Teana's Travels Book 26-Point-5

by D.K.N

Here we have a few events that took place during the Time-Skip between Books 26 and 27. Between mock-battles, flashbacks, and intrigue, how did some of our heroes spend the time between the Malia Incident and the Reaper War? Rated M for violence and language

2. Infinite Tsukuyomi

Now, let's wind back the clock some and see how things happened differently in a certain climactic battle than they did in canon…

Also, any advice on the Sailor Nothing thing?

SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS

PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES

-CHAPTER START-

Realm NTO-23

Midway through Book 14

With a whirl of motion, Sakura returned to 'normal' space-time, ejected from the other dimension of Kamui. She staggered to her feet, and was surprised to see Kakashi and Sasuke right in front of her.

"Why and how is Sakura here so suddenly?" Sasuke asked.

"She was in the realm of Kamui" Kakashi replied. "Sakura, how were things going in there?"

She was about to reply, but then gasped as she saw the blood streaming from Kakashi's closed left eye.

"W-What happened to you?-!" she asked him, running over.

"It happened in an instant…" the silver-haired man said as Sakura got to work on stopping the bleeding. "Madara plucked my Sharingan eye out and took it for his own. Sasuke managed to slice him in half, but that didn't even slow him down, and he warped out. …What happened to Obito?"

"I suddenly found myself here…" Sakura murmured, and after a few seconds she gasped as horrified realization crossed her features. "Obito could barely move! He was going to have me destroy the Rinnegan in his left socket so Madara couldn't get it! But now that Madara's in there and I'm out here… we're in huge trouble!"

Sakura spent another minute or so explaining the details of what Obito had told her, while she also finished stopping the bleeding from Kakashi's eye socket.

"Madara could pop out again at any time" Sasuke announced. "Watch your backs."

"I'm watching my back, alright…" Sakura murmured, glaring at the young man.

Kakashi 'wilted' a little at the sight; Sakura's attitude toward Sasuke had been steadily worsening lately, especially since his arrival here at the battlefield, the more unpleasant facets of his personality on full display even as he assisted against Madara & Obito. It seems trying to kill her had acted as a trigger of sorts for something… Just then, Naruto leapt in.

"What about Madara's 'shadow'?" Sasuke asked.

"I immobilized it with Shukaku's sealing technique and a pair of Six-Paths black rods" Naruto replied. "I've got a Shadow Clone watching it, too. …Sakura-chan? How long have you been here?"

"About a minute or two" the pink-haired girl replied. "And what about Madara's shadow?"

"Madara's Rinnegan lets him create an invisible duplicate of himself – 'Rinbo', he called it."

"It can only be sensed by Naruto's new Sage Mode and by the Rinnegan that the Six-Paths Sage's spirit gave me" Sasuke showed off his left eye – the familiar concentric purple rings with added tomoe marks in it. "And, it can only be hurt by our new chakra. You two will just be in the way."

Sakura growled, tightening a fist and beginning to stand up, but Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder to rein her in. At this point, Naruto finally noticed Kakashi's left eye – or rather, his lack of one. He was about to move in and use his new powers to restore the eye, when suddenly he was stopped by the voice of the other half of Kurama inside him.

'HOLD ON, NARUTO. I'VE GOT A MESSAGE FROM THE OLD MAN. HE HAS THIS MEDITATION TRICK THAT CAN GIVE HIM GLIMPSES OF THE FUTURE. AND HE SAYS NOT TO RESTORE HATAKE'S EYE; SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN BEFORE THE DAY IS DONE, HE SAID. TRUST ME – AND HIM – FOR NOW…"

Confused, Naruto nonetheless chose to go with it, stepping back. As he and Sakura started filling each other in on things while Sasuke stood guard, Kakashi looked at his former team, remembering the words they'd said, the answers they'd given three years ago, right after they first became his students.

'Naruto… You've already surpassed the Hokage by this point. You've become a hero acknowledged by everyone, one of the most powerful ninja alive… and you still want to become Hokage, too. …Well, maybe after a couple more years' wisdom…'

'Sakura… Your feelings have changed the most… You've become so strong and serious, learned so much… But… Back then, you adored Sasuke. But now? …I can see it in your eyes, and hear it in your voice; after everything he's said and done… lately, you've lost your love for him, and you've come to detest him. …I can only pray that anger doesn't grow and turn into a poisonous hate…'

'And Sasuke… Your original goal was to kill Itachi. Now that he's dead, and you know the truth about him, what is your goal? Where are you trying to go…? Despite being your teacher, I was unable to understand you, and I still am now.'

"Sasuke…" Kakashi spoke up. "What is your current dream?"

"And what the hell did you mean by 'becoming Hokage'?" Sakura added.

Sasuke was silent.

"It might be destiny that Team 7 is together once again…" Kakashi mused. "If you don't want to tell us what you're actually thinking now… that's fine. However, the fact that we were once Team 7… doesn't change. Right? …Madara is coming; I feel it. Do you three remember your first mission, the Bell-Snatching Exercise?"

"Hell yeah, we do!" Naruto replied, as he and the other two made ready. "The secret to victory… is teamwork!"

"I'll gladly work together with Naruto…" Sakura left the rest unsaid.

Sasuke grumbled, looking at her out the corner of his eye. "Let's get this over with…"

A swirling distortion in reality appeared several meters ahead, and two figures emerged from it: Madara, his clothes and hair still white from the power of the 10-Tails within him, now having regenerated the lower half of his body; and Obito, his hair still white from being the 10-Tails' previous host, and the left half of his body turned pitch-black where Black Zetsu had forcibly bonded to him. Obito's right eye was closed, but his left – on Zetsu's side – was open to reveal the Sharingan eye that had until recently been Kakashi's. When Madara looked up, a smirk on his face, he had both Rinnegan.

"Well then…" Madara said. "I suppose if you all died together, that would also be called 'teamwork', wouldn't it?"

"He's got both of them now…" Kakashi murmured.

"Hey!" Naruto called out. "Obito!"

There was a soft chuckle in an inhumanly deep, raspy voice. "Sorry," Black Zetsu said, "but Obito's not here. This body is mine now. …He was trying to atone for his mistakes and sins; deep in his heart, he was praying for your safety and success… like a naïve, ignorant little child."

Meanwhile, Sakura instinctively took a step back as she sensed the oppressive presence Madara was giving off. However, she stopped and steeled herself, taking a deep breath. Then, the diamond seal on her forehead glowed and released, forming into black markings that spread across her body. Then, with a burst of movement, she charged, dashing past the surprised boys and moving straight at Madara. As she got close, she dodged an attempt by him to stab her with his chakra rod, and lashed out with a bone-cracking right punch… and it was stopped in midair. At first she thought she'd hit a wall, but she felt fingers grabbing hold of her fist, pressed against a palm; Madara had formed a 'Rinbo' invisible duplicate to catch her punch. She lashed out with a kick, and the invisible duplicate's other arm blocked that as well. …Then she brought her other leg up, right between the Rinbo's legs. That stunned and flinched the Rinbo, and she was just about to land a strike on Madara himself… when an extending chakra arm from Naruto grabbed hold of her from behind and yanked her back, just as Sasuke moved in with his sword wreathed in lightning, swinging it with a 'clang' as it hit what must've been a black staff wielded by a second Rinbo clone.

"Yeah," Naruto said as Sasuke landed nearby, "he's definitely got more than one now."

Sasuke focused power into his new left eye, as a low breeze blew by.

"There are-"

"Four"

The boys turned to Sakura in mild surprise.

"That breeze just now, low to the ground…" she said. "It kicked up some dust. I saw the dust in the wind be disturbed against their lower legs – eight spots in total. He's got four of those invisible duplicates now." She grinned. "I can't see or sense them directly like you two, but I still have ways to tell where they are."

Sasuke glowered at his foes. "Since he could only make one Rinbo when he had a single Rinnegan, I was expecting two when he had both."

"I can actually make up to five at a given time" Madara said. "Unfortunately for me, that total includes the one that Naruto has immobilized and sealed. …Meh, not like I'll need it; four's overkill enough against you kids."

Sakura growled. "What is it with Uchihas looking down on and underestimating everyone? I swear to the Sage, Itachi was, like, the only Uchiha I know of who didn't have that habit."

"Well, I've never encountered any situation that proved such assumptions wrong…"

"Let's change that" Naruto replied. "We'll knock you down a few pegs when we knock your head off!"

Madara let out a quiet, amused "Hmph", and then he and his four Rinbo charged. Sasuke and Naruto rushed to meet them, the latter forming three Shadow Clones. While Sasuke engaged one duplicate in a sword/staff fight, the 'prime' Naruto went at the real, visible Madara, and his Shadow Clones handled the other duplicates. As the fight got going, one of the Rinbo moved in to help the original Madara against Naruto, with Naruto's Shadow Clone following to make it 2-on-2. Suddenly, the Rinbo fighting alongside the real Madara broke off, heading for a new target.

Sakura was tuning out the nearby scuffles, everything except her immediate surroundings, focusing chakra to her senses. Thus, in the space of less than a second, she was able to detect the brief change in wind current, the quiet rustle of cloth, and by the time a feather-light footfall landed in front of her, she was already moving. Her left arm shot up, catching the Rinbo's fist holding a chakra rod meant to stab her through the head. Then, she used that to yank the invisible duplicate in as she thrusted her right arm forward. There was a tearing, crunching sound as she felt her hand tear through something… or someone. The other combatants stopped to look in surprise. As Sakura moved her hand, she gripped something solid. It was still invisible, but she knew she now had a handful of vertebrae. Focusing her strength, she tightened her grip and pulled.

As Sakura's hand came free, the Rinbo's invisibility 'flickered' and died, revealing a duplicate of Madara with all its colors washed out, a hole punched through its mid-torso and a portion of its spine now in Sakura's hand. Lightning-quick, she swept its legs out from under it, and then brought her other fist crashing down. The impact shattered the ground and damn-near liquefied the Rinbo's skull. She tossed the piece of spine aside, panting lightly.

"One down…" she said.

As Sakura began to walk toward the battle, however, she suddenly heard movement behind her. She turned and gasped, and cried out as a powerful kick from the headless, hole-through-chest Rinbo sent her tumbling. The duplicate rapidly regenerated, fading back into invisibility. Madara laughed.

"You may be strong, little girl," he said, "but only chakra from the Six-Paths Sage can permanently harm my Rinbo; anything else, and they just regenerate like nothing happened! Now… I suppose it's time to end this little sideshow…"

With that, Madara took off, flying high and fast up into the sky while his Rinbo clones kept Naruto & Sasuke busy. He took position high above, holding his right arm high as an orb of black energy formed above it, growing to the size of his head. After several seconds, it split into multiple smaller black orbs flying out in all directions, hovering over the landscape. Then, Madara clasped his hands together:

"Tajū Chibaku Tensei!" {多重地爆天星}

The earth began to buckle and shatter, breaking away and floating upward, converging on the floating black cores. Most of the small nation of the Frost Country was uprooted, torn apart and ripped into the sky to become part of the multiple titanic masses of soil and stone floating high above.

"They're way bigger than what Nagato did," Naruto thought aloud as he and the others tried not to get sucked up, "and there's so damn many of them!"

"Hey, Naruto!" Sasuke snapped. "Don't get distracted by what's up above! Madara's 'shadows' are still here!"

With a wave of his hand, Madara sent the small storm of Chibaku Tensei constructs hurtling down. At the same time, his four Rinbo duplicates began to charge at the heroes again. Naruto set four Shadow Clones to fight off Madara's copies, while Sasuke formed his Form-4 Susanō and took to the sky, the massive purple chakra construct drawing its twin blades. At the same time, Naruto used Kurama's power to form a Bijūdama at the center of a Rasenshuriken, and sent it soaring upwards. Sasuke's strikes sliced one Chibaku Tensei mass into dozens of pieces, while Naruto's attack blew another to bits.

As the duo kept going, however, blasting and slicing masses of rock, Madara reached his goal, hovering kilometers in the sky, as close as he could get to the Moon – still tainted red by the 10-Tails' mere presence. He reached up, snapping off the armored forehead protector he wore. As he focused his chakra, a third eye – a blood-red tomoe-bearing Rinnegan – opened on his forehead.

"Divine light!" he shouted. "Shine forth on this wicked world! Come forth, Infinite Tsukuyomi!-!"

The Moon's redness became brighter, and the concentric rings and tomoe of Madara's third eye formed on it. Seeing this, Sasuke immediately turned his Susanō around, rocketing downward towards the others. He kept going full-speed, slipping between the half-dozen Bijūdama Rasenshuriken Naruto had just tossed up at the incoming meteors, narrowly avoiding them. Ignoring Naruto's protests, Sasuke landed hard on the ground, making his Susanō envelop Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi and press itself against the earth, using its wings as extra shielding, while making itself opaque, stopping all light from getting in or out.

High above, the crimson moon began to shine out a brilliant, blinding light across the entire world. Everyone everywhere was promptly caught in the planet-spanning genjutsu, left standing in place as their minds were locked away, the pattern of Rinnegan superimposed over their eyes. It affected not just humans, but every complex life-form on the planet, and not even being asleep or in underground shelters away from visual range of the Moon protected them. Only nine people – four within the Rinnegan-enhanced Susanō, four Edo Tensei warriors, and one unconscious/comatose and being used as a host by a certain bizarre entity – were unaffected.

"Shin: Jukai Kōtan!" {神・樹界降誕}

At Madara's command, enormous masses of wood – tree roots – burst out from the ground all over the place, rapidly spreading through the planet's crust to reach everywhere there was human life. From the roots, tendrils of wood snaked out and rapidly wound around each and every person caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi, cocooning them in chakra-forged wood. …Inside the Susanō, Naruto 'heard' as Hinata's 'Heart' cried out to him for help, before going silent. Sasuke grabbed him by the sleeve before he could move.

"Don't go out there right now, Naruto" he said. "If you leave my Susanō, you'll fall under the Infinite Tsukuyomi's effect, too. And on top of that, his Rinbo are out there as well, along with that thing that's controlling Obito's body. If you and I get defeated now, that'll mean the end of everything. Just wait."

"What the hell is going on out there?" Sakura asked.

"Telling you would be pointless; you can't do anything about it."

Sakura's first flickered with chakra. "You wanna try saying that again, you rotten-"

"Sakura!" Kakashi physically restrained her with one arm. "Sasuke, that was uncalled for. We need to know what's happening, so we can come up with-"

"Kakashi, without your Sharingan, you're as useless as she is. So shut up and let me handle this."

"Hey! Sasuke!" Naruto snapped. "What the hell?-! What happened to 'teamwork'?-!"

"…For the time being, the Infinite Tsukuyomi has taken effect. Every single person in the world is under it. The only ones safe, most likely, are us inside my Susanō. …Right now, everyone else has been pulled into a dream-world."

"Are we stuck here?" Kakashi asked.

"Not forever" Sasuke replied. "The unnatural light shining from the Moon is already beginning to dim. Once it fades completely, we can leave."

Soon enough, the evil light faded away, returning everything to normal nighttime (though the Moon was still red). The Form-4 Susanō was dispelled, revealing that Obito/Black Zetsu was kneeling nearby, having been calmly waiting.

"I guess the light doesn't last forever after all…" Black Zetsu mused.

"Sasuke," Naruto shouted, "how do we undo the Infinite Tsukuyomi?"

"It's a Rinnegan-based technique," Sasuke replied, "so my Rinnegan can dispel it… probably…"

"I will not allow that. Now… the time has come to get rid of you all."

"And I, the savior of this world, shall be the one to do it!" Madara announced as he came in for a landing.

"There's… an eye on his forehead…" Sakura murmured.

"Be careful" Sasuke said to Naruto. "We're surrounded by four of his 'shadows' in every direction."

"I know" Naruto replied.

"There is nothing more that you can do now" Madara proclaimed. "This world's ties to fate have been severed. Everyone… their suffering… their pain… their futility… they have been disconnected from all of it."

"But it's all a giant lie!-!" Naruto countered.

"…Naruto, who are you to interfere with everyone's happiness? The show ends here… I have transformed this hellish world into Heaven. Surely, you've realized by now… This is the end."

And then, everyone got the shock of their lives as a pitch-black arm impaled Madara's chest from behind.

"Wrong, Madara… It is not over yet, and you are not the savior of this world…"

"What… the hell…?" Naruto whispered out.

"How can you decide so surely that you are so different from Obito, that you understand everything? Is it so absurd to think that you may have been manipulated as well?"

"Black… Zetsu…" Madara groaned out. "What are you talking about? I created you! You are my will!-!"

The thing calling itself Black Zetsu laughed in his inhumanly deep, rough voice. "You believing that was also part of the plan. I embody the will of another, of one far greater than you, human. For a long time, I have planned and acted in her stead, and now… …You have played your role well, Uchiha Madara - as a corruptor of a younger Uchiha, a reborn enforcer, a gatherer of the Tailed Beasts' power, and as a caster for the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Now… at last, you shall fulfill your final role: a sacrifice for Kaguya-sama's revival!-!"

Upon hearing that name, Naruto and Sasuke reacted with undisguised shock, while after he heard it Madara finally realized what was going on, what had been set up, and how badly he had been played… And then black 'veins' of chakra began to rapidly spread across his body from where Black Zetsu's arm had pierced him, and he roared in agony. A mighty burst of wind rushed out from him, and the earth all around began to buckle and fracture.

"What the hell is this?-!" Naruto said. "His chakra's growing and changing!"

"His Rinbo clones have come apart and vanished" Sasuke observed. "Something major's happening!"

Suddenly, huge streams of thick chakra burst out from the ground, knocking the quartet away and flowing in towards Madara and Zetsu. Black Zetsu began to grow, spreading over Madara, whose body was beginning to grow and bulge grotesquely, his white hair lengthening.

"Where is all this chakra coming from?-!" Sakura asked.

"Probably from the people caught in Infinite Tsukuyomi" Sasuke replied.

"If this keeps up, we're in deep trouble!" Naruto shouted. "This is more chakra than even the 10-Tails had!"

"Let's stop it before it gets any farther along, Naruto!"

Naruto nodded, forming one of his Truth-Seeker Orbs into a staff and charging in alongside the Uchiha. Sasuke used his new Rinnegan teleportation ability to get on the other side of the target, only for two thick tendrils of 'hair' to lash out and wrap around both boys before they could attack.

"Two little moths have flown into the flames… I'll absorb your chakra now as well!"

Sakura made to rush in to help, only for Kakashi to stop her. "Hold it, Sakura! If you act now without thinking carefully, you'll just be throwing your life away!"

"Damn it!" Naruto struggled. "Sasuke, we've gotta stop him! We might be okay a little longer, but everyone else that's getting their chakra drained is gonna die soon!"

"Don't worry; I have no intention of killing anyone. Kaguya plans to preserve everyone under the effects of the Infinite Tsukuyomi and keep them all alive… so that they can be turned into her soldiers."

"What… are you talking about?-!" Sasuke grunted out as he still tried to break free.

"Hmph…" Black Zetsu began to slither off of Obito, transferring onto the bulbous mass Madara was becoming. "You're considerably dumber than Itachi. Normal people aren't suited for the kind of army Kaguya-sama desires… They will be made into White Zetsus! Once the Infinite Tsukuyomi has taken over completely, those people will all be just shells of their former selves… and what's left will become White Zetsu. All that's left is to sit back and wait a few years for the transformation to slowly take place."

"You're saying… you mean to turn everyone into those things?-!" Naruto shouted out.

At this point, Madara's body had bloated up to a massive size, still sucking in chakra while being covered in the jet-black matter of Zetsu. Suddenly, as the entire mass turned black, Obito's unconscious body dropped out. Then, the mass began to shrink, compressing and solidifying. Rapidly, a new figure took shape, its – her – form finally settling: an unnaturally tall woman, clad in a white robe with magatama designs on the sleeves and down the center, the sleeves and bottom of the robe lined in gold and purple, her long-fingernailed hands sticking out from within wide sleeves that seemed to be infinite blackness inside; her long bluish-white hair was fanned out behind her, two long dull-brown horns pointed up from the sides of her head, there were small circles of pigmentation above her Byakugan eyes, and the center of her forehead held a third, 'Sharrinegan' eye.

"It's… It's her…" Naruto murmured. "The one that Old Man Sage warned us about…"

Sasuke nodded. "Ōtsutsuki… Kaguya…"

Suddenly, the Six-Paths Sage's markings on Naruto's right and Sasuke's left palms glowed with power, and they were ejected from the hair-tendrils binding them. Kaguya slowly floated forward, her Byakugan activating.

"These two boys…" she spoke softly. "They are Hagoromo & Hamura's… No… Indra & Ashura's reincarnates?" She noticed the unique chakra carried inside the boys' hands. "Hagoromo must have given that to them…"

She looked around. When her eyes briefly fell upon Sakura for about two seconds, the pink-haired kunoichi briefly couldn't breathe, feeling like this newcomer was staring into the depths of her very soul.

"…What is your objective?" Kakashi asked.

"This place…" the fallen goddess said. "This world is my precious nursery… I have no intention of causing any more damage to it. Let us end this battle…"

Instantaneously, everything changed. Now, they all found themselves in midair several dozen feet over a lake of lava… and none of them other than Kaguya could fly.

"I shall erase you from existence here and now!"

'This isn't a genjutsu!' Kakashi thought with panic, feeling the heat. 'It's real!'

Acting quickly, Sasuke summoned one of his giant hawks. Riding it, he had the bird grab and catch Naruto with its talons and take flight… leaving Kakashi, Sakura, and Obito behind.

"Sasuke! What the fuck are you doing?-! Help them!"

Thinking fast, Kakashi grabbed Sakura with one hand while tossing a perfectly-aimed kunai with the other. The kuani was tied to a scroll which he grabbed hold of, while the black throwing knife impaled itself through Obito's left hand and into a wall, stopping the unconscious man from falling while Kakashi held on.

"Sorry about that, Obito…" Kakashi murmured.

Sakura gasped as her forehead-protector slipped off and plummeted below. On contact with the lava, the cloth instantly combusted and was burned to ashes, while the metal plate sank and melted.

"As I thought, it's not genjutsu…" Kakashi said. "Did she… transport us all to another dimension?"

"Nice save, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted.

"Eyes front, Naruto" Sasuke told him. "Let me be clear: If either of us does, the world ends. Your yang power and my yin power can seal her. If we can't do that, humanity will be annihilated. When the Infinite Tsukuyomi was cast… Kakashi and Sakura just happened to be next to you when I dove to make sure you stayed active. They're just tagalongs, and hindrances to us. Do you understand?"

Holding on to Sakura, Kakashi felt as her muscles tightened, her chakra becoming agitated. "Easy, Sakura…" he murmured, imagining the 'death glare' on her face. "Don't do anything while I'm holding you above a lake of lava…"

"I get where you're coming from…" Naruto admitted. "I don't agree with it, but I understand what you mean. And… well, there are times where your body just… moves on its own, remember?"

"…Hmph"

Suddenly, Kakashi felt the scroll he was hanging onto jerk. He looked up, and his eye widened as he saw it burning from where a few airborne embers had landed on it. As it snapped, sending Kakashi and Sakura dropping, Naruto immediately shot out an enlarged chakra arm, catching them. However, immediately Kaguya zeroed in on them, her Byakugan locking on as she fired a barrage of hair-needles. Sasuke formed a Stage-0 Susanō to shield himself and Naruto, but one projectile stuck into Sasuke's left arm, a few of the needles penetrated his hawk summon's left wing, the Byakugan-aided projectiles striking tenketsu points. With its wing now paralyzed, the bird began to plummet. However, before Sasuke, the hawk, and Kakashi & Sakura could hit the lava, they stopped. Kakashi and Sakura looked up, in shock.

"N-Naruto…" Sakura breathed out. "You… You can fly?-!"

Indeed, Naruto was now hovering in midair, his chakra arms holding onto everyone else. He looked around in surprise, and then smiled.

"Huh… I guess I can…"

'Now that I think about it,' Kakashi thought, 'Madara became able to fly after he gained the Six-Paths Sage's power…'

As Sasuke pulled the oversized senbon out of his arm, Naruto created a Shadow Clone and had it take care of Sakura & Kakashi. The duo glared at Kaguya, who glared right back.

"Chakra… is mine alone…" she declared. "I will unite it all under my control, once again!"

She charged, and Naruto formed a giant chakra fist to meet her attack. The resulting clash blew a sizable hole in the side of the volcano they were all inside. As Naruto and Kaguya exchanged a flurry of rapid-fire strikes from giant chakra fists, Sasuke – now with a Form-4 Susanō – dove in from above, blade drawn and ready to strike at Kaguya…

There was a massive explosion of force. Sasuke came flying out, tumbling through the air, his spectral summon rapidly disintegrating around him. He had no control of his 'flight', and his momentum was carrying him right toward a lake of lava… Suddenly, one of the rocks thrown up by the blast, right when it was behind Naruto, was instantaneously replaced by Sasuke, the rock being transported to where he'd just been and plummeting into the lava. Naruto quickly grabbed Sasuke with a chakra arm, and shape-shifted one of his Truth-Seeker Orbs into a platform for the Uchiha to stand on. Meanwhile, Naruto's Shadow Clone took the opportunity to grab Obito.

"I totally forgot you had that new special teleportation trick" Naruto remarked as he set Sasuke down on the floating platform. "You really had me worried for a second there!"

"The Sage gave both of us some pretty amazing abilities" Sasuke said. "But if we don't seal Kaguya away, it will have been for nothing."

Suddenly, a strange black distortion appeared in space beside Kaguya, like overlapping rectangles forming a rift in reality. She began to pass through it… and emerged from the exit portal that had opened up directly behind Naruto & Sasuke. They barely had time to turn and face her before she grabbed them. As she looked at them, tears formed in her eyes.

"You… remind me so much of them…" she murmured.

'I… can't move…!' Naruto tried to struggle.

Suddenly, a pitch-black mass emerged from Kaguya's sleeves, partially enveloping the sides of Naruto & Sasuke's bodies.

'She's draining our chakra!' Sasuke felt a spark of panic.

"As Kaguya looks at the both of you…," Black Zetsu spoke as he absorbed from the boys, "it appears she is reminded of Hagoromo and Hamura – her sons. Kaguya, who was sealed away by her own children… You can't help but feel a little sad for her as a mother, no?"

"Why would Old Man Six-Paths do that to his mother?-!" Naruto growled. "It was the 10-Tails he sealed, wasn't it?"

"It seems you are misinformed about something."

"Black Zetsu…" Sasuke gritted his teeth. "Just who and what are you?"

"I am Kaguya's third child. …Since her sealing, I have wandered the earth, documenting and recording everything in her absence… everything that I created. The tale of shinobi… is one I crafted to bring about my mother's revival."

"What the hell are you talking about?-!" Naruto snapped.

"That you know my mother's name must mean you met with Hagoromo's spirit. I know that with the power you two inherited from him, such a meeting is possible. And I know that he bestowed upon you the power to seal mother away again. …How strange, that after fighting for so long, the reincarnates of Indra and Asura would work together like this… Alright, then. Seeing as you two are ignorant of quite a few truths, I will enlighten you as I consume your chakra.

"As I mentioned before, my mother was sealed away by the hands of her own sons. An extremely powerful seal… A technique that turned the 10-Tails into the core of a titanic Chibaku Tensei, gathering the fragments of the Moon, which was blown apart during the two sons' battle against the 10-Tails, and reforming them with the 10-Tails' body at the center. But just before mother was sealed again, she gave life to me… so that I could one day set about her revival.

"The 10-Tails was not only made up of the Divine Tree, but also of mother. It was not an incarnation of the Divine Tree trying to reclaim the results of the chakra fruit. It was the result of mother merging herself with the Divine Tree, in order to reclaim the chakra that her two sons had 'taken' from her at birth. Even Hagoromo did not know this truth. …As Hagoromo lived on, oblivious to those truths, he sired and raised Indra & Asura… and created that ridiculous 'ninshuu' creed.

"But from all those little factors came one that would prove most important in mother's revival. After Indra lost the conflict over succession, I came to him, planting whispers in his ears and ideas in his head, nudging him in the direction which would lead to his 'betrayal' of his father's ideals. And thus afterwards, his descendants the Uchiha Clan became the cast of my story. Furthermore, I found that silly little 'handbook' Hagoromo left behind, the stone monument the Uchiha would come to revere, and… made some 'alterations' of my own. I even threw in something about how the Infinite Tsukuyomi would 'save the Uchiha'. And with that, everything played out wonderfully for me… thanks to your ancestors, Uchiha.

"Indra and Uchiha, Asura and Senju… As they fought and warred, the desire for and pursuit of the power of chakra manipulation was created… And since then, I have approached both lines' reincarnates over and over, trying to bring about the Rinnegan's awakening… and failing. But when Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama came along, I was convinced – confident that Madara would succeed. That was the first step in reviving mother. …But after a clash of titans, Madara was struck down by Hashirama.

"To a ninja, Madara's corpse would have been incalculably valuable. I had to prevent that, so I took his body and entombed it deep within the mountains near Konoha, to keep its secrets safely hidden. …But Madara had another ace up his sleeve. Sasuke… Do you remember when Itachi engraved a 'transcription seal' into your eye, enabling you to use Amaterasu later on? Madara also engraved the same type of seal into himself as a precautionary measure, leaving Izanagi on a time-delayed release from his right eye. By sacrificing that eye, he rewrote reality and 'undid' his own death, leaving a Shadow Clone in his place in the crypt. He regurgitated the chunk of flesh he'd bitten from Hashirama's arm, and infused it into himself. By doing that, he was at last able to awaken the Rinnegan and summon the Gedō Mazō. He infused and cultivated Hashirama's cells in the statue, creating a life-support system for himself. The White Zetsu were created as an accidental byproduct of this process… or so he believed. The truth was that I took those who had, centuries ago, been consumed by the Infinite Tsukuyomi and the Divine Tree, and altered their bodies to produce the White Zetsu.

"I stuck to the shadows, fooling Madara into believing I had been born from him. And I came up with further plans, to lead into war… When the time came, I intentionally let Kabuto discover Madara's corpse, knowing he would use it to try and increase his own power. I also manipulated Obito into cooperating, and used him to deal with Madara's corpse. …And this entire war played out perfectly according to my design, ultimately ending in the casting of Infinite Tsukuyomi. And with the enormous amounts of chakra collected from the countless beings caught under its spell… I was finally able to revive mother."

"You two…" Kaguya spoke softly. "Hagoromo… Hamura… I hate them… They no longer walk this earth… You boys shall take their place…"

"My role is finished. Now, I shall return to the almighty mother-goddess."

"…You…" Naruto growled, his chakra flaring. "You are not the history of shinobi!"

With a burst of power, Naruto ripped himself free of Black Zetsu, and then used a chakra claw to tear Sasuke free as well.

"And another thing! A mother is supposed to be proud and happy when her children become strong enough to be independent!"

"Naruto…" Sasuke said. "In order to cast the seal, we need to create an opening."

"No problem" Naruto replied. "I've got a trick I can use, one I've been working on for a long time!"

"…What kind of idea have you cooked up in that thick head of yours, Naruto?"

"C'mere and I'll tell ya."

"I don't know what you're trying to do," Black Zetsu taunted from within Kaguya's left sleeve, "but mother has absorbed every known technique. Anything you attempt is meaningless."

Meanwhile, the Shadow Clone of Naruto carrying Kakashi and Sakura was presently retrieving Obito.

"What's she doing?" Kakashi asked.

"Just glaring at everyone, at the moment" Sakura replied. Her body language and voice seemed unusually tense, and she occasionally acted as if something in her head or chest was hurting her.

"I see… She has the power to actually pull us into another dimension. This is on a completely different level from anything we've ever encountered before. It's like… we're fighting a goddess…"

"…How do we fight something like that, Naruto?" Sakura asked.

"This might very well be the end for all of us," Naruto's Shadow Clone said as he placed his hand on the unconscious Obito's chest, "but we won't know for sure until we try." Soon, Obito began to stir.

Back at the 'main' battle…

"Are you serious?-!" Sasuke asked.

"Well, it can't hurt to try" Naruto replied. "We won't know unless we give it a shot! I've been practicing this one even more than the Rasengan! I think this might be our best shot!"

Sasuke let out a weary, slightly exasperated sigh. "If it might have a chance of giving us an opening… The hell with it; let's go. I'll get my Rinnegan ready…"

The two of them made ready, weaving hand-seals. Sasuke focused his chakra, and Kaguya was struck by the jet-black flames of Amaterasu. The black hellfire was quickly dispelled over the course of a few seconds by the fallen goddess' power, but Naruto had used the opportunity to get in close. The Shadow Clones and the original all crossed their fingers…

"Take this!"

…were enveloped in puffs of Henge smoke, and…

"REVERSE HAREM JUTSU!-!"

…transformed into eight young men, all of them smiling at her, completely nude and uncommonly handsome.

"…What" Kakashi murmured.

"WHAT?-!" Sakura screamed, the strange feelings in her head temporarily blown away (and a trickle of blood flowing from her nose).

"What…?" Black Zetsu sounded utterly bewildered.

"What a buffoon…" Sasuke sighed.

However, it had an unexpected result: Kaguya was completely flummoxed (and maybe a little 'interested'), her eyes wide in shock. Then, abruptly, the Shadow Clones dispelled, and Naruto landed a crushing blow that sent her flying.

"This is the history of ninja, bitch!" he roared.

"IT WORKED?-!" Sakura screeched. "IT ACTUALLY FUCKING WORKED?-!-?-!"

There were twin bursts of motion, and Naruto & Sasuke were on either side of Kaguya, seal-marked hands outstretched and approaching while she was helpless…

The eye in the center of the fallen goddess' forehead flashed. Reality 'hiccupped'. Kaguya now hovered in place, looking a little annoyed, at the center of a massive block of ice that held Naruto & Sasuke frozen in place, inches from her. All around, the lava world had vanished, replaced by a frozen world of masses of ice and harshly blowing snow. Kaguya formed a portal, vanishing through it and reappearing from another one a few dozen meters away.

She floated close to the trapped boys, Black Zetsu beginning to extend from within her left sleeve. Naruto's Truth-Seeking Orbs were visibly pushing their way through the ice, but hadn't been able to move very far yet. Fortunately, Sasuke proved to have something faster. Summoning more black fire, he used Kagutsuchi to manipulate the flames into thin 'blades' that sliced through the ice block, shattering it and freeing the two of them.

"I guess my plan didn't work…" Naruto said.

"Not that I expected it to in the first place" Sasuke replied. "We go with my plan this time."

"Maybe we can try it with some help this time…"

Sasuke sighed. "Naruto, I've told you before: Kakashi and Sakura are completely useless right now! They've always been!"

"Hey! That's not cool!"

"Mother," Black Zetsu spoke up, "these two are becoming a nuisance. How about we split them up and handle them one at a time? You could toss one into another of your realms…"

Kaguya smirked. "I do not believe that will be necessary. Earlier, I set something in motion, and now I sense that it is ready to pay off…"

She turned her gaze over to where the other group had set down atop a glacier a distance away. …Naruto and his Shadow Clone had been so busy focusing on fighting Kaguya and healing Obito, respectively, that they hadn't noticed: a 'mass' of negative emotions – anger, frustration, disgust, contempt, hatred – growing slowly throughout the battle and now doing so much more rapidly, as if having passed a threshold. And all of it was coming from Sakura. Her body tightened and trembled from barely-repressed fury, and her hateful gaze was focused solely on Sasuke.

"When I read that girl's Heart before the battle began," Kaguya continued, "I viewed some of her memories, and sensed the myriad of negative emotions she has come to feel toward you" she pointed at Sasuke. "As a contingency plan, at that moment I placed a… 'seed' within her, which has 'sprouted' quickly and is now 'bearing fruit'. It fed her feelings of anger, bitterness, contempt, and such towards you, boy, as a result of the quite frankly horrible way you have been treating her, and magnified them, filling her with contempt and furious hatred of you, to the point that any moment now it will be completely uncontainable. …She will deal with you for me, or at least keep you occupied.

"Of course, I cannot create emotions from nothing; I can only strengthen and magnify what was already there to begin with. Had you not been so awful to her, Uchiha-kun, I likely would not have been able to do this. Now… Know that one of your strongest, most determined foes is an enemy of your own making…"

Kaguya snapped her fingers, and a portal appeared beneath Sakura's feet, letting her drop in, to the shock of Kakashi and Naruto's Shadow Clone. Another one opened up a couple meters off the ground nearby, letting the pink-haired girl drop to land on her feet. Her body was trembling, and her head was down to hide her face.

"C… Come on, Sakura-chan" Naruto said. "You're better than that, right? I mean… after everything, you wouldn't-"

Fast as he was, Sasuke still barely reacted in time, forming a Stage-0 Susanō ribcage to block Sakura's attack, the punch leaving the spectral defense visibly cracked and damaged. Sakura's face was twisted into an expression of feral rage, her eyes burning with hatred. Her second blow shattered Sasuke's defense and sent him flying, tumbling across the ground with her in hot pursuit. Naruto was about to jump in and help, when suddenly he had to leap to the side to avoid being grabbed by Kaguya's left arm emerging from a portal behind him.

"Impressive reflexes…" Black Zetsu remarked. "How long can you keep it up?"

Kaguya then vanished into a portal, and Naruto stayed in place, senses tuned and eyes peeled, knowing she could come from anywhere at any time.

Sasuke cursed under his breath as he moved to dodge Sakura's attacks; he knew attempting to block one would be painfully futile; with his Rinnegan left eye, he could see the amount of chakra backed into her fists and feet, and knew a direct strike from one could cripple or even kill him. She was in the grips of her artificially-enhanced rage, her hatred of him pushing her power to new heights. Sasuke knew from personal experience how hate could make someone stronger, and now he was on the receiving end of that. At first, part of him wanted to blame Sakura for being mentally weak enough to succumb to Kaguya's powers like this… but the logical part of his brain butted in and pointed out that normally Sakura had become quite strong in terms of mental fortitude; it was his actions and treatment of her that had fed her anger enough for this to happen.

Somewhere deep inside him, enough so that his conscious mind could barely even detect a fleeting glimpse of it, Sasuke felt guilt.

Part of Sasuke wanted to kill Sakura, to make this stop. But this was stopped by two factors. One was the lingering affection he still held for his old teammate, deep inside. And the other was that she was proving powerful and skilled enough that it was likely he couldn't kill her, that she was proving to be a match for him, skillfully avoiding or deflecting what counterattacks he tried to make, showing herself easily capable of ending his life if he made even the slightest misstep. …A little part of him felt a burgeoning attraction to her because of this fact. He briefly considered shoving a Chidori through her in hopes of at least slowing her down while her healing factor fixed her up, but knowing how she was now, she very well might grab hold of his arm as it was stuck through her and rip it right off. So for now, he stayed mostly on the defensive, praying he could find a way out of this before Kaguya finished Naruto off.

"Ugh… Where… am I…?"

Kakashi and Naruto's Shadow Clone stood by as Obito regained consciousness.

"I… should have been dead…" he murmured, confused.

"I was able to revitalize you" Clone-Naruto replied. "But…"

"…I know. …What became of Madara? Did you defeat him?"

"Sort of" Kakashi replied. "But now, things have changed greatly."

"…If you haven't defeated the enemy yet, then take me to them. Explain on the way."

Clone-Naruto nodded. "I can sense something's happening to the original me."

"…Where's Sakura-san?"

Clone-Naruto sighed. "I'll explain that on the way, too. Come on."

Meanwhile, the real Naruto found himself pinned under several spires of glacial ice that had formed and reached out from the world around him, attacking him and keeping him in place, snapping shut like a giant Venus-flytrap. Just as the other group arrived off to the side, Kaguya appeared through a portal, slowly floating closer toward the trapped Naruto… who wasn't as trapped as he appeared to be.

"The real Naruto pinned down, and Sakura being controlled by her hate of Sasuke thanks to Kaguya's power, going all-out in an attempt to kill him…" Obito sighed.

"How did it come to this?" Kakashi murmured. "Damn it, Sasuke; if you hadn't treated her like that…"

As Kaguya began to charge, Naruto made ready.

'She may be a powerhouse,' he thought, 'but she's not that good a direct fighter. I can stick with the basics: diversions & feints, and taijutsu! I'll corner her, and if she tries to make a portal jump I'll try following her! And then, I've gotta make Sakura calm down so Sasuke can get back in the fight!'

'ARE YOU READY, NARUTO?' Kokuō asked. 'I'M GOING TO BRING YOUR CHAKRA TO BOILING POINT.'

Naruto's aura flared explosively, superheating the masses of ice restraining him and blowing them apart. Boosted by the 5-Tails' power, he roared out and struck the charging goddess with a hammer-blow that sent her careening all the way through the nearest glacier. He flew up into the air, and as Kaguya pulled herself free Naruto utilized Yang-Kurama's chakra for one of his signature techniques:

"Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!-!"

Now, hundreds of Narutos hovered in the air, every one of them glaring at Kaguya. She flew at them, unleashing vacuum-palm strikes, but most of the Narutos avoided and came right at her.

"Now, this is my dimension!" he shouted. "U!"

His blow was blocked by Kaguya's right hand.

"Zu! Ma!"

Two more Shadow-Clones came in, their strikes being blocked by – and keeping occupied – Kaguya's other arm and one of her legs. This allowed another clone's attack to land, and then…

"Ki! Naruto Ittai Rendan!-!"

As the storm of Shadow Clones rushed in, Kaguya made her retreat, flying up through a portal. However, one Naruto – the original, from the looks of it – managed to slip in after her. Finding himself in a rocky area, he straightened up, glaring at the surprised Kaguya and Black Zetsu.

"He got in? He followed us here, where the other dimensions are linked. …Mother, this boy is too unpredictable, and too capable an opponent. We can't keep fooling around with him. …Forget about taking his chakra. We really should kill him now."

"I need his chakra…"

"You use a great deal whenever you switch dimensions. You should save what you have left for later. If he manages to get Sasuke out and save him, and they seal you, it's all over. It's true that, by killing him, you'll miss out on quite a bit of chakra. But we can make it without it. It's still better than our plan being ruined."

Kaguya sighed. "…You are right. Very well. Tomogoroshi no Haikotsu!" {共殺の灰骨}

Kaguya opened a portal and pointed her left palm at it, and from her palm fired a spear of bone. Naruto swayed to the side, narrowly dodging it when it came out from behind him… but that left him open to a follow-up that was fired directly, spearing him through the stomach. He cried out in horror as his body began to rapidly disintegrate, breaking down into ash.

"That should take care of the Shadow Clones back in the ice-world. Let's head back…"

Kaguya nodded, vanishing through a portal… and, upon returning to the ice-world, coming face to face with the Shadow Clone Legion.

"You sent a Shadow Clone through…" Kaguya remarked in a flat tone that hid her slight annoyance.

Naruto grinned. "Come on; let's start the next round!"

Meanwhile, the fight between Sasuke & Sakura continued, with Sasuke showing a few bruises from glancing blows, while Sakura – her healing factor still active – was unmarred. Finally, Sasuke decided enough was enough, calling up his Susanō at Stage 2. The huge purple chakra-construct brought its blade high and swung it downward… and the ice & earth beneath Sakura cratered as she managed to catch the blade. Sasuke stared in open shock as the enraged kunoichi held the giant chakra blade between her hands. Then, with a roar, she wrenched to the side, and the blade snapped in two. She then took the snapped-off half even as it was dissolving, and hurled it like a javelin at the chest of Sasuke's Susanō, leaving a crack. Finally, she focused all her power, and cried out in furious power as she struck the crack as hard as she could, pressing and pouring her chakra into her strike as she felt it begin to give…

There was a sound like a big glass window being broken as Sasuke's spectral defense shattered, purple chakra coming apart and leaving the thoroughly shocked youth totally exposed. Sakura, still driven by her enhanced hate, wasted no time in taking advantage of the opening. She moved in almost faster than Sasuke's super-enhanced eyes could even perceive, and before he could get away she struck. Sasuke cried out, being sent flying back with great force, a horrible pain in his upper torso.

As he finally tumbled and skidded to a stop, Sasuke lay on his back, his body wracked with pain. A quick check of himself with his Rinnegan confirmed the awful state he was in; every single rib was broken to some degree, a few of the sharp, jagged broken edges pierced into his lungs, as well as one having nicked a major artery. Every breath was agonizing. Then, Sakura was there again, standing over him with hate in her eyes. She charged power into her fist, bringing it up with intent to pulverize his skull. Despite the pain and everything else, Sasuke managed to focus his chakra faster than she did, and did the only thing he could think of to save himself, hoping that his previous lackluster performance of the technique would be enough:

"Tsukuyomi!"

Sakura jerked, her eyes going wide and then rolling back as she fell over beside him, out cold. As he lay there, Sasuke knew his victory would be short-lived; with the degree of damage she'd dealt him, if he didn't get help fast he was going to die – either drowned in his own blood, suffocated by a pneumothorax, or bleeding out from the arterial damage. But he could barely move… Suddenly, an unexpected help arrived, as a distortion of space-time heralded Obito's arrival. The older Uchiha looked shocked as his eyes allowed him to see hints of the state the two were in; Sakura was unconscious and a little bit low on chakra, but stable, while Sasuke's wavering chakra, his movements and way of breathing, spoke of significant internal damage.

"Get me… to Naruto…" Sasuke wheezed weakly.

Obito nodded, using his Kamui to warp Sasuke, Sakura, and himself away, hoping that Naruto would even have the opportunity to use his Six-Paths power to save Sasuke.

A shockwave of power dispelled several of Naruto's Shadow Clones, but there were still plenty more where those came from. Kaguya began to open another portal… but then stopped. After a few seconds, she charged, heading right for a certain one of the Narutos… the only one with Truth-Seeker Orbs floating behind his back. She formed two more Disintegration Bones, but two Shadow Clones intercepted them to save the real Naruto. Now, a veritable wall of Shadow Clones formed a defensive half-sphere around Naruto, and in response Kaguya formed two bone-blades from her palms and charged in, slicing and stabbing to dispel them. Naruto growled.

"Is that the best you got?-! There's no way in hell I'm gonna lose!"

At this moment, Obito arrived, with Sasuke and Sakura in tow. Naruto turned to look at them… and that's when Kaguya struck. Her prehensile hair lashed out, wrapping around Naruto and holding him in place, allowing her to stab a Disintegrating Bone-Blade right through his torso. Everyone looked on in horror… and then surprise as 'Naruto' burst, the Truth-Seeker Orbs flying away and taking position behind a different Naruto.

"Damn it! He can shift them to his clones?-!"

"Naruto!" Obito shouted. "Sasuke needs healing!"

Naruto nodded, flying down to the rest of the group as Kakashi came up as well. He placed his hands on Sasuke's chest, his eyes widening as he sensed the magnitude of Sasuke's injuries. He let the Six-Paths Sage's chakra pulse out, and Sasuke gritted his teeth as his bones knitted back together, blood vessels being mended, the holes in his lungs sealing shut and the blood gathered in them being removed.

"How's Sakura?" Naruto asked.

"I used Tsukuyomi to knock her unconscious" Sasuke replied. "…I barely survived her, Naruto; the only time I've ever been closer to death was when Madara stabbed me."

The two of them stepped forward, ready to fight together once more. Meanwhile, up above, Kaguya and Black Zetsu hovered.

"This whole thing's gotten too dangerous, mother. I think it's time to stop worrying about 'wasting' chakra…"

"Right…" Kaguya murmured, as her forehead eye flashed.

Again, reality shifted. Now, everyone suddenly found themselves falling over, while the Shadow Clones fell to the ground with such force that they dispelled on impact. The ground looked strange, and the conscious quartet realized their bodies felt unnaturally heavy to a crippling degree.

"This time, it's… a high-gravity dimension…?" Sasuke groaned out.

Kaguya was also affected, kneeling on the ground and struggling to move. However, she still was able to lift her arms, aiming and then firing two Disintegration Bone spears. But thanks to the gravity throwing off her aim, the boys were just barely able to dodge.

"Adjusting and compensating for the increased gravity… Let me aim for you, mother."

Now, as Kaguya & Zetsu prepared to fire again, Kakashi and Obito used all their strength to move as fast as they could, desperate to at least shield Naruto & Sasuke with themselves. As they moved, they swore they could each feel a hand take hold of theirs and pull them along. Just as Kaguya fired, Kakashi & Obito took position in the path of the attacks. It was at this point that Sakura fully regained consciousness, and stared in shock at what was taking place, unable to do anything in time.

…The bone-spear about to hit Kakashi abruptly vanished, torn apart and pulled into a dimensional rift, sent harmlessly into the realm of Kamui. The one aimed at Obito hit dead-on, spearing into his stomach area. Kakashi stared in shocked horror, remembering when, years ago, his old teammate had thrown him out of the way of that falling boulder.

"It's not your time yet, Kakashi…" Obito said, a weak grin on his face.

"…Why?" Kakashi whispered.

"The younger generation… still needs your guidance, Kakashi…" Obito responded, as his body began to slowly crumble and break apart, spreading from where he'd been impaled. Naruto placed a hand on Obito, and then gritted his teeth in frustration.

"Even that will not save him now, Naruto" Black Zetsu said. "He is doomed. All that is left for him is to crumble away into ashes! Why even try to help him? He was your enemy, wasn't he? …Eh, it doesn't matter. Even when he was, he ended up betraying us. He's worthless scum, either way! Despised by his allies and enemies alike, no friends or family to speak of… He is alone, and will leave nothing behind… Losing his most precious person, and never being able to achieve his dream… Even once you give him purpose, he just teeters around aimlessly, an ignorant fool who could never get anything right… All that's left is to die a hideous death."

"…I suppose you're right" Obito said. "For a sinner like me… it's an appropriate end."

Suddenly, Sasuke's Rinnegan was done 'recharging', and he used Amenotejikara to instantaneously appear behind Kaguya, Chidori in hand. In response, Kaguya shifted everyone to another dimension, undoing the gravity spell and soaring upwards to dodge Sasuke's attack. Sasuke formed his Susanō at Stage 4, and flew up after her.

"Naruto… Kakashi… I still have… a small portion of the Six-Paths Sage's chakra in me… I'm going to use it… to give one last gift…"

Then, they watched in shock as Obito reached his arms – already starting to crumble – up to his face and pulled out his own eyes. Holding the eyeballs close together, he concentrated, bending the holy chakra left in him to his will. The eyes transformed into masses of light, and merged together, like cell division in reverse. When the light faded, there was a single Mangekyō Sharingan eye, the pinwheel pattern now with six 'spokes' instead of three.

"You can still make a difference, Kakashi…" Obito said, his voice beginning to weaken. "My final gift to you… is an Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan… No more worrying about using huge amounts of chakra to keep your Sharingan uncovered… or to use Kamui with it… No worrying about degenerating eyesight… And since it contains the power of two Mangekyō… you may even be able to form a Susanō… Naruto, take it; give it to him…"

Naruto nodded, very carefully picking the offered eye up with tiny 'arms' of shaped chakra. He walked over to Kakashi, gently pushing it into the silver-haired man's empty left socket. Kakashi winced as he felt Naruto's Six-Paths chakra flow into and through his skull for a few seconds, connecting blood vessels, nerves, muscles, and such. After a few seconds, he opened his new eye.

"Thank you, Naruto…" Obito said, his now-empty eyelids closed and a small smile on his face, as the disintegration of his body accelerated. "Fighting together with you… I feel as if I've somehow woken up. It's like… When I look at you, I'm looking at myself from long ago… and it makes me regret what I've become now. But… even so… more than anything, it makes me happy. …Back when I was a kid, I used to imagine over and over about becoming Hokage. Excitement, anxiety… and countless other feelings I can't put into words… I suppose you've made me remember all that. …Back in the village, surrounded by friends and comrades… with me as Hokage… It's too late now, but just by imagining all that… I think I feel the hole in my heart starting to fill…" He chuckled. "My imminent end is making me ramble… From here on, you'll probably face more pain, more tragedy… But I'm sure that, with that unchanging, unyielding philosophy of yours, you'll make it through. …You told me, 'following your own words, straight ahead and unwavering, and never going back on them'… That's your 'ninja way'."

"Yeah…" Naruto whispered.

"Naruto… I know you will become Hokage."

And then, held at bay for so long, the disintegration accelerated to completion, the man crumbling away into ashes and dust. Obito Uchiha was no more.

Black Zetsu's wicked laughter rang out. "So, the treacherous worm finally died! Although, maybe with that kind of stubborn tenacity, he was more of a cockroach!"

"Don't you dare mock him!-!" Naruto roared out. "Even if it was for the wrong reasons… He put everything he had into what he believed in… persevered through so much… wanted so badly to become Hokage… Someone like that…"

And in a flash of movement, Naruto was right there, having just severed Kaguya's left arm – and Black Zetsu – from her body.

"…is nothing but 'awesome' to me!-!"

As Zetsu and the severed arm plummeted to the ground, Naruto formed and threw a pair of Six-Paths Chakra Rods down at it, impaling through to pin the shadowy creature and the limb in place. In response, Kaguya quickly re-grew her limb and used her 80 Gods Vacuum Palm attack to break Sasuke's Perfect Susanō apart. However, with how badly wounded she was, she was now in the perfect position. Naruto formed eight Shadow Clones, and the nine Narutos gathered donated power from each of the Tailed Beasts within him, creating nine special Rasenshuriken, each infused with a different element of power. He let them fly, and Kaguya was unable to avoid them as they closed in from all directions.

The impact shook the sky, Sasuke being blown away a little by the shockwave only to be caught by a shape-shifted platform from Naruto. After a few seconds, Kaguya was seen, having been sent flying backwards, now noticeably damaged/injured. Suddenly, the side of her body began to rapidly bulge out asymmetrically, engulfing her as it grew in size. Soon, she had been forced into the form of a massive, bulbous thing with the head of a three-eyed fanged rabbit, and the faces of the nine Tailed Beasts bulging out, as if trying to break free.

"So what the hell is it now?" Naruto asked. "Fox? Raccoon? Badger? Rabbit?"

"Who cares?" Sasuke replied. "A giant target will be easier to seal."

'Mother's lost control of the lesser Tailed Beasts! Did Naruto's attack make them separate?-!'

Suddenly, ten gigantic tails/tentacles with hands at their tips shot out from the mass in all directions. Some of Naruto's Shadow Clones immediately shoved their original and Sasuke out of the way, and when the tails/hands touched them they were absorbed nigh-instantly. The two boys then watched in horror as one of the hands began to approach Sakura down below… when she was suddenly snatched up by a giant spectral hand. The two looked on in shock as a Form-4 'Perfect' Susanō of a green color flew up into the sky, Sakura safely in hand. And at the center of the massive construct's forehead-gem…

"Alright…" Kakashi said, his new Eternal MS glowing with power, "it's time to put Obito's last gift to good use!"

One of the tails/hands came racing towards the hero group. Sakura yelped in surprise as Kakashi's Susanō's left hand pushed her into the main body of the construct, and then at Kakashi's will both hands now bore giant shuriken shaped like his original Mangekyō design. He let them fly, severing four tail-tips/hands, and where they'd cut distortions in space sucked in portions of the 'limbs', preventing them from reattaching.

"Whoa!" Naruto shouted. "That's even more awesome than what yours can do, Sasuke!"

Suddenly, the earth below broke apart, as a mass of chakra streamed up and into the eldritch thing floating in the sky. The fanged-rabbit head's mouth opened wide, far past normal limits, revealing something pitch-black within. The vaguely spherical monster's body began to stretch off, pulling back and shrinking away. Soon, it had returned to the former of Kaguya, her right hand placed against an enormous Truth-Seeking Orb, dwarfing Kakashi's Form-4 Susanō and steadily growing even larger.

"Being able to directly absorb chakra from the shinobi under the effect of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, this genesis dimension is mother's special domain! The Tailed Beasts have already settled down, and now mother has summoned her Truth-Seeking Orb! Fire, Wind, Earth, Water, Lightning, Wood, Light, and Shadow… She has combined all of them together, and it is growing larger… This is the birth of a new dimension, and you all shall become its sacrifices!"

"Kamui can't warp away something of that magnitude…" Kakashi said. "Even if we were to retreat to its realm, if that thing keeps growing at that rate, there's no way we'd be able to return."

"So we've got to stop it" Sasuke surmised. "We need to seal her, and fast."

"Everyone huddle up. I have a plan… This will be our final mission as Team 7!"

"I am immortal…" Kaguya said. "But if either one of you two dies, you will no longer be able to seal me. So then… Which of you shall it be?"

"I'm your opponent, bitch!" Naruto roared out as he and his clones seemed to crowd around Sasuke as if to block him.

"Let's do this together, Naruto" Sasuke replied. "Twice as much of a threat for her…"

(MUSIC: Naruto Shippūden OST – "Heaven-Shaking Event")

As Sasuke, Naruto & his clones charged, Kakashi's Susanō soared upwards. Kaguya fired a trio of precision-shot Disintegration Bone spears at the construct, penetrating it, but Kakashi used Kamui to phase himself right through the one that had been aimed for him, and he also charged a kunai in his right hand with Lightning chakra that became black in color and difficult to look directly at, and launched himself at Kaguya with lightning speed.

"Kamui Raikiri!"

The strike cut deep through Kaguya's right arm, leaving her stunned and the arm immobilized while it regenerated, its self-repair slowed by the dimension-warping effect of the attack. She fired a bone-spear at Naruto approaching from her left, while beginning to open a portal between herself and Sasuke coming in from her right. However, 'Sasuke' transformed in a puff of smoke, revealed to be the original Naruto, while the Shadow Clone on the other side began to disintegrate. Down below, Black Zetsu fired a Bone-Spear through a portal to come out of the already-forming one on Kaguya's right, aiming it at Naruto, only for Kakashi to look up and use a precision Kamui to force the breach closed. Sasuke used Amenotejikara to swap with the decaying Shadow Clone, and the boys' sealing hands were outstretched. Desperate, Kaguya started to fly upward in an attempt to escape…

"Hey, bitch! Forgetting someone?-!"

Sakura came falling in from Kakashi's Susanō above, landing a chakra-supercharged punch that knocked Kaguya back downward… right into contact with Naruto & Sasuke's outstretched palms.

RIKUDŌ: CHIBAKU TENSEI

'A… Again…' Kaguya thought, stunned and furious, as a seal snapped shut over her central eye. 'I, the progenitor of chakra manipulation, the god of chakra… am defeated by chakras lesser than mine? Why?-!'

As Naruto and Sasuke broke away, the former making sure to grab Sakura with him, Kaguya's body began to grow and distort, shifting into the 10-Tails even as the earth below began fragmenting and floating upward. Nine masses of chakra bulged out from the 10-Tails' body and then broke free, dropping to the ground as the Tailed Beasts.

"WE'RE FINALLY OUT!" Son Gokū said. "YOUR JINCHŪRIKI REALLY GETS THINGS DONE, KURAMA!"

"HMPH…"

The fanged-rabbit head of the 10-Tails suddenly spat out a small lump that plummeted to Earth, revealed to be a de-powered and unconscious Madara. Then, the 10-Tails reverted to the form of the Demonic-Path Statue, as the masses of earth and rock began to congregate on it, using it as the core of the mother of all Chibaku Tensei. As the giant Truth-Seeking Orb fell apart and disintegrated while the sphere of stone grew and grew while floating upwards, Sasuke landed near Kakashi, Sakura, and the Tailed Beasts.

"Where's Naruto?" Sakura asked.

"He said he had one last thing to take care of…" Sasuke replied.

"So…" Naruto – now de-transformed and in his normal state – said as he landed beside the pinned Black Zetsu. "You never wanted to leave your mother's side, did you?"

"You bastard!-!"

"Just 'cause you've been hiding back in the shadows this whole time while you've been babbling on and on… doesn't mean I was gonna leave you out of the fun!"

"You… You're just another part of the history of shinobi that I created! A brat like you can't touch the likes of me!"

"The shinobi history…" Naruto gripped the sleeve of the robe of the severed arm Zetsu was bonded to. "It was created by all shinobi… How they live, and how they died! Don't you compare the likes of them to some mama's-boy spoiled brat!-!-!"

With a mighty heave, Naruto flung Black Zetsu high, slamming into the forming Chibaku Tensei where he was rapidly pulled in, hidden from view as more and more earth bonded to the growing sphere. Soon, the Chibaku Tensei was in orbit, leaving behind a gigantic chunk missing from the planet it now orbited, and still growing.

"It's… still getting bigger…" Kakashi murmured.

"And that's a warp!" Naruto said as he came in. "Kaguya and Black Zetsu are locked up with the key thrown away! Now, let's celebrate!-!"

"Wait…" Sakura said… and then panicked. "HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET OUT OF HERE?-! The planet's coming apart and we've got no way back home!-!"

"…Oh. …OhhhhhHHHH CRAAAAAAP!-!-! WE'RE GONNA DIE HERE!-!-!"

"…HE'S STILL KIND OF AN IDIOT, THOUGH…" Son Gokū murmured.

Suddenly, the whole group – five humans and nine Tailed Beasts – vanished. When they reappeared, they found themselves back at a familiar battlefield, the main quartet at the center of a massive Summoning circle ringed by multiple ghostly figures.

"Welcome back, Naruto…" Edo-Minato said with a grin.

"Dad…?"

"…Naruto, who is this?" Sakura asked.

"It's the old Sage of Six Paths! What's going on here…?"

"You've all returned" the ghostly old man said with a smile. "Together with all the previous Kage, we summoned you here with Kuchiyose no Jutsu. I called them here from the afterlife so that they could help. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi… Congratulations on saving the world!"

"You're…" Kakashi was stunned "the legendary…"

"I am Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo; by some, I am called the Sage of Six Paths."

"Well, look at all this…" the ghost of the First Raikage said. "I'm guessing this means things turned out okay for us."

"In the time I've been dead, the world of ninjas sure has been through some crazy stuff…" the First Tsuchikage remarked.

"This is the first time I've ever seen this many of the Tailed Beasts assembled in one place" the First Mizukage said with wonder.

"The Six-Paths Sage, huh?" the First Kazekage said. "It feels like I've fallen into a fairy tale…"

"It really must be true, then…" Kakashi continued. "Summoning all the former Kage, bringing us back from that other dimension with Tailed Beasts in tow… No-one but the Sage could be capable of such godly feats."

"You did well, Hatake-kun, leading everyone in sealing my fallen mother."

"No, I was pretty useless until Obito gave me this eye…"

"But you still led them well. You continued to guide and teach Naruto and the others, continued standing beside Obito… Had you not, mother might not have been sealed."

"Yo!" Naruto shouted and waved "Kurama! Were ya lonely all by yourself over here? I missed ya!"

"DON'T SCREAM OUT STUPID, SENTIMENTAL CRAP LIKE THAT AT ME, ESPECIALLY IN FRONT OF EVERYONE! HALF OF ME WAS INSIDE YOU THE WHOLE TIME, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!"

"Kurama, of all beings, getting flustered and embarrassed…" the Sage remarked with a smile. "But then, this is just as I foresaw: that one day, a person like this would come along, and cooperate with and stand beside the Tailed Beasts as friends."

"Obito's return was also thanks to Naruto" Kakashi said. "Naruto brought him back… however briefly."

"I see… I'll have to ask him for his side of the story in the Other-world."

"…How did it end, Kakashi?" Minato asked.

"He threw himself in the path of a lethal attack from Kaguya to protect Naruto. Before he died, he removed his own eyes and used the tiny portion of the Sage's chakra he still had to forge an Eternal Mangekyō for me. …Speaking of what killed him, I believe we now know exactly where that old clan in Kirigakure got their bone-manipulation bloodline from."

"Tomogoroshi no Haikotsu…" the Six-Paths Sage said. "One of mother's simplest, yet most lethal abilities…"

Suddenly, Sasuke began to move toward where Edo-Hashirama was approaching the fallen Madara, only for the Sage to stop him.

"Madara became a Jinchūriki," the Sage said, "if only for a short while. Now that he's had the Tailed Beasts removed from him… he is beyond saving."

"He knew what he was doing…" Sasuke replied. "And now he'll suffer the consequences."

"Sasuke… Naruto… Your predecessors are exchanging their final words. You should listen."

"Hashirama…" Madara croaked out, his voice weak. "You and I… Despite always dreaming, and reaching for the stars… we never could reach them…"

"Our kind of dreams are never easy" the First Hokage replied. "The thing is… we can only do so much in our lifetimes… That's why it's imperative to entrust the rest to those who come after us…"

"As soft as ever… You've always been… a glass-half-full idiot… But maybe… That was the right way to do things… My dream is no more… and yours still lives on."

"Always rushing things… You should have come to terms with the fact there were things you couldn't achieve. You forgot to properly raise those who followed behind you… the ones you could've entrusted things to."

"That would have been… beyond my capabilities… I always hated… having people follow me…"

"…When we were kids, you said that as ninjas there was no telling when we would die… and if we ever found a way to stave off that inevitability, we'd share it even if we remained enemies… and drink together over it, as brothers. …But we're dying now. So, all we can do is share a drink as comrades."

"As… comrades, huh? Well… if that's… how we… will…"

Before he could finish his sentence and make his opinion clear, the last of Madara's waning life-force slipped away, and the man who'd caused so much destruction and trouble at last went silent and still.

"Kaguya and her lackey are sealed away, and Madara is dead…" Sakura stated in a low, calm tone. "Now… There's just one last thing to do…"

And then, before anyone else could react, there was a blur of motion, and they all looked in shock as Sakura was holding Sasuke up off the ground, her hand tightly gripping his neck. Even the Six-Paths Sage was caught by unpleasant surprise. Sasuke's hands gripped at her wrist, but in his exhausted state he couldn't pry himself free.

"Sakura?-! What the hell!"

"Back off, Naruto!" she snapped, glaring hatefully at the now-helpless Sasuke as she began pulling her other fist back and charging chakra into it. "This needs to be done! He betrayed us over and over! He planned to annihilate the Leaf Village! He's unstable, and selfish, and hateful, and cruel, and power-hungry, twisted and evil! He only helped us because he had no other choice, because he knew the world would end if he didn't! The minute this is all finally over and he doesn't need us anymore, he'll betray and try to kill us all again! After so long, I finally know how he works now! He's irredeemable! He's a backstabbing monster! I have to do this! Sasuke needs to die!-!"

"Sakura…" Kakashi spoke carefully. "Please, calm down. You don't want to do this…"

"I do, sensei. More than anything else! I want to rip his eyes out and snap his neck!"

"He won't turn traitor now," Hashirama chimed in, "not after everything that's happened."

"I can't believe that, Shodaime. I have to make sure he never gets the chance to!"

"Sakura-chan," Edo-Hiruzen said, "I know you're not the type to murder someone out of cold-blooded revenge."

"This isn't just revenge; it's justice! Protecting the village from one of the biggest threats it's ever known! We don't need Sasuke; the Sage is here, we can just have him help Naruto undo the Infinite Tsukuyomi! After all the horrible things he's done to us – to Naruto, to Kakashi-sensei, to me – we can't let him live!"

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto placed his hand on her shoulder. "Please… Don't do this. I don't want to see you resort to doing something like this. That isn't you. We still need him, Sakura. I'm not asking you to forgive him. But please… Don't kill Sasuke. We still need him. He won't turn on us. I won't let that happen. …Please…"

As Sakura looked up at Sasuke, there was no anger in his eyes. There was shock, and fear, and… sadness? Shame? …Guilt? Sakura gritted her teeth, a conflict raging within her. Then, after several seconds, she threw Sasuke to the side, and then stalked off as he coughed and gasped for breath.

"So…" Naruto stood over his counterpart. "Now what?"

After catching his breath, Sasuke spoke in a slightly ragged tone, his throat still sore. "I… I'm done, Naruto. Even if I wanted to pull off some big last-minute thing now, I don't have the strength left to." He took a deep breath. "I… will give you, and Kakashi, and Tsunade… one last chance to fix the mess that the shinobi system has made of the world. …Just one. If you guys screw up again… I'm taking the hat from you and doing things my way."

"…Fair enough. I guess that gives me extra incentive to make sure things go right from now on. Let's do this."

Sasuke nodded, pressing his left palm to Naruto's right. A deep 'pulse' of energy raced out, spreading across the entire world at lightning speed. As the Divine Tree's roots began to rapidly shrivel and break down, the 'pods' containing all the captive people lowered to the ground and came unraveled, the Infinite Tsukuyomi's hold on their minds dissolving away and returning them to reality. Many of them were in fact deposited nearby, slowly coming to… and being quite surprised to be amongst Tailed Beasts and Kage ghosts.

Sasuke gasped softly as he felt power ebbing away from his left eye, returning it to its 'normal' Eternal Mangekyō state.

"The power I gifted to you has been used up for now" the Six-Paths Sage told him. "Your Rinnegan will 'properly' re-awaken at a later date, however." He then noticed a scroll containing… "Ah, I remember those things. …Oh, dear; someone's in there. Give me a moment…"

The Sage raised his staff and focused his power, and the sealing gourd released Samui and Atsui, the two of them stumbling to the ground, looking quite stunned and disoriented. He then turned to 'Group Naruto'.

"Though this world's battles are over for now," he told them, "I sense that your stories have not yet ended. …Sasuke, your fair cousin and her friends are, as we speak, embroiled in a rather large conflict of their own, and it will become even larger in scope in the future. They may soon need the help of all of you. …Go to the storehouse where Obito kept the eyes of fallen Uchiha; the eyes of her elder brother, slain by Nagato, are stored there. If you can bring them to her and perform the replacement, the Eternal Mangekyō will serve her well."

"Of course, sir" Kakashi nodded.

"S-So, um…" a Leaf shinobi asked Gyūki. "What's next for you guys?"

"WELL," the 8-Tailed Ox said, "WHEN I WAS RIPPED OUT OF BEE, I LEFT JUST ENOUGH OF MY CHAKRA BEHIND TO KEEP HIM ALIVE. I'M GONNA SEAL MYSELF BACK IN HIM; I'M PRETTY USED TO THE BIG LUG BY NOW."

"I GUESS I'LL GO BACK WITH NARUTO," Kurama said, "RE-MERGE WITH MY OTHER HALF THAT'S IN HIM NOW; I'LL FINALLY BE WHOLE AGAIN AFTER 17 YEARS!"

"THE REST OF US WILL GO OUR SEPARATE WAYS," Son Gokū said, "FIND SOME OUT-OF-THE-WAY PLACES TO SETTLE DOWN, MAYBE SEE THE WORLD… THOUGH IF WHAT THE OLD MAN SAYS IS TRUE, OUR POWER MIGHT BE NEEDED TO FIGHT SOME OTHER GREAT EVIL BEFORE TOO LONG…"

"I… THINK, AFTER EVERYTHING THAT'S HAPPENED, I WANNA BE GAARA'S PARTNER AGAIN" Shukaku admitted. "…ARE YOU OKAY WITH THAT?" he asked his now-conscious old partner.

Gaara looked surprised, but then he smiled and nodded. "I'd be honored."

Shukaku grinned. "HEHEH… YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT ON THAT! WHO WOULDN'T JUMP AT THE CHANCE TO HAVE THE HONOR OF BEING THE TRUSTED PARTNER OF MY MAGNIFICENT SELF?-!"

"Shukaku…"

"I'M KIDDING, I'M KIDDING… MOSTLY…"

"Now then," the Sage said, "one last thing before I go…"

The Six-Paths Sage floated over to where Might Guy laid, his body still blackened and slightly 'crumbled' from the aftereffects of the Eight-Gates Formation. The Sage brought his staff up, focusing what power his earth-bound spirit had left, and pointed it at Guy. A brilliant golden light enveloped the taijutsu master, and before everyone's eyes his wounds began to heal, his leg regenerating, his flesh de-'cooking' and bones mending. Before long, he was as good as new.

"Now, it is time for us to depart. I will bring the souls of the departed Kage with me."

Hearing that, Naruto gasped and then immediately made his way to his Edo Tensei father.

"Dad…"

Minato smiled. "Naruto…" He looked to the east as the Sun began to rise on a new day. "It's October 12th now. For the first time, I can finally say… Happy Birthday, my son. …You really have become truly amazing, Naruto. …Goodbye. I'll make sure to tell Kushina everything."

As the light of Edo Tensei's dispelling began to envelop Minato, whose artificial body started crumbling away, Naruto spoke up.

"Tell her I'm eating well and everything's okay! I'm not picky, either; if it's on the plate, I eat it! Mostly ramen, b-but not only it… anymore. I also take a bath every day I get the chance; I even go to the hot springs sometimes! Even though everyone tells me I barely even spend enough time in there to get my feet wet! And I've made a whole bunch of friends! They're all awesome! And even though my grades kinda suck, I don't get depressed about it; I guess that's because of all this confidence I've got! But, of course, I've been listening to what the Sandaime and Kakashi-sensei have told me. Also, about the three ninja taboos; I learned a lot when I was with Jiraiya-sensei! He sucked at avoiding those three things, but I still think he was super-cool and I respect him more than anyone else! Well, I don't really have any experience with women or alcohol yet! …And mom told me to find a girl who's like her, and… uh, well…

"A-Anyway! I haven't done everything she told me to do, but… I've been trying really hard to do it all! I have dreams and stuff, too! I'm gonna become a Hokage just like you, Dad! I promise! Make sure to tell mom… that she doesn't need to worry about me! I'm giving it my best!"

Now shed of his mortal form, Minato's spirit had a beaming smile. "Got it" his voice echoed. "I'll be sure to tell her everything…"

In multiple flashes of light, the spirits of all the deceased Kage departed, guided by the Six-Paths Sage back to the afterlife. Naruto wiped away what little tears he'd shed, and gazed up at the sky.

Sasuke sighed, leaning against a boulder… and then a hand pinned him against it.

"You get one chance, Uchiha" Sakura snarled at him. "If you ever try to turn on us again, I'll crush your skull like an egg. …I don't wanna see or hear from you anymore after this. You are dead to me."

She then 'lightly' kicked him hard enough to crack the boulder he was against, and stomped away. The now-recovered Tsunade stared in bewilderment.

"…What the fuck did I miss?"

-CHAPTER END-

Next Time: an epic three-way Mock Battle between three of the DDF's biggest names!