Chapter 3- Fight!
Warning: Character Death, but they come back in another story.
3rd person
Off in the distance, Shadow heard a howl of war and emeidiatly raced tward it. When his squad reached the scene of the battle, the kitsunes behind him gulped and shivered at the huge mass of demons before them. "Steady boys. Don't let their numbers fool you, with out orginazation, an army is nothing." he whispered to his squad. He charged into battle, the kitsunes following bravly. The special assasins took out great numbers at one time when they attacked, moving with a grace that only a kitsune could posses.
Naruto and Sasuke were having a hard time mean while. Just as a gargoyle demon was about to smash Naruto's head in, a flash of black appeared, almost blinding him. When it disappeared, the gargoyle was missing the top half of his body.
Sasuke had to refrain from hissing and spitting on several occations whenever he was sliced by claw or sword. He used his claws to cut down any demon in his path, as well as his jutsu and Sharingan. He was about to be knocked down from behind, but something barreled into his side and demolished the ogre that was about to bring its club crashing down on his head. Sasuke looked back to see Kyuubi standing in his place, twirling a long dagger expertly. "Thanks." he breathed, racing back into the battle.
Shadow had already located Runningtear and was battling him. He used his sword to hold him down, and growled at him. "You know, you would have made a promising solider." he hissed at the red fox.
"Bite me you ancient lump of fur!" he snarled back. Shadow rose up and brought his sword down, straight through the traitors heart. The black fox had time to snort before he was knocked down by Walkingdeath and run through by a dagger. He coughed up blood and stagered to the side. Glaring at Walkingdeath, he snarled and lunged, fangs bared and claws ready.
They rolled several times, clawing and snapping at each other. Walkingdeath scored his claws across Shadow's side, and bit down on his neck, making the other kitsune snarl again in pain. Shadow used his greater size and streagth to flip the traitor over, running his claws across his belly. Blood poured out of the gash, but the gold-green fox staggered to his feet.
Naruto had raced to where Shadow was, following his scent carefuly. Peering through the bushes, he noticed that Runningtear was lying on the ground with Shadow's sword through his chest. Shadow was no where to be seen. Then the hanyou felt a heavy wheight land on his shoulders, and let out a startled scream as he was lifted into the air.
"Relax hatchling. I'm an aly." he heard a deep voice say. Glancing up, he saw a dark brown dragon holding his shoulders with his front paws. His name was Spinx, and he had brought the ranks of the Dragon Clan to help in the war. He placed Naruto down in a tree near Shadow's battle and flew off. Naruto's eyes widened in horror as he saw that they were slowly getting closer to a deep fast flowing gorge. The water in it was colder than ice, and the swift current would carry you down stream faster than you could blink.
Shadow seemed to notice this too, as he was desperatly trying to push Walkingdeath back to the forest. He didn't have time to do jutsu between slashes and snaps from Walkingdeath, he couldn't even do a substitution with out his head being taken off. Walkingdeath's strong suit was speed, Shadow's was power, and Walkingdeath was using his speed to over power the older fox.
Said fox already had three broken ribs, a fractured spine, and he was loosing blood fast. His left eye was sealed shut with dried blood, and he was weakening. Naruto knew that he would just get in the way if he tried to help, but then he thought of something that he himself had never learned. Never let your enemy get behind you. He snickered and created several shadow clones, sneaking out of the bushes to Walkingdeath. Drawing kunai, they threw them at the gold-green fox, hitting their target—his spine. Walkingdeath howled in agony, and whirled around to face Naruto. Shadow saw his opertunity and leaped onto Walkingdeath's already injured back.
Bitting down hard on his neck, Shadow held on tightly to Walkingdeath's side, focasing what little energy he had left into killing the traitor. But said traitor reared up onto his hind legs, throwing Shadow off, causing him to roll over the side of the gorge. Naruto was about to call out, but he stopped when a large black paw gripped the side of the cliff, another followed soon, but with his injured back, Shadow couldn't pull himself back up.
Walkingdeath smirked and stalked slowly up to the struggling fox. He stepped down hard on Shadow's paw, causing him to cry out in pain. "Well, looks like the you're still weak. You are going to die today dearest cousin."
Shadow grunted and pulled himself up some more. "If I'm going down...grunt... you're going down with me." he panted. He grabbed Walkingdeath's leg in his mouth, and pushed off hard on the side of the gorge, taking himself and Walkingdeath down into the torent of water.
"SHADOW!!! NO!!!" screamed Naruto. He ran to the side of the gorge, searching for any sign of the black fox, but he didn't see so much as a hair of him. Naruto flinched and covered his eyes as a bright flash of light shot up into the sky, disappearing an instant later.
"Naruto!" called Sasuke from the edge of the forest. "Come on, we need you in the battle!" the neko hanyou had caught up to Naruto in time to see Shadow and Walkingdeath plunge over the edge of the gorge. But they would mourn later, right now, they needed to finish the war before it got out of hand. Naruto raced to the other boy, his eyes glistening with tears, and nodded as he stopped in front of him.
The blonde turned back once, and gasped as he saw a transparent Shadow, sitting on the edge of the gorge, a warm smile on his face. The spirit opened his mouth and mouthed 'go on... this is your time to shine.' before fading away into nothingness. Naruto shook himself and raced back into the battle.
--Two Days Later--
The war was finaly over. Naruto had ended it by using his rasengan to blow up half the area and demolish all but a dozen demons. When the prisoners were brought to Kyuubi, the guards asked what to do with them, to which the nine-tails coldly replied: "There are no prisoners." The remaining demons were killed on the spot. The crimson fox asked what had happened to Shadow, which Naruto told him solomly. When he finished, Kyuubi was trying to hold back tears. He emeidiatly ordered a search along the river for either of them.
Depressing I know. Next chappie—and final—will be up sooner than you think.
