Shikamaru lunged forward, clearly intending to start the fight, but he stopped just as suddenly when he was barely a metre away.

Yoroi hadn't moved, and yet for some reason Shikamaru was suddenly retreating, bounding away with a look on his face that was just short of pure fear.

And then Yoroi deftly removed his face accessories, and the crowd fell silent.

Because it wasn't only his face accessories. He ripped off his face too.

Before anyone could react, Orochimaru bit his thumb, swiped it down his arm where his tattoo lay, and slammed his hands to the ground with a grin, serpentine eyes locked with the Hokage.

All hell broke loose.

People were suddenly running about screaming. Manda, Orochimaru's biggest summons, had appeared in the arena and took up almost the whole of it. His massive, serpentine body began to thrash, his tail coming down on the stands and killing hundreds with deft swipes of his tail.

Meanwhile, the room us genin candidates and our sensei were in suddenly filled with gas, and the doors locked, impenetrable.

All I could think was;

So much for assuming nothing would happen this match.

In Orochimaru's old house, one Mizuki stood beside a summoning scroll.

With a quick sequence of hand seals, he placed his hand over the contract.

Several snakes, almost as big as Manda, appeared around the house he stood and quickly moved out, tearing down houses in their wake. They began to break down the great wall surrounding Konoha.

(And Mizuki, foolish Mizuki, well, he dropped dead of course. Such a large drain on his chakra was too much for a chunin of his level. Not that his master had deigned to inform him of that beforehand.)

In the red-light district, a piercing whistle could be heard. In fact, the first whistle, if anyone cared to investigate, came from an old brothel called the Mischievous Maidens that had been closed for years.

The sound was repeated seconds later in another location, further away, and then at another, until six of the piercing noises had been made.

At six different locations in the red-light district, six children ripped seals off six different entryways, opening secret passages that few in the village knew of.

And silently an army of ghostly silent ninja moved from the confines of the entryway, each one dressed in black cloaks and plain white masks.

They killed everything in their wake.

The Gang, having regrouped in their usual meeting location, after watching masses of bodies swarm the village and begin their slaughter, waited with varying levels of apprehension.

Takeshi was particularly horrified; his body trembled, his eyes brimming with tears too stubborn to fall.

(What he had done? What had they done?)

Kiyoshi moved fast, knowing their time was limited before their hiding spot was found, drew out the card a jester man had given him long ago.

Then, he closed his eyes and channelled chakra into it.

None of them knew what to expect. But it certainly wasn't the massive flash of light that occurred, and the sounds of war to disappear entirely.

And when their eyes finally readjusted, they were no longer in their meeting spot, but somewhere else entirely.

In the Hokage box, the Hokage moved fast, a staff suddenly appearing in his arms and coming to rest threateningly against the Kazekage's throat. ANBU surrounded him also, but were held back by the Kazekage's own guards.

"You are not fit to lead, Hiruzen."

The Hokage would know that voice anywhere. He watched with a sort of resigned horror (because in the scheme of things, this was not really a surprise, was it?) as the 'Kazekage' removed his hat and face mask.

Danzo.

To say Shikaku Nara was less than pleased was an understatement. He knew, knew an invasion of this calibre was a possibility, yet it was so farfetched that he honestly wanted to laugh.

Three nations. Suna, Oto, and half of Konoha itself were attacking the village. This wasn't just a little pastime activity of Orochimaru's to ruffle Konoha's feathers. No, this scale of invasion had years of planning behind it, and Shikaku had the sneaking suspicion that Orochimaru wasn't the instigator.

(No, that title most certainly went to Danzo. He always knew the man was devious, hell, the Hokage did too but to betray the present Hokage? That was unexpected.)

It was mindless slaughter. Danzo clearly wished to take no ninja prisoners, except perhaps the young genin that may still be susceptible to brainwashing. Root made up an entire quarter of the ninja in the village, and with the addition of the Sand and Oto nin that were entering the village through the smashed barriers of Konoha's first line of defence, they would probably triple the population of loyal Konoha nin.

He knew, in his heart, this would not end well.

It was Anko that managed to get us out of the room we had been locked in, breaking the reinforced windows with a wind jutsu that made a noise high pitched enough to shatter it.

"TAKE COVER!" She roared as us genin rushed out. It was lucky we were all trying to escape the gas, otherwise no doubt we would have broken out fighting.

Genin are meant to be secondary forces, to be deployed only once chunin and jounin numbers were threatened. Hence we were supposed to escape to the shelters.

Of course, with a massive snake in the way escape would be a difficult thing.

I glanced up to see that a purple barrier of the Sound Four had been erected on the top of one of the roofs. It was Danzo and Hiruzen who were fighting it out this time. It was Danzo that had been in disguise!

I could barely believe it, but I had bigger things to worry about. I had my clone that was ready to strike Danzo as soon as he showed a moment of weakness.

I watched as the snake thrashed. Naruto, Sasuke and I raced towards Shikamaru, who was trapped against the arena wall, too close to the flailing tail of the snake to escape. We could see Ino and Chouji jumping the barrier also to get to him.

Thankfully Shikaku suddenly arrived, and he pulled the three into a shunshin, just escaping a massive scaly appendage smashing the three to dust.

"Naruto! Summon the big toad!" Sasuke yelled, as we were forced to dodge the shrapnel as Manda smashed a portion of the arena wall.

Naruto nodded vigorously, but his thumbs and slammed them onto the ground.

"Summoning Jutsu!" he screamed, and I felt a massive spike of chakra, not all of it human, and suddenly there was a massive toad that fell from the sky. Gamabunta landed on Manda with such force the pipe fell from his mouth and he let out a grunt of confusion.

It forced Orochimaru to leap off lest he be crushed.

It happened to be that he was heading straight for Neji, TenTen and Lee. To their credit, they didn't hesitate for a second to launch into action. TenTen flung an array of kunai at him as he fell which looked oddly like they were going to miss. This, however, was not the case as Lee suddenly appeared above Orochimaru and brought his leg down on his back, and the sudden acceleration of speed sent him straight into the kunai – and Neji, who was awaiting him with open palms.

It was quite the display of teamwork; unfortunately for them, it was a substitute. They were saved, however, as Gai suddenly appeared and managed to propel the real Orochimaru away with a sequence of taijutsu. Anko joined him and the two faced off.

"Go protect the civilians!" Gai told his team as he stood side by side with Anko, facing off against the S-ranked criminal. "We can handle this until backup arrives."

"But Gai-sensei-" Lee tried.

"GO!" Gai roared, his tone brooking no argument. "This is no place for genin!"

Team Gai hesitated but nodded and made their way off the arena floor.

Naturally, things weren't going to go well. Orochimaru struck just as Gai was forced to face Baki when the man came at him. Anko was forced to jump between them, putting herself in harm's way.

Naruto, Sasuke and I were not going to stand idle.

I leapt forwards with a cry. Being the fastest of us, it made the most sense, and within a second my CC chains were flung out, damning the consequences if anyone cared to recognise my techniques. I released a log from the end of the chain that would land me directly in front of Orochimaru, however…

Someone beat me to it. My log disappeared and someone decked out in ANBU uniform appeared in my place.

But I knew that form; knew that deceptively frail stature, knew that low ponytail of black hair.

I wasn't the only one.

"ITACHI!" Sasuke screamed

And then, sensing a fight that might be worth his while, Orochimaru grinned. The two clashed in a brilliant display of taijutsu.

It was about then that we noticed the other problem. It was hard to miss with the overbearing aura and all. I turned my head and watched as Gaara roared manically and his whole body began to radiate chakra that was not human.

"Kankuro! Get back!" Temari yelled, just in time for sand to burst forth from the ground and shroud Gaara. And he was… he was growing.

And then he was leaping out of the arena, towards the civilians in the stands, and I knew what we had to do.

"Naruto! Sasuke!" I yelled, dashing after the swirling mass of sand. The two understood immediately, and the three of us raced towards him. Baki, Temari and Kankuro tried to stop us, but Akio and Anko jumped in and prevented them.

My eyes were narrowed in determination. I had to stop the one-tails; Gaara was already lost to the madness.

The one-tails stamped down on infrastructure and people alike, destroying anything that came close. There were no jounin nearby, they were all engaged in other parts of the village.

But we weren't alone; as we chased the Ichibi deeper into the village, team 8 caught up with us.

"We have to stop that thing!" Ino screamed hysterically as the Ichibi roared, causing trees to uproot and buildings to collapse.

"You guys need to leave! We'll handle this!" I yelled over the roaring winds the Ichibi created with its movements alone.

The truth was, I didn't know if we could handle this alone. I had never restrained a fully unleashed tailed beast before, but I'd be damned if I didn't try. Team 8, however, would likely only get themselves caught in the cross-fire.

"We're here to help!" Chouji responded, his face determined. We needed to act fast before many more innocents died from the Ichibi, and I wasn't the only one who realised it. "You guys will need it!"

Shikamaru stepped to my side and put a hand on my shoulder. He looked me in the eyes, as if searching for something. Or perhaps wanting me to see something.

"This is what you're meant for," he said coolly. He glanced at Naruto and Sasuke, who were watching him intently. "Your whole team, in fact. But we're trained in combat too. We'll distract him, you take him down."

Sasuke, Naruto and I exchanged glances. But really, there wasn't any choice. We had to act now.

Sasuke nodded, and nothing more needed to be said. Team 8 took off, flawlessly falling into a formation as they attacked the Ichibi.

The time had come to test my limits.

A/N: Might be rewriting some of the later chapters of this fic cos they're sloppy. Still considering though.