CHAPTER 14

"You'll need me for that." A male voice announced.

Quickly recognising the voice, three pairs of eyes zeroed in with menace on the source of that voice. The ANBU in the room looked surprised at the unannounced visit.

The voice belonged to Misaki's older brother, Tetsuya.

"You have some nerve!" Naruto exclaimed before taking a step towards him. Sasuke placed his hand on his shoulder and pressed down hard to keep him in place. Possibly, also to stop himself from lurching at Tetsuya to avenge Misaki. Revenge was something Misaki never approved.

"I understand your reluctance to work with me but we have a common goal and your best sensory shinobi was Misaki. My skills are on par or even better than hers." Tetsuya said.

"A common goal? Not an hour ago you were side by the Otsutsuki! Because of you, Misaki is buried under a sea of lava…" Kakashi said calmly but his frame was shaking with rage.

"I was keeping her away from Urashiki Ōtsutsuki, Kaguya's eldest brother. I knew he was searching for Misaki to become Kaguya's vessel. That was because for a millennium after she was sealed in the moon, her chakra and will were finally able to be reincarnated into one of her descendants: Misaki. While the sons of the Sage of the Six Paths, Indra and Asura, were able to be reincarnated many times since their deaths, Kaguya's wasn't able to do so as, up until recently, there wasn't a single person sharing the DNA of both the Sage and his brother, Hamura.

Black Zetsu believed this person would never be born and thus, manipulated Madara into becoming the first reincarnation to successfully merge Indra's and Asura's chakras. This made him a viable vessel to complete Kaguya's revival, even without Hamura's lineage or his Byakugan.

Naruto, your unborn son shares Hamura's blood thanks to your Hyūga's wife and along with your blood, which is partly Hagoromo's, will make him quite powerful. However, he won't have the missing piece, the Uchiha trait. That's something Itachi Uchiha gave my sister and consequently, her sons.

I didn't want Urashiki to get to Misaki but I knew that as soon as he'd made an appearance, there was no way to stop her from going to the front lines. I made him think that I would join forces with her since she was my sister and that I would bring her to him. But at the same time, I kept the 'real' her confided in Funami's body where he wouldn't be able to find her."

By this time, Kakashi's figure had loosened up. His brow was furrowed as he tried to take in all the information.

"So you took out the dōjutsu from Sasuke and Tetsu so they wouldn't find out. Kept Naruto in Mount Myōboku so he wouldn't sense the impostor." Kakashi guessed.

"I didn't want any of you searching for Misaki. I didn't want you to bring her to Urashiki. I didn't want her to become Kaguya's vessel and be lost forever. Without her, he couldn't complete his goal, couldn't take over the world."

"So what? Were you going to just watch him kill anyone in his path while you and your fake sister stood by his side? How can you call yourself a shinobi of the Leaf?" Kakashi questioned.

"I didn't care, as long as she was safe. She's my family. Only her life matters."

"Was." Naruto corrected.

"She's not dead. My goal is still to protect her."

"What?" They all asked with wide eyes.

"She has to be alive… All I've done up to this point was to protect her…" He added with less conviction.

"As much as I'd like to share your optimism, we all saw her engulfed in the molten lava. There's no way she could've gotten alive from that, we won't even be able to recover her body as it's probably turned to ashes." Kakashi said before gulping.

"Is it? Come on, all you three shouldn't say that something is impossible! You, Kakashi," he said pointing at the white-haired Hokage, "died once at the hands of Pain, and so did Misaki. And you two," he motioned to both Sasuke and Naruto, "have been on the verge of death quite a few times, only to be brought back.

I have died in the past and yet, here we all are. How can you say for sure she isn't alive? Have any of you felt that piece of your heart saved for my sister break?

We all have lost a loved one before so we know what it feels like, even when the death happens away from our eyes, we know." Tetsuya let that thought sink in.

They all seemed to dig deep into their heart, trying to separate what their eyes have seen and what they heart felt.

Naruto's eyes filled with new shine while Kakashi and Sasuke were a bit more careful in letting themselves believe it.

"We just need to find her. Whatever her state, dead or alive, I will bring her back, I'd do anything for her, even give my life for hers." Tetsuya added.

In Naruto's mind, a flashback of Lady Chio saving Gaara popped up. Even though Gaara had been long dead, she had brought him back to life by transferring her own chakra into his body.

However, Gaara's body had been intact. Could they find Misaki's body?

"We need to find Hinata first." Naruto stated.

"I know, and we will. If the Otsutsuki brings Kaguya back, it will be all over for us. We'll find the Hyuga and then bring Misaki back."

"What about the enemy? How are we supposed to defeat them?"

"We will have to do what I was trying to avoid. A full-scale battle against the Otsutsuki. Even with Sasuke recuperated, Naruto, Kakashi, Misaki and myself working together, our chances are very slim. However, it's the only way we can proceed. They will destroy the planet and everyone in it if they can't get what they came for." He explained.

"Do we really have a chance against them? Last time we fought Kaguya, it took all five countries to unite against her, and we only managed to seal her thanks to the Sage of Six Path's sealing jutsu that he shared with Naruto and Sasuke. This time, we won't have such benefit and Kaguya's brother is definitely stronger than her." Kakashi asked Tetsuya.

"Yes, we do have a chance. The reason why Kintaro linked himself with Misaki-"

"Wait-" Kakashi interrupted, "you mentioned the Otsutsuki's name earlier, it was Urashiki."

"Ah, Kintaro and Urashiki are Kaguya's older brothers, Urashiji being the eldest and, quite frankly, the strongest of the siblings." Tetsuya explained.

"So there's another Otsutsuki and even stronger?" Naruto complained.

"Like I was trying to explain," Tetsuya continued, "the reason Kintaro linked himself with Misaki was a sign that Misaki was a danger to them. It was his way to protect himself from battling her because she could probably defeat at least one Otsutsuki with our back up. They also had me on their side but if my sister and I join forces, then there's a possibility of taking one of them down.

They're used to take special pills that help them recover from injuries so they're not used to having to heal naturally. Since they are running low on pills, I'm guessing they want to avoid any kind of battle because even if they have the upper hand, there would be some sort of damage."

In the end, the Konoha shinobi resigned themselves and accepted Tetsuya's offering to help. None of them were happy about it but they knew they could use all the help possible.

Tetsuya located the Otsutsuki's location which was on the same dimension where they'd lost Misaki under the lava. At least, their hideout was away from the hot lava, just in the middle of a dry opening with only sand and rocky walls.

One of the walls led to a cave.

After infiltrating the Otsutsuki's lair undetected, they hid behind some far away pillars while observing the enemy before formulating a plan of attack.

In the centre of the cave, Hinata was bound to a metal pole. The enemy brothers were standing close to her while inputting some data into their alien computers.

"Is that all?" The man named Urashiki questioned while pointing at a pile of ashes on the floor right in front of Hinata.

"Yes, anija. That's all there was, I've checked with my Byakugan." Kintaro responded.

"It looks awfully small to be the remains of a grown-up female…" He said while frowning at the pile.

The hearts of the Konoha shinobi spying into their conversation skipped a beat. Grown-up female they've said, were they referring to the pile of ashes as Misaki's remains?

Hinata was the first to react. She sucked in a breath while looking in terror at the ashes in front of her.

"Wh-who was it?" She couldn't help but wonder.

"The one that should've been tied up to that pole instead of you. The one with a very powerful dōjutsu but without showing their physical eye attributes."

"You mean… M-Misaki sensei? That's not- that can't be true." Hinata managed to say with difficulty.

"Just use your eyes and you'll see." Urashiki said with indifference.

Meanwhile, in their hideout, the four shinobi, whose lives were entangled with Misaki in one way or another, tried to regain their composure. Neither of them wanted to believe that the pile of ashes was Misaki.

It was easier to hold onto the tiny line of hope that to succumb to despair.

Hinata seemed to refuse to verify what the Otsutsuki had just claimed but they simply ignore it, not realising that the Hyuga couldn't infuse her chakra to activate her byakugan due to the unborn baby growing inside of her womb.

Tetsuya began giving silent instructions by signalling the points of attack to each of the Konoha shinobi. With his right hand first, he pointed to Sasuke and Naruto then to the corner closest to Hinata's location. After that he pointed to Kakashi and then to himself, letting him know that they would pair up in their attack from the opposite direction from which the younger shinobi would.

They looked at each other and then seemed to start a silent countdown before activating their powers since doing so in advance would reveal their presences. When everyone was ready, they all did at once, Sasuke activating his sharingan, Naruto his Tailed Beast mode, Kakashi his purple lighting and Tetsuya built up his chakra to the point that it was visible.

In an instant, they were above the two Otsutsuki who didn't look that they've sensed their presence. However, when their combined attacks reached their targets, they seemed to go right through the enemy's bodies like they were made of air.

They were simple clones that had no mass, just chakra.

The four shinobi ended up back to back in the centre of the cave, looking in all directions to locate the enemy.

"You must be very desperate to come to this place," Urashiki said from above. He and his brother were floating about 20 metres up in the air. "You really thought you had a chance to just barged into our dimension, rescue the Hyuga and return to your world?"

"Yes, that's exactly what we're going to do!" Naruto answered.

"Is it?" Urashiki asked, his brow arching.

At that moment, Naruto felt someone from behind locking his arms so he couldn't move but when he was about to turn and look, he felt something piercing his chest. When he looked down, he saw a rod surrounded by red chakra inside of his chest.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata yelled.

Urashiki pulled the fishing rod before anyone could react and the Nine-Tails chakra was stolen in a blink of an eye and put away inside the enemy's gourd.

Naruto dropped to his knees, his hand on his chest and completely out of breath. He then turned his face and looked over his left shoulder at the culprit.

His eyes widened when he spotted Tetsuya looking at him with a blank face. Naruto's lips were beginning to move when Tetsuya disappeared from his spot, and then a scream erupted in the cave. Naruto followed the noise with his eyes and they widened even further when he saw Sasuke on his knees with the palm of his hands pressing on his bloody eyes.

Kakashi was just finishing turning his head and had the same reaction. The movement had been too fast, faster than they've ever seen any shinobi move before. Kakashi moved towards Tetsuya but before he reached him, Tetsuya threw the stolen Sharingan up in the air and Urashiki took them.

Kakashi seemed lost for words. He looked from Tetsuya to the enemy, then from Naruto to Sasuke. Every single one of them was stronger, faster and more skilful than him. What could he do at this point? The gap in power was so great that the enemy hadn't even bothered to attack him, unlike his former students.

"Tetsuya, why?" Naruto questioned, still pressing his hand against his chest, his body folded over his knees. "Why!?" He screamed this time, his free hand pounding on the floor.

The noise seemed to wake Kakashi from a trance-like state he had been. He jumped towards Tetsuya with his purple lighting already activated on his right hand. However, Tetsuya was two steps ahead and had him on an arm lock in no time.

"Why, Tetsuya?" Kakashi repeated Naruto's earlier question. "Not long ago, your goal was to save Misaki. I didn't think you would lie to our faces like that."

"I did say I wanted to save my sister. I also said I'd do anything for her…"

Kakashi's eyes widened at the realisation of Tetsuya's silent admission.

… even side with the enemy that would destroy everything and everyone in this world.

"Y-You would sacrifice the life millions of people for one life?"

"You wouldn't?" Tetsuya left the question in the air and watch Kakashi struggle to answer.

"I'm the Hokage. The life of everyone in the village is in my hands and I vowed to protect them. It's my job to make difficult decisions."

"Then say it. Say you would let Misaki die to save the village, the world. Say it, out loud." Tetsuya pressed. When Kakashi didn't respond, he continued.

"Like you, I have lost friends and family during the war and missions. When my little brother died, the world turned pitch black, I couldn't understand this world, how quickly a life could be lost, how meaningless. However, Misaki kept me sane. If I'd start turning into despair, she'd know and appear by my side when I most needed it. She would smile and the need to keep on living would come back to me. Even at four years old, she was my light and warmth. She's always been special and everyone that gets to know Misaki feels that from the moment they meet her.

It was the warmth that the memory of her smile that kept me from giving up on living while I was stuck in Orochimaru's lab as a guinea pig. I saw you when you were spying on him many years ago. Back then, I saw clearly in your face how empty your heart felt.

Tetsuya was referring to the time when Kakashi, still an ANBU, had found Orochimaru's lair with Funami's help.

You've lost people close to you. I know you've succumbed to very dark thoughts and fall to the pit of despair, tried to cut your bonds with everyone around you. Maybe in time, some bonds were formed but tell me Misaki didn't become your anchor. Tell me that without her in this world, you won't feel like drowning again, passing the time in the living world without really living.

Say it!"

Silence.

"Like I thought. Your face is like an open book right now. You're trying very hard to convince yourself that you wouldn't do the same thing I'm doing."

Note:

Hey guys!

Some of you might think: "Here we go again with a flashback from the past..." Well, sorry! :D If you've been reading my other stories then you've realised that I love using flashbacks. Some of my favourite episodes from Naruto are the flashbacks or the Shinden novels with all the back stories. Anyway, you'll see why I've mentioned again two of my most loved characters.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter and, surprise! I've uploaded two chapters in one go, so please read Chapter 15 :)