Flames of War

by Pikapixie The Demigod

Fire, death, and destruction. The world was burning down around her, crumbling to ashes beneath her feet. And she was alive. This was war. This was her. This was exactly what she had signed up for... but maybe she should have read the fine print. Sequel to SOT

10. The Battle of Hatred

Fun fact, I was originally gonna call this "Artist vs Artist: the Battle of Hatred" but realized how actually important the non-DeivsFumi scenes are, like Mai, Kages, guys.

...

~ "I've decided! Let's build our settlement right here!" ~

...

"Ah! Fumiko-san, wait-!"

She should have known she would go after the blond Akatsuki reanimation- of course she would, it was Deidara, the one who had hurt her.

Fumiko paid her no heed, leaping from the side of the crest of rock they sat above on, all the way down, rolling intoa shock-absorbing landing before immediately jumping to her feet, despite her injured leg and prosthesis.

Satomi tensed, fizzed black at the edges.

But she didn't really know what she could do against a reanimated shinobi herself- avoid the dodges and blows, but she had no way of stopping him from exploding, nor could she seal him away. She could try and delete with him into hammerspace- but she wasn't sure how she would without a clear destination in mind. Deidara couldn't be killed, so her swordsmanship would be useless.

And then they were fighting. Deidara seemed distracted for whatever reason, and Satomi would take advantage of that- she couldn't take Fumiko away now, the young girl would never forgive her for it- but Deidara had been running for a reason. Satomi could sense those far behind, who were chasing after him- it had to be the sealing team.

So Satomi would bring aid to her.

...

~ "Huh?" ~

...

Without really thinking about it, Fumiko lunged, mind crossed between how much she wanted this nuke-nin to disappear for good and not knowing where he was going or what he was trying to do, who else he was trying to kill this time.

She didn't really think it would work, and thus wasn't more than vaguely irritated when he dodged around her, sending her skidding into the ground on her hands and feet, but she kept herself stable. Deidara paused a moment as she stopped, dust kicking around her, likely confused by her sudden appearance, and the way she was caked in blood from several shallow cuts.

Fumiko could read it on his face, the distracted curiosity: don't I know you from somewhere?

And similarly, she could see the moment when it clicked, some kind of strange smile spreading across his face. He looked strange standing by himself in the middle of Lightning Country environment, eyes warped by Impure Reincarnation. She couldn't remember ever seeing him on anything other than his flying clay creations, his 'art.' He looked smaller. Weaker.

Even though she knew that wasn't true, she still took courage from it.

"Ah," he said, "It's you then."

If there was any one person in the world that Fumiko had every truly hated or truly feared, it was Deidara. He wasn't the strongest shinobi by a long shot- he relied too heavily on his clay and was susceptible to her Genjutsu, and really had kind of disappeared without preamble- nothing like Hidan and Kakuzu or Tobi or Madara, or any of the other Akatsuki, really.

But.

The fact remained that explosions and sky views gave her anxiety, that there was white light in her nightmares, nose clogging with the earthy smell of clay. He'd robbed her of peace and sleep and art, and nearly had robbed her of Gaara permanently, something she couldn't forgive.

"You were captured," she said.

"And then I escaped," he replied, as though that were obvious, which it kind of was, given his current state of freedom. "I kind of thought you'd be dead by now, hmph."

"You thought wrong," she snapped. Something shivered in her body at her tone.

He flapped a hand at her dismissively. She flinched at the mouth she could see there on his palm, white teeth flashing in the sun. "Whatever. Hey, it was nice catching up and all, but I gotta go, hn. I heard Sasuke's around, and I'm gonna blow him up, yeah."

"Sasuke?" she spluttered. "Sasuke hasn't been seen since the Summit!"

Deidara ignored her, and she recognized the motions of his hands, tucking into his cloak- although now it was just red, not Akatsuki any longer- for his clay, letting his hands chew. He turned away, not really seeming bothered by her seething.

"Hey! You're not going anywhere!"

"And who's gonna stop me, yeah? You?" Deidara snickered and she bristled. Her weapon was gone, destroyed in Madara's jutsu, and it had been the last one sealed into her glove, but that wasn't all she had.

"I've knocked you down once before," she said, taking a step forward. Fumiko was taking one from Mai's book, mimicking her fighting talk, unsure whether she was feeling the anger herself, but it felt like she didn't care. "And I've gotten better since then!"

Now Deidara turned, and though his voice remained strangely jovial and flippant, she could see in his visible eye the anger there. He hated Genjutsu, she remembered, and probably hated her for it, too.

Well, good. It was mutual. She hoped he'd died under a Genjutsu.

"And I killed your Kazekage once before," he snorted, lips curling at the way she blanched, physically flinching in her stance. "And now I'm unkillable, you know, it's disgusting but I can't die."

"Shut up!" Fumiko's hands clenched into messy fists. Her knee and shoulder still throbbed from her fight with the Mizukage, but she could manage it. "You didn't kill him! He's still alive!"

"I'm sure I could fix that, yeah."

Her vision blinded, jaw snapping shut. How dare...!

Deidara lifted a hand, and she didn't recoil from the clay she saw there in his palm, readying herself to leap away in case he threw something explosive at her. She couldn't let him make her angry- though she'd already failed- if she was just careful, she could avoid the explosions, catch him in a Genjutsu, and keep him steady there until whoever had initially captured him returned in chase.

He tossed the bit of clay in his hand to the air after messing with it a little bit, and with a poff it erupted into a familiar-looking bird, off-kilter and strangely proportioned, white all the way through, and then leapt to the top of it, grinning down at her. She straightened defensively, hand going to her glove, but then the giant bird flapped its wings once, twice, and started to lift off.

"Hey!"

"I'll blow you up later, yeah!" he taunted. "Right now I've got bigger fish to fry."

Fumiko set her jaw.

She wasn't the same Fumiko he'd fought against before- no plans, no chance, her only form of backup some half a day away and not big enough to do any damage at all. She was well enough equipped now to deal with a long-range reincarnation shinobi, well enough equipped to seal him away if the opportunity arose, well enough to at the very least survive, at the very least hold at bay.

Fumiko was well enough equipped to give chase to the flying Reincarnation.

Thank goodness, she thought as she bit her left thumb, for once not even really wincing at the sharp pain- honestly her shoulder hurt worse right then- that Satomi gave me chakra pills.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

In the smoke that followed, sensing her enemy's gaze and her own blinded anger, Shaapu gave no protests to being summoned- this was what they'd agreed on, after all: aid in battle. She could feel the muscles in his wings as he took off, and leaned down into him to minimize wind resistance, and they shot into the air.

...

~ "And there we'll make it so kids don't have to kill each other." Hashirama waved his arms excitedly. "And- and we'll create this awesome school where kids can train and grow up to become stronger! Assign missions that fit people's abilities- and their strengths too!" ~

...

It was suddenly, the second after the two had vanished, that Tsunade attacked, lunging forward at a speed even Gaara had issue tracking, and punching through Madara's body, obliterating half of it instantly. Before she'd even pulled back, the wisps of reanimation again scattered to reform and heal.

"Kazekage!" The Raikage roared, Ohnoki still on his back. "Do it now!"

Gladly.

Gaara really hadn't felt anger like this in a long time.

He raised his sand without a word, eyes hard, and it rushed on either side of him and all around, and from the ground beneath Madara's feet, and as Tsunade kicked away, springboarding off Madara's armor, Gaara sealed him in, like a pearl within a clam.

(What he wanted was for Madara to be alive and feel pain so he could smash his sand barrier together and make him burst.)

But Gaara was angry, not stupid. That wouldn't help anyone now, nor would it sate him. The second the sand closed around him Gaara formed a hand sign, hoping that somehow this seal above the others would work and it would be over and he could go and find where Satomi had taken Fumiko- hopefully far away from here.

He felt the seals churning through his sand, gifts from Fumiko herself to the Sealing Teams, the strongest she could muster up with only ink and blood and dirty paper- which was still strong enough for this. Chakra kanji laced together even as the sand hardened, the fastest he'd ever completed a pyramid seal.

"Grand Sand Mausoleum!"

There was a pause. Gaara waited for the inevitable moment that something would happen, searching for some signs of life within his sands, movement or chakra or jutsu. But there was nothing. His body was still too tensed with adrenaline and anger to relax, but he managed a small step back on the trunk he stood on.

"He's been sealed," he said aloud.

"All right!" Tsunade said with a grin, equal parts victorious and relieved.

And then there was a sharp sound, the only second of warning they got before Tsunade was suddenly impaled through the stomach by a blade of pure chakra, curvy and wicked, like a decorated athame.

Nobody spoke. Gaara couldn't find the breath to.

And then the wood beside Tsunade crackled and split, revealing Madara, swathed in his chakra as he rose like a spectre into the air. "The one you sealed away," he said casually, "Was a Wood-style clone, just like the one Hashirama used to use. It was well-made." As he spoke, Tsunade as well began to rise, the made cutting through the wood higher and higher until the Susanoo's fist was revealed. "My visual prowess made me the only shinobi to ever see through that powerful ruse.

"It's over for the rest of you Kage," he continued, looking impassive. The Susano'o rose the rest of the way out of the ground, revealing that it was only the arm and sword. From below, Gaara could sense Mai, quite for now but struggling to free herself. It would likely be only another minute more. "Now then... which one of you should I take down next?"

And then Tsunade stirred. With a guttural cry, she smashed one hand through the blade beneath her stomach, snapping it in half, and with her other as she fell punched through the wound to shove out what remained impaled. The glowing tip of the chakra blade flew into the air behind her, coated in blood.

And then she whirled, grabbing the blade tip, and with another war shout, spun hard and slammed it into the Susano'o armor that suddenly sprouted around Madara's figure. It crackled under the pressure, and Gaara had enough time to look surprised, eyes widening, before another Susano'o hand formed by Madara's feet and shot upwards to attack, forming a jutsu that slammed into the Hokage and sent her smashing through a rock several yards away, demolishing them with a bang like a bomb going off.

Gaara flinched.

The Susano'o hands faded around Madara, though the ribcage-like armor remained, and he watched passively but curiously as Tsunade rose again despite her injury, shoving off a bounder that should have crushed her. Gaara tensed, ready to help, and beneath them there was a crackle-snap of wood that betrayed Mai's freedom.

"How can you still move?" Madara exclaimed, even as Tsunade again rose her head.

"Like I told you," she said. "I'm different- the medical rules don't apply to me!"

"Regeneration without weaving signs," Madara said, sounding pleasantly surprised and perhaps even mildly impressed. "I see. So that is the true nature of your jutsu that you mentioned in Rule Four, is it? Just like Hashirama's ability."

"I had hope that I'd be able to catch you off guard with this, but..."

"There's no way you can kill me with my own jutsu," he said, amused.

"Heh!" Ohnoki spat, coming down a distance behind him. "Then I'll use mine!"

Dust Release glowed in his palms. Tsunade's healing had done it's job well- it seemed even the Tsuchikage's back was giving him no trouble. Before Gaara had any time to shout the attack unleashed, at first seeming to blaze through Madara's figure instantaneously, as it was meant to. The Raikage crowed out in approval.

But then their eyes adjusted slightly to the light, and Madara was standing at the tip of the jutsu, almost causally absorbing it with his Rinnegan power, as he had absorbed Naruto's clones' Giant Rasengan.

"Have you gone senile, Ohnoki?" Madara shouted over the sound of Particle Release demolishing the molecules in the air. "The Rinnegan can absorb all jutsu, remember? Ninjutsu such as that will not work against me! If you want to kill me, you need to hit me hard, physically- take me down and seal me away, you know that!"

"But my Particle Style attack from earlier grazed your chest!" Ohnoki cried in confusion. "There's no way the Atomic Dismantling Jutsu failed!"

"Oh, that?" Madara seemed to wave him off. "I merely wanted to reveal Hashirama's hidden face to all of you right then. I was hoping that doing so would douse your morale, but it seems to have done the opposite, and boosted it instead!"

"Bullshit!" That was Mai, leaping up to a higher vantage point, still looking torn but standing tall as she landed, lower than the other Kage. "You got caught off guard, you didn't have time to absorb it- didn't you?"

"I have a question for you," Tsunade interjected before Madara could respond, but Gaara realized Mai was right- he'd seemed surprised that they had survived the fiery pollen prison at all. He'd meant to kill them in that attack, not continue the battle.

"Hmm?"

"Yes it's true that you outwitted is with the Wood Clone that you used," she admitted. "But from another angle, you could say that we managed to corner you into having to substitute your clone for yourself!" She wore a knowing smirk. "Am I wrong?"

Madara's face finally shifted, if only slightly. Gaara didn't even need the facial change to recognize the anger in his chakra.

"Well, it is five against one after all," he said grandly after a tense pause, voice going strangely dramatic, almost simpering.

"That's because we must win no matter what happens!" the Mizukage spat, taking a defensive step forward. "Now don't go calling us cowards or saying that we're being unfair to you," she continued, voice hard. "In truth it's merely a testament to your might- you are Uchiha Madara."

"No, I won't call you cowards," Madara said, faux-offended, as though the thought itself were madness. His hands came together. Gaara's fingers twitched, prepared to fight in an instant. "And as for five to one, it's a nice ratio for games!"

The wood he stood on began to sprout nubs around him, but quickly enough Gaara realized those nubs were forming humanoids identical to Madara and- wood clones. He was creating wood clones to fight against them all.

In seconds, each Kage was surrounded by five Wood Clones, Gaara whipping to face those that had come from behind him. Temari had already gone, collecting survivors to go towards the nearest medical base camp- she had been gone before the pollen attack. Mai, however, was left alone- whether out of deference to bloodline or because he didn't consider her worthy of fighting against, Gaara wasn't sure.

He had no idea what she meant to do here- and likely she didn't either, she just simply hadn't been able to leave them to die.

"Now it's five to one the other way," he said, and Gaara hoped Mai didn't shoot back with a "can't you count, you stupid bastard, you're an extra," even as he continued talking, a mocking lilt to his tone. "And don't say this is cowardly. You are the Five Kage. And so- I have one question for you... Would you prefer for all of these clones to use Susano'o against you, or not? The choice is yours!"

"Fucking shut up, you asshole!"

...

~ His eyes lit up as he leaned forward, gazing out at the vast forest expanse. "Have superiors, who are able to properly assign ranks to commissions. A place where kids don't have to be sent into harsh battle fronts." ~

...

The moment they ripped through the cloud, smoke rushing off their figures, she saw Deidara's eyes on her, surprised. Though his bird continued flying, he twisted around to face her, hands already flying to shape his next bomb, hair whipping in the wind. She realized his scope was gone- could he still see long distances in death?

"I really don't feel like dealing with you right now," Deidara shouted over the sound of the air, "But if you're gonna be so annoying I guess I'll have to, hn!"

His arm dashed like he was throwing kunai, and Shaapu banked in a violent roll, twisting his wings into his body. The clay spiders missed them, shooting past and being left behind to explode after they passed at he speed they traveled, Fumiko's eyes watering slightly, and as the bat's wings snapped back out she caught in her sight two more small clay creatures- and Shaapu still straightening out.

"Art is an explosion!" Deidara yelled, bringing his hands together. "Katsu!"

She immediately rose her hands, sucking wet air from the sky- really, going up was to Deidara's disadvantage- Tiger- Ox- Tiger- Rat.

Suiton: Water Bullet!

The jutsu shot forward, swallowing Deidara's explosives so they burst into steam that poured from the sides of her rapid torrent of water, much bigger than her first meager managings all those months ago as she'd first tried learning it, tiny spheres compared to the gush of water punching into existence. Although it wasn't on par with some other shinobi, it was still a viable attack and still Deidara swore and had his bird dodge- a fast movement she recognized.

If he could outmaneuver Gaara's sand in life, he would certainly outmaneuver her water in death.

She fired off another one anyway to keep him from forming another bomb and to make him back off, his bird attempting to shoot away, keeping tabs on her chakra stores to plan ahead. "Shaapu!" she said as soon as he was out of hearing range. "I know it's hard to dodge but I need to get closer! If I can catch him in a Genjutsu-"

"Hai, Sightseer!"

His wings shot into action, immediately yanking them forward with a sudden burst of speed, at first tipping down to get beneath the other shinobi- something Fumiko realized would make it harder for Deidara to aim- and then curving up sharply to hover at his right even as Deidara was forming another bomb between his fingers, shaping it into some sculpture or another.

She didn't want to give him time, though, and waved out her left hand in his direction, the chakra fizzing outside of her skin into the air pulsing around her before jumping into Deidara's body, and for a second he froze as she painted her own death by explosive bomb.

And then Deidara's mouth twisted, and he was free, glaring at her with both eyes, one hand lifting to move his hair out of the way of it. Fumiko, caught off guard and way too close, could only flinch backwards. "I really hate that, you know, yeah!" he growled.

He'd noticed. How had he noticed? The world hadn't been shifted strangely at all so far as she knew, she hadn't even had a hand sign to mask, he'd been intending to blow her up with it anyway so what about doing it in his dream had triggered him to-?

"I'm not stupid!" Deidara howled angrily, raising his fist to shake at her, almost comically in any other situation. "You wouldn't have flown right up next to me without having some way of stopping me blowing you up, hmph!"

"Oh," she said. "You're smart."

Something she'd already known, or at least expected, given that he was a part of the most feared criminal group thus known in the Nations and had to be killed by Uchiha Sasuke, and he'd known defensive tactics and strategies during his fight with Gaara, but still, it was something so simple that she'd overlooked- stupid move, Fumiko, she thought harshly, you would've figured that out, too!

"Now, see my art! Art is an explosion!"

Close range.

Not only would she explode at this range, but there wouldn't be anything left behind of her, either. And Fumiko was distinctly aware of Shaapu beneath her, whose muscles were in the beginning acts of tensing to flee, and of Deidara, who would likely escape to the side on his giant bird, despite how strangely it seemed put together for an avian-

She had about three seconds to respond. Shaapu wasn't going to move in time, not with her on his back, not with Deidara right there.

Fumiko's mind went, almost dazedly, to Asuka, the messenger hawk she'd left behind back in Suna. She'd studied him, drawn him a thousand times, studied his anatomy and compared it to that of the other birds and the birds in textbooks, and now she remembered them clearly.

Just because Deidara's bird defied common conception didn't mean it could defy physics. It was still flying, flapping its great wings, taking the wind currents and pockets of air into account just as Shaapu was, because if Deidara's chakra was capable of flight he wouldn't need such a thing at all.

"I've been inside your head before, Deidara!" She took some kind of strange pleasure from the way his face twisted angrily at her words, some hot thing that was vaguely uncomfortable in her chest, but she didn't stop. "I know how it works!"

"You don't know anything, yeah!"

"You're wrong!" Now she threw her good leg over Shaapu's back and tied it to his fur with chakra to keep from falling to her death, ignoring his startled warning of "S-! Sightseer!" Facing Deidara fully now, hands braced against his back, she didn't smile. Wind whipped hair into her face. "I know a lot of things!" she said, and that was just enough to make Deidara pause of of confusion or maybe curiosity.

She tensed her legs.

"And one of the things I know," she said, "Is how birds' flight works!"

And he went, "Huh?" just as she jumped him, disconnecting instantly from Shaapu's back and yelling for the bat to duck away. Deidara stumbled slightly- there wasn't too much farther he could go on his flying jutsu- and chucked the bomb at her midair and made a hand sign. "Katsu!" he screeched.

But she hadn't been aiming for him, and so fell out of its path by a few solid inches. It exploded before she could hit the bird, but luckily didn't throw her off it and into the open air all around and between them, leaving her to latch onto the base of the bird's neck, fingers digging through its soft clay flesh and half-dangling off the right side.

"What do you think you're doing, un?!"

Fumiko ignored him, reaching out for the wing right beside her as it flapped down violently, curving from its master's explosion. She hadn't fully thought this through, she realized, was only just now accepting that she would go down too, but she also knew a bit about proper falling techniques and velocity midair herself, and she didn't have any other choice, and so she grabbed a handful of clay feathers.

Avians commonly had a few special feathers in their wings, particularly on the very tips and on the undersides, that helped control flight and balance midair, shifting minutely and utilizing the currents in the air as they went. That was why Deidara's birds were so big- it was the only proportion where the wing length could stabilize it, and it was light enough, being completely hollow on the inside, that it would act as a normal bird.

In the aviary, when messenger hawks were injured whether from natural predators, other birds attacking them from other villages, or even just the various obstacles in a bird's way to get to and from its destination- they clipped the outer flight feathers so they couldn't try to take off and hurt themselves while they healed. On regular birds, they got most of the feathers grown back by their next molting.

A clay bird, on the other hand...

Fumiko pulled and they came easily, with only a little resistance, a layer of chakra holding it together that disrupted against her skin just as regular Genjutsu did. Immediately the bird tilted violently to the right, leaving her scrambling to dig both hands into the bird's skin and leaving Deidara to scream in some high-pitched kind of startled that, again, was almost comedic in nature, as he flailed not to be thrown off.

They hurtled in a steep fall, and she couldn't sense Shaapu anywhere nearby. Maybe fifteen, twenty seconds until impact, she realized, looking down, and then wrenched her head back up at Deidara, who hadn't fallen off and seemed to be trying to form another clay creation to ride- Fumiko reached up with one hand- fifteen, fourteen, thirteen- and violently wrenched his reality.

Deidara cried out. It'd taken him five seconds to break out of it last time- but at least ten to make another bird.

Nine, eight, seven-

She let go and sent her hands flying, faster than she had any other jutsu before, turning midair to face the ground as she fell so that the water would fly back up into her body. The sight of it, stones and soil rushing to meet her, gave her an intense and immediate vertigo she likened to falling off the Suna boundary wall.

Snake- Ram- Horse- Hare- Ram- Horse- Hare- Snake- Ox-

Five, four-

She smacked at her sealed glove, releasing a sudden spurt of water, and then clapped her hands together immediately, just ten feet or less from the ground when the jutsu took hold, curling around her body and hardening densely. She couldn't breathe and so held her breath, but right now, breathing was less important than not hitting the ground and full impact with nothing to soften it.

Fumiko closed her eyes hard just in time for the impact- she'd been almost two seconds off in her estimations- and it was jarring but not even close to deadly, just her insides snapping violently towards the ground as her momentum stopped- more nausea than pain, and a faint headache that immediately rooted behind her eyes.

Suiton: Water Prison Technique.

It bent inwards a little with gravity, its own speed pulling it down, and then, like a bubble pressed too hard, burst on all sides and left her gasping and coughing on the ground, mostly unharmed, water streaming from every part of herself as she struggled up to her hands and knees, the ground turning to mud around her. One of the clay feathers lay seeping in it beside her, turning glossy and mushed.

Thank Kami she'd taken that list of C-rank jutsus and below to study from when she finally got the hang of Suiton. Maybe she didn't have enough chakra to cast a lot of them in succession, but they seemed to be doing her some life-saving good.

Immediately she scanned the area with eyes and chakra alike, saw the demolished bird's remains almost a full yard away- small projection changes midair really did a lot for distance- and didn't see but did sense Deidara and his flare of angry, disgruntled and yes, injured chakra. It wouldn't last long, given his current state of undead, but it was something.

All she had to do was stall for the sealing team that had lost him, all she had to do was try and seal him if she could.

She already knew that lightning diffused his explosivity completely, and she had a few seals for that- that wouldn't really Seal him away, but would, if he was restrained, keep him from blowing himself up, something he either hadn't seemed to think of yet or didn't want to bother with for some reason.

Another split-second to act, and she managed to pull up what was probably the only B-rank she could manage- Earth Style Wall.

Tiger- Hare- Boar- Dog.

A thick wall erupted from the ground in front of her- at least lightning country made Doton a little easier, the entire place was made with rocks, it was like using Suiton while standing in the middle of a river- and immediately exploded, Fumiko throwing her arms up for protection against the shrapnel, eyes streaming with dust.

Her clothes were heavy with water, hair soaked, and she had to pull the clumped strands away from her eyes to see him now, arm and parts of his torso fizzing white with whatever jutsu allowed the Reanimations to instantly heal themselves. He was standing on the crumpled clay of his bird- he must have used it to try and lessen his impact.

His greyed-out eyes were dark and angry. He'd been distracted before, searching for Sasuke and continuously trying to escape rather than fight, but now he looked intent on seeing her dead.

Great.

"Katsu!"

She again raised her arm, given no time to weave hand signs, and touched her hand to one of the seals there briefly before bracing to let the water gush out uncontrolled, no jutsu to guide it, just as Deidara's bomb detonated.

It wasn't quite enough to neutralize the following explosion, and Fumiko was thrown violently back with a cry, steam and stone fragments slamming her into the air for a few speeding seconds before hitting the ground again, already-present wounds screaming against the way her body rolled and bounced off before another explosion lit nearby with searing heat, shattering the ground beneath her and shooting her back once again.

She didn't manage to hit the ground again, instead colliding with something hard, but warm.

Fumiko wheezed in something like a breath and looked up before freezing.

Shaapu.

The poor bat had been hit by the earlier bomb or its fallout from the sky and fallen. His barrel-chest heaved, one exposed wing flapping weakly up and down in spurts. She could smell it on him- the singed scent of fire and the tang of blood. Somewhere she couldn't see, he'd been injured.

It didn't seem life-threatening.

But she didn't care.

"Shaapu!" she cried, immediately twisting, ignoring the fire in her ribs and insides, the way her ears rang slightly. She scrambled to his face on her hands and knees, put a hand on his cheek. His eye, round and a brown faded white with blindness, flickered about. "Shaapu, are you okay?"

After a moment he huffed, "Yes." It seemed to hurt doing so, seemed to have something to do with the fast his chest wasn't moving up as far as it could have for breath. Probably he'd broken ribs like she had. "My wing..."

One wing was pinned and, she realized, was probably the one that got hurt in the explosion. "Go back," she demanded, feeling her throat start to close. This was her fault. "Go back now!"

"Its not- time yet," he panted. "I can't- pull myself."

"You can't go back on your own?" He was that injured? Or was it to do with his wings- that he now had to wait for his Summoning to wear out and be brought back forcibly? "Oh, Shaapu, I'm so sorry-"

"That's really cute, un."

She whirled, still on the ground, throwing her arms out instinctively despite the fact that Shaapu was too big to bodily protect. "Leave him alone!" she snarled, with some aggressive undertone she didn't recognize. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had to protect another being.

"Sightseer..."

"That was a nice trick you pulled," he said, and though the words were complimentary his face was dancing with some kind of dark humor, hidden anger. It sounded more like she was being made fun of, or warned. "Too bad it got your friend hurt, yeah?"

Fumiko tensed, inhaling sharply. "Stay away."

"I don't have to get close," he said, and then she noticed what looked like a string in his palm, but that she recognized instead as the centipede he'd used invading Suna. It blew up at each body segment, and was too big for her to block. "To blow you both up."

Her eyes widened slightly.

There was a small noise, then, that drew her attention, and as she tracked it, her arms dropped in shock.

Shaapu's free wing was moving slowly, tip grazing across the ground, dirt sliding up onto the skin membrane. One of the digit fingers in his wing was coming closer, painfully slowly, and Deidara let it, even as some kind of disbelieving tears started beading and slipping out of the corners of her eyes.

"Shaapu..."

The wing settled briefly in front of her, and then slid up her legs, pushing her down into a sitting position, tucked against Shaapu's neck.

He was protecting her. Shielding her from a blast he knew would shred through his wing anyway and kill them both. He said nothing, but when her head jerked back, he was watching her carefully, eyelid drooping beside her as she assumed he started to lose consciousness.

"Well," she heard Deidara say. "That's sweet, I guess." Then he raised his voice, a deliberate taunt. "I'll be sure to give the Kazekage your regards after I kill Sasuke! Hey, be glad- you're going to be made into pure art, a fleeting explosion!"

Light filtered through the skin of Shaapu's wing. She could still smell his burnt flesh. She'd known the bat Summons hadn't ever really hated her, known it was something of a front, but she also hadn't thought he'd ever been particularly fond of her, either. Was this some kind of peace offering? Some truce before they both died?

She couldn't let him die here. She couldn't let anyone die here- not herself, not Shaapu, not even Sasuke if that's who Deidara was after and if he was even here, or anyone else who got in Deidara's way as he went.

"Ahh, and you must be the girl I saw earlier. The lover." Deidara said, seemingly unconcerned. "Sasori's spies didn't say much about you, I'm afraid. Hmph."

"Too bad it got your friend hurt, yeah?"

"I'll be sure to give the Kazekage your regards after I kill Sasuke!"

Mitsuwa Fumiko had felt anger before, despite being known for her forgiveness. Fleeting moments sprinkled throughout their childhood as she learned to let it go, during battle at cruelty, at Shukaku when they were children. She had been at her most angry when Gaara was taken, her most vindictive when Yoshiki kissed her without permission, her most righteous when her father denounced his own grandkids.

She had always been angry at Deidara, even at her most peaceful. And Akatsuki, too, but his face was what appeared in her mind at the word, his face, the clouds, his giant bird carrying Gaara away even as she lost consciousness in the middle of a desert, faking her death like a coward- and then she'd been mad at herself.

But never had she ever felt quite this much anger at one time, quite this much burning fury.

Is this what it's like, she thought as she brought her hands up into Hare, not bothering to close her eyes, to be like Mai?

Deidara was immediately caught, and she didn't bother making it look like his own preferred reality, more focused on knocking him down and cutting him apart to keep him that way. She stood. Shaapu's wing fell away despite how he strained it, and then slumped, and that only made her madder.

Deidara broke free, reared back his arm again-

And froze.

And broke free and froze, and broke free and froze, all the while as she stepped around Shaapu's wing and towards the terrorist, and then Fumiko didn't bother with hand signs, flinging her arms about. She found him jerking in tandem as she mixed it with Mirror World.

No, she thought. No, because Mai was never this afraid.

He managed to shove his arm forwards, and she screamed in some kind of desperate fear and some kind of heated anger, snapping one hand to the side as she gripped his chakra again, and it was enough that Deidara's wrist twisted, the bomb going off somewhere to her left.

He was learning how to counteract her Genjutsu, but his freedom never lasted long. Because nobody was immune to it, nobody could stop it, only break away from it, leaving the chakra still squirming in their system, like he was prying her fingers off one by one and every time he moved to peel off the next one the other came back down.

She felt like she was burning, heat licking at her insides, lips curling and eyes narrow, shivering or shaking from adrenaline or fear of death, fear of him, fear of his bombs, fear of his place in her past. Water slid down her chest from her hair and dripping headband, oddly noticeable. She didn't think she'd want to see what her expression looked like in that moment.

Fumiko wanted to snap his neck, even though she knew he was a reincarnation. She wanted to fuse him into the ground, wanted to tear off his stupid hands, didn't want to bother sealing him, wanted to finally make him leave her alone, wanted to sleep, wanted to skygaze, wanted to paint for people again.

"Fears are fears," she remembered reading or maybe watching somewhere. "Slay your demons when you're awake, they won't be there to get you in your sleep."

...

~ "Haa!" Madara grinned. "You do realize it's only you, spouting such nonsense?" ~

...

"Well answer me- would you like all of these clones to use Susano'o or wouldn't you? It's your choice."

Mai seethed at his tone, condescending and mocking. She sure as hell wasn't going to let herself be bashed by somebody using powers grafted to their chest- he hadn't been nearly this powerful in life. He was a farce.

And she wanted to say it to his face, but that would be asking for trouble. Just because she was pissed off that he apparently didn't think her worth clones of her own to fight against didn't mean she wasn't going to take advantage of the fact that he hadn't.

No one spoke. Pride, Mai knew. They all had it. None would ask for less, and it seemed ridiculous to ask for more- it was a completely rhetorical question and Madara knew it, a tease; he'd known no one would speak.

She almost wished Fumiko was here. She would've probably said something like "we'd prefer not to fight Susano'o, actually" and from her it wouldn't be a declaration of defeat, just a literal fact and Mai wanted so badly to say it herself, but she wouldn't.

The thought of Fumiko, however, merely made her angrier. She could feel her own chakra losing its control- and was surprised Madara hadn't acknowledged it with at least one or two opponents for fun.

"None of you have any answers, do you?" he said sadly, as though they'd been playing a game or some equally stupid shit. "Then I'll have to provide an answer for you."

As expected, one by one the clones lit purple, each nearly the strength of Madara itself, chakra expanding around their figures to tower over the Kage as monsters. She didn't know as much about techniques as her sister did, but she knew well enough about Wood Style- the only clone aside from Shadow Style that could take damage and still retain it's form.

"... no way..." the Mizukage breathed, figure wilting slightly.

"Damn him," the Raikage snarled.

The armors grew faces and limbs and ribs, and Mai didn't know if she had any attacks powerful enough to crack through them- she doubted it. She was strong, but she was no Tsunade, no Raikage A.

The only thing she could do that had any feasible chance of success was literally to attack Madara himself, but all it would take was for him to activate said armor and again she would be useless. He hadn't used Susano'o in their brief scuffle before the meteor- because he hadn't needed to. He'd been toying with them all- and was still toying with them.

Mai smiled grimly. He had to know this was overkill.

"They'll use it." Madara's tone lilted at the end, and Mai clenched her teeth.

"Damn him," the Raikage muttered again.

"Each of us must take on five," the Mizukage affirmed.

"It's five to one," Gaara said. "Not including the original and Mai."

"Not quite..." Ohnoki paused. "It's twenty-six to six."

"Lord Tsuchikage?"

"We're not alone- we'll guard each other's backs and coordinate our attacks." Ohnoki's voice was strong. At least he and the Raikage, along with Tsunade, would have some chance at breaking the armors. If they attacked together... it could work. "We are the Five Kage!"

The others gave an immediate agreement, most nodding. She looked up at Madara without raising her head, and knew that he was listening to them speak to each other, and letting them anyway. "Yeah," Mai said. "I'll help where I can."

A beat. And then: "Let's go!"

Without a word the five Kage leapt into shunshin at the Susano'o that towered above them.

It didn't take long for them to be completely overwhelmed, but still they continued fighting. Mai did what she could without putting herself in lethal danger- well, any more lethal danger than she was already in just by being here- throwing blades and punches to shift attacks, stopping the Kage's harsher falls, distracting Susano'o clones as they regrouped.

She was hurt, and badly too, if she remembered the difference between the pain scales, but for now she was still able to stand and move quickly, so that was enough for her. If Gaara could seal Madara away, then they would be able to go see healers, or whatever the hell. But until then, she would help defend the other Kage.

Somehow she hadn't died yet, and was fairly certain it was due to her sharingan.

It was incredible what they could do, now that she was allowing them to work and especially now that they were both equally developed into third-stage. She could predict the movement of a Wood Clone well before it acted, and her physical prowess already granted her the speed, ability and instinct required to react accordingly. Just because these clones had sharingan didn't mean her own didn't work.

She could sense their chakra. She could see their movements- she could even predict their jutsu and its exact style and technique by the way the chakras moulded inside of them, though she could still see no difference, somehow, between the wood and original Madaras, despite the obvious reasoning that she should have been able to tell the difference between wood and faux-flesh.

Still, she could predict attacks by watching, and see everything in her periphery at once just by backing up.

The Susano'o thundered as they walked, the earth shaking. What she assumed was still the real Madara still stood placidly in place at the top of his pollen attack's broken wood style, watching them like some interesting sports' play.

"Mizukage!" she yelled, "Above!"

But it wasn't quick enough for her to move out of the way, caught midair, and Mai was too far away to help. Gaara, however, was right there to halt her fall with sand when she was pummelled into a nosedive by a Susano'o's giant fist and move her out of the way of another attack, slipping her away into a crevasse to recover.

Gaara by far had the greatest advantage in this fight, as he couldn't be caught off guard, the sand once more as always rising to face danger without his even being aware of it. The Susano'o's blade smashed into it, but didn't break through, and Gaara whirled, arms rising to block and then fly, armor himself for a mid-air impact that sent him flying to hit the ground hard beside the Mizukage.

Mai glanced over to the others, who seemed to be doing well enough- well, if Tsunade being technically impaled twice through the middle by massive chakra blades and yet still bearing down on Clones with enough force to smash their hulking figures in the ground, and the Raikage casually holding one Sunsano'o's fist where it was trying to smash him into the ground counted as "well enough."

But- "Raikage!"

He slumped with Genjutsu, and she made to bolt in their direction as the Susano'o raised its blade but- earth smashed through the ground and wrapped around him, yanking him away from danger. Ohnoki. They were all right so far.

So she turned most of her attention to Gaara and the Mizukage, still struggling to rise.

"Gaara," she said, sheathing her tantos momentarily to help him sit up. "You guys okay?"

He made some kind of strange eye contact with her. Mai didn't like that look one bit- it was lacking in the hellfire that had burned since Fumiko and Satomi's departure. "Yes," he said. "But, at this rate..."

"Shut up Gaara," she said. "Up you get. You too, Mizukage."

"Get up- Fellow Kage!" Ohnoki cried. "We fight a battle to the end, no whining, no complaining!" As he spoke, finally Gaara managed to rise, a little slumped as Mai supported his side. The sand began to help, creeping over his skin to give him leverage. "We are the Five Kage, so choose final words that will not shame the title you hold!"

"Yeah, listen to the old man," Mai grunted, eyes flashing about. "I was told I wouldn't die like this."

He looked at her a moment, and then nodded.

"Mizukage, you good?" As soon as Gaara was standing on his own again, she went again for her blades.

"Hai."

"Okay," she said. "So we haven't killed more than three, so what? He hasn't killed even one of us yet. Now come on- they need our help."

"We entrusted Naruto to fight his battle, and we swore to win this fight that he entrusted to us- no matter what!" As Ohnoki spoke, they joined him, A, and Tsunade back in the open before the clones, with careful shunshin. Gaara and the Mizukage landed a little roughly, but didn't stumble further. "Don't forget that! And there is one more thing- each each and every shinobi has entrusted us with one duty- all of us have to be worthy of the title Kage!"

Ohnoki raised his hands to use Dust Style even as Tsunade stepped behind him to begin healing.

"Eh, Tsuchikage," Mai said. "I'll tell you which ones are using Rinnegan."

"Right! Princess- I need more!"

"You don't have to tell me," Tsunade muttered darkly in concentration.

"All the ones in the middle are clear!" Mai snapped out, glaring at the faces and colors of the clones and their chakras. "Avoid the two in the left corner, they'll dismantle the entire jutsu! Now, before the others activate it!"

"There's not much chakra in me. This could be our last stand!" His Particle style glowed into his palms. "Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World!"

The jutsu escaped and then expanded harshly into a perfect cube almost too bright to look at for her oversensitive eyes, but she stared into it as the landscape caught in the blast disintegrated. The clones evaporated instantly, but one of them-

"The real Madara escaped backwards," she said. "His armor threw him out!"

The Mizukage came steady behind them, the Raikage beside her, and she weaved several hand signs before shooting water from her mouth. The cube of particle style opened in the center to make it room- Mai hadn't even known it could do that- and it formed into a dragon's head that enveloped Madara immediately. Mai watched intently, grinning as he began absorbing the technique, because for a sharingan user he sure was bad at checking his surroundings.

The sand rose around him, snaking over his limbs and wrapping to seal. She saw it now as the Raikage added to the Mizukage's water-style with lightning jutsu, electrifying the water- if he continued absorbing the water jutsu, with the gold she could see in Gaara's sand, he would be sealed, and if he stopped the sand, he would be paralyzed long enough to be disintegrated with Ohnoki's Dust Release and then have his pieces sealed away by Gaara's sand before he had a chance to reform.

Ohnoki didn't even have to pause in his jutsu, continuously firing, because Tsunade had the power to heal him instantly and replenish chakra as she lost it with the power hidden in the seal she'd saved them all with back during Pein's Assault on Konoha. And with her sharingan to see through the attacks themselves and give warnings- there was no way he'd be able to blindside them.

Damn, she thought. The Nations should've made peace a long time ago if this is the result.

"You can't hold us off for long!" Gaara roared above the lightning. As Mai watched, her sister's seals erupted from the sand, swarming like snakes or ants around the bulge of sand. She wondered how many more of those Gaara had. Probably a ton, knowing Fumiko's sealing speed.

"Don't you see!" Ohnoki cried over the noise. "This is the full power of the Five Kage!"

And then everything went wrong at the same time. Mai backed up slightly, said "Wai-" as Madara's chakra flashed in his coils, but before she could finish or the Kage could register her warning, the sealing sand ball exploded into mist against Madara's purple Susano'o chakra.

Mai couldn't hear him speak, and nor, she imagined, could any of the other Kage, but with her sharingan activated she could easily read his lips.

"Even the Five Kage are nothing compared to the power that I wield!"

She froze at the power that pulsed then, a purely physical reaction to the immense density of his chakra, as though it had a gravity of its own as it formed some kind of thing, rising from his skin and expanding around him to form a blue figure with dark red eyes, curling on all sides with power. It was much bigger than they were- the size of the meteor or more.

Dread formed in the pit of her stomach.

This is it- meet the Perfect Susano'o!"

"... It's huge," Tsunade murmured anxiously. The Raikage and Mizukage's jutsus faded in tandem, and even Gaara dropped his arms- his sand there had been obliterated into nonexistence as if Ohnoki himself had destroyed it. Only the Tsuchikage and Mai's jutsu remained activated, the dust style glowing, Mai's eyes red beneath the hair falling over her hitai-ate.

"This- is this-" The Mizukage seemed thunderstruck, voice warbling. "A true Susano'o?"

And then Madara's lips read, "Not quite."

He raised his up hand sharply, and with a rising of power that rumbled the ground they stood on, the Susano'o's features twisted sharply, gaining armor and yellow flashing eyes, face elongating into some monstrosity or another even as it grew again.

It now resembled a shinobi or a samurai, with traditional armor similar to Madara's own and two hilted swords with a kind of old-style mask for a face. Beside the remains of the meteor, it looked even bigger than it likely was. Now, against it's raging chakra, that purified Killing Intent, and with Tsunade drawing away her replenishment, Ohnoki slowly dropped his hands, the Dust Release bubbling away.

"The big one's chakra has stabilized," Ohnoki said under his breath, and then stepped back, breath catching.

"He's just so strong," Tsunade said, the frustration in her voice prominent. "I can't believe Grandfather fought someone like him!"

"Well stop boosting his ego, would you?" Mai finally snapped, head whipping to face them. She didn't think she looked intimidating at all to them in this moment- Mai was a thirteen year old girl about to fall over from her injuries, it didn't matter what her eyes looked like. But still they startled at her hard expression. "He has the sharingan too, you know! He can read everything you're saying!"

She turned again to face the Susano'o, even as her body tried to make her tremble, even as her mind began to accept, running plans and strategies in her head, that there really wasn't a way to win this. "Just all of you quit it. At the very least we'll keep him here long enough that by the time he gets to everyone else, the Reincarnation technique will be released. It's no use whining now- like you said, old man. He'll kill us either way, unless we get him first."

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and knew it was Gaara.

"Don't tell me to leave," she said, already sensing his intention. He knew they were going to lose, but unlike her, he was starting to accept it as truth. She wasn't going to let him pull some stupid martyr bullshit. She turned her face from his hand, and it slipped away like she'd burned him. "I thought you were cooler than that, Gaara."

"I already explained this to all of you," Madara said. Somehow it was carrying over to them- somehow the Kage could hear his words. "Only Hashirama could stop me. And he is... no longer with us." His Susano'o's arms raised to unsheath a sword, slowly. "Though, in a way... you could say that that actually works out better for you, because..."

Without warning- it was too fast even for her fully developed sharigan eyes to pick up, from no movement to the-ground's-erupting-into-magma, sword blade tearing into the earth with enough speed and power to raise volcanoes from the earth, and then, suddenly, send them all blowing violently backwards in a tumble of tearing stones and chakra residue that immediately broke several bones in her body, and Mai screamed with them as they flew across the battlefields.

Out of them six, Mai was the only one not to land on some semblance of her feet, smashing hard into and through a raised stone, and then into the ruined ground behind it, spinters carving into her skin from the wood there. For a moment she lay there, stunned, sharingan deactivated, unable to breathe or think.

The other Kage managed to sit up or stand, and she heard, "Impossible..."

"... It's just me." Madara's voice this time, sounding satisfied. "So after all this, the maps will only need to be redrawn a little bit."

"He split the mountain!"

That was what finally roused something in her mind to function once more, raising her head with some difficulty to see what had happened and blanching as soon as she laid eyes on the destruction left behind and sucking in a sharp breath. "Tch..!"

She couldn't see the Kage through the stones, and so attempted to move, but nothing really happened aside from some parts of her body shaking. "... Damn it...!" The rock she had blasted through crumbled into dust and shards, and she had to turn her head away, coughing, before peering back, eyes slitted against the dust raised around the entire area.

"This is... Uchiha Madara's strength...?" Ohnoki's posture wasn't even defensive any longer, wide open. "Then why... earlier..? Why did you hold back against us?"

"What adult would go full force when fighting mere children?" She could imagine his eye-roll, but could no longer clearly see his face. There was more than just a trickle of blood on her mouth, coating her tongue and spilling out over her chin. Mai couldn't quite breathe. "But anyway, are you finished now?"

A footstep pounded through her skull, rattling her prone form against the ground as it shook beneath the impact. Another sounded, and her eyes refocused- when had they blurred?- to see the Perfect Susano'o moving closer, one massive step after another, and none of the Kage moving to stop it. And so she looked down, sucked a breath in and then out, strained on her arms to try and lift herself.

There was some give. Her limbs felt like oil jello set on fire, but she was moving in the right direction.

Another step.

Her chest left the ground.

Another step- but this one was different, smaller and light, a clap compared to a giant drum.

"It may be true that we're stumbling in the dark right now," Ohnoki's voice rang out. He'd stepped forward. "But we're also close to the light at the end of the tunnel!"

His voice cracked slightly, but it was enough. It was something.

Mai got her arms beneath her, and then her legs, and then she was pushing up, somehow getting closer towards being on her feet, and glanced at the Kage as she clutched at a nearby rock for leverage. They were all standing now, ready to fight to their deaths.

For some reason, a tear slipped down her face, probably doing nothing to the mucked dirt and grime and blood there.

They were probably going to die here.

Gaara...

She wobbled as she left her knees, and then suddenly stabilized, rising the rest of the way to her feet. Shocked, she glanced down at herself to see Gaara's sand supporting her, helping her to stand. She tried to step away from it- Gaara needed all the sand and concentration he could get- but she couldn't.

And then the sand did something unexpected.

It curled almost gently around her limbs and skin, underneath her clothes and through her hair and then hardened there, still pliant to her movements. Mai's eyes widened.

Sand armor.

She looked to Gaara, stunned, who looked backwards, just slightly.

She would stand.

His eyes stayed on hers for another second longer- and then she managed something like a nod, and he nodded back before turning away.

Come on... come on...

Chakra flared to life behind her eyes.

"Here of all places!" Ohnoki finished, and once more his posture was ready. Mai, as well, jumped to join the Kage where they stood and fell into a basic kata stance. She could still fight. She could manage this.

"... My Susano'o is destruction incarnate," Madara said after a moment's pause. "A single stroke of the blade contains enough power to smash all things in this universe. It rivals even the tailed beasts. Be crust and be gone, Kage," he said. "You, and your pathetic philosophy."

He raised his sword. Mai braced- Gaara's sand armor would do nothing against this and he knew it, and she knew it. He was letting her stand. He was letting her stand to meet her death, instead of on her knees.

And now she looked at him, with her sharingan eyes, and contemplated turning them off for it, but didn't. Any chance was still a chance... She allowed herself, this one time, to pause in a battle she couldn't win to sift through old memories, to look at Gaara and remember being young again, looking up to him, to remember fighting with him and for his name, to remember joking around and training and sleeping together during thunderstorms.

She remembered her big siblings, and she hoped Fumiko survived this war.

You really are the coolest... she let herself think, smiling just a little, although he wasn't looking back at her, staring intently at their enemy. ... big brother.

...

~ "Yeah? What about you?" ~

...

He didn't know what to do or how she was doing it or why he couldn't keep her chakra out, but she was getting closer and closer or was that another Genjutsu just making it seem like she was? Damn it, he hated these things, these fleeting masterpieces, these vicious artistical rivals. He couldn't even tell what was real or reality anymore, just continuously freed his eyes and continuously threw his bombs, and some seemed to hit but then she would be fine.

Deidara couldn't even fall, the increments in which he could move were so short he didn't get the time to think to.

He didn't know what was happening.

She was weak. Deidara knew she was weak, had fought her before, had gathered her intel from Sasori-no-Danna's spies and knew that at least when he'd been alive she hadn't even been a registered ninja, and even just a second ago she had been too weak even to stand up, a pitiful attempt to protect something else against a person who could demolish the entire area.

He regretted now not using his Ultimate Art right away- even if he hated that he was reformed each time, he now had no way of activating it at all; it took more concentration than this crazed civilian-girl was letting him have as she grew ever-closer, drenched completely in whatever water style she had used to not die in the fall she'd caused, with a ripped-up flak vest and torn fishnet half-sleeves, for some reason a white shirt stained with red where it was visible.

Somehow she hadn't lost that stupid satchel, either, of what he assumed was medical supplies and an oddly undamaged, new-looking prosthetic that was singed with faded embers in one spot from the explosions that had thrown her back. Her hair was tied in what he took as a mockery of his own, without the long bangs to cover her eye, though the bags did well enough for that- her forehead protector glinted with the shine.

He did, however, recognize her face. A lot of people had looked at him like that throughout his life, angry widows and children and parents and comrades. It was almost amusing, really, how angry they got, how scared they were of his explosions, except- this was actually causing him some trouble now, it wasn't funny-

And she was a Seal master, as well, judging by the sleeve of pocketed seals on her arm, something difficult to produce, a sealing method Sasori-no-Danna had used as well. Which meant this could end seriously badly for him- and the last thing he wanted was to be trapped in that stupid puppet again-

Another explosive seemed to magically miss, thrown in her direction yet exploding far away. Deidara felt the way his face twisted, mouth down and eyes narrowed.

"You don't know how strong I've become!"

It was a ringing sound, and he really couldn't, as frustrating as it was, tell if it was coming from her mouth or a Genjutsu. His eye worked furiously to counter.

"I'm done with you!" She slashed an arm downwards and disappeared, reappeared closer, his own fingers singed, a small crater at his right in the ground, footing uneven. The Reanimation started to fix itself. "Just go away!"

And then, distracted by her angry tirade, that stupid civilian artist girl slipped up.

Deidara broke free and, explosive clay already formed in his hand, finally managed a clear shot without her messing with his body and it flew right at her startled face, her arms rising to defend herself or weave a seal, but he wasn't taking any chances.

His hand shot up in a seal. "Katsu!"

It exploded, not quite all the way in lethal range, but it had the intended effect- burned her face and skin beyond complete healing and smashed her back into the ground before she had the time to weave another Genjutsu or protective water shield.

She screamed in pain and he set to having one of his palms chew more clay- he still had a lot left. He'd nearly died in that invasion of Sunagakure against the Jinchuuriki there because he hadn't brought enough clay, so he had enough stored away to last him three of the battles with Sasuke that had killed him- and stepping in some faux of a leisurely walk.

He hadn't known that Reanimation bodies could sweat, or feel exhausted, but he did. He supposed they could only have so much chakra- you couldn't create chakra from nothing, after all. The bookworm had made it with the souls of the dead, who had once possessed it.

"Haa," he sighed, coming up to where she writhed on the ground, crying from pain, and stopped far enough away to her side that she could both see him and explode without too much damage to his person. "It seems you've lost, hmph. You didn't stand a chance after all."

He looked up as his palm worked, ignoring her cries. Deidara could see the injured bat from here- he wondered if it was dead. Good riddance, he thought. Bats were such ugly creatures, not artistically designed at all. And then it was finished, and he formed a quick spider- no use really, wasting any more clay than he had to on this one barely-kunioichi when he had Sasuke to kill.

He tossed it, made a hand sign, and the spider formation almost unceremoniously expanded to land on her face and explode. Her hands paused for a split second where they'd been hovering by her injured face. Deidara grinned.

And then her arms burst into water, the rest of the body quickly following suit.

A water clone?!

He took a step back, head whipping to the side, closing his right eye to search for where-

Deidara tripped suddenly backwards, and he looked down in shock to see a hand sprouted from the earth, yanking on his right ankle, fingers wrapped tightly enough that her nails would've drawn blood hand he been completely alive.

His foot sank into the ground down to his knee, and he fell backwards, smashing into the ground. He had no prepared clay, couldn't fight the enemy physically while she was underground- and there she was again, arms shooting from the ground to grab at his flailing left arm and then disappear with it beneath the soil, practically fusing him with the rocks without damaging him and enabling him to reform.

He managed to connect with her hands the next time they rose by his other foot, kicking hard, but she simply unearthed farther, head coming out of the ground with some pained gasp, and fell on it, disappearing once more as though under the water, leg in tow.

Deidara bellowed in frustration, prepared now that he was still to use his ultimate technique. Let her bring his other arm underground- she couldn't seal away his explosions! She did just that, arms buried to past his elbows in solid rock at strange angles, and he thought viciously, she'll be right beneath me when I explode!

And then she erupted from the ground directly to his right, only coming halfway out of the earth, buried beneath her torso. Again her face was twisted with some kind of determination, and she brought her raised left hand down directly on his chest.

Damn it! he thought wildly as he recognized the racing feeling of electrical-based chakra. "No!" he yelled, twisting against the ground, but he was stuck, and couldn't explode, and with her other hand she reached into his cloak and tore away the stores of clay there, throwing the pouch a far distance before phasing back into the soil and coming out with a kunai blade.

"It's a chakra transforming seal," she said, almost triumphantly had she still not been so angry, hovering above him, still halfway underground. Victoriously, perhaps. A necklace was dangling from her neck, a cloth pouch soaked through. Deidara howled. "As long as I touch it it will continuously produce lighting style chakra- you're done, Deidara!"

...

~ "It-" Madara's grin softened into something different. He nodded. "It sounds pretty good." ~

...

"Lord Tsuchikage, it's unfortunate, but..." The Mizukage's voice was high with tears that didn't form. "I think this is the end."

"Silence, Mizukage!" A snapped. "I'm not going to give up yet!"

The sword came down.

And then Mai noticed something peculiar. A whiteness to Madara's chakra, a fading.

She looked away from Gaara to watch in shock as the Perfect Susano'o began to fail, whittling away as Madara began to sink to the ground, glowing slightly. And then she realized what was happening, seeing the foreign chakra within his head begin to wobble-

The Reanimation jutsu was dissipating.

They'd... done it!

"Something has happened to the jutsu caster," Madara muttered just as the other Kage, too, seemed to realize what was going on.

"What is this?" the Mizukage stuttered, bewildered, as the light around Madara's figure grew and then burst into the sky. It hurt her eyes like Ohnoki's particle style had hurt her eyes, but the sound it created was almost pleasant to her ears, soft and singing. "That- that light surrounding him-"

"Yes!" Mai crowed, and the sound tore out of her throat painfully, but she didn't care, bringing up a fist and grinning wildly.

"The Susano'o is gone," Ohnoki said. "The debris from the reanimation is swirling in a whirlwind around him. Without a doubt, this means-"

"Yes, it would appear that the Reanimation Jutsu has been released," Madara said, voice like an annoyed sigh. Mai tensed slightly, the sand armor tightening with her muscles. He seemed weirdly unconcerned...

"What?" the Raikage exclaimed. "It has?!"

"But how?" Tsunade asked sharply. "We haven't even located where Kabuto is! It's too soon!" Tsunade shook her head, perplexed, and crossed her arms. "Even if Kabuto was found... to be able to stop this jutsu- who could've done it?"

"Maybe the jutsu has a time limit," Mai suggested, "Or somebody found him out while he was casting and caught him off guard or something, but why do you guys care?"

"It doesn't matter," Ohnoki agreed, and then glanced again to Madara's glowing form. Mai could actually see his chakra beginning to dissipate with the Reanimation. "Whoever did it is a hero that saved the Shinobi World. It seems the heavens haven't forsaken us yet."

"It appears that you have able shinobi on your side, too," Madara allowed. "It can't be helped."

At his tone, Mai's eyes narrowed, and she took a half step closer to Gaara on her left. Voicing her thoughts, the Mizukage wondered, "He planned for this?"

Ohnoki, several feet in front of them, suddenly tensed. "Stay on guard," he warned, and as Madara leaped from his place to attack them, one hand weaving into a jutsu sign, shifted his stance for defense. "He's planning a final strike before he disappears- so watch out!"

From his mouth erupted small balls of flame that formed into blazing dragon heads, the heat of which she could feel even from several yards away, like small suns. Immediately she ran forward, signing rapidly and stepping up beside Ohnoki to bring her one hand up, the other dipping into her back pouch for the shuriken she'd stolen from that corpse the horde of zetsu had killed.

She threw them in a volley just as she blew fire, chakra peeling from her hands to stick to the shuriken even as the flames wrapped around them, and she had complete control of where they went. Behind her the Mizukage warped her chakra in the beginnings of a water technique, but it wouldn't form in time.

Katon: Pheonix Flower Shuriken jutsu!

You want five on one? she thought vindictively, carefully having thrown five for every one head. Fine! That's a fun ratio for games!

They slammed into the attacks, repelling and dispelling the intense balls of flame with a great roar of fire and rush of dying, swallowed oxygen, shuriken slicing through the flames her fire helping starve it all midair, and in the flare that remained Tsunade leapt, hands coated in chakra in one final attack, one chance at pushing him away long enough for him to disappear and die again-

And then as Mai watched, flames dying, Tsunade's coursing extra chakra banded around her coils like a second skin flickered out, and then she was falling, hundred healings seal finally used up. She was losing consciousness even as she fell, a dead weight Gaara would catch in his sand.

But it didn't matter. They'd bought enough time- she could see his spirit rising into the air, his stolen physical body beginning to reveal itself beneath the debris of reanimation material- Mai cupped the burns in the corners of her lips from her sloppy jutsu, already prepared to collapse as soon as Gaara removed the sand armor that seemed to read her every movement.

And then the reanimation material paused- and clamped back down on Madara's spirit like it had eaten him, and it was reformed.

"What?!" she yelled, confusion clear in her voice and then- "Tsunade!"

"Damn it!" Ohnoki managed to say behind her, the only thing he had enough time to do.

The Raikage with his incredible speed leapt to aid, but Mai could see both their trajectories even as he tried, there was no possible way he would make it before she was cleaved in half, no self-healings left within her jutsu-

And then there was a flash of light, a sudden chakra with no body she could see that zapped into the air and then- was in front of Tsunade. There was a sound of cutting flesh, and then Tsunade was away, somewhere else as though she had simply jumped there.

"Hokage! You alright?" A shouted, and Mai's eyes narrowed.

Her seal had just returned at once. The foreign chakra was gone.

What had happened just then?

Tsunade turned. Madara was still glowing as his body tried to release the reanimation, but somehow he was stopping it or stalling it or turning it off- she could see it within his head, within his chakra. "Your vitality has returned," he said curiously. "Did you receive chakra?"

For whatever reason, Tsunade chose that moment to smile. It wasn't a grin or a smirk or a disguised grimace, but a real smile Mai might have found on Fumiko's face, with clear eyes and a smooth face. "I got to see an old friend for a little while," she said.

"Well, you'll be with them again soon enough."

Had it been a soul- a soul released from the Impure Reincarnation? Somebody Tsunade had once known, who had returned with the last of his time to transfer his remaining chakra into replenishing her muscles and her seal?

"Wh-what- what is going on?" the Mizukage said, baffled, completely lost somewhere. Mai shifted her stance to glance back at them, scowling hard, feeling something breaking in her chest. Would they die or wouldn't they? "Madara's chakra, which had started to separate from his body, is now clinging fast to it! He's still reanimated?"

"But how?" the Raikage demanded. "Why won't he disappear? I thought the reanimation jutsu was undone!"

Gaara's jaw was clenching visibly, teeth slightly bared, and she understood his anger. They'd been so close- this wasn't getting the rug pulled out from underneath them, this was struggling to avoid death only to find yourself injured and tired back at the beginning of the battle.

"The Reanimation jutsu," Madara said, having safely landed again on a curl of ragged wood, "Is a jutsu that summons back the dead. There is really only one risk to it."

"What risk?" Gaara growled, and Mai turned again to face Madara, but tracked backwards, eyes trained on his still mildly glowing figure, taking several steps back towards Gaara. She had the Kages' backs in this fight, but would above all else stay beside Gaara.

"As long as they know the correct signs to weave," he said, "A Reanimated shinobi can actually rescind the reanimation jutsu's Summoning contract from their end."

"They can rescind the contract?" Tsunade's tone was cutting.

"And when that happens," Madara continued, eyes sliding slowly back and forth, a wide sweep to catch each of their attentions. When he reached Mai, she shifted her own eyes to the side of his face- she wouldn't stare directly at another sharingan user's gaze. She'd already learned that lesson. "You end up with the biggest problem of all: an immortal body with infinite chakra, on the move without any way to control or restrain it."

"You don't mean..." Ohnoki breathed.

"Tell the jutsu caster... to never use a forbidden jutsu like this carelessly." And with that final statement- as though he actually expected they would be able to tell Kabuto or whoever the hell was behind this after he tried to kill them- his hands flew into a rapid weave-pattern that Mai's eyes tracked and stored, and then one hand slammed down palm-open into the ground.

"Reanimation Jutsu: Release!"

There was a bright light that faded again almost instantly, and there stood, Mai accepted with a darkness weighing down every limb with a sudden exhaustion beyond that she'd ever felt before, a calm and collected Madara, arms crossed.

This had just gone from "hold him off and try to seal him" to "seal him or lose the war when he inevitably makes his way to the rest of the Allies and smashes every last living person into misty red clouds."

"But how? How is this possible?"

Anger flared in her navel at the Mizukage- all she'd done was ask forlorn question after forlorn question, stating the obvious- Uchiha Madara was seemingly invincible and indestructible. But Mai fucking hated repetitively rhetorical questions in a row- she got it, okay, they were gonna die or some shit, now could she please shut up about it instead of continuously rubbing it in her face?

"Your ridiculously juvenile jutsu cannot hold me back. Don't you get it by now, after fighting me for all this time?" He finally glanced down towards his own feet, seemingly completely disinterested from their fight now. "Now then, you have seen the Perfect Susano'o- and everyone who lays eyes on it dies, or so they say. I'm almost embarrassed to have to do this again- I already used it once, but... my interest is waning, thanks to the interference. So perhaps I ought to go and retrieve the Kyuubi instead."

Naruto!

"No," Ohnoki hissed, and he raised again, hovering above Madara to look down at him, force his eyes to raise.

"Lord Tsuchikage!" the Mizukage called in a weak tone, flinging one arm out away in despair. "I'm sorry, but this is beyond us, we cannot stop him!"

"We still have to fight him," Ohnoki growled, some kind of desperation in his tone that Mai could feel thumping in her heart. "We must stop him right here!"

"Mizukage," Mai said at last, letting her eyes slide to the older woman. Her clothes had been demolished, as had Mai's, and there was a strange sheen in her eyes as she met Mai's glare- true fear. This Kage feared death. "Stop talking about us dying already, would you?"

Madara slowly uncrossed his arms, moving his hands instead to rest on his hips, as if he was exhausted with their insistence and this entire thing was just a hindrance. "How pitiful you are," he sighed.

It was over faster than she'd expected it to be.

They battled.

The Mizukage fell.

They battled.

The Raikage fell.

They battled.

Mai battled as she never had before, still trying to remain supplementary but unable to avoid having to fight herself. She even got a few good hits in- blasts with fire and lightning and once even with Taijutsu, but Madara only reformed and was never still enough to seal, and it was all Mai could do to keep her eyes on Gaara and Tsunade, the two most important people in this fight, all bias aside: the sealer and the healer.

Mai had known the second she recognized the pattern that she was going to die.

But as long as at least one of the Kage lived, there was a chance.

And even if they failed, Mai wanted to give them that chance.

With her sharingan eyes, she saw what would happen. The Susano'o would falter just a moment- and wood would shoot from the earth.

Gaara's sand wouldn't be fast enough, not with the chakra blade of the Perfect Susano'o bearing down above him, not with two Kage incapacitated and the others thoroughly engaged. Even if he'd sensed the attack, there would be nothing he could do against it.

And so she did, instead.

Fueling chakra into her legs and feet, Mai dashed into a shunshin, perhaps not the fastest she had ever activated but the most aggressive, the most focused, and Gaara didn't really have time to notice her- if he'd sensed her, he hadn't had the time to react at all. She twisted, feet skidding and then lifting from the ground, and yelled his name.

The sand didn't stop her.

Mai smashed into Gaara's side, and he was sent staggering away, falling hard and sliding through the dirt, letting out a startled cry of alarm, low and panicked. She'd never managed that kind of blow against him before- not even in their most serious training spars.

And then she felt it- a burning, shooting, searing pain erupting in her back, her gut, the front of her torso, and then in the rest of her as she collided with the remains of the meteors, wood splintering into her wound as it rushed into the stone through her body, and she screamed with the agony of it, fire, worse, lightning, worse, she was teetering on the edge of passing out, this was the worst pain she'd ever experienced.

In the background, Mai didn't quite manage to register the noise that followed: the Kage banding to lessen the Perfect Susano'o's sword impact, and they must have succeeded because it was nothing like those other times at all. Her vision faded, going greyscale and then completely dark.

And then it slowed, and stopped, leaving her burning and throbbing and numb. In some part of her brain she realized her body was completely limp, body incapable of even writhing in pain. Her shoulders slumped, body curving slightly against the stone, around the wood, as it held her there. Sound slid in and out between her ears, but it was all nonsensical.

She couldn't stand it. It was too much.

And then, all of a sudden, as a headache slowly disappeared, it wasn't. Mai realized it didn't hurt.

Shit... she thought. Her mind was sliding. Her ears phased out the sound of battle, ringing at first with Gaara's screaming of her name and then only with the song from the release of the reanimation ninjutsu- or its attempt, anyway...

Is this... dying?

No way...

... like this, then?

As it faded, she found herself only feeling the leeching cold of the meteorite, blind and deaf. Deeply her body pulsed, not quite uncomfortable, and her eyes finally slid closed, more a feeling than a change in perspective.

At least I saved Gaara... for a little while longer.

Eishi, I didn't...

I meant to keep my end. But...

Her body was warming. Mai felt fuzzy around the edges. The blackness of her sight was lifting or lightening, not adding any true color, but it was better than being lost in the dark.

Heh... you know...

Mai wondered if her smile carried through to her physical body. She hoped so.

This... isn't so bad.

...

~ "Well," Hashirama said grandly, sitting beside Madara on the cliffside. He raised an arm to indicate everything in front of them. "Then it's decided!" ~

...

Deidara spat at her angrily as he ranted, but she couldn't care less.

Once more, that had been the last of a safe amount of chakra. All that was left now was what seeped softly from her skin, perfect for her seal, so long as she didn't move her hand from it. She couldn't even get herself out of the ground at this point, had she tried, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

There was blood seeping from wounds both from Madara and Deidara's attacks, and from her mouth- she thought maybe something in the fall had damaged her internally, nothing she couldn't fix with medical ninjutsu after some rest- and she could feel her Shinobi headband coming undone beneath her ponytail. Deidara had already healed from any damage, but he was trapped.

She had him.

She beat him.

She raised her free arm, kunai clenched in her fingers.

"Oh, go on then, hmph! It won't do anything! I won't die!" Deidara crowed, half parts amused and taunting, half parts enraged. "I'll live long after this stupid war is over and you're all dead, yeah!"

"Shut up!"

"Do it! Or are you scared? Do I scare you, hmm?"

Of course he scared her. He'd caused her an unimaginable amount of pain he probably would never be able to process- she doubted highly that he'd ever cared about anybody before in his life aside from himself- and nightmares for months, even in the middle of a war she was having nightmares. But she was too furious to care- and yet something was holding her back.

Jeering had a hard time getting under her skin- after all, she'd been getting jeered at practically since she started school, ever since making friends with Gaara. It wasn't really his taunting making her angry, it really was just his face- they were so close, she could see every detail that had previously been blurred from his distance. His eyes were blue and lined and slanted, skin smooth. Young. Loose hair from her tail draped on his collarbone.

... Was she?

She wanted to do it, she wanted to stab him in the face, or maybe the neck to keep him from talking anymore, but did she really... feel like it?

She'd wanted to for so long her brain was urging her now- of course she wanted to, of course she was scared, of course she was angry, she had been all this time, of course she was now! And she should've been.

And she was.

But...

Her mind flashed to the battle with Rasa as she glared down at him, teeth clenched, blade poised. Just how much she'd pitied the man who loved in parcels, who loved in numbers, who thought he hadn't really done anything wrong. And she'd been angry at him, too, for hiding the fact that Gaara's mother loved him, of all things. It seemed almost trivial.

And as she thought, Fumiko became aware of her stance, tense and curled over her opponent like a creature in the midst of pouncing, mouth furiously twisted, fingers wrapped around a blade handle. From a distance, she probably looked feral, or perhaps just... deadly.

Mitsuwa Fumiko had felt anger before... but she wasn't really deadly.

Her face fell slightly. Being angry was like- it was like being trapped in an attack, like she wasn't really aware what was... She looked back at the damage their fight had caused, the mud and crumbled earth and charred craters- and Shaapu in the distance, she'd been herself enough to push away from him.

Had she really done all that? Had she really won this fight? Now the adrenaline was starting to wear off, leaving her shaky and shocked that she'd survived. When had she gotten to the point of being able to fight an Akatsuki and not only live but win?

No, that hadn't been like Mai... that had been Gaara, fighting with Shukaku screaming in his mind, anger and fear... and bloodlust.

"I'll do it again, hn!" Deidara ranted. His hair as well was coming loose, and he looked unhinged in the way a child would look unhinged- less like he was dangerous and more like he was throwing a tantrum. "I'll destroy your entire puny village when Kabuto wins this war- he told me I could!"

Again she raised her blade- and he gave some schadenfreude grin, knowing if she tried it wouldn't do anything.

And then she let her arm drop, stabbing it into the dirt beside his face, sinking halfway down the blade. And then her elbow was down, resting on his chest, and she dropped it, fingers releasing, tingling from the cut off blood flow.

The anger was gone.

Gone.

She felt like singing.

"I think," she said, exhausted from the fight and slipping adrenaline rush, but still giving a small smile anyways, "That I forgive you now, Deidara."

"What?!"

Fumiko laughed. She laughed so hard she cried.

And then, ignoring Deidara's bewildered tirade, she heard someone yell, "Fumiko!"

"I'm over here!" she called, voice still raggedy, but she wiped her face with her now empty hand, keeping the other firmly pressed against the seal keeping Deidara dudded, despite how much he struggled.

The air on Deidara's other side, a few yards off, filled with darkness. Satomi. She'd wondered where her friend had gone- it seemed as though to find backup. Kurotsuchi tottered slightly, as did some of her division members, but none reacted as violently as she had, merely blinking away the nausea.

"Holy shit, Fumiko!"

"Kankuro," she said with a relieved smile. "Hey..."

"How did- What did-"

At Kankuro's appearance Deidara moaned angrily. "No! I won't get stuck in that stupid thing again, un!"

"He can't explode," she said at their wary glances. "I've got a seal on him effusing lightning chakra into his system. It's safe."

Another shinobi took on the job of pouring chakra into her seal, and Satomi and Kurotsuchi helped to dig her the rest of the way out of the ground as Deidara was sealed, leaving behind a small, crumbly crater as they pulled her out. She immediately slumped to the floor in a sitting position, too exhausted now to stand, but still looked over to Shaapu, who hadn't yet disappeared. Likely he had another ten, twenty minutes to wait.

"Kurotsuchi..." Fumiko said slowly. "Can you send someone over to help my Summons? He's injured..."

"Oh- of course, Fumiko-san."

"What happened here, Fumiko-san?" Satomi asked worriedly, left alone with her as the Stone kunioichi rushed off to find Shaapu help. "I tried to hurry, I really did."

"Mahh, I just... won, I guess?" she smiled tiredly. "Lots of Genjutsu."

...

~ Madara laughed again. "Yeah!" he said, and caught Hashirama's eye. "We'll build it right here." ~

...

..

.

... So.

Fumiko as a shinobi.

Mai as a shinobi.

They're quite the sibling pair, aren't they?

As for the poll, winners go to the ones who chose that she would win, but ultimately give into her pacifism and spare him- despite his painless edo tensei body! Hating just... isn't in her. She isn't built for it.

Mai... Mai will die for exactly what she believes in, even if the effort she dies for fails- as her taicho did, and as, possibly, Eishi did.

A lot relating to hatred in this one- Fumiko, Mai and Gaara's experiences with hatred and fear, and the different ways they react to it, as well as an excerpt from "Hashirama and Madara" that has a lot of the same themes. Madara himself is a conduit for hatred. I feel like it's a powerful theme in the Naruto series, especially Shippuden, and in Madara's character, so I wanted to explore a little with that, so... this was the result.

That's... kind of all I have to say, you guys. Please let me know what you thought- about any of it. I really do appreciate every review I get, especially with as much effort as I put into this story. So please tell me what you enjoyed or didn't, especially about this one- I'm in love with how it turned out.