A sand jounin held a bunch of kids… no, genin, hostage. He was pointing a glaive at them, while seemingly trying to intimidate them into surrender.
The reasons why escaped Signum, but the proper procedure did not.
The children were horrified when Laevateinn's tip emerged from his chest in a shower of blood before he could react.
"It's war," Signum said, glaring at the genin that gathered before her. Soldiers? No… Children. Barely trained children who had the strength to kill many, but the discipline of civilians, at best. Terrified. Green. The fact that they were wounded and dirtied suggested that they'd been fighting for a while now. Probably exhausted. She pulled Laevateinn back and ignored the squelching sound of her blade leaving the chest cavity it'd just pierced through. "Fall back to the bunkers, protect the civilians as you move," she ordered.
"W-Who are you?" one of the genin asked.
Signum ignored the question. "Do as I say, genin," Signum said, simply, and turned around. She had to find her mistress and she had to find her NOW.
"B-But, sir, the bunkers! That guy said they'd trapped them beforehand!" one of the genin said.
Of course, the man would've blabbed. He never could have expected Signum to drop by and slay him before he could end the lives of the only people who he'd told his plans to. She sighed and began formulating commands within her mind, even as she began to pick off Roof-hopping invaders, several of which met their end just before they could jump an unsuspecting Konoha shinobi.
While Signum was busy rescuing genin teams, Zafira had reached the walls, which had been breached by truly gigantic snakes, some of which had multiple heads.
He was able to catch one by surprise, elbow dropping it into the ground so hard it dispelled right then and there. However, it seemed that the nearest one caught sight of him and, identifying him as the biggest threat around, lunged at him as quickly as it could. For such a huge beast, it was pretty quick, but…
Zafira stopped the massive snake with one of his hands, the veins on his right arm bulging as he poured all of his strength into keeping the gigantic reptile at bay.
It would've been a lot easier if the creature wasn't able to use chakra to give itself a better grip on the ground with which to push, but Zafira nonetheless held it back.
Without a word, he grunted and used his other hand to punch it, disrupting its concentration on pushing for a second, and then pushed it back with all of his strength, tossing it behind the wall the snake had just punched through. Concentrating, he cast a binding spell, causing chains to erupt from the ground and wrap around the creature, pinning it down to the rubble of Konoha's great wall.
It didn't take long for the surrounding Shinobi to attack it with their jutsu, causing the summon to dispel.
Taking a moment to regain his breath, Zafira nodded at a man only slightly taller than himself, with a wild white mane. The man stood on a roof, putting him at an almost equal level to the airborne Zafira. "Go find your mistress, I'll summon mine to take care of these," the man said.
"Acknowledged," Zafira said, turning around and flying away.
***
Shortly after Vita and Naruko joined a larger group of civilians, someone had tossed an exploding tag into the group, causing it to scatter and panic. Vita had easily shielded Naruko, and the tag hadn't done so much as ruffle her clothes behind her shield, but it was nonetheless annoying. The fact that there seemed to be an endless number of the sound freaks with modified bodies didn't help, since they seemed to love killing defenseless civilians.
Deciding that she had to get her away from the fighting, Vita merely grabbed onto Naruko and rushed after some of the genin that had been guarding the convoy of people. They'd ducked into an alley, though it was clear that they'd been chasing someone who now lay either unconscious or dead. Vita couldn't bring herself to give a crap. "You. Carry her," Vita said, gesturing towards the sole female of the genin team, a blonde girl who looked offended.
"What, who do—"
"I gave you an order, Genin, and you will carry it out or I will kill you right here for insubordination!" Vita shouted. "Mistress, you have to go with them."
"Vita, you can't–+" Naruko began, but she was cut off.
"I'll be fine! I won't let a single one of these maggots hit me!" Vita said, "now go, get to safety! I'll stop our pursuers here!"
The three genin, clearly frightened, took Naruko with them and after the physically largest one of them picked her up in a bridal carry, they set off.
Someone tried to get them with a hail of kunai, but a glowing red glyph stopped the attack.
"If you want to get to them, you'll have to get through me!" Vita challenged, sweeping her hammer across the air in front of her before swinging it down and smashing it against the ground, creating a sizable crater. "Come at me!"
And so they did.
Over and over and over again. Their numbers seemed endless. More than Vita expected, at any rate. She hadn't intended to get sidetracked this much. She had to get back to Naruko, she'd merely sent her ahead so she could be safe, which she wouldn't be with just some genin for guards.
"I have to go," Vita muttered.
"You ain't goin' anywhere, missy!" a tall woman wielding a battle fan said, grinning sinisterly. "You killed a bunch of us, but you're probably already exhausted!"
"And we saw you protecting that girl. When we get past you, we're gonna hunt her down, and then we're gonna—" her partner, a large man with a battle hammer, spoke until he was cut off when the shinobi around them didn't wait and just leaped to attack Vita.
"How… how dare you!?" Vita roared, swinging Graf Eisen in a wide, sweeping arc. The hammer increased in size tenfold, unexpectedly, as it expelled the spent cartridges she'd just used. It broke through and crushed no less than a dozen shinobi who'd jumped her at once. "GET OUT OF MY WAY, INSIGNIFICANT INSECTS!" she yelled, as enraged Sound and Sand invaders poured into the alley. Given the fact that Vita had been swinging her hammer for a while, and using shinobi as wrecking balls, the buildings on both her sides were on the verge of collapsing, given the damage she'd done to their sides.
They'd even cut off her avenue of escape in the way of flight, simply by having several stand in the walls, ready to attack her if she went up. Clearly, they were a lot better informed than they should be about her capabilities.
"KILL HER! KILL HER NOW!" someone roared, and several elemental jutsu came Vita's way.
No matter. Well informed or not, trash was trash.
"Panzer," Graf Eisen informed, and a barrier formed around Vita, keeping her safe from the fire and lightning that came her way, and when the barrier was taken down due to continued abuse, she simply used Graf Eisen itself to knock aside the large stone spear that had pierced through.
"I don't have time for this! Graf Eisen!" Vita yelled
"Raketenform!" her hammer responded.
Luckily, her dress was already red.