A/N: I think I've finally gotten back into the groove of things; I can actually write with some regularity now. It's a nice feeling. Anyway, if you enjoy, remember to follow and favorite, and please do leave a review if you have time, as always. Enjoy!
A/N 2: I've also decided to open myself up for requests. At the moment I'll only accept oneshots at my discretion (it's simply too much work to write a multi-chapter narrative that I didn't personally design), but if you would like to request one and have it posted here, PM me and we'll get in talks.
Chapter Ten
Two Birds
This guy was good. His form was inelegant, and nothing like his sword's previous master in terms of efficiency or raw skill, but he was much fiercer and more volatile in comparison to Zabuza's calculated execution style, which gave him an edge. In addition to that, his speed was not something to be underestimated, as Kakashi had observed when he anticipated a strike to his head and brought up a kunai to parry too late, forcing him into an awkward backwards bend at the knees. It was fortunate that the blue-haired one's recovery was slow; any other ninja and that would have left him open to a killing blow.
The two crashed against each other on the rooftops over and over, trying to get at one another. Armed only with limited kunai and shuriken, Kakashi was on a ticking clock. His knives got weaker with every strike he blocked from the massive blade, and he was forced to discard them after only a few hits to prevent them shattering in his hand. He needed to regain control of this fight.
Sliding under another slash from his enemy, Kakashi kicked him in the gut and moved his hands faster than any eye could see, flipping back into the air. "Ninja Art, Wind Style: Carving Gust!" he spoke, and raised his arms. At his command, the hot air that the fires of the village had been throwing off obeyed, and came to his body in the form of razor-sharp waves of compact wind. He threw them at the enemy, but he ran forward, sliding around each potential death and using a snapped roof tile to leap up and re-engage Kakashi.
He couldn't risk a water-style attack; it would consume far too much chakra with no source to draw from. And fire-style would only worsen battlefield conditions. Fortunately, he still had a few options left.
"Earth style!" Kakashi pushed off the blue-haired man and dropped to the ground, slamming his palm into the dirt. "Rising Shockwave!"
The soil beneath him, ridden with burning pieces of wood and stone, buckled and rippled from the chakra flowing through it, and no different than a wave might crash in the ocean, a tide of earth rose up behind Kakashi and roared back down, flinging everything in it at his foe.
He was fast, true, but not fast enough for all of them. One piece of earth, slowly burning, struck him in the kneecap, and then another dead center in the chest. The blue-haired ninja crashed into the roof, and rolled off it onto the ground with a splat. Before he could fully get to his feet, four shuriken were already in Kakashi's hand, and then they were in the air between them.
All four hit home, three in the chest and the other in the joint between neck and shoulder blade. Kakashi almost permitted himself a smile before a sharp-toothed grin came to his enemy's face, and then he disappeared. His body exploded into nothing but water, the shuriken embedded in him simply falling to the ground in the puddle that had once been a foe.
And then the puddle started moving. The Executioner's Blade, lying right next to the water, remained still for a moment before the puddle moved over it, dragging the sword along. It moved only a few meters before the water built up on itself, quickly coalescing back into human form and regaining colour, to reveal his opponent, no worse for wear.
That's handy.
"You're not nearly as good with that sword as Zabuza was." Kakashi kept his voice cool.
"Yet I'm still keeping you busy, aren't I, copy ninja?" So, he knew who he was. Unsurprising, but that meant he knew his attack style. He'd have to change up his methods now.
"Tell me, how did you manage to get that blade? Did you really stoop so low as to grave rob from a rogue ninja?"
His enemy narrowed his eyes; he didn't know that Kakashi had been the one to kill Zabuza. "How did-"
"Oh, no matter. I just thought better of one who could wield such a legendary sword so… competently."
He gritted his teeth and raised the sword, swinging it behind him. He was getting angry now, good. "I'll-"
Kakashi saw the blast of light coming before he did, out of the corner of his sharingan, and managed to at least start his jutsu. "Ninja Art, Earth Style: Mud Wall!" he cried, and the ground roared up to form a shield, an instant before a wave of energy slammed into both him and his opponent. He couldn't see or hear where the blue-haired man went; all that he could perceive was the roar of wood cracking and rock breaking as a colossal amount of energy nearly tore his shield down with pure force.
When it was safe to look, he did, first for his enemy and then for the source. The former was difficult, but the latter was not. The blast had knocked over every building within a ten meter radius of it, and the two men who had caused it had flown out of sight, tossed away like playthings in their own attacks' radius. Rasengan versus Chidori. Hiis mind briefly flashed back to their similar fight, all those years ago. Is this what would have happened had he not intervened?
He searched for Sakura next, but a buzz from his ear told him she was okay. He saw her opponent though; the orange-haired mutant had crashed through a wooden wall and lay far down the street, struggling to get to his feet. Sakura must have been in cover by sheer luck when Naruto and Sasuke had clashed.
"Ugh…" a groan came from his right, and Kakashi spotted the sword-wielder pulling himself from the wreckage of one of the village walls, barely able to keep hold of the massive Executioner's blade. This was his chance to finish it, if he could get around that water dispersal defense.
No problem.
His hands moved again. Monkey. Snake. Tiger. Dragon. Every seal from the twelve played a role, and Kakashi's hand burst with light of purest blue, crackling with lightning. His sharingan spun and caught the blue-haired man in its crosshairs; he still wasn't on his feet yet, and his guard was open. Now!
He sprinted forward, right hand behind him and the familiar sound of chirping birds touched his ears. It was almost musical, and Kakashi slipped into a trance, hearing only the soft sounds coming from his attack. Everything else was blocked out, and he trained his ears on the movements of his enemy: changes in heart rate, blood flow, and positioning. All played together to form the perfect strike, the perfect assault. He thrust out the Lightning Blade, roaring, and struck his foe right through the heart.
Or at least, he would have. If a force with the strength of a battering ram hadn't struck his open flank.
Black and white flashed across his vision, and then just black. The impact of hitting the ground at high speed made half of his body scream from the burn, and the flames from the inferno around him didn't help either. He heard his bones crack, at least a few ribs, and slammed into what was left of a wall, which was one of the few that fortunately was not on fire. He'd had worse, but not much worse.
There was no momentum to work with, so he had to pull himself to his feet the old fashioned way, and searched for a target. He'd broken through the wall of one of the burning houses, and smoke clouded his vision and filled his nostrils, making the feeling of slowly being incinerated even worse.
Kakashi moved slow, but he managed somehow and leaped from the building and back onto the open street, which more and more resembled the gates of hell itself. But nobody was in sight, not even the blue-haired ninja. Naruto and Sasuke, Sakura and her opponent… what was-
"Fancy meeting you here, Kakashi Hatake."
The tone matched exactly as he remembered: so much arrogance and smug attitude packed into just a few words. It reeked of youth and cockiness, which in anyone else would spell a deadly weakness. But not in him.
Kakashi spun around, and he flew above the flames on one of those strange, white birds that he had the last time they'd met. The one who had captured Gaara, and led Naruto and him on a goose chase. And the one who, last he saw, had blown himself to oblivion. And he wore the exact same black, red-cloud patterned cloak that he had on that day.
"I trust that you've been well, hm?" Deidara's voice was only made more maddening by the pain Kakashi felt.
He took an unconscious step back. "You're here for Naruto."
"You sure don't miss much, do you?"
Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "And it was you who attacked this village."
"You're just full of insight today. Maybe you'll keep up that streak and hand over the jinchuuriki without a scuffle, hm?"
This situation seemed oddly similar, as Kakashi's mind flashed back to his conversation with Sasuke, only minutes ago. "You really think I'm that foolish?"
"Didn't you hear me? I said it would be smarter."
Kakashi's hand reached for his knife pouch. He'd need to get in close to fight this one; Deidara's explosives were no good if he was within their blast radius. "Your arms seem to have healed remarkably well," he jabbed.
He'd spotted Kakashi's move, and Deidara's own toothy hands reached for his clay pouches. An obscene grin stretched across his mouth. "Ahh yes. Speaking of those, by the way, my associate who reattached them was rather grouchy about it. I have a feeling he might like a word."
"I would." came the voice from behind him.
There was no time to dodge, only attack. Kakashi charged his hand with lightning and struck over his left shoulder, only just grazing the ear of the enemy who stood behind him. He tried to bring his hand back for another pass, but his foe's jet black fingers snatched his forearm and squeezed. The pain started immediately, and Kakashi started counting the seconds until his bone snapped under the incredible pressure this man was exerting.
So, he dropped. Throwing his weight down and his legs out from under him, Kakashi let himself fall, granting his leg leverage to kick the enemy's gut. It wasn't enough to dislodge him, but it was enough to permit Kakashi enough leeway to rip his right arm back, and dance away.
He took a good look at the second target: tall, Akatsuki-robed, wearing some sort of facemask that only left his terrible green eyes visible and marked with a slashed headband of the village Hidden in the Waterfalls. He'd never seen this one before. The Akatsuki were sending two after Naruto, he should have seen this coming.
"I've heard tell of you, copy ninja." the newcomer said, his voice having enough bass in it to make concrete shudder.
"Should I be honored?" Kakashi pulled two kunai from his belt. Still, target Deidara first.
"If you like. Though I'm not quite as… infamous as you."
"And who are you?" his sharingan was trained on the man, but detected nothing. He was being sincere.
"Does it really matter?" One of them was probably going to die here, but Kakashi wanted all the intel he could get, just in case he survived this.
He sighed; sadly, that wasn't going to happen. He needed to get Naruto out. "No, I suppose not."
Almost before the last word was out of his mouth, the enemy rushed at him faster and more controlled than any beast, but he may as well have had the muscles of one. What had hit him before was this man, not one of Deidara's bombs, and getting hit again would mean his death. He dodged the first strike and the followup to his gut with relative simplicity, but every time Kakashi even tried to move his body his chest screamed in pain. Chances are he was bleeding internally alongside those broken ribs; he wouldn't last long at this rate.
Still though, he kept dodging the black fists the waterfall Akatsuki threw at him, because there was no other option. Push away the hook, hopstep back from the uppercut, catch the center hit and throw it right… it went on. He needed to counterattack.
Kakashi yelled, blocking out the pain long enough to push off the ground and jump into the air. "Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" he breathed out the flames, long past caring if he contributed to the inferno around him. The attack enveloped his attacker for a moment, but it wasn't long enough.
When the roar came, it was loud. Really loud. "WATER STYLE" his bass voice came from behind the flames "BREAKER TIDE!"
Blue exploded across his vision, and his fireball attack disappeared beneath the torrent of water that erupted from behind. He was low on energy while the enemy was likely close to full, but this was beyond even what he'd thought possible. The sheer force of the wave he'd summoned not only consumed the fireball, but threatened to get him as well if he hadn't disengaged backwards into one of the flaming buildings, which thankfully the torrent of water extinguished as he entered.
That didn't last long. Kakashi saw Deidara take flight even from his limited vantage position, and while he moved to get out of the confined space, it was impossible given his body's limitations. The newcomer blocked the exit, and the tiny white birds came in fast.
He took the worst of it. Three of the little things caught Kakashi's already weak left side, and the other struck him at a mere meter away from point-blank range. His flak jacket barely did anything to mitigate the damage, and he went down hard, buried under what was once a china cabinet.
His vision had all but disappeared, even from the Sharingan. Every bone in his body had now seemed to join the camp of his ribs, and screamed at him to stop moving and rest. Even his mind was started to slow down in anticipation of either sleep or death.
He would give it neither.
There were no other options, Kakashi decided. A few more seconds for the waterfall Akatsuki to find him and he'd be dead with his head removed as a trophy. His hands pushed together to form the ram seal and concentrate his chakra, struggling to keep a clear thought process when he could hear his enemy digging away the debris trying to find his body. They wouldn't find anything.
Kakashi's sharingan spun while his right eye closed, and the tomoe grew, then changed shape, occupying the entire iris now. He felt a renewed vigor coursing through him and he even managed to get some of his perception abilities back, the Mangekyo almost even managing to make him feel secure. But there was no time for that. Right now, getting Naruto and Sakura out was priority one.
He was willing to die for that.
Sakura disengaged her opponent the moment she saw the Akatsuki's arrival. They'd come out of nowhere; appearing from the trees in flashes of black and red and setting upon both groups of shinobi. Kakashi had disappeared, occupied with the one she remembered as Deidara.
She had it even worse.
"I've been itching for this day for months, little girl." Sasori's gravelly voice behind the Hiruko puppet belied that eagerness, it would seem. "I don't like to leave things unfinished."
The two stood apart, down on one of the burning side streets that she'd leaped onto after losing her first enemy. He'd gone down fast, checked by Sasori's tail almost out of thin air and tossed over onto the next road, far out of sight, and she'd seen no sign of him since.
She couldn't think of anything witty enough to snap back, so she drew a kunai instead. Sasori didn't move a centimeter. "If you fight, you'll only die slower."
"I've held my own against you before." she spat. His response was obvious, but she needed to delay him. Keep him talking and away from Naruto long enough for him to get out of here.
"Last time you had that old bat telling you all my secrets and controlling your moves." he shifted slightly. "You don't have that help now, and even if you did, you still couldn't kill me."
"Lady Chiyo believed I could, and last I recall…" Sakura flashed her knife in the firelight. "I managed to make you sweat a little."
"You annoyed me. If that's impressive to you, then keep it in mind. Have something to cling to when you're left poisoned, gasping for air on the ground."
"I thought you didn't like to be kept waiting, old man." she quipped, readjusting her feet. "So, the first move is yours."
Hard, wooden eyes remained stock steady on her; it made Sakura more than a little uneasy. "Don't underestimate me or my art, little girl."
He lived up to his reputation, Hiruko moving fast with its tail. Sakura stomped hard on the wood beneath her, bringing up a crossbeam like a lever to block his assault and then sprinting left. She jumped high, coming in with a left hook, but he was faster. Sasori's tail smacked her hard in the gut, fortunately with one of the parts that wasn't poisoned, and she barely stuck the landing, moving into another leap back. He didn't give her time to recover, raising his left arm. The hand flipped back, smoke bombs fired from the tube within that flew right at her.
She was trapped in midair, unable to avoid or do anything. There was no choice but to take the bomb hit, taking a deep breath only moments before. The bombs exploded in a violet gas whose consistency wasn't in doubt for Sakura; she'd seen it from him before. Fortunately, gravity was on her side and she dropped onto the ground out of the cloud, only for Sasori to renew his attack. His barbed tail came in from the right, but she dodged, hopping back to press her back to one of the burning houses. Sakura reached into the flames, sending her chakra to her biceps, and yanked, ripping half the wall off while it was still ablaze.
She threw it at Sasori, and while his tail blocked it, she managed to use the distraction to get back up to the roof and rain blows aimed at him. But the infernal tail had already moved to his defense, pushing aside every punch and kick she tried to rain at the puppet's head. From out of nowhere that left arm came up again, forcing Sakura into a backflip to avoid the poisoned smoke bomb, and waiting for Sasori's next attack while it cleared.
She stood alone on the rooftop, surrounding by fire. Bad ground, no reinforcements, and already weakened by her earlier struggle with the orange-haired man. Sasori was at full strength and both of them knew he outmatched her in enough aspects to win. There was no way to win in her current situation.
So Sakura decided to cheat.
The needle attack that came from his mouth was almost faster than she could dodge. He didn't even bother removing his mask to spoil the element of surprise, merely shooting needles right through it at a velocity that would have left her skewered like a hedgehog had she not seen it coming Sakura leaped high over the poisoned senbon, putting her in perfect range of the tail, which was already rushing up at her. Her hands pushed into the ram seal, and she felt her chakra surge.
Sasori had aimed for her midsection, not her arms. Tucking into a roll and minimizing the target, Sakura's left arm stretched out and grabbed the tail, just as its poisoned tip missed her and hit nothing but air. She swung around, but remained in control, and by some miracle, managed to get her feet right on the bottom angled at rooftop where Sasori stood. Her chakra flowed faster than any river, and she pushed off the tail, shooting right down towards the puppet master.
Sasori's tail couldn't keep up, and Sakura was already drawing back her first; a single good hit was all she would need to crack that Hiruko puppet again. With no defense, Sasori did the only thing he could do; he leaped backwards and out of her way. Just what she wanted.
Sakura broke through the weakened tile roof without a problem, and landed with her knees bent on the ground. She didn't wait for a second, using the recoil from the touchdown to leap towards Sasori, crashing straight through the bottom of the roof again with her fist and hitting him dead-on centre in Hiruko's stomach.
She'd fumbled the release of her chakra into the punch, but the effect was impressive enough. Sasori was sent flying off the roof, striking one of the burning trees and crashing into the ground, the sound of even more wood snapping. She hadn't managed to shatter Hiruko, but it was certainly disabled.
Sakura didn't give her heart a chance to slow down, flipping backwards and landing in the middle of the street. Where the hell was Kakashi-sensei? The single Akatsuki she'd spotted that he'd been fighting had disappeared as well without a trace; did he take him with-
No. Can't think like that, she told herself. She needed to get to Naruto, get him away from the Akatsuki and away from Sasuke. Sasori wouldn't be down for long, and there was no telling when Deidara would return. Sakura forced herself to run down the street, sweating like she'd never sweat before, and jumped high. It wasn't hard to locate the blast location that Naruto and Sasuke had fought at; it was now a circle-shaped crater a good few meters deep.
She made for it, readying what chakra she had left.
The explosion from the clash had all but turned Naruto's mind inside out. A blinding light, followed by black, then more light, then more black. Back and forth he drifted, barely conscious, and anything else but getting back on his feet the last thought from his mind. He managed it after a moment, but barely, only finding himself able to grab a section of fallen furniture and yank his broken body up. The heat from in here was incredible: it was nothing short of a crushing, agonizing war-
Agonizing?
It was then that Naruto noticed that his left forearm was on fire.
He dropped back to the ground, shrieking in pain and smashing his arm into the wooden floors, each smack bringing a new spike of excruciating agony. He'd never felt anything so utterly painful as his own body being burned alive.
The fire sputtered out after a few eternal seconds, and he pulled himself to his knees, inspecting the damage. It was bad; the lower half of his entire left arm, as well as most of his hand and palm, had made the transition from relatively pale tan to splotchy, angry red. His skin felt hard, like the crust of some sulfur-smelling food, and quenching the flames had done little to mitigate the searing pain spiking down his entire left side.
He swore under his breath with no small degree of difficulty, and once again managed to pull to his feet, adrenaline now roaring even faster through his near-broken form than it was before, and giving him enough energy to do it. Naruto walked towards the falling wall nearest to him and shrieked again as he lashed out with a front kick, knocking the entire thing down and permitting him leave.
He stumbled into the street, only just stopping himself from tumbling over again. Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei… they were all nowhere in sight. He looked to be alone until Sasuke appeared at the end of the street, walking on two legs with barely a limp. Naruto gritted his teeth; how had he come out of this without so much as a scratch? It wasn't, strictly speaking, true; Sasuke's left leg was in something of a gimp and even from his distance, Naruto could spot the cradling of his right arm. A lot of people might describe it as impact damage, but Naruto knew better, and he grinned. The Rasengan had broken through, even if only a little.
All the same, Sasuke was in better shape than he was, and as long as Kakashi-sensei and Sakura were busy with his two friends, he was without any backup. This was turning sour fast. "I'm…" Naruto tried to get it out in one clear sentence, but the pain and exhaustion was just too much. "I'm... not out… yet..."
Sasuke coughed, a trickle of blood running down his face from a visible cut across his left cheek. "You're as clueless as ever."
Naruto clenched his teeth together so hard he heard them creak, grinning a madman's grin. "I'm still not-" he coughed, squeezing his damaged arm even harder. "I'm still not giving up on you."
The Uchiha tried to stand up straight, but even Naruto could see that it took some effort. He was getting somewhere, at least. "Alright… then I guess I'll just have to bring your broken, bleeding body instead of your conscious one instead."
"Allow us, Sasuke."
Naruto hadn't heard that voice for such a long time, he almost didn't recognize it. It even took a second before he turned to his left to see the two robed men walking out of the forest. The right one he didn't know; silver-haired, carrying a crimson scythe-like weapon with three blades, and wearing a headband around his neck with the emblem of a village he didn't know. It was the left one that stood out. He was colossal, standing almost two metres high, with the hilt of a massive sword hiding out from behind that all-too-familiar red-cloud patterned black robe, and wearing a face that looked like he'd been born from a shark.
"You!" Sasuke spat, his hand readying on his own sword. "What are you doing here?!"
"We heard about that little deal you were proposing." the unfamiliar one said, arrogance aplenty in his tone. "Figured that we'd save you the trouble and just pick up the jinchuuriki ourselves."
Naruto stepped back, his pupils shrinking and chest contracting. Sasuke had set him up: leading him here and then giving him to the Akatsuki personally. He'd betrayed him. The village was one thing. Naruto's connection to the Leaf was personal, and he'd die before he'd turn traitor to his home, a bond that Sasuke had had no problem severing. But this level of personal treachery…
"Those who break the rules are scum, that's true. But those who abandon their friends are worse than scum."
Their first day of training together. Sasuke holding out his food and telling him to keep up his strength. The feeling of joy in his heart when Kakashi had told them they passed. All of that ran through his mind, and melted in an instant.
"You sold me out." Naruto growled too quiet for Sasuke to hear, feeling a familiar heat that wasn't from the flames around them.
"How did you know I would be here?" Sasuke's sword was in his hand, but the two Akatsuki hadn't done so much as draw their respective weapons, or even take a defensive stance. And they didn't need to.
"No need to concern yourself with that now." the shark-faced one grinned again, and took a step towards Naruto. He tried to move, he really did, but every step brought a fresh spike of pain and he barely managed a single step.
"Sasuke…" he hissed, this time louder. "You sold me out…"
The Uchiha turned his head to look at Naruto as if trying to hear him, but the newcomer approached, drawing that strange, three-bladed weapon of his and blocking Sasuke's way. He shot the Akatsuki a look that could make grass wither, but it only made the man grin wider.
"You!" Sasuke shouted at the shark-faced man, giving him pause to turn around. "You're the one who was with Itachi in that village…"
The man just looked him up and down before letting out a sound that Naruto couldn't hear over the roar of the fires. It took him a second to realize it was a scoff. "You've gotten taller."
Sasuke's complexion finally broke, and his mouth turned into a snarl, brows forming a V-shape. "I'm only going to ask this once before I take your head off: Where is Itachi Uchiha?"
The Akatsuki laughed, a genuine laugh. "Even if I wanted to tell you, it wouldn't do much good."
"Oh yeah," the scythe-wielder spoke now, turning the weapon he held to face Sasuke. "Kisame here forgot to mention that you're coming with us too."
Sasuke's expression shifted from rage to… well, more rage, but there was something else in there as well. Naruto almost couldn't make it out from his position, but he knew it well enough; he'd seen it before when Sasuke had been defeated so easily by his brother the last time they'd met. It was genuine fear.
He didn't let that give him pause. Sasuke's sword exploded into blue light, sliding up between the scythe blades and knocking it away in one swift move before returning it back, and cutting his enemy deep across the chest with a single slash. Crimson erupted from the gash in his cloak, and the man roared in pain, staggering back. Sasuke pointed his blade at Kisame, Sharingan burning. "You want me? Come and get me."
Kisame was smiling, and his eyes glanced left, as did Sasuke's a second later, and widened. He wasn't fast enough to avoid the brutal hook kick that the renewed Akatsuki he'd felled threw his way, and got struck right across the face, nearly knocking him out with one blow. The red scythe descended, aimed at his head, but Sasuke spotted it coming just in time and rolled away, bringing up his sword and removing his hand from his nose to reveal a fresh stream of blood pouring from it.
Sasuke was processing how he could have survived that when the man raised the red-stained weapon again, snarling. "You Uchihas. Too fucking smug for your own good. God, I could relish-"
"Shut up, Hidan." Another voice breached the area, and Naruto stared to see another new face enter the fray, this one tall, stoic and wearing a mask around his face that covered all but a pair of fel green eyes. A headband with a strike through it marked him as a rogue Waterfall shinobi. Naruto felt his breathing quicken. "We aren't here for you to play games."
The one called Kisame frowned, now looking at the newcomer. Naruto moved an inch backwards, away from him, his mind already working. "Where's Kakashi?"
"Gone. Disappeared from underneath a pile of rubble." the stranger's gruff tone made it difficult to tell if he was angry or just speaking normally. Probably both.
"Doesn't matter. We're behind schedule; let's keep this moving." While he was talking, Naruto took the opportunity, using his one good arm to push himself into a back roll and get to his feet. Kisame turned to face him, but he'd already leaped into the air for the treeline.
When the attack came, it was without any sort of warning. Naruto felt the air on his skin as he moved, and then suddenly a wave of pure force and heat hit him dead on centre. He felt the wind knocked from his lungs in an instant, and then gravity take hold of him and send him crashing into the ground, fortunately managing to land on his right arm. All the same, Naruto felt his chest screaming in pain from what had struck him, and moving at all now felt like a herculean task.
"That'll be the end of that, Nine-Tails." Naruto's eyes opened at that voice, and his teeth clenched while he struggled to turn his head up to see his attacker. He flew in the sky, atop a strange, white bird, just like he had the last time he'd seen him. He tried to recall his face, needing something to loathe, but he couldn't see him from this angle.
Instead, Gaara's face came to the front of his mind. His peaceful, dead face with not a gram of life left throbbing in his bones, and standing over the man he called friend with tears in his eyes. The image made his heart scream and roar in agony, and Naruto felt those same feelings rise up again; pure, unbridled hate. "You…" he tried to scream the words, but they came out as nothing more than a croak.
He heard the sandaled footsteps approaching again, and the white wrappings of Kisame's sword entered his vision, only a metre from his face. "I seem to remember promising to hack off those arms of yours, kid." he couldn't see anything but the shark-faced man's feet, and then the white of his blade left Naruto's vision, rising out of sight. "So, let's see if-
"RRRAGGH!"
Kisame flew out of his vision, the shockwave from his exit making Naruto's hair rustle, followed by the sound of a brutal crash through a wall. A pair of black, low-heeled boots stopped, right in front of him, facing away. Naruto looked up.
"Back off." Sakura held kunai in both hands, emerald eyes shining brighter than Naruto had ever seen from her. While facing down four Akatsuki.
The smash of wood and debris flying from the left marked Kisame's return, his left sleeve now scorched and the clouds on it having blackened. "And who is this?" there was a twinge of annoyance in his voice.
Deidara answered. "This is the little kunoichi who fought Sasori. Back in the Rivers."
Kisame grinned, raising his sword over his shoulder and releasing a cold chuckle from between his teeth. "This one? I heard she gave him quite the thrashing; that must be awfully embarrassing…"
Sakura stood her ground, turning her head so one eye looked at Naruto. "Sakura, I-"
"Save your air, Naruto." She interrupted, a calm returning to those orbs. "You're hurt enough as it is."
He didn't listen, moving his arms up and pushing on his palms, rising to his knees and panting louder than any dog. Everything still screamed with pain, but he managed, somehow. Sakura lowered her right hand, and he took the hint, grabbing it hard just as the palm started to glow, a green as bright as her eyes. Relief flooded through him.
The scythe-wielder, still blocking Sasuke, inclined his head towards her. "Alright, let's get on with this. We don't need the girl, so I want her for my ritual."
"We can discuss that later." Kisame lowered his blade from his shoulders, gripping it with both hands now. "I'm interested to see the Nine-Tails in action."
He wasted no more time, charging with a roar. Sakura shifted her weight to her back foot, letting Naruto's hand go, and pivoted just as Samehada came down. It hit nothing but air, but the same couldn't be said for Sakura's vicious roundhouse kick, using the momentum from her spin to give it even more power, and strike Kisame right across the face. She gave him no reprieve, following up with a punch to the gut, but he recovered even faster, and brought up his sword to block.
At the same time, the one guarding Sasuke smiled and swung his scythe at the Uchiha with intent to kill. Sasuke wasn't there, leaping three meters back and bringing his hands up to form the tiger seal. "Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" he exhaled the flames and the man with the scythe disappeared in a scream as Sasuke landed, sword out.
Beneath that fireball, the rest of the battle disappeared. Naruto's vision now perceived more fire than it did anything else, and the heat was starting to close in on him. Sakura had vanished into the flames, locked in combat with Kisame, leaving Naruto at the mercy of Deidara and the new Waterfall one: she was expecting he would run, rightly so. Sakura's healing jutsu had done its part, but he was still in pain all over his body, and Naruto was pretty sure that two fingers on his left hand were broken. He couldn't form hand signs like this, and the two Akatsuki knew it.
The Waterfall one approached, rushing towards his kneeling form and raising a fist that seemed to turn black as night as it grew closer and closer. There was nothing he could do: his enemy was moving too fast to dodge or block, and he couldn't even use a substitution. Naruto closed his eyes.
"Don't think I'll let you die that easily, young one."
He felt his chakra not just surge, but roar. Blues turned to reds both inside and outside his body, from his veins to his irises, and Naruto felt the unmistakable pain of his fingernails growing to a point, his vision suddenly returning to normal and the blood haze he'd felt vanishing. Even his arm stopped pulsating, reducing itself to only a dull ache. It was like pulling himself from underneath a lake of tar and breathing fresh, cool air for the first time in days.
When that blackened fist came down, Naruto was not in its path, instead a metre to the right, and then his fist was flying in hard, catching the attacker straight in the chest. Despite the force behind the strike, he merely staggered back a few steps, but that was all that Naruto needed for an opening, lashing out with a brutal uppercut that tossed his enemy into the veil of flames.
It wasn't over yet. Naruto's ear twitched, and he leaped into the sky, just in time to avoid the explosion that would have consumed him otherwise. "Shadow clone jutsu!" he cried, grabbing the new clone and pushing off it back towards the ground right before another blast eliminated it. He felt his feet touch the ground and Naruto sprinted forward, leaping up onto the flaming roofs and hopping between them, never staying on one longer than it took his airborne enemy to target him. He picked up speed, and then went even faster; so fast that even the tiles beneath his feet turned into an incomprehensible blur.
"You can't run from these!" Deidara's rage manifested into a hardy grin, and two more tiny, black-eyed birds zipped from his palms after Naruto. He heard them coming long before he looked back and saw them, but not before he saw the chimney in front of him. Perfect.
Naruto ducked his head before moving into a forward jump, but one that only took him about two feet above the roof. He turned that jump into a flying kick, perfectly touching both his soles against the side of the chimney at the same time, and using the force he'd generated to push off. But a mere push it was not: Naruto flew through the air, soaring ten metres up.
Which, as it happened, was just the height that Deidara's bird had been cruising at.
His hand grabbed at his tool pouch, and withdrew a single kunai that flashed with white. With one shot, he threw it at Deidara as the two passed through the air, and it took the Akatsuki only a second to realize what he'd done.
The kunai wasn't blinking white because it was reflecting the flames: it was white because there was a paper bomb wrapped around the hilt.
A paper bomb that just so happened to stick right in his bird's throat.
Naruto didn't see the blast, or even hear it due to the wind rushing in his ears, but he certainly felt it. The wave of pure force that came from it struck him midair, sending him tumbling easier than a leaf in a windstorm, and he barely managed to stick the landing, sliding to a stop on the ground in a kneeling pose. His heart soared; he wasn't out of this fight yet.
His crimson, slitted eyes narrowed again, and he raced back into the flames. Sakura, hold in there, he thought.
Sakura couldn't keep this up. Kisame's skill with the strange sword he wielded was beyond exceptional; it was astounding. He threw the weapon around like it was no heavier than a twig, and no matter where she struck, the white colours of its bandages appeared in her way and blocked it. And with each hit, she got more and more tired and irritated from the inferno surrounding her. She was losing.
Her latest hit aimed at his head was deflected, and in a single move, he took the upper hand. The blade was descending fast, and Sakura skipped left, barely avoiding it and then hopping back to avoid the recovery slash. She could feel this man's violent chakra in the air, and that was all the indication she needed to stay away from his weapon; he was using that chakra to sharpen its edge and make it deadly.
Sakura disengaged, leaping back before skidding to a stop and panting hard. Kisame merely walked towards her slowly, and she removed three shuriken from her toolbelt, readying them in her left hand. This exhaustion, this inexorable feeling of weakness each time she tried to hit him… something was very wrong here, maybe some jutsu or ability that he was using to suppress her abilities.
"Oh come on girl, I was having fun." he laughed, and swung the sword around to rest its tip on the ground. "Unleash it all: show me what you can do!"
Sakura didn't respond with words, but instead with the shuriken in her hand. He blocked easily, and she flanked left, hoping for a blindside attack. He didn't give it to her, shifting his stance so she missed her target and then attempting to get under her guard. Sakura pushed her advance, but he pushed harder, and swung the sword in an attempt to bisect her, which she just barely danced around. In a single move, Sakura found her offensive attack to be wasted, and turning back onto the retreat. Kisame rained blows with his sword, moving as fast as if the weapon were a small knife, and each time she merely scraped by his swipes and cuts.
It didn't last. Sakura dodged an overhead attack that she thought would leave him open for a counter, but instead he pushed the hilt of his lowered sword up and caught her right in the face, blinding her enough for him to unleash a side kick that sent her flying and crashing into the ground, face full of warm soil and blood.
And then, a hand was on her back, and her stomach. "Sakura, GET UP!"
She was still disoriented, but tried to formulate some form of speech. "Nar-uto…" she coughed into her palm and found it stained with crimson.
"Are you hurt?"
She forced her eyes to keep still and clenched them shut, regaining her focus and clearing her head. "Ugh, I'll be fine. Where's Kakashi-sensei?" Come to think of it, where had Kisame disappeared to as well? She didn't ask that; don't question a good thing.
His face entered her field of vision, arm around her waist. "I don't know, but let's find him, grab Sasuke and split!"
She wanted to slap him. "No time for Sasuke! Come on!" she felt like she'd been run over, but Sakura pushed his arm off, standing up straight and feeling her sight fully return.
"We can't leave him to the Akatsuki!"
"We can't leave you either!" she shot back, an explosion in the distance making her look around for enemies.
"I'm not-" he started.
"Just shut up and follow me!" she roared, and sprinted towards the forest, away from the fire. Kakashi must have fallen back to the tree line with a substitution; if they could-
Her thoughts were cut short by a flash of red-black appearing in front of her, and then a foot was driving into her gut with the force of a boulder thrown at her, and Sakura flew back, feeling her back crash into Naruto again. She couldn't see what was going on, but he could.
"This is over, Nine-Tails." the Waterfall Akatsuki had returned, and he looked even angrier than before.
He couldn't speak before another voice cut him off. "You're surrounded, kid." it came from one of the rooftops, and Naruto looked to see the one called Hidan, his robe torn and burned, but still very much alive. He stood next to open flames, but didn't even seem to be sweating from the heat or even bothered by his wounds. But what caught his eye was the sight of a black-haired body, grabbed by its collar, in his left hand. Sasuke.
He found his enemy's words to be confirmed a moment later, when a familiar white bird swooped into his field of vision, a blonde-headed ninja seated atop. And if the situation couldn't get worse, the three were joined by another cloak, this one hunched over and looking more like a crippled monstrosity than a human being: he was Deidara's partner, the one Sakura had fought with Chiyo back in the land of Rivers. Naruto felt himself take a step back, cradling his unconscious teammate.
Four against two, and Sakura was in no shape to fight. This was it, wasn't it?
"Listen to the big guy, jinchuuriki." Deidara rose to a stand aboard his flying mount. "You'll suffer a lot less if you just throw in the towel."
He said nothing. "I've had enough of this." the Waterfall one spoke, and walked towards Naruto, who took another step back.
And then both of them stopped, fixated on one another through eyes alone. Or so it would have appeared, if not for the air between them shifting and warping in which only the word "ripped" seemed appropriate. It was as if a riptide had formed in the oxygen itself, and swirled like a whirlpool in a storm, with only a single black core in the centre. Until that black core was broken up by a grey, and then a green, and then a black.
Kakashi emerged from the hole, hands by his sides and holding a knife. He was limping, and blood poured from a wound in his right shoulder, but Naruto had never been so glad to see anyone in his life.
"None of you," he spoke in a tone that Naruto had never heard before. It reminded him… someone he couldn't place. "and I mean NONE of you, will be laying a hand on my students."
Hidan coughed. "You're not in much of a bargaining position, copy ninja."
He raised the knife, blade flashing in the firelight. "Who's bargaining?" he threw the knife, but not at Hidan. His arm snapped straight, and the blade shot out towards the Waterfall one, who raised his hand instants before it struck him. He vanished in an explosion as Kakashi triggered the paper bomb, and the copy ninja bounded backwards, towards Naruto.
Kakashi didn't see the incoming bird, but Naruto did, and jumped backwards, Sakura in his arms, an instant before it struck him. Another explosion added to the further destroyed town, and Naruto lost sight of his sensei for an instant as he disappeared behind the blast. He reappeared a second later, but so did the Waterfall ninja, grabbing his shoulder and throwing a right hook that would have separated Kakashi's head from his shoulders had he not ducked.
Naruto's feet touched the ground, but even as he did, the familiar cloaks of his enemy emerged from the clouds of smoke, even that hunched over one. "Sakura…" he hissed through clenched, pointed teeth. "I could really use your help now…"
She responded with something he couldn't make out, but shifted in his arms and managed to get to her feet in quick order, though a hand hovered over her gut. The two stood beside each other staring their deaths right in the face. "What's the plan?" she asked, twitching her neck.
"Kakashi-sensei." Naruto nodded at their teacher, engaged in battle with the Waterfall one. "That jutsu he used to show up; it'll get us out of here."
She nodded, emerald eyes glancing around. "Flank left and keep moving. I'll take the right and provide the biggest target."
"I'm the stronger, I should-"
"No. You're too important, Naruto." she glanced at him, the reflections of the surrounding flames burning in her orbs. "We can't let them win."
He started to protest, but shut his mouth, giving a sullen nod. The truth was depressing, but it was the truth all the same. "Please, Naruto. Listen to me." she pushed further; she knew he wouldn't obey her.
He nodded once again, and Sakura turned back. Hidan and Sasori were on the ground, and Deidara approached from the air; of Kisame there was no sign. "Alright, on my lead." she lowered her body into a combat stance, and Naruto did the same, a growl erupting from his throat. The Akatsuki merely stood, waiting.
The two acted in sync, sprinting off in perfect tandem. Naruto lost sight of Sakura almost immediately, leaping into the air to avoid more of the damned birds that flew at him. He landed on a building, then leaped to a tree, then high into the air before touching another rooftop, never once halting his movement. Each explosive missed its mark, and each time he pushed off a surface, he felt a tingling and a wave of force from behind him as it disappeared in an explosion. Waves of force that were getting closer.
Kakashi saw him coming earlier than he'd thought, and the copy-ninja pulled out his last stop, sidestepping a heavy blow from his opponent and weaving hand signs so fast Naruto wasn't sure he could make them out even if he was standing right there.
"Wind style: Impregnable Gale!" Kakashi roared, and a sphere of pure oxygen formed around him, only to whoosh away and toss the Waterfall Akatsuki far out of combat range. He didn't waste a second, dashing away from the centre combat area and standing in the centre of the street. Naruto got the silent message; he needed to land right next to Kakashi at the exact same time as Sakura, and they'd all get away together.
And then, time itself seemed to slow down as Naruto took to the air one last time, the burned tree he'd landed on vanishing in another explosion from his pursuer, and aimed his landing for Kakashi's place on the ground. Mid-jump, his eyes glanced left, just in time to catch Sakura, who was making her own final leap, but as she did, something flashed at her hip. He thought it was a ninja tool at first, but the way she stumbled as she pushed off… something had struck her.
He could make it. Naruto's leap reached its full crest, and a ripple in the air from the ground told him Kakashi was ready, his jutsu now timed to his jump. But Sakura wasn't moving fast enough; that injury she'd caught had made her fumble the takeoff. Crimson eyes widened, and he knew what he should do. Keep moving, save himself; Sakura had told him, Kakashi-sensei had told him. Just keep going, and she'd understand.
Those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.
No.
"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" he roared, and Naruto grabbed to his right, grasping the duplicate's shoulders and flinging himself to a hard right. His hands outstretched, and Sakura's eyes widened in horror as he approached, crashing into her and stopping them both dead in the air.
But he was ready, a final surge of chakra to his muscles already flaring and allowing him to swing around his teammate, using a hard kick from both his legs to propel her towards Kakashi. It was barely enough, but it was enough, and he let a small smile cross his face as his sensei's jutsu came to full power, making that familiar ripple in the air. He heard his teacher scream his name, only to be cut off as he vanished into the portal, catching the falling Sakura an instant beforehand and the two swirling away like a leaf into a whirlpool.
A second later, there was nothing left. They were home free.
Naruto heard the attack coming before he saw it, and he didn't even try to dodge. There wasn't enough time anyway. The explosion struck him hard, pain not even registering as his brain began to fade away, too exhausted to even comprehend the agony. He felt the chakra of the Nine-Tails retreat back into nothingness, his eyes returning to their familiar ocean blue just in time to understand the ground coming up to him fast.
He was unconscious before he struck the earth.
Samehada crashed against the Executioner's Blade again to block the overhead slash, and Kisame felt his patience begin to wear thin. Fighting Mangetsu's brat of a brother had intrigued him at first, even excited him; crushing his spiffy little demeanor would prove to be a relishing feeling, he'd thought. Now, it was becoming annoying. Interrupting a battle he was already engaged in was one thing, but the incessant mocking… it tried even he.
Suigetsu slid his weapon off Samehada, trying to bring it around for another attack, but Kisame was faster, using the opening to lash out with a ferocious push kick that tossed the blue-haired ma-boy, he mentally corrected himself, backwards and to his knees, the huge weapon barely remaining in his hand.
He approached, forcing a smile. "Points for effort."
The kid wiped his mouth. "Don't condescend towards me; we both know you're getting tired."
He would have laughed out loud if he had the mental energy to do so. Did the squirt really think something as casual as this little duel was taxing him? "Doesn't look like I'll be giving you an extra score on that mouth, though." he grumbled, swinging Shark Skin down at Suigetsu's torso.
As expected, he hit nothing but a puddle of water on the ground. No sooner than had his stroke completed did the puddle move away from the wrapped sword, reforming into his enemy a few moments later further away. He'd even managed to liquify the Executioner's Blade. Not bad, but Mangetsu had been even better. This kid was living in his brother's shadow.
Suigetsu renewed the attack, and Kisame blocked with no effort, pirouetting on his back heel and swinging Samehada around, only to meet a similar parry. The two continued, feeling one another up in the most brutal sense, each counter met with a recovery, and each thrust met with a sideswipe. Kisame's eyes narrowed for a half-second as another stroke of his was dodged by his opponent liquefying his left arm, removing his target and swinging his sword with one hand until the other one reformed an instant later. He forced his anger into a wicked grin and hopped back from Suigetsu's one-handed swing, using his advantage to get back in and renew the attack before he'd fully reformed.
Of course, there it was. The Hozuki's weakness at work.
Kisame hopped back from the slash and hammered his advantage, making a show of throwing Samehada around in ways that wouldn't befit his style. Suigetsu's acknowledgement showed in his actions, as he barely moved the Executioner's blade but managed to parry every single strike, each time getting a little more smug.
And then, there it was. Kisame recovered his guard in a single move, bringing up an overhead two-handed slash immediately after, and Suigetsu flashed his teeth; even a basic swordplay student could exploit this. He kicked the shark-faced man in the gut and swung his own weapon at his midsection, intending to bisect him. Kisame blocked, but barely, gritting his teeth for show and turning his smile into a frustrated grin. Alright, now for the tricky part.
Suigetsu took the upper hand, the Executioner's blade crashing over and over against Shark Skin and each time, Kisame's energy started to wane, and the blocks would come a little slower. And each time, the blue-haired kid's smile got larger. Almost there now…
The moment came. Suigetsu withdrew the sword from a downward slash and spun on his heel, coming around with his momentum at high speed and intending to open Kisame from left shoulder to right hip. The grin of a shark flashed in the firelight, and he put all his speed into the intercept, cleanly deflecting the blow off of Samehada's flat edge, and then pulling the exact same move, turning his momentum into a fast spin that brought in the sword from Suigetsu's left, right above the Executioner's blade and aimed right at his torso. With no time to act, he did the only thing he could; he liquidized.
Kisame grinned. Got him.
He'd been holding back Samehada's ability to devour chakra until now. Even though his opponent knew full well of the blade's abilities, he figured that if the boy didn't see it in action, he'd soon lose caution in the adrenaline of the fight. And he was correct. Suigetsu had underestimated Kisame's speed and overestimated his own, and with that, Kisame removed his leash on the blade's desire.
Shark Skin connected faster than Suigetsu had guessed; fast enough that he wasn't fully dissolved yet. But it began its work even before that, drinking in his chakra at close range with a feeling only Kisame knew was glee, but it got even more excited now. The blue-haired ninja widened his eyes with horror before they turned into pure water, the chakra running through his body changing it at the molecular level. The same chakra that Samehada was now sucking up like a sponge.
It was far too late to act before his body poured out what was left of its energy to the hungry sword, leaving him with absolutely nothing. His kekkai genkai still in effect, but with no chakra, it might as well have been an overelaborate magic trick. Kisame's swing of the blade passed through the partially liquid form, bisecting it an instant before the entire frame of Suigetsu's body dissolved into a simple puddle on the ground. He hadn't even had time to scream.
The clacking of Samehada's scales was all Kisame needed to hear, letting a genuine smile cross his face as he returned the sword to its position on its back. He gave the puddle that had once been his comrades' brother a last look, something that may have once resembled pity in his heart. The little brother always tries to live up to his elder in this world, it would seem; but apparently achieving that goal was something that not all had the chops to accomplish.
Kisame bent down, picking up the dropped Executioner's blade with a single hand and giving it a brief swing. Still as elegant, deadly and balanced as the day he'd last seen it, in the hands of Zabuza back in the Mist; another legacy that the kid had being so desperately trying to live up to. He blinked at the sword before reaching up, strapping it to his back alongside Shark Skin; it would be such a pity to leave it here.
Kisame turned his head west, towards the still-burning part of the village. Nothing came from it; no sound of explosions, no indication of combat, not even the smell of blood on the air. They must have finished. Giving Samehada a reassuring adjustment on his back, Kisame began the walk towards the flames, a little faster than he would prefer. No sense in keeping anyone else waiting.
It didn't take him long to find the others. Kakuzu held Itachi's brother by the scruff of his collar, swung over his back like a sack of heavy potatoes, while the others merely stood around the fallen body of the Nine-Tails boy.
"Mind telling us what the fuck kept you?" Hidan was in a bit of a grouchy mood, but Kisame forced a grin.
"Ran into an old acquaintance of mine; I had to teach him some manners." he looked at the body. "I take it from that tone that you didn't complete your ritual then, hmm?"
Kakuzu cut off his partner. "The copy ninja returned and took the pink girl with him. Some sort of teleportation jutsu." Kisame detected something in the old man's voice; it sounded like normal anger, but he couldn't help but wonder if that was because he'd been made a fool of twice now.
"What about the other two then?" Hidan asked, giving his lips a quick once-over with his tongue. "The Uchiha's partners? Can't I at least have them?"
Sasori spoke Kisame's thoughts in his own gravelly tone. "We've kept him waiting too long already. The Leaf will have sent Anbu by now, and I don't want to waste more time with them."
Kisame nodded, grabbing the kid by the scruff of his neck and swinging him over his shoulder, the same way Kakuzu did. It was efficient, after all. "Let's move; we've got a ways to go." he blocked out Hidan's groan, turning his back.
He disappeared into the scorched trees of the forest, the back of his mind pondering what to do with Zabuza's sword. Keeping it wasn't a bad idea; it would make a nice trophy for a collection. Or maybe he'd even return it to the old bastard's grave after this was all done, where it belonged. Even a dead warrior has a right to his weapon.
Yes, that's what I'll do, he thought, and Kisame let a genuine smile back onto his face.
"NARUTO!" Kakashi roared, closing his eyes and trying to shut the portal, taking all his chakra out of the jutsu. But the fires vanished around them, the intense heat dissipating and being replaced by a neutral room temperature, and Kakashi roared again, squeezing his eyes shut. The portal vanished, its sound dissipating away and leaving nothing but Sakura and his breathing, faintly echoing forever in the dark place of the other world.
Sakura slid from her sensei's arms to her knees, only for a spike of pain to run up her left half. She reached down, grabbing the kunai that had struck her leg and yanking it out in a single move, grinding her teeth together hard. There was no barb, so the knife slide out easily, but the pain was still nearly unbearable. She threw the weapon away and flowed her chakra to her hand, relief washing into the leg
It was then she noticed where they were. The burning village had disappeared around them and been replaced with some strange world that exuded a profound sense of… otherness. Not quite wrongness, but it was mysterious even at best, composed of nothing but uneven cube platforms of varying height and size, floating in a vast expanse of a void. She couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness; if Kakashi-sensei wasn't here to bring her back… She shook it off, turning at the thought of his name.
Kakashi was on one knee, barely having moved. Both his sharingan and normal eye were wide open, quivering and staring at the spot the portal had disappeared from. Come to think of it, his entire body was shaking, from his mouth behind the mask to his palms pressed against the surface of their little cube.
She kept her left hand over her wound, turning to face him. "Kakashi-sensei, are you injured?"
That seemed to bring him back. He shook his head, once, but lowered it, squeezing his eyes shut. Even with his mask concealing half his face, she needed no experience with him to feel his pain. "Naruto…"
She slid closer to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "You couldn't do anything."
He brushed the hand off. "I should have. I could have stopped the portal, waited until he was closer. Maybe I can build up enough chakra to make another trip back-"
She put the hand back, this time on his knee. "No. You're exhausted as it is; another use of that jutsu will kill you."
"I have to try."
"No, you don't. You need to rest and dust-"
"I CAN'T leave Naruto back there!" he shouted, turning his head up and staring her dead in the face, the legendary red eye shaking. "If the Akatsuki-"
"We don't have a choice, sensei!"
"NO!" he roared, slamming his fist down. "NO! I can do this, I'm strong enough to get him back here before I collapse. Just give me a min-"
"KAKASHI!" she dropped her voice an octave and grabbed his face with both hands. "There is nothing you can do for Naruto right now."
For the first time, in a long time, he was lost for words. Kakashi tried to speak, to say that she underestimated his abilities, but every time he did, the words rang over and over in his skull like a torturous gong, and anything he could say would be reduced to blubbering. And he didn't blubber. The words bottled up inside to his shatterpoint, finally releasing from his eyes.
There was no sobbing; merely silent tears that dripped to the unnatural floor of this place. Sakura released his face, pulling the man she called sensei into a deep hug. He rested his head on her shoulder in silence, barely a sound emerging from his mouth even as he released everything he was feeling. It was a full five minutes before he spoke.
"I can't lose another, Sakura..." His voice was so quiet she almost didn't hear him.
She didn't answer, waiting.
"I can't lose another comrade…" his brow dug into her shoulder harder, wetting her tunic.
"You did everything you could, Kakashi." she whispered, stroking the broken man's hair.
She could tell he wanted to deny that, but for some reason, he didn't. The two simply sat as they were for the next few minutes, student comforting teacher in the most intimate way she could. Finally, he slid out from her embrace, wiping his eyes and still refusing to speak.
"Sensei, get some rest." Sakura grabbed the front and back of his flak jacket, unzipping it and sticking it behind him as a pillow. "You'll need to build up more chakra to get us out of here."
She laid Kakashi down, taking the liberty of covering up the legendary Sharingan in the process. He didn't protest, didn't even speak, but accepted his resignation at the hands of the girl he'd taught for the last four years. Sakura left a hand on his shoulder, turning away when she felt his fingers tickle her leg.
"Sakura: Thank you. For everything." was all he said before his right eye closed, and his breathing evened out. He was asleep less than thirty seconds later.
She sat down, staring around at this strange world he'd brought them to. She should have been thinking about the mission, or about Kakashi's health, or about the Akatsuki's endgame, or about how she could get Naruto back, but she wasn't, and deep down, she hated herself for it. Her mind was flashing back to the night in the Hidden Leaf, all those years ago:
"Don't leave me! If you go, I'll scream and-"
He disappeared from right in front of her without even moving, but she didn't need to guess where he'd gone. His breath was already on her ear, and she felt her heart pounding, making the tears on her cheeks shiver.
"Sakura. Thank you for everything."
Another second of calm, of peace, of just standing there with the boy she loved. And then, a thud, and it all went dark.
She curled her knees up to her chest, eyes fixed on Kakashi's slow movements of his chest while he rested. Inside, every part of her roared, screamed, furious at what she'd done. A stupid kid she may have been, but just letting him leave…
Sakura clenched her fist so hard she felt the leather of her gloves creak in protest. Her eyes, a swirling storm of emerald, shut hard and she bit her tongue, hard. This must be how Kakashi felt; knowing that you were there for someone, and lost them all the same. Always second guessing yourself and knowing that there must have been something, anything, that you could have done to save them. Even if it meant giving up your own life, at least you'd die with no regrets instead of living under them like a puppet under the shadow of its malevolent master. Cursed to live a life of hatred; was that the way of the shinobi?
She looked up into the empty void of the sky, feeling her eyes burn with tears. And then how he'd treated her when she had appeared with Naruto… he might not have said it, but those eyes weren't difficult to read. They were full of a hatred she'd never seen, even from him; a hatred that told her only that he wanted to level everything he saw in pursuit of something so petty as revenge. Itachi's crimes didn't matter: what he'd done was still revenge, not justice, and it was not forgivable.
Sakura lowered her hand back to her pulsating leg, and it took on the same green colour of her eyes once again. The pain receded, but Sakura kept staring into the darkness of this world, stirring in her inner and outer agony.
"No more regrets. No more crying." she was certain that this other place had no gods, but she spoke to them all the same. "Sasuke: I'm coming for you. I'll stop you. And I'll kill you."
Keryse Rock was, by no measure, a pleasant location. After the Third Great Ninja War, the hill had been the battleground site of the Leaf and Stone villages for one of the more significant capture positions. As it sat right on the border between the land of Fire and the land of Forests, whoever managed to snatch it first would gain an elevated vantage position that could see almost fifty kilometers in every direction. Not quite a game-changer, but it was important enough to fight for, and fight for they did. Brutally. After a one-night siege that resulted in the deaths of over two hundred shinobi from each side, the Third Hokage and the Third Tsuchikage recalled their troops and declared the zone a no-mans land, an action that neither had ever taken prior. Then again, there'd been no other places that had experienced such a scene chalked with death.
While the war may have ended less than two months after the battle, it didn't change the fact that that battle was a one that was fought tooth and nail. The fortress on top of the Rock (really more of a very steep hill laden with boulders) still stood, but the only ones who found defense in it now were sparrows and lizards. The entire stronghold had been burnt from the inside out, scorch marks and ash having left permanent etches on the walls that still stood and hadn't succumbed to the various elemental styles in one night or the various elements over many years. "Eerie" didn't do it justice: what walls had managed to stay up were random at best, and the old remains of everything from wooden supply shacks to sharpened log barricades were scattered about like toys in the playroom of an infant god of chaos.
Worst of all were the bodies. Sixteen years it may have been, but the corpses left in and around the fortress still lay, now little more than spectres of cracked skeletons with no flesh to speak of, laying about in shapes of eternal agony that may once have resembled humans. The crows had long ago picked them to nothing but bones, and now all just lay there, forgotten and abandoned by their villages. It was something out of a wraith's nightmares, and a marker of war that not even the bravest bandit or stupidest child dared approach.
It was for this reason that Pain now stood there, his holographic form floating like the spectre of this place in what had once been the centre courtyard. It was almost unnerving even to him, how the larger towers of this place had been incinerated by lightning and fire, leaving them little more than barely-standing hollow echoes of a once mighty fortress. He was surprised that they'd managed to stay up this long, but there they were, staying as they would as the tallest gravestones of the Rock.
Zetsu had already arrived by the time Pain's image flickered into being in what was once the centre of the courtyard, his oddity of a form perched atop one of the collapsed battlements.
He didn't bother looking at the spy, training his eyes on the main gate instead. "They're coming." came the uppity voice of Zetsu's left half.
"I know." He'd sensed them as soon as he appeared.
Thirty-two seconds later, their heads appeared over the hill. The five cloaked men walked into the courtyard like it was nothing more than a midnight stroll, Kakuzu and Kisame dropping the two bodies they carried several metres in front of Pain's image. The group formed into a circle, Zetsu vanishing into the structure he was perched on to reappear on the ground moments later. The leader looked up at Kisame with that ever-present neutral stare.
"You're early" Pain's hands clasped behind his back, the static of the hologram distorting his voice with electric tones.
"It was easier than we thought to get them in one place." Kisame gave a chuckle, and Pain noticed Deidara's smile in the corner of his eye. He'd been impatient, no doubt.
"Any trouble?"
"Nothing significant. But the copy-ninja and the Nine-Tails teammate escaped."
"They won't be a problem."
"Alright, let's get down to business already!" Hidan's mouth got the better of him.
"Patience. We are still two short."
"Where's Itachi and your woman?" he snapped.
"As I stated: You're early. They are still on schedule."
Hidan grumbled something about gratefulness, but his partner shot him a glare and shut him up. Pain felt a new chakra enter his field of detection, and looked skyward, the others following suit.
The crows came in with barely a caw, seeming to materializing from the very black of the night itself. They wasted no time, landing and flying around a single spot with precision far too coordinated for any ordinary bird, before melding together in a mass of shadow that stretched out huge wings only moments later. Colours of red appeared in the darkness, wings became arms, and a beak shifted to a human head within seconds with two specs of deepest crimson for eyes. Itachi lowered those arms, saying nothing, and standing as if nothing had happened. He didn't even glance at Sasuke's prone form, barely five metres away from him.
Konan's absence was… unsettling. He didn't like that, not that he didn't expect it. He'd neither glimpsed nor spoken to her for the last twelve hours, while under normal circumstances she'd almost never leave his side. Pain breathed, blinking his eyes: Focus, here.
"Very well. Let us proceed." Pain released his hands and addressed the group.
"Okay, so why did you call us to this dump instead of one of the other places?" Hidan again. "You planning to seal the Nine-Tails up here?"
"No." Pain wondered if Hidan ever listened at their meetings. "The Nine-Tails must be the final beast to be sealed, in order to maintain the balance of power within the demon statue."
He turned to the two "zombie brothers", as Kisame enjoyed referring to them. "Which is why you and Kakuzu are being redeployed. You will capture the final beast, the Eight-Tailed Ox, and return it back to the Land of Snow hideout so we may seal both jinchuuriki."
Hidan grumbled, but Kakuzu said nothing, merely giving a nod. "So what do we do with the Nine-Tails in the meantime, hm?" Deidara asked.
"Leave that to me." Pain turned back to the centre. "For now, continue as you all were. Remain on call and alert until the Eight-Tails is captured; leave the Land of Fire to avoid the ninja the Leaf will deploy. Hidan, Kakuzu: You're dismissed."
The two left without a word out the main gate, and Kisame spoke. "And what about Sasuke? I'm assuming you didn't just order us to capture him for no reason."
"That precludes that you and I have the same definition of 'reason'." His hands folded again. "Sasuke's desire to bargain with the Akatsuki would prove to be problematic should he succeed, and having such loose ends running about does not benefit our organization or our long-term plans."
Deidara scoffed. "So, do we kill him now?"
Pain turned to the silent other Uchiha. "Itachi. Do you have any input?"
He continued to ignore his little brother, almost making Pain frown. "No." was all he said, and the concern grew even further. Surely he had to know what he was going to ask him to do; did Itachi really have no problem with that?
"Very well. Then the boy's fate is now your prerogative. See it is done."
The Uchiha nodded. "Zetsu." Pain said, and the man slid into the ground in a single move, reappearing as just a split coloured head beside the two unconscious forms. He slid Naruto over his shoulder, slipping back into the earth along with the jinchuuriki.
"We're done here." He terminated the connection, and the image vanished.
Deidara and Sasori departed as soon as their leader did, with only a few quiet words from the former to the latter. Kisame and Itachi stood alone, both staring at Sasuke's body.
"Do you want me to do it?" Kisame asked. Itachi could tell by the lack of smile: he was being sincere.
"No, thank you." He stepped towards the body, sharingan locked on his brother's closed eyes. "I have a plan. I'll reconnect with you at the sealing, Kisame; I'm sure you have other matters to attend to."
He was about to speak, but his knowledge got the better of him. Itachi knew what he was doing; he didn't need a babysitter. Kisame offered a single nod, departing out the gate in silence.
Itachi looked up, now alone in the middle of the broken fortress. There were no stars tonight, and the moon remained new, hidden behind the black clouds that hid everything from sight. A sigh slid from his throat, and he closed his eyes for a moment. And then a few more.
He stood there for a while, among the ghosts of Keryse Rock.