Chapter 21: War

XANA charged at me at full force for my throat, which I luckily had managed to block. Focusing my chakra into my arm, I threw XANA back against the opposite wall. He slammed against the wall with a thud and repositioned himself for another attack. Odd and Aelita unsheathed their projectile weapons and aimed them at XANA. Yumi dispersed her fans and held them in the same position that I had held my kunai.

"It's over, XANA! It's 6 against 1. You're outnumbered." Franz declared with his laser gun pointed at XANA.

"Hahaha. It's not over…until I say it's over!" XANA answered while pulling out a round object.

He pressed a blue button on it and threw it at me.

'That's a…' Bomb! 'Yumi…'

I threw Yumi away from my lap and into Aelita and Odd. The bomb detonated and everything crumbled from its explosion. The floor and ceiling gave way, and everything began to fall apart quickly. Falling in mid-air, I saw my friends began to plummet to their doom.

'No. I can't let this happen! Not again. Not ever!' Ulrich! 'I got to save them!' Ulrich! Concentrate. 'I got to…' Ulrich!

"YUMI!"

Another explosion erupted and smoke engulfed all of them from the others' sight.

"Did you hear that?" asked Jagger.

"If you're talking about that explosion and that voice, then yeah!" Shadow replied while slashing his kunai against a Sound ninja.

The Sound ninja fell to his knees and was dead. The others followed the same as their fallen comrade. Shadow walked up to one of them and began to search them for any vital information that he could get. He found a pamphlet in one of the ninja's pouches and read its contents. His face became grim as he read every word. After skimming through the document, he tossed it to Jagger to read.

"Looks like Madara is making his move on Konoha." Shadow whispered grimly.

"Not only that. Judging from this information, Kabuto is joining him…along with Sasuke." Jagger added.

"Naruto's not going to like this at all."

"On top of that, we have to get Ulrich and his friends out of here. Before everything gets out of hand."

"I think everything already is." Shadow turned to face his brother. "The only problem is…who is going to survive this crisis."

"We have to warn Naruto and rally all of the other shinobis for a counterattack."

"From what I'm perceiving here, the party has already begun."

"Oh man! Guess we missed the cake, huh?"

"And we're here for the gift opening." Shadow smirked.

"Come on! We have to get to Ulrich." Jagger started to run down the corridor to Ulrich's hospital room on the second floor.

"We don't need to."

"Why not?" Jagger stops to look at his little brother.

"Because he's right outside the window." Shadow pointed outside.

"What?" Jagger ran back towards his brother to see where he was pointing.

I took me a while to recover from the impact of falling nearly 20 feet off the ground. When I felt around me, it was nothing like the concrete ground that I was expecting. It was thick, brunette fur. I jolted up from surprise and a slim of fear.

"Fang?" I shouted.

"Glad to see that you're awake, kid. And I can't forget the fact that it actually feels nice to be out in the open! RAWR!" Fang replied.

"Whoa! Calm down, big fella!" I answered. "Wait. Where's everyone?"

"And Yumi? Check around my head, you idiot."

I looked around me and searched frantically for them. I prayed that they were alright and weren't lying dead below us. Once I had finally found them about 30 meters away, I sighed in relief and crawled towards them. I checked each one of them for any signs of serious injuries, which there weren't, but they were currently unconscious. I crawled closer to Yumi and held her closely to my chest.

"Yumi…Yumi…" I whispered in her ear. "Are you okay?"

She stirred a little in my arms. It relieved me a little that she was fine, but I had too find a medic ninja to make sure that her injuries were healed. She had a few scratches on her, which was very fortunate compared to mine.

"Don't think you're out of the blue yet, brother." XANA rushed at me in a type of electrical field.

I tried to create a force field to counter XANA's, but he was too quick.

"Shield!" shouted Aelita and she forced XANA back at least 14 feet away from the group.

I laid Yumi down and charged for XANA. We collided and fell onto Fang's snout. I clung onto Fang's fur for guidance, but nearly slipped when XANA yanked on my leg. We tumbled down a little further to the edge, but Fang tilted his head to keep me stabilized.

"Ulrich! You're going to have to hang on tight!"

"Like I'm not right now?" I hysterically questioned.

"No, seriously. Hang on!"

I turned to see what he was facing. There was an enormous violet snake slithering before us. It flung its neck back and lunged for Fang, but Fang held it down with its fangs. His entire body jerked from the impact almost causing me to release my hold on Fang's fur.

"Watch it, Fang! The others might fall off too!" I warned.

"Like I haven't noticed that I have freeloading passengers!"

I searched around for any sign of XANA. Suddenly, I spotted him climbing up Fang's side to reach me. 'This just gets better and better, doesn't it?' I looked to where everyone was. Odd had finally regained consciousness and was aiming his gauntlet at XANA.

"Ulrich! I hope I don't hit you!"

"Odd! You better have good aim!"

"Alright then, here goes nothing. Laser arrow!" shouted Odd.

A few projectile arrows began to fire upon XANA, but it had little effect.

"Try more! But watch out for me!"

"Why?" asked Aelita, who was kneeling next to Yumi.

"Because of this!" I released my grip and landed on top of XANA.

We fell down the side of Fang and began to tussle for control over the other while plummeting straight towards the ground below.

"Ulrich!" screamed Franz.

Once they both had looked outside, Jagger was in shock. "How'd he?"

"He improved quicker than I had thought." Shadow smiled.

Standing outside of their window was a colossal brown wolf with 6 people upon its head. "Looks like Fang is out for the kill." sneered Shadow.

"Is this really the time to be making sadistic jokes?" Jagger asked angrily.

"Oh, I don't know. Depends on what you mean by time." Shadow chuckled.

"Not funny." Jagger said as he sprinted for the exit. "We have to get to the battle zone. Those Konoha shinobis might need our help against those Sound ninjas and Madara. Unless you're too stuck up in your past that you refuse to help those who really need you."

Shadow stared after his brother and turned to glance back at Ulrich and his friends on Fang's head. He sighed and watched down below the hospital where ninjas were fighting each other. People were running for cover and children were crying for their parents to stay with them and not die on the war zone. Medic shinobis were gathering the women and children into the mountains of the Hokages. Jonins were directing other lower-ranking ninjas to their positions while fighting off the intruders. Fire has started to spread out among the village and explosions were heard around every corner. All Shadow could do was stand there and watch all the catastrophe occur. He closed his eyes and listened to the turmoil of the village.

"This world…these humans. They're worthless. So why are you protecting them? Eh, Naruto?"

"Because I'm the Hokage." Naruto said as he emerged from the shadows. "These villagers…they are everything to me. They are my family. That's why I want to protect them."

"Heh…family. What's a family? People who love you for whatever you are…who'll stand by with you to the end. Those people don't exist. Love doesn't exist. They're things that people want to believe in so that they may have a reason to live. They're nothing." Shadow scoffed.

"Then why did you believe in that boy? Why did you hope?"

"Hahaha…it's because I'm weak. Only the weak hopes for the future. There is no future…not for me."

"Is it because of your curse? Because Ulrich is not bounded by the same fate as you that you become jealous and cold-hearted?"

"Ulrich doesn't understand anything! He never will. Not when he lives in his own safe world." Shadow yelled.

"I believe he has learned more than you."

Shadow turned in disbelief at his brother. Naruto continued to watch the scene outside with Ulrich and XANA.

"He's stronger than you'll ever be because he's got something that you never wish to achieve. He's got love…he's got friends…he's got family."

Shadow turned to glance at Ulrich and his duel with XANA. He contemplated at the fact and looked down in shame.

"You can be stronger, Shadow. You're just at the minimum of your powers, but you can reach to greater heights. First…you have to learn to let your vengeance go. I know how that must feel. To have your entire race…your family…your parents…be ripped out of your hands by your grandfather. You may not know who he sent…whether they're human, yokai, or even Animalian, but Shadow! Get out of your past and come back to the present! We need you now. You can hate humans…and vampires another time…but not now…" Naruto continued urgently.

Shadow closed his eyes and sighed. He glanced outside the window again and saw Ulrich at the near end of his strength. Ulrich was struggling with all his might to fend off XANA while his friends ward off the Krabs.

"Ulrich!" shouted Yumi outside.

"Hang in there!" screamed Aelita.

"Ulrich!" Jeremie and Odd yelled.

Shadow slowly lowered his hand to his mech arm. He pulled out his berretta and loaded it. Slowly looking up at his brother, he grinned and nodded his head.

"Let's roll." Shadow said as he prepared to jump out of the window, which happened to be the quickest route of escape for him.

Naruto joined him at the window until Shadow caught a glimmer of movement at the far corner of the corridor. He aimed his berretta in that direction and fired. The shot missed the target and the figure emerged from the wall.

"Leaving so soon, gentlemen? But the fun has just begun…" said a voice in the shadows.

"Madara…" Naruto and Shadow whispered simultaneously.