Hey guys!
So, a lot of people have been complaining that I don't let Ami show off and get involved enough. Now, as you know, I'm more worried about having her do too much than too little. That said, I have made a special effort in this chapter to show off what Ami can really do, and what she's learned. Hope you guys like it okay. :) I'll try to do a better job with this.
Also, I know it's a bit boring to go over canon stuff, but I don't really have a choice with a lot of it. I've tried to include some original storyline in this as well to try and keep you guys from getting bored, but there's not much else I can do at the moment. Sorry about that. :(
I do not own Naruto. It belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Hope you enjoy. :)
Names, Summons and Smiles
"Let's go, Ami, Sakura-chan, Sasuke!" Naruto grinned.
"Ready when you are!"
"Yes!"
"Yeah."
Ino smiled at the sight of the reunited team. "It's kind of nostalgic, isn't it, Shikamaru?"
"...It's helpful that he's here to help us defeat the enemy in front of us..." the Nara muttered, "I still don't want to acknowledge him, though."
"It's been a long time since we've all been together." Chouji smiled, "It reminds me of the Chuunin exams."
"I'll become Hokage!" Kiba yelled furiously, "Hey! Are you listening?!"
"Kiba, no one is listening to you now. It's pathetic, stop it." Shino frowned, "That's because it had much more impact when Sasuke said it."
"Ki-Kiba-kun, I'm listening." Hinata stuttered gently, feeling sorry for her frustrated friend, "Everyone wants to become Hokage."
"Let's show them our power!" Naruto cried, raising his hands into the air, the other six of the Rookie ten lined up before him.
"WAIT!" Hashirama ordered.
The Juubi was loading up another monstrous Bijuudama.
"Predecessors, let's get ready for this!" the Yondaime said.
The Ten-Tails loosed the attack, and the walls of the red barrier bulged with its force, swelling like a balloon. The sides held, however, and the Juubi's Bijuudama blew up in its own face, shooting far up into the sky miles above, rippling the tall walls of the barrier as it went.
The dust cleared to reveal the creature groaning.
"Damn Juubi..." Mifune smirked, "Take that!"
"What a powerful barrier, to not let even that pass!" a samurai gasped.
"It's not an easy barrier to create!" Hashirama admitted with a modest smile.
"Wow..." Naruto exclaimed, awestruck.
"The Hokage were really amazing people!" Sakura praised.
"Apparently it wasn't just a rumour." Sasuke said.
"I'm sure glad they're on our side." Ami agreed.
The Shodaime produced five wood clones, all of whom dashed off in different directions.
"I will create an opening on all four sides of the barrier for shinobi to enter it!" he said as four clones arranged themselves around the barrier with one at each side.
The original Shodaime placed another torii over the Juubi's throat.
The army swarmed at all four sides.
Each one of Hashirama's clones placed his hands on the side of the barrier, and an opening, small but wide, formed.
The Joint Shinobi Army rushed through, Team Seven at the front.
Bumps began forming on the skin of the Juubi. They grew heads, arms, feet and various weapons as small pieces dropped off as clones, which ran to meet the alliance.
"It doesn't want you to get to its main body!" Hashirama explained.
Both parties rushed for one another at top speed.
"Don't be scared!" Naruto urged.
Behind Naruto and Sasuke, the girls looked on as their teammates pummelled their attackers.
Already forming seals herself, Ami saw Sakura clenching her fist, ready to attack. She knew what Sakura was thinking.
It had always been the same. The boys had always been stronger. Naruto and Sasuke had always been so much further ahead than either of them, impossible to catch up to. The girls had always stood back and watched as Naruto and Sasuke protected them.
No more.
Sakura slammed her fist into the gut of a clone with axes for arms, and stared hard at the foe's eyeless face.
The purple diamond seal of the Hyakugou no In flickered onto her brow.
At long last, her master's strength had been passed on.
"Now it's filled up, I can finally release it." the Medic-Nin smirked, clenching her other fist.
Naruto picked up on the pinkette's words and glanced back in curiosity.
Sakura dealt the Juubi clone a blow that caved in its stomach and caused the flesh at its back to bulge. She leaped high into the air as the clone went flying back, knocking over its fellows and causing the boys to jump when it passed them, a cloud of dust in its wake. The clone was still sailing through the air when Sakura came back down, her hand drawn back, ready to strike.
With a furious bellow of 'SHAANNAROO!', the earth split under her fingers, gargantuan chunks of terra lifting and throwing up pieces of rock and dirt high into the air.
Naruto stared in shock at the insane display of strength his teammate had just performed.
'I'll never mess with Sakura-chan again!' he thought, sweat dribbling down his face, 'She'll pulverise me!'
Sasuke gave a quiet chuckle, clearly pleased with the Haruno's growth.
"What a monster!" Hashirama laughed, "That might be worse than Tsunade!"
Shizune looked at Sakura with a mixture of respect and just a hint of jealousy. 'She's been saving up Chakra in the same spot for three years... that's extremely precise Chakra control... not even I could perform the Hyakugou no jutsu...'
"I also don't need to use it to look younger!" Sakura said proudly.
Ami eyed the small, but powerful seal on her teammate's brow, proud of her fellow kunoichi.
Sakura had surpassed Tsunade.
Naruto had surpassed Jiraiya.
Sasuke had surpassed Orochimaru.
Without a doubt, her teammates would become the next Sannin.
So where would that leave her?
Ami found her thoughts shifting to a day from her life several years back.
It was grey, rainy day.
Not just drizzle, mind you, but the kind of deluge that made it hard to see ten feet in front of yourself and would soak you to the skin in seconds if you were unfortunate enough to find yourself caught in it.
Staring out the window, Ami thought to herself about how glad she was that Sora hadn't chosen to camp, but instead stay at a ryokan, and how fortunate they were that the ryokan was on a hillside. If the land had been flat, they would probably be up to their ankles in water by now.
The girl frowned to herself, rolling a purple crayon between her fingers. Even water-users couldn't train in this kind of weather.
According to Sora, this was a good thing, as she thought that they could both do with a rest from training. Despite the aching in her arms and legs from repeating the same fighting moves over and over, Ami begged to differ, but the squall kept both of them firmly inside, whether she liked it or not.
The girl turned her head to look at her teacher, who was sprawled out on the floor colouring in a picture of a little girl sitting on a mushroom. If anyone who didn't know her was looking at this woman, they would probably think that there was something wrong with her, but Ami knew better.
Ayano Sora was a powerful woman who had served in the ANBU for several years. She was strong in mind, soul and body and a grueling teacher who took no nonsense during training. Her inside and outside faces remained firmly separate, serious as the grave when teaching Ami and playful as a child when relaxing with her.
As the Konno gazed at her teacher, a thought that had been niggling at the back of Ami's mind for a while came to the surface.
There was no question about it. Ayano Sora was amazing, but there was one thing that she wasn't.
The girl hesitated for several seconds before finally speaking up.
"Hey... Sora-sensei?"
"Mmm?" The black woman continued to colour.
"You know how Jiraiya-sama, Tsunade-sama and Orochimaru were known as 'the Sannin'?"
"Yeah..?" The teacher nodded, picking up another crayon.
"Well... I've learned more things with you than I could have even imagined before, but..."
Sora looked up from her colouring book. "'But' what?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
Ami chewed her lip, unsure of how to continue. "Well... Naruto is being trained by Jiraiya-sama, Sakura is being trained by Tsunade-sama and Sasuke is being trained by Orochimaru."
"So?"
"Well, at first, I didn't think it was such a big deal, but Sakura's learning so quickly-"
"As are you." the sensei pointed out. "Your wind's as good as your water these days."
"I know, but... if we get Sasuke back, those three will probably become the next three Sannin, won't they?"
Sora looked back to her picture and held out her hand. "Probably. Pass me the purple."
Ami frowned, handing her teacher the crayon she had been twiddling. "Anyway, if that does happen... then what will that make me? I won't be a Sannin."
"No, you won't."
Ami threw up her arms in frustration. "Well, they're not about to start calling us 'the Yonin', and I don't want Team Seven to be 'the Sannin and friend'. So what will I be? The one no one remembers?" With slight bitterness, she added under her breath; "I kinda thought that would be Sakura..."
Aside from a slight furrowing of the brow, Sora chose to ignore her student's insult of her Medic-Nin teammate. "You're worried that you won't be part of a set?"
"If you put it that way, it sounds really petty, but I guess so, yeah."
"It sounds petty because it is petty." Sora shrugged.
Ami turned away from her teacher, her face sulky and red with embarrassment. "It's not just the name, you know! I don't want to be left out with everyone thinking that my teammates are better than me!"
Sora stopped colouring and put down her crayon, turning her attention to her student. She looked carefully at the small bit of Ami's face that was visible, studying what little of her expression she could see. "And you think being nameless makes you look less capable... that the title is connected to the power... right?"
The brunette exhaled heavily. "Well... yeah... kind of... I know it seems stupid... and childish... but the thought of being the only one forgotten, or that the others might look down on me because they have more than one name and I don't... it still bothers me... I... I just want to feel like I'm part of the team."
Sora scratched the back of her head. "...Ami."
The brunette looked back at her sensei, her cheeks still flushed.
"They're getting their names as hand-me-downs. You don't need to be part of a set. If you want to be remembered so badly, then make your own title."
Ami looked at her sensei with utter confusion. "Make my own?"
"Yeah. It's not like nicknames come out of nowhere. Get so good that everyone knows who you are, and they'll give you a name. Easy peasy, breezy kneesy. There's no reason for you to be the one nobody knows. You won't be a Sannin, there's no question about that, but there's no reason you can't be just as respected."
"...You think I can do it?"
Sora shrugged, turning back to her picture. "Sure, why not? You work hard enough, anyway."
Ami felt her spirits lift at her sensei's praise and encouragement. "...Alright then!"
Ami ran past the boys and Sakura, still forming seals.
'It's time I showed my team what I can do!' she thought adamantly, 'Sannin or not, I'M NO SPARE!' She placed her hands together in the final seal of the sequence. "Everyone, I'm about to use some techniques that have quite a long and wide reach! Stay at least sixteen metres away, or you WILL die!" the brunette ordered.
The other shinobi heeded her warning and speedily backed off.
With no other opponents around, the Juubi clones quickly turned on Ami.
She was ready.
"Tri-Elemental Symphony!" Ami held her hands out at her sides and clenched them into fists. "Water!" Her right fist was enveloped in blue, bubbling Chakra."Wind!" Swirling, silvery energy surrounded her left. "Ice!" She touched them together.
A sudden burst of cold air swirled out from the girl, freezing the clones where they stood, the water in their bodies having cooled and expanded so rapidly that they exploded in a burst of silvery shards.
Outside Ami's fifteen metre control range, the air was as normal, but every fighter who saw what she had just done backed off even further.
The brunette swung her left hand around quickly, slicing every clone within her range in two with an invisible blade of air. The shards from her ice attack and the liquid water of the fresh bodies supplied the aqua for her next strike. She pumped Chakra through her feet, through the water on the ground and into the bodies of her approaching attackers. The creatures stumbled, nauseated by the girl's energy, though not to the same degree a regular person would be. Using her right hand, Ami pulled the water from both the ground and the bodies of every clone that stepped inside her range. In the same motion, she used that same water to kill the next wave.
"I freeze and desiccate these things so quickly they don't even feel it!" she called to the onlooking shinobi, "So in case anyone thinks I'm being too brutal, relax! They're dead before they know it!"
A blade of water stretched from her right hand to the full length of her range, and a strip of wind the same size and shape hummed in her left. The Konno swung her arms in a deadly display, any clones she didn't kill losing arms, legs and other appendages left, right and centre.
"Can't say the same for those ones, though." she muttered.
Even through the cloak of golden Chakra, Naruto's face visibly paled. "What the heck happened to the girls on our team?! Ami's terrifying!"
Sasuke watched the girl a moment, a small smirk playing on his lips as he grunted in agreement. 'It's true...' he thought, 'That's anything but average.'
Sora watched her student's performance with pure pride. 'Three elements at once... she's only sixteen and she can already do that. What's more, I trained Ami to use Tsukunaimen by practising on her own Kage Bunshin. That way she experienced it from both ends. Not only did she learn to respect the power, but she also learned how to use it most efficiently. With the mental and emotional strength to not only overcome, but learn from such experiences, she'll become stronger than I could ever dream to be... That girl will get a name.'
A particularly large, spiked Juubi clone raised its ugly head above Sakura, who looked up at the monster not with fear, but challengingly.
"Sakura?"Ami called. "Want to wreck it?"
"Yeah, let's do it!" the pinkette replied, grinning at the meaning she knew underlaid Ami's suggestion.
The Konno ran forward and Sakura went to meet her, the two girls combining their abilities nearly ten metres apart. The boys looked on in confusion as Ami wrapped a harness of water around Sakura's head, shoulders, chest and limbs, and Sakura beamed, eyes set on several of the Juubi clones around them, fists clenched and set in a fighting stance. Ami too, was smirking.
"Lilac Combination;-" Ami began.
"Cherry Bomb no jutsu!" Sakura finished.
In the blink of an eye, Ami had swung Sakura around by the cord, flying at the Juubi minion that had previously towered over the medic. Sakura smashed into the creature with a fierce kick and the beast went flying just as she was being yanked back, the harness' support allowing her to withstand such speed and suddenness of motion without even the slightest injury. Like a human wrecking ball, she was turned like a flail around to strike flawlessly at another huge Juubi clone, caving its head in like an eggshell.
Naruto gaped outright, while Sasuke's mouth fell open just a little, eyes wide.
For Sakura to move and strike, releasing Chakra at just the right instant, and for Ami to move the girl in perfect manner without harming or weakening the strikes of her teammate in the slightest, their synchronization was perfect. The girls has practised this, and many other combination techniques together thoroughly during their years together in Konoha without either of the boys. Named for the combination between what they had chosen as their representing colours; pink and light blue respectively, the set of combination jutsu between solely them were all named as 'Lilac'.
In their stupor, Naruto and Sasuke realised a little later than they should have that yet another gigantic monstrosity that had budded off of the Juubi was lumbering towards them.
In unison, the two boys spun around at the sound of heavy breath, just in time to see Sakura ramming her fist into the abomination's face, sending it flying.
Ami released the technique binding the Haruno, and Sakura dropped out of the air down beside Naruto and Sasuke. Ami made her way over quickly, pulling her Chakra-filled air and water with her, following Sakura's example and falling into formation beside the boys, all four of them back-to-back in a circle.
Both girls grinned, elated by adrenaline and pride at the dumbfounded looks on the males beside them.
Naruto swallowed, gawking at the scene the girls had cleared in their wake, still overwhelmed.
"Don't get in my way, Naruto." Sasuke frowned, doing what he could to smooth out his facial expression once more.
The Uzumaki seemed to come back into himself a bit at that. "I won't, damn it!"
Sakura grinned. "Yes! If you guys are fighting, I can snatch the Hokage seat myself!"
"Sakura-chan, too?!" the blond spluttered, "At least Ami is on my side!"
The Konno smirked. "Actually, since everyone else is doing it..."
"Are you serious?!"
The brunette laughed. "Why not? I already own a girl's dorm, so I'm used to paperwork and minding people! I'm a step ahead of all of you, I have work experience!"
Naruto groaned.
"This time we'll go back-to-back!" Sakura declared.
"You got it!" Ami concurred, forming an eight-foot axe of ice and passing it to Sakura, then severing her connection with the item.
Naruto and Sasuke looked a little scared to see how easily the Haruno buried the frozen weapon into the neck of a twelve-foot enemy, lopping off the hideous bulge that no doubt represented its head. The medic held it as easily as a butterknife.
"Team Eight are going too!" Kiba shouted, "There's no way we're losing to Team Seven!"
"Yeah!" Hinata agreed.
"Don't think that you're the only one who can use this skill!" the Inuzuka barked, forming a Kage Bunshin.
"You've only got one!" the blond cried, "Even when I was a kid-!"
"Just because I've got one extra doesn't mean just three times the power!" Kiba interrupted, jumping onto Akamaru's back with his clone and forming seals. "We're going to crash into the enemy!"
The canine barked in agreement.
In a large burst of smoke, the three fused into a single form, a gigantic, white dog with three heads, massive teeth and slit eyes.
Kiba's voice boomed from one of the chimera's mouths. "Sasuke's gag was disgusting but but strangely emotionally uplifting!"
The trio surged forward in a furious rolling motion, slashing Juubi clones in half as they span through mid-air.
Silent and efficient as always, Shino placed a fist gently against the side of a large enemy, and a single insect scuttled inside.
Without warning, the foe all but disintegrated before him, eaten alive by bugs the size of people.
Ino shrieked in horror. "That's disgusting! What the hell is with that?"
"Summoned Giant Bugs." Shino explained calmly, "If you give them the wrong amount of Chakra, they would eat through flesh and grow rapidly. Those born through parasitism are the hardest of bugs."
Meanwhile, Hinata pounded an enemy with successive strikes of Gentle Fist, back to back with her cousin.
She made it to thirty-two strikes, then faltered slightly, never having passed that number before. But then she thought of Neji and of Naruto, and Hinata Hyuuga took the final confident step that Neji had taught her was key to connecting the sixty-four strikes. Her enemy flew back into the dirt, struggling for the energy to so much as look at her, incapable of getting back up.
Hinata's hands ignited with Chakra.
'Naruto-kun has always working hard at moving forward.' she thought, 'And I have always been by his side!'
Blue, fiery lions burned at her fingertips.
"This time, I will go all the way with the Hakke Sixty-Four fists!" she declared.
Her eyes were as fierce and strong as the beasts at her hands.
'I will always move forward! Even if it's just one step!'
Neji beamed at the sight of her blazing so proudly. A true lady and heiress he was willing to stand by.
Team Ten wasn't about to be left out.
"InoShikaChou is ready for action!" Ino said, the boys at her side.
"Formation E!" Chouji grinned.
Shikamaru formed a seal. "We didn't even bother competing before, seeing as it wasn't even the Chuunin Exams, but this is a war now!"
Chouji grew to a giant as Shikamaru joined the Akimichi's shadow to his own.
Ino closed her eyes, her hands forming a sign, and locked on to the prescence of twenty-five enemies, placing her hand on the back of Shikamaru's head to transmit this information.
Chouji bounced forward, rolling in a ball, and knocked all enemies in his path flying. Shikamaru held on to the boy with his shadow like a string on a yoyo, Ino as the brains of where to aim.
An attempted surprise attack from the side was instantly foiled.
"Guys, I'm going to get bigger!" Chouji said, "I'll be a lot heavier, but will you be able to handle it?"
"Yeah!" Shikamaru confirmed, "That's still light, actually!"
"What are you talking about?" Ino yelled, "You're just getting competitive, you idiot!"
Sai swooped down on the Juubi with a bird made of ink, intent on an aerial strike.
"I'm a part of Team Seven too, you know!"
Naruto cried out his name in alarm and Ami, Sakura and Sasuke looked up in surprise.
One of the Juubi clones lobbed a spike at the black-haired boy and destroyed the bird in a burst of dark splatters. Sai plummeted from the air.
Naruto caught the boy with an arm of Kurama's yellow Chakra, and pulled the boy to safety. "Sai! You alright?"
Ami glanced around herself and saw that things were taking a turn for the worse. Their enemies, even the bigger ones, were multiplying. 'This isn't good...'
Besides a cut on his cheek, Sai was unhurt.
"Naruto, can you still give the others Chakra?" he asked.
Naruto shook his head. "Not right now! I haven't saved enough of Kurama's Chakra!"
"You need to mow down the big ones first and slip close enough to beat its true form." Sai explained. "That's the only way. It isn't close enough to jump at in one go, but there's enough time for us to repel the enemy's attacks and cast some seals... though if you don't have sufficient Chakra, you might suffer severe wounds... and the medics can't make it up front."
As if linked by thought, Naruto, Ami, Sakura and Sasuke all bit their thumbs unanimously.
Sasuke placed his hand on the ground. "Mowing down and slipping past... that's no problem."
Naruto pressed a palm to the dirt. "In addition to jumping and getting closer in one go... I'd have to avoid his attacks, this guy packs a serious punch!"
Sakura's hand was in the dust beside them. "I'm all ready here for healing anyone who gets serious wounds!"
Ami's fingers touched the earth. "Fighting enemies, big or small, this guy has never let me down!"
In four gigantic bursts of smoke, four huge summons appeared.
Naruto had Gamakichi, who had grown considerably since the last time they had seen him, a cigarette in his mouth, already taking after his pipe-loving father.
Sakura's aid was Katsuyu, the white and blue slug of Tsunade herself.
Sasuke's summon was a large, blue snake that none of them had seen before.
Ami had a huge, black catfish that Sora had introduced her to.
All four shinobi moved to the tops of their summon's heads.
Naruto looked momentarily confused. "Huh? ...GAMAKICHI?!"
The frog smirked. "Dad is busy, so I came in his place. Surprised?"
"No, no, I mean... You got HUGE! I thought Akamaru was fast!"
"You humans are too slow! By the way, what's the matter?"
"See that huge thing over there?" Naruto asked, pointing at the Juubi, "I need you to get close to it with one jump!"
"There are a lot of huge things. You mean the biggest one?"
"Sasuke-sama, what do you need?" the unfamiliar serpent asked.
"Just proceed straight on." the Uchiha said confidently, activating his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. "I'll take care of the main body."
"Sakura-chan, you were finally able to activate the Hyakugou seal!" Katsuyu praised. "Tsunade-sama will definitely-"
Sakura cut her off. "Katsuyu-sama, listen to me. Please split up and attach one part of yourself to everyone in the alliance. We must help them recover!"
"I didn't think I'd be able to see the Kuchiyose deadlock again!" Minato smiled.
The Sandaime smiled, seeing the influence of his former students on Kakashi's in a brief moment of nostalgia.
The Fourth Hokage's gaze turned on Ami with Namazu, eyeing her curiously. "I wonder about that other girl on Naruto's team, too. Unusual to have four people. She's been pretty impressive so far."
The black catfish spoke to the Konno, surprise in his deep voice. "Oh, Ami-chan! It's been a while!"
"Sorry about that, Namazu-sama." the girl said gently, "You're very strong, but I can't go calling you just anywhere."
"Oh, no, I understand. Don't you worry about it. So, what do you need?"
"You see the large group of white creatures up ahead? I need you to help me slash their numbers so that the other soldiers can fight more easily and get to the biggest one behind them."
"Leave it to me."
"Thanks!"
"GO!" Hiruzen ordered.
"Go, Aoda!"
"Jump, Gamakichi!"
"Please, Katsuyu-sama!"
"Thanks, Namazu-sama!"
Aoda sprung straight ahead.
Gamakichi leaped into the air.
Katsuyu split into thousands of pieces.
Namazu bounded forwards.
Sai threw up his arms to shield his face from the dust they kicked up. 'This is the previous Team Seven...'
Juugo looked on, watching Sasuke in silence.
Aoda slithered through the fray, his quick, slim body slipping between foes with ease.
High above in the air, Gamakichi deflected any projectiles the clones aimed at him with his sword.
"Nice, Gamakichi!You got bigger and better!"
"Yeah, no problem!" the frog replied, nonchalant. "Just hurry up and do the seal! I'll jump right on it!"
"Got it!"
Katsuyu's clones were spreading out across the battlefield, attaching to soldiers everywhere. Many were surprised by the sudden appearance of the creatures, but quickly relaxed when they saw their injuries being mended before their eyes.
Shizune beamed at Sakura's progress. 'She just activated the Byakugou seal, but she can already use Tsunade-sama's remote healing. Sakura, you're a really skilled girl!"
On Ami's mark, once the boys had passed, Namazu flung the Konno from his head towards their enemies and dove into the earth, burrowing underground to thrash about below the surface. Massive tremors shook the land beneath the army of large clones and brought many to their knees as the catfish tunnelled around just underneath them.
Ami ploughed through the enemies overhead, riding just above the dirt in Kaze Engo both to avoid losing her balance to Namazu's earthquakes and for increased speed. The girl shot forward, propelled by her jutsu, and formed two fifteen metre long blades, one of water and one of wind, that she held out at her sides, slashing their unsteady foes in half.
In front of Sasuke and Aoda, two clones threw up large, spiked walls.
"Sasuke-sama..." the snake began, but the Uchiha cut him off.
"Just go."
Naruto formed a Rasenshuriken, coming down towards the Juubi from above.
Covered in black flame from Susanoo, Sasuke's sword lengthened and sliced through the wall and the clone holding it like soft butter. He raced on through atop Aoda's head, cloaked in the Susanoo and loading its crossbow, taking aim at the Juubi from the side.
All eyes were on the boys.
Naruto loosed the Rasenshuriken.
Sasuke fired the crossbow.
Sasuke's arrow pierced the centre of Naruto's attack, and the two techniques combined to form a huge, cartwheel of black flame that struck the Juubi's back.
The Ten-Tails gave a deafening roar of agony.
The alliance cheered.
Tobirama looked on in amazement. "They combined their Chakra together in the same ratio! That's hard even for an experienced duo!"
Minato beamed at the sight. "A shuriken like a windmill and an arrow blacker than polished lacquer! We could call it Shakuton Kourin Shippuu Shikkoku no Ya Zeroshiki! ...nah."
Naruto smirked as Gamakichi landed next to Sasuke and Aoda.
The Uchiha boy stared at the Ten-Tails with unforgiving eyes. "Burn it down." he said, quiet, but clear.
Sai frowned. "You also heard what Sasuke said."
Juugo looked towards the ANBU Root.
"What's his real goal?" the black-haired boy asked.
Juugo turned his eyes back on Sasuke and Naruto. "...Who knows?"
Sai was silent a moment, then jumped over to Sakura, who stood atop Katsuyu's head.
"Sakura, can I ask you something?"
"The Bijuu are inside that big thing, too!" Naruto shouted, "When it's weakened enough, put out those black flames! Kurama and I will take out the Bijuu!"
Sasuke kept his eyes locked on the Ten-Tails, his face set. "No. I'll burn it down."
Naruto bit his lip, furious at the Uchiha's arrogance. "HEY! SASUKE!"
Sasuke ignored the Uzumaki, then started as the Juubi dropped the burning chunk of white flesh from its body. He cursed.
A group of massive clones ran at the boys and their summons.
"Since I don't know him that well, I can look at him objectively." Sai said, "I can't trust him as a friend. How do you sincerely feel about him, Sakura?"
There was a moment of silence.
"It's okay..." Sakura answered quietly, "Sasuke-kun finally came back... I'm glad he did... and I trust him."
Her words were sincere, but Sai knew the smile she gave him was fake.
Obito dropped from a warp in space and fell harshly to the ground, coughing blood with a hole in his chest.
Madara, who had been toying with one of the Shodaime's clones, was covered in the black flames of Susanoo. He spotted Obito supine on the ground and formed a seal, frowning slightly.
Obito roared in pain as dark bars sprung out from within his arm, the right side of his body turning an inky black. He rolled over onto his hands and knees, shaking and sweaty, his face twisted in pain.
Obito's hands formed a seal and he let out a cry of anguish.
"Obito, you're just a spare I prepared so that I could be resurrected." Madara said. "It's time that you repaid me for saving your life all those years ago"
Hashirama knew that Madara was controlling Obito's body. He saw a white substance rising off Madara's body, and realised it to be caused by Rinne Tensei, a forbidden technique. If the jutsu was completed, Madara would come back to life.
"BOYS!" Hashirama cried, "YOU'RE THE CLOSEST! STOP THE PERSON ON TOP OF THE JUUBI, NOW!"
Leaving Naruto behind to fend off the large clones alone, Sasuke raced for Obito, ignoring Naruto's calls for him to wait.
Hashirama created another six wood bunshin, his limit within the barrier.
Tobirama created two Kage Bunshin, also doing his best.
The Yondaime formed a seal as the Shodaime's clones rushed at Madara.
"Are you preparing to attack me in case you can't get to Obito in time?" Madara asked. "You should know that you can't stop me with simple wood clones."
Obito groaned again, his black hair fading to grey, then white.
Slithering up the Juubi's side, Aoda was gripped by hands that sprouted from the monster's flesh.
"That's enough, Aoda! Disappear!" Sasuke ordered, leaping from the serpent's head.
"Yes, Sasuke-sama!" the snake obeyed at once.
The Uchiha activated his Susanoo mid-air and took aim at Obito with his crossbow. He shot a fiery, black arrow at Obito, but it was blocked by three black bars, which sprang out from the man's arm.
Sasuke cursed, dispelling his Susanoo transformation and running at the man.
Hashirama and Tobirama's clones dashed at Madara, while Naruto rode Gamakichi towards Sasuke and Obito.
Sasuke had nearly reached Obito, but before anyone knew what had happened, the Yondaime was before the man, and slashed his former student wide open from his gut to his shoulder, gore spurting from Obito's flesh.
The black-haired ninja looked at his former teacher and gasped a single word.
"Sensei..."
Minato's eyes widened with horror as he realised a terrible truth.
Obito wasn't just responsible for this war.
The sweet young boy who had looked up to him, been his student, and asked him for advice was the same man who had tried to take control of the Kyuubi sixteen years ago, causing the deaths of both the Hokage himself and Kushina, orphaning their son the day he was born, and nearly destroying Konoha.
Disbelieving, Minato asked a question he already knew the answer to.
"Obito... was it... you?"
The Uchiha said nothing. He didn't need to. The truth was clear in his face.
This wasn't Obito's first betrayal. It was his second.
Hashirama and five of his clones stared hard at Madara. "Which one is it?"
Madara smirked at the Shodaime, a wood clone sliced in half laying before him. "That was a failure, but, oh well."
"Did they do it?" a ninja called from the battlefield, looking up at the shinobi beside Obito.
"It's the Yondaime!" a shinobi said, pointing at the blond-haired man.
"The Hiraishin mark never disappears." Minato said quietly, looking down sadly at the Uchiha, who was sprawled on the ground, face-down and covered in his own blood, on the verge of death. "I never told you that, did I Obito? ...If you were alive, I would have liked you to become Hokage. ...Why did things turn out like this..?"
Sasuke stepped over to Minato and Obito. "It was pretty quick in the end. Now we only have to seal that zombie and the war will be over. We'll take care of this giant too."
"How can you be sure that the war will end?"
Sasuke and Minato looked down in shock at Obito, who smirked up at them as he spoke.
In an instant, the Juubi vanished underneath their feet and the duo found themselves falling through the air. Naruto caught them safely with arms of yellow Chakra and pulled the pair down onto Gamakichi's head beside him.
"He blocked Madara's attempt at controlling him because this is what he wanted from the start!" Naruto explained. "He's become the Juubi's Jinchuuriki!"
Down on the battlefield, Ami, Sakura and the other ninja of the alliance looked up in shock at the sudden disappearance of the ten-tails' main body.
"What's going on?! Did they kill it?"
Ami slashed another group of enemies in half, glancing up at where the Juubi had been. 'They can't have killed it. If they had, these clones would have disappeared, right? What's going on?'
"Hinata!" Sakura called, "Were you watching?"
"Y-yes!"
"Can you explain what happened?!"
Ami came over to join the girls, dropping Kaze Engo and halting her attacks for the moment as she listened.
Hinata swallowed. "The Juubi was... completely absorbed by that person. The Chakra confirms it."
Sakura's eyes widened. "Does that mean..."
Ami's mouth fell open slightly at this news. 'He's become the Juubi's container?!' the girl thought, filled with shock and horror. She stared up at Obito.
The entire right side of the Uchiha's body was covered with white scales and five spines stuck out at both his shoulders and lower back. Nine tomoe had appeared in his back, with a large tenth one with a Rinnegan-like pattern above them.
Hashirama formed a seal and a toori came down from the sky, pinning Obito to the ground. More toori followed, each one larger than the last.
To their dismay, this incredible barrier was shattered in seconds.
The soldiers of the alliance looked on in horror as Obito proceeded to grip all four sides of the barrier with hands of Chakra that sprouted from his body, and rip the wall apart.
"No way!" Gai gasped, Lee looking up beside him, "He destroyed the Shiekihyoujin!"
"Everyone, be careful! We don't know what that man's going to do now that he's gotten hold of the Juubi's power. He destroyed the barrier!"
Ami caught a glimpse of the Hokage as they crossed the fray of Juubi clones and moved towards where Obito was. She called out to her summon, not wanting him to get caught up in the crossfire of the fight with the Hokage and Jinchuuriki.
Namazu turned below the surface and made his way towards his summoner and the rest of the alliance, shaking the earth with more and more magnitude as he approached. The soldiers cleared a space for the incoming catfish, and he burst from the surface, wriggling out from his hole in the dirt.
"Thank you, Namazu-sama!" the brunette said, turning to look the dark creature in the eye, "You're not injured, are you?"
"Not at all!" the summon boomed proudly, "I am completely fine! And you, Ami-chan?"
"I'm okay! You did brilliantly, Namazu-sama! Together we were able to take out quite a few of them!"
About a minute later, there was a long series of powerful explosions that threw many large Juubi clones flying up like ragdolls.
Beside them, a ninja cried out in frustration. "I don't care if it's the Juubi's Jinchuuriki or whatever, the Hokage are fighting! We should go too!"
"Don't be rash!" Darui said quickly.
"Everyone, don't get close to it yet!" Hashirama ordered.
The dust cleared to reveal Obito, unhurt by even the Nidaime's chain reaction of strong explosions.
He hovered above the ground, manipulating a kind of dark matter that seemed to be both liquid and solid at once. The Uchiha sent a flurry of massive shuriken at the Hokage. A small hole opened up in his right hand and a ball of this black substance stretched through the gap, forming a spinning blade. The Juubi's Jinchuuriki moved forwards through his own shuriken, cutting hunks off the projectiles as he moved towards the Hokage. He then moved the dark material back through the hole in his hand and shot out a black pole, which struck the Sandaime in the shoulder. With his left hand, he gripped Hiruzen's head. A second ball of dark energy formed behind this palm, and another hole formed. The Third Hokage's upper half was obliterated by the force of this energy rushing through Obito's hand into his face.
Lying on the ground, the lower half of the Sandaime's body was stitching itself back together.
Obito turned slowly to face the others.
The rest of the alliance kept their eyes on the Hokage, Naruto, Sasuke and Obito.
"We can't fight yet." Sakura said calmly, "Right now, all we can do is analyse Obito and his fighting style to try and figure out how we should go about attacking him when our chance does arise. Don't lose focus."
'Sakura's right.' Ami thought, silently agreeing with a nod. 'I can't tell what they're saying, but I can see the fight pretty well. I need to learn what I can and help however I can.'
Hashirama's original gritted his teeth. "At this point, I should go too." he said, dashing forwards.
Madara appeared before him, blocking the Senju's way. "I'm not gonna wait anymore, Hashirama!"
The Shodaime's brow furrowed even further. He was eager to get to the other Hokage, but Madara wouldn't be quick to beat.
Rushing through the air at his opponents, Obito's body suddenly swelled to epic proportions, bulging grotesquely. He crashed to the ground, disorientated. The Uchiha had yet to adjust to the power of the Juubi.
Ablaze with yellow Chakra, Minato ran at him, a clone by his side and three-pronged kunai knives in his hand.
Suddenly, the ground beneath Gamakichi lifted, and both the frog and Naruto were thrown into the air. His torso stretched like a snake, Obito had tunnelled underground, black matter in his hand, his swollen lower half still lying in the dust and crags of rock. A black spike shot from Obito's hand towards Naruto, still up in the air. Sasuke blocked the attack with a partial Susanoo.
Distracted by the chaos around his son, Minato and his clone were too slow to react to Obito's next attack, when his legs stretched out from the mass of white flesh and kicked out, knocking the Yondaime and his bunshin back.
Still burning with the black fire of Susanoo, Sasuke landed before Obito.
In an instant, both Sasuke and Naruto's faces had been seized by Obito, dark spheres forming behind his hands as he gripped the boys.
Just in time, the Naruto reached out with two arms of Chakra to grab both Sasuke and his father and Minato teleported the boys and himself away to a safer spot near Gamakichi.
Obito's attack hit nothing but air, and his body began to bloat yet again. With great difficulty, the white-haired man rose an arm and fired a black shot from it. It hit far from the boys and Minato, expanded and exploded with a huge amount of power, but only seemed to succeed in injuring Obito himself.
"Why is he hitting himself?" Ami asked, furrowing her brow.
"He still can't seem to control his body." Hinata explained, voice shaking a little, Neji watching beside her with his hand on the girl's shoulder.
Obito released a monstrous roar as his unstable body continued to engulf him.
It was a horrifying sound that seemed as though it had come straight out of hell.
Then, from within the chaos that was his own form, Obito stabilised. His body returned to a coherent form, and he stood up straight, his appearance having changed yet again.
Two horns, one longer than the other had sprouted from his brow. His white, scaly skin had stretched away from his body to form a horned cape of sorts, and six tomoe sat in a line across his chest. A black monk's staff rested in his hand. Seven black spheres of energy rotated about his head.
He blocked an attack by Minato with a black bar and the Uchiha removed the Yondaime's arm in the scuffle.
Minato appeared back beside the boys, but a black energy ball had been stuck to his wounded shoulder without his noticing. The ball began to glow with a white light, ready to obliterate them all. Sasuke threw up a shield for himself and Naruto using Susanoo as the fourth Hokage reached for the sphere, intent on teleporting away with it.
Instead, the Nidaime appeared, snatching the ball and moving to behind Obito, where it detonated. A second Nidaime, the original, appeared beside the boys and Fourth Hokage.
Meanwhile, Hashirama and Madara were having their own battle, Madara's Susanoo in full swing, Hashirama riding atop a gargantuan elephant of wood.
"Don't get in the way, Madara!"
"There's no time, but with things like this, I have to do something! I'll keep you a little longer!"
The ninja of the Joint Shinobi Army looked on in both amazement and terror, some feeling rather useless at their inability to be of any help, while others simply watched in awe.
"Wow!"
"They're on a whole other level!"
"This is how our predecessors used to fight... Amazing!"
"Indeed! If we were to intervene, we'd only be in the way!"
Out from the crater in the earth rose Obito in a black sphere. The ball cleared away to reveal him inside, unhurt. He had blocked the attack, and quickly.
Sasuke and Naruto rushed at Obito, and Sasuke attempted to ignite the man with Amaterasu. The black fire was put out before they could catch by rapid spinning of Obito's staff, but the boys were not put off.
Naruto created a Rasenshuriken as Sasuke created Kagutsuchi, black flames of Ameterasu that he held in his hand, and the pair combined their jutsu to form a single technique, a spinning windmill of dark fire and spiralling wind.
Yet again, Tobirama was behind Obito.
Without warning, Minato threw himself in front of the boys and took their attack head on.
With this distraction, Tobirama took his chance and touched Obito on the shoulder. In the blink of an eye, Minato was replaced by Obito and Tobirama, the burning Rasenshuriken driving itself into the Uchiha's chest. Obito and the Nidaime went flying, and Tobirama teleported away, the Jinchuuriki's body burning.
The black flames swelled to a gigantic size.
Far away, while Neji relayed aloud what was happening down below, Ami and Sakura jumped at the size of the inferno.
"What about Naruto and Sasuke-kun?"
Both Hyuuga turned their gazes onto the aforementioned pair.
Neji furrowed his brow, looking a bit irritated.
"Are the guys okay?" Ami demanded, worried by the look on the brunette boy's face.
Hinata nodded slowly. "Yes, they're fine. And they look very pleased."
Ami rose a brow in confusion. "Huh? 'Pleased'? What do you mean?"
The Hyuuga blinked slowly. "They're both... smiling."
"Smiling?" Sakura queried.
The girls of Team Seven looked at each other, mirrored faces of surprise and confusion, then turned back towards the battle.
Despite herself, Ami grinned. 'No wonder Neji's annoyed. They're rather smug to be smiling in this situation.'
Thanks for reading!
As always, constructive criticism is welcome. I was apprehensive about giving Ami a summon. In fact, it was one of the things I had been confident I would not give her. However, with all the others having summons, I figured I had better come up with something.
Namazu is based on a mythical giant catfish called Namazu, or sometimes Onamazu, from Japanese mythology. This catfish was said to cause earthquakes by thrashing about in the mud below the islands when not restrained by a stone atop its head, which was held in place by the God Kashima, who once in a while dropped his guard.
Ami wouldn't normally be able to use Tsukunaimen on enemies she isn't directly touching, but when she uses the Tri-Elemental Symphony technique, she is able to make her Chakra travel the whole length of her range, rather than the usual few centimetres, as long as it has a medium to move through with great ease. Damp earth wouldn't be enough, it would need to be very soggy ground (mud, bog or marsh) or very wet stone. Snow or ice would also work.
P.S. Anyone else feel really sorry for Sai when everyone else was being so awesome and there he is, just getting shot out of the sky? Kishi could have let him do something... :( It was kind of funny, in a sad way. :L