You're Beautiful
Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. Sorry this one is late. I just got caught up with some other stories and have been struggling with how I want the "battle chapter(s)" to go. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this.
Chapter 25
Aoda quickly heads to Sage. Sasuke had saved one of his hatchlings form certain death. The least he could do was catch a BufoBufoian in exchange.
"Kill him! You know those filthy snakes want nothing more than to take over your planet." The Gastropoda hisses to the BufoBufoian that he was currently on.
Of course, the mighty Serpentes couldn't hear this conversation. Still he didn't miss the fact that the giant amphibian was lunging at him. Aoda quickly dodges. He might be enormous, but he was nimble.
"I would rather not have to kill you. If you surrender now, you have my word that no harm will come to you." He states.
"DIE! YOU FILTHY SNAKE!" The toad snarls at Aoda as he thrusts his impossibly long tongue at him.
"No. I don't think that I will. Honestly, why do BufoBufoians never have any manners? Filthy snake? Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?" He demands as he bites down on the tongue that had wrapped itself around the length of his body.
He hears the BufoBufoian cry out in agony. The serpent smirks when he felt himself being released. Acting quickly, he slams the full weight of his body into the other alien. This stuns the beast long enough to allow Aoda to do it again and again.
"That's better." He mutters as he picks up the massive toad in his mouth and slithers back to his ship.
He moves as fast as he could. The sounds of their struggle had attracted the some other BufoBufoians. Aoda knew that that if he didn't get back to that ship fast, he was a goner.
"SAFE! Alright, Captain! Take us away." He calls out as he lunges into the ship and uses his tail to shut the door behind him.
The other Serpente nods and they soon take off. Aoda had brought one of his many children to man the ship while he caught the BufoBufoian. He was now glad he did as his son flies them off.
The enormous reptile carries the BufoBufoian in his jaws towards a holding cell. He quickly releases him and puts him in lock down. There that ought to keep him until they got back to Konoha.
"I never thought that I would see the day, where I was helping Jinchuuriki." He mutters to himself.
Life could be strange sometimes, he muses. Hopefully, they would be able to get some information out of the damn slug. He just hoped that they weren't too late to save Sasuke and Itachi.
"Father, we'll be back at Konoha in approximately one day." He hears his son, Jacoba, call out.
"Excellent news. Is there any way we can get there faster though?" Aoda inquires as he slithers over to sit next to the other Serpentes.
"I could get us there in half a day, but it would mean we would have to fly through an Asteroid Belt." Jacoba replies.
Aoda frowns. It was risky, but unfortunately time was of the essence. They didn't have any other choice.
"Do it. We must make all haste." He says.
"Alright, father. Hold on tight. This is going to be a very bumpy ride." His son warns him as guides the ship towards the Asteroid Belt.
Meanwhile the Hyuga Princesses were currently fighting for their lives. Thankfully, they were free now. Both had been trained since birth for battle, despite the Allied Forces having ensured the peace for a thousand years.
"TAKE THIS! REOW!" Hanabi snarls as she slices one of the hosts with her vicious claws.
Hinata felt a moment of pity. Whoever was hosting the Gastropida likely didn't have any control over what they were doing. Still they had to defeat them and warn the Inuzukas and Hyugas what was really happening. They had a war to stop!
Soon it was a flurry of claws, teeth, and lasers being fired. It was complete chaos. Hinata narrowly manages to avoid getting hit by a laser and swipes the legs out from underneath one of the hosts. She quickly knocks him out.
"Hanabi, try to disable them instead of killing them." She says.
"Are you crazy?! They kidnapped us! Now is not the time to be nice. Now is the time to fight for our lives and tell our people what is going on! We can't hold back!" Her sister protests.
"Hanabi, if we kill innocent people for no reason, we are no better than them." Hinata points out as she slams her elbow into one of the guards.
Another guard smirks. He lunges at the sisters when he realizes they were distracted by their discussion. At the last second when he jumped on Hinata, she slams a dagger through his chest, killing him instantly.
Her eyes widen in horror when she feels the blood gush from the wound onto her. She felt him slump against her body lifelessly and his eyes dimmed. Hinata realizes at that moment that she had just killed a man.
"What was that about not killing them?" Her sister asks.
"I didn't have a choice!" The elder princess says in an annoyed voice as they continue their vicious battle.
Hanabi spins around fast and her fists go flying. It creates something of a shield around her because she was moving just too fast to get a good pin on her. Her feet and hands begin working on knocking out anyone that came too close to her.
"Too bad for you pretty kitties. Looks like your nine lives are about to run out." A host says as he fires off his laser towards the sisters.
Hinata slams into him from the side, knocking him to the ground. She quickly jabs him to the throat in a way that she knew would render someone of his species unconscious. Damn it. They would be lucky to get out of this alive.
"Grab his laser! That will make this much easier!" Her sister calls out desperately.
"Right!" The older princess calls out as she grabs his gun.
She quickly hit's the STUN setting and fires off several shots. If they were going to help the rest of the Hyugas and Inuzukas, they had to win this battle and quickly. Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of lives could hang in the balance for every minute they delayed.
"Big sister, can you fly this ship?" Hanabi asks nervously.
"I can fly it well enough to land it. That's about it really." Her sister admits.
"That's good enough. Hurry!" The younger princess shouts and Hinata wastes no time in racing into the control room.
She quickly sets about landing the ship. It wasn't easy. Her hands were still shaking from the knowledge that she had just killed someone. Somehow, she manages and the sisters get off of the vessel.
"We have to get to the palace. That will be the easiest place to broadcast the message from. Otherwise, we are just screaming on the battlefield to anyone who will listen." The young feline alien reasons.
Hinata nods. The two sisters run towards the castle. On the way there, they saw the complete carnage of the battlefield. Hinata winces. The soil was purple and green with blood.
Hyugas didn't bleed red like humans. Inuzukas didn't either. Their blood was green. There was a lot of blood on the grass. From what the sisters could tell it looked like the casualty rates were about even between the Hyugas and Inuzukas.
"There are so many bodies." Hanabi notes in a horrified tone.
"Yes, we have to act quickly." Hinata says as they try desperately to reach the palace.
Elsewhere Sasuke and Itachi watch their ancestor warily. This woman was truly insane. Itachi couldn't voice his theory out loud, but he suspected it had something to do with the pool she was drinking from. That might not only be extending her life, but also shredding her mind.
"It does please me that my line is still such an attractive one after all these years." She muses.
"Thank you?" They both say uncertainly.
She nods as she waits for a report from the Gastropoda. Kaguya frowns as she realizes that the report was late. Very late. Something must have gone wrong.
"Danzo, where are you?! Report to me immediately." She demands.
The Jinchuuriki growls when there was no answer. If she knew one thing about that slug, it was that he was a power climber. He would never miss an opportunity to kiss up. Danzo certainly would never intentionally ignore her communications.
"The princesses must have found a way to take control of that ship. DAMN IT." The terrifying beauty snarls her displeasure and slams her fist into a beautiful glass chalice.
The chalice goes flying straight against the cliff. It crashes and shatters into thousands of pieces, but most disturbingly of all was what happened when the liquid touched the stone. There clearly had been pool water inside it. The "water" had a strong acidic property. It literally melted a hole in solid stone!
Sasuke's eyes widen. She was drinking a substance that could melt through solid stone. He didn't think that was normal, even by alien standards. He looks at Itachi with terrified eyes.
"Mmm I see that you realize now why it would be a very bad idea for you to drink from the pool." She says slyly and with a cold smirk.
"Yes, we do appreciate the warning. Tell us more about these possible Governor positions?" Itachi inquires.
Maybe if he could get her talking, they could stall for time. Their Mates might find them. He knew that was a gamble. Assuming that they were even found, that didn't mean that they could defeat this psychotic alien bitch from Hell.
"Oh you will be given your own galaxy to monitor. Of course you'll receive a salary and a palace. That's only proper. We can't have a Governor of mine living like a pauper." The light haired alien replies.
"Of course." Itachi agrees.
Sasuke nods in agreement. They had to keep this insane alien busy long enough for their Mates to arrive. The youngest Uchiha longed for simpler days. Back before they had discovered their crazy ancestor was trying to take over the world and before she had kidnapped them. Things had been much easier back then.
He just barely manages to suppress a snort of amusement at that thought. It was funny. Who would have ever thought that he would consider the day he meet an alien to be a 'simpler time?' But it was true.
He remembered asking if Naruto was his name. The alien had called out his. Then Naruto had kissed him. At first, he had been worried that the alien was trying to give him some sort of disease or wanted to attack him. That hadn't been the case at all. The way Naruto moved his lips against his, was far too affectionate to be anything other than a kiss.
"You're beautiful. That's the easiest way for my species to acquire another language, mouth to mouth contact. We also kiss as your kind do, to give pleasure. That's what the lights and sensations were. They were just me absorbing your words." The blonde said once he broke the kiss.
"If you knew that you could "acquire" our language that easily, why didn't you do it before?" Sasuke asked.
"Well I figured that it was polite to let them run their tests. They wanted to make sure that I wasn't carrying pathogens or diseases. So I just kinda went with it. That and my kind prefer to kiss others that they find attractive, just like yours does." The alien answered.
That was the day that Sasuke's life changed forever. The day that he met Naruto and suddenly realized that the universe was a lot more crowded than they he had ever originally thought. It was also the day that he learned aliens preferred to kiss people they found hot, when given a choice.
"It will be difficult at first. People will naturally try to reject our rule. We will force them to see reason eventually. Either through logic or by showing them our true might." Kaguya continues.
"As would be expected of any apex predator." Sasuke says once he snaps out of his memory enough to listen to what was going on.
"Exactly." Kaguya smirks as if she was delighted that her descendants understood her plans.
At that same moment, the rescuers were currently flying towards the ancient planet. The closer they got, the more anxious everyone became. This was especially true when it came to Naruto and Gaara.
"Do you think they are still alive?" Kiba asks.
"You idiot. If you ask a question like that again, I will gag you. You don't say that to two panicking Mates." Madara growls at the canine alien.
Kiba gulps. He wisely retreats further back into the ship. The last thing he wanted to do was to incur the wrath of the ancient warrior. He would very much like to live to see his next birthday. Thank you very much.
"It's alright. He's just asking the question that is on all of our minds." Naruto says somberly.
Gaara sighs and nods his head. Their Mates had to be okay. Surely, they were still alive. If they had died, wouldn't they have felt the severed connection of their bond?
"All we can do is hope, but I think they are still alive. I don't feel any different. I mean we should feel SOMETHING, if our Mates died. Right?" The young prince asks in an almost desperate voice.
"That's what I'm hoping." Gaara admits.
They had to be alright. The red head couldn't imagine life without his Mate. His knowing smile. The taste of his kiss. The sounds he made as they Mated. His sharp wit. All of that and more, he would lose if Itachi was slain by his kidnapper. It was an unbearable thought.
Gaara might not be particularly fond of Madara, but he could understand him a little better now. The Kazekage was certain he would go mad without his lover. Truly, it was a test of his sanity to keep composed enough to fly the ship.
"Gaara, are you certain that you are feeling well enough to fly? I can handle it. It is no trouble." Izuna asks gently.
The Kage bites his lower lip. On one hand, he knew more about the modern ship than Izuna. On the other, his mind wasn't nearly as focused as it should be. Perhaps the older alien might be able to fly them there faster than he could. Maybe they would fly the ship equally fast.
He just knew that wouldn't be a good idea for him to continue flying. If Gaara kept at it, he might lose whatever fragile grip he had on his self-control and they might end up crashing somewhere in the wormhole. Then they would never rescue Itachi and Sasuke. That was unthinkable.
"Yes, perhaps that would be for the best." He concedes and moves out of the way.
Izuna nods. He quickly gets into position and begins flying the ship. This ship was more advanced than the ones he had flown. That was only to be expected. It had been a long time since he had flown for the Allied Forces, but the basics were still the same. He could manage this.
The red head quickly departs for his room. If his crew members saw him like this, it would only serve to make them even more anxious. That simply wouldn't do.
It was possible that he could lose everything. He might lose Itachi. A chance to ever have hatchlings and most importantly of all, their future together. They were so close and yet so far. There was no telling what had been done to the younger Uchiha brothers. They might very well arrive only to find out they were too late.
"You got this?" Naruto asks Izuna and he nods.
"I think I can manage this. Even if I can't, I know that Kisame and Kiba should be able to help me. You should go and offer comfort to your friend. The two of you are suffering horribly. Perhaps a friendly ear would be beneficial to both of you." Izuna reasons.
"Yeah. Thanks. I'm going to go and try to talk to him." Naruto says as he follows Gaara.
The blonde sighs when he finds the Kazekage pacing in his room. It was just like Gaara to suffer in silence. The man definitely lived by the motto of take one for the team.
"Gaara, I know what you are feeling. I'm here for you. We are almost there. I'm sure if our bond was broken, we would feel it. There's still a chance that we will find them. Hold onto that hope. You'll drive yourself crazy, if you don't." The warrior tells him.
"I know. I have to stay strong. It's just hard. We can't do anything to help them until we get to that damn planet." He mutters.
Naruto nods. He understood exactly where the other man was coming from. He was going mad worrying about Sasuke.
Kyuubi, he missed his Mate. He missed the way that Sasuke seemed to absorb every scrap of information he was given. He missed the way that they would tease each other. Most of all, he missed the way that they would make love and hold each other afterwards. He'd settle for fluffing, honestly. He just wanted him back!
"We'll be there soon. Don't worry. We got this." Naruto says with far more confidence than he felt.
Back on the ancient planet, the human brothers watched every move their ancestor made warily. There was no telling what might provoke her to violence. If that water could melt through solid stone, who knew what sort of effects it might have in the mind?
"It seems that I will have to leave you for a few moments. Two very naughty kittens have been giving my followers trouble. I will have to deploy reinforcements. I shall be back shortly to continue our conversation." Kaguya informs them as she walks off.
Sasuke and Itachi wait a few moments to make sure she was really gone. They both let out a sigh of relief. At least for the moment they were safe. Though they didn't know how long this new luck would hold out.
"She's psychotic." Sasuke mutters.
"Likely from a combination of a broken heart and whatever is in that water." Itachi agrees.
"They'll find us. I know they will." His brother says in an effort to convince himself as much as Itachi.
Itachi nods his head. In reality, he was anything but certain. Still he wasn't going to tell Sasuke that. They both needed to keep their wits about them. That was the only way they were going to survive.
"We just have to keep her talking. That's our best shot. The more time we can buy for them to find us, the better." His brother replies.
He sighs and wishes his Mate was here. He missed his red head. Mentally, he slaps himself for wasting so much time. Itachi had been so cautious about Mating with Gaara.
The engineer should have just listened to his heart instead of being too scared to dive in. All he had now were memories of their time together and the hope that the Kazekage would find them before it was too late.
"Yeah. You're right. Maybe they'll find us while she's out sending out reinforcements." He mutters.
"Sasuke, we aren't that lucky and you know it." Itachi notes in amusement.
"It was worth a try? A guy can hope, can't he?" Came Sasuke's reply.
Despite the situation, Itachi found himself laughing. It reminded him of when they were children and Sasuke would try to sneak cookies from the cookie jar. It felt so good to laugh about something. It felt like a lifetime since the last time he had laughed.
"I don't think it was THAT funny." The younger human says and blinks in surprise at Itachi's reaction.
"You're right. It wasn't that funny. It's just, I don't know…I guess I'm starting to lose it a bit." Itachi says with a heavy sigh.
Sasuke gulps. If his brother was snapping, that was not a good sign. Itachi had always been so in control of himself. Sasuke was the hot head, not him.
"Remember, I'm supposed to be the foolish one. Not you." He whispers.
"I'm so glad that you finally realized that after all these years. I suppose it is better late than never." Itachi says with a rueful smile.
Kaguya growls in her command center. It was impossible to find good help these days. Honestly. They couldn't get any reinforcements to deal with the princesses for three days at the earliest. Damn it.
That wasn't good news at all. The princesses would be able to tell the Hyugas and Inuzukas what was going on in three days. Well that was assuming they didn't become causalities on the battlefield.
"Perhaps I'll have a stroke of good fortune and they will both die before either of them get a chance to inform their kin about what is really going on." She muses to herself.
She shakes her head. If there was one thing she knew about herself, it was that she wasn't that lucky. No, she would just have to operate on the assumption that the felines would warn the others about her plot.
This wouldn't do at all. Now she would be forced to come up with a contingency plan and quickly. Hmm what should she do about this unfortunate situation?
"The Zetsus are nearby and I am allied with them. Yes, I suppose that should cause enough chaos until the reinforcements arrive." She decides and she contacts the Zetsu people.
"I want you to send your finest warriors to the planet where the Inuzuka's live. Your primary goal is to kill the Hyuga Princesses before they can warn their kin about my plans. However, if you can not find them, I want you to cause as much damage as possible. We are trying to provoke a war amongst the Allied Forces. Do you understand?" She demands.
"Yes, I understand. I shall organize an army at once." The black Zetsu replies.
The Zetsu were a race of plant like people. They had two types. The Black and White Zetsus. Loosely speaking, the White Zetsus were considered the females of the species and the more scholarly of the two. The Black Zetsus were considered the males and the more aggressive.
"Good. Time is of the essence. You must move quickly." Kaguya instructs him.
Quite honestly, she couldn't for the life of her tell one Zetsu from another. She supposed it didn't really matter. They made for loyal minions and they would get the job done. That was what really counted.
"Of course, Your Majesty. We will not let you down." He promises.
"Excellent. Now the fun really begins." She smirks as she heads back to her descendants.