Echo of Spiraling Heart
Disclaimer: Check back other chapters.
Omake –
Uchiha Madara/Tobi: Gentlemen, behold; I have assembled all the villains of Naruto into one place, and by villains I mean those who didn't reform at the last minute or were good underneath! And especially those that aren't from them dumb ass fillers! Now for the evil roll call!
Orochimaru: This evil council is simply fabulous!
Kisame: Word to our mamma!
Deidara: Now remember, I'm not a woman!
Hidan and Kakuzu: Brains! Sike, we're just kidding!
Sasuke: How's it going?
Zetsu: Where are the tacos?
And…Danzo? That's a stupid name.: Hey!
Madara: Now, onto business, evil business! Nyeh heheheheh!
Sasuke: Whoa, hold up! These are all the villains from Naruto?
Madara: What the hell is your problem?
Kisame: The little brat's got a point; for a story that has more than 400 chapters and millions of fans you would think it would have more villains. I mean, what about Itachi?
Madara: Screw him! He's not a villain; he's more like an anti-hero, because he was willing to kill everyone in his family that wanted to destroy the village he loved, but spared his little brother who is too stupid to take a hint. Plus he was a double-spy.
Danzo: But wait, I'm not a villain either.
Madara: Of course you are! You were going to kill off Naruto and Tsunade just so you could become Hokage and rule as a tyrant, sort of.
Hidan: So what's the (censor) point of this meeting? I'm (censor) starving!
Madara: We are going to come up with a plan to kill Naruto once and for all-
Sasuke: Why didn't you add those guys from the fillers? Or Zabuza?
Madara: Zabuza reformed at the last minute remember? No wait, you were unconscious at the time. Oh well! And as for those filler guys, well I didn't invite them! After all they're just a bunch of losers made by the animators to save the manga time, which lasted a fucking long time! There's no way I'll ever let them here!!
Sasuke: For once I agree with you.
Orochimaru: Hello Sasuke. Would you like to see my funny bunny?
Sasuke: What's that?
Madara: Snake man, will you stop trying to molest children? Come on, one of you fools must have a plan!
Zetsu: I'll answer when I get those tacos.
Madara: That was a lie.
Kakuzu: We could sneak up behind him and slit his throat.
Naruto: No, we can't kill him. He has the Kyubi inside him, so we need to capture him first.
Deidara: Well if you want him to surrender then force him to kill the one he loves most.
Madara: That's a great idea! He'll be forced to give up if we make him fight the one person he loves above all others! But according to all the fanfiction I've read that would be Sasuke, and it wouldn't really work since he fought him before.
Sasuke: Hey wait a minute; if you paid any attention to him you would know he loves Sakura.
Madara, Orochimaru, Deidara and Kisame: WHAT?!!
Madara: No way, that's insane! What kind of messed up fanfics have you been reading?!
Orochimaru: More than 2/3s of every fanfiction on this site has Sakura being bashed by Naruto and the many guys he's with. And you're one of them!
Sasuke: I'm not gay!
Everyone: Riiiiiiiiiiiiight!
Kisame: Idon'tbelieveyou!
Sasuke: Deidara is much more likely to be gay than me!
Deidara: Hey, I'm not a homosexual! Even if I'm the girliest of all girly men!
Orochimaru: Keep telling yourself that.
Danzo: Come on, you idiots! There's got to be a way to beat Naruto, and I know of a way!
Madara: For the last time, we're not killing him!! Even if we did those (bleep)tards at Viz would just censor it!
Kakuzu: You're thinking of 4kids…
Madara: No, Viz will censor us! After that damn American bastard buried his head in sand copying this show we may have to suffer!
Kenshin: Time's up guys. We have to start the story.
Everyone: NANI!!!?
--
Chapter 38: The Monster's Deal
Naruto and Lucci collide with their charged fists. Neither one seems to be able to surpass the other. Lucci glares into Naruto's eyes, and could clearly see nothing within them; his veins, pupils, even the iris have gone away. "It seems you have a new power. What exactly happened in the twelve seconds you were down that shaft?"
"What does that have to do with you?!" Naruto shouts at him, gritting his teeth in anger.
"Your anger will not save anyone. It doesn't how much you resist us; all that awaits you and your friends is death." Lucci swings his left foot up into a Rankyaku, but Naruto leaps back away from the attack. Lucci then releases three bolts of lightning at him. The Namikaze holds his right hand up and spreads it along the air. The lightning bolts head for Naruto, but once they enter the air Naruto wiped along they disappear.
"Space manipulation jutsu?" Lucci asks himself as he witnessed his attack.
"Jutsu? Space? First off, I hope you realize that this isn't a simple story about ninjas anymore." Naruto says to him, holding his hand up before Lucci. "Secondly it's much more than mere space manipulation."
A flash of light blinds Lucci slightly, and blood squirts out from his left arm. He grabs hold of his wounded arm, wondering just how did he get wounded in the first place. 'What was that attack? A blade?'
"Use Tekkai." Naruto says to him.
"What?" – Lucci
"Use that defensive technique of yours, and I'll show you just how strong my anger and my devotion to my loved ones are." Naruto says to him, holding up both his hands.
"Don't be a fool. I don't need to use something like that when I can do this!" Lucci uses Soru to come before Naruto and holds both his arms before the blond inches apart. "Rokuougan!"
Before he could register it Naruto receives a powerful shockwave to his stomach, which sends him flying into the wall. Lucci stands up straight and glares at the impact where Naruto is. The blond rises up from the rubble he caused, shown to be completely unharmed. "What was that suppose to be?"
"Well what do you know, you can survive a deliberately weakened Rokuougan." Lucci says as he watches him stand up. "What you just tasted was the strongest move of Rokushiki. Its true nature is much stronger than the Rasengan you cast."
"Oh really? Let's test that theory!" Naruto says, as he holds his right hand up and wind swirls around its palm. He then rushes towards him at top speed, which was near that of Lucci's Soru.
"Rokuougan!" Both their attack collide together, creating a force of energy that blows them into the walls. Naruto recovers quickly and dashes towards Lucci, who comes at him with Shigan. "Shigan!"
"That attack won't work anymore!!" Naruto grabs hold of his stabbing arm and slams him into a wall. He then opens his mouth and releases a beam of gray light towards Lucci. It creates a massive explosion, one strong enough to totally obliterate the structure around them.
--
Elsewhere Sasuke crashes through a wall, hacking up blood from the pain. Itachi stands above him with surprising superiority. "You cannot defeat me with your power."
Sasuke stands back up to his feet, and prepares to cut him down. Suddenly the ground around them shakes about. Neither swordsman could keep their balance with it and return to the floor. Sasuke looks around and asks, "What's happening? Itachi, what are you up to now?"
"I believe someone else is up to this. Is Madara on the move already?" Itachi states, looking around for whatever could be causing the earthquake.
'This fight has gone on long enough…I have to end it quickly, by drawing on the power Itachi said I have.' Sasuke closes his eyes, and begins to search deep inside himself. As he does he feels this dark energy inside of him building up. He focuses on it and within seconds a dark mist picks up around him. It emits off of Sasuke's body and surrounds him.
Itachi notices his change and prepares to battle him. "Little brother…you really plan on fighting me to the end…do you?"
"Of course I do! I'll fight you to the end until I avenge my murdered family!" Sasuke growls at him, black marks appearing on his cheekbones, forehead, and over his eyebrows. His Sharingan eyes swirl around until they reverse colors, the blades, as well as the iris, become red and the eyes going black. Itachi looks deep into his new eyes, and feels a flash of light at him. But since nothing really happened he ignored it.
"Then do it. Prove that you can defeat me and avenge your family." Itachi says to him.
Before the older brother could blink Sasuke swipes at Itachi's chest at a speed unrivaled by even himself. Luckily for him he could block the attack, reading it with the use of his Mangekyo Sharingan. All three of his swords start to illuminate with darkness, and brim with energy. Even with chakra charging his sword Itachi seems to be having difficulty striking back.
"Santouryu: Yami no Honoken!!" At a blinding speed Sasuke slashes the air with his mouth blade, a line of dark fire present five foot wide. His other two swords cut on the line as well, forming a Z. In response Itachi's body is burnt on the appropriate parts.
He coughs up blood from feeling the attack, and explodes into smoke. Left behind in the smoke is a log with the same wound. The real Itachi sneaks up to Sasuke from behind, and cuts into his back. But the one he kills dissolves away, as if it was an illusion. Itachi then realizes something terrible has happened to him.
"This is…a genjutsu. But, I should have been able to see through it!" Itachi then enters some energy into his eyes, forcing them to dispel the genjutsu. But his power fails, as he clearly sees the room vibrating and moving, like a stoner on marijuana. "Those eyes must have gotten stronger with his new power."
A black fireball comes flying after Itachi, who clearly sees it coming. Since it was a genjutsu he knows not to fall for it and does nothing to dodge. When he receives the blast though he gets an interesting shock; the illusion blasts him. "What…was that?"
"I guess you've realized my new power…it isn't the dark powers you saw; it's the power to make illusions real." Sasuke's voice resounds, as Itachi could envision his eyes in his mind.
A giant tree rises up from behind him and its vines wrap around his arms. "Illusions…made real…an interesting power. But it's still powerless against the Mangekyou."
--
"This won't take long. I have to go get Yugito." Apollo says, rushing off in a flash of light to go back inside. Two seconds later Apollo reappears back amongst them with Yugito in her arms. She then lays her on the ground, doing it lightly so she doesn't harm herself. "Okay, try to regulate her breathing while I patch these wounds together," Apollo says to Kakashi and the others, as her index right hand finger ignites with a burning light. She then presses it on Tenten's chest wound, melting the flesh together like it was a solder pad. Tenten cries out in pain as the god mends her body.
"What are you doing? That'll put her in more pain." Kakashi tells her. "I know healing jutsu. I can-
"It won't work in time. She has a punctured lung and brain trauma. She could die if we don't hurry. I can heal her physical wounds, but the brain trauma will take a while for her." Apollo replies, continuing her patching of Tenten's body. She looks up at Madara and Reid. "Can you two go find Naruto and Sasuke? They must still be fighting against the final members."
"But what about Hao? We can't let him get away!" Madara growls out loud, still furious about what happened to him. Reid places a hand on his shoulder.
"We can deal with him later. Right now there are people who need our help." The dragon god says to his devil partner. His hair turns yellow as he disappears in a flash with Madara inside the building.
Apollo smiles as she watches the two go and find the others. She continues working on Tenten, ignoring her screams, with her mind often drifting to Hao. "We were defeated by Hao before all together, and nothing has changed since then. With Kenshin inside of him we can't do anything to him…"
"So are you saying it's pointless? That we can't do anything but let him get his way?" Tsunade asks her, as she patches the burns on Yugito's body.
"No…there might be a way. He was stopped from killing Reid just now, maybe because of those tears in his eyes. That's proof that Kenshin is still alive inside of him. We may have a chance if we can get him free." She says, finishing the wound on Tenten's chest. She then places a hand onto her head, rubbing the dirt and blood off her face. "I fixed the main wound. Now it's up to her."
"Tenten, why did you have to do this…" Tsunade says to herself as she takes Tenten into her arms. "Can you take us to Konoha?"
"We can all go when Madara and Reid return with those two kids. Madara still holds power over space." Apollo says, brushing her left arm.
--
"How!? How can you be this strong?!" Lucci curses, having been completely overwhelmed by Naruto's power.
After that collision of power Lucci's arm started to hurt. His muscles began to tear open and his skin split up, blood oozing out from the fresh wounds like sweat through glands. Naruto used this chance to create two clones, and transforms them into cuff-seals. With them he snaps the seals over Lucci's wrists, preventing him from using his Rokushiki techniques. Naruto then proceeded to beating him to death, using his fists and feet.
Now our blond hero is standing over top of him, I mean literally with his feet on his back, victorious finally against Lucci in their chapters long battle. Naruto then sits on his back, and pulls off his ring. "This is the Dark Ring that grants you power over electricity, right?"
"Damn you…" Naruto then steps on his head, driving his head into the ground further. "I…won't…lose to you…"
"We're taking this with us." Naruto says to him, flicking the ring in the air and catching it as he walks away from the fallen Akatsuki member. By a window he sees Tsunade, Kakashi and Jiraiya with Tenten and Apollo. "Tenten! Please be alright," Naruto then jumps out the window, descending below towards his most beloved of girlfriends as the glass follows him.
Naruto lands before his friends, who notice his presence. Kakashi is the first to say, "Naruto! You're okay?"
"How's Tenten!? Is she okay?" He asks them, showing great concern for the woman he loves.
"I'm dealing with her injuries right now. She'll be all right. More importantly, what happened to you?" Apollo says, as she continues to heal/repair Tenten's wounds. As she does she glances at the blue marks on Naruto's neck that stretch all the way to his eyes. "Did something-
"It's nothing to worry about. I've got it under control." The blond states, looking down at the marks through the corner of his eyes. "Where's Sasuke?"
"He's still inside. Reid and Madara went in to help him." Tsunade says as she approaches Naruto. "Are you injured though? Has the entity inside you started to act up again?"
"He's fine. He's fine." He explains to her. He then looks back to the building, worrying about his best male, human, friend. He then realized something. "Wait, where's Yugito?"
"She's right over here." Tsunade says, motioning her left arm over to the sleeping beauty on the ground. Naruto moves past the old lady to reach Yugito, placing a hand over her forehead and brushing away her hair.
"Thank goodness. She's okay too." He says calmly, hugging the girl lightly and with feeling. He is truly glad to have her safe again.
--
"Tora Gari!" Sasuke strikes Itachi with his three swords, but his older brother dashes towards him and stabs him in the chest with a kunai, breaking through the vines that bounded him. Lucky for Sasuke he missed his heart. The three-blade swordsman couldn't move an inch; if he made any movement to escape Itachi would cut his heart.
"The weakness in your illusion-reality power is that once the illusions are real they can be harmed with physical feats. Those vines were useless against my physical strength." Itachi explains to him, staring at him with cold and emotionless eyes.
'Damn you Itachi! You figured out the weakness in an instant.' Blood comes out from Sasuke's mouths, leaking down his bottom lip and the hilt of his yellow katana. He could feel the cold steel stuck inside of his inner organs.
Itachi drops the sword in his left hand, raising it up with his index and middle fingers covered with his own blood. He reaches out to take his eyes, or that's what the younger brother thought; instead Itachi touches Sasuke's forehead, in the form of a poke. "Sorry Sasuke…this is the last time…"
Sasuke's eyes blink in shock to his words, looking at his older brother in confusion. He could see he is smiling at him with his eyes closed. In a split second Reid appears behind Itachi, and grabs his right arm. He pulls the arm and Itachi back away from Sasuke, throwing him in the air towards Madara.
The god of darkness lunges towards Itachi and throws a powerful punch at his back, almost breaking his spine with that single hit. Itachi falls forward on his face in pain, the smile on his face still unchanged. "Good. We got here in time." Madara says, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Sasuke! Are you okay?" Reid asks the raven-haired swordsman-ninja. Sasuke is still shaken up by what his brother did to him.
'He…touched my forehead…like when I was a kid…' He muses in his head. The pain from his wounds starts to take effect on his body, and he passes out.
Madara grabs Itachi's body and lifts him over his shoulder. Reid notices this, and, after lifting Sasuke over his shoulder, asks the dark god, "What are you doing? He's an enemy."
"He's also one of my descendants. I can't just let him die." Madara answers his elemental friend. The two gods then bust through the walls to get outside, leaving the building empty finally.
--
"This paper work is really hard…" Shizune says, as she works on the work her sensei Tsunade left with her while she was in Amegakure. Since no one else was qualified she got appointed the task immediately after she left. "No wonder she shirks them…now I feel bad about swapping her alcohol with vinegar."
"Yes, you should." A sinister and ominous voice speaks, behind her. Shizune quickly turns behind her, and gasps when she spots what she assumes to be as Kenshin. "What a horrible girl you've been lately Shizune."
"Ke-Kenshin?!" She whispers, confused and surprised beyond reason. Inside she was happy to see him alive, so much so that she was about to kiss him. But before she did she noticed something different about him. He has purple blood-shot eyes, spiky hair, and a devious smirk on his face. The look in his eyes is different too. "Kenshin, is that you?"
"You can't tell? You truly are despicable. Not only did you reject my proposal, but you don't even remember how I look like." 'Kenshin' then leaps forward to kiss her, in a forceful way that only a rapist would. She knew then that something was definitely wrong, so she pushes him off of her.
"You're not Kenshin! Who are you?!" She shouts at him frantically.
"Now I wouldn't say that…you could say Kenshin use to be me." Haou then walks towards the desk, which moves to the side due to his power so he could sit in the Hokage's chair. He then lifts his feet up onto the desk, which moves back in front of him, and stares at Shizune. "I am Haou…I have transcended millions of years, to open the gates of the underworld, and destroy the light."
"Haou?" Shizune repeats, still upset to know that Kenshin is still gone.
"Shizune! What was that yell just now?" A couple of non-generic ninjas burst into the room, and gasp when they see Haou in the office. "Who's that?"
"No! Get away!" Shizune shouts as she turns around towards them. But they were dead before she could see them; by the time she saw them Haou was already behind their bodies, having lopped off their heads. Their neck-bleeding corpses fall to the ground. Fear wells up inside of her as she saw he had murdered him, realizing he could do the same to her. "W-w-what d-do you w-w-want?"
"I'm just waiting. Your Hokage will be here soon, along with her friends. I'm just hear to leave them a message; stand by my side, by assisting in my plan, and I shall spare you when this world is destroyed." Haou says to her, placing his right index finger under her chin and scratching it.
"Are you crazy?! Tsunade-sama will never-" Shizune is stopped from continuing when he punctures her skin.
"It isn't your choice to make, so I shall await your leader. But know this, those who don't side with me shall be murdered along with their puny god!" At Haou's words Shizune pales in fear, blood coming down from the wound he made on her chin. Afterwards he releases her, and generates a portal for him to walk through. "Oh yeah. You wanted to know about Kenshin?"
"Kenshin?" Shizune mutters in response to his words.
"He was alive, but now you'll never see him again." Haou then makes an evil laugh as he walks into the portal, disappearing to another location.
At that Shizune chokes up, having heard that her most loved person is gone forever. She falls to her knees as she continues to think of what he told her. He easily killed those two before, and he could have done the same to her. She felt so helpless in his grasp. Shizune ends up crying to herself as she thinks of Kenshin.
--
Madara holds his hand in front of his face, creating a portal of darkness. "This will take us to Konoha."
He enters inside it first, followed by Reid who carries Itachi and Sasuke. Naruto lifts Tenten up into his arms and enters the portal with her, cupping her head in his chest along the way. Tsunade enters after them with Jiraiya following behind, only to stare at her butt, and finally Apollo and Kakashi with Yugito.
The group finally reaches Konoha, and sees everything the way it was left. It is then that Naruto faces his former sensei, and asks him, "Kakashi-sensei, can you take Yugito to the hospital for me? I can't seem to carry her and Tenten at once."
"I guess I could. She may need examination." And with that Madara takes the Uchihas from Reid and heads towards the hospital while Naruto follows him with Tenten in his arms. The silver perm jounin disappears in a flash, going ahead of them to the hospital.
Tsunade turns to Jiraiya and says to him, "We have to let the other Kages know about Haou."
"Sure, I'll do that. But I have some effects to sort out." Jiraiya says, before leaving in another direction. Tsunade grabs him by the back of his hair, yanking him to the ground forcefully.
"We don't have time for you to be flirting with half-naked women!" She then drags him to her office, to check up on Shizune and come up with a plan.
"Reid, what are we gonna do? Kami can't appear before humans and she's the only one able to take Haou down." Apollo says, a sad look on her face from thinking of what was to happen.
"We'll have to kill him ourselves, with all of our powers together. Kenshin's presence still exists within Haou so we may have a chance." The dragon says, hugging the goddess with all his warmth and might, but being as gentle as he could. "Don't worry. We'll find a way to stop him, before he opens the gates to the underworld."
"Reid…thank you…" She whispers in his ears, bringing her arms to his waist to hug back. "You've always been a good friend to me."
"If I had a penis we'd be more." At that comment Apollo leaps up and knees him in the face, knocking him to the ground backwards.
Back with Tsunade and Jiraiya they enter her office, to see Shizune alive and well on the floor cuddled by her desk. The big-breasted Hokage shouts, "Shizune! Are you okay?! What happened?"
"He said…Kenshin came back…but I'll never see him again now…I just want to apologize to him…" She says to herself, sniffly and sobby from crying earlier.
"Shizune! Who said that?" Tsunade asks her assistant, hoping to get an answer out of her.
"He called himself…Haou." The dark haired girl says, wiping her eyes clean of tears.
Tsunade gasps in a low voice when she heard his name. She bends down to help her up. "What did he say to you? What did he do?"
"I think I know." Jiraiya comments, looking at the dead bodies beside him.
"He said…he wanted you to surrender to him…or else…" She states, looking into her teacher's eyes.
"I'll never side with him." Tsunade says, hugging her assistant to comfort her. "Don't worry; we'll stop him."
"And just who are you going to stop?" Haou's voice says to them, as he appears behind them from a portal he manufactured. He places a hand on top of Tsunade's head, and his other one over her lips to prevent her from making a sound. "Well?"
Shizune backs away in shock, showing great fear towards him. Jiraiya prepares to make action, but stops when he turns towards him. Afterwards he releases her from his grip and glares at him. The Toad Sage then asks Haou, "What are you doing here? We got your message!"
"I never left. I only hid myself to wait for you." He replies, brushing the old lady's hair with his sharp nails. "You won't get away with it if you go against me."
"Let go of her!" The old man shouts, taking out a scroll from behind him.
"Alright then. I'll release her. I'll even leave." He says, releasing his grip on the Hokage. He then stands up and faces Jiraiya. "But first, a little gift."
With a single swipe of his right hand the old lady's legs are severed from her body, sliced right under the knee. Once everyone realized what happened, blood begins to pour from her legs, all four ends, and she cries out in pain. Haou then exits through a self-generated portal.
"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune crawls over to her Hokage, grabbing her legs and trying to reattach them. Tsunade places her hand over her legs, which Shizune have placed onto her body, and forces healing chakra in to put them back on. "How can he be so cruel?"
"He's certainly much more worse than Kenshin. It's hard to believe they were the same person." Tsunade grumbles as she fixes her legs back together.
"The same person? What do you mean?" Shizune asks confused as to what was happening.
"That man you saw is the God of Chaos Haou. He's the one who was controlling Madara into doing all that stuff. Kenshin was a part of him and when we found him Haou absorbed him. It was then he defeated the Santoushin with ease." The Hokage says to her, causing Shizune to become wide-eyed in shock and terror.
"What? No! He did such a horrible thing!?" – Shizune
--
"There you go Tenten." Naruto says as he places the girl in a hospital bed. Here he could leave her in the care of someone more qualified to healing her.
Down the hall Naruto walks, until he reaches the shared room of Hinata and Sakura. After that last fight, when they faced off against Akatsuki to protect Yugito, the battle injured the two girls critically. Anko, Iruka and Kakashi were the only ones who could walk away unharmed.
He sees the two girls in their beds, awake and staring up at the ceiling. Naruto enters the room, holding flowers he stole from the front, and approaches the two. "Hey there, Hinata, Sakura."
"Naruto." They both say in unison. They blush a bit as he places half of the flowers he stole beside their nightstands.
Sakura then becomes shocked when she realizes something, and asks him, "Wait, what are you doing here? You have to go find Yugito!"
"I already have. We saved her and defeated Akatsuki." He replies, calming her nerves once and for all.
"I knew you could do it Naruto-sama." Hinata states, withholding a blush and a smile.
Naruto sighs when she calls him that and replies with, "Can we not go with that 'sama' thing today? I'm too mentally exhausted," After this he sits in a nearby chair and drags it up between their beds.
Sakura looks down at his arms and comments, "Did something happen to your arms? Their weird coloring is gone."
"Oh it's fine. I'm just-" Naruto pauses for some reason before he could finish. He then grabs hold of the right side of his head with his right hand, as his Hibikigan activates. At this moment everything turns gray and darker gray, featuring his echolocation vision.
"Naruto! Are you okay? What happened?" Sakura quickly gets out of bed, ignoring the wounds still wrapped up on her body. Hinata does the same as well.
Naruto's eyes roll back behind his head, and he collapses face forward. "Naruto!"
Kenshin: And that ends chapter…whatever.
Ester: It's chapter 38 Kenshin.
Kenshin: Like I said, whatever!
Yusei: You're both idiots. Let's end this so we can work on the next omake, and the chapter itself-Ooh a fire! gobbles flame up
Kenshin: What a freak.