The young woman was once again going over battle plans with her teachers. So far the plan was basically to butcher the men from both sides. While Madara, Bethany and her three teachers would wipe out the majority, the others would swarm in from behind and take out whoever was left. Not much of a plan, but good enough. Bethany folded her hands together under her chin, "I think one thing we should also focus on is making sure as many of us as possible survive this battle, yes we may have strength on our side, but they may have numbers on theirs, and I'll be damned if I let so many of my people die just like that" she said firmly. The three Hokage nodded, "I think that's a good plan Bethany, after all, you are their leader and as leader it's your duty to protect your people as well as lead them" Minato agreed with a smile and a nod. Bethany smiled back, "it's been four years since we've really had any casualties in this war, and there is no way I'd just let them all die," she then frowned and crossed her arms, "no, not again" she said with narrowed eyes.
ŚŅŸ
There were now just a few days before the battle was to occur and everyone was tense and waiting. They readied their weapons and prepared their jutsu, but it still wasn't enough to ease their nervousness for what was possibly their last battle either way. Bethany, after cleaning and sharpening her sword, meditated for the majority of the time in an attempt to stay calm and focused for what was to come. She couldn't deny the fact that she was fairly nervous herself, but was able to remain composed due to her meditation. Some of the older ones, (in other words, the young men and women like herself and Madara) were worried and excited at the same time. Worried for the same reasons that Bethany was, and excited for the fact that not only did it seem as though peace might be achieved soon, but after spending so long fighting, they relished the thrill of a large battle.
The pre-teens were mostly worried, but trusted in their own abilities and their comrade's strength enough to have the confidence to follow their leader into battle. The younger ones were afraid, though, having spent most of their lives on the battlefield, were hardened enough to keep their fear in check until the battle was over. They were all waiting until the call for battle came, almost praying that things would end the way they hoped. Then, it began.
ŚŅŸ
It was a tense but otherwise normal day in the hideout. The war would start again soon, and everyone was on their toes, waiting in anticipation, dread or both for the call to battle to come. Bethany was getting agitated and she wouldn't stop pacing all over the caves. Tobirama sighed as he watched her, "calm down, getting upset won't help things" he said stoically. Bethany glared at him, "oh get off my back already! I don't need you to tell me when to calm down!" she snapped. Minato blinked, "wow, you're even worse than last time" he commented offhandedly, but was silenced by a generous helping of killing intent from the girl. The Yondamine shivered as he stared at his student. He then started sweating profusely when black flames seemingly appeared around her body with thunder flashing ominously in the background and her eyes turned into red flames of their own, "what-was-that?" she hissed, daring the blond to make a sound so she could kill him.
Minato wisely kept his mouth shut and shook his head in an 'I said nothing- please don't kill me' gesture. Bethany sighed, her anger dissolving as quickly as it had come "I'm sorry Sensei- you're right, but I just can't relax, the war is coming to its climax and things are so complicated at the moment- maybe I'm really not up to being a leader, I've tried so hard but maybe I'm just not right for this," she looked down, a sad smile on her face. The Yondamine frowned, "Bethany, we understand how you feel- and if you ever need it, we're here for you" he smiled slightly. The young woman smiled back, "arigato, Minato-Sensei". Suddenly Makoto ran in. She looked scared, "Nii-Sama, they're here!" she cried. Bethany immediately snapped into, what the others had dubbed 'leader mode', "everyone get ready, remember the plan and try to stay as calm as possible- it is crucial that we win this battle!" she called, teleporting off to her room to get ready.
She got changed quickly, pulling on her black under clothes and armour then attaching her sword to her hip. She tied her jutsu scroll around her back, making sure it was secure and filled her weapon pouch with Flying Thunder God kunai. After checking over herself to make sure she didn't miss anything, she ran out of her room. As she went to meet up with everyone, she saw the tree that she had grown over Akito's grave. Pausing for a moment, she kneeled before it, "hey Taicho, though I don't believe in ghosts or people having souls or anything like that, it still feels right to talk to you for at least a moment about what's going on," she paused slightly before continuing, "the enemy is trying to wipe my Sensei, Madara-Kun and myself out so that they can take care of the weaker members of our group, and while I don't believe that they will succeed in killing all five of us at once, I'm still slightly worried about the others- I want to be a good leader and protect them, but I don't know if what I'm doing is right," she paused again and sighed.
"Well, I guess only time will tell, won't it?" she asked, looking up at the tree. Standing up quickly, she turned to go, but not before placing her left hand on the bark of the tree, "I promise, I'll tell you all about it when we get back- about how we ended the war and are finally free" she said resolutely, eyes not wavering in their determination. Then she turned and ran back to the others.
ŚŅŸ
The plan worked perfectly, while the men were focused on Bethany, Madara and the three Hokage, the others blitzed them from all sides. Despite their 'plan', the government bastards and the brainwashed children were no match for the sheer power of the five, nor did they possess the numbers Bethany's group had. The Shodamine and Bethany took out their opponents with the Mokuton, while Madara sliced through the men. Grinning, he sheathed his sword and pulled his Gunbai and Scythe off his back. He looked at his opponents impassively for a moment, before he took on the real Madara's 'fight face' causing many of them to wet themselves from fear, "do you wish to dance?" he asked, before he shot into motion once again. The poor, poor bastards didn't even stand a chance.
Tobirama and Minato were basically doing the same thing, throwing their kunai and then shooting through their enemies and cutting them down before they even had a chance to blink, though Minato used kunai while Tobirama preferred to use his sword. Bethany meanwhile was using her Wood jutsu to attack, while using her sword to defend. She formed the Tiger, Snake and Tiger hand signs in quick succession, "everyone back!" she called, her voice ringing across the battle field. At once all the children and her teachers disengaged their opponents, and jumped back behind the woman. The enemy, thinking that they were pushing the young warriors back, let out a battle cry and ran forwards. Oh how wrong they were. Moulding a huge amount of Chakra, the young Senju's voice suddenly cried out: "Mokuton: Deep Forest Emergence!" tree roots burst from the ground, as a massive forest grew at an ever quickening pace, trapping their opponents in a thick canopy of trees. Tobirama turned to his older brother, "you taught her that?" he asked. Hashirama grinned, "I did, and she mastered it beautifully" he replied.
Turning around slightly, Bethany looked at her boyfriend, "Madara, you know what to do, just like we practiced" she said. The Uchiha nodded and jumped into the air while forming the Horse hand sign, "Katon: Great Fire Annihilation!" he called, and a huge wave of flames descended from his mouth upon their trapped adversaries, burning the forest and them along with it. Bethany watched with narrowed eyes, "that was too easy" she said after a moment. Suddenly, a pair of hands shot out of the ground and gripped her ankles. Bethany cried out in shock, but it was too late as she was dragged down into the earth until she had completely disappeared from view. Everyone gasped, while Madara was the most worried out of all of them, "Bethany!" he cried.
ŚŅŸ
When she'd stopped moving through the earth, Bethany found herself falling through space instead. "Oh shit!" she exclaimed, quickly clapping her hands together, "Wood Style: Deep Forest Emergence!" she cried once again. A huge forest of trees sprouted from the ground underneath her. Landing on one of the branches, she 'surfed' down the trees until she reached the ground. Bethany sighed in relief when she was standing on solid ground once again, glad that she wasn't a splatter on solid ground instead. The girl then began examining her surroundings, "where am I?" she asked herself. "An underground cavern that exists below our battle ground- dig deep enough and you'll find it easily enough- we've been using it for our hideout since we left" a voice said, seemingly from all around her. The young woman grit her teeth, "who and where are you?" she demanded, looking around slightly nervously as she still couldn't see who was speaking.
The voice laughed, "oh, to see you in such a situation has been my dream for such a very long time- you have no idea how satisfying that look of fear in your eyes is" he replied. Bethany frowned, "I am not afraid of you, fear is only a state of mind" she replied monotonously, sounding like she was quoiting someone. And she was. Tobirama-Sensei had told her that when she'd again tried the tree-climbing exercise in the forests and was worried because of her fear of heights. The voice sniggered, "oh really, then you're not at all afraid because you can't see me, because you don't know where I am?" it asked, "you're not afraid because you don't know who I am and you don't know how powerful I might be?" Bethany was starting to breath faster, what the voice said was true, but she tried to ignore it, "you're not afraid because you don't know what's happening to your comrades above you? What about your precious Madara-Kun, he could be dying right now, but because everyone's fighting no one has time to save him" the voice taunted with malicious cruelty.
The young woman covered her ears and closed her eyes, "shut up" she hissed, trying desperately to block out the mans- as she could tell it was a man by the sound of his voice- words, but it did nothing, "I wonder if he's bleeding out, or maybe he's been stabbed in the chest and is slowly drowning in his own blood," he said sadistically. Bethany growled, "shut up!" she cried, louder than before. "Maybe he's lost a limb and is slowly dying in agony- maybe he's calling out for you, begging you to save him or to stop the pain, but you can't because you're so pathetic that you can't even save the people you care about" the voice stated, cruelly taunting her with her fears and the thought of the people she loved the most dying in horrible ways that she couldn't save them from. "STOP IT!" she screamed, almost begging as images came, unbidden into her mind- images of Madara lying in a pool of his own blood, each agonized breathe coming out slow and painful, with tears in his eyes from the thought that he failed to make their dream a reality, dying all alone.
Bethany clenched her eyes shut tight, but the horrible thoughts and images wouldn't leave her alone, torturing her with guilt and pain- so much pain. The voice scoffed, "how pathetic, some strong leader you are- but then again, you did let Akito-Taicho die, so I shouldn't really expect you to do any better in protecting the others" he said hatefully. Bethany's eyes suddenly snapped open, as a memory came to the forefront of her mind. "Are- are you, Yue?" she asked. The boy said nothing for a moment, then started laughing darkly, "I guess it's what I said about Taicho that gave me away, wasn't it?" he asked. The woman growled, "you bastard, what the hell are you doing?!" she exclaimed, "siding with enemy! And I bet some of those children are the ones who followed you, am I right? I thought I recognized them!" Yue was silent, so she continued, "do you have any idea what's happening? Those bastards took the children who followed you loyally, and what do you do? You let them torture those poor children until they had no emotions, until they were nothing but mindless weapons!" she exclaimed.
"You're far worse than they'll ever be and do you know why!? It's because you abandoned your friends and you don't even seem to care! You're nothing more than scum! No, sorry, you're worse than scum, and people like you who don't care about their friends are utterly worthless!" she screamed, "SHUT UP!" Yue cried, leaping at the girl and attempting to end her life once and for all. To his surprise, Bethany turned and punched him straight in the face- hard. The boy was thrown back due to the force of the hit and landed on the ground, dazed. When he'd regained his senses, he looked up, and was both horrified and amazed at what he saw. The girl was radiating power as she stared at him. She could see him clearly now and vice-versa as the darkness that had been present before had really only been a jutsu Yue had used. Her face was different, black rings had now formed around her eyes, part of which spread out under her eyes to end at the sides of her face while another two lines angled downwards reaching a point about halfway towards her nose. A black target symbol had also appeared on her forehead.
The boy scowled, "what is that?" he asked, annoyed that she had managed to punch him. Bethany smirked, "wouldn't you like to know" she mocked, before shooting forwards in her Wood Fist stance. What followed was a joke to the girl, as Yue couldn't even manage to block her hits, let alone fight back. Soon Bethany had had enough of using the boy for a glorified punching bag and sent a strong fist into his rib cage, shattering his bones in an instant and throwing him back into a rock. The young man coughed blood and collapsed onto the floor in agony. He looked up a moment later to see his opponent standing over him with a glare on her face. The boy was terrified and he couldn't even move away from the girl. Bethany sneered, "you're the pathetic one, I bet you don't even care about your comrade's at all- you'd gladly let them die as long as you got something out of it" she said, her eyes dark. She drew her sword from it's sheathe, "for the deaths you've caused, both on my side and your own, I will end you now- be grateful I'm showing you mercy and putting you out of your misery" she stated coldly. She brought the blade down.