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IX. Too Little Too Late; The Opposite of Black is Red
There was no way that they had just witnessed this fight. There was a feeling of unreality. They had spoke of this time, never really believing it; never really able to make it a true possibility. But the blindness they had strived on was ripped away, rain painting the image so finely.
The mission, on another note, was now complete.
The large serpent had moved to protect the dead and the dying. There was no doubt that the latter was true. The S-class criminal, the Akatsuki member, would not have died so easily. And if the chilling screams were any indication, Sasuke was suffering too much to worry about his stoicism and restraint. It was likely that he didn't notice them at all.
The form was grotesque. No one other than Naruto had seen it or really been able to understand why it was so chilling. It was perfectly understandable now. The jutting bones. The inhuman shape. The curse mark. The claws and fangs. The bloodcurdling screams ripped from the normally silent throat.
The snake had stiffened at the command, fangs dripping poison and, even scenting the kyuubi, refused to step aside. Snakes were not loyal creatures. They were loners. They survived by themselves. What could the raven have done to deserve such devotion in a creature that would betray another?
"I refuse. No one touches Sasuke." The black and purple chakra began to swell and Neji's warning was ignored by both parties. As it began building, the snake made it into chakra smoke and mist through their linked chakra channels. Naruto similarly stiffened under the direct statement that practically read, "No one unless it's over my cold, lifeless body. And I will find some way even then to friggin make sure you keep your hands off." It was a grudging respect that grew for the serpent then but that wouldn't stop him.
"I am going to help him. I'm going to try." But the snake wouldn't relent.
"It will stop. When it has run its course it will stop. Even with the situation like this, it will stop." The snake spoke with experience. He tried desperately to block out the screams that would haunt more of his nightmares than he would ever admit.
"And how many times has this happened that you can say that? Why isn't this any different?!"
"Because, little fox, I can feel it!" The glowing yellow eyes were mesmerizing. Kyuubi was more than happy to provide running commentary on how to avoid falling to their cheap seduction. But even then, he shivered as the fangs were brought closer. They gleamed lethally in the lightning. "Because I'm connected to him."
"What the hell is happening to him?" Came the outraged and slightly fearful cry off to their left. Kiba was looking successfully creeped out. Akamaru looked no better.
"Yes, what is happening to the curse seal?!" He tried to move past but the serpent thrashed his tail, making Naruto retreat a step.
"It's activated all the time. It's out of control. What else is there? It forces his eyes it mars his body, it makes excess limbs and rips screams from a throat that has never uttered such horrific cries before." As if on demand, Sasuke screamed again.
And then the black chakra began to swell. It twirled around the nearly prone form like ribbons on the end of a kite. Each contact with the serpent filtered off as harmless smoke. But the rest was not so lucky. The land died before them. And the dead body of the Uchiha genius was torn into shreds as it lashed the air. The drizzle died away, the lightning no more, but the water still turning brackish.
Tattooed hands flew into a set of familiar seals and Neji and Shikamaru had just the right amount of time to make the final seals of a chakra barrier. The serpent on the outside with them watched, eyes wide, as fire blacker and more fiercely red than ever raged inside the fragile netting.
"Sasuke!" The serpent thrashed desperately as he lost contact through that barrier. He attempted to strike the two but the kyuubi-child prevented it. His body began to wear as his chakra ate itself trying to hold this size. Spitting poison, he shrunk to a manageable height and lunged at the fox-spirit-holder.
"Enough!" Naruto held the serpent tightly. It writhed anyway, trying to get away, trying to get a kill strike. "Your master suffers and you act this way!"
The snake hissed with enough acid to corrode diamond.
"Naruto! Drop the snake and get over here!" Kiba and Akamaru were at another point, increasing the chakra input to the barrier. Even under the three's powers, it was still rippling like a lake. He did release the serpent and took his own place, mixing in red and blue chakra to the mass already swirling. It stabilized under the combined chakra but the inside was still a firestorm, with the Uchiha the eye. Naruto couldn't tear his eyes from the sight.
The black hair streaked white, the disfigured body, the pain etched into each line of skin. Each muscle taut with the severity. And the flames continued to pour as water from the Nile.
The serpent had moved to wrap around him, dangerously coiling around his neck. "And now what do you plan on doing with him? Wait for it to go out, knock him out and drag him with you?"
"Not quite." The serpent tightened briefly. "We're going to fix the seal and hopefully, get rid of it."
"There will be no need for it now." Manda grudgingly admitted. "But it won't matter anyway. It will still kill him."
"What?!" Naruto nearly dropped the hand sign from shock, Neji's reprimand stilling his hands. "Kill him?!"
"That is what I said, little fox." The serpent's mouth pulled back into a sneer. "He's not going to live no more than seven more months."
"What?!" This time it was the others who nearly dropped the barrier. Their eyes were wide. This couldn't be true. They didn't have much love for the Uchiha but he was still a Leaf shinobi, no matter what he'd done. They grew up with him. Mostly. A majority despised his choices but he was still part of the Rookie Nine. Loyalty didn't vanish, simply because they had a blonde reason not to let it.
"I've taken him to a Healer, humans. I'm not an ignorant creature. He was given twelve months to live on the night of the third lunar month. It has been five, leaving only seven more until he stills forever. It is not a day I am anticipating." He hissed at them as if they had called his loyalty into question.
"I refuse to let that happen then. He's got seven months that Tsunade and Jiraiya and everybody can use to get rid of it and make him better." His tanned face was ashen though. "He's coming with us."
Yellow and blue studied one another, weighing the other. Finally, yellow eyes nodded and the blue swirled cautiously. The body relaxed minutely and all seven pairs of eyes watched the Uchiha burning himself and the body of his brother over and over in the funeral pyre of the raven's choosing.
White eyes had activated their bloodline limit and watched the only solid body inside the chakra firestorm. The channels were polluted heavily with slow toxic poison, occasionally he could see the raven's natural chakra. It shone red amid the black and purple. It was mostly concentrated in the raven's mind, the eyes in particular.
The heavy concentration moved in its own circulation, repeating the same paths through his eye channels and around his subconscious mind. A flare would valiantly strike out and connect to the main gate in his heart but it would be contaminated before it could make any progress. There was no doubt in his mind that the Uchiha's own bloodline limit was providing the fragile defense.
The red swirled to all eyes, looking both inward and out. The screams had died but a fanged mouth bit into soft lightly purple lips, blood outlining the flawed skin. Everything within was crimson. Black. White. The wings were flexing in a semblance of flight, before snaring together and tearing stripes into the membranes. The yukata was nearly burned away, the parts protected by the Uchiha himself charring slightly.
Red eyes opened in the between. In the moments when the pain went away to a dull ache. They surveyed the body that was destroyed in front of him. The barrier that encased him. Then they met seven pairs of eyes. Yellow, green and amber, brown, dark amber, dark red, white. Searing blue. Pale lips twisted briefly in a moment of perfect sanity. They opened and the hushed words were clearly audible.
"About time, dobe. I'm ready to go home." Then the eyes were closed and he fell into unconsciousness.
The barrier fell, involuntarily. Scales embraced the body and arched in a fit of blind protection when the body trembled slightly. Hands were held useless at their sides. Blue eyes were darker and shining brighter than they had in a long time. A hand absently brushed away the crystalline bit of water and then covered those brilliant blues in shame. He was always dead-last.
