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Akatsuki's Lair
It had taken years, but the fight was almost over. Akatsuki was down to Madara, Pein's bodies and the others having been destroyed in the previous months.
It had taken years, but it had also taken lives. Several of Naruto's friends where gone, never to be seen again.
Itachi had killed Sakura with an Amaterasu in a final act of contempt as he had lain on the ground bleeding to death. Hidan had used his remaining chakra to drastically increase the power of the explosion that had killed him, taking Shikamaru unaware, and killing him along with Hidan. And when they had fought Pein's six bodies, Shizune, Chouji, and Kiba had been lost in the attack.
Jiraiya had been killed by Pein before even that, having under-estimated the man who turned out to be his former pupil. And there countless other casualties among both Konoha shinobi and civilian alike.
But that was all going to end.
They had cornered Madara in Akatsuki's final hidden meeting-place, a cave system hidden underground several miles away from Amegakure.
Everybody else had all the exits covered, and Naruto had gone down into the place to either finally defeat him, or lure him out so that the other's could finish him.
"Madara!"
Naruto looked around carefully, not wanting to fall into an ambush. He heard a noise behind him, and jumped up just in time to avoid the blast of black fire that had been aimed right at him. Turning to look behind him as he landed, he saw Madara standing on a balcony above him, his disguise as Tobi disposed of.
He sneered down at Naruto as he spoke, anger clear in his voice. "So, you've saved me the trouble of having to get out of all this and find you then. I take it this is the part where you tell me this is my last chance to surrender?"
Naruto shook his head, pulling out a kunai in each hand. "No. This all ends here. There is no chance for surrender."
Madara smiled slightly as he readied himself for the fight. "Good. You've found your spine at last. A shame I'm going to rip it out of you!"
He jumped down to where his Naruto and drove a chakra-enhanced punch into his stomach, sending Naruto flying backwards.
Naruto hit the wall behind him, and threw the kunai he was holding towards Madara. As Madara dodged them, he brought his hands up and started going through hand-signs.
"Wind Style: Bladed Typhoon!"
Naruto brought his hand to his mouth and strongly exhaled, sending a whirlwind screaming towards Madara.
"Earth Style: Perpetual Defense!"
A dome of earth shot up around Madara, surprising Naruto. An earth affinity was pretty rare among Uchihas.
His jutsu smashed against the wall, parted by the rocks that made up the dome. From the dome, he could Madara shouting. "Fire Style: Dragon's Breath!"
The front half of the dome exploded out towards Naruto, followed by a massive wave of flames. Naruto leaped up out of the way just in time to get out of the way, throwing a handful of kunai as he leaped out of the way.
Madara pulled out two kunai, one and each hand, and moving quickly managed to deflect each one, and barely block the follow-up attack Naruto did, coming right up into Madara's face as he did so.
"You'll pay for all this Madara. I'll make sure of it."
Madara smiled as his eyes turned to Mangekyou Sharingan.
Naruto's eyes widened, and he barely managed to leap backwards before Madara could activate Tsukuyomi.
Madara laughed as he shouted a single word as he looked at Naruto. "Amaterasu!"
A billowing gout of black flame shot towards Naruto, and he could feel the heat even as he ran out of the path of the fire, and kept running as several other blasts followed it up.
'He's wasting energy. He must be really pissed that everything's fallen apart on him. At this rate he'll run out of chakra pretty quickly.'
Leaping down, three Kage Bunshin poofed into existence, and all of them, plus Naruto, charged at Madara.
Madara pulled out a katana and decapitated the first clone as it came at him, and the jumped over another clone before coming down on it, bringing the blade slamming into it's skull, with the clone disappearing in a poof of smoke.
Madara turned to the final clone, and as he did so was stabbed in the arm with it's kunai. Pulling it out of the wound, he cut the clone's throat with it, grinning as it collapsed on the ground before vanishing.
"Wind Style: Air Bullet!"
Naruto burst out a blast of air, sending Madara crashing backwards into the wall behind him. "Wind Style: Air Spear!"
A long, thin, blade of air slammed into Madara's stomach before vanishing, leaving a gaping wound.
Only for Madara to stand straight, and smile at Naruto as the wound closed. "You don't need to be a jinchurikki to regenerate boy! The power of the Sharingan is even greater with me than it has ever been with any other Uchiha. You stand no chance boy!"
Naruto frowned, then took out a sealing scroll, unfurled it, and activated it, letting a fuma shuriken out. He hurled it at Madara, and Madara caught out of the air, and threw it right back at Naruto.
Naruto jumped up out of the way, and pulled out two kunai that were different from the others he'd brought. Throwing them towards Madara, he quickly made two clones.
He watched as Madara moved to catch them as well, and the minute he did, the two clones vanished, appearing next to Madara and grabbing a hold of him.
"What?! How did you-," he looked at the kunai he was now holding in his hands, and recognized them immediately. They were the kunai that Minato had used for his Flying Thunder God technique. Naruto had made a trap, and Madara had fallen for it.
Naruto made a Rasengan in his hand, and ran at Madara with it, bringing it slamming right into his torso, shredding his clothing and flesh, sure that this would be enough to kill him.
But even that wasn't enough. Madara looked right into Naruto eyes as the wounds closed, and shouted a single word.
"Tsukuyomi!"
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Tsukuyomi World
In the red world of Tsukuyomi, Naruto found himself bound to a cross, the usual method of restraint in an Uchiha genjutsu.
Madara seemed to phase into existence in front of him, holding a long katana in his left hand.
"I am going to enjoy this boy. You have ruined everything, and this is the first step in a long road of pain."
He brought up the blade and plunged it into Naruto's stomach. Another ripped through his chest from behind, where a second Madara had appeared.
He looked up at Madara, and saw him grinning at him.
"Seventy-one hours, fifty nine minutes, fifty seconds left."
Madara pulled back the blade for another strike, but paused for a brief moment.
Instantly, he shouted out in pain, and brought his hand to his chest. Naruto watched, confused as the genjutsu shattered and fell apart around them.
The moment they were back in reality, Naruto was shocked by what he saw.
Standing behind Madara was a man with short, reddish hair, holding a long, black blade that was going right through Madara's heart, killing him quickly enough that he couldn't regenerate the wound. Somehow, the foe Naruto was sure he would take down, had just been killed before his eyes.
The clones let go of Madara's body, and Naruto looked at the man curiously. His hair was blocking his face, so Naruto couldn't see him very well.
"Ah, thanks for that and everything, but who are you? What are you doing here?"
The figure moved his head slightly, and his hair parted enough that Naruto could make out two Rinnegan eyes.
"I am Pein."
He brought the blade swinging up, slicing Naruto's clones in half, and Naruto himself got out of the path of the blade just in time.
'Pein?! That's not possible, I was there when all of Pein's bodies were destroyed!'
Pein looked up at Naruto, his face revealed to be twisted in an expression of anger.
"Madara is taken care of now, thanks to you. That's one use you have been to me. But you have been more trouble than you're worth. You destroyed my organization, have overthrown my country, and you have killed my six other bodies. Lucky for me you were unaware of the real me, hiding down in these catacombs, controlling the others from afar."
Naruto's eyes narrowed. This was the original after all. But that information didn't help much. Naruto still didn't know what techniques the original Pein could use, so this was essentially the same battle all over again.
"The Kyuubi is not worth all of this trouble you have put me through. I cannot extract and seal it on my own, nor can I hold you prisoner long enough to re-build Akatsuki, and the seal it. Therefore, I will simply have to kill you."
Pein slid into a combat stance, one hand ready to perform any seals that he'd need. "And you will have the honor of being the first new body in my collection."
Pein brought his hand up and shouted out, "Shira Tensie!"
Naruto felt himself struck by an invisible force, Sending him flying backwards.
"My bodies could only use one each, but I am a god! I will destroy you, and you will become another victim, and then another avatar of my will!"
Pein pulled another blade out from beneath the layers of his clothing, and with one in each hand advanced on Naruto.
'This is not good. It looks like he can use all of the techniques that his other bodies could. But…' Naruto's mind flashed back to the six bodies of Pein launching their fists at him in Konoha. '….he won't have all those extra weapons like they did.'
Naruto brought his hands together, flashed through several handsigns, and slashed his arms through the air. "Air Style: Wind Blade!"
Two blades of air rocketed out from Naruto towards Pein, who brought his blades up to block them as they came.
The blades block the wind, but while Pein was unarmed, his clothing was destroyed, revealing his body to be heavily gaunt and emaciated.
Naruto's eyes widened in shock, and Pein grinned at him. "Surprised? I once used a technique so strong that it did this to me as a penalty for using it. It is, alas, beyond my reach now, as to use it again would kill me. But it is a powerful reminder of the power I wield!"
Naruto frowned, and charged at Pein. 'He's still got a lot of chakra, and Madara ended up taking up a good amount of mine while I was fighting him. Plus, his swords have a longer reach than most of my techniques. Plus there's the problem of,-'
"Shira Tensie!"
'-that.'
Naruto went flying back yet again, aware that he'd likely end up using Kyuubi by the end of the fight.
Crashing into a wall, Naruto's head slammed into a jutting rock, blurring his vision and disorienting him. He could make out Pein cry out "Die, you insolent brat!"
Pein brought one of his blades up, and with his other hand made a sort of pulling gesture. "Bansho Ten'in!"
Naruto felt a similar force pull him towards Pein, right towards the blade he was holding out-stretched towards him.
'Not like this.'
Kyuubi chakra started bubbling up out of Naruto, and when he nearly struck the blade, some of it burst outwards toward Pein, causing him to double back as he watched Naruto eyes shift red.
"That will do you no good." Pein made a handsign and then brushed his hand through the corrosive demon chakra clinging to him. It seemed to vaporize into the air, simply disappearing off of him.
"If need be, I'll siphon that chakra off of you bit by bit. Then, when'there's none left to protect you, I'll slice you open from your ear to your Adams' apple."
'Need more……..this isn't enough…..'
Naruto felt himself pull into his mind, hoping that the normal distortion of time occurred while he was gone…..
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Naruto's Mind
"Fox!! I need help, and I need it now!"
The Kyuubi, already watching Naruto through it's cage, had a grimace on it's face, as opposed to the usual maddening grin.
"I can already tell boy. That man you're fighting has a technique that eliminates chakra, and he's using it to keep most of what I send you from being of use. He's had is set up for a while now. It's been draining away your chakra since the beginning of the battle."
"What?!"
"Indeed. The only way to get through this is to send you a large amount of chakra at once, but the seals will likely prevent it."
Naruto ran up to the gates, panicking. "Then I'll get rid of the seal!"
"Don't even bother boy."
Naruto's hand reached up towards the seal, only for a crack of lightning to hit him, sending him reeling backwards.
"The seal was made to last. I'll have to try and force it open enough to send you the chakra you need."
Naruto watched as Kyuubi's chakra started gathering up inside the cage, the fox channeling it into a massive, angry, scarlet sphere.
Just as it looked like it couldn't get any bigger, it shrunk down to the size of basketball, and suddenly exploded outwards.
Fighting to stay standing up in the wave of red energy, Naruto saw the corners of his vision fading, signaling to him that he heading back into the real world.
As he watched though, he could swear that he saw cracks working their way through the walls, and the seal itself seemed to grow darker, until it was almost the same color as the iron gate it was placed on.
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Real World
Naruto awoke to find Pein screaming, part in surprise, and part in anger.
"What are you doing?! Are you trying to kill us both, boy?!"
Naruto looked around. The walls of the caves were cracking, the cracks filled to the brim with a bubbling, red energy.
'Kyuubi's chakra? But how? What's going on?'
Naruto and Pein watched as chunks started falling out of the walls and ceiling, Pein blasting boulders away from him with his Shira Tensie.
The cracks starting spreading along the floor, and Pein screamed even louder at Naruto.
"Whatever you're doing, stop! You're going to kill both us of you damn fool!"
Another piece fell out of the ceiling, but instead of revealing daylight, it showed……nothing?
Naruto watched as more pieces fell away, and the more he watched the more he saw that where he should have seen the outside, all he could see was a black void stretching on forever.
To his right, he heard a cry of pain, and of all things, fear.
He looked at Pein to see that the cracks had spread from the floor up to his body, criss-crossing his body with cuts through which Naruto could see the self-proclaimed god's very human-looking flesh and bones.
"Stop! Make it stop! I give up!"
Naruto felt pain in his own feet, and looked to see the cracks starting to lace up his own legs.
Pein's face was covered in small cuts now, and as it reached his eyes he collapsed onto his knees, holding his head and screaming in pain. All of a sudden, Naruto watched as he exploded into dust and sand.
Falling back in terror, he saw pieces of the floor falling out as well, revealing the same black void he had seen before.
He felt, rather than saw, the small fissures and cuts carve their way up his midsection onto his chest. But, rather than pain, he felt an eerie nothingness, and as he watched the cuts further creep along his hand, and crawl up his face, he said three words before everything went black.
"What the fuck?!"
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And here is chapter 1 of Fracture, hope you enjoyed it. I supplied the idea, but the writing is by rpgkipp, an excellent author, and a great friend. I personally look forward to seeing what he can do with the future chapters.
Akumakagemaru