A/N: I received more wonderful fanart! An awesome picture of Noboru in full-fledged Butcher of Kusu mode, and another great picture of Katashi from the last chapter, both by the lovely Amsuhl. Go worship. I also got a great picture of Naruto from the amazing RaRaMuffin! Make sure to go check them both out! I hope you enjoy the chapter, and sorry for the delay in getting it out. I hope the length makes up for it.
My youngest son came home today
His friends marched with him all the way
The fife and drum beat out the time
While in his box of polished pine
Like dead meat on a butcher's tray
My youngest son came home today.
- 'My Youngest Son Came Home Today' by Eric Bogle
"But-" Kiba began, only to fall silent as Hinata began to drag him away from the confrontation, Akamaru limping beside them.
"I'll come and find you," Hinata called over her shoulder, before turning and speeding up her retreat, leaving the jinchuuriki and the Akatsuki to stare at each other in the silence.
The light of the burning ships poured over the horizon, lighting the forest with the dim red of a dying ember. Katashi blinked, the expanding black cloud over the entire left side of his field of vision chilling him to the bone. Even the simple motion of blinking was agony, pulling on burned flesh. But he could see Kakuzu and Hidan out of his right eye, and that was more than enough to see the terrible grin on Hidan's face.
He tried to get his feet under him, to stand, Naruto's arm slackening around his waist. Why now, of all times, did they have to show up? Why now, when one eye was injured- he refused to think that he might lose it- and he had no chakra? The universe hated him, he concluded bitterly even as he straightened and curled aching fingers around the hilt of his sword.
He felt Naruto's fingers dig into his side in silent comfort, even though his brother didn't look away from the Akatsuki once.
"Come on," Hidan jabbed the end of his scythe into the dirt, "this is the best you have to offer? Some half-dead pipsqueak? That's not a challenge; hell, that's not even a fucking warmup!"
Katashi felt Naruto's fingers on his side move, scrawling out something through the thick cloth of his flak jacket, shook his head enough to clear his pain-fogged brain and focus on what Naruto was telling him.
Can.
You.
Run?
He didn't want to- it was hard enough just to hold himself up on shaking legs, the muscles feeling like they were on fire with exhaustion- but he could.
He inclined his head.
With a 'pop!' the forest was suddenly filled with clones, and the breath was shoved out of his lungs as Naruto yanked him backward and started to sprint for the cliffs, Naruto's breath a harsh, hot sound in his ear as he tried to synchronize his movements with his, to help propel them along, the branches tearing at their clothing as they hurtled through the dark forest, the sounds of the clones popping out of existence a constant counterpoint to their heaving breaths.
"Don't have much time," Naruto panted as he burst out onto the cliffs, moonlight pouring down over them in a wash of silver, "and I dunno if I can get both of them at once-"
"I can get Hidan."
Naruto skidded to a stop and loosened his grip, Katashi stumbling forward- his legs weren't working-, only prevented from toppling over completely by Naruto's hand on the back of his jacket.
"You can't even stand up!"
Branches broke in the forest as the Akatsuki emerged, Hidan wiping off his hand on his cloak. "Well, that was fucking pointless," the man grumbled. Apparently he did most of the talking; Kakuzu seemed almost mute.
"I can do it," Katashi said, hauling himself upright, covering his groan with a cough. Hidan circled them as Katashi twisted to follow his movement with his deteriorating eyesight, the Akatsuki member pausing at the edge of the cliff and launching into some weird… ritual that involved drawing a triangle on the ground.
"Come on, Hidan," Kakuzu said, "he's just one kid. Do you really have to-"
"Shut up, asshole," Hidan interrupted.
Kakuzu took a threatening step forward. Fear shuddered up Katashi's spine, and he inhaled. "Get him away, and I'll deal with Hidan."
There was a disgusted snort from the older man behind them, his opinion on Katashi's ability to 'deal with him' very clear.
Naruto's glance was despairing, his brother's face pale and twisted with feeling. "You can't handle this, you know?"
"Yes, I can!" Katashi said. He had to be brave, had to make Naruto believe that he could do it. "I'll probably take him out all on my own."
Naruto's smile was faltering, his expression dubious, but he only said, "Sure." In a burst of motion, he sped forward and dodged Kakuzu's strange black threads, heading for the forest. Kakuzu gave Katashi a contemptuous glance and sardonic wave, the other Akatsuki member whirling around to sprint after Naruto. Katashi watched him go, his brother a black shape against the trees, before turning back to meet Hidan's pale, mocking gaze.
"Looks like it's just you and me, kid."
Some sort of strange black ink was spreading beneath his skin like a giant bruise, great blotches of darkness appearing, ending cleanly at the edges, as if somebody had cut the white shapes within the blackness out with a knife. The white curves and lines almost resembled a skeleton.
"Cool trick," he said, before shifting his grip on his katana and lunging, twisting out of the way as the scythe slashed the air beside him, the three blades humming as they passed. He followed through, the sword coming around and ripping through the first layer of the robe, the blade coming out into air without a single drop of blood on it.
Damn it.
He was just being toyed with.
He dropped once more, kicked out even as the gash on his side pulled open, the blood thundering in his ears. Hidan leaped over his kick- Katashi flipped back, skidded to a stop in the mud- and slashed his scythe across the sword, the heavy blades crashing into the wide side of the katana.
The sword shook once in his hand, a thin, high clink resounding through the air. Katashi jerked, the entire upper half of the blade speeding by his face in a flash of silver light, leaving a whisper of wind in its passing. He twisted in time to see it land in the mud, a shining light surrounded by darkness.
Shit. Yugito was going to be so mad at him for getting her old sword broken.
Okay- no chakra left for jutsus, so what did he have?
No kunai.
No senbon.
A broken sword.
Fucking great.
He charged, but Hidan simply sidestepped, elbow crashing down on the back of Katashi's neck, a hacking cough exploding out of his mouth. His head flew back, a dull, leaden weight spreading through his limbs as he crashed into the mud.
Goddamnit it, why wouldn't they work?
"Just let me get a little of your blood, here…" Hidan said, planting his foot on Katashi's back and digging his heel into the open wound in his side, making him grunt. Hidan's fingers scraped cold and revolting along the back of his neck.
God, the guy was stupid- you weren't supposed to play with your opponents. Although- the knowledge was bitter on his tongue- it wasn't like he presented much of a challenge.
The mud oozed over his limbs, soaked through his flak jacket as he tried to turn over and succeeded in only smearing more dirt over himself, his limbs reduced to heavy lumps of stone.
Straining, he lifted his head. Feeling returned, and he reversed his grip on his sword and stabbed blindly upward, feeling the jagged edge sink into flesh.
"Fuck!" Hidan screeched, drawing back his foot and kicking Katashi in the belly. Red spots flashed before his eyes as he flew back, hit the mud with a deadened squelch, and skidded, clods of dirt invading his mouth.
He spat, then gasped as pain radiated up his leg.
He hadn't been cut, but a bloody tear in his flesh still snaked up the inside of his thigh, mirroring the gash cut into Hidan's trousers.
"Looks like you've discovered your dilemma," Hidan said, winking as Katashi raised his head. "You try and cut me, you cut yourself." He snickered, an ugly sound like nails scraping on a chalkboard. "So you might as well just give up."
Katashi struggled to his feet and spat. "I'm not the giving up type, so you can just go fuck yourself." He planted his feet, cold water and mud oozing over the tops of his sandals.
"What a novel insult," Hidan said, his eyes bright within the darkness of his face, as he hefted his scythe, reversed it, and stabbed it towards his own chest-
Katashi lunged, broken sword whistling through the air, a hopeless, mad dash that could accomplish nothing, but he had to do something, not just stand and wait to die-
Hidan's scythe ripped through his chest.
A scream erupted from Katashi's throat, strangled and dying halfway as his own torso suddenly caved in, bones grinding against each other, sternum cracking apart. He glanced down at the gaping wound and gagged, the blue-red shadows of his own lungs- dear God he wasn't supposed to see his own lungs- shuddering with every breath.
All his strength slipped away, and he staggered and fell to his knees, sword dropping from nerveless fingers, hacking into the mud as his fingers spasmed, curled so tightly against his palms that blood sprang, muscle control ripped from him by the agony, his legs shuddering, jerking as hot blood pumped black-red.
This wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to destroy the fleet and go home, and Noboru would ruffle his hair and say 'good job', and he'd find another carving from Varg as a gift.
He dragged his eyes away from the terrible dark stain creeping across his flak jacket, glared at the smug man standing on the edge of the cliff, his lips twisted in a smile even as blood puddled on the ground around him.
"Hate you," he rasped. Hated this cruel, fanatical bastard who didn't seem to have a plan or a motive for anything he did other than the fact that he wanted to see something hurt, something bleed.
He hadn't known the meaning of hatred before- thought he had hated Kiri, but even that slow burn in his gut was nothing compared to the raging firestorm inside him that galvanized him, forced him to suck in a breath- 'don't look down, don't' – and inch his knees beneath him, every shuddering motion of muscles seeming to take an age.
The Isonade's chakra wound blue-black over the gash, skin forming slowly. He felt the chakra surround the splinters floating around the cavity, preventing them from driving into his heart or lungs.
That was good, but he didn't have much chakra left; just enough to keep himself alive.
Lightning lanced white-hot through him and burned up his spine as his arms moved, and bone ground against bone as he slowly pushed his torso upright, kneeling back on his haunches.
"You know you're just screwing yourself," Hidan said, scratching at his chin, completely unconcerned with the canyon in his chest. "You might as well just stay down."
He blinked away involuntary tears and placed one hand in the mud behind him, the sodden earth almost swallowing his fingers, and inched his way upright, tiny, harsh gasps jerking out of him with every motion, his breathing erratic no matter how hard he tried to steady it, to count ten seconds between breaths.
No.
He wouldn't stay down, because he was a shinobi, not a beast as the people of Kiri had said, and men didn't just stay down.
He would meet what came upright, as a man, not a beast.
"Huh," said Hidan, looking him up and down. "I'm surprised you made it. What do you want, a fucking cookie?"
"Fuck you," he snarled, swaying, glancing down at the gash, blinking, swallowing as the black stain on his jacket spread wider and wider, ink racing through paper.
The wound was deep and wide, and fucking painful, but Hidan seemed to have deliberately missed puncturing his lungs or heart-
The wound wasn't big enough or deep enough to kill him as long as the Isonade kept working on it, only incapacitate him and keep the Isonade occupied.
Something niggled at the outside of his thoughts, because somehow this didn't make sense. Somehow the fact that Hidan was leaving him alive-
Crimson beads glinted around Hidan's wrist, red-silver in the rising moon's light.
Wait. The beads, they had to do with that batshit death cult Yugito mentioned, the one that tried to recruit her, that had the crazy name-
Jashin!
"Tell me something about this Jashin." His voice was unrecognizable, thick and bubbly with blood, but it seemed to get the message across, and that was all that mattered. Blood smeared over his fingers as he spoke, the pressure somehow easing the acid pain snaking through him. "What's he the god of?"
Hidan stopped shifting from side to side in his triangle drawing, cocking his head. "'What's he the god of?' Destruction, you little ass! Your life will be the next sacrifice to my god, after we're done with you."
Katashi frowned, thoughts drifting through his dazed mind. They needed him alive for the moment, and Yugito had mentioned something about how Jashin cultists weren't supposed to leave anything alive, so keeping Katashi alive-
It had to be important.
If Akatsuki needed all of the jinchuuriki alive to do whatever it was they wanted to do, then if Katashi-
He swallowed.
If he died, then Akatsuki couldn't use his bijuu, wouldn't have a reason to hunt down the others.
If he died, they would be safe.
And if he used up all of his chakra, then he could kill Hidan, could drag him into the depths and let the ocean destroy him.
But-
He didn't want to die- he was only fifteen, and he'd never been the smartest of the jinchuuriki, but he knew that fifteen years was not long enough.
Not long enough to see the future, not long enough to ever do and see and say all that he wanted to.
Not long enough to see Shinobu marry Shino, or fall in love himself. Not long enough to see Moriko perform her first real jutsu, or come up with his own. Not long enough to finally beat Yugito.
Not long enough.
It could never be long enough, not for him, not for somebody who had spent most of their life being hated, being blamed, for everything, who had never had a real life, not really.
But-
He was going to die either way, so he either died a hero now or a coward who gave in to fear, his bijuu used for the Akatsuki's plan.
And Rei had never given up.
Even in giving up her sword, she had stood strong.
Tears stung in his working eye, sent hot licks of flame over his skin as they rolled over cracked and bleeding burns.
'It will be worth it.'
His arms felt like stone as he slowly brought them together, drying blood rasping against his skin as he bit his lip against the pain of lacerated fingers forcing themselves through seals. The skin on his upper black flared to white-hot agony as if someone was dragging a scalpel over every whorl and twist on the seal, and the Isonade's voice came to him like a wave crashing down over his brain:
::No- no, don't do this, Katashi- we can live. We can live. I promise you-::
'No,' he spat at it, 'you're the reason I'm dying, the reason Rei lost her child. You don't get to- to tell me anything.'
Katashi took a deep breath past the swollen lump of terror lodged in his throat. His stomach roiled, bile clawing acidic up his throat. He needed to vomit. He needed to run from this, but there was nowhere to run to, and…
Really, there were worse ways to die.
If only he had asked Yugito what happened to the dead, where they went, but he never had and now the vast uncertainty that lay before him chilled him to the bone.
But something- something better- would come from this war, from this battle. The jinchuuriki might find a home, a place to accept them, and that was worth everything.
Dying would be worth it.
'It has to be worth it.'
And before the fear could overwhelm him, before he could really comprehend all that he was giving up, before he could talk himself out of it, before he could act like a fifteen-year-old boy, he finished the last seal.
He felt the jutsu almost click into place, felt his chakra- his life- sucked from him into the gaping void of the ocean, felt everything he was wither away and-
His muscles turned to water, gray fog swimming before his eyes as he fell forward, bracing himself against his knee, but his knee was shaking, because he was shaking.
Fifteen years wasn't long enough.
But- he smiled even as it cut his lips to shreds, a painful, terrible smile that somehow hurt worse than anything else-
It would have to do.
Katashi hunched over, his hand clenched over the gaping wound in his side, blood seeping from between his fingers. His other hand was braced on one shaking knee, his face white and screwed up, working eye fierce from beneath his bloody hair.
He looked pathetic.
"Fucking finally," Hidan muttered. Although now he had to haul the kid across the continent, which was going to be as much fun as a sword to the chest, while Kakuzu carried the Kyuubi vessel and no doubt bitched about the war destroying most of his investments.
"You know Jashin's going to be pissed with me for letting you live." He took a step off the Jashin symbol burnt into the ground.
"I'm not going to let you live," the boy rasped, doubling over, spitting out a clot of blood that splattered on the ground.
"Really? I'm about to piss my pants, I'm so frightened."
Katashi lifted his head and stared, his eyes the fathomless black of the depths. Blue-black chakra, dim as a candleflame in a storm, flickered on his skin as he grinned, teeth gleaming white as seafoam.
'Huh-'
Something roared from behind him, a sound like a thousand drums beating at once, subsiding into a low growl, a harsh grating of metal on stone.
The hairs rose on the back of his neck as a shadow crawled forward to envelop him, a great rectangle of darkness with a churning top, the refracted light of the moon opalescent on the ground before him, turning the boy's bloodied hands silver.
He shuddered as drops of seawater spattered the back of his neck, and met Katashi's eyes.
The boy's lips curled in a smile as he dragged one shaking hand up and forced his middle finger upright.
"Bye."
In a roll of thunder the breath was battered out of him, and the ground was torn from beneath his feet as the tidal wave crashed down on him and flung him into the air, tumbling over the edge of the cliff, the wave hurling him down into the ocean.
He saw Katashi collapse onto his knees, then fall forward, the pathetic child's chakra finally gone, before he plummeted.
The water slammed shut over him like the doors of a tomb, his scythe ripped from his hand by the impact, the sharp pricks of splinters but a small annoyance compared to the radiating agony of his newly-broken wrist as he hit the water.
The current pulled him down as he choked on the water pouring into his lungs, the wave crashing down on him and snapping his head back, black spots flashing before his eyes. An arm, still clutching a spear, floated above him, silhouetted against the shimmering disc of the moon. He blinked burning eyes, reached out as the cold seeped into his bones.
He kicked, limbs aching with cold, snarled as the robe dragged his limbs down- 'How ironic' he thought grimly even as the moon receded farther and farther, as the pressure increased, as his ribs ground against each other, lethargy crawling cold and clammy as a snail into him.
The pressure forced him to open his mouth, squeezed the last faint bubbles of air out of rupturing lungs, the water growing darker and darker around him as the boy's power sucked him down into the depths. He could hear nothing but his own heartbeat, stuttering and dying, felt nothing but seawater cold and bitter in his mouth, his lungs, his stomach.
The pressure would crush him out of existence, reduce him to shreds roaming the ocean floor, and he would have cackled if he had air with delight, with envy of the boy's understanding of the best end for a servant of the Lord of Destruction, with thanks for- finally, finally, after a thousand years- his death.
The moon disappeared into shadow as the darkness and the cold consumed him, the currents twisting him, pushing him to and fro as he sank, his robe hauling his limbs down.
The pressure made it hard to force his hand up to press his rosary to his lips. He could no longer see the gleaming sigil of Jashin in the darkness, but could feel it clenched in frozen fingers, a comfort and a light in the shadow.
He coughed on the water, squeezing his eyes shut against the pain as he bent forward, lips pressed to contorted fingers, the thin bones of the metacarpals bending, snapping and sending white-hot shoots of pain up numbed nerves as he felt the stone, kissed it, a last gesture of devotion.
His eyes bulged as the pressure grew too great, and he thought with grim joy,
'I am coming, my lord-'
Before with a great tearing, snapping sound like a green stick breaking, he felt something give, and thought no more.
Naruto slipped through the trees, branches tearing at his clothing, whipping him in the face and opening up a thin slash across one cheekbone. Kyuubi's chakra flared ruby in the darkness, the heat making his eye water as it closed up the wound.
He heard Kakuzu behind him, the other man's steps heavy and plodding, as if he knew that there was no place for Naruto to run to.
Kunai slid cold and hard against his fingers as he slipped his hand into his pouch, extended tendrils of lightning chakra and felt the ends coil around the looped hilt of the kunai, the leather starting to sizzle.
Kakuzu's steps were loud, coming from about seven o' clock-
Now.
He twisted, ripped his hand free, sent the kunai slashing through the air, the thin cords of electricity painting the forest blue-white.
Kakuzu dodged, cloak fluttering in the air behind him like a wisp of smoke, alighting on the floor of the clearing.
Naruto yanked back the kunai, let them float in the air by his face, the heat from the lightning scorching his skin, the musty smell of ozone thick in his nose.
Kakuzu grinned, and suddenly black threads poured from his skin like an explosion of parasites, slithered over the ground- slashed the air on their path towards him, the sound of their movements like maggots squirming within a corpse.
'Fuck-' he flipped sideways, felt the threads of lightning chakra emanating from his fingers shudder as the threads hit them and recoiled, sizzling, the smoke that poured off of them stinking of burning flesh.
Yanked back the kunai and let them fall, scattering on the branches around him, a last resort.
Kakuzu watched them fall, shedding his cloak in one sharp motion. He was dressed in black- how cliché- beneath it, and there were-
Naruto frowned even as he performed a few seals, stiff knuckles cracking with the motions. It looked almost like there were tumors beneath the cloth- four lumpy protrusions stretched the back of his shirt.
He left the tree and landed on the ground, flipped out of the way of a blast of kunai, lightning strikes slicing down into the earth, Kakuzu twisting out of their paths easily. He was fast for being so bulky.
There was a terrible ripping sound like wet paper shredding, and something white, infected with waving threads, broke free of Kakuzu's back.
A… mask?
It was made of white cloth, and turned sightless eyes to him, the black blotch marring the cloth seeming to shift malevolently. The earth shook beneath him, and he sprang just as a spear of soil burst free of the earth beneath him, clods of dirt spattering against his face as he switched with a broken branch, ending up crouched on the lower branch of a tall oak, trying and failing to stifle his heaving breaths.
Okay, so it used earth jutsu. Lucky for him that one of his affinities matched up.
Clones burst into being around him, flooded the clearing in a mass of black, several charging Raikyus in both hands, the light illuminating the clearing and gleaming eerily in Kakuzu's eyes as the threads plunged into the clones, zipped in and out of the bodies, smoke filling the clearing as Naruto charged his own Raikyu and launched himself off the branch, the earth opening for him. He hit the bottom of the hole, the shock making him bite through his own lip, blood smearing warm and wet over his chin.
The information from the dissipated clones filtered into his head, an overlay against the darkness of the soil as he burrowed through the earth to end up beneath Kakuzu.
'Just like the Chuunin Exams.'
God, had it really been that long?
A clone up top sent a blade of wind towards the threads, slashed through several, clearing a path-
Three clones converged on the mask, Raikyus shrieking high and thin as they seared the air and plunged inside the mask, the mask jerking, threads stiffening, retracting into it. White-blue bolts rippled over the charring skin of the mask, the cloth shriveling beneath the relentless assault.
The earth yawned, shoved Naruto up, hurled him up beneath the mask, Raikyu howling as he plunged it straight into the mask, tearing a smoking hole as he shoved the sphere of electricity inside and tore his arm free, hurtling through the air to escape the threads. Landed on hands and knees, ankle rolling beneath him, making him gasp, but at least he hadn't hit a tree- The acrid smell of charred cloth made his eyes water as he scrambled back on hands and knees to escape the oncoming tangle of threads.
"You thought that was going to stop me?" Kakuzu inquired in a tone of sickly-sweet concern. "I have four more hearts, you know." He sounded far too amused with the entire situation.
'Fuck.'
He rose from his crouch, lurched back as his ankle gave out beneath him, catching himself on one hand. Pain radiated warm and pulsing from his ankle, and he could feel it swelling against the inside of his pant leg, every shift in his stance biting deep and forcing air out in a tiny, breathless gasp. He forced his eyes open and glared, hissing as he fed chakra into the earth,
"Several hearts can be stopped just as easily as one." Earth crawled up his leg, the crunching sound of the clods hardening on his sprained ankle almost lost beneath the howling of wind. He flexed his ankle, testing its hold. Good- it kept his ankle still, and hopefully the Kyuubi could fix the sprain before too long. Kakuzu's eyes were riveted to the makeshift bandage.
"Impressive," Kakuzu said, and Naruto bared his teeth at the taint of fear coloring his voice, a slow, dark heat rising up his spine, a certainty that he could- and would- win. "I didn't expect you to know three elements."
"I've kind of made a career out of surprising people," Naruto rasped, blood rolling warm and wet down over his chin with every word. Kakuzu's eyes were riveted to the blood, and a slow, smug smile spread across his face as he seemed to think that the fact that Naruto was bleeding suddenly made him weak.
"You're not the only one who's built his reputation on surprises," Kakuzu said, his teeth stained pink with blood as he grinned, bending forward. A ripping sound filled the air, and Naruto tensed, creating a few clones and spreading them around the clearing as he watched Kakuzu.
Another mask, this one's toothy smile outlined in red, tore itself free of his back, tendrils slithering to the ground to hold it in the air, its blank eyes turning in Naruto's direction. Blood smeared its white cloth, and for a moment Naruto could see the pink-white color of decaying flesh within the ball of tendrils behind the mask, a fragment of the heart of some long-dead shinobi.
"Zukokku," Kakuzu rasped, blood trailing down the backs of his legs even as the tendrils twisted beneath his skin, sewing the gaping wound of his back up once more.
'Mincing pain? Wha-'
The mask answered his unasked question, opening its mouth. A small, golden ball formed between its teeth, expanding with every passing second, which couldn't be good, particularly as Kakuzu was looking extremely pleased with himself, and he really didn't want to move-
The sphere suddenly burst its confines, racing towards him-
Eyes wide and every cell in his body screaming as the flames began to boil against his skin, he slammed his fingers together and dropped straight down into the sinkhole that opened up beneath him, feeling the flame singe his hair as it passed overhead.
The earth closed over him, and for a moment he simply rested in the darkness and silence, his eyes closed as dirt squashed against him. He dragged his hands up, wincing as he shook a beetle off his arm, and pressed them against the side of the sinkhole.
Thin tendrils of chakra spread through the ground, the small shockwaves of Kakuzu's steps reverberating down the chakra strings to his fingers. It was a neat trick that Noboru had taught him; apparently it was modeled after what spiders did with their webs. And while he hated spiders, he had to admit that the idea was a good one.
Yugito and Noboru had taught him one very important thing: it was all well and good to have a bottomless well of chakra and unrivaled stamina, but that meant nothing unless you also knew how to fight smart. He knew he'd never be a great strategist, but he'd figured out a few strategies that worked, and he was sticking with those.
His little finger twitched.
Okay, so he was to the right, about- he focused- fifty feet away, but heading towards his position.
A few shadow clones were still scattered around on the surface, and he released them, blinking as dirt rained down on his eyelashes, the clones' shared knowledge filtering into his brain. Kakuzu had put away the fire mask and gone for a mask with a yellow nose, some sort of… ox?
Probably lightning, then.
He blew out a frustrated breath, rolling his shoulders as they cracked, feeling the earth shudder around him as Kakuzu's steps echoed through the ground.
He was best with wind, so it shouldn't be too terribly difficult to take out the lightning mask.
Kakuzu was about ten feet away, and the cadence of his steps had changed, become harder, more frustrated. 'Good. Get him so angry he can't think straight.' Naruto twisted in the cold embrace of the earth, scrubbed the dirt off his face with the back of his sleeve.
He reached out and placed his hands on the wall of the hole, the earth groaning above him, clods raining down on his head as the ground split open and he leaped straight up with a burst of chakra-
The blue-white light of electricity stabbed into his eyes, but he performed a Kawarimi, the log that replaced him incinerated by Kakuzu's combined water and lightning attacks. Shit. He'd forgotten about Kakuzu's own affinity.
Whatever. It could be dealt with, because it had to be.
He crouched on the branch, performed a seal. A cyclone sprang up around the yellow mask, trapping it within the raging storm. Lightning bashed fruitlessly against the wall of wind, unable to break through as the tendrils shredded apart in the cyclone.
Good. He grinned, relief bubbling up warm and bright from his stomach, and formed two more seals, forming blades of wind chakra that floated above his hands as he leaped down to the ground. The mask seemed to turn its malevolent eyes to him, but he simply reached back and flung the wind knives, the invisible blades slicing straight through the cyclone and driving into the mask, slashing in and out of it like a needle through thread, pulverizing the heart within, the mask's last shriek of rage a roll of thunder.
The mask, shredded into so many pieces of cloth, fluttered gently down to earth like falling leaves.
Kakuzu's tendrils wound over the forest floor like bizarre snakes, glinting in the moonlight as the fire mask disengaged from Kakuzu's bloody back and floated in the air, small nimbuses of flame swirling in the air around it, the glowing red light giving the forest a demonic aura.
"Zukokku." Kakuzu grinned at him, exposing bloody, sharp teeth, even his teeth laced with those terrible black threads.
The mask opened its mouth again, another glowing sphere coalescing in the air before it. It grew, and before he had time to throw himself out of the way it was off, floating inexorably towards him, leaving nothing in its wake but ash and dying fires.
Fire-
Fire needed air to survive. The Zukokku jutsu needed air to survive.
And he knew how to push air towards an object, mold it and shape it to his will, but pull it away?
It wasn't like he had any other options.
The flaming sphere rocketed towards where he crouched on the ashy earth, Kakuzu's eyes wide and triumphant in the gloom.
His clones launched themselves from the trees and the earth, battering Kakuzu with fists and feet even as the fire burned them away and the threads pierced them, leaving them as useless puffs of white smoke. The fire came closer, and Naruto closed his eyes, fingers flickering through seals, as he opened his hands and willed the air to come to him, visualizing strings, weaving a web of wind chakra with measured motions of his fingers.
Air brushed across the back of his neck, lapped at his palms, cold and dry.
Time had slowed, and he seemed to be the only thing moving at a normal speed as his fingers flew through seals, pouring more and more chakra into the web. Sweat rolled down his spine, soaked into the tattered collar of his shirt.
'Come on. Just two more hearts.'
His hands blistered, the pinkish light shining through his eyelids growing brighter and brighter.
'Come on.'
The web thickened, grew, tiny strands branching off like flowering shoots, weaving around each other, forming a thick net of chakra-
And as he felt the first lick of flame at his clothing, he reached out, coiled his fingers around the web, and yanked, tendons and ligaments burning hot and aching, a terrible sound tearing itself free of him as the air shoved its way past, slicing his clothing to ribbons and leaving him choking on nothing, on the total lack of anything to breathe.
And as the flame shuddered and flickered from existence, Naruto released the web, flung out tendrils of chakra to the kunai he had left scattered on the branches- one, two, three threads caught and held- and sprang, the rush of air back into the vacuum propelling him on as he curled his fingers, lightning buzzing hard and high in his ear, and flung the kunai into the mask's heart-
As the mask fell to the earth, he switched with a clone, ended up crouched on another branch, the wind stirring his hair. Naruto sagged, shook his head as Kakuzu smirked, his other hearts still pumping blood, still keeping him upright. God, this was never going to end.
But it had to. Kakuzu only had two hearts left.
"You're doing pretty well for yourself, boy," Kakuzu said to the empty air, glancing around at the trees.
It probably wasn't smart to get down from the trees, but if there was one thing Naruto was not, it was a long-range combatant. He dropped from the branches into a crouch, his scattered kunai rolling beneath his feet as he left the branch, watching Kakuzu stumble around the clearing.
"I think so, myself," Naruto sneered.
Kakuzu twisted to face him, water slashing out from his hands in a sheet of boiling liquid. Naruto dropped to the earth, pressed himself flat into its embrace, boiling water spattering the back of his neck, blisters rising. As the attack passed, he dug fingers into the ground and sprang, Kakuzu pivoting out of the way, following through, his fist slamming into his back.
The air was knocked from his lungs as he flipped in the air, hit the ground and scrambled back, pushing himself upright, involuntary tears streaming down dirty cheeks.
Kakuzu grinned, his smile bestial. "That little jinchuuriki girl you all love so much?" Kakuzu said as if he were discussing the weather. "When we take her bijuu, we'll leave her body for the wolves." He smirked. "Fitting. She is an animal."
The air froze in his lungs. The remaining flames of the Zukkoku bent towards him as if a mighty wind was blowing, and as he looked down he saw chakra crawling crimson up over his skin, washing down over him like a bloody waterfall in reverse, leaving burnt skin and red rivers of weeping veins in its wake. Looked up, saw Kakuzu, his face chalk-white, mouth half-open in a scream. Idly wondered what he must look like, to terrify him so.
Agony lanced up the sides of his skull as his teeth ground together, grew and filled his mouth with the taste and smell of blood, black, serrated claws forcing themselves out of his fingers, glinting reddish-
The Kyuubi was roaring, a thunderous sound that shook inside his bones at the threat to its servant, its possession, and the terrible fire that scorched his throat black mixed with his own fury, the world tinged black-red at how Kakuzu spoke so casually of murdering Moriko-
Moriko that was innocence and light and life-
The grass around him curled and burned black, crumbling to ashes, and Kakuzu's eyes widened-
Naruto's scream shook the world as he closed the distance between them in five steps that left ash and nothingness in his wake. He couldn't breathe for the fury, every muscle coiled with tension, ready to spring, to bend itself to the task of destroying that which threatened what he loved. The threads attacked, beat against the flame surrounding him, boiled away into the air-
Water poured down on him, a last-ditch attempt by Kakuzu to save himself, only to hiss on contact with his skin and evaporate into billowing steam that left Kakuzu's skin blistered and red, falling off in great sheets as he howled, raising shaking hands with flesh sloughing off the fingers-
Naruto's hand closed around his throat, yanked him into the air.
Skin split beneath his claws, blood dribbling red and thick down his arm, and he leered at the look of uncomprehending terror in Kakuzu's eyes. Bent close, uncaring as the aura of fire burned away Kakuzu's clothes, whispered,
"At least a wolf can survive alone." He drew back his free hand, clawed fingers springing open like a switchblade. There was no sound but Kakuzu's thin whimpers like a rabbit caught beneath the gaze of a beast. He could almost taste the fear that shone in Kakuzu's eyes."But you?"
He peeled his hand off Kakuzu's neck, patches of skin sticking to his palm, and let him drop. His hands darted forward, tore through through flesh and bone like a sword through air as fire and blood stained his skin crimson, curled around two laboring hearts, feeling them, slick and blood-warm, pulsing against his palms as he sank his claws into yielding flesh- "You're too weak to live without others' hearts to work for you."
Kakuzu gurgled, a bloody, bubbling sound, and warmth splashed down over Naruto's hand as he tore his claws from scarred flesh, twisting them as he pulled, pulverizing them in one deft wrench. Blood poured over his feet as he withdrew his arms, flung Kakuzu aside as if he were tossing a kunai. The man hit the ground and rolled end-over-end, limbs outflung like a puppet without strings, leaving a black smear on charred grass.
And as he slid to a stop, the rush of demonic chakra cut off as if someone had wrenched a faucet shut. The crimson miasma of chakra glittered, broke apart and drifted into the sky in shards of red light as all the strength suddenly fled from him-
His legs slipped out from beneath him, and pain radiated up his spine as he fell backwards into the ash, coughing as black grains smeared hot and harsh over his skin, crawled into his nose. The stars shone overhead through the smoke and steam, apart from the terror and pain of the world below.
He had to move. Rolled his head to the side and stared at Kakuzu's corpse, biting back a shriek of agony as the motion pulled skin burned by the Kyuubi's chakra, demonic chakra winding over his skin, new, fresh skin rising from the black burns like grass blades after winter.
Kakuzu lay face down in the clearing, his entire back an open, raw ruin, black threads dangling into the hole as blood spread out like an inkblot around him, glittering silver-black in the moonlight.
It was over.
And the very idea of moving seemed too terrifying to contemplate, but Katashi needed him.
But first, to make sure this opponent would never rise again, would never threaten all that he loved. He crawled to the body, leaned forward over it, set a kunai at the base of the skull, and sawed, skin opening over yellowish fat, fat giving way to the white column of the spine. The blade ground against the vertebrae, an earsplitting noise, but he gritted his teeth and pressed on, exhausted muscles bulging in his arms, broke the gray string of the spinal cord. The rest of the neck gave way easily, blood streaking his fingers red as he finally pulled the head away from the rest of the body, the threads seeming to fight him.
Not enough time to incinerate the rest of the body, just the head would be enough. But God, he was tired, and fucking around with some dead psychopath's head while Katashi fought for his life was not his idea of a good time.
Lightning lanced through the skull, lit it up between his hands as a globe of light. It stunk of burning flesh and bone. The eyes went first, the brain liquefying after as he poured more chakra into it.
Good. Done.
The skull thudded to the ground at his feet, a black, charred shape, as he braced himself on the ground and shoved himself upright, staggering towards where he could see moonlight through the broken trees.
It was completely, utterly silent, and only the wind stirred. Something twisted in his gut.
He broke into a limping trot, out from beneath the shadows of the trees onto the rocky cliffs that snaked along the ocean. The headland jutted out into an ocean as calm and flat as a mirror, the clifftop muddy and waterlogged, puddles gleaming from a distance. Not a solitary ripple disturbed the sea's silvered surface, and the sight- the terrible, deadened silence- made him swallow.
It wasn't right-
And he was running, gravel rolling beneath his feet, exhausted muscles burning as he forced them to move, his mouth dry and hot even as every other part of his body was damp with cold sweat. His shadow stretched long and dark against the rocky ground, and only the sound of his panting breaths and the crunch of rock beneath his tread filled the air.
It was silent, and he couldn't see Katashi's jubilant face, and he couldn't hear Kiba's exuberant howls, and everything, everything was all wrong, because Katashi might be- no, he wouldn't think about that, wouldn't remember his brother's face as he last saw it, white and calm and sure.
He had to move faster, had to get to Katashi, had to save him.
He skidded around the corner, rocks flying from beneath his feet and plummeting over the edge, but he had no time to contemplate the drop, clambering over boulders onto the bluff.
The headland was a wasteland of mud, churned into a slop of blood and water, the air thick with the stench of death.
Naruto sloshed onto the path and caught sight- his heart coiled in on itself, tearing itself into pieces- of blue-tinged skin against the brown sickness of the mud. His feet lost traction in the slick, and he fell to his knees, bloody water covering his hands, his legs as he scrambled up the slope, sliding, coughing as the mud sprayed into his eyes, and he ended up kneeling in the slick, sliding his arms under Katashi's limp body, feeling the horrible softness of his torso beneath the flak jacket.
'Oh, God.' It was a gut wound, a chest wound, a lingering, agonizing death- he had seen the poor bastards with them, knew how long, how terribly long it took for them to die, their eyes fixed on Heaven as their throats shredded raw and red from agony. 'Not him- not him, he can't be in pain-'
He didn't recognize his own voice, strangled and terrible, as healing chakra prickled over his skin and disappeared into the gaping void of Katashi's broken body. "Come on- come on- you can't die, Katashi. You can't-" his fist slammed into the ground, mud spattering across his cheek.
"It's the first fucking battle of the war!"
A sob tore from him. Katashi's skin was chilly and damp against his hands- shock- as he tried to force healing chakra into him, but it-
It wasn't working, and he couldn't just force this, not when it came to healing, because he could do more harm than good if he didn't know what he was doing, and he didn't.
He didn't know what to do to save him.
He couldn't save him.
He looked back down, held Katashi closer to him, bile welling in his throat as he looked down at his brother, at the cratered wound of his chest, the bones caved in, blood staining the flak jacket black as Katashi coughed, ribs smashing against each other, the mechanisms of life grinding to a slow halt.
He bent closer, laid a hand on a cold forehead that would soon have no warmth left, and whispered in a voice ragged from the cold and the terror of war,
"Hey, kid, wake up." Katashi was light in his arms, so light, and tears started in his eyes at this, the final confirmation that Katashi- this boy- was only a child, only fifteen, dying in the service of a country that was not his own, because-
A sob tore from his throat. He was dying, here, alone, because Naruto had asked him to.
Katashi's eyelids fluttered, the thin, transparent layer of the third eyelid sliding back, baring unfocused hazel eyes, his gaze rolling sightlessly in Naruto's direction.
"Naruto?" he rasped, his voice bubbling in his chest, blood from the lungs, pink and frothy, spilling over his lips with each word.
"Yeah," Naruto said, his voice shaking- he had to keep it steady, had to, had to keep Katashi calm and still and alive- as he squeezed Katashi's cold hand, "I'm here. Everything's okay."
Katashi frowned, brow wrinkling, his voice soft and almost lost amid the cries of the wounded and the dying on the beach, "Is it over?"
Naruto choked on a sob, bent closer, smoothed brown hair stiff with blood out of the clouding eyes, said, "Yeah. It's over." His lips twisted in a weary, ironic smile, tears falling down his cheeks, the only warm thing left in the world, as he repeated, "It's over."
"Good," Katashi said. Every word he spoke seemed to harm him more, his jacket turning black ever faster, Naruto's hands and arms and sleeves streaked with brilliant crimson, Katashi's heart fluttering as blood left his body and smeared over the ground.
"I can hear the waves," Katashi said, bloody lips curling in a smile. "I missed them for so long, but-" he coughed, the sound crackling like frost on a winter's morning, "-I'm glad I got to see them again."
Naruto looked up, and saw through blurring eyes the final irony. There were no waves, no curls of water lapping at the shore strewn with bodies and wreckage. There were only the wingbeats of a thousand carrion birds circling the battlefield, inspecting their new feast.
"They're beautiful," he forced out, trying to reassure, trying to repent, to give comfort to a boy who was dying for his folly.
Katashi's crushed chest shuddered against his hands, his arms, his heavy head lolling onto Naruto's shoulder as he knelt in the filthy mud, tainted with blood, knowing there was no help coming.
"Good," Katashi breathed, dissolving into coughs, the deep, hacking sounds making him spasm against Naruto, shattered bones grinding against each other.
"Oh, God." He was helpless in the face of death, helpless to do anything but hold his hand, helpless to do anything but sit there and fail to comfort a dying boy. "Please," and his voice cracked and shuddered and broke like Katashi's life was breaking, "Please…" He held him closer, choked on tears as Katashi's nails dug into his arm, "Please… don't die."
Katashi's wracking coughs subsided, and he fell back against Naruto's arms, blinking blinded eyes at the gray sky, flat, tired, promising nothing but more death, more doom, more hatred, more pain.
"I…" he said, words slurred by the blood leaking from his mouth, from his chest, "I think… I think I'd like to sleep now."
No-
Naruto bent closer, curling around his thin form, shielding him from the rain that pelted down around them, his throat clogged with tears, his eyes swollen.
"Go ahead," he said, forcing the words out, feeling like they had taken half of his heart with them, "Go ahead." He choked, rubbed tears out of his eyes with the back of his mud-smeared wrist, "I'll see you…" he pressed his lips against Katashi's forehead, mud and blood smearing cold and greasy across his lips, blood spattered across Katashi's face, the bloodstained mouth, the pale skin that heralded death,
"I'll see you when you wake up."
Katashi's chest rose, taking in a breath. Naruto curled close, stared into those clouded hazel eyes, etched every golden striation on his heart, the face lined with pain.
His brother's eyelids drifted shut, his torn chest fell, and his breath slipped away from him and into the air in one fading, long sound that trailed into nothingness.
He did not open his eyes again.
They buried him on a headland overlooking the sea he loved.
The air Naruto breathed seemed to freeze in his lungs as he crouched at the edge of the grave, spread hands resting on the lip of the pit.
The broken sword's barely-noticeable weight rested on his back, pressing into his spine, scalding with the weight of all it had once done and now would never do again.
It had been Yugito's, once, and it would be hers once more, if only so that some meager remnant of his brother would see the end of the war.
His brother. His brother who fought everyone for the right to have the first squeeze on any new tube of toothpaste, who trailed around after him pestering him for more and better jutsus, who lacked any semblance of common sense.
Katashi lay curled at the bottom of the pit, thin arms wrapped around scarred legs. His eyes were closed, but he didn't look peaceful: the lines of agony on his hollow face were there to stay, tokens of remembrance for the terrible manner of his death. He was skinny and silent and nothing like the bolt of bright energy he had loved.
Earth squelched cold and clammy between his fingers as he caught sight of crusted saltwater- Katashi had been alive and fierce and in the place he loved scarcely an hour ago- gleaming like scratched diamonds in his hair.
"The war will end someday," he whispered. "I'll end it- I'll end it for you."
The stars were harsh and distant above, separate.
He wished he could separate himself from the grief coiled around his spine.
He let chakra flow from his fingers into the earth, shivering as the ground shuddered beneath him, and with a groan the sides of the gaping hole slid together, hiding his brother's beloved, bloody face from view, to sleep in silence forever.
He groped behind himself until his fingers touched hard wood, dragging the makeshift sign forward- made of bits of driftwood from the broken ships sinking in the bay- and set it upright at the head of the grave.
Naruto pounded it into the earth with the hilt of a kunai, the itchiness of the mud drying on his skin a dim annoyance, held at bay by the ball of ice in his chest that was expanding to encompass everything inside him.
Not even the tears trailing clean tracks through the encrusted blood and dirt on his face were warm.
He didn't look at Hinata, who stood with her arms wrapped around herself, or Kiba, his face harsh and silvered in the fall of moonlight through the clouds, or Shino, huddled inside his bulky coat, cradling his broken arm, as he turned the kunai over in his hand. It was cold and hard and utterly, utterly-
Useless.
A thick, choked sob burst from his throat and scraped it raw as he knelt in the mud above where Katashi lay entombed, dying for a war he would never see won, and stabbed the blade into the wood.
The scratching of the kunai against the wood shuddered through his shaking fingers -not shaking with cold or illness but only grief that crawled inside him and left everything blurry and silent- and up his arms as he cut into the splintered remnant of Katashi's final triumph,
'Katashi's battlefield.'
A/N: All comments and criticism are loved, and don't forget to check out the awesome fanart!
