Colors of Life and Death series
Truth in Dreams
by Songbird21

Chapter 36

Naruto's eyes opened to see Sakura working on healing his wound while everyone else held Kakuzu off. He began to sit up but she pushed him back down.

"Oh no you don't. I know you heal fast but you still need to give me a minute," Sakura said in a very motherly fashion.

"Dammit, Sakura-chan. I know when I'm okay to fight," Naruto protested as he tried to get up again.

Sakura cocked an eyebrow. "Don't make me tie you down." She pushed him to the ground again and her expression became serious. "You know, this wound reminds me of when Sasuke...." she didn't finish her sentence and instead doubled her efforts.

Naruto frowned. "Sakura-chan...."

"It's okay," Sakura said. "I'm long over it. It's just that it reminds me of how you almost died that day, and all I did was sit in the village, expecting you to bring Sasuke back to me." She completed the healing jutsu and began bandaging the closing wound. "I was so useless back then," she said quietly.

Naruto smiled. "Well you sure do a damn good job now," he said, rubbing the spot where the hole in his chest had been. "With healing and fighting," he said as Sakura helped him to his feet.

"That hurts you son of a bitch!" Hidan yelled as Lee switched his grip so that he was holding him by the hair.

Lee sighed and rolled his eyes. He was about to accommodate the talking head just to get him to shut up when he saw the back-up team of anbu from Konoha headed his way. "Oy, everyone!" he said.

The team changed their direction just a bit to meet up with Lee. "Where are the others?" said a woman's voice from behind an anbu mask.

"They're still fighting. Here!" Lee tossed something in the direction of the anbu who had spoken. "Take this!"

The anbu caught the object and then let out a shriek of surprise. "Why the hell did you throw a head at me?"

"Now that's just fucking rude," Hidan said in protest of being referred to as an object.

"WHOAH!" the anbu said, dropping Hidan fifty feet to the forest floor.

"You stupid biiiiiiitch!" Hidan yelled the entire way down.

Lee sighed and shot down after Hidan, catching him a few feet from the ground. "This guy," he said, handing the head back to the anbu, "is a prisoner. Please take him to the Hokage. I'll give my full report when I get back."

The anbu stuffed Hidan in a bag. "Dammit, bitch! First you drop me and now you're cutting off my view!"

The anbu quickly pulled on the ties to close the back. "That's gonna get annoying as hell real fast!" She handed the bag off to another anbu. "You take it. I'm the captain. I don't have time to be running errands." As her subordinate left with the bag she turned back to Lee. "Lead us to them."

Tenten brandished her katana and dumped chakra into the blades. They glowed brightly as she threw them at Kakuzu, who raised an eyebrow when they both whizzed by his head, causing no damage.

"Where exactly are you aiming?" he asked.

Tenten yanked her hands backward and only then did Kakuzu realize she was pulling on chakra strings. The blades turned around in mid-air and screamed toward the fire using monster. Before Kakuzu could blink the monster was pierced through the middle of the mask. As it died Kakuzu glared at Tenten.

"You guys are starting to piss me off," he said in a low voice.

Tenten jumped straight up to avoid the new barrage of stone pillars only to be hit by a jutsu from the water monster. She coughed some blood as it nailed her in the stomach. She landed on the ground, rolling a few times before slamming into a tree.

"TENTEN!" Sasuke screamed.

Naruto ran up to his brother. "Go ahead and take care of her!" He turned to Kakuzu and his eyes changed to the purple and white of the Tamagan—the pupil was once again the slit it had become the last time he'd used the technique. It seemed to the others that the change to his doujutsu must be permanent. "I'll take care of him." He dropped the genjutsu that had been hiding his fangs. "Kazehana, I need your fire."

"Hai," Kazehana said as she stood next to her fighting partner.

"Sakura—check on Tenten," Naruto commanded.

"Nhm!" Sakura said before running to Tenten and Sasuke.

"You were barely holding me back with all of you and now you think that reducing your numbers is going to help?" Kakuzu said with amusement.

Hinata's hand was suddenly over Naruto's. "He's right. You need us," she said as Neji and Kakashi also stepped forward.

Naruto shook his head. "Trust me. This is gonna be dangerous."

Hinata's expression became worried. "You're not going to use the Sugikon Rasengan again are you?!"

"No. I wouldn't be able to get close enough for a hit. But I have an idea and I don't know what kind of damage it'll cause so I need you guys out of the way. Back me up okay?" Naruto said with a reassuring smile.

Kakashi gave Naruto a hard stare. "I'll let you try, but if it looks like you're in trouble I'll step in whether you want me to or not." Hinata and Neji joined him as he backed away enough that they would be out, he hoped, of the immediate blast zone but still close enough to help if needed.

"Alright, you bastard. Let's do this," Naruto said as he widened his stance.

"Alright then, freak, let's see what you can do with your little pet dragon," Kakuzu taunted.

"Pet?!" Kazehana said indignantly as her eye twitched. "I'll show you pet!" She took in a deep breath and fire blasted from her open mouth.

Kakuzu's earth monster put up a wall of dirt to protect him from the flames. "Is that all you can do?" Kakuzu said.

Kazehana gritted her teeth.

Naruto's hands glowed with chakra as he made several sugikon balls. "Use your fire on these!" He threw them at the dirt wall. Kazehana's fire hit them and nearly doubled the normal explosion.

Kakuzu jumped to avoid the debris when the dirt wall came down but his earth monster wasn't so lucky. Its mask shattered as easily as the wall.

Naruto smirked. "You only got one left now."

"I don't need more than one to deal with a brat like you!" Kakuzu said. The remaining monster opened its mouth and fired a giant ball of lighting at Naruto and Kazehana. At the same time many more of his joints became "unsewn" and he was quickly surrounded by a writhing mass of nasty looking black tentacles extending from his body.

Kazehana wasted no time on apologies as she grabbed Naruto's sides in her golden claws and flew him out of danger. She dodged left and right to avoid the tentacles as they attempted to pluck her and Naruto out of the sky. She performed a loop and Naruto had to shake off the slight wave of nausea that resulted.

"Kazehana, fly me in closer!" Naruto commanded.

As they got within thirty feet of his target Naruto's hands glowed with chakra. The glow got larger and took on the form of claws. He flung his arms upward and back, then snapped them forward as if slicing the air with the deadly blades.

When the chakra claws shot forward Sasuke, who was holding Tenten's hand while he waited for her to wake up, recognized the attack his brother was using. "That's...." he muttered as the image of those same chakra clawed hands attacking him flashed into his mind. The difference was this time they weren't red and Naruto had complete control over them.

Naruto made sure the clawed hands, which kept increasing in size in order to create the widest net possible, caught as much sugikon as they could on the way towards his target. The sugikon rapidly formed a white crust on the palms of the chakra hands. Kakuzu readied his monster and his tentacles for the coming attack, having no idea what was actually about to happen. To his surprise the hands didn't come directly at him but moved to his sides. They spread wide, and before Kakuzu had a chance to realize what was going on the hands clamped shut around him. When Naruto pulled them back Kakuzu was encased in a giant sugikon shell.

"Burn it!" Naruto commanded of his reptilian friend.

Kazehana had actually started her fire as soon as Naruto began speaking. She'd had a pretty good idea of what Naruto needed her to do since she'd acted as the ignition for similar attacks on several occasions. She blew out the largest fireball she had ever made in the human world. As soon as it hit an explosion rocked the area. On top of the dirt, rocks and other shrapnel that were being flung in all directions, the blast also sent out a shockwave that hit Kazehana and Naruto with the force of a freight train. They blacked out and both of them started the one hundred foot fall to the unforgiving ground below.

"NARUTO!" Hinata screamed.

"Naruto-nii-san!" Inari yelled.

"Shit!" Kakashi cursed. He bolted toward the falling pair, but he knew the only one he could catch was Naruto. Kazehana was simply too large. "Hinata! Neji! Get Kazehana!"

Hinata and Neji raced to Kazehana's falling form but they knew it was useless. There was no way they could safely catch a nearly five hundred pound dragon.

Neji's eyes widened as an idea came to him. "Hinata, soft Kaiten!" he yelled suddenly.

Hinata nodded and both cousins got into the proper stance. "Kaiten!" they said in unison.

Kazehana hit the whirling chakra, which sunk a little to absorb some of the shock, and bounced off it onto the ground. At the same time Kakashi leapt into the air and Naruto fell hard into his arms.

The cousins stopped their jutsu. Neji went to check on to the ebony dragon, while Hinata ran to Naruto. "Naruto-kun!"

Kakashi looked Naruto over and smiled beneath his mask. "He'll be fine," he said to Hinata. "Just a small concussion." He looked down at the blond in his arms and shook his head. "Twice in one day," he said with a sigh.

"Kazehana's right arm is broken, but she looks alright otherwise," Neji reported as he looked over the arm in question, which was bent at an unnatural angle.

Kakashi looked back to see what had become of Kakuzu. When he didn't see him right away he looked down at the ground where Kakuzu had been standing. Kakuzu was there...in pieces. What a jutsu.... Kakashi thought.

Naruto's eyes fluttered open. "Ugh."

Hinata flung her arms around her boyfriend's neck. "Naruto-kun!" she cried happily.

"Did...it work?" Naruto asked weakly.

Kakashi cocked an eyebrow. "That would be an understatement. If your stomach feels even the slightest bit nauseous from being hit I would suggest you don't look at the ground much. It's a bit...messy."

Naruto's eyes widened a bit at that. He suddenly sat upright, regretting it slightly due to the way the movement made the world spin. "Kazehana-san!"

Hinata jumped up and ran to the fallen dragon, wincing at the condition of the broken arm. She used her medical jutsu to examine Kazehana. "She has a concussion and her arm is broken in two places. I...I can't fix it. I don't have the skill," she said, her voice filled with regret.

Kakashi looked up. "Sakura, is Tenten well enough for you to take a look at this?"

"Hai," Sakura replied, leaving Sasuke to watch over the weapons mistress. She gritted her teeth when she noticed that not only was the arm bent the wrong way, but part of the bone was glaring at her through an open wound near the break. "I can't do it either. I've never set a broken bone that was so severe."

Neji's expression was solemn. "And there's no way we can carry her back."

"Sakura, can you wake her so she can shape shift to her more manageable form?" Kakashi asked.

"I can try," Sakura replied. She laid her hands on the dragon's forehead and concentrated. After a moment Kazehana's eyes slowly opened.

The first thing Kazehana did was attempt to move but her broken arm protested and she howled in pain. She chanced a look to her arm and her expression became horrified. "Oh, Kami-sama!" She cried as tears rolled down her cheeks. Never in her life had she received an injury anywhere close to this and she was quite close to panic as seeing her bone sticking through her skin.

"Kazehana-san, calm down. If you get hysterical helping you will be a lot harder," Sakura said in a soothing tone.

As Kazehana forced herself to take deep breaths Naruto frowned and realized something for the first time; Kazehana had not been raised as a fighter. She hadn't been trained in pain tolerance or meditation techniques. She knew some jutsu but she'd obviously been taught without the expectation of her actually ever using it. Naruto suddenly felt bad for dragging her into the fight.

"Kazehana-san, I...." Naruto's words were cut off as he heard Lee's voice coming from his right.

"We're here!" Lee shouted as he and the anbu came into view. He stopped short, however, when he saw the scene before him. "Did you defeat him?!" he asked in shock.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes, but now we need to take care of the wounded."

Lee and the anbu nodded and walked forward.

"Be careful where you step," Kakashi warned as he nodded toward the ground.

Lee made a face but managed to keep his lunch in his stomach.

"Are any of you medics?" Sakura asked.

A man stepped forward. "I am."

"Do you have any experience at fixing something like this?" Sakura asked while pointing to Kazehana's arm.

The medic raised an eyebrow. "Not on a dragon I haven't."

"Kazehana-san, can you shift to your human form?" Sakura asked hopefully.

Kazehana was obviously struggling to hold back tears, but she managed to answer in spite of the searing pain. "I don't know. But I will attempt it."

Sakura nodded and pulled a small square of fabric from her hip pack. She unfolded it to reveal a thin medical blanket and used it to cover Kazehana. "Hinata, can you help me dull the pain?"

"Hai," Hinata answered.

As Hinata and Sakura worked to numb her arm, Kazehana began to change shape. She did it slowly, one part at a time, saving the broken arm for last. As it began to change she screamed but continued on. At last the transformation was complete and her now human skin was covered in perspiration from the effort.

Hinata stroked the dragon's forehead. "Good job," she said with a warm smile.

The medic nin took a kunai out of the pouch on his hip and held out the handle to Kazehana. "Bite down on this and try to bare the pain," he instructed.

Kazehana nodded, fear evident on her face.

The medic examined the arm for a bit to determine the best motion to take. "Okay, on three. One...two...." He suddenly bent her arm back the right way with a sickening crack.

"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" Kazehana screamed around the kunai handle. Tears of pain streamed down her face.

Sakura held her hand. "Okay, okay. The worst is over. Shhhh. Just rest."

"Alright. We should take care of the others now," Hinata said.

Sakura nodded. "Go ahead. I'll finish up here." She looked toward Tenten. "She has a concussion, head wound, and some internal bleeding. I managed to stop the bleeding but you should still take care when lifting her. Inari-kun lost a finger. I've reattached it as best I could but Tsunade-sama should check over my work. Gai sensei and Naruto only have concussions, and Neji may have some pulled muscles."

Neji rolled his eyes. "I'm fine."

Sakura frowned but went back to her work.

Hinata helped the anbu move Gai onto a stretcher and then helped to lift Tenten. Once Tenten was on the stretcher Hinata used a clean white cloth to wipe some of the dried blood from the girl's mouth.

"Can I help?" Sasuke asked suddenly.

Hinata looked surprised for a moment but nodded. "Of course." She pointed toward the stretcher. "You take that end." As Sasuke grabbed onto the wooden poles at the rear of the stretcher Hinata picked up the front. "Kakashi-sensei, we're going ahead," she announced.

"Be careful," Kakashi said.

Hinata nodded. "Hai!" and with that she and Sasuke headed out.

"Kazehana, can you stand?" Sakura asked as two more anbu left carrying Gai.

Kazehana bit her lower bit her lower lip. Her expression said she really didn't want to walk, but she knew it would make it easier on everyone. "I think so." She gingerly got to her feet while pulling the medical blanket up with her, swaying a bit when she stood to her full height. Naruto and Neji steadied her. "I'm okay. The world just spun for a moment."

The anbu leader, who was the only anbu left at the scene, took off her vest and put it on Kazehana. "There," she said as she snapped it shut, "This should hold that blanket on you so you stay covered."

"Thank you," Kazehana said gratefully. She looked behind her. "Someone should wake Tomoyo-san," she said as Sakura put her arm in a sling.

Lee gently shook Tomoyo's shoulder. "Tomoyo-san, it's time to leave."

Tomoyo opened her eyes and looked around. "You won already?!"

Kakashi laughed. "Yes, love."

"Is everyone alive?" Tomoyo asked.

"So far," Neji answered.

Tomoyo stretched and stood up. "Well, I've pretty much fully recovered from our trip. I'll flash back ta Konoha and tell them you're coming. How many injured should I report?"

"Five—Gai sensei, Tenten, Inari, Kazehana, and Naruto. Tenten is the worst off. She had internal bleeding," Sakura said.

Tomoyo nodded. "Okay. I'll see you back at the village." She put her hand into the rabbit seal and was gone.

"I'll carry Kazehana," said the anbu leader as Inari walked over to the group. "It would be indecent for any of the men to carry her considering her outfit and Sakura needs her hands free in case someone needs medical attention."

"Agreed," Naruto said. "I'll carry Inari."

Kakashi shook his head. "You have a concussion. Not to mention you have to make your report to the daimyo."

"Oh, right. Sorry, I'm still getting used to this whole diplomat thing," Naruto said. "Let's go."

"Climb on my back," Lee said to Inari.

"Okay," Inari said as he did as instructed. "Thank you, everyone. You saved my life," he said with a grateful smile.

Naruto smiled also. "That's what friends do."

Kakashi collected Hidan's body, Lee put Inari on his back and the group left the field of battle. Naruto headed for town to speak with the Daimyo and the rest, to Konoha.

As Naruto began his run he laughed a little in spite of what had occurred. Compared to this, the chuunin exam will be a piece of cake.

.........TO BE CONTINUED

Oh dear. That took longer than I intended. Anywho. No cliffies and now that the battle is over I can write faster again. I am really dreading writing the chuunin exams in the future tho.

On the upside we have 3 new doujin pages on the deviantart page! :D COLAD-art-gallery dot deviantart dot com (Don't forget to remove the spaces and change the 'dots' to actual dots)

Hopefully the next update will be sooner. Later guys. -Songbird21