blood, their chakra, was exhausted...

"Almost there..."

Sweats rolled down the cheeks of the shinobi, dropping down the sand under their feet.

The ground started shaking slightly.

"Ready..."

The tremor was getting closer...

And then, it abruptly stopped. The vanguard of the invaders trying to sneak into the village underground were disintegrated upon touching the wall of chakra Gaara sent down there. And it seemed the ones following them immediately learned their lesson, because right after that, the desert exploded, and hundreds after hundreds of white, slimy humanoid creatures emerged and launched themselves at the walls of the village.

On cue, the shinobi on the wall went through the same technique at the same time.

"WIND STYLE: WIND SCYTHE JUTSU!"

The tornado created by the collaboration jutsu tore apart the whole wave of the invaders like paper. But that definitely wasn't the only thing they had; when the tornado died down, many more similar creatures burst out from the desert ground and swarmed towards the village.

"Hold your position! Don't let even one of them get into the village!"

The invasion had begun.

Ameno Shirogane was just a normal genin of Sunagakure. His clan wasn't something great or famous; they didn't have any powerful kekkei genkai or special jutsu, what they had was just normal puppet jutsu which a lot of Suna shinobi could use. And most shinobi of his clan were born after the Third Great War; they neither understood how terrifying wars were nor experienced battles in such a large scale. Ameno himself hadn't even killed anyone before.

Therefore, being thrown into a war so suddenly, of course he couldn't help trembling in fear facing a whole army of strange white slimy humanoid creatures charging at him, even with all the comrades standing beside him.

One of the White Zetsu, seeing his hesitation, rushed in with its right arm raising; spikes made of the same white substance forming its body protruded from the arm, and it lashed out at the boy. Trembling in fear, the genin could only widen his eyes in shock when the spikes were coming toward his exposed stomach...

SPLURT!

But luckily for him, before the attack could land, the creature had been torn apart by a blade of wind coming from his sensei. Temari landed in front of him; her eyes, instead of showing disappointment at him, only had a worried look.

"Are you all right, Ameno?"

He looked at his sensei, his eyes were still wide in fear. "Y... yeah, I think..."

Temari turned her body, right in time to avoid a strike from another White Zetsu and smashed its head open with her fan. She said without looking back at her student.

"Ameno, right now as your superior, I forbid you to freeze up like that. I know you are not someone who is familiar with killing, but right now, that matter is something you must put aside. We are at war now, and each of us here is one more glimpse of hope for this village. And times like this are times we cannot afford to lose hope."

Then she glanced at him with a smile. "You are one of the most promising genin of this village, and my student. Even if we are just nameless people in this world, we are still the sons and daughters of this village. Show me that my hope for you isn't a waste, and stand up by yourself and protect the village with me, as a shinobi of Sunagakure!"

The boy was stunned for a few seconds. Then, he stood up and unraveled the puppet he was carrying on his back since the beginning of the battle. It landed on the ground with a "clack".

"Yes, sensei! I will protect the village!"

War wasn't anything new to Sasaki Shigura.

As a veteran jonin of Sunagakure, he had survived through the terror of the Third Great Shinobi World War, and as such, he understood well what was waiting for him when he threw himself into battle.

Before a war, leaders can say everything about unity, friendship, honor, love, about stopping bad things from spreading; basically, any nice, pretty lies just to rally the spirit of soldiers. But when they are already in battle, there is nothing else to think about but killing. Either you kill, or you will be killed. That's the nature of war. There is nothing glorious about war at all, and anyone who insists so is just lying to themselves.

And ironically, that's also the very same reason why soldiers fight. They know if they don't, their loved ones will suffer the consequence of the war: losing their freedom, their possession, even their lives. And they are pushed into the fight with the goal of stopping things like that from happening.

That was what every shinobi of Sunagakure, including Sasaki himself, kept in their mind when they voluntarily plunged themselves into the heat of this war: this was their village, and it's their duty to protect it together with their loved ones from the terrifying fate that would definitely come if they didn't.

Right now, Sasaki was facing a group of five White Zetsus by himself. From the direction they were running towards, it seemed they were aiming for the other part of the village, where the shelter of the villagers was at.

"You bastards are not going to get through me!" he bellowed, and sent a wave of shuriken from his hands towards the invaders. A few of the ninja stars managed to take down one of the White Zetsus, but the others were deflected rather easily by the mutated abominations.

But everything was within his calculation. He brought his hands down, and the deflected shuriken abruptly changed their course and flew around the White Zetsus, tying them up with the steel ninja wires attached to them.

"Die!" Sasaki yelled, and brought his hands together. The razor-sharp metal wires constricted, and cut the tied creatures to shred. The jonin let out a deep breath, and pulled out two kunai from his weapon pouch and pointed them at another group of White Zetsus, which was coming toward him.

"Just come here, you bastards! No matter how many of you there are, as long as I can stand, none of you can get through here! For Sunagakure!"

And with that final roar, he charged.

Gaara sent a wave of sand forward, which collapsed on a bunch of White Zetsus and crushed them into pulps.

These things look monstrous, but... they don't seem to be that dangerous on their own. And their number... I can still sense their presence, but... this makes no sense. Why are such a large proportion of them that far away from the village?

'It could be a trick,' Shukaku said in his head. 'Or maybe they're too scared of me! Ha ha ha!'

No... it can't be... unless...

Gaara looked up, and saw something on the sky.

It looked like a bird... no, it was way bigger than a normal bird, even things like birds of prey... it looked like... a winged dragon.

From its mouth, some small... things were spat out and fell down the battlefield below.

"Art... IS A BLAST!"

Oh shit...!

Gaara immediately launched his hands upward, and bullets made of sand shot out from the ground to intercept the incoming projectiles. And fortunately for Sunagakure that he did that, because right upon contact, the deadly projectiles exploded violently, sending many shinobi fighting nearby on their butts. Taking the chance the resistance fighters were temporary taken aback, the White Zetsu army advanced, and managed to take some shinobi out of the battle.

"Temari! Take care of things down here; I will engage that airborne enemy!" Gaara yelled at his sister, and a cloud of sand rose up from the ground, carrying him to the sky where the bombs were coming from. On the way, he shot out more sand bullets to stop other bombs which were raining down the head of other Suna shinobi. More explosions filled the air.

"Kazekage, yeah!" Deidara cackled when he saw Gaara floating up to where he was flying at. "What an honor to get you up here with me, yeah!"

Gaara stared at him impassively. "Why don't you go down there and we will talk?"

Deidara laughed. "What? Do you think I'm that stupid, yeah? Why should I go down there to give you the advantage..."

Gaara cut in. "Look down."

"Huh?" Suddenly being interrupted, Deidara could only blink in confusion.

Then he felt himself lurching upward when a giant fist made of sand shot upward from the ground and sucker punched his dragon in the stomach. The force of the punch destroyed the dragon made of clay instantly, and Deidara had to